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All You Need To Know About India’s Colossal General Election[PHOTOS]

Published

1 year ago

June 1, 2024

Indians flocked to the polls under scorching heat in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi on Saturday as a marathon national election reached its final day, six weeks after voting first began.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is widely expected to win a third term in office when results are announced Tuesday, in large part due to his cultivated image as an aggressive champion of India’s majority faith.

The 73-year-old’s constituency of Varanasi is the spiritual capital of Hinduism, where devotees from around India come to cremate deceased loved ones by the Ganges river.

It is one of the final cities to vote in India’s gruelling election and where public support for Modi’s ever-closer alignment of religion and politics burns brightest.

“Modi is obviously winning,” Vijayendra Kumar Singh, who works in one of the popular pilgrimage destination’s many hotels, told AFP.

“There’s a sense of pride with everything he does, and that’s why people vote for him.”

Modi has already led the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to two landslide victories in 2014 and 2019, forged in large part by his appeal to the Hindu faithful.

This year, he presided over the inauguration of a grand temple to the deity Ram, built on the grounds of a centuries-old mosque in Ayodhya razed by Hindu zealots in 1992.

Construction of the temple fulfilled a longstanding demand of Hindu activists and was widely celebrated across the country with back-to-back television coverage and street parties.

The ceremony, and numerous other chest-beating appeals to India’s majority religion over the past decade, have in turn made many among the country’s 200 million-plus minority Muslim community increasingly uneasy about their futures.

Modi himself has made a number of strident comments about Muslims on the campaign trail, referring to them as “infiltrators”.

He has also accused the motley coalition of more than two dozen opposition parties contesting the poll against him of plotting to redistribute India’s wealth to its Muslim citizens.

Janesar Akhtar, a Muslim clothesmaker working in Varanasi’s famed embroidery workshops, told AFP that the BJP’s sectarian campaigning was an unfortunate distraction from India’s chronic unemployment problems.

“Workshops here are closing down and the Modi government has been busy with the politics of temples and mosques,” the 44-year-old said.

“He is supposed to give us jobs and not tensions.”

‘Already so hot’

India has voted in seven phases over six weeks to ease the immense logistical burden of staging an election in the world’s most populous country.

Both counting and results are expected on Tuesday, but exit polls published after voting ends on Saturday are expected to give some indication of the winner.

Turnout is down several percentage points from the last national election in 2019, with analysts blaming widespread expectations of a Modi victory as well as successive heatwaves scorching India’s northern states.

Authorities in the eastern state of Bihar said Friday that 10 poll workers had died of heatstroke the previous day while setting up for the vote.

Extensive scientific research shows climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense, with Asia warming faster than the global average.

A scorching sun bore down on Varanasi and its countless temples and riverside crematoriums during Saturday’s vote, with temperatures forecast to peak at 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit).

“It’s already so hot,” Chinta Devi, who arrived to cast her vote at eight in the morning, told AFP.

“Varanasi has felt hotter than usual over the last few days,” she added. “You see all the streets and markets empty.”

AFP

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Judge Orders Closure Of Trump’s Controversial ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Migrant Camp

Published

10 hours ago

August 22, 2025

Editor

A US federal judge on Thursday barred the Trump administration and Florida state government from bringing any new migrants to the detention centre known as “Alligator Alcatraz” and ordered much of the site to be dismantled, effectively shuttering the facility.

Florida’s government swiftly announced it would appeal the decision.

The detention centre was hastily assembled in just eight days in June with bunk beds, wire cages and large white tents at an abandoned airfield in Florida’s Everglades wetlands, home to a large population of alligators.

President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the centre last month, boasting about the harsh conditions and joking that the reptilian predators will serve as guards.

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Japan City Mulls Two-hour Daily Smartphone Limit

Published

10 hours ago

August 22, 2025

Editor

A Japanese city will urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties.

The limit, which will be recommended for all residents in central Japan’s Toyoake City, will not be binding, and there will be no penalties incurred for higher usage, according to the draft ordinance.

The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues… including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said in a statement on Friday.

The draft urges elementary school students to avoid smartphones after 9:00 pm, and junior high students and older are advised not to use them after 10:00 pm.

The move prompted an online backlash, with many calling the plan unrealistic.

“I understand their intention, but the two-hour limit is impossible,” one user wrote on social media platform X.

“In two hours, I cannot even read a book or watch a movie (on my smartphone),” wrote another.

Others said smartphone use should be a decision for families to make for themselves.

The angry response prompted the mayor to clarify that the two-hour limit was not mandatory, emphasising that the guidelines “acknowledge smartphones are useful and indispensable in daily life”.

The ordinance will be considered next week, and if passed, it will come into effect in October.

In 2020, the western Kagawa region issued a first-of-its-kind ordinance calling for children to be limited to an hour a day of gaming during the week, and 90 minutes during school holidays.

It also suggested children aged 12 to 15 should not be allowed to use smartphones later than 9:00 pm, with the limit rising to 10:00 pm for children between 15 and 18.

Japanese youth spend slightly over five hours on average a day online on weekdays, according to a survey published in March by the Children and Families Agency.

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Pope Leo XIV Declares Friday Global Prayer, Fasting Day For Peace

Published

18 hours ago

August 22, 2025

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Pope Leo XIV has declared Friday, August 22, a global day of prayer and fasting for peace, coinciding with the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Pope made this announcement on Wednesday during his General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, as reported by Vatican News.

The appeal comes as violence continues to escalate in Ukraine, the Holy Land, and other regions facing armed conflict.

Humanitarian organisations have warned of worsening conditions, with growing numbers of displaced people and civilians caught in the crossfire.

Against this backdrop, the Pope’s call is a spiritual response aimed at awakening both consciences and actions.

“Too many innocent lives are being lost, and too many families are bearing the weight of wars that seem endless.

“We cannot remain indifferent,” Pope Leo said.

He urged the faithful to participate through fasting, prayer, and acts of charity, stressing that these spiritual disciplines are not symbolic gestures alone but catalysts for change.

The chosen date, August 22, coincides with the liturgical celebration of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast that honours Mary as a figure of intercession and peace.

By aligning the day with this Marian feast, Pope Leo highlighted the Church’s tradition of entrusting global concerns to Mary’s care.

“Let us ask Mary, Queen of Peace, to help nations rediscover the path of peace. May she intercede for people torn apart by hatred and violence,” he added.

Leaders from conflict zones quickly voiced their support.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, said, “Prayer is not a magic formula, but it opens hearts where distrust and hatred have grown. It is a step toward rebuilding trust.”

In Ukraine, Bishop Vitalij Skomarovskyj welcomed the initiative as a sign of solidarity, saying, “This call reminds us we are not forgotten. Prayer and fasting have great power; they can change the course of history.”

Alongside his call, Pope Leo reflected on the Church’s teaching that peace cannot thrive on justice alone; it also requires forgiveness.

Drawing from St. John Paul II’s legacy, he said, “True peace cannot exist without justice, but neither can it survive without forgiveness. Forgiveness is not surrender; it is the strength that prevents new wounds.”

This message resonates amid current debates over war reparations, ceasefire negotiations, and transitional justice processes in conflict regions.