The year that was 2019 / Apr to Jun

April

Apr 1: The Centre extended the “disturbed area” tag under AFSPA for three districts of  Arunachal Pradesh for six months more while withdrawing it partly from the state’s three other districts bordering Assam.

Apr 2: India sent a note verbale to Pakistan demanding the immediate release and repatriation of 10 Indian civilian prisoners lodged in Pakistani jails who have already completed their sentence.

Apr 4: The release of ‘PM Narendra Modi’, a biopic on the prime minister, has been pushed indefinitely, its producer Sandip Ssingh said a day before the film was scheduled to be screened in theatres across the country.

Apr 5: Kanishak Kataria, a BTech from IIT Bombay, has topped the Civil Services final examination 2018, results of which were announced by the UPSC, while Srushti Jayant Deshmukh is the topper among female candidates securing an overall fifth rank.

Apr 6: Pakistan has opened one of its 11 air routes for west-bound flights from India and Air India has started using it.

Apr 9: JKLF chief Yasin Malik was shifted to Delhi’s Tihar Jail after the NIA secured his production remand in connection with a case related to funding of separatists and terror groups in Jammu and Kashmir.

Apr 10: In a jolt to the Centre, the Supreme Court agreed to hear petitions for a review of its verdict in the Rafale jet deal on the basis of “leaked” secret documents by dismissing its preliminary objections.

Apr 13: France waived taxes worth 143.7 million euros to a French-registered telecom subsidiary of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications in 2015, months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of buying 36 Rafale jets, leading French newspaper Le Monde reported, giving a fresh twist to the deal in the middle of the Lok Sabha polls.

Apr 15: India successfully test-fired its first indigenously designed and developed long-range subsonic cruise missile Nirbhay from a test range in Odisha.

Apr 16: Crisis continued to deepen at cash-starved Jet Airways as the airline flew just five planes and the management made desperate attempts to garner emergency funds worth Rs 400 crore to stay afloat even as the lenders remained undecided on extending the lifeline.

Apr 17: Bringing its Hindutva plank to the fore, the BJP fielded Malegaon blast case accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in the Lok Sabha election from Bhopal against Congress heavyweight and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh.

Apr 18: The Election Commission said it has sought a report on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on the Sabarimala shrine and is examining another report on Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s “chowkidar chor hai” jibe against the PM.

Apr 19: Ending their 24-year rivalry to take on the BJP, BSP supremo Mayawati shared the stage with Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and sought votes for him, saying he was a “real leader” of the backward communities.

Apr 20: Allegations of sexual harassment have cropped up against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, prompting him to convene an urgent extraordinary hearing and assert that the charges by a former apex court staffer were “unbelievable” and part of a conspiracy by some “bigger force” to “deactivate” the CJI’s office.

Apr 22: Two lawyers’ bodies of the Supreme Court disapproved of the manner in which Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi dealt with the sexual harassment allegations against him, calling it “procedural impropriety” and “violation” of procedures.

Apr 23: The Supreme Court directed the Gujarat government to give Rs 50 lakh compensation, a job and accommodation to Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped during the 2002 riots.

Apr 25: Observing that the rich and powerful who think they can “remote control” it are playing with fire, the Supreme Court appointed its former judge Justice A.K. Patnaik to probe allegations of larger conspiracy to frame CJI Ranjan Gogoi.

Apr 26: Under a new head after the forced exit of its promoter-chief executive Rana Kapoor, Yes Bank reported a whopping Rs 1,506 crore net loss for the March quarter as against a profit of Rs 1,179 crore in the year-ago period as provisions soared.

Apr 27: A deep depression over southeast Bay of Bengal developed into cyclonic storm Fani, which will further intensify into a “severe cyclonic storm”, the IMD said.

Apr 28: The ripple effect of the five-hour shutdown of Air India’s check-in software was still being felt as 137 flights were delayed.

Apr 29: Twenty-four students scored a perfect 100 in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main for admission into engineering colleges, the results of which were announced by the HRD ministry’s National Testing Agency.

Apr 30: Within hours of the announcement, Air India put on hold the appointment of senior official Arvind Kathpalia, whose flying licence was suspended in November 2018, as regional director of the northern region.

May

May 1: At least 16 persons, including 15 security personnel, were killed in an IED blast triggered by Naxals in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district.    

May 4: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was slapped allegedly by a disgruntled AAP supporter during a roadshow in Moti Nagar.

May 12: The death toll due to Cyclone Fani rose to 64 with 21 fresh deaths confirmed, nine days after the extremely severe cyclonic storm devastated coastal Odisha.

May 13: Actor-politician Kamal Haasan said independent India’s first “extremist was a Hindu” - Nathuram Godse who killed Mahatma Gandhi, stoking a controversy with the BJP asserting that an “assassin” is very different from a terrorist.

May 17: Addressing his first press conference after coming to power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on the last day of campaigning that the BJP will come back to power with a full majority, but refused to take any questions, citing party discipline.

May 20: The Election Commission rejected with a majority vote election commissioner Ashok Lavasa’s demand that dissent notes should be recorded in its orders on model code violations, days after the simmering tension within the poll body over the issue came out in the open.

May 23: Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP to a super-sized victory for a second term in office, as his message of nationalism, security, Hindu pride and a New India was wholeheartedly embraced by voters across large swathes of the country.

May 24: A BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test-fired by a unit of Eastern Command of the Indian Army from Car Nicobar Islands.

May 25: Narendra Modi was appointed prime minister by President Ram Nath Kovind after he was unanimously elected NDA parliamentary party leader at a meeting in which he asked its members to work without discrimination, stressing on the need to win over the trust of minorities.

May 28: The crisis in the Congress showed no signs of easing with Rahul Gandhi sticking to his decision to resign as party chief after its Lok Sabha poll debacle and staying away from meeting party leaders.

May 29: The toll in the Barabanki hooch tragedy in Uttar Pradesh rose to 17, even as the main accused who ran the licensed liquor shop was arrested.

May 31: In some bad news for the new government on day one, CSO data showed that economic growth slowed to a five-year low of 5.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018-19, pushing India behind China, due to poor showing by agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

June

Jun 1: As Congress MPs re-elected her the leader of the parliamentary party, Sonia Gandhi said several “decisive measures” were being mulled to strengthen the organisation.

Jun 2: Odisha Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik resigned from the Bijepur Assembly constituency and retained the Hinjli seat.

Jun 4: Renowned scientist and cyclone warning specialist Mrutyunjay Mohapatra was appointed as chief of the India Meteorological Department.

Jun 7: The north and central regions of India seethed under heatwave conditions forcing people to stay indoors, even as a severe dust storm and lightning in various parts of Uttar Pradesh claimed at least 26 lives and left 57 injured.

Jun 9: In a strategically significant move, the government has decided to fast-track integration of Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles into over 40 Sukhoi fighter jets under a closely-guarded project.

Jun 10: A court sentenced three men including a temple caretaker to life imprisonment till last breath for the gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir shortly after convicting them along with three others for the ghastly crime that shook the nation 17 months ago.

Jun 11: Former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian has deduced in a new research paper that India may not have been the world’s fastest growing economy between 2011-12 and 2016-17 as its GDP growth rate was overestimated, a claim the government quickly rubbished saying its estimates were based on accepted procedures and methodologies.

Jun 13: All 13 air-warriors on board an AN-32 transport aircraft that crashed in a heavily forested mountainous area in Arunachal Pradesh 10 days ago were killed, the IAF said.

Jun 15: Agitating doctors turned down West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s offer for talks at the state secretariat saying they fear about their security and rejected her appeal to end their stir, which entered the fifth day.

Jun 17: Former Union minister J.P. Nadda was appointed BJP working president during the party’s parliamentary board meeting.

Jun 18: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a five-time MP from West Bengal, was appointed as the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, while Kerala MP K. Suresh was made the chief whip in the Lower House.

Jun 20: India dismissed as “fake news” a Pakistani media report claiming New Delhi is ready for talks with Islamabad, saying there is no change in its position that Pakistan must first take “verifiable” and “irreversible” action against terrorism for resumption of dialogue.

Jun 22: The CBI has booked controversial arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and others in connection with the alleged corruption in the Rs 2,895 crore deal of 75 Pilatus basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force in 2009.

Jun 24: Rajasthan BJP president Madan Lal Saini died while undergoing treatment at AIIMS in New Delhi.

Jun 25: Kerala has occupied the top slot in terms of health performance among large states followed by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, whereas Uttar Pradesh and Bihar remained at the bottom, according to the NITI Aayog’s second round of Health Index.

Jun 26: The Intelligence Bureau and the country’s external snooping agency Research and Analysis Wing got new chiefs as the government cleared the names of IPS officers Arvind Kumar and Samanat Goel for the coveted posts for a fixed tenure of two years.

Jun 27: The Income Tax department conducted raids on multiple properties of Hilal Rather, the son of former Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather, in connection with an alleged loan misappropriation and tax evasion case.

Jun 29: Two years after Haryana resident Pehlu Khan was lynched by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, police have filed a chargesheet against his two sons and a truck operator for illegally transporting cattle.

Jun 30: June ended with 33 per cent of monsoon precipitation and over 78 per cent of meteorological subdivisions recording “deficient” rainfall, according to the IMD.

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