random thoughts

Congress is crying foul over the IT raids on D K Shivakumar and his close associates on 2 August 2017. The reason for this is the alleged amassing of wealth disproportionate to known sources of income. The fact that it took place in the backdrop of 42 MLAs from Gujarat being housed in a resort close to Bangalore and DKS taking keen personal interest in the issue made it a suspect. It is no secret that many politicians named by Association for Democratic Reforms have amassed huge amount of money during their stint as politicians/ministers. DKS incidentally is named as second richest in the country with Rs. 251 crores (known) as personal wealth. Things are getting interesting as politician after politician raided by IT or ED have leveled charges of political vendetta or witch hunt to oppose the charges.First it was Lalu Prasad Yadav, who under the heat of multiple accusations of benami properties in the name of son and daughter, hit out at the Center accusing it of witch-hunt. Now in t...

Nitish Kumar is called a political parasite by RJD spokesperson Nawal Kishore during a discussion on NDTV 24x7. Kishore's point was that Nitish does not have the grassroot support to win elections on his own and therefore piggybacks on other parties. In 2005, with the help of BJP, Nitish became the Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time. The alliance worked in the next elections in 2010. But just before the 2014 Parliamentary elections, Nitish broke from BJP on the issue of Narendra Modi being elevated as the party's choice of PM. Nitish stayed in power with the help of outside support from Congress and RJD. In the next Assembly elections held in 2015, the Mahagatbandhan swept Bihar with a two-thirds majority and Nitish was back as the Chief Minister for the third successive time.Finally, last week Nitish decided to break the alliance with RJD and Congress over corruption charges on Tejeshwi Yadav and re-align with BJP to remain CM. There are two principles on which Nitis...