Wednesday, 16th September
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, urged people to participate in the Hyderabad Liberation Day celebrations to be held by the Central government at the Parade Grounds in Secunderabad on September 17 in large numbers. Mr. Sanjay alleged that the ruling Congress and the main opposition BRS are not officially celebrating Hyderabad Liberation Day out of the fear of the Majlis party. He accused the two parties of failing to acknowledge the sacrifices made during the Telangana Liberation Struggle.
Tuesday, 15th September
The government’s announcement of charges on UPI payments worth more than Rs. 2,000 made to merchants has been criticised as bowing to American pressure. Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, said American payment companies [such as Visa and MasterCard] had long been opposed to India’s free (i.e., zero-MDR) UPI digital payment technology. The party warned this could be a beginning and soon person-to-person transactions could be charged too.
Monday, 14 September
Telangana Rakshana Sena chief Kalvakuntla Kavitha accused Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy of “secretly colluding with” BRS MLA Harish Rao. She claimed the government was ignoring the illegal transfer of 100 acres of land listed under the prohibited category (22A) in Siddipet into the names of Mr. Harish Rao’s father and other family members. She challenged the Chief Minister to order an enquiry and take action against Mr. Harish Rao, adding that she was willing to hand over all the clear evidence.
The all-vegetarian food served at the gala dinner for BRICS dignitaries was the flagged by the opposition Congress as an imposition of the dietary preferences of the BJP. In social media posts, the party leaders said 80% of Indians were non-vegetarian and that the country was home to some of the finest non-vegetarian delicacies. The menu at BRICS dinner reportedly offered Khandvi mille (a feuille steamed gram-flour roll), and ‘khumb galouti’ (pan-grilled mushroom kebabs with mint pearls) as starters. The main course offered ‘paneer lababdar’, ‘gucchi marmik’ and ‘carrot bean poriyal’, light lentil broth, millet pulao, beetroot raita and assorted Indian breads. For the desserts, it had ‘Old Delhi fruit cream with jalebi’ and ‘shahtoot phirni’.
National BC Dal has expressed concern that some Backward Class communities are at risk of losing community identity in official records if the Census ignores the regional variation in nomenclature. “If one community is scattered across the census under a hundred different names, what may be lost is not merely a number, but the community’s collective identity in the official record,” said Dundra Kumaraswamy, president, National BC Dal. He called for a transparent and technically robust framework to address regional variations, sub-caste identities and linguistic differences, with clear standards for classification and aggregation.