Archives for January 2023

CHANDIGARH: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday started the Punjab leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra with a visit to the Golden Temple. Sporting a Sikh turban, Rahul offered prayers at the gurudwara in Amritsar. 

The foot march entered Punjab from Haryana through the Shambhu border. Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party hit out at Rahul, calling him “anti-Sikh”. Rahul, who landed at the Amritsar airport in the afternoon, was accompanied to the Golden Temple by Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, local MP Gurjit Singh Aujla and other party leaders.

Earlier in the morning, he resumed the yatra from Shahpur in Ambala Cantt during which he was joined by party leader Raj Babbar. The rally on Wednesday will pass through Mandi Gobindgarh and halt for the night at Khanna. Rahul targeted the BJP-led Haryana government, saying the government has been dividing Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, farmers and non-farmers and people of different castes. 

A message issued by him read, “The people of Haryana are blessed with everything they need for a good life. However, their potential is being wasted. The farmers of Haryana led the historic movement against the three black farm laws, and many were martyred. Still, the agricultural crisis endures. In the land of doodh, dahi and gur, it is a tragedy that farmers’ children no longer want to be farmers.”

He added that the Haryana has the “highest youth unemployment rate and desperate youth look abroad for jobs”. Rahul also criticised GST and demonetisation, and pointed out that sports academies are being shut down in the state. “Not one person we met in Haryana could name a single step the BJP government has taken to solve these problems,” he stated. 

“Governments of past decades planted the seeds of development, which are yielding fruits now. Today’s government is busy building a nafrat ka bazaar.” Meanwhile, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said it was condemnable that Rahul Gandhi was leading the yatra in the state. “No one has damaged Punjab as much as the Gandhi family, which has a history of breaking India,” he said. 

“Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the attack on the Golden Temple using tanks which led to the destruction of Akal Takht Sahib,” Badal said, adding that Rajiv Gandhi engineered the 1984 genocide of Sikhs and even justified it by saying that when a big tree falls, the ground shakes. Sukhbir said that the Gandhi family is also responsible for robbing Punjab of its river waters and handing them over forcibly to Rajasthan.

The BJP’snational spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill too slammed Rahul, saying the Congress’ anti-Sikh sentiment has not been washed away. “It has only flourished and nourished as time has passed,” he said. On the other hand, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh hit out at the BJP for criticising former Army chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor after he participated in the yatra in Haryana. Without taking any names, Ramesh said, “While there is diversity in our society, that is being misused so that society can be divided.”

New Delhi: An assistant sub-inspector of the Delhi Police died on Sunday, days after being stabbed multiple times by a man he nabbed for allegedly snatching a mobile phone, officials said on Sunday.

ASI Shambhu Dayal (57), a native of Sikar district in Rajasthan, is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters, they said.

Last Wednesday, a woman resident of a shanty in Mayapuri phase one complained to police that a person snatched her husband’s mobile phone and also threatened them. ASI Dayal reached the area where the complainant identified the accused, police said.

The accused, Anish, was nabbed and on the way to the police station he took out a knife from underneath his shirt and stabbed Dayal on his neck, chest, stomach and back, a police official said.

A staffer from the Mayapuri police station rushed to the spot and overpowered the Anish. He was later placed under arrest while ASI Dayal was rushed to a hospital, the official said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (west) Ghanshyam Bansal said ASI Dayal did not let the accused flee. He fought for his life for four days but succumbed to his injuries on Sunday morning, the officer said.

Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora paid homage to Dayal in the office complex of DCP west in Janakpuri and consoled the bereaved family. Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Sagar Preet Hooda and other senior officials also paid homage to Dayal.

Patna: The BJP in Bihar on Sunday hit the roof over what it considered to be an “indecent remark” made by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during his speech on population growth, at a programme attended by a large number of women.

Kumar had on Saturday visited Vaishali district, along with cabinet colleagues including his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, on the third day of his state-wide ‘Samadhan Yatra’, aimed at assessing the status of ongoing welfare programmes and pending works.

While interacting with self-help group volunteers, Kumar had spoken about the role played by educated, empowered women in controlling population growth.

