Archives for 2024

Deoria {UP}: The priest of a temple in a village here was beaten to death with sticks after he got into an altercation with some people over the playing of loud music, police said on Wednesday.

The incident happened on Tuesday night in Tenuba Chaubey village and three persons have been detained over it, they said.

Ashok Chaubey (60) was beaten with sticks by some persons with whom he had an altercation over the playing of DJ (music), Superintendent of Police Sankalp Sharma said.

The SP said Chaubey was rushed to a medical college where he was declared dead. Three persons, including one Hausla Paswan, have been detained, he added.

Police force has been deployed in the village and at the temple to avoid any untoward incident, he said.

A detailed probe is underway in the matter, the officer said.

New Delhi/Noida: Panic gripped schools in the national capital and adjoining Noida after six of them received bomb threats here on Wednesday morning, police officials said.

Mother Mary School at Mayur Vihar, Delhi Public School at Dwarka, Sanskriti School in Chanakyapuri, Delhi Public School at Vasant Kunj, Amity School in Saket and Delhi Public School (DPS) in Noida Sector 30 have received bomb threats via email, they said.

All schools have been evacuated after local police was informed about the emails, Delhi Police officials said.

Bomb detection team, bomb disposal squad and officials of fire brigade have been rushed to the schools in Delhi and a search operation is underway, a police officer said.

Noida Police said that classes have been suspended in DPS, Noida and police force has been deployed.

“Taking immediate cognizance of the information, checking is being done around the school by the police force. Other necessary measures are also being taken,” the Noida Police said in a brief statement.

More schools are said to have received a similar threat mail and it is suspected that one person was behind it all, an officer said.

Security agencies, including Delhi Police Special Cell, are looking to find the source of the email.

Lucknow: Amid a controversy over the “side effects” of Covishield vaccine, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday accused the BJP of putting the lives of people at stake for “extorting political donations” from a vaccine manufacturer.

Demanding a high-level judicial probe into it, Yadav said allowing such lethal medicines amounts to a “conspiracy to murder someone” and those responsible should be prosecuted.

“Around 80 crore Indians have been given the Covishield vaccine, which is two doses per person, and the company that made its original formula has said that it causes a risk of heart attack,” Yadav said in a post on X.

“Those who have lost their loved ones due to the side effects of the vaccine or who feared the ill effects of the vaccine, their doubts and fears have now been proven right,” the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

Those who play with the lives of the people will not be forgiven, he said.

UK-headquartered pharma giant AstraZeneca has admitted that in “very rare cases”, its COVID-19 vaccine, which is known as Vaxzevria in Europe and Covishield in India, can cause a blood clot-related side effect but the causal link is unknown, according to court papers being quoted in the UK media.

In India, the AstraZeneca vaccine was manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.

Attacking the BJP, the SP chief further said, “The ruling party has put the lives of the public at stake by collecting political donations from the vaccine manufacturing company.”

“Neither the law, nor the public will ever forgive them. There should be a judicial inquiry at the highest level in this matter,” Yadav added.

SP leaders had made similar allegations on Tuesday, saying the BJP took “commission” from the manufacturer of the Covid vaccine, which they said was “forcibly” administered to people.

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai had also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue. “Is this Modi’s guarantee?” he had asked.

SP national general secretary Shivpal Yadav had said, “It has now been exposed that they have taken commission in vaccines too. Low quality vaccines and medicines were given to the people.”

Dimple Yadav, wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, said people were “forcibly” administered Covid vaccines in the country.

“A donation of Rs 200-300 crore was taken (by the BJP) and they (company) were given permission to market the vaccine. People were forcibly administered vaccines. No where in the world vaccines were administered forcibly,” Dimple said, adding that corruption in vaccine manufacturing has now come to the fore.

Akhilesh Yadav, while the country was under the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, had said that he would not take the “BJP’s vaccine”, and that when his government comes to power, everyone would be vaccinated for free.

The Daily Telegraph reported that in a legal document submitted to the High Court in London in February for a group action brought by 51 claimants, AstraZeneca admitted that the vaccine developed with the University of Oxford to protect against COVID-19 may cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) in “very rare cases”.

New Delhi: The government has cut windfall tax on domestically produced crude oil to Rs 8,400 per tonne from Rs 9,600 per tonne with effect from Wednesday.

The tax is levied in the form of Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED).

The SAED on the export of diesel, petrol and jet fuel or ATF, has been retained at nil. The new rates are effective from May 1, an official notification said.

India first imposed windfall profit taxes on July 1, 2022, joining a host of nations that tax supernormal profits of energy companies.

The tax rates are reviewed every fortnight based on average oil prices in the previous two weeks.

New Delhi: Panic gripped school students and parents early morning on Wednesday after at least 80 schools in Delhi-NCR received bomb threats via email on Wednesday morning, officials said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said it appears to be a hoax call and that there was no need to panic.

Delhi Police said it has conducted a thorough check of all schools that received the bomb threat but nothing was found.

“Some schools of Delhi received e-mails regarding bomb threats. Delhi Police has conducted thorough check of all such schools as per protocol,” Delhi Police said in a post on X.

“Nothing objectionable has been found. It appears that these calls seem to be hoax. We request the public not to panic and maintain peace,” it said.

Ahmedabad: Political parties may claim that the caste arithmetic does not play a role in candidate selection but analysts say it is still a major factor in Gujarat, even though urbanisation has weakened caste identities in some parts of the state.

In rural areas, however, caste is still a dominant factor, they said.

Patidars constitute 11-12 per cent of Gujarat’s 6.5-crore population and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), scattered across many sub-communities including Thakors in north and Kolis in central Gujarat and Saurashtra, constitute around 40 per cent.

