From Newstatesman: Modi, implicated in a massacre in 2002 while chief minister of Gujarat, is poised to become India's next prime minister. Is he a dangerous neo-fascist, as some say, or the strongman reformer that this country of 1.2 billion people craves

Read the full article here

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was today felicitated by BJP MLAs against the backdrop of exit polls predicting that BJP-led NDA is set to form government at Centre.

"It is the 'mantra' of my life to play any role given by my party with commitment and I will ensure that there is no slackness in it," Modi said in his address to MLAs after the BJP legislature party meeting at the state Secretariat.

Contrary to speculations that deliberations will be held at the meeting on Modi's likely successor in state if he were to form government at Centre and head it as prime minister, the meeting was centred around Modi's contribution to "BJP's victory".

Sources said everything related to Modi's successor will be decided only after results are out on May 16.

BJP's Uttar Pradesh in-charge Amit Shah today expressed the hope that if the NDA comes to power, its good governance will bring BJP closer to Muslims, who, he said, have maintained a distance from the party.

"Since BJP came into being, this gap between the Muslim community and the party has been played up. And because of this, there is a gap between the Muslim voters and BJP. But we neither divided the voters between Hindus and Muslims nor we intend to do so in future," he told a TV channel.

"When BJP will come to the Centre, our good governance will prove all our critics wrong and Muslims will come closer to us," he claimed. Shah maintained that BJP has never discriminated between any religion and considered them equal while implementing policies and programmes.

In anticipation of a landmark electoral victory the BJP is gearing up for grand celebrations on may 16 after the 2014 Lok Sabha election results are declared.      

BJP today welcomed the statement of US President Barack Obama that he was looking forward to work closely with the new government in India, saying all countries will cooperate with the new government in New Delhi. 

The father of one of the nearly 300 schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria says he recognized his daughter in a video released by militant group Boko Haram.

The US Geological Survey says an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 has hit just off the coast of Panama. The quake, which was at a depth of 10 kilometres, was recorded at 0635 GMT. Its epicentre was in the sea, 130 kilometres south of the city of David.

An Indian-origin woman in the UK city of Liverpool has died in a fire she is believed to have deliberately started, also killing her four-year-old son. Janma Joshi and her son Jai, were killed in the blaze which swept through their two-bedroom property in the Tuebrook area of the city last week.

Google Inc. may be ordered to remove personal information from its search engine after the European Union's top court paved the way for citizens to have a "right to be forgotten.'

Around 94.24 per cent voters today exercised their franchise in repolling at 11 booths falling under Muzzafarnagar, Badaun and Firozabad Parliamentary constituencies. "The polling remained peaceful," an Election Commission official said here.

Just in: Lt General Dalbir Singh Suhag named the army chief.  A third-generation soldier, Dalbir Singh will succeed General Bikram Singh who is retiring on July 31.

The 59-year-old general's name was sent to the PM-headed Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) hours after the election commission allowed the government to go ahead with the appointment.

The issue had assumed political colours in recent weeks but the crisis ended after the BJP -- which had earlier opposed the appointment -- softened its stand.

On Twitter: Congress ki samasya ye hai ki jo yuva josh Rahul me hona chahiye wo Digvijay Singh me hai.

Only one man knows the mind of Narendra Modi, and his name is Narendra Modi.

And yet, discarding cynicism and skepticism of political manipulation, several business executives, intellectuals and economists appear to have taken him and his supporters at their word and accepted him as an exemplar of good governance, a protector of equal rights, the harbinger of a Reaganite small government (even though in the Reagan era, US government spending only grew bigger, with larger deficits), a magician who will spark entrepreneurship, and a champion of safety and security for women.  Read

The latest red carpet beauty blunder sees Angelina Jolie suffer from the perils of a powder overload at the premiere of The Normal Heart. See

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi meets President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan to most likely discuss poll issues. 

