Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the 1975-77 Emergency was a “dark period” that the nation could never forget and called for making democracy stronger by “writing, debating, deliberating, and questioning” its vital aspects.

“India remembers the Emergency as a dark period during which every institution was subverted and an atmosphere of fear was created. Not only people but also ideas and artistic freedom were held hostage to power politics,” he tweeted.

Modi hailed the spirit of those citizens who firmly opposed the Emergency that came into force on June 25, 1975, leading to suspension of the fundamental rights.

“I salute the courage of all those great women and men who steadfastly resisted the Emergency, which was imposed 43 years ago. Their struggles ensured people power prevailed over authoritarianism and the stifling of civil liberties,” he added.

He called for working towards making Indian democracy stronger.

“Let us always work to make our democratic ethos stronger. Writing, debating, deliberating, questioning are vital aspects of our democracy which we are proud of. No force can ever trample the basic tenets of our Constitution,” he added.

The Emergency lasted till March 21, 1977. The Congress led by Indira Gandhi was voted out of power in the elections that were held soon after.

Karnataka’s JD(S)-Congress government would waive farm loans amounting to Rs 10,000 crore, including interest, taken by farmers across the state, said an official on Monday.

“The loans borrowed by the farmers from district cooperative banks and state cooperatives will be waived along with interest on them, costing the exchequer about Rs 10,000 crore,” a Chief Minister’s Office

The decision on the loan waiver was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and attended by Co-operation Minister Bandeppa Khashempur, Agriculture Minister N.H. Shivashankara Reddy and officials of various departments.

“The Chief Minister (who holds the Finance Department) will announce the modalities of the waiver on July 5 when he presents the budget for 2018-19,” said the official.

The proposed write-off will be in addition to a similar waiver the previous Congress government declared on June 21, 2017 for over 22 lakh farmers who borrowed crop loans up to Rs 50,000 each from the cooperative banks.

The previous waiver had cost the state exchequer Rs 8,165 crore.

“The loan waiver is aimed at providing relief to lakhs of farmers and their families who have been reeling under debt and crop failure due to droughts across the state over the last couple of years,” said the official quoting Kumaraswamy’s remarks at the meeting in the state secretariat.

Allaying fears of officials and heads of the cooperative banks on the longevity of the coalition government, the Chief Minister said what the state would do for the people, especially farmers, was more important than how long it lasted.

“It is not how many days or months our government survives but what it does during its rule to the people, including farmers and the poor. All stakeholders, especially officials, leaders of the coalition partners, ministers and legislators should work for the state’s development than worry about the government’s fate,” said Kumaraswamy.

Defending his decision to present a full-fledged state budget than a supplementary one as suggested by former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Chief Minister said as about 100 new legislators were elected in the May 12 Assembly poll, they could serve a privilege notice against him in the Assembly for implementing the budget of the previous Congress government, as the manifestos and promises made by both the coalition parties were different.

“I don’t want a privilege notice or motion against me from the new MLAs in all the parties, including the JD(S), Congress and BJP,” said Kumaraswamy.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited the Baltal base camp in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday to review security arrangements made for the annual Amarnath Yatra.

Officials in the Defence Ministry said Sitharaman, accompanied by senior commanders of the Army, was briefed on the three-tier security arrangements made for the Yatra that begins on June 28.

As many as 213 additional companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed to secure the nearly 400 km-long Yatra route from winter capital Jammu to the two base camps of Baltal and south Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

The 36 km-long trek from Pahalgam has halting points at Chandanwari, Sheshnag, Panchtarni and finally the Cave shrine situated at an altitude of 12,756 feet above the sea level.

Pilgrims using the Pahalgam route take four days to reach the shrine.

Those using the Baltal route reach back to the base camp the same day after praying inside the shrine cave which involves only 14 km-long one-way uphill trek.

Helicopter services are also available for the pilgrims on both the routes.

The cave houses an ice stalagmite structure believed to symbolize the mythical powers of Lord Shiva. The structure waxes and wanes corresponding to the visible moon.

Torrential rains clobbered large areas of Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra seriously hitting road traffic and rail operations, claiming at least five lives in rain-related incidents, officials said here on Monday.

Mumbai’s lifeline, the suburban locals on Western Railway (WR) and Central Railway (CR) were running between 15-30 minutes late on account of waterlogging on the railway tracks and a periphery of several stations like Sion, Chinchpokli, and Matunga, inconveniencing office-goers due to overnight rains that lashed the city.

On the WR, the downpour had dislocated train movement due to heavy rains in south Gujarat and north-west Maharashtra, but services were restored (after nearly 90 minutes) with severe speed restrictions by 9.10 a.m. on Monday.

WR General Manager A.K. Gupta left for the affected track sites between Bhilad-Sanjana (south Gujarat), even as several mail and express trains bound for Mumbai and from Mumbai to various destinations like Gujarat and Delhi, were delayed at various points en route.

The Mumbai morning peak road traffic was badly hit as waterlogging was reported in some parts of the Eastern and Western Express Highways (EEH-WEH), main and arterial roads and many low-lying areas of the city and suburbs and traffic to and from adjoining Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts.