The JD(U) leader, who has been opposed to the BJP’s pitch for a population control law, much to the annoyance of the former alliance partner, also hinted that men often did not show the same sense of responsibility as their wives in controlling population.

A small video clip of Kumar’s speech has gone viral in which the CM could be heard as having said “the men are often unmindful that they must not indulge themselves every day (mard log to roz roz karte hi rahta hai)”.

Kumar’s former deputy and an erstwhile loyalist Sushil Kumar Modi issued a strongly worded statement accusing his ex-boss of having used a language that befitted the streets (‘sadak chhap’).

“It seems Nitish Kumar has lost his decency ever since he joined hands with the RJD. In the assembly, he is often seen using the disrespectful pronoun tum (you) for political opponents. His ‘jo piyega so marega’ (whoever drinks shall be doomed to die) was the height of insensitivity displayed in the aftermath of hooch tragedies,” alleged Modi.

State BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand, who is also the national general secretary of the party’s OBC Morcha, said the remarks of the chief minister were “sexist”.

“Of late, his words seem to be aimed at creating divisions in the society. Now, it looks like he wants to create tensions inside people’s homes. He must retract his statement and issue an apology,” Anand stated.

Former minister Samrat Chaudhary, who is the leader of the opposition in the legislative council, said “the utterances were unbecoming of a chief minister and can tarnish the reputation of the state”.

Leaders of the ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’ in the state, comprising JD(U), the deputy CM’s RJD, Congress and the Left, seemed embarrassed to come on record over the controversy but, speaking on condition of anonymity, they insisted that the septugenarian chief minister was trying to create public awareness and the BJP was looking to gain political mileage out of a trifle.

Meanwhile, Kumar, the state’s longest serving CM, remained unfazed by the hubbub when he visited Siwan on the fourth day of ‘Samadhan Yatra’.

He reiterated the need for population control and underscored the role played by educated women in the same. He also reaffirmed his government’s commitment to improving the condition of madarsas in the state.

Mau (UP): A 35-year-old grandson of former MLA late Kedar Singh was beaten to death in a village under Kopaganj Police Station area here, police said on Sunday.

Himanshu Singh was beaten within an inch of life in an old rivalry by seven-eight people in Mahuar village around 10 pm Saturday and left to die, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mau, Tribhuvan Nath Tripathi said.

The matter is being investigated and an FIR has been filed under relevant sections, the ASP said.

Police have sent the victim’s body for post mortem examination.

According to police sources, Himanshu Singh was a grandson of late Kedar Singh, who was elected Congress MLA in 1980 from Ghosi constituency.

On Saturday night, he had gone to a panchayat in Lairo Donwar village of Kopaganj Police Station area, where he had an argument with a group of people. The group beat him with with sticks and left him half-dead in Mahuar village.

He died at a hospital where he was taken for treatment.

Kurukshetra (Haryana): Former Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor and many retired top officers of the defence services joined the Rahul Gandhi-led ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ on Sunday which is passing through Haryana.

Amid severe cold and fog, the march resumed in the morning from Dodwa in Karnal’s Nilokheri region and entered the Kurukshetra district later in the day. Scores of people joined the Yatra as it passed through Karnal in the morning, which is also the home constituency of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Senior party leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Kumari Selja are part of the Yatra in its Haryana leg.

“Ex-COAS (chief of Army staff) Gen Deepak Kapoor, Lt Gen R K Hooda, Lt Gen VK Narula, AM (air marshal) PS Bhangu, Maj Gen Satbir Singh Chaudhary, Maj Gen Dharmender Singh, Col Jitender Gill, Col Pushpender Singh, Lt Gen DDS Sandhu, Maj Gen Bishamber Dayal, Col Rohit Chaudhry join @RahulGandhi at the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” the Congress tweeted.

The march covered over 130 km in its first leg in Haryana from December 21 to 23, passing through Nuh, Gurugram and Faridabad districts. It re-entered Haryana’s Panipat Thursday evening from Uttar Pradesh.

The yatra, which started from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7, will end after reaching Srinagar by January 30 with Gandhi hoisting the national flag there. The march has so far covered Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.