There is no parallel in the post-independence period of a prime minister making blatantly discriminatory references to Muslims in election speeches.

A political party is putting 'creed above country'. A poll body is ignoring various missteps.

It is rather curious that Modi invoked the Muslim League of pre-independence period to tarnish the Congress, conveniently forgetting that it was Syama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of Jan Sangh and a Hindutva ideologue and icon, who joined hands with the Muslim League to form governments.

The opposition is facing brazen intimidation just when it is poised to contest elections.

As early as 1931, Gandhi was worried that political parties might expend a disproportionately high amount of money for what he called “managing elections".

Just a few days before the announcement of the general elections, election commissioner Arun Goel resigned. Ashok Lavasa, who was appointed an EC in 2018, gave several dissenting notes on the issue of PM Modi and Amit Shah’s alleged infringement of the campaigning rules in the 2019 election. He resigned in August 2020.

“If the legislature proves itself to be incapable of safeguarding kisans’ interests they will of course always have the sovereign remedy of civil disobedience and non-co-operation," Gandhi said in an interview.

Those sections of the media which question the Modi regime are under attack and opposition parties are being split.

This was already visible in 2019, when it proposed the Bharat Ratna for V.D. Savarkar in its Maharashtra election manifesto.

Gandhi’s conception of Ram Rajya in terms of political attributes such as freedom of press should prompt our rulers to re-evaluate their actions because of which India ranks 161 in the World Press Freedom index.

The active involvement of the state and of the ruling leaders occupying constitutional positions is an unmistakable assault on India's secular values.

Swami Vivekananda was not allowed to visit Odisha temples after his return to India following his triumphant visit to the USA in 1893 to address several lectures including in the famous event organised by World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and – above all – Mahatma Gandhi would have been deeply anguished and ashamed to see the lofty ideals they advocated now being contravened through the consecration of a temple.

This lesson should already have been learnt from the contentious farm laws and their repeal.

The Sarkaria Commission report on Centre-state relations observed that a governor's power to reserve Bills for presidential consideration must be “used sparingly” and in limited contexts, adding that reserving a large number of Bills would be contrary to the constitution's federal spirit.

It is also evocative of one of the key observations of the Santhanam Committee Report of 1964, which was set up to prevent corruption.

Nehru wondered what would happen if a “communal party” such as the Jana Sangh was in charge of Kashmir. Cut to the present, and Kashmir is under a clampdown on rights and democracy imposed by the Jana Sangh's successor, the BJP.

The ethics committee had no conclusive evidence of a cash trail leading to Mitra. Yet she was not given a chance to respond to the allegations.

Associated with Mahatma Gandhi since 1927, he participated in the freedom struggle, was imprisoned several times, founded (with others) the Congress Socialist Party (CSP), and played a crucial role during the Quit India movement.

The Election Commission's actions during the recent state assembly elections suggest that Ambedkar's warning – that it may come under “the thumb of the executive” – was well placed.