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BHOPAL: A day after an alleged audio clip of CM Shiv Raj Singh Chouhan went viral in which he purportedly says that the “BJP central leadership had decided that the Congress government in the state must fall” the Chief Minister tweeted on Thursday that it’s a noble act to destroy sinners. By revealing the secret that Congress government in Madhya Pradesh was overthrown at the instance of BJP’s central leadership Chief Minister Shiv Raj Singh Chouhan provided a very sensitive propaganda weapon to Congress. The Congress will effectively use it in the 24 by-elections of the Assembly.

The ‘New Delhi’ dateline is grim reading. Scores of Covid-19 deaths jostling with scarce numbers of hospital beds all over the country. Government hospitals are choc-a-bloc with Covid patients and private hospitals are pushing up the asking price for a bed. Then, there’s the “PPE con!” A PPE costs Rs 400 per piece for a hospital but the patient’s family is condemned to shell out thousands in hard cash. That, or there’s a world outside, death whistles! Yes, the avarice of the human being has never reaped more than in these days of the coronavirus.

Narendra Modi has launched the mission to denigrate anything which dates back to the time of Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi. Though he has been accusing Nehru and Indira for every wrong, he is planning to launch fresh attack to finish the father and daughter legacy. These are, first, to usher in economic patriotism and second, project India as new “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.

As per predictions by the experts, India is in for peak in the COVID-19. The rate of increase of new cases has already started showing up. We stand at 4th position in the world as far as number of cases goes. True, that we have a large population and in that context number is not very high, but the WHO has warned that we may be in for worse. After lifting of lock down, complacency has started developing in the society. There is crowding at places and carelessness has developed about preventive measures like wearing masks and maintaining physical distance.

India has been implementing targeted lockdown in place of general lockdown since June 1, 2020. More stringent measures are being put in place in the containment zones. However, about half of the three lakh cases of infections were added during the targeted lockdown period. It necessitates rethinking even about the present targeted COVID-19 response and rectify the mistakes in its implementation, otherwise our medical facilities will soon be overwhelmed and the situation will go out of our control.

India has begun the process of gradually unlocking the lockdown with the hope of reviving the ailing economy that has been showing a downward trend even before the countrywide lockdown was announced on March 24. The country’s GDP recorded 4.2 per cent in 2019-20 as compared to 6.1 per cent in the previous year. This was the lowest in last 11 years. Even in the last quarter of 2019-20 just before the lockdown the GDP shrunk to 3.1 per cent. Revenue realization in 2019-20 has been below the target and as a result fiscal deficit breached the target of 3.8 per cent of the GDP to be at 4.59 per cent of the GDP.

Identification of the entity that wields political power or the political philosophy that guides ruling of the state affairs is not easier task. The picture that emerges is confusing even though Narendra Modi won the clear mandates both in 2014 and 2019. Except using the old election symbol of lotus of the Bharatiya Janata Party inherited from its previous incarnation as the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, there was nothing projecting the party in both the election campaigns. Narendra Modi sought the mandate for the Modi government and not either for the party or its government.

The world today seems to be reeling under the pressure to re-align life, from everyday mundanities to more complex activities, shadowed by the presence of COVID 19 pandemic. For one, the deep fissures that were already festering within society are now amplified and pronounced. World over, systems, structures, institutions are hobbling to re-set itself and move past the ‘crisis’. On whose terms and towards whose interests these shifts are happening needs to be examined. India too is facing the decapitating effects of the pandemic. However, it needs to asked, is COVID the only crisis plaguing the polity and society in India today? Is this the primary crisis India is undergoing?

There are petitions, and there are petitions…and then there’s the petition by started by a 15-year-old Portland, Ore., girl, identified on Facebook as Kellen S., on change.org, demanding justice for George Floyd. Talk about a tsunami, and her petition is it.

Pakistan which has been developing and rapidly expanding a diverse nuclear arsenal since its first and so far only series of nuclear weapon explosive tests in May 1998 is under suspect among the peace-loving scientists some of whom are Pakistanis. The lack of official information – a deliberate policy in Pakistan alike other nuclear power countries possessing nuclear arsenal including India, is in the way of construction of estimates of Pakistan’s spending on its nuclear weapons programme more so when this cost is likely not a large share of its overall military spending.