News and Views

The Budgam helicopter crash incident of 27 February 2019 in which we lost precious lives of air force personnel, is in the news again. There were reports in the media that the chopper came down on account of ‘friendly fire’, and that the Air Force was contemplating trying the officers responsible for the incident, for culpable homicide. I even saw reports and comments on social media that the pens...

The Naval War Room Leak, among the biggest scandals of the country, came to light in May 2005. It involved the leak of over 7,000 pages of sensitive information including the Navy’s plans for the next 20 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The mandate for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 was a vote of hope – hope that he would provide jobs, provide solutions to age-old problems, and improve the quality of life. In contrast, the mandate of 2019 is a vote of confidence, but faith in Modi for the wrong reasons. There is no longer faith in elusive jobs, nor the belief that Modi will fix agrarian issues which have caused huge distres...

Why the case against Adivasi lecturer Jeetrai Hansda for a Facebook post about beef-eating in tribal communities, and his arrest on dubious procedural grounds, is chilling for free speech. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new Congress cadre need to be educated about Gandhian and Nehruvian ideologies, because they are not aware about their legacy.  The road ahead is bleak for the grand old party, who need to revitalise its cadres, if the party hopes to make an impression in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly Elections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A country's elections often tell a similar story. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has secured a historic mandate, securing 303 seats on its own and its alliance, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) securing 353 seats. It's a saffron sweep, with the BJP taking entire states like Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. But it's not an unprecedented sweep. Listen to the full story...

AAP’s political relevance in Delhi and Punjab is under threat. Between 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, AAP’s vote share has dangerously reduced from 33 percent to 18 percent in Delhi and similarly went from 24 percent to 7.3 percent in Punjab.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Congress Working Committee on Saturday rejected party president Rahul Gandhi’s offer to resign, taking responsibility for the defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. The party won just 52 seats, still less than the tally required to get the Leader of Opposition’s post in the Lok Sabha. Irrespective of whether Rahul Gandhi remains at the helm or not, the party has an enormous task ahead of it if it...

The recent trade ban affecting relations between Google and Huawei, and the former’s decision to cut Android support for Huawei phones has brought up the subject of Google’s overpowering domination with its services in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that even Google is keeping a track of all the passwords you’re using on its browser (Google Chrome) and those passwords can end up easily being seen by someone else if you’re not careful? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Is there anything like too much of Modi? Not really! Not now at least. The mood is buoyant. Mr Modi has won a humongous mandate and emerged victorious in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Who would have thought that Omung Kumar’s film would actually get the perfect release date. Just as Modi readies himself for a second term, his biopic is sure to bring out his cheering squad to the theatres. The thin...

Most non-NDA regional parties along with the Congress party have raised grave allegations and doubts over EVM manipulation. While this is not the first time that doubts over the EVM mechanism have been raised, the sheer fact that there seems to be a United Opposition questioning it, demands serious introspection and response from the Election Commission. For more podcasts from The Quint, check out...

With 48 Lok Sabha seats, Maharashtra holds high stakes in the results tally for both the major parties, the ruling BJP, and the Opposition, Congress. Also, the performance of their allies – the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party respectively – lend an additional factor in the election. Most exit polls give the BJP-Sena alliance between 34 and 42 seats, and project 13 to 16 seats for the...

If you are shell-shocked by the largely one-sided projections of the exit polls, then this might calm your nerves. The average of all exit polls, or the Poll-of-Polls, has predicted that Uttar Pradesh may end up sending 49 BJP MPs to Parliament. The SP-BSP alliance, that looked like a daunting force on paper, may do far less damage than expected. But here’s what many of us may not have taken into...

In 2011, when Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) knocked over a 34-year-old Left Front government in West Bengal, the key slogan was ‘poriborton’ – positive change. Eight years later, in the Lok Sabha elections, the people of Bengal (crucially, not just Bengalis) are making choices that will mould, in all probability, a new version of Bengal. Mamata may have coined ‘poriborton’ for 2011, b...

Only two polls have prominently displayed state-wise vote share figures: CVoter’s exit poll and Lokniti-CSDS’ post-poll survey. Most of the other polls haven’t cared to make their vote share predictions public. So purely from a methodological point of view, these polls need to be taken more seriously than others, irrespective of how close they are to the final results. Let’s take a look at the sta...

Game of Thrones is over, and loyal fans of the show are already experiencing withdrawal symptoms. But good thing for fans of big ticket fantasy, science fiction and drama genres is that there are many fan-favourite shows returning to the screen after a hiatus in the coming months. And they are all set to cash in on the void left behind by the gigantic finale of GoT. From Stranger Things to The Cro...

Exit polls may have shown the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance returning to power, but the Opposition hasn’t given up the fight. This is clear in how they are holding the Election Commission to account on Electronic Voting Machines. As many as 22 Opposition parties have given a memorandum to the Election Commission, putting forward two key demands: Learn more about your ad choices. V...

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are likely preparing to host a dinner for the NDA allies as we inch closer to counting day, but the Opposition have been kept busy with EVMs. Various leaders of Opposition parties are meeting the Election Commission to discuss the tallying of the VVPATs with the EVM alleging that the EVMs have been “compromised”. Meanwhile, the stock market fell again right after the bi...

On May 14, the Government announced the raising of the Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD) with Major General AK Dhingra as its first head. The AFSOD, with elements drawn from the Indian Army's Parachute Regiments (Special Forces), Indian Navy’s Marine Commandos (MARCOS), and the Garud Commandos of the Indian Air Force, will function under the HQ of the tri-services Integrated Defence...

It is best not to believe an exit poll, or even a range of exit polls, entirely. The results in the last three parliamentary elections have shown that exit pollsters, predominantly, have got the numbers wrong. In 2009 and 2014, they managed to get the direction right, but were largely far from the numbers and did not predict a simple majority for the BJP in 2014 (except Chankya in 2014). Having de...

An assortment of exit poll data, including grossly unscientific ‘mean’ figures in the so-called ‘poll of polls’, has been put on the table. Till actual counting on 23 May – people will, depending on their political orientation and which pollster they decide to go with – rejoice or grieve. As per CVoter, the Congress-led UPA is projected to get 128 seats, while the BJP-led NDA could bring in a tota...

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The Modi wave hasn’t just swept the nation. It has also birthed awkward silences among colleagues, broken friendships and caused heated arguments in family get-togethers. According to many people – especially from Hindu families – who oppose the divisive and communal rule of the BJP, it has become impossible to have conversations with family members who are staunch supporters of the BJP government...