AAP ENDS 15-YEAR BJP RULE IN MCD, KEJRIWAL SEEKS PM’s BLESSINGS

The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday won the MCD polls with 134 seats, ending the 15-year rule of the BJP in the prestigious municipal corporation with 250 wards.

In his first address after the victory, an elated Arvind Kejriwal vowed to improve civic amenities in the national capital, and sought the "blessings" of the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to achieve that.

The BJP, which was predicted to suffer a massive defeat in exit polls, put up a spirited fight, winning 104 municipal wards, while the Congress managed to win just nine, down from 30 in the previous civic poll. Three independents also emerged victorious.

His deputy Manish Sisodia also thanked the voters of Delhi and said it was their mandate that helped the AAP defeat the "world's biggest and most negative party".

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said, "Despite 15 years of anti-incumbency, our performance is better. We worked for the people of Delhi at the municipal corporations but may be some people were not happy. There was no anger against the BJP though."

GUJARAT, HIMACHAL AND BYELECTIONS RESULTS TODAY

While AAP entry in Gujarat has made the fight three-cornered, the contest in Himachal Pradesh is expected to remain between BJP and Congress, the traditional rivals. The counting of votes began at 8am today.

Counting of votes will also be held today for byelections in six assembly constituencies in five states and the high-profile Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, where the Samajwadi Party is locked in a battle for prestige with the BJP.

Rampur and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh are the assembly seats where results will be declared on December 8, coinciding with the ballot count for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections.

A high-stakes contest was witnessed in Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri seat, where the by-election was necessitated by the demise of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav in October, and in Rampur Sadar seat that fell vacant due to senior SP leader Azam Khan’s disqualification.

Mulayam Singh Yadav’s elder daughter-in-law and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav is the SP candidate in Mainpuri, a pocket borough of the Yadav family, while BJP has fielded Raghuraj Singh Shakya, a former confidant of Mulayam’s brother Shivpal Singh Yadav.

LEADS AS OF 0945 IST:

Gujarat: (Total 182) BJP-141, Cong-26, AAP-8, Others-2

Himachal Pradesh (Total 68) BJP33, Cong 32, AAP-0, Others-3

V-P SALVO AT SC: STRIKING DOWN NJAC GLARING DISREGARD OF MANDATE, HOUSE SOVEREIGNTY

Presiding over Rajya Sabha for the first time as Chairman on the opening day of the winter session of Parliament, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar sent a strong message Wednesday to the Supreme Court, referring to its 2015 judgement striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act and calling it a “glaring instance” of “severe compromise” of parliamentary sovereignty and disregard of the “mandate of the people”.

He said Parliament, being the custodian of the “ordainment of the people”, was duty-bound to “address the issue” and expressed confidence that “it will do so”.

Dhankhar also said it was time for “all constitutional institutions to reflect and give quietus to public display of adversarially challenging stance/trading or exchange of advisories emanating from these platforms”.

The Vice-President’s remarks are a reiteration of what he said last week. Referring to the striking down of the NJAC Act, Dhankhar, while sharing the dais with Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud at the 8th Dr L M Singhvi Memorial Lecture in New Delhi on December 2, said it was “never too late to reflect”. He underlined the “primacy of the will of the people” and said “that power was undone” and “the world does not know of any such instance”.

Last month, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had said that the Collegium system of appointing judges was “opaque” and “not accountable” and “alien” to the Constitution. His remarks attracted the displeasure of the Supreme Court.

In the House, the Vice-President pointed out that “democracy blossoms and flourishes when its three facets, the Legislature, the Judiciary and the Executive, scrupulously adhere to their respective domains”. He said “the sublimity of Doctrine of Separation of Powers, is realised when the Legislature, Judiciary and Executive optimally function in tandem and togetherness, meticulously ensuring scrupulous adherence to respective jurisdictional domains.”

“Any incursion by one, however subtle, in the domain of the other, has the potential to upset the governance apple cart. We are indeed faced with this grim reality of frequent incursions,” he said.

CENTRE REJECTS RANGNATH MISRA REPORT THAT FAVOURED SC STATUS FOR DALIT CONVERTS

The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it has not accepted the Justice Rangnath Misra Commission report (2007) that favoured extending the benefit of reservation to Dalits who converted to Islam and Christianity, saying it was written within the four walls of a room without any field studies.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the top court that the Centre has appointed a new commission headed by former CJI KG Balakrishnan to examine if Scheduled Caste status can be given to those members of SC community who have converted to Christianity or Islam.

A Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said it will first decide if it should wait for the report of the newly-appointed Justice KG Balakrishnan Commission report on the issue or proceed on the basis of material already on record. “The first aspect to be dealt with is whether this Court should stay its hands till the report of this Commission comes or whether it should proceed on the basis the material on record", it said, posting the matter for further hearing in January 2023.

Maintaining that untouchability was not prevalent in the Christian and Islamic societies, the Centre has opposed before the Supreme Court petitions seeking seeks Scheduled Caste status for Dalits who have converted to Christianity and Islam.

