Archives for July 2018

The BJP on Monday attacked Congress President Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on the ‘secrecy pact’ in the Rafale deal, calling him irresponsible for “misleading Parliament” and for dragging French President Emmanuel Macron into the matter.

It also advised Rahul Gandhi to “do homework and improve understanding” of India’s foreign policy and security issues.

“Rahul Gandhi is irresponsible; he makes false statements in Parliament. He was irresponsible on two fronts: First, by saying there was no confidential agreement (between India and France on the Rafale fighter jet deal); and second, by dragging French President into an internal political debate,” Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

“This is unfortunate. I have often said that Rahul Gandhi needs to improve his homework. Now I have to add that his understanding of (Indian) foreign policy and national security and strategic concerns also need to be upgraded,” Prasad said.

During the no-confidence debate in Parliament on July 20, Gandhi had said that there was no secrecy pact on the Rafale deal, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had “lied” to the nation” about it.

“I met the French President and asked him if there was a secrecy pact with India. He told me that no such pact was signed between the two countries. He said that he had no hesitation in saying this and that I can tell this to my country,” Gandhi had said.

Prasad said that the Congress was worried over the “transparent and honest” functioning of the BJP-led government and was hence making allegations about the Rafale deal.

“We can say with complete responsibility that Rahul Gandhi clearly misled the house when he said that there was no confidentiality agreement. His reference to the French President’s conversation was formally denied the same day by the French government,” the Minister said.

He added that sensitive armed forces operations can’t be made public, a fact which was acknowledged in Parliament by A.K. Antony and Pranab Mukherjee, both Ministers in the then UPA government.

A Goa BJP spokesperson on Monday called Congress President Rahul Gandhi a “loafer” for winking in Parliament, a day after the state Congress chief called Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar a “kathputli” (puppet) for bowing to unreasonable demands of ruling coalition allies in the coastal state.

“Rahul Gandhi, who does not have substance or the understanding of issues related to the people of India, had to resort to hugging the Prime Minister in the temple of democracy and then winking like a loafer,” said state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Dattaprasad Naik in a press statement.

“We have only heard of loafers winking at girls in colleges in the past and never such a shameful act has ever happened in the temple of democracy,” Naik said, adding that the Congress party had become a “kathputli” in the hands of Gandhi family.

Naik said state Congress president Girish Chodankar had forgotten that even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a puppet in the hands of then Congress president Sonia Gandhi and that all Goa Congress presidents in the past were “kathputlis” in the hands of the Congress high command.

On Sunday, the state’s top Congress leader, Chodankar in a press conference had said: “The Chief Minister has been reduced to string puppet by alliance partners like Goa Forward, whose leader Vijai Sardesai has tried to save those behind the fish mafia, after formalin was found in fish imported into Goa from other states by rogue fish traders. Hundreds of thousands of Goans love their fish thali. The government has put the fish thali in peril”.

US-based Altair Engineering plans to open a design innovation center in Karnataka’s Hubballi town with a private university to benefit locals in using software tools and become industry ready, said a top company official on Monday.

“Industry-academia tie-up to benefit students from technologies and tools making them industry ready,” Altair India Managing Director Pavan Kumar told reporters here.

The center will be housed in the sprawling KLE Technological University campus, run by BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Prabhakar Kore.

“The objective of the center is to develop competency on commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software of Altair called Hyper-Works,” said Kumar.

The center, which will help in providing skilled power to Altair customers worldwide, will also provide the university’s undergraduate and post-graduate students license to work on Altair technology.

“The Altair-KLE partnership will produce future ready engineers for the industry across the country,” said Kumar.

Varsity Vice-Chancellor Ashok Shettar said collaboration with Altair would expose the students to technologies and tools and make them industry-ready.

“Collaboration with Altair will help us to expose our students to industry relevant technologies and tools making them industry-ready,” he said.

The Troy-based Altair in Michigan state transforms design and decision making by applying simulation, machine learning and optimization through product life cycles.

“Our portfolio of simulation technology and patented units-based software licensing model enable simulation-driven innovation for our customers,” added Kumar.

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday said that he will write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to find speedy solutions to issues pertaining to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) including the dilution of the anti-atrocities Act.

As many as 27 SC and ST MPs of ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) including BJP Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal attended an informal meeting held by Paswan at his residence to voice their concerns over dilution of provision of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Supreme Court, the UGC’s decision affecting quota, and reservation in promotion.

“These MPs have spoken about the anger among SC, ST people. Some organisations are planning to hold agitations on August 9. We want the government to solve the problems as soon as possible. We are going to write to the Prime Minister. We will meet him to apprise him of the situation,” Paswan told reporters after the meeting.

A total of 70 MPs were invited but just 27 turned up for the meeting. Paswan said some MPs also demanded a special session of Parliament to discuss these issues.

Criticising the BJP for increasing number of lynching incidents across the country, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said the party should control its leaders instead of just condemning the incidents.

Responding to a query on alleged lynching incident in Alwar, she said: “(Union Home Minister) Rajnath-Ji (Singh) condemned the incident in Parliament. Instead of condemning these incidents, why are they not able to control its leaders from the upper to lower level? Charity begins at home.”

She said many people were killed because of their “hate campaign” and this should be stopped.

A 28-year-old man was beaten to death by suspected cow vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, A

“It is a serious phase, we are passing through,” Banerjee said, adding that strict action would be taken against those found to be involved in such incidents in the state.

“Law and order is a state subject. We do not discuss anything on cows. We treat cows as our mothers,” she said, adding that fake news and rumours were spread through social media platforms for incidents of lynching.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said the central government is taking the incidents of lynching “very seriously” and might bring a law, if necessary, to stop it.

“I want to make it clear that we are not just concerned but have taken lynching incidents very seriously,” Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha after opposition members raised the issue days after a cattle farmer was killed allegedly by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Alwar.

The Home Minister said the government on Monday formed a panel that would suggest measures to stop mob violence in the country.

He said the Home Secretary-led panel would give its recommendations to a Group of Ministers within four weeks.

“We will also bring a law if that is required.”

Rajnath Singh said the biggest incident of lynching had occurred in 1984 when thousands of Sikhs were killed in the aftermath of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He said such incidents have been happening in the past.