There was flooding in several areas like Chunabhatti, Wadala, Dadar, Malad, Kurla, Gamdevi, Santacruc-Chembur Link Road and other places hitting traffic movement severely and delaying school buses transporting kids to their schools.

A portion of the wall of an under-construction highrise at Lords Estate in Antop Hill trapping many residents and damaging over a dozen private cars parked in a neighbouring society premises.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade, NDRF and other emergency services have launched relief operations but there are no reports of any casualties.

According to IMD, till 8.30 am in the past 24 hours, Mumbai suburbs received a 231.5 mm and the city got 100 mm rains, with predictions of more heavy rains over the next two days.

There are indications that national leadership of Congress party which is unhappy at the failure of in-charge of Congress party affairs in Karnataka, K C Venugopal, to regulate Congress MLAs during the formation of the coalition government in Karnataka, is thinking of replacing him.

Congress after failing to muster a majority in the state, had entered into an alliance with JD(S) to form a government here. KC Venugopal, who is the Karnataka in-charge of Congress affairs, failed to exercise control over the party legislators, the party leadership feels, going by the fact that protests were held in favor of certain MLAs, the pressure was mounted, and threats were posted. Therefore, national president of the party, Rahul Gandhi, is contemplating to post another leader in his place, highly placed sources in the party said.

Meanwhile, speculation is rife that leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad would replace Venugopal, as party leaders in the state strongly feel that Azad would be the best choice to tackle JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and the other politicians in his family.

Besides, given the fact that Azad along with senior leader Ashok Gehlot and Venugopal played a major role in the formation of Congress-JD(S) post-poll alliance, his nomination as in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka would make all the more sense, Congress sources said, adding that though Venugopal was part of the team, it was Azad and Gehlot who worked overtime to ensure that the Congress-JD(S) alliance formed the government.

According to a report by Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader in the party has said that Venugopal was not being removed for any lapses but only because the party needs a senior leader when the party has a coalition partner like the veteran Deve Gowda. “Deve Gowda is not a simple leader who can be tackled easily by anyone. The party needs a strong senior leader like Azad who knows Karnataka politics well and has a good rapport with every known Congress leader in the state,”
It is also speculated that in the days to come, Deve Gowda himself may enter the coalition scene and create a headache for the Congress. Presently, only Deve Gowda’s two sons – chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and PWD minister H D Revanna are part of the government. “The party will have to start talks with Deve Gowda over the formation of a possible pre-poll alliance in Lok Sabha polls and many other crucial issues may crop up from now on, and that is why, Azad would be a better bet,” the source said.

Congress wants to register impressive performance in the next year’s Lok Sabha election. It does not want to leave any stone unturned in its effort to come back to power at the center. Therefore, it is thinking of posting Ghulam Nabi Azad who would be able to handle legislators in Karnataka more effectively, sources added.

BJP President Amit Shah has slammed the party’s social media team in Assam for not being aggressive ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, a party leader said on Monday.

Shah, who reviewed the Lok Sabha election preparations in Assam and other northeastern states during his recent visit to the state, asked the team and other party members to be more active on social media to reach out to a maximum number of the electorate and attract young voters.

“He held a separate meeting with the social media team of the Assam unit. A total of 82 members of the team participated. Shah expressed concern over the fact that most of the party leaders in Assam were not active at all on social media except Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.

While Sonowal has more than 7 lakh followers on Facebook and Twitter, Sarma has over 6 lakh followers on social media.

But Assam BJP President Ranjit Kumar Das has only some 40,000 followers.

“Amit Shah has asked the social media team to develop content which can be shared for better communication with people. However, he advised to be very cautious regarding the selection of content and strictly ordered to avoid sensitive issues.”

The BJP, which rules Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Manipur and is allied to ruling parties in Meghalaya and Nagaland, is targeting to win at least 21 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the eight northeastern states next year.

A video clip in which senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah is seen expressing disappointment over the presentation of a fresh budget by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has gone viral. Siddaramaiah, the chief minister in the previous Congress regime, is undergoing nature therapy at ‘Shanthivana’ in Dharmastala. In the video footage (which appears to have been recorded on a mobile phone) first broadcast by a news channel on Sunday,
Siddaramaiah is seen discussing politics with MLAs S T Somashekhar, Byrathi Basavaraj, Muniratna and others. He is seen telling the legislators that the government is preparing to present a fresh budget even when a common minimum programme had not been prepared

Siddaramaiah, Chairman of the Co-ordination and Monitoring Committee in the coalition government, had told Kumaraswamy he must present a supplementary budget instead of a full-fledged one. However, Kumaraswamy met Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and got clearance for a full budget which he will present on July 5.

Chief Minister Kumaraswamy said that he will follow JD(S) Supremo Devegowda’s guidelines regarding Cauvery dispute.

It has been learned that Devegowda is said to advise his son not to tread the confrontational route and adopt a flexible strategy while handling both – the Centre and Tamil Nadu.

Devegowda had instead asked to go for a compromise in the interest of both the state and the coalition government.

Kumaraswamy is expected to write a detailed letter to PM Modi and Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari, seeking redressal in a weeks time.

The Centre constituted the controversial Cauvery Management Authority without the Karnataka representatives last week. The state had earlier refused to nominate its members citing inconsistencies in the process.