Author: LokMarg

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday announced the arrival of the southwest monsoon in Mumbai and other nearby areas.

In a series of tweets, the IMD said that the southwest monsoon has further advanced into the remaining parts of the central Arabian Sea, most parts of Konkan (including Mumbai), some parts of Madhya Maharashtra, and some more parts of Karnataka today.

The Met agency further apprised that the present conditions are favourable for further advance of monsoon into some parts of north Arabian Sea, remaining parts of Konkan, some parts of Gujarat state, most parts of Madhya Maharashtra, entire Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, some parts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Westcentral and the northwest Bay of Bengal during next 48 hours.

As per the IMD, in the upcoming days, conditions would continue to become favourable for the further advancement of the monsoon.

“Conditions would continue to become favourable for further advance of monsoon into some more parts of north Arabian Sea, Gujarat state, some parts of Marathwada, some more parts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, most parts of Bay of Bengal, entire Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, some parts of Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar during subsequent 2-3 days,” the IMD tweeted.

Earlier in the month, Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a high-level meeting to review the preparedness to deal with flood situations in the country during the monsoon.

In Kerala, the monsoon made its onset three days ahead of its time on June 1. (ANI)

The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police on Saturday wrote to Twitter and other social media platforms seeking details regarding the offensive content over their respective platforms a day after nationwide protests erupted over the controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad.

The Delhi Police is gathering unedited content of the tweets and messages. IFSO has named as many as 31 people in its two FIRs on Wednesday, however, no summon has been made to any of the named individuals so far.

The development came amid nationwide protests over the controversial statements of suspended Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nupur Sharma and expelled leader Naveen Jindal.

Recently, in a move to curb falsehood and misinformation on social media, the IFSO unit of the Delhi police has registered a case against several persons including Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal under various provisions for spreading hateful messages, inciting groups and creating an atmosphere detrimental to the maintenance of public tranquillity, FIR registered on Wednesday said.

Some of the names included in the FIR were Nupur Sharma, Naveen Kumar Jindal, Shadab Chauhan, Saba Naqvi, Maulana Mufti Nadeem, Abdur Rehman, Gulzar Ansari, Anil Kumar Meena and Pooja Shakun, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Swami Yati Narasimhananda, amongst others. (ANI)

Amid a row over remarks against Prophet Muhammad, section 144 has been imposed in Howrah after fresh clashes took place between police and a group of protestors at Panchla Bazaar on Saturday.

Police used tear gas shells to disperse them as protesters pelted stones. Violent protests broke out in Howrah on Friday over controversial remarks of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.

Section 144 of CrPC, prohibits the gathering of four or more people in the concerned area, has been imposed in and around the stretches of National Highways and Railway Stations under the jurisdiction of Uluberia-Sub Division, Howrah has been extended till June 15.

Internet services have been suspended till 6 am on June 13 in Howrah district in wake of protests on Friday.

Several incidents of violence were reported from different parts of the country over the controversial remarks of Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal on Friday.

Following the protests, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) asked the police heads of states and Union Territories to be prepared and alert as they will be on target. The MHA also has asked all the states to take preventive actions, keep a check on borders and identified sensitive areas.

Earlier on Friday, a massive crowd also gathered to protest at Park Circus in Kolkata adding to the resentment against the sacked leaders. A BJP office was vandalised and torched in Uluberia, Howrah district. People also held a protest at Dasnagar railway station on the Howrah-Kharagpur railway route.

While appealing for peace, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar sought an urgent personal update from the Chief Secretary of the state over the worsening law and order situation in the State since Thursday.

“Expect Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to sternly warn law violators- they will not be spared,” Dhankar tweeted.

Notably, a controversy erupted after Nupur Sharma’s remarks against the minorities. Some Gulf countries have also lodged their protest. However, India on Thursday reiterated that the controversial remarks concerning Prophet Muhammad do not reflect the views of the Government and added that action has been taken by concerned quarters against those who made the comment. (ANI)

Jaipur/Chandigarh/Mumbai/Bengaluru [India], June 11 (ANI): The high-stakes Rajya Sabha elections in four states on Friday – Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan and Karnataka turned out to be a nail-biting contest with Bharatiya Janata Party posting a win in three states while the Congress swept Rajasthan.

Polling took place for 16 vacant seats in Rajya Sabha in Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka and Maharashtra on June 10. The counting of votes was delayed for several houses in Haryana and Maharashtra with rival parties trading charges. Here’s a look at the state-wise results of the elections.