We will welcome Jaswant Singh if he offers support to BJP: Amit Shah

Election results are yet to be announced but the BJP is already preparing for celebrations as most exit polls have given NDA a clear majority and Narendra Modi is expected to take over as the 15th Prime Minister of India.Anticipating a victory that is worth celebrating, the Mumbai BJP plans to distribute laddoos as soon as the results start pouring in on May 16, the day when votes will be counted. Read

That's a picture of a politician, now in the opposition, but likely to form government on May 16. Guess?

The pic was tweeted by Caravan magazine from its archives.

The Mega Exit polls by English news channel Times Now has come under intense debate after a leading research group called ORG raised a protest saying that they had not done any exit polls for the channel, and it was being done by a different group using the same acronym (ORG). Read

The United Progressive Alliance has collapsed amid recrimination and hostility and contempt. Manmohan Singh is widely despised for speaking too little and acting too late; Sonia Gandhi's party is believed to be heading for one of its worst defeats in history. Read

Dismissing exit poll projections Union Minister V Narayanasamy today claimed that UPA will form the government at the Centre under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.

"The UPA will form the government third time, under Rahul Gandhi, I believe..", Narayanasamy said after offering prayers at the Sri Chakrapanisamy temple in Kumbakonam.

Exit poll projections were proved wrong in 2004 and 2009, he said. However, he added he was not an astrologer to predict the outcome of the elections.

Modi, implicated in a massacre in 2002 while chief minister of Gujarat, is poised to become India's next prime minister. Is he a dangerous neo-fascist, as some say, or the strongman reformer that this country of 1.2 billion people craves? Read William Dalrymple's piece

In the light of the global scenario on infiltration for economic gain what Modi said in his speeches in Assam and West Bengal recently was perfectly legitimate. Intellectual dishonesty marks this discourse in our country, argues Ram Madhav. Read

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to withdraw the services of BVR Subrahmanyam, joint secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, as the latter has stayed away from the home cadre for the past 10 years.

No IAS officer of deputy secretary level is ready to join the personal secretariat of Dr Manmohan Singh after he demits office. An informal list of eight IAS officers prepared, but it seems no one was willing to leave their present assignment and join Dr Singh.

Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi, joint secretary in the PMO, who has been appointed senior advisor to the executive director at the IMF, almost did not get the job.

For Finance Minister P Chidambaram rejected the appointment of the 1987 batch IAS officer from Jharkhand cadre.Following this the prime minister had to make three calls to PC, say sources, to have the file cleared.

Finally it was done, but not before Chidambaram's personal assistant M A Siddique was also cleared by the appointments committee of the Cabinet.

Muralidharan Nair has been appointed as secretary to the outgoing Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. Orders to this effect were issued on Tuesday. Nair, a Rajya Sabha employee, has been with Dr Singh for the past 20 years. He will hold the status of under secretary to the Government of India and draw a salary.

On Tuesday Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh bid farewell to his PMO staff. In the course of which he seemed to have exchanged a few words with Shatrughna Singh, additional secretary in the PMO, something that caught the eye of other officials as they stood in a line to say their goodbyes to the outgoing prime minister.Shagtughna Singh who, did you ask?

Perhaps you should refresh your memory about this official from this incisive column by TVR Shenoy on Rediff.com.

Suffice to say that at a time of regime change in Dilli, even a seemingly innocuous gesture such as this adds grist to an overactive mill.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, says that the amount of money the BJP's prime ministerial candidate has spent, "is astronomical, really astronomical."

Media buyers and sources close to the BJP's campaign said the party could end up spending about Rs. 5,000 crore by May 12, when the last phase of polling takes place. Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director, Madison World, which is handling the BJP's media planning, refused to say anything beyond "we are moving as per the approved plan'. 
Read more

With exit polls predicting a victory for the NDA, Gujarat BJP leaders today went into a huddle, triggering speculations about finding a successor to Narendra Modi, but the party dismissed such conjectures and described the talks as "routine".

The core group of Gujarat BJP met in Ahmedabad today as part of a stock-taking exercise following conclusion of the nine-phase Lok Sabha polls yesterday, party sources said.

