Archives for 2018

 Union Minister Maneka Gandhi on Monday asked her Home and Health counterparts Rajnath Singh and J.P. Nadda to immediately constitute Internal Complaint Committees (ICC) under the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, 2013, in all police departments and hospitals.

“I have been informed that while the ICCs have been put in place in most government offices, the same have not been constituted in the offices of police organisation in the states,” the Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister said in her letter to Singh.

In her letter to Nadda, she raised the same issue of absence of ICCs in some hospitals under the central and state governments.

“I request you to look into this matter and issue suitable directions to the central government hospitals and state health departments to ensure that ICCs are immediately constituted and notified by all hospitals,” Gandhi told Nadda.

She also noted in both the letters that the police and hospital authorities should be advised to use the training material available on the WCD website to sensitise their staff as well as members of the ICCs.

“We have created a fully integrated complaint management system wherein any women can complain regarding sexual harassment to us on our website which has been integrally linked to all ministries, all state governments and most of the districts in the country.

“The National Commission for Women has also set up a separate cell to handle complaints of sexual harassment at workplace,” she wrote.

IANS

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday vowed to protect Punjab and its people from terror unleashed by Pakistan, warning Islamabad of “serious consequences” if it did not end the violence perpetrated against India.

Even as he thanked Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for reciprocating India’s move on developing the Kartarpur corridor, the Chief Minister was scathing in his criticism of Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa for “promoting state-sponsored terror through brutal killings of Indian soldiers and innocent citizens”.

He urged Imran Khan to rein in his Army and bring an immediate end to terror against Indian armed forces and citizens, “or else be ready to face a strong reaction from India, which has a bigger army than the neighbouring country”.

Taking a strong stand on the issue of terror, which was immediately endorsed and backed by Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu who was present on the occasion of the foundation stone laying ceremony of a road link to the Kartarpur corridor, the Chief Minister said India was a land of peace but was prepared to counter Pakistan’s aggression in kind if continued to be threatened.

Lashing out at those who felt he should have accepted Pakistan’s invitation to participate in their ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor, Amarinder Singh asked how he could go there “when innocent Indian citizens and soldiers were being killed by them every day”.

“I want to go to Kartarpur and also visit Nankana Sahib and Panja Sahib gurdwaras again, but cannot go there as I have to pass Pakistan, which is killing my people every day.”

Pointing out that Punjab had seen bloodshed for 20 years, Amarinder Singh said that while his family had close ties with Kartarpur Sahib, he, as Chief Minister, had a responsibility to the people of his state, which Pakistan was trying to weaken.

Lashing out at the Pakistan Army chief, he said that as an ex-soldier himself he saw no justification in killing soldiers, which he described as “an act of cowardice, not becoming of Army personnel”.

“Soldiers are taught to protect and serve their nation, not to kill innocent people,” he said, seeking the immediate removal of Gen Bajwa and said the Pakistan Army should learn the message of love and brotherhood propounded by Guru Nanak Dev.

The Chief Minister recalled that the 26/11 Mumbai attacks was a grim reminder of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in India.

He further pointed out that the Dina Nagar and Pathankot attacks in Gurdaspur district also stood out as major examples of the terror unleashed by Pakistan in Indian Punjab.

Describing terror as madness, Vice President Naidu said he fully endorsed Amarinder Singh’s views and vowed that India will not allow its people to be killed.

“While India wants peace and promotes friendship, it will not allow terrorism to breed on its soil,” Naidu said, urging countries that support terror to shun this path.

India wants peaceful relations with its neighbours and wanted them to change their mindset and embrace peace.

 Eight Maoists were killed and one was injured on Monday in a gun fight with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district, police said.

A joint team of the paramilitary forces and the police went inside the core area of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) — an armed wing of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist — as part of an operation against the Maoists.

It started around 10.30 a.m. in a forested stretch near Sakler village.

Over 150 Left wing extremists clashed with troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the District Reserve Group of the Chhattisgarh Police, an official said.

“Security forces of different units went inside the PLGA’s core area from different directions,” CRPF Deputy Inspector General M. Dinakaran told IANS.

All eight bodies were recovered while the injured PLGA member was taken into custody. A large quantity of arms and ammunitions was seized. They were being taken to Kistaram police station.

The CRPF called it a big achievement. A combing operation was still underway.

IANS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the Congress Sunday for dragging his parents into a political slugfest, alleging that it was being done at the behest of party chief Rahul Gandhi.

