Here are the top 5 news updates of April 16, 2022:
Hatred, bigotry and intolerance were "engulfing" the country and if not stopped these would damage the society beyond repair, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has alleged. In a newspaper article, she called upon people not to allow this to go on and urged them to stop "this raging fire and tsunami of hate" that will "raze all that has been so painstakingly built by past generations". Her article comes in the wake of the Hijab row, violence during Ram Navami and the clash in the Jawaharlal Nehru University over serving non-vegetarian food in the hostel mess on the occasion. She alleged it was a "travesty" that instead of utilizing the resources for creating a bright, new future for the country and engaging young minds in productive ventures, "time and valuable assets were being used up in attempts to refashion the present in terms of an imagined past".
On expected lines, the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) supported Congress candidate Jayashree Jadhav swept the Kolhapur North constituency by-election, the results of which were announced today. She defeated her main rival, Bharatiya Janata Party nominee Satyajit Kadam with a comfortable margin of nearly 18,900 votes in the elections held two days ago. The bypoll for the erstwhile royal seat of the Chhatrapatis was necessitated following the death of Congress MLA Chandrakant Jadhav who succumbed to Covid-19 in December 2021. Top leaders of the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress hailed Jayashree Jadhav's victory saying that the people of Kolhapur had rejected outright the BJP's divisive politics of Hindutva and hatred vis-a-vis the MVA's all-inclusive developmental agenda.
Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jayant Patil today termed Raj Thackeray's loudspeaker remark a "deliberate attempt" to create communal tension in the state, adding that people will now see the entry of Owaisi in the picture. "Deliberate attempt to create communal tension in the state. In the coming days, you will see the entry of Owaisi in the picture, after Raj Thackeray. It is an attempt to start a communal rift and untoward incidents in the state," Patil told mediapersons. Raj Thackeray had asked the Maharashtra government to remove the loudspeakers from mosques and warned of "putting loudspeakers in front of the mosques and playing Hanuman Chalisa." He even reiterated its warning to the state government that they should shut loudspeakers in mosques by May 3.
Close on the heels of the poll rout in the five states where the Assembly elections were held recently, interim president of Congress Sonia Gandhi held a meeting today with the election strategist Prashant Kishor. The meeting took place in the backdrop of speculations running rife about Kishor joining Congress. Kishor had previously held parleys with the former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and the party's national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi. However, there had been no forward movement. According to sources, Gandhi called an urgent meeting at her residence. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Ambika Soni, Digvijaya Singh, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ajay Maken and KC Venugopal were also present at the meeting with Kishor. The meeting also took place in the backdrop of Congress' poll preparations for Gujarat and Himachal Assembly elections this year.
Every household in Punjab will get monthly 300 units of free electricity from July 1, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced today as his government completed one month in office. He said except for scheduled caste and backward class families, if electricity consumption exceeds 600 units in two months, then the consumer will have to pay for the entire power usage. Scheduled Castes, backward castes, below-poverty-line households and freedom fighters currently getting free 200 units each month will now get 300 units of electricity monthly. But if their electricity consumption exceeds 600 units in two months, they will be charged just for over and above 600 units, the chief minister clarified.
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