Archives for October 2022

TMC MP Shatrughan Sinha |

Kolkata: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has proved his leadership abilities through the Bharat Jodo Yatra, TMC MP Shatrughan Sinha said.

Sinha said Gandhi’s 3,570-km-long march that began in Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu will help the Congress double its tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress won 52 seats in 2019 elections.

“Bharat Jodo Yatra is getting a very good response. Rahul Gandhi’s charisma has started working, and he is getting an excellent response from the people. I feel that Gandhi’s yatra will help double the tally of the Congress in Parliament in the next Lok Sabha polls,” he said.

“This is a ‘yatra’ in a true sense as Gandhi is walking unlike ‘Rath yatras’ by BJP leaders. Lakhs of people are coming out in his support. He has proved his leadership qualities. People have accepted him as a leader. And, those who made fun of him as ‘Pappu’ and didn’t take him seriously have been proved wrong,” Sinha added.

The actor-turned-politician won the Asansol Lok Sabha seat on Trinamool Congress ticket in a bypoll in April this year. Before fighting the election on a TMC ticket, he had switched over to the Congress from the BJP in 2019.

“BJP leaders are making fun of Gandhi, but let them also conduct a similar yatra on foot if they have the fire in their belly. The magic spell of Rahul Gandhi will work in the next elections, I feel and I want it to happen,” Sinha said.

Speaking on the Gujarat elections, the TMC leader said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would either emerge as the “kingmaker or the king” himself.

“In Gujarat, Kejriwal will either emerge as the king or the kingmaker. There is a churning in the saffron camp in Gujarat. The BJP cannot milk Hindutva or the Ram Mandir issue every time. Kejriwal has played a masterstroke through his demand of photos of Goddess Laxmi and Lord Ganesh on currency notes,” he said.

Last week, Kejriwal appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to print images of Lord Ganesh and Goddess Lakshmi on currency notes for the progress of the country.

“Kejriwal has paid the BJP back with the same coin. The BJP used to act as if they were the master of the ‘Hindutva school of politics’ but Kejriwal is now the headmaster of that school. The BJP can neither swallow it nor discard it,” Sinha said.

Claiming that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be a “game-changer” in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Sinha hoped that the relation between the TMC and the Congress would improve.

“There is no last word in politics. Today, the relations are not good doesn’t mean it won’t improve tomorrow. I personally feel that if major opposition parties come together, the political situation of the country will be completely different,” he said.

On the face of the opposition for the 2024 elections, Sinha said that the people of the country will choose the right leader.

“This question that who will be next (prime minister) comes up in every election. Once you reach the top politically, it will be decided based on numbers and the mandate. The country never stops, governments keep changing, and new leadership comes up,” he said.

Sinha, a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA government, asserted that the anti-BJP parties are gaining momentum in the states — whether it is Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu or Karnataka.

Sinha also targetted the BJP for the “missing” posters that surfaced in Asansol, his constituency, last week.

“Those who are yet to digest the defeat in the bypoll are behind this. I was in my constituency during Durga Puja, and was here till last week. I am spending Chhaath here in Asansol. I have been regularly visiting Asansol and the people of my constituency will vouch for it,” he said.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear around 240 PILs, including a large batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), on Monday when it would reopen after a nine-day Diwali vacation.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and justices S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi has listed for hearing as many as 232 petitions, mostly PILs, on October 31 on the issue of CAA alone.

Earlier, the bench headed by CJI Lalit, who is scheduled to demit office on November 8, had said that the pleas challenging the CAA will be referred to a three-judge bench.

The 2019 amended law, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain, and Parsi communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have come to the country till 2014, has come in for stinging criticism by opposition parties, leaders and other entities over the exclusion of Muslims.

The lead plea on the issue was filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

In January 2020, the apex court made it clear it will not stay the operation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act without hearing the Centre.

Seeking a response from the central government in four weeks to a batch of pleas challenging the CAA, the top court had also restrained high courts in the country from proceedings with pending petitions on the issue.

The IULML has claimed the Act violates the fundamental Right to Equality and intends to grant citizenship to a section of illegal immigrants by making an exclusion based on religion.

