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The most important lesson from the results of the latest West Bengal Assembly election is that the state is not prepared to accept religion-led politics. The state would rather suffer inadequate economic development, lack of industry, large unemployment and extortion than surrender to a political rule compromised on religion. The biggest election shock came from voters thrashing the CPM-Congress-Indian Secular Front alliance this time. Supporters severely punished the grand plan of the secularist Marxist party and Congress to tie up with Muslim fundamentalist Abbas Siddiqui’s ISF hoping that the alliance will change their fortune since at least 30 of the state’s 294 assembly constituencies have nearly 70 percent Muslim population and 70 other seats have around 50 percent Muslim electorates.

New Delhi: A veteran journalist Avinash Chandra Saxena, popularly known as AC Saxena or simply AC, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, 27th April 2021 the age of 93 after two months of decline in health due to his heart ailments. He was managing on his own with an alert mind till the end came.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front Government (LDF) has received a shot in the arm with all the exit polls predicting a victory for the Front in Kerala.

With scenes of people being taken on stretchers from hospital to hospital, gasping for air, only to be turned away, and left dying on the road, outside hospitals and in ambulances, the ravaging second India is suffering the world’s worst surge of the second wave of Covid. Though there is no national lockdown, local restrictions in acutely affected zones provide disturbing optics of empty streets, shuttered businesses and workers forced to stay indoors, prompting some of them to re-enact a scaled down version of the reverse migration.

The much awaited May 1 has finally come, but not with the fulfilment of the hope that was generated by the decision of the Union Government to start vaccination of all citizens above 18 years of age. Only six states could so far start the inoculation drive while others reported inability to do so primarily on account of non-availability of vaccine doses in sufficient measure. The ferocity of the COVID-19 touched a new high with over 4 lakh new infections a day, with over 3,500 deaths in the meantime. It unquestionably presents a case of urgent modification in India’s vaccine policy.

Life is attempting to return to normalcy in the US with 52 per cent of the adult population receiving at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and 35 per cent of adults fully vaccinated on April 23, on the other side of the world, the lives of my friends and family in India have been struck with a paralysing sense of fear, anxiety, trauma and pain. The second surge of SARS-CoV-2 infections has a ferocity and a velocity that has never been seen before in this pandemic. In the last one month, daily new cases have gone up by roughly 8 times (from 40,000 to 315,000) and daily deaths have gone up by roughly 10 times (from 198 to 2,100). We are staring at a startling effective reproduction number of 1.6 nationally, with seven states having a 7-day average reproduction number above 2.0.

So, here's what one gentleman wrote on Facebook: "Don't end up importing electric crematoriums. We have a window for 3 weeks to plan. Daily deaths are going to peak to 10K. Active cases are 30 lakh and we are going to add a minimum 30 lakh in another 10 days. At present death rate, we are going to see 60K deaths soon added to the total. This stat in all likelihood is inevitable."

Political observers have been impressed by the spirited response of the Bangladesh Government towards the militant Hefazat-e-Islami (HI) demonstrators who created much havoc and mayhem during Indian PM Narendra Modi’s ceremonial state visit last March, embarrassing Dhaka no end. The obviously orchestrated demonstrations stretching from Comilla to Rajshahi had resulted in 13 deaths, mostly in police firings. There was wanton destruction of cultural sites and official property. The HI’s trained demolition brigades targeted the country’s fledgling railway network, and scores of government offices/buildings. Even the iconic memorial honouring the great sitar maestro Ustad Alauddin Khan, a cultural landmark, was not spared! Curiously enough, there were even horseback riders among the frenzied marauders, surely an unusual feature for mass political demonstrations. Hordes of protestors carried iron rods, lathis, stones, hand grenades and other weapons, posing a threat not just to the police, but to established order.

With COVID 19 spreading globally and the pandemic is seen far from ebbing, vaccine diplomacy has become a new dimension in India-China spat to win diplomatic and economic influences in South Asia. So far, China was using trade and investment mantle, including loaning through Belt and Road Initiative, to exert its political and economic influences in developing and poor nations in South Asia and South East Asia. The COVID 19 shifted the power game to soft power influences. There are three biggest manufacturers of COVID 19 vaccines in the world. They are USA, China and India. While USA abstained from the soft power game by concentrating on America First, China and India pitch for a new battle for vaccine diplomacy in South Asia.

Dr Navjot Dahiya, vice-president of the Indian Medical Association, has described Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “super-spreader” of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to him, the blame for this devastating second wave lies squarely at the feet of Modi’s government. “While the medical fraternity is trying hard to make people understand mandatory Covid norms, Modi did not hesitate to address big political rallies tossing all Covid norms in the air”.