The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, making a plethora of promises on construction of Ram temple, farmers’ income and Article 370 of the Constitution. 

Soon after, Congress said the ruling party had “simply copy pasted” its 2014 poll document and changed all previous deadlines.

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel said the BJP should have come out with a ‘maafinama’ (letter of apology) instead of a manifesto.

Patel said the difference between the BJP’s manifesto and that of the Congress can be seen from the cover page itself.

“Our’s has a crowd of people, and BJP manifesto has the face of just one man. Instead of a manifesto BJP should have come out with a ‘maafinama,’” the Congress Rajya Sabha MP said.

In its manifesto, the BJP “reiterated its stand” and said that they “will explore all possibilities within the framework of the Constitution and all necessary efforts to facilitate the expeditious construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.”

The mention of the Ram Mandir in the BJP manifesto is no surprise, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said, alleging that the saffron party has been using it for the last 30 years in a bid to “sharpen communal polarisation.”

“Their only target is to consolidate the Hindutva communal vote bank. But this time that is not going to happen,” he claimed.

The CPI(M) general secretary further said the ruling party’s manifesto was a “fresh set of jumlas” which have been “unleashed” upon India.

“But the people will never forget the disaster that this Modi government unleashed on their lives and livelihoods in the past five years. No fresh set of tamasha can hide the truth,” he said.

BJP also reiterated its position to the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The party also resolved to annul Article 35A of the Constitution, which bars people from outside to own property in Jammu and Kashmir.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah said abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution will pave way for “freedom” for people of Jammu and Kashmir.

“They talk of abrogating Article 370. If you do that, the accession will also not stand. I swear by Allah, I think this is the wish of Almighty, we will get freedom from them,” Abdullah, who is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Srinagar constituency, said at an election rally.

The former chief minister said there would not be anyone to hoist the national flag in Kashmir if Article 370 is abrogated.

“Let them do it, we will see. I will see who is ready to hoist their flag here. So don’t do such things that break our hearts. Try joining the hearts, not breaking them,” he said.

BSP president Mayawati said the BJP, which had failed to fulfil the promises made in 2014, had no moral right to release a fresh manifesto. She added that the party ought to have issued an action-taken report instead.

Reacting to it, Mayawati said, “The BJP and the Narendra Modi government, which blatantly betrayed the people and failed to fulfil the election promises, have no moral right to release a new manifesto.”

“People cannot believe them and they should tender an apology to the people as they have only worked for the capitalists,” the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president said.

(With PTI inputs)

LONDON — A UK High Court judge has denied embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya permission to appeal against his extradition order to India to face alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to Rs 9,000 crore.

The 63-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss had filed the application in the High Court after UK home secretary Sajid Javid signed off on a Westminster Magistrates’ Court order for his extradition to face the Indian courts back in February.

“The application for permission to appeal was refused by Mr Justice William Davis on 05/04/2019,” said a spokesperson for the UK judiciary.

“The appellant (Mallya) has five business days to apply for oral consideration. If a renewal application is made, it will be listed before a High Court judge and dealt with at a hearing,” the spokesperson said.

The application seeking leave to appeal had been passed on to a single judge, who was to make a decision on the basis of papers submitted as part of the application. Now that the judge on papers application has been rejected by Judge Davis, Mallya has the option to submit for a renewal.

The renewal process will lead to a brief oral hearing during which Mallya’s legal team and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) — on behalf of the Indian government — will renew their respective claims for and against an appeal for a judge to determine if it can proceed to a full hearing.

Mallya has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017.

In her verdict at the end of a year-long extradition trial in December last year, Judge Emma Arbuthnot had ruled that the “flashy” billionaire had a “case to answer” in the Indian courts.

Netflix on Sunday announced that “Homecoming,” reportedly about Beyoncé’s jaw-dropping performances at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last year, will be available to stream on April 17 ― and her fans are freaking out on Twitter.

The “Drunk in Love” singer, the first black woman to headline Coachella, nearly broke the internet in April 2018 when she treated festivalgoers to a two-hour, whirlwind set that was a nod to historically black colleges and universities.

Coinciding with her Coachella appearance last year, Beyoncé announced the Homecoming Scholars Award Program, an initiative that provides scholarships to students at HBCUs for study in various fields. 

US Weekly magazine reported last week that Beyoncé was teaming up with Netflix to work on a special about her 2018 Coachella appearance, featuring additional footage.

Representatives for both Beyoncé and Netflix did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment.

Queen Bey’s fans went wild on Twitter, following Netflix’s release date announcement Sunday.

Whether you suffer from migraines or you get the occasional splitting headache, you know just how excruciating a pounding head can be. And for some, there’s a specific time of the month when you can expect this issue.

As if cramps, food cravings and an all-out crappy mood weren’t enough, for women who suffer from migraines, there’s a 71% risk of getting an attack within two days of your period, according to one study. Ouch.

And migraine sufferers aren’t the only ones who struggle with headaches around their menstrual cycle. “Women can suffer from hormonal headaches that are not migraine-related before their period too,” said Jolene Brighten, a hormone expert and author of Beyond the Pill.

Unfortunately, these time-of-the-month headaches are a fact of life for some people who get periods. But do we have to accept them? Not necessarily.

Understanding why something is happening is often the first step to fixing it. Ellen Vora, a psychiatrist and women’s health expert, told HuffPost that there isn’t necessarily a simple explanation when your head hurts around the time of your period, but a major culprit is hormones.

“A few of the major factors are that hormonal shifts impact everything, including the tendency for blood vessels to constrict or dilate, which can impact headaches,” she said.

Brighten added that estrogen in particular plays a huge role in period headaches. “Headaches can be triggered by excess estrogen during the luteal phase ― the weeks leading up to your period ― or from the drop in estrogen, which triggers your period,” she said.

How To Prevent Or Treat Period Headaches

While there’s no guarantee you can stop those pesky headaches around your period before they pop up, there are preventive measures you can take throughout the month that may help. 

Brighten’s suggestion? Make a few simple diet and supplement tweaks. Magnesium-rich foods ― think leafy greens, nuts and avocados ― may ”help reduce the frequency or severity of headaches,” she said.