Meanwhile, The All India Backward Classes Federation has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking review of its verdict upholding the constitutional validity of 10 per cent quota for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in government jobs and educational institutions.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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CHINA BEGINS EASING ‘ZERO COVID’ CURBS

China on Wednesday announced the most sweeping changes to its resolute anti-Covid regime since the pandemic began three years ago, loosening rules that curbed the spread of the virus but sparked protests and hobbled the world’s second largest economy. The relaxation of rules, which includes allowing infected people with mild symptoms to quarantine at home and dropping testing for people travelling domestically, is the clearest sign yet Beijing is pivoting away from its zero-Covid policy to let people live with the disease. But health officials are still warning that they will closely watch trends in deaths and adequacy of medical resources in case a return to tougher measures is needed.

Many of the changes announced by the National Health Commission (NHC) reflected steps already taken in various cities and regions in recent days, following protests against Covid controls that were the biggest demonstration of public discontent since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

Major cities across China, including Beijing and Shanghai, were gripped by protests last month, which started to subside amid a heavy police presence and various restrictions being lifted in different parts of the country. Officials have not linked any of the changes, made on Wednesday or earlier, to the protests. But they have markedly softened their tone on the health risks of the virus — bringing China closer to what other countries have been saying for more than a year as they dropped restrictions and shifted towards living with the virus.

GERMANY RAIDS FAR-RIGHT GROUP OVER PLOT TO INSTALL PRINCE IN COUP

Germany on Wednesday detained 25 members and supporters of a far-right group that the prosecutor’s office said was preparing a violent overthrow of the state to install as national leader a prince who had sought support from Russia.

Prosecutors said suspects were also arrested in Austria and Italy. Among those detained were a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party who had served in the German parliament, a member of the German nobility and a Russian citizen accused of supporting the group’s plans. Prosecutors said they were probing a total of 52 suspects.

Prosecutors said the group was inspired by the deep state conspiracy theories of Germany’s Reichsbuerger and QAnon, whose advocates were among those arrested after the storming of the US Capitol in January 2021. Members of the Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich) do not recognise modern-day Germany as a legitimate state. Some of them are devoted to the German empire under monarchy, while some are adherents of Nazi ideas and others believe Germany is under military occupation.

THE REST

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BJP SIGNALS CHANDIGARH PLAN IN MCD MAYORAL POLL

The AAP may have won the MCD elections comfortably but the BJP is now backing out yet. The party that ruled the MCD for 15 years on Wednesday said the game of mayor’s election was not yet over.

BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya took to twitter to signal a Chandigarh-like scenario in Delhi where AAP despite being the largest party in the civil polls did not get its mayor. The mayor in Chandigarh was from the BJP. “Now over to electing a mayor for Delhi. It will all depend on who can hold the numbers in a close contest, which way the nominated councillors vote, etc. Chandigarh has a BJP mayor, for instance,” Malviya said.

Since the anti-defection law does not apply in municipal elections, it may be able to swing votes in its favour on the day that the mayor is elected.

Hours after BJP said the mayoral election in Delhi was still left to be won, AAP leader Manish Sisodia said the BJP game had started. “Our newly elected councillors have begun getting calls. Our councillors are not for sale. We have told them to make a recording should anyone call up or meet them,” Sisodia tweeted.

Interestingly, BJP managed to raise its vote share by 3 per cent as compared to 2017 civic body elections in the national capital – it went up from 36.08 to 39.09 per cent.

AAP vote share soared from 21.09 per cent in 2017 to 42.05 per cent this time.

Congress which had obtained 21.09 per cent votes in 2017 could manage to get only 11.68 per cent votes this time.

RAHUL YATRA: CONGRESS INSISTS YATRA HAS NO LINK WITH CURRENT POLLS

While the Congress faced another poll setback, in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, participants in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, currently crossing Rajasthan, insisted it would have no bearing on the march, nor was there a link between the two.

Sitaram Lamba, Chairman of the Rajasthan Youth Board, with a state minister status, said: “I can only say that we can’t associate the Yatra with the results. The Yatra is being taken out for a different reason. Perhaps we may get some (electoral) benefit out of the Yatra at a later stage. It is just the start. Things don’t change in a day; big structures take time to build.”

However, Lamba also termed the results as “disappointing”. “It shouldn’t have happened. It is a failure of the organisation that we couldn’t run (the campaign) properly. But in the coming days we will strengthen the organisation and also spend time among people. The same was stated in the Udaipur declaration with much clarity by madam (Sonia Gandhi). Hence we are on the road, among the people, and things will change.”

On Day 1 of the Yatra in Rajasthan, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had reiterated: “I want to state it clearly, it is not a ‘Chunao Jitao Yatra’. We hope that the organisation will strengthen and become more active (due to the Yatra) and that it may lead to benefit in elections.”

CENTRE’S AIR QUALITY PANEL LIFTS CURBS IMPOSED IN DELHI-NCR UNDER GRAP 3

The Centre’s air quality panel on Wednesday ordered the lifting of curbs under stage 3 of the anti-pollution action plan in Delhi-NCR, including a ban on non-essential construction work.