The meeting chaired by state BJP chief R C Faldu set off speculations about discussions being held to find Modi's successor after he moves over to Delhi.

Another meeting of the BJP legislature party and top state functionaries scheduled later in the day in Gandhinagar where Modi, BJP's prime ministerial pick, would also be present, reinforced the speculations.

President Pranab Mukherjee's thoughtful gesture to the Delhi media - to have a shamiana put outside the forecourt of the President's Estate where the media usually braves the scorching sun as it awaits news of government formation - is sure to win him praise.

Not just a shelter from the sun, other attractions for the press are a water filter, air coolers and pedestal fans, along with some 20 to 30 chairs. Biscuits and soft drinks will also be offered to them. The shamiana will remain in place till the swearing-in ceremony.

President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday offered floral tributes to Zakir Hussain, who took over as President on this day 47 years ago. Among the new customs Mukherjee has introduced in Rashtrapati Bhavan is to remember his predecessors. Thanks to this practice, family members of past Presidents get to join Mukherjee in paying floral tribute on their birthdays and memorial days.

BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday paid a courtesy call on President Pranab Mukherjee. The closed-door meeting between them lasted 15 minutes, and the details of what transpired between them are not known yet.   Was it about the formation of the new government? Was it to implore the President to revoke his assent for the appointment of a new Army chief by the UPA government in its dying days?  Like we said, these are unconfirmed reports.

With exit polls painting a grim prospect for Congress, Union minister Kamal Nath today rejected suggestions that a likely poor show in the elections will be a reflection on Rahul Gandhi's leadership, saying he was never part of the UPA government.

He said the Manmohan Singh-led government was not able to convey to the people about its programmes and all the good work it was doing.

"Election results are a reflection on what people's perception of the government functioning was....To dismiss them (good work) and say we did nothing in 10 years is wrong. Rahul Gandhi was never part of the government," he said in defence of the party's Vice President who led the Congress campaign.

BJP has taken a dig at Congress over the issue, saying it will blame Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and others but not Rahul and his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi if it fares poorly in the polls.

"The mantra in Congress is to blame others in case of something bad while giving all credit to Congress President and Vice President. Therefore, the PM will be blamed and others too. There will be talk about collective responsibility," party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said today. Nath said they were "neither optimistic nor pessimistic" about results. "We are being realistic," he said.

British travellers in India have been warned against possible poll-related violence in the country and asked to "remain vigilant' on results day May 16.

"You should remain vigilant in the run up to the elections, during the election period and on 16th May, the day the election results are announced. Avoid political rallies and large crowds and monitor the national and local media," says the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) travel advisory for India.

The advisory, which is regularly updated, highlighted that over 800,000 British nationals visit India every year and most visits are trouble-free.

As India appears to be on the threshold of political change, some economists, executives and investors are wondering whether a new government would dare to try to push out the country's hawkish central bank governor Raghuram Rajan. The Reserve Bank of India governor is appointed by the government, and can technically be fired by the government as well. Read

Snowfall in the higher reaches of Garhwal Himalayas and intermittent rains in lower areas affected the Char Dham yatra today with pilgrimage to the famous Kedarnath shrine suspended till May 16 and yatra to Badrinath halted temporarily.

"Yatra to Kedarnath has been suspended till May 16. Snowfall continues in the shrine area and lower Kedar Valley is being lashed by showers," Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee CEO V D Singh said.

"Yatra to Badrinath has also been temporarily halted as Nar Narayan Parbat in whose lap the temple is located received fresh snowfall last evening," he said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was given a standing ovation by his staff at South Block Tuesday during a farewell they hosted for him. It also saw some moist eyes. Around 110 staff of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) gathered at South Block to give a farewell to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who steps down May 17 after a decade at the helm of the country.

"The staff gave the prime minister a standing ovation," a PMO official told IANS, adding that the staff presented him with a bouquet.

