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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The bogus voting issue has taken a new turn with the CPI(M) State leadership deciding to initiate legal action against Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Teeka Ram Meena for allegedly acting in a partisan manner against the party on complaints of bogus voting in the Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency.

On the Saturday just gone by, the Election Commission of India gave another clean-chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sixth so far, say people who have been keeping track of Election Commission and Prime Ministerial behavioural patterns. The allegation and impression is that while Modi sticks to his guns (literally, by continuing to harp and harangue on national security and Pakistan), the Election Commission almost always takes a knife to the gunfight and in such an unequal fight, the victor is always the gunman! Even a military issue knife is no match against a Kalashnikov.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar abhors chanting but his big brother, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not scorn him as anti-national. At the NDA rally on April 25 in Darbhanga while Modi was seen pumping fists in the air and shouting Vande Mataram at the top of his voice, his compatriot Nitish was sitting in a pensive mood. He refrained from responding to Modi slogan. While all other leaders sitting on the dais stood up to join Modi in the chanting, Nitish Kumar was the last to stand up reluctantly.

Narendra Modi might have got away with his scurrilous accusation against Rajiv Gandhi if the former prime minister had died a natural death.

The Supreme Court’s epoch making judgement directing the Reserve Bank of India to disclose the list of 'wilful' bank defaulters and annual inspection reports could not have come at a better time when Indian banks are overburdened with gross non-performing assets of around Rs10 trillion and the entire country is concerned about the deteriorating health of the banking system. A substantial portion of these NPAs is believed to be on account of a small number big 'wilful' defaulters.

Narendra Modi was certainly an ardent disciple of the Sangh training to run away from his marital responsibility to fit in criterion demanding unmarried status of its trainees. Yet he defied another basic rule that enjoined upon trainees to shun independent mind and merely follow dictates of their superiors in the Sangh. His lust for learning and craze to visit different lands was so over powering that he spent days with people in different lands to imbibe the basic urge of young in every developing society was the dream of life with economic comforts.

BHOPAL: Voters of seven Lok Sabha seats will exercise their franchise on May 6. The seven constituencies are Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad and Betul. All the seats which are going to poll on May 6 are held by the BJP.

The Congress realized late that surgical strikes ought to be politicized to win elections in today’s India where aspirations are not just about landing plum jobs and having fun at the mall but also winning against Pakistan and flaunting those victories. The “nationalist Bharatiya Janata” Party understood this streak in the average Indian and took advantage of the Congress reaction which was, from the outset, to deny “surgical strikes” and committing the bigger blunder of ridiculing the Indian Army, calling the Army Chief “Sadak Ka Gunda”, and doubting the IAF and more or less labelling the Chief of IAF a liar.

Kerala’s Muslim community has been rattled by a different kind of bombshell, this time from within the community. The minority community’s largest educational body has issued a circular banning the practice of Muslim girls covering their face on the campuses of the society’s institutions.

In his latest election speeches, especially in the Hindi heartland, the prime minister Narendra Modi has is heard emphasizing on the must for having a strong government. Modi has shifted the goalpost from nationalism and revering the sacrifice of army to India having a strong government. This shift obviously implies that all is not well with his nationalism slogan. Something is amiss.