Govt opens dumping probe on Malaysia, Vietnam, Thai copper tube imports

 NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is investigating imports of copper tubes and pipes from Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, to determine whether producers in these countries were receiving unfair subsidies, the government said.

The investigation by India's Directorate General of Trade Remedies, the investigative arm of the commerce ministry, could result in these imports facing countervailing duties, said a government circular posted on Friday.

The probe covers imports shipped between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020.

"The Authority has also received the import data of customs of the subject goods during the past four years which indicate increased imports mainly from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam collectively account for more than 90% of total imports of subject goods," the circular said.

In a statement to Reuters, the Vietnamese foreign ministry said Vietnam strictly adhered to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

"Trade issues between Vietnam and India should be considered objectively, fairly and transparently in accordance with WTO rules, and bilateral and multilateral trade agreements that the two countries both joined," the ministry's spokeswoman said in the statement.

Calls to two Vietnam-based companies named in the Indian investigation were not answered.

 

(Reporting by Neha Arora; Additional reporting by Phuong Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by William Mallard and Ed Davies)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

2G scam: HC order on Tuesday over CBI, ED pleas for early hearing of case

 The Delhi High Court will pronounce on Tuesday its order on the CBI and ED pleas seeking early hearing on their appeals challenging the acquittal of former telecom minister A Raja and others in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.

Justice Brijesh Sethi had reserved the order on the pleas on September 22.

The probe agencies have sough an early hearing of their 'leave to appeal' which are listed for October 12. Leave to appeal is a formal permission granted by a court to a party to challenge a decision in a higher court.

They said substantial judicial time of the high court was consumed in hearing arguments in the case and it should be concluded before retirement of the judge on November 30.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain, representing the CBI and the ED, earlier said that judicial time has already been invested in this matter and it should not go as a bad investment.

He said if the arguments are not completed in the matter before retirement if the judge, they will have to start afresh.

The CBI has also sought advancing the hearing of the appeal challenging the acquittal of Essar Group promoters Ravi Ruia and Anshuman Ruia, Loop Telecom promoters I P Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan and four others in a separate case arising out of the 2G scam probe.

The acquitted individuals and firms have opposed the pleas saying the agencies have not shown the urgency so far and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the courts are following a particular sequence in conducting proceedings giving priority to cases where accused/ convicts are in jail and that pattern should not be disturbed.

They have submitted that in view of the pandemic, which is becoming more severe by the day and the physical functioning of the high court is restricted, it is not possible for the parties to fully prepare and instruct their counsels and hearings in the restricted environment would cause severe prejudice to them.

The CBI and the ED sought early virtual hearing of their appeals saying that the country's largest trial, which was conducted at the public exchequer's cost, be brought to its logical conclusion.

A special court had on December 21, 2017 acquitted Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others in CBI and ED cases related to the scam.

It had acquitted 17 others, including DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal; Vinod Goenka, Asif Balwa; film producer Karim Morani; P Amirtham and Sharad Kumar, Director of Kalaignar TV in the ED case.

On the same day, the trial court had also acquitted former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) -- Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair, in the CBI's 2G case.

Swan Telecom promoters Balwa and Vinod Goenka and directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal were also acquitted in the CBI case.

On March 19 2018, the ED had approached the high court challenging the special court's order acquitting all the accused.

A day later, the CBI too had challenged in the high court the acquittal of the accused in the case.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Vodafone case has cost India a lot. It is time to accept defeat and move on

 Strong states grow stronger by putting limits on their own power; weak states become weaker by descending into arbitrariness. India has to choose which it wants to be.

That’s the message being given to New Delhi by an international arbitration tribunal in The Hague. The panel threw out the Indian government’s $3 billion tax demand against Vodafone Group Plc, finding it to be in breach of fair treatment under the country’s bilateral investment protection pact with the Netherlands, and awarded costs to the British telco.

This ends a decade-old saga that tarnished India’s reputation among foreign investors. Rather than appealing the decision, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration should accept defeat, honor the award, and move on. While much of the blame for this mess belongs to the previous Congress Party-led coalition, Team Modi had six years to end the dispute. Ending “tax terror” was also his party’s promise in the 2014 election that brought Modi to power.

ALSO READ: Centre to contest Vodafone arbitration award, reach out to global funds

If anything, reckless expansion of the state’s power — both in the economy and broader society — has become the norm since then. One hopes that this becomes a moment when Indian politicians of all hues will come together to say, “Yes, we bungled. We should never have amended the tax law retrospectively to go after Vodafone. It cost us more in prestige than we could hope to win.”

The quarrel goes back to Vodafone’s 2007 purchase of Li Ka-shing’s India wireless business. The Hong Kong tycoon sold a Cayman Islands-based investment firm to the U.K. operator. That firm controlled, via other offshore entities, CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.’s 67% stake in Hutchison Essar Ltd., the Indian unit. The taxman wanted a share of CK’s vast capital gains and asked Vodafone to settle the bill from the amount it had withheld from Li’s check. But Vodafone’s lawyers had advised that no tax was applicable. The dispute went to India’s Supreme Court, which held that the government’s tax jurisdiction didn’t extend to the Cayman Islands.

Then came the ugly part. The Indian government’s 2012 budget retrospectively amended the tax code, giving itself the power to go after M&A deals all the way back to 1962 if the underlying asset was in India. The vindictiveness was targeted at Vodafone, but also ensnared the U.K.’s Cairn Energy Plc, which in 2006 had transferred ownership of its Rajasthan oil field, the country's biggest onshore discovery in two decades, to Cairn India Ltd., to prepare for the local unit’s initial public offering.

What’s worse, the $4.3 billion final assessment order for Cairn Energy came in February 2016. By that time, Modi’s government had been in power for almost two years, giving it ample time to fulfill its promise of a non-adversarial tax regime. After Cairn disputed the levy, New Delhi expropriated its shares in Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd., into which Cairn had merged the India unit. The government pocketed the dividends and then sold the stock.

ALSO READ: End Vodafone saga

The application of the retrospective tax took a farcical turn when, around the Christmas holidays of 2016, a month after a draconian (and once again arbitrary) ban on 86% of the country’s banknotes, India began to instruct fund managers to withhold and pay taxes when investors made a profit selling units in offshore vehicles that had half or more of their investment in Indian securities. Thankfully, this impractical plan was dropped after it was pointed out that it would kill the India-focused funds industry.

Cairn shares closed almost 13% higher in London on Friday. The Edinburgh-based company’s arbitration award is also expected soon. Investors have reason to be hopeful after it turned out that even India’s own nominee on the Vodafone tribunal rejected New Delhi’s claim. For Vodafone’s India unit, though, the victory is Pyrrhic. It’s now the victim of a different overreach: a life-threatening $7.8 billion demand for past use of airwaves.

In a way, it’s good that data irregularities forced the World Bank to suspend its “Ease of Doing Business” survey, which saw India zoom past 79 nations between 2014 and 2019. The reality on the ground may be very different. Modi’s government didn’t invent the capricious Indian state, but it hasn’t lessened uncertainty or cut red tape. Neither for small startups, nor for large global investors. Appealing the Vodafone award will only mean that it’s once again failing to learn its lesson.

