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Archives for June 2018

Three Gujarat BJP MLAs protest against government

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Three senior ruling BJP legislators from Vadodara district came out in the open late on Wednesday evening expressing their resentment against the State government and claimed more than a dozen others were with them, hours after Chief Minister Vijay Rupani flew out the country on a six-day tour.

Three legislators, Madhu Srivastava from Waghodia constituency, Yogesh Patel from Manjalpur and Ketan Inamdar from Savli, asserted that several state ministers and the bureaucracy were not listening to them and showing a callous attitude to public representatives.

Incidentally, national BJP President Amit Shah was in his home state on Wednesday but the MLAs chose to vent their grievances before the media, also claiming that many more legislators were angry with the working of the government.

Madhu Srivastava, who is a legislator for six terms, asserted that several other frustrated MLAs were with them and they would also come out in future. “Today we are three but tomorrow there may be 13 or 23. Today we three, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, have got together. Now let anything happen,” Srivastava said.

“Ever since the present government took charge six months ago, the bureaucrats in the state are working at their whims and fancies. And when we go to meet the ministers on the designated Tuesdays for us, we are unable to see them,” Srivastava told reporters, as Patel and Inamdar nodded in agreement.

Concurring with Srivastava, Yogesh Patel said that their only demand was that when they seek resolution to the issues of their electorate, it must be sorted out but this was not happening.

Asked if they had made a representation to the Chief Minister about this, Srivastava said, “We are not going to stand in queue (to meet him) if the officials did not allow them.”

Ketan Inamdar said their anger was not against the party or the government but with the attitude of officials. “The government which is trying to do best for the people, should sure have control over the bureaucracy but it appears the officials have got thick-skinned,” he said.

The BJP swiftly swung in to action, asking senior Cabinet minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama to intervene. “Whatever be the issue, I, Nitin bhai (Deputy Chief Minister) and Jitubhai Vaghani (state BJP President) will speak to them in person and sort out their issues,” Chudasama said.

BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said, “The three have been summoned by state party chief for a meeting in person. We have touched base with them and asked them to put forth their grievances on the right forum.”

Mallya denies repayment offer linked to Fugitive Ordinance

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Claiming that he had honestly tried to repay bank loans since 2016, beleaguered tycoon Vijay Mallya on Wednesday denied his offer to settle the dues was linked to the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance.

“It is incorrect that my settlement offer before the Karnataka HC was motivated by the latest charge sheet under the media reported Fugitive Ordinance. I always had honest intentions to settle and there is ample proof,” tweeted Mallya, a day after he broke silence on defaulting bank loans.

The May 27 Ordinance gives the law enforcing agencies powers to attach and confiscate the proceeds of crime and properties of economic offenders like bank defaulters or bank fraudsters fleeing the country, and is aimed at deterring economic offenders from evading the process of law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, a probe agency official told IANS here.

The 62-year-old liquor baron, who fled the country on March 2, 2016, has been living in London since then despite summons from Indian courts and law enforcement agencies to appear before them for trial in various related cases.

“I am asked for comment on being labeled a fugitive economic offender. When I have placed assets on the table before the Karnataka High Court in excess of the bank claims, how can I be an economic offender? The fugitive part falls away,” said Mallya in another tweet.

Referring to some people asking him why he chose to make a statement at this time, he said he did so because he and his United Breweries Holding Ltd (UBHL) have filed an application before the high court on June 22, setting out assets worth Rs 13,900 crore.

“I made my media statement concurrent with my settlement offer now and was unable to make such an offer before due to various circumstantial changes about the value of my assets available,” he tweeted.

He stressed the chargesheets of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate allege criminality with no intention to repay banks although he had been making efforts to settle since 2016.

“As I have placed everything before the high court, where is the malafide? Are banks interested in repayment?” he asked.

Admitting that the government, courts and banks were rightfully concerned about public money loaned to his now defunct Kingfisher Airline by the state-run banks, Mallya said he showed to the high court having assets in excess of the banks’ claims and requested their sale under its supervision.

“The government wants to recover money loaned by the state-run banks. It used CBI and ED to attach and recover. I have placed all assets before the high court and submitted for sale. Banks should be very happy. But if the same CBI and ED object, what do I do?” he asked.

Regretting that the official narrative seemed to question his intentions, Mallya also denied delaying tactics or any agenda to score brownie points.

“What needs to be appreciated is a bona fide offer and commitment placed before the high court. Let Justice play its part,” he pointed out.

Responding to the comment of Minister of State for External Affairs M. J. Akbar that he had years to repay the loans, Mallya said his settlement initiatives date back to 2016

Man held for assaulting Canadian woman

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A man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a Canadian woman here, police said on Wednesday.

