On Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party released its second and final list of candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) releases another list of 10 candidates for the #DelhiElections2020. Tajinder Pal Bagga to contest from Hari Nagar constituency. pic.twitter.com/I61TvNuBzu
BJP’s youth wing leader Sunil Yadav will contest against the incumbent Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal, from the New Delhi constituency. Yadav is also the President of Delhi’s BJP Yuva Morcha. Tajinder Bagga, the spokesperson of BJP’s Delhi unit, has been fielded from Hari Nagar against Aam Aadmi Party’s Princess Dhillon.
Meanwhile, BJP alliance partner Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has decided not to contest these elections as they had some differences with the BJP over Citizenship Amendment Act. SAD leader Sukhbir Badal had insisted that CAA should also include Muslims and hence, instead of changing their stand, they chose not to contest the elections. Moreover, SAD also believes that the National Register for Citizens should not be implemented.
The first list was released on 17th January by Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and Union Minister Prakash Javedkar. It featured a total of 57 candidates, including four women. Rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs such as Anil Bajpai and Kapil Mishra have also been allotted seats. The list also included OP Sharma, Jagdish Pradhan, and Vijender Gupta.
The polls are scheduled for 8th February and the results will be declared on the 11th of the same month.
Days after BJP Delhi spokesperson Tajinder Pal Bagga was trolled online for not making it to first of candidates contesting the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, the second and final list released by the party shows him contesting from New Delhi’s Hari Nagar constituency. When the first list of candidates was announced and Bagga’s name was missing, he was relentlessly trolled for not making it.
Bagga will face Aam Aadmi Party candidate, Princess Dhillon who is also known as ‘Rajkumari Dhillon’. She has assets worth Rs 51 crore as per her election affidavit. She is the second richest AAP candidate after RK Puram candidate Parmila Tokas who declared assets worth Rs 80 crore.
Delhi assembly elections for the 70 seats will be held on 8th February and the results will be declared on 11th February. 21st January, today, is the last date for filing nominations.
Members of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), a Communist outfit, attacked Karyakartas of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) at the SVR NSS College Vazhoor at Kottayam in Kerala on Monday, the ABVP claimed. The saffron students’ organization posted images of its injured karyakartas on social media that showed a grievously injured student.
The ABVP claims that the SFI has been trying to create unrest inside the campus for a while seeing the saffron organization’s growing popularity. The attack comes after the ABVP held a conference at the campus last Thursday which is said to have attracted significant participation.
SFl goons of vazhoor NSS College, Kerala has unleashed a brutal violence against ABVP Karyakarthas.. SFI unit has been trying to create problems in Campuses, soon after they witnessed a massive participation of students in ABVP’ s Unit conference.. #redterrorism#leftattackpic.twitter.com/R7j74vsQcI
The ABVP’s allegations against the SFI comes at a time when tensions are still simmering between the left and saffron student organizations at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi. At JNU, the Left is accused of initiating the cycle of violence that culminated in a massive brawl on the 5th of January. The chain of events on the 5th is still unclear as of this moment.
Kerala, of course, has witnessed a lot of violence between the Left and Saffron. The persecution of alternate political ideologies when the Left assumes power is a worldwide phenomenon and Kerala is certainly not at odds with the trend.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon Inc and the owner of Washington Post visited India for a tour even as several small traders are planning to stage protests against the retail giant for distorting the local market. India’s antitrust chief Ashok Kumar Gupta told Reuters on Tuesday that big e-commerce companies in India should not offer deep discounts which can potentially hurt and small-scale brick and mortar retailers in India.
Amidst the ruckus, Union Minister Piyush Goyal had decided not to meet the WaPo owner Jeff Bezos during his three-day India visit. Following that, Prime Minister Modi too did not meet Jeff Bezos personally. Under such circumstances, the government has issued a detailed clarification of its views over the matter.
What are the main issues with Amazon and Flipkart operations in India?
As pointed out in the recent Competition Commission of India (CCI) order of Jan 13, 2020, the four main concerns regarding Amazon and Flipkart operations in India are deep discounting, preferred sellers on the marketplaces, preferential listing/promotion of private labels and exclusive launch of mobile phones.
Let us take these issues one by one. How do Amazon and Flipkart engage in deep discounting and how is it anti-competitive?
