Archives for June 2024

  New Delhi is gearing up to host a grand swearing-in ceremony for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term, with a notable guest list including Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu. Despite strained relations since Muizzu assumed office last November, India has extended an invitation, signaling a diplomatic gesture towards improving ties.

Muizzu’s presidency saw a departure from traditional diplomatic protocols, with his initial visits to Turkey and China instead of India. However, India’s invitation marks his first official visit to the country since taking office.

The invitation comes amidst past tensions, as Muizzu had criticized India during his election campaign and called for the withdrawal of Indian military personnel from Maldives. Since then, all Indian armed forces have left the nation.

Acknowledging the invitation, Muizzu expressed gratitude to PM Modi and emphasized his commitment to strengthening ties with India. The upcoming ceremony will not only witness Muizzu’s attendance but also that of other South Asian leaders, reaffirming India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.

Addressing a press conference, Atishi said during the summer, when Haryana releases 1,050 cusecs of water, Delhi receives about 995 cusecs.

“However, in the past one week, Delhi has been getting less water. It received 924 cusecs on June 1, 884 cusecs on June 4, 856 cusecs on June 6, and 840 cusecs on June 7. During every summer, there is a loss of around 59 to 60 cusecs of water due to evaporation. If 840 cusecs of water is reaching Delhi, it means Haryana is not releasing water in the Munak canal,” she said.

The national capital has been grappling with a water shortage, with Atishi blaming Haryana for not releasing Yamuna water to the city.

The problem has become acute in some areas such as Chanakyapuri, where residents were seen climbing on top of a tanker with pipes to get their share of water.

The acute shortage has become an “existential problem” in Delhi, the Supreme Court observed on Thursday and directed the Himachal Pradesh government to release 137 cusecs of surplus water to the national capital and Haryana to facilitate its flow.

The top court also said there should be no politics over water.

Atishi said if water at the carrier-lined channel and the Delhi sub-branch — two sub-branches of the Munank canal — stay at this level, then all of Delhi will face a shortage in the coming two days.

On Friday, visiting Wazirabad barrage to take stock of the situation, she said the shortage would not be solved even if Himachal Pradesh released water as Haryana had “reduced” the city’s share.

“Haryana is conspiring against the people of Delhi behind the back of the Supreme Court,” she had alleged.

“The water level of the Yamuna at Wazirabad has come down from 671 feet on June 2 to 669.7 feet on Friday. If the water level falls so low, how will the water treatment plants supply water to the people of Delhi?” she had said.

New Delhi: Congress leaders are yet to receive invitations for Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on June 9, the party said on Saturday and also claimed that Modi had lost political and moral authority as he “did not get” the people’s mandate in the Lok Sabha polls.

The dignitaries and special invitees attending the ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday evening, include leaders from India’s neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean Region.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said party leaders have not received any invitation for PM Modi’s swearing-in ceremony, while all invitations are going to international leaders.

“The person taking the oath has lost his personal, political and moral authority. Mandate was sought in his (Modi) name, he did not get it, and we don’t understand why this drama of swearing-in is being undertaken,” Ramesh told reporters after a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party at the Central hall of the old Parliament building.

After the meeting of the Congress Working Committee earlier in the day, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal had said at a media briefing that the INDIA bloc will take a call on attending Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. “So far, we have not got an invitation,” he said.

Speaking at the media briefing, Ramesh said only international leaders have been invited for tomorrow’s swearing-in ceremony.

“Our leaders have not received invitations yet. When the invitation comes to our INDIA ‘janbandhan’ leaders, if it comes, we will consider it,” he said.

Besides leaders of foreign countries, 10 loco pilots of the Indian Railways have also been invited to the ceremony which is slated to take place at 7:15 pm at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Though the BJP could not get a majority on its own in the recent Lok Sabha polls, the party-led alliance secured 293 seats out of 543. The Congress got 99 seats in the polls. The majority mark in the lower house is 272.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government on Saturday ordered a probe into a ragging complaint filed by a student of a state-run school in Wayanad district.

Sabarinathan, a 10th standard student, had complained that he was brutally assaulted and injured using a scissor allegedly by some school mates the other day.

He was later admitted to hospital for treatment.

General Education Minister V Sivankutty directed the Joint Director of Education (Academics) A Aboobakar to carry out a departmental inquiry into the alleged incident and submit a report.

The minister directed the Deputy Director of Education (Wayanad) to visit the school where the incident happened and also meet the victim student and his parents.

Sivankutty discussed the issue with the Wayanad police superintendent and spoke to the student’s mother and the president of the parents and teachers association (PTA) of the school over phone, the minister’s office said here.

Ragging would not be permitted on school campuses at any cost, the minister added.

Kolkata: Actor-turned-Trinamool Congress MLA Soham Chakraborty created a controversy by assaulting a restaurant owner who allegedly abused party MP Abhishek Banerjee during the shooting of a film there.

Both Chakraborty and restaurant owner Anisul Alam lodged complaints with the police against each other, an officer said on Saturday.

The MLA later said he wanted to apologise to Alam as he should have controlled his anger.

The problem between the two sides began over parking the cars of Chakraborty and his men in front of the eatery in New Town near Kolkata.

