IT is election eve and the prime minister while speaking in the parliament on the interim budget session ended with forecasts of election results for the ruling combine. It was not an expression of encouragement for his colleagues for the ensuing election but a prediction of number of seats that the BJP and the NDA would be winning.

THE United States has vetoed yet another resolution in the United Nations Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire on February 20, 2024.  This is the third time that the United States has vetoed resolutions in the Security Council calling for a ceasefire – the first being in October and the second in December 2023.The latest veto comes at a time when Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has led to the deaths of over 29,500 Palestinians and over 69,000 injured since October 7.

ON February 9, 2024, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his army would advance into Rafah, the last remaining city in Gaza not occupied by the Israelis. Most of the 2.3 million Palestinians who live in Gaza had fled to its southern border with Egypt after being told by the Israelis on October 13, 2023, that the north had to be abandoned and that the south would be a “safe zone.” As the Palestinians from the north, particularly from Gaza City, began their march south – often on foot – they were attacked by Israeli forces, who gave them no safe passage.

THE budget session of parliament concluded on February 10, with the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha being adjourned sine die. This was the last session of parliament before the Lok Sabha elections, due in April-May. This was a Lok Sabha of many dubious firsts: in terms of the number of workdays, this was the least productive Lok Sabha since 1952. No deputy speaker was appointed during its entire five-year tenure. As many as 146 MPs from the opposition parties were suspended for demanding a discussion about the parliament security breach.

ON February 1, 2024 while presenting the interim budget 2024-25 in parliament, the union minister for finance and corporate affairs said the government proposed to create a corpus of one lakh crore rupees to boost private investment in sunrise technologies. It was to mark a golden era for our tech savvy youth with India showing solutions through innovation and entrepreneurship of its people.