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As the cycle of violence that had started with the rural polls in West Bengal continued, the body of a BJP youth worker was found hanging from a tree in Purulia’s Balarampur town on Tuesday night. Written on the 18-year-old victim’s t-shirt was a chilling message in Bengali, “This is for doing BJP politics from age 18. Been trying to kill you since the vote. Today you are dead." BJP took out protest rallies today in view of the killing and blamed Trinamool Congress for the incident.
In an exclusive interview to CNN-News18, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari blasted the Election Commission for failing to conduct the recent Maharashtra bypolls with fairness. The minister said that he was “appalled" by the reason given by the poll body that EVMs and VVPAT machines failed because of the excessive heat and dust in the region, Gadkari also said that giving special status to Bihar upon CM Nitish Kumar’s request was out of the question. Read more excerpts from the explosive interview here.
The Centre was at the receiving end of much flak on Wednesday after oil companies announced a mere 1 paisa reduction in fuel prices, which have been skyrocketing over the past two weeks. The price of petrol has gone up by Rs 3.8 per litre and diesel by Rs 3.38 in the last 16 days. State-run oil companies had initially announced a 60 paisa cut in the morning, but soon withdrew the statement, calling it a ‘clerical error’. The meagre reduction continued to be the butt of many jokes on the internet throughout the day.
As farmers continue to wait for the promised loan waiver in Karnataka, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Wednesday observed if farmers who took loans to celebrate weddings and buy motorbikes should also be considered for the waiver. He added that modalities of the waiver would take some time to finalise and thus the announcement would take another 15 days at least.
Superstar Rajinikanth, who visited the protest-hit Tuticorin, lost his cool over the relentless questioning by the mediapersons at the Chennai airport on Wednesday. The actor said that the recent Sterlite protests turned violent only after antisocial elements attacked police and property including the Collectorate’s office and added that if protests continue, Tamil Nadu will turn into a graveyard. When asked how he was sure if this indeed was the case, the actor replied, “I just know. I do."Air India has promoted Aruna Gopalakrishnan, the woman accused of dismissing complaints of sexual harassment by an air hostess when the former was heading the women’s cell in the organisation. The announcement was revealed on Twitter, a day after the Air India air hostess complained of sexual harassment at the hands of a senior official.
Congress leader P Chidambaram rushed to a trial court and the Delhi High Court on Wednesday, seeking protection from arrest in two corruption cases. Irregularities have allegedly been found in the clearances given to Rs 3,500 crore Aircel-Maxis deal and the Rs 305 crore INX Media deal, both of which had been cleared under the UPA-1 government. P Chidambaram had been the serving Finance Minister in both the cases.
Giving expression to the disquiet within the Congress party over former President Pranab Mukherjee’s decision to visit the RSS headquarters in Nagpur in June, a senior party leader has written to Mukherjee, calling the decision a ‘rude shock’ to secular minds within the party. He further urged Mukherjee to ‘refrain’ from his visit to Nagpur. Mukherjee is set to deliver a speech on nationalism to RSS workers on June 7 and will be part of their ‘Third Year Course’ valedictory session as a chief guest.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh filed its first chargesheet in the sensational case that rocked Karnataka last year. According to the chargesheet, the plot to kill Lankesh was hatched over at a period of at least seven to eight months. A Sanatan Sanstha worker is one of the two accused so far in the case.A 23-year-old man from an OBC community in Gujarat's Banaskantha district has alleged that members of the Rajput community forced him to "shave off" his moustache for adding 'Sinh' to his name which was printed on the invitation cards for a function, police said on Wednesday. The incident follows last week’s clashes between a group of Rajputs and Dalits in Ahmedabad, which allegedly occurred after a Dalit man decided to add the suffix 'Sinh' to his name.Agree or Disagree?
In a recent interaction with a leading Indian daily Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that India was ready to talk to Pakistan, but not as long as infiltration was going on. Singh’s linkage of talks and infiltration is in keeping with the current Indian position that Pakistan must abandon terror for a full dialogue to begin between the two countries. However, the Home Minister has gone into new territory with his call to “jointly launch actions". Vivek Katju raises a question, What does this comment mean?Will Congress’s Pranab Mukherjee end up going to the RSS headquarters? While the former President is a religious person, he is well-known for his secular credentials. During his presidential term when PM Modi requested him to visit Israel, Pranab insisted that he would visit Palestine too. Such was his accountability towards his secular beliefs.On reel
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