FirstUp: Pakistan holds polls, RBI concludes MPC meet... Today's big stories

It’s Thursday.

And there’s a big day of news ahead.

The Reserve Bank of India will conclude its three-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meet in Mumbai.

The Bombay High Court will resume its hearing on the disqualification of Shiv Sena lawmakers by Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar.

Leaders of the INDIA bloc will join a protest by the LDF at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.

Across the border, Pakistan will hold its general elections today.

In the United States, the US Supreme Court will take up an appeal from former president Donald Trump over his ballot ban in Colorado.

Let’s take a look at today’s big stories:

RBI winds up MPC meet

The Reserve Bank will announce its monetary policy after winding up the three-day meeting of its high-powered rate-setting panel.

The central bank is expected to announce that it is leaving its policy rate unchanged at the end of the meet.

This comes as GDP growth is gains momentum and inflation remains under control.

The bank had in December decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent for the fifth straight time.

The RBI previously increased the repo rate in February to 6.5 per cent.

That decision brought an end to the interest rate hike cycle which began in May 2022 in the aftermath of Russia-Ukraine war and subsequent disruptions in the global supply chain resulting in high inflation.

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Aditi Nayar, chief economist, ICRA said, “We expect the MPC to pause in its December 2023 review, amidst a fairly hawkish tone of the policy document”.

Bombay HC hears disqualification case

The Bombay High Court will continue hearing a plea from Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena challenging the legality of the decision taken by the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to not disqualify 14 MLAs belonging to the rival Sena faction headed by Uddhav Thackeray.

The petition, filed on 12 January by Bharat Gogavale, the chief whip of the ruling Shiv Sena against the 14 MLAs, said they were challenging the “legality, propriety and correctness” of the 10 January order passed by Speaker Rahul Narwekar dismissing the disqualification petitions submitted by him against the rival camp Assembly members.

Gogavale has asked the high court to declare the Speaker’s order as “bad in law”, quash it and disqualify all the 14 MLAs of the Shiv Sena (UBT) from the lower house of the state legislature.

This comes in the backdrop of the Thackeray faction filing a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Speaker’s order declaring the Sena group led by Shinde as the “real Shiv Sena” after its split in June 2022.

Uddhav had stepped down as chief minister on 29 June, 2022, after a section of Shiv Sena MLAs, led by Shinde, revolted against his leadership, leading to the collapse of the three-party MVA government.

The next day, Shinde took oath as the new chief minister of Maharashtra with support from the BJP, the largest party in the state Assembly.

The Shinde group had the support of 37 out of the total 54 Shiv Sena MLAs when the party split in June 2022, the Speaker had noted in his ruling.

INDIA bloc leaders join LDF protest

Leaders from the INDIA bloc are likely to join the protest by Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar today.

The protest comes in the backdrop of the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Binoy Viswam said that all “secular” parties and leaders have been invited to join the protest.

“Many of them have responded,” he said.

Viswam said DMK, NCP, and RJD are among the parties likely to join the protest which will be attended by Kerala Chief Minister Vijayan, MPs, MLAs and others from the state.

However, the Congress-led UDF Opposition in Kerala has declined an invite to join the protest.

In a letter, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK leader M K Stalin on Tuesday extended support to his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan for “preserving fiscal federalism”.

Pakistan polls

Who will win the Pakistan polls?

While many voters in Pakistan doubt the election will be free and fair and say it doesn’t even matter, all eyes will be affixed on the three top parties – the PPP, the PML-N and the PTI – as the country votes in its parliamentary elections.

While former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is the firm favourite and seemingly has the backing of the country’s powerful military, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the scion of a political dynasty, will be hoping to make a splash.

However, one man remains conspicuous by his absence – ex-prime minister Imran Khan, the cricket hero turned Islamist politician who was ousted in April 2022 and is currently behind bars.

Another thing to watch is if the polls pass off peacefully.

Wednesday saw bombs ripping through two separate political offices in southwestern Pakistan leaving at least 30 people dead.

US SC to hear Donald Trump appeal on Colorado ban

Is former president Donald Trump eligible to return to the White House?

Colorado has already thrown the 45th President of the United States off its ballot for violating a provision in the 14th Amendment preventing those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.

Now, the highest court in the United States is set to grapple with the question.

The US Supreme Court may not want to weigh in – but many think it has little choice.

While many predict the court will reverse the Colorado ruling rather than remove the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination from the ballot, no one can know for sure.

On this day…

Ghazal singer Jagjit Singh came into the world on 8 February, 1941 in Rajasthan.

Singh, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan, was born in Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar.

He shifted to Mumbai after graduating to begin his music career.

For the next decade and half, he earned nationwide fame as ghazal singer and music composer.

He sang in several languages, including Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali.

He popularised the ghazal genre for common man in the 70s and 80s and lent his voice to unforgettable classics such as Hazaron khwaishe aisi , Ye kaghaz ki kashti and Jhuki jhuki si nazar.

Singh passed away in October 2011 at Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital.

There will never be another ghazal king.

With inputs from agencies