NARENDRA Modi’s attempt to imitate Jawaharlal Nehru by giving a mid-night speech on July 1 at the Central Hall of parliament, while inaugurating the Goods and Services Tax, could perhaps be passed off as a merely laughable idiosyncracy. His equating, or even putting on a parallel footing, a mere tax-reform with the grand historic event of India’s attaining independence, could perhaps be shrugged off as just harmless self-promotion by one who prides himself as the author of the tax-reform.

SINCE the start of July, communal conflagration and tensions mounted in large parts of North 24 Parganas district. The district, along with Howrah, Birbhum and Maldaha, has witnessed communal clashes in recent months. Major areas of disturbances this time are in Basirhat, Bangaon, Barasat sub division. Apparently it started with a derogatory Facebook post attacking Islam and its holy places. The identified culprit is a teenager, but whether he acted on his own or had any RSS links, is not clear.

WITH an eye on the Tripura Assembly election slated for early next year, parochial forces such as IPFT, an open political wing of the outlawed NLFT, have declared a destructive movement of indefinite blockade of the lone national highway and railway in the state from July 10 on the so-called demand of a separate state to be carved out of the existing Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC). The demand is in line with the slogan of an ‘independent state’ mooted by the secessionist NLFT.

THOUSANDS of Adivasis took out a rally in Kothagudem town of Bhadradri Kothagudem district on June 23 and laid siege to the collectorate office, demanding land pattas for podu cultivation. Raising Red flags, they marched from the agricultural market yard to the collectorate, demanding pattas of the land they have been cultivating, an end to the repression by forest department officials and sanctioning of double-bedroom houses to all the eligible poor people. Defying police, the Adivasis marched ahead with determination to protect their rights on land for podu cultivation.

THE emphatic electoral victory registered by the incumbent president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani in the third week of May is proof that the vast majority of the Iranian people still repose great deal of trust in him and his reformist policies. The voter turnout was exceptionally heavy with young voters coming out in larger numbers than before. Rouhani won 57 per cent of the votes. More than 70 per cent of Iran's 56 million voters cast their ballots despite calls from opposition groups based in western capitals for a boycott of the polls.