A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Voting for the third and largest phase of Lok Sabha polls begins: BJP President Amit Shah and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi are in the fray today.
  2. Election Commission orders FIR against BJP’s Pragya Thakur for remark on Babri Masjid demolition: The BJP’s Bhopal candidate for the Lok Sabha polls had expressed ‘extreme pride’ about her role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992.
  3. India has provided China evidence of Masood Azhar’s terrorist activities, says MEA: Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale wrapped up a two-day visit to Beijing on Monday.  
  4. High Commission says three more Indians dead in Sri Lankan blasts, taking toll to eight: Sri Lankan Minister says local outfit suspected of plotting blasts, government to declare emergency.   
  5. US removes sanction waivers to India, seven other countries importing oil from Iran: Donald Trump had re-imposed sanctions on Iran last November after he pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. 
  6. Navjot Singh Sidhu banned from campaigning for 72 hours after communal remarks: The Election Commission said the Congress leader’s speech has the tone and tenor to aggravate existing differences between different religious communities.  
  7. BJP fields Gautam Gambhir from East Delhi, Meenakshi Lekhi from New Delhi: The BJP’s Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari has been pitted against Congress’s Delhi unit chief Sheila Dikshit. Congress also fielded Olympic medal-winning boxer Vijender Singh from the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat. 
  8. ‘Unfortunate and irresponsible,’ says Pakistan after Modi’s remark on Indian nuclear capability: Islamabad referred to the prime minister’s statement as ‘rhetoric for short-term political and electoral gains’.  
  9. Arundhati Roy, Medha Patkar and others seek independent inquiry in CJI harassment case: The group said Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi’s decision to constitute a special bench, headed by himself, went against ‘just and settled principles of law’.
  10. ‘Rahul Gandhi should be tied to a bomb and sent to another country,’ says BJP minister Pankaja Munde: The Maharashtra minister’s comments were in response to Opposition parties, including the Congress, questioning India’s strike on Balakot, Pakistan.