Latest Politics News
Moo-ing on with demonetisation, Priyanka Chopra’s dress and peacock tears

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Jawaharlal Nehru gets blamed for IT sector job losses
Ranjona Banerji
Which of the following are the biggest issues affecting India today:
1) A just-retired judge of the Rajasthan High Court informing us that peacocks are celibate and peahens conceive by drinking peacock tears?
2) Actress Priyanka Chopra wearing a knee-revealing dress when she met Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
3) Farmers in Maharashtra on an indefinite strike over loan waivers and their various largely ignored problems?
4) India’s growth rate for the fourth quarter of 2016-2017 falls to 6.1 per cent, because of November 2016’s demonetisation exercise?
Let’s leave the usual bull out of the reckoning for now and move on. Let’s forget those really bad puns also, please.
The Rajasthan judge certainly took Twitter by storm because, well, it’s obvious. Such a breathtaking grasp of biology and ornithology, and even evolution, is most uncommon and must be admired and applauded. These are our judges who keep our judiciary’s standards high; long may we prosper.
Actress Priyanka Chopra, if you go by our most loyal fans of the PM and upholders of the best of Indian culture on social media, has committed a disastrous act of moral repugnance. To show someone, and that too a prime minister, her knees? It is possible that Indian culture may never recover from this.
How about the farmers? Farmers largely exist in India to be ignored and to suffer quietly by themselves. Lip service is paid to their efforts in slogans now and then, usually the same slogan which has been in use for 50 years. The rest of the time, city folk, corporatewallahs and economists discuss how India has to move beyond agriculture (while voting for the cow people, of course. Sorry, I couldn’t resist that dig).
That leaves the Indian economy. The most taboo subject of all. I heard on TV the other day that the Indian economy has never been better and demonetisation has been a success. Of course, this was outright pandering to the ruling party by the news anchor. But still. Despite all evidence to the contrary, fanboys and fangirls of the government have been applauding demonetisation since the results of the Uttar Pradesh elections were announced.
We have all heard the Union finance minister telling us that everything is fine and on track. Various corporate heads, analysts, former corporate honchos and economists have also assured us that India is the fastest growing economy that has never done better. Yes some have admitted perhaps jobs have not increased that much but the fiscal deficit is down, yaay! Others have played down the loss of jobs in information technology because well, these things happen, and Jawaharlal Nehru definitely has to share some of the blame.
Now, despite all these fantastic PR efforts to shore up our confidence in our able political masters, what do we find? That figures released by the government show us that India’s GDP growth has fallen from 7 per cent in the third quarter to 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016-2017. Various experts are clear that the demonetisation exercise carried out at the end of 2016 is responsible for this.
I’m not an economist and I don’t even pretend to be one. Nor am I a corporate honcho or a former corporate honcho or a TV expert on just about everything. But like anyone else who lives in India, and is not an economist, I am aware of the effects of demonetisation, of the collapse of various industries, of the loss of jobs, of the panic and despair felt by the economically underprivileged.
Given all this, it is hardly surprising that we have become obsessed with cattle and the fact that peacocks are celibate creatures that excrete sperm as they cry.
Frankly, what else can one do but cry?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Latest Politics News
Rajya Sabha Secretariat orders AAP MP Raghav Chadha to vacate the bungalow in Central Delhi’s Pandara road
He was told that the bungalow was above his grade as a first-time MP.

A dispute over Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha’s official bungalow is ongoing. The matter is to be moved to a higher Court after a Delhi Court put on hold an order canceling its allotment. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat had ordered Raghav Chadha to vacate the bungalow in Central Delhi’s Pandara Road, which he had been allotted a year ago.
He was told that the bungalow was above his grade as a first-time MP. However, the Patiala Court had paused the order saying Chadha, who was staying with his parents in the bungalow, could not be thrown out and the proper process had to be followed as per the law. The next hearing will take place on July 10.
Head of the Rajya Sabha Housing Committee CM Ramesh said the ruling will be challenged.
He further added that Chadha, as a first-time MP, was not entitled to a type 7 bungalow. These types of bungalows are assigned to former Chief Minister, former Union Ministers, and former Governors. He cited BJP MP Radha Mohan Das had been moved from a type 7 bungalow to a type 5 bungalow.
Chadha had approached the Court after receiving the cancellation notice. He asked the notice to be declared illegal and demanded Rs 5.50 lakhs in damages for mental agony and harassment.
He told the Court that he had been allotted a type 5 bungalow on July 6, 2022. On August 29, he wrote a letter to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat requesting a Type 7 bungalow. He was then assigned the current bungalow from the Rajya Sabha pool on September 3.
Chadha said, he accepted the allotment and shifted with his parents in November, after carrying out renovations. He further added that the allotment was canceled without a reason or logic and he was informed about the same on March 3, 2023.
Latest Politics News
Big opposition meet in Patna on June 23: Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal among others to attend
The meeting will be attended by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

A mega opposition meet is scheduled to take place in Patna, Bihar on June 23. A meeting that is expected to bring a series of opposition parties from across the country together at the same table.
The meeting will be attended by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
The meeting will also witness the presence of Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) Chief Uddhav Thackeray and Samajwadi Party National President Akhilesh Yadav and Bihar’s Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav.
Leaders of the left front are also likely to join the meeting.
The huge meeting convened by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal(United) supremo Nitish Kumar was earlier slated to take place on June 12. Reports said the decision to change in dates was taken after Congress announced Kharge and Gandhi would not be able to be part of the meeting on June 12 due to prior commitments.
This will be the first mega meeting of all the opposition parties together, which was in planning for almost two months now. Bihar CM Kumar had started his bid for opposition unity against the Centre ruling BJP in April when he met Kharge and Gandhi in Delhi with his deputy Yadav and other leaders of Bihar Mahagathbandhan.
The Agenda of the meeting in Patna is expected to be deciding a common strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Opposition parties have been throwing signals of unity for some months now, the most recent one, the boycott of the inauguration of the new Parliament building by 20 like-minded opposition parties, the show of strength- leaders of different parties shared the stage while attending the swearing-in ceremony of Siddaramaiah as Karnataka CM on May 20.
Congress leader KC Venugopal said they believe in unity and are committed to the purpose of defending democracy. He further added they would surely defeat the divisive forces which are in power at the Centre.
Latest Politics News
Shiv Sena, BJP to fight Lok Sabha elections together: CM Eknath Shinde declares after meeting Amit Shah
Shinde informed the meeting was held with Shah yesterday night.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday, posting a picture from his meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced the BJP and Shiv Sena to unitedly fight all the upcoming elections including the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Shinde tweeted a picture, in which along with him and Shah, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis can also be seen.
Shinde informed the meeting was held with Shah yesterday night.
Shinde in the caption with the picture informed, in the meeting, it was decided that the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena in Maharashtra to contest all the upcoming elections in the state together, which includes the state assembly elections, local body elections and the mega 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Shinde added, for the sake of Maharashtra’s development, their alliance is strong and in the past 11 months of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, the government has taken major steps towards progress of the state and has also given permission to the policies that were at halt.
Confident Shinde said, in the future elections, they will contest together and will win with majority to make Maharashtra as the top ranking state in the country.
The Maharashtra CM further added, discussions related to agriculture and cooperative department also held in the meeting with Shah.
Shinde also hoped for the continuous guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards the implementation of policies for development of Maharashtra.
Shinde was a Thackeray family loyalist until last year, when he along with 15 other MLAs in a dramatic turn of events went against then Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, which resulted to the the collapse of Maha Vikash Aghadi government in the state and the formation of BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government with Shinde taking over as the Chief Minister.
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