In a major jolt to Uddhav Thackeray, his nephew and grandson of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, Nihar Thackeray on Friday met Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in Mumbai and extended his support to the new government.
Nihar is an advocate in the city and his father Bindumadhav Thackeray died in an accident in 1996.
“Nihar Thackeray, grandson of venerable Hindu heart emperor Balasaheb Thackeray and son of Bindumadhav Thackeray today announced his support to the coalition government. On this occasion, he was warmly welcomed and wished for his future social and political career,” Eknath Shinde tweeted on Friday.
The meeting comes at a time when the two factions of the same party (Shiv Sena) are locking horns in the ECI to retain the bow and arrow symbol with their respective factions. Both the groups are also in a fight to claim the legacy of Bal Thackeray.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on August 1 a fresh plea of the Uddhav Thackeray-led camp of Shiv Sena seeking a stay on the proceedings before the Election Commission of India on Eknath Shinde group’s claim for recognition as ‘real’ Shiv Sena.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the Thackeray group mentioned the case for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana saying as the matters are pending before the Supreme Court in the meantime they are trying to make the matter infructuous by moving Election Commission.
On June 29, the top court gave a go-ahead to the floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly on June 30. Refusing to stay the Maharashtra Governor’s direction to the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to prove his majority support on the floor of the House on June 30, the bench had issued notice on Prabhu’s plea against floor test.
After the apex court’s order, Uddhav Thackeray announced his resignation as the Chief Minister and Eknath Shinde was later sworn in as the Chief Minister.
On June 27, the top court granted interim relief to Shinde and other rebel MLAs to file their reply to disqualification notices issued to them by Deputy Speaker by July 12, 5.30 pm. Earlier, Deputy Speaker had granted them time to file a reply by June 27, 5.30 pm.
The Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, which came to power after a high-voltage political drama, is completing one month in office on Saturday, but there is still no clarity on when the cabinet expansion will take place.
Shinde took oath as chief minister on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray was forced to step down from the post following a rebellion by the majority of Sena legislators led by Shinde. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as deputy chief minister.
The government was formed 10 days after Shinde raised a banner of revolt against the Shiv Sena leadership. Forty out of 55 Sena MLAs sided with Shinde, which resulted in the collapse of the two-and-a-half-year-old Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) dispensation comprising the Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress.
After the collapse of the Thackeray government, it was widely speculated that Fadnavis would take over the reins of the state for the third time with the support of the Sena rebels. But Fadnavis sprang a surprise after he declared that Shinde would become the next chief minister and he himself would not be a part of the new government.
But there was more surprise in store as sometime later BJP’s top leadership asked Fadnavis to become a part of the government as deputy chief minister.
After coming to power, the Shinde government has fast-tracked the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, which was kept on the back burner by the previous Thackeray-led dispensation. Two weeks back, Fadnavis had said that all clearances to expedite the project have been given.
The new government also gave cabinet approval to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv respectively. The decision to rename these cities had been taken in the MVA government’s last cabinet meeting held on June 29, just before Thackeray resigned. However, Shinde and Fadnavis had said the MVA dispensation’s decision to rename these places was illegal as it was taken by it after the governor had asked it to prove the majority in the state Legislative Assembly.
Shinde restored the pension scheme meant for the political activists who were imprisoned during the Emergency imposed in 1975. The decision, taken by the Fadnavis government, had been scrapped by the Thackeray dispensation.
The new government lifted the stay on the construction of the Metro-3 car shed in Aarey Colony, a forest area. The decision paved the way for the construction of the car shed at the green lung which was stopped in November 2019 following a stay imposed by the previous MVA government.
The Shinde-led dispensation also restored the direct election for the post of sarpanch and municipal council president.
At present, Shinde and Fadnavis are the only members in the cabinet as its expansion is yet to be done. This delay has given ammunition to the opposition parties to target the government.
Talking to a media agency, state Congress vice president Ratnakar Mahajan sarcastically said, “It is for the first time in the state’s history that a huge cabinet of two members is taking care of the large-scale floods, lack of rain at some places and things alike.” It has never been so pathetic for a political party that it can’t have a complete cabinet in a state in a month’s time. BJP’s overambitious plan has to be blamed for this, he said.
Mahajan alleged that the petition of Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of 16 rebel party MLAs was being heard in the Supreme Court.
