Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / 2023 / Archives for May 2023

Archives for May 2023

Will fight again, against what is wrong: Bilkis Bano on remission given to her rapists

by

NEW DELHI: “I will stand and fight again, against what is wrong and for what is right,” said Bilkis Bano, who has moved the Supreme Court challenging the remission and release of 11 convicts in the 2002 case related to her gangrape and murder of seven members of her family.

Bano was 21 years old and five-month pregnant when she was gangraped while fleeing the 2002 Gujarat riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident.

Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.

In a statement, issued on Thursday, she said, “The decision to once again stand up and knock on the doors of justice was not easy for me. For a long time, after the men who destroyed my entire family and my life were released, I was simply numb. I was paralysed with shock and with fear for my children, my daughters, and above all, paralysed by loss of hope.”

She added, “But, the spaces of my silence were filled with other voices; voices of support from different parts of the country that have given me hope in the face of unimaginable despair; and made me feel less alone in my pain. I cannot express in words what this support has meant to me.”

Bano said the support to her cause from different parts of the country has helped her in rekindling her faith in humanity and renewed her courage to believe again in the idea of justice.

“So, I will stand and fight again, against what is wrong and for what is right. I do this today for myself, for my children, and for women everywhere”, she said.

BJD’s Deepali Das wins Jharsuguda assembly bypoll defeats BJP rival by over 48K votes

by

BHUBANESWAR: Along expected lines, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) retained the Jharsuguda Assembly seat with a big margin of 48,721 votes by trouncing its nearest rival the BJP.

BJD nominee Deepali Das, daughter of slain former minister Naba Kishore Das, secured 1,07,198 votes as against 58,477 votes cornered by BJP candidate Tankadhar Tripathy. Congress candidate Tarun Pandey lost the deposit as he could manage to bag only 4496 votes.

The BJD candidate was leading from the first round and continued her dominance till the final round of the counting making it amply clear that the BJD is still the favourite among the voters.

While the BJD secured 60.93 per cent votes, BJP polled 33.24 per cent votes. The vote share of Congress dropped to 2.56 per cent.

By securing 8,578 more votes than what her late father, a popular leader and a three-time MLA, had polled in the 2019 elections, Deepali proved the opposition’s calculation of making the deteriorating law and order situation a major poll plank wrong.

Though Tankadhar got 5,556 more votes than that of the BJP’s nominee in the last assembly elections, he failed to stop the BJD juggernaut. Congress lost over 14,000 votes. Interestingly, 2073 votes went in favour of NOTA.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik spoke to Deepali over the phone and congratulated her for the resounding victory.

In response to her victory, Deepali said that this was possible due to the love of the voters to her father and the blessings of her father and the Chief Minister.

Dubbing the Chief Minister as a father figure, Deepali said she will continue all the developmental work her father had initiated.

BJP candidate Tankadhar said there was a fight between ‘parishram‘ (hard work) and ‘paisa‘ (money) in the by-poll and the former was defeated by the latter.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan conceded defeat in the Jharsuguda by-election and congratulated Deepali on her victory. He, however, thanked the voters for supporting the BJP and pushing the party’s vote share up.

The by-election was necessitated following the sensational murder of the former Heath Minister Naba Kishore Das by an ASI of police on duty.

Five more cheetahs to be released into open jungles of Kuno National Park by end of May

by

A cheetah after being released inside a special enclosure of the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, September 17, 2022. (Photo | Prime Minister's Office)

BHOPAL: Amid the dark shadow of the deaths of three cheetahs in less than 45 days, five of the 17 Namibian and South African cheetahs housed in big enclosures at the Kuno National Park (KNP) are likely to be released into the open jungles of the park in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district by the end of May.

According to highly placed sources at the MP Forest Department in Bhopal, the task force constituted by the central government to monitor the introduction of cheetahs at the KNP has given its nod for the release of at least five more cheetahs, including Namibian and South African felines, into the open jungles.

“We’re working on it and if all goes as planned, then the five cheetahs may be released in the open jungles within the next 15 days,” a senior state forest department official told The New Indian Express on Thursday.

Once in the open jungles, the five cheetahs (possibly three females and two males) will join three Namibian cheetahs – female Aasha and male coalition Elton aka Gaurav and Freddy aka Shaurya, who were among the four cheetahs released into the open jungles in March.

Of the four Namibian cheetahs released into KNP’s open jungles in March, male cheetah Oban aka Pawan had to brought back into the big enclosure of the KNP (and is now housed in a big enclosure with two females), as it was regularly straying out of the KNP and causing panic to human habitats in adjoining villages.

As per informed sources, the central government task force monitoring cheetah introduction at KNP has in consultation with South African experts and specialists from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) decided to okay the release of five more cheetahs into the jungles after closely monitoring their behavioural patterns.

