After Wednesday’s violence-hit ‘Maharashtra Shutdown’, police on Thursday abruptly axed permission to a day-long student convention in which Gujarat legislator Jignesh Mewani and JNU student leader Umar Khalid were to take part.

Simultaneously, Pune Police registered a FIR against the two leaders for allegedly making inflammatory speeches at a meeting in Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31.

Mumbai Police swooped on the Bhaidas Hall, in the posh western suburb of Vile Parle on Thursday morning, and stopped the Left-leaning Chhatra Bharati’s All India Students Summit which was scheduled to be addressed by Khalid and Mewani.

Considered the Dalit face of Gujarat politics and convenor of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, Mewani was elected to the state Assembly last month as an Independent.

The police broke up the planned convention, citing prohibitory orders imposed in Mumbai after Wednesday’s state-wide shutdown which left a 16-year old student dead in Nanded.

Opposing the police move, Chhatra Bharati members staged noisy protests, raised anti-government slogans and attempted to squat outside the venue. Many were seen running on to the main road outside.

Defying the police, some attempted to enter the auditorium but were evicted by the police. Many were bundled into a police van and detained.

Chhatra Bharati Vice President Sagar Bhalerao said the day-long event was planned long ago in which both Mewani, Khalid and others were listed speakers.

Maharashtra legislator Kapil Patil said around 800 students and delegates including many girls were dumped into police vans and taken to various police stations where they were detained for several hours.

“The police are acting at the behest of the BJP-Shiv Sena government to crush the voice of the students who raise uncomfortable questions. This is a fascist government,” Patil told the media.

Demanding the release of the detained students, scores of students squatted outside the Juhu police station raising anti-government slogans.

In Pune, the police late on Wednesday booked Mewani and Khalid for ‘inciting passions’ between communities following a complaint by a Pune-based student, Akshay G. Bikkad.

Bikkad said that at a meeting held on December 31, Mewani and Khalid made allegedly inflammatory speeches that could create misunderstanding between communities, and included excerpts from the objectionable speeches.

The complainant said that such inflammatory speeches can create a wedge and enmity between communities. Provoked by these utterances, some miscreants attacked the Victory Pillar (Vijay Stambh) in Koregaon-Bhima resulting in riots and created arson on January 1, he said.

The developments came in the wake of the series of disturbances in Maharashtra starting with the desecration of a monument in Vadhu Budruk on December 29, followed by the riots in Koregaon-Bhima that left one dead on January 1, and the ‘Maharashtra Shutdown’ that killed one minor boy and left a trail of destruction across the state.

Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh President Prakash Ambedkar said he and other leaders called on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis demanding the arrest and prosecution of Shivjagar Pratisthan President Sambhaji Bhide Guruji and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti President Milind Ekbote, against whom complaints have been lodged by Pune Police.

He said Fadnavis told them that he had requested the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court to nominate a judge for the promised judicial enquiry into the entire episode.

“We have demanded that the probe commission should be given enhanced powers to even recommend punishment to those found guilty. This is the first time an enquiry commission shall be bestowed with such powers,” Ambedkar said.

Taking exception to the apex court holding the NJAC “unconstitutional” and favouring restoration of the collegium system, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said he is willing to “find a way out” if there is political unanimity over the government having a say in the appointment of judges to higher judiciary.

Prasad was replying to a lively debate in the Lok Sabha on the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2017, which seeks to revise salary and pensions of these judges. The House later passed the bill by a voice vote even as many members who took part in the debate demanded hike in their salaries.

Replying to several points raised by the members, Prasad and said he was “a great supporter” of the proposed All India Judicial Service” on the lines of Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service.

Expressing his anguish at the Supreme Court stating in its judgement on the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) that because the Law Minister was its member, he might not act impartially in cases against the government, he argued the Minister was appointed by the same Prime Minister who had a say in deciding key appointments like those of the President, Vice President and the Lok Sabha Speaker.

He pointed out that the collegium system came in 1993 and the Law Minister used to be part of the selection process before that, adding that “some of the finest judges were appointed” then. He also cited the case of the jailed Calcutta High Court judge C.S. Karnan as an instance of how the collegium had erred. “When I examined files, it (the collegium) said he was well-versed in law.”

“That ‘the Law Minister is involved’ is not a fair conclusion. I leave it to the House. If the polity decides to speak in one voice, we will find a way out,” he said.

