CBI ARRESTS DELHI DY. CM MANISH SISODIA AFTER 8-HOUR QUESTIONING

Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was on Sunday arrested by the CBI over his alleged involvement in the Delhi excise policy case. Sisodia was grilled for over eight hours before his arrest. The entire questioning of Sisodia by the CBI was videographed. 

After the arrest, AAP accused BJP of conducting a witch-hunt against its leaders. The party said Sisodia was arrested in a false case.

Earlier, ahead of his questioning by the CBI, Sisodia got emotional, when he — apprehending his arrest — asked his party workers to take care of his wife and son.

In his message to the Delhi school students, the AAP leader who is also the Education Minister, said, "I want to say this to the children that if your Education Minister, your ‘Manish Chacha’ goes to jail, don’t think there will be holidays in schools. There won’t be holidays. I want you (Children) to work hard, study hard and don’t trouble your parents."

He added, "Even if I go to jail, I will get all information on whether children are studying or not. So, if I get to know that children are becoming irresponsible over studies, I will give up on eating food inside the jail. I know that you (children) don't want to upset me.”

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, responding to the emotional speech by Sisodia, tweeted,” We will take care of your family Manish. Don’t worry.”

As many as 50 AAP workers and prominent leaders – including MP Sanjay Singh and Delhi minister Gopal Rai – were detained by the Delhi Police for allegedly violating section 144 of the CrPC.  The AAP workers were holding a protest outside the CBI headquarters while Sisodia was questioned by the CBI.

AAP Senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha said the entire country was aware that only Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal could defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the electoral battle, therefore, BJP was making all possible attempts to use the CBI and ED to attack AAP leaders including Manish Sisodia to finish Kejriwal.

CONGRESS RAIPUR MEET WRAPS UP WITH 2019 ECHOES

A year left for the 2024 elections, the Congress plenary wrapped up on Sunday signalling that Rahul Gandhi will lead from the front again, and the line of attack would be Modi’s alleged proximity with Gautam Adani.

In its resolutions and declaration, passed at the plenary, the party, like in 2019, once again talked about ensuring comprehensive social security to the people, especially a woman-centric NYAY programme, and a Universal Right to Health Act, if voted to power.

Underlining Rahul as the man of the moment, the flavour of the three-day plenary of the AICC was the Bharat Jodo Yatra, with leader after leader lavishing praise on him for “re-energising” and “reinvigorating” the party.

Jairam Ramesh told PTI that the Congress was considering an east to west yatra from Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh) to Porbandar (Gujarat), most likely before June or November, with a format different from the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

In the context of the Chinese incursions, a resolution passed at the plenary asked the government to take “any and all measures to defend the territorial integrity of India”. In 2019 too, China was a campaign issue in the context of the Doklam clash.

The other slogans too remain the same as in 2019 – targeting the BJP’s “attempt to subvert the Constitution” and “attack on independent institutions”, and raising bread-and-butter issues like unemployment and price rise.

The conclave gave a message to the Opposition parties as well — that the Congress is the only party that has “never compromised with the BJP”, and that it was “prepared to work with like-minded political parties on the basis of a common, constructive programme to preserve and protect the Constitution” and address the three main challenges of “growing economic inequality, intensifying social polarisation and deepening political dictatorship”.

Not just Rahul, every leader who spoke at the plenary mentioned the Adani controversy and the Yatra “success”.

'THIS IS SAVARKAR'S IDEOLOGY, YOU CALL IT NATIONALISM?': RAHUL GANDHI ON CHINA

‘Was the British economy smaller than us when we fought them? You call it nationalism? This is Savarkar’s ideology, this is cowardice," Rahul Gandhi said denouncing Jaishankar's comment on China.

Referring to external affairs minister S Jaishankar's 'China is a bigger economy than India', Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said this is cowardice. "You call it nationalism?" Rahul Gandhi said as he addressed the 85th plenary session in Raipur. "A minister says in an interview that India has a smaller economy than China. So how can we fight them? Was our economy very big when we were fighting the British? This is cowardice," Rahul Gandhi said.

