"It would take days to get all the sign-offs we still need, plus the time to print the letters and make the cards," said one official, who noted Inauguration Day is only three business days away.
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Thursday, January 14, 2021
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Johnson & Johnson vaccine hits production snags
The company could seek emergency authorization from FDA this month, but supplies may be thin at first.
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Rebellion within Karnataka BJP: Why Yediyurappa cannot please everyone
Several BJP leaders have openly expressed their disillusionment in not being given ministerial berths, giving rise to speculation of a rebellion within the party.
PTI
Yet another cabinet expansion in Karnataka and yet again, legislators who missed the bus crying foul, making accusatory statements against the Chief Minister. This routine has been almost normalised in Karnataka over many years, particularly since Yediyurappa came back to power for the second time. But Yediyurappa has the impossible task of pleasing all in his party, something most Chief Ministers face but he in particular has been plagued with. First among several leaders to criticise Yediyurappa was Bommanahalli BJP MLA Satish Reddy. In a tweet, he said, “What is the criteria for selecting candidates who are eligible for ministerial berths? Did you (referring to Yediyurappa) not find any young leaders from our party and the state to induct into the cabinet? We are experiencing the loss of Ananth Kumar (late Bengaluru South MP), more so now, as he used to take our concerns into account.” Speaking to TNM, Satish Reddy said, “Our concern was that young people should have been given an opportunity to become ministers. This is the first time five MLCs have been made ministers. These people did not win elections like many young leaders did,” he said. Soon after Satish Reddy’s statement caused a stir, several other leaders openly criticised Yediyurappa for his decision to keep them out of the cabinet. Satish Reddy opens can of worms BJP MLC AH Vishwanath said he was “extremely hurt” by Yediyurappa’s decision to keep him out of the cabinet. He also openly questioned why CP Yogeeshwar was given a ministerial berth. “They said Munirathna (Rajarajeshwari Nagar MLA) had criminal cases against him. Does CP Yogeeshwar not have criminal cases against him? He is a cheater. He has cheated so many people in real estate. Were you stuck because of blackmail?” AH Vishwanath said while adding that the cabinet is imbalanced and heavily in favour of the Lingayat community. He noted that the cabinet has 13 leaders from the Verashaiva-Lingayat community and accused Yediyurappa of “forgetting” leaders from the Dalit, Adivasi, OBC and Minority communities. Bijapur City MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal said that the decision to keep party loyalists out of the cabinet marked “the end” to Yediyurappa’s political career. “Mark my words now. This will be the end of Yediyurappa and his son Vijayendra. They have been going around saying they have the support of the Lingayat community. This is a state where there is no opposition. We all know what agreements have been made. Yediyurappa’s friends are Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar and KJ George. The opposition has collapsed,” Basangouda Patil Yatnal said. He criticised Yediyurappa’s decision to recommend Bilgi MLA Murgesh Nirani’s name to the list of candidates eligible for the cabinet expansion. Basangouda Yatnal recalled the incident in 2020, where Murugesh Nirani had forwarded a meme that criticised Hindu gods and said that an “anti-Hindu leader” was prioritised. It is to be noted that Murugesh Nirani had issued an apology, stating that he had forwarded the picture without seeing its content, by “assuming” it was a devotional message. “What was the need to give a ministerial berth to a person who criticised Hindu gods? If such people are being given ministerial berths, then it is clear that it is the beginning of the downfall for Yediyurappa,” he said. Among the other disgruntled leaders are Yediyurappa’s political advisor and Honnali legislator Renukacharya, Ballari MLA G Somashekara Reddy and Harappanahalli MLA Karunakar Reddy, while the leaders did not express their concerns openly, they said that they were unhappy about not being inducted into the cabinet. Catch 22 for Yediyurappa Disillusionment is not new to political leaders who have missed opportunities to become ministers but in Karnataka’s case, such open rebellions have more often than not resulted in resort politics and coups that have dislodged governments. While the rift between the newly-inducted leaders, who were previously with the Congress and JD(S), and the party old-timers is not new, the new spurt of rebellion has brought back one crucial observation: That Yediyurappa cannot please everyone. The Karnataka cabinet has 33 seats including that of the Chief Minister. Legislators compete for these berths and while there may be several experienced politicians in the BJP, who were aspirants, one crucial element, to the party coming to power, became a deterrent to the decisions taken in appointing ministers to the cabinet. In August 2019, when Yediyurappa announced a list of cabinet ministers, there seemed to be a perceived consensus within the party that the 17 rebels would be given ministerial berths as they were responsible for bringing down the Congress-JD(S) coalition. While 15 of the 17 rebels have been giving ministerial berths, this limited the opportunities for indigenous BJP leaders. The rift within the party began developing when