Your Daily Wrap: Punjab CM sacks health minister; PM Modi at Quad; and more

◾ Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today sacked state health minister Vijay Singla on charges of corruption for seeking “1 per cent cut in tenders allotment and purchase of goods related to the department.” Following this, the Anti Corruption Bureau of the Punjab Police arrested Singal. Singal’s arrest comes exactly two months after he held a meeting of health officials in Chandigarh, where he said the government would have zero tolerance for corruption.

◾ A Delhi court observed that the fundamental question to ask in a plea seeking restoration of 27 temples within the Quwwat-Ul-Islam mosque located inside the Qutub Minar complex was ‘what was the character of the building’. The ASI has argued that the character of the Quwwat-Ul-Islam mosque within the Qutub Minar complex was frozen after it came under protection of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.

◾ In yet another signal of rapprochement, Congress president Sonia Gandhi included G-23 leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma in an eight-member political affairs group she constituted on the day to advise her. Sonia also announced a task force for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections which, interestingly, has election strategist Sunil Kanugolu as a member. Kanugolu’s entry into the Congress set-up comes weeks after fellow election strategist and former colleague Prashant Kishor declined the party’s offer to join it.

◾ Gujarat’s first case of the BA.5 variant of Omicron has been detected in a 29-year-old man who arrived in Vadodara from South Africa in the first week of May, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation said Tuesday. The man, who was visiting the city to meet his parents, was tested for Covid-19 on May 1 after showing symptoms.

Political Pulse

◾ Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seems to be pressing ahead with the proposal to conduct a caste census in the state even though the BJP-ruled Centre continues to remain non-committal over it. As Nitish is all set to hold an all-party meeting on the caste census before his Cabinet considers it for approval, his party Janata Dal (United)’s national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh speaks to Indian Express on the issue and whether it is a bid to gain an upper hand over the party’s senior ally, the BJP. Read here.

◾ The BJP high command on Tuesday picked three new faces and a former deputy chief minister as its candidates for the June 3 polls for seven seats to the Karnataka legislative council. As anticipated, the BJP ignored B Y Vijayendra, the son of Lingayat strongman and former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa.

Express Explained

◾ The Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed that China is building a second bridge on the Pangong Tso lake, not far from the site of one of the most intense friction points in the border standoff that began in May 2020. A previous bridge, which came up around January, seemed to have been built to facilitate work on the new one. What does China aim to achieve by building this bridge? We explain.

◾ There are no suspected or confirmed cases of monkeypox, a rare viral infection similar to smallpox, in Mumbai. However, the Mumbai civic body issued a health advisory and stated that it has kept a separate 28-bed ward ready at the Kasturba Hospital for the isolation of suspected patients. What is the monkeypox virus? What are its symptoms? And how is the Mumbai civic body preparing? Read here.