-The Hindu The Election Commission’s coordination with social media groups for taking action against fake news and contents violating poll rules has so far resulted in the removal of 628 online posts. Since the Model Code of Conduct came into force, 574 Facebook posts have been taken off for various reasons. In all, 468 political posts were detected during the silence period as provided under the Representation of the People Act...

-CitizenMatters.in The National  Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1266 out of 1279 candidates who are contesting the Lok Sabha Phase I. Out of the 1266 the candidates, 213 (17%) have declared criminal cases against themselves. 146 candidates have records of serious criminal cases, out of which 10 have declared cases related to murder. 401 of them are crorepati candidates. There are 13 candidates...

-The Hindu The Communist Party of India has proposed a national employment guarantee law, named after Bhagat Singh, and unemployment allowance, in keeping with the Opposition’s narrative of joblessness to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch of national security. “Our fight is to defend the nation and the Constitution. Our fight is to defeat the forces of Hate. We all want to be argumentative Indians, but Mr. Modi and his people have...

-The Hindu Civil society groups to launch nationwide drive on March 23 In a bid to reclaim the poll narrative post-Pulwama, major civil society networks have joined hands to launch a nationwide campaign on March 23, the death anniversary of Bhagat Singh, which is commemorated as Shaheed Diwas or Martyrs’ Day. The “Desh Mera, Vote Mera, Mudda Mera” campaign will aim to move the focus away from nationalism to “real issues” such as...

-Counterview.net Reclaiming the Republic, a civil rights network, has released a document prepared under the chairmanship of Justice AP Shah (retired) -- and backed, among others, by Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, bureaucrat-turned-human rights activist Harsh Mander, economist Prabhat Patnaik, Right to transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj and social scientist Yogendra Yadav  (click HERE for full list) -- with the "aim" of putting forth policy and legislative reforms needed to “protect” and...