Daily Briefing: Big infrastructure ministries record fast pace spending; RSS chief on uplifting Dalits

🔴As the economy picks up the thread post Covid-19, both Railways, and Road transport and Highways ministries have recorded a fast pace of spending in the first five months of the current financial year. In fact, these two ministries account for nearly half of the entire capital expenditure budgeted for 2022-23. What is of importance in their spending pattern is that the bulk of it was capex.

🔴 Two days after a video clip surfaced of him attending a religious conversion event, Delhi Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam submitted his resignation on Sunday. As per a video clip shared by BJP leaders, Gautam had taken part in an event where thousands were reported to have converted to Buddhism and reportedly pledged to not consider Hindu deities as gods.

Only in the Express

 In an interim order passed on October 8, the Election Commission of India froze the well known ‘bow and arrow’ election symbol of the Shiv Sena. Whenever parties split, there are chances of a dispute arising over claims to its election symbol. We explain what led to the freezing of the Shiv Sena’s symbol and how the ECI decides who gets the symbol.

In the latest edition of the Idea Exchange, Shiv Sena leader and Thackeray scion Aaditya Thackeray spoke on Eknath Shinde’s betrayal, the need for governance over politics, working trouble-free with the Congress-NCP combine and Vedanta Foxconn moving to Gujarat.

From the Front Page

Even as the election to choose the next Congress president is right around the corner, The Indian Express reviewed the list of PCC delegates who will cast their votes at the 67 booths across the states and at the AICC headquarters. While a 22-year-old MBBS graduate is the youngest among them, former Karnataka Speaker Kogodu Thimmappa, 90, is the oldest of the delegates.

After stating two days ago that the caste system had no relevance in the 21st century, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat Sunday assured that his organisation would back all those who worshipped Maharishi Valmiki. “(Though) Dr Ambedkar said that now the Dalits would sit with everyone, mere provisions won’t be enough. The mindset needs to change, and an awareness brought about,” he said.

Addressing a ‘Virat Hindu Sabha‘ organised by Hindu outfits in the capital on Sunday, BJP MP from West Delhi, Parvesh Verma, called for the “total boycott” of “these people”. He did not, however, name any community. The meeting was held to protest against the killing of a man who was stabbed over 20 times as he was returning home in East Delhi’s Sunder Nagri last week.

On a day internal differences clouded the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s national executive meeting in Delhi, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav appealed to party leaders to not allow personal differences to “dilute” the larger goal of defeating the BJP, saying such instances put the party on the defensive.

Must Read

Trainee mountaineers Rohit Bhatt along with Vinay Panwar, and Kapil Panwar went to trek, little did he know that he would be the only one left to tell the story of the grisly turn that took place at Uttarkashi on October 4. An avalanche hit Rohit’s team of 41 mountaineers, killing Vinay and Kapil, besides 25 others. Read Rohit’s story

As part of Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited Badanavalu, a village in the Karnataka’s Mysuru district, and inaugurated a path with colourful interlocking tiles connecting the Dalit quarters of the village with that of the Lingayat community. Named ‘Bharat Jodo’ Road, the path was renovated in a matter of 48 hours by the Congress that said it aimed to send out a message of harmony among communities. The path connecting the Dalit and Lingayat homes in Badanavalu village had been cut off since 1993, when three Dalits were killed in a clash over temple entry. 

From today’s opinion section, we bring to you the discussion on the current debate on ‘revdi culture’ and what it tells us about our perception of India’s voters. The debate on freebies shows an implicit distrust of voters, especially poor voters, says political philosopher Bastian Steuwer.

And Finally

From bunking college in his third year, the all-rounder moved 1500 km away from Haryana to Bengal, stayed in a small 12×12 room, all for the love of the game. ‘Jaanbaaz Shahbaaz’ donned India’s blue jersey on Sunday. Read cricketer Shahbaz Ahmed’s journey from engineering college to the cricket field. 

Delhi confidential: Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor’s book on Ambedkar will be launched later this week. The launch of “Ambedkar: A Life” comes at a time when the October 17 Congress presidential race, in which Tharoor is pitted against veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge, is picking pace.

🎧 In today’s episode of the ‘3 things’ podcast, we discuss Centre setting up a commission to see whether Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims should be granted the Scheduled Caste status. We also explain why the Election Commission has decided to freeze Shiv Sena’s party symbol and the Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo’s Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Until tomorrow,

Anandu Suresh and Susobhan Roy