Modi Cabinet rejig likely; leaders omitted from Nadda's team may find place

 New Delhi [India], September 26 (ANI): With names of several senior leaders like Ram Madhav, Anil Jain, Saroj Pandey and P Muralidhar Rao missing from the new list of national office bearers announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party chief JP Nadda on Saturday, speculation is rife that an imminent union cabinet reshuffle is on the cards.

Several other senior leaders like Uma Bharati, Om Mathur, Prabhat Jha, Vinay Sahastrabhuddhe, Shyam Jaju and Avinash Rai Khanna are also missing from the new national team.

Sources said a Cabinet expansion could take place in the next few weeks or after the Bihar Assembly polls. A few of these leaders are likely to be accommodated in the new cabinet.

Party sources said that leaders from several key states like West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Telangana are expected to be accommodated in the expansion as the BJP aims to grow in these states in the future.

It is also learnt that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may also rejig the portfolios of several of his ministers. Currently, several ministers have been burdened with multiple portfolios. This may change and some of these may be allocated to the newly inducted ministers, sources added.

The much awaited cabinet reshuffle would be the first such rejig of the Narendra Modi cabinet after it was voted back to power in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Delhi will not have 500k cases by July, Sisodia's remark created fear: Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that remarks made by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in early June about the national capital reaching 550,000 Covid-19 cases by the end of July had created "fear" among people and he expressed confidence that the stage will not be reached.
He also said that there was no community transmission of the disease in the national capital.

In an interview with ANI that was limited to the Centre and Delhi Government's efforts to curb the spread of the Coronavirus in the nation's capital, Home Minister Amit Shah said a series of steps had been taken to contain the virus and multi-agency meetings had been held to improve coordination at various levels.
"Around the second week of June, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that by July 31 there will be 550,000 persons infected with the virus. He said that there will be no place left, no beds left and the situation will be difficult. This created a lot of fear in the minds of people in Delhi. His estimate was based on figures. I do not want to go into whether estimate was right or wrong. But a situation of fear arose and some people started mulling an exodus (out of Delhi)," said Amit Shah.
"Till June 15, there will be 44,000 Covid-19 cases and we would need 6,600 beds. We would hit one lakh cases and would require 15,000 beds by June 30. There will be around 225,000 cases till July 15 and Covid-19 cases will reach around 550,000 by July 31," Sisodia had said after a meeting of the state disaster management authority chaired by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal in early June.
Amit Shah disagreed with the prediction made by the Delhi Deputy CM."I can say now with confidence that situation of 550,000 cases will not come on July 31," he added.
Answering a query about the need of coordination meeting called by him on June 14 which was attended by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, LG Anil Baijal and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and some experts, Shah said normally it is the duty of the Delhi government regarding coordination and improving the systems.
"But after remarks of Manish ji, I felt that the central government should not stay idle. Modi ji has accountability towards the country. PM also told me that the Home Ministry should take initiative to move forward and help the Delhi government. We are helping Delhi government but for coordination, central government called a meeting," he said.
"We will be in good condition (By July 31st) because we have laid stress on preventive steps including more tests and contact tracing," he added.
When asked about the difference of opinion between the Centre and Delhi Government on announcing whether 'Community Spread' of the Coronavirus had begun in Delhi, Amit Shah said that Delhi had not reached that state yet and if and when that stage would come, the Central government would not hesitate in making the announcement.
"I have talked to three senior-most officials - Dr Paul (from Niti Aayog), IMCR chief Dr Bhargava and Dr Guleria (AIIMS New Delhi Director). This situation has not come to Delhi. Such situation appeared because of the total tests done, earlier 30 per cent turned out to be positive and that was happening because tests were done at the last moment. Now that we have started doing 20,000 tests on average, this condition is not there. I have held technical discussions on this...today this situation is not there in Delhi. There is no need to fear," he said.
ALSO READ: Delhi govt's alarm bell: 550,000 Covid cases by July-end, says Deputy CM

Delhi's Health Minister Satyendra Jain said earlier in the month that the onus was on the Centre to declare Community transmission. "There is transmission in the community. But whether it is community transmission or not can be declared by the Centre only," said Jain.
In his interview to ANI, Home Minister Amit Shah also referred to Delhi government's decision about hospitals reserving COVID-19 beds only for residents of the national capital and said it was reversed.
The Home Minister said even he is from outside Delhi. "Where will I go, if something happens to me. Delhi is the capital of the country. And people from different states stay here, come and go," he said, adding that a lot of people from neighbouring states stay in Delhi.
Amit Shah also struck a placatory tone in his interview and said that there was coordination between the Centre and the State in tackling Covid in Delhi. "There is coordination...Arvind Kejriwal is always kept in the loop. Decisions are taken by involving him also," added Shah.
He said shortcomings came to attention in the meetings he held about the Covid situation in Delhi and it was decided that every house in containment zone in Delhi will be surveyed by June 30. The minister said that testing was also ramped up.
The decisions announced after June 14 meeting called by the Home Minister included increasing testing three-fold in six days, providing 500 converted rail coaches to add 8,000 beds and steps for the availability of 60 per cent coronavirus beds in private hospitals at lower rates.

Delhi will need 80,000 hospital beds for Covid patients by July: Kejriwal

Delhi would need 80,000 additional hospital beds by the end of July in view of the rapidly rising number of coronavirus cases in the city, said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday.
“Numbers show that coronavirus is going to spread rapidly in Delhi. By June 15, there might be 42,000 cases in the city, going up to 500,000 by the end of July,” he said in a televised statement.
Days after Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal reversed his government’s decision to reserve Delhi government hospitals for the treatment of the city’s residents, Kejriwal said his government would follow the Centre’s overriding decision. "We are not debating, or fighting over anything. We will totally stick to the decision taken by the L-G,” he said.
"In the past one week, Delhi hospitals have admitted 1,900 people and 4,200 beds are still available. By 31 July, 80,000 beds will be required in Delhi... It is an unprecedented challenge, daunting even, but we will do our best to meet the medical needs of all,” he said.
Kejriwal, who had gone for a coronavirus test himself on Tuesday, confirmed that he had not been found to be infected.

