THE Modi government has enlisted one more government agency illegally to serve its partisan political purpose during the elections. The Income Tax department has been unleashed on opposition political parties and their leaders.

ON April 5, 2019, a joint platform of five civil society organisations released an urgent appeal signed by over two hundred eminent persons including two former chief election commissioners – N Gopalaswami and SY Quraishi – to the Election Commission and political parties. The five civil society organisations are Common Cause, Constitutional Conduct Group, Free Software Movement of India, Association for Democratic Reforms and Internet Freedom Foundation.

THE election campaign of CPI(M) candidate J P Gavit for the Dindori (ST) Lok Sabha seat in Nashik district took off on April 4, 2019 with a massive 25,000-strong public meeting at Chandwad that was addressed by CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. Seven time and sitting MLA J P Gavit is a member of the CPI(M) Central Committee and former president of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha (AIKS). He was one of the outstanding leaders of the historic AIKS-led Kisan Long March from Nashik to Mumbai in March 2018.

IN election season, when political parties are seen to be making promises that would involve a commitment to governments making expenditures later, a question is often posed whether the country can afford such a ‘burden’. Those who pick this specific criticism among the several possible reasons that could be advanced against what is being offered, of course, are not in favour of any significant stepping up of public expenditures and effectively assume that the resources that the government can command are not amenable to increase.

EVOKING strong regional, chauvinist and communal feelings and harping on Gujarati Modi for PM, the BJP swept all the 26 Lok Sabha seats from Gujarat in 2014. The main opposition, the Congress party, came a cropper. The BJP had polled 60.11 per cent of the polled votes as against 33.45 of the Congress. Three years later, in the contest for the assembly, things had changed. The BJP which had pompously set a target of 150 failed to reach the 100 mark, let alone retain the 115 seats it won in 2012.