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The Modi Government earlier this week, on Monday to be precise, introduced a Bill in the Lok Sabha making the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi largely irrelevant.

The Bill, according to media reports, seeks to clarify that the expression Government in Delhi shall mean the L-G in the context of any legislation passed by the Assembly. This, it says will be consistent with the status of Delhi as a Union Territory and will address the ambiguities in the interpretation of legislative provisions.

The Bill seeks to give discretionary powers to the L-G even in matters where the Legislative Assembly of Delhi is empowered to make laws. Henceforth, according to this Bill the L-G is necessarily to be granted an opportunity to give his or her opinion before any decision is taken by the Council of Ministers (or the Delhi Cabinet) is implemented, according to media reports.

Governors in states have very little discretionary powers. Remember the clash between the then Governor of Gujarat Kamla Beniwal and the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi over the appointment of Lokayukta in 2013, just a few months before BJP decided to make Modi its Prime Ministerial candidate? For several years when Modi refused to appoint a Lokayukta to review any act of corruption or financial indiscretions committed by his government, despite hurling all kinds of insinuation against the then UPA Government at the Centre, Kamla Beniwal, decided in consultation with the chief justice of Gujarat High Court, to appoint a Lokayukta.

Modi was so incensed that he passed a legislation in the Gujarat assembly withdrawing the discretionary powers of the Governor and the Chief Justice of the state and sent up the Bill for the approval of the Governor. This was the time when BJP was on agitating on the streets of Delhi with Anna Hazare demanding the appointment of a Lokpal with most wide ranging powers.

Returning to Delhi, in December 2012, a young intern physiotherapist returning from a late night movie taking a lift in a private bus was gangraped and horribly brutalised in the bus by its six occupants while her male friend was also badly beaten up. This caused huge outrage and violent protests in the national capital led by many present day leaders and apologists of the present regime including Baba Ramdev and General V K Singh questioning the lack of control of the Delhi government then led by Congress leader Sheila Dikshit over law and order. The BJP then announced that once it came to power it would restore full powers to the Delhi government, including control over the Police.

BJP and even its earlier incarnation the Jana Sangh have, since the 1960s, made political capital out of the fact that the citizens of Delhi have no elected body to govern them and the Centre which controlled everything in Delhi was far too busy with national affairs to pay much heed to the people of Delhi. Their first agitation led to a compromise between the Centre and the political representatives of Delhi. So, in 1966 the Centre granted and constituted a Metropolitan Council for Delhi called the Delhi Metropolitan Council (DMC). This body was governed largely by all the rules governing a legislative body, like the chairman, the chief executive councillor (CEC), an equivalent of the chief minister and a couple of executive councillors imparting the functions of a ministers, was still merely an advisory body.

It was a deliberative body, devised as a compromise between a legislative assembly with full legislative and financial powers and administered by the President through his nominee, the Administrator. With effect from September 7, 1966, the Administrator was designated as Lt. Governor. Under Section 30 of the 1966 Act, the Lt. Governor worked under the general control of the President and complied with such particular direction as may from time to time be given by him. The first DMC was constituted in 1966 with Congress leader Mir Mushtaq Ahmad as the CEC and Jag Pravesh Chandra as the chairman of the Council.

In 1967 general elections, Congress lost the election to the newly constituted DMC while Jana Sangh came to power with Vijay Kumar Malhotra as the CEC and L K Advani nominated to the post of the chairman. But in the 1971-72 elections the Congress swept out the Jana Sangh and Mir Mushtaq Ahmad became the chairman and Radha Raman the CEC of Delhi, who remained in this post till 1977 wherein again the Congress was routed and now the Janata Party was elected to the DMC with Kedar Nath Sahni becoming the CEC. But in 1980 when Mrs Gandhi returned to power, she dissolved almost all the opposition assemblies and DMC putting in place a Congress-led DMC with Jag Pravesh Chandra as the CEC. This lasted till 1987 by which time the leader of Opposition in the DMC Madan Lal Khurana and the BJP continued agitating on a daily basis for a full-fledged Delhi state. there were electoral compulsions linked to escalating statehood in the national capital.

After suffering a resounding defeat in the 1984 general elections, the BJP was keen to re-establish its pre-eminence in its traditional pocket burrough Delhi, and the statehood demand perfectly suited its campaign to regain popular support. Indeed, statehood demand was one of the key contributing factors that propelled BJP to political power in Delhi in 1993. This earned Madan Lal Khurana the title of Dilli Ka Sher (Lion of Delhi), according to Niranjan Sahoo, who has done a research on the subject of Delhi statehood.

