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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s move to shift battleground from Amethi to Raebareli is a King’s defence. Chess great Garry Kasparov, however, didn’t seem to agree. He cracked his "little joke" on the Gandhi family scion even while stating that Indian politics shouldn’t take his "advocacy or expertise" seriously. Garry Kasporav, like so many others who walk upright, appeared surprised that Gandhi had it in him to think strategically.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Left parties are made of sterner stuff. Their leaders, MPs and MLAs are not up for grabs unlike the Congress party which succumbs to threats, intimidations and blandishments from the saffron camp at the drop of a hat as it were.

Modi ki Guarantee—Ram Lalla Darshan Yojana. The promise, displayed on large hoardings, is what welcomes you to Raipur as you exit airport. Even those who live in the hinterlands of Chattisgarh have been assured of a darshan at the Ram temple in Ayodhya if Prime Minister Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister for the third time after the Lok Sabha polls.

India has witnessed rising tide of religious bigotry and worsening prejudices against minorities since 2014. Ascendency of the Hindutva outfits has posed existential threats to secularism (religious neutrality), democracy and diversity. Attacks on Christians jumped from 147 in 2014 to 687 in December 2023.

Regular workers’ real wages have been declining by one per cent every year under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime. However, BJP’s election manifesto and Modi’s guarantees have left this issue untouched, and used the word “wages” only twice, while giving the guarantee of periodic review of national floor wages. There is no guarantee of protection from declining real wages.

The obnoxious speech of Narendra Modi on April 21 at Banswara, Rajasthan was notable for its vicious attack on Muslims and demonising any redistribution policy as a handing over of the gold and property of Hindus to the “infiltrators”. The bigotry displayed in this speech has understandably attracted widespread condemnation. But there is another aspect of the speech that exposes the extreme rightwing view of Modi and the BJP which results in the visceral hatred for any proposal for redistribution of wealth and incomes to tackle the high degree of inequality that exists in India.

In Modi’s India there are no pocket-boroughs, says BJP's diehard cadre. Except Wayanad in Kerala, which is ‘Rahul Gandhi’s pocket-borough’. Not Amethi, which Rahul gave up to Smriti Irani in 2019 and doesn't want anymore. A couple of months ago, Sonia Gandhi fled Gandhi family pocket-borough Raebareli, which will now send Rahul Gandhi to the Lok Sabha, another among a string of Nehru-Gandhi MPs elected from the constituency. Wayanad or Raebareli, which one will be Rahul Gandhi’s pocket-borough?

The death of the prominent peasants leader of the country Atul Kumar Anjaan at the wee hours of Friday, May 3 has come as a big shock to the farmers organisations and the Left movement in the country. Atul, the national secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, was only 70 when he breathed his last in a Lucknow hospital.

India lives in her villages. Though not often taken into consideration like many other sayings of Mahatma Gandhi, the powers that be at the Centre have paid its share of lip service to the residents of the villages- the farmers.

Narendra Modi during his campaign for the Prime Ministership in 2013 and early months of 2014 focused mainly on corruption of the UPA-2 government in the last two years of its tenure and promised to the Indian voters a corruption-free government in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The Congress stuck by the developments related to 2-G telecom spectrum scam suffered the defeat leading to the taking over of the Prime Minister’s position by the fighter against corruption Narendra Modi.