As members expressed their support, Prasad said he was getting a sense of the House.

During the debate, several members also spoke about the encroachment of the legislature’s powers.

Trinamool Congress’ Kalyan Banerjee said MPs across the political spectrum should approach the Supreme Court and convey that “it is not your function” to legislate. He said he apprehended that “after five, ten or 15 years there will be a direct conflict between the parliament and judiciary unless the practice is stopped”.

Prasad said that with the debate, “a very powerful message has gone today” and it related to concern about middlemen, occasional instances of lack of probity and more rigorous standards of transparency.

Stressing that the government should not interfere in the working of judiciary, he however said: “I would like to convey to courts in India that if the principle of separation of power is there for us, it is also there for the judiciary to follow.”

He agreed that there should be representation of various sections in judiciary.

Answering questions about Memorandum of Procedure for appointments to higher judiciary, he said: “What we are saying is a greater scrutiny is required so that you may not have to send a sitting judge to jail again.”

Prasad said there were 5,984 vacancies in lower courts and 129 recommendations concerning appointments in high courts were under process, while tThere were six vacancies in the Supreme Court and nine high courts have acting Chief Justices.

On demands of some members that proceedings of the apex court should be telecast live, he said these matters should be left to judiciary and “the day Supreme Court tells us that they want live telecast of proceedings, we will giver everything required”.

Caste violence of Maharashtra, which erupted in Bhima-Koregaon of the state, spread on Thursday to neighbouring Madhya Pradesh where more than 10 buses and other vehicles were set ablaze during a bandh called by two Dalit organisations, police said.

The vandalism and arson was reported from Burhanpur district in the state where two organisations were taking out rallies during the bandh called to protest against the attacks on Dalits in Maharashtra. The police later arrested eight of the protesters.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rakesh Sagar told IANS that as some protesters were returning after submitting their memorandum to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), they saw some buses standing on the roadside.

They first vandalised the buses and some other vehicles and then set those on fire, Sagar said.

During the violence in Bhima-Koregaon near Pune, one Dalit youth was also killed when the activists of Hindu Ekta Mahasabha allegedly attacked a gathering.

On January 1 every year, Dalits and Bahujans assemble there to commemorate the anniversary of the Koregaon Battle of 1818, in which the British Bombay Native Infantry, comprising mostly Mahar Dalit soldiers, had defeated the Peshwa army.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the centre of excluding the state’s tableau from this year’s Republic Day parade, alleging it was opposed to the state’s theme of the artist’s unity.

“This year Delhi did not allow our tableau. We planned to bring different form of folk artistes like the street artistes, Bauls, Sufi singers and Fakirs on the same platform for this year’s Republic Day tableau. But they (the centre) could not accept that,” she said after inaugurating Kenduli Mela in Birbhum district.

“I believe treating everyone equally is my religion. Why should we divide on the basis of religion? Why would we differentiate between Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor?” she asked in a veiled attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Referring to a group of Bauls present at the meeting, Banerjee said the saffron colour only suits them who lead a life of salvation and not others who believe in divisiveness.

The Congress on Thursday alleged that Narendra Modi government is not serious of getting the triple talaq bill passed in Rajya Sabha and was running from debate, and its only policy was to “divide the society”.

Noting that the established tradition of Rajya Sabha is if any motion is left unfinished, it is taken up the next day for discussion from there, party leader Pramod Tiwari said: “When the House got adjourned yesterday (Wednesday), all the 18 opposition parties including Congress were demanding that there be voting on sending the bill to the Select Committee.”

“On Thursday they (the government) should have started the proceedings with triple talaq. They did not do it. BJP has neither the policy nor the intention to get the triple talaq bill passed in Parliament,” he told reporters here.

Tiwari said even BJP’s allies like the AIADMK, the Telugu Desam Party and other independent parties like the Biju Janata Dal and the Indian National Lok Dal are not with them on the issue.

The deadlock on the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha continued on Thursday with the government rejecting the opposition’s insistence on sending the bill to a Select Committee for detailed scrutiny.

With no agreement, the government placed the bill in the bottom in the list of business, which the opposition strongly objected to and demanded that its motions for referring the bill to a Select Committee be taken up immediately.

