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Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra on Tuesday hit out at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, saying she has made a mockery of people of India in the budget by doing absolutely nothing and whatever little changes are there are regressive and ill thought of.

 

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Moitra criticized the budget for failing to address the needs of the common people.

 

“People wanted a course correction, but you have done the exact opposite. You have kept the same Cabinet, the same Finance Minister, who has given the same shoddy budget,” Moitra said.

 

“The Finance Minister has made mockery of people of India in the budget by doing absolutely nothing, whatever little changes are there are regressive and ill thought of,” she added.

 

The TMC MP questioned the purpose of the budget, highlighting its adverse impact on the middle class and the poor.

 

“Who is this budget for? The middle class makes up 31 per cent of India and the poor account for 60-65 per cent. This budget systematically strangles both groups. It is a ‘save the chair’ budget for this government and even that it doesn’t do very well,” she asserted.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Tuesday raked up the caste remarks made by former Union minister Anurag Thakur in the Lok Sabha against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and said the Congress leader does not have a caste.

 

Participating in a debate on the Finance Bill, Dubey referred to Thakur’s remarks, in which he had questioned the leader of opposition about his caste.

“I do not completely agree with what Anurag Thakur said the other day. I would like to apologise on his behalf in this House,” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP said.

 

“The allegation he made about caste is wrong…. There is no caste. He (Gandhi) says, I am not what I appear…. So he is a hermit,” the member of Parliament from Godda in Jharkhand said.

 

“It is said that you should not ask about the caste of a hermit,” he added.

 

Dubey further attacked the Congress over its demand for a nationwide caste census.

 

“Anurag Singh Thakurji made a mistake…. But I want to ask the Congress, many people in this country do not believe in religion, caste…. How will they participate in a caste-based census?” he asked.

The top court today dismissed a plea seeking centre-wise data of the clinical trial of anti-diarrhoea vaccine Rotavac, saying it cannot sit in appeal over the decision taken by an expert committee on the issue. Rotavirus vaccine, Rotavac, claims that it protects children from viruses, which are the leading cause of severe diarrhoea among them.

Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah said it launched a swarm of attack drones against military targets in northern Israel on Tuesday. A source within the group told Reuters it was not the group’s retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut last week. 

Reserve Bank’s rate-setting panel started its three-day deliberations for the next set of bi-monthly monetary policy amid expectations of no change in benchmark interest rate in view of concerns on inflation and economic growth remaining steady. The decision of the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das-headed six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be announced on Thursday.

The death toll in the anti-government protests in Bangladesh on Tuesday climbed to 440, with 100 more deaths reported after Sheikh Hasina fled the country, according to local media, even as efforts were on by the army to bring the situation under control in the violence-hit nation.

Despite the high death toll, there were signs of a return to normalcy on Tuesday, with police and army patrolling the streets, BDNews24.com news portal said 

The top court today expressed dissatisfaction at the apology tendered by the Indian Medical Association’s president, Dr. RV Asokan, for his remarks made against the court in the misleading ads case.

Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s plan to travel to London has hit a roadblock over some “uncertainties” and she is unlikely to move out of India for the next couple of days, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Hasina, who landed at the Hindon airbase on Monday in a C-130J military transport aircraft hours after resigning as the prime minister, has been shifted to an unspecified location under tight security, they said.

An alert has been sounded in many parts of Bihar in the wake of the unrest in neighbouring Bangladesh, a top police official said on Tuesday. According to Additional Director of Police (Headquarters), J S Gangwar, the alert was issued in the districts situated close to Bangladesh.

Senior BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani was on Tuesday admitted to a leading private hospital in Delhi. His medical condition is stable, they said. The 96-year-old, who was born in undivided India, was admitted to the Apollo hospital here today, a hospital source told PTI. In the first week of July too, Advani was brought to this facility and discharged after being kept under observation for a couple of days.

The Indian Embassy in the United Kingdom issued a  circular alerting visitors traveling from India about the ongoing situation in the country and told them to exercise ‘due caution’. The advisory comes against the backdrop of riots in some parts of the United Kingdom.

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has agreed to lead the interim government as its chief adviser, according to a report by The Daily Star.

Retired IAS officer K Kailashnathan will take oath as the Lt Governor of Puducherry at a ceremony at the Raj Nivas here on Wednesday. Acting Chief Justice of Madras High Court D Krishnakumar will administer the oath of office to the new Lt Governor, official sources said. Kailashnathan will be the 25th Lt Governor of Puducherry.