“This is Savarkar's ideology to bow before the one who is stronger than you. So you will fight only with those who are weaker than you? This is called cowardice,” Rahul Gandhi said. “And India's minister is telling China that we can't stand in front of you because you are stronger than us. What is this nationalism? There is a term for it. We are called satyagrahi but they are sattagrahi,” Rahul Gandhi said.

MEGHALAYA, NAGALAND VOTE TODAY

Assembly polls are due today in Meghalaya and Nagaland, states the BJP rules in alliance with regional powers.

In Meghalaya, the BJP is going it alone after rift with Conrad Sangma's NPP.

Meghalaya will witness a multi-cornered contest, where besides the Congress, BJP and Conrad Sangma's NPP (National People's Party), Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress are in fray.

In 2018, the BJP won only two seats, but managed to cobble together a government with NPP. This time, it has fielded candidates on 60 seats after a rift with Mr Sangma's party over allegations of corruption.

In Nagaland, triangular contests are on the cards in 59 of the 60 assembly constituencies in Nagaland. The BJP, which won 12 of the state's 60 seats in 2018, is contesting in alliance with the NDPP (Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party). Under the seat-sharing agreement, the NDPP is contesting on 40 seats and the BJP on 20 seats.

The counting of votes will be held on March 2.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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ANY LETHAL AID TO RUSSIA WOULD COME AT REAL COSTS, US WARNS CHINA

China has not moved toward providing lethal aid that would help Russia in its invasion of Ukraine and the US has made clear behind closed doors that such a move would have serious consequences, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday. “Beijing will have to make its own decisions about how it proceeds, whether it provides military assistance, but if it goes down that road, it will come at real costs to China,” Sullivan said in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” programme.

CIA director William Burns also weighed in regarding China on Sunday. “We’re confident that the Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment. We also don’t see that a final decision has been made yet, and we don’t see evidence of actual shipments of lethal equipment,” Burns said.

NIKKY HALEY: ‘IF ELECTED, WILL CUT EVERY CENT IN AID FOR COUNTRIES WHICH HATE US’

Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has vowed to cut every cent in foreign aid for countries which hate America, if voted to power. She mentioned Pakistan, China, Iraq and other countries, saying “a strong America doesn’t pay off the bad guys”. “A proud America doesn’t waste our people’s hard-earned money. And the only leaders who deserve our trust are those who stand up to our enemies,” she wrote in an op-ed in New York Post. She said America has spent $46 billion on foreign aid last year, which is given to countries like China, Pakistan, and Iraq. “They (American taxpayers) will be shocked to find that much of it goes to fund anti-American countries and causes,” she said.

COVID LIKELY EMERGED FROM CHINA LAB LEAK, SAYS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

The coronavirus pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, the U.S. Department of Energy now says according to media, although the White House maintained Sunday that American intelligence remained divided on the issue.

The determination — noted in a classified report by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines's office, The Wall Street Journal reported — marks a shift by the Energy department, which had previously said it was undecided on how the virus emerged.

But White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan stressed a "variety of views" on the matter remain. "Right now, there is not a definitive answer that has emerged from the intelligence community on this question," he told CNN Sunday.

THE REST

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WORLD SEES INDIA AS BRIGHT SPOT BUT CONGRESS LEADERS CLAIM COUNTRY HAS BEEN RUINED: BJP

Leader after leader at the Congress plenary session claimed that India has been ruined even though the world projected the country as a bright spot, the BJP said on Sunday targeting the opposition party.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra also took a swipe at Rahul Gandhi.

Referring to his remark at the Congress meet about instilling love for tricolour in the youth of Kashmir, Patra said Gandhi acknowledged what the Narendra Modi government has achieved in Jammu and Kashmir.

