'On Tuesday, replying to a question in Rajya Sabha raised by DMK’s Tiruchi Siva about what the Reserve Bank’s “indirect” approval to the issuance of electoral bonds meant, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: “RBI, being a stakeholder, was involved in the consultation process and during the consultation process, they had certain questions to ask about the particular platform of issuance as to who is going to issue it and also the proforma with which it is going to be issued.
'While tabling the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured that the proposed Bill "intends to provide protection to the persecuted minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh." However, the contents of the Bill, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday night, seem to be incompatible with some arguments put forth by the government at the time of its introduction.
'A sociology professor of a prominent college in Mumbai was approached by a few of her Muslim students last week. They seem troubled and full of anxiety. Their disturbing query: “How do we procure documents to prove that we are Indian citizens?” The female professor, not a Muslim, was shocked. She said that they must concentrate on their studies and exams and not bother about these documents. However, they were adamant and restless, wondering from where there parents and grandparents will get the documents to prove their Indian identity.
'...The fundamental difference between the gross abuse of the constitution, especially witnessed under Indira Gandhi, and that is being seen under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah over the last five years, is that while the former was seen with anger and revulsion, the latter is adoringly termed as Chanakyaniti. It is this shift in language and discourse that is the most dangerous for Indian democracy – every act of brazen challenge to the constitution is normalised and projected as brilliant political masterstrokes. It is why Amit Shah is eulogised by the mainstream television media.
'Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has made a bizarre statement that pollution is not linked to the shortening of life in India. "No Indian study has shown pollution shortens life. Let us not create fear psychosis among people," Union minister Prakash Javadekar told Parliament on Friday... The minister's statement is in sharp contrast with several studies, where the Government of India is also a party. These studies have found that a rise in pollution is linked to deaths and shorter life spans.
'The BJP’s Ashwini Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, has claimed that he is unaware of the onion crisis in the country because he is “a vegetarian and has never tasted an onion”. This comes a day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a statement in Parliament that she “comes from a family that does not consume much onion and garlic”. Sitharaman’s comment invited heavy trolling online and prompted the viral hashtag #SayItLikeNirmalaTai. “I am a vegetarian. How will a person like me know about the shortage and price of onions?” Choubey told news agency ANI.
'Bharatiya Janata Party leader Virendra Singh Mast on Thursday dismissed reports of a slowdown in the automobile sector and claimed that traffic jams on roads were an indication of the growth, ANI reported. He alleged that the Opposition’s talks about slowdown were a conspiracy to “defame” the government and the nation. Mast, a Lok Sabha MP from Ballia constituency in Uttar Pradesh, told the Parliament that an atmosphere of economic slowdown was being created. “To defame the nation and government people are saying that the automobile sector has slowed down,” he said.
'Amit Jethava was not a well-known name outside the small circle of people that comprise environmental journalists and conservationists. But on July 20, 2010, when he was shot dead outside the High Court of Gujarat in Ahmedabad, his murder became national news. It was reported as the murder of a man who was a Right to Information (RTI) activist, a lawyer and an environmentalist. The needle of suspicion pointed to a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament named Dinu Bogha Solanki.
'AN FIR was registered in Varanasi against Samajwadi Party (SP) leader I P Singh for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by referring to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath by his old name, Ajay Singh Bisht, on Twitter. Singh was booked under section 67 (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act. The FIR was lodged late Monday evening at Shivpur police station in Varanasi...
'...The bill, if passed, would change a key part in the category for illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan - Muslim-majority states that were once part of the undivided India as defined in the Government of India act 1935. The amendment proposes granting the ability to apply for nationality to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Jains and Parsis fleeing persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan - even without any documentation i.e. illegal migrants.