Calling the Congress a “burden on the nation”, he also justified his own tirade against the Nehru-Gandhi family, pointing out that unlike his parents, they occupied top positions in politics and the government. Congress leaders have kicked up a controversy recently by first comparing the falling value of the rupee to the advanced age of Modi’s mother and then claiming that the father of the prime minister was not someone illustrious.

“What has happened to the Congress party? The ‘naamdar’ (dynast, referring to Rahul Gandhi) is tacitly supporting it and therefore, its leaders are dragging the name of my father, who passed away 30 years ago,” Modi said, addressing a rally here in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. “The Congress is running out of steam in this election, so they have started dragging my parents into politics. No Congressman would make such a statement against me or my family without the consent of the party president. It is the ‘naamdar’ who is making his leaders speak against me,” he added.

“My mother sits in her house, performing religious rites, confining herself to a room, and has never visited Madhya Pradesh. She does not even know the ‘R’ of ‘rajneeti’ (politics),” Modi said.

“Yesterday, they took the name of my mother and now my father. The Congress chief is behind this…,” he alleged. “Hundred generations of my family have no links with politics. We lived in a small village….lived like the poor. “And the naamdar says, Modiji is also speaking against my family’,” the prime minister said.

“Naamdar, I do not talk about your family members. I talk about former prime ministers, former Congress leaders. I speak against former Congress leaders, seeking an account of their work. “Yes, I have to take their names as they were in politics, unlike my family members, who sit quietly in their home and do their job,” he added.

“You throw questions at Modi, (then) just as Modi is accountable, your family too is answerable,” the prime minister said. The opposition party was left with no issues and was, therefore, indulging in this kind of abusive rhetoric, he added.

The previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had introduced a crop loan waiver scheme in 2008, but of the Rs 6-lakh crore agricultural debt, loans of only Rs 60,000 crore were waived, Modi claimed. Former Union minister Vilas Muttemwar made a controversial statement at a Congress meeting in Rajasthan Saturday, saying nobody knew “the name of your (Modi’s) father but everyone knows the name of Rahul Gandhi’s father”.

Before that, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar had compared the falling value of the rupee to the advanced age of Modi’s mother. At Vidisha, Modi also mentioned his cabinet colleague and local MP Sushma Swaraj, lauding her for ensuring the development of the constituency, despite facing health issues.

Speaking at a rally in Jabalpur later, he alleged that of the last 15 years under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, “10 years were lost because the government of Madam (UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi) put hurdles in the way of development”.

“You have to decide. One mistake will take you back to the age of misgovernance when there was no power, the roads were broken, the education system was pathetic due to the absence of schools and the health services were poor,” Modi said.

The Congress, which had lost elections in states after states, “has become a burden on the nation”, he added. “…they (Congress) are unable to decide who will be their leader in Madhya Pradesh….There is a courtier (apparently referring to state Congress chief Kamal Nath), a raja (Digvijay Singh) and a maharaja (Jyotiraditya Scindia). None of them will become the chief minister,” Modi asserted.

In a jibe at Rahul Gandhi, who has promised to make Madhya Pradesh a hub of mobile phone production if the Congress is voted to power in the state, the prime minister said there were only two mobile factories in the country in 2014, while now there were 125, ensuring the availability of low-cost smartphones.

Modi also said Jabalpur would emerge as a major defence production centre, adding that the earlier governments were more interested in buying weapons as that served their purposes. The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly will go to the polls on November 28 and the results will be announced on December 11.

Rajasthan will witness high-voltage campaigning today with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi scheduled to address election rallies. While Modi will be addressing rallies in Bhilwara, Dungarpur and Kota, Rajnath Singh will be covering Rajakheda, Basedi (both in Dholpur) and Virat Nagar (in Jaipur) Assembly constituencies. Rahul Gandhi began the tour by paying obeisance at the Ajmer dargah, followed by a visit to Pushkar Sarovar. After that he will leave for Pokhran in Jaisalmer, where he will address a public meeting. Adityanath will also address a public meeting in Pokhran. Besides this, he will speak at public rallies in Makrana (Nagaur), Fatehpur (Sikar), Ratangarh (Churu) and Dungargarh (Bikaner).

Rajasthan is one of the five states that will go to polls in the ongoing election season. While Chhattisgarh voted in two-phase elections on November 12 and 20, the next two seats to vote will be MP and Mizoram on November 28. Rajasthan and Telangana will be the last to vote on December 7. The results, billed as the semi-final to the big battle for Lok Sabha in 2019, will be declared on December 11.

