pune while discussions on the results of the lok sabha elections and astrological predictions of the election outcome feature in the 135th edition of the vasant vyakhyanmala spring lecture series no politicians are likely to grace the lecture series to be held from april 21 to may 20addressing a news conference here on thursday milind bedekar chief secretary of the 138yearold vaktrutvottejak sabha that conducts the lecture series said that the decision not to invite political leaders as speakers was deliberate given the fact that the dates are close to the lok sabha elections otherwise every year we have twothree politicians speaking from the platform he saidin the past politicians have used this platform to announce major decisions in their careers for instance sharad pawar had announced his decision to form the nationalist congress party ncp from this platform after raising the issue of congress president sonia gandhis foreign origin earlier he had announced his decision to quit the congress party and the experiment of forming purogami lokshahi dal from the same platformbedekar said that this year the topics of discussion will range from national security islam pakistan and terrorism worldwide recession condition of education in maharashtra to the new challenges confronting the process of ageingsome of the lectures include state information commissioner vijay kuvalekar on the right to information experience versus expectations it expert deepak shikarpur on information technology against the backdrop of recession major general shashikant pitre on national security and achyut gokhale on the role of ias officers in a successful democracythe speakers who will deal with the changing sociocultural paradigms include sharadchandra gokhale on ageing old questions and new answers and pradip patil on the changing equation between men and womenthe lecture series which will be held at the tilak smarak mandir ground everyday at 630 pm is one of the major activities of the vaktrutvottejak sabha established in 1871 by social reformer m g ranade to give impetus to the art of elocution and public speaking