In the meantime, Mrs Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984 and Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister and heeding to the overwhelming demand by the Opposition led by Khurana and the BJP, he dissolved the DMC and appointed Sarkaria-Balakrishnan (first Justice Sarkaria and then on his resignation, Justice Balakrishnan committee to study the demand for a full fledged assembly. The committee noted that most of the difficulties faced by the citizens of Delhi were due to the structural inadequacies and flaws of the existing system. It further held that while the federal government should have substantial control over the governance of the national capital, the people in the city also needed a representative body to look into sectors of administration that impact their daily lives. Even as it maintained Union Territory status for Delhi, the report made a strong recommendation for the restoration of legislative assembly with appropriate powers to deal with matters concerning the citizenry, said Sahoo, adding The BJP and the Janata Dal made a strong plea before the committee, demanding an urgent end to the prolonged chaos and confusion due to multiplicity of authorities in Delhi. Both parties argued for full statehood to provide the citizens of the national capital the right to self-governance.

But meanwhile in 1989 Rajiv went out of power and there were several changes of regime in between; first V P Singhs National Front government, then Chandra Shekhars four-month government; the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in the midst of 1991 elections and the return of the Congress party at the Centre led by P V Narasimha Rao which got the Parliament to pass the Constitution (69th Amendment) Act, 1991, which inserted articles 239AA and 239AB in the Constitution, providing for Delhi legislative assembly.

The Act also supplemented the term Union territory for Delhi with The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCT) Act, 1991 to supplement the constitutional provisions relating to the legislative assembly and the council of ministers. Briefly, the 69th Amendment Act virtually restored the kind of governance system that was offered to Delhi in 1952: a Union Territory with a legislative assembly, council of ministers and an elected chief minister with a limited mandate. BJP and Madan Lal Khurana who were making this demand for long, stood vindicated and reaped a political capital from this by winning the first elections to the Delhi assembly in 1993 and becoming Delhis chief minister.

Soon Khurana had to resign because his name appeared in the Jain diary hawala case and Sahib Singh Verma became the chief minister. Meanwhile the BJP-led NDA government assumed office with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Prime Minister in 1998. However Sahib Singh had made such a mess of Delhi administration and the cases of crime shot up so much that the BJP decided to make Sushma Swaraj Delhi chief minister who made a big thing of visiting police stations at night to apparently monitor the law and order situation, when the Police and law and order were never a state subject in Delhi.

Despite this brief effort of the BJP to retrieve lost political ground, it lost badly to the Congress in 1998 Delhi assembly elections mainly on the law and order question and the limited powers of Delhi government and Sheila Dikshit, an able administrator became Delhi chief minister for the next 15 years, though she too had no jurisdictional control over Delhi Police or Delhi land.

Now out of power the BJP once again brought the demand for full statehood for Delhi to the fore. In fact, the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre prepared a draft Delhi Reorganisation Bill in 1998 (with Sahib Singh Verma leading the draft preparation) that proposed full statehood for Delhi minus the NDMC (New Delhi Municipal Corporation) area. The bill stated that while the centre would have control over public order and police for the entire city, it will have a say on the subjects of land and local government only for the NDMC area and the Delhi government would have jurisdiction on land and local government of the rest of Delhi.

The demand for statehood reached its high point in 2003 when the then Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani tabled the State of Delhi Bill, 2003, which promised statehood with maximum autonomy for Delhi.[30] The Constitutional Amendment (102) Bill intended to repeal two constraining articles: 239AA and 239AB. After its introduction, the bill was moved to Standing Committee for further deliberations. With the BJP losing Delhi assembly elections in December 2003 and the general elections later, the statehood bill died prematurely.

However, BJP maintained its position on statehood all through the term of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments during 200414. It put full statehood as its top agenda in its 2013 election manifesto. But the moment the NDA government of Narendra Modi assumed office, the party dropped the statehood demand from its Vision Document in the 2015 assembly elections, an unprecedented move in four decades of the partys vocal advocacy. Curiously the Vision Document was prepared by another Delhi leader and Modis most trusted confidant then late Arun Jaitley.

Since then, the BJP-led government at the centre has completely shunned the idea of statehood (and has taken the complete opposite stance at the Supreme Court hearing on statehood, something that goes against the partys original stance.

And now it has also introduced a Bill which would curtail even the limited powers that the Delhi government and state assembly bestowed upon it by the 69th amendment to the Constitutiion.

( The writer is a senior commentator. Views are personal)

Continued here:
BJP spearheaded the demand for statehood but now takes away even the limited powers of Delhi Govt - National Herald

Khan said on Wednesday that India will be benefitted economically by having peace with Pakistan as it will enable New Delhi to directly access the resource-rich Central Asia region through Pakistani territory.

"India will have to take the first step. Unless they do so, we cannot do much," Khan said while delivering the inaugural address at the launch of the two-day Dialogue.