The election narrative has shifted back to the Ram Mandir issue with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s visit to Ayodhya coinciding with a massive rally by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). While Thackeray warned that the BJP would lose power if it doesn’t pave way for construction of temple at disputed site, the VHP said the government must bring a legislation for the same.

Following the action in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had at a rally in Alwar alleged that the Congress threatened Supreme Court judges with impeachment when they tried to hear the Ayodhya dispute cases earlier this year.

Without naming anyone, Modi claimed that Congress party’s Rajya Sabha members, who are also lawyers, had tried to scare away the apex court judges to ensure the hearing in the cases is delayed until after the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

In an unprecedented move, seven opposition parties led by the Congress had moved a notice for the impeachment of then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in April this year, accusing him of “misbehaviour” and “misuse” of authority.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected the notice, saying the case against the then CJI was based on “suspicion and conjectures”.

At the political rally in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, Modi said the Congress has no faith in democracy and judiciary. “It does not hold dialogue and stall proceedings in Parliament, but the new game they are playing now is dangerous and this must be debated for a bright future of the country.”

“If a Supreme Court judge does not prepare the time-table (for hearing cases) as per their (Congress’s) political intentions and wants to hear all to deliver justice on a serious and sensitive issue, such as Ayodhya, then the party’s lawyers, who are Rajya Sabha members, start the game of scaring the judges in the name of impeachment,” Modi said.

He urged intellectuals to analyse this “dangerous game” of the Congress in the interest of the country.

“They are working to scare judiciary on the ground of their numbers in Rajya Sabha. But we will not let this ‘kaala kaarnama’ happen in the temple of democracy,” he said.

The prime minister said the opposition party has “no courage” to talk about development and hence “they ask about the caste of Modi.”

“Will you vote on the basis of the caste of Modi? Will the future of Rajasthan be decided on basis of birthplace of Modi,” he asked the crowd gathered at his rally.

Modi’s remarks were a reaction to former Union minister CP Joshi’s statement when he had questioned the caste of Modi and others during a speech in Rajsamand district’s Nathdwara.

Joshi is the Congress candidate from Nathdwara assembly constituency.

“They are deep neck involved in casteism. Casteism and feeling of hate against poor, deprived, underprivileged is in their veins and such statements reflect the basic behaviour and conduct of the Congress. It does not matter who spoke that (Joshi’s remarks) because everyone knows about the ‘naamdaar’ who make them speak,” he said, apparently referring to the Gandhi family.

Modi also targeted the Congress over issues and discrimination faced by Dalits, saying the party “forgot” to give the Bharat Ratna to B R Ambedkar.

Ambedkar was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1990, 34 years after his death.

“Congress has only divided the country. For them, Dalits are a votebank while our values and traditions are different,” Modi claimed, trying to contrast his party’s attitude to the community, of whose members have been assaulted and beaten by right-wing activists for allegedly indulging in cow trade, with that of the Congress.

In Rajasthan, Modi praised the BJP’s Vasundhara Raje government, saying it has done lot of work.

He also attacked Congress over a recent video in which a Congress candidate is seen stopping a party supporter shouting “Bharat Mata ki jai” and then the supporter starts shouting: “Sonia Gandhi ki jai”.

“For us, the country is bigger than the party but Sonia Gandhi is bigger than Bharat Mata for them,” he said.

Modi recalled BJP leaders like former vice president the late Bhairo Singh Shkhawat and said he had started election campaign during the 2013 assembly elections in Rajasthan from Alwar.

Chief Minister Raje and the party’s candidates on all 11 constituencies of Alwar district were present at the rally.

In Lok Sabha bypolls earlier this year, the BJP had faced defeat in Alwar.

In the 2013 assembly election, the BJP won nine out of the 11 seats in Alwar but one of its sitting MLAs, Dharmpal Chaudhary, died in April this year; the party has given ticket to his son Manjit Chaudhary from Mundawar seat.

Located in eastern part of the desert state, Alwar shares border with Haryana and forms a part of Mewat region having a sizable population of Mev (Muslim) community people.

It also touches Jaipur, Bharatpur and Dausa districts.

Alwar’s Ramgarh, a constituency represented by Gyan Dev Ahuja, who has been dropped by the BJP this time, was in bad light following the mob lynching of Akbar Khan on suspicion of cow smuggling in July this year.