Month: July 2022

Trinamool Congress MPs protested near Parliament demanding the inclusion of Garo and Khasi languages in the eighth schedule of the Constitution.

The MPs were seen holding placards and raising slogans for the inclusion of the two languages.
“We’re demanding inclusion of Garo & Khasi in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. I’m going to raise this issue in Zero Hour today in Parliament,” said TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay.

As per the Rajbhasha’s official website, 21 languages are a part of the eighth schedule including Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Maithili, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

Earlier, the Central Government received a proposal from the government of West Bengal for renaming the state as Bangla in all three languages ie. Bengali, English and Hindi, informed the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Parliament on July 19.

Minister of State in MHA, Nityanand Rai in a written reply to the Lok Sabha has informed that MHA has given “No Objection Certificate (NOC)” to the proposals received during the last five years, for changing the name of cities across the country.

“A proposal has been received from the Government of West Bengal for renaming the State as “Bangla in all three languages i.e. Bengali, English and Hindi,” he informed in the Parliament.

All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) MP Saida Ahmad has asked a question on the details and the number of proposals received by the Ministry of Home Affairs for getting approval to change the city names across the country, and whether the government has revamped the guidelines for changing the names of the heritage places.

Rai replied that MHA has no such guidelines for the change of names of heritage places.

In the year 2017, Andhra Pradesh city “Rajahmundry” name was changed to “Rajamahendravaram”.

In 2018, Jharkhand town “Nagar Untari” name was changed to Shri Banshidhar Nagar. During the same year, Madhya Pradesh Nagar Panchayat town, “Birsinghpur Pali” name was changed to “Maa Birasini Dham”. In the same year, Uttar Pradesh city “Allahabad” name was changed to “Prayagraj”.

In the year 2021, Madhya Pradesh city “Hoshangabad Nagar” name was changed to Narmadapuram and city “Babai” name was changed to “Makhan Nagar. (ANI)

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that there was no proposal under consideration of the Centre regarding the creation of a new state in the country.

In a written reply to a question by Congress(I) MP Adoor Prakash, the minister said proposals or requests from various fora are received by the government regarding the creation of new states.

“However, presently there is no proposal under consideration with the government for the creation of any new state,” he added.

Nityanand also informed the House that Left-Wing terrorism in the country was declining. He added that the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) was providing training to security personnel of state security agencies as well as Public Sector Undertakings. (ANI)

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will post for hearing next week a plea of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy seeking direction to the Centre to declare ‘Ram Sethu’ as a national heritage monument.

A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana said it would hear the plea next week after Swamy mentioned the matter before it saying the bench had kept the matter for hearing on July 26 but it was not listed for hearing.
Earlier, after Swamy submitted that the issue is pending for a long time and an urgent hearing is required, the bench had listed the matter on July 26 for hearing.

In his plea, Swamy urged the apex court to pass an order and direct the “Union of India along with National Monuments Authority (NMA) to declare Ram Setu as an Ancient Monument of National Importance.”

He has also urged the top court to pass an order and direct the “Union of India to engage Geological Survey of India and Archeological Survey of India to conduct a detailed survey in respect to Ram Sethu as an Ancient Monument of National Importance.”

Swamy said that he has already won the first round of the litigation in which the Centre accepted the existence of ‘Ram Sethu’ and added that the union minister concerned had called a meeting in 2017 to consider his demand to declare the Sethu as a national heritage monument but subsequently nothing happened.

Ram Sethu is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka. (ANI)

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with several party leaders were detained by Delhi Police at Vijay Chowk during MPs’ march to Rashtrapati Bhavan to protest against the questioning of the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the National Herald case.

Rahul Gandhi is been taken to Parliament Street police station after being detained during a protest march from Parliament to Vijay Chowk. Congress leaders are holding a nationwide protests against the misuse of central probe agencies against Opposition leaders.
“All (Congress) MPs came here. They talked about inflation and unemployment. They (Police) are not allowing us to sit here. Discussions are not allowed inside (the Parliament) and here they are arresting us,” said Rahul Gandhi before being detained.

Several MPs of the party were detained by the police following their protest march from Parliament.

All Congress MPs were stopped at Vijay Chowk and prevented from marching to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

“We’re protesting as per the instruction of the police. All of this is a conspiracy by PM Modi & Amit Shah to completely destroy the Opposition and muzzle our voices. We won’t be scared, our fight will continue,” Congress leader and LoP Mallikarjun Kharge said.

