The Evening Wrap: Kharge calls Opposition meeting ahead of Budget session on Monday

Congress President and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has called a meeting of “like-minded” opposition parties on Monday. The meeting will be held at his office at Parliament before the start of the business of Rajya Sabha. The meeting is believed to be called to chalk out the strategy of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha. Kharge, on Friday, reiterated his party’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the businesses of the Adani Group in the wake of the report by Hindenburg Research. Addressing a press conference, Kharge said, “Shouldn’t there be an inquiry into the Adani scam? Shouldn’t the matter be referred to the JPC? Should not there be a discussion on the money that public sector banks invested in Adani’s businesses? Public money is involved in it. Why does the government have a problem taking Adani’s name?” He also alleged that PM Narendra Modi acted as an ‘agent’ for the Adani group of companies. “The RBI, SEBI, ED, Corporate Affairs Ministry, Income Tax, and the CBI seem paralysed. Can they not see the corruption here? Is Adani invisible to them?” he asked regarding the regulatory bodies. “We tried to raise several issues in the Parliament. However, the Prime Minister evaded all questions and just gave an election speech, boasting about himself,” he added. Maharashtra Governor Koshyari’s resignation accepted Former Supreme Court judge Justice S. Abdula Nazeer is among the six new faces who were appointed as Governors by President Droupadi Murmu. The President also accepted the resignations of Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Ladakh Lieutenant Governor R.K. Mathur in the latest gubernatorial reshuffle. Justice Nazeer (retd.), who was part of the five-judge Bench that delivered the November 2019 Ayodhya verdict, has been appointed as the new Governor of Andhra Pradesh, while the incumbent, Biswa Bhushan Harichandan, has been moved to the Chhattisgarh Raj Bhavan. Four leaders of the BJP, including Gulab Chand Kataria, who was serving as the Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan, have also been appointed as Governors. While Kataria will be new Governor of Assam, other BJP leaders who were nominated for governorship are Lakshman Prasad Acharya for Sikkim, C.P. Radhakrishnan for Jharkhand and Shiv Pratap Shukla for Himachal Pradesh. In Maharashtra, Koshyari has been replaced by Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais, while the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh Brig. B.D. Mishra (retd) will replace Mathur in Ladakh. Lt. Gen. K.T. Parnaik (retd) will be the new Arunachal Pradesh Governor. The reshuffle also saw Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikye moving to Manipur while the incumbent in Manipur, La Ganesan, was appointed as the Governor of Nagaland. Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan has been moved to Meghalaya while incumbent Himachal Pradesh Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar will replace him in Bihar. PM Modi inaugurates first phase of Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Rajasthan’s Dausa Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a 246-km section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Dausa. The Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot stretch is set to reduce the travel time between the National Capital and Jaipur by half, the PM said. Modi inaugurated four projects, including the first phase of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, worth more than ₹18,000 crore. When the government invests in highway projects, ports, railways, optical fibre, and opens medical colleges, it gives strength to traders, small shopkeepers and industries, he said. Developed at a cost of more than ₹12,150 crore, this first completed section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will provide a major boost to the economic development of the entire region. Modi said the expressway will benefit the Sariska National Park, Keoladeo National Park, Ranthambore National Park as well as cities such as Jaipur and Ajmer. Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and other leaders were present during the event. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal khattar addressed the programme through a video link. 2-month-old baby found among other ‘miracle rescues’ as Turkey-Syria earthquake deaths pass 28,000 Rescuers pulled a two-month-old baby and an elderly woman from the rubble on February 11, five days after an earthquake devastated Turkey and Syria leaving more than 28,000 dead. But security concerns led some aid operations to be suspended, and 48 people have been arrested for looting or trying to defraud victims in the aftermath of the quake in Turkey, state media reported. Tens of thousands of rescue workers are still scouring through flattened neighbourhoods despite freezing weather that has deepened the misery of millions now in desperate need of aid. In the midst of destruction and despair, miraculous tales of survival continue to emerge. “Is the world there?” asked 70-year-old Menekse Tabak as she was pulled out from the concrete in the southern city of Kahramanmaras — the epicentre of Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor — to applause and cries praising God, according to a video by state broadcaster TRT Haber. In the city of Antakya, a two-month-old baby was found alive 128 hours after the quake, state news agency Anadolu reported. A two-year-old girl, a six-month pregnant woman, and a four-year-old and her father were among those rescued five days after the quake, Turkish media reported. The United Nations has warned that at least 8,70,000 people urgently need hot meals across Turkey and Syria. In Syria alone, up to 5.3 million people may have been made homeless. Almost 26 million people have been affected by the earthquake, the WHO said as it launched a flash appeal on Saturday for $42.8 million to cope with immediate, towering health needs. It warned that dozens of hospitals had been damaged. Turkey’s disaster agency said over 32,000 people from Turkish organisations are working on search and rescue efforts. In addition, there are 8,294 international rescuers. In Turkey’s gourmet capital Gaziantep city, restaurants are working hard among tens of thousands of volunteers to help and feed families. Some clashes have also been reported and the UN rights office on Friday urged all actors in the affected area, where Kurdish militants and Syrian rebels operate, to allow humanitarian access. In Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels, aid has been slow to arrive. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took a flight full of emergency medical equipment into the quake-stricken city of Aleppo on Saturday. Tedros toured damaged areas of the city, tweeting: “I’m heartbroken to see the conditions survivors are facing -- freezing weather and extremely limited access to shelter, food, water, heat and medical care”. Officials and medics said 24,617 people had died in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria. The confirmed total now stands at 28,191. Women’s Premier League auction | Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma set to cross ₹1-crore mark Prolific batters Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and teen sensation Shafali Verma are expected to spark bidding wars when they go under the hammer during the inaugural Women’s Premier League auction, in Mumbai on February 13. Among the overseas names, Alyssa Healy, Beth Mooney, Elysse Perry, Nat Sciver, Megan Schutt and Deandra Dottin are some of the big names expected to enjoy a big pay day. The five teams, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, RCB, Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz, will be bidding for 90 players in a list of 409. With a salary purse of ₹12 crore per team for the first year and a squad size of 18 including six overseas players, at least 20 to 25 of the 60 Indian women set to be picked will command a good auction price. The base prices are set in five brackets with the least being ₹10 lakh and the highest ₹50 lakh. The other brackets are ₹20, 30 and 40 lakh, respectively. It is expected that members of this current Indian team and those from Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa will be the most sought after players at the auction. The five franchises will look at potential captains and, apart from Smriti and Harman, some of the other likely captaincy candidates are legendary Southern Stars boss Meg Lanning, England skipper Heather Knight and White Ferns leader Sophie Devine, all of whom have put their names in the list. In Brief: Delhi LG V.K. Saxena has given his nod for convening the next session of the MCD House on February 16 for election to the post of Mayor, official sources said. The government had sent the proposal to hold the House session on February 16 and Saxena accepted it, they added. The AAP has alleged that the mayoral election could not be held as the BJP was “strangulating democracy and the Constitution of India”, while the saffron party accused the Aam Aadmi Party of coming out with excuses to stall the mayoral poll and blamed it for the stalemate. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 12 FEBRUARY 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Mallikarjun Kharge calls Opposition meeting tomorrow to chalk out floor strategy Congress President and [Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has called a meeting of “like-minded” opposition parties on Monday](. The meeting will be held at his office at Parliament before the start of the business of Rajya Sabha. The meeting is believed to be called to chalk out the strategy of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha. Kharge, on Friday, reiterated his party’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the businesses of the Adani Group in the wake of the report by Hindenburg Research. Addressing a press conference, Kharge said, “Shouldn’t there be an inquiry into the Adani scam? Shouldn’t the matter be referred to the JPC? Should not there be a discussion on the money that public sector banks invested in Adani’s businesses? Public money is involved in it. Why does the government have a problem taking Adani’s name?” He also alleged that PM Narendra Modi acted as an ‘agent’ for the Adani group of companies. “The RBI, SEBI, ED, Corporate Affairs Ministry, Income Tax, and the CBI seem paralysed. Can they not see the corruption here? Is Adani invisible to them?” he asked regarding the regulatory bodies. “We tried to raise several issues in the Parliament. However, the Prime Minister evaded all questions and just gave an election speech, boasting about himself,” he added. Maharashtra Governor Koshyari’s resignation accepted [Former Supreme Court judge Justice S. Abdula Nazeer is among the six new faces who were appointed as Governors]( by President Droupadi Murmu. The President also accepted the resignations of Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Ladakh Lieutenant Governor R.K. Mathur in the latest gubernatorial reshuffle. Justice Nazeer (retd.), who was part of the five-judge Bench that delivered the November 2019 Ayodhya verdict, has been appointed as the new Governor of Andhra Pradesh, while the incumbent, Biswa Bhushan Harichandan, has been moved to the Chhattisgarh Raj Bhavan. Four leaders of the BJP, including Gulab Chand Kataria, who was serving as the Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan, have also been appointed as Governors. While Kataria will be new Governor of Assam, other BJP leaders who were nominated for governorship are Lakshman Prasad Acharya for Sikkim, C.P. Radhakrishnan for Jharkhand and Shiv Pratap Shukla for Himachal Pradesh. In Maharashtra, Koshyari has been replaced by Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais, while the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh Brig. B.D. Mishra (retd) will replace Mathur in Ladakh. Lt. Gen. K.T. Parnaik (retd) will be the new Arunachal Pradesh Governor. The reshuffle also saw Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikye moving to Manipur while the incumbent in Manipur, La Ganesan, was appointed as the Governor of Nagaland. Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan has been moved to Meghalaya while incumbent Himachal Pradesh Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar will replace him in Bihar. PM Modi inaugurates first phase of Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Rajasthan’s Dausa [Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a 246-km section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Dausa](. The Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot stretch is set to reduce the travel time between the National Capital and Jaipur by half, the PM said. Modi inaugurated four projects, including the first phase of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, worth more than ₹18,000 crore. When the government invests in highway projects, ports, railways, optical fibre, and opens medical colleges, it gives strength to traders, small shopkeepers and industries, he said. Developed at a cost of more than ₹12,150 crore, this first completed section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will provide a major boost to the economic development of the entire region. Modi said the expressway will benefit the Sariska National Park, Keoladeo National Park, Ranthambore National Park as well as cities such as Jaipur and Ajmer. Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and other leaders were present during the event. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal khattar addressed the programme through a video link. 2-month-old baby found among other ‘miracle rescues’ as Turkey-Syria earthquake deaths pass 28,000 [Rescuers pulled a two-month-old baby and an elderly woman from the rubble on February 11, five days after an earthquake devastated Turkey and Syria]( leaving more than 28,000 dead. But security concerns led some aid operations to be suspended, and 48 people have been arrested for looting or trying to defraud victims in the aftermath of the quake in Turkey, state media reported. Tens of thousands of rescue workers are still scouring through flattened neighbourhoods despite freezing weather that has deepened the misery of millions now in desperate need of aid. In the midst of destruction and despair, miraculous tales of survival continue to emerge. “Is the world there?” asked 70-year-old Menekse Tabak as she was pulled out from the concrete in the southern city of Kahramanmaras — the epicentre of Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor — to applause and cries praising God, according to a video by state broadcaster TRT Haber. In the city of Antakya, a two-month-old baby was found alive 128 hours after the quake, state news agency Anadolu reported. A two-year-old girl, a six-month pregnant woman, and a four-year-old and her father were among those rescued five days after the quake, Turkish media reported. The United Nations has warned that at least 8,70,000 people urgently need hot meals across Turkey and Syria. In Syria alone, up to 5.3 million people may have been made homeless. Almost 26 million people have been affected by the earthquake, the WHO said as it launched a flash appeal on Saturday for $42.8 million to cope with immediate, towering health needs. It warned that dozens of hospitals had been damaged. Turkey’s disaster agency said over 32,000 people from Turkish organisations are working on search and rescue efforts. In addition, there are 8,294 international rescuers. In Turkey’s gourmet capital Gaziantep city, restaurants are working hard among tens of thousands of volunteers to help and feed families. Some clashes have also been reported and the UN rights office on Friday urged all actors in the affected area, where Kurdish militants and Syrian rebels operate, to allow humanitarian access. In Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels, aid has been slow to arrive. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took a flight full of emergency medical equipment into the quake-stricken city of Aleppo on Saturday. Tedros toured damaged areas of the city, tweeting: “I’m heartbroken to see the conditions survivors are facing -- freezing weather and extremely limited access to shelter, food, water, heat and medical care”. Officials and medics said 24,617 people had died in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria. The confirmed total now stands at 28,191. Women’s Premier League auction | Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma set to cross ₹1-crore mark Prolific batters [Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and teen sensation Shafali Verma are expected to spark bidding wars when they go under the hammer during the inaugural Women’s Premier League auction]( in Mumbai on February 13. Among the overseas names, Alyssa Healy, Beth Mooney, Elysse Perry, Nat Sciver, Megan Schutt and Deandra Dottin are some of the big names expected to enjoy a big pay day. The five teams, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, RCB, Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz, will be bidding for 90 players in a list of 409. With a salary purse of ₹12 crore per team for the first year and a squad size of 18 including six overseas players, at least 20 to 25 of the 60 Indian women set to be picked will command a good auction price. The base prices are set in five brackets with the least being ₹10 lakh and the highest ₹50 lakh. The other brackets are ₹20, 30 and 40 lakh, respectively. It is expected that members of this current Indian team and those from Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa will be the most sought after players at the auction. The five franchises will look at potential captains and, apart from Smriti and Harman, some of the other likely captaincy candidates are legendary Southern Stars boss Meg Lanning, England skipper Heather Knight and White Ferns leader Sophie Devine, all of whom have put their names in the list. In Brief: [Delhi LG V.K. Saxena has given his nod for convening the next session of the MCD House on February 16]( for election to the post of Mayor, official sources said. The government had sent the proposal to hold the House session on February 16 and Saxena accepted it, they added. The AAP has alleged that the mayoral election could not be held as the BJP was “strangulating democracy and the Constitution of India”, while the saffron party accused the Aam Aadmi Party of coming out with excuses to stall the mayoral poll and blamed it for the stalemate. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. First Day First Show Stay up-to-date on all things cinema with the "First Day First Show" cinema & entertainment newsletter. Every week, we bring you movie reviews, news from regional cinema, Bollywood, Hollywood, and beyond, as well as updates from the streaming platforms. Whether you're a cinephile or just looking for your next great binge-watch, we've got you covered. 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