Sterlite protests: Madras HC stays construction of new copper smelter

For almost 100 days now, agitators had been protesting against the capacity expansion by Sterlite Copper; they claimed that the plant was causing harm to its employees

Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu: The Madras High Court's Madurai Bench on Wednesday stayed the ongoing construction of a new copper smelter at Sterlite Copper's Tuticorin plant.

A day before, as many as 11 people had been killed and 20 others injured at Thoothukudi, or Tuticorin, as a protest against Vedanta's Sterlite Copper unit -- going on for 100 days since the company announced its plans to invest Rs 25 billion in doubling the capacity of its existing facility to 800,000 tonnes per annum -- turned violent. The protesters claimed the plant had been causing harm to its employees and increasing the capacity of the plant would aggravate the problems.

Meanwhile, the Union home ministry has sought a report from the Tamil Nadu government over the incident in Tuticorin.

Following a gas leak in March 2013, the then chief minister late J Jayalalithaa had ordered the plant's closure, following which the company moved the National Green Tribunal. With the tribunal overturning the government order, the state moved the Supreme Court against it, and the petition has been pending since.

Here are the top developments in the Tamil Nadu protests:

1. The Madras High Court's Madurai Bench on Wednesday put a stay on the ongoing construction of a new copper smelter by Sterlite Copper in Tuticorin under its capacity expansion efforts, according to ANI reports.

ALSO READ: Sterlite protests: Govt assures action 'respecting' people's feelings

2. Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(MDMK) Chief Vaiko on Wednesday met those injured during protests against Vedanta's Sterlite Copper.

Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief Kamal Haasan also met those who were injured during the anti-Sterlite protests at General Hospital in Tuticorin. The families of the victims said they were facing difficulties because of his visit and asked him to leave, ANI reported.

MNM, along with other Opposition partiesm, had condemned the violence that took place on Tuesday and blamed the AIADMK-led Tamil Nadu government for the unrest and deaths in the state.

ALSO READ: Stalin to miss Kumaraswamy's swearing-in to meet anti-Sterlite protestors

3. DMK has called for an all-party protest on May 25 over the Sterlite protest incident.

4. In a government statement, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswamy announced Rs 1 million for those who lost family members, Rs 300,000 for people who were injured severely, and Rs 100,000 for those with minor injuries..

5. In an official statement, Sterlite Copper late on Tuesday expressed regret and sorrow over the deaths that took place during protests against it in Tamil Nadu's Tuticorin. The company said it had appealed to the government to ensure safety of the employees of the plant, as well as the surrounding communities.

"It's with great sorrow and regret that we witnessed today's incidents around the protest today at Tuticorin. The company has appealed to government and authorities to ensure the safety of our employees, facilities and surrounding communities. Sterlite Copper plant is non-operational as we await approval for the consent to operate," the statement read.

Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy says have stopped Modi's Ashwamedha horse: Updates

H D Kumaraswamy's swearing-in as Karnataka chief minister saw a show of strength by a galaxy of Opposition leaders who are looking to unite in a bid to take on Narendra Modi in 2019

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has said that the Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress alliance has succeeded in "tying" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Ashwamedha horse (victory horse) in Karnataka, insinuating that the Modi-Amit Shah duo's electoral juggernaut has been halted. On Wednesday, Kumaraswamy was sworn in as the 25th chief minister of Karnataka in a ceremony in Bengaluru that brought together anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (anti-BJP) regional and Opposition parties on a single platform ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"I had said after the Uttar Pradesh election results came out that my aim is to tie the Ashwamedha horse of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah (BJP President). Today, both Congress and JD(S), together, have tied their Ashwamedha horse in Karnataka," said Kumaraswamy, adding, "Probably, in the days to come, Amit Shah has to go to Narendra Modi with lifeless Ashwamedha horse, as we have tied their horse."

The swearing-in ceremony, which also saw Congress' G Parameshwara sworn in as Karnataka deputy chief minister, showcased rare scenes of bonhomie between United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, Nationalist Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, Communist Party of India Member of Parliament D Raja, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejaswi Yadav, and former Union minister Sharad Yadav.

The BJP, for its part, decided to abstain from attending the swearing-in ceremony despite seven of its leaders, including former chief ministers Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar and S M Krishna, Union minister Ananth Kumar, and officiating Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah, being invited. The BJP emerged as the single largest party after the May 12 Assembly elections and had formed a government with B S Yeddyurappa as the chief minister that lasted for all of three days. Yeddyurappa said they were boycotting the event as BJP was observing a "black day" across the state.

Here are the top ten developments regarding government formation in Karnataka and Kumaraswamy taking oath as chief minister:

1) Kumaraswamy says Congress, JD(S) have buried the hatchet to work together:Kumaraswamy allayed fears over the working and stability of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government. "I would like to convey to the people of Karnataka that they need not worry about the survival or duration of our government even after the trust vote as we (JD(S) and Congress) have buried the hatchet to work for the state's development as alliance partners," the chief minister said.

Mandsaur anniversary: First test of Rahul Gandhi's opposition unity effort

Rahul Gandhi's presence in farmers' death anniversary next month will be a litmus test for Opposition unity

A meeting in Budha village of Mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh could next month turn out to be the first test for Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s promise that his party would be the lynchpin of Opposition unity.

It would also test the popularity of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state in an election year.

Prominent Opposition leaders, including the Congress president and leading activists, are likely to assemble in Budha village, 20 kms from Mandsaur town on June 6, to mark the first anniversary of the death of six farmers in police firing last year.

On June 6, 2017, six farmers had been killed in police firing in Mandsaur. The farmers were protesting against the abysmal prices for their onion and garlic crops. The incident had triggered sustained farm protests in several parts of the country.

As the Mandsaur firing incident completes a year, garlic prices have hit rock bottom in Madhya Pradesh, while onion rates have again plummeted in the Malwa-Nimar region, the epicentre of the farmers’ agitation.

The meeting is significant since Madhya Pradesh has Assembly elections due in November-December, along with Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. Theis will also be the last round of Assembly elections before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress party’s Madhya Pradesh in-charge Dipak Babaria confirmed that Gandhi was likely to be in Mandsaur on June 6.

Swaraj Abhiyan’s Yogendra Yadav said leaders of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, or AIKSCC, an umbrella body 190 farmer organisations, would also be in Budha village on June 6 to pay their respects to the slain farmers.

However, the committee has decided it will stay away from any event organised under the Congress party’s flag. The leaders are not averse to sharing the stage with either the Congress chief or leaders of other political parties. But they have suggested that the meeting to pay respects to the slain farmers be organised by locals, and not under the banner of any political party.

Activist Medha Patkar will lead a march from Badwani to Bhopal, where farmers will observe a symbolic fast on June 5 to protest the Narendra Modi government’s “failure to address farm distress”, said former legislator and AIKSSC leader Sunilam.

All India Kisan Sabha, affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), will also hold countrywide protests on June 6. In the last one year, the Kisan Sabha has led farmer movements in Rajasthan and Maharashtra, including the ‘long march’ from Nashik to Mumbai a couple of months back.

Why Karnataka's new government has a job on its hands despite 8.5% growth

In 2016, Karnataka recorded the second-highest number of farmer suicides-1,212, behind only Maharashtra

Karnataka is grappling with income inequality, an agrarian crisis and child malnutrition even though its economy grew at 8.5%–second-highest among 10 states and union territories in 2017–to a gross domestic product of Rs 9.5 lakh crore ($141 billion) in 2017-18, according to the latest economic survey.

The 2018-19 budget for the state is Rs 2.09 lakh crore ($31 billion), which is 12% more than the budget estimate of Rs 1.86 lakh crore for 2017-18. There has been an increase in the state’s revenue as well. Karnataka’s tax revenue for 2018-19, including goods and services tax (GT) compensation, is estimated to be Rs 1.03 lakh crore ($15 billion), an increase of 13% over the revised estimate for 2017-18.

The economic survey 2017-18 highlights Karnataka’s progress on the per capita income front too. With a per capita income of Rs 142,267 per annum, Karnataka’s citizens are India’s 10th richest, behind Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Kerala in 2015-16 according to national accounts.

This prosperity, however, has not led to equal distribution of wealth, robust agriculture or good access to public health systems.

Bengaluru city earns five times as much as poorest district, Kalaburagi

Income disparity is high in the state. Bengaluru urban is the richest pocket with a per capita income of Rs 320,346 per annum. Kalaburagi in the north is the poorest, with a per capita income of Rs 65,493 per annum, almost one-fifth that of the state’s capital city.

Source: Karnataka Economic Survey 2017-18; Figures in Rs

In primary education (grades I to V), Yadgir in northeast Karnataka suffers a dropout rate–calculated by subtracting the sum of promotion and repetition from 100 in every grade–of 12.3%. In Bengaluru Urban, this rate is 2.9%. Yadgir’s average primary dropout rate exceeds Mizoram’s (10.1%), according to the District Information System on Education (DISE) 2015-16.

Source: District Information System on Education 2015-16; Figures in %

This inequality is evident in health indicators as well. For example, in Dakshin Kannada, nearly 92% households reported improved sanitation in 2015-16. But in Yadgir, this rate stood at 18.1%, according to National Family Health Survey 2015-16.

Why Modi is keen on 3rd & 'final' cabinet reshuffle before 2019 polls

The long awaited cabinet reshuffle of the Narendra Modi government, its third and possibly its final before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, is set to take place by Sunday afternoon.

Laggards among the ministers are being dropped. Performers among ministers of state, including those with independent charges, are set to be promoted. Some of the leaders who have excelled in organisational work will be included in the council of ministers, and some ministers asked to return to party work.

New ally Janata Dal (United) will get representation. Existing allies, who need to be placated in the run up to the 2019 polls, could get more ministerial berths. There is still no clarity on whether AIADMK might be included in the cabinet.

However, the shape of the forthcoming expansion and reshuffle would highlight the failures of the Modi government on some of its key promises – job growth and skill development, improvements promised in the farm sector and Ganga rejuvenation.

Also Read : Is Modi winning fake currency war? A data you shouldn't miss

In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised 20 million jobs a year if voted to power. However, job growth has been abysmal, and significantly lower than the last three years of the UPA 2 government. The PM and BJP chief Amit Shah have argued how the MUDRA Scheme has provided loans to over 80 million people, which in turn has provided employment in the informal sector.

But it's becoming increasingly apparent that the over two percent dip in GDP growth, the impact of demonetisation and inability of the industry to invest resulted in poor job growth. The Modi government’s plans to impart skills to a large section of the youths has fallen way short of its targets. Rajiv Pratap Rudy, despite his hard work in what was a newly carved out ministry in 2014, couldn’t meet the PM’s expectations as the minister of state (independent charge) for skill development and entrepreneurship. (more)

In sickness and in health, a parallel in the journeys of MGR and Jayalalithaa

In sickness and in health, a parallel in the journeys of MGR and Jayalalithaa

When M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) was shot by fellow actor M.R. Radha on January 12, 1967, I was probably a few weeks old in my mother’s womb. MGR’s next near-brush with death was 32 years ago, and as an aware 17-year-old, I have distinct memories of it. MGR was admitted to the same Apollo Hospital where his protégé J. Jayalalithaa is now apparently battling for life. The parallels are stronger than mere calendrical coincidence.

MGR was then 68 – so far as birth records are reliable for a man who came from such humble beginnings as him, about the same age as Jayalalithaa is now. He had suffered a kidney failure, and was soon flown to Brooklyn Hospital, New York for treatment. In the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination on October 31, 1984, Rajiv Gandhi went in for snap polls a few months ahead of schedule. MGR’s All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK) was in alliance with the Congress.

Those were pre-satellite channel days, and the media had great prestige but could easily be thwarted by the government. During the long months of treatment, there was little real news of MGR’s condition but for the periodical press releases that H.V. Hande – now a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, a physician himself and a minister in his cabinet – issued. The press releases carried little credibility, and in one of his famous wordplays, MGR’s erstwhile friend, sworn political enemy and many-time chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi, called it ‘Hande pulugu, anda pulugu, aakasa pulugu’. The line is untranslatable, but the rhyming reference is to ‘blatant lies of universal proportions’.Read more

PM tells BJP cadres how they should view Muslims

PM tells BJP cadres how they should view Muslims

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday gave a definite pro-poverty shift to his government’s policies and programmes for the next one year, even as he finally addressed the elephant in the room — how his party views or should view India’s largest minority, the Muslims.

In the concluding day address of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s National Council meeting, the PM announced that his government would ratify the climate change agreement on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. “The reason why I have chosen Gandhiji’s birth anniversary is because he led his life with the minimumest of carbon footprint,” Modi said.

The rest of his speech was devoted to the memory of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the earlier avatar of the BJP. Modi launched the birth centenary celebrations of Upadhyaya, who was elected the Jana Sangh president in this city in December 1967. The city was then known as Calicut. But he died under mysterious circumstances 41 days later.

Invoking Upadhyaya’s call for serving the poorest, Modi said the government at the Centre and in the states would mark the next one year as Garib Kalyan Varsh, the year for the welfare of the downtrodden.Read more

Facing sedition charge, Cong leader Ramya refuses to apologise for Pak comment

Facing sedition charge, Cong leader Ramya refuses to apologise for Pak comment

The Kannada actor and Congress member Ramya, who is accused of sedition over her remarks of praising the people of Pakistan after a recent visit, said on Tuesday that there is “no question of apologising.”

She said, "BJP will not do anything to repeal the law, because they are using it to their advantage", Congress leader Ramya on Tuesday refused to apologise for her statement that "Pakistan is a good country, not hell."

The 33-year-old Divya Spandana visited Islamabad to attend Saarc Young Parliamentarians Conference, responded to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s statement, “Going to Pakistan is like going to hell,” with “Pakistan is not hell, people there are just like us. They treated us very well.”

She made the remarks during a rally in her former constituency Mandya, saying how the people of Pakistan went out of their way on making her stay and comfortable after they got to know that she is from India.

Her comments outraged K Vittal Gowda, an advocate from Karnataka, who lodged a “sedition case” in Kodagu in southern Karnataka, around 250 km from state capital Bengaluru.(more)

Assam: How BJP learnt from past mistakes and Rahul Gandhi let it slip

Assam: How BJP learnt from past mistakes and Rahul Gandhi let it slip

In Assam, the Congress might blame its defeat on a 15-year anti-incumbency. However, it was worsted as much by the effective strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the nonchalance of its Vice President Rahul Gandhi in retaining talent.

A more audacious leader could have tried harder to keep Himanta Biswa Sarma and his group of rebel legislators in the party. After he quit the Congress last year, Sarma bitterly spoke about how Rahul Gandhi would show more interest in petting his dog than focus on the discussion at hand when Sarma met him over several meetings in 2014-15.

In contrast, the BJP leadership had an eye on the Assam Assembly polls ever since it won seven of the 14 seats and 37 per cent vote share in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. BJP chief Amit Shah underlined the importance of the victory on Thursday. He said it was a huge achievement for the party as Assam is a border state, hinting at the over 30 per cent minority population in the state. “A BJP government in Assam is as surprising for some people as our government in Jammu and Kashmir,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.Read more.