The U.S. administration is considering limits to Chinese video surveillance firm Hikvision’s ability to buy US technology, a leading daily reported, deepening worries about trade frictions between the world’s two top economies.
The US Commerce Department blocked Huawei Technologies from buying US goods last week, effectively banning US companies from doing business with the Chinese firm, a major escalation in the trade war, saying Huawei was involved in activities contrary to national security.
Hikvision and Dahua Technology which produce audio-visual equipment that can be used for surveillance were specifically cited in a letter to Trump’s top advisers last month, signed by more than 40 lawmakers.
The lawmakers said China’s actions in its western region of Xinjiang “may constitute crimes against humanity” and urged tighter US export controls to ensure that US companies are not assisting the Chinese government’s crackdown there.
The group of signatories were led by US Senator Marco Rubio and US Representative Chris Smith on the Republican side and Senator Bob Menendez and Representative James McGovern on the Democratic side.
China has faced growing condemnation from Western capitals and rights groups for setting up facilities that UN experts describe as mass detention centers holding more than 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims.
Equity benchmark indices opened higher on Friday, a day after a decisive win by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led ruling National Democratic Alliance in the general elections.
At 10:00 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up 75 points at 38,887 while the Nifty 50 gained 16 points to 11,673. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), all sectoral indices except IT were in the positive zone.
Among the early gainers were Zee Entertainment, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharat Petroleum and Bharti Airtel.
However, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, Titan, Adani Ports, and Hindustan Lever were in the red.
Investors said traders may wait for a correction in the market over the next few days before going forward.
On Thursday, profit booking dragged the stocks lower despite the mandate to Modi for pursuing business-friendly policies and taking decisive action on national security.
Meanwhile, most Asian stock indices were in the negative zone amid mounting concerns that trade dispute between the United States and China could cripple global growth.
Besides, investors resorted to safe-haven assets after factoring in bleak US factory data a day earlier.
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur has revealed that she wanted to take an indefinite break from the game because of the controversy that followed the World T20 in the West Indies.
The team management and Harmanpreet took a collective call to drop senior player Mithali Raj for the semifinal against eventual runners-up England, triggering a massive controversy that led to divisions in the team and ouster of coach Ramesh Powar.
Harmanpreet played the Women’s Big Bash League right after the World T20 in November but back home the talk of unrest in the team and her strained relationship with ODI captain Mithali gathered more steam.
She was fed up with it before the New Zealand tour began under new coach W V Raman. And then came the ankle injury that gave her a “much needed” break from the Indian dressing room.
“It (the injury) gave me a much needed break from international cricket and the Indian dressing room. I had almost made up my mind to let my parents know that I wanted to take a break. I don’t want to hold on to a spot in the Indian team just because I am a senior player,” she told ESPNCricinfo.
“I wanted to get away from cricket. Whatever happened around the team before that was immensely draining for me. Some of the things said were so far from reality that I felt, ‘I need to step away from this madness for a while’. I’m here to play cricket. If people want to drag me into unnecessary things, drag the team into unnecessary things, I have to stop trying to reason with them,” said the 30-year-old.
She twisted her ankle ahead of the first T20 International in New Zealand, following the team’s triumph in the preceding ODI series.
“I twisted my left foot while playing football during a warm-up ahead of the first T20I in New Zealand (in early February). I somehow managed to play all three T20Is despite being in some discomfort because to call up a replacement at such short notice may not have been possible. Besides, all through my career, I’ve played with fevers, shoulder, ankle and wrist injuries, so I didn’t feel like this was going to be anything significant.
“The taping and painkillers had been working fine in the warm-ups, so I thought I could deal with it. But during the matches, my movement was severely affected. Scans later revealed that there were some Level 1 and 2 ligament tears near the back of my ankle. I was at the National Cricket Academy from February 22 to April 9, and that break was a blessing in disguise for me,” she said.
Harmanpreet said the negative talk around the team after the World T20 affected her mindset adversely.
“Look, I was to play in the WBBL after the World T20, and for a while, after coming from the West Indies, I was even considering only playing in the overseas leagues and then making my way back into the Indian team. I spent hours alone, asking myself, ‘Why do I play sport?’ Because I enjoy it, because playing cricket is the only thing I’ve ever done in life.
