BackPolitical wrap: Mehbooba says Pakistan directly fuelling tensions in Kashmir
Amit Shah asks BJP CMs to execute Modi govt's pro-poor agenda, Narendra Modi sets up task force to draw up action plan for next 3 Olympics
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Mehbooba meets PM Modi, says Pakistan directly fuelling tensions in Kashmir
Launching a scathing attack on Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said it was time for Pakistan to respond if it wanted peace in Kashmir. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Saturday to discuss the situation in the Valley, Mufti said Pakistan was directly fuelling tensions in the region.
Making an appeal to the youth of Kashmir, Mufti said: “You may be angry with me and I could be angry with you, but give me one chance." Read More
Amit Shah asks BJP CMs to execute Modi govt’s pro-poor agenda
Asserting that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ushered in an era of “politics of performance", its president Amit Shah on Saturday asked the party’s chief ministers to make their states an effective instrument for execution of the Centre’s “pro-poor" and “good governance" agenda. Read More
GST bill: Halfway house
The ratification of the crucial goods and services tax (GST) Bill has reached the halfway mark with eight states ratifying it. The Bill needs to be ratified by 16 states before it can be sent for presidential assent. Mint takes a look at the states which have ratified the bill so far. Read More
Modi to address first Gujarat rally as PM in Patel heartland
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a public rally on 30 August at Dhrol in Jamnagar district. Dhrol is close to three major Patidar-dominated areas, Rajkot, Morbi and, of course, Jamnagar itself.
This will be his first public meeting in Gujarat after becoming prime minister though he has visited the state thrice earlier after May 2014. It will be his second visit to Gujarat in a fortnight after he visited Sarangpur on 16 August to pay homage to Pramukh Swami. Read More
Narendra Modi sets up task force to draw up action plan for next 3 Olympics
Responding to India’s performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where the country won only two medals—a silver and a bronze—despite sending its biggest contingent, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the government will form a task force to draw up an action plan for the next three Olympics. Read More
Supreme Court says won’t intervene in Kashmir unrest
In a breather to the Union government, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to take further action in a plea seeking the court’s intervention over the ongoing unrest in Jammu and Kashmir.
A bench comprising chief justice T.S. Thakur, justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud asked the petitioner who is dissatisfied with government action not to make unsubstantiated claims on the sensitive issue. Read More
Didi sets sights on polls with vision 2030
With an eye on the 2021 assembly polls, chief minister Mamata Banerjee is all set to launch her Vision 2030.Her earlier project, Vision 2020, will be over a year ahead of the election and the CM wants to keep up the development tempo. Read More
Modi govt moves to ban commercial surrogacy
The cabinet on Tuesday approved the introduction of a bill that seeks to ban commercial surrogacy—a practice known as ‘rent a womb’—and allow only infertile couples to bear a child using a surrogate mother.
If enacted, the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2016 will allow only Indian citizens to have a surrogate child in India. Non-resident Indians or People of Indian Origin card-holders will not be allowed to take recourse to a surrogate mother in India. Live-in couples, single parents and homosexuals will also be barred. Read More
SC pulls up Jayalalithaa for misusing defamation law
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in an appeal against a criminal defamation case filed by the state government.
A bench comprising justices Dipak Misra and C. Nagappan criticized the chief minister for using criminal defamation as a tool to evade criticism.
“This is not how a healthy democracy functions. You must face criticism if you are a public figure," the court observed. Read More
Mayawati eyes Muslim-Dalit combine to come back to power
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, who launched the party’s campaign for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election in Agra on Sunday and is slated to hold three more rallies over a month, looks set to consolidate the Dalit vote by using a series of missteps by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But implicit in her campaign is also an attempt to reach out to the Muslim community.
That she wants to use the Muslim-Dalit combination to come back to power was reflected in her choice of Agra, which has a sizeable population of both Muslims and Dalits, to launch the election campaign. Read More
Gadkari made Goa election in-charge
Union minister Nitin Gadkari was on Wednesday made BJP in-charge of the Goa Assembly election, which is due next year. The BJP is in power in the state, where the Congress is being considered its main rival with the Aam Aadmi Party also trying hard to set up a base. Read More
UP elections survey forecasts hung Assembly
Less than a year before Uttar Pradesh holds its elections, a survey by ABP News and Lokniti CSDS has forecast a hung Assembly, with the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) likely to win most seats. According to the survey, the SP leads with 141-151 seats with a 30% vote share. On seat projection, the survey shows the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) slightly ahead of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), with a seat projection of 124-134 and a vote share of 27%, while the BSP is left with 103-113 seats and a vote share of 26%. Read More
Election Commission relief for CPI, BSP and NCP on national status
The Election Commission (EC) on Monday provided relief to political parties who were at risk of losing their national status after the drubbing they suffered in the 16th general election. It amended the rules to say that performance over two consecutive general or assembly elections, as opposed to one, would be the measure to determine their status. The immediate beneficiaries are the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Mayawati-led BSP and the Communist Party of India (CPI). Read More
#Donate4AAP: AAP falls back on retweet campaign to fund polls
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is set to contest polls in Punjab, Goa and Gujarat amid a deepening fund crunch. To replenish the party coffers, AAP has now gone back to strategies it had used before the Delhi election, including re-tweet campaign on Twitter. Delhi chief minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal earlier this week also made an appeal for funds. Read More
Soumonty Kanungo from Kolkata, Abhiram Ghadyalpatil from Mumbai, Dharani Thangavelu from Chennai and Maulik Rajnikant Pathak from Ahmedabad also contributed to the wrap.)
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