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Kejriwal’s demand doomed? ‘Only Gandhiji on Indian currency notes’, ruled RBI in 2010

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Amidst the ‘unholy’ row kicked up by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to include photos of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesh on Indian Currency Notes, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Centre had already put a lid on the issue way back in 2010.

An RTI reply to this effect on the Indian Currency Note (ICN) was sent by the Department of Economic Affairs’ Additional Secretary Manisha Sinha to a Pune businessman Prafful Sarda in 2019.

The government said that a high-level panel (October 2010) constituted by the RBI had deliberated at length on the need for inclusion of other eminent personalities, Bharat Ratnas, Nobel laureates, freedom fighters or sports persons on the ICN design.

The High-Level Screening Committee – set up on the advice of the then Government of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh – felt that “no other personality could better represent the ethos of India better than Mahatma Gandhi”.

“Therefore, it was decided to retain the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on the obverse of banknotes and on the watermark. Government has approved the recommendation,” declared the RTI reply of November 11, 2019, sent from the North Block.

“I had asked the PMO to consider printing the photos of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar or Sardar Patel on the ICN after which the government gave the reply and the matter rested. It proves that the Delhi CM has only vested political motives behind his latest demand,” Sarda said.

The plea to the PMO was in view of the various demands to add pictures of other personalities on ICNs that keep cropping up frequently, he added.

Later, a former MP of All India Trinamool Congress and former cricketer Kirti Azad had raised the issue in Parliament for including other prominent personalities on the ICNs, but the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had cited the RBI panel’s report in response.

As Kejriwal faces flak now, Maharashtra Congress Chief Spokesperson Atul Londhe hit out saying the ‘IIT graduate’ Delhi CM was ‘pontificating like a pandit or soothsayer’ with his ridiculous suggestions.

“Why doesn’t he talk about all his unfulfilled promises, or the failures of the BJP government in the past over eight years, instead of coming up with such meaningless ideas to solve the country’s economic crises,” Londhe added sharply.

Taking a swipe at Kejriwal, state Congress General Secretary Sachin Sawant cautioned that if it happens, “then the currency notes with pictures of Gods and Goddesses will be circulated in bars, abattoirs, fish markets or non-vegetarian restaurants, then what will you do?”

Shiv Sena Spokesperson Kishore Tiwari said that while the BJP supporters may not object to this, “what’s the guarantee that this measure will solve all the ills of the country like inflation, unemployment, economic mess, etc., perpetrated by the BJP for so many years”.

On the other hand, an NRI from the US, Ketan Kakkad feels that “nothing is wrong per se with Kejriwal’s demand”, especially since the world’s largest Islamic country Indonesia has a photo of Lord Ganesh on its ‘Rupiah’ currency notes, though the Hindu population there is only three per cent of the total.

“My question to Kejriwal is – along with Lord Ganesha’s photos, why don’t you also propose religious symbols/photos of other Indian minority communities like Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Jains, etc., which account for 20 per cent of the total population here? I am sure even the BJP, RSS or AIMIM won’t object to this,” said Kakkad.

Adopting a ‘wait-and-watch’ attitude, the Nationalist Congress Party has decided to maintain a ‘divine’ silence over the Kejriwal political fracas – for the present.

Entertainment

SC permits Ranveer Allahbadia to resume airing his shows

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New Delhi, March 3: The Supreme Court on Monday permitted popular YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia to resume airing his podcast on the condition that he will maintain the “standards of decency and morality”.

Allahbadia and several other YouTubers, including Ashish Chanchlani and Apoorva Mukhija, have been embroiled in the controversy for vulgar and crass comments made during an episode of Samay Raina’s ‘India’s Got Latent’ show.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh relaxed an earlier condition which had prohibited Allahbadia or his associates from airing any show on YouTube or any other audio/video visual mode of communication till further orders.

During the hearing, the Justice Kant-led Bench asked the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the second highest law officer of the Centre, to consider regulating the content in online media.

“We don’t want any regulatory regime which leads to censorship, but it can’t be a free for all,” it said.

The apex court clarified that Allahbadia’s shows should not comment upon the proceedings which are sub-judice.

Earlier, on February 18, the top court had stayed Allahbadia’s arrest subject to the condition that he would join the investigation, as and when summoned by the Investigating Officers.

“The interim protection against arrest is granted further subject to the condition that the petitioner will extend full cooperation to the ongoing investigation,” it had ordered.

The Supreme Court had added that no further FIR would be registered against Allahbadia on the basis of the episode aired on the show ‘India’s Got Latent’, for which two-three FIRs have already been registered.

Amid the controversy, Samay Raina had removed all videos of the show from YouTube, asserting that his intention was only to entertain and make people laugh.

