Daily Briefing: An encounter in Bastar; Supreme Court on ballot papers; and more

At least 29 Maoists were killed, while three security personnel were injured during a gunbattle in the Kanker district of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh. Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held in the area soon — Bastar will vote on April 19 and Kanker on April 26.

Just days before the encounter – which accounts for the highest number of Maoist casualties in a single operation – Bastar’s Inspector General (IG), Sundarraj P, spoke to The Indian Express about the government’s push to end Left Wing Extremism and the security arrangements for the elections.

While the Lok Sabha election process is underway, the Supreme Court is hearing a petition for 100% verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips. When one of the petitioners suggested going back to ballot papers, the bench said it had not forgotten what used to happen in the era of ballot papers.

Decision 2024

Some Opposition leaders’ helicopters have been in the news as they have been searched by authorities in the last few days. What have the parties alleged, and what do the Election Commission’s guidelines say? We decode.

In his weekly column, C Raja Mohan examines what the manifestoes of Opposition parties say about India’s foreign policy. “Many scholars of Indian foreign policy argue that there is no structural change in India’s foreign policy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The election manifestos of Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) suggest otherwise,” he writes.

In Bihar, voters deploy caste to spell out their choices. However, it is not caste as in the broad framework of backwards vs forwards, as understood in Bihar till recently. Now, it plays out in micro patterns that change from one constituency to another, even as no one talks about a caste census – which too the Opposition has been pitching.

From the Front Page

The Congress party has raised objections to remarks by India’s Ambassador to Ireland, Akhilesh Mishra, after he blamed “a single dynastic party” for “the deeply entrenched ecosystem of corruption” in the country. The party has asked for him to be sacked, calling his comments “shameful, disgraceful and completely unacceptable.”
With the results for the civil services out, for a second year in a row, over one-third of the candidates are women, including six of the top ten. However, the top spot, after a gap of two years, was claimed by a male candidate. We take a look at the toppers and what they and their families have to say.

Must Read

Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments on the electoral bonds issue, former Chief Election Commissioner of India S Y Quraishi, in today’s Opinion section, writes: “The time seems ripe to address long-standing concerns about black money in elections. I appeal to the Honourable Prime Minister to immediately review all the proposals of the Election Commission in this regard.”

How much does an IPL ticket cost? Rs 52,938, in case you are making a last-minute booking for the best seat in the house for Royal Challengers Bangalore’s opening home game. Aware of the heavy ticket demand, IPL franchise owners are adopting surge pricing and dynamic-rates strategies to maximise their gate collection.

And Finally…

Korean creams are a rage across the globe and have become the new blockbuster solution for a flawless skin. However, the question is — do these really work on Indian skin? We speak to dermatologists to analyse the natural-ingredient rich creams and explain to what extent they can work.

Delhi Confidential: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav are set to jointly address the media in Ghaziabad today. This will be the first joint event of the two leaders. Top leaders of the two INDIA bloc allies have not campaigned together for any of the eight seats of western UP going to the polls in the first phase on April 19.

In today’s edition of the ‘3 Things’ podcast, we talk with political scientist Dr Vinay Sitapati to understand as to how much the BJP has veered away from the Vajpayee style of governing and what can be learned from the sense of unity in the saffron party.

Business As Usual by EP Unny