Arvind Kejriwal oath ceremony LIVE: Sisodia made deputy, Cabinet retained

DelhiCM Arvind Kejriwal addresses crowd at Ramlila Maidan.
Arvind Kejriwal swearing-in live updates: Arvind Kejriwal, whose party stormed to power in Delhi on Tuesday took oath as Chief Minister of Delhi for the third term at Ramlila Maidan. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stormed to power by winning 62 of 70 seats. Along with Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Satyendra jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain, Rajendra Gautam also took oath as Cabinet ministers.
AAP held on to the nearly 54 per cent votes it had got in the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls, while the BJP improved its tally with 38.51 per cent votes. The Congress party, which ruled Delhi for 15 years before being voted out in 2013, drew a blank.
"This is a win for Mother India," Kejriwal told his supporters after the verdict on February 11. he is likely to retain the Cabinet from 2015 with manish Sisodia his deputy and the Education Minister.
ALSO READ: Kejriwal set to take oath as Delhi CM, tight security at Ramlila Maidan
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I am your chief minister, no matter who you voted for: Kejriwal
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"चुनाव खत्म हो गया, आपने जिसको भी वोट दिया उससे फ़र्क नहीं पड़ता, अब आप सारे लोग मेरे परिवार का हिस्सा हो। सबके लिए काम करूंगा।": जनता का CM @ArvindKejriwal#MufflermanReturns
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Modi-Shah not invincible: Sanjay Raut on Delhi results
Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said the Delhi Assembly poll results indicate that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah are not invincible. In his weekly column in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', its executive editor Raut criticised BJP's "religion-centric" political strategy while lauding the developmental works of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government.
01:00 PM
Little Kejriwals take over Ramlila Maidan
Little mufflerman take over Ramlila Maidan as kejriwal takes oath.
Little Kejriwal
Children dressed as AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal arrive at the Ramlila Maidan for his swearing-in ceremony. PTI
12:49 PM
Kejriwal love Delhiwalas: CM responds to opposition over freebies
Responding to opposition quips over freebies, Kejriwal said that Kejriwal love Delhiwalas and this love is also free. Should I charge fee for education, health? We want a time when India will be known across the world and it has begun with the politics of work.
12:45 PM
Kejriwal highlights 'Delhi ke Nirmata'
Kejriwal had invited 50 people from different aspects of life who has contributed in Delhi's development. pegged as "Delhi ke Nirmata", Kejriwal said these people has made Delhi what it is and will strive to keep taking Delhi forward.
12:42 PM
Massive crowd in Ramlila as Kejriwal addresses after taking oath
A view of the crowd during swearing-in ceremony of the AAP government at the Ramlila Maidan, in New Delhi
A view of the crowd during swearing-in ceremony of the AAP government at the Ramlila Maidan, in New Delhi
A view of the crowd during swearing-in ceremony of the AAP government at the Ramlila Maidan, in New Delhi
A view of the crowd during swearing-in ceremony of the AAP government at the Ramlila Maidan, in New Delhi
12:41 PM
Kejriwal 3.0: Satyendra Jain takes oath as Delhi minister
Senior AAP leader Satyendra Jain on Sunday took oath as a minister in the new Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government. Jain, who was re-elected as the Shakur Basti MLA in the February 8 polls, served as the health minister in the previous AAP government. He is likely to retain his portfolio. During his previous stint, mohalla clinic expansion and augmentation of facilities at hospital were his top priorities.
12:40 PM
Watch: Kejriwal addresses after taking oath as CM
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मैं अरविंद केजरीवाल ईश्वर की शपथ लेता हूँ ... #MufflermanReturns
https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1mnxeQBgjBExX …

मैं अरविंद केजरीवाल ईश्वर की शपथ लेता हूँ ...
Aam Aadmi Party- AAP @AamAadmiParty
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Urge opposition and Centre to work together for Delhi: Kejriwal
I request my politcal opposition to forget the campaign and work together along with Centre to make Delhi number 1. I had requested PM Modi but he is busy in another evet but I want to urge the Centre to support us in taking Delhi forward: Kejriwal
12:35 PM
I am everyone's CM, be it AAP, BJP or Congress: Kejriwal
I am everyone's chief minister no matter if you voted for AAP, BJP or Congress, says Kejriwal. he adds that have never treated anyone differently based on party politics.

Election result LIVE: AAP sweeps capital; Delhi Congress chief resigns

DelhiCM and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal (C) addreses supporters after party's victory in the State Assembly polls, at AAP office in New Delhi. Kejriwal's wife Sunita, and party leaders Gopal Rai, Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh are also seen.

Delhi election results LIVE updates: Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party is poised to win 62 of Delhi's 70 seats, leaving the BJP with just eight seats. The Congress party, which ruled Delhi for 15 years before being voted out in 2013, drew a blank. "This is a win for Mother India," Kejriwal told his supporters at a roadshow. He waved and blew them kisses, and said he "loved the people of Delhi". Prominent faces Manish Sisodia, Raghav Chadha, Atishi, Gopal Rai and Arvind Kejriwal emerged victorious from their respective constituencies.  With AAP retaining power, it is the third straight electoral setback for the BJP after losing Jharkhand and Maharashtra elections last year. The BJP's campaign saw heavyweights such as Home Minister Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar take to Delhi streets to woo voters but that appears to have had little impact on the outcome.

 

The party relied on its Hindu nationalist rhetoric, criticising protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Shaheen Bagh.

 

On the other hand, Opposition leaders hailed the Arvind Kejriwal's landslide win as a defeat of the politics of polarisation and hate and a victory of inclusive politics, and said "winds of change" are blowing in the country. Leaders of non-BJP parties cutting across party lines said the poll outcome showed that elections can be fought and won on the development plank.

 

Delhi recorded a voter turnout of 62.59 per cent when elections were held on Saturday.

 

Stay tuned for LIVE updates on Delhi election result 2020.

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09:29 PM

Results on 66 seats declared

The EC has till now declared results on 66 seats out of which the Aam Aadmi Party has won 59 seats. BJP has won the remaining 7 seats and the Congress has drawn a blank. In the remaining 4 seats, AAP is leading in 3 seats while BJP is leading in one. 

 

09:00 PM

AAP inches towards 60 mark, wins 56 seats

Party Lead Won 63 /70

AAP 6 56

BJP 1 7

Total 7 63

08:56 PM

My future role in the party is internal matter, says Manoj Tiwari

Taking full responsibility of his party's poor show in the Delhi Assembly polls, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said his future role in the party is an internal matter.

 

Tiwari, who led the Delhi BJP through its impressive victories in civic body polls in 2017 and Lok Sabha elections last year, failed to pass the test of fire as his party suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) managing to win just eight of the 70 assembly seats.

08:40 PM

AAP wins all 12 seats reserved for SC candidates

The Aam Aadmi Party has emerged victorious on all the 12 seats reserved for SC candidates, with the minimum victory margin being almost 12,000 votes.

08:35 PM

Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra offers resignation after embarrassing loss

 

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Subhash Chopra tenders his resignation from the post of Delhi Congress chief. #DelhiResults (file pic)

 

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08:19 PM

Nitish evades queries on Delhi poll outcome

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar side-stepped queries on the outcome of assembly polls in Delhi, where the coalition comprising his JD(U),BJP and LJP has been drubbed by the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party

 

"Janata maalik hai", uttered Kumar with hands folded above his head and the ghost of a smile playing on his lips as he sauntered past a posse of journalists tossing queries on the sidelines of a function where he unveiled a statue of Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay

08:15 PM

 Why Delhi elections must be regarded as polarised inspite of AAP's landslide victory? Read on

 

08:12 PM

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik congratulates Kejriwal

 

Naveen Patnaik

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@Naveen_Odisha

Congratulations to @ArvindKejriwal ji and @AamAadmiParty on the hattrick win in #DelhiPolls2020. Best wishes for a successful tenure.

 

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08:10 PM

AAP workers celebrate party's Delhi win across Haryana

AAP workers went into a celebratory mode in Bhiwani's Siwani--the native place of Arvind Kejriwal--after the party registered a landslide victory.

