Podcasts about Election commission

Manipur has been under President's rule since February 13, 2025. But this week, a group of 10 MLAs met the Governor and informed him that they would like to form a “popular government” with the support of a total of 44 MLAs. The Manipur Assembly has a strength of 60. At the same time, the state is again in turmoil over an incident in Gwaltabi village where security forces allegedly asked for the state's name on a bus to be covered up. Angry protesters locked up central government offices, including the office of the Election Commission, and defaced government signboards as part of a state-wide agitation. What is behind the latest episode of civil unrest? What has been the impact of the President's Rule so far? And what are the chances of a “popular” government being formed in the current scenario? Host: G Sampath Guest: Abhinay Lakshman from The Hindu's Delhi Bureau. Edited by Jude Francis Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Learn Polish Podcast, where you can enhance your language skills with Marta. In this episode, she is joined by Roy to discuss the recent presidential elections in Poland. They delve into the role of the election commission and share insights on the election process. Despite the challenges of working with the election commission, Marta finds it engaging and shares her experience. This episode covers essential election-related vocabulary, including terms like 'Komisja Wyborcza' (Election Commission), 'lokal wyborczy' (polling station), and 'frekwencja wyborcza' (voter turnout). The duo also discusses the importance of voter participation and how every vote counts in shaping the country's future. Listen in to expand your Polish vocabulary and get a glimpse into the political landscape of Poland. For lessons with Marta, check the audio and video show notes, and explore other resources at RoyCoughlan.com. If you need virtual assistants, visit va.world   --------- All about Roy / Brain Gym & Virtual Assistants at ⁠https://roycoughlan.com/⁠  ___________________

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports the Philippines' Senate race on May 12 was a blow to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as he feuds with Vice President Sara Duterte, according to official results from the nation's Election Commission.

According to Section 53 (2) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, if there is only candidate contesting an election, then she can be declared elected unopposed. Now a legal think tank, the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of this provision.  It cites the 2013 order of the Supreme Court which held that the right to cast a negative vote by choosing ‘NOTA' was protected under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution. It argues that this right is independent of how many candidates are contesting – therefore, not holding the election on the grounds that there is only one candidate deprives voters of this right. Last week, the Supreme Court, while hearing this petition, suggested that in cases where there is only one candidate, there could be a requirement that the candidate should win a prescribed minimum of vote share – be it 20% or 25% or whatever – in order to be declared as elected. But the Election Commission seems keen to retain the status quo, arguing that cases of candidates winning unopposed are rare and therefore the court should not entertain such a petition. Is the Election Commission right? What if the phenomenon of candidates standing unopposed becomes more widespread in the future? What happens to the NOTA option then? Guest: Arghya Sengupta, Founder and Research Director at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, Delhi.  Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Shivaraj S and Sharada Venkatasubramnian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On March 18, 2025, the Election Commission of India announced that its officials will hold talks with UIDAI experts for linking the Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) with Aadhaar.  This linking is supposed to be voluntary, but there is some confusion as to whether the voter will really have any choice in the matter.  There are also concerns that linking EPIC with Aadhaar could lead to voter profiling, selective disenfranchisement, targeted campaigns, data privacy violations, and possibly undermine the autonomy of the Election Commission. Are these concerns valid or are they overblown? Guest: Usha Ramanathan, human rights activist who has worked extensively on Aadhaar-related exclusions and rights violations.  Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu. Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

The Election Commission of India has launched a massive voter list cleanup, set to remove over 2 crore illegal entries, sending shockwaves across political and demographic circles. This bold move targets illegal migrants and ensures electoral integrity, potentially disrupting long-standing vote bank politics. Certain groups and vested interests, who have allegedly benefitted from these illegal inclusions, are now in panic mode. With major political and security implications, this decision is poised to reshape India's electoral landscape ahead of the upcoming elections.

The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) has released documents showing that some voters in West Bengal have the same EPIC numbers as some voters in states like Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab. The elector photo identity card (EPIC) is a unique number, and the fact that it is unique is critical to avoid voter impersonation or other kinds of fraud. The Election Commission has attributed the duplication of EPIC numbers to a manual, decentralised system of allotting EPIC system that predated the current electoral database platform called ERONET. But the TMC and other critics are not convinced by this explanation, and the EC's own rules state that EPIC cards and numbers can only be issued to those on the electoral roll of a constituency, and can only be issued online, not manually. So, how then was EPIC number issued manually? How did a voter from Gujarat constituency, who was not from a Bengal constituency, have the same alphabets in his EPIC number as someone who was from Bengal constituency? How robust is our existing system for registering new voters and deleting voters from electoral rolls? Guest: MG Devasahayam, Coordinator, Citizens Commission on Elections. Host: G Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston

This week on Hafta, Newslaundry's Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Raman Kirpal, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Anand Vardhan are joined by former Chief Election Commissioner Dr SY Quraishi and cartoonist Rachita Taneja. The show starts with a detailed discussion on the controversy surrounding the USAID funds allegedly released to “increase voter turnout in India” and an Indian Express fact-check that found that the said amount was meant for Bangladesh, never India.“The Election Commission is allergic to the thought of taking money from anyone outside India…We had enough funds and enough self-respect,” says Dr Quraishi, adding that he is also “very confident” about his successors.On Donald Trump cancelling USAID funding for several projects, Jayashree says, “What he's doing is terrible…but there is a tendency to paint US aid as US generosity.” The US has used aid programs as part of its foreign policy, she points out.The panel then moves to discussing the midnight notification issued to appoint Gyanesh Kumar as the new Chief Election Commissioner. “If you need to be bipartisan, you have to have someone who is not a politician,” Raman says about Kumar's appointment. On the selection process, Dr Quraishi says that India has the “most defective system of appointment” despite having the “most powerful election commission in the world.” The panel also discusses the Indian government blocking Tamil news website Vikatan after it published a critical cartoon depicting PM Narendra Modi and Trump.Rachita, who runs the popular page Sanitary Panels, says: “I don't know where to draw the line between censorship and self-censorship. If you are being given threats or being told that you can land up in jail, is that not part of censorship itself?”This and a lot more. Tune in!We have a page for subscribers to send letters to our shows. If you want to write to Hafta, click here. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app. Contribute to our latest NL Sena here.Timecodes00:00:00 - Introductions and announcements 00:02:57 - Headlines 00:09:19- USAID controversy00:34:30 - CEC appointment process00:53:06 - Blocking of Vikatan website01:30:14 - Recommendations Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters Produced and recorded by Priyali Dhingra and Ashish Anand. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SBS Sinhala reporter and senior journalist Mr. Manoj Udatiyawala presents today's latest news highlights from Sri Lanka. - SBS සිංහල සේවය ගෙනෙන "මවුබිමෙන් පුවත්" - මාධ්‍යවේදී මනෝජ් උදටියාවල ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සිට වාර්තා කරයි.

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Ichha Sharma.Today is the 7th of February and here are the headlines.Day after a United States military aircraft landed in Amritsar with 104 deported Indian nationals, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Parliament Budget Session of Day 5 said the Centre is engaging with the US government to ensure that deportees are not ill-treated. EAM also said, quote, “It's the obligation of all countries to take back their nationals if found to be living illegally abroad,” unquote. Jaishankar also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to brief him over the issue.Meanwhile, the high-stakes Delhi election was concluded in 70 Assembly constituencies. In the triangular contest between the AAP, the BJP, and the Congress, the ruling party aims for a third consecutive term, while the saffron party hopes to make a return to power after 25 years, and the grand old party strives to make a comeback. The polling saw a total turnout of 60.44 per cent, according to Election Commission data. Meanwhile, police force was deployed in large numbers outside a polling booth in Seelampur after the BJP alleged fake votes were being cast.In other news, India and the US are expected to start negotiations for a free trade agreement in the coming weeks as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to the US to meet President Donald Trump between the 12th and 14th of February. The Prime Minister, who will travel to France and co-chair the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris between 10th - 11th of February, is also expected to travel to Marseille on 12th of February. From there, he is likely to travel to the US to meet President Trump.In another news making headline, a civilian truck driver was killed in a firing incident involving Army personnel on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway near Sopore in Kashmir. The Army said the truck jumped a checkpoint, after which it was chased for over 23 km. According to the Army statement, its personnel fired at the tyres of the truck to deflate them, and the truck came to a halt. Subsequently, they took the injured driver to a hospital where he was declared dead. Police sources said they have begun an investigation into the incident.On the global front, China announced retaliatory tariffs on United States imports after the US imposed a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods. Beijing will levy 10-15 per cent tariffs on US products including crude oil, agricultural machinery, and liquefied natural gas. Coal and LNG imports will face a 15 per cent tariff, while items like pickup trucks and large-engine cars will incur a 10 per cent tariff. The measures will take effect on 10th of February, escalating trade tensions between the two nations.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by the Indian Express

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 3rd of February and here are the headlines.Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition, alleged that 70 lakh voters were added to Maharashtra's electoral rolls between the Lok Sabha and state elections. He demanded that the Election Commission provide voter data to opposition parties. Gandhi questioned the integrity of the 2022 Maharashtra polls and expressed doubt that the EC would release the requested details. He emphasized that the Constitution relies on secure votes, without which its significance is diminished.In his reply to the President's address, Rahul Gandhi criticized both the UPA and NDA governments for failing to provide a clear employment plan for India's youth. He expressed dissatisfaction with President Murmu's inaugural address, calling it similar to past speeches. Gandhi emphasized that the country's future hinges on young people and highlighted that any proposals should address their concerns and challenges, urging the Opposition bloc to focus on this issue.External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar responded to Rahul Gandhi's claims regarding his U.S. visit in December 2024. Gandhi had alleged that Jaishankar went to the U.S. to secure an invitation for PM Modi's attendance at Trump's inauguration. Jaishankar denied the accusation, stating that his visit was for meetings with U.S. officials and to chair a consuls general gathering. He clarified that the Prime Minister typically does not attend such events and India is represented by special envoys.The Supreme Court called the January 29 stampede at the Maha Kumbh “unfortunate” but directed the petitioner to approach the Allahabad High Court, where a judicial commission had already been set up to investigate the incident. Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, hearing the case, stated that the matter was concerning but advised that the High Court be approached. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi confirmed that the judicial commission was already in place to address the issue.U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) staffers were instructed to stay out of the agency's Washington headquarters after Elon Musk claimed he and President Trump had agreed to shut down USAID. Over 600 employees were locked out of USAID's computer systems, and those still in the system received emails about the closure. Musk, who is leading a review of the federal government with Trump's approval, said the two agreed on shutting down the agency, which has been active for over six decades.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by the Indian Express

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Ichha Sharma.Today is the 31st of January and here are this week's headlines.The Indian government has launched the National Critical Minerals Mission, a 16,300 crore rupees initiative to reduce country's dependency on foreign mineral imports on Wednesday. The mission focuses on domestic exploration, mining, and processing of essential minerals to support technological growth and industrial needs. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw emphasized the importance of securing India's mineral future as the nation seeks to strengthen its economic infrastructure and ensure sustainability in key industries.Meanwhile, the Joint Committee of Parliament has adopted its report on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, despite criticism from Opposition MPs about the rushed process and lack of sufficient review time. The bill, which proposes changes to the management of Waqf properties, has sparked disagreement within the committee. Opposition leaders have raised concerns about the short notice to review the 655-page report, accusing the government of undermining parliamentary procedures in the final stages of the bill's consideration.Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday dared leaders from BJP and Congress to drink the water of Yamuna river after the Election Commission responded to the Aam Aadmi Party chief amid the ongoing row over Yamuna, asking the former Delhi chief minister not to mix the issue of increased ammonia in Yamuna with his allegation of river poisoning. The EC gave Kejriwal another chance to explain his charges against the Haryana government. The EC further asked Kejriwal to provide factual evidence with specific and pointed response to type, quantity, nature and manner of poisoning of Yamuna.On the global front, an American Airlines passenger plane and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided and crashed near Reagan Washington National Airport on Thursday. The passenger jet, carrying 64 people, was on approach to the airport when the incident occurred. Initial reports indicate that at least 18 bodies have been recovered from the river, with search and rescue operations ongoing amid challenging cold weather conditions. Emergency responders, numbering over 300, are actively engaged in the recovery efforts, which have been complicated by the frigid temperatures. The airport has suspended all operations until at least 11 a.m. EST on Thursday. While the exact number of casualties remains unclear, officials have confirmed that fatalities are expected.Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump signed his first piece of legislation, the Laken Riley Act, during his second term, which allows for the pre-trial detention of undocumented immigrants accused of crimes such as theft, burglary, and assault. Additionally, a group of Republican Senators introduced the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2025 in the US Senate, aiming to restrict birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants and non-immigrants on temporary visas. Trump's administration also rescinded a controversial memo that temporarily froze federal spending on loans and grants just two days after its issuance, leading to widespread confusion and legal challenges.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by the Indian Express

