1. All 9 candidates Win Nail-Biting Contest in UP
Winning 12 out of 26 seats across seven states, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) increased its strength in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
It also won nine seats in the key battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, including one in a nail-biting contest against a combined opposition candidate from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Finance minister Arun Jaitley, BJP spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao and actress-politician Jaya Bachchan of the Samajwadi Party (SP) were the prominent winners in Uttar Pradesh.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. INX Media Case: Karti Chidambaram Granted Bail by Delhi High Court
The Delhi High Court on Friday granted bail to Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, in the INX Media case. Karti has to furnish a bail bond of Rs 10 lakh. The order was delivered by Justice S P Garg who had reserved his verdict on 16 March after hearing arguments on behalf of Karti and the CBI which had opposed granting relief to him.
The CBI had earlier contended that bail should not be granted to Karti Chidambaram as he has already destroyed evidence in the case and was an “influential” person. Karti’s counsel, however, argued that no case under the Prevention of Corruption Act was made out against him since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had neither questioned any public servant nor made them an accused in the matter.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. Delhi HC Restores Membership of 20 Disqualified AAP MLAs
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received a morale-boosting reprieve on Friday from the Delhi high court, which reinstated 20 MLAs of the party who had been disqualified through a presidential order on the recommendation of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Disqualification of the members of the legislative assembly (MLAs), on grounds that they held an office of profit as parliamentary secretaries, was in violation of the “principle of natural justice,” a bench comprising justice Sanjiv Khanna and justice Chander Shekhar ruled.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. Congress Files Notice for No-Confidence Motion in Lok Sabha
After Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress, the Congress party on Friday submitted a notice for no-confidence motion against the Modi government in Lok Sabha. In a letter to the Secretary General of the lower house, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge requested to include the motion in the Revised List of Business on Monday.
This comes after both houses were adjourned for the day as the stalemate between the opposition and the government continued for the third week of the second leg of the budget session with ruckus prevailing unabated.
(Source: The Indian Express)
5. Delhi Police Stops JNU Teachers, Students Marching to Parliament; Resort to Lathi-Charge, Water Canons
A large number of JNU students and teachers were on Friday stopped from marching to the Parliament Complex over various demands, including academic freedom, with police resorting to lathi-charge and use of water canons. They were stopped at the Sanjay Jheel area in south Delhi.
The “Padyatra”, which started at the varsity’s campus, was organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) and the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA).
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. Three Die in French Shooting and Hostage-Taking, Attacker Killed
Three people were killed in southwestern France on Friday when a gunman held up a car, opened fire on police and then took hostages in a supermarket, screaming "Allahu Akbar".
Police later stormed the supermarket in the small town of Trebes and the attacker was killed, interior minister gerard Collomb told reporters on site.
The attacker was known to authorities for petty crimes but was not considered an Islamist threat, Collomb said, adding that he was believed to have acted alone.
(Source: Times of India)
7. Gujarat Anti-Muslim Riots Renamed ‘Gujarat Riots’ in New NCERT Book
The 2002 Gujarat riots which were called “anti-Muslim riots” in the NCERT political science textbook for Class XII are now called just the “Gujarat riots” in the revised version of the book that hit shelves this week.
Changes have been incorporated in the last chapter of the textbook titled ‘Recent Developments in Indian Politics’ to tweak the nomenclature of the riots. So, the heading of the passage on the riots (on page 187) has been changed from ‘Anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat’ to just ‘Gujarat riots’.
However, in the same paragraph, the 1984 riots are described as anti-Sikh.
In the previous version of the textbook, the first sentence of the above passage had read, “In February-March 2002, large-scale violence against Muslims took place in Gujarat”.
(Source: The Indian Express)
8. Will Back Congress Where It Can Beat BJP, Says CPM
In what appears to be a dilution of CPM’s stand opposing electoral understanding with Congress, former general secretary Prakash Karat said his party would do whatever it took to check BJP, even back Congress where it could defeat the saffron party.
In an editorial titled ‘Uttar Pradesh Portents’ in CPM mouthpiece People’s Democracy, Karat said, “The UP byelections provide important lessons for the future in terms of election tactics to defeat the BJP... If the major non-BJP parties unite, then the smaller parties and forces can extend support to them.”
(Source: Times of India)
9. Soldiers on Borders to Get New Rifles & LMGs Soon
The government after some delay has finally set the ball rolling for the acquisition of a small number of new assault rifles, light machine guns and closequarter battle carbines, which were promised for infantry soldiers deployed on the borders with China and Pakistan under the fast-track procedure (FTP).
Defence ministry sources said the initial tenders or RFPs (requests for proposal) for 72,400 assault rifles, 93,895 CQB carbines and 16,479 light machine guns, which will together cost an estimated Rs 5,366 crore, were issued to selected foreign armament companies on Friday.
(Source: Times of India)
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