KEJRIWAL IS NEXT, SAYS BJP

Within minutes of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s arrest by the CBI, the BJP trained its guns at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, terming him the ‘real kingpin’ of the Excise Scam and party leaders were confident that ‘he was next.’

I&B Minister Anurag Thakur accused Sisodia of fanning a media spectacle around this possible arrest in the alleged scam instead of answering questions related to the scam. “I believe that some people, instead of cooperating in the investigation, make too much of a clamour in the media. What fear has gripped you? Why are you afraid if you haven’t done anything? But if you have done something, then there is no point in saying anything in your defence,” he said.

“It is unfortunate that today, an Education Minister has been arrested in relation to an excise policy…Before placing the excise policy before its ministers, the Aam Aadmi Party reached out to the liquor mafia so it adopts policies which would be to their benefit…This is the same Aam Aadmi Party which earlier used to bring out a list every day of what it claimed were the most corrupt people in the country,” BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged.

CONGRESS APOLOGISES AFTER FLAK OVER ABUL KALAM AZAD NOT FEATURING IN PLENARY AD

The Congress apologised on Sunday after an advertisement on its 85th plenary session, which did not feature India’s first education minister and freedom fighter Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, triggered a controversy and the party received flak from several quarters.

The party said it was “an inexcusable slip-up”, for which responsibility was being fixed and action would be taken.

The full-page advertisement, published in dailies on the third day of the plenary session on Saturday, featured Congress leaders of the past—Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, B R Ambedkar, Subhas Chandra Bose, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P V Narasimha Rao and Sarojini Naidu.

Several people hit out at the Congress for leaving out Azad in its advertisement.

I DON’T HAVE A HOUSE, SAYS RAHUL GANDHI; BJP TAKES A DIG

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said he has never owned a house and noted that this experience had helped him “change” his Bharat Jodo Yatra and connect with the people.

He recalled the incident in 1977 when his family was preparing to leave their government accommodation. “There was a strange atmosphere in the house. I went to mummy and asked her what happened. Ma told me that we are leaving the house.

“Till that time I used to think it was our house. So I asked my mother why we are leaving our house. Then my mom told me for the first time that it was not our house, but the government’s and we have to leave it now,” the Congress leader said.

“52 years and I still don’t have a house. Our family house is in Allahabad and that is also not ours. I live at 12, Tughaq Lane but that is not my house,” he said.

The BJP, however, took a swipe at Gandhi. “Rahul ji used to think that all the houses and cars he was using belonged to him. If you feel that the government’s house is your house, who can evict us - this is called the sense of entitlement,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters.

He said Gandhi undertook his Yatra only now, but BJP’s two prime ministers spent their life crisscrossing the country and learning about it as ‘pracharaks’.

“After 52 years of age, he is thinking what should be his responsibility... after giving up the Congress presidentship... Your motto and that of the Gandhi family is one - power without responsibility,” Patra said.

He said Mallikarjun Kharge is the Congress president, but the whole party plenary is focused on the members of the Gandhi family.

KASHMIRI PANDIT KILLED, GOVERNMENT FACES SCORN

Militants killed a Kashmiri Pandit who worked as a bank security guard in Pulwama district on Sunday, prompting a Pandit organisation to pour scorn on the government for its failure to protect the community and claims of normality in the Valley.

Sanjay Sharma, 40, was shot around 10.30am on a street in hometown Achan while being accompanied by his wife, a police officer said. The incident comes after a four-month lull in fatal attacks on Kashmiri Pandits.

Several top militant groups use frontal organisations to carry out attacks in the Valley. Local Muslims condemned the killing and said it was a blot on “Kashmiriyat”, or Kashmir’s composite culture. The police said an armed guard had been posted in the village for the security of minority (Hindu) homes, and an investigation was on to ascertain how the killing took place.

OLAF SCHOLZ ASKS MORE INDIAN TECHIES TO CONSIDER WORKING IN GERMANY

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, wrapping up a two-day visit to India, urged the country's IT specialists and other skilled workers to consider working in Germany.