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 30th of January and here are the headlines.The Indian government has announced its plan to create a domestic large language model under the IndiaAI Mission, a Rs 10,370 crore initiative. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed the development today. To support this, 10 companies, including Yotta, Jio Platforms, and Tata Communications, will supply 18,693 GPUs. Yotta alone will provide nearly half of these chips, totaling 9,216 units, to help build the AI model.Arvind Kejriwal has challenged BJP and Congress leaders to drink Yamuna river water after the Election Commission intervened in his claims about river poisoning. The EC had asked Kejriwal to clarify his accusations of ammonia pollution and provide factual evidence of the alleged poisoning. The commission is also seeking more specific details about the nature, quantity, and source of contamination, with Kejriwal facing scrutiny for his allegations.A Canadian report dismissed claims of foreign involvement in the disinformation campaign surrounding the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Nijjar. Relations between India and Canada soured after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of being behind Nijjar's murder in June 2023. India strongly rejected the accusations, calling them politically motivated, which led to the expulsion of diplomats from both countries, further damaging bilateral ties.A political controversy erupted in Goa after the BJP government ordered South Goa SP Sunita Sawant to relinquish her charge. The Congress party accused the transfer of being politically motivated due to Sawant's inquiry about Bajrang Dal leaders. The government has temporarily assigned Tikam Singh Verma, SP of the anti-narcotics cell, to oversee South Goa. Sawant was appointed in February 2024, and an official transfer order has yet to be issued.A tragic collision occurred between an American Airlines plane and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington D.C. on Wednesday night. The plane, carrying 64 people, collided with the helicopter, which had three soldiers aboard. President Trump was briefed on the accident, and emergency operations were launched. All flights were suspended, and rescue teams, including firefighters, were engaged in operations on the Potomac River. 18 fatalities were confirmed, though details remain unclear.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by the Indian Express.

Stampede at Maha Kumbh in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj: What we know so far, Election Commission asks Arvind Kejriwal to furnish proof on Yamuna poisoning claim, Torn Jeans, Skirts Banned At Siddhivinayak Temple In Mumbai As Shrine Imposes New Dress Code, Sky Force box office collection day 5: Akshay Kumar, Veer Pahariya-starrer crosses ₹70 crore, India making strong push to host 2036 Olympics: Modi

Liberian President Joseph Boakai this week suspended indefinitely the chair of the National Elections Commission (NEC), Davidetta Browne-Lansanah. This comes as the country is scheduled to hold by-elections in two months. Presidential press secretary Kula Fofana tells VOA's James Butty, commission chair Browne-Lansanah took unilateral decisions, including the dismissal of 25 employees, without the approval of the NEC Board of Commissioners.

A reporters' podcast about what made news and what shouldn't have.NL TeamThis week, host Shivnarayan Rajpurohit is joined by Sumedha Mittal.Sumedha's series for Newslaundry, Broken Ballots, tracked curious deletions and additions of voters to the electoral rolls. Based on data and fieldwork, she found an odd pattern, which she says places a question mark on the Election Commission. She also cautions that this could be “used as exploitation”, regardless of whoever is in power. Tune in.Timecodes00:00:00 - Introduction00:02:18 - The Broken Ballots series00:50:20 - RecommendationsRecommendationsSumedhaA day with AAP volunteers who reflect the party's convoluted social-justice politicsShivnarayanVajpayee: The Ascent of the Hindu Right, 1924–1977Produced and edited by Saif Ali Ekram, recorded by Anil Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Niharika Nanda.Today is the 31st of December and here are the headlines.On the last day of the year, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh expressed “regret” and “apologised” for the ethnic strife that has gripped the state since 3rd May, 2023, leaving dozens dead and thousands homeless. Addressing the press in the first such comments, he said, quote “This entire year has been very unfortunate. I feel regret and I want to say sorry to the people of the state for what's happening till today since last May 3.” unquote.Walmik Karad, who has been in the eye of a storm since the murder of a sarpanch in Maharashtra's Beed district, Tuesday surrendered at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department in Pune. Karad is a former NCP corporator and an aide of NCP minister Dhananjay Munde. He is also a group leader in Parli Nagar Parishad, president of the Ladki Bahin Yojana in Beed, and NCP's member of the Beed district planning committee.The family of Santosh Deshmukh (45), a sarpanch of Massajog in Kaiz tehsil, has alleged Karad's involvement in Deshmukh's murder on 9th December.An analysis of the data released by the Election Commission showed that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections saw 800 women candidates contesting across 390 parliamentary constituencies, the higher-ever since the second general elections in 1957. With 800 women candidates in the fray, this also led to a decline in the number of seats having no women candidate to its lowest-ever of 152. Over the years, the number of women candidates has been on the rise.On Tuesday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Maharashtra BJP minister Nitesh Rane's statement calling Kerala a “mini Pakistan" is highly provocative and deplorable.Addressing a function in Pune, Rane had said, quote “Kerala is mini Pakistan… that is why Rahul Gandhi and his sister are elected from there. All terrorists vote for them. This is the truth, you can ask. They have become MPs after taking terrorists with them.'' unquote. In a sharp response, Vijayan said, quote “The Maharashtra minister's words reflected the Sangh Parivar's approach towards Kerala. Sangh Parivar is of the view that it can alienate places where it finds it difficult to gain control, by unleashing such hate campaigns. The minister is not fit to continue in his post. It is surprising that the leadership of the party that rules the country has not reacted to the statement of the minister, who has breached the oath of office by insulting the Constitution of the country.” unquote.A federal appeals court has upheld a $5 million verdict against Donald Trump for sexually abusing and defaming magazine writer E Jean Carroll, marking a legal setback for the president-elect, The Guardian reported. The three-judge panel at the second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan rejected Trump's appeal for a new trial. They ruled that evidence, including testimonies from other women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct and the infamous Access Hollywood tape, was properly admitted in court. The tape famously recorded Trump boasting about grabbing women.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.

rWotD Episode 2785: Election Commission of Sri Lanka Welcome to Random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia’s vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Wednesday, 18 December 2024 is Election Commission of Sri Lanka.The Election Commission of Sri Lanka is the constitutional authority responsible for administering and overseeing all elections in Sri Lanka, including the Presidential, Parliamentary, Provincial and Local Authority elections. Sri Lanka has had universal adult suffrage since 1931, becoming the first Crown colony to enfranchise all adult citizens, 3 years after the United Kingdom itself; the country is the oldest democracy in Asia.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:04 UTC on Wednesday, 18 December 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Election Commission of Sri Lanka on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Kimberly.

Today, we are discussing an important topic concerning the elections in Maharashtra. Now after the results that were announced on the 23rd of this month, we have seen that there have been several doubts which have been raised with respect to the results concerning the EVMs. Even today Maharashtra Congress president Nana P submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission speaking at an in-person hearing raising several doubts. We thought let us understand what the issues are let us understand how the voting process is conducted and what these doubts are and what the election commission has to say about it. To discuss all these issues which are pertinent to the political events and happenings in Maharashtra and to the several doubts that people have with respect to impartial elections in the state, I have with me S. Chokalingam who is the chief electoral officer of Maharashtra.

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Ichha Sharma.Today is the 22th of November and here are this week's headlines.Karnataka's Anti-Naxal Force shot and killed fugitive Naxal leader Vikram Gowda in a gunbattle on Monday night in Udupi. The 44-year-old had been a key member of the banned CPI (Maoist) group, considered one of the last remaining major Naxal leaders from Karnataka. His death follows the 2021 arrest of another top leader, B.G. Krishnamurthy. With Gowda's death, the remaining underground Naxals in Karnataka come down to just seven, including four women.Delhi's air quality hit alarming levels early Tuesday, with an AQI of 492, placing the capital in the "severe-plus" category. Certain areas, including Alipur and Anand Vihar, surpassed the 500 mark. This means Delhi residents are breathing in pollutants equivalent to 50 cigarettes a day, posing serious health risks to everyone, not just those with pre-existing conditions. The government has implemented its highest emergency measures, and the Supreme Court has ordered these actions to remain in place until further notice. Additionally, Delhi's Environment Minister Gopal Rai announced a 50% work-from-home policy for both private and government offices due to severe air pollution.As polling concluded in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, urban voter ahpathy remained a challenge for the Election Commission, which frequently ran campaigns to encourage people to come out in large numbers and vote. Despite being the state's largest city and the country's financial and entertainment hub, Mumbai recorded the lowest vote turnout at 51.27 per cent, just 1 per cent higher than 48.4 per cent turnout in 2019. Meanwhile, Gadchiroli saw the highest turnout at 69.63 per cent. In Jharkhand, Jamtara recorded the highest turnout at 76.16 per cent, while Bo-ka-ro had the lowest at 60.97 per cent. After casting his vote in Thane, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde expressed his confidence in securing a thumping victory in the ongoing Assembly polls. Shinde said, quote “People have seen their two-and-a-half years of rule vis-a-vis the work done by us in the same amount of time. People will vote for development and for the work done by us,” unquote.In a major legal development, US prosecutors have indicted Gautam Adani, the chairman of Adani Group, along with seven others, accusing them of orchestrating a $250 million bribery scheme. The charges allege the group bribed Indian officials to secure power contracts in India. Alongside the indictment, the US SEC is seeking penalties and a jury trial for Adani and his associates, citing their operations in the US and impact on American investors. The political war over the Adani bribery case heats up as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accuses the Indian government of supporting Gautam Adani, who was indicted in the US for allegedly offering over $200 million in bribes. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra hit back, accusing Congress of destabilizing Indian markets with false propaganda. He questioned why Congress-ruled states had welcomed Adani's investments despite the controversy.On the global front, Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from its southern Astrakhan region in an attack against Ukraine. Kyiv's air force said this is the first time since the war broke out that Russia has used a long-range missile. Meanwhile, Ukraine on Wednesday said that Russia hit it with a “a massive information-psychological attack” by dispersing fake warning, alledgedly from Ukrainian military intelligence, about an imminent mass air attack. Following the Main Directorate of Intelligence's statement Reuters reported, quote “This message is a fake, it contains grammatical errors typical of Russian information and psychological operations,” unquoteThis was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 20th of November and here are the headlines.Maharashtra and Jharkhand Elections UpdateAs of 3 pm, voter turnout in Maharashtra stands at 45.53%, while Jharkhand's Phase 2 polling has recorded 61.47%. Maharashtra's 288 Assembly seats are in play, with the Mahayuti coalition facing off against the Maha Vikas Aghadi. In Jharkhand, Chief Minister Hemant Soren seeks re-election while the BJP hopes to disrupt his plans. Voter engagement is key in these crucial contests, as both states head toward pivotal elections shaping the future of their leadership.Bitcoin Allegations in Maharashtra ElectionsNationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole have filed complaints with cyber police and the Election Commission over Bitcoin misappropriation allegations. Former IPS officer Ravindranath Patil accused them of using misappropriated Bitcoins to influence the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections. The BJP has released voice notes, claiming a conspiracy, intensifying the controversy on the eve of voting. The investigation into these serious claims is now underway.Delhi Air Quality and Work-from-Home OrdersDelhi's Environment Minister Gopal Rai announced a 50% work-from-home policy for both private and government offices due to severe air pollution. The air quality index (AQI) hit a dangerous 430 on Wednesday, with areas like Mundka reaching 464. While slight improvements were noted, the city remains in a crisis. In response, Gurgaon has also implemented similar measures, urging residents to protect themselves from the ongoing hazardous air conditions.Suicide Bombing in PakistanA suicide bomber attacked a security post in Bannu, northwestern Pakistan, killing 12 security personnel and injuring several others. The bombing, one of the deadliest in recent months, occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The Pakistani military responded to the attack, killing six militants from the Pakistani Taliban, or "khwarij," in the ensuing exchange of fire. This deadly assault marks a significant escalation in violence in the region.US Embassy Closure in KyivThe US Embassy in Kyiv closed on Wednesday, citing concerns of a "potential significant air attack." Embassy employees were instructed to shelter in place as a precautionary measure. The closure follows heightened tensions after Ukraine's missile strike on Russia using US-provided ATACMS. The embassy's warning underscores the ongoing risks in the region, as the US and Ukraine face rising threats amid the ongoing conflict.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 19th of November and here are the headlines.Delhi's Dangerous Air Quality: Inhalation Equivalent to 50 CigarettesDelhi's air quality hit alarming levels early Tuesday, with an AQI of 492, placing the capital in the "severe-plus" category. Certain areas, including Alipur and Anand Vihar, surpassed the 500 mark. This means Delhi residents are breathing in pollutants equivalent to 50 cigarettes a day, posing serious health risks to everyone, not just those with pre-existing conditions. The government has implemented its highest emergency measures, and the Supreme Court has ordered these actions to remain in place until further notice.Political Tensions Escalate in Maharashtra Ahead of PollsTensions flared in Virar, Maharashtra, just a day before state elections, as Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) workers accused BJP General Secretary Vinod Tawde of distributing cash to sway voters. Election officials recovered nearly Rs 10 lakh from Tawde's hotel room. After a three-hour standoff, a press conference involving political leaders was halted by the Election Commission for violating rules. An FIR has been filed, and the matter is under investigation, with political tensions continuing to rise in the lead-up to the polls.Karnataka Police Kills Fugitive Naxal Leader Vikram GowdaKarnataka's Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) shot and killed fugitive Naxal leader Vikram Gowda in a gunbattle on Monday night in Udupi's Kabbinale forest. Gowda, 44, had been a key member of the banned CPI (Maoist) group, considered one of the last remaining major Naxal leaders from Karnataka. His death follows the 2021 arrest of another top leader, B.G. Krishnamurthy. With Gowda's death, the remaining underground Naxals in Karnataka number just seven, including four women.Tirumala's New Plans to Improve Temple Experience and OperationsThe Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) under its new chairman, B.R. Naidu, has proposed several changes to improve operations at the Lord Venkateswara temple. Key decisions include setting up a panel to reduce darshan waiting times to just 2-3 hours, banning political statements within the temple, and ensuring the use of higher-quality ghee for laddoos. Additionally, the TTD aims to streamline temple operations using AI to manage the flow of devotees. These decisions follow the recent change in state leadership.Putin Revises Russia's Nuclear Doctrine Amid Growing TensionsRussian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new nuclear doctrine declaring that any conventional attack on Russia, backed by a nuclear power, will be considered a joint assault on Russia. This revision of Russia's nuclear strategy comes on the 1,000th day of the war in Ukraine. The move follows U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to use longer-range missiles supplied by the U.S. to strike targets inside Russia, further escalating tensions in the ongoing conflict.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.

