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Today in Politics: PM Modi in Mumbai to commission naval vessels; Congress to inaugurate new national headquarters

The Supreme Court will hear several cases, including on the health of fasting farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal and the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute

Modi will also inaugurate the Sri Sri Radha Madanmohanji Temple, an ISKCON initiative, in Navi Mumbai. (Express Photo/ Ritesh Shukla)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Mumbai on Wednesday where he will commission three frontline naval combatants and inaugurate an ISKCON temple.

The PM will first dedicate to the nation three naval vessels – INS Surat, INS Nilgiri, and INS Vaghsheer – at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, marking a boost to India’s naval capabilities. While Surat and Nilgiri are warships, Vaghsheer is a submarine.

Later in the day, Modi will also inaugurate the Sri Sri Radha Madanmohanji Temple, an ISKCON initiative, in Navi Mumbai.

Also Read | PM Modi’s Mumbai visit tomorrow will include a session with Mahayuti MLAs; here’s why it is significant

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is in Gujarat on a three-day visit. On Wednesday, Shah will lay the foundation stone for a barrage on Sabarmati river near Ambod village before virtually inaugurating a circuit house in Mansa, Gandhinagar. He will also launch other projects, including road- and education-related development work.

Congress to inaugurate new headquarters

On Wednesday, the Congress national headquarters will have a new name and a new address: Indira Gandhi Bhawan on 9 A, Kotla Road, vacating the 24, Akbar Road bungalow in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi that the party had operated out of for nearly five decades, as reported by Asad Rehman.

In the making for one-and-a-half decades, the new headquarters of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) is ready and will be inaugurated a day after Makar Sankranti. Though the land allotted for the building is on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, the party decided to keep the entrance to its six-storey headquarters on Kotla Road to have it on the address instead of DDU Marg.

The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi as Congress president way back in December 2009. But it took the party 15 years to complete the construction of the building. Gandhi, now the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson, will inaugurate the building accompanied by AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi. About 400 Congress leaders from across the country are expected to attend the inauguration.

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In the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is set to hear a matter related to the health of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is on an indefinite fast pressing for demands including a legally guaranteed minimum support price for crops, on Wednesday among other pleas. The apex court will also hear a plea seeking contempt action against the Punjab government for not complying with its directions issued over moving Dallewal to a hospital on December 20 last year.

The SC will also hear a plea of the mosque management committee against an order rejecting its petition in the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute in Mathura, UP. A single judge bench of the Allahabad High Court on August 1 last year had rejected the plea of the Committee of Management, Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah, challenging the maintainability of 15 cases related to the temple-mosque dispute in Mathura, and ruled the “religious character” of Shahi Idgah needed to be determined.

Also Read | Farmer leader Dallewal: ‘It is aar paar ki ladai… I made my will (for family)… Will not end fast until our demands are met’

In addition, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh’s writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging the recent amendments to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, will come up for hearing in the apex court on Wednesday. The government has tweaked an election rule to prevent public inspection of certain electronic documents such as CCTV camera and webcasting footage as well as video recordings of candidates to prevent their misuse.

The Supreme Court will also hear a batch of pleas challenging a Calcutta High Court verdict invalidating the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in government and aided schools in West Bengal.

– With PTI inputs