Rajasthan

In a big morale boost for the Congress following the dismal performance in the recently-concluded Assembly elections in five states, the party bagged all three Rajya Sabha seats in the elections amid allegations of horse-trading, while the BJP bagged one seat.

Congress candidates had fielded Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala, and Pramod Tiwari while BJP’s Ghanshyam Tiwari and media baron Subhash Chandra as independent were in the fray for four vacant seats. Citing fears of cross-voting, the Congress had gathered its MLAs in a resort in Udaipur.

“This is the win of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Gehlot government… This is the defeat of those powers who wanted to buy Rajasthan’s self-respect in vote market, destabilize elected state government, run a bulldozer on democracy… Money and muscle power, income tax, ED, black money lost,” said Surjewala after the poll win.

Explaining the number game in the elections, Congress leader Raghu Sharma said, “All 126 votes of Congress have gone to Congress. BJP wanted to indulge in horse trading but nothing could happen. BJP had 71 votes and RLP had 3. But they did not even get 74 full votes, got 73. This shows BJP is broken, cross-voting happened at their end.”

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot alleged that the BJP attempted to indulge in horse-trading but it did not succeed.

“As I had said, we will win all 3 seats. Everyone knew Congress had full votes and BJP did not. Then why did they even nominate candidates? This means they wanted to indulge in horse-trading which could not happen here,” Gehlot said.

Maharashtra

In Maharashtra, BJP was certain to get two seats but the party managed to secure a third seat as well with the help of Independents. Union Minister Piyush Goyal, former state minister Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik from the BJP emerged victorious while one candidate each from Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won.

285 votes were polled on Friday and 41 were needed to win one Rajya Sabha seat.

Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, NCP’s Praful Patel and Congress’s Imran Pratapgarhi were elected without any hassle. However, all eyes were on the contest for the sixth seat where the BJP has fielded Dhananjay Mahadik and Sanjay Pawar was in fray as the Shiv Sena candidate. Mahadik’s came as a setback for Shiv Sena which was hoping to get two seats in the Rajya Sabha elections.

Commenting on the poll results, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said he was not surprised with the results.

“The result doesn’t surprise me. Congress, Shiv Sena, NCP have been voted as per the quota, except (NCP’s) Praful Patel who has received an extra vote – that vote is not from MVA, it’s from the other side. We had fewer votes for the sixth seat but Shiv Sena fielded its candidate and tried to make him win. BJP had the support of many independents MLAs and we had only a few,”

“Devendra Fadnavis’ attempts to take Independents with BJP were successful. This result will not have any effect on the stability of our government,”

Before the polling day, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has extended support to Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and said its two MLAs in Maharashtra will vote for Congress candidate Imran Pratapgarhi with an aim to defeat the BJP.

The counting of votes began after 1 am on Saturday following the order of the Election Commission. The counting could not start at its scheduled time on Friday after the BJP approached the EC alleging rules violation by three MLAs of MVA. On the other hand, the MVA had challenged the vote of one BJP MLA.

After the counting, Sanjay Raut alleged that the Election Commission favoured the BJP.

“Election Commission made our one vote invalid. We objected to two votes but no action was taken on that. Election Commission favoured them (BJP),” he said.

Karnataka

BJP won three seats in Rajya Sabha, the Congress one seat while the Janata Dal-Secular drew a blank after the results of elections to the Upper House of Parliament were declared on Friday. Six candidates were in the fray for four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka.

All three BJP candidates– Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, actor-turned-politician Jaggesh and Member of Legislative Council Lehar Singh Siroya–and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh won the elections. JD-S’ Kupendra Reddy and Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan suffered the defeat.

Janata Dal (Secular) chief HD Kumaraswamy on Friday alleged “horse-trading” in the Karnataka Rajya Sabha elections claiming that Congress leader Siddaramaiah was pressurising JDS MLAs to not vote for their own party but that of the candidate of the grand old party.

JD(S) MLA K Srinivasa Gowda admitted said that he voted in favour of Congress.

Haryana

In Haryana, BJP scored a comfortable victory winning one of the two seats. BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar registered victory after 31 votes were polled in his favour. The interesting contest was between Congress Ajay Maken and BJP-backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma. However, Maken lost the Rajya Sabha elections to Sharma, the BJP-backed independent candidate, by a “narrow margin”, a huge shock for the grand old party which was confident of winning the seat.