The KNP, which had welcomed 20 African cheetahs in two batches (eight from Namibia on September 17, 2022 and 12 from South Africa on February 18, 2023) as part of the country’s ambitious project to reintroduce the fastest moving animal on earth in the Indian wilds 70 years after their extinction, now has just 17 cheetahs (seven from Namibia and 10 from South Africa) and four cubs born to Namibian female Siyaya aka Jwala on March 29.

The KNP has already lost three cheetahs including two females in less than 45 days. While Namibian female Sasha died of acute renal infection on March 27, South African male Uday died due to cardiopulmonary failure on April 23 and South African female Daksha died reportedly due to violent mating by the duo Vayu and Agni on May 9.

Karnataka polls: Will form government on our own strength, says Siddaramaiah

by

MYSURU: Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Saturday said the party will come to power on its own by winning over 120 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Legislative Assembly and claimed the visits of BJP brass led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no impact on the voters of the state.

The former Chief Minister was responding to his party surging ahead of the ruling BJP on a day when the votes polled for the May 10 elections in the state were being counted.

Siddaramaih said the visits of Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda have had no impact on the voters of Karnataka.

“Congress party will win by getting over 120 seats, it is still the initial stage, more rounds of counting have to be completed. So Congress will come to power by getting over 120 seats on its own strength,” the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly told reporters.

“I had been saying let Narendra Modi or Amit Shah or J P Nadda come how many ever times they want to the state (but) that will have no impact on the voters of Karnataka because people are fed up with BJP, their corruption, maladministration, and their anti-people politics,” he said.

People were also not happy with the saffron party since it did no developmental work.

“People wanted change, and they have given their verdict accordingly,” he said.

Siddaramaiaha, a leading contender for the chief minister’s post, said in Varuna he is leading with 8,000 votes after about three rounds and will win with an even bigger margin.

He said his opponent, Minister V Somanna will lose both in Varuna and in Chamarajanagara, the other seat from where the BJP candidate is contesting from, against Congress’ Puttarangashetty.

13-year-old Dalit girl gang-raped in UP’s Amethi

by

AMETHI (UP): A 13-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped by two men who abducted her from her house in a village here on Thursday, police said.

Amethi Superintendent of Police Elamaran G said the girl’s father filed a complaint accusing one Waris (20), who lives in his village, and an unidentified man of abducting and raping his daughter.

“The duo allowed the girl to return home in the morning,” he added.

An FIR was lodged at Mohanganj police station here against the accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), the police said.

Counting begins for Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-poll, assembly seats in UP, Odisha, Meghalaya

by

The bypolls for the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency in Punjab and assembly constituencies of UP and Odisha and Meghalaya took place on May 10. The counting of votes is underway.

JALANDHAR: Counting of votes began Saturday morning for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll that witnessed a four-corner battle among the BJP, Congress, SAD and the ruling AAP.

Counting began at 8 am, officials said. A tight security arrangement has been put in place in and around the counting centres set up at the office of the Director Land Records and Sports College Complex in Kapurthala Road.

Prominent among the 19 candidates in the fray are the AAP’s Sushil Rinku, Congress’ Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, BJP’s Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, and the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) Sukhwinder Kumar Sukh

The bypoll, held on May 10, recorded a voter turnout of 54.70 per cent, the officials said.
It was well below the 63.04 per cent recorded in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Jalandhar seat had fallen vacant following the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary in January.

The AAP fielded former MLA Rinku, who joined the party after quitting the Congress, while Atwal moved to the BJP from the SAD.

Backed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the SAD fielded Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, its two-time MLA from Banga, whereas the Congress nominated Chaudhary’s wife Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary.

The ruling AAP is hoping to mark its presence in the Lok Sabha by registering a victory in the bypoll.

A win will be a boost for the party, which had faced a drubbing in the Lok Sabha bypoll in Sangrur, just three months after it stormed to power in Punjab in March 2022.

The bypoll is also being seen as a test of the one-year performance of the Bhagwant Mann-led government, which has been promoting its moves to provide free electricity and jobs to the youths, regularise services of contractual employees, action against corruption and opening mohalla clinics, among others.

The Congress, on the other hand, is looking to retain Jalandhar, a traditional stronghold for the party, which has remained undefeated from the seat since 1999.

The stakes are also high for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the SAD after their defeats in the assembly election.

The two parties were allies in Punjab before the SAD broke off ties over the now-repealed farm laws in 2020.

BHUBANESWAR: Counting of votes for the by-election to Odisha’s Jharsuguda assembly seat began at 8 am on Saturday amid tight security arrangements, an official said.

Though there were nine candidates in the fray, the contest was restricted to three nominees – Deepali Das of the ruling BJD, Tarun Pandey of the Congress and Tankadhar Tripathy (BJP).

The outcome of the by-poll will not have any impact on the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government headed by Naveen Patnaik, as the party enjoys a comfortable majority.

