Butchers of Sopore and Birmingham

Nine years of calm before icy storm

Kashmir turns crimson with blood of Pandits

AN UN-ISLAMIC KIDNAPPING AND CHAOS IN THE VALLEY

The illusion of azaadi and Kashmir’s historic deception

How Pak's terror policy evolved in Kashmir

Birth of social media jihadists, death of Article-370

Operation Sindoor: When Indian missiles rained on Pak terror parade

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<p><strong>Campaigning goes virtual</strong></p><p>Is electioneering in India set to go all virtual in the time of the pandemic? Well, all eyes are on Bihar, which goes to the polls in October-November, and where a physical campaign seems an impossibility, at least for the next few months. Standard poll practices like gathering crowds for rallies, door-to-door campaigning or even a street corner meeting will be a challenge now, given the new physical distancing norms. Alive to this emerging situation, political parties have started gearing up for virtual campaigns.</p><p>The BJP, with its vast IT cell, was first off the blocks. Union home minister and BJP chief strategist Amit Shah addressed the party&rsquo;s first virtual rally, the &lsquo;Bihar Jan Samvad&rsquo;, on June 7, coinciding with the first anniversary of the Narendra Modi government 2.0. Shah&rsquo;s virtual address underlined his &ldquo;trust in the Nitish Kumar-led NDA registering a two-thirds majority in the assembly polls&rdquo;, an assertion meant to tamp down media speculation of a rift among the alliance partners in the state. The past couple of weeks had seen some muscle-flexing among allies Janata Dal (United), the BJP and Ram Vilas Paswan&rsquo;s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). Polls are due in less than four months and the BJP, like all other political parties, insists their focus is on rehabilitating the nearly three million migrant workers, who have returned to Bihar after losing jobs in the COVID-19 crisis. But the meticulous planning of the videoconference from Delhi, with flags and festoons in the backdrop, showed the party was keen to make even its virtual campaign come alive like the real thing. For a touch of reality, a small stage was also erected at the party office in Patna, where senior state BJP leaders sat through, clapping at strategic points, as is the practice on election battlegrounds.</p><p>Party spokesman Nikhil Anand claims the Shah show was viewed live by 10 million people. &ldquo;We collected data from Facebook Live, which registered the maximum hits, besides traffic on our party&rsquo;s home page, YouTube, Twitter and clicks on our links to arrive at this estimate,&rdquo; he said. For perspective, some 40 million votes were cast in Bihar during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with the NDA winning 39 of 40 seats in the state.</p><div class="itemcenter"><amp-iframe height="62" title="" width="320" sandbox="allow-forms allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" allowfullscreen src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014%5Cu0026native%3D1" class="mrBt15 preferred-source-banner"> </amp-iframe></div></p><p>The Bihar chief minister has also been busy. Nitish connected through a videoconference with JD(U) workers in five districts on June 7, and is to repeat this in the remaining districts. He is also said to have impressed upon partymen the benefits of digital communication during the current Covid crisis. Earlier, on June 3, he addressed elected representatives of panchayati raj institutions, women&rsquo;s self-help and other state beneficiary groups in a 50-minute speech. Close to 1.3 million people viewed the webcast live, says the Bihar information and public relations department.</p><p>Other parties are also bracing for change. The RJD&rsquo;s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav has also been connecting with his MLAs and district presidents through video chats. &ldquo;We are concentrating on getting relief for the migrants now, but the BJP is mistaken if it thinks they are ahead of us in terms of a video campaign,&rdquo; says RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari. Part of a five-party alliance, including the Congress, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), they have already rigged up digital infrastructure down to the district and block levels. Professionals have been hired to collate phone numbers and other contact details to enable the parties to reach out to voters swiftly on digital platforms. According to BJP&rsquo;s Anand, every party is trying to enlist supporters from among the estimated 12.5 million Facebook accounts in the state.</p><p>In April-May 2021, a few months after Bihar goes to polls, neighbour state West Bengal will witness what many political observers see as a defining state election. Shah, despite the communication constraints imposed by the recent cyclone that ravaged the state, kicked off the campaign on June 9 by connecting with 1,200 old and new office-bearers and observers. For good measure, it was also beamed live on several digital platforms for a much larger reach. But rural internet connectivity is still poor in the state and banking on local cable networks is daunting as they are controlled by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters. The BJP has launched a social media drive against the chief minister, under the rubric &lsquo;Aar Noi Mamata (No more Mamata)&rsquo;, and also released a nine-point &lsquo;chargesheet&rsquo; to mark nine years of her rule. Party sources say around 1,000 &lsquo;virtual rallies&rsquo; at the booth and district levels will be streamed online to rally supporters as part of the propaganda war.</p><p>The state administration may be struggling with the twin blows of Covid and the cyclone, but Mamata knows she can&rsquo;t cede any ground to the BJP at this stage. She has also begun engaging with party leaders and workers through video conferences. The TMC is also holding weekly video conferences, where Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, poll strategist Prashant Kishor, party secretary-general Partha Chatterjee and president Subrata Bakshi guide partymen on public outreach programmes.</p><p>Another state that will see a new government in May 2021 is Tamil Nadu. Social media platforms are already heating up the political discourse, and recognising this, the ruling AIADMK (All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) has divided the state into four regions and assigned IT teams to each area. Both the AIADMK and its main rival, the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), have lost their big leader mascots (J. Jayalalithaa and M. Karunanidhi, respectively), and will be banking heavily on digital platforms to influence voters. The pandemic and its aftermath could also prove fortuitous for the two superstars-turned-politicians, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. Their legendary communication skills and social media presence could turn them into formidable rivals now.</p><p>Assam, Kerala and Jammu & Kashmir, also due for polls in 2021, are in wait-and-watch mode. What happens in Bihar will be a trendsetter. For political parties everywhere, and especially those in the opposition, who no longer have sizeable war chests at their disposal, an election campaign that must perforce focus on digital strategies will be a welcome leveller. It will be much cheaper than sending star campaigners on barnstorming tours. Whether the voter will be swayed by their screen presence as much as s/he might have been by the buzz of a physical rally appearance is hard to foretell. But for political parties, especially those not so well endowed financially, a digital battleground has some obvious merits: data and analytics are available cheap for all those alive to its potential. If claims and appearances are anything to go by, their learning curve has been steep.</p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Iram Ara Ibrahim</div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Jun 13, 2020</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

