| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. Farmer issues: Modi lashes out at Mamata; Trinamool hits back Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday lashed out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her government of "destroying" the State and depriving its over 70 lakh farmers of benefits from the Centre's flagship PM-KISAN scheme under which ₹6,000 per year is given to each farmer. Modi also made a veiled attack on the once-potent political force in the State, the Left parties, saying that those who ruled the State for three decades brought it down and did not do anything for farmers. Assembly elections are due in West Bengal in April-May next year and the BJP has already launched a massive campaign to unseat the Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in the State. Banerjee has been West Bengal's Chief Minister since 2011 after ending 34-year-old Left rule in the State. "The people following one specific ideology ruled Bengal for 30 years, brought the State down, and the whole country knows about it. The parties that do not speak on the benefit of farmers in West Bengal are engaged in harassing the citizens of Delhi in the name of the farmers and are ruining the economy of the country," he said. The TMC hit back at Modi for his remarks. "While he (PM Modi) publicly claimed his intention to help farmers of WB (West Bengal) through his PM Kisan Yojana and alleges non-cooperation of the state government, the fact is that he is trying to mislead the people with half-truth and distorted facts," Banerjee said in a statement. "BJP is repeatedly saying the farmers of West Bengal are being deprived of cash under this scheme. That is not true. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked the Centre to route the cash benefits through the state government and not directly to the farmers. The intention of the Modi government is to reap political benefits," TMC MP Sougata Roy said. Meanwhile, aanother batch of farmers and farm labourers under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Committee (KMSC) started today from Punjab on a tractor-trolley 'march' to Delhi. "A fresh batch of thousands of farmers and farm labourers left today for Delhi from Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, Amirtsar and Tarn Taran districts. Two similar batches have already reached Singhu-Kundli in the past few days. The farmers who started on Friday are moving on tractor-trolleys, two-wheelers, cars and vans," Sarvan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Punjab unit of KMSC, told The Hindu. While there has been a general impression that the farmer protests are mostly by Sikh farmers from Punjab, news reports today showed that thousands of farmers from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have also reached the Delhi border. Two AAP MPs raise slogans in Central Hall of Parliament against farm laws With the winter session of Parliament cancelled, two Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs raised slogans against the three farm laws in a failed attempt to draw the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had come to pay tributes to former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee on the occasion of his 96th birth anniversary, in the Central Hall of Parliament on Friday. AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh tweeted a video of himself and his Lok Sabha colleague Bhagwant Mann holding placards and raising slogans while PM Modi walked out without acknowledging the two.  Screen grab of AAP MPs Bhagwant Mann and Sanjay Singh holding placards in the Parliament on Friday. Singh and Mann held posters demanding legal provision for Minimum Support Price (MSP) and shouted slogans demanding repeal of the farm laws and asking the government to pay attention to the protesting farmers at the Singhu border. "The Parliament session is not being called. The winter session is cancelled. How do we raise our voice? How do we flag the farmers' concerns? Thirty-two farmers so far have lost their lives in this agitation but the government is completely immune to their travails," Singh told The Hindu. When pointed out that the protest failed to draw PM Modi's attention, Singh said, "He doesn't bother sparing a moment to look at the concerns of the nation, why would he bother about us." Dry run for Covid-19 vaccine rollout in 4 States next week: Govt. The Centre is gearing up for the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine across the country, with four States all set to initiate a dry run for vaccine administration next week, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday. "Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, and Punjab have been selected considering the geographical locations. Each State will plan it in two districts and preferably in different (five) session type settings e.g. district hospital, CHC/PHC, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach etc," a Ministry release said.  Members of ground staff in New Delhi on December 22, 2020 walk past a container at the Cargo Terminal 2 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, which will be used as a COVID-19 coronavirus vaccines handling and distribution centre. The Ministry added that this exercise will enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of the Covid-19 vaccination process prior to actual implementation. It noted that this will also provide a hands-on experience to programme managers at various levels. This two-day activity is planned on December 28 and 29. Rajinikanth hospitalised in Hyderabad while shooting for his next film Rajinikanth, who was in Hyderabad for a movie shoot, was admitted to a private hospital on December 25 morning following "severe fluctuations" in his blood pressure. The news acquires significance coming as it does less than a week before he is expected to launch a political party in Tamil Nadu. A press release issued at 12.30 p.m. from Apollo hospitals, Hyderabad, said, "Though he [Rajinikanth] did not have any symptoms of Covid-19, his blood pressure showed severe fluctuations and needed further evaluation for which he has been admitted to the hospital. He will be investigated and monitored closely in the hospital till his blood pressure settles down before being discharged. Apart from fluctuating blood pressure and exhaustion, he does not have any other symptoms and is hemodynamically stable." Rajinikanth has been in Hyderabad for the past 10 days to complete the shooting for his next film, Annathey, produced by Sun Pictures. 21-year-old tipped to be Thiruvananthapuram mayor In a surprise move, the district committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday proposed 21-year old Arya Rajendran's name for the post of mayor of Thiruvananthapuram. If the party's State Committee approves the choice, it will make her the youngest person to occupy that post. Though party leaders remained tight-lipped about the decision, CPI (M) sources confirmed the news. An official announcement is expected on Monday.  Arya Rajendran Rajendran, who won from the Mudavanmugal ward in the state capital, is a B.Sc student at the All Saints College in the city. She is the current State president of the Balasangham, a children's organisation. She is also a member of the State Committee of the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the CPI (M)'s Kesavadev Road branch committee. Her father is an electrician, while her mother is an LIC agent. "I have not received any official communication from the party regarding this. The decision will be taken by the party," Rajendran told The Hindu. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 1,01,58,674 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,47,233. In Brief: The BJP has gained seven MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh as six legislators of the Janata Dal (United) and the lone MLA of the People's Party of Arunachal (PPA) switched over in the last two days, taking the saffron party's count in the 60-member Assembly to 48. The JD(U), which emerged the second largest party after the BJP in the 2019 Assembly election, now has Techi Kaso as the lone MLA. "We have accepted their applications to join the party. This is yet another example of the people's faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi," State BJP president Biyuram Wahge said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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