Looking for ways to tackle labor shortages in Europe's largest economy, Scholz said his coalition government was planning to reduce immigration hurdles and introduce a point-based system that would grant visas even to specialists who don't yet have a firm job offer in hand.

He offered no specifics on how many workers Germany hopes to attract from India.

"I am quite sure that many will want to take advantage of the opportunities to work as skilled workers in Germany," Scholz told reporters during a visit at software company SAP Labs India in Bangalore, where he held a roundtable discussion with workers.

CHATGPT REVOLUTIONARY BUT COMPANY POLICIES MUST AROUND ITS USE AT WORKPLACE BY STAFF: ICRIER CHIEF

ICRIER Chairperson and Genpact founder Pramod Bhasin describes ChatGPT as “revolutionary” and “highly productive” but advocates that companies and institutions will have to think quickly about rules and policies around the manner in which it should be used by employees at workplace.

The tech industry veteran’s comment comes at a time when the much talked about powerful new AI chatbot tool—created by the San Francisco artificial intelligence company OpenAI—has over the past weeks exploded in popularity and grabbed headlines. It can be tasked to provide definitive answers to questions, responds to user prompts, and based on online information (as it was in 2021), it can churn out scripts, speeches, song lyrics, homework material, articles, marketing copy, classroom essays, even draft research paper abstracts.

This viral conversational AI tool has, however, left some troubled about issues of authorship and veracity of content generated, even sparked fears that, in the wrong hands, it could be used to potentially spread online misinformation quicker and more convincingly than ever before.

According to Bhasin, ChatGPT will be used productively in many areas. But clear disclosure and acknowledgement on its use will have to be made necessary by companies and institutions.

Bhasin who is at the helm of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations or ICRIER, one of India’s premier economic think tanks, said that while there are some legitimate fears around chatGPT and Artificial Intelligence (AI) but the two areas will create more employment and highly productive jobs.

SEVERAL US NEWSPAPERS DROP ‘DILBERT’ CARTOON AFTER RACIST RANT BY CREATOR

The cartoon "Dilbert" has been dropped from numerous U.S. newspapers in response to a racist rant by its creator on YouTube.

Scott Adams called Black Americans a "hate group" and suggested white Americans "get the hell away from Black people" in response to a conservative organization's poll purporting to show that many African Americans do not think it's OK to be white.

"If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people ... that's a hate group," Adams said on his YouTube channel on Wednesday. "And I don't want to have anything to do with them."

The comments ignited a furor on social media, along with calls for the conservative cartoonist's work to be dropped from publishers' rosters.

His once-popular comic strip, which lampoons corporate culture and was launched in 1989, will no longer be carried by the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the USA Today-affiliated group of newspapers and others, the newspapers announced in statements on Friday and Saturday.

Adams' initial remarks came in response to a conservative Rasmussen Poll that appeared to show that 26% of Black respondents said they disagreed with the statement "It's okay to be white." Another 21% said they were not sure.

Adams said in his Wednesday rant that he had moved to a different location to get away from Black people, and urged other whites to do the same. "I'm not saying start a war or anything like that," he said. "I'm just saying get away."

AUSTRALIA LIFT SIXTH WOMEN'S T20 WC TITLE

The Australian women's team extended its enviable dominance in world cricket further by winning an unprecedented sixth T20 World Cup trophy with a comfortable 19-run win over a fighting South Africa in the summit clash in Cape Town on Sunday.

Riding on Beth Mooney's unbeaten 74 off 53 balls, Australia first posted a competitive 156 for 6 and then restricted the home team to 137 for 6.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. - Susan Brownell Anthony

OFF TRACK

A tiny but dignified old lady was among a group looking at an art exhibition in a newly opened gallery. Suddenly one contemporary painting caught her eye.

"What on earth," she inquired of the artist standing nearby, "is that?"

He smiled condescendingly. "That, my dear lady, is supposed to be a mother and her child."

"Well, then," snapped the little old lady, "why isn't it?"