 

A similar atmosphere prevailed at Aam Aadmi Party's Haryana headquarters in Rohtak, where workers could be seen applying "gulal" on each other

 

08:01 PM

Delhi election result: AAP wins 54 seats, leading in 8. BJP bags 6

Party Lead Won 60 / 70

AAP 8 54

BJP 2 6

Total 10 60

 

Kejriwal's AAP projected to retain Delhi crown; BJP rejects exit polls

All the exit polls released after the end of polling for the 70-member DelhiAssembly elections on Saturday evening predicted a comprehensive win for the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The counting of votes will take place on Tuesday.
The Election Commission (EC) said voter turnout until 9 pm was recorded at 59.91 per cent, a decline of about 7 per cent over the 2015 Assembly polls’ 67.5 per cent.
The India Today-Axis exit poll, which has had relatively better accuracy compared with most other such polls in the recent past, predicted a sweep for AAP and a rout for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It forecast 59 to 68 seats for AAP and 2 to 11 seats for the BJP. According to the poll, AAP may bag a vote share of 56 per cent, the BJP 35 per cent, the Congress 5 per cent, and others 4 per cent. Other exit polls predicted somewhat better numbers for the BJP, but none put it anywhere near the halfway mark of 35 seats.
In the 2015 elections, AAP had won 67 of the 70 seats with a vote share of 54.3 per cent, while the BJP won three seats with a 32 per cent vote share. The Congress could not win any seats though it had a vote share of 9.6 per cent.
ALSO READ: Delhi election exit polls highlights: Kejriwal-led AAP set to retain power
Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari tweeted that all exit polls would be proven wrong on the counting day. “Please save this tweet. The BJP will form the government in Delhi with 48 seats. Please don’t blame EVMs (electronic voting machines) then,” Tiwari said. There could be implications on his continuance as the Delhi unit BJP chief if the party performs poorly.

Kejriwal's AAP projected to retain Delhi crown; BJP rejects exit polls
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia thanked all party workers and supporters. “We are on course to secure a massive win,” he tweeted. At its press conference, the EC said the Delhi polls had recorded one of the lowest EVM replacement figures. It said a meagre 0.3 per cent EVM machines were replaced and 0.9 per cent VVPAT (voter-verified paper audit trail) were replaced.
ALSO READ: Jobs or freebies? Here's what first-time voters prioritise for Delhi polls
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the EVM replacement was as high as 5 per cent.
Amid allegations that some political parties distributed liquor and cash, the EC said law enforcement agencies seized liquor worth Rs 2.83 crore and narcotics and gold jewelry worth Rs 42.32 crore.
Kejriwal's AAP projected to retain Delhi crown; BJP rejects exit polls
The Delhi Assembly polls took place amid a vituperative election campaign, with some BJP politicians barred from campaigning and in the shadow of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests at several places in the city, particularly at Shaheen Bagh in Southeast Delhi.
At Shaheen Bagh, women protesters, on a sit-in for over a month, voted in batches so that the agitation remains unaffected.
If AAP were to secure a win, this will be the third time it will form the government since its electoral debut in 2013.

Delhi election LIVE updates: Arvind Kejriwal, Ram Madhav among early voters

Delhi election LIVE updates: Voting for the high-stakes Delhi Assembly election is underway. The Delhi election campaign, which ended in the evening of February 6, saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aggressively raising the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh as a poll issue, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hard-selling development as its poll plank. The vitriol with which politicians attacked one another drowned out serious debate in the run-up to voting. Meanwhile, the Congress party was conspicuous by its near absence during the campaign.
There are 672 candidates in fray for 70 Assembly seats in Delhi. Over 14.7 million total registered voters in the city include 8.11 million males, 6.7 million females, 869 of the third gender, 11,608 service voters, and 204,830 senior citizens (aged 80 years or more), according to Delhi CEO Office. After 6:30 pm, various media outlets will publish the Delhi Assembly Election 2020 exit polls.
Delhi election results will be declared on February 11 (Tuesday).
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Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal along with his family casts his vote at a polling booth in Civil Lines; BJP's Sunil Yadav & Congress's Romesh Sabharwal are contesting against him from New Delhi constituency.
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Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Rajinder Nagar, Raghav Chadha casts his vote
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Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Rajinder Nagar, Raghav Chadha casts his vote at a polling station in Rajinder Nagar; Congress's Rocky Tuseed and BJP's RP Singh are contesting from the assembly constituency here.
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09:38 AM
Delhi election LIVE: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal votes
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Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal leaves for casting his vote.BJP's Sunil Yadav& Congress's Romesh Sabharwal are contesting against him from New Delhi constituency. #DelhiElections2020
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9:33 AM - Feb 8, 2020
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09:35 AM
Delhi election 2020: Know about Narela Assembly Constituency
In the 2020 Delhi Assembly election, the key candidates in the Narela constituency are Sharad Kumar of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Neel Daman Khatri of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Siddharth Kundu of the Indian National Congress.
09:28 AM
Haryana CM Khattar confident of BJP's win in Delhi
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday exuded confidence over the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) victory in the Delhi Assembly elections.

"We would form the next government in Delhi with a comfortable victory," he told the media here.

Polling was underway for Delhi's 70 Assembly seats which will decide the fate of 672 candidates from the BJP, Aam Aadmi Part and Congress in a three-cornered contest.
09:26 AM
Modi’s BJP fights tough election battle for control of Delhi
Polls have opened in Delhi’s bitterly contested state election, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in a tough fight to reclaim the capital region, marking the first major test at the ballot box of his religion-based citizenship law that’s spurred nationwide protests.

About 14.6 million voters are expected to cast their votes to elect 70 members to the legislative assembly on Saturday and results are expected on Feb. 11, according to the Election Commission of India.

If the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party retains power in the capital region, it will be the third straight electoral setback for Modi, whose party lost control in the states of Jharkhand and Maharashtra last year. AAP is projected to take 54-60 of the 70 assembly seats, down from 67 in the 2015 elections, while the BJP will likely win 10-14, up from three seats previously, according to a Times Now-IPSOS poll released on Monday.
09:24 AM
Delhi's debate: Development vs acrimony
Whichever way Delhi votes today — and there’s a fair consensus on who the chief minister next week will be — the contest to rule the city-state is distinct from others in recent memory, writes Sunil Sethi. First, the action has shifted from the streets to daily non-stop barracking in the media and social media. No vigorous door-to-door campaigning, as in 2015, when Aam Aadmi Party volunteers collected modest contributions to cleanse a corrupt body politic with its jhadoo symbol. “Na khaunga, na khane dunga” (I won’t be bribed, nor let anyone else pay bribes) Narendra Modi famously said when he led the BJP to power in 2014 but corruption no longer features as an issue for either party.

Second, the head-on confrontation was between two dominant figures, Arvind Kejriwal, the city’s popular chief minister, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah — a Sancho Panza fronting for Mr Modi’s Don Quixote — leading a divisive, communally charged campaign. Read on...
09:22 AM
A queue of voters at a polling booth in Shaheen Public School in Shaheen Bagh
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A queue of voters at a polling booth in Shaheen Public School in Shaheen Bagh, Okhla. AAP's Amanatullah is the sitting MLA and 2020 candidate of the party, he is up against Congress's Parvez Hashmi and BJP's Brahm Singh Bidhuri. #DelhiElections2020
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8:15 AM - Feb 8, 2020
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09:22 AM
Delhi election: Lt Governor Anil Baijal and his wife Mala Baijal cast vote at a polling station at Greater Kailash
Lt Governor Anil Baijal and his wife Mala Baijal cast their vote at a polling station at Greater Kailash; AAP's sitting MLA and candidate Saurabh Bhardwaj is contesting against BJP's Shikha Rai and Congress's Sukhbir Pawar from here.

