Archives for January 2021

Outrage over protesters hoisting a religious flag at the Red Fort during the tractor rally on Republic Day, actor Deep Sidhu, who was present during the incident, sought to defend their action, saying they did not remove the national flag and had put up the ‘Nishan Sahib’ as a symbolic protest.

The ‘Nishan Sahib’ flag, a symbol of Sikh religion, is seen at all Gurdwara complexes.

In a video posted on Facebook on Tuesday evening, Sidhu claimed it was not a planned move and that they should not be given any communal colour or dubbed as fundamentalists or hardliners.

To symbolically register our protest against the new farm legislation, we put up ‘Nishan Sahib’ and a farmer flag and also raised the slogan of Kisan Mazdoor Ekta, said Sidhu.

The flag represents the country’s unity in diversity , he said while pointing towards ‘Nishan Sahib’, the triangular saffron flag with the emblem of ‘Khanda’, a two-edged sword, Chakra, a disc, and two Kirpans that cross each other at the handles.

He stated that the national flag was not removed from the flagpole at the Red Fort and that nobody raised a question over the country’s unity and integrity.

Leaders across the political spectrum condemned the violence and the Red Fort incident, with the Congress’ Shashi Tharoor saying he supported the farmers’ protests from the start but cannot condone “lawlessness”.

“Most unfortunate. I have supported the farmers’ protests from the start but I cannot condone lawlessness. And on #RepublicDay no flag but the sacred tiranga should fly aloft the Red Fort,” the former union minister said on Twitter, tagging a tweet that carried a video of the incident.

Sidhu, who has been associated with the farmers’ agitation for the last many months, said “anger flares up” in a mass movement like this when the genuine rights of people are ignored.

In today’s situation, that anger flared up, he said.

Sidhu was an aide of actor Sunny Deol when the latter contested from Gurdaspur seat in Punjab during 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Deol, now a BJP MP, had distanced himself from Sidhu in December last year after he joined the farmers’ agitation.

Swaraj Abhyan leader Yogendra Yadav, who is among the leaders spearheading the agitation against the farm laws, said Sidhu had been disassociated “from our protest right from the beginning”.

“When he participated in a protest at Shambu border and seeing their activities, the farmer unions had decided to keep them away from our movement,” he said.

The Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 41 farmer unions that is leading the protest against the three central farm laws, also disassociated itself from those who indulged in violence during the tractor parade and alleged that some “antisocial elements” infiltrated their otherwise peaceful movement.

Sidhu, however, said that Tuesday’s incident should not be seen in isolation as they have been holding their protest for the last six to seven months.

And it (today’s incident) was a continuation of that, he said.

Sidhu said the protesters did not go to Delhi to hurt anyone or damage public property, nor they had any weapon.

We held a peaceful protest without destroying anything or causing any damage to the public property we exercised our democratic right peacefully, he claimed, adding, If we think one person or a personality could do such a big mobilisation of people, then it will be wrong.

Wielding sticks and clubs and holding the tricolour and union flags, tens of thousands of farmers atop tractors broke barriers, clashed with police and entered the city from various points to lay siege to the Red Fort.

Over 80 police personnel have been injured in the violence.

Hyderabad: A 45-year-old man, who was allegedly involved in 18 cases of murder of women, besides other offences, was arrested here on Tuesday, police said.

With his arrest, two recent cases of murder of women have been detected.

The man, a stone cutter, was apprehended by the sleuths of city police Task Force and the police of Rachakonda Commissionerate.

Earlier, he was arrested in 21 cases, including 16 cases of murder for gain, four property offences and one case of escaping from police custody.

He got married at the age of 21, but his wife eloped with another man within a short period and he bore a grudge against women since then, police said.

He started his criminal activity in 2003, targeting single women by offering them money for sexual favours.

He would kill his victims after consuming liquor or toddy with them and then flee after stealing their valuables, police added.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan was addressing a programme organised at the state BJP headquarter to mark the death anniversary of Vijaya Raje Scindia, popularly known as the Rajmata of Gwalior.

BHOPAL: Jyotiraditya Scindia was the second member from his clan to pull down a Congress government in Madhya Pradsh, decades after ‘Rajmata’ Vijaya Raje Scindia toppled the “anti-people” Congress government in the state, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Monday.

He also said the entire Scindia family is now part of one party (BJP).

“Rajmata, who was one of thefounding members of the BJP, had toppled the anti-people DP Mishra-led Congress government in the state (in 1967). She would have been happy to see that her grandson (Jyotiraditya Scindia) helped in bringing down the minority government of Congress (in year 2020). Now, the entire (Scindia) family is in one party,” Chouhan said.

He was addressing a programme organised at the state BJP headquarter to mark the death anniversary of Vijaya Raje Scindia, popularly known as the Rajmata of Gwalior.

Chouhan was referring to the collapse of Kamal Nath-led Congress government in March last year, after 22 MLAs, who were loyalists of Jyotiraditya Scindia, resigned and quit the party.

They later joined the BJP, which returned to power under Chouhan.

Meanwhile, the Congress has taken a dim view of Chouhan’s remarks.

“The sense of glory and pride in toppling an elected government is a shameful expression of democratic values. People’s verdict should be respected,” he said.

TMC Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’ Brien alleged that the three laws were bulldozed through the Parliament’s monsoon session.

NEW DELHI: The Trinamool Congress on Monday urged the government to repeal the new contentious agrarian legislation in the upcoming budget session of Parliament and said there is no question of short cuts or rewriting the three farm laws.

