Daily Briefing: Droupadi Murmu a step closer to Rashtrapati Bhavan; Govt forms panel for ‘more effective’ MSP

Instances of cross-voting, mostly in favour of Murmu, were reported from many states including her home state Odisha, Jharkhand where she was Governor, Gujarat and Haryana. How many MPs and MLAs cross-voted will be known when the votes are counted.

🔴 Haryana Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who had cross-voted in last month’s Rajya Sabha polls, indicated that he had supported the NDA candidate.

🔴 SAD MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali chose to boycott the poll and blamed the party leadership for not consulting him or the Sikh community before deciding to extend support to Murmu.

🔴 In Gujarat, NCP MLA Kandhal Jadeja said he voted for Murmu. He was issued showcause noitces in 2017 and 2019 for voting against the whip in Rajya Sabha polls. His party colleague in Jharkhand, Kamlesh Singh, too backed Murmu.

🔴 In Odisha, Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim announced he had voted in favour of Murmu as she was the “daughter of Odisha”.

🔴 In Assam, the Congress and its erstwhile ally AIUDF engaged in a war of words. AIUDF MLA Karimuddin Barbhuiya said he had evidence that 20 legislators of the Opposition Congress had cross-voted but did not furnish any.

Only in The Express

In an exclusive interview with The Indian Express, Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay spoke about his meeting Sri Lankan Parliament’s Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, India’s assistance to Sri Lanka, aspirations of Sri Lankan Tamils, and more.

From the Front Page

The father of a girl who appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate medical courses has lodged a police complaint accusing authorities at the exam centre in Kerala’s Kollam of ordering “many students”, including his daughter, to remove their innerwear before entering the hall.

Seven months after farmers forced the repeal of the new farm laws, the Centre notified a committee to “promote zero-budget based farming” and to make the minimum support price (MSP) more “effective and transparent”. The terms of reference of the committee do not, however, mention any legal guarantee on MSP, one of the key demands made by the farmers. While the committee has announced names of the representatives of other farmer groups, it has not mentioned the names of representatives of the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha that led the farmer agitation against the three farm laws.

Calling it a “vicious cycle” wherein Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair is remanded in a new case as soon as he gets bail in an old one, the Supreme Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government not to take any “precipitative” action against him till the next hearing. The court agreed to hear Zubair’s plea to club the cases against him on July 20.

Must Read

Education Boards of at least 10 states have reported a high number of students who registered but didn’t turn up for their Class 10 and 12 Board exams held earlier this year. Here’s what we found:

🔴 Examination attendance data of 17 state Boards over the last few years revealed that the jump in the non-attendance of students this year is more pronounced for the Class 10 exams.

🔴 Education Ministers of Odisha, Samir Ranjan Das, and his Assamese counterpart, Ranoj Pegu, attributed the spurt in absentees to the Covid-19 pandemic. “The students missed their classroom lectures and lost the confidence to appear for the final exams,” Das said.

🔴 The high number of absentees this year has prompted several states to launch probes or internal investigations.

The lead counsel for the foreign investors in Devas Multimedia, facing prosecution over a failed 2005 satellite deal, told The Indian Express that in February 2020, NSA Ajit Doval and former ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar held negotiations with Devas officials in Paris for settling all disputes arising out of India’s cancellation of the deal between Devas and Antrix Corp.

Amid a social media campaign against Lucknow’s Lulu Mall after a video of a group offering namaz in its premises did the rounds, the management issued a statement saying that “over 80 per cent” of its staff are Hindu. “The mall administration has lodged an FIR against those who tried to offer prayers and namaz in a public place,” it said.

Over a month after his alleged unruly behaviour, IndiGo banned CPI(M) leader E P Jayarajan from boarding its planes for three weeks. On June 13, Jayarajan was on an IndiGo flight when Youth Congress workers staged an in-flight protest against the Kerala CM over the gold smuggling case. Responding to the ban, Jayarajan said “it (IndiGo) is a dirty and sub-standard airline. I would go walking rather than travelling by their aircraft”.

And Finally…

Twenty-one-year-old Nitu Ghanghas, who will be India’s bet for a medal in the women’s 48kg boxing event at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, talks to The Indian Express about her father’s support, training under Jagdish sir, who has coached the likes of Vijender Singh, and her struggles.

Delhi confidential: After the BJP announced former West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its vice-presidential candidate, social media was abuzz with talks that Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will succeed Dhankhar at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata. A screenshot of a now-deleted tweet from BJP MP Hans Raj Hans, who congratulated Naqvi for being appointed as West Bengal Governor, has added fuel to the fire.

🎧 In today’s episode of the ‘3 Things’ podcast, we discuss how worried we should be about Monkeypox cases, the latest developments in Sri Lanka, and the violent protests over the death of a 17-year-old student in Tamil Nadu.

Until next time,
Leela Prasad and Sonal Gupta

Business As Usual by EP Unny