09:21 AM
Alka Lamba casts her vote at polling booth number 161 at Tagore Garden Extension
Congress candidate from the Chandni Chowk assembly constituency, Alka Lamba casts her vote at polling booth number 161 at Tagore Garden Extension; She is up against Prahlad Singh Sahni of Aam Aadmi Party and BJP's Suman Gupta.

Delhi weather: 530 flights delayed, 40 cancelled due to dense fog

Dense fog played havoc with flight operations at the Delhiairport on Monday with around 530 flights delayed, 40 cancelled and 21 diverted.
Flights are operating at the airport under CAT III B conditions, which means the runway visual range (RVR) is between 50 metres and 175 metres.

Giving an update on flight operations, an official said 21 flights have been diverted and around 40 cancelled as of now.
"Around 530 flights - which includes 320 departures as well as 210 arrivals approximately - have been delayed on Monday," the official added.
In a statement, IndiGo airline said,"Owing to dense fog in north India our flights have been impacted across India. We will continue to review the situation and provide real time updates on our social platforms."
The airline also requested passengers to check flight status before leaving home and reach out to its customer care.
Vistara airline said on Twitter that its Delhi-Mumbai flight UK933 as well as Mumbai-Delhi flight UK996 stands cancelled due to poor visibility in Delhi.
Vistara along with GoAir, SpiceJet, AirAsia India stated on Twitter that due to dense fog and poor visibility in Delhi, their flight operations might be impacted, and advised passengers to check flight status before leaving for the airport.
Delhi, which is shivering under an intense spell of cold wave for two weeks, experienced its coldest recorded December day on Monday.

CAA LIVE: 6 killed in Uttar Pradesh, protests turn violent in Delhi

New Delhi: A protestor holds a placard during a demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Jamia Nagar in New Delhi | Photo: PTI
CAA protest LIVE updates: The anti-CAA protests turned violent in Delhi on Friday, with protestors setting a car on fire in the city's Daryaganj area in an incident of arson in the city's largely peaceful day of demonstration.
Police used water cannons and lathi-charged a large group of protesters after they pelted stones at police personnel. The demonstrators who who were trying to march from Old Delhi to Jantar Mantar were stopped at Delhi Gate by the police.
Many parts of Uttar Pradesh including, Meerut and Gorakhpur also witnessed violent protests. Stone pelting was reported in several parts, while Police resorted to lathicharge. More than 15 districts in UP witnessed clashes between the police and protesters.
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10:48 PM
Amid violent anti-CAA protests, all schools, colleges, universities to remain shut across Uttar Pradesh on Saturday: Govt spokesperson
10:43 PM
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot asks Centre to repeal Citizenship Amendment Act, says it has shocked all communities including Hindus and Muslims
10:05 PM
Madhya Pradesh govt restores internet services in Bhopal
10:00 PM
Assam update: Curfew relaxed for 16 hours in Dibrugarh; sale of liquor to be allowed between 12 pm to 4 pm
09:58 PM
Section 144 imposed in 50 districts in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat till January, 2020
Curfew update: Section 144 imposed in 50 out of 52 districts in Madhya Pradesh as well as in four police station limits in Jabalpur.
Gujarat has also imposed Section 144 in Rajkot amid anti-CA protests till January 1, 2020.
09:11 PM
Kerala stays activities connected to updation of National Population Register
After West Bengal government, Kerala has stayed all activities connected with National Population Resgister amid anti-Citizenship Act protests.
08:56 PM
In Daryaganj, Rapid Action Force (RAF) takes out flag march after violent protests; 40 people detained
Violent protests erupted in Daryaganj earlier in the evening when a car was set ablaze and several police personnel including senior officers were injured in stone pelting by protesters. Around 40 people have been detained.

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Delhi: Rapid Action Force (RAF) takes out flag march in Daryaganj area, after protest over #CitizenshipAct in the area today.
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8:45 PM - Dec 20, 2019
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08:55 PM
Mobile internet services suspended till 6 pm tomorrow in Jabalpur
Amid anti-CAA protests mobile internet services to remain suspended till 6 pm tomorrow in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.
08:23 PM
Priyanka Vadra joins anti-CAA protest at India Gate, says NRC is anti-poor
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joins protesters at India Gate. National Register of Citizens is anti-poor, says Vadra. She added, "Govt wants every Indian to stand in line to prove citizenship, as it did after note ban."
08:10 PM
I&B Ministry issues advisory asking news agencies to refrain from promoting 'anti-national' content
Information & Broadcasting Ministry issues advisory asking news channels to refrain from broadcasting content which is "likely to instigate violence or which promotes anti-national attitudes", a second such communication in less than 10 days.
08:00 PM
Over 50 policemen injured in clashes in Uttar Pradesh, says DGP
Uttar Pradesh DGP OP Singh said that over 50 policemen seriously injured in clashes across the state.
07:59 PM
People killed in UP are from Bijor, Sambhal, Firozabad and Meerut, says DGP
People killed in protests across Uttar Pradesh are from Bijnor, Firozabad, Sambhal and Meerut, says UP DGP OP SIngh
07:49 PM
Six people killed amid Citizenship Amendment Act protests across Uttar Pradesh
Six people killed in violence during anti-citizenship law protests across Uttar Pradesh: Official
07:21 PM
Curfew in parts of Madhya Pradesh
Curfew imposed in Gohalpur and Hanumantal police station limits in Jabalpur city of Madhya Pradesh
07:05 PM
Delhi Traffic Police closes stretch between Mandi House, ITO after protests turn violent near Old Delhi
06:54 PM
Many of our personnel injured, some people detained: Delhi Police
06:46 PM
Congress committed to defend fundamental rights of people, says Sonia Gandhi
Citizenship Act is discriminatory, and proposed nationwide NRC will particularly hurt poor and vulnerable: Sonia Gandhi
06:16 PM
Protest turns violent in Delhi
Protesters resort to arson near Delhi Gate, police baton charges them.
Car set on fire in Daryaganj.

06:13 PM
Police uses water cannon on protesters in Delhi's Daryaganj
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Delhi: Police uses water cannon on protesters in Daryaganj. #CitizenshipAct
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6:10 PM - Dec 20, 2019
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06:12 PM
States can't block Citizenship Act, says official
State governments have no powers to reject implementation of Citizenship Act, as subject was enacted under Union List of Constitution's 7th Schedule: Home Ministry official
06:07 PM
For a change, Citizenship Act finds few takers
Many gather at Central Park in Delhi's Connaught Place, raise slogans in support of the Citizenship Act
05:50 PM
Protest at India Gate
Scores of people gathered at the India Gate to voice their dissent against Citizenship Act
05:47 PM
Govt willing to listen
The government is ready to accept suggestions, if any, from the people who are staging protests, a top official said
05:29 PM
Govt tries allaying fears on Citizenship Act
Anyone born in India before 1987 or whose parents were born before 1987 are bona fide Indian citizens according to a top government official
05:19 PM
Internet snapped in major cities of UP
Internet access over mobile phones was suspended in major towns in Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Agra, Aligarh, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Mathura, Meerut, Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar, Bareli, Firozadad, Pilibhit, Rampur, Saharanpur, Shamli, Sambhal, Amroha, Mau, Azamgarh and Sultanpur following explicit state government orders, telecom industry officials said
04:45 PM
Several Delhi metro stations shut
Chawri Bazar, Lal Quila, Jama Masjid & Delhi Gate on violet line, Jaffrabad & Maujpur-Babarpur on pink line and Jamia Millia Islamia on magenta line are closed as per instructions of security agencies.
Entry & exit gates of Rajiv Chowk, Pragati Maidan, Mandi House, Janpath and Khan Market are also closed

