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Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi today accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “betraying the people who voted for an independent and hassle-free economy.” His comments came shortly after Cafe Coffee Dday founder VG Siddhartha’s body was found in the Netravati river in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka.

Siddhartha, who disappeared on his way to Mangaluru from Bengaluru in Karnataka, had said in a letter a few days ago he felt harassed when the Income Tax Department attached “our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking position of our Coffee Day shares, although revised returns have been filed by us”.

The Congress has also given adjournment notices in Lok Sabha to discuss what led to the death of Siddhartha.

“There is an old notion of government has no business in business and (Prime Minister) Modi in his pre-2014 election campaign made a big deal about it. Today he has absolutely betrayed the people who voted for him to see a robust, independent, hassle-free economy,” Mr Singhvi alleged on Twitter.

Amidst a growing discomfiture within its ranks, the Congress may appoint an interim chief later this week to shepherd the party in the run-up to the formal election for the president’s post.

In an informal discussion with party leaders in Parliament on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi insisted that the decision on the alternative arrangement after his resignation from the president’s post be expedited. Gandhi, however, categorically turned down any suggestions to appoint anyone from the family, including his sister Priyanka Gandhi, as party chief.

“An interim in-charge or president may be announced and the person may take charge later this week. This will be the necessary first step before elections to the party president’s post are formally called by the CWC,” a senior party leader privy to deliberations told News18.com.

Senior party leaders Captain Amarinder Singh, Karan Singh and Shashi Tharoor have sought to impress upon the party to resolve the pending leadership issues after Rahul Gandhi resigned from the president’s post in the face of comprehensive drubbing in the general elections in May this year.

There has since been a steady exodus from the party, with MLAs from poll-bound Maharashtra leaving Congress for greener pastures. On Tuesday, the party got another shock when its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Sinh resigned from the membership of the house to join the BJP.

About half-a-dozen names have been in discussion for the interim president’s post, including those of Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot from Rajasthan, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sushil Kumar Shinde and party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal.

In his alleged suicide note, which was recovered after he went missing, Siddhartha blamed one of his private equity partners for “creating pressure” to buy back stocks. He also alleged harassment by the previous DG, Income Tax. “There was a lot of harassment from the previous DG income tax attaching our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking position of our Cafe Coffee Day shares, although the revised returns have been filed by us. This is very unfair and has led to serious liquidity crunch,” the letter read.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will take up the contentious Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019, for consideration in the Rajya Sabha today after it was passed in Lok Sabha last week. Meanwhile, in the Lower House, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will move the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2019, for amendment.

The Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment (UAPA) Bill is an anti-terror legislation that seeks to designate an individual as a “terrorist”. On July 24, Lok Sabha cleared the changes to the existing law, with 284 votes in favour and eight against after the Opposition walked out in protest, terming it draconian and demanding that it be referred to a standing committee for scrutiny. However, during the debate Shah had said, “We are bringing in laws that will end terrorism in the country and we promise that the government will never misuse it. Terrorism has to be dealt with, with strict laws.”

The Rajya Sabha on Monday approved amending the three-year-old Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), providing clarity about preference to secured lenders over operational creditors and giving lenders explicit authority over distribution of proceeds of auction of loan defaulting companies. Replying to a debate on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill 2019, Sitharaman had said the changes being brought in now are in response to events that eroded legislative intent of the IBC.

The contentious bill to ban ‘Triple Talaq’ by making it a criminal offense, which failed the Rajya Sabha test last time, sailed through the opposition-dominated Upper House on Tuesday aided by a series of walkouts and abstentions.

Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik today said people should not pay heed to rumours of any major decision on the special status of the state as “everything is normal”.

“A lot of rumours are spread here. Do not pay any heed to them. Everything is fine, everything is normal,” Governor Malik said when asked about the several orders appearing on social media about the possibility of a prolonged law and order situation in Kashmir valley.

The Governor said the orders that appeared the social media in recent days were not valid.

“No order is valid. If someone catches a sneeze in Lal Chowk, by the time it reaches Governor House, it is projected as a bomb blast,” he added.

Kashmir valley has been on the edge for the past week after the centre decided to send 100 companies of additional Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPFs) to the valley, giving rise to speculations that the BJP-led union government might repeal Article 35-A of the Constitution that provides for special residency and job rights to the people of the state.

Over the past three days, several orders issued by state government officials and some central government departments had further fuelled speculations that a major decision on Jammu and Kashmir was likely coming.

While a Railway Protection Force officer had issued an order asking employees to stock up rations for four months in view of prediction of deteriorating law and order situation, the Senior Superintendent of Police of Srinagar directed five zonal senior police officers in the city to collect details of all the mosques and their management committees, and submit them immediately.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel will hold a radio talk show named ‘Lok Vaani’ to share his views and to “know the sentiments, queries and suggestions of every section of the society” on  second Sunday of every month at 10.30 am.

It will be relayed by all the state based Akashwani centres from 10.30 am to 10.55 am.

The first episode will be on the subject ‘Farming and rural development’. The people can come up with their views and suggestions. They can call on Akashwani Raipur telephone number 0771-2430501, 2430502 and 2430503 till July 31 and between 3.00 to 4.00 PM on August 1 and 2, 2019. The first episode will be relayed on August 11 at 10.30 AM.

The Flame Red, Glacier Blue, and Carbon Fiber color variants of the Redmi K20 Pro are now joined by a fourth option – Summer Honey.

