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Interception of telephones and call records forms part of statecraft to gather intelligence for strengthening national security from internal and external sources to ensure peace and progress of the nation. In private sector, electronic surveillance of rivals is resorted to strengthen ones business interests in the growing cutthroat and predatory competitive environment. In politics, telephone tapping is a hot subject; every now and then some leaders, political parties and others raise hue and cry over their phones being tapped by their rivals in the ruling government to keep a watchful eye on their activities.

Nation eagerly awaits the conclusion of the final phase of the polls on May 12 and thereafter the announcement of the results four days later. Already the writing on the wall is clear – people want change. Picking up the thread several opinion polls have begun speculating the numbers.

Nobody ever described Jawaharlal Nehru’s victories as waves though he led the Congress to victory with 364 seats in 1952; 371 in 1957; and 361 in 1962. Talk of wave became fashionable 1971 onward when Indira Gandhi won by a landslide victory on ‘Garabi Hatao’ slogan in 1971; it was then called Indira wave. The defeat of Indira and Sanjay Gandhi in 1977 was attributed to a Janata wave. When Mrs Gandhi returned to power in 1980, it was called anti-Janata Party wave. The biggest of all wave swept the polls in the months following assassination of Indira Gandhi. In December, 1984, the wave turned into “Rajiv tornado” enabling the young leader to get highest-ever number of seats in the Lok Sabha.

KOLKATA: Make no mistake, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) now finds the going more difficult, on the eve of the last crucial round of the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, scheduled on May 12.

It is the worst case of decision paralysis by authorities, including judiciary, to deal with Delhi’s daredevil Discoms – the city-state’s private power distribution companies operating under license from the local government. Instead of acting strongly against the Discoms for creating a spectre of long hours of possible power cut in the midst of the current hot summer, the authorities, namely the state government, electricity tariff regulator and the judiciary, seem to believe in taking a conciliatory position under a ‘blackout’ blackmail by those private retail distributors of electricity. A long phased blackout in the highly overpopulated national capital could lead to a massive public outburst the very thought of which may be scaring the authorities from acting logically or judiciously.

LUCKNOW: Apprehending loss of her core vote bank, BSP supremo Mayawati is now aggressively using the Muslim card to retain her seats in Lok Sabha from UP.

There is a big hype about the VVIP contest in two constituencies in Uttar Pradesh – Amethi and Varanasi – from where the two prime ministerial aspirants are contesting. As the AAP chief Kejriwal puts it succinctly, “Benares and Amethi are the only two contests that matter in this election. Our priority must be to have Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi defeated.” While there should be no surprise at both winning their respective seats, the challengers are trying to bring down their margin.

With the declaration of the Lok Sabha election results less than ten days away, the Congress in Kerala is caught in a fresh controversy in which KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy hold diametrically opposite views.

With more than two-thirds of the country’s crude oil being imported at wildly varying rates in the global oil market, India can ill-afford to remain complacent on this count. As this has potentially deleterious impact on the country’s energy security, the need for stepping up domestic crude oil and natural gas production has assumed weight particularly from the monopoly national oil companies such as the ONGC, OIL and GAIL and a limited number of private players who had of late entered into the fray to make their fortunes through the production sharing contract and the new licensing exploration policy.

India is likely to see a modest growth revival, with a hopeful end to political uncertainty after the election, which should provide an 'impetus' to investment, and on the next government vigorously pursuing fiscal consolidation and implementing tax reforms swiftly.