QBullet: ‘Brawl’ Rocks K’taka Cong; Row Over Remark on Mayawati
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1. Op Lotus Takes a Violent Turn, Cong MLA Hurt in Hotel ‘Brawl’
The ongoing political drama in Karnataka took a ‘violent’ turn on Sunday, 20 January, when two Congress MLAs entered into an alleged drunken brawl at a resort and one of them was hospitalised with head injuries. The state Congress, however, said that Hospet MLA Anand Singh, who is under observation at Apollo Hospital in Seshadripuram for the next 24 hours, slipped at the resort.
According to sources, Singh got into a brawl with Kampli MLA JN Ganesh at Eagleton resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru, where the party has herded its MLAs since Friday. Ganesh is said to be one of the legislators on BJP radar in the recent alleged bid to destabilise the JD(S)-Congress government in the state.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. Karnataka Congress Issues Notices to its Four ‘Missing’ Legislators
The Congress issued notices to its four lawmakers in Karnataka on Sunday over their absence from a party meeting two days ago. The meeting was called as a show of strength against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s alleged attempt to topple the Congress’s coalition government with the Janata Dal (Secular).
The four leaders include Ramesh Jarkiholi, who was dropped from the state cabinet in December, B Nagendra, Umesh Jadhav, and Mahesh Kumatahalli, news agency PTI quoted unnamed Congress leaders as saying.
The absence of the four MLAs poses no immediate threat to the government as the JD(S)-Congress combine has 118 lawmakers in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly. It is well above the majority mark – 113.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
3. Day After Kolkata Rally, Modi, Rahul Trade Barbs
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi traded barbs over the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Sunday in remarks triggered by a rally of leaders from 18 Opposition parties that vowed to oust the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government from power.
Modi criticised the proposed “grand alliance” of Opposition parties for the general elections, saying the “mahagathbandhan was a grouping of corruption, scams, negativity and instability”. “The Opposition has ‘dhanshakti’ (money power), we have ‘janshakti’ (people’s power),” he said while addressing the BJP’s booth-level workers from five cities through his app.
On Saturday, 23 political leaders cutting across regional and ideological barriers staged a massive show of strength at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground, with about 500,000 people attending the rally spearheaded by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. After Calling Maya ‘Worse Than Eunuch,’ BJP MLA Says Sorry
A day after saying that BSP president Mayawati “does not fall in the category of either man or woman”, BJP MLA Sadhana Singh tried to contain the damage on Sunday. As Union minister Ramdas Athawale condemned her remarks and the BSP approached police to file an FIR, Sadhana Singh apologised and claimed she had only intended to “remind the BSP president of the Guest House incident”.
BSP leaders, who said the remarks showed Sadhana Singh was “mentally ill”, approached Chandauli’s Baburi Police Station, but no FIR has been registered as yet. Police officials said they would first conduct a preliminary inquiry.
Speaking at a rally in Chandauli on Saturday, BJP Mughalsarai MLA Sadhana Singh said Mayawati had “sold her dignity” for power, and was “worse than a kinnar (eunuch).”
(Source: The Indian Express)
5. Govt to Give Central Institutes Funds to Roll Out 10% Quota
In a move to roll out the recently introduced 10 percent reservation policy for economically weaker sections (EWS) among ‘forward castes’ in centrally funded higher education institutions (HEIs) from the 2019-20 academic session, the Centre has decided to foot additional financial requirements for the same.
The government has also asked all 40 central universities, which includes JNU, DU, AMU, Jamia Millia Islamia and Visva Bharati among others, and 77 other government HEIs for details of seat availability and financial requirements. The HEIs have been asked to respond by 31 January stating that the institutions are to implement the 10 percent EWS reservation from the forthcoming academic session
(Source: The Times of India)
6. Citizenship Bill: BJP Also Fights Opposition Within in Assam
Considered by many to be a “threat” to the indigenous population of Assam, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on 8 January, has also led to differences within the state BJP.
On Friday, visiting BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav met legislators and reached out to party leaders who have voiced concerns regarding the Bill. Madhav said he would also talk to BJP ally AGP, which quit the government over the BJP-led Central government’s decision to go ahead with the Bill despite its objections. Separately, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called up the powerful All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), which has organised protests against the legislation.
Amid spreading protests, with Assamese cultural icons like singer Zubeen Garg joining in and students boycotting classes, BJP leaders have been shown black flags at public events.
(Source: The Indian Express)
7. Jat Leaders Say Will Oppose BJP if Not Given Quota, Support Maya
Jat leaders from across the country Sunday called for the defeat of the BJP in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls unless their demand for reservation was met. Gathered under the banner of the All India Jat Arakshan Bachao Maha Andolan (AIJABMA), leaders from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh said that the government had cheated the community by not accepting its demand for quota and giving forward castes 10 percent reservation “within seven days” instead.
Almost three years after the Jat agitation for reservation turned violent in Haryana leaving almost 30 dead, leaders from UP asserted that they will ask their community to vote for Mayawati in the state saying that the BSP chief was the only UP leader who had supported reservation for Jats and criticised the action taken by the government against Jats in the 2016 agitation in Haryana.
(Source: The Indian Express)
8. Panel May Seek Study on Impact of Demonetisation
A parliamentary panel may ask the Narendra Modi government to study the impact of the 2016 invalidation of high-value banknotes and the 2017 introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) on key economic benchmarks such as gross domestic product (GDP), investment, and industrial production.
The panel may also flag “several inadequacies” in the way GDP – the value of goods and services produced in the economy – is calculated and insist that it take into account GST to “reflect reality”, HT has learnt.
The government justified the recall of old, high-value banknotes on grounds that it would help unearth black money and fake currency and curb terror financing. Later, it said the move would help shift India to a cashless economy by promoting digital transactions. GST, which subsumed an array of local, state-level and central taxes, was billed as the biggest tax reform since Independence.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
9. MP BJP Leader Found Dead, Second Murder in a Week
The body of a BJP block president from Madhya Pradesh’s Barwani district was found from a field on Sunday morning. This is the second murder of a BJP leader in the state in less than a week.
The man, identified as Manoj Thackeray, was bludgeoned to death, police said. Thackeray’s body was found by his friend about a kilometer from his house in Balwadi village. He is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.
Police said Thackeray was attacked while on his morning walk and his body was spotted by his friend Sanjay Rathore, who informed the Warla police station. Thackeray is the second BJP leader after Prahlad Bandhwar, who was shot dead on 17 January, and the fifth high-profile murder in the state.
(Source: The Times of India)
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