Arvind Kejriwal, the chief of the Aam Aadmi Party who has been in Delhi’s Tihar jail since Wednesday, has finally agreed furnish a bond needed for bail in a defamation case.

The decision was conveyed to a court in Delhi today by Mr. Kejriwal’s lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who is also a leader of his party.

Earlier, the court had once again condemned Mr. Kejriwal’s stand and questioned why he had made furnishing the bond a “prestige issue.” “It is a small case. Why are you making it big? Why are you taking this as a prestige issue?” it asked.

Mr. Kejriwal was jailed after he refused to furnish the bond needed in a defamation case filed against him by the BJP’s Nitin Gadkari. He had since been insisting that the court should not ask him for one and argued that he has committed no crime.

On Monday, he moved the Delhi High Court for his immediate release.

Hearing the case, the court also appeared to rebuke Mr. Bhushan and his father, former law minister Shanti Bhushan, who are representing Mr. Kejriwal.

“Mr. Kejriwal should be given proper counselling by you,” the court said, addressing them.

After today’s hearing, Prashant Bhushan went to the Tihar jail, apparently to persuade Mr. Kejriwal to come out of jail and then fight his case, as the court had advised.

The AAP chief was first sent to judicial custody for two days. The court then ordered 14 more days in custody when Mr. Kejriwal remained adamant on not furnishing a bail bond.

The Kerala Secretariat came to a virtual standstill on Tuesday as government employees mobbed Sachin Tendulkar when the cricketer came to meet Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.

Hundreds began gathering near Chandy’s office from 10 a.m. as word spread about Tendulkar’s visit to meet the chief minister to promote Tendulkar’s newly acquired team in the ISL football tournament.
When Chandy reached his office, he was visibly shocked to see that the media had almost taken over his official room.

Soon, senior ministers including KM Mani and PK Kunhalikutty too reached Chandy’s room, and so did Chandy’s son and daughter as well as all his staff members.

When Tendulkar arrived at the Secretariat, the security staff had a tough time controlling the crowds and taking to Chandy’s room.

Amid a scramble to get a glimpse of the cricketing hero, a smiling Tendulkar shook hands with all the ministers while the media was politely asked to wait outside.

Chandy’s media conference room had never witnessed such a rush. With only two chairs placed for Chandy and Tendulkar, Chief Secretary EK Bharat Bhusan had to remain standing during the media interaction.

Tendulkar then went to meet the leader of the opposition – and later flew to Kochi to see the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium where the matches are to be held.

Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday became the first woman External Affairs Minister, in yet another first for the 62-year-old BJP leader.

Apart from having the distinction of becoming the youngest cabinet minister in Haryana government at the age of 25, Swaraj has also many other firsts such as being the first woman chief minister of Delhi and woman spokesperson for any political party in the country.

Swaraj has also been given the charge of Overseas Indian Affairs.

Swaraj is assuming the charge of the Foreign Ministry, one of the senior-most offices in the Union Cabinet, at a time when India’s growing international influence gives it a prominent voice in global affairs even as issues in the region keep the largest democracy busy.

Ties with Pakistan and China are some of the perennial challenges for Indian foreign policy practitioners.

Incidentally, the MEA also has a woman Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh.

In 1977, at 25 years of age, Swaraj became the youngest-ever cabinet minister. She held the education portfolio in Haryana.

In 1979, she became the state president of the BJP in Haryana. She was also the first woman spokesperson for any political party in India and won the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award.

Swaraj, a law graduate who practised in the Supreme Court, has been elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly.

She began her political career with RSS student wing ABVP in the 1970s. Member of the Haryana Assembly from 1977 to 1982 from Ambala Cantonment, she was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister in the Devi Lal government.

She was Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting during the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government in 1996.

She resigned from the Cabinet in the next Vajpayee regime to take over as the first woman Chief Minister of Delhi in October 1998.

  A MIG-21 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force or IAF today crashed in Bijbehara area of Anantnag district in Kashmir, killing the pilot.

The MIG-21, which was on a routine exercise, crashed in an open field at Mirhama in Bijbehara area, 45 kms from Srinagar, defence sources said.

The pilot, Raghu Bansi, was killed in the crash, they said.

The MIG-21 had taken off from Technical Airport in Srinagar today morning, sources said.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. A team of IAF officials have rushed to the spot.

While speaking about the incident, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said he was “sorry” and that it was “a matter of grave concern”.

“My heart goes out to the pilot who lost his life,” he said.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, “My condolences to the family, friends & colleagues of the pilot killed in the MIG crash. May his soul rest in peace.”

Just hours after Narendra Modi took charge as the Prime Minister, the MoS PMO, Jitendra Singh came out with a controversial statement on the Article 370. Singh said that the government had started speaking to stakeholders to repeal the Act. “The process of repealing Article 370 has started. We are speaking to the stakeholders,” he said.

Article 370 specifies that except for Defence, Foreign Affairs, Communications and ancillary matters (matters specified in the instrument of accession), the Indian Parliament needs the State Government’s concurrence for applying all other laws. Thus the state’s residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians.

This unique status is granted to Jammu and Kashmir and similar protections exist in tribal areas of India including those in Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Nagaland.

“The BJP has won more than half of the seats from Jammu and Kashmir. So we will interpret this as an endorsement of the BJP’s stand. Article 370 is more like a psychological barrier,” Singh said.

The repealing of the Article has been a poll promise of the BJP. The BJP has been opposing the special status for Jammu and Kashmir since very long. It had earlier claimed that it could not repeal the Article during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government due to the lack of a majority.

Jitendra Singh said, “Article 370 has done more harm than good. The youth of Kashmir has to be convinced about this. That’s why the honourable PM has called for a debate. Having a debate doesn’t mean we have deviated from what we promised. It just means convincing those who are not convinced.”

Children of both Hindus and Muslims are being taught each other’s religion in a madrasa in Jaunpur to spread the message of brotherhood and peace between the two communities.

The madrasa was built in 1998 in Jalalpur’s Chawri Bazaar. It started with 25 Muslim kids and gradually evolved into an entire community of Hindus and Muslims.

While Hindu kids are seen learning Urdu, Arbi, Farsi, Kalma, Nath Sharif, Muslim kids, on the other hand, are seen learning Sanskrit and ganesh shlokas.

“The only motive to form the madarsa was to promote peace and harmony between the two religions, and this rare sight is what one gets to see here,” said madrasa head Mohammad Siyakat.

There will be no more power cuts in Tamil Nadu from June 1, chief minister J Jayalalithaa said.

“Generation has been enhanced by 2,500 MW in state power plants and deals have been signed for the purchase of 3,800 MW power,” Jayalalithaa declared in a statement.

Crippling power cuts lasting for hours have been a major issue for Tamil Nadu in the last six years. Many parts of the state have witnessed power cuts of up to 16 hours.

Tamil Nadu, which requires a total of 12,000 MW, was facing a shortage of 4,000 MW.

In the statement, the Chief Minister also claimed that she was proud “to have made Tamil Nadu power-cut free” in the three years her AIADMK has been in power.

The state government is hopeful that power generation will also be augmented by alternate sources like wind turbines from June; Tamil Nadu is also receiving 400 MW from the first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project.

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, the opposition DMK had made the power crisis a big poll issue.

Ms Jayalalithaa had hit back at the DMK regime and blamed it for the mess.

Though the power situation became more tolerable during the campaign, once the election got over, many areas had again witnessed unannounced power cuts.