Archives for 2022

VARANASI: The videography survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid complex in Varanasi resumed on Saturday amid tight security arrangements, officials said.

The mosque management committee has indicated that it will cooperate for now with the team assigned the task by a local court.

“The authorised persons — all parties, their advocates, court commissioners and videographers — have reached the spot, and the survey has started,” District Magistrate of Varanasi Kaushal Raj Sharma told PTI.

The mosque is located close to the iconic Kashi Vishwanath temple and the local court is hearing a plea by a group of women seeking permission for daily prayers before the idols on its outer walls.

An important meeting was held with all parties concerned on Friday, Sharma had said earlier, and added that an appeal was made to them to cooperate in the commission’s work and the maintenance of law and order.

Police Commissioner of Varanasi A Satish Ganesh also told PTI that the survey has started.

In his order on Thursday, District Civil Court (Senior Division) judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar had turned down a plea by the mosque committee to replace Ajay Kumar Mishra, who was appointed advocate commissioner by him to survey the Gyanvapi-Gauri Shringar complex.

The judge also appointed two more advocates to help the commissioner with the survey and said it should be completed by Tuesday.

Lawyers representing the Hindu and Muslim sides were present at the meeting held on Friday by the district magistrate.

Also on Friday, the Supreme Court refused to grant an interim order of status quo on the survey.

The top court, however, agreed to consider listing the plea of a Muslim party against the survey.

The survey was stalled last week amid objections by the mosque committee, which claimed that the advocate commissioner did not have the mandate to film inside the premises.

The committee accused him of bias and filed a plea for his replacement.

Advocate Madan Mohan Yadav, who is appearing for the Hindu side, had said the three court-appointed advocate commissioners, five lawyers each from the two sides and an assistant besides a videography team will carry out the survey.

People attended Friday prayers amid tight security outside the mosque.

In its order on Thursday, the district court said locks should be broken if the keys are not available to access certain areas of the complex for the survey.

It also asked the district authorities to register FIRs if the survey was not allowed.

NEW DELHI: With one brother president, another prime minister and three more family members cabinet ministers, it appeared that the Rajapaksa clan had consolidated its grip on power in Sri Lanka after decades in and out of government.

The three Rajapaksas resigned their cabinet posts in April, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa stepped down on Monday, angry protesters attacked the family’s home this week and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has not been seen outside his heavily guarded compound.

But the family is not going down without a fight, ordering troops to shoot protesters causing injury to people or property, instituting a nationwide curfew and allegedly encouraging mobs of their supporters to fight in the streets with anti-government demonstrators.

In his first speech to the nation in some two months, Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday said he would return more power to Parliament, by rolling back an amendment he implemented to buttress the all-powerful executive presidential system.

On Thursday he appointed a new prime minister, of no relation.

But it might be too little, too late to put an end to the nationwide protests calling for the ouster of the president, the last Rajapaksa still clinging to national office.

“This is a crisis very much of his making. He did not create the crisis from the beginning, but the Rajapaksas have come to epitomize the failings in our structure of government with their nepotism, their corruption and their human rights violations,” said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives think tank in Colombo.

With soaring prices, fuel and food shortages and lengthy power cuts, Sri Lankans have been protesting for weeks, calling for both the Rajapaksas to step down.

Violence erupted Monday after Rajapaksa supporters clashed with protesters in a dramatic turn that saw Mahinda resign.

Nine people were killed and more than 200 injured.

Angry protesters attacked the family’s ancestral home in the Hambantota area, and Mahinda has been forced to take refuge on a heavily fortified naval base.

With his atypically conciliatory speech Wednesday, it is clear Gotabaya has been “badly shaken by the protests,” said Dayan Jayatilleka, a former diplomat who served as Sri Lanka’s representative to the United Nations during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency.

Still, it may be too early to count him out, Jayatilleka said, noting that Gotabaya had changed tack to sound “flexible and pragmatic.”

“Gotabaya has a dualistic personality, one side of that personality that the country has seen is this unilateralist, quite insensitive ex-military man,” Jayatilleka said.

“But there’s another side, somewhat more rational. But the more rational side was on a very long vacation.”

