OPINION

The decision of some of the Opposition parties to field former Speaker Meira Kumar as candidate against the NDA presidential nominee Ram NathKovind has brought into focus the question whether it is necessary to make the elections contestable every time? Rationally speaking, the question seems odd and irrelevant in a democratic system.
Election, after all, is the most important ingredient of democracy and electoral contest is the way to provide opportunity to the electors to make a choice of the best candidate. Even then, the question is important for the simple reason that the highest executive authority of India was made to be elected indirectly by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of Parliament and state legislative Assemblies.
This provision was made under the constitution after a serious discussion on various modes of electing the President of India. The choice of indirect election was justified on the ground that such a system will ensure not only the choice of the best candidate in terms of her/his caliber- educational, social, political and cultural – it was also expected to make him rise above the hustle and bustle of politics.This type of election was supposed to make her/him apolitical while the nation would be saved from the economic burden of a like of general election at the same time.

There has been a common perception that Jammu and Kashmir police have been sympathetic to militants and Kashmiri youths are inclined to jihadi causes. However, the killing of sub-inspector Feroz Ahmed Dar, 32-year-old J&K Police officer, in an ambush by Lashkar militants in Anantnag disctrict’s Achabal area in south  Kashmir on Friday, has broken many a myth.
Around four years before his martyrdom, Dar, a devout Muslim, had written on his Facebook page: “Did you ever stop for a while and asked yourself: What is going to happen to me the first night in my grave? Think about the moment your body is being washed and prepared to your grave.” Dar’s words, written on Jaunary 18, 2013, will move conscientious souls: “Think about the day people will be carrying you to your grave… and your families crying ...think about the moment you are put in your grave.”
Now his words have come true and are bound to haunt his family and the nation’s conscience alike. Killed before the Namaz of Maghrib on Friday in the holy month of Ramadan, Dar won’t be able to keep his promise to visit his two daughters on Eid.

The hills of Darjeeling are in turmoil and the sufferers are the common people who have to bear the stick end of the state.  Is violence a political tool and is the current violence choreographed by all for political gains? Who started the violence is known but was there a motive or a hidden agenda, analysis points out there is a motive.
It is a known fact that the last civic polls held during the month of May’17 in Bengal, TMC won four out of the seven polls, and also made inroads into the Mirik constituency of the hills. The second known fact is that the BJP emerged as the second force in the civic polls and is gradually getting stronger and stronger. In fact, the BJP has its eye on assembly elections of Bengal due in 2021.
State BJP president DilipGhosh had said that 2018 Panchayat elections in West Bengal would be the ‘quarter-final’ while the 2019 LokSabha poll would be the ‘semi-final’ before the Assembly election in 2021. Ghosh had exuded confidence that the party would put up a strong fight against TMC in the Panchayat election and asked party cadres to fan out in districts to strengthen the organization at the grassroots level.
The TMC on the other hand accuses the Gorkhas for getting help from foreign country, saying it’s a deep rooted conspiracy; the only confused persons are the voters and bystanders, in this game of politics. All sides are accusing each other while Police uses brute force on the helpless citizens of Darjeeling.

The successful delivery of India’s heaviest high-tech Geostationary Communication Satellite, GSAT 19, into a geosynchronous transfer orbit, early June, by the most powerful indigenous rocket GSLV Mark III has propelled the country into the league of big achievers in space technology. It has also paved the way for the first manned mission.
The June 5 launch came after the GSLV Mark III’s first experimental flight on December 18, 2014, which carried a prototype crew capsule. The suborbital mission helped scientists understand the vehicle’s performance in the atmosphere and test the capsule.  For the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), this was the third feather on its cap--an astounding and memorable feat--this year. It fulfilled the country’s long quest to develop its own economical but effective cryogenic engine and inject heavy geostationary satellites up to 4,000 kg into orbit at 36,000 km in space.
Earlier, on May 5, India presented a “priceless gift” to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka by launching the first-ever South Asia Satellite (SAS) to boost communication and improve disaster links among its six neighbours.  The 2,230-kg communication spacecraft “opened up new horizons of engagement” in the region and helped India carve a unique place for itself in space diplomacy.

It is politics, dear, that rules the roost! Once again it became evident that political compulsions, not economics, are the real guiding force behind governance in a democracy like India. 
The Modi government on Wednesday decided to continue the cheap loan scheme for farmers started in 2007-08. It will extend subsidised loans up to Rs 3 lakh to those farmers who make timely payments. Farmers have to pay an interest of 4 per cent and the rest 5 per cent will be borne by the Centre.
Prime facie, it sounds good. But only on Sunday the Finance Minister had indicated that the centre would shun populism and tread on the path of financial prudence. He had told the state governments in very certain terms that if they wished to waive farm loans off, they had to mobilise the resources required for it on their own, and that the Centre would not come to their rescue.
However, only 72 hours had passed and the Centre decided to subsidise the farm loans – with an intension to assuage the feelings of enraged farmers. In the backdrop of farmers’ agitation in the BJP ruled state of Madhya Pradesh, which is threatening to spread across the country, the Union cabinet’s decision assumes more significance than usual.