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The Supreme Court is about to have a very busy week.
CJI Dipak Misra has picked a five-judge bench to hear a plea regarding his own impeachment. The plea, to be heard today, seeks to challenge Rajya Sabha chairperson Venkaiah Naidu’s rejection of the opposition’s impeachment motion. It was filed Monday by Partap Singh Bajwa and Amee Harshadray — “two of the 71 MPs who signed the motion”, Apurva Vishwanath reports for ThePrint.
The Supreme Court shifted the Kathua rape-murder case from Jammu & Kashmir to Pathankot in Punjab, but denied the transfer of the case from the J&K crime branch to the CBI. The court ordered that the trial will also be held in-camera to make the accused “feel safe” and protect witnesses, The Hindu reports. The Indian Express tells us that while J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti welcomed the move, the BJP was disappointed. Party spokesperson Sunil Sethi said the trial shift “gives a wrong impression about Jammu & Kashmir”.
The apex court has scrapped a UP law that allowed former CMs to retain government accommodation. The bench said once a person demitted a public office, there was “nothing to distinguish them from the common man”, Hindustan Times reports front page.
Tamil Nadu said Karnataka could ‘easily spare’ 4 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet) of Cauvery water for the month of May, The Hindu reports. Within a few hours, in a counter-affidavit filed in the SC, Karnataka said it had already “given more water than it was supposed to despite being in a crisis itself”, Hindustan Times reports. The SC is set to hear the Cauvery dispute case today. Read more about the standoff here.
There’s a thunderstorm coming, and it might be a big one
Strong winds of around 70 kmph struck Delhi and adjoining cities Monday night, a day before a massive thunderstorm is expected to hit north India and parts of the south. The Indian Meteorological Department has issued an alert, and all evening schools in Delhi are to remain closed today. The Delhi government has also “activated a disaster helpline, 1077, while keeping rescue teams on standby”, The Times of India reports.
The home ministry has reportedly discovered that Maoist leaders are diverting large amounts of funds to “sponsor the education of their children in professional colleges and ensure that their ‘families live in comfort’,” The Indian Express reports. Ministry officials said they were setting up a multi-disciplinary group to choke this funding at the source.
BJP chief Amit Shah is not only confident that the party will win the upcoming Karnataka elections, but also told The Times of India that the party will garner 50 per cent of the voteshare in the entire country by 2019. “After 50 per cent, there won’t be much left even for a combined opposition,” he said. Read his interview to know more. Karnataka goes to the polls on 12 May.
Muslim groups responded to Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s statement that namaz should be restricted to mosques, idgahs or “private places”, saying that if the government didn’t want them to pray on the roads, they should provide space for namaz and allow them to pray in masjids where they are currently prohibited from doing so, Sanya Dhingra reports.
Also read lawyer and RSS member Raghav Awasthi’s counter-argument to Khattar’s critics: “There is nothing remotely unconstitutional or anti-Muslim about what Khattar said about namaz,” he says in an opinion piece for ThePrint.
Karnataka assembly elections with ThePrint
Looks like Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah is facing extremely tough fights in the two constituencies he is contesting from — Chamundeshwari in the Old Mysuru region and Badami in the northern ‘Bombay-Karnataka’ region. Karnataka is made up of a complex and diverse voter demographic that changes in every region along lines of caste, class, education, and religion. Read Rohini Swamy’s report on Siddaramaiah’s challenges to know more.
To understand the politics of Karnataka, also watch:
Congress brings big guns Sonia and Manmohan to Karnataka: Former Ballari MP Sonia Gandhi will today campaign in Vijayapura, near the birthplace of Basavanna, the founder of the Lingayat movement. Kumar Anshuman reports that “local leaders want Sonia to campaign in this election given that she contested the Ballari LS constituency in 1999 and defeated BJP’s Sushma Swaraj”. Her involvement is also aimed at wooing Lingayat voters in the northern part of the state.
Former PM Manmohan Singh is also on the campaign trail for the Congress to counter PM Modi’s attacks on the “economic failures” of the Siddaramaiah government. While addressing the media in Bengaluru, Singh reminded Karnataka of the UPA’s achievements, and slammed what he called the Modi government’s “whims and fancies”.
Business Class
Are you a Starbucks fan but face a tough time finding an outlet? No worries! Starbucks and Nestle are “getting into a global deal to sell Starbucks coffee products outside its cafes — in shops and supermarkets”, reports Business Standard.
The ICICI Bank board of directors might take up the Videocon case today, reports The Economic Times. The board had formerly given a clean chit to CEO Chanda Kochhar in the case.
News it’s just kinda cool to know
It’s World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day on 8 May. It is observed each year on the birth anniversary of Henry Dunant, founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross and recipient of the first Nobel Peace Prize.
Cops in Delhi gave a Tricolour burial to a peacock, saying they were merely following protocol as it was the national bird, The Times of India reports. Experts clarified that there was no such protocol.
King Putin? The New York Times reports that Vladimir Putin’s oath-taking ceremony for his fourth term as Russia’s president looked more like the coronation of a king.
Point of View
With the latest encounter in Shopian, the Valley is on edge again. The Hindu writes in its editorial that there is a need for political outreach to locals, arguing that the alienation might deepen otherwise.
The Supreme Court shifted the Kathua trial to Pathankot. The Indian Express welcomes the move, writing, “(The conduct of protesters, including the ‘Hindu Ekta Manch’) had left no room for doubt that holding the trial in Kathua would be a fraught affair.”
The issues dominating the news include ‘cow, namaz, historical monuments, Jinnah’. Ashoka University vice-chancellor Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes in his column in The Indian Express, “Unless there is a political backlash to the BJP, the subcontinent stands poised on the brink of another communal explosion, fuelled by majoritarian forces.”
By all indications, jobs are a major concern for youth today. In the past few months, the government has made multiple statements highlighting how jobs are being created in enough numbers to fulfil the aspirations of the youth. Former union minister Jairam Ramesh addresses the “myth” in his column in The Hindu.
Some state finance ministers met in Andhra Pradesh Monday to discuss the terms of reference (ToR) for the 15th Finance Commission. Journalist Sanjiv Shankaran, in his column in The Times Of India, writes, “The disquiet has been caused by signs of the Modi government’s reversion to fiscal centralisation and overall ineptness in designing the ToR.”