A mixed bag of reactions
How people perceive various important aspects of the current situation in the country? This question becomes particularly important at the time of important general elections in the country.
How people perceive various important aspects of the current situation in the country? This question becomes particularly important at the time of important general elections in the country.
Today, as the first votes are cast in India’s general election, the spotlight naturally turns to the bustling political activities across the country.
As the world is in the midst of the ‘Great Election Year’ of 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sounded the alarm on the perilous tight-rope walk between democratic exercises and fiscal responsibility.
Emily Dickinson, the American lyrical poetess, passed away in 1886, about one and a half centuries ago. Her poems, however, continue to linger on, casting a profound influence on readers.
Nearly two crore young voters, or those between the ages of 18 and 29 would be first-time voters. Regardless of the outcome of the elections or the imperfections that might impact its conduct, the fact that a system has been created where some 100 crore people are going to determine who will represent them in the highest institution of governance is a tremendous collective achievement to be proud of.
It is entirely in Beijing’s interest that the US-led West, which had disentangled itself from West Asia and the Afghanistan-Pakistan theatre to focus its strategic energies on the Indo-Pacific to counter the threat of a rampant China, be waylaid in Europe. That is a huge relief for Beijing which was getting cornered in the Asia-Pacific.
There was no apparent contradiction between the scientific truth and non-scientific faith, and hence no need to isolate one from the other. Until modern science dawned with Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton and the others in the Middle Ages, no clear discrimination was preferred between philosophy and science. The fact that the social sciences could not take a clear shape and suffered an identity crisis was also responsible for the non-division
In ongoing research, conducted with co-authors Ora John Reuter and Quintin Beazer, we show that Russians’ approval of Putin decreases when their ability to vote for their city’s mayor is taken away by the regime. It may sometimes fall well short of a cry for full liberal democracy, but evidence from public opinion data shows that Russians do want their political leaders to be accountable to them.
The result of Sunday’s election reaffirms that Trinamul has regained the ground that it had lost to the BJP since 2019. The saffronite party, which was at the helm of 65 out of 108 civic bodies during Assembly elections in 2021, has failed to win any of them. The prominent among the BJP activists, pre-eminently Suvendu Adhikari, Dilip Ghosh and Arjun Singh, failed to ensure a victory for their party even on their home turf. The Left will be encouraged by its performance.
India’s security and defence relations with Russia are paramount, especially as the gainers from a Russian defeat in Ukraine can only be China and the Nato-premised Western bloc. Neither is sympathetic to New Delhi’s concerns and regional ambitions.