04:40 PM
Pinarayi Vijayan voices concern over detention of journalists
I strongly condemn attempt to portray journalists as troublemakers. Onslaught on media freedom is fascist mindset: Kerala CM
04:24 PM
Protest hits Delhi's Seelampur again
People start protest march from Jafrabad to Seelampur in Delhi defying prohibitory orders
04:12 PM
Violence in several parts of UP
Protesters pelt stones at police in Gorakhpur, police fire tear gas shells
Anti-citizenship law protesters clash with police at several places in Uttar Pradesh: Officials
04:09 PM
Indian-Americans, students hold protests in US
Indian-Americans and students held peaceful protests in Chicago and Boston, saying this is a step towards rupturing India's social fabric.

About 150 people marched to the Indian consulate from the Tribune Tower in Chicago

India must shun nativism to progress; it needs both hard work and Harvard

What message should New Delhi take from a person of Indian origin winning the Nobel Prize for economics? In a nation increasingly characterized by bristly nativism, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ought to embrace, rather than reject, India’s intellectual diaspora.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences gave the prize to Mumbai-born Abhijit Banerjee and his wife, Esther Duflo, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and to Harvard’s Michael Kremer. The official announcement lauds their research for having “considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty.” Their work involves the use of randomized controlled trials—a practice borrowed from medicine—to test the efficacy of policy tweaks in poor countries, including India.

The prize made front-page news in India, where the 58-year-old Mr. Banerjee, who studied in Kolkata and Delhi before enrolling at Harvard, was already well-known as an economist, author and columnist. But the response wasn’t universally glowing. Online publications supportive of the BJP headlined Mr. Banerjee’s brief arrest as a student protester in Delhi in the 1980s and his backing for a minimum-income guarantee championed by the opposition Congress Party that voters rejected earlier this year. Assorted trolls on Twitter held forth on why randomized controlled trials are an awful idea.
For the nativists on India’s Hindu right, Mr. Banerjee is an almost perfect villain. His Ivy League pedigree, perch at MIT, Bengali last name and French wife make him exactly the kind of global elite that many Hindu nationalists love to hate. It doesn’t help that Mr. Banerjee has criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for, among other things, its obsession with stamping out beef consumption and the erosion of academic autonomy at universities.
Mr. Banerjee says India’s current slowdown is a crisis, not a brief cyclical downturn as the government says. “All the indicators worry me,” he said in a phone interview. “We’ve seen a negative growth rate for consumption between 2014-15 and 2017-18. The investment numbers have been pathetic for a long time. Nothing looks great at the moment.” Last week, Moody’s Investors Service cut India’s growth forecast for the current fiscal year to 5.8% from 6.2%.
Mr. Banerjee also frets about the shrinking space in India for dissent. “Disagreement is not the same thing as treason,” he says. “Even on purely technical economic questions, people have begun to worry about saying the government is doing badly. You shouldn’t get to a place where you can’t even have a conversation.”
On the face of it, the Modi administration and the BJP can afford to dismiss the likes of Mr. Banerjee. Two years ago, after criticism from Amartya Sen, another Nobel laureate, Mr. Modi declared that “hard work is much more powerful than Harvard.” The government has squabbled with Western-trained technocrats, handing the Central Bank from the highly regarded economist Urjit Patel to Shaktikanta Das, a bureaucrat who implemented Mr. Modi’s harebrained 2016 decision to invalidate nearly 90% of India’s currency. A senior BJP leader has derided Western-trained economists such as former reserve bank governor Raghuram Rajan as “mentally not fully Indian.”
Voters seem to have no problem with nativism, and the BJP has only grown more adept at getting out its message. Much of the Indian media supports the party, which also has an elaborate social-media operation on WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook. They reinforce the nativist argument: India remains poor seven decades after independence because rootless Western-educated elites let the country down. By rejecting them and their imported ideas, Mr. Modi will lead India to prosperity and global respect.
It’s easy to see why this story line appeals to voters, particularly in the poor and populous Hindi-speaking heartland where the BJP draws much of its support. Many people blame the economic missteps under the Westernized, English-speaking Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that long ruled the country less on its members’ ideas than on their educational backgrounds and cultural influences.
Yet the idea that Western-educated Indians hurt India is nonsense. The country remains relatively poor because its rulers chose socialism over free enterprise for more than 40 years after independence. Growth has recently slowed, as Mr. Banerjee pointed out at Brown University this month, in part because successive governments have stalled economic reforms for the past decade.
Contrary to what Indian nativists claim, China didn’t grow rapidly by shunning foreign expertise. Under Mao Zedong it was an economic basket case. Prosperity began only in the 1980s, when Deng Xiaoping dispatched thousands of Chinese students to U.S. universities and aggressively borrowed ideas from wherever they worked. As Harvard’s Ezra Vogel points out in his 2011 biography of Deng, the World Bank played a pivotal role in China’s modernization.
Not every policy recommendation by Mr. Banerjee, or other prominent Western economists, will be right. But if India is to progress, it needs both hard work and Harvard.

Delhi Police urges court to prosecute Tharoor for murder of Sunanda Pushkar

Delhi Police on Saturday urged a city court to prosecute Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for abetment to suicide or "in alternative" on murder charge in the case of death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar in 2014.
"Please frame sections 498-A(husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty), 306 (abetment of suicide) or in alternative 302 (murder) IPC against the accused (Tharoor)," the probe agency told special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar.

Senior public prosecutor Atul Srivastava made the submissions during arguments on framing of charges in the case.
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The former Union minister, who is currently on bail in the case, was charged by Delhi Police under Sections 498-A and 306 of the Indian Penal Code.
Reading out a statement of the couple's domestics help, who is one of the witnesses in the case, the prosecutor said that the couple had fight over a girl named 'Katy' and some Blackberry messages.
The prosecutor said that before her death, Pushkar wanted to address a press conference on the IPL issue and had said "I will not leave him (Tharoor)".
The witness had told police that one year prior to the demise, the couple used to fight a lot.
The agency told the court that Pushkar was "distressed" and "felt betrayed" in her marital life.
Police told the court that Pushkar was suffering from mental agony due to a strained relationship with her husband. She had a scuffle with her husband and had various injury marks few days before her death, they said.
Police accused Tharoor of torturing his wife which abetted her to commit suicide.
The probe agency told the court that according to the post-mortem report, the cause of Pushkar's death was poisoning and 15 injury marks were found on various parts of her body, including in forearm, arms and legs.
The prosecutor further told the court that Tharoor's relation with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar also added to Pushkar's mental agony.
The prosecutor also apprised the court about Pushkar's friend and journalist Nalini Singh's statement, which is part of the charge sheet, that the relation between the couple was tense and bad.
"She (Pushkar) told she helped Tharoor a lot in IPL matter. She had found some messages between Tarar and Tharoor. She refused to go to their house and instead went to Leela hotel. The relation between the couple was very bad," Singh had said in her statement.
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Tharoor, refuted the submissions, saying the arguments made by the prosecutor were contrary to the bare reading of the charge sheet and the charges pressed by him were "absurd and preposterous".
The case is now listed for the next hearing on October 17.
The case was earlier sent to the sessions court for further proceedings.
The maximum punishment for the offence listed in the charge sheet is 10 years of imprisonment. However, if convicted for 302 (murder), the maximum punishment is death penalty while the minimum is life imprisonment.
Pushkar's death had created a sensation as it came shortly after a bitter spat between the couple on Twitter over his alleged affair with Tarar.
Pushkar, 51, was found dead in a suite of luxury hotel Leela in Delhi's Chanakyapuri on the night of January 17, 2014.
The couple was staying at the hotel as the official bungalow of Tharoor was being renovated at that time.