Vora agreed with the magnesium tip, noting that when women have a magnesium deficiency, the symptoms around their period are a lot worse. “The body has an increased need for magnesium related to the contraction of the uterus during menstruation,” she said. “This ends up pulling magnesium away from the rest of the body, which can create muscle tension. Tension in the muscles of the neck and the small muscles around the forehead, temples and scalp is a common contributor to headaches.”

Vora also recommended getting some exercise. Her personal favorite? Pilates. Since headaches can come from muscle tension, she said, any exercise that strengthens the core and leads to better posture can help quite a bit.

“And don’t forget to work on reducing overall stress,” she said, adding that some people consider acupuncture helpful. You can also try other stress-relief techniques like reading, going for a walk, talking to a friend or whatever works for you.

Of course, sometimes even the best-planned preventive measures don’t work, leaving you stuck with a nasty period headache. There’s no harm in taking pain relievers like ibuprofen once in a while as long as you don’t overdo it. Brighten said some other natural solutions can work as well.

“It may seem obvious, but making sure you are hydrated and getting ample sleep can help ward off headaches,” she said. “Ginger has been shown to be as effective as over the counter NSAIDs. Applying hot or cold compresses can also help some women get relief.”

If your issue is migraine-specific, there are migraine-specific pain relievers and even preventive medication that you can take regularly. And according to the National Migraine Foundation, practicing “headache hygiene” can help quite a bit ― doing regular exercise, eating regular meals, getting enough sleep and reducing stress.

Michelle Cady, a New York-based health coach and author of Self-Care in the City,said she has clients who come to her complaining of period headaches all the time. She also recommends they try getting a little more magnesium through their sweet tooth.

“Dark chocolate is a great source of magnesium, which I like to call the natural chill-out mineral,” she said. “When in doubt, get to bed early, eat some dark chocolate ― 75% or higher ― curl up in a dark room and let your body rest.”

Sounds like prescriptions worth following.

NEW DELHI — Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command Vice Admiral Bimal Verma has approached an armed forces tribunal seeking to know why he was overlooked as the next navy chief despite being the senior-most in the line of command, official sources said Monday.

The government last month named Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as next chief of the naval staff, succeeding Admiral Sunil Lanba who retires on 30 May.

The government made the selection following a merit-based approach and did not go with the tradition of appointing the senior-most eligible officer to the post. 

Vice Admiral Verma is senior to Singh and was among the contenders for the top post.

Sources said Vice Admiral Verma has approached an armed forces tribunal in the national capital to know why the government ignored his seniority.

His petition is likely to be taken up Tuesday, they said

Besides Verma, the other contenders for the Navy Chief post included Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar, FOC-in-C of Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Ajit Kumar and FOC-in-C of Southern Naval Command Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla, the source said.

While appointing the Army Chief in 2016, the government did not follow the long-held tradition of going by the seniority.

NEW YORK — Wrestler Bret “The Hitman” Hart was tackled by a spectator on Saturday while he was giving a speech during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The attacker was promptly subdued by several people, including other wrestlers, who came to Hart’s defense. Hart, 61, is OK.

The person ran toward the ring from the crowd, spectator Alan Fisher told The Associated Press.

“I couldn’t believe that the security had missed him in the first place and the next thing you know there was Shane McMahon and Travis Brown on top of him the crowd was going crazy booing,” Fisher said. “Everyone was cheering when one of the wrestlers punched him.”

Several shocked onlookers posted footage of the tackle online. The induction event resumed, with Hart continuing his speech, after the fan was taken into custody.

“He should have never attacked Bret Hart especially at such a special moment in his life,” Fisher said.

New York City Police arrested 26-year-old Zachary Madsen, of Lincoln, Nebraska. He faces assault and criminal trespass charges. An email to the district attorney seeking someone who could comment on Madsen’s behalf wasn’t immediately answered.

Madsen had a previous run-in with a fighter in Lincoln. He’s awaiting trial for violating a protection order obtained by 23-year-old mixed martial arts fighter Haris Talundzic.

Talundzic’s manager, Nick Goodwin, said the two were former friends and training partners.

Goodwin said Talundzic told a Lancaster County judge that Madsen had been stalking him and was trying to provoke a fight. The two had trained together at a Lincoln gym, but Talundzic left over concerns about Madsen’s mental stability.

Goodwin said he hopes Madsen “gets help before he hurts himself or anyone else any further.”

“His harassment of Haris, publicly and online, seems to have been the beginning of an extremely self-destructive spiral,” Goodwin said in a statement. “His threats toward Haris, along with Haris’ friends and family, were aggressive and violent in nature.”

A Twitter user has pointed out that popular Hindi TV serials Bhabiji Ghar Par Hai and Tujhse Hai Raabta have been praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government’s pet schemes in their recent episodes. 

While Bhabiji Ghar Par Hai airs on &TV, Tujhse Hai Raabta is telecast on Zee TV, both run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. 

A Twitter user, @VictimGames, tweeted a clip from the episode of Bhabiji Ghar Par Hai that aired on 4 April. One of the characters in the show is seen praising Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, saying “Ek woh aadmi hai jo din raat desh ki akhandata aur swachhta ki baat karta hai. (There is that man who only speaks of a united and clean country). 

He even provides an explanation for why the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan did not succeed: “Do you know, when a few years ago the ‘swachhata abhiyan’ was introduced, only because of lack of awareness, the ‘abhiyan’ did not succeed. But today because of a hardworking ‘neta’, the ‘abhiyan’ is active again.”

In another episode the central character, Bhabiji, is seen telling her husband that the government has started the Ujjwala Yojana to reduce the indoor pollution which affects women and children in India’s villages. 

Another Twitter user, @MautKaPashinda, tweeted a clip from Tujhse Hai Raabta, where one character is seen talking to her grandmother about the Mudra Yojana. The grandmother says, “Five years ago this would have been impossible.” This episode was aired on 2 April. 

HuffPost India has reached out to Zee to ask whether these are organic dialogues or not, and will update this article once they respond. 

Five years of celibacy isn’t something I planned. It’s something that happened when I began to focus on myself and stopped looking for a Netflix-and-chill buddy. It happened gradually and I only thought about itevery so often ― when couples held on to each other scurrying across a windy parking lot, or when love scenes got a little too vivid during a Friday night movie. Mostly, though, sex just never occurred to me as something I was missing in my life.

