News18 Daybreak |Karunanidhi Laid to Rest in Marina Beach, Gujarat Groundnut Scam and Other Stories You May Have Missed
In case you missed it
The last of a generation of politicians who founded the Dravidian movement, Muthuvel Karunanidhi, was laid to rest on the Marina beach on Wednesday evening, a day after the doyen of Tamil politics breathed his last at the age of 94. As his golden casket was laid to rest at the iconic Marina beach, a sea of humanity bid him a teary farewell along with family members and cadres of a party that he helmed for 50 years.
Man Who Never Rested is Now Resting. This is the message on the casket in which Karunanidhi was laid to rest. These words were picked out by the Kalaignar for his ‘tombstone’ 30 years ago.
The groundnut procurement scam in Saurashtra region of Gujarat is growing in scale by the day and has put the government in the state on the defensive even as the opposition Congress upped the ante by alleging that several BJP leaders were involved in the fraud. Till date, the Gujarat police has arrested 27 persons, including officials of the two agencies that the government had contracted to procure groundnut worth Rs 4,000 crore from farmers. Here's all about Gujarat's Rs 4,000 crore scam.
The government has appointed Chartered Accountant Swaminathan Gurumurthy, also considered as an RSS ideologue, on the board of the Reserve Bank of India.
When the mortal remains of RK Dhawan were brought into the main foyer of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office, a hoarding with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s picture loomed large over the lawns of 24, Akbar Road. In death, RK Dhawan remained as he was in life – under Indira Gandhi’s shadow.
It will be a tussle between the ruling BJP and the Congress today in Madhya Pradesh as both parties will try to reach out to the state’s substantial tribal population on the occasion of World Tribal Day. While the BJP will observe August 9 as Adivasi Diwas, Congress plans to reach out to the tribal population by celebrating Kranti Diwas in Jhabua, the hometown of freedom fighter Chandrashekhar ‘Azad’, as the day also marks the 76th anniversary of the historic Quit India Movement.
Expressing concern over the spurt in rape cases, the Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Bihar government for misusing taxpayers' money to fund NGOs like the Muzaffarpur shelter home. "What's to be done? Girls getting raped left, right and centre," the Bench noted citing the 2016 National Crime Research Bureau data available on the Internet. According to the data, 38,947 rapes were reported in 2016.
Agree or disagree?
Is Muthuvel Karunanidhi a political force to reckon with even after death? If Edappadi Palaniswami's refusal to grant him space for a final resting place by Karunanidhi's mentor CN Annadurai's side at the Marina in Chennai is anything to go by, he is. That could be the only reason why the AIADMK government would choose to display a petulant attitude to a five-time chief minister who strode the Tamil Nadu political scene for seven decades. TS Sudhir writes on how Kalaignar continues to shape DMK politics from beyond the grave.
The UPA government failed to find a solution to the Air India mess, continuing to feed this white elephant till its last days. It had approved a mammoth bailout package with annual equity infusion to strengthen the balance sheet of Air India and these infusions continue till today. When the Narendra Modi government came to power, there were widespread expectations that it would rid the nation of a cash guzzler like Air India. And it did make a feeble attempt to sell off the perpetually loss-making airline. But that one, half-hearted attempt bombed and things are back to square one, writes Sindhu Bhattacharya.