According to CCTV footage of the restaurant, which has gone viral, Chakraborty was seen assaulting Alam.

When contacted, the restaurant owner claimed that he had allowed shooting in a portion of his restaurant “free of cost” on late Saturday evening.

“The entire parking space was occupied by the cars of Mr Chakraborty and his men. My staff told his men to remove their cars as other customers were not able to park their vehicles,” Alam said.

The restaurant owner added that the actor’s men told him that he’s an MLA and a very close friend of TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

“I said that I don’t care even if he is Narendra Modi’s friend or Abhishek’s. It was then when suddenly Mr Chakraborty came and punched me on my face and kicked me in my abdomen,” Alam alleged.

Chakraborty admitted to slapping the restaurant owner.

“The owner was abusing my staff and Abhishek Banerjee. He also abused me. I lost my cool and slapped him… I should have kept my cool and could have controlled my anger. I would like to apologise to the owner,” the actor-turned MLA said.

On Saturday evening, Chakraborty went to Techno City Police Station and demanded that the police get the CCTV footage of the parking lot where the problem began.

“My action last evening was the reaction to the problem which started at the parking lot. The footage that has been released or made viral is showing me attacking the owner. But why is not the footage of the parking lot not released? I will request the police to watch that also to understand how it started,” he said.

A senior officer of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said that the restaurant owner on Saturday lodged a complaint against the MLA and his security guards.

“We have received complaints both from the MLA and the restaurant owner against each other. We have started cases and investigations are on,” the officer said.

Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Jha, a confidant of party president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Saturday junked his party spokesperson K C Tyagi’s claim that the opposition INDIA bloc had proposed to make Kumar its prime ministerial choice after the Lok Sabha poll result.

Tyagi earlier created a stir with his claim that Kumar was offered the post if he broke alliance with the BJP. The JD(U), however, rejected the proposal and endorsed Narendra Modi as the next prime minister, he said.

Hours later, Jha rejected the assertion of the seasoned leader of his own party.

He said, “Our party has no such information. Nor is the chief minister aware of all this. I want to make it clear. There is no such thing in our knowledge.”

Kumar had categorical endorsed Modi at the meeting of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, Jha said, noting that it was a pre-poll alliance which won 30 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

Tyagi has said those who did not want to make Kumar convener of their alliance offered to make him prime minister but he is happy that the party leadership rejected the offer.

A total of 73 women have won the Lok Sabha elections, a slight dip from 78 elected in 2019.

Of the total women MPs elected to the Lower House from across the country, West Bengal is leading with 11 female MPs.

A total of 797 women candidates had contested the elections with the BJP fielding the maximum at 69 followed by the Congress at 41.

This is the first election since the passage of the women’s reservation bill in the Parliament to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women. The law is yet to come into effect.

According to an analysis of the Election Commission data, BJP’s 30 women candidates won the polls this time, Congress’ 14, TMC’s 11, four of the Samajwadi Party’s, three of the DMK, and two each of the JDU and LJP(R).

With over 13.44 per cent female MPs, the 18th Lok Sabha will have one of the highest number of women members since 1952.

The 17th Lok Sabha had the highest number of women parliamentarians at 78, constituting over 14 per cent of the total strength.

In the 16th Lok Sabha, 64 women were its members, while 52 women were elected to the 15th Lok Sabha.

BJP’s Hema Malini, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, NCP’s Supriya Sule, and SP’s Dimple Yadav retained their seats in the Lok Sabha polls, but candidates like Kangna Ranaut and Misha Bharati stole the show with their victories.

Samajwadi Party’s 25-year-old candidate for Machhlishahr, Priya Saroj, and 29-year-old Iqra Choudhary of Kairana seat, were among the youngest nominees to secure a victory.

Notably, the parties like Naam Tamilar Katchi has achieved equal gender representation with 50 per cent women candidates.

Other parties with significant female representation included Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Nationalist Congress Party, each with 40 per cent women candidates.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) both had 33 per cent female representation, while the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had 29 per cent. The Samajwadi Party had 20 per cent, and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) 25 per cent.

A total of 8,360 candidates were in the fray in the parliamentary polls.

Three transgender candidates contested the elections independently. But all of them lost in the polls.

There were 24 women MPs each in the first and the second Lok Sabha.

India Today News Director and journalist Rahul Kanwal

On Wednesday, India Today News Director and journalist Rahul Kanwal faced online backlash after posting a message on his social media handle. In his post, Kanwal took an indirect jab at media outlets using AI to forecast exit polls and election results, stating, “Trust can’t be a ‘bot’, it must be earned.”

Kanwal also highlighted that India Today saw the highest number of concurrent users on counting day.

However, many netizens criticized Kanwal for what they described as biased journalism during the election period. They argued that his reputation and the concept of trust were incompatible, reflecting widespread dissatisfaction with his coverage.

Additionally, Kanwal and his channel were reprimanded for inaccurately predicting the election outcome. India Today’s exit polls had suggested a clear majority for the ruling BJP, but the actual results showed that the party fell short of securing a majority on its own, necessitating support from allies to potentially form the government.