“These legislators will save their membership if they merge their group with any other party. If the apex court upholds the whip of the original party, the rebel MLAs will be disqualified. Two-thirds split is not yet seen in the original party,” he said.
Apart from the 40 MLAs, the party’s 12 out of the 19 Lok Sabha members have also rebelled against the Sena leadership. The break-away group of MPs has been recognized by the Lok Sabha speaker. But the Shiv Sena has demanded that the speaker disqualify them.
Deepak Kesarkar, the chief spokesperson of the Shinde faction, said the Sena MLAs were more interested in becoming district guardian ministers than cabinet ministers to expedite development works.
He claimed that there was no dispute over the allocation of portfolios.
“After a long time, Maharashtra has got a chief minister who is accessible to people 24×7,” he said.
Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut told PTI, “There is no government in existence for the last one month. Never before was Maharashtra’s prestige undermined in such a manner. The state’s honour was compromised. The oath taken by Shinde and Fadnavis is illegal.” The reason for the delay in cabinet expansion can be anything including the ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on the disqualification of 16 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, he said.
NCP leader and former home minister Dilip Walse Patil said the inability to form a cabinet even after a month shows that the political situation in the state is still fluid.
“Due to rains and floods in several parts of the state, people are facing hardships and since there are no cabinet ministers and guardian ministers, people’s issues have been neglected. Maharashtra has never before seen such a situation,” he said.
When contacted, state NCP president Jayant Patil said people have been in trouble for the last one month due to heavy rains and floods. The administrative set up has collapsed and hence affected people can’t get immediate relief.” There are no guardian ministers because there is no cabinet in place. The administration has no direction, he said.
“There are differences in the Shinde camp because all the 40 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs want to become ministers, while there is unrest in the BJP also as Fadnavis was made deputy chief minister. There is no positive energy about this government,” he said.
9 accused in the gang rape of a minor girl have been arrested in Maharashtra’s Nagpur district. The main accused is a prime suspect in a murder case too.
According to the information released by Puja Gaikwad, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Nagpur Rural police, the 9 accused were apprehended from Umred town in Nagpur district, on the charges of gang rape of an 11-year-old girl after police officers who were investigating a murder case stumbled upon information that their prime suspect was an alleged rapist too.
“Nine people have been arrested in Umred town of Nagpur district on charges of gang rape of an 11-year-old girl after police officers investigating a murder case stumbled upon information that their prime suspect was an alleged rapist too,” said Puja Gaikwad, SDPO, Nagpur Rural police.
A Naxal operative carrying a bounty of Rs 5 lakhs on his head was killed in an encounter with security forces in Sukma of Bastar district, Chhattisgarh Police claimed on Friday.
Rakesh Madkam was charged with eight cases of violence. The operation was carried out by a team of District Reserve Guard (DRG) of the neighboring Dantewada district. The team was working along the inter-district border.
Madkam was a member of the Katekalyan area committee of CPI (Maoist). The encounter took place near Bindrapani village forest while patrolling.
“Acting on specific inputs of Maoist movements, the patrolling team launched the operation on Thursday night in the forest along the inter-district border during which an exchange of fire broke out between the two sides in the Dantewada forest. However, after a brief encounter, the ultra-escaped, but security forces continued searching the area on Thursday night,” said Inspector general of police (Bastar range) Sunderaj P in a statement.
“Security forces were patrolling the area when two encounters took place during the operation. All troopers are safe and further search operation is underway in nearby areas,” added Sunderaj. Security forces recovered the body of the Maoist and a country-made weapon.
Earlier on June 30, Chhattisgarh police had gunned down a Naxal, who too was carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head, in Raipur. The operative was identified as Denga Deva alias Mahangu Deva and he was also an alleged member of the Katekalyan Area Committee of the CPI (Maoist), according to officials.
India launched its first international bullion exchange on Friday as the world’s second-biggest consumer of precious metal tries to bring transparency to the market for the precious metal.
India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX), based at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, or GIFT City in Gujarat, could lead to standard gold pricing in India and make it easier for small bullion dealers and jewellers to trade. “We would have better price negotiation strength with the launch of this bullion exchange,” India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Gold is tightly regulated in India and currently only nominated banks and agencies approved by the central bank can import gold and sell to dealers and jewellers.
“IIBX with its technology-driven solutions, will facilitate the transition of Indian bullion market towards a more organised structure by granting qualified jewellers a direct access to import gold directly through the exchange mechanism,” the exchange said in a statement.
