'“Every single number in the Budget is a lie,” Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said on here Sunday of the Union Budget. India’s current slowdown is worse than that of 1991 and 2008, and the Budget has cut allocations to all employment-intensive sectors, further adding to the mess, said Ms. Ghosh, one of the world’s leading development economists. “All the most employment-intensive sectors like agriculture, employment guarantee, food, health, education, there are cuts.”...'
'Former Union minister and BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde is once again in news -- for wrong reasons -- and this time for attacking Mahatma Gandhi, calling the freedom struggle led by him a "drama". He also asked how "such people" could come to be called 'Mahatma' in India. While addressing a public event in Bengaluru on Saturday, the Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada said the entire freedom movement was "staged with the consent and support of the British". "None of these so-called leaders were beaten up by the cops even once. Their independence movement was one big drama.
'Caught up in the maelstrom of divisive politics, India is silently but surely sliding into an environmental abyss under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's watch. The latest EPI ( Environmental Performance Index) report released on the sidelines of the WEF conclave at Davos puts us at third from the bottom- at 177 out of 180 countries, a decline of 36 places since 2016 ( when we were at 141). We do even worse in the index of air quality, at 178 out of 180.
'Rajkot Collector Remya Mohan issues Rs 50,000 cheque to reporters of eight dailies ‘as a bribe’ to give publicity to Republic Day event organised by the Gujarat government in Rajkot...'
'On February 3, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra tweeted a 45-second video clip with the claim, “वो जीना चाहते है और हमारे बच्चे मरने को तैयार है (They want to live and our children are ready to die) Dangerous very Dangerous Wake Up before it’s too late!!”. The tweet has amassed close to 5,000 retweets so far. In the clip, a Muslim clergyman while making a provocative statement says*, “The way they have been torturing us. If we give a signal and instigate our young children then our children have way more strength than them. It’s because they find them alone.
'...The bottom line is that despite all the smoke and mirrors and blatant attempts to fudge the data, it is clear that this budget will not provide the required fiscal stimulus to kick-start the economy. Maybe stock markets tanked because they realized this (although they have not otherwise been noted for much economic sense). The few benefits of this budget will go to a handful of crony capitalists and, possibly, some foreign portfolio investors who will face much reduced taxation.
'Ahead of Delhi Legislative Assembly elections set to be held on February 8, 2020, an alleged list of 27 Aam Aadmi Party candidates has been circulating on social media. According to the list, 21 out of 27 candidates hail from the Muslim community. On January 11, Facebook page Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh posted the viral list and wrote in Hindi, “Is this list from Delhi or Lahore *Aam Aadmi Party’s first list of Delhi assembly released * (followed by the list) Kejriwal aka Kejruddin, wants to turn Delhi into Pakistan.
'For each pro-Congress account spreading propaganda and fake news on Twitter, there are 120 doing the same for the BJP, a study has claimed. The study has been conducted by a user of the social media portal Reddit who goes by the username ‘/u/onosmosis’. The user claims to have analysed lakhs of unverified Twitter accounts to identify trends in online misinformation. Conducted with the help of an algorithm, the study started by identifying around 4 lakh Twitter accounts with a clear political leaning.
'A day after targeting Aam Aadmi Party on the state of Delhi government schools, Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the condition of mohalla clinics in the capital was equally deplorable... However, a ground check by TOI found that at three places, these accounts were exaggerated and the situation was not as bad as it was being made out to be...'
'Granting bail to two persons accused of rioting and attempt to murder during the anti-CAA protests last month, a sessions court in Bijnor, one of the worst affected districts in Uttar Pradesh, has torn into police claims, saying they produced no evidence to show that the accused indulged in firing and arson, that weapons were seized from the accused, or that police personnel sustained any bullet injury...'
