Lok Sabha Election News and Views
REAL VOTER News Magazine on Politics in India March 1-15, 2019
Congress Election Campaign in Delhi
An Editorial Initiative of Raman Media Network Editor: Rakesh Raman
News | Events | Opinion | Voter Education | Trends
Main Stories in This Issue
Political Issues
Projections
Youth Against Modi Protest by Students Bitter Truth About Unemployment in India
BJP vs. Congress: Projected Party Position 83% Prefer Modi as PM: Times Group Poll
News Analysis
Developments
Politics of Pulwama Terror Attack Sheila Dikshit Speeds Up Election Campaign
PM-Kisan Cash for Vote Scam: Chidambaram New Election Commissioner: Sushil Chandra
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Sheila Dikshit Speeds Up Lok Sabha Election Campaign It is believed that in the triangular contest of AAP, BJP, and Congress, BJP will gain and can again win all the 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. President of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, Sheila Dikshit, held large conferences of party workers on February 17 in order to prepare for the Lok Sabha election.
President of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, Sheila Dikshit, holding election campaign in Delhi on February 17, 2019. Photo: Delhi Congress
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She has said that she will defeat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to win all the 7 Delhi Lok Sabha seats, which are currently held by BJP. However, AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has also urged the people of Delhi to vote for his party so that AAP could win all the local Lok Sabha seats. Meanwhile, the Delhi unit of BJP has launched a drum campaign in Delhi to expose the irregularities in the AAP government. The slogan of the campaign is “Kejriwal Bhagao, Delhi Bachao” or “Defeat Kejriwal, Save Delhi.” The objective is to defeat Kejriwal’s AAP in the Lok Sabha election scheduled to happen after a couple of months. BJP observed February 14 as the Black Day to mark the disastrous 4 years of Kejriwal government. BJP says that in 4 years, Kejriwal and his AAP have made 70 false promises and told 74 lies. Congress also has released a booklet to highlight Kejriwal government’s failures. Released with the hashtag #AAPFailedDelhi, the booklet explains AAP’s failures in all the areas of governance including healthcare, transport, education, and environment. It is believed that in the triangular contest of AAP, BJP, and Congress, BJP will gain and can again win all the 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
New Election Commissioner: Sushil Chandra Chandra has worked in the areas of International Taxation and Investigation. Sushil Chandra assumed the charge as the new Election Commissioner (EC) of India on February 15, 2019 and joins the Commission with Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa. REAL VOTER News Magazine on Politics in India
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Sushil Chandra taking charge as the New Election Commissioner of India, in New Delhi on February 15, 2019. Photo: PIB Born on 15th May 1957, Chandra is a 1980 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer. In the IRS service, Chandra has rendered his service in various states, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Chandra has worked in the areas of International Taxation and Investigation at various places. According to a government statement, he brings rich experience from his position of Director of Investigation, Mumbai, and Director General (Investigation), Gujarat.
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Prior to joining the Commission, he held the office of Chairman in Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India and was also Member (Investigation), CBDT. Download and Read RMN Publications TechWise Today
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83% Prefer Modi, Only 8% Prefer Rahul Gandhi as PM: #TimesMegaPoll The poll indicates that PM Modi’s personal popularity remains high. As the Lok Sabha election is expected to happen after just a couple of months, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has emerged as the preferred choice for PM, according to a mega Times Group online poll. While most people feel that it is a fake poll, it reveals that 83% of the over 2 lakh respondents who participated in the survey say that a Modi-led NDA government was the most-likely possibility after the election. The poll also indicates that Modi’s personal popularity remains high while 84% of respondents said that they would prefer Narendra Modi as PM candidate if Lok Sabha election is held today. According to the poll, Congress president Rahul Gandhi is a distant second as the most-preferred choice for PM among online voters, with 8.33% voting for him, followed by 1.44% for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, 0.43% for BSP leader Mayawati and 5.9% predicting another political leader as the next PM. REAL VOTER News Magazine on Politics in India
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However, when the respondents were asked if they considered Rahul Gandhi more popular today compared to 2014, as many as 31% responded in the affirmative, while 63% felt the opposite.