The incident was reported from south Delhi where the woman had gone to a pub in Hauz Khas village on Tuesday evening.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, South, Romil Baaniya said that the accused identified as Abhishek befriended the victim there, and after spending some time, invited her to his place where he assaulted her.

The woman, however, managed to escape and reached the AIIMS Trauma Centre, where she borrowed a phone from a passer-by and informed the police about the incident.

“The victim has given a written complaint. We have booked Abhishek under relevant IPC sections and arrested him. He was produced before a magistrate,” Baaniya said, adding that the Canadian High Commission here was informed of the incident.

Police officials said that Abhishek had taken the Canadian woman to a guest house and tried to rape her.

“Prima facie, the woman was molested by the accused in a bid to rape her and as he failed in his attempt, he beat her,” the official said.

“We have conducted medical examination of the victim and are waiting for the medical report. Relevant IPC sections will be added accordingly,” he added.

Congress lists multiple surgical strikes, slams Centre for politicising 2016 action

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The Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of leveraging the 2016 surgical strikes across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir as “political fodder” to garner votes and listed similar multiple strikes carried out over last two decades to assert that such action was not the first of its kind though they were not “politicised” earlier.

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala’s comments came a day after the footage of Indian Army’s surgical strikes in September 2016 was released.

Talking to reporters here, Surjewala said BJP President Amit Shah had “dishonored” the 70-year-long history of bravery and sacrifice of the armed forces by making a “disgraceful statement” on October 7, 2016 that “Indian Army had crossed the LoC for the first time in 68 years”.

Surjewala said that conducting strategic surgical strikes “with utmost precision and effective penetration” at different times in last two decades has been characteristic of the grit and determination of the Indian Armed Forces.

He listed multiple “surgical strikes” prior to those conducted in September 2016 after the Narendra Modi government assumed office.

“We are proud that our forces have successfully conducted multiple surgical strikes over last two decades, particularly post the year 2000 — January 21, 2000 (Nadala Enclave, across the Neelam River); September 18, 2003 (Baroh Sector, Poonch); June 19, 2008 (Bhattal Sector, Poonch); August 30 to September 1, 2011 (Sharda Sector, across Neelam River Valley in Kel); January 6, 2013 (Sawan Patra checkpost); July 27 to 28, 2013 ( Nazapir Sector); August 6, 2013 (Neelam Valley); January 14, 2014; September 28 to 29, 2016.”

New Google Calandar features to improve your work schedule

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New features on Google Calendar like “out of office” and customizable “working hours” would let users indicate their work-time availability to others and improve digital presence, the company said on Thursday.

Google Calendar will now be able to automatically decline meetings that would occur during “out of office” period. Users will also have the choice to customize the “decline message.”

“When creating an event on the web, simply select the ‘out of office’ entry type. The ‘out of office’ object will have a different look on the Calendar grid, signaling to others that you’re unavailable,” the G suite team wrote in a blog post late on Wednesday.

Additionally, with “working hours”, users would be able to “protect their personal time from their work time”.

Users could set their working hours to one interval for all weekdays, or for each day, separately.

The new features will be available to users of all G suite editions within two weeks.

“Based on your timezone and past scheduling patterns, Google Calendar can now infer your working hours. You may see a prompt asking you to set them, and you can further customize them as needed,” the post added.

Burglars abort misson after CCTV camera

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A three-member gang of burglars, among them a woman, tried to break into a house in Jayanagar last Friday but aborted the mission after spotting the  CCTV cameras.

The miscreants were caught in action on CCTV cameras.  In a complaint to the Jayanagar police, Muralikrishna, who owns a silk textile store, said the well-dressed gang members tried to smash the door lock and break into his house in Jayanagar 5th Block on June 22 when he was out of town.

The CCTV footage shows the woman arriving in a high-end car, wearing sunglasses and her head covered with a scarf. She walks into the compound, presses the calling bell and peeps through the windows to confirm there is no one in the house. She later sits on a bench talking on the phone while her accomplices wearing caps and hand gloves enter the compound and try to break open the door.
But the trio fleed on seeing the cameras. A case has been registered and the cops are on the lookout to nab the accused.

 

Deve Gowda rejects Siddaramaiah’s suggestion to present supplementary budget

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JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda today rejected former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah’s suggestion that the new state government should present a supplementary budget, instead of a fresh budget, by citing a parliamentary precedence involving him as the prime minister.

“I do not want to criticise Siddaramaiah’s suggestion. He has presented several budgets before, but the Chief Minister (H D Kumaraswamy) is not doing anything new. There is a parliamentary precedence. It is appropriate for a new government to present a budget than a supplementary,” he told PTI in an interview here.

