Your Daily Wrap: Droupadi Murmu is India’s 15th President, ED questions Sonia Gandhi; and more
Murmu, 64, is the second woman to become the nation’s First Citizen and the Supreme Commander of India’s Armed Forces. Born into a Santhal family in 1958, she was the first girl in Uparbeda, one of the seven revenue villages in Uparbeda panchayat in Odisha’s backward Mayurbhanj district, to go to college. A look at the early life, a successful political career and personal struggles of Murmu.
Murmu’s election will naturally make millions of tribals of India happy and truly empowered. But the real success of our democracy is when she is looked at as not merely a “tribal President” but the President of the 1.3 billion people-strong Republic of India. For her election to symbolise the bridging of the gap between the first and last citizens of our republic, people should celebrate the occasion by installing her picture in every public space, writes Ram Madhav.
Presidential poll over, all eyes are now on the Vice Presidential election to be held on August 6. While the NDA has fielded former West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Opposition’s candidate is Congress leader Margaret Alva. The Trinamool Congress has, however, decided to abstain from voting. All India Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee said the party cannot support Dhankhar as he “always tried to undermine the state” during his tenure as the Governor of West Bengal. “We cannot vote in favour of him ideologically,” Banerjee said.
Meanwhile, addressing the Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata, TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hit out at the Narendra Modi govt, saying the BJP will be voted out of power in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. During her speech, Mamata also took out some ‘muri’ — puffed rice — from her bag and called a vendor on the stage to make an angry point against the imposition of GST on the staple. A look at the history and culture of eating ‘muri’, a symbol of Mamata Banerjee’s protest against the Centre.
Moving to Delhi, where the Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi for two hours in connection with a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper. The Congress, meanwhile, hit out at the government saying it considers Opposition parties as enemies. Several Opposition parties too rallied behind the Congress and issued a joint statement accusing the Modi government of having “unleashed a relentless campaign of vendetta against its political opponents and critics through the mischievous misuse of investigative agencies”.
The Chief Minister of Delhi wrote a letter to the Ministry of External Affairs seeking clearance for his visit to Singapore for a summit after Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena returned his proposal. The proposal was sent to the LG around two months back. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia hit out at the decision, calling it “mean politics”.
Political Pulse
When the monsoon session of the Chhattisgarh Assembly got underway Wednesday, the BJP created an uproar raking up the issue of senior minister TS Singh Deo’s resignation from the panchayat and rural development department. The principal Opposition demanded an explanation from CM Bhupesh Baghel on the issue, maintaining that there was a “constitutional crisis” in the state as a senior minister like Singh Deo has stated in his letter that he was being sidelined. Despite enjoying an overwhelming majority with 71 members in the 90-member state Assembly, the Congress government is increasingly getting cornered over the protracted power struggle between two of its satraps, Baghel and Singh Deo. Gargi Verma reports.
With the Supreme Court upholding OBC reservation in the coming local body elections in Maharashtra, the Shinde-Fadnavis government has soared over its first major political hurdle, 20 days after its formation. While in Opposition, the BJP had targeted the MVA over the issue, claiming that the Supreme Court stalling the quota showed its government’s callousness towards OBCs. The fact that the Court nod now has come under the Shinde-Fadnavis government may allow the BJP to walk away with all the credit. Shubhangi Khapre reports.
Express Explained
As Netflix lost nearly a million subscribers during the three-month period ended June 30, marking the biggest ever quarterly fall in subscribers, the company said it will introduce a cheaper, ad-supported version of its streaming service starting from next year, which it believes will boost membership and profits. While the company added a significant number of users in Asia Pacific (APAC) in the June quarter, resulting in a revenue growth of 23 per cent over last year in the region, the average revenue it collects from each user in the region fell, owing to price cuts in India. How did India impact Netflix’s financials? What measures is Netflix taking to increase revenues? We explain.
Boris Johnson, the outgoing Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, faced ‘Prime Minister’s Questions’ for the final time in the House of Commons on July 20. He was characteristically upbeat — and after thanking all those present in Parliament, he signed off with a nod to the Hollywood movie Terminator 2, declaring with a flourish, “hasta la vista, baby”. What does ‘hasta la vista’ mean — literally and in popular culture? Read here.