The candidates are holding rallies in key swing states on the last day of campaigning, as the polls suggest the race is still exceptionally close. We speak to a Democrat who chairs an Election Commission, and a former Trump White House chief of staff.Also on the programme: Eight people have gone on trial in Paris accused of encouraging the killer of Samuel Paty, the teacher who was beheaded on the street outside his school four years ago; and American music giant Quincy Jones has died today - we speak to a British jazz singer who worked with him.(Picture: Campaign signs are seen outside a polling station during early voting in the US presidential election in Florida on November 3, 2024. Credit: REUTERS/Marco Bello)

Every polling place is run by trained poll officials who make sure voters can efficiently and easily cast their vote. Today, we speak with poll officials as well as the administrator of elections for the Davidson Country Election Commission to learn what goes into working at a polling station and how polling officials keep our elections fair, safe and secure. Plus, our guests will answer some of the most common questions about voting.GUESTS: Jeff Roberts, Administrator of Elections, Davidson County Christiev Alphin, Poll Official  Mark Blankenship, Poll Official Further Reading: Check your voter registration, find sample ballots and confirm your polling place through the Election Commission of Davidson County WPLN | Full election coverage including voter guides Nashville Banner | Here's What it Takes to Be a Poll Worker for Nashville's Elections

Today's top headlines: Fatal collision in Orangeburg Co. along I-26 leaves one dead  1 killed in Colleton Co. single-vehicle crash  Multiple charges filed in deadly shooting of hunting dog in Berkeley County  Charleston County taking first steps toward across-the-board EMS facility  SC Ports railyard construction continues with ample progress, officials say  Judge orders Colleton Co. murder suspect's jail calls to be released  SLED investigating alleged assault involving Berkeley Co. Judge  No charges to be filed in Berkeley Co. jail inmate death, investigators decide  SCDMV asks Election Commission to add nearly 2K to voter rolls over glitch  Here's why SC voters will see this yes-or-no question on ballots this election  City officials finalize steps for selecting next N. Charleston Police chief  Mount Pleasant finalizing new zoning codes  Folly Beach ‘Safety Action Plan' up for community review  New sensory kits to improve neurodiverse experiences at Charleston Co. libraries  SC health dept. confirms state's first flu-related death of 2024 

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Ichha Sharma.Today is the 18th of October and here are this week's headlines.India strongly refuted Canada's claims on Tuesday regarding evidence of Indian involvement in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Government sources indicated that no specifics had been provided and criticized Canada for shifting the burden of proof onto India. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the importance of their upcoming national security advisor meeting, but no progress was reported. Indian officials dismissed Canadian assertions as vague accusations, asserting that they are unfounded and misleading.The Election Commission of India announced on Tuesday that the Maharashtra assembly polls will be held on 20th of November, while Jharkhand will vote in two phases on 13th and 20th November. Results for both elections will be revealed on 23rd of November. The BJP aims to regain power in Maharashtra, where it partners with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and seeks to gain ground in Jharkhand.The Indian Express learnt that days after receiving multiple bomb threats against flights on social media, Indian intelligence agencies traced the originating IP addresses to London and Germany. The agencies requested X to provide the IP addresses linked to the posts and to deactivate the associated accounts. Initial reports indicate that three accounts were involved, with two IPs traced to London and Germany. Users appeared to have utilized a VPN to conceal their identities, while details of the third account are still pending.OBC leader Nayab Singh Saini was sworn in as Chief Minister of Haryana for a second term in Panchkula on Thursday, following the BJP's historic success in the recent Assembly elections. Saini staked his claim to form the government, hours after being unanimously elected as the BJP's state legislature party leader, The swearing-in ceremony attended by Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah among other prominent leaders coincided with Valmiki Jayanti, and 14 cabinet ministers, including Saini, took their oaths. In a landmark decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which grants citizenship to immigrants who entered Assam before January 1, 1966. The court called for stricter enforcement of laws against illegal immigration and judicial oversight of citizenship legislation. While Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and three justices supported the ruling, Justice J.B. Pardiwala dissented. The bench clarified that immigrants entering Assam after 25th of March, 1971, are deemed illegal.Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar — a mastermind of the 7th f October, 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war — was killed on thursday in an Israeli military operation in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza Strip. The death of Sinwar represents a major boost to the Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a string of high-profile assassinations of prominent leaders of its enemies in recent months. Sinwar became the leader of Hamas following the assassination of former leader Ismail Haniyeh in August. He had not been seen in public since the Hamas attacks, and was believed to be hiding in the extensive network of tunnels beneath Gaza.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.-----------------------------------------------------------CSF Episode links:Episode 1Episode 2Episode 3

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 15th of October and here are the headlines.India strongly refuted Canada's claims on Tuesday regarding evidence of Indian involvement in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Government sources indicated that no specifics had been provided and criticized Canada for shifting the burden of proof onto India. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the importance of their upcoming national security advisor meeting, but no progress was reported. Indian officials dismissed Canadian assertions as vague accusations, asserting that they are unfounded and misleading.The Election Commission of India announced today that the Maharashtra assembly polls will be held on November 20, while Jharkhand will vote in two phases on November 13 and 20. Results for both elections will be revealed on November 23. The BJP aims to regain power in Maharashtra, where it partners with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and seeks to gain ground in Jharkhand as well.Heavy rain across Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, led to the cancellation of at least eight flights today, driven by a well-marked low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal. The state government declared a holiday for schools and colleges in Chennai and surrounding districts. Waterlogging affected several areas, prompting IT companies to implement work-from-home orders from October 15 to 18. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin reviewed preparations and deployed disaster response forces. The IMD warns of extremely heavy rainfall in Tamil Nadu and surrounding areas through October 17.External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has arrived in Islamabad for the 23rd Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, marking the first visit by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan in nearly nine years. This two-day meeting is taking place under heightened security due to recent militant activity. In response, Pakistani authorities have enforced a lockdown in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, declaring a three-day holiday to restrict movement and close key roads, with troops deployed and many businesses shut down to ensure safety for attendees.Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip resulted in the deaths of at least 50 Palestinians as operations intensified around Jabalia, focusing on clashes with Hamas fighters. Palestinian health officials reported that 17 people were killed near Al-Falouja in Jabalia, while a missile strike in Bani Suhaila claimed 10 lives. An earlier airstrike in the Sabra suburb of Gaza City destroyed three houses, killing two, with 12 others unaccounted for. Additionally, eight fatalities occurred from a strike in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 9th of October and here are the headlines.A day after Congress leaders rejected the Haryana Assembly poll results, the Election Commission today wrote to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge saying the statements were “far from a legitimate part of free speech” and a step towards “undemocratic rejection of the will of the people”. As the results emerged on Tuesday, giving the BJP a clear victory, Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh raised questions over the counting process. Addressing a press conference, he said that polling booths with electronic voting machines that had 99 per cent battery charge saw BJP wins while those with 60-70 per cent charge had Congress victories.The body of the Territorial Army personnel, who was abducted by militants a day ago from the Kokernag forests in South Kashmir, has been recovered by the Army during a search operation this morning. According to the sources in the security establishment, the personnel abducted by the militants was a 26-year-old resident of South Kashmir's Anantnag district. The Army's Chinar Corps, earlier in the day, had said via a post on X: “Based on intelligence input, a joint counter operation was launched by Indian army along with Jammu and Kashmir Police and other agencies in Kazwan forest on 8th October. Operation continued overnight as one soldier of the Territorial Army was reported missing. Massive search operation is in progress.”Calling the proposed auction of the skull of a Naga person in the United Kingdom “dehumanising” and “continued colonial violence”, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, seeking his intervention in the matter. A ‘19th century horned Naga skull' had been listed as one of the items on sale by prominent auction house The Swan at Tetsworth for an auction set to take place on October 9. It had been valued at £3,500-4,500. However, after objections arose over this, the item was no longer listed online as being up for auction as of Tuesday evening.In the latest twist to the ongoing row over the possession of the Delhi chief minister's residence, CM Atishi was on Wednesday asked to “remove her personal belongings” from the Civil Lines home she shifted to just two days ago. The house has been sealed, PWD officials said. Former CM, Arvind Kejriwal was staying in the house till last week and vacated it around three weeks after he resigned from his post. Atishi, according to PWD officials, was in the possession of the keys but was not given an official allotment letter for the premises.US President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, with discussions focused on Israel's potential response to a recent missile attack from Iran. This anticipated call marks the first known direct communication between the leaders since August, amidst escalating conflicts in the Middle East. Tensions have surged following a missile strike carried out by Iran last week, which Tehran claimed was retaliation for Israel's military actions in Lebanon. While the attack did not result in any casualties in Israel and was deemed ineffective by US officials, it has intensified fears of further escalation in the region.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.

