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Deterrence is straightforward! It means stopping the enemy from taking action by threatening military force. The US, with its powerful global military, should easily be able to deter Iran, which has outdated military equipment, including warships and fighter jets older than the first Moon landing.

It was May Day when workers all over the world were waking up to the reality that they too have rights, as a class. For us in India, outcome was All India Trade Union Congress that came into existence in 1920, with Lala Lajpat Rai as president. Capitalism had started settling in. Even in agrarian sector, it had entered forcing the peasants to slog on their own fields like agri workers with a pittance of return not even enough to meet the basics. Industries were coming up in urban areas like in Bombay, there were cotton mills and in Calcutta, jute mills and so were workers, slogging for sixteen to sometime even twenty hours without a right of their own.

For the sake of record, the Election Commission has said that it is examining the complaint made against the speech made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Rajasthan where he had said that if Congress is elected to power at the Centre, it would mean redistribution of people’s property, land and gold among Muslims. If past instances are anything to go by, the commission’s assertion is like a line drawn on water.

People gathered to hear PM Narendra Modi in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh on April 22, just two days before the end of election campaigns for the second phase of Lok Sabha election 2024, were surprised when they heard him lowering the pitch from the high pedestal of BJP’s sloganeering “Abki baar, 400 paar” to merely “Abki baar, Modi Sarkar.” With equal surprise people received it reported in the media. Perhaps Narendra Modi has realized by now that his target is failing, despite the first win of the party from Surat in Gujarat unopposed, after rejection of nomination of Congress candidate and withdrawal of nomination by all others triggering a great controversy.

KOLKATA: The Second phase of 18th Lok Sabha elections starting on April 26 will have a strange commonality with the first phase in West Bengal. Just like the April 19 elections, it remains to be seen whether the three constituencies represented by BJP MPs in the second phase stand their ground or fall to Trinamool Congress or INDIA coalition's onslaught when the results are declared on June 4.

LUCKNOW: The visible anger in powerful Thakur-Rajput community which constitutes 10 per cent of total votes in the population of Uttar Pradesh can spoil chances of BJP candidates in eight seats of Western UP going to poll in second phase on April 26.

Narendra Modi “spreading fear” among Hindu women by claiming that the Congress would not even spare their mangalsutra if it comes to power, as well as maligning Dr Manmohan Singh for his reflection on share of power to the minorities, such as Muslims, are the top headlines this election season. A couple of days back, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh while addressing a rally in West Bengal, openly challenged that no mother’s son can dare to repeat the incident of Sandeshkhali if the BJP government is formed in the state.

Winning Karnataka is central to the BJP’s plans to make deeper inroads into the south. The saffron party tasted power for the first time in South India in 2008, when B S Yediyurappa formed the government in Karnataka despite falling short of a majority. While a clear majority has been evading the BJP in the assembly polls, it has broken the Congress monopoly in the state and paved the way for alternatives (coalition government). Another significant shift has been the BJP emerging as the preferred party in parliament elections. Since 2004, when the party bagged 18 of 28 seats, the Congress has been reduced to single—digit results.

Illegality and bribe are unacceptable under any circumstances. But so is tarring those with the same brush who did not indulge in these unlawful practices and obtained teaching and non-teaching jobs from 2016 School Service Commission test in West Bengal.

Multiple overt and covert wars have pushed the Middle East to the edge of a cliff. Increased tension between Iran and Israel complicates efforts to pull the Middle East back from the abyss. With the two archenemies walking a fine line between waging covert or overt war, escalation between Israel and Iran has the greatest potential to push the Middle East off the cliff.