Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhara Rao are said to be facing severe opposition from Dalits in the rural areas following the high handed behaviour of the officials and the police.

First it was Garagaparru incident, in which Dalits were outcast by the upper caste Rajus over installation of Ambedkar statue in the village.

The Dalits were agitated with the government not paying any attention to the issue. It was only after all political parties raised hue and cry did the Naidu government got a couple of upper caste people arrested as an eye-wash measure.

Now in the latest episode, the irrigation department officials forcibly started constructing an irrigation tank in 22 acres of land belonging to 45 Dalit families at Devarapalli village of Parchur mandal in Prakasam district.

While the local Dalits claimed that it was their land for which pattas were given, the government officials argued that it was a poramboke land.

The issue got politicised with the involvement of local CPI-M and YSR Congress party leaders. Ultimately, it brought bad name to Naidu.

In Telangana, too, there has been simmering discontent over the killing of a few Dalits in accidents at Nerella mandal in Siricilla tow for questioning the illegal sand mafia by ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi leaders.

When agitated Dalits torched a couple of sand lorries, the police arrested several people and allegedly tortured them in custody. This has become a big issue and Dalit community is agitated over KCR’s attitude.

May be, Naidu and KCR might have to pay huge political price for harassing Dalits!

With YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy announcing that he would embark upon a six-month long 3,000-km padayatra from October 27, there seems to be sudden movement in the cases filed against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the alleged quid pro quo deals.

It was evident from the way the Hyderabad high court striking down Jagan’s petition to combine all the three charge-sheets filed against him by the CBI in the special court and conduct a joint trial.

CBI counsel argued that Jagan had filed the petition seeking a joint trial only with a view to delay the ongoing trial in the special court.

He also informed the court that since each crime was different from the other, different charge-sheets had to be filed.

He said there is no provision in the Criminal Procedure Code for a joint trial. The judge agreed with the submissions of the CBI Special Public Prosecutor and remarked that a joint trial cannot be sought.

Sensing that the petition may be dismissed, the counsel for Jagan sought the permission of the court to withdraw the petition, which was granted by the judge.

It does mean, the CBI court conducts three separate trials for Jagan on different charge-sheets. And Jagan may have to appear before the court regularly as long as the trial continues. As a result, he will not be able to concentrate on his party activities.

There is every possibility that the trials might speed up from October and Jagan may have to attend the court cases almost every alternate day and this will not allow him to take up padayatra during this period!

The cloud of protectionist policies hovering above has not stopped Indians from investing into real estates in the US. With real estate investments fetching USD 7.8 billion, year ending March 2017, India is the 5th largest real estate investor in the US.

The Indian investors majorly purchased the properties for either kids studying in the US or for primary residential purpose. This shows that the political and economic qualms did not keep Indian investors at bay.

Meanwhile, China tops the list of real estate investors in the US. Property valuing close to USD31 billion was acquired by Chinese citizens. The Canadians, Britishers, Mexicans and Indian followed the rank respectively.

Aggregately, foreign buyers own residential property worth USD153 billion in the US. The figure shows a high jump of over 12 percent when compared to the USD102 billion worth property brought by foreigners in US.

While the Dollar already makes future real estate investment in the US very expensive, fear of weaker local currency when pitted against dollar prompts the buyers to fasten their purchases.