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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley filed civil and criminal defamation cases against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal  and five Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, while proceedings of both Houses of Parliament were disrupted by Opposition members demanding probe into the alleged corruption in the functioning of Delhi’s cricket body. The highlight was when Congress President Sonia Gandhi tried to catch the attention of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to allow Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kirti Azad to speak in the Lok Sabha on the issue of purported financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). Some in the BJP claimed the Congress President had implored with shouts of “Kirti” to ask Azad to speak and how this was further proof that Azad was Congress’ “Trojan horse” in the BJP.  "Outrageous, (that) I took instructions from Congress President?! We have been fighting since nine years, shown fraud companies with fraud bank accounts?“Azad t...

Six excise duty increases on petrol and diesel since November 2014 may have added Rs 25,700 crore to the government kitty, but  consumers   are no less rich. Largely automobile owners, consumers together gained a little over Rs 60,000 crore from lower petrol and diesel prices in the first seven months of the current financial year. On an annualised basis, the total hike in excise duty can add Rs 92,915 crore to the government kitty based on 19.1 million tonnes of petrol and 69.4 million tonnes of diesel Indians burnt last financial year. The total increase in excise duty has been Rs 9.65 a litre for petrol and Rs 7.97 a litre for diesel. This could have directly translated into reductions in retail prices but the government decided to use the fall in global prices to allow state-owned oil refiners to partially pass on the benefit through periodic price cuts.   The savings to consumers on account of lower prices came despite higher consumption of both fuels. B...