Several other petitions have been filed challenging the constitutional validity of the amended law, including by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, RJD leader Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi.

Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, All Assam Students Union (AASU), Peace Party, CPI, NGO ‘Rihai Manch’, advocate M L Sharma, and law students have also approached the apex court challenging the Act.

Besides the pleas on CAA, the apex court, according to the list of businesses uploaded on its website, is also scheduled to hear a PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.

It seeks directions to the Centre and the states to publish draft legislations prominently on government websites and in the public domain at least 60 days before they are introduced in Parliament and state assemblies.

The CJI-led bench would also hear another PIL seeking to establish special anti-corruption courts in every district to decide cases related to various economic offences like money laundering and tax evasion within one year.

The top court would also consider a PIL for a direction to the Centre to declare the Law Commission as a “statutory body” and appoint the chairperson and members to the panel.

A PIL seeking a direction to the Election Commission to remove party symbols from ballots and electronic voting machines (EVMs) and instead put age, educational qualification and photograph of candidates are listed for hearing on October 31.

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Hyderabad: The Telangana government has withdrawn general consent given to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the state. According to a state government order issued on August 30, prior consent of Telangana is required for the central probe agency on a case-to-case basis to investigate in the state.

Though the government order (GO) was issued two months ago, it did not figure in the public domain until Saturday when the Additional Advocate General (AAG) informed the Telangana High Court, during arguments on a petition filed by the BJP seeking a CBI probe into the TRS MLAs poaching case, that the general consent for CBI was withdrawn by the state government.

“Government of Telangana hereby withdraws all previous general consents issued by the State Government under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (Central Act XXV of 1946), vide any letters or notifications including the Notification issued in G.O.Ms.No.160, Home (SC) Department, dt.23.09.2016, to all the Members of Delhi Special Police Establishment to exercise the powers and jurisdiction under the said Act in the State of Telangana,” the GO read.

The development comes after the BJP and TRS have indulged in a war of words over several issues in recent past that has led to acrimony between the two parties.

The BJP also dragged Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha’s name in the Delhi liquor policy scam which is being probed by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. She, however, denied the allegations.

On August 31, the Chief Minister had said in Bihar’s capital Patna that all states should withdraw the general consent given to the CBI.

Addressing a press conference in Patna with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar by his side, Rao alleged that all central agencies were being “misused” by the BJP to target its political opponents.

“All central investigative agencies, including the CBI, are being misused by the Centre to target the BJP’s political rivals in the country. This should stop now and all state governments should withdraw their consent to the CBI. After all, policing is a state subject,” he said.

According to Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, the CBI needs consent from the respective state governments for conducting investigations in their jurisdictions.

If the general consent is withdrawn, the agency has to seek permission from the state government for registering a case.

Eight states, including West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Meghalaya, have currently withdrawn general consent for the CBI to probe cases in their jurisdiction. Maharashtra had earlier withdrew the consent but later revoked the decision. 

New Delhi: News portal ‘The Wire’ has filed a police complaint against its former consultant Devesh Kumar in connection with a “fabricated” story related to the BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya, a senior police officer said on Sunday.

According to the officer, the news portal filed the complaint late on Saturday through e-mail.

Earlier on Saturday, the Delhi Police had filed an FIR against ‘The Wire’ and its editors based on a complaint by Malviya, who accused it of “cheating and forgery” and “tarnishing” his reputation.

“A case has been filed. Investigation will be initiated and necessary action will be taken,” the officer said.

Malviya had on Friday said he will pursue criminal and civil proceedings against the portal over stories, since retracted, which insinuated that he enjoyed a special privilege on Meta platforms through which he could get any story taken down if he believed it was against the BJP’s interests.

Malviya’s complaint was filed with Delhi Police’s special commissioner (crime) against ‘The Wire’, its founding editors Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M K Venu, deputy editor and executive news producer Jahnavi Sen, the Foundation for Independent Journalism and some unknown people.

The complaint was filed for various offences punishable under sections 420 (cheating), 468 and 469 (forgery), 471 (fraud), 500 (defamation) r/w 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (criminal act) of the Indian Penal Code.

