News18.com Daybreak | Rajini-Kamal Share Stage, Sitharaman Flies Sukhoi and Other Stories You May Have Missed
In case you missed it
Star alliance in the works? Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan shared stage at a film launch in Chennai, but remained ambiguous when asked if their friendship from their filmy heydays would also translate into a political alliance. “Only time will tell,” was Rajinikanth’s reply to the Rajini-Kamal combine.
This past week the Ministry of External Affairs decided to introduce some radical new changes in its passport policy. The last page of the passport which usually has a person’s familial details as well as address details will be done away with. The MEA also decided that those Indians who need Emigration Check while leaving India will now be issued orange coloured passports while those who don’t require Emigration Check will continue to be issued the regular blue passport. And Kerala politicians are seeing red over the colour scheme. “I think this is an absurd move. It is ridiculous,” said Shashi Tharoor.
Nirmala Sitharaman became the first woman Defence Minister to fly on a Sukhoi Su-30 MKI on Wednesday. Sitharaman took off in the two-seater twin-engine fighter jet from an air base in Jodhpur.
Take a look at the other politicians and ministers who boarded fighter jets before Sitharaman.
Aadhaar is "an electronic leash" and the government could completely destroy an individual by "switching off" the 12-digit unique identifier number, petitioners have told the Supreme Court as it began hearing a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the government's flagship Aadhaar programme and its enabling Act of 2016.
A Class 1 student was injured when he was allegedly attacked with a sharp-edged weapon in the toilet of a private school in Lucknow, an incident similar to the killing of a Ryan school student in Gurgaon.
Arvind Kejriwal is making sure parents whose children study in Delhi government schools will have real-time access to CCTV footage of classrooms to ensure transparency and safety of children.
The two Koreas— North and South— agreed to form a united women's hockey team for next month's Winter Olympics in the South, the latest in a flurry of cross-border talks. Following a working-level meeting held at the truce village of Panmunjom, the two sides also announced that their athletes would make a joint entrance carrying a pro-unification flag.
A BJP leader from Jharkhand was caught on tape thrashing the District Transport Officer (DTO) of Latehar district. The assault, which was caught on tape, happened after the officer allegedly removed a name plate from BJP leader Rajdhani Yadav's vehicle carrying his designation and name. Here’s a list of 9 times Indian politicians slapped officers for doing their job.
A 25-year-old Kerala Muslim who was the first man from his religion and state to come out of the closet, say it scrapping 377 doesn’t mean that it would become easier to live in the society as a practising Muslim, who is gay.
Agree or disagree?
If someone wants to experience the pain of an untouchable, he/she must travel as a non-food passenger on Rajdhani. The person would not get a single cup of tea from the pantry car even in extreme cold or when the train is running late by 10-12 hours. It seems Rajdhani Express pantry car has given birth to new ‘untouchables’.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Sabarmati Ashram from where much of Mahatma Gandhi’s political life evolved. How would the Prime Minister of Israel approach Gandhi? Unlike many other heads of states who visit Gandhi’s ashram or Rajghat in the regular official protocols, or out of sheer respect to a saint, it is a much distinct moment for an Israeli Prime Minister due to the way Gandhi understood and responded to Zionism, the national movement of the Jewish people for a nation-state.
Government subsidies for religious purposes must be avoided in a secular country. This is a Constitutional imperative. The public money should be spent on health, education, roads and other needs of the people and not on Kailash Mansarovar yatra or Haj or any other religious pilgrimage. It is for the citizens to work out their private religious matters and the government should have no role in this regard. Zakia Soman, women's rights activist and one of the founding members of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, writes that Haj Subsidy is a misnomer, it is based on half-truths, ignorance and ideology.