The Rajapaksa family has been involved in Sri Lankan politics for decades, with the focus most recently on Mahinda, the president’s older brother.

While Gotabaya pursued a military career and rose through the ranks, Mahinda focused on politics and was elected president in 2005.

Gotabaya, who by then had retired from the military and immigrated to the United States, returned to become defence secretary.

The two won enormous support among their fellow Sinhalese Buddhists for ending the country’s 26-year civil war with ethnic Tamil rebels in 2009 and Mahinda was re-elected to a second term in 2010.

About 70% of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are Buddhists, mainly ethnic Sinhalese.

Hindus, mainly ethnic Tamils, make up 12.6% of the population, while another 9.7% are Muslim and 7.6% are Christian.

Minority groups and international observers accused the military of targeting civilians in the war and killing rebels and civilians who surrendered in the final days.

According to a U.N. report, about 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final months of fighting alone.

Mahinda pushed through a constitutional change to allow him to run for a third presidential term and called elections early in 2015 to press what he saw as an advantage, but was defeated in an upset by Maithripala Sirisena, who garnered support from minorities with his reformist platform and push for reconciliation.

Mahinda Rajapaksa then unsuccessfully sought to become prime minister, and it appeared that the luster of the Rajapaksa name had worn off.

But with Sirisena’s coalition government already plagued with infighting and dysfunction, on Easter Sunday in 2019 Islamic extremists targeted Christian churches and luxury hotels in coordinated suicide attacks, killing hundreds of people.

Amid allegations the Sirisena government had not acted on intelligence information, and a wave of Buddhist nationalism, Gotabaya Rajapaksa swept to power in a landslide later that year.

“The bombs catapulted him to victory in the 2019 election,” Jayatilleka said.

“The feeling was we need Gotabaya, we need his military experience.”

He appointed Mahinda as prime minister and added two other brothers and a nephew to his cabinet.

In 2020 he pushed through a constitutional amendment strengthening the power of his office at the expense of Parliament.

By the time Gotabaya took office, Sri Lanka was already in an economic slump triggered by a drop in tourism after the bombings and a slew of foreign debt from infrastructure projects, many bankrolled by Chinese money and commissioned by Mahinda.

In one notorious case, Mahinda borrowed deeply from China to build a port in Hambantota, the family’s home region.

Unable to make its debt payments on the project, Sri Lanka was forced to hand the facility and thousands of acres of land around it to Beijing for 99 years, giving China a key foothold directly opposite regional rival India’s coastline.

With the economy already teetering, Gotabaya pushed through the largest tax cuts in Sri Lankan history, which sparked a quick backlash, with creditors downgrading the country’s ratings, blocking it from borrowing more money as foreign exchange reserves nosedived.

The pandemic hit soon after, again battering tourism, a prime source of foreign currency.

A poorly executed ban on importing chemical fertilizers in April 2021 made things worse by driving prices up before Gotabaya was forced to repeal it.

Compounding the problems this year, the Ukraine war has increased food and oil prices globally.

The central bank said inflation was at 30% in April, with food prices up nearly 50%.

With the economy today in tatters, protests have come from all sectors of society, with even Sinhalese Buddhists joining in.

“There is public vilification of the Rajapaksa now and that’s a notable change to what we were seeing previously,” said Bhavani Fonseka, a senior researcher at the Colombo-based Center for Policy Alternatives.

There is a “real genuine anger among the people that it’s the Rajapaksas who have led to this crisis.”

Still, Jayatilleka suggested if Gotabaya can appoint a new cabinet that enjoys popular support, he may be able to cling to office.

“If he stitches together a government that looks somewhat new, not as top heavy with the Rajapaksas as it was stuffed full of them, that may have more success,” he said.

But Saravanamuttu said it was too late for a comeback.

“His constituency has turned against him and therefore he has no real power base left in the country,” he said.

“The monks are turning against him and also sections of the military because ordinary soldiers and their families are also suffering. Word from the street is that he has to go.”

PUNE: Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta took to Twitter to answer citizens’ questions about various law and order issues, and also dispensed pithy advice to a user who was in a dilemma about where he should relocate: Always listen to your wife.