Manmohan Singh told the PMO staff: "I am very thankful to you all for your service. May god bless you."

Some of the staff who have interacted with the prime minister during the 10 years of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule were seen wiping away their tears, the official added.

Present along with Manmohan Singh were National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Principal Secretary Pulok Chatterjee, Prime Minister's Advisor T.K.A. Nair and his Media Advisor Pankaj Pachauri. Some TV cameras and news photographers were present on the occasion.

Just in: Rajnath Singh will stay on as BJP president, it seems. Nitin Gadkari's attempt to return as BJP prez has been turned down by the RSS. Gadkari had met LK Advani yesterday after getting a clean chit in an income-tax probe against him. He had also met Narendra Modi. Gadkari was the BJP president before Rajnath Singh.

On May 11, BJP president Rajnath Singh met senior Sangh leaders at the RSS office in New Delhi. Singh is believed to have discussed party strategy keeping in view the last phase of polling on Monday and counting of votes on May 16.

Top RSS leaders Bhaiyaji Joshi, who is second-in-command in RSS after Mohan Bhagwat, and RSS points man in dealing with BJP Suresh Soni were part of the deliberations with the BJP president. 

The militant Islamist group has bombed schools, churches and mosques; kidnapped women and children; and assassinated politicians and religious leaders. It was unlikely they would welcome Western journalists, and those accompanying us, with open arms. Read CNN's Lillian Leposo's account of the journey to the Boko Haram stronghold.

Sunil Mittal's piece for the Economic Times today:

"I have been meaning to write this piece for a few weeks, but every time I start, I hesitate to do so as I am reminded of the sermons I received from Shri Yashwant Sinha in this very paper, after I penned down an open letter to the opposition exhorting them to support some very important legislations that were stuck in Parliament for want of political support. 

"Politics is best left to politicians" was Yashwant Ji's response. I took it as a sound advice from an elder statesman and a well-wisher, who has always shown warmth and affection towards me.

My purpose even then was not to indulge in politics. Today, I hope I will again not meander into politics; for good measure, I have chosen to write this only after the last vote has been cast."

Read

Naresh Agarwal, spokesperson, Samajwadi Party says all exit polls are manipulated. "Narendra Modi will never be the PM of India. When an individual becomes bigger than the party then it leads to dictatorship. In a democracy only a party wins," he says. 

The executive committee of the state BJP unit will meet tomorrow in Mumbai to take stock of the situation post Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra.

The executive committee of the state party unit will meet for the first time after campaigning ended for the general elections held last month in Maharashtra.

It will review the electioneering and discuss the prospects of the alliance on the 48 LS seats, particularly of BJP, before the results are declared on May 16, state BJP unit president Devendra Phadnavis said today.

The party will also discuss preparations for the state Assembly elections, due in early winter this year, he said.

Top state party functionaries including Gopinath Munde, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Eknath Khadse and his counterpart in Legislative Council Vinod Tawade, who has been reappointed as leader of the House, and others are likely to attend the meeting.

Lunch-time relish: More than five centuries after Christopher Columbus's flagship, the Santa Maria, was wrecked in the Caribbean, archaeological investigators think they may have discovered the vessel's long-lost remains -- lying at the bottom of the sea off the north coast of Haiti. It's likely to be one of the world's most important underwater archaeological discoveries. Read

What should have been a moment of voters pride, as the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday pulled off yet another miracle in concluding a nine-phase, five-week long mammoth exercise to elect 543 members to the 16th Lok Sabha, turned out to be mildly problematic. Read

The former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has been sentenced to six years in prison for bribery, reports the BBC.

Olmert's spokesperson said he would appeal to the Supreme Court and ask to be freed on bail until it had ruled.

His lawyer had asked the court in Tel Aviv to give him community service.The 68-year-old was convicted in March over a real estate deal that took place while he served as mayor of Jerusalem.Olmert would be the first former head of government in Israel to be jailed.