After my last breakup, at the age of 44, it became obvious to me (and most of my friends and family) that I needed to regroup, refocus and remember who I was, and who I had been before becoming a stepmother/step-grandmother. I had been so involved with caring for a toddler and my dying mother for so long that I lost touch with my own needs and my sense of identity completely.I had become so fully absorbed in my last attempt at happily ever after that I lost myself. Self-care had been replaced with self-loathing, and I knew time was my only friend on the road to my happiness.

As such, becoming celibate came very naturally. I was able to revisit the things I had sacrificed for far too long with my live-in boyfriend’s sudden permanent acquisition of his toddler-aged grandson. I bought colored pencils and a sketchbook, and I planted flowers in my empty garden that had been neglected. Slowly, I started writing again ― a poem here, an essay there, and before I knew it, a novel.

I stopped shaving my legs and counting calories, and I decided to grow out my fauxhawk. Since I no longer had a toddler around my neck, I could have that hairstyle without worrying about it becoming sticky or snarled. In general, I stopped overthinking my outfits, menu and lifestyle choices. I surfed more, wrote more, and over months ― and soon years ― I was changing into the person that made me happy.

Even though I had always been sexually active, finding a boyfriend was the last thing on my mind. I had said the words before (I think most of us have): I’m happy alone. I never meant it, though. What I meant was that I was alone and that was fine, but I would be happier with someone. After my breakup, though, I continued to take myself out to dinner, but I stopped looking around the bar for a friendly smile, someone to flirt with or someone to take home for the night. I stopped focusing on finding my other half and started focusing on making myself whole.

I took the time to learn the bartender’s name at the Italian restaurant I frequented (it’s Ashley) and struck up conversations with the people sitting next to me. Or not. I had no pressure to be anyone other than who I was at that moment.

Lesbian. The whispers gained voice and momentum, even with family members, as the months passed and still no dating. My free time was filled with biological research I had begun and classes for my Master of Fine Arts. Even if I wanted to, I didn’t have time to meet someone and begin a relationship. It simply wasn’t on my radar. Even my newfound biological half-brother inboxed me on Facebook with his “concerns” over my single lifestyle.

My girlfriend says you must be a lesbian, my own brother wrote one day only a few weeks after finding him. That hair, that Jeep, your black dog. Are you? I would remind him and everyone, too often, that my fauxhawk was not tied to my vagina or my sexuality, but still the whispers would continue.

It was easy to say no to dating because I so rarely had to. In five years, only one person asked me out, so saying no wasn’t something I was faced with. It was as if the universe was conspiring to help me find myself and learn to be by myself. After the first year passed, I acknowledged that I hadn’t had sex, but made no effort to end my dry streak. Men held more drama and took more time than I was willing to sacrifice.

When my cousin loudly announced at a family wake that she had “a guy” for me, I told her I didn’t have the time to date. Those words would become my mantra, until finally after a few years, even my family gave up on me meeting someone. It was then that I realized I wasn’t just not having sex; I was celibate.

Was I gay? Was I antisocial? No one could seem to decide for me what or who I was.

Somehow, being single was becoming threatening, and I was growing tired of defending myself and explaining why I was single and abstaining. I never made a conscious decision not to have sex, but as I drew, wrote and worked in my garden, it never seemed important to me, at least not as important to me as it seemed to be for everyone else in my life that knew of my “dry spell.”

It’s an affair! Yes, that must be it. You are with a married guy and keeping it a secret. I had stopped explaining, stopped defending and stopped doing things I hated.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, five years passed easily, without any breakups or breakdowns. I felt relieved most days when I listened to friends talk about their partners and husbands, divorces always looming.

I did long for company, though, for someone to go to weddings with, someone to call after a good or bad day and someone to bring me chicken soup when I was sick. I wanted those things, without the strings of sex and the feelings that always came after, no matter what I told myself beforehand. In a somewhat-desperate attempt to just have human contact, I signed up for ukulele lessons. Week after week, for over a year, I sat side by side with a very handsome bassist who did all he could to get me past the one song I could play. As it turned out, I am not musically inclined, and the up-down song was not good enough for the recital, which featured mostly grade-school children.

As I sipped espresso in a small coffee shop in Dublin one August morning last summer, it suddenly occurred to me that it had been five years since I last had sex, almost to the day. Although I wasn’t exactly counting calories again, I was careful, and even shaved off the stubble that had overtaken my legs and underarms.

It wasn’t time for sex, or a relationship, or time to search or hope for my soul mate; it was just simply time for me to be myself.

As easily as I ordered my second cup of espresso, I texted an old friend: Hey, I’ll be home in a few days.... wanna catch up?

I simply decided it was time to end my celibacy. Between working full time, graduate school and living with, and caring for, my elderly father, I realized I had no time for a relationship but the time had come to end my drought ― if only for the sake of ending it. I was nervous that the sight of a naked man or the act of sex would once again ignite a passion in me that had been absent for five years, and I was also aware that sex with friends could lead to feelings and that wasn’t something I wanted either, so I trod carefully.

He came over on a hot day shortly after I returned from Dublin, and in my small childhood-home bedroom that I slept in while in high school ― a place that not even then did I violate ― we had passionless, mechanical sex.

“Is this working for you?” he asked without making eye contact. I made the only noise I could, which although I wanted to sound like a hum, sounded more like a nervous squeak. It wasn’t working. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t fun either and it certainly was not working.

Over the years, I had my share of one-night stands as well as meaningful relationships with a healthy sex life, but I had never had an encounter that I scheduled. It was challenging for me to “plan” to have sex and take away the rhythm that comes from two people admiring each other and taking the steps physically that lead to the act itself.

It sat on my calendar like any other appointment and felt less romantic than the oil change I had just taken my car in for. I set it up because I had begun to see something wrong with myself and wanted to stop being different, stop being alone and stop being celibate.

After an hour or so of no kissing, no hugging and no emotion, we both got dressed, caught up on old times and he left just minutes before my father walked in the back door. I wanted to feel good, I wanted to feel naughty, I wanted to feel like I thought everyone else did, but instead, I felt nothing. In my heyday I would consider this quite an accomplishment, I would have bragged to my friends about how handsome he was and how he rocked my world in every way that Sunday afternoon.

