LIVE news: Sisodia says 2024 Lok Sabha polls will be Modi vs Kejriwal fight
Live news updates: Sisodia termed the Excise Policy 2021-22 as the "best policy", and said there was "no wrongdoing" in its implementation
 "Manish Sisodia")
Delhi excise policy was implemented with complete transparency and there was no scam, Sisodia said. (PTI Photo/Vijay Verma)
NDPP, BJP dismiss merger speculation
Ruling alliance partners in Nagaland, NDPP and BJP, have dismissed Congress's speculation that the two parties will merge after the assembly elections due next year.
Addressing a joint press conference on Friday, National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) leader Neiba Kronu and BJP national spokesperson Mmhonlumo Kikon said that the speculation put forward by Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) president K Therie and AICC Nagaland in-charge Ajoy Kumar on various occasions are a "figment of imagination".
"The BJP is a national party and has its own principles while NDPP is a regional entity with its own principles. There is neither any agenda nor have we held any discussion over merger with BJP," Kronu, a cabinet minister, said.
Assam logs 91 new COVID cases
Assam reported 91 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, 28 less than the previous day, pushing the tally to 743,432, a National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin said.
The positivity rate recorded an increase to 2.52 per cent against the previous day's 1.92 per cent, it said on Friday.
The new cases were detected from 3,611 samples tested for the virus.
Messages that warned of 26/11-like attack came from number that has Pak code: Mumbai police chief
The messages received by the police threatening a 26/11-like attack in Mumbai came from a phone number which has Pakistan code, city Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar said on Saturday.
He was addressing a press conference here in the wake of city police's traffic wing receiving several text messages on its helpline number, which threatened that an attack would be carried out and the city would be blown up.
"Prima facie, the threat messages to blow up Mumbai like 26/11 came from a number that has Pakistan code," Phansalkar said.
Pak's top probe agency may arrest ex-PM Imran Khan in prohibited funding case: Report
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan could be arrested by the country's top investigating agency for failing to appear before it and snubbing its notices in the prohibited funding case, according to a media report on Saturday.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) issued a second notice to Khan on Friday, according to The News.
Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician, received the first notice last Wednesday, but he refused to appear before the FIA investigation team, the newspaper said.
KCR leads massive rally to Munugode to launch TRS campaign
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday left for Munugode Assembly constituency in a massive rally from here to launch TRS campaign for the upcoming by-election.
Accompanied by some ministers and leaders of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in a bus, chief minister KCR left from his official residence Pragati Bhavan. His convoy of vehicles was en route joined by a large number of cars.
The rally led to a huge traffic jam from Uppal to L. B. Nagar on the city periphery.
Kejriwal 'kingpin' in Delhi's 'liquor scam': BJP
BJP on Saturday sharpened its attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, with Union Minister Anurag Thakur describing him as the "kingpin" of the "liquor scam" in the capital.
Addressing a press conference here, Thakur said the AAP should not try to divert attention from the excise scam by raising other issues as its "real face has been unmasked".
Taking a dig at Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Thakur referred to him as "Money Shh", alleging that alleges he makes money and maintains silence.
Netflix not to stream ads during movies, TV series for kids
Streaming giant Netflix is likely planning not to show ads during kids' movies and TV series, and will keep kids' programming ad-free like its rival Disney+ announced in May this year.
Netflix has told its partners that kids' programming would stay commercial-free, reports TechCrunch.
However, original series such as 'Stranger Things', 'Bridgerton', and 'Squid Game' are expected to still see ads.
Writing off loans of the rich, corporate tax cuts: Cong questions 'muft ki gajak'
Principal opposition party, the Congress asserts that welfare schemes like the Food Security Act, MGNREGA and others which are designed to uplift people from poverty are not freebies and alleges that writing off loans is the real freebie.