Just one individual has purchased Rs 2,000 crore worth of shares on Friday when the market touched new highs.The market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India ( SEBI) has issued a showcause notice seeking details on the same. -- ET

Bobby Jindal, raised Hindu, uses Christian conversion to woo GOP base for 2016 run. Read

A man whose sister and two nieces are among the 190 schoolgirls being held by suspected Islamist militants in north-eastern Nigeria tells the BBC about how his family are coping. Read

Update on the kidnapped Nigerian girls: The US has revealed it is flying manned surveillance missions over Nigeria to try to find more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

The US is also sharing commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerian government, officials said. It comes after militants released a video of about 130 girls, saying they could be swapped for jailed fighters.

Boko Haram seized them from a school in the northern Borno state on 14 April. Read

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi held a high level meeting to discuss the Narmada water grid distribution system and reviewed drinking water situation in state and particularly in Saurashtra and Kutch. Water scarcity in Kutch districts Abadasa and Lakhpat, relief works, situation of water, fodder were part of the discussion during this meeting.

Markets touched fresh all-time highs for the third day with the Sensex topping 24,000 led by capital goods shares and index heavyweights.Markets have been on fire ever since the exit polls indicated that the BJP-led NDA would form the government and kick start reforms to stimulate growth. Read

Markets touched fresh all-time highs for the third day with the Sensex topping 24,000 led by capital goods shares and index heavyweights.Markets have been on fire ever since the exit polls indicated that the BJP-led NDA would form the government and kick start reforms to stimulate growth. Read

Narendra Modi has called for a meeting with his MLAs ostensibly to discuss the Krishi Mahotsav. The meeting is to be held at 5 pm and as yet, there is no discussion on who will succeed him as Gujarat CM, if the exit polls are right and if he indeed is the next PM.

No society in the world can match Indians in their callousness towards children. Why, in 2014, does the Supreme Court have to pronounce -- and that, too, for a second time in two years -- that all schools, government, non-government, government-aided or minority, have to provide separate toilets for girls and boys and facilities for drinking water. Read

Even as India gears up for the election results on May 16, a group of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have taken up an informal initiative to see what a Modi ministry will look like, in case the party forms the government at the Centre. Read

Vishwas adds in an interview to ANI: "Modiji like a true friend of Ahmed Patel saw Rahul is losing so came in an attempt to save him." 

Kumar Vishwas, AAP's Amethi candidate, says the party took some wrong decisions, and "could not put our message across to the people, but we accept this instead of denying it. Smriti Irani was sent to cut anti-Rahul votes, BJP would accept Rahul being in Parliament, but not an aam admi."

The exit polls predict AAP will get 2 seats.

If the exit polls are to be believed, Narendra Modi will be India's next prime minister.So who really is Narendra Modi? Do we really know him? What are his personal habits, for one? Read Sheela Bhatt's column on Rediff.com.

Family ties and politics have surfaced as a major issue in national elections; Punjab, ruled by the Badal family offers a view into how those connections sometimes work. Read

The outgoing UPA government could announce today who the next chief of the Indian Army will be, say sources, after the Congress' top leadership yesterday reportedly decided on making the new appointment. General Bikram Singh retires on July 31.

Last evening, senior leaders of the Congress, including the Prime Minister and party president Sonia Gandhi, reportedly decided to appoint the next Army Chief. This came after the Election Commission told the government again that it was within its rights to select the next Army Chief.

The Opposition BJP has said the lame-duck government does not have the authority to make such an important decision. Results of the election are due on May 16. Read more

"I went and cast a vote in the general elections on April 9. For the first time, I did not vote for Congress. It has none too good a reputation; but for me, it was the Indian National Congress, and that was enough. My father went to jail many times to make the British quit India; my brother also did so in 1942. The Hindu Mahasabha and its political avatars were traitors at that time; they hated Muslims, but were quite comfortable with the British." Read the column on the Telegraph.

The BJP today welcomed the statement of US President Barack Obama that he was looking forward to work closely with the new government in India, saying all countries will cooperate with the new government in New Delhi.

