Ever since the Shaheen Bagh protests started, there were wide speculations that the protesters were enjoying political support from the opposition parties, emboldening their demonstration against the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Now, the Congress candidate from Delhi’s Vikaspuri constituency, Mukesh Sharma, has claimed that he has been providing help to Shaheen Bagh protestors.
#WATCH Mukesh Sharma, Congress candidate from Vikaspuri constituency: Main madad jab karta hun mardangi se karta hun, maine toh Shaheen Bagh walon ki bhi madad kar rakhi hai. Shaheen Bagh wale mujhe daily phone karte hain. #DelhiAssemblyElections2020pic.twitter.com/hxPo5RUNEJ
Ahead of the Delhi assembly elections, addressing a group of people, Sharma said, “When I offer help, I do it proudly, like a ‘man’. I have also helped Shaheen Bagh protesters. Shaheen Bagh protesters keep calling me daily seeking my help.”
For over a month now, anti-CAA protesters have occupied one of the main thoroughfares in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, causing profound inconvenience for lakhs of commuters travelling by that road. The acknowledgement by a Congress candidate from Vikaspuri constituency betrays the lack of empathy among the leader for the travellers who are facing everyday trouble to traverse through the Shaheen Bagh road.
The BJP had earlier claimed that the Shaheen Bagh protests, where anti-India and pro-Jinnah slogans were raised, were orchestrated by Congress and AAP. Recently, Shaheen Bagh protest mastermind Sharjeel Imam’s video had gone viral in which he was seen making secessionist and seditious remarks against the territorial integrity of India. AAP’s Amanatullah Khan was also seen accompanying Imam in one of the viral videos.
Earlier, in a viral video, a shopkeeper from the area was seen saying that the women at Shaheen bagh are being paid Rs 500-700 daily for ‘protesting’.
It is also pertinent to note that Delhi is going to the polls on February 8 and the results of which will be declared on February 11.
The Budget for the year 2020 was declared on Saturday by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and it had substantial allocations for SC, ST and OBCs.
During her Budget 2020 speech, the FM announced that Rs. 85,000 crore rupees for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Other Backward Castes (OBC) in 2020-21 also, an additional Rs. 53,700 crores have been allocated in Budget 2020 for the welfare of Scheduled Tribes (ST).
85,000 crore rupees for Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes in 2020-21
53,700 crore rupees for Scheduled Tribes
Enhanced allocation of 9,500 crore rupees for Senior citizens and Divyangs
Rs. 9,500 crore has also been allocated for the welfare of senior citizens and differently-abled citizens. A tribal museum would also be set up in Ranchi to educate people about India’s rich tribal history.
In a speech that lasted nearly three hours, Nirmala Sitharaman made a host of other significant announcements. A 16-point action plan was put forth by the Finance Minister to help the agricultural sector and increase farmer’s wages. A new optional tax regime was also announced in the budget which significantly decreases the income tax rate for the middle class.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2020 speech on Saturday announced that the government has proposed to sell a part of its holdings in state-owned Insurance company Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).
“The government proposes to sell a part of its stake in LIC through IPO,” said Finance Minister in her Budget 2020 speech. She informed that the government will list LIC on the stock exchanges. Currently, the government owns 100 per cent stakes in LIC.
Life Insurance Corporation of India is an Indian state-owned insurance group and investment corporation owned by the Government of India. As of 2019, Life Insurance Corporation of India had a total life fund of Rs 28.3 trillion. It has 290 million policyholders.
The developments come as the Life Insurance Corporation of India had closed 23 schemes on January 31 following the guidelines of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India.
The move is in line with the government’s aim to look at stake sale in government entities to shore up its finances and allow these PSUs to raise resources. The govt has pegged disinvestment for FY21 at Rs 2.11 lakh crore
The government had set a target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore in FY20. On the strategic sale, the government has already initiated the process for Air India and invited bids from potential buyers for a 100 per cent stake in the National Carrier.
Apart from Air India, other major strategic sales lined up are that of government refiner, Shipping Corporation and Container Corporation.
The disinvestment of LIC is in line with the government’s aim to look at stake sale in government entities to shore up its finances and allow these PSUs to raise resources. The govt has pegged disinvestment for FY21 at Rs 2.11 lakh crore.
