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In one of the first acts of the new government, an income support scheme has been extended to farmers which will include some 140 million such households. Congress had promised in its 2019 Lok Sabha poll manifesto an even better deal with cash transfer of Rs 6,000 a month per farmer household.

An hour before the assassination on January 30 1948, Mahatma Gandhi wrote draft resolution seeking dissolution of the Indian National Congress as a political party. He left it tucked under his seat to attend other tasks. His granddaughter Manu Gandhi handed over the last writing of Gandhi to the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1963 on his visit to Mumbai for the Congress session.

Censure? Contempt? Fed-up House Democrats are preparing stronger moves – though not impeachment, yet – against GOP President Donald Trump’s stonewalling of congressional investigations and continued obstruction of justice since Special Counsel Mueller submitted his report.

It has been a violent spring for residents of Tornado alley—the popular name for parts of the Midwest, moving up all the way to the Canadian prairies, prone to extreme weather patterns. The second half of May alone saw at least 245 tornadoes ravage the Midwest, Plains, and Atlantic regions. Excessive rainfall, in line with the effects of our climate crisis, has caused never before seen levels of flooding, drowning cities and rural communities.

It cannot be a coincidence that the ascendancy of the Right-wing BJP has been accompanied by the decline of the Centre-Left and the Left. This transition from one side of the ideological spectrum to the other is based as much on the preference of the electorate, as it is on a convincing articulation of the party line by the winner and missteps by the loser.

Highways, Road Transport and MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari is absolutely right to slam cement manufacturers for raising cement prices at will. Input costs have not increased, yet cement prices are rising. “The cement manufacturers seem to be moving like a cartel,” the minister said, adding that “it is an exploitation of the poor.” Gadkari’s outburst in the open is understandable. Higher prices of cement is affecting not only the country’s highway construction projects, but also affordable homes for the poor. The cost of a 50-kg-bag cement has increased from Rs. 270 to Rs. 400 in the last two months.

Two generations have been added to the Indian population in 44 years since the imposition of brief spell of emergency regime by Indira Gandhi in June 1975. Its victims have faded out in oblivion. New generations have access to those times only through innumerable accounts written in biased views of the period. The constitution was shelved and fundamental rights to life, liberty and expression were suspended with nearly 13000 political activists behind bars under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act that enabled the administration to detain them without producing in courts for desired duration.

There is an yet unexplored aspect of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and that relates to gold purchases during electioneering. Perhaps for the first time, purchases of gold and gold jewellery during the election period were not affected much in spite of the Model Code of Conduct of the election being in force.

With the elections over, it is time to think beyond nuclear rhetoric, surgical strikes, threats of hitting inside the territory and waging war. Such slogans sound good for short term gains, but in the long run these can be catastrophic with serious impact on the life of people. There is lack of trust among nations in South Asia, particularly in respect to the relationship between India and Pakistan. This mistrust becomes an alibi for the military industrial complex on either side to justify huge military spending. This is done on the pretext of threats, some of them existential and some imaginary. It is therefore important to be realistic in defining and propagating such threats as this concerns our lives.

BHOPAL: Frequent interruption in supply of electricity has given opportunity to the opposition parties to mount severe criticism on the Government. Frequent interruptions, most without prior intimation are resulting in mass anger. BJP leaders while mounting attack on the Government often say that Digvijaya Singh’s days are back. It may be recalled that the BJP in the 2003 Assembly elections told voters that to get better roads and better supply of water and electricity Digvijaya Singh’s Government should be overthrown. Slogan coined by Uma Bharti yielded desired results and Congress lost power and Uma Bharti became Chief Minister.