A user on the micro-blogging site told the top cop that he was planning to relocate from Mumbai.

“I am thinking of Bangalore but my wife prefers Pune. What do you suggest?” he asked.

Gupta, in a cheeky reply, said, “Both are lovely cities, but the rule book says ‘Always listen to your wife!’ Everyone including me does the same.”

To a query about wrong side driving, helmetless riding and negligible police presence on the streets, the commissioner said, “You may not see cops on the road everywhere, but we have full control on people who need it. And, without helmet wale badshah ko bhi hospital ka rasta dekhna padta hai (Without helmet, even a king ends up in the hospital).”

” When a user asked if it was necessary for traffic cops to take away vehicle keys from motorcyclists who jump the signal “inadvertently”, Gupta said, “Hamesha galti se signal todna zaroori hai kya? (Is it really necessary to jump the signal inadvertently every time?).

He also interacted with netizens about issues pertaining to the safety of those who travel to work late at night and the nuisance caused by beggars on the roads.

The city police chief later thanked citizens for taking part in the interaction.

“Thank you #Pune for the overwhelming response. I answered as many questions as I could in a limited time but. We will club and respond to all the remaining questions at the earliest as well,” Gupta said while signing off.

NEW DELHI: India’s COVID-19 caseload increased to 4,31,19,112 on Saturday with 2,858 fresh infections, while the number of active cases came down to 18,096, according to Union health ministry data.

The active cases comprise 0.04 per cent of the total infections.

The national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.74 per cent, the ministry said.

A decrease of 508 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.59 per cent and the weekly positivity rate stood at 0.66 per cent, the ministry said.

The number of people who have recuperated from the viral disease surged to 4,25,76,815.

The case fatality rate was recorded at 1.22 per cent, it said.

The total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide inoculation drive has exceeded 191.15 crore.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4, 2021, and 3 crore on June 23.

CHANDIGARH: Haryana may make singing the national anthem mandatory in all madrassas in the state, Education Minister Kanwar Pal indicated here on Friday, a day after neighbouring Uttar Pradesh made it compulsory.

Singing of the national anthem has been made compulsory at all madrassas in Uttar Pradesh starting Thursday.

The Registrar of the Uttar Pradesh Madrassa Education Board issued an order to this effect to all the District Minority Welfare Officers on May 9.

Kanwar Pal was also asked to comment on Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala demanding on Wednesday that the Haryana government withdraw a new Class 9 history book that mentions the Congress’ “policy of appeasement” as one of the reasons for the country’s Partition in 1947.

“You cannot make history sugar-coated. When the book gives credit to Congress on many things, mistakes will also be highlighted. Accepting partition of the country was a mistake and that will find a mention,” he said.

Responding to a question, the education minister said lessons on freedom fighter and Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar were being taught in schools earlier and that will continue.

Young generation is being given correct information about history, he said.

He said great men in their own way contributed significantly to liberate the country from the British.

“These are the events that happened in history and the younger generation is being made aware of them,” he said.

Meanwhile, he also said there is a lot of enthusiasm among the people regarding the Pragati Rally to be organised in Yamunanagar on May 15.

He said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will dedicate development projects worth crores of rupees to the public in this rally.

Meanwhile, with singing of national anthem made compulsory in all madrassas in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Friday said a similar step could be considered in the state.

He made the statement in response to a query asked by reporters here.

Speaking separately, Madhya Pradesh BJP chief Vishnu Dutt Sharma said ‘Jana Gana Mana’ should be recited in all educational institutions across the country.

Singing of national anthem “Jana Gana Mana” has been made compulsory at all madrassas in Uttar Pradesh starting Thursday.

The Registrar of the Uttar Pradesh Madrassa Education Board issued an order to this effect to all the District Minority Welfare Officers on May 9.

Talking to reporters, minister Mishra said the national anthem should be sung everywhere.

“It is a good thing. It is a national anthem and it can be sung everywhere,” he said.

When asked whether a similar decision could be implemented in MP, Mishra said, “It is matter of consideration. It can be considered.”