Both Flipkart and Amazon continue to make losses. Flipkart India Pvt Ltd had a turnover of Rs. 30,931 Cr and loss of Rs 3,835 Cr in the fiscal year ended 2019. This shows Flipkart is burning cash through deep discounts. It is subsidizing prices for their multiple seller entities. At Amazon, seller services losses are to the tune of 5,685 Cr. It is observed that there is deep discounting and it is used for subsidizing vendors.
Also, as mentioned in the CCI order, communications sent by Flipkart and Amazon to their sellers reveal that they are incurring a part of the discounts offered during the big sale events like the Big Billion Days (BBD) of Flipkart and the Great Indian Festival of Amazon. Certain smartphone brands/models are available at significantly discounted prices on these platforms and are sold largely through the sellers identified, as the platforms’ ‘preferred sellers’. This hurts competition in a negative way as retailers in phone business are not able to compete with the heavy discounts offered by these marketplaces due to their access to global funds.
What does ‘Preferred sellers on the marketplace’ mean and how does it hurt competition?
Both Amazon and Flipkart have their own set of preferred sellers and these preferred sellers have nexus with the e-commerce platforms either by way of direct or indirect ownership or some understanding. It can be seen that there appears to be an exclusive partnership between smartphone manufacturers and e-commerce platforms for the exclusive launch of smartphone brands. This means that certain sellers are given benefits which may restrict actual competition on the platform. This hurts competition as it does not allow other sellers to be listed similarly.
Is there a Preferential listing/promotion of private labels on Flipkart and Amazon?
Flipkart lends the word “Assured Seller” to the products sold by its preferred sellers such as Vision Star, Flashstar Commerce and Flashtech Retail and allegedly creates a bias in favour of preferred sellers to the detriment of other sellers. Amazon lends the word “Fulfilled” to the products sold by preferred sellers and further allegedly creates search bias by listing its preferred sellers in the first few pages of the search results. The products sold by Cloudtail India and Appario Retail allegedly dominate the first few pages of search results. This clearly indicates that there is a Preferential listing/promotion of private labels on Flipkart and Amazon.
What does the Exclusive launch of mobile phones mean and how does it impact Indian businesses?
Mobile manufacturing companies like One Plus, OPPO, and Samsung have exclusively launched several of their models on Amazon. Similarly, Vivo, Realme, Xiaomi etc., have exclusively launched several of their models on Flipkart. In 2018, Flipkart launched 67 mobile phones and Amazon launched 45 mobile phones exclusively on its platform. This has the potential to negatively impact small retail shops selling mobile phones.
How is the Government Plugging the loopholes and are the practices in violation of Indian Law?
These seem to be prima facie a matter of violation of competition law and therefore the Director-General of Competition Commission of India has ordered an investigation into the same in its order of Jan 13, 2020. Also, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry is looking at the FDI aspect of the matter.
The FDI Policy is clear on the matter and from 2000 has stated that FDI up to 100% is permitted for e-commerce activities but such companies would engage only in business to business (B2B) e-commerce and not in retail trading. In fact in 2019 January, too, the Government had issued a clarification on its press note 2 of 2018, which clarified that B2C e-commerce, which is multi-brand retail through the inventory-based model, has all along remained prohibited for FDI. Along with this, the Government is engaged in taking to these marketplaces to ensure proper compliance with Indian law in both letter and spirit.
On the 7th of January, The Hindu published a report that claimed that ‘scholars’ at IIT-Kharagpur had issued a statement in solidarity with the students of JNU. However, as it turns out, it was a gross violation of journalistic principles on part of the mainstream media. In the report, the ‘scholars’ were, as expected, against the government and the Delhi Police and it was a unique opportunity for the media to run its conventional anti-BJP campaign.
The headline of The Hindu report
The entire report published by The Hindu is based on a statement that was not issued by any official organisation within the institution. We were told by sources that the statement was most definitely not issued by the Research Scholars Council as it claims.
In fact, several members of the Council, we are told, came to know of it long after it was issued. It condemned the “unprecedented violence and terror” in the JNU campus led by “hooded-armed mobs.”
The statement said, “Such act of terror has no place in any civilised world, least of all in the sphere of learning. We, at IIT Kharagpur, feel this terror more keenly as we have also been part of various movements in the past.” It added, “In JNU, the attacking mob were protected by the Delhi Police who stated that they cannot enter the campus without permission. However, the same police did not wait for permission when they assaulted students inside other university campuses, turning them into war zones.”
