oppn parties Pema Khandu: Changes Party, Remains CM

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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Pema Khandu: Changes Party, Remains CM

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2017-01-01 12:42:05

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
Arunachal Pradesh must have set some sort of a record for political flip-flops within a short period of time. The latest ‘defection’ of sitting chief minister Pema Khandu to the BJP with 33 other MLAs of the People’s Party of Arunachal is just the culmination of political machinations that started with the breakdown of the Congress government led by Nabam Tuki in January 2016. Since then, the state has seen a change of government five times, with Pema Khandu being CM three times under different parties. Khandu must be voted the turncoat of the year for his ‘impressive’ feat. In between, the government of Nabam Tuki was restored (ironically, he could rule for just 5 days before internal politics of the Congress party placed Khandu in the chair) on the orders of the Supreme Court and a ‘deposed’ chief minister, Kalikho Pul, was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

If this is what the legislators of Arunachal understand by democracy, one thinks they need a crash course in the subject. They have made the state lose one full year of development as there was no real government in place for any decent length of time. As it is, Arunachal is famous for being one of the most corrupt states in the country where the cost of every development project is hugely inflated to siphon out absurd sums of money. Only connections work here and tenders are cooked. Hence, legislators must be changing colours frequently to maximize gains.

With China getting adventurous and belligerent, it is absolutely necessary to have a stable government in a frontline state like Arunachal. While the Congress is of the opinion that the BJP fished in troubled waters to create the original breakdown of Nabam Tuki’s government, the fact is that insulting treatment meted out to state MLAs by Rahul Gandhi was the main reason why Congress lost the state. Since the BJP has now taken charge of the government, it must ensure that there are no more flip-flops and the state progresses. There are many military and civil projects that are pending for a long time. Given China’s territorial designs on Arunachal, these projects must now be completed as fast as possible to allow the armed forces to give a befitting reply to any incursion China might attempt.

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