The party said that based on the Food Security Act 2013, the BJP government distributed free rations to 80 crore citizens during the corona epidemic. Indirectly, the National Food Security Act also obliges the government to buy foodgrains from farmers at the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
The party says that small amounts or assistance given to the poor are categorised as freebies, while the freebies that the rich friends of the government are getting through low tax rates, write offs and exemptions are categorized as necessary incentives, that is our question to the government. The results are also out on all this assistance which the UPA government had provided -- because of the mid-day meal scheme, the gross enrolment ratio in government schools had doubled.
Free rations were BJP's biggest vote getter in UP Assembly polls
They may be each others bitter opponents in politics but the BJP and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh are in complete agreement when it comes to doling out freebies to voters for electoral gains.
For the Yogi Adityanath government, the distribution of free ration to poor families has been the biggest factor that ensured the victory of the BJP in the 2022 assembly elections.
Five kilograms of ration, packed in plastic bags with photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath printed on them, proved to be a major vote earner for the party.
Will be arrested in 2-4 days says Manish Sisodia on CBI raids
A day after CBI conducted searches at the residence of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the AAP leader said that he might be arrested soon stating that the liquor issue or the excise policy was just an excuse to target him since he was a minister under the Delhi Chief Minister Arwind Kejriwal.
Sisodia alleged that the raids against him was all political and had nothing to do with the alleged violations in Delhi' Excise Policy.
"Maybe within the next 3-4 days, CBI-ED will arrest me... we won't be scared, you won't be able to break us... Elections of 2024 will be AAP vs BJP," said Sisodia while addressing a press conference in the national capital today.
"Their issue is not liquor/excise scam. Their problem is Arvind Kejriwal... whole proceedings against me, raids at my residence and office, are to stop Arvind Kejriwal... I haven't done any corruption. I'm just Arvind Kejriwal's Education Minister," he said.
Want 'permanent peace' with India; war never an option to resolve Kashmir issue: Pak PM Sharif
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan wants to have "permanent peace" with India through dialogue as war is not an option for either of the countries to resolve the Kashmir issue, according to a media report on Saturday.
Speaking to a delegation of students from Harvard University, Sharif also said that sustainable peace in the region was linked to the resolution of the Kashmir issue as per the UN resolutions, The News International newspaper reported.
Pakistan resolves to maintain peace in the region, and that sustainable peace in the region was linked to the resolution of the Kashmir issue as per the UN resolutions, he said.
US aid to Ukraine nears $11 billion
Hindu outfit lodges complaint against Amazon for selling obscene Radha-Krishna pics
The Hindu Janajagruthi Samithi has lodged a complaint against Amazon with for selling obscene pictures of Lord Krishna and Radha, police said on Saturday.
In the complaint, the Hindu outfit said that the pictures being sold in the e-commerce platform under the title 'INKOLOGIE Hindu Gods Fine Arts painting' were hurting the religious sentiments of crores of Hindus.
At a time when crores of Hindus celebrated Krishna Janmashtami, Amazon's plans to sell the obscene pictures could only be considered as with ulterior motives and it is against the law under IPC sections 295, 295 A and 298.
Rajnath calls for timely justice delivery by armed forces tribunals
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday pitched for ensuring timely delivery of justice to armed forces personnel under the framework of military tribunals, but at the same time cautioned against the challenge of "justice hurried is justice buried'.
"We often talk of 'justice delayed is justice denied'. We should try to ensure timely justice delivery to our charter by developing a systematic procedure," Singh said at a seminar on the armed forces tribunals.
"However, we also need to be very careful while doing this. Otherwise, there is also a danger of 'justice hurried is justice buried. In such a situation, keeping a balance between time and procedure is an important demand of today's time," he added.
At least 10 killed as Islamic militants storm hotel in Somali capital
At least 10 people were killed in an attack by Islamic militants who stormed a hotel in Somalia's capital late Friday, police and eyewitnesses said.
Several other people were injured and security forces rescued many others, including children, from the scene of the attack at Mogadishu's Hayat Hotel, they said.
The attack started with explosions outside the hotel before gunmen entered the building.
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First Published: Aug 20 2022 | 7:51 AM IST