Senior Congress leader P. L. Punia alleged that the BJP and the RSS ignited violence in Maharashtra’s Pune district on January 1.

“The Maharashtra government failed to control the violence there. We demand immediate arrest of the two accused named in the FIR for allegedly instigating violence in Pune,” he said, asking why the government was protecting the accused linked to Hindutva outfits.

“We demand legal action against those who were trying to disturb harmony,” he said, adding that the violence was spreading to other states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said he was happy that former Telecom Minister A. Raja stood vindicated in the 2G case.

“Many thanks for your letter… I am very happy that you stand vindicated in the 2G case. You and your family have suffered greatly in this process but all your friends are greatly relieved that truth has prevailed,” he said in a reply, dated January 2, to Raja’s December 26 letter.

In his letter, Raja, of the DMK, had said that he “understood the compulsions” that prevented the then Prime Minister from “openly supporting him”.

A special court on December 21 acquitted Raja and Kanimozhi of the DMK as well as businessmen and executives accused of bribery in the 2008 allocation of 2G telecom spectrum, a “scam” that allegedly contributed to the Congress-led UPA’s defeat in the 2014 parliamentary elections.

Raja, in his letter to Manmohan Singh, said: “You will recall that I assured you several times that I had done nothing wrong but rather acted in national interest and I would prove this.

“I also understand the compulsions that prevented you from openly supporting me. Today, I stand vindicated.

“I hope you will acknowledge that I remained loyal and faithful to you – unlike some senior cabinet colleagues – and ensured that you did not suffer personal embarrassment in the trial proceedings.”

“Now that the truth about 2G is out in the open, perhaps you too could come forward in my support, which you could not earlier,” Raja said.

He noted that it was on this very day (December 26) a decade ago, he had written to the Prime Minister on the subject of issuance of new UAS licenses and allocation of 2G spectrum.

“Neither of us could have imagined the twists and turns in our political and personal lives over the next ten years. A few powerful individuals launched a propaganda machine, magnified a thousand times by a complicit and pliable media, and were able to mislead even Parliament and the apex judiciary.

“It cost you the UPA government, and it took seven years of my life, including fifteen months in jail,” he wrote.

The Congress in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat over the deaths of hundreds of cows in a shelter in the state.

Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh said he wrote to Modi and Bhagwat demanding that the deaths of cows in the country’s biggest shelter in Agar Malwa district’s Salariya village be probed and guilty be booked for murder.

State Congress chief Arun Yadav asked why are the people who give a free hand to cow vigilantes, who kill people caught with a single cow, silent on the deaths of so many cows.

Ajay Singh said he visited the shelter with Yadav on Tuesday and saw that many cows were in a bad condition. “The cows who had died had not been buried properly and dogs were feasting on the carcasses… It was a shameful sight.”

“To get votes, these people (in the Bharatiya Janata Party) do not shy away from calling the cow ‘gau mata’ (cow mother) and even ‘rashtra mata’ (mother of the nation) but once the votes are in, they forget everything.”

The two Congress leaders said that in the past three months, more than 400 cows have died at the shelter but the administration is accepting only 117 deaths.

The letter was sent to Bhagwat in Ujjain where the RSS chief is currently camping with some Bharatiya Janata Party members.

Bhagwat and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan were both present at the foundation laying ceremony of this shelter, the letter said, adding Chouhan had even said the spot will be made a pilgrimage place of cows.

The White news House said on Thursday that it will ban staffers and guests on using personal cellphones in the West Wing.

“The security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration,” Xinhua quoted White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders as saying.

“Therefore, starting next week the use of all personal devices for both guests and staff will no longer be allowed in the West Wing,” she said.

“Staff will be able to conduct business on their government-issued devices and continue working hard on behalf of the American people.”

The move came one day after the release of controversial excerpts from “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” by Michael Wolff, that revealed widespread dysfunction and infighting inside the Trump administration.

Former Catalan deputy leader Oriol Junqueras, who is also the leader of the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana (ERC), appeared in the Spanish Supreme Court on Thursday to appeal against the decision to maintain him in preventive custody without bail.

Junqueras was sent to prison on November 2, facing charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds, Xinhua news agency reported.

He has previously been denied bail at the start of December, with the judge arguing there was a risk of repeat offending, while other former members of the Catalan regional government were allowed to leave.

Junqueras’ court appearance follows the regional election in Catalonia on December 21.