The Sub-Committee for invoking actions under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) held a review meeting in view of a significant improvement in the air quality in Delhi-NCR.

Delhi’s overall Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 304 on Wednesday.

The air quality index is not likely to slip into the ‘severe’ category in the next few days – it’s likely to stay in the ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’ range in the coming days, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) said in an order.

RBI HIKES KEY INTEREST RATE BY 35 BPS

Signalling a further rise in lending and deposit rates, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday (December 7) hiked the key policy rate, the repo rate or the rate at which the RBI lends funds to banks, by 35 basis points to 6.25 per cent in a bid to rein in retail inflation.

The MPC also lowered its growth forecast to 6.8 per cent from 7 per cent for the current financial year amid concerns over the “bleak” global economic outlook, and retained its retail inflation forecast at 6.7 per cent.

The RBI has hiked the policy rate in a bid to bring down inflation from the current level. Inflation in October eased to 6.77 per cent, a three-month low, but it remains well above the RBI’s comfort level of 4 per cent. But the worry for the central bank is the rise in core inflation — the non-food, non oil part of inflation — that edged up again after moderating over the summer.

The RBI has raised rates by a cumulative 225 bps since the start of the tightening cycle in April 2022, lagging behind the US Federal Reserve’s 350 bps increases over the same period. The last three hikes in Repo rate were by 50 bps each.

UPI TO NOW ALLOW BLOCKING MONEY FOR MULTIPLE DEBITS, PAVES WAY FOR ASBA

The RBI on Wednesday enhanced the capabilities of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) by introducing a ‘single-block-and-multiple debits’ functionality, which allows a customer to enable a payment mandate against a merchant by blocking funds for specific purposes in his/her bank account which can be debited, whenever needed.

Also, the RBI said the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) will now include a wider variety of recurring and non-recurring payments.

The single-block-and-multiple debits feature is expected to have multiple use cases in various segments, such as e-commerce transactions, investment in the secondary market and purchase of government securities using the RBI’s Retail Direct scheme. The RBI will issue instructions to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which runs and manages UPI, on this functionality shortly.

This new functionality will play a key role in building the framework for blocking money for secondary market trades, a mechanism called Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA), which the capital market regulator is planning to implement.

BANGLADESH EDGE INDIA IN A THRILLER TO SEAL ODI SERIES

India's shoddy batting display and the inability to land the killer blow contributed to their second successive series loss in Bangladesh after the diminutive Mehidy Hasan Miraz led the hosts to a five-run win in the second ODI with a memorable hundred in Mirpur on Wednesday.

Miraz tormented the Indian bowlers on the way to his maiden century as Bangladesh staged a remarkable recovery to reach 271/7. They were down to 69/6 after 19 overs.

Chasing 272 for victory, India's challenge looked all over at 207/7 in 43rd over but injured skipper Rohit Sharma's (51 not out off 28 balls) valiant effort went in vain as he nearly took his team home while batting with a split left webbing.

India needed a six off the final ball of the game but Mustafizur did well to perfect the yorker under pressure after bowling a slew of slow leg-breaks in the 48th over forcing Mohammed Siraj to play out a maiden.

At 65 for four, India were in dire straits before a spirted 101-ball 107-run stand between Shreyas Iyer (82 off 102) and Axar Patel (56 off 56) brought them back into the contest.

Captain Rohit did not come out to open after hurting his finger while fielding in Bangladesh's innings. It was only after the fall of seventh wicket, he decided to walk into the middle but clearly looked in discomfort.

Bangladesh had also won their last ODI series at home back in 2015 when Mashrafe Mortaza's men got the better of M S Dhoni and Co.

COACH DRAVID'S REASONS FOR INDIA'S SHODDY ODI PERFORMANCES

India head coach Rahul Dravid believes come January, India will in all likelihood, have a full strength ODI squad which will then consistently play for the next 8-9 months leading up to the World Cup at home in October-November.

India's ODI performance has been shoddy with back-to-back defeats in series against New Zealand and Bangladesh with very different squads due to workload management-related permutations and combinations.

"I guess, from our perspective, it has not been easy to play. We don't have full squad. Hopefully, from January, depending on injuries, we will get full squad to play home series. We have nine ODIs before IPL (3 vs NZ, 3 vs SL and 3 vs Aus) and hopefully, we will get to play a settled squad in those games," Dravid said at post-match press conference.

"In the last two years, we had prioritised T20s a lot as there were two World Cups. In the next 8-10 months, we will be prioritising ODI cricket. It is not easy to juggle three formats.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

A lot of people have gone farther than they thought they could because someone else thought they could. - Zig Ziglar

OFF TRACK

Attachment is not when two people chat day & night ...

Attachment is not when two people can't live without each other ...

Attachment is not when two people can't stay away from each other for a moment ...

But when the Boss sends an email to you with subject as 'Increment letter' and the attached file is missing ...

That missing file is called Attachment ... !!