oppn parties Debates and Questions: New Ways to Fool People

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
oppn parties
Debates and Questions: New Ways to Fool People

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2015-01-29 20:38:09

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
The BJP has decided that it will ask Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party 5 questions daily as part of its campaign in Delhi elections. This, it seems, is in response to Kejriwalâ€â"¢s repeated calls for televised debate with Kiran Bedi. Each party is entitled to its own devices. While Kejriwal is comfortable scoring points in a debate, the BJP thinks it will be better off asking questions. As Kiran Bedi will not get into a debate with Kejriwal and he in turn will not answer the questions lobbed at him, the people of Delhi will lose out on getting to know who stands for what.

Not that it matters all that much. Indian elections were never about debates between candidates. They are more about unverified and almost defamatory charges leveled against political opponents. As long as the penalty imposed by the Election Commission for such transgressions remains light (barring someone from campaigning etc.) these charges will continue to be thrown about, if not by big-wigs then certainly by hand-picked henchmen.

The BJP wanted to rattle AAP by bringing in Kiran Bedi as its chief ministerial candidate. Although it has managed to do so in so much as AAP is now concentrating all its firepower on Bedi and has almost forgotten PM Modi, the move has also backfired because it has brought the partyâ€â"¢s ratings down. While opinion polls before Bedi entered the fray were predicting a majority for the BJP, post Bedi they are giving AAP an equal number of seats. What is worse is that Kejriwal still remains the first choice of the people for the CMâ€â"¢s chair.

Although there are still a few days left for polling day and Modi is scheduled to address rallies in different parts of Delhi in the interim, it seems that it will be an uphill task for the party to recover lost ground. It remains to be seen if Narendra Modi is able to convince the people of Delhi (as he did during the Lok Sabha elections when the BJP won all 7 seats in the capital) in his rallies in the beginning of February. If his magic has waned then it will be back to square one with a hung assembly in Delhi.

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