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“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom”. This sentence in the ‘tryst with destiny’ speech of Jawaharlal Nehru has inspired generations of Indians and will continue to do so. But there is something that will haunt all Indians for a long time to come: the agonising entreaty by the Unnao rape victim to save her life: “I don’t want to die. I want to live to see them hanged,” she told her family.

It is interesting to note that Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) an economic think-tank affiliated to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has finally come out with its opposition to privatisation and sale of strategic state-owned industrial assets by the government. It has openly expressed its ire and anguish on the government’s reckless decision to sell large public sector enterprises. SJM’S latest reaction also serves as a reminder to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party that the idea of building and managing strategic industrial and commercial ventures in the public sector for the speedy development of the country’s economy came from no other person than Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, India’s first industry minister. It is important to understand the background of India’s public sector and the support it received by RSS, from the very beginning.

With only two days left for the polling in United Kingdom, the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has launched the final election push to deny Tories a majority. In spite of Tory candidate Boris Johnson being an unpopular contender, he has been ahead of Corbyn. This has been primarily due to the fact that Conservative supporters continue to stick to the party notwithstanding Boris being their nominee.

The Modi government has cleared the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in a cabinet meeting on December 4, 2019 and it was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 9. The Bill proposes to amend Section 2 (1) (b) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 by excluding “persons belonging to minority communities, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan” from the ambit of “illegal immigrants”. The Bill further proposes to amend clause (d) of the Third Schedule of the Citizenship Act, 1955 by reducing the period of residence in India, for those from the above-referred religious communities, for the acquisition of Indian citizenship through naturalization to six years from the earlier period of eleven years.

One intriguing feature of the highly politicised feud between state Governor Mr Jagdeep Dhankhar and West Bengal Government is that both squabbling parties are confident of winning it, never mind the consequential sufferings for Bengal’s stressed, aggrieved citizens. An added complication is that one side, the ruling Trinamool Congress(TMC), is not terribly averse to fight ‘dirty’ if necessary, even if this involves distorting facts and making false claims.

Kathmandu: Commonwealth Games gold medallist Vikas Krishan and 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Pinki Rani put up a brilliant display as they led seven more Indian boxers into the finals at the 13th South Asian Games here today.

Hyderabad: Manvir Singh came off the bench to score the match-winner as FC Goa edged past Hyderabad FC 1-0 in the Hero Indian Super League clash at the GMC Balayogi Stadium here on Sunday.

Kannur: World Championships silver medallist Sonia Chahal (57kg) and India Open Gold medallist Bhagyabati Kachari (81kg) finished on the top podium as the Railways continued their dominance with six gold medals at the 4th Elite Women’s National Boxing Championships at the Mundayad Indoor Stadium, here today.

Markham: Young Indian paddler Manav Thakkar on Sunday scripted history as he became the first Indian since 2017 to clinch U-21 men’s singles title with a comfortable 11-3, 11-5, 11-6 win over Argentina’s Martin Bentancor in the ITTF Challenge Plus Benemax-Virgo North American Open in Markham, Canada.

Guwahati: The Fijian professional footballer Roy Krishna was awarded the ISL Hero of the Month for November after some scintillating performances for ATK. The striker saw off stiff competition from the likes of Jamshedpur FC’s Sergio Castel, Odisha FC’s Aridane Santana, FC Goa’s Mourtada Fall and Bengaluru FC custodian Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.