NEWS

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is likely to chair a meeting of opposition leaders on August 20. The meeting is expected to be virtual, during which the leaders, including NCP president Sharad Pawar and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee will join a brainstorming session to discuss the issue of strengthening opposition unity and the agenda going ahead.

Sources said the meeting would be attended by, apart from Congress CMs, opposition chief ministers like Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra), DMK’s Stalin (Tamil Nadu) and Mamata (West Bengal).

This gathering assumes significance in the wake of the coordination that opposition parties managed to show during the monsoon session of Parliament, when their united stand that the government hold a discussion on the Pegasus snooping scandal first led to a standoff, and ultimately paralysed the proceedings in both Houses. The opposition sees this as a victory for the anti-BJP bloc which has been reeling under fragmentation since 2019 when BJP returned to power.

The Assam government has directed all state government departments to obtain prior approval from Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma's office before using his photographs in any government advertisements, standees, or billboards.

An order issued by the Information and Public Relations Department of the Assam government stated, "It has been observed that photographs of the Chief Minister of Assam are being used in various government advertisements, standees, billboards etc., without prior approval of the Chief Minister."

"It has been decided that henceforth, all departments desirous of using photographs of the Chief Minister will have to obtain prior approval from the Office of the Chief Minister, Assam," the order said.

Fresh Covid-19 cases remained above 20,000 for the third day running in Kerala while Maharashtra’s count topped 6,000 for the first time in five days even as daily cases in India continued to decline marginally while staying close to the 40,000 mark.

India has seen a steady, although painfully slow, fall in daily Covid cases so far in August after a spike in the last week of July. The seven-day rolling average of daily cases, which had risen to 40,832 on August 1, stood at 37,719 on August 11 (Wednesday), the lowest since July 25.

India was likely to record its second straight day of 40,000-plus new cases. After logging 41,649 on Wednesday, daily cases on Thursday stood at 39,248, with updates from Manipur, Tripura and Jharkhand still awaited. The three states had together reported more than 850 cases on the previous day.

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar stated that the "service, sacrifice and development initiatives carried out by the Nehru family for our nation" find no match in the BJP.

This comes after BJP leader CT Ravi said the Congress should open a hookah bar at their office in Bengaluru and name it 'Nehru hookah bar', in light of the controversy on the suggestion to rename Indira Canteens in Karnataka.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, DK Shivakumar said, "The effort made by CT Ravi to damage their [Congress leaders] reputation with his statements reflects the BJP's principles."