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All set to win her sixth Lok Sabha election since 1999, the 72-year-old Congress matriarch Sonia Gandhi is far from her long speculated retirement. Rumours have been doing the rounds for the past year that Sonia Gandhi was ready to hang up her boots from active politics due to her ill-health and also to give space to her son. It was said that since she has already handed over the baton to her son Rahul Gandhi and also inducted her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in active politics the time was ripe for her to bow out.

None other than the New York Times Sunday released a video disproving U.S. claims that Venezuelan President Maduro ordered the bombing of U.S Aid trucks attempting to cross into his country from Colombia. The Times, no supporter of that country’s Bolivarian Revolution, nevertheless said its video totally contradicts U.S. claims about the recent incident.

Finally! General Elections 2019 have been notified. And there are enough dates to floor a romantic teenager. Enough phases to think of a month and more of moons. General Elections 2019 will test patience. By the time results are declared everybody and Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora will be on the edge of their seats. It’s a race to beat the June 3 deadline to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha.

After Congress the Samajwadi Party has released its first list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls. This is nothing but manifestation of psychological war between the two parties. What is significant is the BSP chief Mayawati, the poll partner of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, has not criticized the Congress for this adventurism. With this the Congress made it abundantly clear that it would follow the assertion of Rahul Gandhi that it would play on front foot.

Disability is an unfortunate part of human life which affects the natural way of living. It becomes a cause of misery and dejection. It becomes the cause of disadvantage and restriction of activities. In our country persons with disabilities do not get attention which is due to them. They become subjects of mercy and pity. Even though such people have several rights under various Indian laws as well as UN conventions that are followed in India, but there is by and large apathy towards them. This apathy adds to the feeling of despair among such people who have physical, sensory or mental impairments. We must realize that such persons need special care if we have to get best out of them. They may not be able to perform several functions which other people can do, but they can do well in many fields. That is why they are called as differently abled persons. What these people need is their rightful place in the society. They need special rights from the society and the government not pity from any one.

More than the magnitude of possible financial irregularities in the 7.8-billion Euro Rafale deal, relating to the purchase of only 36 multirole fighter aircraft from France’s Dassault Aviation, it is the government’s frank admission before the Supreme Court, last week, that the documents on which the case rests were “stolen” and could not be produced in the court is more scandalous. It raises a very pertinent question about the safety are our ‘secret’ documents under seemingly inviolable custody of the country’s defence ministry. Do the “stolen” Rafale purchase documents compromise on national security? Who is or are responsible for the “theft” of such sensitive documents from the defence ministry’s high security vault, getting them “photocopied” before smuggling them out? Attorney General KK Venugopal’s revised version of the ‘theft’ raises more questions than it answers. Was the AG misled in the first place? Why did the government hid such a critical information from the country’s highest court of judicature, earlier. Why did the defence minister maintained her silence even after the official admission of theft of these documents. The government’s admission further fuelled the political controversy, which is unlike to die down soon.

Brazil and Australia have initiated WTO dispute over Indian Sugar by formally requesting for consultations. It gives the parties 60 days opportunity to discuss the matter to find a satisfactory solution without proceeding further with litigation. If consultations fail to resolve the dispute by May 5 and 7 respectively, both the complainant countries may request adjudication by a WTO panel, which is most likely to be the case because India will be busy in general election during this period, and the government will not be in a position to address the dispute over minimum support price of sugar-cane to farmers, and subsidies to the sugar producers companies.

Most politicians do not attempt and political analysts disdainfully dismiss to analyze the factors that constitute political minds of Indian voters. Election after election since 1952, Indian voters have refused to be swayed by enticement of cheap goods, caste and class considerations. Yet the electoral agendas and campaign materials of different parties are clearly bundles of what parties think as needs of masses. Even in the planned social and economic developments masses have never been asked what their needs or expectations are. The planners decide in formulating their schemes in closed rooms due to air-conditioning needs what the masses ought to have. No surveys are carried out to comprehend the real impact of the planned developments.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964), known as “The Rebel Girl,” was one of the premier labor activists and leaders of the struggle for women’s equality in the 20th century. She was an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, a founding member of the ACLU, and later in life the Chairperson of the Communist Party USA. In this article, originally printed under the headline “For the Rights of Women” in the Daily Worker on March 11, 1954, Flynn discusses the U.S. origins of International Women’s Day.

There stood once a Mandir. There stood once a Masjid. Today, neither is there a Mandir, nor is there a Masjid. Now, tell what should be there, Mandir or Masjid? One set wants Mandir. The other set says Masjid. The question repeats itself, again and again. Without fail. In private. In public. In court. In Parliament. In cabinet meetings. In newspapers. In television studios. In tea stalls. In drawing rooms. Now, tell what should be there, Mandir or Masjid?