Archives for 2022

Manmohan Singh

Chandigarh: The BJP had been in power for more than seven years and was still blaming first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the problems of the people, former prime minister and Congress leader Manmohan Singh said on Thursday in a scathing attack against the Modi-led government.

Targeting the Central government on a host of issues, including the farmers’ agitation, foreign policy, price rise and unemployment, the former prime minister said ahead of the Punjab elections on February 20 that the Congress had never divided the country for political gains or hidden the truth.

“On the one hand, people are facing problems of price rise and unemployment, on the other, the present government which has been in power for the last seven and a half years, rather than admitting their mistakes and making amends, is still blaming first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for being responsible for people’s problems,” Singh said in a video message in Punjabi.

The Congress played the message at a press conference here.

“A few days ago, in the name of the prime minister’s security, an attempt was made to defame Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and the people of the state,” he said, referring to Modi’s convoy being stuck on a flyover in Ferozepur during the prime minister’s visit to the state.

“During the farmers’ agitation, too, an attempt was made to defame Punjab and Punjabiyat,” he said.

The world salutes the bravery, patriotism and sacrifice of Punjabis, but the NDA government did not talk about any of this, Singh said.

As a true Indian hailing from Punjab, all these things deeply hurt me, he said. 

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside a Punjab and Haryana High Court order granting an interim stay on a Haryana law providing 75 per cent quota in private sector jobs for residents of the state.

A bench of justices L Nageswara Rao and Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha also directed the Haryana government not to take coercive action against employers.

“We do not intend to deal with merits of matter as we propose to request the high court to decide expeditiously and not later than four weeks. Parties are directed not to seek adjournment and be present before court for fixing the schedule for hearing.

“In the meanwhile, Haryana is directed not to take coercive action against employers. The impugned order passed by the high court is set aside as the high court has not given sufficient reasons for staying the legislation,” the bench said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Haryana government.

The order came on an appeal filed by the Haryana government challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court order granting an interim stay on its law providing 75 per cent quota in private sector jobs for residents of the state.

The high court, had on February 3, granted the interim stay on the Haryana government law based on pleas filed by various industry associations from Faridabad and other bodies in the state, including in Gurugram.

Washington: A Russian invasion of Ukraine can happen anytime now, the White House said Wednesday as President Joe Biden announced plans to dispatch Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Tony Blinken to attend the Munich conference to meet world leaders and unite them against Moscow.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki anticipated that an attack could take place at any time.

“We are in the window where we believe an attack could come at any time, and that would be preceded by a fabricated pretext that the Russians use as an excuse to launch an invasion,” Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference.

“We have talked about this a bit here, we’ve seen these tactics used in the past. Those could include but not be limited to the report you just referenced, claims of provocation in Donbass, false state media reports, which I think you should all, everybody should keep their eyes open and be aware of potentially fake videos and accusations about chemical weapons or accounts of attacks on Russian soldiers that have not actually occurred,” she said.

In response to a question, Psaki told the reporters that there could be a range of false flags and pretexts that would proceed to an invasion. “And again, we remain in that window.”

Both Harris and Blinken are now flying to Germany to attend the Munich security conference from February 18 to 20.

“She will build on the President’s and the national security team’s intensive engagement with European allies and partners and continue to emphasize with our partners our ironclad commitment to our NATO allies, underscore our commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and reaffirm our shared interest in upholding the principles that have underpinned European peace and security,” Psaki said.

“She’ll be participating in the formal programme of the conference as well as engaging with allies and partners and meeting with leaders on the margins,” the press secretary said.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied it has plans to attack Ukraine but demanded that NATO never admit Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations as members and the military alliance roll back troop deployments in former Soviet bloc nations.

“What the President expects, he expects and knows, given she is the first in the room and the last in the room, that she will continue to convey to the rest of the world, again, our ironclad commitment to our NATO allies, our commitment to defending the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, and our commitment to putting in place severe economic consequences should Russia invade, she said.

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Blinken said the Russian troops remain massed in a very threatening way at the border. Of course, the door continues to be open to diplomacy, Psaki said.

New Delhi: With 30,757 people testing positive for the coronavirus infection in a day, India’s total tally of cases rose to 4,27,54,315, while the recovery rate crossed the 98 per cent-mark again, according to Union health ministry data updated on Thursday.

The death toll has climbed to 5,10,413 with 541 daily fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The daily COVID-19 cases have been recorded at less than one lakh for the last 11 consecutive days.

The active cases have declined to 3,32,918, comprising 0.78 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 98.03 per cent, the health ministry said.

The recovery rate had last crossed the 98 per cent-mark on January 5, when it was 98.01 per cent.

There has been a reduction of 37,322 cases in the active caseload in a span of 24 hours, it said.

The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 2.61 per cent while the weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 3.04 per cent, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,19,10,984, while the case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.19 per cent, it said.

The cumulative doses administered so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 174.24 crore.

India’s COVID-19 tally crossed two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23.

Kyiv: Ukrainians defied pressure from Moscow with a national show of flag-waving unity Wednesday, while the US warned that Russia had added as many as 7,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders despite Kremlin declarations that forces were being pulled back from the region.

