1. UP Polls and Caste on BJP’s Mind Before Cabinet Reshuffle
BJP chief Amit Shah’s midnight calls to a bunch of parliamentarians set the stage for the reshuffling of Modi’s cabinet which is set to take place on Tuesday, The Hindustan Times reported.
Whether Small and Medium Enterprises Minister, 75-year-old Kalraj Mishra, will retain his post or not will depend on the BJP’s assessment of his importance as a Brahmin in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
Chandauli MP Mahendra Pandey, who is also a Brahmin from UP, is likely to be inducted in his stead.
Read the full report here.
2. CBI Arrests Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary and Four Others
The CBI arrested Rajendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, along with four others in connection to favouring private companies in granting government contracts between 2006 and 2014, The Hindustan Times reported.
AAP launched an attack on the Centre and PM Narendra Modi accusing the BJP government of stooping to a new low.
In this case, BJP found an unlikely ally in the Congress when Delhi Congress spokesperson said:
What we fail to understand is that why is Kejriwal protecting an official who has been arrested in a corruption case?
Kumar was the secretary (IT) under the Sheila Dikshit government when the alleged corruption took place.
Read the full story here.
3. Suicide Bomber in Medina Mosque Kills Five in Saudi Arabia
A suicide bomber detonated an explosive near the security headquarters of the Prophet’s mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television reported on Monday.
The Prophet’s mosque in Medina is the second holiest pilgrimage site for Muslims.
According to the confirmation by the Saudi Interior Ministry, the attack in Medina killed four security officers along with the suicide bomber. Five others have been injured in the attack.
Read the full story on The Quint.
4. Apna Dal to Merge with BJP Ahead of UP Polls
NDA ally Apna Dal is likely to merge with the BJP ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
The Times of India reported that Anupriya Patel, who represents the party in the Lok Sabha, is also expected to be inducted in Tuesday’s cabinet expansion.
Although BJP had some initial troubles with Anupriya’s mother, Krishna Patel, who was not too keen on the merge, BJP sources have said that the formal work on the merger has already been done.
Read the full story on The Times of India.
5. Caught On Camera: Jaish-e-Muhammad Seeks Funds from Karachi Mosques in Pakistan
Banned terrorist organisation, Jaish-e-Muhammad, has been collecting funds from a congregation of mosques in Karachi, to send jihadists to fight in India and Afghanistan, The Indian Express reported.
In footage obtained by the news agency, a man outside Jamia Uloom-e-Islam mosque in Karachi’s Jacob Lines area, is heard saying:
Help the mujahideen of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, the mujahideen of Islam, fight jihad in Kashmir against India, and in Afghanistan against the Americans.
The footage also shows police officers watching as the banned organisation collects funds outside the Jamia Uloom-e-Islam.
Read the full story on The Indian Express.
6. Tarishi was Killed Because She Was an Indian: Mother
At Tarishi Jain’s funeral, which took place in Gurugram’s Sukhrali village, her inconsolable mother told the media that Tarishi was killed because she was an Indian, The Telegraph reported.
Tell everyone the truth, the truth is that she was killed because she was an Indian.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote to Tarishi’s parents, expressing her “deepest condolences” in this hour of grief, saying, “We have to build an atmosphere against this.”
Sources said that a passenger was detained at Burdwan railway station in Bengal in connection to the Dhaka attack that left Tarishi and 19 others dead.
Read the full story on The Telegraph.
7. Delhi Traffic Police Identifies 167 Potholes, But MCDs Deny Responsibility
Around 167 spots in Delhi that are prone to water-logging have been identified by the traffic police, but apparently only two fall under the jurisdiction of the three municipal corporations in the capital.
The Indian Express reported that all three MCDs had maintained that roads which are wider than 60-feet would come under the purview of the PWD.
South Delhi’s traffic congestion worsened after the downpour in the city as several vehicles broke down due to the water-logging.
Read the full story on The Indian Express.
8. Dhaka Attacker’s Father Says He’ll Have to Apologise to the Whole World
Meer Hayet Kabir, an executive with a foreign company in Dhaka, is also one of the Dhaka attackers. Meer Saameh Mubasher’s father said he couldn’t bear to make the trip to identify his son in the military hospital morgue.
How will we arrange a funeral for him in these circumstances? Who will come? I will have to apologise to the whole world on behalf of my son.Meer Hayet Kabir
According to The Telegraph, Kabir said his family was unaware that Mubasher was getting influenced by radical Islam, except for one little clue. Months before his disappearance, he had stopped playing the guitar, saying, “Music is not good.”
Read the full story on The Telegraph.
9. Government to Monitor Cash Inflow to NGOs from Foreign Contributions
The Union Home Ministry will be able to track all the foreign contributions made to NGOs registered under the Foreigners Contribution Registration Act (FCRA) 2010, in real-time.
A government officer said that although the government had cancelled the licenses of nearly 10,000 NGOs for failing to file returns in 2015, they may still continued to receive funds.
Office-bearers of many such NGOs, after receiving foreign funds and then having the NGO’s licence cancelled for not filing FCRA returns, were found to have later floated a new NGO, many times with the same address.
According to The Times of India, the FCRA will be adopting a web-based application which will keep a tab on the number, frequency and amount of foreign contributions to the NGOs.
Read the full story in The Times of India.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)