Offensive Language": Arvind Kejriwal vs Lt Governor In 'Open Letters'

In a war of words over the issue of one-time settlement of inflated water bills, Delhi LG V K Saxena in an 'open letter' addressed to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said the AAP dispensation's allegations of stalling the proposed scheme were "white lies".

The Delhi chief minister as well as AAP government ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj had accused the LG and the BJP of stalling the scheme through the officers concerned.

Mr Kejriwal, in reply to the LG, wrote back an 'open letter' to him, saying he was "deeply pained by the language" of his letter.

Mr Kejriwal said, "Whatever our differences, political backgrounds, however diverse our perspectives; this kind of offensive language is not acceptable from one constitutional functionary to another."

Not a single piece of paper on the scheme was brought to the notice of the LG, officially or unofficially, Mr Saxena claimed in his letter.

Water, finance, urban development, all these departments concerned with the scheme, being transferred subjects, are totally under the chief minister's control and the LG has no role whatsoever, Mr Saxena wrote to Mr Kejriwal.

The Raj Niwas posted the 'open letter' by the LtG on the X saying, "The LG writes open letter to CM Kejriwal; says Water, Finance, UD Departments totally under your control, I've nothing to do with it. Take decisions, and don't blame others. Benefit all 27 lakh consumers, why only 10 lakh? Return the bills paid by 17 lakh honest consumers with interest." The 17 lakh consumers paid Rs 13,186 crore to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) as water bills since 2012, Saxena said asking the chief minister to return the amount to them with interest.

The LG also objected to a resolution passed by the Delhi Assembly on February 19 that the BJP exercises "direct control" over him.

"This is completely unacceptable and irresponsible assertion which does not behove of the members who endorsed it," Mr Saxena stated.

He charged that a "false narrative" was being peddled by the chief minister and his ministers that the scheme was stalled by him.

"Your statements are white lies, again an example of typical 'abuse and scoot game' which you seem to have mastered and made a career out of it," retorted the LG to charges on him.

The LG claimed that no decision was taken by the Delhi government regarding the one-time settlement 'scheme', and charged that the "inefficiency and failures of the chief minister and his government were being deliberately put on him and the Centre to divert public attention".

He said the scheme was approved by the DJB on January 13, 2023, and was sent for comments by the finance department on January 25, 2024, after a gap of one year.

The minister concerned sent the file to the chief secretary as late as February 21, 2024, clearly indicating that the supposed 'scheme' was still in the process of formulation and was far from reaching any finality, said the LG.

"One is forced to wonder as to why the minister kept sitting on the proposed scheme for one year," he said.

Mr Kejriwal, in his 'open letter' to Mr Saxena, hoped they will be "able to maintain a cordial and constructive working relationship" in the interest of Delhi's people.

"I have myself discussed this matter with you more than once and brought it to your notice that the officers of the Delhi Jal Board, the Urban Development Department and the Finance Department are creating a constitutional crisis by not bringing the proposal to the Council of Ministers, despite the directions of the minister in charge," he said.

He claimed that LG exercised all powers over officers.

"As a consequence, the officers respond to your directions whether given orally or in writing. This is the reason why I have brought multiple issues to your notice, where matters of public interest are being held up by officers, including this issue of water bills," said Kejriwal.

The Delhi chief minister requested the LG to take an "exemplary action" against at least one officer so that it sends a message to the administrative machinery to fall in line.

"Please do not let the people of Delhi down," he further wrote in his 'open letter'.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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"One Chai, Please": Bill Gates Enjoys Tea Made By Dolly Chaiwala

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and a philanthropist, is currently on a visit to India, and his various excursions have created considerable attention and discussion on the internet.

In a recently shared video on social media, Bill Gates was captured relishing a cup of chai from a renowned tea stall in India. The footage shows Mr Gates engaging with Dolly Chaiwalla, a celebrated tea vendor and a familiar presence on social media, while enjoying a cup of chai prepared by him.

