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A “diligent political columnist” writes that any hope of sending Prime Minister Narendra Modi packing is out the window because the Congress party’s ‘Nyay Patra’ is pitted with Modi’s guarantees and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should stop “devitalizing” key words in the Congress campaign with “overuse”. The contention is, Rahul Gandhi borrowed “his guarantees” from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guarantees, which is like saying Modi's security was breached and Modi did not even know when Rahul Gandhi broke the safe.

Healthcare is government responsibility, especially at a time when health of the nation is in dire situation and more than 97 crore people of the country can’t afford even healthy food as per the World Bank Atlas. In this backdrop, the Health of the Nation 2024 report released by Apollo Group coinciding with the World Health Day on April 7, should be alarming for all, which said that India has become cancer capital of the world; 1 in every 4 person can’t even sleep well; 1 in 5 between 18-25 years of age is depressed; almost 80 per cent of young adults of 18-30 years have very high stress level manifesting as anxiety, obesity, fatigue, insomnia, lack of stamina and low productivity; 2 in 3 moving toward high blood pressure; 1 in 3 have pre-diabetes; 1 in 10 have uncontrolled diabetes and so on.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The entry of CPI stalwart Pannian Raveendran in the race for Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency has made it a prestigious and no-holds-barred battle. Three-time winner Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor is trying to make it four in a row. BJP nominee Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar is way behind.

The ever volatile Lok Sabha poll campaign in West Bengal is in full swing now as the main opposition in the state BJP and the other combine Left Front-Congress have announced most of their candidates. There is a fourth contestant Indian Secular Front (ISF) which broke its alliance with the CPI(M) and decided to fight separately putting its own candidates in most of the seats.

Six months have passed since the beginning of Israel-Hamas war on October 7 last year, but instead of agreeing to the UN ceasefire plan, Prime Minister Netanyahu has expanded the confrontation to Syria by bombing the Iranian embassy in Damascus. On April 1, an alleged Israeli airstrike destroyed a building within the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus. The explosion resulted in the deaths of seven individuals, including several influential Iranian officers. This event marked a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, as it targeted a location that should have been considered off-limits according to international standards. The crucial question now is how Iran will respond, whether by directly attacking Israel or its primary supporter, the United States.

Forget the “cordon sanitaire” against the far right. Today, European neoliberalism is defended by a cordon into which such forces have already been integrated. The European Union’s future is being built well before citizens actually cast their votes on the first weekend of June: the paradigm shift is here already.

The last 10 years of PM Narendra Modi’s rule have made education too costly, and employment too scarce. Youth from the majority of households in the country just can’t afford quality education. Youth unemployment has reached at unprecedentedly high level, for millions it was a lost decade, and millions have become overage losing lifetime opportunity for employment.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi dreams of “400 paar”, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party have made their final pitches, hoping to strike pay-dirt, i.e., Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet his Waterloo come June 4, 2024. Congress released its bombshell manifesto and AAP trained guns on the BJP, claiming that the BJP and not AAP was behind the ‘Dilli Sharab Ghotala’.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPI candidate V S Sunil Kumar, who is contesting from Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency, is sitting pretty. As the campaign is on for the polling on April 26. The sweet scene of victory is very much in the air. The other three CPI candidates, Annie Raja (Wayanad), Pannyan Ravindran (Thiruvananthapuram) and CA Arun Kumar (Mavelikkara) are giving their powerful opponents a run for their money.

Three Congress leaders have just deserted their party within three days, ostensibly because they were feeling dejected. One of them, Gaurav Vallabh, said that he was not ready to listen to the instructions from the party leaders and insinuate that Sanatan Dharma was undesirable. All the three leaders have their own reasoning to justify desertion. Frankly speaking, their claim of a change of heart has not come as a shock. In Indian politics, the shifting of loyalty just ahead of the election has been a common trait.