Spain’s pro-unity Catalan party Ciudadanos won the most votes by gaining 37 seats in the 135-seat regional parliament.

But the pro-independence bloc consisting of three parties — JuntsxCat, ERC and CUP — secured an absolute majority of 70 seats in the parliament.

A decision is expected on Junqueras’ request in the next few days.

Russia considers a US proposal to hold an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over recent protests in Iran as “harmful”, Sputnik news agency reported on Thursday, citing Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

The Security Council is responsible for maintaining global peace and security, and Iran’s internal issues have nothing to do with its mission, Ryabkov said.

“Iran’s domestic affairs have nothing to do with the United Nations Security Council’s role,” he said.

He said Russia will roll out its own position, which is in line with the norms of international law.

Earlier this week, US envoy to UN Nikki Haley said Washington sought to convene emergency meetings at the UN headquarters and human rights council in Geneva.

Over the past week, riots broke out in some Iranian cities in protest against price hikes and economic woes.

US President Donald Trump and a number of other US officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, have sided with the protesters.

Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Gholamali Khoshroo has slammed the US government’s recent attempts to intervene in the domestic affairs of the Islamic Republic.

At least 46 people, including 11 civilians, were killed in the last 24 hours in bombings allegedly by the Arab coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, in western Yemen, medics said on Thursday.

Coalition aircraft attacked several positions by Houthi rebels in the province of al-Hudaydah, killing 35 combatants and wounding dozens, Efe news agency reported.

In addition, 11 civilians lost their lives on Wednesday night and eight suffered wounds when coalition planes targeted a group of Houthis near a restaurant in the town of Zabid, southeast of the port of al-Hudaydah, medical sources in the area said.

Al-Hudaydah is a strategic port on the Red Sea and is controlled by the Houthis.

Yemen is the scene of a civil war between forces loyal to President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, exiled in Riyadh, and the Houthi rebels, who control regions in the north and west of the country, as well as its capital, Sana’a.

Reacting to US President Donald Trumps “lies and deceit” comments, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif on Thursday said he “is singing Indias tune” and that the Islambad’s civil and military leaderships were on the same page.

Asif said the US government’s claim of releasing a dispensation of $33 billion in aid to Pakistan was also baseless, the Express news reported.

Speaking during a meeting here on Thursday of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, the Foreign Minister said the Trump administration disregarded the facts presented by Pakistan about the situation in Afghanistan.

The Foreign Minister went on to say that the Trump stance disregards the many sacrifices Pakistan has made in the war against terrorism. “We will not make any deals when it comes to our honour,” he added.

In the last four years, Asif said, we have been forced to deal with the mess left behind in Afghanistan for so many decades.

He said the war in Afghanistan cannot be fought in Pakistan and “we need to find a peaceful solution to the issue”.

“We shall take all decisions in this regard taking into account our national interests,” he said.

Delhi’s first automated commercial vehicle fitness testing centre will be opened during the current month, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said.

All commercial vehicles, including buses, taxis, autorickshaws, heavy and light commercial vehicle, among others, have to undergo testing and get a fitness certificate.

The testing centre at Jhuljhuli of west Delhi would be better compared to visual inspection currently done at the testing facility in Burari of North Delhi, according to officials.

New commercial vehicles have to be tested and also every year after the first two years, for the vehicle’s overall performance and its condition.

“For the past one month, we have been doing fitness testing of school buses and AITP (All India Tourist Permit) buses at the Jhuljhuli centre on a pilot basis,” Delhi Transport Department Special Commissioner K.K. Dahiya told IANS.

The testing of different parts of a vehicle like brakes and headlights will be done by machines and a test result would be generated.

Dahiya said that the new centre would take pressure off the only vehicle fitness testing centre in Burari.

The Jhuljhuli centre, set up in three acres of land, is a joint venture between the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the Delhi government.

Dahiya said that the Burari centre will continue to function and they plan to automate the centre by the end of the current year.

A Transport Department official told IANS that the automated centre would end corruption as it would not be up to the inspecting officer to give the fitness certificate and the whole process would be more transparent.

“If the vehicles are in a better condition it would also decrease road accidents,” the officer said.

According to officials, the drivers waiting area of the centre is under construction.

