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Rahul Gandhi’s (NYAY) Nyuntam Aay Yojana may not have magic appeal of Indira Gandhi’s garibi hatao which swept the polls in 1971 but one thing is certain Rahul’s agenda has turned Narendra Modi skeptical and defensive and has also projected his image of being an alternative.

The massive financial engineering to mop up revenue collection to cover the large direct tax shortfall in the revised budget estimate for 2018-19 throws up a new challenge for the next government. The new government may find its coffer substantially dry, forcing it to go for large borrowing. Such a situation will also impact the next government’s budget preparation, especially on the development expenditure side. The finances of large profit making public sector enterprises, which have been used like a cash cow to fund budget deficits, are bound to be weakened hurting their capital expenditure programmes.

The picture emerged in the fag-end of the first phase of election campaign for 91 Lok Sabha seats spread over 20 states going to vote on April 11 suggests the most unexpected results from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. BJP may lose in UP and North-East but is comfortable in Maharashtra and Bihar. Congress is set to gain a little in North-East, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and in some UTs. Among the regional parties, TDP, TRS, and YSRCP fortunes may surprise all.

“You be sure. The Modi government will come back,” asserted 29 year old Raghav Gupta a salesman in the Drug Store. Shrugging his shoulders high, he added, “In any case I will vote for him.” He could not identify his constituency he is registered in as a voter. His abhorrence for the khichadi government and politics of coalition became apparent in further few minutes. Most educated-young urban voters like him believe that the coalition governments reek in corruption, survive on compromises and govern in casual manners. Yet they had never experienced any of four small coalition governments in three decades. They had seen from close quarters only Vajpayee and the Manmohan Singh without realizing both were also coalition governments.

Why Congress President Rahul Gandhi chose to contest from distant Wayanad constituency in Kerala when his traditional bastion of Amethi is safe? Congress leaders claim that Wayanad is near the tri-junction of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and Rahul can simultaneously wield influence in these states.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has talked as a mature politician of the secular camp fighting the BJP when he said at Wayanad in Kerala that he would not speak a word against the Left during his campaign Kerala for Lok Sabha polls, his entire fight would be focused on the BJP and the RSS. At the other end, the CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury was equally emphatic in an interview with the Scroll news portal that he did not feel betrayed by Rahul but he did not get what the Congress was doing.

The United State Congress is ordering GOP President Donald Trump to end U.S. military involvement in Yemen. His advisors are telling him – via a veto – to stay in. Since the Korean War in the early 1950’s Congress has ceded to the president its constitutional role of deciding when to go to war. The vote by the House and recently by the Senate to get out of Yemen is a sign that this is something they may want to change.

BHOPAL: The BJP has, finally, decided to deny ticket to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. But the party adopted a unique strategy to declare its decision. There are clear indications that Mahajan was ‘coerced’ into saying in so many words that she is voluntarily withdrawing from the electoral battle. But the language she has used to convey her resolve gives an impression that the decision is far from voluntary. A newspaper has this to say on the development: “In an open letter that revealed her anger, she wondered why the BJP leadership has not nominated her from Indore yet. ‘I am moving myself out of the equation to ease the confusion among senior BJP leaders over selection of candidate from Indore. They can choose whoever they want to’, she says in the letter released on Friday afternoon.”

Since the year 1950 the 7th of April is observed as world health day all over the world. The decision to observe this day was taken by the world health assembly in 1948 at Geneva. It is an important day to highlight the plight of people’s health and thence plan strategy to take steps to ameliorate the related problems. The objective is to increase public awareness of various causes and prevention of different diseases and also to provide knowledge how to prevent their complications. It is important to impart knowledge to the people about how to take self-care. It is also time to ask governments to provide healthy environment.

A spate of pro NaMo messages keeps on flying on social media. The messages urge for vote to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure another term to him so he can continue good work though messages fail to identify his good work in fist term. However the publicity blitz by the government identify expansion of road networks, electrification of 18000 difficult villages, power supply for more hours as achievements without mention of addition to unemployment, slow down of growth rate, cash crunch and addition to poverty of millions or enrichment of few business tycoons against collapse of micro-industrial sector. But it cannot be disputed. You are immediately branded as antinational element the moment you doubt the claims.