Replying to a query whether the national anthem should be sung in madrassas in Madhya Pradesh as well, state BJP president Sharma said, “We are not asking anyone to sing the national anthem in Pakistan.

We are just asking for educational institutions situated in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and all corners of the country to sing the national anthem and national song and slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.”

“If such a thing is happening and such a decision has been taken, then it is a welcome step,” he said.

The national anthem was sung in madrassas across the state on Friday after it was made mandatory by the Uttar Pradesh government, according to reports.

Though the decision came into effect from Thursday, most madrassas in the state had remained closed due to low attendance of children on the first day of classes after the end of Ramzan holidays.

Friday is a holiday in most of the madrassas, but in those that were open, ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was sung as part of the morning prayers, the reports said.

“The government wants the students of madrassas to remember that legacy forever. When they sing the national anthem in the morning, the nation will be strengthened,” the state’s Minister of State for Minority Welfare Danish Azad Ansari told PTI.

“Its purpose is to further promote the feeling of patriotism among the children studying in madrasas,” he said, adding that madrassas played an important role in the country’s Independence.

According to reports received from the Muslim-dominated Saharanpur district, minority welfare officer Bharat Lal Gond said all the students and teachers in the madrassas that were opened sang the national anthem “with enthusiasm”.

In Badaun, ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was sung during the morning prayers, and teachers explained the national anthem’s importance to the children.

Rashid Khan, director of Madrassa Hikmat Khan, said the national anthem has already been sung in madrassas on Independence Day, Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti.

“This country belongs to all and the national anthem is a symbol of the country’s honour. There is no objection by any madrassa in singing it. They have always respected the national anthem,” Khan said.

Gorakhpur district minority welfare officer Ashutosh Pandey said most of the 243 madrassas sang the national anthem along with the traditional prayers in the morning.

Diwan Sahab Zaman Khan, General Secretary of Teachers’ Association Madaris Arabia, said Hamd (praises to Allah) and Salam (salutations to Muhammad) used to be recited before the start of classes in madrassas until now.

“In some places, the national anthem was also sung but it was not compulsory. Now it is.”

After the singing of the national anthem was made compulsory at all madrassas in the state from Thursday, Registrar of the Uttar Pradesh Madrassa Education Board, SN Pandey, had issued an order to all the district minority welfare officers in this connection on May 9.

At present, there are 16,461 madrassas in Uttar Pradesh, out of which 560 receive grants from the government.

SIDHI: A man allegedly beheaded his 60-year-old maternal uncle over black magic suspicion and walked around two kilometers with his severed head and axe in hands in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh before being nabbed by the police, an official said on Saturday.

The incident occurred on Friday in Karimati village located in the jurisdiction of Jamodi police station, around 10 kms from the district headquarters, he said, adding that the 26-year-old accused suspected his uncle to be creating problems for him by performing black magic on him.

Jamodi police station in-charge Sheshmani Mishra said that the accused, Lalbahadur Gaud, went to his maternal uncle Maksudan Singh Gaud’s house on Friday and hit him on the neck with an axe following an argument.

“The attack was so intense that his uncle’s head got severed from the body,” he said.

Mishra said that after the killing, the accused started walking towards to the police station by holding the severed head and the axe in his hands, but the cops arrested him midway after being alerted.

The accused said his uncle was creating problems for him through black magic and that he had asked him many times not to do so.

However, his uncle was not ready to relent, the official said quoting the accused.

After he reached his uncle’s house on Friday, both of them entered into an argument, following which the accused attacked him in a fit of rage, he said.

Mishra said the accused was arrested for murder and investigation into the case is on.

UDAIPUR: Asserting that the state of the economy is a cause of “extreme concern”, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said taking into account global and domestic developments, it may be necessary to contemplate a reset of economic policies.

Chidambaram, who heads the panel on economy constituted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to lead discussions at the three-day ‘Chintan Shivir’ here, also said the time is ripe for a comprehensive review of fiscal relations between the Centre and the States.

The consequences of the poorly drafted and unfairly implemented GST laws brought in by the Modi government in 2017 are there for everyone to see, the Congress leader said.