The new variant comes in three memory versions – 6GB/128GB priced at CNY2,599 ($380/€340), 8GB/128GB priced at CNY2,799 ($405/€365), and the top-end 8GB/256GB model which costs CNY2,999 ($435/€390). It will be available for purchase in China from August 1 through the company’s online store, but its availability in other markets is currently unknown.

The Redmi K20 Pro is a flagship powered by the Snapdragon 855 SoC. It flaunts a 6.39″ FHD+ Super AMOLED notch-less display with a fingerprint reader embedded to it.

For photography, the K20 Pro comes with a 20MP selfie camera that pops up from the top and sports a triple camera setup at the back comprising of 48MP main, 8MP telephoto, and 13MP ultra-wide units. The smartphone packs a 4,000 mAh battery with 27W fast charging support.

Like other institutions in India, the Presidency is also changing — diplomatically speaking. President Ram Nath Kovind, who completed two years in office recently, left for State visits to three countries on Sunday. With this seven-day trip, Kovind would have visited 23 countries so far.

His hectic diplomatic schedule in 24 months compares with 24 countries which his immediate predecessor Pranab Mukherjee visited in five years. Prior to that, Pratibha Patil visited 23 countries during her entire tenure as President.Such increase in presidential travel overseas is a decision taken after carefully considering, among other things, that China has a President, a Vice President and a Prime Minister to mount the People’s Republic’s diplomatic initiatives worldwide. Both China and India have foreign ministers, of course, to do this job on a daily basis. So far, India had only its Prime Minister to do the diplomatic job which three senior leaders were doing in China. For 69 years, the President and the Vice President were considered ceremonial office-holders who undertook goody-goody visits abroad, high on protocol but often low on substance.

With an exponential expansion of India’s diplomatic calendar, this placed excessive demands on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tried in his first term to balance his government’s foreign affairs’ agenda and its domestic line-up of programmes. His second term will, therefore, see more foreign visits by the President and the Vice President. Both of them have already stepped up and shared greater, substantive diplomatic responsibilities in their two years in office.

Ms Anusuia Uike took oath as the new Governor of Chhattisgarh on Monday. 
Chhattisgarh High Court Chief Justice PR Ramchandra Menon administered oath of office to Ms Uike.
Uike, a resident of Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh worked as Economics lecturer during the period between 1982 and 1985 in Government College Tamia (Chhindwara). 
She began her political career with Congress but later joined BJP. 
Subsequently, she was elected as legislator from Damua Assembly constituency between 1985 and 1990 and was inducted as woman and child development minister in the Madhya Pradesh Government.
She had been a member of state and national level commissions. 
She was also member of Rajya Sabha from 2006 to 2012. 
Ms Uike also held the office of vice president of National Scheduled Tribe Commission.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, all members of state cabinet, Janta Congress chief and former chief
minister Ajit Jogi, former chief minister Dr Raman Singh, opposition leader in state assembly Dharam
Kaushik, Pradesh Congress chief Mohan Markam, state BJP president Vikram Usendi along with prominent citizens and higher administrative and police officials were present on the occasion.

The Budget session of the Parliament has been extended for a few more days to discuss pending Bills. Both Houses had decided to skip the regular question hour and Zero hour proceedings to take up Bills. But Rajya Sabha Chairperson decides to take up Zero Hour alone.

The nitti-gritty details of the exit exam will be objective and fixed taking into account the prevalent standards.

The Bill is not anti-federal because, the States will give the Medical-Essentiality Certificates, not the Centre. State governments will be fully involved with the running of the councils, not the Centre, he says.

“The NMC Bill is anti-vested interests. It will help us move away from inspection-raj. It will select one-time and full-time regulators,” says Dr. Harsh.

He also says because of the exit exams, colleges will have to better their quality of education, cost of fees will come down because not just fees but limitations to what charges can be levied by the private colleges are regulated.

“Mid-level health experts is not something we have brought in, but exists all over the world,” the health minister says, reading from a World Health Organisation report.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will get all-round support if she is selected to take over as Congress president, senior Congress leader and Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh said on Monday.

The chief minister, who was among the first senior Congress leaders to pitch for a youth leader to step into Rahul Gandhi’s shoes after he resigned, said Priyanka Gandhi would be the best choice to take over the party reins. But the decision, he made it clear, would depend on the Congress Working Committee, the party’s top decision-making body.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had announced his decision to resign from the party’s top post at the CWC meeting after the Congress’ crushing defeat in the national elections in May. The party won just about 52 seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha.

Congress leaders have tried to persuade Rahul Gandhi to continue, even giving him a free hand to overhaul the party structure. But it became clear that Rahul Gandhi wasn’t going to change his mind when the 49-year-old Congress chief put out a four-page note on social media earlier this month explaining his decision.

The Congress hasn’t called a meeting of the CWC to take a call on Rahul Gandhi’s replacement yet. There have been multiple statements by Congress leaders on the vacuum at the top and the possibilities that the party leadership should explore.

Shashi Tharoor, the Kerala lawmaker, waded into this public debate of sorts over the weekend when he underlined that a lack of clarify about Rahul Gandhi’s successor was hurting the party. Tharoor hoped that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who had the natural charisma to play the lead role, would throw her hat in the ring when elections to the party’s top post are held.

Capt Amarinder Singh, when asked about Tharoor’s assessment, said Priyanka Gandhi would be the perfect choice. The chief minister said Priyanka Gandhi was ideally suited to head the party that needed a dynamic young leader to rebuild it.

“She has the intelligence and instinct to understand and relate to the needs of the nation, and also has the courage to take on any challenge and take the fight to victory,” a statement by Capt Amarinder Singh‘s office said, quoting the chief minister.