Times Group Online Poll
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The poll, according to the Times Group, was conducted online between February 11 and 20 in 9 languages across 13 media properties of the Times Group. The results were concealed from respondents during the 10 days of online polling to negate motivated voting.
Social Media Reactions You can read people’s comments and reactions about this poll on social networking site Facebook. Click here for Facebook Group 1, Facebook Group 2, and Facebook Group 3 to read the comments. You can also write your comments and share the article with others. According to the Times Group, almost half a million voted for this survey. However, in order to negate any attempt at gaming the result, only logged in users’ votes (over 2 lakh) were considered, ensuring that only one vote per person was counted. The results of the poll were published on February 21. Real Voter / R MN News Service cannot confirm the authenticity of the Times Group poll.
Thinkable Thoughts As most Indian ministers are intellectually challenged, they cannot solve any problem that needs the use of intellect. In order to make their presence felt, they wear colorful clothes everyday and appear superficially in razzmatazz such as inauguration events, lamp-lighting ceremonies, aerial surveys of flood-affected areas, and showy brooming displays. People of India do not need ministers to do all these mundane jobs which even a donkey or a monkey can do. Only educated people with domain expertise should become ministers. REAL VOTER News Magazine on Politics in India
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Youth Against Modi: Students of India Unite to Remove Modi Govt The protesting students complained that the Modi government has no plan to improve school education that is going from bad to worse. Hundreds of thousands of students protested in India on February 18 to highlight government’s failure to create a robust education ecosystem in the country which has resulted in severe unemployment. A slew of student unions participated in a march to complain that the government under Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has completely failed to provide right education and jobs to the youth. According to a new report released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), nearly 11 million Indians lost their jobs during 2018. The report reveals that people belonging to vulnerable sections of society were the worst hit by job losses in 2018. The CMIE report further showed that the number of unemployed has been constantly increasing in the country. According to the report, the number of employed persons recorded in December 2018 was at 397 million, which is 10.9 million less than the figure of 407.9 million seen a year ago at the end of December 2017. Meanwhile, the protesting students complained that the Modi government has no plan to improve school education that is going from bad to worse. They say nine crore (90 million) children in India still do not go to school; the number is the highest in the world. The proportion of children (age 6-14) enrolled in schools has fallen below 3% for the first time in 2018. REAL VOTER News Magazine on Politics in India
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Students demand an increase in government spending to at least 6% of GDP and 10% of the Central Budget on education. “Modi government assumed office with the promise of raising public spending on education to 6% of GDP. However, the reality is that the education spending has declined from 0.67% of GDP in 2014-15 to 0.45% in 2018-19,” students tweeted with the hashtag #YouthAgainstModi.
Youth Against Modi Protest by Students on February 18, 2019. Photo: CPI(M) They also demand the establishment of a nationwide fully state-funded and free “Common Education System” from KG to post-graduation. They argue that Skill India is a mere slogan of Modi while the Skill India program has completely failed, as out of the 41.3 lakh people trained in 3 years, only 6.15 lakhs or hardly 15% got jobs because there are fewer jobs in the country.
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They also say that 56% of the funds allocated to the "Beti Bachao Beti Padhao" scheme for girls’ education were used for publicity of Modi government through ad spending. It is also stated that the allocation for higher education has remained stagnant at 1.4% of the Budget for the last 5 years in spite of Modi’s slogans like “Sabko Shiksha Achi Shiksha” (good education for all).
Modi’s PM-Kisan Scheme Is Cash for Vote Scam: Chidambaram Under the PM-Kisan scheme, the first installment of Rs 2,000 will be directly credited to the bank accounts of selected beneficiary farmers. Since farmers form a very large vote bank in India, all political parties offer them dole such as financial assistance with the public money. Instead of empowering the farmers with education and modern farming techniques, governments squander taxpayers’ money to win votes fraudulently. Such reckless schemes – which are bad for an economy - are offered to keep the voters dependent on a particular political party. They create a lethargic, dependent society which hampers development of a nation. That’s why even after 70 years of independence, India continues to be a poor, underdeveloped country. C lick here to read more. Congress leader P. Chidambaram has termed PM-Kisan farmers’ income scheme launched by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi as 'Cash for Vote' scam.