Noting that the “bailout” for state-run banks through the Rs 2.12 lakh crore recapitalisation plan has turned out to be a “moral hazard” in view of the corporates’ inability to repay loans, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that capital infusion is solely aimed at strengthening the banking system.

He was replying to the debate on his Ministry’s supplementary demands for grants for 2017-18 in the Lok Sabha seeking Parliament approval for additional expenditure of Rs 80,000 crore towards recapitalisation of public sector banks (PSBs). The third batch of supplementary demands for grants was later approved.

“Banks have given money to industrialists in the past… however, some are now sitting in London, others cannot pay back,” the Finance Minister said in an obvious reference to corporate accounts which account for a major portion of the bad loans accumulated by PSBs, including the case of absconding industrialist Vijay Mallaya, who has been declared a proclaimed offender by a Delhi court.

“This is the moral hazard with the bailout but we have to strengthen the banking system,” he said.

Jaitley also said that without bringing politics into the discussion on what he has earlier described as a “legacy issue”, the effort now is to improve the lending capacity of banks through infusion of adequate capital.

Referring to the recapitalisation plan for state-run banks approved by the government in October, he said the objective is to ensure that the lenders’ ability to support growth is not impacted by their combined non-performing assets (NPAs) which have crossed the staggering level of Rs 7.5 lakh crore.

“In order to correct the situation, we brought in the Indradhanush plan to infuse Rs 70,000 crore spread over a period of three years, which is coming to an end.

“However, this money has proved inadequate owing to the provisioning amount going up on account of the Asset Quality Review for banks ordered by the RBI, which brought out the real dimension of NPAs,” he said.

“So we need to put in more money and it becomes a bailout, which is not an ideal idea but it is important to keep the banks in good health,” he added.

Participating in a short-duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the state of the economy earlier on Thursday, Jaitley said that it was reckless lending by banks during the boom years in the previous UPA government that had led to accumulation of such huge NPAs, or bad loans, in the Indian banking system.

And this “reckless lending without proper risk management has affected the banks’ capacity to support growth” he said, adding that the massive lending by banks in the high-growth period after 2008 is now being reflected in their accumulated bad loans and through heavily leveraged corporate balance sheets.

BMW India on Thursday reported a growth of 25 per cent in its annual sales for 2017.

According to the company, its annual sales increased to 9,379 cars in 2017.

The BMW Group delivered 9,800 cars including those sold under BMW India and its Mini brand.

The central government on Thursday said that it has approved two foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth Rs 532 crore, including one from Metaffinity.

“During the month of December 2017, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance has disposed of two FDI proposals involving foreign investment of Rs 532 crore,” an official statement said.

The proposal of Metaffinity sought approval for getting foreign investment up to 49 per cent in the form of non-voting equity shares by two investors, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Pantheon-HK Project Universe.

Metaffinity is an investment holding company, which will make a downstream investment in Religare Health Insurance Company Limited which is engaged in health insurance business.

Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday said that businessman Sushil Gupta, one of its Rajya Sabha candidates, will help the party expand and accomplish its “Mission Haryana”.

AAP Delhi convenor Gopal Rai took up to Facebook Live to justify the party’s decision of electing the two outsiders — Narain Dass Gupta and Sushil Gupta – as its candidates for Rajya Sabha seats which triggered criticism from opposition parties.

Dismissing the allegations of “buying” the candidates, he said such allegations aimed at putting down Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Rai said Sushil Gupta, a businessman and an ex-Congress politician, who runs charitable schools and hospitals in Delhi and Haryana, was picked due to “practical reasons” and N.D. Gupta for his expertise on the economy.

“We had formed government in Delhi with a dream of eliminating corruption, establishing Swaraj. But the Centre is not letting us work. They are being able to do this as Delhi is not a full state.

“The party needs a full state for bringing about the changes it desires. We tried that in Punjab. But Congress and BJP did not let us do that. The party feels that it can form government in Haryana. We have chosen him keeping our mission Haryana in mind,” he said.

Earlier in the day, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, Sushil Gupta and chartered accountant Narain Gupta filed their nomination for the three Rajya Sabha seats that will fall vacant when the tenure of Congress members Janardhan Dwivedi, Parvez Hashmi and Karan Singh end.

It would be for the first time that the AAP, which officially has 66 members in the 70-member Delhi Assembly including some dissidents, will elect members to the upper house.