Archives for February 2018

Patna: In a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar Leader of Opposition and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday said that demonetisation has “hit terrorism so hard that our 45 brave soldiers were martyred in last 30 days”.

“Modiji ki notebandi ne aatankavad ki aisi kamar todi ki vigat ek maah mein hamare 45 bahadur sainik shahid ho chuke hai (The noteban by Modi has broken the back of terrorism so badly that we lost 45 brave soldiers in just the last 30 days),” Tejashwi Yadav said in a tweet.

Tejashwi Yadav also targeted RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his “poor knowledge” about the Indian Army.

Bhagwat, on last Sunday, in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district said the army will take six months to fully get ready to fight but the RSS has the capacity to form an army within three days to fight against the enemy on the border.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader also attacked JD-U supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for “neglecting two brave soldiers from Bihar” who were killed in a Kashmir attack.

“Neither were their bodies received by a Minister nor did any Minister attend their last rites,” he said.

(IANS)

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday accused the Modi government of causing hindrances in Delhi’s development and said he could prove wrongdoing by the Centre if its files were made available to him.

Speaking at an event to mark the third anniversary of the AAP government, he said the Delhi government was struggling to get approval for its policies from Lt Governor Anil Baijal, an appointee of the Central government.

Referring to the government files stuck with the Lt Governor, Kejriwal said the MLAs were forced to virtually camp at his residence whenever this happened.

He added that the Shunglu committee, appointed by the Centre, failed to find any wrongdoing in the 440 government files of the Delhi government even after investigating them for months.

In turn, he challenged the Modi government to submit its files to him.

“Show me your files for four days, and I will teach you a lesson,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.

He said 16 to 17 bills passed by the Delhi Assembly were pending with the central government.

He accused the Lt Governor of delaying his government’s flagship Mohalla Clinics as he kept sending the files back and forth for one and a half years.

(IANS)

(AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

Among the promises the Bharatiya Janata Party is making while campaigning in poll-bound Nagaland is a free trip for Christians to Jerusalem. “We plan to send groups of senior Christian citizens to Jerusalem if our party comes to power,” Nagaland BJP spokesperson James Vizo told the newspaper.

The Congress, meanwhile, has promised voters in the Christian-dominated state a subsidy for the trip. Nagaland Assembly polls are on February 27.

The offer from the BJP, which is contesting the elections as an ally of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party, comes a week after the Nagaland Baptist Church Council warned voters against Hindutva forces in the state. “We cannot deny that the Hindutva movement in the country has become strong and invasive in the past few years with the BJP, the political wing of the RSS, in power,” the council wrote in its letter to presidents of all political parties.

Some other reports said it was unclear if the BJP’s offer of a free trip to Jerusalem applied only to Christians in Nagaland or also to the other two poll-bound states in the North East – Tripura and Meghalaya. Meghalaya will vote on February 27 along with Nagaland, and Tripura will have its polls on February 18.

Political leaders criticised the BJP’s announcement, especially as it came just weeks after the government cancelled Haj subsidies for Muslims. “I was right, BJP continues with subsidy if it suits its electoral needs,” All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi said on Twitter.

(Agencies)

Lucknow: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Tuesday condemned a statement of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat that they were ready, before the Indian Army, to take on Pakistan if the need arises.

In a statement, party supremo Mayawati said the statement was not only an insult to the country’s armed forces but also reflected the ‘militant swayam sevaks’ that RSS nurtured.

“If the RSS is so confident of its cadres, why has Mohan Bhagwat and its other senior functionaries taken the protection of NSG and police commandos” the four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister asked.

She further said it was shameful that the RSS chief had tried to run down the armed forces at a speech in Muzaffarpur in Bihar recently.

“The statement will dampen the spirits and morale of the Indian Army,” she said.

The BSP supremo also sought an unqualified apology from the RSS chief.

The Dalit leader said the RSS should also come out of the belief that it was a social organisation as it was, through its activities, fast turning into a political entity.

“You are no more a social organisation but one which all the time is engaged in political activities and are trying to help in all possible ways the BJP in electoral politics,” Mayawati added.

(IANS)

New Delhi: Citing the five Kashmiri Muslims, including soldiers, killed in the terror attack on a Jammu Army camp, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on

Tuesday slammed those who question the patriotism of Muslims, asking why they were silent on this issue.

“Every day at 9 p.m. on television the nationalism of Muslims is questioned and questions are also raised on Kashmiris.

“Out of the seven killed in Jammu, five were Kashmiri Muslims including a woman who was pregnant. Now everybody is silent on their death,” Owaisi said, asking “why such silence on this issue”?

The Hyderabad MP said the people “who question the integrity of Muslims and those who call Muslims Pakistani” will have to take a lesson from this.

“We (Muslims) are giving our lives but the terrorists are killing us too as they are not discriminating anybody on the basis of religion. They treat everyone as Indian. But there are many such people in the country who still question our integrity,” Owaisi added.

He was referring to the death of seven persons, including six soldiers and a civilian, in the Sunjuwan military camp terror attack.

On February 10, a group of heavily armed Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) terrorists entered the camp after hurling grenades and using automatic weapons.

Ten others, including six women and children, were injured in the attack.

(IANS)