“Agar khelke mazaa nahi aa raha hai (If I’m not enjoying the game) then I don’t want to block a place in the side, because money is not everything. Yes, we’ve only just started making some money from playing cricket, but if cricket is not giving me joy, I am happy to walk away rather than hold on to that spot just because I have a Grade A contract.
“So all of these thoughts were bothering me a lot. Mentally I was unwell, unfit, but that injury bailed me out of that terrible head space,” she added.
After a landslide victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday called on party veterans LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
PM Modi tweeted, “Called on respected Advani Ji. The BJP’s successes today are possible because greats like him spent decades building the party and providing a fresh ideological narrative to the people.” He also posted a picture of the meeting. Modi and Shah later met Joshi.
Called on respected Advani Ji. The BJP’s successes today are possible because greats like him spent decades building the party and providing a fresh ideological narrative to the people. pic.twitter.com/liXK8cfsrI
It is notable that in 2013 when Narendra Modi was declared BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, LK Advani had opposed this. Advani did not even attend the parliamentary board meeting convened to anoint Modi. This year Amit Shah replaced LK Advani as BJP candidate from Gandhinagar seat. Amit Shah won the election from Gandginagar by over 5.5 lakh votes.
It is worth mentioning that the BJP did not give ticket to senior party leaders LK Advani and MM Joshi for the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. Opposition leaders criticized this and hit at the BJP that the party has no respect for its senior leaders. Therefore, meetings of PM Modi and Amit Shah with LK Advani and MM Joshi are very important.
In the 2019 Parliamentary elections, there was no Modi wave. However, all of a sudden, Modi Tsunami came and almost swept the elections. The BJP-led NDA is all set to win around 353 seats, more than that of the last time. The BJP alone won around 303 seats while its rival Congress could manage to get only around 51 seats, which slightly more than 44, the total tally of 2014. Thus, the election results justified the exit polls results.
PM Modi is called “Feku” by the Congress and opposition leaders for his so-called fake (Unfulfilled) and tall promises to people. However, this time PM Modi has been proved to be in the mood of “Ukhad Feku” for the entire opposition. After this victory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Sabka Saath + Sabka Vikas+ Sabka Vishvas = Vijapi Bharat”. In 2014, the BJP had won 282 seats.
The Congress President Rahul Gandhi accepted the mandate of people and congratulated PM Modi and the BJP on the victory in the Lok Sabha elections. Many world leaders congratulated PM Narendra Modi for a landslide victory. Japanese PM Shinzō Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated PM Modi on the electoral victory under his leadership. Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli congratulated PM Modi and said that he looks ahead to work with India, while Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted “Sincerely greetings to you, my friend Narendra Modi, for your impressive victory in the elections…”. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena also congratulated Modi.
On the landslide victory of the BJP, party spokesperson Aman Sinha told Afternoon Voice, “It is a historic victory. It reflects a pro-incumbency wave prevailing in the entire country in favour of PM Modi. People have reposed their faith in the prime minister. The election results are as per our expectations. Considering the remarkable works done in the last five years and the charismatic leadership of PM Narendra Modi, we are expecting this.”
Senior ministers Sushma Swaraj, Suresh Prabhu, and Ram Vilas Paswan also congratulated PM Modi. Consumer Affairs Minister and Lok Janshakti Party Ram Vilas Paswan tweeted, “It was not an election but Modi tsunami. I heartily congratulate Narendra Modi.”. Suresh Prabhu tweeted, “It’s nothing short of a landslide, a political tsunami sweeping entire country, east or west, BJP is the best, is a reality. North to south people have voted for a clear, unambiguous choice… country must progress further under the leadership of Narendra Modi….” UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath tweeted, “I want to congratulate Prime Minister Modi for this victory. BJP is touching 300 marks for the first time & NDA is touching 350. I also congratulate the party, President Amit Shah.”
The Congress leaders PL Punia and actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar did not comment at all on the poll results when contacted. The TMC MP Sajda Ahmed said, “The CPI (M) and the Congress are to be blamed for the surprising results in West Bengal. Their cadres and works voted for BJP in the state. Both parties did not get any seat. The country was not so divided as in these elections. The Trinamool will make a strategy to check the BJP in West Bengal.”
On Thursday, the counting of votes started at 8 am. The Election Commission of India had made elaborate arrangement for this. The 2019 Lok Sabha elections were held for 542 seats from April 11 to May 19.
