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QBullet: Oppn Slams Budget; Congress Sweeps Rajasthan Bypolls

Here’s a roundup of the top stories of the day. 

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India
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1. Union Budget 2018: After Gujarat, BJP Banks on Pro-Rural Budget

Presenting the Union Budget on Thursday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley used the word farmer 22 times, and agriculture 15 times. Then there were other phrases and schemes in his Budget speech such as MSME (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises), universal health programme, and jobs.

By the end of the first half of his speech, there was little doubt where the Budget was heading – many, including Opposition leaders, found the first half nothing short of a political address. BJP MPs, meanwhile, hope it would would help the party disarm the Opposition and project itself as poor-friendly in the run-up to crucial Assembly elections in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan this year, and the big battle – the General Election – scheduled in 2019.

Woken up by the relatively tight fight in Gujarat, largely due to the ire of farmers in the state, as many BJP leaders read it, the party projected the Budget as pro-farmer and pro-poor.

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2. Proposed ‘Modicare’ Promises to Provide Health Insurance to 500 Million Indians

Here’s a roundup of the top stories of the day. 
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
(Photo: IANS)

The Narendra Modi government has announced a transformative public health programme offering health insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to 100 million poor and vulnerable families, with the benefits expected to reach 500 million individuals, 40 percent of India’s population.

“It is taking health care to a new aspirational level as it is going to be the world’s largest government-funded programme,” said Arun Jaitley, finance minister, in his budget speech about the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), which is being referred to as ‘Modicare’.

It’s the world’s biggest health protection scheme by size, not budget and will raise health cover by up to 17 times from the existing Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) that caps it at Rs 30,000 per year. The outlay for RSBY went up from ~1,000 crore in 2017 to Rs 2,000 crore this year.

(Source: Hindustan Times)

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3. Cong Calls Budget Defeatist, TMC Dubs it Dying Declaration

BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday hailed the Union Budget saying that it gives new wings to aspirations of the poor, farmers and the middle class but the opposition termed it “defeatist” and a “big letdown”.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said finance minister Arun Jaitley had failed the “fiscal consolidation test” that will have “serious consequences” on the growth rate.

“It is a defeatist budget. I think they have thrown in the towel. Unfortunately, the budget proposals are a big letdown,” he said in a press conference.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to attack the government. “4 years gone; still promising farmers a fair price. 4 years gone; fancy schemes, with no matching budgets. 4 years gone; no jobs for our youth. Thankfully, only 1 more year to go,” he tweeted.

(Source: Hindustan Times)

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4. Cong Beats BJP 3-0 in Rajasthan Bypolls; Didi Retains Both Seats in Bengal

Here’s a roundup of the top stories of the day. 
Sachin Pilot and other Congress members celebrating their victory in the bypolls. 
(Photo: PTI)

BJP lost all the three seats to Congress in byelections in Rajasthan on Thursday, ringing alarm bells for the Vasundhara Raje government, which faces assembly elections in 10 months.

However, Congress lost one assembly seat in West Bengal to the ruling Trinamool Congress, which also emphatically retained the Uluberia Lok Sabha seat. Significantly, BJP beat CPM and Congress to emerge as the runners up in both Uluberia LS and Noapara assembly seats in Bengal.

In Rajasthan, Congress recorded comfortable victories in both Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha seats. It lost the two seats to BJP with huge margins during the 2014 Modi wave.

Congress also wrested back the Mandalgarh assembly seat which it had lost in 2013 when Raje rode to power with three-fourths majority in the state.

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5. SC Makes Public: Which Judge Gets What Matter, Move to Elevate Two Judges

Here’s a roundup of the top stories of the day. 
Dipak Misra, the Chief Justice of India
(Photo: The Quint)

For the first time, the Supreme Court has made public its Judges Roster — a list that shows which judge hears what matter by subject — with Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra retaining all matters related to PILs.

The roster was posted on the Supreme Court’s official website Thursday, nearly three weeks after its four most senior judges — Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph — went public with concerns over the conduct of the CJI, especially in allocation of cases.

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6. Hearing Into Aadhaar Validity Gets Heated

Here’s a roundup of the top stories of the day. 
Image used for representational purposes. 
(Photo: iStock/Altered by The Quint)

Justice DY Chandrachud, one of the five Supreme Court judges hearing the Aadhaar case, was anguished with the petitioners for branding him as “Aadhaar judge.”

“We are neither Aadhaar judges nor NGO lawyers,” the judge fumed when senior advocate Shyam Divan trashed the World Bank report the government has relied on in support of its Aadhaar programme.

The judge had on the last hearing quoted from the report to counter Divan’s argument that the architecture of the scheme was a feature of a totalitarian state, which countries such as North Korea would envy. Justice Chandrachud had then said, “Not just envy of North Korea, but also the World Bank.”

(Source: Hindustan Times)

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7. As 17 Parties Meet, Sonia Urges Opposition to Bury Differences

Here’s a roundup of the top stories of the day. 
Sonia Gandhi. 
(Photo: PTI)

With political rivalries in states hampering "secular" unity at the Centre, former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has urged like-minded parties to overcome regional differences and join hands against BJP at the Centre.

The plea from the Congress leader provided fodder for detailed discussions among opposition parties on the need for unity, a critical issue given the resurfacing of friction in the anti-Hindutva camp in recent weeks.

The opposition parties met on Thursday amid comments from Trinamool Congress that party chief Mamata Banerjee should lead the opposition. Also, when NCP chief Sharad Pawar called a consultation of the opposition earlier this week, Congress made it plain that Sonia Gandhi is still the head of the grouping.

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8. Sushma Swaraj Meets KP Oli, Says Visit Devoid of Any Agenda

Here’s a roundup of the top stories of the day. 
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. 
(Photo: Reuters)

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj began her high-level meetings with top Nepal leadership soon after she arrived in Kathmandu on a two-day visit that she said was “devoid of any agenda”.

Foreign ministry sources said they have not prepared any “structured” agenda for discussions with the minister’s team that includes foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale.

Swaraj had a one-on-one meeting with KP Oli, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, and leader of the Left Alliance that won absolute majority in the parliamentary elections. Oli is likely to be the next Prime Minister of Nepal. The government formation, however, appears weeks away given the lack of clarity in the Constitution on many related issues.

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9. Kasganj Security Beefed up to Bar Entry of Netas & Hinduvadi Leaders

Here’s a roundup of the top stories of the day. 
A bus set on fire by an irate mob as two communities clashed in Kasganj district of Uttar Pradesh on 27 January, 2018. 
(Photo: IANS)

In an attempt to bring peace to Kasganj, the Aligarh administration has stepped up security to stop any politicians and Hinduvadi leaders from visiting the area that was rocked by clashes six days ago.

After receiving information that some Hinduvadi leaders may go to Kasganj, the police have launched a massive checking near Panehti police post on GT road. SO in charge (Akrabad) Vinod Kumar Singh told HT, “The administration is trying to bring normalcy to Kasganj. On the orders of SSP Rajesh Pande, all vehicles going towards Kasganj are being checked.”

(Source: Hindustan Times)

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