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“Today is the 'Cash for Vote' day. Modi’s BJP government will officially give a bribe of Rs 2,000 per agricultural family to get their votes. The money will go to the cultivating farmer as well as the absentee landlord,” Chidambaram said.
Narendra Modi during the launch of the PM-Kisan scheme, at Gorakhpur, in Uttar Pradesh on February 24, 2019 He added that nothing can be more shameful in a democracy than 'Bribe for Votes.’ He also blamed the Election Commission of India (ECI) for not stopping this scheme at a time when the Lok Sabha election is round the corner. “The greater shame is that the Election Commission is unable to stop the 'Bribe for Votes',” Chidambaram said.
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Modi had launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) from Gorakhpur on February 24. Under the PM-Kisan scheme, the first installment of Rs 2,000 will be directly credited to the bank accounts of selected beneficiary farmers. “After driving farmers into debt and acute distress, BJP is desperately trying to placate them with crumbs of Rs 17 per day per family!” Chidambaram complained. About 12 crore (120 million) farmers are expected to benefit from PM-Kisan scheme. The Prime Minister said that through this scheme, Rs. 75,000 crore (approximately $10 billion) will be transferred to farmers’ accounts every year. Bitter Truth About Unemployment in India Indian politicians who promise to provide jobs to the people are in fact telling lies to hoodwink the voters. The truth is that more than 95% of degree holders in India are not employable because the education systems are archaic and useless. Worse, most of the so-called educated people are not even trainable. As the education quality is very poor in India, the degree holders do not learn skills that are required in the modern job market. As a result, the employment situation is equally bad in all parts of the country. It is reflected in the worsening Human Development Index (HDI) of India. Published by the United Nations Development Programme, HDI indicates the level of skills in a country and lets you know if people in that country are able to achieve their goals. Unfortunately, India falls at No. 130 in the global list of countries ranked on the basis of their HDI. The HDI rank of war-torn countries such as Iraq, Palestine, and also Sri Lanka, China, Namibia, Vietnam, and Guyana are better than that of India. Click here to read more.
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Appeal for Donations RMN Foundation is a humanitarian organization that was formed in May 2015 as an educational and public charitable Trust for the benefit of humanity at large. It is registered with the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi at New Delhi, India. Currently, all the activities of RMN Foundation are being managed single-handedly (without any support) by RMN Foundation founder Rakesh Raman who had left his job a few years ago to run this charity. As RMN Foundation has embarked upon some major humanitarian projects during the past over 3 years, now it needs a significant amount of funds in the form of donations to expand the scope of its activities. Individual Indian donors can help RMN Foundation with their contributions using the following bank details: Bank Name: ICICI Bank Bank Branch: HL Square, Plot No. 6, Sector 5 (MLU), Dwarka, New Delhi 110 075 Account Number: 025005004368 Account Name: RMN Foundation Type of Account: Current IFSC Code: ICIC0000250 Or you can c lick here to donate with PayPal, credit card, or bank account.
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BJP vs. Congress: Projected Party Position If Lok Sabha election is held today, BJP is expected to win 220 Lok Sabha seats and Congress (alone) can win 195 seats provided the voting takes place on traditional ballot papers. If the election is held on electronic voting machines (EVMs), BJP can hope to win at least 300 seats.
