Navjot Singh Sidhu hugging Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa at Imran Khan’s swearing-in ceremony in Islamabad has not gone down well with Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. Shortly, after Sidhu returned from Pakistan, Singh said “It was wrong for him to have shown the affection towards the Pakistan Army Chief.” Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh “Everyday our jawans are getting martyred. To hug their Chief General Bajwa…I am against this. The fact is that the man should understand that our soldiers are being killed everyday,” Singh said.

“My own regiment lost one Major and 2 jawans a few months ago and everyday somebody is being shot and whether the man who pulled the trigger is to blame or the man who gives the order which is the chief, and the chief is General Bajwa,” he added.

The Punjab Chief Minister said he was not against attending the swearing-in ceremony as Sidhu, being a former cricketer, did in his personal capacity. “About him being seated next to the PoK President, maybe he (Sidhu) didn’t know who he was…But as far as hugging the Pakistan Army Chief is concerned I am not in its favour.

It was wrong for him to have shown the affection towards the Pakistan Army Chief,” he said. Eye brows were also raised over Sidhu’s seating position at the Khan’s swearing in function. The Congress leader and Punjab minister was seated next to right next to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir “president” Masood Khan at Imran Khan’s swearing-in on Saturday.  The Indian government doesn’t recognise Masood and holds that no elected Indian representative should share a platform with him.  [Sidhu returns from Pakistan, says it was not his decision to sit beside PoK President] The SAD had also targeted the ruling Congress, saying the party which had been criticising the Centre over the deaths of jawans at the border should now explain to the “controversial visit” of its own leader.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday appeared before an accountability court here for the hearings of the two remaining corruption references against him.

Mehboob Alam, the investigation officer in the Al Azizia Steel Mills reference, was supposed to continue his statement in the case but Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris pleaded with the court to allow him to cross-examine the star witness in the case, Wajid Zia, first, reports Dawn news.

The court accepted the plea and summoned Zia at the next hearing.

After Haris’ cross-examination, Zia will record his statement in the second Flagship Investment reference.

The hearing of the case has been adjourned to August 27.

Pakistan’s anti-corruption body NAB had filed three cases — Avenfield, Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment, and offshore companies, including Flagship Investment Limited — against the Sharifs on the Supreme Court’s directives in the July 2017 Panamagate verdict.

The trial commenced in September that year.

The three-time Premier and his sons Hasan and Hussain were accused in all the three graft references whereas his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were accused in the Avenfield reference only.

Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Safdar are already serving prison sentences of 10 years, seven years and one year, respectively after being convicted in the Avenfield case involving the family’s ownership of four luxury flats in London.

“Injustice is done to Karnataka in the Mahadayi river issue. The state has not got its fair share of the water. So we will seek advice from the legal experts to appeal on the verdict,” said minister D K Shivakumar (DKS).

Mr. Shivkumar expressed his views on the verdict and said, “The people of Karnataka have been betrayed. We had asked for a total of 34 TMC of water including 15 TMC of pure drinking water. However, we have got only 3.9 TMC for drinking purpose and 1.5 TMC for other purposes. In order to correct this injustice, we have to appeal to the Supreme Court or the tribunal. So we will have a discussion with the legal experts before taking further action.”

“There is no politics with respect to the issue of Mahadayi. We have to fight in order to retain our rights over the Mahadayi water. It is not important to know how much water others have got in the verdict. Our priority is to set right the injustice meted out to us. It has come to my knowledge about Goa expressing dissatisfaction over the verdict. But I will not respond on that issue,” he added.

“Central minister Nitin Gadkari has called a meeting of irrigation ministers of all the states on August 20 to discuss the issue of interstate interlinking of rivers. During this meeting, the flood situation in the state, destruction due to rain and the water scarcity faced by people in the areas where there is no sufficient rain in the state will be brought to the attention of the central minister,” said DKS.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said people are unhappy with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which will cause it to suffer major losses in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) head also said the common man is angry with the BJP for “creating hurdles” in the works of the Delhi government under him.

“The public is not very happy with the BJP MPs. They are all the more angry with the party as it has created hurdles in the works of the Delhi government. The BJP will suffer major losses in 2019,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a member of parliament for almost half a century. Right from the start, he left an indelible impression on Indian politics through his fine oratory skills.

In fact, his maiden speech in parliament impressed the formidable Jawaharlal Nehru so much that while introducing Vajpayee to a visiting foreign dignitary he reportedly said: “This young man one day will become the country’s prime minister.” When Nehru’s prophetic words did come true, he went on to become the first non-Congress Prime Minister to complete an entire term.

His stint in office is remembered for a variety of reasons. Less than two months after he assumed office in 1998, he approved the tests that made India a nuclear weapons state. Another highlight of his tenure has been his indefatigable efforts to make peace with Pakistan despite repeated setbacks with the Kargil war and the 2001 attack on parliament.

But, a less recognised fact is that he was also India’s second economic reformer after P.V. Narasimha Rao, who had opened up the Indian economy in 1991 after decades of protectionism and state-control.

When the BJP came into power in 1998, there was widespread scepticism among investors about the new government reversing the economic policies of the Narasimha Rao government and becoming more protectionist in nature. These fears were not unfounded.

A few years ago, when Narasimha Rao had pushed for India’s membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent body of the BJP, had vehemently criticised the move, arguing that it would expose domestic firms to unmanageable competition. It went against the Swadeshi principles of self-reliance. According to this view, globalisation was perceived as a foreign invasion by multinationals.

