1. Now, Tamil Nadu Farmers to Drink Urine, Eat Faeces at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar
The protest by Tamil Nadu farmers at Jantar Mantar is set to escalate after the protesters vowed to drink their urine on Saturday if the government did not pay heed to their demands. They said that if they are still ignored by the Centre, they will be forced to eat human faeces on Sunday.
The farmers have been grabbing headlines for their unique, and sometimes bizarre, methods of protest since they arrived in Delhi over 38 days ago. Armed with skulls, which they claimed to be of farmers who had committed suicide, they have stripped naked, bitten mice and snake, conducted mock funerals and even been flogged. They are now sitting at Jantar Mantar with urine collected in plastic bottles, awaiting a response from the government.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. BJP to Sweep Delhi Civic Elections, Predict 2 Surveys
Two opinion polls on the eve of the municipal polls in Delhi have projected a sweep for the BJP in all three corporations, with one giving the party that is now in office 195 out of the 272 seats and the other 179. The two polls placed AAP at a distant second at 55 and 45 seats respectively and the Congress even further back.
While the poll done by VMR for Times Now did not give a break-up of its seat projection for the three corporations, its tally of 195 for the BJP clearly implies comfortable wins in all three. The CVoter poll done for ABP News forecast that the BJP would win 76 of the 104 seats in the North corporation, 60 of 104 in the South and 43 of 64 in the East.
(Source: Times of India)
3. Lone Voice Pleads For Kashmiris
Home minister Rajnath Singh has written to all the chief ministers to ensure the safety of Kashmiris living in their states, becoming the first Union minister to speak out against the victimisation of Kashmiris outside their home state.
Rajnath's letter follows reports of attacks on Kashmiri students in Rajasthan and the sprouting of posters in parts of Uttar Pradesh asking them to leave the state or "face the consequences".
His advisory is in contrast with the silence of the other ministers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the subject. Kashmiris are being picked on in the heartland – both states where the incidents took place are ruled by the BJP – at a time the situation has steadily deteriorated and turned explosive in the Valley.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. AIADMK Factions Form Panels to Effect Merger
A day after some tough posturing, the two AIADMK factions on Friday got down to business to explore the possibilities of merger by constituting teams of leaders who would formally conduct negotiations for the unification of the AIADMK.
While the ruling AIADMK (Amma) team would be led by party organising secretary and Rajya Sabha MP R Vaithilingam; the AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) team will be led by former Minister KP Munusamy.
The ruling camp is learnt to be keen on retaining incumbent Edappadi K Palaniswami as Chief Minister. In such a scenario, former CM O Panneerselvam, who heads the AIADMK (PTA), would have to be made general secretary of the unified party in addition to a place in the Cabinet.
(Source: The Hindu)
5. Cong Yechury Test for CPM
Rahul Gandhi has decided to give up the Congress's claim to a Rajya Sabha seat from Bengal this summer in favour of Sitaram Yechury, who now faces the challenge of persuading CPM hardliners to break with convention and allow him a further term as MP.
Rahul has conveyed to the CPM general secretary that the Congress will support his re-nomination to the Upper House when his current term ends on 18 August. Congress sources clarified to The Telegraph that the support was only for Yechury and not any other CPM candidate.
The Congress has 44 MLAs in the Bengal Assembly and could have bagged the Rajya Sabha seat for itself if it wanted. The CPM has only 26 MLAs and would have fallen far short of victory even with the vote of the lone CPI member.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Unite Against BJP: Mamata
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday asked Trinamool Congress workers to stay united and said the regional parties need to form a coalition to collectively fight the right-wing forces.
“The country needs regional parties to come together. I am urging the regional parties to be together and be united,” said Banerjee.
The Chief Minister was addressing party workers after an internal election where Subrata Bakshi was re-elected party’s general secretary. Banerjee asked party volunteers not to “tolerate politics to divide people using Lord Ram.”
(Source: The Hindu)
7. Why Make Aadhaar Must for PAN Cards, SC asks Centre
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre why it had made Aadhaar mandatory for obtaining a Permanent Account Number (PAN) card and for filing Income-Tax returns.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the two-judge bench, headed by Justice AK Sikri, that the move would help to weed out fake and fraudulent financial accounts. “Today, anybody can get a PAN card with any name on it. A person can get several PAN cards – say, as Mukesh Gupta, then another as Mukesh Kumar Gupta, and a third as MK Gupta, so on and so forth,” he said, adding that fake PAN cards were being used to divert funds to shell companies.
The bench then said: “Is this the remedy, that you need to have Aadhaar for having PAN? Forcibly asking people to get Aadhaar? Why has it been made mandatory?”
(Source: The Indian Express)
8. Banned Phones in Meetings, Because Officials Keep Checking Social Media Sites: PM Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asked government officers to use social media for welfare of the people and not for self-praise.
Asserting that anonymity was one of the greatest strengths of the civil services, the PM cautioned officers about use of social media, saying politicians could be worried about placement of their photographs, but not bureaucrats.
"Agar hamari photo idhar se udhar ho jaye to hamari neend haram ho jati hai (If a photo of ours goes missing, we lose sleep)," Modi said, amid laughter from the gathering of senior officers on the occasion of the civil services day.
He said that mobile phones were banned from his meetings because he often found officers checking social media sites in the midst of official meetings.
(Source: Times of India)
9. Govt Plans Home Delivery of Petrol
Soon, tanking up the car or buying diesel to run the generator may no longer entail a trip to the nearest petrol pump. The government is exploring the possibility of allowing all petroleum products – not just LPG cylinders – to be delivered at consumers’ doorstep.
“Options [are] being explored where petro products may be door-delivered to consumers on pre-booking. This would help consumers avoid spending excessive time and long queues at fuel stations,” Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday, according to tweets put out by the Petroleum Ministry.
He also said the government was not in favour of petrol pumps being shut on Sundays. The Minister, who chaired a consultative committee meeting with parliamentarians in Srinagar, was reacting to a decision by a section of fuel pump operators to down shutters each Sunday from next month. “The Ministry does not approve of or endorse the move by a section of petrol pump dealers to close down fuel stations on Sundays,” he said.
(Source: The Hindu)
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