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The WHO data on global COVID-19 related deaths was finally out on May 5 despite Modi government’s best of efforts to stall its release which delayed it by at least four months. The actual data was more shocking than the leaked data a fortnight ago since it revealed one death reported while 10 actually died as against 8 in the leaked report. Even more shocking is the distinction that India has largest number of COVID-19 related deaths, while our beloved prime minister had tried time and again to convince us about the “success story” of his government in handling the crisis. Modi government refuted the WHO figure labelling it incorrect, on the same ground of methodology on the basis of which it had been contesting for months within the international forum, which were already rejected. People in general, the bereaved persons in particular who have lost their loved ones to COVID-19, and the entire opposition has condemned this government alleging “concealment and lie”.

It has been a year since the results of the assembly elections of Assam were declared and the BJP scripted history in this northeastern state by winning for the state consecutively. During the election campaign, the Opposition in the form of the Grand Alliance led by Congress presented itself as the only alternative to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Although the Grand Alliance was able to receive only 1% fewer votes than NDA, the elections gave a blow to the hopes of the Opposition, which was desperate to anyhow defeat the saffron party-led alliance.

The World Press Freedom Day, as proclaimed by the United Nations, was observed on May 3. Coinciding with this, the World Press Freedom Index was published by the Reporters without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres). India’s ranking in the index fell from 142 in 2021 to 150 this year, out of 180 countries. In 2016, India had been ranked 133. The steady deterioration in media freedom under the Modi government is recorded by this index.

We are passing through a phase where present stands on a distorted historicity, with shifts, and leaves the world as it never has been, or at least efforts are made in that direction. When Faiz Ahmad Faiz is removed from the course of the tenth standard, an attempt is made to omit an entire glorious chapter from our history. When the entire medieval period stands bulldozed, the shining days of our past retreat in the depths of darkness. Even Mughal emperor Akbar has been dropped from the curriculum. Akbar’s Din-i Ilahi, a new faith, was introduced in which the basic positive ingredients of all the popular religions were incorporated. It was a way to find unity in multiplicity.

Most developing member countries (DMCs) are facing serious gaps in student learning outcomes, that the World Bank calls learning crisis. Half of the students in Grade 5 in India cannot do two-digit subtraction or read connected text, and half of the students who complete primary schools in Bangladesh and Pakistan cannot read. COVID-19 crisis has further worsened the situation.

The other day in Denmark Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in one of those unguarded moments, found himself ambushed by the media! The next thing you hear is Modi with a “Oh! My God!” and every media reporting how startled, vulnerable and panicked the Prime Minister appeared and sounded, followed by the question: “Why is Narendra Modi afraid to take questions from the press?”

LUCKNOW: With Priyanka Gandhi Vadra staying away from Uttar Pradesh after worst ever performance in assembly polls, senior leaders and rank and file are in a state of restlessness. It would be worth mentioning here that Congress could manage to win only two seats out of the total of 403 assembly seats in the state with two percent vote share.

After the defeat in the French presidential polls, the socialists and the left-wingers of all hues in France arrived at a historic compromise on May 4 to form an alliance for the legislative elections in June this year to meet the dual challenge of both President Emmanuel Macron’s party and the powerful far-right party led by Marine Le Pen. This total unity was not possible before the presidential election’s first round on April 10this year, even though the French communists have been sounding warning bells for long saying that the “noose is tightening around democracy”.

If the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi would have refused to listen to the suggestion of Rahul Gandhi to appoint Navjot Singh Sidhu as the Punjab Unit president or if she had initiated action against him once he launched tirade against the Punjab Congress chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, the Congress would not have lost the game in that state. She had committed big mistake by allowing Sidhu to continue. Once again she has committed mistake by asking the disciplinary action committee to explore action against him for his anti party activities.

To Nartwar Bhai Parmar, 69, son Jingesh Mevani always seemed a bit too idealistic. “He would talk about bringing about a revolution and I would like to say such revolution happened only before 1947.” He would then say, “I am ready to go to jail. In a sense, he prepared us for the worst”, says Parmar, talking about the case that landed Mevani in custody of the Assam police.