The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2020 speech announced a host of measures for infrastructure development. An ambitious plan to invest Rs 100 lakh crores on overhauling the Infrastructure in the country was declared by the FM which will give a fillip to the economic growth. The Union Minister mentioned that the investment of Rs 100 lakh crores will open up a host of job opportunities in the infrastructure sector.
Rs 1.76 lakh crores have been envisioned in Budget 2020 to be spent on transport infrastructure development in 2021. FM talked about the accelerated pace of development of highways. Delhi-Mumbai Expressway along with 2 other projects are intended to be completed by 2023 with 2,500 km access-controlled highways and 9,000 km of an economic corridor.
Chennai-Bengaluru expressway will be commenced very soon. A National Logistics Plan will be released soon. 12 lots of highway bundles spread over 6,000 km will be monetised before 2024.
Stating that Indians are fast embracing the air mode of transportation, the finance minister declared that her government plans to build and operationalise 100 new airports by 2024 to fulfil the fledgeling aspirations of the countrymen. With the aim to energise economic activities along the river banks, the government has conceived a project called ‘Arth Ganga’ for developing the inland waterways transport system in Ganga and other rivers that will provide employment opportunities and means of livelihood for people living along the banks of rivers.
In addition, N Sitharaman also stated that Rs 27,300 crores have been earmarked for the development and promotion of commerce and industry in the financial year 2020-2021 and about 3.24 lakh vendors have been registered on the Government e-marketplace. Ushering the villages into the digital age, the government has announced that 1 lakh gram panchayats will be getting optical fibre links to connect with the dynamic world of the Internet. Plans are afoot to institute a new policy to set up Data Centre parks across the country to provide digital connectivity to all public institutions, said FM Nirmala Sitharaman.
Scheme to encourage the manufacture of mobile phones, electronic equipment and semiconductor packaging to be introduced.
The government also made a number of announcements apropos the Rs 1.03 lakh crore National Infra Pipeline scheme. About 6500 projects are envisioned under NIP across sectors — housing, safe drinking water, healthcare, clean energy, logistics, irrigation etc. “NIP is improving the ease of living for every citizen. Generic and sectoral reforms are there…There is huge employment opportunity in the construction, operation and maintenance of projects,” N Sitharaman said.
Nirmala Sitharaman presented her second budget as Union Finance Minister on Saturday. The provisions in the Budget for Income Taxes were expected to create ripples as it was one area where reforms were expected the most. Along with Corporate Taxes, Income Tax reforms were believed to be crucial towards ensuring a revival of the economy.
In her second budget, Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed a new tax regime for the country. It is, however, optional for the taxpayers for the country. It was announced that in the new tax regime, those earning between Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 7.5 lakh will pay income tax at the rate of 10%. Those earning between Rs. 7.50 and 10 lakhs will pay a 15% income tax. Those between Rs. 10 lakh and 12.50 lakh will pay a 20% income tax and the same for people earning between Rs. 12.50 and 15 lakh will be 25%. For those earning above Rs. 15 lakh in a year will be taxed at 30%. These rates are entirely optional and taxpayers willing to pay income tax at this rate will have to forego deductions and exemptions. Those who want to keep availing the deductions and exemptions can choose to pay tax at existing rates.
Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government will forego a revenue of Rs. 40,000 crores due to the new income tax rates for individuals. She also said that 70 exemptions will be removed, with a view to further simplify the tax code. “A person earning Rs 15 lakh per anum and not availing any deductions will pay Rs 1.95 lakh tax in place of Rs 2.73 lakh now,” the Finance Minister said.
In 2019, the income tax relief provided in the interim budget were the talk of the town and it is believed that it played a great part in alleviating the middle-class disenchantment with the Modi government head of the Lok Sabha Elections. Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had announced a tax rebate for individual taxpayers with annual income up to Rs. 5 lakhs. It meant that individual taxpayers up to a gross income of ₹6.5 lakhs need not pay any income tax if they made investments in provident fund and prescribed equities. Around 3 crore middle-class taxpayers benefited from the tax exemption due to this measure.
During her speech presenting the budget for the financial year 2020-21, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that a taxpayer charter will be a part of the statutes of the government, to stop tax harassment.