Khan said that having a direct route to the Central Asian region will economically benefit India. Central Asia is rich in oil and gas.

Central Asia, in the modern context, generally includes five resource-rich countries -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In his address, Gen Bajwa also said that peace between Pakistan and India would help to "unlock the potential of South and Central Asia" by ensuring connectivity between East and West Asia.

The powerful army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 73 plus years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in the matters of security and foreign policy.

Their remarks came weeks after the militaries of India and Pakistan announced on February 25 that they have agreed to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors.

India and Pakistan signed a ceasefire agreement in 2003, but it had hardly been followed in letter and spirit over the past several years with more violations than observance of the pact.

"Our neighbour will have to create a conducive environment, particularly in Kashmir, Gen Bajwa said in his address, adding that any effort to improve ties without addressing the core issue would be vulnerable to external political factors.

"The Kashmir issue is at the heart of this. It is important to understand that without the resolution of the Kashmir dispute through peaceful means, the process will always remain susceptible to derailment to politically motivated bellicosity, he said.

Though, both Prime Minister Khan and Gen Bajwa didn't specify the minimum steps that India should take but many experts in Pakistan believe that some positive measures in Kashmir could ease pressure on the Pakistan government before entering into talks or restoring the normal diplomatic ties.

Gen Bajwa also talked about poverty which he said was linked with the regional tension that had hindered the regional connectivity and integration.

"Despite being impoverished, we end up spending a lot of our money on defence, which naturally comes at the expense of human development," he said.

However, he added that Pakistan was resisting the temptation to become part of the arms race or increase defence budget despite rising security challenges.

"This has not been easy, especially when you live in a hostile and unstable neighbourhood. But having said that, let me say that we are ready to improve our environment by resolving all our outstanding issues with our neighbours through dialogue in a dignified and peaceful manner," he said.

Ties between India and Pakistan nose-dived after a terror attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in 2016 by terror groups based in the neighbouring country. Subsequent attacks, including one on Indian Army camp in Uri, further deteriorated the relationship.

The relationship dipped further after India's war planes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp deep inside Pakistan on February 26, 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed.

The relations deteriorated after India announced withdrawing special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the state into two union territories in August, 2019.

Talking about the concept of national security, Gen Bajwa said that it was not just about protecting countries from an external and internal threat.

"Today, the leading drivers of change in the world are demography, economy and technology However, one issue that remains central to this concept is economic security and cooperation, he said.

He said that since national security involved ensuring human security, national progress and development, it was not solely the function of the armed forces and required a national effort to safeguard a nation.

The rest is here:
Its time for Pakistan & India to bury the past and move forward, says Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa - National Herald

This morning Techstars Music is announcing 11 new companies that have joined its ranks, along with a partnership with Atlanta media company/record label Quality Control.

While its easy to mentally bunch everything Techstars does together under the singular Techstars name, its actually made up of 40+ interconnected accelerator programs each with its own focus and portfolio. The majority of these are focused on a specific region programs like Techstars Boulder, Boston or LA. Others focus on a specific vertical or industry like sports, space, or, in this case, music.

So what all does that music focus cover? Its not just music creation tools, or apps for artists. As Techstars Music Managing Director Bob Moczydlowsky put it in a Q&A last year, we dont invest in music companies we invest in companies solving problems for music.

Their past portfolio includes Endel, which generates personalized soundscapes meant to help you focus or fall asleep faster, and Blink Identity, a company looking to replace the paper/digital concert ticket with facial recognition machines at the venues entrance.

555 Comic: Develops virtual characters and uses them to tell stories through social media (like the tweet above). Imagine one artist having multiple personas, with each genre they dabble in represented by a different character, each with an evolving backstory. (Fun trivia: The number five said aloud in Japanese sounds like Go; the Japanese companys name is a play on Go Go Go!)

BlackOakTV: A subscription, on-demand video service focusing on content made by black creators. Currently costs $4.99 a month with apps available on most major platforms.

Creative Futures Collective: A networking/mentoring program aiming to unearth the next generation of creative industry leaders from disenfranchised backgrounds and connect them with jobs and paid internships.

Fave: A social platform meant to help an artists superfans connect with each other and allow them to compete to earn rewards from the artist.

HappsNow: A fully white-labeled ticketing platform meant to give artists/venues more control of the experience.

Holotch: Capture volumetric 3D video with off-the-shelf technology and stream it live. Imagine an artist capturing a performance live, and being able to watch them perform in your living room through augmented reality holograms.

Music Tech Works: A super simplified catalog and workflow for figuring out who owns the rights to a song and acquiring a license to use it.