Polling was held on June 10 to elect two members to the Upper House of Parliament from Haryana. Amid allegations of cross-voting and rule violations, the counting of votes was delayed and there was a recounting of votes that went on past midnight.

Out of 90 MLAs in the Haryana Legislative Assembly, independent candidate Balraj Kundu abstained and a vote, apparently of Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, was rejected leaving 88 votes valid. Sharma, who was backed by the BJP and its ally Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), got 29.6 votes while Maken received 29 votes.

Commenting on Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi whose vote was rejected, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that he voted openly after listening to his “inner conscience”. (ANI)

Reform measures taken by the government in the past eight years, like the removal of outdated laws, have furthered ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday.

“Guided by the principle of ‘Reform, Perform and Transform’ the Government of India has brought in several reforms which have furthered ‘Ease of Doing Business.’ At the same time, many outdated laws which slowed growth have been removed,” the Prime Minister tweeted.

The Prime Minister shared details of reforms during the last 8 years in the field of ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and for spreading widespread prosperity and encouraging entrepreneurship in the country.

He shared a MyGov tweet thread and articles from his website and Namo App. It listed major economic reform measures taken by the government in the past eight years.

A graphic released with the tweet notes that India has become the fastest-growing economy in the world.

The Indian economy grew by 8.7 per cent in the year ended March 2022, the fastest among the major economies across the world.

The real GDP or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at Constant (2011-12) Prices in the year 2021-22 is estimated to attain a level of Rs 147.36 lakh crore, as against the first revised estimate of Rs 135.58 lakh crore for the year 2020-21, released on 31st January 2022. The growth in GDP during 2021-22 is estimated at 8.7 percent as compared to a contraction of 6.6 per cent in 2020-21, as per the latest data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

The tweet highlighted that India has achieved its highest-ever merchandise and services exports.

India achieved an all-time high annual merchandise export of $417.81 billion in FY 2021-22, an increase of 43.18 per cent over $291.81 billion in FY2020-21 and an increase of 33.33 per cent over $313.36 billion in FY2019-20, as per the Ministry of Commerce & Industry data.

The reform measures taken by the government helped attract the highest ever foreign direct investment (FDI) $83 billion in 2021-22.

GST collections surged to an all-time high of Rs 1.68 lakh crore in April 2022. (ANI)

Congress candidate Ajay Maken lost the Rajya Sabha elections to media baron Kartikeya Sharma, the BJP-backed independent candidate, by a “narrow margin”, a huge shock for the grand old party which was confident of the winning the seat.

“By a very very, very narrow margin, Ajay Maken has lost,” Haryana Congress MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra told reporters after results of the polls held on Friday came in.

Polling was held on June 10 to elect two members to the Upper House of Parliament from Haryana. BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar scored a comfortable victory with 31 votes, leaving the battle for the second seat between Maken and Sharma.

Amid allegations of cross-voting and rule violations, the counting of votes was delayed and there was a recounting of votes that went on past midnight.

Out of 90 MLAs in the Haryana Legislative Assembly, independent candidate Balraj Kundu abstained and a vote, apparently of Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, was rejected leaving 88 votes valid. Sharma, who was backed by the BJP and its ally Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), got 29.6 votes while Maken received 29 votes.

Addressing a press conference after the victory at around 3.50 am, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said, “It is a matter of happiness for us. I thank all the MLAs for making Krishan Lal Panwar and Kartikeya Sharma win. It is a victory of democracy. I am hopeful that both of them will raise the matters related to Haryana’s people in the House.”

Explaining the math behind the counting, he said, “BJP had 40 MLAs, Congress 31 MLAs, 10 JJP MLAs, independents and candidates of some other parties. One candidate abstained and one Congress MLA’s vote was rejected.”

“So, there were a total of 88 votes polled. Those who got one-third votes i.e. 29.34 votes won. Both our candidates combining first preference and second preference won but the Congress candidate got only 29 votes. MLAs were trained well. Our first preference votes were 36. He (Panwar) needed only 29.34 votes and 6.66 votes were transferred to Kartikeya Sharma,” he added.

Khattar said that Congress demanded recounting of votes fearing its defeat.

“There was a recounting of votes. Our polling agent said Congress thought they had won the elections but when they got to know that they are losing they demanded recounting. Our polling agent did not have a problem with recounting,” Khattar added.

Commenting on Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi whose vote was rejected, the Chief Minister said that he voted openly after listening to his “inner conscience”.

“He (Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi) has voted openly after listening to his inner conscience. I can say that he has faith in PM Modi’s policies and ideology. He didn’t even think what Congress party is going to do with him after this,” he added.

After the Congress lost the seat, Bishnoi, MLA from Adampur, tweeted a cryptic message today.

“I have the ability to crush the fun, Do not leave the forest because of the fear of snakes. good morning,” he tweeted.

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Earlier on Saturday, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA Abhay Singh Chautala said he will vote for Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma.

Maken had earlier alleged that BJP has resorted to cheap politics “stalling counting of votes” in Haryana.

“Fearing the loss of face in Rajya Sabha election results-the BJP has resorted to cheap politics stalling counting of votes in Haryana. Please have a look at the Returning Officer’s decision rejecting the BJP’s objections Is democracy still alive in India?” he tweeted.

Before the polling day, both the BJP-JJP alliance and Congress legislators were shifted to resorts to slash possibilities of poaching. While the BJP-JJP alliance had lodged their MLAs in a resort in Chandigarh, the Congress leaders were moved to a resort in Delhi.

The polling to elect the members of the Upper House of the Parliament on 16 Rajya Sabha seats spread across four states took place on June 10 amid speculations of horse-trading and fears of cross-voting.

Last week, 41 candidates from 11 states- Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Telangana were elected unopposed

Polling for the 16 seats spread across states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and Karnataka was held on Friday due to the number of candidates exceeding the seats. (ANI)

The ‘Nach Punjaabban’ fever seems to have gripped the film industry! The song from the much-awaited film ‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’ has been creating a lot of buzz on Instagram lately with many actors posting videos of them dancing to the tunes of it.

The newest to join the bandwagon is Neetu Kapoor, who grooved to the song with daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, ace designer Manish Malhotra and designer Surily.

In the video, all four were seen doing the hook step of the hit song. Giving a dynamic performance, Neetu and Manish took the lead in front while Ridhima kept grooving to the tunes of the song from behind. Captioning the video, the ace fashion designer wrote, “Karan this one’s for You. Friday night live with Ours Punjaban… “

Karan Johar instantly dropped a comment. He wrote “Fab” accompanied by heart and clap emojis.

Meanwhile, the lead actor in the film Varun Dhawan had a career-related suggestion for Manish. Varun took to the comments section of the video and wrote, “U shd have become a hero”.

Kiara shared the video on her Instagram story and wrote, “coolesttt (heart and hug emoji)”

Produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Viacom18 studios, ‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’ is set to hit the theatres on June 24. The film that has already created mass hysteria around it, has Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani, Neetu Kapoor and Anil Kapoor in lead roles. Reality TV star Varun Sood will also do a cameo appearance in the film.

‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’ is directed by Raj Mehta, who earlier backed the 2019 hit film ‘Good Newwz’ starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Akshay Kumar, Diljeet Dosanjh and Kiara Advani. (ANI)

Although Pakistan termed the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, CPEC as a game-changer for the country’s ailing economy but the fact of the matter is that Chinese mega projects are showing an adverse impact on Gilgit-Baltistan’s environment leading to uncontrollable pollution and irreversible depletion of aquatic ecosystems.

Under the banner of CPEC, Pakistan and China are initiating work on mega-dams, oil and gas pipelines, and uranium and heavy metal extraction in Gilgit-Baltistan. Gilgit-Baltistan is also providing over half of its drinking and irrigation water to Pakistan and Chinese mega projects but these projects are showing an adverse impact on the local climate leading to uncontrollable pollution and irreversible depletion of aquatic ecosystems, Global Order reported.

Recently, Pakistan’s Hasanabad had witnessed a glacial lake burst which washed away houses and razed a major bridge on the Karakoram Highway and the biggest reason behind this is climate change.

Looking at climate change, the World Bank warned that one-third of these glaciers will disappear by the end of this century causing famine of great magnitude in Pakistan. Melting ice sheets would also release viruses locked away for thousands of years causing an unprecedented rise in occurrences of rare diseases.

Meanwhile, the United Nations claimed that climate disasters could kill over 300,000 people in Pakistan in the next three decades and the alarming numbers would reach manifolds if we include the anticipated deaths from novel pandemics.