Watch the video here:

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The video opens with Mr Gates placing an order for "one chai" with Chaiwalla. Chaiwalla then prepares the tea in his signature style, using a special cart. The final shot shows Gates enjoying the piping hot tea from a glass.

The video concludes with Mr Gates taking a sip of the hot beverage from a glass and posing for a photo with Dolly Chaiwalla, accompanied by the text "Looking forward to many chai pe charcha," which translates to "looking forward to many conversations over chai." This suggests Gates may be looking forward to further interactions and discussions during his visit to India.

The video has garnered significant attention online, with many surprised and delighted to see Mr Gates embracing the local culture and enjoying a cup of chai from a popular street vendor.

The video has garnered approximately 4 million views on social media, accompanied by nearly 300,000 likes on Instagram.

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Kajol, KJo, Sunny Deol, Ira-Nupur At Laapataa Ladies Screening

On Monday night,  the makers of Laapataa Ladies hosted a special screening in Mumbai and it was a starry one. Kajol, Sunny Deol, Radhika Apte, Konkona Sen Sharma, Ali Fazal, Tillotama Shome turned up to attend the screening in style. Kiran Rao, the director of Laapataa Ladies, came to the screening with ex-husband Aamir Khan, who is also the producer of the film. Aamir and Kiron posed with Laapataa Ladies actor Ravi Kishan on the red carpet.  Aamir Khan's daughter Ira Khan arrived at the screening with husband Nupur Shikhare. Ira chose a pretty pink saree for the occasion. Sunny Deol, who will feature in Aamir Khan's production Lahore 1947, posed with director Rajkumar Santoshi on the red carpet. Ali Fazal is also a part of the film Lahore 1947 and he also posed for the shutterbugs on the red carpet. Take a look:

Director Ashutosh Gowariker, who worked with Aamir Khan in Lagaan, attended the screening. Director R Balki, Kabir Khan and his wife Mini Mathur also attended the screening. Karan Johar, Anand L Rai also marked their presence at the screening.

Here's a couple picure of Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao at the screening.

Here's a group picture of Aamir-Kiran with the cast of Laapataa Ladies - Sparsh Shrivastav, Pratibha Ranta, Nitanshi Goel.

Laapataa Ladies is based on an award-winning story by Biplab Goswami. The screenplay and dialogue are written by Sneha Desai, while Divyanidhi Sharma has taken care of the additional dialogues. Laapataa Ladies had a screening at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last year.

Sharing the trailer, Kiran Rao wrote in the caption, "Ghunghat uth chuke hain. #LaapataaLadies trailer is out!" Take a look:

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Kiran Rao made her directorial debut with Dhobi Ghat. The film released in 2011. The film starred Aamir Khan, Prateik Babbar, Monica Dogra, Kriti Malhotra. Laapataa Ladies will release in theatres on March 1.

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Congress 3, BJP 1: Rajya Sabha Election Results Out For Karnataka

The ruling Congress in Karnataka won three seats and the BJP one in the Rajya Sabha elections in Karnataka on Tuesday, which were marred by cross-voting in a setback to the saffron party.

Ajay Maken, G C Chandrasekhar and Syed Naseer Hussain, all from the Congress, and Narayansa K Bhandage of the BJP got elected to the Upper House in the polls in which elected MLAs were the voters.

Five candidates, including D Kupendra Reddy of the JD(S) who lost the election, were in the fray for the four seats.

According to official sources, the value of each MLA's vote is 100 and the number of votes sufficient to secure the election of a candidate is 4,441.

Maken, Hussain and Bhandage got 4,700 votes each and Chandrashekhar 4,500. Reddy got only 3,600 votes and therefore did not make the cut.

BJP MLA S T Somashekar voted for Mr Maken, while another party legislator A Shivaram Hebbar abstained.