Image Credits: Rares

Rares: A platform for investing in shares of particularly notable sneakers think game-worn shoes, the hardest to find or those that were never mass produced.

Remetrik: A software platform that aims to bring all of the (often labyrinthian) accounting involved with music royalties into one place in a simple and transparent way.

Volta Audio LTD: A platform for artists to build immersive mixed reality live experiences by, as the company puts it, converting your music into an interactive world. Artist Imogen Heap has been experimenting with the tool during performances over the last few months; weve embedded a bit of a recent stream above.

Westcott Multimedia: An automated advertising platform that looks for events related to a music catalog (like, say, an artists birthday, or a song being played in the background of a viral video) and builds marketing campaigns around them.

Along with this latest class, Techstars Music is also announcing that its partnering with Quality Control, the media house behind Quality Control Music best known as the label behind Migos, Lil Yachty and Lil Baby. Quality Control joins Techstars Music as a member company (sort of like their equivalent to an LP, offering investment, helping to vet companies and mentoring them once theyre in); existing members include Amazon Music, AVEX, Bill Silva Entertainment, Concord, Peloton, Entertainment One, Right Hand Music Group, Royalty Exchange, Sony and Warner Music Group.

Moczydlowsky tells me that Techstars Music alumni companies have raised over $105 million since the first class in 2017 and that the group above has already raised over $3 million ahead of its demo day in May.

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Techstars Music announces its 2021 class and a partnership with Quality Control - TechCrunch

This is... interesting.

After adding the capacity for users to limit who can reply to their tweets last August, Twitter is now extending the same to promoted tweets, so that brands can limit who is able to reply to their ads.

As you can see here, now, within the Twitter ads creation flow, you'll have the option to choose who can replay to your promoted tweet via a new dropdown menu. As with Twitter's regular conversation controls, advertisers will be able to leave it as the default, which will mean that anyone can reply, or they'll be able to select People you follow or Only people you mention, restricting who can respond.

Why might you want to limit who can respond to your promoted tweet?

The main impetus for conversation controls in regular tweets is to stop trolls from commenting, or to limit the conversation for, say, an interview or more intimate discussion. Those same reasons could theoretically apply to promoted tweets - you could avoid potential critical replies by limiting who can respond, or you could effectively promote an interview stemming from your initial promoted tweet by mentioning the interviewee and limiting who can respond.

That could be a good way to add more context to a promotion - while there will also be various other ways in which brands will be able to prompt interaction and engagement by limiting who can respond to their promotions.

Maybe you could offer a discount to specified Twitter handles mentioned in the tweet, or you could make a special offer to anyone who's replies to the tweet - but in order to reply, they'll need to follow your handle (and you can then follow them back).

The option opens up a range of potential creative ideas, and it'll be interesting to see how brands look to utilize this capacity in their promoted tweets.

Definitely, the capability to limit replies has proven popular for regular users - Twitter says that since launch, 11 million people have applied conversation settings to 70 million conversations.

It could well present some new opportunities. Time to get thinking.

You can read more about Twitter's audience controls for promoted tweets here.

Originally posted here:
Twitter Will Now Enable Advertisers to Control Who Can Reply to Their Promoted Tweets - Social Media Today

The former vice president of the Community of Madrid and regional leader of Citizens, Ignacio Aguado, said this Sunday that those who they control the media and alter polls are very powerful but can never take away your ability to think for yourself.

This was stated this Sunday in a tweet after a troubled week in which the Madrid president, Isabel Daz Ayuso, dissolved the Madrid Assembly last Wednesday to call early elections, and after that dismissed the advisers of Citizens who were part of the regional government coalition, as well as Aguado as vice president.

Aguado accused the president of betraying the government agreement, and of wanting to call elections for more than a year, as well as of mislead public opinion to make him believe that he had called early elections because there was a motion of censure in the making between the PSOE and Cs against the PP.

This Friday, from the government of Murcia it was announced that three deputies of Citizens would vote against the motion of no confidence organized by his own party with the PSOE.

In addition, this Sunday, Fran Hervas left Ciudadanos to join the PP in an attempt to unify the center-right vote.

They control the media, put on and take out talk shows, alter the polls to condition the mood of public opinion. They are very powerful, there is no doubt. But they can never take away your ability to think for yourself, to be critical and free. Lets go Citizens , he wrote in his account on the social network Twitter.

They control the media, put on and take out chat rooms, alter polls to condition the mood of public opinion.

They are very powerful, there is no doubt.

But they can never take away your ability to think for yourself, to be critical and free. #VamosCs

Ignacio Aguado (@ignacioaguado) March 14, 2021

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Aguado criticizes the very powerful who control the media and alter polls EXPLICA.CO ALL NEWS IN WORL - Explica