Emphasising that honest taxpayers will not be harassed by tax officials, the finance minister said that the government is committed to taking measures to ensure that taxpayers are free from tax harassment of any kind. Saying that tax harassment cannot be tolerated, Nirmala Sitharaman said that the wealth creators will be respected in this country.
The government believes in trusting every citizen, the aspirational youth, the hard-working women, the risk-taking entrepreneur, the ever hopeful and untiring farmer, or the wise and old senior citizen, many among them are taxpayers, the finance minister said. She said that the prime minister has laid before us the ease of living as a goal to be achieved on behalf of all citizens.
An important aspect of ease of living and ease of doing business is fairness, the efficiency of tax administration. Businesses should have the confidence that things are fair. “We wish to enshrine in the statutes a taxpayer charter through this Budget,” the finance minister said. The taxpayers charter will be going to part of our law, to build trust, she said. Tax harassment can’t be tolerated when we are talking about citizens and wealth creators.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: We wish to enshrine in the statutes a taxpayer charter through this Budget. Our govt remains committed to taking measures to ensure that our taxpayers are free from tax harassment of any kind. pic.twitter.com/brF2T2onGm
There have been debates about building in statue criminal liability for acts that are civil in nature. Hence certain amendments for the Companies Act are proposed to correct this, the Finance Minister said. Similarly, other laws will also be examined where such provisions are present, and an attempt will be made to correct them also.
Union Budget 2020 was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday. One of the primary focus of Budget 2020 was expected to be Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). Addressing the concerns of MSMEs was crucial towards reviving the economy amidst a global slowdown. And the budget, as expected, focused significantly on this front.
Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget 2020 speech that over 5 lakh MSMEs have benefited from the debt restructuring mechanism put forth by her government. The Government has also asked the RBI to extend the debt restructuring window for MSMEs by a year. It had a deadline of March 2020 which has now been extended. The Finance Minister also announced that amendments will be made to enable Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to extend invoice financing to MSMEs.
A great deal of attention was given to MSMEs in last year’s interim budget as well. A 2% interest subvention was announced for MSMEs that had taken a loan of up to Rs. 1 crore. Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had stated that the government had increased the share of government procurements from MSMEs through Government eMarketplace (GeM) to 25 percent, including 3 percent from MSMEs run by women.
It was also announced that businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs. 5 crores, comprising over 90% of GST payers, will be allowed to file quarterly GST returns. The Government also abolished duties on 36 capital goods. The GST council was asked to devise ways to reduced GST for homebuyers.
The ‘anti-Modi’ hatred of the left and ultra-left wing intelligentsia of the country have turned them blind and delusional in such a way that they have completely lost their ability to distinguish between satire and real news on social media.
In one such incident, controversial Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap, who is not only known for his films overloaded with abusive slangs but also for being a fake news peddler, indulged in one such embarrassing incident where he tried to not only ‘fact-check’ a satirical post but also indulged in abusing right-wingers. Following his gaffe, social media users ridiculed the director for his inability to comprehend satire.
On Thursday, Rahul Roushan, the CEO of OpIndia, took to Twitter to express a satirical take on the Jamia shootout where an alleged shooting incident had occurred. Subsequently, the shooter was arrested and turned out to be a Hindu, predictably triggering the leftist media to incessantly peddle the ‘Hindu terror’ narrative.
However, the humanising project that often happens across the “liberal-secular” media to absolve the crimes of the accused by creating a wave of sympathy in support of the accused, even when they are dreaded terrorists, did not happen during the Jamia incident as the accused was not a Muslim.
In an obvious sly to the whitewashing of the crimes of terrorists by we usually see in the ‘liberal-secular’ media, like how the Pulwama suicide bomber was ‘slapped by an army personnel in his adolescent days‘ or how slain Hizbul terrorist Zakir Musa ‘loved sports bikes’, Rahul Roushan had mocked the ‘liberal-secular’ media by taking a sarcastic view of the incident. Thorugh his tweet, he reflected upon the prevailing times on how media would have reported the Jamia shooting incident and had tried to ‘humanise’ the accused shooter if he was a Muslim.
Gopal says he wanted to study at Jamia 5 years ago, and once when he went to submit admission form, he was bullied by some students who asked him to chant Azadi slogans, and made him rub his nose on ground. He became self-radicalized as a result.
Source: a report in TheSquint.
