Gujrat's forced exodus: If we cannot tolerate migrants from other states it will take india down one of the Most powerful stories in the Pachtantra is that of a frog, in the month of a serpant, trying to catch an insect. I was reminded of this by the political cacophony of accusations and counter accusations that followed the recent forced exodus from Gujarat of Hindi speaking migrants, especially from Bihar and U.P. Using the story as an Anglogy in the specific case, the serpant is the bigger crisis that could loom over a federation like ours if every state decideds taht 'outsiders' must be driven out, in direct violation of Article of 19 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to every citizent reside and settle in any part of the territory of India, and to move freely throughout the territory. The frog in the mouth of the serpant is what happened in Gujrat. And, the frog's attempt to catch an insect is symbolic of the shortsighted advantage political parties are seeking to derive this unfortune development. First, the facts. On September 28, a 14 months old girl child was raped in the Sabarkantha distric of Gujarat allegedly by a labourer from Bihar. This was a heinous crime deserving the strongest punishment under the law. The culprit has been arrested. Following this incident, there was a concerted attempt to tar anyone not belonging to Gujarat - and especially Biharis and those from UP- with guilt for this time. Non-Gujaratis were hounded out of their homes, beaten, threatened, intimimdated and hounded out of the state. Some 60,000. Now the politics, Congress promptly accused the Gujarat government of dereliction of duty for not doing enough to prevent the exodus. Its spokespersons repeatedly made the point that laww and order is a state subject, and therefore, the BJP government in Gujarat is culpable. Congrees also said that the root cause fo this criris is the 'failed Gujarat Model'. It has been able to generate enough jobs, and this paucity ahs fanned anger aginst 'outsiders' who take away jobs which would otherwise go to Gujaratis. BJP, for its part, trained its guns on Congress MLA, Alpesh Thakor. In a speech on October 1, of which video recordings are available (although now Thakor syas somewhat unconvicingly that the speech was made much earlier), the MLA said: "These people who have come from outside, commit crime here. They bear our villagers. After committing the crime, they go back to their own places. They have got jobs here ... but our people do not get jobs." Thakor has subsequently pleaded his innocence, but his incendiaryt speech is on record, and there is also evidence that much of the violence against migrants was organised by his private "army", the Gujarat Kshatriay Thakor Sena. It is true the the BJP government led by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani is primarily responsible for law and order in the state. It is only to be expected that India and Russia: Salvaging a Strategic Partnership At their meeting in Goa at the India-Russia annual summit, in October 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi quoted a Russian proverb to Russian President Vladimir Putin: "An old friend is better than two new ones." It was a reassurance that India's growing proximity to the US would not affect India Russia relations. As Mr. Putin came calling two years on, the shadow of America again loomed over the summit, in New Delhi. This time, it was closer larger and more menacing. Assertion of Autonomy