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For the first time since the Narendra Modi government came to power, the Reserve Bank of India increased the repo rate by 25 basis points, from 6 to 6.25 per cent. The Times of India explains that although “economic growth makes every government happy, it dreads sharp price rises (inflation), especially ahead of elections”. The repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks, which means that home, auto and personal loans are likely to get more expensive.
So far, Rahul Gandhi’s speech in MP has led to just one thing… more speeches. Speaking at a farmers’ rally at Piplya Mandi near Mandsaur, the Congress president promised that his party would waive farm loans within 10 days if it won this year’s assembly elections, Hindustan Times reports. In response, finance minister Arun Jaitley penned a scathing critique of Gandhi’s speech, asking, “How much does he know?”
The Congress, however, doesn’t want to back down from this fight. In a statement, party leader Randeep S. Surjewala accused Arun Jaitley of trivialising farmers’ issues and asked, “How much does Shri Arun Jaitley know?” The Times of India tells us that Surjewala took a dig at Jaitley, calling him a “minister without portfolio” who is giving “gyan”. The Congress leader was referring to Jaitley’s recent medical leave which that prompted the government to give additional charge of the finance ministry to railway minister Piyush Goyal.
Police have arrested five people with alleged Maoist links for ‘inciting’ the Koregaon Bhima violence, including a prominent Dalit rights activist. The Indian Express tells us that police is calling them “top urban Maoist operatives” who participated in or were behind a meeting where speeches allegedly incited the crowd to violence.
BJP sources have said the meeting between BJP president Amit Shah and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray Wednesday went well and the two leaders plan to have more talks in the next few months. Manasi Phadke reports for ThePrint that the meeting at Matoshree, Thackeray’s residence in Mumbai’s Bandra, went on for nearly two hours, even though it was scheduled for half that time.
Home minister Rajnath Singh travels today to Jammu & Kashmir to review the situation in the wake of the Ramzan ceasefire and take a call on whether it should be extended. Rising Kashmir quotes sources as saying that Singh will meet J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti and top security officers, and will be briefed on the prevailing situation and the impact of the ceasefire on the ground.
All five accused in the J&K sex scandal, including two high-ranking police officers, were sentenced by a special court to 10 years’ imprisonment for raping a minor 12 years ago. The Tribune brings us details and a comprehensive timeline.
Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter isn’t happy about his visit to RSS headquarters. As the former President landed in Nagpur to speak at an RSS function in Nagpur Thursday, his daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee took to Twitter Wednesday to remind him that “by going to Nagpur, you are giving BJP/RSS full handle to plant false stories…” Mukherjee is the chief guest at the event, The Indian Express reports.
Hope @CitiznMukherjee now realises from todays’ incident, how BJP dirty tricks dept operates. Even RSS wouldn’t believe that u r going 2 endorse its views in ur speech. But the speech will be forgotten, visuals will remain & those will be circulated with fake statements. 1/2
— Sharmistha Mukherjee (@Sharmistha_GK) June 6, 2018
Some good news, fewer mothers are dying while giving birth in India. The Times of India tells us that maternal mortality has dropped from 167 in 2011-13 to 130 (per 100,000 live births) in 2014-16, with Kerala leading the table, according to new data released by the registrar general of India.
Media Watch
‘She had to be eliminated as she was against the Hindu religion and gods, he told me. I knew it was against the law, but I decided to help him,” Mumbai Mirror quotes K.T. Naveen Kumar’s purported 12-page confession to the SIT probing the Gauri Lankesh murder case, and traces his journey from being a BCom student to a hardcore Hindu activist.
News it’s just kinda cool to know
Need more time? Apparently, a day on Earth may one day have 25 hours. India Today tells us that the moon has been slowly moving away from Earth for billions of years, thereby making days longer. About 1.4 billion years ago, when the moon was closer to our home planet, the days used to be just 18 hours and 41 minutes, but it is 24 hours at present and only increasing.