Altogether, 79.21 per cent of 2.21 lakh voters had exercised their franchise on May 10.

The by-poll was held following the assassination of health minister Naba Kisore Das on January 29 allegedly by a police officer.

“All arrangements are in place for the counting of votes at the Engineering School premises in Jharsuguda. There will be 18 complete rounds and one partial round. Postal ballots will be counted first,” Chief Electoral Officer Nikunja Bihari Dhal had said on Friday.

In the 147-member Odisha Assembly, the BJD has 113 members, the opposition BJP and Congress have 22 and nine MLAs, respectively.

The CPI(M) has one member and there is one Independent legislator.

Counting of votes for ULB polls, assembly bypolls in UP begins 

LUCKNOW: Counting of votes cast during the two phases of the urban local bodies’ polls and the by-election to two assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh began on Saturday morning.

Officials said most of the preparations are complete and the counting started at 8 am on Saturday. They said instructions were given to arrange cold water and ‘sharbat’ at the counting centres in view of the rising heat.

The State Election Commission (SEC) said that 353 counting centres have been set up.

Lucknow District Magistrate Suryapal Gangwar and Joint Commissioner of Police Upendra Agrawal reviewed the preparations in the state capital.

The bypolls were held in the Suar assembly seat in Rampur district and Chhanbey (SC) in Mirzapur district on May 10.

There was a direct contest between the ruling coalition led by the BJP and the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) on both seats, political analysts say.

The Suar seat fell vacant in February following the disqualification of SP leader Azam Khan’s son Abdullah Azam Khan as an MLA after a Moradabad court sentenced him to two years in jail in a 15-year-old case.

The Chhanbey seat fell vacant after the death of Apna Dal (Sonelal) MLA Rahul Prakash Kol in February.

The ULB polls were held in two phases on May 4 and May 11.

About 53 per cent of voters exercised their franchise during the ULB polls out of the total 4.32 crore who were eligible to vote, according to the Election Commission data.

Seventeen mayors and 1,401 corporators will be elected after the results are declared on Saturday. As many as 19 corporators have been elected unopposed.

Shahjahanpur will elect its mayor for the first time this year as the city became a municipal corporation in 2018.

Meerut and Aligarh had Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) mayors in 2017, while the BJP ruled the rest of the civic bodies.

The ULB polls will also elect 198 chairpersons and 5,260 members of nagar palika parishads. For nagar panchayats, the fate of 542 chairpersons and 7,104 members will be decided.

There were 83,378 candidates in the fray for 14,522 posts, according to the SEC.

During the campaign, senior leaders of various political parties visited different parts of the state.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputies Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak campaigned extensively for the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates.

State BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and former Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma also held election meetings for party candidates.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav held roadshows. Mainpuri MP Dimple Yadav also campaigned for party candidates.

SHILLONG: Counting of votes is underway for the Sohiong by-election in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills, a senior official said on Saturday.

The counting exercise began at 8 am amid tight security, he said.

The by-poll was necessitated following the death of UDP candidate HDR Lyngdoh ahead of the assembly elections held in the rest of the state on February 27.

The National People’s Party (NPP) is aiming at increasing its seat tally in the 60-member assembly to 29 with a victory in the by-election.

Six candidates are in the fray – Synshar Lyngdoh Thabah of the UDP, Samlin Malngiang of the NPP, S Osborne Kharjana of the Congress, Sandondor Ryntathiang of the HSPDP, Sereph E Kharbuki of the BJP and Stodingstar Thabah of the TMC.

Polling in Sohiong took place on May 10 with over 91.8 per cent of the over 34,000 voters exercising their franchise.

Karnataka polls: Certain that Congress has won, PM has lost, says Jairam Ramesh

by

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.

NEW DELHI: With the leads indicating that the Congress is likely to get a majority in the Karnataka assembly polls, the party on Saturday said it is now certain that it has won and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “lost” as the BJP had made its election campaign a “referendum on the PM”.

The Congress was striding forward with leads in 117 seats while the BJP was ahead in 75 in Karnataka, according to Election Commission trends, as votes were counted for an election widely seen as a litmus test for both parties ahead of the 2024 parliamentary polls.

“As the results firm up in Karnataka it is now certain that the Congress has won and the PM has lost. The BJP had made its election campaign a referendum on the PM and on the state getting his ‘ashirwaad’. That has been decisively rejected!” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet.

The Congress fought these elections on local issues of livelihood and food security, price rise, farmer distress, electricity supply, joblessness and corruption, he said.

“The PM injected divisiveness and attempted polarisation. The vote in Karnataka is for an engine in Bengaluru that will combine economic growth with social harmony,” Ramesh said.