“We had demanded that there be discussion in Parliament on inflation, unemployment, Agnipath & misuse of agencies. Govt rejected it. We said we’ll protest at Rajghat on this, but weren’t permitted. We said that we’ll give a memorandum to President. They didn’t permit,” Deepender Hooda said.

Sonia Gandhi accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reached the ED office in the national capital. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also arrived at the ED office.

The first round of questioning was conducted on July 21 when several Congress leaders were detained as the party put a show of strength by staging nationwide demonstrations in support of the party chief.

The ED had on June 1 summoned Sonia Gandhi to appear before its investigators on June 8 in the case for the first time in connection with a money laundering case involving the National Herald.

The agency had issued similar summons to Sonia Gandhi investigators on June 8 and then on June 21.

Sonia Gandhi could not appear for questioning after testing positive and being hospitalised for Covid-19. The Congress leader had developed a mild fever on June 1 evening and was found COVID-19 positive upon testing the next morning.

After her discharge from the hospital, she had asked for more time to appear before the agency.

The ED wants to record both Sonia Gandhi’s statements under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Last month the ED had questioned Rahul Gandhi on several occasions in the case.

The case to investigate alleged financial irregularities under the PMLA was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognisance of an Income Tax Department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP in 2013.

The petitioner had approached the court alleging that the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the National Herald newspaper, were fraudulently acquired and transferred to Young Indian Pvt Limited (YIL), in which Sonia Gandhi and her son owned 38 per cent shares each.

The YIL promoters include Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis cheated and misappropriated funds, with YIL paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to Congress.

Congress argued that YIL was a not-for-profit company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 that can neither accumulate profits nor pay dividends to its shareholders.

Calling it a case of political vendetta, senior Supreme Court advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had said, “This is truly a very weird case — an alleged money laundering case on which summons are issued with no money involved.”

The federal agency’s move followed the questioning of senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal in April this year in New Delhi in connection with its money laundering probe into the National Herald case.

The agency then recorded the statements of both the Congress leaders then under the PMLA. The National Herald is published by AJL and owned by YIL.

While Kharge is the CEO of YIL, Bansal is the Managing Director of AJL.

The ED is currently investigating the shareholding pattern and financial transactions as well as the role of party functionaries in the functioning of AJL and YIL. (ANI)

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was seen sitting on the road at Vijay Chowk while several MPs of the party were detained by the police following their protest march from Parliament.

This comes as Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi is being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the second round of questioning in connection with the National Herald case.
All Congress MPs were stopped at Vijay Chowk and prevented from marching to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

“We’re protesting as per the instruction of the police. All of this is a conspiracy by PM Modi & Amit Shah to completely destroy the Opposition and muzzle our voices. We won’t be scared, our fight will continue,” Congress leader and LoP Mallikarjun Kharge said.

“We had demanded that there be discussion in Parliament on inflation, unemployment, Agnipath & misuse of agencies. Govt rejected it. We said we’ll protest at Rajghat on this, but weren’t permitted. We said that we’ll give memorandum to President.They didn’t permit,” Deepender Hooda said.

Sonia Gandhi accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reached the ED office in the national capital. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also arrived at the ED office.

The first round of questioning was conducted on July 21 when several Congress leaders were detained as the party put a show of strength by staging nationwide demonstrations in support of the party chief.

The ED had on June 1 summoned Sonia Gandhi to appear before its investigators on June 8 in the case for the first time in connection with a money laundering case involving the National Herald.

The agency had issued similar summons to Sonia Gandhi investigators on June 8 and then on June 21.

Sonia Gandhi could not appear for questioning after testing positive and being hospitalised for Covid-19. The Congress leader had developed a mild fever on June 1 evening and was found COVID-19 positive upon testing the next morning.

After her discharge from the hospital, she had asked for more time to appear before the agency.

The ED wants to record both Sonia Gandhi’s statements under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Last month the ED had questioned Rahul Gandhi on several occasions in the case.

The case to investigate alleged financial irregularities under the PMLA was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognisance of an Income Tax Department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP in 2013.

The petitioner had approached the court alleging that the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the National Herald newspaper, were fraudulently acquired and transferred to Young Indian Pvt Limited (YIL), in which Sonia Gandhi and her son owned 38 per cent shares each.

The YIL promoters include Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis cheated and misappropriated funds, with YIL paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to Congress.

Congress argued that YIL was a not-for-profit company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 that can neither accumulate profits nor pay dividends to its shareholders.

