1. Yogi@1: What Made the Public Reject the BJP’s ‘Yogi Raj’?
“May God never grant anyone such a gift on their first birthday” is probably what Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s well-wishers are saying.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that carried out encounters as a state policy, ended up at the receiving end of a political encounter by the public in the UP by-elections. The party not only lost Yogi’s Gorakhpur seat, they also lost Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s Phulpur seat.
The BJP leaders, who were singing songs of victory over Tripura until recently, are today humming the poem of their ‘guide’ Atal Bihari Vajpayee:
These are unveiled faces, their scars very deep
The spell broken
I stand in fear of truth today
I sing songs no more
What made the public completely reject the ‘Yogi raj’ that has been running UP for the past one year?
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2. BJP Put Up Murder Accused as Their Party President: Rahul Gandhi
The 84th Plenary of the Congress party in New Delhi concluded with party president Rahul Gandhi making a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
He said, “They (people) will accept a man accused of murder as the President of the BJP, but they will never ever accept the same in the Congress Party because they hold Congress in the highest regard.”
Hitting back at the Congress chief over his attack on Amit Shah, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that it was astonishing that the Congress president chooses to make allegations against the BJP chief even though he has been cleared by a court.
"Gandhi himself is out on bail in Herald case, whereas our party President Amit Shahji, has been cleared by court," she said.
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3. Lok Sabha Adjourned Amid Uproar, No-Confidence Motion Not Taken Up
Barely five minutes after the Lower House resumed, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the sessions for the day till Tuesday, 20 March following loud protests by TDP, TRS and AIADMK members.
Amid the uproar, Home Minister Rajnath Singh made a statement in the Lok Sabha saying, “We are ready to have a debate on no-confidence motion.”
As soon as the House met for Zero Hour after the Question Hour was washed out, members from TRS and AIADMK trooped into the Well carrying placards. While the TRS was demanding a rise in quota, the AIADMK was pressing for immediate setting up of the Cauvery river management board.
The no-confidence motion moved by the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress, in the backdrop of Andhra Pradesh special status row was not taken up on Monday.
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4. Another Aadhaar Data Leak: Just Google ‘Mera Aadhaar Meri Pehchan’
In yet another revelation that raises worries about the privacy of your Aadhaar data, it has been found that a simple Google search will lead you to the Aadhaar details of several individuals. These details, including their name, address, Aadhaar number, date of birth and photograph, have been made publicly accessible on the internet for no clear reason. Thankfully, the biometric details are not available.
The sites that have uploaded Aadhaar details of individuals for apparent public consumption include, among others:
- The official government website of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (www.incois.gov.in)
- The official website of the All India Football Federation (www.the-aiff.com)
- The website of a private company Starcards India (http://starcardsindia.com), a service provider of payment gateway service, mobile app development and mobile app design based in Hyderabad.
Read full story here.
5. Top Stars Missing, Indian Athletics Set With ‘Next Gen’ for CWG
Thirty-seven is the total number of athletes India could have sent to the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. However, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has chosen to send just 31.
The reigning 400-metre Asian Champion Nirmala Sheoran is actually “not traceable” according to the Federation and will therefore also not be going to the games. And Vikas Gowda, India’s only gold medalist in athletics at the 2014 CWG, has been denied a spot by the AFI because he refused to come down to India from his training facilities in America to compete in the qualifying events. This, even though his season best throw of 62.35 metres is almost an entire metre better than the CWG qualification mark!
So then, who is representing India in athletics at the Gold Coast? A lot of medal favourites, from the “next gen” of Indian athletics.
Watch full video here.
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