In case you missed it Battle ready: As all parties gear up for the no-trust motion, the Bharatiya Janata Party will try use the vote an opportunity to showcase the achievements of the Narendra Modi government and attempt to display a numerical strength beyond NDA’s tally in the 2014 general elections. The motion will be moved by Telugu Desam Party, which was formerly an ally of the ruling party. All eyes will be on TRS and AIADMK as BJP will try to surpass the 2014 NDA tally.
Congress, the main opposition party, has been allocated 38 minutes to present its views on the motion. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and the leader of the party in the House, Mallikarjun Kharge, are likely to speak on it. The ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), which enjoys a majority in the House, has been given 3 hours and 33 minutes in the debate, which is scheduled for seven hours.
Hours after the Shiv Sena issued a whip to its MPs to support the NDA government during the no-trust motion, the party did a volte-face and said the final decision on the vote hasn't been taken yet.
The BJP believes that the government will get the support of as many as 314 MPs in the Lok Sabha.
Follow all the live updates here.Controversial charges: The Congress party on Thursday alleged that the middleman in the controversial AgustaWestland chopper deal is being forced to frame Sonia Gandhi in exchange for exoneration from all charges. Speaking to reporters, party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that the Narendra Modi government is using investigative agencies to pressure Christian Michael into signing a false confession naming the UPA chairperson.Seizing assets: The Lok Sabha passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018, on Thursday, which will allow the seizure of domestic assets of culprits and deter them from evading the process of law. After promulgating the ordinance, the government said it would “lay down measures to empower Indian authorities to attach and confiscate proceeds of crime associated with economic offenders and the properties of the economic offenders".Inadequate measures: Facebook owned instant messaging app WhatsApp has been sent a second notice by the Government of India, to suggest and implement concrete steps to counter the increasing spread of fake news on the platform. WhatsApp, which has been attempting to control the spread of rumours and fake news on its platform, added a feature which indicates as “forwarded", any message that has been moved along in a sort of a chain by a particular or a set of users, and not created by that sender themselves, However, the government feels the new update isn’t enough.What’s in a word? Netflix informed the Delhi high court on Thursday that a change had been incorporated in the English subtitle of the web series 'Sacred Games' to remedy an alleged insult to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. In the fourth episode of the series, lead actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui calls Gandhi ‘fattu’ and the translation had led to a controversy, with a Congress worker filing a complaint in court.Bus tragedy: At least 13 people were killed and sixteen injured when a bus of Uttarakhand Transport Corporation fell into a deep gorge near Suryadhar in Uttarakhand’s Tehri district on Thursday.No horsing around: The Gujarat government is planning to issue passports and a unique identification number to horses belonging to the Kathiawari breed in an effort to protect and increase their greatly diminished numbers. The state’s animal husbandry department in association with the Kathiawari Horse Breeders’ Association (KHBA) will register the horses and also conduct DNA tests on them to identify the pure bred horses.In defense: Father Abraham Varghese, the prime accused in the rape case of a 34-year-old who was allegedly exploited by four priests of the Malankara Orthodox Church in Kerala, released a video denying the charges and accusing the survivor of having “several character flaws". In the video released on YouTube and later taken off, Varghese rubbished the allegations against him and revealed the name and details of the woman’s husband in contravention of the law.Indian interests: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday said India’s interests in the Indo-Pacific region were vast and that the region needed to remain free and open. The minister further said that the Indo-Pacific must allow growth for all, irrespective of size and strength. She also batted for equal access becoming a right under international law.No invasion: There is no proposal to "invade" an individual's right to privacy and freedom of speech, the government said on Thursday in Lok Sabha when asked if its proposed social media hub project could do so. In a written reply, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore also maintained that the government proposes to set up the hub to "facilitate information flow regarding its policies and programmes through social media platforms i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube etc."Agree or disagree?
“Elections in Pakistan have always been a long catalogue of manipulations, interference by the powers, gerrymandering, and in today’s parlance what is known as 'engineering'. However, as martyred PPP leader Benazir Bhutto used to say, elections serve as a catalyst. They provide an opportunity for people to express their will in secret, and the masses do express whatever they want without fear of anyone. Read former High Commissioner of Pakistan to UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan’s take on elections in Pakistan.On reel
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