Today’s news wrap up of the day.
1. Liberals celebrate Amit Shah getting swine flu
The Quint journalist, Stutee Mishra took to Twitter to ask whether “people die from Swine Flu”. The Tweet was later deleted. The Quint issued an “apology” and said that they would take appropriate action against the journalist.
Stutee was not the only one to be in a celebratory mood after Amit Shah had taken ill. NDTV, notorious for its fake news and hateful journalists was also the culprit. NDTV journalist cum troll, Sunetra Chowdhury had a few years ago in 2009 had expressed glee when Narendra Modi had been diagnosed with Swine Flu.
2. Journalist writes to CJI, asks to suspend senior advocate designations of P Chidambaram and his wife
Senior journalist J Gopikrishnan of The Pioneer has written to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi asking for the suspension of the senior advocate designations of former UPA minister P Chidambaram and his wife Nalini Chidambaram in the Supreme Court, reported Bar and Bench.
J Gopikrishnan, in his two-page letter to the Chief Justice, has accused P Chidambaram of ‘clearly misusing the position’ despite being an accused of corruption and money laundering cases. In his letter, he says, Congress leader P Chidambaram appeared in cases before trial courts in his Senior Advocate attire while his lawyers, Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued for his bail, which is a “clear misuse of holding Senior Advocate Designation” by an accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
3. NIA conducts raids in seven more locations in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab in ISIS-inspired module investigation
As part of the ongoing investigation in the ISIS-inspired terror module busted in December last year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) today raided seven places in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
As per reports, Punjab has surfaced for the first time in the investigation as earlier the raids were conducted in Uttar Pradesh and in NCR region. On 12th January, the NIA had made a fresh arrest from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad and conducted raids in several UP towns like Hapur, Meerut and Ghaziabad. The agency had found that the founder of the module Mufti Mohammad Suhail alias Hazrath had travelled to Tral, Rajouri and Bandipora in Kashmir twice last year. According to the agency, Hazrath travelled to these places to seek arms training from a Pakistani trained Mujahideen (terrorist).
4. The Compulsive Contrarian and his Manufactured Logic: Arun Jaitley tears into Leftists and Congress
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley took to Facebook today to write a scathing blog against Rahul Gandhi and Congress. He also tore into the Leftists who have tried their best to subvert democracy by weakening an elected government and skewed logic to create issues where none existed.
His blog, first published on Facebook, titled “The Compulsive Contrarian and his Manufactured Logic” is reproduced here.
5. Sexual exploitation of women, corruption and arrogance: AAP Punjab MLA levelled serious allegations on party leadership
AAP Punjab MLA form Jaitu constituency, Baldev Singh had yesterday resigned from the party’s primary membership. In his letter, as per reports, Baldev Singh has alleged that the party under Arvind Kejriwal has given up its basic ideology and principles. Singh also accused Kejriwal of being ‘dictatorial and arrogant’.
Baldev Singh has reportedly also alleged that during the Punjab elections, the Delhi AAP leaders had indulged in rampant ticket selling and sexual exploitation of women. Rebel AAP MLA and former Delhi minister Kapil Mishra has Tweeted about it.
6. Another farmer loan waiver scam? Rs 120 crore non-existent farm loans ‘waived off’ in Madhya Pradesh
The curious case of nonexistent farm loans being waived off in Madhya Pradesh has come to the fore. As the process of granting farm loan waivers is initiated, farmers, who had not even taken loans, started appearing in the list of debtors whose loans are being waived off by the government.
The farmers whose names have wrongfully appeared in the list of debtors have filed their grievances at the local branches of the District Co-operative Central Bank. Farmers have alleged that when there is no loan on their names, how can the government offer waiver?
7. 1300 Rohingyas flee to Bangladesh from India over fears of deportation to Myanmar
As per reports, 1300 Rohingyas have crossed into Bangladesh from India since the start of the year. “Some 1,300 individuals from 300 families have arrived from India to Bangladesh until today,” said Nayana Bose, a spokesperson for the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG).
The ISCG includes UN agencies and various other organizations that claim to address humanitarian concerns. UNHCR spokesperson Firas Al-Khateeb said the UN refugee agency was “aware of the situation”.
As per reports, the exodus was sparked by fears of deportation to Myanmar. The NDA government in India has maintained that Rohingyas are a security threat to the nation and must be deported from where they came. 230 Rohingyas were arrested in 2018 by Indian authorities.
8. BJP asks the black sheep, Shatrughan Sinha to quit the party if he wants to
The actor turned politician, BJP rebel MP from Patna Sahib Lok Sabha Shatrughan Sinha, who is known to be acrimonious towards his own party, has been finally shown the red flag, with the party advising him to quit if so wants.
Sinha’s regular outbursts hit a nerve in Bihar, where Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister and senior party leader Sushil Modi has adviced Sinha to quit saying Sinha had “fallen into the bad company of Yashwant Sinha.”
