Late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa

Bengaluru, Jan 13: The Karnataka High Court has dismissed on Monday an appeal by J Deepak and J Deepa, the legal heirs of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, seeking the release of her assets confiscated in a 2004 disproportionate assets case.

Jayalalithaa was convicted by a special court in 2014 for amassing wealth disproportionate to her known sources of income during her tenure from 1991 to 1996. Following her conviction, her properties were confiscated by the authorities.

Although she was acquitted by the Karnataka High Court in 2015, then congress government in Karnataka appealed against it in supreme court. Case against Jayalalithaa was abated due to her demise in 2016. While convicting late CM’s close aide V K Sasikala, and her two relatives V N Sudhakaran and Elavarasi in 2017, Supreme Court upheld the confiscation of Jayalalithaa’s assets.

Deepak and Deepa, recognized as Jayalalithaa’s legal heirs by the Madras High Court in 2020, filed an appeal seeking the release of her confiscated assets, arguing that since the proceedings against her were terminated upon her death, she should not be considered a convict, and her properties should be restored to them.

Justice V Srishananda upheld the trial court’s July 12, 2023, order rejecting their request, stating that the confiscation order remains valid as upheld by the Supreme Court.

The court noted the absence of detailed evidence indicating which assets were acquired before the investigation period and clarified that any claims regarding such assets must be supported by proper proof and presented before the trial court.

In a concluding remark, the judge encouraged the legal heirs to consider establishing a foundation in Jayalalithaa’s name to serve the poor, suggesting that engaging in charitable work would bring peace to the late leader’s soul.

LoP in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addresses during the ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan’ public meeting

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying that they keep mum on the issue of caste census as they do not want backwards, Dalits, tribals and minorities to get their due share.

Specifically targeting Kejriwal at his first public meeting for Delhi assembly polls, Gandhi said that the AAP convenor was following “Modi’s strategy of propaganda and false promises” despite rising pollution, corruption and inflation in the national capital.

Gandhi also promised a caste survey in Delhi if the Congress formed the government in the national capital.

“Kejriwal had said that he would clean Delhi, remove corruption, and turn the national capital into Paris.

“What actually happened — one cannot move around due to pollution and inflation is rising,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said addressing his ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan’ public meeting at Seelampur.

“Arvind Kejriwal had talked of removing corruption. Has he removed corruption? Just like Modi ji’s propaganda of making false promises, he is following the same strategy…. Pollution, corruption and inflation are on the rise in Delhi,” Gandhi said.

The Congress and AAP are part of the INDIA bloc. The two parties had fought the Lok Sabha election together in Delhi, but are contesting the assembly polls separately.

Stressing that India belongs to everyone, Gandhi said the Congress does not want “an India run by a handful of crony capitalists”.

“When I talk of caste census, neither Modi says a word nor does Kejriwal because both want that backward sections, Dalits, tribals and minorities do not get their due share (bhaagidari). Ask Kejriwal whether he is with the caste census. Ask Modi ji whether he is with the caste census,” Gandhi said.

“I had said to Modi ji in Parliament that you do it or not, we will get the caste census done and reservation cap removed in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha when a Congress government comes.

“We want the poorest of the poor, whether they are Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs or Christians, to dream big… head big companies,” he said.

He urged the people to support the Congress and make it victorious, asserting that the party would ensure Delhi’s development as in the past under Sheila Dikshit’s government.

“Neither Kejriwal nor the BJP can do what the Congress had done,” Gandhi said.

He said a battle of ideology is currently on in the country.

“It is written in the Constitution that India belongs to everyone. The BJP-RSS people spread hatred, make people fight,” he alleged.

“We walked from Kanyakumari to Kashmir to protect the Constitution. (BR) Ambedkar’s Constitution is being attacked by Narendra Modi and the people of BJP-RSS daily,” he alleged.

“Till I am alive, I will protect every Indian from assault be it Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians,” he said.

With the rise of AAP, Congress’ stake in Delhi’s political landscape has shrunk and it failed to open its account in the last two assembly polls.

New Delhi: Retail inflation declined to a four-month low of 5.22 per cent in December, mainly on account of easing of prices in the food basket, including vegetables — according to government data released on Monday — giving headroom to the Reserve Bank to reduce the key interest rate in upcoming monetary policy reviews.

The inflation-based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) eased for the second month in a row after it breached the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) upper tolerance level of 6 per cent in October.

The annual rate of inflation was 5.48 per cent in November and 5.69 per cent in the year-ago period.

“During the month of December 2024, significant decline in inflation is observed in vegetables, ‘pulses and products’, ‘sugar and confectionary’, ‘personal care and effects’, and cereals and products,” the National Statistics Office (NSO) said while releasing the CPI data.

The top five items showing highest year-on-year inflation in December 2024 were peas (89.12 per cent), potato (68.23 per cent), garlic (58.17 per cent), coconut oil (45.41 per cent), and cauliflower (39.42 per cent).

The key items having lowest year-on-year inflation in December were jeera, ginger, dry chillies, and LPG (excluding conveyance).

“The CPI (General) reached its lowest point during this period in July 2024. However, the CPI (General) and food inflation in December, 2024 is the lowest in the last four months,” NSO said.

