Daily Bulletin: Nirmala Sitharaman slams Opposition over Rafale report, BJP to end indefinite fast in Sabarimala; day's top stories

Nirmala Sitharaman slams Opposition over Rafale Accusing the Opposition of spreading misinformation in the Rafale deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday speculated whether the parties were becoming pawns in corporate rivalry and whether the procurement of 36 fighter jets was being “sabotaged”. “I want every strand of this debate to be explained, as much as it can be, without any of us playing into the hands of international corporate warfare. None of us should play party to any corporate warfare. We cannot become pawns in the hands of the corporate giants to constantly bully the government, to constantly throw misinformation at the public, to misinform the public,” she said. Her attack on the Opposition parties comes a day after a newspaper report claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to buy 36 Rafale jets, instead of 126 as negotiated by the previous UPA government, was taken while bypassing mandated procedures, pushing the price of each aircraft by 41.42 percent. [caption id=“attachment_5296901” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. PTI[/caption] Narendra Modi hits out at TMC-led rally, says grand alliance is ‘against people’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the TMC-led Opposition rally in Kolkata and their proposed grand alliance, saying it was a combine of those whom he had prevented from “looting” India and it was not against him but the people of the country. He took a dig at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, saying the BJP had only one MLA in her state “but still they are so afraid of us that they are saying bachao (save us)”. “The grand alliance is not against Narendra Modi but the people of India,” Modi said at a public function at Silvassa, the capital of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, after laying the foundation stone for a medical college ‘Our protest over Sabarimala failed’: BJP to end indefinite fast today The BJP is expected to lead a massive rally in Trivandrum over the Sabarimala issue on Sunday, while the party admitted that its “fight” to “protect the faith” of devotees on the Sabarimala issue was “not entirely successful”. The party has been spearheading the agitation against the Kerala government’s decision to implement the Supreme Court order allowing entry of women of all age groups into the shrine of Lord Ayyappa. Speaking at the venue of the protest, state BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai said the party would end the indefinite fast on Sunday. “There were notable achievements during certain phases of the agitation, but our fight to protect the faith was not entirely successful,” he said. “Even though we were unable to achieve 100 percent success, we were able to garner more public support due to the blessings of Lord Ayyappa,” Pillai said at the protest venue in front of the Secretariat. The protest lost steam at a point of time when the saffron party was unable to field known leaders to take part in the indefinite relay fast. The fast was started by party general secretary AN Radhakrishnan followed by CK Padmanabhan and Shobha Surendran, among others. Super Wolf Blood Moon on 20 January The “Super Wolf Blood Moon” will take place on the night of 20 January. This is the only total lunar eclipse of the year, but India will not be able to witness it. India may not be in the right half of the world to catch a glimpse, but there is a live stream that you can watch. The total lunar eclipse will begin at 11.41 pm ET on 20 January (10.11 am IST on 21 January) and last an hour and 2 minutes.