Crucial challenges for MR in victory month

Sunday April 29, 2012

Swaraj briefs Singh on visit; India's ruling party and main opposition take common stand on Lanka Snap polls in some provinces to show the world that people are still with the Govt.

Indian High Commissioner Ashok K. Kantha showing the photographs of the first family to Indian Opposition Leader Sushma Swaraj when she met President Mahinda Rajapaksa at President’s House. By Our Political Editor Some of the bitter truths delivered to UPFA leaders by the visiting Indian parliamentary delegation just two weeks ago have now begun to unravel. This was after the delegation head and India's opposition leader Sushma Swaraj met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on her return to New Delhi to brief him on the visit. Unbelievable but true. This was the most unusual meeting for Ms. Swaraj, who heads the Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha. She was reporting to Premier Singh that her delegation's mission, to project India's latest foreign policy objectives towards Sri Lanka, had been accomplished. There was no discordant note and both were on the same page. Otherwise, the ruling Congress government of Premier Singh and Ms. Swaraj's BJP have been locked in some of the bitterest political battles. The shaky UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government wanted to continue in power despite mounting allegations of corruption. Just this week, the BJP raised issue over a Swedish police official, Sten Lindstrom, admitting that he was the whistle-blower in one of India's controversial corruption scandals in 1980 -- the purchase of 419 artillery pieces by the Indian Army involving kickbacks of some US$ 1.3 billion. Full Story>>>