The BJP has retained its dominance in the Hindi heartland Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. For the first time, it made huge in-roads in West Bengal. The party notched gains in Karnataka, Odisha and the North-East, too.
In a big blow for the Congress, the party president Rahul Gandhi lost to Union Minister Smriti Irani of the BJP in his bastion Amethi. He congratulated Smriti Irani. Rahul Gandhi fought from two seats. He won Wayanad seat in Kerala. However, his mother and United Progressive Alliance chief Sonia Gandhi won from Rae Bareli in UP. There are 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh which is maximum in the entire country.
The Election Commission of India also declared four assemblies’ results. The ruling BJD won Odisha Assembly elections. In Andhra Pradesh, the ruling TDP lost assembly elections badly to YSRCP. YS Jaganmohan Reddy will be next CM of the state. In Sikkim, SDF won the Assembly Elections, while BJP registered a landslide victory in Arunachal Pradesh.
Battleground in Maharashtra was all set between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, the Maharashtra general elections brought forward a shocking picture for the Congress party. While the NCP-Congress alliance is struggling to take control over three seats, Congress seems to have almost vanished from the picture. It also marks a major setback for the regional parties like Raj Thackeray-led MNS who supported and campaigned for Congress in the recently concluded elections. On the other hand, BJP-Sena even after a rocky relationship, patched up before polls, joined hands, strategised a 25-23 seat-sharing plan, and swept the election results.
Gajanan Kirtikar, the Shiv Sena challenger to Congress’ Sanjay Nirupam in Mumbai North-West constituency spoke to Afternoon Voice and said, “Our victory was evident and the upcoming assembly polls too will choose the BJP-Sena alliance in the power.”
The trends that were visible in the first half of the day evidently indicated that Congress is going to lose it big in the state of Maharashtra. While initially, it failed to maintain a lead in any of the 48 constituencies in the state (the lead in Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri stayed for just a while), the day ended with the party hardly having any seats from Maharashtra to voice in the Parliament. Veteran Congress leaders like party strongman and Maharashtra Congress Committee President Ashok Chavan, Priya Dutt, Sushilkumar Shinde left no hope for the party. While Chavan managed his hold on Nanded seat in 2014 Modi wave but he failed to retain it in 2019.
Congratulating Modi, Shah as BJP leads in poll trends, Maharashtra CM Fadnavis boasted about the BJP-led NDA’s performance and said that ‘Modi wave’ became tsunami this time.
Congress secured only around one seat in the state — Balubhau secured his Chandrapur seat. On the other hand, Congress’s alliance partner NCP too failed to show any significant grip. Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule marked her victory in Baramati, a seat which is a Pawar family bastion for long and Pawar himself has held the seat for more than three terms. Sunil DattatrayTatkare from Raigad, Udayanraje Bhonsle from Satara, and Amol Ramsing Kolhe from Shirur managed to secure their seats. The candidature of Pawar’s grandson Parth from Maval received much criticism and he lagged behind Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Barne.
‘Gracefully’ accepting the people’s mandate, NCP supremo Pawar said, “I accept people’s decision but this is also a fact that people had their doubts about EVMs. Congress had performed really well in Rajiv Gandhi’s time, but nobody doubted elections then, same when Atal Bihari Vajpayee won.”
The landslide victory for the saffron alliance has touched its 2014 performance when it secured 41 seats — BJP’s 23 and Sena’s 18. The alliance is all set to take over around 41 seats in the Lok Sabha elections 2019 in the state. Star campaigners of Congress in the state such as Urmila Matondkar lost against BJP’s Gopal Shetty who won the seat with more than 5 lakh 38 thousand votes. Congress’ Mumbai President Milind Deora, who as a candidate was endorsed by Business tycoon Mukesh Ambani, attracted more votes than Matondkar but he lagged behind in the battle with 2 lakh 63 thousand votes against Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant who led the game with more than 3 lakh 40 thousand votes.