Tomorrow, on October 8th, the Election Commission will reveal the results of the much-anticipated Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections — the first to be held in a decade. With voting spread across three phases, this election has seen a surge in political activity, with parties vying to reshape the region's future.In today's episode, The Indian Express' Naveed Iqbal joins us to take a deep dive into how these elections have unfolded, the core issues driving voter sentiment, and what's really at stake for the people of J&K. She provides on-ground insights into the key narratives and power dynamics that could define the region's path ahead.Hosted and produced by Shashank BhargavaEdited and mixed by Suresh Pawar

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Ichha Sharma.Today is the 4th of October and here are the headlines.The Supreme Court on Monday stated the lab reports prima facie indicate that the samples of ghee tested belonged to the cooking medium which was not used in the preparation of the laddus at the Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh. Additionally, while hearing a clutch of petitions, the Bench also sought to know why Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu went public with the matter without waiting for the report of the investigation ordered by his government. The court asked the Centre to respond if the Special Investigation Team set up by the Andhra Pradesh Government should continue to probe the allegations.  The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls wrapped up on Tuesday as voting was underway for the final 40 seats in the third and largest phase of the elections. A voter turnout of 65.65 per cent was recorded on Tuesday. In contrast to the first two phases, the bulk of the seats in the third one totalling to 24 seats are in the Jammu division, while 16 are in Kashmir. According to the Election Commission, the second phase of the J&K polls on 25th of September recorded a voter turnout of 57.31 per cent and 61.38 per cent in the first phase. Results will be announced on 8th of October.The Supreme Court on Tuesday stated that the guidelines it will lay down for demolitions of unauthorised constructions will be applicable pan-India and for all religions. The bench said it will make it clear that merely because a person is an accused or even a convict, it can't be a ground for demolition of property. The court further added that it was not encouraging encroachments and cluttering of footpaths. The Supreme Court was hearing a batch of petitions which have alleged that properties, including of those accused of crime, were being demolished. A bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud intervened in the case involving the Isha Yoga Foundation, presided over by spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. The Supreme Court has stayed a previous order from the Madras High Court that directed police to investigate criminal cases against the foundation and report on alleged illegal confinement of two women, daughters of a retired professor, who claimed they were being held against their will. During the proceedings, the bench emphasised that allowing police or military forces into such institutions could infringe on religious freedoms stating quote “you can't let the Army or the police into an institution like this” unquote.After a day where Israel and Hezbollah troops clashed at close range in southern Lebanon, Israel bombed central Beirut in the early hours Thursday. The Israel Defence Forces said they had killed 15 Hezbollah members after a strike on a municipality building in Southern Lebanon.  Meanwhile, Lebanese security officials said three missiles also hit the southern suburb of Dahiyeh in early hours, where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed last week, and loud explosions were heard. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sollivan in Washington DC and India, while calling for “restraint by all concerned and protection of civilians”, advised all its nationals to “avoid all non-essential travel to Iran”.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.

 This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 1st of October and here are the headlines.The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls will wrap up today as voting is underway for the final 40 seats in the third and largest phase of the elections. A voter turnout of 44.08 per cent was recorded as of 1 pm. In contrast to the first two phases, the bulk of the seats in the third one totalling to 24 seats are in the Jammu division, while 16 are in Kashmir. According to the Election Commission, the second phase of the J&K polls on 25th of September recorded a voter turnout of 57.31 per cent and 61.38 per cent in the first phase. Results will be announced on 8th of October. Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi at a curtain raiser event today said that there had been “positive signalling” at the diplomatic level from both India and China regarding the ongoing military standoff between the two countries along the Line of Actual Control  in eastern Ladakh, and that military commanders from both sides would now sit together to see how this can be translated on the ground. General Dwivedi said that while the positive signalling came from the diplomatic sides, “when it comes to execution on the ground, it is dependent on the military commanders on both sides to take those decisions.”The Supreme Court today stated that the guidelines it will lay down for demolitions of unauthorised constructions will be applicable pan-India and for all religions. The bench said it will make it clear that merely because a person is an accused or even a convict, it can't be a ground for demolition of property. The court further added that it was not encouraging encroachments and cluttering of footpaths. The Supreme Court was hearing a batch of petitions which have alleged that properties, including of those accused of crime, were being demolished.A school bus in Thailand with about 44 students and teachers on board caught fire on the outskirts of Bangkok. News agency AP quoting government officials said, as many as 25 are feared dead in the accident.  Transport Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit said about 16 students and three teachers were sent to a hospital for treatment and further added that the cause of the incident was being investigated. Amid rising tensions across West Asia, the Israeli military today sounded air raid sirens in central Israel, including Tel Aviv, following its “limited” and “targeted” ground raids against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in southern Lebanon. Earlier in the day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began the targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against the group and the Israeli forces said that these targets are located in villages close to the border, and “pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.”This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.

In Nepal, the bill drafted to amend election-related laws includes a provision by the country's Election Commission, allowing Nepalis residing abroad to vote. The Supreme Court has also ordered the government to make legal arrangements for Nepalis living abroad to cast their votes in elections. Bikal Shrestha, who is involved in the field of election reforms, spoke to SBS Nepali about the possibilities and challenges to non-resident Nepalis getting voting rights. - निर्वाचन सम्बन्धी कानूनलाई संशोधन र एकीकरण गर्न बनाइएको विधेयकमा नेपालको निर्वाचन आयोगले विदेशमा रहेका नेपालीले पनि मतदान गर्न पाउने प्रावधान राखेको छ। त्यसो त सर्वोच्च अदालतले पनि विदेशमा बस्ने नेपालीलाई निर्वाचनमा भोट हाल्न मिल्ने गरी कानूनी प्रबन्ध गर्न आदेश दिएको थियो। विदेशमा रहेका नेपालीले मतदान गर्न पाउने सम्भावना बारे निर्वाचन सुधारका क्षेत्रमा काम गरिरहेका नागरिक समाजका एक सदस्य, विकल श्रेष्ठसँग एसबीएस नेपालीका लागि प्रयास दुलालले गरेको कुराकानी सुन्नुहोस्।

 Detroit's Election Commission is facing a lawsuit for selecting a disproportionately high number of Democrat poll workers in the August primaries, a possible violation of Michigan election law. The commission appointed about 2,337 Democrat poll workers and about 310 Republican poll workers, an imbalance of more than 7 to 1. Poll workers, also known as election inspectors, assist voters and manage ballot counting. They also identify and report any irregularities or issues that arise during the election process. The state's election law requires the board of election commissioners “shall appoint an equal number, as nearly as possible, of election inspectors in each election precinct from each major political party,” to help ensure election transparency and fairness.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxFull story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/michigan/article_bf209fc0-634d-11ef-815e-cf0fedd7cf77.html

