Mehbooba Mufti hits back at the BJP and an Army major arrested
PDP President Mehbooba Mufti took to social media yesterday to hit back at former ally BJP on Sunday, a day after its president Amit Shah accused the alliance government led by her of corruption, misrule, and being soft on separatists
Post-breakup bitterness? PDP president Mehbooba Mufti took to social media Sunday to hit back at former ally BJP, a day after its president Amit Shah accused the alliance government led by her of corruption, misrule, and being soft on separatists, Rahiba Parveen reported for ThePrint. Mehbooba said it was “sad to see [the BJP] disown their own initiatives and label it a soft approach”.
Many false charges levelled against us by our former allies. Our commitment to the Agenda of Alliance, co-authored by Ram Madhav & endorsed by senior leaders like Rajnath Ji never wavered. It is sad to see them disown their own initiative & label it a ‘soft approach.’ 1/6
Major Nikhil Rai Handa was arrested from Meerut Sunday for his alleged involvement in the murder of a fellow officer’s wife. The body of 35-year old Shailza Dwivedi, wife of Indian Army Major Amit Dwivedi, was found on an isolated road with her throat slit, and police officials toldHindustan Times that Handa was “obsessed” with Shailza and enraged because she had been snubbing his advances.
Bringing the money back home: In the wake of the Nirav Modi scam, Punjab National Bank has gone into ‘recovery mode’ in order to account for its rising gross NPAs ratio. Sources toldThe Indian Express that on 1 June, the bank put in place a recovery cell in each of its 6,900 branches and deployed close to 25,000 employees to recover bad loans.
All metro systems in the country are set to have standard norms. The government has set up a committee headed by former Delhi Metro chief E. Sreedharan to establish standardisation across metro systems. The aim is to curb construction and operation costs, and bring them under the Make in India umbrella, Hindustan Timesreports.
Women in Saudi Arabia are celebrating being in the driver’s seat for the first time in decades as the kingdom overturned the world’s only ban on female motorists. The historic reform is expected to usher in a new era of social mobility, The Hindureports. However, female activists who fought against the driving ban were also jailed.
A woman in Saudi Arabia learns driving on a simulator | Mohammed Al-Nemer/Bloomberg
News it’s just kinda cool to know
This sustainable marriage is built on two things — love, and recycled products. Deepa Kamath and Prashin Jagger, a couple based out of Mumbai, had an environmentally friendly wedding using mostly recycled products. The #DownToEarthWedding took place on the 21 June, The Indian Expressreports.
It will soon to be time to stand on your balcony and squint at the moon again, because, according to the Express UK, “the July 2018 Blood Moon and total lunar eclipse will outshine every other eclipse to take place between the years 2001 and 2100″. The eclipse will last one hour and 43 minutes – nearly 40 minutes longer than the 31 January Super Blue Blood Moon combo.
Business Class
Ethics is back in demand in business schools, thanks to Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. Top notch Indian management schools including “…IIMs, XLRI Jamshedpur and SPJIMR Mumbai are among B-schools redesigning their courses, bringing in inputs from global experts and developing cases in India and abroad, including scams involving Vijay Mallya to Nirav Modi, to educate students on issues around ethics, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility”, reports The Economic Times.
Idea Cellular and Vodafone India merger hits another hurdle. The telecom department is planning to raise a fresh demand of Rs 4,700 crore related to one-time spectrum charges (OTSC) on the company, reportsBusiness Standard.
Point of View
Another day, another alleged lynching in the name of ‘gau raksha’. This time in Hapur in Uttar Pradesh. The Times of India writes in its editorial, “At stake is communal harmony and the credibility of the state and criminal justice delivery system…As communal flags wave more threateningly with another election approaching, UP government and police must ensure the safety of minorities and uphold law and order.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has become the second prime minister of a country to give birth while in office, after former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto. The Indian Express writes in its editorial, “A political leader, who takes pregnancy and motherhood in her stride, is a great role model for young women of her country, when/if they need to fight the battle of perception and prejudice.”
File photo of Jacinda Ardern| Commons
One of the darkest moments of modern Indian history was when Emergency was declared in the country on 25 June 1975. Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu, in his column in The Indian Express, writes, “An important lesson taught by Emergency is that the people of India, although peace-loving, will never tolerate authoritarianism. The fact that people have peacefully overthrown a despotic regime not only showed the maturity of the Indian electorate but also the resilience of India’s parliamentary democracy.”
Is the water crisis really severe in India? Data suggests so. “Nearly 600 million — half of India’s population — face high-to-extreme water stress. About 70 per cent of our water is contaminated. By 2030, India’s demand for water is estimated to be double the available water supply,” NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant writes in his column in The Economic Times, adding, “We must take the lessons that we have learnt and apply them now towards the sustainable use of this planet’s most vital resource.”
Prime Time
‘Anti-national debate’
Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami began the Sunday debate by asking a broad question: “Is the #TukdeTukdeGang conspiring to break India?” Hearing the question, Tanveer Ahmed of the JD(S) burst out laughing. To this, Goswami responded by saying that he was better than the “fake and pseudo journalists” who claim to be objective. Ahmed said when “you cannot deliver what you promised, you start targeting students”. The BJP’s Nupur Sharma countered that Tanveer was living in la la land.
“Why is speaking against India something to champion to this tukde tukde gang?” asked Goswami. Between the debate, film-maker Ashoke Pandit shouted at least thrice: “Call them anti-nationals.”
Journalists threatened
Referring to the J&K BJP MLA who sought to threaten journalists, Pooja Shali asked on India Today TV, “When is the BJP taking action against Lal Singh?”The BJP’s Vaibhav Agarwal suggested that “we need to reach out to Lal Singh ji and what he said should be synchronised with what he meant”. Agarwal also clarified that Singh did not speak on behalf of the party.