Pay Rs 18,000 crore, you can go abroad, Delhi HC tells Naresh Goyal

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to allow Jet Airways’ founding Chairman Naresh Goyal plea to travel abroad for now. A single-judge bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait observed that if he was ready to give a bank guarantee worth Rs 18,000 crore, he would be free to go abroad. The observation by the court came on submission of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ lawyers who told the court that the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) was probing a case of misappropriation of nearly Rs 18,000 crore by Jet Airways and Goyal.
The high court, while hearing the petition moved by Goyal against the Look-Out-Circular (LOC) issued against him and his wife by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), said that the interim relief sought could not be given for now. The case will now be heard on August 23.

On the insistence of SFIO, the MCA had in May issued a LOC against Goyal and his wife. Following the notice, the husband-wife duo was de-planed from an Emirates Airways flight bound for London on May 25. On July 3, Goyal challenged the notice and said that that the circular was bad in law and violative of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which enshrine personal liberty and equality for everyone.
In his plea before the high court, Goyal has submitted that the day he and his wife were deplaned from the London flight, he had scheduled meetings with foreign investors, who had shown interest in infusing funds into Jet Airways. Goyal has also contended that despite several requests, he was not served a copy of the LOC and neither had any First Information Report (FIR) been filed against him.
On Tuesday, Goyal’s counsel also told the high court that in order to maintain his Non-Resident Indian (NRI) status he must stay away from India for a period of at least 183 days a year. “In the current financial year 2019-20, the petitioner has only stayed away from India for seven days. The Petitioner only has 9 months remaining to fulfil the minimum requirement of staying away from India for 183 days,” Goyal had said in his petition before the high court.
The court, however, refused to entertain the plea and said that any final order in the case could be passed only after hearing the central government’s stand.
Goyal’s Jet Airways is currently undergoing insolvency proceedings as the Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted an insolvency petition filed by the State Bank of India (SBI) on behalf of 26 lenders on June 20. The airline owes over Rs 8,500 crore to a consortium of 26 banks led by SBI, and over Rs 13,000 crore to the vendors and nearly 23,000-odd employees. The airline formally stopped flying on April 17 and banks voted for bankruptcy on June 17.

Delhi HC rejects plea to bar media from publishing allegations against CJI

The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking to restrain the media from publishing allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi by a former Supreme Court employee.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Rajendra Menon said the top court is already seized of the matter and no interference was needed.

The plea, filed by NGO Anti Corruption Council of India, had said publication of allegations against the CJI directly hit the Indian judicial system.
The petition had sought immediate restriction on the media from further telecasting or publishing the allegations till conclusion of the three-judge panel's inquiry.
The allegations levelled by the former woman employee of the Supreme Court are being enquired into by a three-judge panel of the apex court which held its first proceeding on Friday last.

Immigration servers resume operations at Delhi airport, six flights delayed

Hundreds of passengers had a harrowing time at the Delhi airport early on Monday as the immigration system server faced technical issues for around one and a half hours, affecting six international flights and resulting in long queues at the counters.
An airport official said technical glitches with the server lasted between 12.15 am and 1.45 am.

At around 1 am, an Air India official told PTI that the immigration system server was down at the airport and that crew for three Air India flights was also affected.
The system was restored at around 1.45 am, he said.
According to the official, six international flights were affected due to the server issue.
Out of the six flights, one was delayed for 50 minutes and another one for 25 minutes. Two flights were delayed by 17 minutes and another two by 18 minutes, he added.
A passenger, who was waiting for immigration check, said there has been a long delay due to server issues.
A public announcement was also made at the airport about the server problem and personnel started doing manual checking process, according to the passenger, who later took an Air India flight to San Francisco.
Many passengers took to Twitter to complain about the delay in immigration process and some of them also tweeted pictures of long queues at the airport.
The incident comes a day after Air India's Passenger Service System faced technical glitches and was not functional for more than five hours.
The incident on Saturday early morning has also resulted in delay of scores of Air India flights.
The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is the busiest airport in the country.