“The States’ fiscal position is fragile like never before and needs urgent remedial measures,” said the former finance minister, flanked by some other members of the panel such as Gourav Vallabh and Supriya Shrinate.

Noting that the Congress-led government ushered in a new era of liberalisation in 1991, Chidambaram said the country has reaped enormous benefits in terms of wealth creation, new businesses and new entrepreneurs, a huge middle class, millions of jobs, exports and lifting 27 crore people out of poverty during a 10-year period.

“After 30 years, it is felt that taking into account global and domestic developments, it may be necessary to contemplate a reset of the economic policies.

“A reset of economic policies must also address the questions of rising inequalities, extreme poverty among the bottom 10 per cent of the population, India’s rank in the Global Hunger Index 2021 (101 out of 116 countries), and evidence of widespread nutritional deficiency among women and children,” he said.

The external situation has added to the pressures on the economy, he noted.

“The government appears clueless on the ways to deal with these developments,” he added.

Chidambaram further said, “I am confident that our deliberations over three days and the decisions that will be taken by the CWC in the days and weeks ahead will make a significant contribution to the nationwide debate on the economic policies that will best serve the interests of the country and its people.”

The discussions at the ‘Chintan Shivir’, which began on Friday, will continue on the second and third day as well and the conclusions will be recorded in the form of a declaration.

A draft of the declaration will be discussed at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting to be held here on the third and last day of the conclave.

JAIPUR: A member of Jaipur’s former royal family and BJP MP Diya Kumari has claimed that the land on which the Taj Mahal was constructed originally belonged to Jaipur’s ruler Jai Singh. In an interaction with the media on Wednesday, Diya Kumari also asserted that the land was acquired by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and records of the same are available with the erstwhile Jaipur royal family.

Diya Kumari has virtually claimed that the Taj Mahal, a symbol of love of and one of the seven wonders of the world, was built on property that originally belonged to the former royal family of Jaipur. The BJP MP has claimed that she has documents to show that earlier the Taj Mahal used to be the palace of the old royal family of Jaipur which was captured by Shah Jahan.  When Shah Jahan took that palace and land of the Jaipur family, the family could not oppose him because it was then ruled by him.

Diya Kumari remarked that people have the right to know what was there before the monument was built and the entire issue should be investigated. The member of the erstwhile Jaipur royal family further said that there are records available with the Jaipur family to prove all her claims and it would provide them if the need arises.

The BJP MP asserted, “this was the land of our royal family and Shah Jahan had occupied it. At that time the government belonged to him.  I have heard that he was compensated in return, but at that time there was no law to appeal against him or do anything against him.”

MP Diya Kumari further added, ‘I will not say that the Taj Mahal should be demolished but its rooms should be opened.  Some rooms in the Taj Mahal are closed and some parts are sealed there for a long time.  It must be inquired and opened so that it can be known what was there and what was not.  All those facts will be established once we have a proper inquiry.”

As is well-known, Ayodhya’s BJP leader Dr Rajneesh Singh has filed a petition in the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court in UP regarding the Taj Mahal.  In his petition, Dr Singh has demanded a survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to open those 22 rooms of the Taj Mahal which have been closed for a long time.  The petitioner says that the Taj Mahal may contain sculptures and inscriptions of Hindu gods and goddesses.  If the survey is done, then it will be known whether there are Hindu idols and inscriptions in the Taj Mahal or not.

BJP MP Diya Kumari has openly supported that plea and said “it is good that someone raised his voice and filed a petition in the court.” Diya Kumari said that the truth must come out from this and asserted that Documents present in their possession can help to bring out the truth and they are ready to give the same. The BJP MP promised that “if documents are needed, then our royal family of Jaipur is ready to share them.  If the court orders, we will give them all the documents.”

It is worth noting that even when the issue arose regarding the descendants of Ram during the Ayodhya temple, it was claimed by the Jaipur Royal Family that they are the descendants of Ram.  For this, the BJP MP had said that she is ready to testify in court as well.

On the question of whether a petition will also be filed in the court on behalf of the former royal family of Jaipur, Diya Kumari said that we are looking into it now and we will examine what steps should be taken.