Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said he has sought an appointment with Union Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley.

The development comes two days after Kejriwal, at the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) “Jan Aakrosh Rally” here, had criticised the BJP-led Union government and said he would meet Shah to know about the Centre’s plan to stop the “massacre of Kashmiri Pandits” in the valley.

“I have sought time from the Union home minister to discuss the continuing massacre of Kashmiri Pandits,” Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi.

The AAP has been criticising the killing of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley and has blamed the Centre for the situation.

At the rally on Sunday, Kejriwal had claimed that Kashmiri Pandits are being forced to leave the valley due to the targeted killings of minorities and demanded that the Centre put forth an action plan to stop such incidents.

The spate of targeted killings in Kashmir started in May, which included that of Rahul Bhat, a clerk, who was shot dead inside the tehsildar’s office in Budgam district’s Chadoora.

Three of the victims in eight such incidents in Kashmir since May 1 were off-duty policemen while five were civilians.

India added 3,714 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,31,85,049, while the active cases increased to 26,976, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday at 8 am

The death toll climbed to 5,24,708 with seven fresh fatalities, The active cases comprise 0.06 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.72 % the health ministry said.

An increase of 1,194 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.21 % while the weekly positivity rate was 0.97 % according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,26,33,365 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.22 %.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 194.27 crore.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year. The seven new fatalities include six from Kerala and one from Punjab.

A speeding SUV collided with a trailer in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, leaving eight members of a family dead and another injured, police said on Tuesday.

The accident took place on Monday night when the SUV was carrying a marriage party from Jalore to Barmer.

“Merely eight km ahead of the wedding destination, the speeding Bolero collided with the trailer. In the accident, six people died on the spot while two succumbed to injuries at a hospital,” police said.

Nine people were travelling in the SUV. The deceased were identified as Punma Ram (45), Prakash Bishnoi (28), Manish Bishnoi (12), Prince Bishnoi (5), Bhagirath Ram (38), Punma Ram (48), Mangilal Bishnoi (38) and Budharam Bishnoi (40).

The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed as withdrawn, a writ petition from Nalini Sriharan seeking six days parole for her husband Murugan. Both are among those convicted in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
When the writ petition from Nalini came up for hearing today, a division bench of Justices S Vaidyanathan and A D Jagadish Chandira was told the application seeking parole for Murugan on medical grounds was rejected, as he (Murugan) had violated certain provisions of the Prison Rules in the recent past and thereby rendered himself ineligible for the same.

At this juncture, the counsel representing Nalini opted to withdraw the petition. And the bench dismissed it as withdrawn.
Nalini’s mother Padma had on May 21 had sent a representation to the authorities concerned to grant six days emergency leave to her son-in-law Murugan on medical grounds. As there was no progress, Nalini filed the present writ petition, which was dismissed as withdrawn.
Murugan, Santhan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Ravichandran and Nalini– all convicted in the assassination of the former PM, are serving life sentences. Another convict, A G Perarivalan, was recently ordered to be released by the Supreme Court, using Article 142 of the Constitution, after he served about 31 years in jail in connection with the crime.

Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, currently in jail following arrest in a money laundering case, on Monday approached a special court here seeking bail for one day to cast vote in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections to six seats from the state.

Last week, Maharashtra’s former home minister Anil Deshmukh, who is also in jail on money laundering charges, had filed a similar application.

On Monday, a special court in Mumbai, designated to hear cases related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file its affidavit to both the applications (Malik and Deshmukh) and posted them for further hearing on June 8.

The Rajya Sabha polls are scheduled on June 10. Malik was arrested by the ED on February 23 this year in connection with a money laundering probe linked to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.

The NCP leader in his application sought to be released on bail for a day on June 10.

Malik in his plea claimed that he is an elected MLA and hence, is duty bound to represent the residents of his constituency in electing a representative to the Rajya Sabha, and is also desirous to cast his vote in the aforesaid biennial elections.

The 288-member Maharashtra Assembly forms the electoral college for the Rajya Sabha polls.

While the two NCP MLAS – Deshmukh and Malik- are currently in jail, one seat is lying vacant.

Apart from the four main parties Shiv Sena, NCP, Congress and BJP, the Assembly has 25 MLAs from smaller parties and Independents.

The effective election quota per candidate is 42. The BJP, which has 106 members in the House, has nominated Union minister Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik.

The NCP has re-nominated former Union minister Praful Patel, while the Congress has fielded Imran Pratapgarhi. Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar are nominees of the Shiv Sena.

The electoral contest for the sixth Rajya Sabha seat lies between BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik and Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar.

After the recent killings of the members of the minority community in the Valley, J&K Government has directed some government and private schools to teach children from minority communities online till the situation normalizes.

“Learning level Assessment of students in each subject should be conducted virtually through Google Form questionnaire or any other feasible virtual format and record of that be incorporated in learning level register,” an official  communication by the Chief Education Officer from Baramulla to government and private schools in North Kashmir district of Baramulla reads.

The district education authorities have directed the school teachers to prepare action plans for online teaching and e-materials as per their syllabus.

“Online presence of students be recorded on the attendance register,” the order reads.

“The education of students is of paramount importance for us. In this backdrop instructions are hereby issued to be adhered to in letter and spirit,” the official communication adds.

AAP leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday alleged the BJP has led the country to such a situation that even “small countries are now challenging the great nation of India”.

He claimed that every Indian is pained by it and “the sorrow is endless”.

Sisodia’s remarks came after the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) slammed India for comments by two BJP functionaries against Prophet Mohammad and even urged the UN to take necessary measures to ensure that the rights of Muslims are protected.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran and Kuwait expressed their condemnation of the controversial remarks against the Prophet and called for “respect for beliefs and religions.”

Pakistan summoned the Indian charg d’affaires to convey its categorical rejection and condemnation of the controversial remarks by the two BJP leaders.

As the row escalated both domestically and abroad, the BJP on Sunday suspended its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled its Delhi media head Naveen Kumar Jindal.

The party also issued a statement asserting that it respects all religions and strongly denounces insults of any religious personality.

Grabbing the opportunity to take a potshot at the BJP, Sisodia, in a tweet in Hindi, said, “Even small countries are challenging the great nation of India.

“What has (PM Narendra) Modi Ji and the BJP done to the country. Every Indian is pained by it, the sorrow is endless (‘Itne chhote chhote deshon ko Bharat jaise mahan desh ko aankhwn dikhani ki himmat ho gayi? Modi Ji aur BJP ne desh ka kya haal kar diya. Aaj har bharatbasi behad pirit hai, dukh ki seema nahin hai’).”

Sharma’s comments, made in a TV debate nearly 10 days ago, and Jindal’s now-deleted tweets sparked a Twitter trend calling for a boycott of Indian products in some countries.

Qatar and Kuwait summoned the Indian ambassadors and handed over to them protest notes on what the Gulf countries called categorical “rejection and condemnation” of the controversial remarks of the BJP leader against Prophet Muhammad.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched a special series of coins that are also ‘visually impaired friendly’.

The coins of Re 1, Rs 2, 5, 10 and 20 denominations will have the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) design are not commemorative coins and will be part of circulation.

“These new series of coins will remind people of the goal of amrit kal and motivate people to work towards the development of the country,” Modi said while addressing the iconic week celebration of the Ministry of Finance.

Modi also launched the ‘Jan Samarth portal’ — a credit-linked portal of 12 government schemes.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said each of these schemes will be displayed on the portal. “This portal is going to make it easy so that citizens does not have to ask the same questions every time to avail himself a government programme”.