Democracy abjures secrecy: Electoral bonds go to the heart of democracy

The movie ‘An Insignificant Man’ captures the Aam Aadmi Party’s road to forming the government in Delhi. In one of the scenes, Arvind Kejriwal is shown on the campaign trail. “Humare paas toh power hi nahin hain”(We have no power), he laments. One of the women in the crowd responds – “Hum denge na aapko power” (we will give you power). The exchange captures the very essence of a democratic system—one in which a common citizen can look into the eyes of a chief ministerial candidate and tell him, that his fate depends on her vote.
Indian elections are the largest democratic exercise in the world. They are also amongst the most expensive. Researchers from the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) estimated that parties and their candidates spent $2 billion on the 2009 general elections. $5 billion was spent in 2014. The legal regime in India ensures that the sources of this money are hard to identify.
The electoral bond scheme
The electoral bonds scheme was introduced with a view “cleanse the system of political funding in the country”. An electoral bond is a banking instrument to be used for funding eligible political parties. The bond is sold by the State Bank of India and may be purchased by a person, who is a citizen of India or a company incorporated or established in India. The same is then donated to a political party. The scheme allows for complete anonymity of the donor. Neither the purchaser of the bond nor the political party receiving the donation is mandated to disclose the donor’s identity. However, such data is retained by the State Bank of India. Thus, the Government of the day has access to data regarding donations made.
ALSO READ: Disclose details of electoral bonds before May 30: SC to political parties
Besides the scheme itself, omnibus changes were made to laws, in order to facilitate funding of political parties. Previously, companies were prohibited from donating more than 7.5% of their average net-profit over the previous three years. This cap has been removed. Thus, even loss-making entities can make unlimited contributions. Additionally, the requirement that a company ought to have been in existence for at least three years before it could make donations has been done away with. This will facilitate the setting up of shell concerns, purely to syphon money into politics. Previously, all subsidiaries of international entities were treated as overseas donors and not allowed to make political contributions. Under the new regime, if a foreign firm has a stake of less than 50 percent in a company operating in India, that unit can fund Indian elections.
All of these changes were introduced via a Money Bill – a mechanism which has allowed the government to bypass the Rajya Sabha. The Election Commission has been critical of the scheme and even argued against it in the Supreme Court.
The legal regime
A study of legislative changes and judicial pronouncements after 1950 reveals the tension between the two branches of the State with respect to election law. While legislative changes over the years have largely diluted provisions allowing for transparency in the electoral process, constitutional courts have adjudicated in their favour.
Matters related to the funding of elections first reached constitutional courts in the 1950s. In 1957, Tata Iron & Steel Co wanted to change their Memoranda of Association in order to allow the company to make contributions to political parties. The matter went to court. Justices Chagla and Desai allowed the amendment, but weighed in on the issue, observing:
“….we think it our duty to draw the attention of Parliament to the great danger inherent in permitting companies to make contributions to the funds of political parties. It is a danger which may grow apace and which may ultimately overwhelm and even throttle democracy in this country. Therefore, it is desirable for Parliament to consider under what circumstances and under what limitations companies should be permitted to make these contributions. …. Democracy cannot function unless the voters have all the necessary information about the parties for whom they are going to vote."
A similar judgment was passed by the Calcutta High Court in the same year. In two separate judgments passed in 2002 and 2003, the Supreme Court affirmed the right of voters to know the criminal antecedents of candidates, their educational qualifications and their assets and liabilities. It was held that this information was vital for the voter’s right to know the antecedents of the candidates—a right guaranteed under the free speech clause of the Constitution.
Electoral bonds and the Supreme Court
Electoral bonds were introduced through the Finance Act in 2017 and were challenged before the Supreme Court almost immediately thereafter. The matter was first heard in October, 2017 and has remained pending for over 18 months. In the meanwhile, the court has found the time to hear a plea for the reinvestigation of the murder of Gandhi, frame guidelines for usage of food in Delhi weddings and hear petitions calling for bans on various books/movies.
The matter was finally heard for interim orders this week. The Court has not granted any stay against the scheme. However, it has directed all political parties to submit details of the donations received through electoral bonds to the Election Commission in a sealed cover.
ALSO READ: Electoral Bonds will curb or lead to more black money? The story so far
The court’s reluctance or inability to hear the challenge means that the 2019 general elections are being fought on billions of dollars of dubious funds. This goes to the very heart of Indian democracy. Citizens all over the world want political parties and governments to represent their views and be responsive to their needs. However, all too often parties – and parliaments are disproportionately representative of the interests of the donors who have financed them. If a voter does not know who funds a political party – and is therefore in a position to influence it, the sanctity of the voting process is violated.
Democracy abjures secrecy. Political parties revel in it. In all regions of the world there is a deeply worrying trend of money in politics drowning out the voices of ordinary citizens. For a democracy to be healthy, it must revolve, first and foremost, around the citizen. And for a democracy to be sustainable, it requires transparent, accountable and inclusive political parties that can channel the demands of the people and truly represent them.
Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal. They do not reflect the view/s of Business Standard.

At Rs 3.65 lakh, Delhi's per capita income three times the national average

Delhi's per capita income in 2018-19 was pegged at Rs 3,65,529, three times the national average, while its gross state domestic product was estimated at Rs 7.79 lakh crore, an increase of 12.98 per cent over 2017-18, according to the Economic Survey tabled in the Assembly Saturday.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia presented the report during the Assembly session.

The per capita income of Delhi at current prices during 2018-19 is estimated at Rs 3,65,529 as compared to per capita income of Rs 1,25,397 at national level.
"Thus, Delhi's per capita income is almost three times of the national average," says the report.
The advanced estimate of gross state domestic product (GSDP) of Delhi at current prices during 2018-19 is likely to attain the level of Rs 7,79,652 crore, registering a 12.98-per cent growth over 2017-18.
In real terms, the growth is estimated to be 8.61 per cent during 2018-19.
During 2018-19, education sector continued to be the first priority of the government, having maximum share of allocation of funds -- 27.36 per cent of the budget.
It was followed by social security and welfare 16.63 per cent, medical and public health 14.81, housing and urban development 14.12 per cent, transport 11.67 per cent, and water supply and sanitation 10.68 per cent.
The report showed Delhi's total forest and tree cover area has increased to 305.41 square km in 2017 from 299.77 square Km in 2015.
"Delhi's green cover has increased from around 20.2 per cent (of total area) during 2015 to 20.6 per cent during 2017."
Tax collection of the Delhi government registered a growth of 14.70 per cent in 2017-18 (provisional) as compared to the growth of 3.03 per cent in 2016-17.
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The economic survey showed increase in supply of electricity in Delhi from 37,484 million units in 2014-15 to 38,510 million units in 2017-18.
The number of power consumers in Delhi was 57.55 lakh in 2017-18. The number of power consumers in Delhi has increased by 71.92 per cent during past decade, it says.
Delhi has maintained its consistent revenue surplus which was Rs 4,913 crore during 2017-18. Expenditure incurred on social service sectors in Delhi increased from 68.71 per cent in 2014-15 to 74.76 per cent in 2017-18, says the report.

Delhi HC dismisses Vodafone plea seeking claim to tax refund of Rs 47.59 bn

The Delhi High Court has dismissed telecom major Vodafone's plea seeking directions to the Income Tax Department to expeditiously process its claim for refund of over Rs 47.59 billion in respect of returns filed for the assessment years (AYs) 2014-15 to 2017-18.
A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Prateek Jalan declined to grant any relief to the company, saying there was merit in the tax department's argument that substantial outstanding demand was pending against the company and there was likelihood of more demands being made after the assessment for the AYs in question were scrutinised.
The court said the department should have the right to adjust the demands against the refunds that may arise but have not yet been determined due to the ongoing scrutiny proceedings.
"There is some merit in the revenue's (tax department) argument that substantial outstanding demand are pending against the petitioner. Further, the likelihood of substantial demands upon the assessee after the scrutiny for the AYs is completed, cannot be ruled out.
"The Revenue should have the right to adjust the demands against the refunds that may arise but have not yet been determined due to ongoing scrutiny proceedings," it said in the judgement rejecting Vodafone's plea.
The court noted that assessments for the years in question were either facing special audit or pending before the Assessment Officer (AO) for scrutiny and since scrutiny assessment of earlier years had led to raising of substantial demand, the tax department had decided not to process the company's returns.
"In the facts of the present case, for AY 2014-15, the petitioner (Vodafone) has approached the AAR and for AYs 2015-16 and 2017-18, scrutiny assessments are pending before the AO. The AO has exercised discretion under section 143 (1)D of the Income Tax Act not to process the returns considering the fact that substantial demand has been raised on completion of scrutiny assessment of earlier years.
"The petitioner has undertaken two schemes of amalgamation involving merger of certain group companies in order to restructure its business operations and increase operational efficiencies. In light of the above fact, assessments for the AY 2012-13 and 2013-14 are under special audit and any demand that would arise from the processing of the said assessment years are to be allowed to be adjusted against the refund claims," it said.
The company had claimed that it had received an acknowledgement after it had filed a return and therefore, within a year of the same, the refund ought to have been processed and failing which, interest would be applicable.
Rejecting the contention, the court said, "Intimation or acknowledgement cannot confer any greater right than for the assessee to ask the AO to process the refund and make over the money."
"It is up to the AO, wherever the possibility of issuing a notice under Section 143 (2) exists, or where such notice has been issued, to apply his mind, and decide whether given the nature of the returns and the potential or likely liability, the refund can be given. It does not mean that when an assessment -pursuant to notice under Section 143 (2) is pending, such right to claim refund can accrue."

"For the above reasons this court is of the opinion that there is no merit in the petitioner's argument. The writ petition fails and is accordingly dismissed," it added.