- Wednesday, March 12, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are some news in brief related to India politics for Monday, August 22, 2022:
Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is under the Central Bureau of Investigation’s lens over alleged irregularities in excise policy, deserves India’s highest civilian award ‘Bharat Ratna’ for improving education standard in schools, but instead he is being hounded by the Narendra Modi government due to political motives, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday. On the other hand, Sisodia, who handles education among a host of other key portfolios, made a sensational claim, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) offered him the chief minister’s post if he split the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is not in the race to become the prime minister and if the opposition defeats the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 national elections, “anybody can become prime minister,” a leader of the state’s ruling Janata Dal (United) said on Monday, NDTV reported. “We don’t see him as Prime Minister,” said JD(U) chief Lalan Singh, a day after Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar’s deputy chief minister, called Kumar a “strong candidate” for the prime ministerial post in 2024. “We have repeatedly said this, as has Nitish Kumar himself, that he is not a candidate for PM. But yes, he has all the qualities of a prime minister,” he said.
An all-party meeting held in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, over the revision of electoral rolls for the union territory, which has run into a controversy, vowed on Monday that they would not allow any move to extend voting rights in the union territory to “non-locals”, the Indian Express reported. Leaders of nine parties across Jammu and Kashmir took part in the meeting, held at National Conference president and former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah’s home, including the Shiv Sena, which was part of such a gathering in Kashmir for the first time.
A special court in Mumbai on Monday extended the judicial custody of Shiv Sena parliamentarian Sanjay Raut till September 5 in a money-laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the redevelopment of a Mumbai ‘chawl‘ (a type of moderate accommodation). Raut, 60, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on August 1 in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl (row tenement) in suburban Goregaon. After being in the ED’s custody initially, the Sena leader was sent to judicial custody for 14 days on August 8.
Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Monday claimed that he was approached by the BJP with the offer to close all cases against him if he joined their party. Asserting that all the allegations against him were false, Sisodia said he will never bow down before “conspirators and corrupt people”, Press Trust of India reported. Sisodia is among 15 people and entities named in an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi excise policy. “I have received a message from the BJP — Leave AAP and join BJP. We will ensure that all cases by CBI and ED against you are shut. “My reply to BJP — I am a descendant of Maharana Pratap and a Rajput. I am ready to get beheaded but can never bow down before conspirators and corrupt people. All the cases against me are false. Do whatever you want to do,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.
Goa excise commissioner Narayan Gad on Monday heard arguments over a complaint against a restaurant, which the Indian National Congress claimed was linked to central minister Smriti Irani’s daughter. After the hearing, the family of late Anthony DGama claimed they have “absolutely no connection” with Eightall Foods and Beverages LLP Goa, which is allegedly connected to Irani’s family. Social activist Aires Rodrigues had filed a complaint on June 29, alleging that the excise office in Mapusa illegally renewed the restaurant’s excise licence in the name of a deceased person- Anthony DGama. The complaint stated that DGama died on May 17, 2021, and cited a death certificate issued by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the civic body of Mumbai. Irani had filed a civil defamation suit against three Congress leaders for linking her daughter’s name to the restaurant.
The BJP on Monday fired a fresh salvo at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, alleging that there were several discrepancies between what was recommended by the panel on excise policy and what was implemented by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said Kejriwal’s silence on corruption charges proves that he is “hardcore dishonest’. An immediate reaction on the issue was not available from the AAP or the Delhi government.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held a meeting with civil society members at a conclave in New Delhi on Monday where the plans for the party’s upcoming “Bharat Jodo Yatra” from Kanyakumari to Kashmir were shared and deliberated upon. The Congress had last week announced that on September 7, it will launch the “Bharat Jodo Yatra”, in which party workers and leaders, including Gandhi, will participate. Several prominent civil society members and political leaders, including Yogendra Yadav, Jairam Ramesh and Digvijaya Singh, were present during the meeting held at the Constitution Club in the national capital.