TMC Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’ Brien alleged that the three laws were bulldozed through the Parliament’s monsoon session and remarked that he was among the eight Rajya Sabha MPs who were suspended over protesting against the passage of these bills.

“All of you know TMC’s stand on the three farm laws and Mamata Banerjee’s commitment on the issue of land and farmers. In the upcoming session of the Parliament, the government must introduce a Bill and turn it into an Act to repeal the three farm laws. There is no question of taking any shortcuts or rewriting the present bills,” Brien said.

“The nation saw how democracy was murdered in the monsoon session,” he said.

The TMC leader also countered the BJP’s criticism of the West Bengal government alleging that it was stalling implementation of the PM Kisan Yojana in the state.

He said West Bengal has already successfully implemented the Krishak Bandhu Yojana which is far more effective than the PM Kisan Yojana.

“Under Krishak Bandhi, Rs 5,000 per acre, while in case of PM Kisan the government gives only Rs 1,214 per acre. The Krishak Bandhu scheme covers all farmers. While PM Kisan is only for farmers with land holding two hectares or less,” he said.

Dismissive of the discourse of the BJP’s resurgence in the state, where nearly a dozen TMC lawmakers have joined the saffron party in the last few months, the leader said the big test will be in 2024.

“The big election is not in 2021 but in 2024. In 2021, BJP has already lost elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. By 2024 elections, the opposition will once again have to fight for the constitution of India and the idea of India, what our founding fathers created over 70 years ago.”

“There will be a lot of distraction, but this election will be fought on the development work done by the Mamata Banerjee government,” he added.

He said the confidence in writing off the BJP came from working on the ground relentlessly.

“It is the same confidence that a good student who has studied over a period of time goes into the exam with. There is no arrogance or cockiness, this is about believing that we have done a good job under Mamata Banerjee.”

Questioning the BJP on its challenge to the TMC in the upcoming West Bengal polls, he said, “Under whose leadership is BJP fighting the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal? The BJP is desperate to appropriate the minds and soul of Bengal but their senior most leaders get confused about basic details such as the birthplace of literary giant Rabindranath Tagore”.

BJP President J P Nadda in a speech in December last year had claimed that Tagore was born in Visva Bharati.

On November 10, Union Home minister Amit Shah during his trip to Bankura had garlanded the statue of a local hunter mistaking it to be that of Birsa Munda.

By: Husan Rizwan

While Flight Lieutenant Bhawana Kanth, 28, became the first woman fighter pilot to take part in the R-Day parade as she was part of an IAF tableau that showcased mock-ups of an light combat aircraft, light combat helicopter and a Sukhoi-30 fighter plane, Flight Lieutenant Swati Rathore got the honour to be the first woman to be part of the flypast over Rajpath as she flew a Mi-17 V5 helicopter in a formation of four choppers.

Currently posted at an airbase in Rajasthan, Ft Lt Bhawana Kanth flies MiG-21 Bison fighter jets, the same aircraft that was used by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman to chase and bring down an F-16 of Pakistan during the India-Pakistan face-off in 2019. Along with Avani Chaturvedi and Mohana Singh, Kanth was inducted into the IAF as the first woman fighter pilot in 2016. On May 22, 2019, Ft Lt Kanth became one of the first three women fighter pilots to qualify for day-time combat missions on a fighter aircraft.

Like Kanth, Ft Lt Swati Rathore too was born in a village, in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district and did her schooling from Ajmer. She joined the NCC air wing after her schooling as her parents realised her interest in aviation. At the NCC, she won a gold medal in shooting.

In 2013, Swati, who had always dreamt of becoming a pilot, appeared in the IAF common admission test. After clearing it, she was called for an interview by the Air Force Selection Board, Dehradun, in 2014. According to Swati, there were around 200 women candidates from all over the country, out of which 98 were selected for screening. Only five students were left after the screening, in which only she was selected for the flying branch.

Ft Lt Swati Rathore, in an interview to the media earlier, said, “Opportunities are everywhere. You have to look for those opportunities and make the most of them. In fact, parents should always find out the interests of their children and should develop those interests by supporting the kids in every possible way.”

The woman approached a metropolitan magistrate’s court here in 2013, alleging that she had been raped by Soren in a hotel in Mumbai.

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has said it is not inclined to permit the withdrawal of a petition filed by a woman, who had made rape allegations against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

On Monday, a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale said it will hear the woman’s plea on February 18.

The woman approached a metropolitan magistrate’s court here in 2013, alleging that she had been raped by Soren in a hotel in Mumbai.

The same year, she filed a withdrawal application before the court in Bandra, stating that she wished to withdraw the allegations and her complaint.

The court at that time allowed it to be withdrawn.

In August last year, she approached the Bombay High Court, stating that she had met with an accident and Soren might be behind the accident.

The woman had sought that an FIR be registered against Soren again.

Last month, she filed a plea in the HC, stating that she had decided to change her lawyers.

On Monday, the new lawyers appearing for the woman again submitted that she wished to withdraw the petition filed before the high court for seeking registration of the FIR.

The bench, however, said it was “not inclined at this stage to accede to the prayer made” by the woman.

The state’s counsel, Deepak Thakare, sought time to file a closure report in the case.

Meanwhile, two intervention applications were filed in the HC last week seeking to intervene in the case.

One of the applications was filed by a Jharkhand-based former journalist Sunil Kumar Tiwari, and the other by one Stree Roshni Trust.

The trust has approached the HC through senior lawyer Satish Maneshinde.

Both the applicants have sought that the woman not be allowed to withdraw the case.

The HC will hear the intervention applications and the woman’s plea on February 18.