Some interesting news items of today, which I would like to share with you, along with my observations
1 So in the ongoing Parliament session, the bickering between Congress and BJP has started. On their reply to President’s address in the Parliament, some of the Congress larders who had asked why the accused were still roaming free if UPA-era scams such as 2G, and Coalgate raised by BJP were true. In his reply PM Modi said ‘unlike the cases during emergency imposed in 1975, the courts would decide who goes to jail and who gets bail. He further added that ‘ today is June 25th, 45th anniversary of Emergency, who imposed the Emergency? Who trampled over the spirit of Constitution ,gagged the media and bullied judiciary? We can not forget those days.’ PM Modi reminded the Congress leadership that ‘They should enjoy being on the bail. You (Congress) have gone so high in the air that you can not see ground, you have lost your roots. It gives me satisfaction to see you high so much. We will keep wishing you reach higher, higher, higher. He also strongly responded to the criticism that BJP led NDA govt is ignoring the contributions of past leaders, asking the opposition to provide any evidence that UPA had spoken favourably about late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was NDA’s PM for almost 6 years.
He further added ‘ that forget our leaders, did they even recognise Narsimha Rao or Manmohan Singh ? No one outside the family is ever mentioned.’
Problem with Congress is that the morale of their members is all time low. Yesterday, even before the speech of PM, there were other leaders who criticised Congress, but there was hardly any one from the Congress party to lodge even a symbolic protest. Reacting to statement by leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha (Congressman Ghulam Nabi Azad), Bangalore South MP Tejasavi Surya said in his speech ‘ The President of the Congress party and his mother are out on bail and they give us lecture on propriety on financial propriety.’ It looks like many of the Congress MPs are present in the house only, when Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi are in the house.
It looks like Congressmen are not going to change, as they do not know how to behave as opposition party. Even after resounding defeats in last two general elections, they have still not realised that unless they change, people are not going to back them up. Only bickering about Modi and BJP is not going to serve the purpose, they should behave as responsible opposition party, who has to fight the govt keeping public interest in mind. Even PM spoke in parliament ‘that there is need to leave the bitterness of the electoral arena behind, saying that new India is not the project of one party.
2 Cricket World Cup- With yesterday’s loss of the match against Australia, England’s chances of qualifying for World Cup semis are in danger. With only 8 points from 7 matches, they will have to win their balance 2 matches to qualify, and their last 2 matches are against the tough teams like India & New Zealand, and both these teams are still un beaten in the tournament. New Zealand are on 11 points and they have still to play Pakistan, Australia and England, and they just need one victory to qualify for semis. Australia with 12 points from 7 matches are already qualified. India who are on 9 points from 5 matches and they have still to play Bangladesh, England, West Indies and Sri Lanka, and out of these 4 matches , India need to win minimum 2 matches to qualify, which is definitely possible.
Chances of any other team qualifying
Bangladesh-they have 7 points from 7 matches and if they have to qualify they have to win their Balance 2 matches, which are against India and Pakistan, even then they will have 11 points, this point tally will be dicey. Theoretically one can say they may have an outside chance, depending upon the present top teams’ performance.
Sri Lanka- They have 6 points from 6 matches, and for them to qualify they also have to win their remaining matches against South Africa, West Indies and India. They also have an outside chance to qualify.
Pakistan (5 points from 6 games), West Indies (3 points from 6 games), South Africa (3 points from 7 games) and Afghanistan (0 points from 7 games), looks like all of them have no chance of qualifying.
In case two teams have same points, then in that case Net Run Rate (NRR) will come into picture. Whichever teams have better NNR will be at higher position.
So let us wait and watch
Waiting for your comments/views/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
26th Jun 2019.
R. N. Mungale.
1. India needs a strong opposition party with really a good & competent leader.
2. Henceforth all matches are important. Let us wait and watch. Rather watch and wait!