- 2024 Lok Sabha Elections

Elections renew democracy in India. How is democracy expected to survive if the election process itself is corrupted or vitiated? It has been clearly visible for the last 10 years that the media is against the opposition and is an enthusiastic and aggressive campaigner or propagandist of the BJP. So it is naive to expect it to convey the opposition’s message to the public.

One expects that when the ruling party starts becoming autocratic, the rest of the institutions of the state will come together to protect the democratic and constitutional processes. But it seems that all the institutions of the state have merged themselves with the BJP. Old army officers are surprised and worried to see that the army has also started talking in the language of the BJP.

by Apoorvanand

01/04/2024

From Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chavan, Naveen Jindal to Geeta Koda, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has continued to reward leaders from opposition parties who it had once accused of corruption but have since joined ranks with the saffron party or become its allies.

https://thewire.in/politics/scams-forgotten-bjp-rewards-corruption-tainted-leaders-ahead-of-lok-sabha-polls Opposition parties have accused the BJP of being a “washing machine” for tainted leaders who switch over to the saffron party to avoid further action from central agencies. The Wire has also reported on a statewise list of such leaders who have switched over in recent months. Since then the CBI has filed a closure report in a corruption case involving Praful Patel of the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction), and illegal mining scam accused G. Janardhan Reddy has joined the BJP.

by Sravasti Dasgupta

01/04/2024

INDIA bloc rally vs Modi’s ‘war’ on corruption: What made the front pages of newspapers?
The rally in Delhi was ‘in effect the first public meeting of the 10-month-old INDIA bloc’  https://www.newslaundry.com/2024/04/01/india-bloc-rally-vs-modis-war-on-corruption-what-made-the-front-pages-of-newspapers  

The Indian Express in Delhi had the event on page 1, with the top headline declaring the opposition “rings alarm on free and fair polls”. On the side was a report on Prime Minister Narendra Modi making a speech at an event in Meerut, where he “launched a no-holds-barred attack on the Opposition saying its leaders were trying to ‘save the corrupt’ at a time when he was waging war against corruption”.

The Hindu in Delhi also devoted the top half of page 1 to the Delhi rally, saying this was “in effect the first public meeting of the 10-month-old INDIA bloc, which has been hit by desertions and conflicts over seat-sharing arrangements”.  A snippet on the page noted that the BJP claimed the rally “failed to make a mark...with citizens of Delhi rejecting the rally calls of AAP and Congress”.

Hindustan Times had two stories sharing space on its front page in Delhi. The first was on the INDIA rally, the second was Modi’s promise that “action on corruption” will continue. The prime minister had been speaking at the Potato Research Institute in Meerut.

The Times of India in Delhi followed the same approach, placing the two stories side by side. It had Modi claiming “this war on graft…has put biggies in jail” while Rahul Gandhi said Modi was engaging in electoral “match-fixing along with three-four billionaires to snatch Constitution from poor”

The Telegraph in Kolkata which said the rally “tried to make most of the public sympathy generated by the rash of arrests of Opposition leaders. The story shared space with a rally held by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Dhubulia in Sunday, where she threw her weight behind Mahua Moitra. Banerjee “held aloft…Moitra’s hand” and “urged people to re-elect her to register their protest against her expulsion from Parliament”.

Mahua Moitra & Darshan Hiranandani Summoned By ED In Cash For Query Investigation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GohU8DIuaMU TIMES NOW

Mahua Moitra Seeks ECI Intervention To Create Framework For CBI, Asks To 'Ensure Level Playing Field https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iZIQioZmaM TIMES NOW

FEMA Case: फेमा मामले में Mahua Moitra को ED का एक और समन कल पूछताछ के लिए बुलाया https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iZIQioZmaM Mar 27, 2024
FEMA Case: TMC नेता Mahua Moitra की मुसीबतें कम होती नहीं दिख रही है. सूत्रों के मुताबिक अब विदेशी मुद्रा उल्लंघन मामले में प्रवर्तन निदेशालय ने तृणमूल नेता महुआ मोइत्रा को कल पूछताछ के लिए बुलाया है. बताया ये भी जा रहा है कि दर्शन हीरानंदानी को भी इसी मामले में पूछताछ के लिए ईडी ने कल बुलाया है. महुआ को यह तीसरा समन - केंद्रीय जांच ब्यूरो द्वारा पुलिस मामला दर्ज करने और कैश-फॉर-क्वेरी मामले में उनके कोलकाता स्थित घर पर छापा मारने के कुछ दिनों बाद आया.