Month: March 2024

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday criticised the party for giving a Lok Sabha elections ticket to Sunil Sharma, who is allegedly associated with the right-wing platform The Jaipur Dialogues.

Sharma’s candidate from Rajasthan’s Jaipur constituency was announced on Thursday as part of a list of candidates for the general elections.

“He must have undergone some sort of Pauline epiphany on the road to 24 Akbar,” the Lok Sabha MP said in a social media post on Saturday.

Tharoor also shared a post from The Jaipur Dialogues account that had allegedly mocked him and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Sharma and his family have had a long association with the Congress. He is also the chairman and chancellor of the Suresh Gyan Vihar University in Jaipur.

The Jaipur Dialogues, which describes itself as a platform for the “right thinking people” was launched in 2016 by retired Indian Administrative Service officer Sanjay Dixit. Its YouTube channel has posted videos mocking the Opposition.

Sharma has been featured in some videos posted on the channel. On November 5, Sharma was a panellist on a debate hosted by The Jaipur Dialogues on “Digital Divide in India – AI and Civilisation”.

He must have undergone some sort of Pauline epiphany on the road to 24 Akbar! This is just one of several dozen tweets…

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Former Indian Air Force chief Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria on Sunday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

At a press conference on Sunday, Bhadauria praised the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the steps taken by the Union government to strengthen and modernise India’s defence forces.

Bhadauria, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, said that out of the over 40 years he served in the Indian Air Force, “the golden period of my service was the last eight to ten years under the leadership of the BJP government”.

“The tough steps taken by this government to empower and modernise our armed forces and make them self-reliant have not only given rise to a new capability in the forces, but also given them a new confidence,” he said. “The results of the self-reliant move by the government can be seen on the ground…”

Bhadauria was inducted into the party in the presence of Union Minister Anurag Thakur and BJP General Secretary Vinod Tawde.

He served as the Air Chief Marshal from September 2019 to September 2021.

In September 2022, Bhadauria became the chief nodal officer of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor.

Some of the Indian Air Force’s Rafale aircraft have been given the “RB” series tail numbers to recognise Bhadauria’s role in negotiating the deal to acquire the fighter jets from France,…

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The Karnataka government on Saturday moved the Supreme Court alleging that the Centre had not extended financial assistance to the state for drought management, reported Bar and Bench.

The state government’s plea contended that 223 out of 236 taluks, or subdivisions of a district, have been hit by drought. Of this, 196 taluks have been categorised as severely hit and the remaining 27 are moderately hit.

“During the South West Monsoon season 2023, the state recorded only 33 rainy days out of 122 days [rainy day defined as ≥ 2.5 mm/day], which is the second lowest in the last 33 years,” the plea said.

The total estimated loss due to crop damage in the state is Rs 35,162.05 crore.

The Congress government in Karnataka had sought Rs 18,171.44 crore from the Centre’s National Disaster Response Force. While Rs 4,663.12 crore was sought for crop loss input subsidy, the government asked for Rs 12,577.9 crore towards gratuitous relief to families whose livelihood has been seriously affected due to drought.

The state also sought Rs 566.78 crore for drinking water and Rs 363.68 crore for cattle care.

The Karnataka government told the court that it had exhausted all its funds allocated under the State Disaster Response Force for 2023-’24, which was Rs 929.50 crore. It said…

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The Kerala government has moved the Supreme Court against President Droupadi Murmu withholding assent to four of the seven bills referred to her by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, reported Live Law on Saturday.

The state has also challenged the governor’s action of referring the bill to the president. The Left Democratic Front government has contended that none of the bills related to the state-Centre relations and that is why it does not require presidential assent.

In November last year, Khan had sent the seven bills for the president’s assent after the Supreme Court told him that governors cannot veto the functioning of the Legislature.

On February 29, Murmu withheld assent to the University Laws Amendment (Number 2) Bill, 2021, Kerala Co-operative Societies Amendment Bill, 2022, University Laws Amendment Bill, 2022, the University Laws Amendment (Number 3) Bill, 2022.

She granted her assent to only one bill while the decision is pending on two others referred to her, according to Bar and Bench.

Kerala has told the court that the president did not give any reasoning behind her decision. “This is a highly arbitrary action, violating Article 14 of the Constitution, as well as Article 200 and 201 thereof,” it said.

Article 14 of the Constitution deals with the right to equality and says that the state shall…

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The arrest of Delhi chief minister and convener of Aam Aadmi Party Arvind Kejriwal in alleged Delhi liquor scam is a defining moment in Indian politics.

This is the first time a serving chief minister has been arrested.

In a confounding irony, a man who came to prominence leading the charge against alleged corruption by the previous government has been jailed on corruption charges by the present one.

Kejriwal finds himself on the wrong side of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which benefited enormously from his anti-corruption campaign. In fact, the Aam Aadmi Party is seen by many as the BJP’s “B-team” because of its soft pedals Hindutva and cuts into the votes of other opposition parties.

Adding to the irony is the fact that after his arrest, Kejriwal and his party have received full-throated support from the Congress – the party was the receiving end of Kejriwal’s India Against Corruption campaign.

This is because Kejriwal’s arrest has generated intense revulsion even among his most vocal critics. They know that in these extraordinary times, partisanship will only serve to undermine the spirit of India they have long cherished and fought to preserve.

Kejriwal’s arrest needs to be seen in the context of the assault on democracy that the Narendra Modi-led dispensation has…

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