Left, Right & Centre

It has been a bitter, personal and no hold barred campaign, and even on the last day today there was high drama as the Congress released a video which it claims shows BJP candidate B Sriramalu allegedly negotiating with the son-in-law of former chief justice KG Balakrishnan for a bribe in order to get a favourable order on their mining case in the Supreme Court. Amit Shah says the video is fake, but the Congress hit back asking if he was a forensic expert. Justice Balakrishnan's son-in-law has rubbished the allegations, but the issue has hit the headlines on the eve of the elections.

Will India-US ties be hit by Donald Trump's decision to end the nuclear deal with Iran? India's oil imports and a key strategic port in Iran could both be badly hit. Should India take a stand? or can it do a balancing act?

Rigging charges are being traded by the Congress and the BJP in Karnataka, which lead to a midnight drama. Has the campaign touched a new low?

The Supreme Court has moved the trial in the horrific Kathua gang-rape and murder case of an eight-year-old girl to Pathankot. The top court said it will oversee the trial, which will be held without adjournments and in-camera. The call for transfer came from the child's family as the issue triggered a backlash in Jammu and Kashmir and rallies were held in favour of the accused. The trial will be closed to the press and the public, the top court said in its order.

After saying namaz should be read only in mosques and idgahs, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has clarified that he did not speak about stopping anyone. Last week, over 25 students were injured in police action at Aligarh Muslim University, which has been witnessing a row over a decades-old photograph of Pakistan founder and freedom fighter Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Concerns are being raised over allegedly forcing people to toe certain norms.

In a big victory for security forces, five Hizbul terrorists were killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian but among them was an Assistant Professor of Kashmir University. In what is being said as the first instance of a university teacher joining terrorism, we ask tonight from why are educated Kashmiris picking up the gun?

The main suspect in the gang-rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in Jharkhand who was burnt alive inside her home on Friday, allegedly by men who had raped her a night before, has been arrested. Four men kidnapped the girl from home in Jharkhand's Chatra, raped her, her family says. When the girl's family approached village council, they were told to "settle the issue" with a fine and a few sit-ups against the accused. Enraged, the accused allegedly barged into the girl's home, and set her on fire. Seventeen people have now been arrested. But as we are filled with a sense of deja vu, despair, disgust, we are asking tonight, can India protect its daughters?

The centre has brought in an ordinance to fast track child rape trials in a time-bound manner and set up special courts to hear them. The Supreme Court also stepped in, asking high courts across the country to set up committees of judges to monitor and regulate the trials. But the numbers of cases pending before the justice system currently are staggering. Over 1 lakh cases of child sexual assault are pending. The wait for an outcome takes years, and conviction rates are abysmally low.

Just a week left for the Karnataka campaign and as things heat up, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi spend much of their time taking potshots at each other. Has this become a personality contest? Have real issues taken a backseat in these elections?

Bengal is heading for panchayat polls amid massive allegations of violence and interference. The opposition parties have contended that members of the ruling Trinamool Congress or TMC were using terror tactics to ensure that other candidates do not contest the elections. The TMC has already won 34 per cent of the seat unopposed. Has the election become a farce?