'...For Modi, the achievements of ISRO’s scientists are of the same order as the miracles worked by India’s mythical ancients and they serve the same purpose: the greater glory of Bharat. This is the opposite of the scientific temper: it’s science as a kind of aarti where the goddess honoured is Bharat Mata. Prime ministers are influential people, their example matters, their actions and words are cues for others. A year after Modi became prime minister the Indian Science Congress had sessions where ‘scientists’ read papers documenting interplanetary travel in ancient India.
'Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin about the “rationale” behind India’s move to change Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional status and thanked him for Moscow’s “very clear and strong support”.
'It is ironical that the Narendra Modi government, which never tires of reminding everybody about their nationalism and patriotism, is actually following an economic policy of selling off the country’s national resources to foreign companies. It recently announced measures of easing foreign direct investment (FDI) in coal mining and associated infrastructure, contract manufacturing, single brand retail and digital media.
'From accusations of involvement in the Moin Qureshi money laundering case to allegedly snooping on a CBI official, Goel is the first head of India's external intelligence agency to come to office mired in controversy... Samant Goel, promoted on Wednesday as chief of India’s primary external intelligence agency, is the first head of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to carry the taint of being associated with individuals who were the subject of an anti-corruption investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation...'
'...In the just concluded elections, however, the Election Commission has been found wanting. It has pulled off the actual exercise without much trouble, but many of its decisions have been questionable, even troubling. The perception has grown that it is biased and, even if this may be not totally true, it is a worrying sign that voters and citizens have come to believe that the organisation has favoured the incumbent party.
'... Only last month, the Huffington Post published an expose on a similar issue – right before the Lok Sabha Elections in 2014, Narendra Modi, the then Prime Ministerial candidate and Amit Shah, his trusted aide and the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, planned to start an NGO for acid attack survivors which would eventually be used as a secret method to garner votes for Modi in the upcoming elections. His campaign advisor, Prashant Kishor and his wife would play an important role in this exercise.
'The Election Commission was recently criticised by the media, transparency activists and opposition parties for its delay in not taking action on complaints of Model Code of Conduct violations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Thereafter, it was also accused of deliberately not uploading the complaints or its orders on them on its website. The matter was even raised in the Supreme Court. Earlier this month, the poll panel finally relented and uploaded the details on its site.
'On February 3, 2019, Smriti Irani declared: “The day ‘pradhan sevak‘ Narendra Modi ji decides to retire, I will also leave Indian politics.” The statement is remarkable on many levels. Why would a 42-year old politician, already a Union minister with cabinet rank, and with bright political prospects, sacrifice her career just because the numero uno of her party, 26 years her senior, will hang his boots eventually? This is the same Irani who had threatened to go on a fast-unto-death if Modi did not resign over Gujarat riots.
'Thousands of people—students, workers and activists belonging to Dalit, OBC and Tribal organisations along with workers of opposition parties—took to the streets in Bihar on 5 March as part of the bandh (shutdown) against the BJP’s anti-Dalit and anti-Adivasi policies.
