Archives for 2022

Bengaluru, May 16: Congress is facing a phobia of regional parties, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy said on Monday while taking a swipe at the grand old party leader Rahul Gandhi for his critical comments on those parties.

In an apparent sarcastic note, he asked the former Congress president to elaborate to regional parties about ideological commitment, while saying that the national party has no presence in most parts of the country.

He said the Congress toppled the I K Gujral-led United Front government, demanding that DMK be kept out of the Cabinet by citing the links of the Dravidian party with the LTTE in the backdrop of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. But, the same Congress in the later years shared a cordial, political relationship with that party.

“Is sharing power with the same DMK for 10 years in UPA-1 and -2 governments, led by Manmohan Singh, an ideological commitment?” he questioned in a tweet.

In his address at his party’s “Chintan Shivir” (brainstorming camp) in Udaipur, Gandhi had claimed that regional parties cannot fight the BJP and the RSS as they lack ideology. The Congress can fight them, he had said.

Noting that Rahul Gandhi claims that Congress alone has the strength to defeat the BJP, the former Chief Minister said he (Rahul) should not forget that his party enjoyed power for 10 years on the strength of regional parties.

“Is joining hands (with BJP) for the immoral operation ‘Lotus’ through the back door, after coming to our (JD-S) door with an alliance proposal and forming a coalition government with us, an ideological commitment? Is destroying alliance partners ideology-based politics?” he further questioned the Congress.

As 2018 polls threw up a hung verdict, Congress and JD(S), which fought elections separately, joined hands to form a coalition government in Karnataka under the leadership of Kumaraswamy.

However, the government fell after 14 months due to dissidence within, and with MLAs from both parties resigning and joining the BJP.

Stating that Congress is facing a phobia of regional parties, Kumaraswamy said, “It has no presence in most of the States like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha. Congress is in its last days in Karnataka. It will be better if Rahul Gandhi understands that.

Colombo: A no-confidence motion tabled by the Opposition against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was defeated in Parliament on Tuesday, in a comfortable win for the embattled President amidst nationwide protests demanding his resignation due to the country’s worst-ever economic crisis.

The motion by Opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M A Sumanthiran to suspend Parliament’s standing orders in order to debate an expression of displeasure over President Rajapaksa was defeated with 119 MPs voting against it, the Economy Next newspaper reported.

Only 68 MPs voted in favour of the motion, it said, giving the 72-year-old President a comfortable victory.

With the motion, the Opposition sought to demonstrate how nationwide calls for President Rajapaksa’s resignation are reflected in the country’s legislature, the report said.

The main Opposition Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) MP Lakshman Kiriella had supported the motion.

According to SJB MP Harsha de Silva, among those who voted against the motion was Sri Lanka’s newly-elected Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Human rights lawyer Bhavani Fonseka tweeted after the vote that the motion’s defeat exposed MPs who protect President Rajapaksa.

On Tuesday, Parliament met for the first time after the appointment of new Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, as the country looks to undertake major constitutional reforms amid the worst economic crisis.

Sumanthiran, who moved the motion, wanted the standing orders suspended to carry on with the debate.

The government, however, objected to suspending the standing orders. The Speaker then ordered a vote on the question of suspending the standing orders.

The government won the vote and forced the adjournment motion moved on the violence suffered by the ruling party politicians since May 9.

The police on Monday said that some 78 ruling party politicians had suffered damage to properties.

The Opposition said the motion of displeasure could be moved on Friday. Sri Lanka is witnessing an unprecedented economic crisis.

The Rajapaksa government had taken some arbitrary decisions like banning chemical fertiliser imports in favour of organic farming and resisting turning to the International Monetary Fund which led to the country’s worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948.

A crippling shortage of foreign reserves has led to long queues for fuel, cooking gas and other essentials while power cuts and soaring food prices heaped misery on the people.

The economic uncertainty also triggered a political crisis in Sri Lanka and a demand for the resignation of the powerful Rajapaksas.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa sacked his Cabinet and appointed a younger Cabinet as a response to the demand for his resignation. A continuous protest opposite his secretariat has now gone on for well over a month.

On May 9, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as the prime minister to make way for the president to appoint an interim all political party government. Wickremesinghe was appointed the country’s new prime minister on Thursday.

BHOPAL:  Police have clamped Section 144 of the CrPC in Madhya Pradesh’s Neemuch and lodged four cases in connection with the clashes between two communities on Monday night after a Hanuman idol was allegedly installed near a dargah.

Tension had spread after people from the minority community objected to placing of the idol on Monday.  The plot where the Hanuman idol was placed is a government land which earlier housed tehsil office, hospital and library.  

Rioting and arson soon descended in the locality, forcing the police to fire tear gas shells for dispersing the two sides. While a teenager identified as Mohd Younis was injured, some police personnel sustained minor injuries. The chain of events prompted the administration to impose prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC in entire Neemuch City police station area. 

This is the second communal clash in Madhya Pradesh in a little over a month after the Khargone riots in April. According to Neemuch police superintendent Suraj Verma, four cases of rioting have so far been lodged in connection with the violence and nine persons (identified through video footage to be involved in the violence) were rounded up.