China, the top gold consumer, runs such a bourse, where all domestic production and imported gold has to be bought and sold. India imported 1,069 tonnes of gold in 2021, up from 430 tonnes a year ago.
The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX NSE 0.63 %) and National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) offer gold futures contracts in India, but there wasn’t any physical exchange to buy gold.
“India’s efforts to monetise gold will also derive tremendous support from a transparent bullion trading system in GIFT City,” said Somasundaram PR, regional chief executive officer of WGC’s Indian operations.
Indian households own an estimated collective 25,000 tonnes of gold, which passes from one generation to the next. New Delhi has been trying to monetise these holding to reduce the imports.
I meet a number of dreamers every day, who dreams of making it big and becoming billionaires, but who believe success and luck will fall into their laps:
Gary Player for years was a great competitor in national and international golf tournaments. People constantly said to him, “I’d give anything if I could hit a golf ball like you.”
Upon hearing that comment one day, the Player responded impatiently: “No, you wouldn’t. You’d do anything to hit a golf ball like me if it were easy! Do your know what you have to do to hit a golf ball like me? You’ve got to get up at 5:00 every morning, go out to the golf course, and hit a thousand golf balls! Your hands start bleeding, and you walk to the clubhouse and wash the blood off your hands, slap a bandage on it, and go out and hit another thousand golf balls! That is what it takes to hit a golf ball like me!”
His goal was to be at the top of his sport. That lofty dream required hard work, hard work and more hard work..!
Often we think we can achieve nirvana and peace of mind by giving up everything, for those who dream of such lazy a life, Rabbi Harold Kushner tells a wonderful story about a bright young man who was a sophomore Stanford pre-med student. To reward him for having done so well in school, his parents gave him a trip to Asia for the summer.
While there he met a guru who said to him, “Don’t you see how you are poisoning your soul with this success-oriented way of life? Your idea of happiness is to stay up all night studying for an exam so you can get a better grade than your best friend. Your idea of a good marriage is not to find the woman who will make you whole but to win the girl that everyone else wants.
“That’s not how people are supposed to live,” the sage admonished. “Give it up; come join us in an atmosphere where we all share and love each other.”
The young man had completed four years at a competitive high school to get into Stanford, plus two years of pre-med courses at the university. He was ripe for this sort of approach. He called his parents from Tokyo and told them he would not be coming home. He was dropping out of school to live in an ashram (a spiritual retreat).
Six months later, his parents got this letter from him:
“Dear Mom and Dad,
I know you weren’t happy with the decision I made last summer, but I want to tell you how happy it has made me. For the first time in my life, I am at peace. Here there is no competing, no hustling, no trying to get ahead of anyone else. Here we are all equal, and we all share. This way of life is so much in harmony with the inner essence of my soul that in only six months I’ve become the number two disciple in the entire ashram, and I think I can be number one byJune..!”
Aha! There he was in the ashram, still striving to achieve!
So let’s face it; you want to do well, in the office, golf course or ashram; work hard, there’s no other way..!
In the wake of the deteriorating situation of women and minorities in the country, the Taliban on Thursday called for the implementation of Sharia law in Afghanistan, stressing the need for preserving Islamic values.
The Islamic Emirate leader Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada held a gathering with the provincial governors in Kandahar where he emphasized the need to solve every problem through Sharia and not laws made by people, reported Khaama Press.
“Over the past 20 years, there have been a lot of anti-Shari and Islam rhetoric and laws which are made by the people is not implementable,” Islamic Emirate spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid quoted in the statemen
The statement by the leader stressed that all rights concerning women and minorities in the country must be based upon Sharia, and the implementation of the latest decree by the supreme leader has at least six articles, reported Khaama Press.
Since the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan in August last year, they have constantly escalated their atrocities against Afghan women by depriving young girls and women of humanitarian rights. Girls above 6th grade have been barred from gaining access to schools under the Taliban regime.
Meanwhile, the Taliban issued a diktat against female employees and told them to send male relatives as their replacements. Afghan women have been protesting against the Taliban for the violations of their rights and the removal of women from government institutions since they took over.
In response, the Taliban targeted protesters with harassment and abuse, arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance and physical and psychological torture. Taliban also has a history of targeting the Hazaras, an ethnic minority group that practices Shia Islam.
The group has been responsible for the deaths of over dozens of Hazaras over the past months. Notably, an international conference was held in Uzbekistan on July 25th and 26th, which was attended by delegates from nearly 20 world countries including India.