"What Obama says shows in which direction the wind is blowing. All the democracies and all the countries in the world will definitely cooperate with the new government," party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

In a statement, Obama said he is looking forward to the formation of a new government in India once the election results are announced and pledged to work closely with New Delhi. 

Rediff.com's Indrani Roy finds this on Mamata Banerjee FB page

"The run up to the current Lok Sabha election has manifested an alarming role of a major section of the media. The partial and biased conduct of a section of the media, both electronic and print, has shocked me.

"There's hardly any room for doubt that a few major cash loaded political parties have taken up control of media houses and engaged them to serve their narrow political interests, trampling down the ethics of democracy and voice of people.

"The brazen personal attacks, distortion of facts, character assassination and vilification in never before manner has stunned the nation.

"This state of affairs can be overcome only if we bring in electoral reforms and fulfill our long-pending demand of state funding for election expenditure.

"These steps are essential for the sake of democracy. If the current trend continues, then the future of our democracy will, no doubt, be at stake.I thought of sharing this with my brothers and sisters for ventilation of their voices."

US President Barack Obama has said he is looking forward to working "closely" with the next government in India to make the coming years "equally transformative" for the two countries.

Obama also congratulated the people of India on the successful conclusion of the Lok Sabha polls, saying that country has set an example for the world in holding the largest democratic election in history.

The nine-phase polls ended yesterday and counting of votes will take place on May 16.

"We look forward to the formation of a new government once election results are announced and to working closely with India's next administration to make the coming years equally transformative," Obama said in a statement yesterday.

"India has set an example for the world in holding the largest democratic election in history, a vibrant demonstration of our shared values of diversity and freedom." he added.

Congress today dismissed exit poll projections of a dismal performance by it, saying a sample survey of a few lakh people cannot predict Lok Sabha election results.

"In a country of 800 million voters how can few lakh sample size surveys predict the result? Let's wait for 16th May (when votes will be counted)," Congress leader Digvijaya Singh tweeted this morning.

Party General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed has also dismissed exit and opinion polls. He has said that they were proved wrong in the 2004 and 2009 elections and the party would wait for the actual results on May 16.

The rupee erased its early gains but was still quoted higher by 28 paise to 59.77 against the American currency in morning trade on fresh selling of dollars by banks and exporters on the back of persistent foreign capital inflows into equity market.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has dismissed the predictions made by various exit polls as a "great time pass".

"The only exit poll that matters is the one that is slated for Friday (the day Lok Sabha results will be out), the rest are all great time pass," he said on Twitter.

He was reacting to the exit polls aired on various TV channels yesterday, which indicated a victory for BJP-led NDA in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Omar questioned the credibility of the opinion polls in view of the vast difference between two surveys in the number of Lok Sabha seats expected to be won by parties in a particular state.

Citing the example of Rajasthan, the Chief Minister wrote: "So one channel gives Cong only two (seats) in Rajasthan & another gives them 14. Did these channels cover the same election?"

Congratulating the people of India on the successful elections, the polling for which concluded today, the US said it is looking forward to working with the new Indian government.

"We look forward to working with the leaders chosen by the Indian people to advance this important partnership and to set an ambitious agenda," State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference today.

"We congratulate the people of India on their participation in the largest-ever free and fair democratic election in human history," she said, hours after a record number of Indian voters concluded casting their votes in the nine-phase Lok Sabha elections.

"Over 500 million eligible voters peacefully went to the polls over the last six weeks, often in remote or challenging locations. "These elections are an inspiring example of the power of the democratic process in action, and the United States, like so many others around the world, has great admiration and respect for the vibrancy, diversity and resilience of India's democracy," Psaki said.

Over Rs 313 crore seized during polls; Andhra tops the list
Cong stays away from exit poll programmes
Congress top brass huddle up to discuss post poll future
BJP targets PM for being absent during polls
Post-poll results, will 19 Raj Bhavans be vacated?
Defence min recommends Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag for new army chief