Though ‘The Wire’ has apologised to its readers and withdrawn the stories, the BJP leader had noted that the news portal did not offer him an apology despite “maligning and tarnishing my reputation and causing serious harm to my professional career”.

The Wire, in a statement on Thursday, said journalists rely on sources for stories and do their best to verify material they receive.

“Technological evidence is more complicated and the usual due diligence may not always reveal the fraud perpetrated upon a publication. This is what happened to us,” it said.

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New Delhi: Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Sunday said the city government has set up 586 teams to ensure strict implementation of the ban on construction and demolition activities in the national capital in view of worsening air quality.

Addressing a press conference, Rai said that as per experts, wind speed and direction would become unfavourable from November 1 and push the air quality index into the ‘severe’ category.

Therefore, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has directed the authorities in the NCR to implement curbs, including a ban on construction and demolition activities, under stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan, he said.

“We have held a meeting with all construction agencies in the capital and government departments concerned, including the PWD, MCD, Railways, DDA and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee. We have decided to implement the ban on construction and demolition activities in the city,” the minister said.

The government has prepared a strong monitoring system to ensure compliance of the directions. It has set up 586 teams comprising officials of different departments, he said.

These teams will monitor the implementation of the ban on construction and demolition activities.

Under stage III of GRAP, the authorities have been asked to enforce a strict ban on construction and demolition activities in the NCR, except for essential projects and non-polluting activities such as plumbing, carpentry, interior decoration and electrical works.

The restrictions will not be applicable on essential projects concerning national security, defence, railways and metro rail among others.

The ban on construction and demolition activities covers earthwork for excavation, boring and drilling; fabrication and welding operations; loading and unloading of construction material; transfer of raw material, including fly ash, either manually or through conveyor belts and vehicular movement on unpaved roads.

It also bans the operation of batching plants; laying of sewer lines, waterline, drainage work and electric cabling through open trench system; cutting and fixing of tiles, stones and other flooring materials; grinding activities; piling work; water proofing work; road construction and repair works, including paving of sidewalks, pathways and central verges among others.

Balaghat: A thief returned silver and brass items stolen from a temple in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district along with an apology letter saying his act caused him sufferings, police said on Sunday.

The unidentified thief had stolen 10 decorative pieces of silver, including ‘chhatras’ (an umbrella shaped decoration piece), and three brass items from the Shantinath Digambar Jain Temple under Lamta police station limits on October 24, Additional Superintendent of Police Vijay Dabar said.

Since then, the police were searching for the culprit, he said.

On Friday, members of a Jain family spotted a bag lying in a pit near the panchayat office in Lamta following which they alerted police and the community members, the official said.

The stolen goods were recovered from the bag along with an apology letter from the thief, he said.

The letter, a photo of which surfaced on social media platforms, stated, “I am seeking an apology for my act. I made a mistake, forgive me. I have suffered a lot after the theft.” Dabar said the police have seized the stolen items and efforts are on to arrest the thief. 

Hyderabad: Three persons who allegedly tried to “poach” four TRS legislators have been arrested and a local court here has remanded them to judicial custody.

The arrests were made on Saturday night after the Telangana High Court had set aside a lower court’s order and directed the accused in the case to surrender before police.

Earlier, a local court here on October 27 rejected the remand of three people, who were arrested by the Cyberabad police on the charge of trying to coax four TRS legislators into defecting, over not following the procedure of issuing a notice before the arrest.

The government appealed to the High Court against the lower court’s order.

Following TRS’ allegations that BJP tried to poach some of its MLAs, the saffron party filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking a CBI probe.

Another judge of the High Court, on the petition by BJP, posted the matter for November 4 and deferred investigation till then.

Based on a complaint by Pilot Rohith Reddy, one of the legislators, cases under relevant sections – criminal conspiracy, offering bribe and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 – were filed against the trio — Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy — on the night of October 26.

As per the FIR copy, Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused offered him Rs 100 crore and in return the legislator had to leave the TRS and contest as a BJP candidate in the next Assembly elections.

The incident led to a war of words between the BJP and TRS with allegations and counter allegations.