The unauthorized statement which claimed to be from Research Scholars Council
If one notices, interestingly, the so-called statement that The Hindu published had no signature or any official stamp. Essentially, any media house would be expected to confirm whether the statement was, in fact, issued by the appropriate authorities.
If the Research Scholar’s Council of IIT-KGP had indeed issued this statement, the council would have to take approval at multiple levels to ensure that the statement, with the official signature, can be released to the press. We have learnt that no such approval was taken and this was unilaterally released to the press by a handful of Left students from the University. It was thus gross malpractice for The Hindu to trust and unverified, unsigned statement as authentic and paint it as the voice of the entire Research Council.
Emails were also written by a research scholar of the institution to the Editorial Board of The Hindu demanding an answer for the factual inaccuracies in the report. These emails have been accessed by OpIndia. The first email was sent on the 10th of January. It said, “On behalf of the research scholars, IIT Kharagpur Research Council didn’t release any official solidarity statement related to incidents happened in JNU. Therefore, the whole report lacks factual authenticity.” It adds, “Publication of an unverified statement like this has maligned the reputation of the research community as well as the whole institution.”
The email sent on the 10th of January
The email demanded that the report be withdrawn and sought an immediate response over the matter. Five days passed but still, there was no response from the editorial board of The Hindu.
The second email sent on the 15th of January, again requested the newspaper to correct its mistake. It said, “Further silence on this matter will only lead to the confirmation that this was a politically motivated by The Hindu which lacked authenticity.” Five days have passed since the second letter and ten days since the first letter was sent and yet, The Hindu hasn’t bothered to correct its obvious bit of fake news.
We can confirm that a statement was issued on the 9th of January by the Students’ Senate, the official student representative body of IIT-Kharagpur. The statement, which is clearly in response to the earlier unverified statement peddled by The Hindu, is completely politically neutral unlike the previous statement and makes it clear that the Students’ Senate is the only official body authorized to make a statement on behalf of the students of IIT-Kharagpur.
Statement by the Students’ Senate, IIT-Kharagpur
The statement by the Students’ Senate condemns the violence but neatly avoids any blame game over the matter like the unauthorized statement engaged in. It reiterates that this was the only statement issued by the students of IIT-Kharagpur over the JNU Saga.
One must note that The Hindu had published a report attributing the wildly strong and sweeping to the Research Scholar’s Council. The unverified statement, which was found to have been not released by the Council even went on to blame sweepingly blame the police for it. The actual statement, which was issued only to dispel the fake news spread by The Hindu has been released by the much larger Student’s Senate and has taken requisite approval from the various authorities in IIT-KGP. The statement of the Student’s Senate is also extremely neutral in nature and does not assign blame, only condemned violence in generic terms.
The shoddy reporting by The Hindu is further evidence of the fact that it is the mainstream media that is more interested in the ‘student movement’ against the CAA and NRC and the JNU saga than the students themselves. We have documented extensively the manner in which the mainstream media has struggled hard to build the narrative of a ‘student movement’ against the government despite the fact that no such movement existed on the ground. In the current instance, The Hindu used an unauthorized unverified statement by motivated individuals within IIT-Kharagpur to build the narrative that the entirety of IIT-Kharagpur was against the government over the violence at JNU.
An alert was raised at the Mangalore airport after a suspicious bag was found outside the airport terminal. According to the reports, IED traces were found in the abandoned bag at Mangalore airport.
Official’s of #CISF confirms that low intensity #IED was found in a suspected bag inside #MangaloreAirport. It had all components excluding Triggering material.
Now the bag has been taken in an isolated bay (Special Van) for further investigation. @indiatvnews#Mangalurupic.twitter.com/5JBNsEUnpA
The bag reportedly carried a low-intensity IED and had all components excluding the triggering material. A bomb squad was rushed to the spot which after detailed examining shifted the bag to an isolation bay for further investigation.
Soon after the alert was sounded, Mangaluru Police Commissioner PS Harsha reached the airport along with a police team. A thorough combing operation was initiated with the help of bomb disposal and dog squads, and metal detectors.
The commissioner later issued a video message stating that the situation is under control now. “CISF had found a suspicious bag, handled it as per the safety protocols and quickly informed the police control room. We have placed the bag in the isolation bay as per the safety protocol,” Harsha said.
