Economy to Balakot strike, Delhiites define what development means to them

East Delhi voter Nishat Anjum said she doesn't know much about which political party promised development.

Business Standard : From everyday issues of electricity and water to the Balakot strikes, there are different development strokes for different folk in the national capital, the definition of vikas' changing in accordance with needs and necessities but also political loyalties.

Across the city, spread across seven Lok Sabha constituencies, the concept of development is fluid, shifting form and shape to mean one thing for the ragpicker getting ready to go to Uttar Pradesh to vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and quite another for the affluent MNC employee.

The city, which votes on May 12, interprets the BJP government's mantra of Sabka saath, sabka vikas' in ways as diverse as its 19 million people.

For Srikishun, who works as a ragpicker in Delhi's walled city, life may be tough but he has saved money to travel to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh in time to vote on May 19, the last round of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections.

The 28-year-old said there has been no development for the poor in the last five years but a lot of good has happened for the country. The country is getting famous but, on the other hand, unemployment is getting out of hand, he said with a wry smile.

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Srikishun knows actor-turned-MP Ravi Kishan is the BJP's candidate in Gorakhpur but that is of little consequence he said he is going all the way to vote for Modi.

Whatever he has done in Pakistan and all the other things have made me very happy, he said.

At the other end of the economic and political -- spectrum is Harpreet Singh, an MNC employee who lives in Delhi but works in Gurgaon.

In terms of infrastructure and schools, the Delhi government has done a swell job but the BJP in the Centre has been a massive failure, he said.

Be it development, economy or harmony, the BJP has disappointed us. Now everyone is screaming themselves hoarse in big debates over religion. But nobody knows anything about what's happening in the sectors of education and economy and they also have no willingness to know about it. In 2014, I was one of those who chanted Modi's name. But I've realised I was a fool at that time, 34-year-old Singh said.

US magazine report 'contradicts' India's claim of shooting down Pak's F-16

The finding by the US on the ground in Pakistan "directly contradicts" India's claim that its air force shot down an F-16 fighter jet during an aerial dogfight on February 27.

Business Standard : A US count of the F-16s with Pakistan has found that none of them are "missing" and all the fighter planes were "present and accounted for", according to a report in a prominent American magazine.

The finding by the US on the ground in Pakistan "directly contradicts" India's claim that its air force shot down an F-16 fighter jet during an aerial dogfight on February 27.

The Indian Air Force on February 28 displayed pieces of the AMRAAM missile, fired by a Pakistani F-16, as evidence to "conclusively" prove that Pakistan deployed US-manufactured F-16 fighter jets during an aerial raid targeting Indian military installations in Kashmir.

Pakistan had categorically said that no F-16 fighter jets were used and denied that one of its planes had been downed by the IAF.

According to the Foreign Policy magazine, Pakistan invited the United States to physically count its F-16 planes after the incident as part of an end-user agreement signed when the foreign military sale was finalised.

"A US count of Pakistan's F-16 fleet has found that all the jets are present and accounted for, a direct contradiction to India's claim that it shot down one of the fighter jets during a February clash," Lara Seligman of the magazine reported on Thursday.

The count of the F-16 fighter planes in Pakistan has been completed, and "all aircraft were present and accounted for," an unnamed defence official was quoted as saying by the magazine.

The Department of Defence did not immediately respond to a question on its count of F-16 fighter jets in Pakistan.

"As details come out, it looks worse and worse for the Indians," MIT professor Vipin Narang told Foreign Policy magazine.

"It looks increasingly like India failed to impose significant costs on Pakistan, but lost a plane and a helicopter of its own in the process," he said.

Generally, in such agreements, the US requires the receiving country to allow its officials to inspect the equipment regularly to ensure it is accounted for and protected, the news report said.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the suicide bomber of JeM killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14.