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Find me and the show on social media @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd   FULL TRANSCRIPT Wilmer Leon (00:00): Did you know that the world's largest democracy India is holding its lo Saba or lower house elections right now? And I don't think we can talk about India without talking about nuclear weapons. India is a nuclear power. How does that play out on the world stage? Announcer (00:32): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Wilmer Leon (00:41): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. And I'm Wilmer Leon. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historic context in which these events take place. During each episode of this podcast, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between these events and the broader historic context in which they occur. This enables you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode. The issues before us are what will the election results mean for India? What will the results mean for the global geopolitical landscape? And we'll throw in a few other things as well for insight into this. Let's turn to my guest. She's a professor in the Department of Political Studies and director of the Global Economy Research Group at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Canada. She's the author of numerous books. She's recently returned from a couple of trips to her home country of India. She is Dr. Rekha Desai. Dr. Desai, as always, welcome back to the show. Dr Rekha Desai (02:03): Great being with you again. Wilma Wilmer Leon (02:06): Narendra. Modi is a Indian politician. He has served as the 14th Prime Minister of India since May of 2014. He had a simple campaign slogan of Good Days are Coming. Those who support him seem to love him. His opponents argue he's done little to improve their quality of life and the quality of life across the country. What's going on with the current elections in India? Dr Rekha Desai (02:38): Well, this election has, it's actually, I should say that the election itself is not going on today. The election has been going on for the last seven odd weeks, 45 days. So it started more than 45 days ago and it ended, the last voting day was June the first. It was a seven phase election in which the Election Commission organized elections in different parts of the country over seven phases. The counting is what's going on today. It's not complete yet. So we basically have an idea mean roughly a little over half the votes have been counted, and we can say that pretty well. The trends seem to be set. Nothing has changed very much over the last two or three hours. And what we see here is that Mr. Modi has been humiliated. Let me explain why Mr. Modi went into this election campaign with the Hubristic slogan of this in Hindi, you say ispa. (03:49) So this time we will go beyond 400, 400 seats in a 543 member Loba or Parliament, the BJP at the moment, I mean that was for the larger alliance, the NDA, the National Democratic Alliance, of which the BJP is the biggest part by far. And the BJP itself was supposed to get about 370 seats. At the moment the BJP is at 240 seats, so that is 130 seats less than what they had projected to win. So that is a pretty big humiliation. What's worse for Mr. Modi is that it's going to be in the past two elections, what has been remarkable, and one of the facts which has permitted many people to say that he's some kind of very unique, amazing sort of leader who is much beloved by the country and so on. In 2014 and 2019, his party won a parliamentary majority that is more than 272 seats in the Parliament. (05:02) On its own, it didn't need its allies. And this is the first time a single party has won a majority since the election of 1984 when if you remember, Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated and the Congress party rode to power with the highest percentage of vote and highest seat count ever in its history on a sort of sympathy wave. And so since that time, no party has ever won a majority, and Mr. Modi won a majority twice. Now in this election, it does not look as though he's going to have a majority. If the present trends continue, he will be somewhere around two 40 seats and he needs 2 72 for a majority. This will be an even bigger humiliation for him. Wilmer Leon (05:49): What does this mean, if anything, in the context of governance? I understand in the parliamentary system that you can win and lose seats and that can be a humiliation as you've just indicated, but that doesn't necessarily translate into your ability to form coalitions, your ability to govern. And if you still have the ability to govern, how difficult does it become? So for example, we can look at Netanyahu in Israel and now you got Morich and others threatening to leave and that's going to break up his coalition. What does this mean for Prime Minister Modi in terms of governance? Dr Rekha Desai (06:34): Well, it means that he will have to concede a lot to his coalition partners if he needs them. But before we get there, let me just say two other things, which is that depending on how, what is the final result, two additional things may or one of two or two or more things may happen, which will put into question more these ability to form a government. The first thing is that if the BJP is truly humiliated as it seems to be, it is going to be, it is very possible that there will be big opposition within the party, within the BJP knives will come out for him because he has basically ruled again in this very hubristic fashion disdain pretty well, all the second level leadership of the party, disdain, all the other organizations with which his party is affiliated and so on. So we will have to wait and see what will happen. The second thing that could happen, I'm not sure that it will, but it could happen, is that his coalition partners who he now needs may abandon him particularly sensing that this Mr. Modi is going nowhere. Good. Wilmer Leon (07:54): So it's that dramatic. Dr Rekha Desai (07:57): It could be is what I'm saying. We are not sure at the moment I'm looking at it and it's still showing me BJP at two 40 leading in two 40 seats, 63 seats short of its previous tally. That's pretty bad when you are claiming, and you asked me another question, and I just want to throw this one thing in there, contrary to what has been reported in most of the mainstream media in the West and certainly in India, because in India, the Modi government has the mainstream media in its back pocket. So contrary to what these sources have reported, the Indian economy is doing exceedingly badly. It is not doing well. And if you ask me the most fundamental reason for the bad performance of the BJP and Mr. Modi is that imposing the kind of economic pain that he has imposed on the country for the last decade, I would say, and we can discuss what happened in 2019, why did he get reelected? But he has imposed nothing but economic pain on the ordinary Indian for the last decade. This cannot be electorally, costless. And this time around the cost has caught up with him. Wilmer Leon (09:14): So when you talk about economic pain, the word that comes to my mind, well, two words that come to my mind are neoconservative and austerity. Are those, because I also, if I looked at some of the data, I want to say that youth unemployment is incredibly, incredibly high in India. And when your youth unemployment is that high, boy, you're the economist, not me, but you're setting a groundwork for discontent going forward amongst your youth. Those youth grow into adults and they carry that mindset forward. Speak to that please. Dr Rekha Desai (10:03): Okay, so I would say that there are a number of points I want to make. Number one, India's growth figures are highly exaggerated. That's the first thing is that they have changed the way in which they compile growth statistics, which depending on which economist you are talking to is exaggerating. India's growth rate anywhere between two to 4%. And if you factor that in, then India's growth rate, which is often touted as being the fastest of any major developing country faster than China's, et cetera, does not have any of those qualifications. India should be growing much faster, has in the past grown much faster and Mr. Modi's performance is actually very poor. The second point I have to make is that even the growth we have has been powered by unsustainable stimuli and it has created exceedingly high levels of inequality. So that is a problem. (11:02) So growth is low, inequality is high, inflation is high, unemployment is high including youth unemployment. So the unemployment crisis in India is very high, even though India's labor force participation rate, that is to say the number of people who are actively either employed or seeking employment out of the working age population is actually quite low. So even with this sort of social, shall we say, benefit that India has, granted, the BJP unemployment levels are very high. Youth unemployment is so high that for individual jobs, maybe the government advertises or some company advertises a dozen jobs and there will be literally hundreds of thousands of applications for a dozen jobs. I'm not kidding you. And there have been riots around issues of employment and so on. So we can again discuss that. So unemployment is that. Now, if this whole litany is not bad enough, Mr. (12:10) Modi has willfully in order to show what a strong man he's who can take decisive decisions and actions has imposed pain on the Indian economy on at least three separate occasions, which is completely, it's uncalled for unnecessary. But again, to do this, the first was if you remember the demonetization exercise when overnight the government declared that currency notes over the value of 500 rupees were considered invalid and gave everybody a short period of time to go and exchange them for lower denomination notes. Now, for an economy which runs on cash primarily, this was a disaster. Remember that India's economy, the formal employment in India's economy is only about 7%. So 93% of Indians work in an informal economy where cash is king. These people were suddenly thrown into a crisis. People who had squid away savings in high denomination notes had to go and exchange them. And many very often they had to stand in long lines and it created a huge mess. Secondly, Wilmer Leon (13:25): Well, wait a minute, what was the objective of doing that? Dr Rekha Desai (13:28): Well, he claimed that he was going to try to create a cashless economy and remove the black money from the economy, et cetera, but none of this was proved true. I believe that he was simply talking to certain, shall we say, big financial wizards who want to introduce cashless payment systems in India and want to benefit from the bonanza. And he basically doesn't talk to a lot of people. So one or two people who have his ear can actually get him to take these decisions. I mean the demonetization exercise. And a third thing was that he was trying very desperately to win an election in the giant state of UTA Prade elections were due. And he thought that somehow by doing this, he would prevent the opposition from essentially spending any money. So then he declared a covid lockdown at a time when there was no covid detectable in India. (14:26) And then a year later when you saw all those bodies floating down the Ganges and all those funeral pies, he was nowhere to be seen. He was missing in action. There was no government policy. People just had to somehow make do with what they had. State governments did do a lot, but not, he did not. And then finally he imposed a goods and services tax, which again, given that India operates on so many small and tiny enterprises, it was simply another burden on people who are already too stretched to keep records in order to pay taxes. And moreover, it's a regressive tax. There is so much inequality that the need of the R is to tax the fabulously wealthy. So in India, we now have literally a two tier society where if you are one of the five or 10%, life's never been better. And if you are one of the 90 to 95%, it's really, really bad. Wilmer Leon (15:23): So please forgive my ignorance of Indian culture, but I understand that there's a cultural strata within India. So you add the economic strata to the cultural strata, and then I would think you have a big mess on your hands. Dr Rekha Desai (15:46): Well, it exacerbates the inequality. What you're referring to is the caste system, which is quite widely misunderstood. But let me just, I mean the caste system people think is a kind of a layered, like a many tiered wedding cake with a small number of, so-called twice born cast at the top and then everybody else. But in reality, caste works in the sense of having, there are various caste groups and each caste group is either higher or lower in the hierarchy and that, so a small number of caste groups are in the, so-called twice born casts that are essentially the high castes, and then there is a big fat middle of the middle casts. And then there are the, so-called untouchable cast, and then there is a group of tribals who are outside the caste structure. So the thing, I don't want to give a long disposition on that, but the thing to know about the class structure in India is that the upper cast are also generally the upper classes, the well to do. So, the cultural or social privilege and economic privilege largely coincide, not completely, but largely. So this creates an additional layer of resentment and so on. So that's the situation. Wilmer Leon (17:13): I want to get back to my austerity question because I know that Modi is very, very close to Joe Biden, and that's why when you mentioned early on about the economic issues, Neo Khan and austerity were the two words that came to my mind. So are there similarities between the objectives of Modi's economics and the economics of the West? Dr Rekha Desai (17:41): Yes. Essentially the Modi government, like the previous BJP government engages in a certain politics of neoliberalism or economic policy of neoliberalism where you privatize as much as you can, you reduce social expenditure, you reduce state capacity, you contract out, that sort of thing. And that has really penetrated very deep. Now the Indian economy, so for example, he has recently privatized Air India sold it off essentially, and many other state assets have been privatized. A lot of the way I look at it, I think that this would go for President Biden as well as Narin Modi, essentially they have a one point economic policy. The one point economic policy is to do what benefits the really big corporations. And India has a lot of big corporations, so that that's the economic policy Bohi has pursued. So essentially there is a handful of big titans who destroyed the Indian economy. (18:54) You must have heard of Gata Madani who is a particular favorite of the Prime Minister. There are the Bannis and a few others. And essentially what Mohi has done in terms of economic policy is initiate projects. For example, building roads or bridges or highways or ports or airports or what have you, which involve giving very lucrative contracts to a small number of big corporations. And that's, those are the ones who have benefited. Whereas he claimed that he had a make in India a policy or program which was going to expand the manufacturing sector. Well, if anything, the manufacturing sector has shrunk under Modi. So the kind of good jobs that manufacturing tends to create has actually shrunk under Modi rather than expanded. So this is the kind of economic policy you have. And of course that makes India all the more unequal, Wilmer Leon (19:52): As I have read, particularly in Western media, it's been portrayed over years that it was expected that India would rival China. That modi's objectives were to the one China policy, I'm sorry, the Belt and Road initiative and that China China's economy, one of the leading growth economies in the world, and that Modi was trying to rival China and in the West it was being portrayed as though he was actually successful in doing so. Speak to that, please. Dr Rekha Desai (20:33): Yeah, I mean the West would dearly love India to emerge as an economic giant and Wilmer Leon (20:40): Competitor to China. Dr Rekha Desai (20:41): Exactly, and a counterweights to China. And so India would be sort of in the Western camp and help count to China. Unfortunately, the West has had to swallow considerable amount of disillusionment because I noticed that even in some of the more mainstream western media, which would, as I say, which have been praising India until recently, there has been a certain amount of stepping back, realizing that Modi has been not as economically successful, and also realizing that Modi has been very authoritarian so that India's democracy is often has been rated by under, Modi has been rated by some international agencies as an electoral autocracy, the press freedom in India, India has been criticized on those grounds. And I think that if anything, the west has been forced to come to these conclusions and it has reluctantly come to these conclusions. And if anything, criticism of Modi is still much milder than it should be, but it is there because the facts are too difficult to look away from. (21:53) Having said that, as I said, the West's desire for India to be this counterweight to China has not gone away. And I should also add that particularly this party, the BJP to which Mr. Modi belongs, has historically pursued a policy of getting closer and closer to the United States. And I should also add in the process, getting closer to Israel, reversing a very longstanding Indian policy of anti-imperialist support for the Palestinian cause and so on. So these trends have certainly been exacerbated under Modi, and we'll have to see now what happens in the coming weeks and months and so on. Wilmer Leon (22:35): India shares, I want to say about a 2200 mile border with China. India is part of bricks, the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and now a number of other countries have joined that economic block. So it seems as though Modi is trying to walk a very fine line in terms of being a member of Brix, which means good relationships with China working, I'll say working, working relationships with China, working relationships with Russia, while at the same time trying to be the friend of the United States. Is that a fair assessment of his effort? And that I would think that's a very, very difficult and fine line to walk. Dr Rekha Desai (23:26): I think it is. And at the same time, Mr. Modi has not had much choice because for several reasons. Number one, Modi would really love to distance himself distance India from Russia, which of course has had longstanding economic ties as well as defense cooperation ties. Wilmer Leon (23:51): But wait a minute, let me jump in. And just to that point, didn't India just sign a huge oil and gas deal with Russia and they are buying Russian gas in rubles? Dr Rekha Desai (24:08): Yes. So let me exactly. I was about to come to that. Wilmer Leon (24:14): I'm channeling my inner, not Dr Rekha Desai (24:16): Really like that. But what has happened in the interim, of course, is that with the Ukraine crisis, India and the rise in the price of oil, and remember India imports a lot of oil and the rise in prices of oil in India has ripple effects throughout the economy because the cost of everything goes up because transport is a central part of the cost of anything. So inflation is already bad enough in India. If India did not have this oil deal with the Russians, then it would be even worse and it would tell on Modi even greater way. Secondly, some of his best paths like Mr. Adani and Mr. Banani and so on are actually engaged in the lucrative and shady practice of buying Russian oil at a discounted price and then processing it to power, not for that matter, and then selling it forward to essentially Europeans who can say, well, we are not buying Russian oil, but we are buying these oil or oil products from the Indians. (25:18) And so this India has become a sort of conduit for this oil trade and so on and gas trade with the Europeans. So that's another important thing and why India needs Russia. Secondly, India also has these border disputes with China, which go a long way. And Mr. Modi, of course, loves to sort of rattle his saber every so often in order to Ghana support across the border with China. But in India has also become dependent on cheap Chinese imports, inexpensive Chinese imports, I should say. I don't want to suggest that they're low quality, but because Indian manufacturing has declined and India's has become ever more reliant on importing cheap Chinese products. So in all of these ways, India's room for manure is actually shrinking largely thanks to the sad state of its economy, which Mr. Modi is doing nothing to improve. So in that sense, what Mr. Modi would like and what he must do are increasingly further apart. Wilmer Leon (26:33): Here comes a very basic simplistic question. India, I believe is the largest population in the most populous country in the world. That says to me that there's a very large accessible labor force. The United States is moving or trying to move off of Chinese labor and fine labor elsewhere. Allah, Haiti, why isn't Modi, or why isn't the US trying to tap into that unemployed labor force, expand production in the country? Because when we think of India, a lot of people in West think of, for example, call centers. They think about engineers, but not necessarily with IIT, for example, the Indian Institute of Technology, which is supposed to arrival. MIT, supposed to be one of the best engineering school in the world, but people don't necessarily think of engineering coming out of India. So why isn't the world or why isn't the west tapping into this labor force? Is that a sensible question to ask? Dr Rekha Desai (27:58): No, it's a good question to ask. So let me take another step back. You are right. India is the most populous country. India has a very large young population, and people often have been talking about the demographic dividend that India has the opportunity to employ these people and to grow much at a very fast rate and benefit from this. However, in order to harness or in order to benefit from India's demographic dividend, you have to invest in your young people. You have to educate them, you have to give them the skills Wilmer Leon (28:34): You need like China has done, Dr Rekha Desai (28:36): And then you have to create the larger kind of ecology, which will stimulate growth. None of these things are being done in India. Primary education is basically, I mean, as opposed to China, where the state puts in a lot of effort into primary education in public schools, what you have is essentially a proliferation of private schools, which if your parents can afford it, you're lucky, and otherwise you go to a sadly and badly run state school, which often does not even have a sufficient number of teachers or teachers who show up, et cetera, et cetera. So there is this problem. Then on top of that, increasingly what used to be a rather good university system has also been allowed to essentially be privatized the proliferation of private universities and colleges which charge enormous fees for questionable forms of education, which is also why you see an enormous flood of Indians, Indian young people leaving the country to obtain education abroad. (29:44) I mean, I was educated abroad, but as a graduate student, what's happening now is lots of Indian young people are leaving as undergraduates and going abroad to various, usually other English speaking countries, but also places as you, I don't know if you remember, but when the Ukraine war occurred, there was a crisis of Indian students having to return, and I had no idea that there were Indian students in Ukraine, but are, and there are Indian students all over the place. So the government is not doing anything. And finally, there is another problem, which is that in general, the Make India program was supposed to be, which Mr. Modi advertised with great fanfare. It was supposed to attract foreign direct investment into India, but then the idea was that India would then become a platform for producing export products for the whole world market, et cetera. (30:37) But in reality, in general, foreign direct investment only comes in when or only comes into countries like India because these countries, these investors are interested in selling to the Indian market. They don't particularly want to sell to the foreign market. And secondly, also, the contracting out where the kind of contracting out that happens with China, and increasingly now with Vietnam and so on, that also has not been particularly good because we basically don't have a layer of manufacturing firms that are able to deliver quality timeliness and all those sorts of things. So essentially we haven't had any kind of big flood of contracting out either. Wilmer Leon (31:27): I'm going to go back to the same question because as I was listening to you, this thought just popped in my head. When I look at again, the Belt and Road initiative from China, when I look at China meeting with African countries, India has, again, it's the largest most populous country in the world. That means markets, people are there to sell to and a labor force. So I'm wondering why, and I remember, I think when Modi came in in 2014, he met with President Xi. There was a, I think 20 billion of investment deals signed. I'm thinking about Russia wanting to come in. So there's an incredible growth opportunity there in terms of markets. So China can come in and build railroads. China can come in and build bridges, build electric infrastructure, build water infrastructure. Is that not happening? And if not, why not? Dr Rekha Desai (32:34): Well, because, well, okay, let me take Wilmer Leon (32:39): Again, is that a sensible question to ask? Dr Rekha Desai (32:42): Yeah, yeah. No, no, it is. So first of all, let me say that the Indian market, you talked about the Indian market markets are not just composed of people of people. Markets are composed of people who have money. And if you are running down your economy in the way that I've just described, ordinary people in India do not have the kind of money that makes India an attractive market. The market in India, as far as foreign capital is concerned, is basically a small sliver of the upper 10% or so of the Indian population. And that is not a very big market. I mean, India may have 1.4 billion people, but if only 140 million of them are capable of consuming at anything like the level of the rest of the world, and it's not, it may have a small one or two or 3% who are, Wilmer Leon (33:36): I should have used the word potential. Yes, I should have used the word potential. And what comes to my mind, and if I'm historically inaccurate, please correct me. Many economists and others will say, and this is maybe a stretch of an example, but one of the things that brought about the end of slavery