The Karnataka police have released photographs of the suspect who is alleged to have left the bag at the airport. Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) DIG Anil Pandey said that the suspect kept the bag at the airport and was seen leaving in an auto while hiding his face. The police have released the CCTV footage having the photographs of the suspect and the auto-rickshaw he was leaving in.
Karnataka: Mangaluru Police releases photographs of suspect and the autorickshaw he was seen leaving in, in the CCTV footage. A suspicious bag was found at Mangaluru Airport today. https://t.co/9X3seeADZCpic.twitter.com/NKeak3rwnz
Following the bomb scare, the security at the Bengaluru and Hubli airports has been beefed up. Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said that the Bengaluru residents need not worry.
On Monday, Dilbag Singh, the DGP of Jammu and Kashmir expressed his support for setting up de-radicalization centres in Kashmir. He added that it will do good if the civil society and religious experts come forward to help deradicalize the ones who have gone astray from the mainstream.
J&K DGP Dilbag Singh: If some sensible kind of arrangement is made where good people from the civil society & experts who deal with the subject and relevant aspects of religion and other things… I think that will be a good development. That kind of things should be welcomed. https://t.co/E3wwqfZESN
Earlier, at the Raisina Dialogue, India’s first Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat had raised concerns about the radicalisation of young children in the Kashmir Valley. He suggested that radicalised individuals can be helped by de-radicalisation camps. The general stated that identifying and isolating radicalization is the key to containing terrorism.
DGP Dilbag also stated that Hizbul Mujahideen, the radical Islamist organization is on the verge of being completely wiped out from South Kashmir.
On being asked about Davinder Singh, the DGP stated that the case has now been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). He stated that the case is being investigated in the right direction. The J & K DGP was also asked about news reports highlighting Singh’s trip to Bangladesh. He added that Singh’s daughters studied in Bangladesh and that investigation are underway to determine the purpose of those visits.
J&K Dilbag Singh on reports that J&K DSP Davinder Singh had paid visit to Bangladesh: It has come to our knowledge that his daughters studied in Bangladesh. It is being investigated if his visits were only restricted to that angle. https://t.co/GIs6ltRlKE
Amidst the ongoing protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Cabinet Minister for Housing in Maharashtra government, NCP leader Jitendra Awhad today made controversial remarks criticizing the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Registers of Citizens.
#WATCH Jitendra Awhad,NCP in Thane:Main Delhi ke takht se poochta hoon,ab tu maangega mujhse saboot mere deshvasi hone ka?Toh sun,jab tera baap sar jhukakar angrezon ke talwe chaat raha tha,tab mera baap phansi ke takht ko choomke inquilab zindabad ke naare laga raha tha.(18.01) pic.twitter.com/WOwKP167xQ
Speaking at a gathering in Thane, Awhad slammed the BJP government at the centre for CAA and NRC. “Delhi ke takht se poochta hoon,ab tu maangega mujhse saboot mere deshvasi hone ka?Toh sun,jab tera baap sar jhukakar angrezon ke talwe chaat raha tha,tab mera baap phansi ke takht ko choomke inquilab zindabad ke naare laga raha tha.(I would like to ask the Delhi throne that now you would ask me for proof being a countryman? Listen, when your father was obsequiously licking the British soles, my father embraced the hanging noose while shouting Inquilab Zindabad),” Awhad said.
The not-so-veiled attack against PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah comes after the central government enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act that aims to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who are living in India on or before December 31, 2014.
In addition to this, Awhad also insulted Hindus while appeasing Muslims in his criticism of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Maharashtra Housing Minister Jitendra Avhad said that Muslims can tell where their ancestors were buried, but Hindus would not be able to tell about any place where their ancestors were cremated. He said, “I want to ask the Hindu brothers who are sitting here, where was the funeral of your ancestors? Muslims can tell where their ancestors’ graves are.”
The temple town of Shirdi is bedevilled with the raging controversy surrounding the birthplace of the 19th-century saint Sai Baba. The controversy erupted after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a package of Rs 100 crore to build facilities at “Sai Janmsthan” at Pathri a few days ago.
On January 19, a bandh was observed in Shirdi in opposition to the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s statements, terming Pathri as Sai’s birthplace. While the shrine remained open for devotees, the commercial installations and establishments remained shut. About 25 villages had supported the call for bandh.