While a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine did not materialize as feared, the United States and its allies maintained that the threat is still strong, with Europe’s security and economic stability in the balance.

Russia has massed more than 150,000 troops east, north and south of Ukraine, according to Western estimates. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signaled that he wants a peaceful path out of the crisis, and US President Joe Biden promised that the US would continue to give diplomacy “every chance,” but he struck a sceptical tone about Moscow’s intentions.

Biden also insisted that Washington and its allies would not “sacrifice basic principles” respecting Ukraine sovereignty.

Russian Defence Ministry video showed a trainload of armoured vehicles moving across a bridge away from Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. It also announced that more tank units were being loaded on trains to move back to their permanent bases after training exercises.

But at the same time, Russia continued war games near Ukraine’s borders and across its vast territory.

A senior US administration official said the West detected that Russia had increased its force near Ukraine by 7,000 troops, with some arriving as recently as Wednesday, and that there had been a marked increase in false claims by Russians that the Kremlin might use as pretext for an invasion.

The official said those claims included reports of unmarked graves of civilians allegedly killed by Ukrainian forces, statements that the US and Ukraine are developing biological or chemical weapons, and claims that the West is funnelling in guerrillas to kill Ukrainians.

The official was not authorized to speak publicly about sensitive operations and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The official did not provide underlying evidence for the assertions.

The US and Europe are maintaining threats of harsh sanctions. Trust between East and West remains elusive.

“We haven’t seen a pullback,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC News. “He (Putin) can pull the trigger. He can pull it today. He can pull it tomorrow. He can pull it next week. The forces are there if he wants to renew aggression against Ukraine.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US had seen “more Russian forces, not fewer.”

Asked why Russians would claim to be withdrawing when government intelligence, commercial satellite photos and social media videos showed no evidence of that, Price said: “This is the Russian playbook, to paint a picture publicly while they do the opposite.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance also had not seen “any withdrawal of Russian forces,” as did multiple European governments. Before chairing a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels, he said: “If they really start to withdraw forces, that’s something we will welcome, but that remains to be seen.”

In the meantime, the alliance is examining this week how and when to rapidly dispatch troops and equipment to countries closest to Russia and the Black Sea region should Moscow order an invasion.

Kushinagar: Thirteen women and girls died after falling into a well while performing a marriage ritual in Uttar Pradesh’s Khushinagar district, police said on Thursday.

The incident took place at Naurangiya Tola village when an iron net, they were sitting on, broke, they said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief over the incident and directed officials to extend all possible help.

On Wednesday night, a pre-wedding ritual of “haldi” was being performed. Some women and girls were sitting on the iron net and it suddenly broke and fell into the well, District Magistrate S Rajalingam said.

Ten people were also injured in the incident, he said.

Condoling the loss of lives during a wedding ritual at Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday described the incident as heart-rending.

He extended his condolences to the families of victims and wished a quick recovery for the injured. The local administration is offering all possible help, Modi said in a tweet.

Ghaziabad: Twenty women were booked here for carrying out a protest rally in favour of hijab without permission, police here said on Wednesday.

The protest was held on Sunday and a video of it was also found circulating on social media today.

The video purportedly showed a few cops, male and female, using batons to disperse the protesting women.

The rally was held in Shani Bazaar market of Navneet Vihar colony, Circle officer, Indirapuram, Abhay Kumar Mishra said.

He said the Muslim women protesters did not have permission for the demonstration and were in violation of the section 144 in force in the area.

The protest was not organised under banner of any outfit and police are investigating the principal actors behind the act, Mishra said.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1493829910301143040&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fenglish.varthabharati.in%2Fkarnataka%2Fpolicemen-lathi-charge-female-protesters-in-ghaziabad-over-hijab-protest&sessionId=9f6ecd9dac623aca99901cd90b0abbcfc3401275&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2582c61%3A1645036219416&width=550px

BJP leader Pragya Singh Thakur |

Bhopal: Amid a row over hijab in Karnataka, BJP leader Pragya Singh Thakur on Wednesday said headscarves will not be tolerated if they are worn in educational institutions other than madrassas.

The Lok Sabha member from Bhopal also said that Hindus worship women and don’t see them in evil manner.

Thakur was speaking at a function in a temple in Barkheda Pathani area here.

“You have madrassas. We have nothing to do if you wear hijab or apply khijab (hair colour) there (in madrassas). You wear the attire required there and follow their discipline. But if you distort the knowledge and discipline of schools and colleges in the country and start wearing hijab and applying khijab then it will not be tolerated,” she said.

The disciples of ‘gurukul’ (traditional Hindu educational institutions) wear ‘bhagwa’ (saffron) attire, but when such students go to other schools, they wear the school uniform and follow the discipline of the educational institutions, she added.

Thakur said that khijab is used for hiding the greying hair, while hijab is meant to cover faces.

“Hijab is a purdah. Purdah should be (used) against those who see you with evil eyes. But it is certain that Hindus don’t see them with evil eyes as they worship women,” she said.

In ‘sanatan dharma’, the place where women are not revered is like a crematorium, Thakur said while chanting a ‘shloka’ (verse).

“You should wear hijab in your homes,” she added while citing the marriage customs among Muslims.