A delegation of the Taliban, led by acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amir Khan Muttaqi, attended the conference, which was held nearly one year after the fall of the democratic government in Afghanistan.
The aim of the conference was to discuss the security situation as well as the humanitarian situation in the country.
Even though more and more countries are extending their outreach to the Taliban, the latter is not upholding its promises.
Earlier, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan released a report that highlighted the eroding human rights situation in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.
The report detailed the UN findings with regards to the protection of civilians, extra judicial killings, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests, the rights of women and girls, fundamental freedoms, and situations in places of detention.
The Indian stock market’s key indices, Sensex and Nifty, rallied for the third straight day on Friday led by strong buying support in metal, financial and energy stocks.
The 30 stock S&P BSE Sensex surged 712.46 points or 1.25 percent to 57,570.25 points against its previous day’s close at 56,857.79 points.
This is the third consecutive day of rally in the Indian equities markets. The Sensex had gained 1041.47 points or 1.87 percent on Thursday.
The Sensex started the day sharply higher at 57,258.13 points and rose to a high of 57,619.27 points in the intra-day. The index touched a low of 57,104.81 points in the intra-day.
The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange rallied 228.65 points or 1.35 percent to 17,158.25 points against its previous day’s close at 16,929.60 points.
The Nifty has rallied for the third straight day. The Nifty had gained 287.80 points or 1.73 percent on Thursday.
Tata Steel surged 7.27 percent to Rs 107.65. Sun Pharma surged 5.45 percent to Rs 943.55 after announcing strong quarterly numbers.
Sun Pharma on Friday reported a consolidated net profit to Rs 2,060.88 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as compared to Rs 1,444.17 crore recorded in the corresponding period of the last year, registering a year-on-year growth of 42.70 percent.
Bajaj twins surged for the second consecutive day. Bajaj Finserv surged 2.64 percent to Rs 15039.30. The scrip had surged 10.14 percent on Thursday.
Bajaj Finance soared 1.87 percent to Rs 7208.90. The scrip had gained 10.68 percent on Thursday.
The index heavyweight Reliance Industries Limited soared 2.10 percent to Rs 2508.75.
IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, Infosys, Wipro, HDFC, NTPC, and Bharti Airtel were among the major Sensex gainers.
Hours after authorities nabbed a few persons in Assam for allegedly having links with terror groups, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said that around 10 persons have been arrested and their statements recorded.
“Around 10 persons have been arrested, their statements recorded. Bengaluru Police have shared information regarding how the accused got funds from Bangladesh and their bank statements,” said Sarma to media persons today.
In a major crackdown in the northeastern state of Assam, 11 persons were detained on Thursday for their alleged links with global terror outfits including Al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) and Bangladesh-based Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT). One of the persons detained was also a Madrassa teacher in the state.
According to the police, the 11 persons, who were detained yesterday from Assam’s Morigaon, Barpeta, Guwahati and Goalpara districts, are “connected to Islamic fundamentalism” having links with AQIS and ABT. Further action will be taken as per the law.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while coming down heavily on the “Jihadi modules” in the state, said that a lot of information is expected from these arrests.
“From yesterday till today, we have caught two Jihadi modules in Barpeta and Morigaon districts of Assam and arrested all the people involved with Jihadi modules. This coordinated action along with the national police agencies, was a coordinated effort and we will get a lot more information from these arrests,” Sarma had said. According to the Assam Police, Mustafa alias Mufti Mustafa, who is an accused in the case, is a resident of Saharia Gaon in the Morigaon district, and an active member of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) which is linked to Al Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent
Four persons of a family, including two children, were found dead at their home in Shivaji Nagar Baigan Wadi area in Mumbai on Friday, police said.
The deceased were identified as Shakil Jalil khan aged 34 and his wife Naziya Shakil Khan along with their 7-year-old son SK Supari and a three-year-old daughter.
According to police, it seems like a case of death by suicide as the door of the house was locked from the inside.
Police said that acting on information they received they arrived at the spot and after breaking down the door found the man’s body hanging from the ceiling while the remaining three bodies were found lying on the floor.
The police registered a case under ‘Accidental Death Report’ in Shivaji Nagar police station and have started further investigation.
Police is interrogating people around the area. Till now no suicide note has been recovered from the site and police said that there are no suspects in this case but they have begun an investigation.