However, the bandh was called off after Thackeray assured the offended parties that their concerns will be addressed. Neelam Gorhe, Sena leader and deputy speaker of the legislative council said, “CM has assured to meet people of Shirdi and listen to what they wanted to say. He will also meet the residents of Pathri and the issue will be resolved at the earliest.” In the evening gram sabha comprising of Shirdi residents and leaders of Shirdi Shri Sansthan Trust, the decision to call off the bandh was taken.
The matter first came to notice in October 2017 when President Ram Nath Kovind said that Sai Baba was born in Pathri. However, the controversy picked up steam after Uddhav Thackeray declared allocation of Rs 100 crore for the development of Pathri as Sai’s birthplace.
The locals at Shirdi are evidently unhappy with the Maharashtra government’s decision to develop Pathri town in Parbhani district as Sai Baba’s birthplace. The Shirdi inhabitants claim that there is no concrete proof about Pathri being Sai’s birthplace, the locals in Pathri claim they have 29 pieces of recorded evidence to expound that Sai Baba was indeed born in their town.
Sai Baba, who is worshipped by devotees of varying faiths, was a spiritual leader who lived during the nineteenth century and died in 1918. According to the accounts of his life, he taught the importance of realisation of self and criticised disproportionate attachment towards the perishable things. His teachings combined elements from both Hinduism and Islam and was considered to have played a pivotal role in bridging discord between Hindu-Muslim community. Though Sai Baba embraced fragmentary parts of both Hinduism and Islam, he is believed to have never revealed about his real name, caste or religion during his lifetime.
There are contradictory claims about Sai Baba’s antecedents. According to the residents of Pathri, Sai Baba was born in their town and they cite the eighth edition of his biography ‘Sri Saisachharitra’ as a source to back their claim. However, according to Tamil accounts, Sai’s mother was Vaishnavdevi and his father’s name was Abdul Sattar and he came to Shirdi later where he took Samadhi.
In addition, the 1952 October to December issue of the ‘Sri Sai Leela Traimasik’ claimed that Sathe Shastri and Lakshimibai were the parents of Sai Baba while the Gujarati language ‘Sai Sudha’ magazine stated that Sai Baba was born near Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem to Gujarati Brahmin parents.
As per Suman Sundar authored ‘Sai Leela’ book published in 1959, Sai was born in Pathri and asserts Gangubhau and Devagiri Amma as his parents. But the Pathri town mentioned in the book is believed to be located in the former Hyderabad State.
Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra and senior Congress leader from Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan, has admitted that the Congress party entered an alliance with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra after receiving due approval from the Muslim community. In what is being construed as a blatant admission of ‘Muslim appeasement’, Chavan was speaking in the context of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
.@INCIndia admits to Muslim ‘appeasement’.
‘Formed Govt. after Muslims gave nod’, says Former Maharashtra CM @AshokChavanINC.
Ashok Chavan stated, “This is our state. Our government has been formed in the state. We decided to be a part of the government to keep BJP away from power. Maharashtra should not face damage again akin to what BJP inflicted in the last 5 years. Most of the Muslim brothers said that our biggest enemy is BJP and Congress should be a part of the government to stop BJP. That’s why the Congress party is in the government today. Till our government is there, we will not allow the implementation of CAA in the state.”
The comment by Chavan has set the cat among the pigeons. The NCP, for its part, appears to be keeping itself away from the entire controversy. Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik has stated that it was their policy to keep the BJP out of power.
The BJP has entered the fray and targeted both, the Congress party and the Shiv Sena, over the comment made by Ashok Chavan. Accusing the Shiv Sena of being power-hungry, the BJP claims that the Congress party is misleading people on the issue of CAA.
The comment by Chavan puts Shiv Sena in a tough spot. It remains to be seen whether the party will oppose the CAA just because the Congress party wants to appease its Muslim vote bank. The Shiv Sena appears to be abandoning the Hindutva plank of late and opposition to CAA will be the final nail in the coffin.
The Congress party’s stand on the CAA has been clear from the very beginning, they have decided to oppose the Act that provides citizenship to persecuted minorities from neighbouring Islamic States tooth and nail. Congress-ruled Punjab had passed a resolution against the CAA after Kerala did the same. Despite their claims of being secular, the Congress party had called for an ‘Iftar party’ earlier this month as a mark of protest against the CAA and NRC.