The BJP said it was exploring the possibility of taking legal action them and lodging a complaint with the Speaker U T Khader seeking their disqualification from the assembly for violating the whip issued to them to vote in favour of the party candidate.

"We have got the information that Somashekar has done cross-voting. I consulted with advocate Vivek Reddy who is our state legal cell president and a high court lawyer. We will ask the Speaker to initiate action (of disqualification) against him (Somashekar) and explore the possibilities to take steps in accordance with the law," Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly R Ashoka said.

Mr Somashekar had earlier quit the Congress and joined the BJP. He served as a minister in the previous BJP government and was made the Mysuru district in-charge minister back then.

In recent months, Mr Somashekar and Mr Hebbar had distanced themselves from the BJP and increasingly began identifying with the Congress.

The BJP (66 MLAs) and the JD(S) (19 MLAs) combined had fielded Kupendra Reddy though they did not have the requisite votes to get him elected. 

The NDA partners said they were expecting "conscience votes", apparently from the rival Congress camp, in favour of Mr Reddy.

The Congress has 134 members in the assembly. There are also four others members, including two independents.

Mr Somashekar said he heard the "voice of his conscience" and voted in favour of the Congress, "which built schools and carried out developmental works in his constituency". Hebbar too said he abstained from voting adhering to his conscience.

"This is not 'atma sakshi' (conscience) but 'atma droha' (self betrayal)," BJP MLC N Ravi Kumar said, commenting on Somashekar's and Hebbar's actions.

The BJP and JD(S) workers staged a demonstration in Bengaluru against Mr Somashekar. Raising slogans, they burnt his effigy.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress chief, ridiculed the BJP and the JD(S) saying, "'Conscience vote seekers' have become 'conscience vote givers'." "I don't know about cross-voting. I haven't seen the votes of others and independents. Ask the BJP, who spoke about conscience votes," Mr Shivakumar quipped.

Asked if there is legal support for those who have cast conscience votes to Congress candidates, he said, "Let's talk about it when it happens. I am not aware of any complaint filed with the Speaker regarding cross-voting.

"Mr Somashekar has cast his vote as per his conscience. It's a vote against the unholy BJP-JD(S) alliance. The general public, graduates, and teachers have rejected the alliance. Let's see what the legislators think." Chief Minister Siddaramaiah earlier hit out at the JD(S), alleging that the party had sought to lure and threaten its MLAs.

"JDS needs 45 votes (for their candidate) to win. Do they have that many votes? Even though they don't have enough votes, they still fielded the candidate and are luring our MLAs. Do they have a conscience?" the chief minister asked.

"An FIR has been lodged regarding the threat to us," Siddaramaiah said.

Speaking to reporters here, Siddaramaiah lashed out at the JD(S), saying, "When JD(S) does not have 'atma' (soul), how can it have 'atma sakshi' (conscience)? They call themselves Janata Dal (Secular) but whom did they join with?". He was referring to the JD(S) forming an alliance with the BJP.

Former chief minister and JD(S) second-in-command H D Kumaraswamy said the FIR against Kupendra Reddy and his aides was registered at Vidhana Soudha police station.

Mr Kumaraswamy said the complainant MLA did not say that he was lured, but that some other MLAs were "approached".

"Melukote MLA Darshan Puttannaiah of Karnataka Sarvodaya Paksha too had said that it's true that his vote was sought but no one had lured him," the JD(S) state chief claimed.

Mr Kumaraswamy said the BJP and JD(S) had decided to field Kupendra Reddy on the basis of the votes of the 19 JD(S) MLAs and the additional BJP votes after its first preferential votes.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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ACA Initiates Inquiry Against Vihari After Revelations About Mistreatment

The bitter spat between Hanuma Vihari and Andhra Cricket Association took a fresh turn as the state body on Monday announced an inquiry against the senior batter, who had accused the ACA of forcing him to resign from captaincy at the start of the ongoing season. Drama unfolded after Andhra's campaign in the Ranji Trophy ended in a defeat on Monday as Vihari announced that he will never play for the side due to "mistreatment" by the state association.