What acted as the major stumbling block on Congress’ way in the state? Leadership crisis, internal politics, and internal fights are believed to be the cause of crisis by political observers which sabotaged the party prospects in the state. While veteran Congress leaders were nowhere seen actively into the campaigning in the crucial poll season couple with a weak narrative of the party, BJP contrarily was with full of cash flow and smart strategies. Moreover, shuffling of seats and introduction of newbies into politics like Urmila Matondkar against strong BJP contenders ignoring the good vote shareholders are looked at as the reason behind the political collapse of the country’s oldest political party. Post results, Congress’ Mumbai North Lok Sabha candidate Matondkar said that even though she has lost her maiden election, she won’t quit politics and she has a long way to go. She also congratulated Gopal Shetty and told the reporters, “We have noticed discrepancies in EVMs, we have prepared a report on it that we will submit to Election Commission at the end of the day.” Even MNS chief Raj Thackeray termed the landslide victory of the ruling party as “beyond rationale” and “incomprehensible”.
Taking Ashok Chavan into account, who ruled the state for 10 years, the grassroots level reflects how people lost faith in him. Another veteran Sushilkumar Shinde already lost his connection from the state. All these led to many young supporters of Congress including Priyanka Chaturvedi giving up on the party. It is majorly accepted that the outcome of the State Assembly, which is all set to go to the polls later this year, could have a major bearing after this LS results.
When Afternoon Voice contacted Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, they remained unavailable to comment on the results.
Senior advocate Abha Singh asserted, “Most of the Congress candidates in Mumbai were a complete disconnect. No wonder all lost. Overhaul in Congress is need of the hour if they want to be in the reckoning in 2024.”
“Nationalism, Beneficial Schemes for Rural India, Electricity generation increase in North India, crores of Toilets constructed etc. has led to a sweeping victory for BJP. Uniform Civil Code, scrapping of Article 370, Triple Talaq Law, Women Reservation Bill are some of the positives I am looking forward too.
With elections over, I am hoping that mad hysteria on divisive issues will die down. May peace prevail!” she added.
Maharashtra has once again witnessed face-off between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The relationship between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena had turned unstable, but the parties patched up in February to announce a seat-sharing plan of 25 and 23 seats respectively to constitute the NDA. The people of India have given a strong mandate to Narendra Modi to lead the country for the next five years. As the counting of votes comes to an end, the BJP is all set to form the government at the Centre once again. As the BJP supporters celebrate across the country, the Congress camp is drowned in deafening silence, made louder by Rahul Gandhi’s defeat in Amethi against BJP’s firebrand leader Smriti Irani. However, Rahul won in Wayanad, Kerala. Many other BJP contenders in the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Gujarat made their victory mark. The BJP’s performance has been close to clean sweeps in most of these states. Modi won by the massive margin in Varanasi. He has congratulated the people of India for their mandate and assured to “build a strong and inclusive India”. Except for Punjab, the Congress party has not been able to stop the BJP.
Some of the key candidates are Union Minister Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur who won his seat whereas Sushilkumar Shinde (INC), Ashok Chavan (INC) could not save their seat, Poonam Mahajan (BJP) won with a huge margin against Priya Dutt. Urmila Matondkar lost it. Polling in the State was held in four phases – April 11 (7 seats), April 18 (10 seats), April 23 (14 seats) and April 29 (17 seats). The overall voter turnout was 63.04 per cent. Pawars retained Baramati but crashed in Maval.
While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena combine failed to breach Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s bastion of Baramati, the saffron alliance succeeded in dealing a severe blow to the prestige of the Pawar clan in Maval. While Pawar’s daughter, two-time NCP Member of Parliament (MP) Supriya Sule is home and dry in the Baramati lead by a handsome margin of more than 1.5 lakh votes, his grand-nephew Parth Pawar – who is senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar’s son — has been comprehensively knocked out of the contest in his political debut in Maval. Actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar, who contested the Lok Sabha elections for the first time, has reported a glitch in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in Magathane constituency.
The politician has filed a complaint with the Election Commission and alleged that the signature on form EVM 17C was not matching the machine’s number.
Merely a few hours before the election results being announced, star campaigners, including celebrities, cabinet ministers, incumbent MLAs, and dynastic leaders have retained their leading positions, with a steady rise in their victory margin. Some, however, have started falling behind.