Yediyurappa chose to keep his promises, which angered the party loyalists, who felt they were not rewarded for their hard work. With the number of berths being limited, Yediyurappa faced pushback from his own coterie including Umesh Katti and Murugesh Nirani. When the internal rift began growing in 2020, several leaders including Basangouda Patil Yatnal had stated that Yediyurappa’s son Vijayendra is the “Super CM”, and that the Chief Minister was only interested in safeguarding the political careers of his family members. A faction of BJP leaders had turned against Yediyurappa, who was pushed into a situation of safeguarding his own interests. In order to quell the rebellion, Yediyurappa had to ensure that the 17 former Congress and JD(S) leaders were loyal to him alone. And thereby he began lobbying for ministerial berths to favour his interests. Yediyurappa had to compromise by letting go of his promises to RR Nagar MLA Munirathna Naidu and MLC AH Vishwanath and make way for leaders like CP Yogeeshwar and S Anagara, as party loyalists too had to find a place in the cabinet. With BJP leaders looking for a replacement for the 77-year-old Yediyurappa, he also had the task of ensuring that he had the full support of the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community and thereby appointed 13 leaders from the community into his cabinet. The issue of cabinet expansion has put Yediyurappa in a catch 22 situation. If Yediyurappa had not kept his promises to the 17 newly-inducted leaders, sources said that they could have rebelled again and Yediyurappa would have lost the loyalty he tried to gain from a huge chunk of MLAs in the party. On the other hand, not prioritising the party loyalists has now roused an open rebellion. The larger question is: Will the party quell it or are resort politics on the cards once again?
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Karnataka: First arrest made in Sringeri under new anti-cattle slaughter law
Abhidali, the driver of the vehicle with 12-15 cattle on-board was reportedly assaulted and sustained a fracture on his arm.
The first arrest under the new anti-cattle slaughter law in Karnataka was made by police officials in Sringeri in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka. The police arrested Abhidali, the driver of a Tata Eicher vehicle going from Davangere to Mangaluru via Sringeri. A first information report was registered against Abhidali after he was found by a police official on the morning of January 8 transporting 12-15 cattle in his vehicle. A police official who was posted at the Begar check post for night duty was travelling back to Sringeri after finishing his shift at 7:00 am. Around 7:15 am, he reportedly saw Abhidali and his vehicle stopped on the road and checked on him. Abhidali told the police that four unknown persons in a Maruti car had stopped his vehicle and attacked him. The complaint copy also states that another truck with around 15 cows was accompanying the one driven by Abhidali. When they were stopped on the side of the road by a group of four people, the driver and cleaner in the other truck ran away. Soon after, the vigilantes who stopped the trucks assaulted Abhidali and injured him. Abhidali was taken to the Sringeri government hospital in an ambulance. The police official who stopped him found that there were 12-15 cattle in the vehicle and informed the inspector of the Sringeri police station about this. A case was registered against Abhidali under the new anti-cattle slaughter law passed in Karnataka and he was arrested. The driver and the cleaner in the other vehicle is still absconding. Even though the FIR against Abhidali uploaded online showed that he was charged under the Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act, 1964, Chikkamagaluru SP Hakay Akshay Machindra confirmed to TNM that he was charged under the new act promulgated earlier this month. Abhidali and the absconding driver and cleaner duo were charged under the new anti-cow slaughter law in two separate cases. A third FIR was registered against the unknown persons who stopped the vehicles transporting cows and attacked the drivers. They were charged with assaulting the drivers. One of the aspects of the new anti-cattle slaughter law is that it protects “persons acting in good faith” to prevent cow slaughter from legal action however Sringeri police told TNM that in this case, an FIR was registered against the persons who stopped the vehicles with cows in it. They also confirmed that Abhidali was assaulted and sustained a fracture on his arm. Under the recently promulgated anti-cattle slaughter law in Karnataka, slaughtering of nearly all cattle - cow, calf of cow, bull, bullock - is illegal. According to the law, only male or female buffalo above the age of 13 can be slaughtered, but cows, calf of a cow, bull, bullock are prohibited from slaughter. This has also meant that beef meat will be unavailable in the state and only buffalo meat from buffaloes above 13 years of age can be sold. The previous 1964 act had banned the slaughter of cows and calf of she-buffalo. However, the older law had permitted bull, bullock, buffalo (male or female) to be slaughtered if the animal was above 12 years of age, or if it was incapacitated for breeding, draught or not giving milk due to injury, deformity or any other cause. The new law states that the penalty for any other slaughter will range from Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh per animal and three to seven years’ imprisonment. It also gives the police power to search and seize on the basis of “reason to believe” that cattle is being sold, purchased or disposed of for the purpose of slaughter.