“Complaints were received from teammates, support staff and ACA administrators about Vihari's use of foul language and abusive behaviour. ACA will conduct a thorough inquiry into all complaints and the due course of action will be communicated,” said the ACA in a media release.

Vihari had also hit out at a reserve team-mate (son of a politician) who he alleged had asked his father to take action against him after the veteran player shouted at him during a match.

ACA stated that it had received a complaint from the junior player about Vihari at that time.

“It has come to our attention that Mr Vihari personally verbally abuse a specific player during the Bengal Ranji game in front of everyone. The affected player filed an official compliant with the ACA,” the release said.

Vihari had shared the copy of his statement on his X account signed by other players in the Andhra team with a one-line comment -- "the whole team knows (what had happened on that day)." "Sad part is the association thinks that players have to listen to whatever they say and players are there because of them (association). I've decided that I'll never play for Andhra where I lost my self-respect.

"I love the team. I love the way we're growing every season but the association doesn't want us to grow," Vihari wrote on Instagram.

The middle-order batter, who has played 16 Tests for India, started the season as Andhra captain but stepped down after the first match against last year's runners-up Bengal.

Ricky Bhui led the team for the rest of the season.

At the time, Vihari attributed his decision to move away from leadership role due to "personal reasons" but now the right-handed batter said the association had asked him to resign.

"I was the captain in the first game against Bengal, during that game I shouted at the 17th player and he complained to his dad (who is a politician), his dad in return asked the association to take action against me.

"I was asked to resign from captaincy without any fault of mine. I never said anything on a personal note to the player," said Vihari.

But the ACA said the decision to appoint a new captain was taken in view of Vihari's possible non-availability because of him being an India prospect.

Later the player in question, KN Prudhvi Raj, took to Instagram and accused Vihari of making false claims.

"Hello everyone! I'm that guy, you guys are searching in the comment box, whatever you guys heard is absolutely false, no one is higher than the game and my self-respect is much bigger than anything.

"Personal attacks and vulgar language are unacceptable in any kind of human platform. Everyone in the team knows what happened that day…Mr so called champion. Play this sympathy game however you want," wrote Prudhvi.

Vihari has also expressed grouse that the association did not value his sacrifices for the team over the years, recalling last year's Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match against Madhya Pradesh when he played through an injury.

"The association thought that player was more important than the guy who gave his body on the line last year and batted left-handed, took Andhra to knock outs 5 times in the last 7 years and played for India in 16 Tests.

"I felt embarrassed but the only reason I continued playing this season was because I respect the game and my team," he added.

Ahead of the 2023-2024 domestic season, Vihari was also linked with a switch to Madhya Pradesh but he decided to stay on with Andhra.

The ACA said it was Vihari who reversed the decision and decided to stay on with Andhra team. 

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"Not Freedom Of Speech": Minister On Space To Khalistani Elements Abroad

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called out the space given to extremist Khalistani elements in foreign countries and said this is not freedom of speech, but a misuse of it.

He said it is not good for any country to send that kind of message for their own reputation and expressed hope that action will be taken against those who attacked Indian missions.

The Minister was speaking at the event 'The Rise of the Global South' at TV9 Bharatvarsh Conclave on Monday.

Speaking about the situation in Canada, Mr Jaishankar said, "We had to suspend the issue of visas in Canada because our diplomats were not safe going to work, they were repeatedly threatened, intimidated, and got very little comfort from the Canadian system at that time...which has improved since then."

"We reached a stage, where, as a minister, I could not risk exposing my diplomats to the kind of violence prevalent there. That part of it has been rectified, so today our visa operations are pretty much normal," he added.

The Minister further called out the argument of 'freedom of expression' stating that throwing smoke bombs at missions and advocating violence is a "misuse" of freedom of speech.