Calling it a case of political vendetta, senior Supreme Court advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had said, “This is truly a very weird case — an alleged money laundering case on which summons are issued with no money involved.”

The federal agency’s move followed the questioning of senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal in April this year in New Delhi in connection with its money laundering probe into the National Herald case.

The agency then recorded the statements of both the Congress leaders then under the PMLA. The National Herald is published by AJL and owned by YIL.

While Kharge is the CEO of YIL, Bansal is the Managing Director of AJL.

The ED is currently investigating the shareholding pattern and financial transactions as well as the role of party functionaries in the functioning of AJL and YIL. (ANI)

Actor Shruti Haasan aced the ethnic wear in her recent pictures which she shared on Monday, on social media account.

Taking to Instagram handle, the ‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’ actor dropped a gorgeous string of pictures of herself in ethnic wear.
Sharing the pictures, she wrote, “I’m always so uncomfortable in white cause I’m such a klutz and I think angels are a bit over rated but hey.”

In the pictures, Shruti was seen wearing a delicate hand-embroidery white kurta set. She posed for the camera from different angles.

For the makeup, the ‘Gabbar is Back’ actor with subtle makeup and nude lips.

The 36-year-old actor accessorized her outfit with oxidized silver earrings and a bangle. And to raise the chic quotient she kept her tresses open to complete the look.

She looked stunning in every picture and frame.

As soon as the actor posted the pictures, her fans flooded the comment box with their comments.

One of the fan wrote, “I know you love black but you look insaneee in white.”

Another user dropped a comment, “You’re truly an Angel.. my Angel.”

And many garnered with heart and fire emojis.

Actor Shriti recently celebrated her 13 years in the entertainment industry by sharing a video on Sunday on her social media account.

Taking to her Instagram handle, the ‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’ actor dropped a video of herself thanking her fans for the love and support in this journey.

Sharing the video, Shruti wrote, “Magical 13 years – I never actually thought I’d do more than a movie even I wasn’t born to do this I learned to love it and cinema has become the greatest source of joy in my life – in fact it has given me the life I’m so grateful for .. through the years I’ve learned a lot how to weather success and failures, how to waltz with confidence and doubt and most of all to appreciate the honour of telling stories and giving souls to women I’ve never known before. I’m so eternally thankful for the love and appreciation I get and I never take it for granted, ever.”

“Thankyou for everything and I hope to give you more and fall more in love with this gift of time and art. Ps – weirdos just got to stick to being weirdos apparently it eventually pays off Thankyou Thankyou for these 13 years,” she continued.

Meanwhile, Shruti Haasan has been battling Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Earlier she shared her workout video, revealing her PCOS diagnosis.

On the work front, Shruti’s web series ‘Bestseller’ was released on February 18 on Amazon Prime Video. She also has a thriller film titled ‘Salaar’ in the pipeline. (ANI)

A major tragedy was averted as two Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) planes flying nearly escaped a mid-air collision over Iranian territory on Sunday, according to media reports.

The planes got extremely close to each other due to the alleged “negligence” of the Iranian Air Traffic Control (ATC), Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported.
The news report quoted sources as saying that one of the planes was a PIA Boeing 777 (PK-211) flying from Islamabad to Dubai, while the other was an Airbus A-320 (PK-268) that was travelling from Doha to Peshawar.

Captain Samiullah was flying the Airbus A-320 while captain Athar Haroon was flying the Boeing 777, according to the news report.

The two planes followed the standard practice as one was asked to ascend while the other was asked to descend.

The Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), which is inbuilt in all planes, guides the aircraft by communicating with the TCASs of other planes.

“The PIA is writing to the Iranian air traffic control (ATC) to investigate as the Iranian ATC instructed the plane, but it was wrong,” a PIA spokesman said according to media reports.

The spokesperson added that the Boeing 777 plane was flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet while the Airbus A-320 was maintaining a 36,000 feet altitude.

The Airbus A-320 plane was cleared to descend to 20,000 feet, local media reported citing the PIA spokesperson.

The PIA spokesperson added that the descent would have come in the path of the Boeing 777 plane, but the TCAS system automatically guided the planes and corrected their path, Dawn reported. (ANI)

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha on Tuesday moved a suspension of business notice in the Rajya Sabha over “backbreaking inflation”.

“I hereby give notice under Rule 267 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) of my intention to move the following motion for suspension of business listed for July 26, 2022,” the notice moved by the AAP MP read.
Chadha, an AAP MP from Punjab, said demanded that the House suspend Zero Hour and other business of the day to have a discussion on back-breaking inflation.