Rahul Roushan through his satirical tweet stated that how media would have narrated the incident by claiming that the attacker was subject to bullying when he had gone to admission at Jamia.
Roushan even cited ‘The Squint’, a parody of the left-wing website Quint which has a history of humanising and absolving even the likes of Islamic terrorist like Taliban leader Osama Bin Laden.
However, the obvious sarcasm of Roushan’s tweet was perhaps too difficult to comprehend for ‘left-liberals’ and their assorted trolls.
Replies to Rahul Roushan’s tweet
Anurag Kashyap, one of the flag bearers of India’s ‘secular-liberal’ intellectuals, also took to Twitter to showcase his ‘intellect’ and expressed his views on Jamia incident. Kashyap who failed to grasp the satire in Rahul Roushan’s tweet began to foul mouth him. Calling Rahul Roushan a ‘Bhakt’, the controversial filmmaker went on to fact-check the sarcastic tweet.
Kashyap’s reaction to OpIndia CEO’s satire
The most ironical of the above tweet by Kashyap is that he went on to ‘fact-check’ a tweet which was an obvious pun on the ‘liberal-secular’ media ecosystem.
Just the hyper-reactive ‘fact-check’ was not enough apparently. Kashyap has even retweeted others foul-mouthing Roushan, totally oblivious to the satire that was literally staring them on the face.
Anurag Kashyap on Twitter
Interestingly, fact-checking memes, sarcastic posts, photoshopped images have become a new trend of self-proclaimed fact-checkers lately. As the credibility of media is dwindling day-by-day, ‘fact-checking’ has now emerged as a new form of propaganda machinery in which any posts that are not ideologically suitable for the left-wing are checked for its authenticity.
Further mocking Kashyap’s rant over a sarcastic tweet, Rahul Roushan had tried to expand Kashyap’s knowledge about sarcasm. However, Kashyap was too reluctant to admit his failure to understand pun, seeing his ‘intellectualism’ challenged, he ranted further. Roushan has shared the screenshot of a Twitter user claiming that he did go to Jamia at 14.
चरस मस्त फूंकता है तो भई। चल यही गेम खेलते हैं। देख तु मनुवादी था और मंडल कमीशन का विरोध किया था। और अब तेरे दिल में मुसलमानों के लिए ज़हर भरा है। अगर ज़हर नहीं है तो क्या तू कह रहा है कि फ़हद भाई झूठ बोल रहे हैं? बोल साले संघी, एक मुसलमान झूठ बोल सकता है कभी? pic.twitter.com/k4oazLlY3T
Sparing no sympathy for raving and ranting Kashyap, Roushan took his pun a further notch up. It seems that that life is going to be more difficult fo Kashyap.
फ़हद भाई को छोड़ अब। तू कह रहा है कि जामिया वाले भी झूठे हैं जो अपनी वेबसाइट पे बता रहै हैं कि सच में एक 12 साल का लड़का जामिया में एडमिशन से सकता है? आंख खोल संघी, तेरे दिल में मुसलमानों के लिए ज़हर भरा है। जैसा @mehtahansal ने कहा है, इस्लाम क़बूल कर ले और सच्चाई को देख pic.twitter.com/qlWkyRtmL6
Alt-news, the ultra-left wing propaganda website, have a habit of checking the authenticity of memes, cropped videos and satirical images whenever it seems that the pun is not aligned with its political ideology. The left-wing self-proclaimed ‘fact-checking’ outlets like Alt-news has not only allowed their ideological masters to continue their false propaganda but also created a mess in the public discourse, thanks to their biased and selective approach towards exposing the truth.
Following a similar line, director Anurag Kashyap seems to be carving a niche for himself to uplift his career by resorting to fact-check sarcastic tweets to score some brownie points.
While Kashyap failed to identify an obvious satire, we cannot help but look sadly at the irony that left-wing elements like Anurag Kashyap who often proclaim to be fighting for free-speech often indulge in foul-mouthing social media users who just share a different viewpoint or do not agree with their political opinions.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2020-2021 on Saturday. “People of India have unequivocally given their support to the policies of the Narendra Modi government. People reposed faith in our economic policies. This Budget aims to address aims, aspirations of people,” Sitharaman said in her address today.
