Daily Bulletin: Tension over Sabarimala, Rafale likely to continue in Parliament; two miners die in second Meghalaya mine collapse; day's top stories

Tension between BJP and CPM over Sabarimala likely to continue in Parliament today At least 5,700 people have been arrested in Kerala as incidents of violence over the Sabarimala issue continued over most of the weekend. Workers of BJP-RSS and ruling CPM clashed as a number of houses and shops in the politically volatile Kannur district were attacked. Several houses and shops of rival leaders and workers were attacked on Saturday forcing the district administration to impose prohibitory orders. Amid incidents of vandalism, Governor P Sathasivam briefed Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh about the law and order situation in the southern state. BJP members are likely to raise the issue of continued violence in Kerala during the Zero Hour in Parliament on Monday after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan lashed out at BJP. After the BJP threatened the state government with consequences under “constitutional provisions” over the incidents of violence, the chief minister, in a Facebook post on Sunday wrote, “It is strange that those who are trying to create violence to torpedo the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict are threatening the government that it would face consequences under constitutional provisions. Threatening a government which is implementing its Constitutional responsibility is against the Constitution.” [caption id=“attachment_5828171” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of the Parliament. Twitter @loksabhatv[/caption] BJP and Congress likely to face-off over Rafale issue in Parliament As Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman continued to exchange barbs over the details of Rafale issue, Congress and BJP are likely to continue the debate in Parliament on Monday. Rahul, on Sunday, slammed Sithamaran for “lying” in Parliament after the defence minister countered the Congress’ claims on Friday. Rahul demanded Sitharaman’s resignation, and tweeted, “When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PM’s Rafale lie, the RM (Raksha Mantri) lied to Parliament. Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing 1 Lakh crore of Govt orders to HAL. Or resign.” Gandhi questioned her over a  media report that said that India’s leading defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is keenly awaiting formalisation of orders adding up to Rs 1 lakh crore mentioned by Sitharaman during the discussion on the Rafale fighter deal in the Lok Sabha on Friday. However, Sitharaman asked the Congress president to “read the complete report” pointing out that it mentioned, “Sitharaman did not claim the orders were signed, saying they were in the works”. Final JPC report on Citizenship Amendment Bill to be submitted in Parliament today The final report of the joint parliamentary committee on the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which will be submitted in Lok Sabha on Monday, does not have the approval of at least four opposition parties whose members on the panel have moved dissent notes, according to a PTI report. Members of the Congress, TMC, CPM and the Samajwadi Party have moved dissent notes to the JPC report on the bill, sources across these parties said. “As members of the joint committee on Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, we can state that there was no consensus in the committee on the final report. We had been opposed to the bill as it brings out the ethnic divisions in the state of Assam,” one of the notes said. Two miners die in second mine collapse in Meghalaya In another incident reported only after a missing complaint was lodged, two miners were killed in a second coal mine collapse in East Jaintia Hills. The fresh accident at Mooknor, Jalyiah village came to light after one Philip Bareh filed a report that his nephew Elad Bareh (26) had been missing since Friday. A search was conducted and his body was found in front of an illegal ‘rat-hole’ coal mine. “When we further checked inside the narrow mine, another body was found. The second man was identified as Monoj Basumatry,” said Superintendent of Police Sylvester Nongtnger. Police suspect that boulders hit them when they tried to extract coal. Mine owner not yet identified. The fate of 15 miners trapped in the first flooded mine still remained uncertain. Rain plays spoilsport on Day 5 of Sydney Test India’s hopes of registering a comprehensive win at Sydney were beginning to fade after rain washed out the morning session on Day 5 of the fourth Test. Australia are still 316 runs behind, with Marcus Harris and Usman Khawaja having put six runs on the board before bad light stopped play on Sunday. Despite the likelihood of the Sydney Test ending in a draw, Virat Kohli and company are all but set to celebrate India’s first-ever Test series victory in Australia. Follow live updates on the day's play here. Illegal assets worth Rs 11 crore seized in Karnataka producers tax raid Raids by income tax sleuths on properties owned by four actors and three producers in Karnataka across Bangalore from 3 to 5 January resulted in the seizure of undisclosed assets valued at Rs 11 crore, including Rs 2.85 crore in cash and 25.3 kilograms of gold jewellery, the department said on Sunday. The four actors are Shivaraj Kumar, his younger brother Puneeth Kumar, Sudeep and Yash. The three film producers are Rockline Venkatesh, CR Manohar and B Vijay Kiragandhur. Actors Shivaraj and Puneeth are the sons of Kannada matinee idol and thespian Rajkumar. Fuel prices drop Fuel prices are on a decline since 4 January with diesel prices cut by 10 paise on Sunday. Petrol was retailing at Rs 68.29 in Delhi on Sunday, Rs 73.95 in Mumbai, Rs 70.43 in Kolkata while it was sold at Rs 70.85 per litre in Chennai. Diesel was retailing at Rs 62.16 per litre in Delhi, Rs 65.05 in Mumbai, Rs 63.93 in Kolkata, and Rs 65.62 per litre in Chennai. Since mid-October, petrol prices have fallen by Rs 14.18 per litre and diesel by Rs 13.03 per litre. Two-day bank strike on 8 and 9 January Banking services are likely to be affected for two days — 8 and 9 January, as a section of public sector undertaking bank employees, may go on a two-day strike in support of the nation-wide strike call given by 10 central trade unions against the government’s alleged anti-work policy. The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India have informed the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) of the two-day nationwide strike, IDBI said in a filing to the BSE. In a stock exchange filing, Allahabad Bank said the issues and demands are of industry-level and the strike call is also given at the industry-level. Ten central trade unions — INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, TUCC, LPF and SEWA — have also called for a nationwide general strike on 8 and 9 January against what they call ‘anti-people’ policies of the Centre and have placed a charter of 12 demands before the central government. With inputs from agencies