On Monday, Chadha lashed out at the BJP-led central government claiming that petrol and diesel prices had risen over 75 times in the past year.

“In response to my question, the Centre has said that it hiked the prices of petrol and diesel 78 times and 76 times, in that order, during the financial year 2021-22. It has a cascading impact on (the price of) every other commodity,” Chadha had told ANI.

The AAP leader had claimed that the Centre earned Rs 16 lakh crore through the excise duty imposed on fuel between 2016 and 2022. “The Centre doesn’t even want to address inflation in the parliament,” he added.

Chadha also claimed that the Centre was trying to suppress the voices of the Opposition. “When (former Prime Minister of India) Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the PM, the opposition was treated with the same respect as the ruling government. The present-day BJP should take a leaf out of the book of PM Vajpayee’s BJP,” Chadha had said.

The AAP MP also shared an image of the answer received from Union Minister Rameswar Teli.

According to the data shared by the Centre, the price of petrol increased on 78 days and decreased on 7 occasions in Delhi during the last financial year (April 2021 to April 2022). Diesel prices, meanwhile, rose 76 times and dipped on 10 occasions during the same year. (ANI)

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at the Centre over the latest revision in Goods and Services Tax (GST) on scientific instruments claiming that the step would prove detrimental to the interests of the research eco-system in the country.

“Don’t let science suffer because of your ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’, Prime Minister. Roll back the GST on scientific equipments,” the Congress leader said in a Facebook post on Monday.
Gandhi claimed that the hike in the GST rate was a worrisome sign.

“Scientific advancement is the cornerstone for the development of any nation. The pattern of reduction in the allocation of funds for scientific research by the BJP govt is a worrisome sign for the research ecosystem in India,” he added.

At a GST Council meeting held in Chandigarh last month, members had recommended raising the GST on scientific and technical instruments supplied to public-funded research institutes to 12 to 18 percent from the prevailing 5 percent.

“Now, by increasing the GST rates from 5 percent to 18 percent on scientific instruments, the government is displaying its thoughtless approach and further reducing funds and resources available for labs involved in scientific work across the country,” the Congress leader added

Gandhi said the government had already cut the Union Ministry of Science and Technology ministry’s budget by 3.9 percent this year.

On Sunday, Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram also criticised the government for the GST rate hike.

“The Government perhaps believes that all the scientific knowledge that we need can be gathered by gazing at the sky and re-imagining our past,” he had said. (ANI)

Ranveer Singh caught everyone’s attention last week with his nude photoshoot for a magazine. While many appreciated the ‘Simmba’ actor for his bold experiment with his look, he has also been trolled for the pictures.

In fact, on Monday, an application was filed with Mumbai Police seeking the registration of an FIR against him for allegedly ‘hurting sentiments of women’.
His ‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani’ co-star Alia Bhatt has now come out in support of him, saying she would not hear anything against him.

“I don’t like anything negative said about my favourite co-star, Ranveer. Toh main yeh question ko bardasht bhi nahi kar sakti hu (So the question itself is something I can’t tolerate),” Alia said during the trailer launch of her film ‘Darlings’.

She added, “I love him, he’s eternally favourite to every one of us actually and he has given us so much in the movies. We should only give him love.”

The images from Ranveer’s photo shoot for Paper Magazine were posted online on July 21. In the images, Ranveer is seen wearing no clothes. In one of the images, he was seen lying on a rug naked recreating Burt Reynold’s famous photograph. https://www.instagram.com/p/CgUQICThYn4/embed

In an interview, as quoted by an Instagram page that goes by the name DietSabya, Ranveer said, “I work f* hard. I want to wear nice shit. Eat my f* a, I will wear nice f* shit. I bust my balls, I work 20-hour days. I’m not complaining — I’m only too happy and too grateful — but I go f* hard. I will f* buy Gucci, I will wear it from head to toe. Anybody who judges me can eat my f* a.”

Meanwhile, on the work front, Ranveer was recently seen in Netflix’s interactive special ‘Ranveer vs Wild with Bear Grylls’ which received a positive response from netizens all over the globe. As far as films are concerned, he will next be seen in Rohit Shetty’s next directorial film ‘Cirkus’ with Jacqueline Fernandes and Pooja Hegde. The film is slated to release on the occasion of Christmas 2022.

Apart from that, Ranveer also has ‘Rocky aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani’ with Alia Bhatt, Dharmendra, Shabana Azmi and Jaya Bachchan. The film is all set to hit the theatres on February 11, 2023. (ANI)