Deve Gowda said the then Union finance minister P Chidambaram had presented the budget on July 22, 1996, when he was the prime minister during the United Front rule.

“I was heading the United Front government as prime minister and Chidambaram was the finance minister as the Congress had given outside support. The then coalition government had presented a full-fledged budget and it was called a ‘dream budget’. Did the Congress’s shine vanish by presenting a new budget?” he asked.

Moreover, the United Front government had not discontinued any of the schemes launched by the Congress because of compulsions of a coalition government, Deve Gowda said.

“Since the Congress had given outside support to my government, I had to accommodate their schemes in the budget. I did it due to coalition compulsions,” he said.

Even Kumaraswamy had been assuring that he would not discontinue any of the schemes and programmes of the previous Congress government in the state as he did not want any trouble in the functioning of the coalition government, Deve Gowda said.

Siddaramaiah, in stark contrast, had been pitching for a supplementary budget, instead of a new budget, as suggested by Kumaraswamy, he added.

Disagreeing with Siddaramaiah, Deve Gowda further said a fresh budget was needed for the new government to send a new message to the people of the state. He added that both the Congress and the JD(S) had, before the state Assembly polls, promised several new schemes and hence, a supplementary budget would not be able to incorporate them all.

Deve Gowda, however, pinned hopes on the Congress high-command and the party’s central leadership, including Karnataka affairs in-charge K C Venugopal, for resolving issues cropping up in a coalition set-up.

The budget session of the state Assembly is scheduled to commence on July 5.

On B S Yeddyurappa’s secret meeting with BJP president Amit Shah in Ahmedabad, the former prime minister said he did not want to assume what transpired between the two, but added that as per reports, they were not in a mood to destabilise the JD(S)-Congress government in Karnataka.

Asked if he was satisfied with the coalition government, Deve Gowda said, “All these difficulties crop up in the initial stages and later subside. In the present circumstances, both the parties must realise that to run a smooth government, communal forces would have to be kept at bay.”

Asked about giving a cabinet berth to a Muslim legislator, the JD(S) supremo said it was the prerogative of the chief minister, who would have to look at giving representation to those communities that had been “unfortunate”.

However, there were coalition compulsions the chief minister had to fight with, he said, adding, “Let us wait and watch what does the chief minister do.”

 

PTI

Congress and JD(S) coalition :BJP says it won’t fish in troubled waters.

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Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa on Tuesday said the party would “silently” watch the goings-on in the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition without trying to take any advantage of the “confusing” situation and instead focus on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Speaking to reporters after his sudden trip to Ahmedabad to meet BJP president Amit Shah set off speculation that the party might fish in the trouble waters, he said it would play the role of a responsible opposition and focus on winning maximum seats in the Lok Sabha polls in the state.

“… There is a confusing situation… Siddaramaiah (CLP leader) makes some statement and Kumaraswamy (chief minister) makes a different statement. In this confusing situation we don’t want to intervene,” he said. “I have requested all our BJP leaders that in such a situation we should silently watch the political developments, without speaking much,” he added.

Yeddyurappa’s trip had fuelled speculation that several disgruntled Congress MLAs were in touch with him and ready to switch over to the BJP, which might again try its hand to form a government in the state. Clarifying on his visit, the BJP leader said he had gone to invite Shah for the party state executive meeting on June 29.

Yeddyurappa said the party did not have anything to do with the political uncertainty and added that media speculation (about BJP) have no basis. “They (Congress-JD(S)) are fighting against each other, it is left to them,” he said.

Differences have emerged between the Congress and the JD(S) on a host of issues, including presentation of a full-fledged budget. Former chief minister and chairman of the Congress-JD(S) coordination committee Siddaramaiah had openly suggested that there was no need for a fresh budget and insisted that a supplementary budget would do.

On Sunday, a video clip purportedly showing Siddaramaiah expressing displeasure over the presentation of a fresh budget to some Congress MLAs went viral. Kumaraswamy on Monday had sharply reacted to this and said an attempt was being made to create confusion about the presentation of the full-fledged budget.

The chief minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, is scheduled to present the first budget of the coalition on July 5. Noting that political developments in the state would be discussed at the June 29 state executive, Yeddyurappa said his party would work as a responsible opposition.

He also hit out at the government for not intimating MLAs until now about the assembly session from July 2. Yeddyurappa said the June 29 party meeting would discuss preparations for the Lok Sabha polls. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah’s expectation is that we win the maximum number of seats from Karnataka. So we will begin our work on this. We will discuss about it,” he said.

US wants all countries,Including India to stop oil imports from Iran by November

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The US has asked all countries, including India, to stop all oil imports from Iran by November as it ruled out any exemption to India and Indian companies from its reimposed Iranian sanctions regime.