On 5 June, Mumbai’s GVK Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) broke its own record of handling 988 flight movements in a day, registering 1,003 takeoffs and landings in 24 hours. Business Standard explains that this is the highest traffic in a single day at any single runway airport in India to date.
Business Class
After Patanjali’s Acharya Balkrishna threatened to pull out of Uttar Pradesh citing non-cooperation from the government, chief minister Yogi Adityanath “directed officials to expedite the process for Patanjali Ayurved to set up its Rs 60 billion food park”, reports Business Standard.
Come 30 March 2019, Apple India’s tie-up with HCL Infosystems for the distribution of Apple products will come to an end, reports The Economic Times. The companies had tied up in July last year.
Point of View
The Supreme Court allowed the government to provide SC/ST reservation in promotions “as per law” till the matter is adjudicated by a Constitution bench. The Times Of India writes in its editorial that the reservation policy is not the answer to the problem of backwardness. “The reality is that quotas have kicked off a race to the bottom with even well off communities asking for reservations in government jobs and higher education. Rather than expanding the tired reservations empire further, to the point that this stretched balloon bursts, the government should consider and enact policies that lift all boats…”
The RBI raised the repo rate by 25 basis points Wednesday citing “worries about hardening inflation trends and a firming up of growth recovery at home”. The Hindu, in its editorial, says, “As inflationary trends harden, the RBI’s rate hike will quell uncertainty in the markets.” The Indian Express writes in its editorial, “What the government should do now is to heed the RBI rate action as a warning and desist from politically motivated MSP rate increases or fiscal adventurism.”
The high prices of fuel in the retail market have everyone worried. Former petroleum minister Veerappa Moily, in his column in The Times Of India, blames the “faulty policies” of the Modi government for high fuel prices. “The NDA government utilised low oil prices to achieve fiscal deficit targets. Instead, they should have shielded consumers from volatile international oil prices through a price stabilisation fund,” he writes.
Journalist Chaitanya Kalbag has high praise for the Modi government in his column in The Economic Times, pointing out that it has implemented the legacy programmes of the UPA in a much better way. Referring to the Ujjwala scheme, he says, “The UPA government had tried something similar but trapped itself in a populist maze. It sold subsidised LPG cylinders directly to BPL families while not ending such subsidies to the urban middle class.”
Is the Karnataka saga over? Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi believes there will be “many more Karnatakas” if we don’t learn the right lessons from the crisis. In his column in The Indian Express, he writes, “What is required is a set of rules which would curb the menace of defection as well as the misuse and abuse of powers of the governor’s office.”
Prime Time
The BJP is ‘desperate’
On India Today TV, Rajdeep Sardesai questioned BJP president Amit Shah’s meeting with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. “You seem to be desperate, this is the first time we are seeing the BJP like this,” Sardesai said. To this, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia responded, “We are the fulcrum of the NDA and we have a large heart.” Weighing in, journalist Nikhil Wagle commented, “They (BJP) have not wasted a single opportunity to insult the Shiv Sena.”
‘Matoshree is a temple’
Anjana Om Kashyap on Aaj Tak’s Halla Bol deliberated on the intention behind Amit Shah’s meeting with Uddhav Thackeray. Shiv Sena’s Anil Singh said that Matoshree was like a temple and “many politicians, leaders and artistes bow there and take blessings. Nobody returns empty-handed from late Balasaheb’s doorstep”. However, he added, it is “now too late for anything”. Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said the BJP was banking on 47 ally parties in the NDA. “After four years they have suddenly realised that they need to have a dialogue with the ally parties too,” Chaturvedi remarked.
‘Kaala’ in trouble
News presenter Marya Shakil on CNN News 18’s show Epicentre talked about Rajinikanth’s movie Kaala, which is facing protests from pro-Kannada groups. Lawyer and panelist C. Rajasekaran alleged that both Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan were exploiting the sentiments of people of Tamil Nadu because “they both are desperately wanting to enter politics and gain power”. The protests against Kaala stem from Rajinikanth’s statements on the Cauvery water dispute between the two states.