"Regarding the space that is being given to extremists, they keep telling us, 'There is freedom of speech, democracy'. Freedom of speech can't extend to intimidating diplomats, throwing smoke bombs in embassies and consulates, advocating violence and separatism against a friendly state. To me, this is not freedom of speech. This is a misuse of freedom of speech," Mr Jaishankar said.

Recalling the vandalism incident on the Indian High Commission in the UK, he said that the mission didn't get the protection New Delhi had expected.

"To the point of someone climbing on to our HC and bringing down our Indian flag. I asked my colleagues 'Let's put us in each other's shoes'. How would you react if a mob attacked your premises anywhere in the world? You will not say freedom of speech and expression, you will be jumping up and down. But, things have improved in the UK," the Minister said.

In a stern message, Mr Jaishankar said that if a country is not taking action against someone attacking foreign missions, "there is a message in it."

"We have had a much firmer response in Australia and the US. We had an arson attack in the US, but that is under investigation. If the receiving state does not take action against someone who attacks an embassy or a consulate, there's a message in it. Now, I don't think it's good for any country to send that kind of message for their own reputation. That's why we want action to be taken against those who attacked our missions," Mr Jaishankar added.

Notably, there has been a rise in Khalistani extremism in several countries like Canada, Australia, the US and the UK.

After the killing of the designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last June, the Khalistani extremists targeted Indian diplomats in several countries and issued threats against them.

Especially in Canada, multiple incidents of Khalistan extremism were reported lately. In June this year, a tableau parade was organised in Canada celebrating the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi, which drew severe criticism from New Delhi. Multiple temples were also vandalised in Canada by pro-Khalistani protestors, with anti-India graffiti.

Amid strained ties, India stopped issuing visas to Canada amid concerns over the safety of Indian envoys there. Later, the e-visa service was resumed, and physical visa was also started in multiple categories.

In the UK, a group of extremist elements attacked the Indian High Commission in London last March.

Similarly, in the US, the Consulate General of India in San Francisco was attacked on March 19 by a group of assailants. Subsequently, on July 2, at midnight, a few people attempted to set the Consulate building on fire. The case is being probed by the National Investigation Agency.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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"Following Indian Supreme Court": Top Bangladesh Official To Chief Justice DY Chandrachud

Appreciating the live streaming of court proceedings, virtual hearing and use of technology at the Supreme Court of India, a top Bangladesh official told Chief Justice DY Chandrachud that they are closely following the Indian Supreme Court.

According to sources, Chief Justice Chandrachud was also told that Bangladesh wants to follow the Indian Supreme Court in these matters.

Chief Justice Chandrachud, speaking at the wo-day conference 'South Asian Constitutional Courts in the Twenty-First Century: Lessons from Bangladesh and India', said both India and Bangladesh share the tradition of constitutional and judicial systems largely aiming to ensure stability and both nations recognised their constitutions as "living documents".

Bangladesh's apex court judges took part in the conference, which drew many jurists, senior lawyers, and government leaders including Law Minister Anisul Huq.

"Our shared tradition aims to ensure stability, but when stability is desired, the stability must never be confused with stagnation," Chief Justice Chandrachud said.

"We recognise our constitutions are living documents. The constitutions of Bangladesh and India proclaim that they are 'given to the people by the people themselves' as citizens of sovereign nations," Chief Justice Chandrachud said.

Apart from Chief Justice Chandrachud, Supreme Court judges Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Dipankar Dutta were also present during the conference.

Chief Justice Chandrachud said the Indian and Bangladeshi court systems should encourage the enhanced practice of mediation for dispute resolution, discarding "adversarial litigations".

"Today, we need to ensure that we look into the needs of our society, ensure social growth and social progress by allowing our marginalised groups to come to the mainstream," said the Chief Justice, explaining how the judge's role in the post-colonial era was undergoing a change.

In her address, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said her government has made the judiciary totally independent, separating it from the administration by allocating a separate budget for it.

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