Morning Wrap is HuffPost India’s selection of interesting news and opinion from the day’s newspapers
Main News
The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday swept to power with 67 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, leaving only three to the Bharatiya Janata Party and nil to the Congress. The electoral verdict was closely linked to a nearly-600-point swing in the stock markets that dipped and recovered nearly 600 points
India has offered money in exchange for more information on Indian account-holders in HSBC’s Swiss private arm to Herve Falciani, the former bank staffer-turned-whistleblower who had handed over more than 100GB of data on its clients to French officials in 2008, even as The Indian Express revealed how Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is linked to 14 such HSBC accounts that control nearly $601-million ( Rs 3000 crore).
The comedians at the AIB Knockout are increasingly finding less reasons for cheer after the Bombay High Court on Tuesday sought replies from the state government, Mumbai police and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking action against them.
In a move that raises serious questions of corporate control of the internet, Facebook Inc has announced a tie-up with Reliance Communications to launch Internet.org in India, a service that allows people to freely access a select menu of websites. India is the sixth country after Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Colombia and Ghana to be part of Internet.org, a Facebook-led initiative that includes Samsung and Qualcomm.
After petrol and diesel, the government announced that it has freed regulatory control over the storage, transportation and sale of kerosene sold outside of the public distribution system (PDS). Subsidised kerosene accounted for 21 per cent or Rs 30,000 crore of the oil ministry’s total under-recoveries of Rs 1,39,000 crore last financial year.
Off The Front Page
Arvind Kejriwal rained on the BJP’s nine-month-long parade as well as BJP president Amit Shah’s son’s wedding. The BJP’s defeat saw Modi’s strategy points-man toning down wedding ceremony of his son Jay Shah in Ahmedabad and giving the traditional firecrackers and musical band a miss.
Venkatrao Biradar, a former convict-turned-sugarcane- farmer in Karnataka, demolished two medieval-era polo posts, deemed to be of historical value and located in piece of empty land in the town centre. He told The Hindu that they were “just two pillars with snakes nesting inside.”
When the BJP takes stock of its Delhi-poll disaster it may want to consider the possibility of internal sabotage. The Telegraphreports conversations with BJP workers who said they voted for the AAP.
The BJP’s electoral rout doesn’t appear to have chastened the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Sadhvi Prachi Arya, a prominent Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader, has said that the 'Ghar Wapsi' programme will continue till the fifteen crore people who, she claimed, have left the Hindu fold post Independence, are "reconverted to Hinduism".
In perhaps the most colourful push for women’s safety, the Shimla municipal corporation plans to run 'pink taxis' driven by, and for the exclusive use of women on identified routes.
The Aam Aadmi Party is the toast of Delhi with several restaurants offering drinks and food named for Arvind Kejriwal and his iconic party symbol.
Opinion
Vidya Venkat in The Hindu says that the AAP’s resounding victory in the Delhi Assembly elections shows it is high time that political parties adopt concrete financial accountability measures for party funding.
Shyam Saran writes in the Business Standard that while the world has over the years worried over a rising China, China’s slowing economy could pose even bigger problems.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes in The Indian Express that Indian voters are looking for “agents of change rather than stasis, hope instead of easy cynicism, aspiration instead of fear, positivity instead of defeatism, and the future instead of the past.”