View Articles

Around midnight on Saturday night, air raid sirens screamed across Israel as Iran launched a major drone and missile attack on the country, sparking fears of a larger conflict in the Middle East. Residents were advised to seek shelter as explosions were heard, even as air defence protocols were activated in the backdrop. However, by Sunday morning, the situation seemed much less severe.

LUCKNOW: It is going to a very tough fight between NDA and INDIA bloc candidates in Western Uttar Pradesh also known as jatland in all the eight Lok Sabha seats facing polling in first phase on April 19. It is going to be a testing time for alliance between BJP and RLD on one hand and PDA of Samajwadi Party and Congress.

Election Commission of India (ECI) charged to exercise direction, superintendence and control of entire official machinery, both of Central government and State governments, for conduct of free and fair elections to the Parliament and State legislature, conceived an independent constitutional organization, has come to be viewed by the people as a partisan, unfair and unneutral authority.

If the newspapers had Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman missing from the line-up on stage of BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, displaying the party’s ‘Sankalp Patra’ that shouldn't be construed as where women might end up in the “Viksit Bharat” of Modi’s dreams. Sitharaman was there in flesh and blood, but pushed to the margins by the male-heavy BJP top.

At a time when the countries such as the United States, Japan and South Korea are going slow on electric vehicles (EVs) for various reasons, it is difficult to understand why India is going gaga over its utility, substantially raising the EV production and sales targets in the next five years. India does not even produce the key strategic mineral, lithium, required to manufacture batteries for EVs. Although the country has almost a dozen lithium battery manufacturers for EVs, the country is nearly 80 percent dependent on China, India’s No.1 foe across all its borders, for the supply of lithium and lithium-ion. Such a heavy reliance on China for a strategic raw material such as lithium to make EV batteries could put India’s new age vehicles manufacturing plan at risk if the current tensions between the two countries persists or even escalates.

BJP’s election manifesto for 2024 Lok Sabha polls is presentation of a romantic view of India’s future. It is a camouflage grandiloquence and guarantees given fall short of any specific commitment. It talked about “good governance” and left its meaning to be understood by imagination, and enumerated achievements in the last 10 years under prime minister Narendra Modi presenting a rosy picture of development in a bid to remove the trace of hard times people underwent in this period.

The Lok Sabha elections are coming up in Karnataka and will be held in 28 constituencies on April 26 and May 7. The Congress party and the BJP-JD(S) alliance will compete to win voters' support. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the state multiple times to campaign for BJP candidates. BJP has the support of former chief minister Yediyurappa, who is influential among the Lingayat community and is a significant vote bank in the State. These elections are crucial for Karnataka's future and mark a pivotal moment in its history.

It is an open secret but it is talked about in whispers between Left and Congress leaders in West Bengal. It is about mutual transfer of votes between the two INDIA partners when the seven phase elections begin in the state on April 19.

Political parties and leaders in Assam who had launched a violent anti-Centre agitation in December 2019 that led to the death of five youths must acknowledge their guilt and assume full responsibility. Assam Chief Minister Mr. Himanta Biswas Sarma has challenged prominent state leaders like Lurinjyoti Gogoi, and Mr Akhil Gogoi to explain their motives in organizing an inflammatory, destructive campaign against the Centre-sponsored Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

With the Lok Sabha elections coming closer, RSS and Narendra Modi have started showing their true colours unnerving the voters tasked to elect their destiny-makers.