FM Nirmala Sitharaman said the Budget 2020 was focussed on three themes — ‘Aspirational India, Economic Development For All and A Caring Society’.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also announced several measures to boost the social sectors of Health, Educational and Skill sectors in the country.
Health in Budget 2020
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech announced that the government has provided an additional Rs 69,000 crore for the health sector, adding that proceeds from taxes from medical devices will be used to build health infrastructure.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said that a proposal to set up viability gap funding to allow for entry of hospitals into aspirational districts through the PPP model, marking an expansion of capacity. Districts out of 112 aspirational districts that do not have any empanelled hospitals will be a priority, she added.
Focussing on ending the menace of Tuberculosis in the country, Finance Minister said, “TB will lose, India will win. Will eliminate TB by 2025. Mission Indradhanush has been extended to cover new diseases and new vaccines, said FM.
Finance Minister also said that the government is committed to ODF plus in order to sustain ODF open-defecation free behaviour.
She said Mission Indradhanush has been expanded to cover 5 more diseases and that 20000 hospitals have been empanelled under PM Ayushman Bharat Yojana. The FM proposed to expand Jan Aushadhi Kendras in all districts of the country to provide medicines at affordable rates.
Stressing on the health of mother and child, the minister said the government proposed to allocate Rs 35, 600 crore for nutritional programmes to be launched in 2021.
“We launched Poshan Abhiyaan in 2017-18, where more than 6 lakh Anganwadi workers were provided smartphones to upload nutritional status of 10 crore households,” said Sitharaman.
Education and Skill Development
In the Budget 2020-21 presented today, FM Nirmala Sitharman announced a Rs 99,300 crore outlay for the education sector and Rs 3,000 crore for skill development. The Modi government also proposed online education to ensure education accessibility for everyone.
“By 2030 India is said to have the largest working population in the world. Urban Local bodies around the country will provide internships for fresh engineers for up to a year,” said FM.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the government will bring a new national education policy and Rs 400 crore has been provided for world-class institutions.
“Talented teacher, nurses, paramedics and caregivers to be helped acquire better skills through a special course,” added Sitharman in her speech.
“To ensure education reaches everyone, degree-level full-fledged online education programs will be allowed for institutes ranked in the top 100 for children of the deprived sections of the society,” Sitharaman emphasised on budget’s focus on quality education in the country.
Sitharaman also proposed an online education to ensure education accessibility for everyone. “INSAT exam will be held in African and Asian countries to benchmark foreign students,” added Finance Minister.
In a big boost to the education sector, Finance Minister said from now External Commerical Borrowing and Foreign Direct Investment to be allowed to help states to deliver higher quality education to citizens.
“Internship programmes at local govt bodies for fresh engineering grads for a period up to 1 year. For deprived students, there will be a degree level full-fledged online education programme offered by top 100 institutes,” FM Sitharaman in her speech.
“More medical colleges will be built at district levels so as to train and produce more doctors in the country with a special training package,” she said in the Parliament.
“There exists a huge demand abroad for teachers, paramedical staff and caregivers. But their skills do not match the required ones by employers. My government proposes Rs 3000 crore for skill development. There is a shortage of qualified medical doctors both general practitioners and specialists,” Finance Minister announced.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget 2020 shall set out a road map to achieve the PM Narendra Modi-led government’s goal of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2025.
(Read LIVE Updates on Union Budget 2020-21 at Opindia here)
Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Budget 2020, her second as FM, on Saturday. Until 2016, the Railway budget was presented by the Minister of Railways but that was ended by the Modi government and Suresh Prabhu became the last Railway Minister to present the Railway Budget in 2016. Since then, the Railway Budget has been presented as part of the Union Budget even in Budget 2020.
One of the more significant announcements for Railway in Budget 2020 was the announcement of the Rs 18,600 crore plan for 140 km long Bengaluru suburban rail. It was also proposed that large solar power capacity will be set alongside railway tracks on railway owned land. It was also announced that more Tejas type trains will be launched across the country. Four station redevelopment programs will also be launched under the PPP model. High-speed train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will also be actively pursued.
In the Union Budget last year, it was decided that the Indian Railways would require an investment of 50 lakh crores between 2018 and 2030. It was determined that the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) would be used effectively for faster development and delivery of passenger freight services. It was also decided that Indian Railways will be encouraged to invest more in urban and suburban regions.