Inflation in the food basket was at 8.39 per cent in December, down from 9.04 per cent in the preceding month and 9.53 per cent in December 2023.

The RBI, which has been tasked by the government to ensure inflation remains at 4 per cent (+/- 2 per cent), has kept the key short-term lending rate (repo) at 6.5 per cent since February 2023.

The Reserve Bank’s rate setting panel — Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) — is scheduled to meet in February.

Commenting on the data, Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist and Head — Research and Outreach at ICRA — said while the CPI inflation declined in December 2024 from 5.5 per cent in November 2024, the pace of the correction was narrower than expected.

In sequential terms, the dip was driven by food and beverages, even as the year-on-year inflation for fuel and light, and pan, tobacco and intoxicants recorded mild upticks, she said.

“With the headline inflation stuck stubbornly above 5 per cent, the probability of a rate cut in the February 2025 policy review has certainly receded. However, the considerable decline in vegetable prices that is underway could convince some MPC members to consider an early cut in the upcoming meeting, with a view to supporting growth,” Nayar said.

Paras Jasrai, Senior Economic Analyst at India Ratings and Research, said the February 2025 monetary policy would be happening at the outset of the Union Budget.

“The conviction of fiscal arithmetic would also be weighing closely on the monetary policy action. While the current data is positive from the monetary policy perspective, Ind-Ra believes that the monetary authority would want to wait for one more policy before undertaking any change on the rates front,” Jasrai said.

Akhil Mittal, Senior Fund Manager — Fixed Income, Tata Asset Management, said early price trend in January show vegetable inflation moderating and this could mean inflation falls below 5 per cent sooner and well within the RBI expected trajectory going forward.

“This could open up space for the RBI to support growth, which is estimated to have slowed down most since Covid-19. We believe the RBI to shift focus from inflation towards growth going forward. While currency volatility has complicated matters for RBI, we think that as things calm down globally, RBI could start easing cycle,” he added.

Last month, the RBI raised the inflation projection for the current fiscal year to 4.8 per cent from 4.5 per cent. It also said the lingering food price pressures are likely to keep headline inflation elevated in the December quarter.

The CPI-based headline inflation increased from an average of 3.6 per cent during July-August to 5.5 per cent in September and further to 6.2 per cent in October 2024.

According to the NSO data, inflation rate for rural and urban during December were 5.76 per cent and 4.58 per cent, respectively.

Highest inflation was in Chhattisgarh (7.63 per cent) and lowest in Delhi (2.51 per cent).

The price data are collected from selected 1,114 urban markets and 1,181 villages covering all states and UTs by NSO on a weekly roster.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin

Chennai: The Indus valley script remains an unsolved riddle for over a century, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said here on Sunday and announced a prize of US dollar 1 million to those who decipher it.

Inaugurating a 3-day international conference to mark the centenary of the discovery of the Indus civilisation, Stalin said,”We are still unable to clearly understand the script of the Indus valley civilsation that once flourished.”

Efforts are on to this day by scholars to solve the riddle and in order to encourage such efforts, a prize of US dollar 1 million will be provided to individuals or organisations that solves the riddle, he announced.

The Indus civilsation, one of the earliest, is reputed for its urban culture and its script has not been decrypted yet. The fading away of such a civilisation, and its context, also remains a riddle.

Delhi Chief minister Atishi, BJP’s Kalkaji candidate Ramesh Bidhuri

New Delhi: BJP’s Kalkaji candidate Ramesh Bidhuri on Sunday courted yet another controversy, targetting this time Delhi Chief minister Atishi over her surname.

Speaking at BJP’s ‘Parivartan Rally’ in Rohini that was later addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bidhuri said Atishi changed her surname from “Marlena” to “Singh”.

Atishi, who is the sitting MLA from Kalkaji seat, dropped her surname a while back.

“This Marlena (surname used earlier by Atishi) became Singh, changed name. Kejriwal swore over his children not to go with the corrupt Congress, Marlena changed father. Earlier she was Marlena, now she has become Singh. This is their character,” Bidhuri charged.

As the video of Bidhuri’s speech showed up on the internet, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal lashed at the BJP saying its leaders crossed all the limits of “shamelessness.”

“BJP leaders are hurling abuses at Delhi chief minister Atishi ji. Delhi people will not tolerate the insult of a woman chief minister. All the women in Delhi will take a revenge of this,” he said in a post on X.

The AAP in a statement said Bidhuri’s “abusive remarks” against a female chief minister exposed the BJP’s “anti-women” mindset.

“If he behaves this way now, imagine the treatment ordinary women would face if he mistakenly becomes an MLA,” said the ruling party in Delhi.

The party said Kejriwal’s promise of Rs 2,100 monthly allowance for the city’s women has rattled the BJP.

Delhi will teach the BJP and Ramesh Bidhuri a lesson by defeating him, the AAP asserted.

The elections for 70 member Delhi Assembly are due in February.

Palghar: A tremor of 3.7 magnitude jolted Maharashtra’s Palghar district early Monday morning, officials said.

There was no report of any casualty or property damage, they said.

The tremor was recorded at 4.35 am in Dahanu taluka, district disaster management cell chief Vivekanand Kadam said citing an official report.

People in Bordi, Dapchari and Talasari areas of the taluka felt the tremor early in the morning, he said.

The district has experienced occasional tremors in the past.