up-front

UP Front

<p><strong>Campaigning goes virtual</strong></p><p>Is electioneering in India set to go all virtual in the time of the pandemic? Well, all eyes are on Bihar, which goes to the polls in October-November, and where a physical campaign seems an impossibility, at least for the next few months. Standard poll practices like gathering crowds for rallies, door-to-door campaigning or even a street corner meeting will be a challenge now, given the new physical distancing norms. Alive to this emerging situation, political parties have started gearing up for virtual campaigns.</p><p>The BJP, with its vast IT cell, was first off the blocks. Union home minister and BJP chief strategist Amit Shah addressed the party&rsquo;s first virtual rally, the &lsquo;Bihar Jan Samvad&rsquo;, on June 7, coinciding with the first anniversary of the Narendra Modi government 2.0. Shah&rsquo;s virtual address underlined his &ldquo;trust in the Nitish Kumar-led NDA registering a two-thirds majority in the assembly polls&rdquo;, an assertion meant to tamp down media speculation of a rift among the alliance partners in the state. The past couple of weeks had seen some muscle-flexing among allies Janata Dal (United), the BJP and Ram Vilas Paswan&rsquo;s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). Polls are due in less than four months and the BJP, like all other political parties, insists their focus is on rehabilitating the nearly three million migrant workers, who have returned to Bihar after losing jobs in the COVID-19 crisis. But the meticulous planning of the videoconference from Delhi, with flags and festoons in the backdrop, showed the party was keen to make even its virtual campaign come alive like the real thing. For a touch of reality, a small stage was also erected at the party office in Patna, where senior state BJP leaders sat through, clapping at strategic points, as is the practice on election battlegrounds.</p><p>Party spokesman Nikhil Anand claims the Shah show was viewed live by 10 million people. &ldquo;We collected data from Facebook Live, which registered the maximum hits, besides traffic on our party&rsquo;s home page, YouTube, Twitter and clicks on our links to arrive at this estimate,&rdquo; he said. For perspective, some 40 million votes were cast in Bihar during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with the NDA winning 39 of 40 seats in the state.</p><div class="itemcenter"><iframe scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="62" awidth="320" aheight="62" amplayout="fixed" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014" class="preferred-source-banner" loading="lazy"></iframe></div><style>.preferred-source-banner{  margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}</style></p><p>The Bihar chief minister has also been busy. Nitish connected through a videoconference with JD(U) workers in five districts on June 7, and is to repeat this in the remaining districts. He is also said to have impressed upon partymen the benefits of digital communication during the current Covid crisis. Earlier, on June 3, he addressed elected representatives of panchayati raj institutions, women&rsquo;s self-help and other state beneficiary groups in a 50-minute speech. Close to 1.3 million people viewed the webcast live, says the Bihar information and public relations department.</p><p>Other parties are also bracing for change. The RJD&rsquo;s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav has also been connecting with his MLAs and district presidents through video chats. &ldquo;We are concentrating on getting relief for the migrants now, but the BJP is mistaken if it thinks they are ahead of us in terms of a video campaign,&rdquo; says RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari. Part of a five-party alliance, including the Congress, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), they have already rigged up digital infrastructure down to the district and block levels. Professionals have been hired to collate phone numbers and other contact details to enable the parties to reach out to voters swiftly on digital platforms. According to BJP&rsquo;s Anand, every party is trying to enlist supporters from among the estimated 12.5 million Facebook accounts in the state.