The Catch Up: 20 June

It is the 20th of June and here are the headlines.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for the United States today. This will be his first State visit to the country in nine years in office. On the agenda are at least three meetings with US President Joe Biden, a meeting with Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk and a reception hosted by US Congressional leaders. In his pre-departure statement, PM Modi said he was confident his visit would reinforce ties between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court dismissed objections raised by the Mamata Banerjee government and West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) to the Calcutta High Court order asking the poll panel to requisition central forces for deployment in all districts of the state for the July 8 panchayat polls.

A total of 10 political parties in Manipur, including the Congress, have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his immediate intervention to resolve the ethnic violence that has left over 110 people dead and thousands displaced in the state. In the letter dated June 19, the Opposition parties blamed “the divide and rule politics of the BJP government at the Centre and in the state for having failed to contain the violence in Manipur”.

IndiGo, the country’s largest airline created history on Monday by placing a mega aircraft order — for 500 Airbus A320neo family planes — at the Paris Air Show. This is the largest-ever order placed by an airline in one go (in terms of the number of aircraft ordered) and trumps Air India’s February order for 470 Airbus and Boeing aircraft.

In other news, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha passed the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023, today making the telecast of Gurbani from the Golden Temple free and ensuring that it is not commercialised in any manner. The Bill was passed with a voice vote after the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bahujan Samaj Party members opposed it.

That was the Catch Up for The Indian Express.