But, Vajpayee hardly subscribed to these views. He made it clear at several points during his tenure that he favoured the path of reforms to higher growth. During his visit to the US, for instance, he acknowledged the crucial role that foreign direct investment had played in India’s economic development since it had opened up. This put him at odds with the economic viewpoint of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Nevertheless, Vajpayee continued undeterred on the path of reforms, consistently trying to balance the demands of the party’s parent organisation with the needs of the economy. Most importantly, Vajpayee’s contrarian stance created a sense of continuity in government policies and kept investor confidence in India alive.

Throughout its term, the government opened up various sectors like insurance, banking, telecom, pharmaceuticals, civil aviation and real estate to foreign investors. Simultaneously, all quantitative restrictions on imports were eliminated by 2002. But these were replaced with a system of tariffs to provide protection to domestic industries and, more importantly, keep the criticism from within the Sangh at bay.

Over the years, the Vajpayee government also initiated a litany of major reforms like the initiation of the value-added tax regime, dismantling of administered price structure for fertilisers and petroleum products, extension of capital market reforms that Narasimha Rao had missed, reduction in government equity in public sector banks and reduction in the size of the bureaucracy.

Vajpayee also played a vital role in fuelling the explosive growth in the telecom sector in the new millennium. Even though the duo of Rajiv Gandhi and Sam Pitroda are often credited with sparking the telecom revolution in India, their efforts did not materialise in the form of telecom penetration.

In the decade since Rajiv Gandhi left office in 1989, tele-density across India marginally rose from 0.6 percent to 2.8 percent in 1999. Vajpayee changed the trend. As soon as he assumed office, he set up a National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development that included the likes of N.R. Narayan Murthy of Infosys and Azim Premji of Wipro.

The task force called for a complete overhaul of India’s telecom policy. It resulted in the New Telecom Policy (NTP) of 1999, which improved upon the policy introduced by Narasimha Rao in 1994. Telecom licensing norms were altered to make it more lucrative for private players to enter the market while a distinction was drawn between the government’s role in policy formulation and service provision, which effectively freed the sector from political interference.

Later, the government also effected favourable fiscal changes like reducing import duties on mobile devices

Such reform initiatives in the telecom sector drove the success story of the industry in the next decade. Against a tele-density target of 15 percent by 2010 in NTP 1999, more than half of India’s population was connected to a telecom device by the time. Most recent estimates show a tele-density has almost reached 90 percent.

The astounding growth of the Indian telecom industry and, especially mobile telephony, is a shining testament how political clarity and focussed reform can deliver favourable outcomes.

Vajpayee, thus, emerged as an unlikely leader who kept the flame of reform alive against all odds. He never reversed the reform process that Narasimha Rao had initiated as many feared when he first came to office. If anything, he only sped it up.

The easier path would have been to give in to the demands of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to adopt more protectionist policies. But, Vajpayee stood his ground, which poised the economy perfectly well to take off into its fastest growth phase in history beginning in 2003, his last year in office.

France on Friday condoled the death of former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, saying his name will remain linked to Indo-French friendship as he shaped the strategic partnership that the two countries share.

“It was with deep grief that we learnt of the demise of former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“France offers its condolences to his family as well as the Indian authorities and people,” it said.

“Poet, politician, visionary, he left his mark on India’s history. His name remains linked to the Indo-French friendship, which he shaped by launching the strategic partnership that has united our two countries since 1998.”

Vajpayee, 93, passed away on Thursday evening at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here following a prolonged illness.

The Congress clarified on Friday that there has been no change in the engagements of Congress President Rahul Gandhi during his scheduled visits to Germany and the UK and accused the BJP of trying to undermine the visit because “it is getting popular”.

Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said there is “absolutely no change in Gandhi’s itinerary”.

“He will go as per schedule of the itinerary decided by the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC). He will engage and interact with various sections of people as per the schedule. There is no change in the plans,” she said.

“BJP is trying to undermine the entire visit because they know how popular it is getting and how people wish to hear Rahul Gandhi and want to reach out to him,” she added.

Chaturvedi said if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was attempting to get any invite withdrawn, it exposes “its pettiness and its shortsightedness” at a time when leaders from across the political spectrum were appreciating the democratic norms followed by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Congress sources said IOC Chairman Sam Pitroda had conveyed that there had been no change in the proposed visit of Gandhi to the UK Parliament.

A media report said on Friday that Indian-origin millionaire Dr Rami Ranger, co-chairman of the Conservative Friends of India, and Tory peer Baroness Verma have rescinded an invitation to Rahul Gandhi during his trip to London saying the event had been cancelled.

It also said Labour MP Keith Vaz has sponsored a room elsewhere in the Parliament and Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) has taken over running the event.

Rahul Gandhi will be visiting Germany and London next week to meet businessmen, politicians, academics and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).

Sam Pitroda said in a tweet on Thursday that Gandhi will be visiting Germany on August 22 and 23 and London on August 24 and 25.

The final journey of the late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee began here on Friday from BJP Headquarters where the mortal remains were lying for people to pay homage.

Vajpayee, who passed away at AIIMS on Thursday evening, will be given a state funeral around 4 p.m. at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal on the banks of the Yamuna.

His last journey from the party headquarters to Smriti Sthal was to begin at 1 p.m. but got delayed by around an hour as thousands of supporters and fans of Vajypayee swarmed the 6-A Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg to see their leader one last time.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and other senior leaders including L.K. Advani and Sitaram Yechury paid their tributes to Vajpayee.

The body was brought from the Krishna Menon Marg residence of the former Prime Minister in a flower-decked hearse drawn by a military truck.