The BJP has fielded six Patidars, seven OBCs and three Kolis. The Congress and the AAP, part of the opposition INDIA alliance, have fielded six Patidars, seven OBCs and two Kolis.

Vidyut Joshi, sociologist and former vice-chancellor of Bhavnagar University, told PTI that Gujarat’s first four chief ministers were either Brahmin or Vanik.

Patidars entered the political scene after the 70s when Chimanbhai Patel became the chief minister in 1973, he said.

“Caste is an identity. The caste factor is considered in the selection of candidates. It cannot be discarded. Today, caste and class go hand-in-hand. The candidate should be from a well-to-do background along with being from a specific caste,” Joshi said.

Rural voters prefer candidates from their caste as they feel it becomes easier to approach them for work after the polls, he said.

Political analyst Amit Dholakia said the caste effect is diminishing in central and south Gujarat’s urban pockets like Ahmedabad and Vadodara but it is still a dominant factor in rural areas like Saurashtra and north Gujarat.

“Candidates have won from seats where their caste was not dominant. Urbanisation plays an important role in weakening caste identities and bringing forward other issues. In rural areas, particularly Saurashtra and north Gujarat, caste still plays an important role in politics,” said Dholakia, a political science professor at the Vadodara-based M S University.

Earlier, candidates directly appealed to people of their caste to vote for them. Now, the appeal revolves either around Hindutva or Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development agenda, he said.

Dholakia further said, “The BJP wants to create a consolidated Hindu vote by blurring caste identities, while the INDIA alliance thinks Hindutva-centric politics can be countered by strengthening caste identities.”

One of the main reasons the Congress was defeated in Gujarat was the weakening of caste identities, at least in urban pockets, he claimed.

“Caste is a factor in the selection of candidates, especially in Saurashtra. Patidars are still a force to reckon with but other castes, especially Kshatriyas, are losing dominance. We cannot discard the caste factor but it is getting weak, mainly because of the rise of Hindutva-centric politics,” he said.

Rajkot-based political analyst Jagdish Mehta said in Saurashtra and Kutch regions, having eight Lok Sabha seats, caste was not a dominant factor before the 1990s.

The parties used to select candidates known for their work or based on their backgrounds, like heirs of erstwhile rulers, he said.

“Prior to the 80s, majority of the winners in the Saurashtra region belonged to different castes and got elected because of their personal image and social connect. After the BJP’s entry, caste suddenly became the most important factor in the selection of candidates,” he claimed.

The BJP talks about politics of development but it takes the caste factor into consideration during candidate selection. It is evident that the BJP selects candidates from dominant castes, Mehta further claimed.

“Though a candidate’s caste should be the last factor, it has become the main factor now,” he added.

Gujarat BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas, however, doesn’t fully agree.

“We don’t give a lot of importance to caste. We try to maintain a balance. What matters is a candidate’s commitment to the party, ability to win and educational qualification,” said Vyas.

Instead of just relying on the caste factor, the BJP undertakes an elaborate “sense exercise” wherein party observers visit every constituency, meet local leaders and poll aspirants to prepare a list of probable candidates, which is then sent to the party leadership for the final announcement, he said.

State Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said the onus is also on the voters because if they keep rejecting well-qualified and deserving candidates, parties will shift focus to other selection criteria like caste as ultimately victory matters.

“Parties usually keep social engineering in mind while selecting a candidate. The Congress also takes into consideration educational qualifications, mass connect, ability to understand local issues and popularity (of a candidate),” he said, citing Congress’ Banaskantha candidate Geniben Thakor and Rajkot candidate Paresh Dhanani as examples.

“Ultimately, our selection is based on the choice of voters. We have seen in the past how candidates like T N Seshan lost, some struggled to save deposits, and how non-corrupt and upright former government officers lost polls. This creates pressure on parties to look for winnability, not quality of candidates,” said Doshi.

In the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, Congress nominee and former chief election commissioner Seshan, credited with transforming the Election Commission in the 1990s, lost to BJP veteran L K Advani from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Hassan: The scandal surrounding Prajwal Revanna, Hassan MP, has taken a dramatic turn as former Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy accuses BJP leaders of involvement. Speaking to ANI news agency, Kumaraswamy made serious allegations, claiming that a BJP leader shared the controversial pen drive containing obscene videos.

Kumaraswamy asserted, “After realising victory in Hassan was unlikely, opposition leaders, including a BJP leader, shared the pen drive. They have attempted to tarnish our family’s reputation and misused government power to do so. The involvement of a senior minister and certain BJP leaders from Hassan is evident.”

The alliance between BJP and JDS was formed during the Lok Sabha elections, with voting taking place in 14 constituencies on August 26. Now, as Prajwal’s scandal gains nationwide attention, Kumaraswamy’s accusations threaten to strain the alliance between BJP and JDS.

Kasaragod: In an incident in Kannapur of Kannur district, a collision between a car and a lorry has resulted in the loss of five lives from Kasaragod. The accident occurred on Monday night, claiming the lives of three men, a woman, and a 10-year-old boy who were travelling in the car.

The victims, residents of Chittarikal Bheemanadi, have been identified as Sudhakar (52) from Bheemanadi Churikkad, and L Padmakumar (59) from Kalichi Nadka Shastampara. The identities of the other deceased individuals remain unconfirmed.

The collision occurred between a car travelling from Kannur towards Kasaragod and a lorry transporting cooking gas cylinders heading towards Kannur.

Local residents, along with the fire services and police, rushed to the scene to extricate the trapped individuals from the mangled car. The deceased have been transported to the Kannur Medical College Hospital mortuary.