“Since decades, a dargah has existed on the same land. When the Hanuman idol was placed in the same land on Monday, the other group objected to it. After being alerted about the tense situation, police rushed to the spot and asked both the groups to come to the district police control to resolve the issue amicably. While the people were dispersing from the spot, some elements from both sides pelted stones.

The stone-pelters damaged three-four motorbikes and set ablaze one of the two-wheelers…,” Verma told TNIE. “We’re identifying other culprits by going through the video footage (collected from the area).” 
As a precautionary measure, heavy police force has been deployed in large numbers in the affected area of Neemuch town and prohibitory orders have been imposed under Section 144 of the CrPC in entire Neemuch City police station area till July 16 on the order of additional district collector Neha Meena.

MUMBAI:  Amid the uproar in Maharashtra over AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi paying respects at the tomb of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb near Aurangabad, the controversial politician received support from an unexpected corner – actor Raveena Tandon.

Reacting to a tweet flaying Owaisi, the actor on Saturday wrote that India is a free country and everyone has equal rights to worship. “We are a tolerant race, have been, will be and will remain so. This is a free country. Worship anyone if you have to; rights are equal for all,” Tandon said.

“For some time, it has become a fashion to label my motherland as intolerant. This just proves how intolerant we are. And how much we can absorb?” wrote the actor, who is an active Twitter user writing and commenting on climate crisis and rights violations.

Tandon has had face-offs with right-wing outfits in the past and her relation with the saffron camp hasn’t been a smooth one. In 2018 the vocal actor had said that she didn’t join politics because she “always call a spade a spade”.  Her latest comments come at a time when all major parties in Maharashtra have been training their guns on junior Owaisi.

At the microlevel, the party categorises booths as A, B and C. The first is the party’s strongholds; the second is where it has a 50-50 chance and the last category is where the party faces a tough challenge. The BJP may have a clear strategy and the resources to implement it; but the big challenge is to match the opposition firepower in the region. Congress top guns DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah and JDS leaders HD Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy all come from the region.

On its part, the BJP is promoting Vokkaliga community leaders, who seem to be doing their best. But most of them are from Bengaluru city, barring a few senior leaders. Now, the party is likely to give importance to the region during the ministry rejig and also in the party reorganisation ahead of polls. Apart from the dominant Vokkaliga community, the party is also focusing on the significant backward class votes. Siddaramaiah enjoys a considerable support base among them, although OBC voters have not fully backed Congress in recent elections.

The JDS, meanwhile, is making efforts to woo minorities by appointing CM Ibrahim as the state unit president. Overcoming internal differences among its top leaders and consolidating anti-BJP votes may be a challenge for Congress. The JDS is facing its own share of problems with leaders deserting it in droves. While those factors may help BJP, its strategy cannot depend only on these aspects. Going by the recent bypolls and Council election results, the BJP and the Congress seem to be on an equal footing in most of the regions, except in Old Mysuru.

In Vokkaligadominated areas, the Opposition party has some advantage and hopes to use it to negate the ruling party’s possible gains in Lingayat-dominated North Karnataka. This was one of the major factors for the BJP’s growth under the leadership of BS Yediyurappa. Before the BJP emerged as a force, the community had backed Congress and Janata Parivar for a long time.

As BJP slowly consolidated its position in North Karnataka, the JDS managed to retain its hold in Old Mysuru. Congress could get the full support of the community when SM Krishna became the chief minister in 1999.

Now, Shivakumar is hoping to do an encore of the Congress performance under Krishna, the JDS is fighting for its survival and the BJP is going all guns blazing to conquer the last bastion. If the preparations are anything to go by, Old Mysuru is sure to witness a battle royal and decide the course of Karna

BHOPAL:  A political slugfest has erupted in Madhya Pradesh after three police personnel were killed in a gunbattle with poachers in Guna district of Chambal region on wee hours of Sunday. Ruling BJP leaders, including state party chief VD Sharma, MLA Rameshwar Sharma and Jyotiraditya Scindia-loyalist minister Mahendra Singh Sisodiya, have accused the erstwhile Raghogarh royal family, headed by former CM and Congress Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh of protecting the poachers.

“Aron area forms part of the erstwhile Raghogarh riyasat and local residents are alleging that the erstwhile royal family has been protecting the poachers from whose houses in Bidoria village, arms have been seized by the police. We demand a probe into the allegations of Raghogarh fort’s connection with the poachers,” Sharma demanded.

The statements were preceded by the allegations by Dilip Saxena, a relative of one of the slain police personnel Neeraj Bhargava. “The poachers were patronised by a big politician from Raghogarh, which is why they didn’t fear the police,” the deceased policeman’s uncle told journalists in Guna.

Digvijaya Singh and his son and Raghogarh MLA Jaivardhan Singh responded to the allegations by posting on social media the pictures of poachers Naushad and Shahzad (both brothers killed by police on Saturday) with a newly inducted BJP leader Hitendra Singh (Bunty Bana) who was formerly with the Congress.