Several complaints seeking legal action have been filed against popular YouTubers Samay Raina, Ranveer Allahabadia, Ashish Chanchlani, and Apoorva Mukhija over allegedly obscene and offensive remarks about parents in the comedy show ‘India’s Got Latent’.

As the legal proceedings unfold, the incident has sparked a broader debate about the limits of comedy and the responsibility of content creators on digital platforms.

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Crime

Haryana Cong worker murder case: Arrested man claims he was blackmailed

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Chandigarh, March 3: Two days after Youth Congress activist Himani Narwal’s body was found in a suitcase on a highway in Haryana’s Rohtak, the arrested man, Sachin, on Monday confessed that he knew the deceased and accused her of blackmail and extortion.

Haryana Police arrested the accused, a resident of Bahadurgarh, who was in an alleged relationship with Himani.

The suspect confessed to the crime during interrogation, saying they had been in a relationship for some time, a police official said.

During his arrest in Delhi, Sachin was found in possession of Himani Narwal’s mobile phone. The crime hogged the limelight after images of her walking with Congress MP Rahul Gandhi during his Bharat Jodo Yatra went viral.

The victim’s family, who has been demanding justice, suspected that some party leaders jealous of her swift rise in party ranks were behind the murder.

The woman’s body was found inside a suitcase near a flyover next to the Sampla bus stand in Rohtak on March 1. She had been missing for three days.

According to a preliminary investigation by the police, she was likely assaulted before being strangled to death. The autopsy report conducted in Rohtak’s PGIMS is awaited. She reportedly attended a wedding on February 27 in Rohtak and was supposed to attend a Congress roadshow on February 28. Her cell phone had been switched off since then.

“The government took swift action by arresting the killer within 24 hours,” said state Transport Minister Anil Vij.

Responding to allegations made by Congress leader Bhupinder Hooda regarding her murder, Vij countered by saying, “The government acts with complete promptness and seriousness… Hooda keeps making statements, it’s his habit.”

The victim’s brother, Jatin, said, “One accused has been arrested, and today we will cremate her body. A lot of rumours are being spread in the media… We will get justice.”

The police on Sunday formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident. Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajneesh Kumar told the media that the victim, who was pursuing an LLB (Bachelor of Law), used to live alone in the state while her family was in Delhi.

The victim’s mother, on Sunday, blamed the elections and the party. “The election and the party took my daughter’s life. Because of this, she made some enemies. They (the accused) could be from the party, or they could be her friends as well…On February 28, she was at home,” the victim’s mother Savita said.

“She was going with Rahul Gandhi and was close to the Hooda family, which is why people were having problems; they were jealous,” she added.

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disaster

Telangana tunnel accident: Authorities mull using robots as rescue operation continues on 10th day

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Hyderabad, March 3: The rescue operation in the partially collapsed Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district entered its 10th day on Monday, with the authorities exploring the possibility of using robots to trace the eight trapped men.

Multiple rescue teams of various agencies of the Centre and state continued desilting and machine-cutting at the locations identified by the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) after scanning the accident site through Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR).

The rescue teams of the Army, Navy, NDRF, SDRF, Singareni Mines Rescue, Fire Services, HYDRAA, South Central Railway plasma cutters, and Rat Miners continued to face impediments like water seepage.

The rescue workers are unable to remove silt, water and debris from the tunnel due to lack of a functional conveyor belt. Technical teams were busy repairing the belt, and it is expected to become functional by Monday evening, and this is expected to help in speeding up the rescue operation.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Sunday suggested the use of robots in the tunnel in which eight persons have remained trapped since February 22.

The Chief Minister, who visited the tunnel and held a review meeting with agencies involved in the rescue operation, asked officials to examine the possibility of using robots to prevent any further loss of life.

“Eight missing persons have not yet been traced. Experts have not concluded whether they are alive or dead,” he said.

The Chief Minister said it may take another 2-3 days for the rescue workers to come to a conclusion.

Chief Minister Reddy said the agencies involved in the rescue have not been able to come to a conclusion about the location of the machines and human beings, though they have tentatively identified the areas.

He assured that the state government would extend all help to the families of eight persons who had come from other states to work as engineers, machine operators or labourers. Stating that helping them is the responsibility of the government, he stressed the need for all to come together to console the families affected by the accident.

Two workers were injured, and eight others were trapped when a portion of the tunnel roof collapsed on February 22 at the 14th km point.

The trapped persons have been identified as Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh (J&K), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahau, all from Jharkhand.

Of the eight, two are engineers, two are operators, and the remaining four are labourers. They were employed by Jaiprakash Associates, the contracting firm for the tunnel project

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