News18 Daybreak | Shiv Sena-BJP May Make Amends Over Thackeray Memorial and Other Stories You Need to Watch Out For

Episode 202,   Jan 23, 2019, 03:40 AM

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray are set to attend a ceremony today to hand over land for the construction of Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray’s memorial. But the jury is still out on whether this signals the end of months of bickering between the parties, who have been allies for nearly 30 years in Maharashtra.

On Tuesday, Shiv Sena member MP Sanjay Raut in an interview with an English newspaper had ruled out the possibility of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janta Party for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He had however contended that the Sena might rethink their stand if incumbent Union Minister Nitin Gadkar is put forward as the Prime Minister.

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The party is now preparing to contest for 25 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming polls and is even in talks with Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, a BJP ally, for a pre-poll alliance.

The Delhi government is seeking legal advice with regard to granting sanction for prosecuting in the JNU sedition case, government sources said on Tuesday. On Saturday, the Aam Admi Party-led government and the Delhi Police were at loggerheads after the court slammed the police for filing a chargesheet without taking the required sanctions. “Delhi Police took three years to file the charge sheet. The government must be allowed due diligence and legal advice at its disposal before taking a decision," the source said. The Delhi Police on January 14 filed a 12000-page chargesheet against former JNU student union president Kanhaiya Kumar and 9 others almost three year after they were accused for raising “anti-national” slogans.

Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah will be holding a second rally in West Bengal’s Jhargram and Birbhum today. Tuesday’s rally in Malda marked the beginning of the series of rallies that the BJP has scheduled across the state. Amit Shah in yesterday’s had announced that the Citizenship Bill will be one of the main agenda. “The Modi government has pledged to help Hindu Bengali refugees who came from Bangladesh and Pakistan,” he said in the public meeting. The meetings comes only days after the Trinamool Congress’ ‘United India’ mega rally, which witnessed the coming together of 23 opposition party leaders under the anti-BJP banner. The BJP meanwhile faced several obstacles in its planning for the Bengal campaign as it was denied permission by the Supreme Court to take out a Rath Yatra that was planned earlier. Subsequently, controversy erupted after the Malda magistrate denied clearance for Shah’s helicopter to land because of “upgradation work at the airport”.

Prime Minister Modi will be inaugurating the Netaji Shubhash Chandra Bose Museum marking his 122 birthday of the Indian revolutionary. Earlier in October 2015, family members of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had met the PM and requested for declassification of the files relating to Netaji, following which the government declassified the files. Today’s ceremony will take place at Delhi’s Red Fort.

What You May Have Missed

Syed Shuja, a self-proclaimed cyber expert who on Monday came out with shocking allegations of electronic voting machine hacking in the 2014 general elections, was never a part of Electronic Corporation of India (ECIL), the company said on Tuesday. ECIL along with Bharat Electronics manufacture the voter machines. In a press conference held in London by the International Journalist’s Association, Shuja claimed that he had been a part of the team under ECIL. But, sources in the company now say that none of the team members that he named were part of the engineering team that dealt with EVM. Monday’s presser witnessed Shuja making several allegations against the ruling party, who he said had rigged the 2014 elections through the hacked machines. The BJP along with several union ministers slammed the allegations as a “Congress-sponsored conspiracy”, raising questions about the presence of Congress leader Kapil Sibal at the press conference. Sibal however defended his presence and said that invitations had been sent to all, including the BJP and the Election Commission.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the Centre’s appeal to club together reservation quota for in the recruitment of teachers in UGC-funded higher education institutions. The appeal had been filed against an earlier ruling which held that ‘department’ and not ‘university’ should be a unit for deciding quota. The move is expected to drastically cut the number of reserved posts for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs across central universities. Read News18.com’s report to find out more.

A 39-year-old woman who dared to visit the Ayyappa shrine at Kerala's Sabarimala in defiance of religous customs earlier this month was not allowed into her in-laws' house on Tuesday. The incident occurred nearly a week after Kanaka Durga's mother-in-law allegedly assaulted her, following which she had to be admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College.

Kanaka Durga filed a complaint with the District Violence Protection Officer after her in-laws locked her out of the house. "The complaint has been forwarded to the court, and an order is awaited," a source close to her told NDTV.

The source said that when police took Kanaka Durga back home from the hospital, they found that her husband had locked the door and left the place with his mother and two children. She is now living under police protection in a government shelter.

Kanaka Durga and another woman, 40-year-old Bindu Ammini, were the first ones of menstrual age to enter the famous hilltop shrine in decades. After their achievement, both were forced to stay in an undisclosed location on the outskirts of Kochi under state protection for fear of reprisals from right-wing activists. However, when Kanaka Durga returned home on the morning of January 15, her mother-in-law allegedly came at her with a stick and beat her until she could barely stand.

The Supreme Court later instructed the Kerala Police to ensure that both Kanaka Durga and Bindu Ammini were provided round-the-clock security.

Ever since Raghuram Rajan left Mint Street, he has not shied away from critiquing the government on economy and policies, sparking speculation that he might eventually take the political plunge. In thisexclusive interview with News18.com from the World Economic Form in Davos, the former RBI governor talks to News18 about these speculations and what the

The Chandrababu Naidu-led Andhra government on Tuesday announced its decision to grant half of 10% Economic Weaker Section quota to the dominant Kapu community. The ruling Telangana Desam Party had in its 2014 election manifesto promised to give the community hald of EBC quota reservation. According to the decision taken by the Andhra cabinet on Monday, the other 5% quota would be split between the rest of the communities. The EWS reservation, which was recently passed in the Parliament’s Winter Session, accords 10% quota to economically backward upper castes.

An Association of Democratic Reforms report on Tuesday revealed that candidates with criminal records had emerged victorious over ‘clean’ candidates in the recent Assembly elections. According to the reports, 55 out of 94 of candidates with records who were in the MP poll fray managed a victory with several winning with a thumping margin of 20%. The report also noted that out of 187 crorepati candidates, 35 over the non-crorepati candidates.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday announced the nominations for this year’s Oscar awards. Alfonso Cuaron's Roma emerged as a clear favourite bagging 10 nominations. Bradley Cooper-directed A Star Is Born was also nominated in 8 categories, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Lady Gaga, while The Favourite, a dark-hearted period comedy, received attention in 10 categories, with Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone each receiving a supporting actress nod. Read News.com’s complete list of nominees for the 2019 Oscars.