</p><p>In April-May 2021, a few months after Bihar goes to polls, neighbour state West Bengal will witness what many political observers see as a defining state election. Shah, despite the communication constraints imposed by the recent cyclone that ravaged the state, kicked off the campaign on June 9 by connecting with 1,200 old and new office-bearers and observers. For good measure, it was also beamed live on several digital platforms for a much larger reach. But rural internet connectivity is still poor in the state and banking on local cable networks is daunting as they are controlled by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters. The BJP has launched a social media drive against the chief minister, under the rubric &lsquo;Aar Noi Mamata (No more Mamata)&rsquo;, and also released a nine-point &lsquo;chargesheet&rsquo; to mark nine years of her rule. Party sources say around 1,000 &lsquo;virtual rallies&rsquo; at the booth and district levels will be streamed online to rally supporters as part of the propaganda war.</p><p>The state administration may be struggling with the twin blows of Covid and the cyclone, but Mamata knows she can&rsquo;t cede any ground to the BJP at this stage. She has also begun engaging with party leaders and workers through video conferences. The TMC is also holding weekly video conferences, where Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, poll strategist Prashant Kishor, party secretary-general Partha Chatterjee and president Subrata Bakshi guide partymen on public outreach programmes.</p><p>Another state that will see a new government in May 2021 is Tamil Nadu. Social media platforms are already heating up the political discourse, and recognising this, the ruling AIADMK (All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) has divided the state into four regions and assigned IT teams to each area. Both the AIADMK and its main rival, the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), have lost their big leader mascots (J. Jayalalithaa and M. Karunanidhi, respectively), and will be banking heavily on digital platforms to influence voters. The pandemic and its aftermath could also prove fortuitous for the two superstars-turned-politicians, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. Their legendary communication skills and social media presence could turn them into formidable rivals now.</p><p>Assam, Kerala and Jammu & Kashmir, also due for polls in 2021, are in wait-and-watch mode. What happens in Bihar will be a trendsetter. For political parties everywhere, and especially those in the opposition, who no longer have sizeable war chests at their disposal, an election campaign that must perforce focus on digital strategies will be a welcome leveller. It will be much cheaper than sending star campaigners on barnstorming tours. Whether the voter will be swayed by their screen presence as much as s/he might have been by the buzz of a physical rally appearance is hard to foretell. But for political parties, especially those not so well endowed financially, a digital battleground has some obvious merits: data and analytics are available cheap for all those alive to its potential. If claims and appearances are anything to go by, their learning curve has been steep.</p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Iram Ara Ibrahim</div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Jun 13, 2020</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

Alive to this emerging situation, political parties have started gearing up for virtual campaigns.

India Today

Virtual campaigns - India Today

Virtual campaigns

Actor Eesha Rebba filed a complaint at the Banjara Hills Police Station to report harassment after receiving obscene and abusive comments on Instagram amid promotional activities for her recent Telugu film.

eesha rebba files complaint

Telugu actor Eesha Rebba files complaint over obscene Instagram comments

The era of vibe coding may be over. AI guru Andrej Karpathy believes that the world will now move to a new way of using AI to write code, what he calls agentic engineering. Here is what it means.

AI guru Andrej Karpathy believes that vibe coding may be over. (Representational image made with AI)

Vibe coding era over? AI guru who coined the term prefers agentic engineering now

Abhijeet Sawant, winner of Indian Idol season 1, has addressed persistent problems in the film music industry relating to singer pay and royalties. His comments follow Arijit Singh's recent announcement to step away from playback singing.