In the Mumbai South constituency, the newly appointed Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora could not win his seat against Shiv Sena’s strongest contender and his opponent Arvind Sawant who won. BJP has edge over Shinde in Solapur. Shinde, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate, faced two formidable opponents: Dr Jai Siddheshwar Shivacharya Swami, the Lingayat seer who was cannily propped up by the BJP, and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi leader Prakash Ambedkar, whose entry into the fray is proving to be a major spoiler for Shinde. While the Swami has taken a lead over Shinde, Ambedkar has secured a little over 30,000 votes, eating into the Congress’ traditional Dalit-Muslim vote bank and threatening to spoil Shinde’s chances. Alliance with the Congress-NCP proving costly for Raju Shetti, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress in this general election is proving to be costly for two-time Member of Parliament (MP) and Swabhimani Paksha leader Raju Shetti. The farmers’ leader is trailed behind the Shiv Sena’s Dhairyasheel Mane in the Hatkananagale constituency in Kolhapur district. Mane has secured a huge lead over Shetti. After Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh chief Prakash Ambedkar joined hands with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) to form the VBA ahead of Lok Sabha elections, the VBA was in talks with Congress-NCP to form an alliance. However, the talks fell through, following which VBA decided to contest independently in Maharashtra. VBA has made a large dent in the traditional Congress-NCP vote bank in Maharashtra.
In Amravati, VBA candidate Gunwant Deopare has clocked 18558 votes, a 5.82 per cent vote share. The contest is a close one between Shiv Sena’s Anandrao Adsul and independent candidate Navnit Rana. In Buldhana, even though the main contest is between Shiv Sena’s Prataprao Jadhav and NCP’s Rajendra Shingne where Jadhav is leading, VBA’s Siraskar Baliram Bhagwan has clocked 47051 votes, a 14.69 per cent vote share. All together, Shiv Sena and BJP gave a good show, anyways this election was to choose Prime Minister of the nation and people once again gave a mandate to Narendra Modi.
Our heartiest congratulations to BJP and Modi Ji!
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
The role and responsibility of a parent in upbringing the child is enormous and the key factor for the development of their siblings in future life. Children are the future of this country and the early upbringing is a guiding force for their entire life. Children going to schools face sexual abuse in different forms. Some of them cope up with such sexual advances in their own typical way and some of them report them to teachers or to their parents to get a solution to the problem.
In this regard, poor parenting did make a lot of difference in the attitude of the child as per a study. In family life, the vast majority of parents are trying to give them tips or directing them to watch TV and at the same time, they themselves enjoy the worldly pleasures thus leaving out the children in isolation. In schools, some of the children coming from the poor parenting group find easy prey in schools and they try to sexually abuse the child sitting next to them. This can be arrested if our child is properly given feedback about the unwanted way of chiding the children in the form of sexual abuse. Various threats enforced on them on a regular basis is a bad weapon in children and that have a bad effect in their entire career.
It is time to keep track of the behaviour of our own children before finding fault with other children. If the matter is reported to you, find an amicable solution instead of just brushing aside the matter. When my elder son faced such a problem during his school days, I was able to pacify my sibling and at the same time caution the offender and requested him not to repeat the offence and that worked wonders and the matter was closed once for all. For other parents and guardians, it is time to use time tested methods and keep a track if you feel the youngster is following a wrong way and in the name of infatuation or over-eagerness to exploit things from the sexual angle. Wait and watch approach and effective measures of handling without wasting time can yield the desired results.
The children living in child care institutions often have to live in facilities without proper toilets, secure compounds or the opportunity to vent their grievances as provided for under law underscores the painful reality that they remain virtually invisible. Reform of this depressing system, as the Ministry of Women and Child Development seeks, can be achieved only through systematic scrutiny by State governments. This could be done by appointing special officers whose task it would be to ensure that all institutions registered under the JJ Act, account for funds received by each, and enforce mandatory child protection policies during adoption.
Child abuse is common in religious schools as well. An investigation by the Associated Press stated that thousands of incidents of sexual abuse happen in schools but are not reported. Both the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Child Protection Bureau acknowledge that the problem exists but when such cases come up they go on the defensive. Their claim is that it happens in every society. This attitude, child rights activists say, offers little help in tackling the problem.
A crusader against child labour, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi now takes up preventing child sexual abuse as his mission. This menace of child sexual abuse, rape, violence against children, and child trafficking is growing and has become a moral epidemic. The entire society is affected by it, whether it is a boy or a girl, rich or poor, it is prevalent in big cities and small. Children are not safe in schools, at home, and in public spaces. Sadly, in most cases, they don’t speak up under the garb of honour, respect, and dignity, because we don’t have the environment where children can vent. They live in depression and frustration, which affects their personality. In many cases, the abuse is by their own relatives, and the biggest challenge is to break the silence.
