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Evening briefing: EC rejects plea on INDIA acronym, Maharashtra govt to issue sub-caste certificates; all latest news
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The Election Commission of India (ECI) is mandated to register political parties under the law and not political alliances, the election watchdog has told the Delhi high court in response to a petition that sought to prohibit the 26-party opposition bloc, Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, from using the acronym INDIA. “That the Answering Respondent (ECI) has been vested with the authority to register associations of bodies or individuals of a political party in terms of Section 29A of the RP, 1951. Notably political alliances are not recognised as regulated entities under the Representation of People Act, 1951 (RP Act) or Constitution,” the ECI said in its affidavit in response to the petition. The alliance was formed on July 18, 2023, to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The election watchdog also cited the Kerala high court’s ruling in Dr George Joseph v Union of India (2021), in which the high court refused to direct the ECI to regulate the functioning of political alliances such as LDF (Left Democratic Front), UDF (United Democratic Front and National Democratic Alliance (NDA), underlining that political alliances were not a legal entity in terms of the RP Act. Dig Deeper
The Maharashtra government on Monday announced it will issue certificates to the descendants of those recorded as part of the Kunbi sub-caste during the pre-independence Nizam era to enable them to get quota under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category as part of interim measures to pacify the Maratha community following violent reservation protests. It promised a curative petition for the restoration of the quota granted to the Marathas in 2018 before the Supreme Court quashed it, fresh empirical data to prove the community’s backwardness for its eligibility for the reservation and resumption of dialogue with activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, who is leading the protests. The measures were announced after chief minister Eknath Shinde held an urgent meeting of the Cabinet Sub-committee on the Maratha reservation. Jarange-Patil resumed his hunger strike last week after his 40-day deadline to the government for the reservation to all Marathas passed. He has been demanding that Kunbi certificates be given to enable the community to get the quota. Kunbi, a sub-Maratha caste, has a quota in government jobs and education under the OBC category. Dig Deeper
The Latest News
Kerala blast: CM Vijayan says probe ‘progressing efficiently’. Dig Deeper
Man who hurled petrol bomb at TN Raj Bhavan chants ‘Ban NEET’ slogan on way to court. Dig Deeper
KCR party MP Kotha Prabhakar Reddy stabbed while campaigning in Telangana's Siddipet. Dig Deeper
India News
Stubble burning incidents in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and NCR states down by 54% this year, says Centre. Dig Deeper
FIR against five professors of private university for molesting law student. Dig Deeper
Bengaluru: 21 buses gutted as fire breaks out at Banashankari garage. Dig Deeper
Global Matters
‘You reap what you sow’: Iran mocks Joe Biden as US troops attacked in Mideast. Dig Deeper
Russian Makhachkala airport in Dagestan reopened after anti-Israel riot. Dig Deeper
German woman Shani Louk, paraded naked by Hamas, dies. Israel says 'heartbroken'. Dig Deeper
Entertainment Focus
Actor Salman Khan was recently in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where he attended the boxing match seated next to footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and his partner Georgina Rodríguez. Now, a new video from the same day is doing the rounds of the internet where Cristiano Ronaldo is seen walking past Salman Khan and not acknowledging him. In the video which was posted by popular Reddit page BollyBlindsNGossip, and is now going viral on social media, Salman was seen standing with other attendees of the boxing match. At this moment, Ronaldo made his way out of the match with Georgina Rodríguez without acknowledging his presence. The same page on Reddit even shared how this exact moment occurred in reverse when Salman walked along with his entourage and his bodyguards and pushed Vicky Kaushal aside to make way in Abu Dhabi for an award event earlier this year. Dig Deeper
Sports Goings
Just when you thought the turmoil surrounding Pakistan cricket in the aftermath of a disastrous World Cup campaign could not get worse, an alleged chat between captain Babar Azam and a PCB official has surfaced online sending the entire national into a meltdown. Although the original source is not verified, the chat was aired during one of the talk shows on the channel 'ARY News', which captures a conversation between Babar and PCB's Chief Operating Officer, Salman Naseer. The entire fiasco began when Pakistan endured a string of defeats – four games in a row – to be pushed on the brink of elimination from the World Cup. Following the disastrous outcome of the matches, rumours that Babar will be sacked as captain started doing the rounds and to add fuel to fire. The PCB then, in an official release, stated that the board will take decisions in the best interest of Pakistan cricket, indirectly hinting at Babar's impending sacking. This led to a ripple effect, sending shockwaves into the entire Pakistan cricket fraternity. Dig Deeper