Abhijeet Sawant

No royalties, low pay, fear culture: Abhijeet Sawant on playback singing struggles

Korean pop culture has surged in India since 2022, spanning dramas, music, food, fashion, and language learning. From family-centric storytelling to soft masculinity and female-focused narratives, Korean content has struck a deep emotional chord across age groups, becoming one of the most influential global cultural forces shaping Indian audiences today.

Why Korean culture won India’s heart with K-dramas, K-pop, kimchi

K-dramas, K-pop, kimchi: Why Korean culture won India’s heart

Bengaluru Metro's latest fare revision will result in a marginal increase ranging from a minimum of Rs 1 to a maximum of Rs 5 across 10 fare zones on the 96.10-km Namma Metro network.

Illustrating the growing frustration, one commuter shared a cost breakdown of a typical day’s travel from Chikkabidarakallu to JP Nagar.

Bengaluru Metro’s revised fares to take effect from February 9.

Bnegaluru Metro fares hiked by 5%. Check revised rates here

Play Time!

Parliament Budget Session

Bharat Taxi

PM Modi

Donald Trump

Mamata Banerjee

IND vs AFG LIVE Score

Rahul Gandhi

Lok Sabha

WPL 2026

Dhurandhar 2

T20 World Cup

Border 2

Here's the drone visuals of the massive traffic jam on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, which has hit vehicular movement for over 24 hours after a gas tanker overturned in the hilly Khandala Ghat section.

drone

Watch: Drone visuals of massive 22-km traffic jam on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

Addressing the Lok Sabha, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the government has successfully safeguarded sensitive sectors in US trade deal.  

Piyush Goyal: No Compromise On Farmers Interests In US Deal

India protected agriculture, dairy interests in US trade deal: Piyush Goyal

In this Special Report, India Today’s Mir Fareed provides exclusive details on a major counter-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur. Security forces, including the Army, Jammu Kashmir Police, and CRPF, successfully eliminated two Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists who were hiding in a natural cave within a dense forested terrain. Mir Fareed noted, ‘Finally, their luck ran out as security forces used IEDs to blow up the entrance. And with that, they were eliminated.’ One of the deceased has been identified as a top commander, Abu Mavia. The operation involved sophisticated drone surveillance and sharpshooters to pin down the terrorists who had previously evaded capture. The report highlights the evolving tactics of security agencies in tackling infiltrators using the treacherous forest reaches of Jammu. The area is currently being sanitised as per standard operating procedures following the recovery of weapons.

Mir Fareed: Two Jaish Terrorists Killed In Udhampur Cave

2 Jaish terrorists killed as security forces blow up cave in Jammu and Kashmir

This news report covers the intense political confrontation in Parliament where Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi reportedly called BJP leader Ravneet Singh Bittu a 'traitor'. The incident occurred near the Makar Dwar as suspended MPs were protesting. The transcript highlights that Bittu, once a close associate of Gandhi, was heckled by Congress members following the remark. Additionally, the bulletin features a statement regarding the suspension of eight Congress MPs for the remainder of the session due to 'unruly behaviour'. Dilip Saikia, who was in the chair during the ruckus, stated that the members violated parliamentary decorum and rules. The report notes that the Congress party views those who defect to the other side through a specific 'prism', leading to the sharp exchange. The drama unfolded as Priyanka Gandhi also met with the suspended legislators to discuss the adjournment of the House.

Rahul Gandhi Calls Bittu a Traitor in Parliament

Rahul Gandhi Calls Ravneet Singh Bittu a 'Traitor' outside Parliament

On this Special Report, the focus is on a tragic incident in Ghaziabad where three minor sisters, aged 12, 14, and 16, allegedly died by suicide by jumping from the ninth floor of a high-rise building. ACP Atul Kumar stated, 'Three girls jumped from the balcony of the ninth floor of flat number 907 in Bharat City and were declared dead upon arrival at the hospital.' A suicide note recovered from the scene read, 'Mummy Papa, we are sorry.' Police have seized mobile phones and gadgets for forensic examination to determine if specific gaming tasks triggered the extreme step. The incident occurred around 2:30 AM, and authorities are recording statements from family and neighbors to uncover the exact cause behind this triple suicide horror.

Atul Kumar: 3 Sisters Jump To Death In Ghaziabad

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Virtual campaigns

Alive to this emerging situation, political parties have started gearing up for virtual campaigns.

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