Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Smriti Irani led an offensive against the Congress today, both inside and outside Parliament, demanded an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi after her party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury referred to President Droupadi Murmu as “Rashtrapatni”. In the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman said calling the President “Rashtrapatni” was a “sexist insult” because “Rashtrapati is a gender agnostic word.” Lok Sabha too witnessed tense scenes as Sonia Gandhi, after the House proceedings were adjourned briefly, walked up to the treasury benches side and questioned BJP MPs. Amid the uproar, Chowdhury said he will apologise to the President, but not to “these pakhandis” (hypocrites). Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha suspended three more MPs today, taking the total count to 23 this Monsoon Session. The government has accused the Opposition of disrupting proceedings repeatedly over the years. But, not long ago, the Congress-led UPA was in power and it was the BJP, then in the Opposition, that justified the disruption of Parliament. From obstructing the house in the winter of 2005 over the oil-for-food scandal to uproar over the 2G scam, the BJP once said that when Parliament “is used to ignore issues” then “obstruction of Parliament is in the favour of democracy”. Moving to Bengal where Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the teacher recruitment scam, was dropped from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet as well as all party posts today. The move comes after the recovery of stashes of cash for a second time from a flat of Chatterjee’s aide Arpita Mukherjee in Belgharia. Following the outrage and protests among party workers over the murder of BJP youth worker Praveen Nettaru, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he is ready to take action on the lines of the “Yogi model”, if the situation demands it. The chief minister was responding to a question on demands by a section of BJP and Sangh Parivar supporters, who have slammed the Bommai government for failing to protect the lives of its party workers in the state, for a ‘Yogi model’ of governance in Karnataka. The Cochin Shipyard today handed over to the Navy the indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant, which was designed by the Navy’s in-house Directorate of Naval Design and will likely be commissioned on August 15. It is named after India’s first aircraft carrier, the Indian Naval Ship (INS) Vikrant, which played a significant role in the 1971 war. With the delivery of Vikrant, India has joined a select group of nations having the niche capability to indigenously design and build an aircraft carrier. It is play time in Chennai as the city hosts the world’s biggest chess event — the 44th International Chess Olympiad. In this edition of the Olympiad, from July 28 to August 10, India are seeded second in the open segment, fielding six teams, three each in men and women’s sections, with top-seeded USA and third-placed Norway, helmed by Magnus Carlsen, expected to put up a stiff challenge. Meanwhile, Pakistan has decided to pull out from the Olympiad, citing India’s torch relay through Kashmir on July 21 as a reason. To this, India said it is “highly unfortunate” that Islamabad has “politicised” the prestigious international event. Political Pulse While the BJP and Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) both enthused about the pre-poll alliance they have formed for the 2023 Assembly elections, as they announced the same on Tuesday, on the ground, the news received a colder reception. Many in the BJP state unit admitted they were taken by surprise by the decision, seen as influenced by the high command in Delhi. The two parties have a 40:20 seat-sharing formula in the 60-member House, with 40 going to the NDPP. BJP leaders said they were preparing for the party to contest the elections on its own in 2023. The BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur, Arun Kumar Sagar, who has highlighted alleged irregularities in implementation of development works under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in his constituency, is a prominent Dalit leader in the Rohilkhand region. Raising this issue in the Lok Sabha last Tuesday, Sagar said the works under the JJM has been allocated to a Hyderabad-based firm in his constituency. Alleging that public money was being misused and the government’s image was being tarnished, he urged the Centre to order an inquiry into the alleged irregularities. Sagar, a former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader, was fielded by the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Shahjahanpur by denying ticket to the then Union minister and sitting MP, Krishna Raj. By alleging irregularities in implementation of the JJM in Shahjahanpur and demanding a probe, Sagar has however seemed to have upset the BJP dispensation in the state. Read Lalmani Verma’s report. Express Explained Google Street View is finally available for ten cities in India and is expected to roll out in about 50 more cities by the end of the year. The 360-degree interactive panorama feature of Google Maps has been available in cities spread over 100 countries since 2007. But why was Street View not enabled in India, and how has Street View now been launched in India? We explain. In its continuing bid to cool down raging inflation in the United States — at 9.1% in June, the inflation rate is at a four-decade high — the Federal Reserve or Fed decided to raise the Federal Funds Rate target by another 75 basis points on Wednesday. Since March, the Fed has steadily pushed up the targeted FFR from zero to almost 2.5% now. Why is the Fed tightening money supply? What is the outlook for the US economy? Read this Express Explained to understand.