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Bengaluru court puts release of web series on Veerappan on hold
This restrains filmmaker AMR Ramesh from releasing Veerappan : Hunger for Killing, a web series starring Suniel Shetty, at least until February 6.
Still from trailer of Veerappan :Hunger for Killing
The Bengaluru city, civil and sessions court on Wednesday put the release of a web series on Veerappan on hold after his wife V Muthulakshmi approached the court seeking an injunction. In an affidavit filed in court, Muthulakshmi said that the makers of the web series were trying to portray the late forest brigand in poor light. She urged the court to place a permanent injunction on the release of the web series claiming that the makers of the series had made false statements and highlighted some details about her marriage to Veerappan. "We had filed a suit seeking a stay on the release of Veerappan : Hunger for Killing in any form - OTT, YouTube etc - and the court has granted a stay. We have highlighted the right to privacy and here, there is an invasion of privacy. We don't have an issue with the filmmaker making a movie based on public records but he has said that he wants to bring out the truth of Veerappan," said Praveen Gowda, the lawyer representing V Muthulakshmi. Kannada filmmaker AMR Ramesh is making 'Veerappan : Hunger for Killing', a web series on Veerappan which has actors Kishore and Bollywood star Suniel Shetty in major roles. Ramesh, who has previously made Attahasa, also based on Veerappan, makes films based on historical events. Prior to Attahasa's release, the film was challenged in a Chennai court. The case went up to the Supreme Court where a compromise was reached with the makers of the film for a compensation amount of Rs 25 lakh. The injunction comes at a time Muthulakshmi's daughter Vidhya Rani is preparing for the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu this year. Vidhya is the vice-president of the BJP's youth wing after joining the party's Tamil Nadu unit in February 2020. The filmmaker AMR Ramesh will not be able to release the web series on Veerappan on YouTube or an OTT platform until at least the next hearing in this case scheduled for February 6.
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Parents sweep Karnataka Education Min's street in a bid to get his attention
The forum of parents have been protesting for three months to demand that the minister hold a meeting with them and help ease their situation.
Karnataka Private School Parent Organisation Coordinating Committee/ Facebook
In light of several private schools charging the full academic year’s fees amid the pandemic in Karnataka, parents have been expressing their frustration over the fact that their demands are not taken into consideration. In an attempt to get the attention of state Education Minister S Suresh Kumar, the Karnataka Private School Parent Organisation Coordinating Committee took to sweeping the street in front of his residence in Bengaluru’s Basaveshwarnagar on Thursday. The parents had a memorandum that they had planned to present to the minister, however, he did not appear in front of them. During the demonstration, some parents were detained and taken to the Byadarahalli police station. The parents have demanded that schools reduce the fees in the backdrop of the pandemic, as several of them face financial difficulty, added to the fact that there were no physical classes held. They said that the Education Minister has called several meetings with private school managements but not the parents. Their demands also included that the minister call a meeting to listen to the parents, and take decisions that ease their situation. The recent demonstration comes after protests by the organisation on several occasions over the past three months. The protests started when, allegedly, several schools demanded payment of the entire fee amount and failure to do so resulted in children being blocked out of online classes. “In the period of crisis the schools cannot be immune to the financial meltdown and collect the entire fees. The schools want to collect the entire fees now though the government has clearly prohibited them from doing so… Also, this year they have removed several staff or have given them a reduced salary. Now this is basically robbing the parents and teachers to fill their own coffers… we started protesting when the schools illegally asked us to pay the entire fee and when we couldn't, our children were blocked from online classes. Our demand is not that we won't pay but all we ask is for them to be fair,” said Mohamed Shakeel, a parent. The parents have further threatened that they perform a hunger strike if the minister doesn't respond to them.
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Flawed vaccine rollout will create political stars — and has-beens
The Trump administration put it all on states to get the vaccine into people’s arms. Now the pressure is on to deliver.
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