1. MCD Election 2017: Will BJP Ride the Modi Wave or Cong, AAP Make a Comeback?
So, who is it going to be – the BJP, the Congress or the AAP? As the results of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls are announced on Wednesday, the parties in the fray will have more than their reputations at stake.
While for Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party, it could provide a much-needed comeback after the recent Punjab and Goa assembly poll debacles, but for the incumbent BJP, it will be another affirmation of the Narendra Modi wave.
The AAP has been raising the issue of EVM tampering since the Punjab election results were declared.
The BJP, on the other hand, is upbeat. “Besides seeking votes in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the party has also taken a bold step of dumping all its sitting councillors to beat the local anti-incumbency,” said a senior BJP leader, referring to the AAP’s resounding win in the assembly polls.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. TTV Dhinakaran Arrested for Bid to Bribe Poll Pane
The Delhi Police Crime Branch late on Tuesday arrested AIADMK (Amma) Deputy General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran in connection with an alleged attempt to bribe Election Commission officials to secure the ‘two leaves’ symbol for his faction.
He was said to have made the attempt through middleman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, who was arrested last week. Along with Dhinakaran, his close friend Mallikarjuna was taken into custody.
Speaking to The Hindu, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Praveer Ranjan confirmed the two arrests. While Dhinakaran is accused of roping in Chandrashekhar for the bribery attempt, the role of Mallikarjuna is not known yet, though sources claimed it was for facilitating the deal.
The arrest of Dhinakaran follows four days of questioning, during which the police claimed to have gathered a lot of information and confronted the two accused.
(Source: The Hindu)
3. Demolition of 'Memories'
When the Narendra Modi government sent in the bulldozers in the dead of the night on Sunday, the stated objective was to build a "world class" convention centre.
The claws of the machine then tore into the Hall of Nations, the truncated pyramid structure with a latticed façade that was built in Delhi's Pragati Maidan in 1972, when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister to commemorate and celebrate the 25th year of Independence.
Delhi-based architect Arun Rewal, who is also the nephew of the architect of the Hall of Nations Raj Rewal, said in a Facebook post: “The demolition of the Hall of Nations complex will not be the last of all this. The government is hell bent on erasing collective memories, destroying the collective civic space and carving real estate for the parallel powers that control it. Even at the expense of subverting law, legal recourse, and development processes.”
Curator Ram Rehman said that while there were individuals in the UPA who had a sense of history and could be approached, there was no such avenue or hope with the current dispensation.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. Eyes on Bengal Prize, BJP Plans Syama Prasad Mookerjee Museum and Archives in Kolkata
As the BJP turns its gaze towards West Bengal, its government at the Centre plans to open a museum in Kolkata with a permanent exhibition on Syama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which became the BJP a quarter century later.
Moves are afoot to compile and publish the works of Mookerjee within a year, and spread awareness of his Bengal connection which, sources said, will be crucial to the BJP strategy in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Officials of the Ministry of Culture said the proposed museum in Kolkata will have a permanent exhibition on Mookerjee. A letter he wrote to Rajendra Prasad, then President of the Constituent Assembly, expressing his “apprehensions” on possible attacks on Mahatma Gandhi – this was written a month before Gandhi’s assassination – will be one of the key exhibits at the museum, sources said.
The museum will also showcase files pertaining to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, declassified in 2016.
(Source: The Indian Express)
5. CBI Books Ex-Chief Ranjit Sinha in Corruption Case
The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a corruption case against its former director Ranjit Sinha on allegations of abusing his authority to scuttle enquiries, investigations and prosecutions in the coal block allocation cases. He happens to be the second CBI chief to have been booked by the agency in 2017.
The case was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act on Monday pursuant to the Supreme Court directive to probe the charges.
According to the FIR, during the course of investigations in the coal block allocation cases, certain allegations were made about the “inappropriate conduct” of Sinha, the then CBI Director.
(Source: The Hindu)
6. If RSS Workers Can be Made Governors, Why Can’t Mohan Bhagwat be Made President: Uddhav Thackeray
The Shiv Sena has once again reiterated its demand to make RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat the President of India.
“We had suggested Mohan Bhagwat’s name because we honestly feel he should be the President of the country. He is the most eligible candidate for our resolution of a Hindu rashtra. Look at the appointment of governors. If RSS workers can be appointed as Governors of states, there should be no problem in making Bhagwat the President,” said Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The Sena had last month demanded that Bhagwat be made the president. The demand was seen as an attempt to put the BJP in a quandary and came in the backdrop of the Sena feeling slighted over the treatment it was being meted out by the BJP.
(Source: The Indian Express)
7. Finger at CRPF Vacuum
Home Minister Rajnath Singh had sent a list of IPS officers for probable candidates to head the CRPF, but the Prime Minister's Office rejected the names forwarded nearly three months ago, sources said.
The claim by officials in the Home Ministry came a day after the Sukma massacre in which 25 CRPF personnel were killed and at a time the paramilitary force has been without a regular chief for nearly two months.
A senior official said the absence of a regular director-general had "severely affected decision-making" in the CRPF.
“No policy decision is being taken in the absence of the regular director for almost two months. This has severely affected decision-making in the force, which is deployed in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast besides Maoist-affected areas. Rajnathji had sent a list of IPS officers, but the PMO turned it down and hence the delay (in appointing the chief),” the official said.
The last regular chief, K Durga Prasad, retired on 28 February.
(Source: The Telegraph)
8. Centre Denies any Move to Impose Hindi
With many political parties from the south miffed with the Centre's reported decision to make it mandatory for ministers and parliamentarians knowing Hindi to deliver speeches and statements in Hindi, the Home Ministry on Tuesday clarified that its resolution in this regard was merely in the nature of a request and not an instruction.
The resolution was based on a recommendation made by the Committee of Parliament on Official Language, constituted way back in 1976, in 9th part of its report and later accepted by the President. The 9th part was submitted to the President of India on 2 June 2011, when the UPA was in power.
(Source: Times of India)
9. One Indian vs Chetan's Indian Girl
A Bangalore-based author has accused Chetan Bhagat of plagiarising her short story for his latest novel One Indian Girl and got a court order suspending the book's sales six months after its launch.
Anvita Bajpai, a tech consultant who has authored two books, told The Telegraph that Bhagat had "intelligently copied" from Drawing Parallels, the first story from her 2014 book Life, Odds & Ends.
After the temporary injunction order by a Bangalore civil court, Bhagat posted a clarification on his Facebook page and insisted all his works were original. He termed the latest developments "deeply unfortunate".
Bajpai had submitted copies of both books, Bhagat's and her own, to the Bangalore court that on 19 April passed orders asking the publisher, Rupa Publications, to withdraw all copies of One Indian Girl until further notice.
(Source: The Telegraph)
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