While Congress does not have any original plan to attract the voters, all its political rhetoric and messaging is designed to criticize Modi. Lok Sabha has 545 (543 + 2 nominated) members. A political party needs 272 seats to take majority in Lok Sabha and form the government. REAL VOTER News Magazine on Politics in India
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Politics of Pulwama Terror Attack Modi is leaving no stone unturned to leverage Pulwama attack to take advantage in the upcoming election. Despite their umpteen differences, politicians of different hues have joined a large group of violent Indians having monstrous tendencies who are celebrating human death and destruction in the wake of India-Pakistan c onflict. While the nuclear-armed nations India and Pakistan are on the verge of a gory war, these politicians have preferred bloodshed by saluting the Indian Air Force (IAF) which attacked the Pakistani territory on February 26 with the reports that 350 people were killed in the attack. Ironically, the Indian politicians are admiring the IAF valour when an IAF pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by the Pakistani forces. The heightened confrontation between the two countries follows the recent terror attack on CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) men in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in which more than 40 Indian men died. As usual, India blamed Pakistan for the attack, while Pakistan has repeatedly refuted India’s claims. Pakistan has asserted that India’s ruling party BJP under PM Narendra Modi has stage-managed the terrorists attack on its soil to solicit people’s support when the Lok Sabha election is just a few months away. Pakistan PM Imran Khan also stated that Modi is trying to take advantage in the upcoming election by blaming Pakistan without any evidence for attacks on the Indians. It is being observed that the Modi’s party BJP is taking undue political mileage for attacks by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Pakistan. REAL VOTER News Magazine on Politics in India
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Without any remorse for the loss of Indian lives, Modi is delivering veiled speeches indicating that he is taking revenge on Pakistan by attacking the neighboring country. Modi is leaving no stone unturned to leverage Pulwama attack to consolidate his position in the upcoming election.
India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh shouldering the coffin of a martyred CRPF Jawan, at the Regional Training Centre, in Srinagar on February 15, 2019. Photo: PIB Karnataka BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa has admitted that India's airstrikes on Pakistan has created a wave in favour of PM Modi and it will help BJP win more than 22 seats in the state in the Lok Sabha election.
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As there are doubts about Pulwama attack and subsequent airstrikes on Pakistan, the West Bengal Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee has even questioned Modi government's claims of killing Pakistan-based terrorists in the IAF attack of February 26. Quoting foreign media reports, Ms. Banerjee stated that no terrorist was killed in the attack while the local reports suggest 300-350 terrorists were killed in the airstrikes. Pakistan has also stated that there was no damage caused by the Indian fighter planes. The chattering classes argue that India cannot blame the outsiders such as Pakistan terrorists for the incidents that are happening in India. It is the responsibility of the Indian government and Indian security forces to avert such attacks instead of blaming Pakistan or foreign terrorists. It is being asked why Indian security forces repeatedly allow Pakistan terrorists to enter India. So, Modi cannot blame Pakistan for his own failures and India cannot blame others for its own security lapses.
Voter Education Today, India is standing at the crossroads where the country’s 1.3 billion people are facing a grave threat from their own political rulers who have been exploiting the sentiment of people for the past about seven decades since India got independence from the Britishers in 1947. Indian voters should not blindly follow any politician because most of the politicians in all political parties are crooks.
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Meet the Editor The editor of Real Voter news magazine Rakesh Raman is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. Besides working at senior editorial positions with leading media companies, he was writing an exclusive edit-page tech business column regularly for The Financial Express (a daily business newspaper of The Indian Express Group). Nowadays, for the past about 8 years, he has been running his own global news services on different subjects. He also has formed a free Education and Career Counselling Center for deserving children at a poor J.J. Colony in Dwarka, New Delhi under his NGO – RMN Foundation. He runs an exclusive community-driven anti-corruption social service “Clean House” to help the suffering residents of Delhi raise their voice against the growing corruption and injustice. He also has formed an environment-protection group called Green Group in Delhi. He creates and distributes a number of digital publications that cover areas such as technology, law, environment, education, politics, corruption and transparency. He has created a comprehensive online information service to educate the Indian voters for the upcoming L ok Sabha election scheduled to happen in 2019.
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Earlier, he had been associated with the United Nations (UN) through United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development. Contact
Rakesh Raman Raman Media Network (RMN) Company 463, DPS Apts., Plot No. 16, Sector 4, Dwarka, Phase I New Delhi 110 078, INDIA C ontact by email
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