According to the publication, deforestation is the major cause of landslides in Gilgit-Baltistan. Plantation could reverse the climatic issue and even former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the ten billion tree tsunami” is a good initiative but no such development took place. Even the forest land was given to Chinese hydroelectric projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).

Pakistan Army instead of protecting the locals’ interests, snatched their indigenous lands and imposed Chinese interests on them.

Despite repeated warnings from locals, the military has confiscated hundreds of thousands of acres of private land in places like Diamer, Shigar, Ghizer, Gilgit and Hunza and awarded them to the Chinese companies. In one instance, the army bulldozed and flattened homes in Makpondas to grant private land to a Chinese company to build a CPEC-related economic zone, according to the publication.

Experts claim that by 2030, China will be able to produce twelve gigawatts of electricity for Pakistan from the ongoing hydro-projects in Gilgit-Baltistan. One of those projects is Diamer-Bhasha, the largest roller compact concrete dam in the world. However, the Diamer dam is being built in a geologically volatile territory where earthquakes are a daily phenomenon.

Looking at such situations, locals have raised their voices against the construction of CPEC but the government doesn’t listen to a single sound of it. The Pakistani Army is filing the case against those people who raise their voices against land theft and environmental destruction. The locals argued that the establishment is committing real treason and terrorism by sacrificing the well-being of locals for China.

Like elsewhere, the Chinese model of extraction and development is a toxic ‘friendship’ for Gilgit-Baltistan as its fragile ecology is ravaged. (ANI)

A Kashmir-based YouTuber, who posted online a digitally recreated graphic video that showed him beheading an effigy of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma on Saturday issued a fresh video apologising for his action.

“Yesterday, I made a VFX video about Nupur Sharma which went viral all over India. And an innocent person such as me got implicated in the controversy,” You Tuber Faisal Wani said today in an apology video posted on his channel.

In his apology video, Wani states that he did not have any intention of hurting the sentiments the other religions.

The Youtuber further clarified that he had deleted his original disturbing video, also posted on his channel and had gone viral.

In his apology, Wani said, “I hope you will make this video viral too like my other video. This is how everyone will know that I am apologetic about my actions.”

Earlier this month, BJP suspended Nupur Sharma and expelled Delhi BJP media unit Naveen Jindal over their controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad.

Protests had erupted in several parts of the country against the comments with protests in several cities in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jharkhand’s Ranchi and West Bengal’s Howrah and Kolkata among others.

Following the comments made by Sharma and Jindal, several Gulf countries demanded a public apology and saw calls for a boycott of products made in India.

Several FIRs have been filed against Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal in various states (ANI)

At a time when an American military officer termed the Chinese military infrastructure development along the border with India as alarming, it is emerging that the Chinese Air Force is continuously maintaining the deployment of over two dozen frontline aircraft at its Hotan air base near Eastern Ladakh sector.

According to government sources, the Chinese Air Force has now maintained the presence of their 25 frontline fighters at the Hotan air base which include their J-11, and J-20 fighters.

“The Chinese earlier used to maintain detachments of MiG-21 class fighters there but they have now been replaced with more capable and sophisticated aircraft and in larger numbers,” they said.

The Chinese Air Force is also building up new airfields close to the Indian territory which can allow them to carry out missions from lower altitudes.

American Pacific Army’s General Charles A Flynn had recently said that the Chinese activity level was eye-opening. “I think some of the infrastructures that are being created in the Western Theatre Command are alarming,” he said.

Indian agencies are keeping a close eye on the activities of the People’s Liberation Army’s Air Force (PLAAF) that has spread all along the Line of Actual Control with India opposite to Ladakh in the north to Arunachal Pradesh in the Northeast.

Along with Hotan, the agencies are also keeping a close eye on Gar Gunsa, Kashghar, Hopping, Dkonka Dzong, Linzhi and Pangat airbases of the PLAAF in the Xinjiang and Tibet region.

The Chinese PLAAF has been upgrading these bases in recent times with the construction of hardened shelters, the extension of runway lengths and the deployment of additional manpower to carry out more operations.

The Indian side has also ramped up its preparedness in the view of the heightened activity by the Chinese forces on their side of the LAC and has deployed its fleet of Sukhoi-30MKIs, MiG-29s and Mirage-2000s at the forward air bases to tackle any misadventure. (ANI)