News18.com Daybreak | Mayawati as PM? PT Usha's Note to Hima Das & Other Stories You May Have Missed

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi hugs BSP leader Mayawati during the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy in May. (Image: PTI)Dowry killing: The husband of the flight attendant who allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the terrace of her residence in south Delhi's Hauz Khas was arrested on Monday evening. According to the police, Mayank Singhvi was interrogated for one hour at the Hauz Khas police station before he was arrested. He has been booked under section 304 B of the Indian Penal Code, which relates to dowry death. He will be produced before a magistrate today.Monsoon preparation: The Telugu Desam party on Monday ramped up its efforts to move a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government in the Monsoon Session of Parliament that starts July 18. Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu wrote to various parties and sought their support for the motion his party seeks to move over "injustice" meted out to Andhra Pradesh due to non-fulfillment of promise of granting special status to the state.Women’s bill: Attempting to set the agenda for the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament, Congress president Rahul Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying Women’s Reservation Bill be taken up on a priority for passage. Extending his party’s “unconditional support" to the bill pending before the Lok Sabha, Rahul in his letter to PM re-iterated his party’s support to the bill.Tharoor harassed: Almost a week after senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s controversial “Hindu Pakistan" comment kicked up a row, he alleged on Monday that members of BJP Yuva Morcha have threatened to kill him while also vandalising his office in Thiruvananthapuram. The Congress leader posted a series of tweets to say that his office was ransacked by the BJP Yuva Morcha who also drove away the people who were waiting to meet him and submit petitions. The protesters threw tar on the MP's office walls, kept a wreath in front of the office and raised slogans like “go back to Pakistan".Shopian probe: Jammu and Kashmir government has pushed for investigation in the Shopian case involving Major Aditya and claimed that the Major’s father cannot file a petition in this regard. On Monday, the state government maintained before the Supreme Court that there cannot be an "indefinite" stay on the probe into the incident.Caste atrocity: A transporter and his friend have been booked for allegedly stripping his three tribal employees naked and assaulting them for 'stealing' 120 litres of diesel from his trucks in Jabalpur. The alleged incident occurred on the night of July 11. A video of same has gone viral since then.Bengal misadventure: Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded BJP’s performance in the recent panchayat elections in West Bengal and threw a challenge at Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls while addressing a rally in West Midnapore on Monday. However, the proceedings were somewhat marred following ninety people getting injured after a portion of a makeshift tent collapsed during during the rally. The Centre has sought a report from the West Bengal government seeking to know details of the incident at PM Modi's rally venue.Agrarian tension: Farmers from Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen and Sagar districts reached Bhopal on Monday to protest against acquisition of their farmland for the upcoming Bina irrigation project. According to the farmers, the Bina project aims to supply water to ‘already irrigated region’ and would lead to wastage of crores of rupees.Selfie death: The craze for selfies claimed the lives of two young techies when they were washed away in a waterfall in Karnataka while trying to click a picture of themselves on Saturday. Shamir Rahman and Bhavani Shankar, both in their late 20s, were employed in a software company.Save Taj: Days after being pulled up the Supreme Court over its laxity in preserving the Taj Mahal, the Union government has finally constituted a panel of experts, including those from NEERI, IITs, the government and other bodies, to act on conserving the world heritage site on a war footing. A high level inter-ministerial meeting was held on Monday in New Delhi to deliberate on ways to conserve the Taj Mahal and deal with industrial pollution surrounding the monument.Mass resignation: In a major setback for the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab, 16 leaders on Sunday revolted against party’s co-convener Dr Balbir Singh and resigned en masse. The joint resignation was sent to party convener Arvind Kejriwal and party’s Punjab affairs in-charge Manish Sisodia.PT Usha's note: People often wonder why Indian athletes fail to perform at global events, and why they don’t win more at the Olympics. It’s because in India athletes still lack proper, systematic and scientific nurturing as in the west. Just making routine announcement of help is not enough. People need to actually invest in athletes’ well being, medical care, training, accommodation and other facilities – Sprinting legend PT Usha has a note for Hima Das’s spectacular victory.Agree or disagree?

To concede or not to concede. And how much to concede is the question that the Congress faces as it firms up its alliances for states and Lok Sabha polls next year. By a strange paradox, Congress, which may emerge as the single largest block in the opposition camp, is unsure of its status in the proposed national alliance against the BJP. Read senior journalist Venkatesh Kesari’s take on Congress’s current political dilemma.

Seemingly under pressure from his allies and after examining the socio-political ramifications of the two-year old total prohibition in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar decided to tone down some of the stringent provisions of the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016. The message was clear: the government realised that even though the prohibition brought a “silent revolution" in the countryside, it had adverse and negative effect too in the same society. Senior journalist Faizan Ahmad remembers how the BJP, which was not Nitish’s ally then, had criticised the prohibition laws as draconian.On reel

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