DailyOh! Why farmers won’t relent, to the rumble within Mamata Banerjee's TMC
The Delhi govt has said farmers are justified in their protest and won’t support their arrest.
The Dilli Chalo march has reached Dilli’s borders after facing resistance from police at the Punjab-Haryana border. All through, members of the march faced water cannons and tear gas shells.
Farmers, who are members of the march happening at the fag end of November, over three farm legislations passed in October, say they have enough ration to last six months. If the supplies run out, they can always be replenished. So, the agitation is likely to remain on.
The farmers want to protest at Ramlila Maidan. The Delhi Police want to arrest them. The problem it faces is where to put so many people once they have been arrested. The Delhi Police thought of nine stadiums only to be told by the Delhi government: permission denied. The Delhi government has said that the agitation is justified and peaceful, and that you can’t arrest people for protesting peacefully.
The Bombay High Court, on its part, has said you can’t deal with irresponsible statements using muscle power. The court said that to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), asking it to pay damages to Kangana Ranaut for demolishing her office-cum-residential bungalow in Bandra. The court, however, also said that Ranaut made loose statements and that she should have exercised restraint.
Ranaut, meanwhile, has called the HC ruling a victory for democracy and herself a ‘HERO’. It is possible she read the verdict selectively because reading the whole thing would have delayed the tweet.
'Hero' Kangana will be compensated by the BMC and since BMC officials will not be paying from their pockets, the compensation will come from public pockets.
Talking of public money, two protesters barged into the Sydney Cricket Ground raising concerns over the State Bank of India (SBI) reportedly considering a loan of AUD 1 billion “of public funds to prop up” Adani’s “toxic coal mine”. There are environmental concerns over mining activity and that is what made the protesters disrupt the match between India and Australia.
India would have prayed the protesters stayed put and the match got abandoned in the face of a defeat, with Australians smashing the Indian bowling attack for 375 runs.
Not all days are your days because some days defeat, and not the day, is yours. Today it was Team Australia’s day. Yesterday was ED’s day. The Enforcement Directorate, which says Cox & Kings Group of Companies has not cleared its loan of Rs 3,642 crore from Yes Bank and has laundered the money, arrested Cox & Kings promoter Peter Kerkar. Kerkar was produced before a Mumbai court today.
Kerkar’s role is under probe with regard to alleged loan defaults with a number of banks including the Yes Bank. The ED says, the money Cox & Kings got from Yes Bank was used by the company’s executives to buy immovable properties. Immovable properties can’t be moved but can be auctioned off if found to be part of a money-laundering racket.
The question now is what is laundering? We know laundry now more than ever because lockdown taught you many things. It comes from the word launder, which means to wash.
The term laundering for money, however, is said to have originated with the Italian mafia who allegedly purchased laundromats to mix their illegal profits from prostitution and illegal liquor sales with legitimate business sales from the laundromats.
So basically laundering is to take money from someone illegally, or take it legally, and not return, thus making the transaction illegal and then divert it to other businesses. So, you consider your money has been washed but the law may not agree with you.
Laundering, the Word Of The Day, is to basically conceal the origins of (money obtained illegally), typically by transfers involving foreign banks or legitimate businesses. Do your laundry well and stay away from laundering because the ED may then come after you and wash off all your wealth more easily than you made it.
It’s not the ED, but NIA, which has gone after PDP leader Waheed Parra, and got his remand for 15 days. Parra was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly conspiring with Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists to get their support during the 2019 parliamentary elections.
Those are grave charges and PDP says this is the doing of the BJP-led Centre to mar the party’s chances of winning the civic polls to be held on November 28.
Ahead of the West Bengal polls to be held in early 2021, Suvendu Adhikari has stepped down as Trinamool Congress minister. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar shared the resignation letter on Twitter, which is not customary for governors to do, but then how will new customs be made if old ones aren’t broken. As for Adhikari, rumours say he will be joining BJP soon. In the realm of current reality, he is still a TMC member, if not minister.
Cooch Behar Dakshin MLA and ex-TMC member Mihir Goswami, meanwhile, is joining the BJP in Delhi today. More TMC leaders are expected to follow suit.
From politics to some bad news: an Indian Navy pilot is untraceable since the MiG-29K trainer he was flying crashed in the Arabian Sea. Actually, there were two pilots in the aircraft; while one was rescued, the search for the other is on.
We hope the pilot is found soon.
Do you know how the US found about MiG? This happened in 1970s when the Cold War had heated up. On September 6, 1976, an aircraft appeared in the sky near the Japanese city of Hakodate. The grey hulk, bearing the red stars of the Soviet Union, was so far unseen. The jet landed on Hakodate’s runway but since the runway was not long enough, the jet ploughed through hundreds of feet of earth before coming to rest. Out popped a pilot from the cockpit and fired two shots in the air. Then the 29-year-old pilot, Viktor Ivanovich Belenko of the Soviet Air Defence Forces, said he wished to defect.
Defections happen but a defection with an aircraft was unheard of. Now, this was no ordinary aircraft. Though the US is said to have seen satellite images of this MiG fighter aircraft, they did not have any knowledge of its design and capabilities. MiG was the most secretive aircraft the Soviet Union built. And now the US, through Japan, had access to not just a defector, but a whole aircraft.
Every Lanka has its Vibhishan, you see.
If it’s the staying home and, not Vibhishan, who is your concern, beat the blues with Blue River by Alisha Batth, but stay at home.
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that 10 states - Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi, West Bengal, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh - are adding to 77 per cent of active cases.
Even if your state is not part of these 10, it is part of the 23 per cent. Do not assume, it won't get to you. Prove it by wearing the mask when stepping out and by not stepping out, when you can remain at home. Jab tak dawai nahi, tab tak dhilayi nahi.
Talking of the dawai, which is the vaccine and nothing else, India will be producing over 100 million doses a year of Russia’s coronavirus disease Sputnik V beginning 2021.
The end of 2020 is just about a month away but the week ends today.
We will see you beginning of next week, which is Monday.
Have a good weekend, which means a safe one.
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