Law is important, and it is like a tool, like a weapon. But when you don’t have the courage and the mind to use it, it’s of no use as the society is not prepared to use the weapon. Society is not prepared to use a strong law like the POCSO Act. The Act is very good in itself, but enforcement has to take place through judicial institutions, as prosecution is not taking place, and the conversion of the prosecution to conviction is minimal.
On the occasion of World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse, here’s a peek at the rising crimes against children, and an attempt to see what more the State can do in terms of ensuring the welfare, and future, of its youngsters. Better council should prevail in dealing with child abuse cases and a fast track court should decide the punishment quickly. Despite all these preventive measures, parents play a pivotal role and have control over their children for the betterment of society in general and the welfare of their own children in particular.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AFTERNOON VOICE and AFTERNOON VOICE does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
Home Minister Rajnath Singh termed BJP’s return to power as “historic” and credited it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “astute” relationship and party chief Amit Shah’s dynamism. He posted tweets mentioning that people of India have once again given a clear mandate to BJP led NDA and PM Modi’s leadership.
Spoke to Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi and the BJP National President Shri @AmitShah over the phone and congratulated them for @BJP4India led NDA’s stupendous victory in these Lok Sabha Elections. 1/3
— Chowkidar Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) May 23, 2019
“Spoke to Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi and the BJP National President Shri @AmitShah over the phone and congratulated them for @BJP4India led NDA to stupendous victory in these Lok Sabha Elections”
This historic victory in the General Elections is the outcome of Modiji’s visionary leadership, Amit Shahji’s dynamism and the hard work of millions of BJP karyakartas on the ground. 2/3
— Chowkidar Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) May 23, 2019
“This historic victory in the General Elections is the outcome of Modiji’s visionary leadership, Amit Shahji’s dynamism and the hard work of millions of BJP karyakartas on the ground,” he said.
The home minister stated that Modi will now build new India.
It has become a trend to spend heavily on fancy boxes of wedding-invitation cards worth several thousands of rupees each which are practically of no use. Rather those getting such invitation-cards pull out a necessary portion of programme-details and start pressurising their minds about the utility of such apparently costly but useless remnants. Costly platters with imported items where Indian substitutes are better and cheaper and cash-envelopes from parents of brides have become a necessity in marriage-celebrations. Interestingly misusers of such trends in their elite gatherings themselves criticise such trend but want some others to take initiative to stop such a practice.
With the cost of silver sharply declining, invitations embossed on a simple silver plate can rather be a better substitute which can be preserved both as souvenir and saving-instrument. Such are the aspects where there is no role of government to intervene. Organisations like Rotary International, Lions International etc can definitely impose some code to stop the practice with their members mostly coming from the elite society are misuers (and victims also) of such trend.
Supreme Court directive on July 12, 2018, asking the central government to consider making it compulsory for families to disclose wedding expenditure by both sides of the families of bride and groom jointly to the marriage officer concerned should be implemented. It will not only limit wasteful expenditure at times due to social bindings on marriages but also effectively check unaccounted money being spent on marriage-related functions apart from lodging false claims made by bride-side in case of marital-disputes and divorces. Even a marriage-tax of say 10-per cent can be imposed in case expenses cross rupees five lakhs by one side as was suggested in a private-member bill introduced in Lok Sabha in February 2017. Large-scale wastage of food-items in marriage-celebrations should be prevented by re-introducing Guest Control Order 1960. Only soft drinks and beverages should be allowed to be served in such functions. Even Afghanistan took measures to curb such mega-expenses on marriage-celebrations.
The then Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dixit pledged to boycott mega-budgeted functions. But otherwise, marriages in political families, in general, are an ugly show of wealth with leading politicians cutting across party-lines attending such lavish marriage-functions. Thus steps must be taken to curb lavish weddings.
– Subhash Chandra Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
After a landslide victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday called on party veterans LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
It is worth mentioning that the BJP did not give ticket to senior party leaders LK Advani and MM Joshi for the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. Opposition leaders criticized this and hit at the BJP that the party has no respect for its senior leaders. Therefore, meetings of PM Modi and Amit Shah with LK Advani and MM Joshi are very important.