or enslavement in the United States was an understanding we've got this newly formerly enslaved population. We need these people to be consumers, not a drag on the economy. So we're going to create an economic system that allows the manufacturing access to this labor force. So that's what was driving my question. Dr Rekha Desai (34:23): Well, exactly. And the thing is that unless you have adequate levels of employment, and not only adequate levels of employment, but adequately well compensated employment, that is to say with high wages, you're not going to create a market. You've got to create a sufficiently, you've got to create good jobs, essentially. And that is not something the government has done that, in fact, it has done everything to retard that process because as I said earlier, the government's policy is to favor a small number of big corporations. Now, the vast majority of the Indian economy is accounted for by what we call SMEs or small and medium enterprises. These are the guys who actually create the jobs. They may not be very high paying, but at the very least, they're paying jobs. And even that with the imposition of GST, for example, with demonetization, all for that matter, with covid policies in every possible way, the SME sector has been set back and it is not creating, it's not allowed to create the kind of employment that you do. And if you give a contract to Mr. Adani to build a port, that's not going to create a of employment because what Mr. Adani does is he has all the freedom in the world to import all the things that he needs. So he imports high technology products from the west and so on, and he creates a state-of-the-art port, but that is not going to create a lot of jobs for Indians. Wilmer Leon (35:54): Does he import labor as well, or does he access Indian labor, or does he import labor as well? Dr Rekha Desai (36:02): No, no. He accesses Indian labor, but it's a very small amount. It's a drop in the bucket compared to what Indians to actually absorb and to realize this demographic dividend, you need to create a lot more jobs, and they're not going to be created by Mr. Adani and his friends. And in fact, in the absence of such a strategy to really create a larger market, to create more employment, to create more opportunity in India, in the absence of a strategy to do those things, India is not going to enjoy a demographic dividend. India is at the moment sitting on a demographic time bomb because, and we have seen some of the results of that. Let me also give you an example. Not only does the government not create employment, it does the reverse. It creates, it removes good jobs and replaces them with bad jobs. (36:54) Consider the Indian army. Now, you think Indian army is one of the largest armies in the world. It's a large standing army, and that was one of the relatively secure forms of employment that people in many parts of India, young men in particular, but there are also women in the Indian Army would aspire to. What this government has done is replace the ordinary soldier's job, which could then you join the army as a soldier, and you move up the chain if you are good and so on, you get promotions to higher levels. This has kind of been the number of such jobs has been reduced, and they have been replaced by the so-called Agni vu scheme, which sounds very fancy. You are a fire hero or something. Anyway, this Agni Vu scheme essentially will hire soldiers for four years on a four year contract. So at the end of those four years, you could be let go. There is no guarantee of employment. Now, even if you are a right-wing, security obsessed nut, you will say this is the wrong way to have a good army. Wilmer Leon (38:00): But Dr Rekha Desai (38:01): That's Wilmer Leon (38:01): What you need career soldiers. Dr Rekha Desai (38:05): Exactly. Wilmer Leon (38:06): Exactly. And you don't form careers on four year contracts. Dr Rekha Desai (38:09): And in this election, I have noticed that in all the areas which have, traditionally in every country, there are some parts of the country that are recruitment from which the army recruits disproportionately, and there are such parts of India as well. And in all those parts of India, the BJP vote has gone down because people are so sore about this scheme. In fact, the other thing, because in India what happens is that when the counting takes place, they count the postal ballots first. And very often the postal ballots have a disproportionate number of army veterans or army people in them, because army people tend to get posted around and they use the postal ballot to vote in their place of registration. And so these postal ballots also showed a significant decline in the vote of the BJP. So that was quite interesting as well. So you see, Mr. (39:03) Modi thought that he could visit this kind of economic punishment on Indian people, but somehow then still win them over by showing them what a strong leader he is. And through spewing hate, because you see in the, as I told you, this is a seven phase election at the end of the first phase, which occurred on the 19th of April. That was the first day of voting within a couple of days, I'm sure the BJP, which is backed by the way, absolutely generously by the corporate elite of India. So they have plenty of money. They must have conducted exit polls for themselves. You're not allowed to publish them, but you can conduct exit polls how you're doing. And it became very clear to the BJP and to Mr. Modi that their party was doing badly. And so within two days of that, the entire campaign rhetoric changed. (40:00) It went from how we are going to create a developed India with a 5 trillion economy and the whatever, the third largest economy in the world, and all this completely castles in the economic castles in the air. But we've seen that to essentially demonizing Muslims, which is what the BJ does. Whenever they realize that they're in trouble, they shift to this anti-Muslim rhetoric. So this, and the kind of rhetoric that has issued from the mouth of Mr. Modi has been absolutely horrific. I mean, it has plumbed depth of, how can you say, of coarseness that has never been witnessed, ever. And people have criticized him, but it is very clear that they were already panicking, and now the results are out and they're panicking because as I say, this kind of economic pain that you are visiting on Indians cannot be electorally costless. And you see, in 2014, Mr. (41:04) Modi won. It was a novelty. He was fully backed by the corporate capitalist class. The propaganda machine was in full motion, and the opposition was divided. It was not united. In 2019, they would've lost, actually, many people were saying that they were going to lose. Many seasoned psychologists were saying that. But at the very last minute, Mr. Modi pulled a defense and security rabbit out of his hat. There was an incident in which he claimed to be striking, making strikes across the border on Pakistan, on a place called Bako. And that these strikes were going to show that India was ruled by a tough leader and who was not going to give into Pakistans dastardly infiltration, et cetera, et cetera, and terrorist activities and blah, blah and so on, all of which is heavily you should take with barrels of salt. But nevertheless, this apparently transformed the election campaign, and there was the pre court assessments and the post bar court assessments, and he won. And even then he won, but he added a mere 20 something seats to his tally. So it was not such a great thing. Even with the Bala coat effect this time around, he wanted to add fully 70 seats to his tally. It's not going to be that. It's not that easy, as you can see. So there were exceptional circumstances, and this many people are saying is a more normal election. And in this normal election, Mr. Modi, it looks is headed for a humiliating setback, if not defeat. We'll have to see. Wilmer Leon (42:43): And I don't think we can talk about India without talking about nuclear weapons. India is a nuclear power. How does that play out on the world stage, in spite of all the things that you've just articulated and very clearly, thank you very much. That's always in the background. India is a nuclear power. How does that play on the world stage as related? Go ahead. Dr Rekha Desai (43:15): Yeah, I mean, in India, so the India's nuclear weapons are really not very substantial or not very many. I think it matters most in the confrontation between India and Pakistan. Pakistan, but also to some extent this border of dispute that India has with China, which we can discuss. But historically, if you think about it, India went in for a nuclear weapons development program in the sixties after being defeated in the 1962 war with China, in which China did not take any territory. China inflicted defeat on India and then withdrew to the original position just to say, look, we don't wish to solve this problem militarily. We wish to solve it through negotiation. And the Chinese have more or less stuck to that. But China has always been a very big factor in India's nuclear program. And so as you know, in 1972, India had conducted its first nuclear test. (44:19) India has never joined the nuclear non-proliferation treatment. And then in 1998, when Mr. The Prime Minister who headed the previous JP government, BJP LED government, I should say, that was a coalition government, but the BJP was the leading element of that coalition. Mr. Wapa, within days of coming to office, conducted a second nuclear test and then wrote a letter, this was back in 1998, wrote a letter to President Clinton, more or less explicitly saying that India having conducted its next nuclear test, was available to the Americans as a counterweight to China. So that is the larger configuration. I don't think India imagines that it is going to win a war with China, but I hope they don't anyway, because it was certainly not going to. But the weapons are supposed to be some sort of a final defense. So the nuclear weapons matter to India vis-a-vis Pakistan, and to some extent vis-a-vis China. Wilmer Leon (45:25): And quickly you've made reference to the India China relationship. Elaborate on that before we get into the discussion about American domestic politics. Dr Rekha Desai (45:36): Well, very briefly, I would say that India is increasingly outclassed by China. China is economic dynamism, puts India to shame. I would say that the previous government, the UPA government that ruled India from 2004 to 2014 began to embark on a strategy of creating greater employment and putting more money into the pockets of ordinary Indians and taking care of basic needs and so on, which if continued, would have put India on a much better track. Certainly not as good as China, but certainly on a much better track. But of course, Mr. Modi interrupted that, and we've had 10 years of exceedingly harmful economic policies under Mr. Modi. So economically, India is outclassed by China, and I would say that India, whereas up until now 2014, when Mr. Modi was elected, India was making small progress in resolving some of the border disputes with China, which can easily be resolved. (46:46) Some progress was being made. Mr. Modi has largely reversed that progress. Now, very briefly, let me just say that really I think that if India were to give up its insistence on lines on the map, which were drawn by the colonial powers, and try to seek an amicable, try negotiate with China amicably in a way that takes the interest of the people in these border regions, places them foremost, rather than claim to this or that piece of territory, I think that India and China can easily resolve their border disputes. Think of it this way, China has many borders with many countries, and it has resolved all its border disputes with all its neighbors except the one with India. India by contrast also has many neighbors. It has many border disputes, and it has resolved none of them. So that's the one very simple way of looking at it. So India's position has been unreasonable that Unreason was beginning to be unraveled to considerable extent, I think under the previous Congress led government. But under Mr. Modi, all that progress has been reversed Wilmer Leon (48:04): In your explaining India's inability to resolve those conflicts is part of that, because in the minds of many leaders, conflict brings about coalition that Israel is an example of that. One of the tenets of Zionism is, and Netanyahu says this all the time, you all need me to protect you because the wolves are at the door, and if I'm not here, they'll devour us all. Joe Biden, many believe right now is in deep trouble and is trying to create himself to be a wartime president. Is that in any of the thinking or logic of why these border disputes are not being resolved? Dr Rekha Desai (48:52): Well, okay. So first of all, let me just say that I think conflict brings consolidation, consolidation of your social base, not necessarily coalition, because you have to remember one very important respect in which the Israeli electoral system is completely different from the Indian election. Wilmer Leon (49:08): Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I was speaking on a very broad level. Dr Rekha Desai (49:13): Well, because Israel has an exceedingly permissive form of proportional representation, so that parties with even a tiny number of votes can have representation in parliament. And this allows the more extreme parties, extreme right parties to also get representation in the Israeli parliament. India does not have a PR system at all. It has a first pass the post electoral system. And that of course, can translate a small, for example, in this election, a relatively small change in the percentage of the vote can translate into a very big change in the number of seats won by a given party. So India has this first pass, the post electoral system, and that has been very important in giving Mr. Modi his majorities. And yes, rattling the Sabre and raising the issues of defense and terrorism can certainly help. Mr. Modi has helped Mr. Modi in the past, in 2019 in particular, to essentially win a majority, again, even a slightly increased majority. So that certainly helps. And historically, yes, defense issues have been to consolidate a social base, but on the whole, I would say that the Congress has been much less willing to sort of weaponize defense issues. And the BJP has been much more willing to do. So Wilmer Leon (50:43): Switching to, well, is there anything else you want to be sure that we cover on this election issue before we move on? Dr Rekha Desai (50:50): No, I think it's good. Okay. Wilmer Leon (50:54): Okay. Alright. Well then with that, quickly, your thoughts on the current state of the Biden administration. His numbers are horrible. According to real clear politics, he has a 55.8, or we could say 56% disapproval rating. He has a 65.8 or 66% of those believe the country's on the wrong track. In the wake of Trump's guilty verdict in the New York Business Documents trial, Trump is still up by nine percentage points. And also when you look at the Battleground states eight, by many calculations, Joe Biden isn't winning one of them. It's becoming harder and harder to see how Joe Biden gets to the 270 electoral votes that he needs. Your thoughts? Dr Rekha Desai (51:58): Well, I think that what you're looking at in the United States is really the sort of cumulative result of following neoliberal policies basically, so that essentially neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Biden are anything other than neoliberal. Mr. Biden will pepper his neoliberalism with a certain amount of socially progressive politics, but that's the only difference between them. And so what you are seeing is on the one hand, a very large protest vote against these sorts of policies going to Mr. Trump because Mr. Trump is essentially saying to people, I know you guys are suffering and I know how to solve your problems. You're suffering because of China. So instead of saying that you're suffering because of neoliberalism, which he's not going to give up on, he's offering a false solution to the problems of the people. But nevertheless, this seems to work better than what Mr. Biden is saying, which is offering more of the same. (53:02) And Mr. Biden's. So-called omics is actually not working either. So that, because again, it is not that different by the way, from the policy pursued by Mr. Modi. Mr. Biden also pursues a policy whose overriding priority is to look after the interests of the big corporations of the United States, not to solve the employment crisis or solve the housing crisis or to solve the health and indebtedness crisis or anything like that. And in the United States, the only people who seem to be talking a different type of economic policy are the non duopoly candidates, chiefly Jill Stein, and of course to Dr. West. These are the people who are talking about progressive economic policies. The existing duopoly has nothing to offer the American people. And let me say that by contrast, one of the heartening things about this election and the last few years in India has been that Congress, which was, I would've faulted it in the past 10 years ago, for still being too neoliberal Congress, having suffered a drum in 2014. (54:15) And in 2019 has improved its game on two fronts very, very well. Number one, it has engaged in some major exercises of reconnecting with the people, particularly essentially this walking journey that that Rahul Gandhi did across the country from south to north, stopping in everywhere and literally walking thousands of miles. That was a very good way of reconnecting and re-energizing the Congress organization. And very importantly, they seem to have understood that if you are to win in India in the present circumstances, you need to proclaim and pursue a far more progressive set of economic policies that look at issues of employment. And I haven't even mentioned, you asked me whether there was something else I should mention. I haven't yet mentioned agrarian distress being squeezed on both sides on the one side, by rising prices of inputs, which are increasingly produced by big corporations, and on the other side by diminishing prices of outputs, which again, which are typically bought by big corporations. So you can see these poor farmers being squeezed. The spate of farmers suicides in India are very high. So Congress has learned from all this that you need progressive policies for farmers, for the urban sector, for creating employment, for dealing with debt issues, providing education, all of these things. And they have actually come out with a pretty decent manifesto. And I would say that if they were to get a chance to implement it, I'm sure that they will only go further in a progressive or left-wing direction rather than pull their punches. Wilmer Leon (56:07): Interesting. You mentioned that the suicide rate of farmers is up in India because the suicide rate is up dramatically, particularly among white males in the United States. You mentioned the omics, Joe Biden doesn't mention omics that much on the campaign trail, and we hear the American economy is doing so well. But to your point about Joe Biden as looking out for the elite, that's the financialized side of the American economy that is doing well. The banks are doing well, corporations are doing well, but the regular part of this economy, debt is up dramatically. Prices are up, inflation is up, and unemployment, if you really look at the numbers in terms of the number of people working compared to people here have a, I think, try to make a false equivalency that every job means one person working. What we're dealing with here is one person working multiple low wage jobs just to remain poor. Hence we see the unhoused, the rate of the unhoused in the United States is up. So when you look at the real numbers and speak to this, please, as an economist, when you look at the real numbers, things aren't going nearly as well as Joe Biden and the Biden administration would want people to believe. Dr Rekha Desai (57:55): Absolutely. I mean, the whole employment issue has long been a boondoggle in the United States. The United States loves to advertise itself as this job generating machine of an economy, but what is the quality of the jobs generated by them? If you have to have two or more jobs in order to keep body and soul together in order to feed your children, then what kind of a job is that? Wilmer Leon (58:18): And many of those jobs don't come with health benefits don't come with vacation. They're low wage. In Dr Rekha Desai (58:25): Fact, I don't know if you remember, but this is not a new problem. This goes back to the election of George Bush Jr. When he was running for reelection. Apparently some poor lady said to him that, oh, she was working three jobs and so on. And she said, look, she's such a great hero. She's working three jobs, completely missing the point that why should anyone have to juggle three jobs in order to make a living? And that too, as you rightly say, not really a living in order just to be poor. And this is the situation. And by the way, in India, as I say, a lot of people are also claiming that they are going to look at so many, there's so much entrepreneurship in India. There's so much self-employment, a lot of what is called self-employment in India isn't self-employment. It's desperation. If you have no job, of course you will do anything. You'll buy bottle brushes and go sell them on or buy peanuts and go sell them on the train for the few rupees you will make. And the difference between your buying costs and your selling costs. And that may still not give you anything more than a meal or maybe half a meal or two square meals a day if that. But what about clothing? What about food? What about what? I mean housing, what about education? All these things are not there for people. Wilmer Leon (59:43): It's the difference between living and existing. Dr Rekha Desai (59:46): Exactly. Exactly. So this is the situation in India, and I think that these election results are showing that. And as I say, I think by the way, there was another parallel between the American situation and the Indian situation. A lot of people felt essentially unenthused by this election. So they may not have those people who Modi was trying to enthus to support him, may have simply sat at home and said, we are not going out. And as you know, the election campaign was very long drawn out because it would give Mr. Moy a chance to campaign in each phase. You see, because he regards himself as the only board deliverer of his party, which means there is no second level leadership in the party, which Wilmer Leon (01:00:39): Is in fact, isn't he on record as saying, I don't have a successor. The people are my successor. Isn't he on record as saying something ridiculous like that? He's Dr Rekha Desai (01:00:50): Been saying some pretty peculiar things recently. In fact, one of the most outlandish things he said recently, he said some, he gave a spate of interviews just before the election, and in fact during the election, and the purpose of this was that some phoning media person who is not a tall critical, who throws them all sorts of soft balls in order to make him look good. So one particularly phoning interviewer asked him, Mr. Modi, where do you get your amazing energy from? You've been campaigning, blah, blah, et cetera. So he said, he says, well, as long as my mother was alive, I didn't quite credit this, but I have always felt that I'm not biological, essentially, that I have not been born of my mother, that the Almighty has created me and sent me here to fulfill a certain purpose. Now, I mean, just imagine the guys, I mean, it's, it's madness. If you told me this and you were a politician, I would say Wilma. Okay, it's all right. You told me this. But don't tell anyone else. Just keep quiet about it, even if you think so. Wilmer Leon (01:01:58): In fact, you'd say, I have a friend I'd like for you to talk to who is trained to talk to people like you. Dr Rekha Desai (01:02:10): So anyway, so he's been saying some completely nonsensical things recently because as I say, he has been in a panic mode and he'll say anything basically and trying to, so anyway, he's been trying to garner votes. And the other really interesting thing is that you will remember that in January, the Mr. Modi elaborately conducted this elaborately stage managed consecration of the temple to Lord Ram, which is being built on this moss that was destroyed back in 1992. It's a big vo. We can't discuss all of this. But let me just say that this consecration exercise, which was, as I say, carefully choreographed to highlight Mr. Modi and his role, and he was, in fact, it was not the priests who were consecrating it as though it was he who was consecrating it. And it was a practically fascistic exercise I'll have. And he thought that this was going to be his baah court, that in the now 2019, there were those strikes and that this would deliver him the votes. There was next to zero temple effect in the electorate. You asked people, most of them didn't bring it up. They said, where are the jobs? Look at the inflation. How are we supposed to eat well enough? Et cetera, et cetera. So this did not work. Wilmer Leon (01:03:34): And as we get out, you mentioned anticipated low voter turnout in India. I have been saying for a very long time that a huge problem that is on the horizon for President Biden is not going to be people changing parties, is going to be and voting for Donald Trump or voting for Joe Stein or Dr. West. It's going to be people staying home raking leaves. That's going to be his huge problem. Your Dr Rekha Desai (01:04:07): Thoughts. I think that certainly this year in India, the voter turnout is only marginally lower than the previous time. But given that it is in roughly two thirds of the people have voted in the last election and this one. But I suspect that it's a question of who votes, right? So maybe his supporters stay at home and the supporters of the India block, which is the Congress led coalition, came out and voted. It's very possible that that's kind of what's happening. Wilmer Leon (01:04:38): Well, let me say as always to you, Dr. Ika Desai, thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining me today. Dr Rekha Desai (01:04:48): It's always a great pleasure, Wilma. Wilmer Leon (01:04:50): Folks, thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. And by the way, if there are issues, if there are topics that you need me to connect the dots on for you, then please provide your suggestions in the comments below. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share the show, go to the Patreon account and please make a contribution. This is where analysis, culture, politics, and history converge. Talk without analysis is just chatter. And as you can see with brilliant guests like Dr. Desai, we do not chatter on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Have a great one. Peace. We're out Announcer (01:05:50): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.