My relationship with sex was different now, though. At 49 years old, I no longer needed a man to satisfy me, or if I did, it needed to have feeling behind it. Just doing it to do it felt like more of a chore and was simplya passionless act.

It has been six months since that day and I have come to realize that it is not the act of sex that provides the spark that I thought I needed. It is being happy alone and enjoying life on my own terms that turns me on and gives me a natural high.

Have a compelling first-person story you want to share? Send your story description to pitch@huffpost.com.

NEW DELHI — The Indian Air Force on Monday reiterated that it shot down an F-16 jet of Pakistan Air Force during the 27 February aerial combat and showed radar images of the engagement to assert that it has “irrefutable evidence” of downing the enemy jet.

The IAF held a media briefing at the Defence Ministry where several slides of graphic captures from airborne warning and control system (AWACS) were shown to the media.

“The IAF has irrefutable evidence of not only the fact that F-16 was used by Pakistan Air Force on 27 February, but also that an IAF Mig 21 Bison shot down a Pakistan Air Force F-16,” Air Vice Marshal RG Kapoor said in a statement.

He, however, did not take any question on the issue.

On Friday, the IAF had asserted that it shot down an F-16 fighter jet of Pakistan during the dogfight, following a report in a leading US news magazine which contradicted India’s contention.

“There is no doubt that two aircraft went down in the aerial engagement on 27 February, one of which was a Bison of IAF while the other was an F-16 of PAF conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts,” the IAF official said.

He said the IAF has more credible information and evidence that is clearly indicative of the fact that the PAF has lost one F-16 in the air action on 27 February. “However, due to security and confidentiality concerns, we are restricting the information being shared in public domain.”

Last week, leading American magazine Foreign Policy reported that a US count of the F-16s with Pakistan has found that none of them are missing, contradicting India’s claim that one of its fighter jets shot down a Pakistani F-16 during the aerial dogfight on 27 February.

In the report, the magazine said two senior US defense officials with direct knowledge of the situation told it that American personnel recently counted Islamabad’s F-16s and found none of the planes missing.

The report contradicted the claim made by New Delhi that the IAF shot down an F-16 jet of Pakistan.

The government has been maintaining that Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman had engaged with one of the Pakistani F-16s and shot it down before his Mig-21 Bison was downed.

Varthaman was captured by Pakistan and was released after spending nearly 60 hours in Pakistani custody.

The Indian Air Force had on 28 February displayed pieces of an AMRAAM missile, fired by a Pakistani F-16, as evidence to “conclusively” prove that Pakistan deployed the US-manufactured fighter jets during an aerial raid targeting Indian military installations in Kashmir.

Indian Air Force has been forcefully asserting that it shot down a Pakistani F-16 during the dogfight. Pakistan has denied that it lost any F-16 jet during the aerial combat.

MALDA, West Bengal — There aren’t many seats in Bengal where the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) fancies its chances, but paradoxically this border-district with a slender Muslim majority is one of them.

Last year, 29 of the 202 panchayat seats (technically called samitis) the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won in Bengal were in Malda, presenting an interesting challenge of consolidating the region’s Hindu population by projecting Muslims as a threat, while also somehow reaching out to Muslim women by popularising the BJP’s efforts to criminalise triple talaq.

Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury, the BJP’s candidate from Malda South constituency, has taken to posting videos of Muslim women joining the party on her Facebook page. “There should be two surgical strikes in West Bengal. One in Kalighat, one in Kotwali. Our woman CM and the woman MP from Malda has failed to protect women. When the triple talaq bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, the Muslim MP from here opposed it. It is condemnable,” Chaudhury is seen saying in a video, accompanied by visuals of her briefly clutching a BJP flag along with half a dozen Muslim women, and shouting ‘Narendra Modi zindabad’.

Meanwhile Sanjeet Mishra, Malda’s BJP district president and former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member has been betting on Hindu fears.

“Now Hindus are a minority in Malda. And there is a sense of fear,” Mishra told HuffPost India. “Twenty years back, people mocked us when we said this but now they are coming and telling us, you were right. If BJP doesn’t win this time, it won’t be possible for us to stay in this country anymore. Now people know we were saying the truth all along.”

It is hard to say if this double-barrel messaging will work.

Several Muslim women interviewed by HuffPost India seemed unaware of that that the instant Triple-talaq provision of Muslim personal law had been revoked in December 2018, but readily associated the BJP with violence and prejudice directed at their community.

“I cannot remember. What did they do?” said 45-year-old Munjerina Bibi, who binds beedis for a living in Noyagram village in Malda, when asked about triple talaq. But she said someone had told her that BJP wants to send Muslims away to Bangladesh. Munjerina earns Rs 100-120 for binding around 1000 bidis over a day-and-half. Her husband works as a labourer and occasionally goes to other districts and states to work. Munjerina has heard about Afrajul Khan, a man from a village a few kilometres away from hers, who was hacked and burned to death by a man claiming to be some sort of a ‘Hindutva warrior’.

“I’ve heard Modi and his party is beating up Muslims everywhere,” Munjerina said. “Let them not come here.”

Across Malda, Muslim women had much to discuss about the BJP’s five-tenure at the Centre — its just that triple talaq didn’t figure very high on the list.

In Shujapur, Shakila, a 50-year-old widow, said she had heard “something” about triple talaq, but didn’t know what the ban was about. The “ban” she did want to talk about was the note-ban, or demonetisation of 2016, which she said had ruined her tailoring business.

A customer told Shakila the afternoon of 9 November 2016 that government has banned some currency notes. “She paid me fifty rupees for altering five kurtas and said she didn’t want to spend her cash, but had to think about me,” she said. At first Shakila thought it had something to do with ‘fake notes’ but shopkeepers in her neighbourhood explained that old notes were banned. Shakila spent the next week running from banks to neighbours houses to figure what she’d do with the four-five thousand rupees she had saved up. She only got her notes exchanged after three weeks after falling sick twice while queuing up at a bank. “One day, I stood for three hours and came back empty handed,’ she said.

The centrally-administered Goods and Service Tax (GST), rolled out the next year, Shakila said, had further impoverished her family by raising the prices of daily necessities.

“Demonetisation ended, but with GST, everything is more expensive,” she said. “Even if I go to buy a bedsheet, the shopkeepers say that price has increased because of GST.”

If the central government was so concerned about Muslim women, Shakila said, “Give us jobs.”

Nazma, the 31 year-old mother of a teenage son, agreed.

“I was married when I was 16. I took my boards after I was married,” Nazma said. “Triple talaq ban and all is fine, but why are we so dependent on men? Because I have no job. Even if we could get work as teachers in primary schools or somewhere, it would be of big help.”

Sofura Bibi fiddled with the border of her printed blue cotton saree and stared at the ground for nearly a minute before looking up.

“Yes? No no,” she said, sounding startled, when she was told that triple talaq was banned in the country. Sofura, who estimated she is about 40 years old, and lives in Harishchandrapur, a village where tiny clusters of concrete houses stand amid rice fields and rows of thatched mud huts.

Sofura has lived in the village in Malda, a West bengal district that shares a long border with Bangladesh, for nearly 20 years and though she insisted she doesn’t ‘work’, her day is spent on a string of unpaid jobs — helping her farmer husband in the small patch of land he owns, cooking for the family, cleaning her mud hut, washing, taking care of children and tending to goats. Sofura never went to school and doesn’t have a phone. Of the couple of times she had heard about BJP in the past year, 40-year-old Sofura said ‘it was something about them stopping the sale of cow meat’’. “I have lived here for years, never heard the Hindus ask us to stop. People eat their own food here and don’t bother others,” she said.

On circling back to instant triple talaq, Sofura said she has not heard any ‘new law’ about it.

HINDUTVA VERSUS TRIPLE TALAQ

District president for the BJP, Mishra, mentioned a conversation he recently had with an imam in Malda. “The imam asked me, what is the problem between Hindus and Muslims? I said nothing,” he said.

“‘But’, I told him, ‘you stop slaughtering cows and there will be no more issues between us’,” Bera added.

Down the road from Sofura’s house, at Gol More, 50-year-old Ghulam Mohammad runs a tea-shack, a stall he said has been around for 70 years now and used to belong to his father.

Over the past year, however, Mohammad had noticed something ‘strange’. For decades, party workers visited villages with pamphlets — the party symbol printed on it — and asked them to vote on that symbol. Starting last year’s panchayat polls, Mohammad said, men from BJP knocked on the doors of Hindu households and loudly said ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and asked for their vote. Some of the men making rounds of the houses, he said, didn’t ‘look like locals’. “I’ve heard men come the night before from outside and then go knocking on doors in the morning,” he said. Mozamel, a small-time labour present at the tea-stall said, in his village, he doesn’t see too many BJP people anyway. “There are mostly Muslim houses. I think they don’t want to get there,” he said.

The polarisation has incited a sharp response from Sofura’s village. The ban on instant triple talaq have not gone down well with many Muslim men, and a man in the village said, “The Prime Minister has left his wife and doesn’t take care of her. That woman has appealed so many times. The BJP is meddling with the laws of the shariat, can they ask their leader to first put his house in order?” the man said, adding women or men won’t accept any marital law above the law of the religion.

POLITICS AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Mausum Noor, the Trinamool Congress’s candidate from Malda North constituency, has zero-ed in on the BJP’s mixed messaging. Noor’s family has deep roots in the region: Noor’s grandfather ABA Ghani Khan Choudhary’s name pops up everywhere in Malda — in names of engineering colleges, schools, hospitals. In 2014, when Congress faced major drubbing everywhere else, Noor went on to win from her constituency. Early this year she switched to Trinamool Congress, leading Rahul Gandhi to call her a traitor at a rally in the district.

One afternoon in April, Noor, clad in a checked red saree, hopped off her jeep which trailed a convoy of motorcycles to greet locals in Harishchandrapur.

“The decision to ban triple talaq was not made after talking extensively with people from the community,” Noor told the small crowd that had gathered. “The government wanted to push it to simply score one over Muslims. We do not support the way it was done.”

REALITY CHECK

For Muslim women fighting for their marital rights, the BJP’s vociferous support for the ban on instant triple talaq has complicated their struggle. Some, like Nazia Elahi Khan — a lawyer who represented one of the petitioners what became the triple-talaq case adjudicated by the Supreme Court —has joined the BJP and is frequently seen at their rallies. “I have sent at least 40 petitions to the government, state women’s commission to intervene and look into cases of women who have been driven out of their homes. I have got no response from them,” she said.

Others, like Khan’s client, Momtaz Khatun, are more circumspect.

Instead of making triple talaq a poll issue, Khatun said, all parties should properly explain women how to defend their rights.

“It could be BJP, Trinamool, CPM, I appeal to all parties to help us,” she said.

She does however, has a bone to pick with Banerjee’s government: Khatun’s husband, a West Bengal civil services officer is a member of the executive body of the Haj Committee in Bengal. Two years after their marriage was arranged in 2010, Khatun’s husband sent her a letter on speed-post with talaq scribbled on it thrice.

While a local court actually ruled in Khatun’s favour, her husband has challenged the order and continues to thrive in the security of his government job. Khatun, however, is fending off pressure from her community to accept the terms of her divorce.

“Community pressure is very strong,” she said.

Felicity Huffman and 13 other defendants in a massive college admissionsbribery scandal agreed to plead guilty on Monday to charges of bribery and fraud.

The group of 13 parents agreed to plead guilty to “using bribery and other forms of fraud to facilitate their children’s admission to selective colleges and universities,” according to a Massachusetts Department of Justice press release. One college athletic coach also agreed to plead guilty on Monday.

“I am in full acceptance of my guilt, and with deep regret and shame over what I have done, I accept full responsibility for my actions and will accept the consequences that stem from those actions,” Huffman said in a statement. “I am ashamed of the pain I have caused my daughter, my family, my friends, my colleagues and the educational community.”

Huffman is one of dozens of parents, celebrities, coaches, CEOs, real estate professionals and others charged last month in what the FBI called a “nationwide conspiracy” to secure students’ admission to elite universities through fraudulent means.

Law enforcement officials arrested over 50 people implicated in “Operation Varsity Blues,” including Huffman, who was later released on a $250,000 bond.

The 13 parents who agreed to guilty pleas on Monday acknowledged paying thousands of dollars to William Rick Singer, who founded a for-profit college admissions company in Newport Beach, California, that masqueraded as a not-for-profit group. Singer helped parents fake application materials for their children and in March agreed to plead guilty to charges including racketeering and money laundering conspiracy.

Huffman paid Singer at least $15,000 to help her eldest daughter cheat on college entrance exams, according to the Massachusetts Department of Justice.

Some of the parents named on Monday’s release agreed to pay Singer hundreds of thousands of dollars for help facilitating fraudulent applications. One couple allegedly paid Singer a whopping $600,000 to participate in the scheme.

Michael Center, the former men’s tennis coach at the University of Texas, who also agreed to plead guilty on Monday, personally accepted $60,000 in bribes from Singer, according to the release. He also allegedly directed $40,000 from Singer to the University of Texas tennis program in exchange for falsely designating the child of one of Singer’s clients as a tennis recruit. 

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Emilia Clarke has offered a tiny glimpse into the eighth and final season of “Game of Thrones.”

Based on the actress’ comments to Entertainment Weekly, her character Daenerys “Bend-the-Knee” Targaryen really, really wants the Starks — the family of her lover Jon Snow (Kit Harington) — to like her when she arrives at Winterfell next season.

That’s despite expecting Jon’s last living relatives — who include Sansa (Sophie Turner), Arya (Maisie Williams) and Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) — to indiscriminately accept her as their new queen. And, ya know, incest.

“I like to think that it’s like ‘Meet the Parents,’” Clarke told ET Monday. “It’s like: ‘I hope they like me. This dude’s wicked. It’s a real good thing we got going on. He’s the final piece. We’re destined for greatness and world domination is a breath away.’ And so I need to be like: ‘Can I braid your hair, Sansa? Little Arya, come over here, let’s play some cricket.’ So there’s that. And then, very, very quickly, it’s like: ‘Wait, is it just me, or do they hate me?’”

Dany’s arrival at Winterfell will kick off the first episode of the next season, according to ET, and an icy reception from the Starks seems likely.

Sansa and Jon both fought tirelessly to reclaim their ancestral home of Winterfell and their region, which resulted in Jon being named the King of the North and Sansa the Lady of Winterfell. The Starks and the Northerners will likely be wary of Jon’s decision to bend the knee to a foreign queen who hails from a family with a brutal reputation.

Jon, however, sees his alliance with Dany (who has a huge army and, well, dragons) as a necessary one if the living have any hope of surviving when the Army of the Dead descends on Winterfell.

Plus, he kinda digs her.

It also seems likely that Jon will learn about his true lineage as soon as he comes home to Winterfell. In Season 7, it was revealed through Gilly’s discovery Samwell Tarly’s (John Bradley) research and Bran’s powers as the Three-Eyed Raven that Jon is not actually the bastard son of Ned Stark, but the legitimate son of Ned’s sister Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. Rhaegar is Dany’s brother, which makes her Jon’s aunt.

And although incestuous relationships aren’t unheard of in “Game of Thrones,” the revelation does make Jon “heir to the Iron Throne” and not Dany — which could result in some friction in their budding relationship, considering Dany may have a serious identity crisis.

But this is all speculation — because honestly, we truly know nothing until Season 8 premieres this Sunday.

Netflix just dropped the trailer for Beyoncé’s “Homecoming,” and it does not disappoint.  

The trailer, released on Monday morning, takes an in-depth look at Beyoncé’s historic 2018 performance at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The set featured an ode to the black college experience and an epic Destiny’s Child reunion. The highly-anticipated documentary is set to release on Netflix on April 17. 

The “Homecoming” trailer includes behind-the-scenes clips of dance rehearsals, Queen Bey with her family, and even a clip of her daughter Blue Ivy rehearing the choreography before the historic 2018 performance. 

The trailer also quotes poet Maya Angelou during the first section. 

“What I really want to do is be a representative of my race, of the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be,” Angelou says in the trailer.

“I have a chance to teach and to love and to laugh,” she continues. “I know that when I’m finished doing what I’m sent here to do, I will be called home. And I will go home without any fear or trepidation.”

Beyoncé, who is the first black woman to headline Coachella, created the Homecoming Scholars Award Program ahead of her iconic performance last year. The program is an initiative that offers scholarships to students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) for study in various fields. 

A Muslim man in Assam was on Sunday assaulted by a mob for allegedly selling beef, The Hindu reported. The 68-year-old man, identified as Shaukat Ali by the police, runs an eatery which serves meat.

During the incident, which took place in Biswanath district, the man was allegedly forced to eat pork by the mob.

A video of the assault circulated on social media shows the man being thrashed by the mob and asked why he was selling beef in the market, the report said.

Scroll reports the mob asked him whether he was Bangladeshi and if his name was on the National Register of Citizens.

Two complaints were filed, one by Ali’s relative and another by the market’s manager, based on which the police registered an FIR, the report said. But, the district police chief Rakesh Roushan told Scroll it was “not a matter of communal tension”. 

“We picked up five people, including two market committee leaders, in a bid to disperse the mob. They were allowed to go after signing a good behaviour bond under Section 107 of Code of Criminal Procedure,” a district administration official told The Hindu. 

The official said that Ali had been warned by locals not to sell what they believed to be beef in the market. The incident took place on Sunday after a group came to inspect his eatery.

BENGALURU, Karnataka — Since Facebook launched its Ad Library in February to track spending on political ads in India, Rs 12,18,45,456 (over Rs 12 crore) has been spent in two months, across the political spectrum. Analyzing the data presented by Facebook, you see that the vast majority of this has been the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its supporters. It has also dominated the numbers for ad spending on Google.

The biggest advertiser is a page called Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat, which ran 1,230 ads without any disclaimer, and 2,498 ads with. It’s total spending was a little over Rs 2.2 crore, but that’s for one page alone. This was followed by Nation with NaMo (just over Rs 1.2 crore), and My First Vote for Modi (just over Rs 1 crore).

If you look at the advertising spread across different pages, official and otherwise, then the BJP-related spending tallies up to over Rs 5 crore — 45%, or almost half, of the total political ad spend on Facebook.

Although these pages aren’t officially run by the BJP, they frequently cross-posted content and reporting by HuffPost India has revealed that the biggest pages (in terms of advertising) are being managed by a BJP-run consultancy that reports directly to Amit Shah.

Meanwhile, on Google, the BJP is listed as its biggest advertiser since ad transparency started reporting this information, with a spend of Rs 1.2 crore. Actually though, the TDP has spent more, through two private companies, Pramanya Strategy Consulting (Rs 85 lakh), and Digitant Consulting (Rs 63 lakh).

The total spending on Google is fairly low compared to Facebook, having reached Rs 3.7 crore since February—mostly in Andhra Pradesh (Rs 1.7 crore), and Telangana (Rs 72 lakh), followed by UP and Maharashtra (Rs 18 and Rs 17 lakh each).

The next heaviest advertiser on Facebook is the Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC), which spent a little over Rs 42 lakh. It is running ads for the YSRCP candidate for Chief Minister, Jagan Reddy. IPAC founder Prashant Kishor was a leading advisor to the BJP in the 2014 elections, and it’s clear that both it and the BJP are following a similar playbook, because the YSRCP is also the second biggest advertiser on Google, having spent just over Rs 1 crore.

On Facebook, YSRCP is followed by MyGov India, which spent just over Rs 44 lakh, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (officially) at Rs 36 lakh. MyGov is described on its site as a citizen-centric platform to connect with the government, but the advertisements, more than half of which ran without a disclaimer, typically prominently featured Prime Minister Modi, apart from more neutral messages telling people to vote for the first time.

Next up is the Indian National Congress, which spent just under Rs 26 lakh—most of that in the previous week (Rs 19 lakh). In the last week, it unleashed an ad blitz to promote its manifesto.

Earlier this week, Facebook took down hundreds of pages that were guilty of political spam, and hiding the political ownership of the pages. The takedowns did not have to do with the content of the pages, but how they presented themselves. Many of the BJP-affiliated pages here also claim to be independent, and that raises the question of why Facebook does not take action.

Will the ECI’s call for pre-approval of ads change things?

After a meeting between the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and representatives of social media platforms like Sharechat and Twitter, the online platforms have agreed to adopt a code of ethics for the Lok Sabha elections.

These are almost entirely in line with the ECI’s recommendations from January, and include a notification mechanism for the ECI to report violations to platforms, which come in many forms, including online forms, a submissions portal, and email addresses, along with the appointing of grievance officers to communicate with the ECI and deliver prompt action.

One social media executive, speaking on background, said, “Look, we definitely want an unbiased election. But it’s incredibly challenging in terms of scale. We can build filters and train AI and hire people to review content, but it’s a constantly moving target.”

With the short period between now and the start of the voting on April 11, it’s unclear how effective these changes will be, and given that much of the advertising described above comes not from the official parties but “third party volunteers”, the impact of this code of ethics is likely to be limited, if anything at all.

Many civil society members also took to Twitter when the code was announced by the IAMAI to say that it was vague and didn’t really clarify things like timelines, direct rules for what content is and is not allowed, or what actions should be taken in case of violations.

In turn, with just a couple of weeks to go, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora issued a statement that he appreciated the steps taken, and said that “formulation of the Code augurs a good beginning but is essentially a work in making”.

Who’s looking at political ads on Facebook?

The ads are heavily seen by males in the 18-24 years bracket. Given the way Facebook’s Ad library works, it’s actually a little difficult to carry out a quantitative analysis, but random sampling suggests that the ads were seen by people widely spread across India.

For instance, a randomly chosen English-language ad in the Bharat Ke Man Ki Baat page was seen by 76% males in the 18-34 brackets, compared to 2% women. Geographically, 33% of views took place in West Bengal. Karnataka followed at 17%.

A Hindi language ad from the same page saw similar gender distribution, but 32% of the views were from Uttar Pradesh instead. Madhya Pradesh accounted for another 12%, while West Bengal had dropped to just 2%.

It’s similar with the My First Vote for Modi page. This page promotes merchandise, along with political messages, and sees a slightly higher composition of women reading the ads (although the gender ratio is still very heavily skewed), and is again spread evenly across the country.

The Nation with NaMo page targets even more finely — one recently posted ad about cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who’s expected to be getting the BJP ticket from Delhi is seen 100% by men in the 25-34 bucket, and 100% by people in Delhi.

Another ad from the page, promising T-shirts and certificates, is again seen almost exclusively by men, but this time the top three states are Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. In this way, the ads cycle through regions, but are seen almost exclusively by men.

Interestingly, the official BJP page goes in almost the opposite direction. Its latest ad, on the #MainBhiChowkidar campaign, was seen exclusively by women—71% in the 45-54 bucket, and 28% in the 55-64 bucket. Scrolling back into the ad history, you see a similar breakdown across age and gender, while regions keep cycling across India.

Statistical analysis by Quartz conducted a month ago when the process had just begun largely aligns with what HuffPost India found, except for the point about the BJP’s official page. Qz noted that Indian political ads were almost never seen by female users. The same was true for the Aam Aadmi Party, which claimed it wasn’t targeting women, and that the distribution was just the result of Facebook’s algorithms. This was true for the Congress as well.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are only weeks away from welcoming their first child.

While the British royal family never comments on the sex or name of children ahead of their birth, some people are speculating that the couple is expecting a baby girl, thanks to a slip by Serena Williams. 

Williams was recently chatting with E! News about her own experiences with parenting and noted that a “friend” of hers ― the Duchess of Sussex, perhaps? ― was pregnant. The tennis great referred to her friend’s baby as a “she.” 

“I had all of those high expectations, and then I had what I was gonna do and [how] I was gonna recover and I was gonna be great ― [but] this is a time where everything is not going to go as planned,” Williams added.

Whoops! Or maybe Williams just said “she” because she has a little girl of her own. 

According to the online gambling company Ladbrokes, many are banking on the little one being a girl. “Royal punters are looking for any slip-ups and Serena might just have given them one,” Ladbrokes spokesperson Alex Apati told People magazine. “We’re taking no chances and have slashed odds on a girl as a result.”

If Meghan and Harry do have a girl, they’ll have a lot more flexibility in naming her than, say, Prince William and Duchess Kate did with their three, as the Sussex baby will be seventh in line to the throne.

New Zealand’s privacy commissioner is holding no punches in his criticism of Facebook in the wake of the deadly mosque shootings in Christchurch, part of which was livestreamed by the gunman on the social media platform.

Calling the tech giant “morally bankrupt pathological liars,” John Edwards said on Twitter on Sunday night that Facebook “cannot be trusted.”

The social media platform “enable[d] genocide” in Myanmar, Edwards tweeted, referring to Facebook’s role in inciting violence and promoting discrimination in the Southeast Asian nation, aimed particularly at the minority Rohingya people.

Facebook also facilitates “foreign undermining of democratic institutions,” and allows the livestreaming “of suicides, rapes, and murders,” Edwards continued, according to the New Zealand Herald. 

Facebook leaders “continue to host and publish the mosque attack video, allow advertisers to target ‘Jew haters’ and other hateful market segments, and refuse to accept any responsibility for any content or harm. They #DontGiveAZuck,” Edwards concluded in a jibe aimed at Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Edwards’ remarks, which he’d penned in response to Zuckerberg’s recent interview with ABC News, were shared widely on Twitter before the commissioner chose to take them down. He explained on Monday that he’d deleted his tweets “because of the volume of toxic and misinformed traffic they prompted.” He directed people to listen to an interview he did with Radio New Zealand instead. 

In that interview, Edwards said Facebook’s livestreaming technology had the potential of “causing great harm,” and urged the company to put a time delay on its livestreams or even “turn it off altogether” until it has airtight technology in place that can prevent the dissemination of content like the one shared by the gunman behind the Christchurch attacks.

It took Facebook almost 30 minutes to detect the gunman’s livestreamed video of his March 15 attack on Al Noor Mosque, where more than 40 people were shot dead. A total of 50 people were killed and dozens more injured in the twin attacks on the mosque and the nearby Linwood Islamic Center.

The company said it removed about 1.5 million videos of the mass shooting in the first 24 hours after the massacre ― but 300,000 clips of the attack were successfully uploaded.

Speaking to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Zuckerberg said Facebook was working to improve its ability to “identify livestream terror events” but stopped short of committing to any significant changes of the platform’s livestream technology.

He blamed “bad actors” for the widespread dissemination of the Christchurch video and insisted a time delay would “fundamentally break what livestreaming is for people.”

Edwards slammed Zuckerberg’s comments as being “disingenuous” because “he can’t tell us ― or won’t tell us, how many suicides are livestreamed, how many murders, how many sexual assaults.”

“I’ve asked Facebook exactly that last week and they simply don’t have those figures or won’t give them to us,” Edwards told Radio New Zealand.

NEW DELHI — In a scathing criticism of the BJP’s manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said it was the voice of “an isolated man”, besides being “short sighted” and “arrogant”.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its manifesto for the high-stakes general election starting 11 April on Monday, promising to implement the NRC in different parts of the country to push out infiltrators and zero tolerance to terror while reiterating its pet causes ― construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A, dealing with Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

“The Congress manifesto was created through discussion. The voice of over a million Indian people it is wise and powerful,” Gandhi said in a tweet.

“The BJP Manifesto was created in a closed room. The voice of an isolated man, it is short sighted and arrogant,” he added.

The Congress had dubbed the BJP’s election manifesto a “Jhansa Patra” (deception document) and a “bubble of lies” on Monday and said it would have been better had the saffron party issued a “maafinama” instead.

The Income Tax Department Monday said it detected a “widespread and well-organised” racket of collection of unaccounted cash of about Rs 281 crore during raids against close aides of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and others.

It said the sleuths have recovered Rs 14.6 crore of “unaccounted” cash and seized diaries and computer files of suspect payments made between Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. 

However, according to The Indian Express, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya tweeted about the amount of money detected hours before the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which frames policy for the I-T Department, issued a statement on the raid and revealed the figure.

According to the daily, at 10:53 am on Monday, Vijayvargiya tweeted, “Madhya Pradesh mein tabaadla express patri sey utarney key karan durghatnagrasth. Jaan ka koi nuksaan nahi lekin 281 crore key maal key nuksaan ka anumaan (The Transfer Express in Madhya Pradesh has derailed. No loss of life, but loss of 281 crore estimated).”

The tweet has since been deleted. 

Nath’s aide pointed to the tweet and alleged the searches were carried out at BJP’s insistence and were “aimed at maligning the image of the Congress during elections”.

Narender Saluja, Nath’s media coordinator, told Express, “How could the BJP leader come to know of the figure in the morning? What kind of collusion is this?”. 

The CBDT said the department had detected a trail of Rs 20 crore suspect cash allegedly being moved to the “headquarters of a major political party in Delhi” from the house of an important person who lives on Tughlaq Road, home to many VIPs.

“Rs 14.6 crore of unaccounted cash has been found so far, besides 252 bottles of liquor, few arms and tiger hide-skins,” the CBDT said in a statement issued late night.

“Searches in Madhya Pradesh have detected widespread and well-organised racket of collection of unaccounted cash of about Rs 281 crore through various persons in different walks of life, including business, politics and public service.

“A part of the cash was also transferred to the headquarter of a major political party in Delhi, including about Rs 20 crore, which was moved through hawala recently to the headquarter of the political party from the residence of a senior functionary at Tughlak Road, New Delhi,” the CBDT said.

The statement added that records of collection and disbursement of cash “in the form of hand-written diaries, computer files and excel sheets were found and seized and it corroborates the above findings”.

It added that the searches in Delhi in the group of a close relative of the senior functionary have further led to the seizure of “incriminating evidence, including cash book recording unaccounted transactions of Rs 230 crore, siphoning off money through bogus billing of more than Rs 242 crore and evidence of more than 80 companies in tax havens.” 

A preliminary report of the raids has been shared by the department with the CBDT and the Election Commission in Delhi.

Those searched included Nath’s former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Pravin Kakkar, former adviser Rajendra Miglani, Ashwani Sharma, Paras Mal Lodha and executives linked to his brother-in-law’s firm Moser Bayer and a company of his nephew Ratul Puri. Nath had reacted late Sunday to the development.

“The situation about the I-T raids is not clear yet. It would be appropriate to speak on this after the situation is clear. But the entire country knows how the constitutional institutions were used and against whom they were used during the past five years,” he had said.

“These institutions were used to scare people. When they do not have anything to say on development and their work, they used these kind of tactics against their opponents,” the CM’s statement had said.

(With PTI inputs)