Here are the top 5 news updates of February 17, 2022:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hit out at the Congress over Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi's 'UP, Bihar ke bhaiya' remark and said that the party always pits people of one region against another. "Congress always pits the people of a region against another. Congress CM gave a statement yesterday that received claps from a member of the family in Delhi. Who are they insulting by such statements? There is not one village here where people from UP-Bihar don't toil," he said. "Where was Guru Govind Singh born? In Patna Sahib, in Bihar. Will you remove Guru Govind Singh from Punjab? People of such divisive mentality should not be allowed to rule Punjab even for one moment," said PM Modi. "Only yesterday we observed Sant Ravidas Jayanti. Where was he born? In Uttar Pradesh, in Varanasi. Will you remove Sant Ravidas from Punjab?" he added.
The Supreme Court today set aside a Punjab and Haryana High Court order granting an interim stay on a Haryana law providing 75 per cent quota in private sector jobs for residents of the state. A bench of justices L Nageswara Rao and Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha also directed the Haryana government not to take coercive action against employers. "We do not intend to deal with merits of matter as we propose to request the high court to decide expeditiously and not later than four weeks. Parties are directed not to seek adjournment and be present before court for fixing the schedule for hearing. In the meanwhile, Haryana is directed not to take coercive action against employers. The impugned order passed by the high court is set aside as the high court has not given sufficient reasons for staying the legislation," the bench said.
The Income Tax Department today raided premises linked to former NSE MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna in Mumbai as part of a tax evasion investigation against her and others. Ramkrishna is in the news after a recent Sebi order said she was steered by a yogi, dwelling in the Himalayan ranges, in the appointment of Anand Subramanian as the exchange's group operating officer and advisor to the managing director (MD). Officials said the searches are aimed to check charges of tax evasion and financial irregularities against her and others. Apart from this, the order said, Ramkrishna had shared certain internal confidential information, including financial and business plans of NSE, dividend scenario and financial results, with the yogi and even consulted him over the performance appraisals of the exchange's employees.
A Delhi-based lawyer today filed a complaint with Home Minister Amit Shah, the National Investigation Agency and Delhi Police against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over a statement of Kumar Vishwas. Kumar Vishwas, one of the founding members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has allegedly talked about the collaboration between Kejriwal and the Khalistani separatists in an interview. In his complaint, Advocate Vineet Jindal said he saw the video of Vishwas on Twitter on Wednesday. It further alleged that in the video Vishwas discloses that Arvind Kejriwal is very well connected with pro-Khalistan supporters and taken their support for political purposes in the past also. "Khalistanis wish to divide our country by separating 'Punjab' from the Union of India and if the Delhi CM has taken support from them, he too becomes an active part of the conspiracy to divide India," the petition contended.
Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended lower for a second day today after a volatile trade triggered by a selloff in banking shares. After oscillating over 700 points between gains and losses during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex finally ended 104.67 points or 0.18 per cent lower at 57,892 points. The NSE Nifty dropped 17.60 points or 0.10 per cent to settle the day at 17,304.60 - marking its second straight session of loss. The Sensex pull-back was mainly staged by constant selloffs in banking shares, led by ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank. Of the Sensex constituents, 19 shares suffered losses. Bucking the broader trend, index heavyweights HDFC and RIL rose up to 1.71 per cent.