Karnataka Polls: CM Bommai concedes defeat, says will come back stronger in LS polls

by

HAVERI: As Congress surged ahead on Saturday according to leads, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai conceded defeat and said that the BJP will come back victorious in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Congress surged ahead as it lead in 124 seats at noon while the BJP was ahead in 69 seats and JD(S) at 24 seats.

Bommai said that once the results will be out a detailed analysis will be done to analyse the gaps that were left at various levels.

“We’ve not been able to make the mark. Once the results come we will do a detailed analysis. As a national party, we will not only analyse but also see what deficiencies and gaps were left at various levels. We take this result in our stride,” said Basavaraj Bommai.

He further added that all the efforts put in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP workers weren’t able to make the mark.

“In spite of a lot of efforts put in by PM and BJP workers, we’ve not been able to make the mark. Once the full results come we’ll do a detailed analysis. We take this result in our stride to come back in Lok Sabha elections,” said Bommai.

Bommai had earlier said that he was confident of a BJP victory

Meanwhile, Bommai is leading with 53.05 per cent votes from the Shiggaon constituency.

The counting of votes began at 8 am amid tight security across the state.

The exit polls predicted a hung assembly with some showing Congress returning to power with a majority. A few exit polls also showed BJP ahead. If there is a hung assembly, Janata Dal (Secular) can play the role of a kingmaker.

The fiercely contested election that saw high-pitch campaigns from the political parties is crucial for both BJP and Congress. 

Karnataka polls: Belittling gift of democracy, first-time voters sell their votes in Mysuru

by

MYSURU: In what can be termed a bad precedent in democracy, many young and first-time voters sold their votes for a price in the Old Mysore region during polling on Wednesday. This is expected to turn the poll results upside down in many constituencies.

Although the district administration and Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) committee made all preparations to ensure a free and fair election this time, the first-time and young voters had other plans.

This was evident in many polling booths in urban as well as rural areas of the district. While many such voters were busy contacting those distributing money for votes, some waited near polling booths for agents of political parties. A few were seen striking a deal with the agents.

Over 50,000 youngsters were added to the voters’ list in the district this year with Chamundeshwari constituency reporting the highest number of 6,068 such voters, followed by 5,663 in Hunsur, 5,170 in KR Nagar, and 4,944 in Narasimharaja constituencies. At Hyrige village in HD Kote taluk, many voters aged between 19 and 23 were seen in front of the polling booth waiting for village leaders to offer them the “best” price for their votes. Mahesha, a college student, was heard telling a JDS leader that he is ready to sell his vote. While he was offered Rs 1,000, Mahesha demanded Rs 500 more stating that he will bring four more voters. He made a final offer of Rs 1,500 per vote.

Youth say no party addressing jobs issue

When the JDS leader told Mahesha that he needed some time to get money, the five-member group immediately approached the agents of BJP with the same plan. Mahesha, who was already drunk by then, said, “Show me a place where there is no involvement of money in elections. It is still 1 pm and we will wait till 4 pm.

We will vote for the party which pays us more.” In Krishnaraja constituency, young voters were seen demanding money to vote for the Congress candidate at Kurubarahalli. In Chamundeshwari constituency, according to sources, a man approached a panchayat leader stating that an association headed by him has 31 members and they were ready to vote for a particular candidate if they were paid Rs 1,500 per vote.

“No party will tackle problems such as unemployment if it comes to power. There is nothing wrong in taking money,” said Harish Gowda, a supervisor at a factory, who took Rs 1,500 for his vote in Chamundeshwari constituency. What is more worrying is the involvement of children, who were seen with agents of various parties, raising slogans and asking people to vote in favour of their candidates near polling booths. All this, when the model code of conduct and other guidelines were in force.

Karnataka polls: Both BJP, my son will emerge victorious, says Yediyurappa

by

SHIVAMOGGA: Former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said with the blessings of all the people, his son and BJP candidate BY Vijayendra will win by a margin of 40,000 votes.

Talking to media persons after casting his vote in the Shikaripura assembly constituency, Yediyurappa said the BJP would win the maximum number of seats and retain power on its own. 

This time the party will get 125 to 130 seats in the state and will form the government with a full majority, the senior BJP leader said. 

Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have a greater interest in Karnataka and its election, he added.

Yediyurappa’s son and Lok Sabha MP BY Raghavendra said the BJP candidates contesting in all eight constituencies across Shivamogga will emerge victorious.

“My brother, BY Vijayendra contesting from Shikaripura, will emerge victorious with a record margin,” said Raghavendra.

The BJP candidates not only in Shimoga district but also across the state will emerge victorious in more constituencies, he added.

The BJP MP also urged people to vote early owing to the possibility of rains.

Answering a question, Raghavendra said his father Yediyurappa is away from electoral politics but he is very active in state politics. Even at this age, he is conducting 5 to 6 meetings a day, he said.

He said the party would get 123 to 127 seats in the elections. 

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives