Smriti  Irani showed up on a three-day visit to her parliamentary constituency Amethi on Friday. The Union Minister summons Rahul Gandhi for misleading farmers in the seminar as she says, “Rahul Gandhi  is telling lies, shedding crocodile tears and misleading Farmers”.

Irani’s thought-provoking move against Gandhi for a debate on farmer issues, she asked him to come in the midst of farmers here and claimed that she would expose him for every single sin committed by him. The Union minister addressed the rally in Singhpur block in Tiloi as part of an epic exercise held by the BJP to extend a hand to farmer as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday released over Rs 18,000 crore to more than nine crore farmer families under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi’ (PM-KISAN).

Gandhi shows sympathy to the farmers now, he who himself has “grabbed” the land of farmers. His family had knowingly kept Amethi and its farmers away from development. They kept misleading them, enjoyed the fruits of power sitting in Delhi and lived in a palace of gold,” Smriti alleged.

After the BJP formed government in Delhi, various development works were undertaken , she mentioned.

The Modi and Yogi government are working for the benefits of the farmers. BJP leader Smriti Irani said  the direct payments to accounts which farmers always wanted is now possible. Rahul Gandhi and Congress are lying and confusing the farmers. Union Minister Smriti Irani questioned Rahul Gandhi to explain how much he has given to Amethi? “cannot give medical colleges to people, no educational institutions to children.” There will be no conspiracy under Yogi and Modi’s rule. Prime Minister Modi will soon address with his vision for farmers.She added,  Recall how much land of poor people was acquired by Robert Vadra during the Congress government.

Rahul Gandhi was upset with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to take the interest of farmers, Irani said. Farmers should not fall into false congress claims regarding new agricultural laws.

“Those who are misguiding the farmers by becoming their sympathiser will be taught a lesson by the public in future,” ANI reported Union Agriculture Minister Tomar as saying.

 In a letter to 40 representatives of farmer unions, Vivek Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, induced them to decide the time and date for the next round of meeting, and also “give details of other issues on which you want to negotiate”.

So far, there has not been any progress after five rounds of meeting between the government and farmer unions, who have mentioned that their demand for repeal of the three farm laws was “not a negotiation”.

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As part of ongoing protests against India Farm Reforms 2020 in delhi, farmer leaders have stood to boycott services offered by corporate industrialists, Gautam Adani and MukeshAmbani. A major part of this stand will involve mobile connections by Reliance Jio – at present India’s leading mobile telecom operator by market share.

While the boycott cry comes from farmer leaders at the forefront of the protest, the effects of this can potentially be far-reaching for the telecom operator that has witnessed largely uncontested growth, and added users to its network every month since its launch in September 2016.

As per the information of the press conference that farmer leaders held, after the Indian government issued its first response regarding India Farm Reforms 2020. Marking the response as inadequate, the leaders formally rejected the central government’s proposals, before announcing the boycott of Reliance Jio SIMs perhaps the most ubiquitous commodity operated presently by any Ambani-owned business.

The move potentially marks an important moment for Reliance Jio, which has added new users to its network in every month since its September 2016 launch. Ever since its advent, Reliance Jio has undoubtedly had a major impact in the Indian telecom market, bringing down the average monthly cost of telephony and mobile data by a sizeable margin.

This brought down data costs for mobile users in India to as low as Rs 3 per GB a statistic that pegs India as one of the most affordable countries for internet services around the world.

As a result of Jio’s impact, Vodafone India initially merged with Idea Cellular in August 2018 to create India’s largest telecom conglomerate by market share. Vodafone-Idea, which recently rebranded to Vi, has since seen a sharp decline and now ranks third, behind Bharti Airtel.

Reliance Jio, meanwhile, enjoys a seemingly unassailable lead. As of September 2020, Reliance Jio had 35.19 percent market share, followed by Bharti Airtel at 28.44 percent and Vi at 25.73 percent. Now, it will be interesting to see if TRAI subscriber data reveals an impact of decline in Jio’s user base, for the months going forward.

Along with the announcement’s potential impact on Reliance Jio, the decision also marks a particularly interesting conjunction in the ongoing farmer protests. Smartphones and social media have played key roles in raising awareness with regards to the protests, and the decision to boycott Reliance Jio’s services clearly put forth a message of intent from the farmer leaders.

Ironically, the boycott comes after Ambani said at the ongoing India Mobile Congress 2020 about the need for strategic policies from the central government, to open up a larger market for telecom operators to access and market their data services in.

After over four years in service, the boycott of Reliance Jio by farmer leaders marks the first roadblock of note for the operator in its growing market size.

Going forward, it will be interesting to note if corresponding communities also join in the protests. It is indeed too early to call, but this moment might just mark a pivotal turning point in what has been a clean, marauding run for Reliance Jio so far.

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The central government has drafted a new proposal on December 9, after the meeting of the farmers with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah reached a dead result. It was stated that all the private mandis are to be registered under APMC which also includes a written guarantee of the Minimum Support Price. 

Additionally, the meeting with the Agricultural Minister, Tomar was cancelled when the farmers union leaders denied to attend it. They have also refuted the government’s proposal of alterations in the farm laws and are not ready to negotiate with their demands of the abrogation of the farm laws. 

The meeting on December 8, yielded no results and the farmers declared the Bharat Bandh as the government was not ready to abolish the concerned laws. 

The opposition leaders in the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yachury, Sharad Pawar and D Raja are planning to meet the President of India on December 9 requesting him to intervene in the matter and resolve the issue. They are hoping to get the President to order the government to abolish the farm laws. 

Sharad Pawar, NCP president said that all the opposition parties will have a discussion and take a stand against the ‘black laws’ before the meeting with Ram Nath Kovind, President. 

Vijay Rupani, Gujarat Chief Minister taunted the congress in their support of the protest, asking the back door president Rahul Gandhi if he even knew the Methi (fenugreek) and dhaniya (coriander) that he is leading the farmer’s protest and claiming that it only benefits the large organisations and corporates.

On December 8, even the Aam Aadmi Party accused the Delhi police of keeping the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a house arrest for supporting the farmer’s protest. He had visited the Delhi border on Monday to protest against the laws passed by the parliament. Later, the party members were not permitted to enter his residence. 

AAP claimed the police have put Kejriwal under house arrest. “When our MLAs went to meet the chief minister, they were beaten and thrown on the streets. The party volunteers were also not allowed to meet,” they accused.

The Delhi police refuted the accusation, even the central government criticised AAP for undertaking activities with “lies, deceit and propaganda”.

Gaurav Bhatia, BJP member challenged Kejriwal to step outside his residence to show if cops try to prevent him from leaving. He also said that if it was the truth, they would have flooded the media with hundreds of images and videos to support their allegations and would have filed suits in courts even United Nations”, he added.

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday promised that the BJP would develop Hyderabad into a global IT hub by providing civic infrastructure and other necessary means, methods, and support for the evolution of the IT industry by targeting TRS and AIMIM over the recent floods in Hyderabad as the city was completely flooded and 7 lakh families were affected.

Since this place holds great potential to become an IT hub, but TRS and AIMIM failed in the development of Infrastructure even though the funds are being provided by the State and Centre. So by seeing this situation Amit shah said the current municipal corporation under the TRS and Congress is the biggest impediment to this and failed to develop proper infrastructure.

Subsequently, he highlighted that the BJP will free Hyderabad from the ‘Nizam culture’ and work towards constructing a modern and new city flush with democratic principles. While addressing a news conference at the end of his day-long visit to campaign for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections slated to be held on December 1, he said that the BJP also wanted to ensure Telangana and Hyderabad’s transition from “dynasty to democracy”.

He stated with the immense support of the people, this time the BJP party won’t have to fight to strengthen its presence rather the party will form Mayor of Hyderabad and thus he urged people to support BJP to bring about a change.

Since Hyderabad offers a stable political climate as well as an efficient and good IT infrastructure, it is safe to assume that it will become a core player in Asia in terms of being an information technology hub. The conditions have made Hyderabad a prime destination for offshoring services, making it an alluring destination for many IT companies worldwide.

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The Indian Naval force has induced two predatory drones for monitoring the activities of its neighbouring country, China across the Line of Actual Control and can also be used to vigilantly look out the activities in the Indian Ocean. The American firm had helped India procure the drones on lease amid the internal conflicts between India and China. 

The Ministry of Defence had supervised the emergency procurement of the drones by the Indian Navy amid the India-China conflict that can be used in emergency situations. The members of the American firm will accompany the drone to India as they will help the Indian forces in operating the drones. 

“The drones were scheduled to arrive in India in the second week of November while the flying operations were to begin in the last week oh the month by the Indian Naval force in INS Rajali, Tamil Nadu. 

The security forces have started the aerial operations of the drones, it was revealed that they have the capacity of flying for 30 hours in a stretch. It is believed that the said drone is one of the biggest assets with the defence. 

The Drones are given to India on lease for a year as they are deciding on getting about 18 more drones from the American firm, as per sources.

With the growing closeness between India and America, the United States had continuously helped India in getting information about Chinese tactics along with procurement of weapons for surveillance and defence. 

The procurement of the drones falls under the Defence Procurement Material of 2009 and Defence Acquisition Procedure of 2020 which help in cumulating funds and the maintenance by the seller. 

According to the agreement between the countries for the procurement, it is mentioned that the United States is only responsible for the technological problems and maintenance, however, the controller and attack planning would rest with India. The United States will have not right on the information secured using the drone and would be India’s property only. 

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump had said that India will buy military weapons worth $3 billion which will include helicopters for attacking. It would further strengthen the commercial and political relations between the countries.

Recently, India had not backed off in showing trust in American equipment and systems as India had before bought the 9 P-81 long-range surveillance planes and 24 MH-60 Romeos helicopters. 

An American crew from the vendor is also accompanying the equipment and would help the Navy to operate the machines, the sources said.

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In the middle of the Bihar election, the BJP had started planning its next goal Bengal. Among those in the ruling party investing in that state early is union Home Minister Amit Shah. Therefore he visited Bengal and urged the people of the state to give Narendra Modi’s leadership a chance in the 2021 assembly election and they will make ‘Sonar Bangla’ within five years. As their aim is the development of West Bengal.

After electoral victory in Bihar, BJP’s set its next stop in West Bengal where assembly polls are due next year. To take this mission ahead BJP has formed an 11-member core team of mostly central leaders to prepare the ground to mount a high-voltage attack against the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in the run-up to the polls.

Since In 2010, West Bengal gave reigns of the state to Mamata Banerjee. Yet 10 years down the line, their words of honour have been demonstrated to be hollow and hopes of people have turned into distress. By taking a dig at the Mamata government over issues like corruption and violence, Amit Shah said the ruling Trinamool party has been looting the funds sent by the Centre; Trinamool didn’t shy away from corruption even during coronavirus and flood relief work. Further, he added, they have made three sets of laws in the state – one for the nephew (of Mamata Banerjee), one for their vote bank, and one for the common Bengali. Even this state leads in the country when it comes to the killing of political workers. In the last one year, 100 BJP workers have been killed subsequently Amit shah asked what action has been taken for this?

As a result, BJP is drastically required for West Bengal development because BJP will bring initiative towards industrialization as it has been systematically destroyed by the Left and the Trinamool. Also, the main would be to generate employment in the state because this will help Bengali youth to remain in the state and the traditional Bengali family system won’t get destroyed due to the separation of parents and children. In addition to these, there will be an improvement in infrastructure in every area of the state, however, for now, the present situation is simply pathetic.

Also, some of the core team members landed in Kolkata to do camping there for a week to chart out a basic list of probable candidates and plan for a focused campaign strategy, with inputs from the state party unit.

Party sources said the state, which has 294 assembly constituencies, will be divided into five zones, each of which will be put under the charge of a central party secretary, who will finalize all decisions under the guidance of the central leadership.

News Agencies reported, as the ‘Battle for Bengal’ still looks a climbing task for the party, therefore BJP chief J P Nadda and home minister Amit Shah have decided to keep the command for the assembly polls under the direct charge of the central leadership rather than the state party unit which is fraught with factional feuds.

The 11-member core team includes party general secretaries Kailash Vijayvargiya and Dushyant Gautam, five-party secretaries — Sunil Deodhar, Vinod Tawade, Vinod Sonkar, Harish Dwivedi, and Arvind Menon — central IT and social media cell chief Amit Malviya and state leaders Amit Chakravarty and Kishore Burman.

While Kailash Vijayvargiya will be the coordinator, IT cell head Amit Malviya and party secretaries Sunil Deodhar and Arvind Menon, Vinod Tawde are part of the team to prepare the ground for the battle.

On Tuesday, six central leaders including Sunil Deodhar, Amit Malviya, and B L Santosh, held a strategy meeting with state leaders in Kolkata, where it was also decided that between November 18 and 20 each of the five zonal -in-charges will meet district-level leaders of their respective areas.

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India has criticised Pakistan’s attempt of giving provincial status to the Pakistan-proclaimed, Gilgit-Baltistan also is known as PoK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir). 

The Ministry of External Affairs said that territory of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India since 1947. Pakistan is trying to make changes in the area, India has rejected the attempt calling it an illegal move of concealing the terror activities taking place in the region. They have no right to alter the status of the illegally occupied territory, said India’s spokesperson. They have also asked Pakistan to evacuate the region. 

India has strongly reacted to Pakistan’s bid of contesting elections in the so-called Gilgit-Baltistan region when the Pakistan Supreme court in 2018 had granted Islamabad the right to contest general elections in the region. Although the elections were scheduled to take place in August but are now delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is now approved by Arif Alvi, President of Pakistan to contest elections for Gilgit-Baltistan on November 15. 

Anurag Srivastava from the Ministry of External Affairs said that by calling the said territory theirs, Pakistan is seeking to mask the human right violations abd rejecting the freedom of the people living in these areas since independence. 

The Prime minister of Pakistan announced granting provincial status to the region in his visit to Gilgit-Baltistan, hours after the announcement protests erupted in the region. Even the activitists in Gilgit-Baltistan are protesting as they don not want to be the part of Pakistan. They have accused Pakistan for exhauting their resources and not giving them their share of the money. For instance, in Muzaffarabad, a protest was organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Student Liberation front against the decision. The activists claim that they will not let Pakistan claim the territory even if it means to sacrifice their lives. 

Apparently the China Pakistan Economic Corridor Infrastructural Development Plan, goes through the Gilgit-Baltistan region, making it necessary for Pakistan to have control on the area. For the fact that it is the only way for them to improve their economic and financial condition by economically connecting with China. They also have a Rs. 422 billion agreement with the China Power for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha dam in Gilgit-Baltistan. 

This is not the first time, Pakistan has tried to claim the territory as their own. In August, Pakistan had released a new political map claiming Indian territories as their own, such as adding Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Gujarat in their region, as per the 1948 plebiscite when the People of Junagadh voted to become the part of India and not Pakistan. 

This shows the political absurdity of Pakistan by claiming territories of India with no legal or international validity. It is yet another failed attempt of Pakistan of illegally calling Indian territories as their own. 

One more incident that shows Pakistan’s lack of political knowledge and ability of rule the country was when Pakistan’s National Assembly had asked the government to call their ambassador from France after their derogatory comments on Islam. However, it was later established that there was no ambassador posted in France currently. The ambassador had left France three months ago and was now posted in China. Yet another embarrassing moment for Pakistan. 

There are countries in the world who also has rejected Pakistan’s move, such as Saudi Arabia, they have removed the Gilgit-Baltistan region from Pakistan’s map calling it Diwali gift for India. 

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It has recently come into light that the Indian Air Force Wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman who was captured by Pakistan on February 26 was released as Pakistan feared that India was ready to launch an attack on them.

Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Ayaz Sadiq said in the National Assembly that the foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi knew India was ready to attack Pakistan and had begged for Varthaman’s release. 

He also claimed Qamar Javed Bajwa, the Army Chief General was shivering and sweating when the foreign ministers told them if they did not release Varthaman, India would launch an attack on Pakistan. 

On February 26, the Indian Air Force avenged the Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF officers had died by bombing the Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist camps in Balakot, Pakistan. 

In the attack, the F-16 fighter was shot, the fighter had ejected the plane in Pakistan and was captured on February 27. But was later released on March 1. 

With regards to the admission, BJP Chief JP Nadda bashed the Congress when they had questioned the Balakot attack and all the decision taken by India against Pakistan sponsored terrorism. He also said that the Indian opposition will now believe in the strength and bravery of the soldiers of the ‘most trusted nation’. 

The Republic Media Network also confronted Fayyaz ul Hassan, Pakistan Minister who had not supported the government on the Pulwama attack. When the Information and Culture Minister of Punjab responded to the Indian media saying that they should be grateful to Pakistan for releasing Varthaman, it was a favour on India.’

While India confronted Pakistan and questioned, ‘if they considered Pulwama attack, killing 40 jawans a success? It is not courage but the insult of Pakistan in front of the world.’ The Republic media taunted Pakistan by mentioning their internal state conflicts, quoting, ‘you will run with your pantaloons.’ 

The current status reminds me of school fights as both the nations are indulged in blaming and confronting each other when they have more pressing matters in hand such as combatting Covid-19 pandemic.

It is now confirmed that Pakistan felt threatened by India as the foreign minister said in the meeting, ‘for god’s sake, let him go back now, India is attacking Pakistan at 9 pm in the night.’ 

While the PML-N leader underestimated India saying that they were not planning to attack but was a tactic to get Varthaman released.  

In the National assembly of Pakistan, Fawad Chaudhary, Science and Technology Minister admitted the hand of Pakistan in the Pulwama attack which killed 40 CRPF officers.

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The revised Center laws now allows people from outside Jammu and Kashmir to buy land in the Union Territory (UT) Which has also raised statements like ‘J&K up for sale’ said by National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah.

The MHA notified what it calls UT of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Adaptation of Central Laws) Third Order, 2020. The Centre has cancelled or switched 26 state laws.

As per the sources, the Centre has excluded the phrase “permanent resident of the state” from Section 17 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act that deals with disposal of the land in the union territory. Till last year, before removing Article 370 and Article 35-A, non-residents could not buy any immovable property in Jammu and Kashmir.

Reporters mentioned the statement of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said that the amendments did not allow the transfer of agricultural land to non-agriculturists. Nevertheless, due to various removal of Act clearly allows the transfer of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes, including setting up of educational or health care facilities.

Former Advocate General Mohammad Ishaq Qadri said the amendments have opened floodgates for people from outside Jammu and Kashmir to buy lands. “Now there is no legal bar on purchase of land here by outsiders,” he said.
The MHA notification will come into force with immediate effect.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah reacted to the MHA notification and said that J&K is now up for sale “Unacceptable amendments to the land ownership laws of J&K. Even the tokenism of domicile has been done away with when purchasing non-agricultural land & transfer of agricultural land has been made easier. J&K is now up for sale & the poorer small landholding owners will suffer.

Further Reacting to the development, People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) spokesperson Sajad Lone said, “The amendment stripped the permanent residents of Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh of exclusive right to acquire and hold immovable property in the state now unconstitutionally divided into two Union territories and granting such rights to non State Subjects.”

Terming the MHA order as a “huge betrayal”, Lone said, “This is a massive assault on the rights of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and grossly unconstitutional. The Alliance has vowed to fight the anti-Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh measure on all fronts.” The PADG comprises the National Conference, PDP, CPM, CPI, People’s Conference, Awami National Conference, and the People’s Movement.

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In the recent Hathras case, the state government is criticised of politicising the case. They have accused the opposition of attempting to disturb the harmony of the state and encouraging dirty politics using the dead bodies of the poor people. 

The congress has conducted several protests in states like Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat. Many Dalit leaders are questioning the method of investigation and appealed for a court-monitored inquiry. 

The state government

Yogi Adityanath bashed the Congress for doing dirty politics over the Hathras case. The chief minister assured of dealing with these people as per the law of the land. He added that the opposition treats politics as a business and can go to any level to run their business. They see everything through the lens of caste and religion. He concluded ‘these people resort to any misdeed and disintegrate the social structure in order to keep their vote banks intact.’

Dalits demand a judicial inquiry

The Dalita Sangharsha Samithi (DSS) and other such organisations demanded a judicial investigation in the Hathras case in Uttar Pradesh. People orchestrated seeking an inquiry by the supreme court judge and demanded compensation of one crore for the family of the victim.

Opposition holds protests

The Congress conducted protests in several states namely, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka seeking justice for the victim of the Hathras case. Congress party worker, Shyoraj Valmiki was detained before they could start the protest. A congress member was arrested accusing him of stirring hate and disrupting the peace after the videos had gone viral on social media. He also confirmed that Congress deliberately politicised the case.

Journalist from Kerala charged with treason

Siddique Kappan, journalist was accused of treason and other charges. He along with four others were charged by the Mathura court under IT Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, kept in custody for 14 days.  As per the FIR, they had brochures of ‘Justice for Hathras Victim’, a laptop and multiple mobiles. It is also claimed that they had links with the PFI. however, journalist associations like The Press Association and the Indian Women Press Corps view this as an endeavor to silence the media.

The special investigation team given more time 

The special investigation team had been given 10 days extension to investigate the case as the inquiry was not completed. 

Initially the team was given seven days to submit their report on the Hathras investigation. The police had denid the rape claims as per the medical and post-mortem reports. However, the state government recommended a CBI probe for the case and the suspected conspiracy of pulling the case into class conflicts. 

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