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Speaking in an election rally in Pipariya town in Hoshangabad Parliamentary constituency in Madhya Pradesh on April 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a mockery of nuclear disarmament. In his speech he said ‘those who talk of nuclear disarmament cannot protect the country;’ some constituents of INDIA group talk of nuclear disarmament he warned. There can be only two inferences from his statement. One, that he is using it for petty electoral gains by projecting himself as the saviour of the country who talks on the position of military strength. The other inference could be that he is naïve about the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons.

As Lok Sabha election campaigns nearing to its close in Tamil Nadu, INDIA bloc allies seem to have established their political dominance in all the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state. NDA is trailing far behind in all seats and therefore likely to not winning any of them. Elections to all the 39 seats are scheduled in the first phase of election on April 19. Three political alliances are in the electoral battlefield – INDIA bloc, AIADMK led alliance, and NDA.

LONDON: The risk of catastrophic war in the Middle East is real. Western governments, including Britain’s, calling on Israel not to spark such a war have the means to force it to comply and must be made to use them.

Talk polls and Andhra Pradesh is lacklustre. Telangana hogs all the publicity and sucks dry any left for Andhra Pradesh. Part of the reason is Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y Jagan Mohan Reddy’s glamour quotient. Last Saturday, a flying stone found his forehead and there was no hue or cry. The stone left a discoloured signature. Thankfully, no concussion.

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.