'Maharashtra BJP unit on Tuesday said it will ask the party-led NDA government at the Centre to confer Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. In its election manifesto, released by BJP working president J.P. Nadda along with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state party president Chandrakant Patil and Mumbai unit head Mangal Prabhat Lodha, the state unit also sought the honour for social reformers Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule, a party leader told PTI...'
'The News Broadcasting Standards Authority has ordered the TV channel to air an apology at 10 pm on an issue pertaining to its #CongBharatMataClaim debate... Republic TV is supposed to tender an apology tonight at 10 for a broadcast from March this year. The issue pertains to a primetime debate, #CongBharatMataClaim, where the anchor Arnab Goswami, with the help of a panellist, Shantanu Gupta, cornered another panellist, Faheem Baig, into chanting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”...'
'Home minister Amit Shah was the chief guest at the National Human Rights Commission’s Foundation Day celebrations on Saturday, October 12. The NHRC has existed as a body for 26 years, since 1993, and has reportedly disposed of nearly 18 lakh cases. It has directed about Rs 176 crore of relief to various victims of human rights violations. The current chairperson of the NHRC, a quasi-judicial body with the powers of a civil court, is Justice H.L. Dattu.
'Two years after the deaths of 63 children in Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College, a state government probe has absolved Dr Kafeel Khan of all charges against him as well as commended him for doing everything in his power to help save lives. The deaths had taken place in August 2017 after an alleged shortage of oxygen in the government-run hospital. Khan, a paediatrician in the hospital, had been suspended soon after. He was jailed for nine months after a criminal case of medical negligence, corruption and dereliction of duty was filed against him.
'In what may snowball into a controversy, the Income Tax department on Monday issued a notice to Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa’s wife Novel Singhal, regarding her income as an independent director of over a dozen companies... While details about the notice are yet to come, the matter may kickstart another debate on whether the Union government is intentionally using its agencies to go after those who have dissented against BJP leaders. Lavasa was one of the election commissioners who dissented on several decisions taken by the EC during the 2019 general elections.
'In yet another step towards the Hindu right’s attempts to distance themselves from the published National Register of Citizens in Assam, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Sunday that no Hindu would have to think about leaving the country even if their names were excluded from the citizens’ register.
'Justice Akil Abdulhamid Kureshi’s appointment as a high court chief justice continues to spur debate with the Supreme Court giving in to the Modi government’s insistence that he not be sent to Madhya Pradesh as the collegium had initially decided: the judge has instead been recommended for the position of chief justice of the Tripura high court. Justice Kureshi is currently the senior most judge in the Gujarat high court. As a high court judge, he had in 2010 sent Amit Shah to police custody in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.
'The first 100 days of Modi 2.0 has firmly placed Union home minister Amit Shah at the top of government affairs. From criminalising triple talaq to the Centre’s decision to read down Article 370 and bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, the Gandhinagar MP has been at the forefront of implementing the BJP’s political agenda. Even after J.P.Nadda was appointed BJP working president at the start of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term, Shah has still found time to chalk out the party’s election strategies in various states.
'An order passed by the administration of union territory Dadra and Nagar Haveli, on the “mobilisation of industrial workers by the officers” during Amit Shah’s visit, has been criticised for involving the government machinery in political events. The Union home minister and Bharatiya Janata Party president is addressing a rally in Silvassa on September 1.
'As members of the UP police were seen visiting schools across the town of Barabanki recently, one of the superintendent of police gave a long lecture to students of a school on women safety, and on need ‘to raise their voice against crimes’ for justice. From the audience, as reported, a Class XI girl in turn schooled the superintendent, asking, how can the UP police promise to assure safety for women if the ‘accused’ is a ‘powerful minister’, and the police administration remains complicit in protecting them.
