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Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel didn’t get his due as one of the founding fathers of contemporary India but the Statue of Unity built by BJP in his honour has sent out a message to the world that none dares fracture the unity and integrity of the modern nation he helped create, home minister Amit Shah said on Sunday.

Shah, who was in Gujarat’s Kevadia to commemorate the 146th birth anniversary of Sardar Patel as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, slammed the opposition for trying to allegedly obliterate the “mammoth efforts” of India’s first home minister to integrate several princely states into the Indian Union post-Independence.

“It is unfortunate that there was an attempt to overlook Sardar Saheb. After Independence, his contributions were never given due respect and pride of place in history. He was not even conferred the Bharat Ratna,” he said.

New Delhi: My association with my alma mater – the Rashtriya Indian Military College, can never be ever complete without talking about Padre aka Commodore N Anil Jose Joseph. On the chilly night of 19 January 1979, when I tucked myself into the blanket on the first day of the boarding school, one saw a cadet in an oversized coat smiling at us. “I am Anil Joseph and I am your cadet guardian,” he had said assuring to a home sick fresher.

Joseph was three terms senior to us in the school and in the Ranjit Section. He was junior dormitory head cadet in our first term and our (senior) dormitory commander in his final term. His doses of moral lectures aside, all the four years that we were together, Joseph inspired us with his angelic ways – never aggressive, let alone abusive; always supportive; never untidy and always ready for inspection of his immaculately maintained cupboard.

The stage is set for byelections to three Lok Sabha seats and 29 assembly constituencies spread across 13 states and one UT, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, to be held on Saturday with many of them being seen as an issue of prestige for parties hit by defections. In majority of the seats, the main fight will be between the Bharatiya Janta Party and Congress candidates. Adequate security and Covid-19 safety measures have been put in place for the electoral exercise, the Election Commission has said. The counting of votes will take place on November 2.

The seats where Lok Sabha by-elections will be held are: Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh. In all the three Lok Sabha constituencies, the sitting members had died. The Mandi seat fell vacant after the death of Ramswaroop Sharma (BJP) in March. The by-election to the Khandwa parliamentary constituency was necessitated following the death of BJP member Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan while in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, it was due to the demise of Independent Lok Sabha member Mohan Delkar. 

Ever since the second wave of COVID-19 hit the nation, people in India have been preparing themselves for the third wave. Although, the cases were declining until now, but the sudden increase in the number of people testing positive has brought in fear amongst everyone. Amidst this fear, there is a new variant of coronavirus that has been reported. This new variant is called AY 4.2 variant of coronavirus and apparently, it has reached Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Telangana and Jammu Kashmir. 

According to reports in a prominent news channel, the new variant is under investigation and according to experts, the new variant is from the delta plus variant family of COVID-19. As we already said, a slight increase in COVID-19 cases was recorded in Maharashtra on Wednesday. This spike was recorded for the second day in a row. The state added a total of 1,485 new cases and 38 people died due to coronavirus. India reported 16,156 new cases and 733 deaths in the last 24 hours. As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data, the active caseload stands at 1,60,989.

India on Wednesday successfully test-fired surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni-V, it is nuclear capable and can strike targets at ranges up to 5,000 km, the government said in an official statement. The launch of the Surface to Surface Ballistic Missile, Agni-V, was carried out at approximately 7.50 PM from APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha. "The successful test of Agni-V is in line with India's stated policy to have credible minimum deterrence that underpins the commitment to 'No First Use'," the defence ministry said.

Agni-V ballistic missile test fired, key highlights:

Agni-V capable of striking targets at ranges up to 5,000 kilometres with very high degree of accuracy