A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Ahead of Uddhav Thackeray swearing-in as Maharashtra CM, Narendra Modi and Sonia Gandhi get invites: The state will get a chief minister from the Shiv Sena after 20 years but a member of the Thackeray family will hold the position for the first time.
  2. Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind says its review plea against Ayodhya verdict not to disrupt ‘national solidarity’: A draft of the plea was ready and the Muslim body is likely to submit it in court on December 3 or December 4.  
  3. Growth may have slowed but there will never be a recession, claims Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament: The finance minister claimed that India’s real GDP growth was better during the first term of the Modi government than in the previous Congress-led regime.
  4. Nearly 51% Indians paid bribes in last one year, down from 56% in 2018, says survey: However, the figure for 2019 was higher than it was in 2017.
  5. Pragya Thakur again refers to Nathuram Godse as a ‘deshbhakt’ – this time in the Lok Sabha: BJP MPs persuaded Thakur to sit down when Opposition members started protesting against her comment.
  6. ‘Parties with diametrically opposite ideology have come to grab power,’ says Amit Shah on Maharashtra situation: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that people should not be surprised if the party comes to power at the Centre. Meanwhile, Ajit Pawar clarified that he is still a part of the Nationalist Congress Party.
  7. Bangladesh court sentences seven militants to death for 2016 Dhaka cafe attack: ‘Charges against them were proved beyond any doubt,’ the public prosecutor said.
  8. In Assam, 988 ‘foreigners’ lodged in detention centres, says Centre: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said all detention centres are equipped with basic facilities, including those related to medical care.
  9. Air India will have to be closed if it is not privatised, says civil aviation minister: Hardeep Singh Puri told the Rajya Sabha that the government was committed to providing the carrier’s employees a fair deal.
  10. ‘If Israelis can do it, so can we,’ Indian diplomat tells Kashmiri Pandits about return to homeland: Later, Consul General in New York City Sandeep Chakravorty tweeted that his remarks had been taken ‘out of context’, but did not clarify further.