First, Indian Express' Sukrita Baruah joins us to talk about Arunachal Pradesh's assembly elections. She shares the results of the assembly elections and the seat distribution that it has led to.Next, Indian Express' Damini Nath speaks to us about the BJP and the opposition INDIA Bloc approaching the Election Commission with concerns, days before the announcement of the Lok Sabha election results. She shares the issues that were expressed and the election authority's response. (8:26)And in the end, we talk about BRS leader K Kavitha who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate due to her involvement in the Delhi excise policy scam. Her judicial custody has been extended till June 3. (14:53)Hosted by Niharika NandaProduced and written by Niharika Nanda and Shashank BhargavaEdited and mixed by Suresh Pawar

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.It's the 24th of May and here are the top stories of the week.The voter turnout in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections in 49 constituencies on Monday was higher than the polling in the same seats in 2019, as per provisional figures at 10.30 pm on Tuesday. Though the final turnout figure is expected to be released by the Election Commission today, the EC's Voter Turnout app, showed Monday's turnout at 62.15%, higher than the 2019 final polling figure of 61.82%.Six people were killed and 48 were injured in a boiler blast at a chemical company in Mahrashtra's Thane on Thursday afternoon. According to officials, the number of deceased and injured may go up as several workers and residents were feared trapped in the factory in Dombivli's MIDC phase-2 region. Officials of the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation said a massive blast occurred in the Amudan Chemicals Pvt Ltd. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the families of the deceased.Days after a recent Porsche car accident in which a minor, driving under the influence of alcohol, killed two techies, the Regional Transport Office Pune has decided to cancel the car's temporary registration for 12 months and has also decided not to give a licence to the 17-year-old boy till he turns 25. Meanwhile, the JUvenile Justice Board remanded the minor to an observation home until 5th of June.Former PM H D Deve Gowda warned his grandson and Hassan JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, who is facing several sexual abuse allegations, that he would be isolated from the family if he did not return and surrender before the police. In a letter, the JD(S) national presidentsaid, quote, "This is not an appeal that I am making, it is a warning that I am issuing. If he does not heed to this warning, he will have to face my anger and the anger of all his family members. The law will take care of the accusations against him, but not listening to the family will ensure his total isolation,” Unquote.Iran interred its late president Ebrahim Raisi at the holiest site for Shiite Muslims in the Islamic Republic today. Raisi's burial at the Imam Reza Shrine in Iranian holy city of Mashhad caps days of processionals through much of Iran after the crash that killed him, the country's foreign minister and six others earlier this week. Many thousands of mourners packed the streets of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad. World leaders paid their respects to Raisi and met Iran's supreme leader and interim president at University of Tehran, before the burial.This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.

