Archives for August 2018

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday said that her ministry is framing a new law to tackle the problem in NRI marriages and providing for deterrent measures like confiscating the property of NRIs who have abandoned their wives.

At a seminar on “NRI marriages and trafficking of women and children”, she said that a new bill is likely to be taken up in the next session of Parliament.

“We are also developing a separate website where summons and warrants against NRI men who have abandoned their wives and have illegally married abroad will be uploaded. Those responding to it will be declared a proclaimed offender and his properties would be seized,” she added.

Sushma Swaraj said that under the new law the passport of the person will be canceled and the property will also be confiscated.

“And if he doesn’t return, his property could be sold to give financial aid to his aggrieved wife. We will have to make some amendments in the Code of Criminal Procedure. We are already in talks with Law and Home ministry and all efforts are being made to ensure that a law is in place by the end of this year,” she said.

In last three years, the MEA has received 3,328 complaints from Indian women who have been deserted by their NRI husbands.

“We are acting tough on such cases. For a start, the passports of eight NRI men accused of abandoning their wives have been canceled. The accused whose passports were revoked have surrendered,” Sushma Swaraj added.

Kolkata Police on Wednesday said it has already allowed Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah’s rally to be held in the city on August 11, refuting the saffron outfit’s allegation that the permission process was being deliberately delayed.

“Some unwarranted speculation in social media about denial of permission to a political party on 11 August has come to our notice. It is to clarify that on request permission for a meeting has already been granted,” the city police department wrote on Twitter.

Shah’s rally will be held in a central Kolkata’s Mayo road on that day. A

Earlier in the day, Yuba Morcha (youth wing) of BJP’s Bengal unit, alleged that they have not received any official permission for Shah’s rally despite a formal application days ago.

Amid speculation over his proposed Kolkata rally, Shah has said he does not need the Bengal government’s permission to come to Kolkata and dared the state administration to arrest him.

“It does not matter whether I get permission or not, I will definitely go to Kolkata. If the state government wants, it can arrest me,” Shah said in Delhi.

This would be Shah’s second visit to Bengal within 45 days after he came here on a two-day visit on June 27 and met the families of BJP activists allegedly killed in post panchayat poll violence in the state’s Purulia district.

After meeting a host of opposition leaders during the day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday evening.

Banerjee invited Kejriwal for the January 19 mega rally she has planned in Kolkata.

Earlier, Mamata Banerjee met UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and leaders of several other parties and declared that her priority is to defeat BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year and that the issue of prime ministership would be settled collectively later.

Banerjee met leaders of various parties including Shiv Sena, AIADMK, Samajwadi Party, TDP, YSCRP, DMK, RJD, Kerala Congress-Mani. She also called on JD-S leader and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda in Karnataka Bhavan and senior BJP leader L. K. Advani in his chamber in Parliament.

While Shiv Sena is a constituent of the BJP-led NDA, AIADMK is considered friendly towards it.

Banerjee met Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, AIADMK leader M. Thambidurai, Kerala Congress-Mani leader Jose K. Mani, suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad, Shiv Sena member Sanjay Raut,’DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, Vijay Sai Reddy of YSRC Party, Misa Bharti and Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav of RJD. She also met TDP MPs and Jaya Bachchan.

Former Law Minister and Congress leader Ashwani Kumar also met Banerjee.

The BJP on Wednesday accused the Congress and the TMC of “murdering democracy” by devising a strategy to disrupt Rajya Sabha proceedings to prevent Home Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP President Amit Shah from speaking on the NRC issue.

Accusing the two opposition parties of evading a debate over the National Register of Citizens issue in Assam, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) also asked the Congress to clarify its stand on the matter.

“Today Shahji and Rajnathji were not allowed to speak in the Rajya Sabha. This was a planned strategy by the opposition. The Congress and the TMC don’t want to let the house run,” BJP leader Prakash Javadekar told the media here.

“The Congress and the TMC have murdered democracy,” he alleged, adding that in the Rajya Sabha, its Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu had asked Shah to complete his speech that remained incomplete due to disruptions in the house on Tuesday.

He said that about 20 members spoke on Tuesday. “But when the BJP and the government wanted to speak the Congress and the TMC created a ruckus and we condemn it,” he said.

“Even Chairman Naidu said that he sees a conspiracy in the agitation by opposition members and their attempt to stall the proceedings,” Javadekar said.

“What do the Congress and TMC fear? Why are they running away from discussion? Why dont they want to listen to replies? Whom do they want to save?”

Earlier, BJP President was scheduled to continue his incomplete speech in the Rajya Sabha but prevented due to ruckus created by the opposition members over the NRC.

Slamming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Javadekar said: “We know what Banerjee wants. She is opposing the NRC; she is in favour of the infiltrators.”

Earlier in the day, TMC member Sukhendu Shekhar Roy raised a point of order and said that as per the rules of conduct of the upper house, a member cannot speak twice on the same issue if he fails to complete his speech in the first instance.

But his point of order was rejected by the Chairman, who said he had given Shah permission to complete his speech and asked the BJP chief to continue.

As the TMC members continued with the protest and did not let Rajnath Singh speak, Naidu adjourned the house for the day.