“On China and India, yes, certainly,” a state department official told reporters when asked if the US has told all countries, including India and China, to stop all their imports of Iranian oil by November 4.

He said Indian and Chinese companies would be subject to the same sanctions as those in other countries. Given the huge energy needs, India and China are major importers of Iranian oil.

“Their (India and China) companies will be subject to the same sanctions that everybody else’s are if they engage in those sectors of the economy that are sanctionable, where there were sanctions imposed prior to 2015. And yes, we will certainly be requesting that their oil imports go to zero. Without question,” the state department official said on condition of anonymity.

Responding to questions, the official said these countries should start reducing the import of oil from Iran now and bring it to zero by November 4. “Without question, they should be reduced. That’s what we’ve been telling them in our bilateral meetings. They should be preparing, now, to go to zero (by November 4),” the official
said.

The official said this is part of the Trump administration’s effort to isolate streams of Iranian funding and are looking to highlight the totality of Iran’s malign behaviour across the region.

“We remain engaged with the EU-3 throughout this process, and we are going to continue to branch out in new countries and reach new partners as the weeks go forward,” the official said.

As such, this could emerge as a major topic of discussion between India and the US during the first 2+2 dialogue next week. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman would be in the US next week for talks with their American counterparts Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis.

The State Department asserted that there would be no waivers under the new sanctions regime. “I would be hesitant to say ‘zero waivers ever’. I think the predisposition would be, ‘No, we’re not granting waivers’,” the official said.

Noting that America’s allies are aware of its concern, the official claimed these countries want to work with the US. “I don’t want to get into the substance of each discussion I’ve had, but, for a vast majority of countries, they are willing to adhere and support our approach to this because they also view it as a threat. And it’s gotten worse since 2015, not better, on their regional activity side,” the official said.

In a recent report, the bipartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) said as international sanctions on Iran increased in 2010-2013, India sought to preserve its longstanding ties with Iran while cooperating with the sanctions regime.

In 2010, the Reserve Bank of India ceased using a Tehran-based regional body, the Asian Clearing Union, to handle transactions with Iran. In January 2012, Iran agreed to accept India’s local currency, the rupee, to settle nearly half of its sales to India.

“During 2011-2015, India reduced its purchases of Iranian oil-at some cost to its own development-in order to receive from the US administration exemptions from sanctions. India has increased oil purchases from Iran to nearly pre-2012 levels after sanctions were lifted, and in May 2016 India agreed to transfer to Iran about USD 6.5 billion that it owed for Iranian oil shipments but which was held up for payment due to sanctions,” the report said.

“India’s position has generally been that it will only enforce sanctions authorised by UN Security Council resolutions, rendering it likely that India will resist US efforts to compel it to comply with reimposed US sanctions such as those that mandate cuts in oil purchases from Iran,” said the CRS report.

India disappointed with UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy resolution

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India says it is disappointed with the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS) resolution adopted by the General Assembly because it fails to advance “meaningful” international cooperation against terrorism.

“It is disappointing to see the lack of meaningful progress even in a GCTS resolution language, which continues to reflect the inability of member states to act collectively to tackle the threats from non-state actors,” India’s Deputy Permanent Representative Tanmaya Lal said Tuesday after the Assembly unanimously adopted the resolution.

“While most of the membership represented here has experienced terror attacks, at the UN we continue to struggle to advance meaningful multilateral cooperation on countering terrorism, often due to narrow political considerations,” he said.

India did not oppose the resolution and went along with the consensus in the Assembly as Lal noted, “Any multilateral resolution has to strike a balance and a compromise.”

But India was disappointed that it has neither taken into account the developments since the previous GCTS resolution was adopted two years ago nor provided for more unified international action against terrorism.

“In the intervening period of two years terrorist networks have continued to terrorise peoples across different parts of the world, expanding their reach, propagating their ideologies of hate, recruiting across borders, raising funds and improving their use of modern technologies,” he said.

Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak, who introduced the resolution defended it saying that this “Global Strategy is not a global solution” and is “not a magic formula.”

“Because terrorism is very complex, a one-size-fits-all approach would never work,” he added.

The nine-page resolution deals with addressing conditions that are “conducive” to spread of terrorism, and helping countries develop capacities to combat terrorism, besides the generalities like condemning terrorism and apprehending and prosecuting terrorists.

Lajcak warned, “We cannot afford to underestimate the threat facing us” and there was no room for complacency because the Islamic State (IS) is weaker now than two years ago and controls smaller territory.

He said: “ISIS, Al-Qaida and their affiliates have shown that they do not represent a traditional security threat. They use methods we could only have imagined, in our worst nightmares. They have broken all laws of humanity. And they have proven themselves to be able to adapt, to new contexts and situations.”

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