First, Indian Express' Sujit Bisoyi discusses the biggest narratives dominating the Odisha polls and explains why Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, despite facing the toughest challenge in over 20 years, is still not worried.Next, Indian Express' Rural Affairs Editor Harish Damodaran explains why India's wheat production has hit a 16-year low and highlights the two states that helped avert a crisis (15:12).And in the end, we provide a brief update about the Election Commission issuing notices to the BJP and Congress Party (23:25).Hosted by Shashank BhargavaProduced by Shashank Bhargava and Niharika NandaEdited and mixed by Suresh Pawar

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.It's the 22nd of May and here are today's headlines.Almost a month after issuing notices to Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge over alleged Model Code of Conduct violations by their star campaigners, the Election Commission of India today directed BJP star campaigners not to make communal speeches and those of the Opposition party to refrain from saying the Constitution may be abolished. While the EC did not name PM Modi or Rahul Gandhi, it asked Nadda and Kharge for their “comments” on the “star campaigners” alleged MCC violations.The Supreme Court today declined to entertain former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren's plea seeking interim bail on money laundering charges in a land scam-related case to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. The court said his bail plea was pending before the trial court when he approached the apex court seeking the relief. The bench was upset that Soren had not disclosed to it that the trial court had taken cognisance of the complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).Three days after two young software engineers were killed after their motorcycle was hit by a speeding Porsche car, allegedly being driven by a 17-and-a-half-year-old boy, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) today issued a notice to him to appear before it. According to sources, the JJB, which had earlier granted him bail, issued the notice to the boy, the son of a city-based realtor, through his lawyers and that he would appear before the Board.Questioning Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's silence in the case filed by Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal against Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant today claimed Kejriwal is putting pressure on Maliwal for a “compromise” in the matter. Sawant said, quote, “While campaigning, people have asked me only one question. Why is Kejriwal silent on the Maliwal case for the past nine days? He should give some clarification. His silence on this issue reveals everything. AAP has become an anti-Delhi and an anti-women party now.” Unquote.Bangladesh MP Anwar Ul Azim, who has been missing for the past eight days from Kolkata is feared to have been murdered, police said today. Though police sources said that blood stains were found at Azim's flat, they are still searching for the MP's body. They have collected CCTV footage from the flat. The police said the legislator of Bangladesh's ruling Awami League came to Kolkata on May 12 through the Gende border in West Bengal's Nadia district and first went to the house of one of his friends.This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.It's the 21st of May and here are today's headlines.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing a rally in Bihar today asserted that the people of the country are his successors. He said, quote, “I don't have any successor, the people of this country are my successors,” Unquote. Earlier in East Champaran, PM Modi alleged that the INDIA bloc stood for corruption, appeasement politics and a “perverted anti-Sanatan mindset”, all of which would receive a “big blow” when the Lok Sabha poll results are announced on 4th of June.Election Commission today barred former Calcutta High Court judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, now the BJP's Tamluk Lok Sabha candidate, for violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The EC's ban on campaigning will be in effect from 5 pm today and be in place for the  next 24 hours. The decision comes a day after Gangopadhyay sent his reply to a show-cause notice issued by the EC for his “undignified” remark against West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.An analysis of the 111 speeches delivered by Modi from March 17 to May 15 by The Indian Express – drawing from the text available on narendramodi.in – shows how the key themes and changes in emphasis powered the narrative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party and government as they bid for a third term. Attacking the Congress and its first family as the ancien régime, vikas and vishwaguru, and holding out the promise of Viksit Bharat by 2047: These themes have been a refrain in Modi's speeches since the elections were notified. After the release of the Congress manifesto, the rhetoric swerved towards Hindu-Muslim issues and the idea of wealth redistribution and religion-based reservation at the expense of SC/STs and OBCs.The Indian national flag is being flown at half-mast at all public building across the country today, as a mark of respect for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi who was killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday. India announced the one-day state mourning on Monday. No official entertainment will take place during state mourning, an official had told PTI. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first global leaders to take to social media X, to offer his condolences to the family of Ebrahim Raisi and affirm his support for Iran.US President Joe Biden slammed the International Criminal Court prosecutor's application for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling the move "outrageous". Biden said, quote, "And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence - none - between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security." His top aide Secretary of State Antony Blinken also criticized the move, raising questions over the court's jurisdiction as well as its process in making this application.This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.It's the 20th of May and here are today's headlines.Polling is underway for 49 Lok Sabha seats across six states and two Union Territories including Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla. As of this afternoon, the Election Commission received about 1036 complaints from various political parties in West Bengal related to malfunctioning EVMs, agents being stopped from entering polling booths, and voters being threatened or stopped from going to cast their votes in different constituencies.  Meanwhile, in addition to five Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, voters will also cast their ballot for the second phase of simultaneous state assembly elections in 35 seats today.Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that he was hurt seeing the poverty in Odisha despite the state having “so many mineral resources”, and alleged that the Chief Minister's Office and residence had been captured by “a handful of corrupt people”. In an indirect dig at V K Pandian, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's close aide and BJD's key election strategist who is from Tamil Nadu, Modi also claimed that people were saying the keys of the Puri Jagannath Temple's Ratna Bhandar (treasure trove) had been sent to the souther state. THis is his third visit to Odisha in a fortnight.Days after a Banaras Hindu University study reported long-term adverse events of “special interest” in a group of over 900 people a year after they were vaccinated with Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has called it a “poorly designed study” with critical flaws. The director-general of the apex medical research body has also written to the authors of the paper and the editor of the journal in which it was published, stating that it “incorrectly and misleadingly” acknowledges ICMR though the body did not offer any financial or technical support for the paper.The Enforcement Directorate has moved an application seeking an extension of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's judicial custody by 14 days in the money laundering case linked to the 'excise policy scam' after he surrenders on 2nd of June. Kejriwal is currently on interim bail till 1st of June after he was granted bail by the apex Court.Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has been killed in a helicopter crash in the mountains to the northwest of the country, close to its borders with Armenia and Azerbaijan.The helicopter, which was also carrying Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and the Governor of Iran's East Azerbaijan province Malek Rahmati, disappeared in dense fog on Sunday. According to Iran's Constitution, the First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber will take over as interim president.This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.

This police autocratic state under this Biden administration…Abusing the system to take down Trump…is FAILING. Keeping Biden away from debating is key. Keep your attention off of the Election Commission not scheduling Biden/Trump debates. The debates will never happen because of the Trump trials, prolonged by Biden, no matter how much he claims he wants to debate Trump. The downside of our system is when the system keeps your attention on salacious trysts, and away from the true issues that effect our lives. We need to focus on electing TRUE LEADERS to protect our jobs, our economy, inflation, our border, and crime. Agencies of our government cannot work as agents for any bad-acting president! Let's get back to electing leaders that DELIVER, and who's actions speak louder than their words! We don't need elected leaders weaponizing the agencies of government to take down their opponents. WMXI Episode 142: “Stormy” Attempts to Take Trump Down ~ FAIL!Originally Aired on WMXI Radio on Friday, May 10, 2024 at 7:15am CSTSpecial thanks to the following source(s) for the image(s) used in this content:https://www.pexels.com/photo/yellow-tape-measure-1616001/➡️ Join the Conversation: https://GeneValentino.com ➡️ WMXI Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/NewsRadio981 ➡️ More WMXI Interviews: https://genevalentino.com/wmxi-interviews/ ➡️ More GrassRoots TruthCast Episodes: https://genevalentino.com/grassroots-truthcast-with-gene-valentino/ ➡️ More Broadcasts with Gene as the Guest: https://genevalentino.com/america-beyond-the-noise/ ➡️ More About Gene Valentino: https://genevalentino.com/about-gene-valentino/

Steve Gruber discusses news and headlines

Today, Brian gets into the uncomfortably reality that philosophy has to bend to reality if it is to succeed. Also, San Francisco appoints a non-citizen to its Election Commission, NYPD's new dance team is as cringe as you'd think, and Julian Assange's extradition trial. Help support what we do and grow our show! https://patreon.com/lionsofliberty OR support us on Locals! https://lionsofliberty.locals.com/ Subscribe to the all new FIRST EPISODE PODCAST! https://feeds.megaphone.fm/ENTSL2339145308 Check out the Lions of Liberty Store, including our hot-off-the-press Big Pharma shirts. https://www.lionsofliberty.store Check out the Lions of Liberty Store, including our hot-off-the-press Big Pharma shirts. https://www.lionsofliberty.store Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nikki Haley is making a "Campaign Announcement" tonight....Is she dropping out? Could it be that she is down 36 points in her home state??? Did you know that being able to vote is not a requirement to be elected to a "ELECTION Commission"? All you have to do is move to San Francisco!! Follow us on social media: @grahamallen1 @toddspears1776 @mex_i_cantony ► Today's Sponsors: America's only Christian conservative wireless provider! www.patriotmobile.com/Graham or call 972-PATRIOT + use code GRAHAM for  FREE activation Protect your savings with the precious metal IRA specialist. www.birchgold.com Text: Graham to 989898 ► Watch LIVE on Rumble:  https://rumble.com/c/GrahamAllenOfficial ► Support freedom with 9/12 Merch: https://912united.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices