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PM must order probe to expose real gameplan: Shiv Sena on Sushma Swaraj row

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Saamana-News-Epaper

Mumbai: Claiming that Sushma Swaraj has been targeted under a “political game” to oust her from BJP, Shiv Sena today said it is imperative for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step in and order an investigation to know who is so keen on “maligning” her “clean” reputation.

Sena, which has come out in support of the External Affairs Minister in the row over helping scam-tainted former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi obtain British travel papers, said Congress was “lifeless” and its reaction did not mean much but “who is trying to give flight to its wings”.

“The Congress party is behaving as if Swaraj has helped get bail to arrested fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim or Kasab. This controversy is being fuelled by using a section of the media. It is vital for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order an investigation on who is so keen on maligning her clean reputation of 35-40 years,” the Sena said in an edit in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

“Covering Swaraj in a mist of controversy and questions seems to be a huge political game being played to oust her from the BJP and from national politics,” the Sena alleged.

It said that PM Modi too may get engulfed in such controversies in the future and that some of his cabinet ministers are being tactfully harassed.

The edit added that similar allegations had been levelled against Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s son in the recent past and also against Nitin Gadkari, when he took over as the President of the BJP.

“An Indian has been helped on humanitarian grounds. Why so much fuss over it? The Congress has become lifeless now and thus its flutter also does not mean much. But the question is who is trying to give flight to these fluttering wings,” the Sena said.

“If somebody is attacking the External Affairs Ministry to weaken it and thereby trying to demoralise the Modi government, the person is ultimately causing harm to the country. This a very big political game that needs to be ended by PM Modi,” it added.

(PTI)

'Sushma offered to quit but RSS sought she continued'

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Sushma Swaraj

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj offered to resign almost a week before the controversy broke out over her help to former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi in getting travel documents on “humanitarian ground”, but her offer was rejected on the intervention of the RSS, informed sources said.

The sources said the news channel that on Sunday read out e-mails of a British MP concerning travel documents for Modi, had sent an e-mail to Sushma Swaraj almost a week before, seeking her response on the issue.

Soon after that she met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and informed him of the matter in detail, a highly placed source told IANS.

Sources said a meeting of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionaries was convened a day later by Modi to discuss the matter and to chalk out the future strategy.

They said at the meeting Sushma Swaraj clarified her stand on the issue and said she was ready to resign as she did not want the government to face any embarrassment. But RSS functionaries stopped her, saying she has done nothing wrong, the sources added.

The RSS functionaries also said that Sushma Swaraj had made it clear in her communication that any help rendered by the British authorities to Lalit Modi should be subject to their rules.

According to sources, the meeting chalked out strategy to defend Sushma Swaraj.

As part of the strategy, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and RSS leader Indresh Kumar came out in support of Sushma Swaraj on Sunday.

The controversy, which first appeared in a British newspaper, went on to dominate Indian news channels from Sunday.

(IANS)

Vote in Modi's name; CM candidate not finalised: BJP tells Bihar

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Photo: PTI

Photo: PTI

Patna: The BJP said on Tuesday it will not announce its chief ministerial candidate and instead fight the coming Bihar assembly elections in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The BJP will not announce its chief ministerial candidate. The BJP has several capable leaders for the top political post in the state but it will fight the assembly elections in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Ananth Kumar, union minister for chemicals and fertilisers and party incharge for Bihar.

“Narendra Modi is the BJP face; our party will contest the assembly polls under his leadership,” he told the media here.

BJP’s main rival – ruling Janata Dal-United, RJD, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party combine – declared Nitish Kumar as its candidate for the top post on June 8.

Nitish Kumar said that the party had, in the last one year, contested assembly elections in different states in the name of Modi.

The union minister downplayed the repeated demand of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar that the BJP too declare its chief ministerial candidate.

BJP ally Rashtriya Lok Samta Party said on Monday that its party chief and union minister Upendra Kushwaha be declared the opposition alliance’s chief ministerial candidate.

However, another BJP ally, union minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, announced last week that Paswan would not be the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate.

Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who announced joining the NDA alliance in the state, said he was not in the race for the top job and only a BJP leader would be the candidate.

In the caste-ridden politics of Bihar, over half a dozen BJP leaders from the upper castes and the backward castes have staked their respective claims for projection as chief ministerial candidate.

(PTI)

Practice Yoga regularly to stay fit, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar advises BJP president Amit Shah

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amit-nitish

Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has advised BJP president Amit Shah to practice yoga regularly rather than do politics over it.

Mr Kumar told reporters, “Has he seen his body whether it is suitable to do yoga? He should practise yoga silently at home everyday to stay fit. This will bring internal change in him too.”

BJP has been pushing for more participation from schools and educational institutions on International Yoga Day on June 21. Some Muslim groups like the Muslim Personal Law Board had opposed the central government’s move to make it compulsory in schools, saying that yoga asanas like Surya Namaskar are un-Islamic. The government had denied issuing any such directions.

Mr Kumar who practices yoga regularly said, “Yoga is very useful and should be practised sincerely at home for good health. But BJP is indulging in show off in the name of yoga which is triggering dispute.”

Mr Shah will take part in yoga day celebrations in Patna on June 21.

Assembly elections in Bihar are due in a few months at the end of this year. Mr Shah held discussions with union minister Ram Vilas Paswan in Delhi today, to take stock of the political situation.

BJP announced a tie up with former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi this Thursday; Mr Manjhi and Mr Kumar were once friends, but now bitter political rivals.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), comprising of BJP, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party had swept the 2014 general elections winning 31 out of 40 seats in the state.

Mr Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and former chief minister Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal have already announced a tie-up between the two and Congress for the upcoming assembly elections.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)

In public challenge to Obama, family of drone victim asks: 'What is the value of an innocent life?'

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Seeking official apology, Faisal bin Ali Jaber says, ‘Imagine that your loved one was wrongly killed by the U.S. government. Imagine they would not even admit their role in the death of your family members.’

In April, U.S. President Barack Obama, pictured with director of the CIA John Brennan, publicly apologized for the killing of two western hostages. (Photo: file)

In April, U.S. President Barack Obama, pictured with director of the CIA John Brennan, publicly apologized for the killing of two western hostages. (Photo: file)

by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

The family of two U.S. drone victims is refusing to keep their pain silent as they seek an official apology by U.S. President Barack Obama for the deaths of their kin.

In a CNN op-ed published on Friday, Faisal bin Ali Jaber, a Yemeni civil engineer, issued a public challenge to the U.S. leader—who recently made public statements about the deaths of two westerners killed by U.S. drone strikes, but has refused to acknowledge Yemeni civilian casualties.

“What is the value of a human life?” Jaber asks.

In the column, Jaber describes how following the August 2012 strike that killed Waleed and Salem bin Ali Jaber, the family had to identify them “from their clothes and scraps of matted hair.”

And how in the wake of the strike, while the family awaited an official apology, they were instead presented with “$100,000 in sequentially-marked U.S. dollars in a plastic bag.”

Jaber writes: “A Yemeni security service official was given the unpleasant task of handing this over. I looked him in the eye and asked how this was acceptable, and whether he would admit the money came from America. He shrugged and said: ‘Can’t tell you. Take the money.'”

“The secret payment to my family represents a fraction of the cost of the operation that killed them,” he continues. “This seems to be the Obama administration’s cold calculation: Yemeni lives are cheap. They cost the President no political or moral capital.”

In contrast to the experience of Jaber and other relatives of innocent Yemenis killed by the U.S. drone war, in April, Obama publicly acknowledged that a U.S. counterterrorism operation had killed an American, Warren Weinstein, and an Italian, Giovanni Lo Porto. The lawsuit follows another failed court challenge in Germany in which Jaber’s family sought to prosecute the home of Ramstein Air Base for its role in “facilitating American covert drone strikes in Yemen.”

“Like a lot of Americans, my family and I watched the President’s speech at home,” Jaber writes. “But while many praised him for his forthrightness, we do not share that view. His speech shocked us. No, it was worse: his speech broke our hearts.

“As I watched,” he continues, “I thought of my dead relatives, names that so far as I know have never crossed the President’s lips: Waleed and Salem bin Ali Jaber.”

On Monday, Jaber filed a suit asking a Washington D.C. district court to issue a declaration that the strike that killed Salem and Waleed was unlawful. He is seeking no monetary compensation.

“Imagine that your loved one was wrongly killed by the U.S. government, and the White House would not apologize. Imagine they would not even admit their role in the death of your family members,” Jaber concludes. “We simply want the truth and an apology. We will not rest until it is ours.”

Israel bars UN investigator from entering Gaza

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It was the second time Makarim Wibisono, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, had been barred entry by Israel. (AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)

It was the second time Makarim Wibisono, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, had been barred entry by Israel. (AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)

by Press TV

As the prospect of a UN report on Israel’s 2014 bloodletting in Gaza draws nearer, the world body’s point man on human rights situation in the occupied territories is kept outside the Palestinian territory by Israel.

Tel Aviv once again prevented Makarim Wibisono from visiting the coastal enclave last week, with Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon saying outright on Monday, “We didn’t allow this visit.”

“Israel cooperates with all the international commissions and all (UN) rapporteurs, except when the mandate handed to them is anti-Israeli and Israel has no chance to make itself heard,” the official said, despite the age-old and unflinching US-led support for Israel on the international arena, most visibly at the United Nations.

Wibisono reports to the UN Human Rights Council. The council has been investigating the war and whose relevant report is expected to be published in the coming days.

Israel had also barred Wibisono from entering last year for a similar visit.

Nearly 2,200 Palestinians lost their lives and some 11,000 were injured in the July-August 2014 assaults. Gaza Health officials say the victims included 578 children and nearly 260 women with more than 3,100 children injured in the offensive.

The UN has said Israel was responsible for the deadly bombing of several UN institutions, including schools, in which displaced Palestinian civilians were sheltering.

In a report released Sunday, Israel defended its conduct in the war, calling it both “lawful” and “legitimate.”

Israel has been invariably justifying its incessant attacks on the impoverished sliver by alleging it has a duty to defend itself against the rockets fired from Gaza. The projectiles are seldom known to have caused injury or damage.

Libya says former al-Qaeda leader killed in US strike

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Tobruk-based government says Mokhtar Belmokhtar linked to 2013 Algeria gas attack killed in coordinated attack with US.

Belmokhtar was a leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [EPA]

Belmokhtar was a leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Libya’s recognised government says that the leader of an al-Qaeda-linked group in Algeria, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, has been killed in a coordinated attack with the US.

Earlier on Sunday, the US Department of Defence said the US military conducted a counterterrorism strike against an al-Qaeda-associated target in Libya on Saturday night, but were assessing results before providing more details.

“The Libyan government in the east of Libya confirms that the US fighter jets conducted air strikes last night in a mission which resulted in the death of the terrorist Belmokhtar,” the internationally recognised government based in Tobruk said.

Al Jazeera’s Daniel Lak, reporting from Washington, said: “They are not saying a great deal in terms of details here in Washington. On the record the defence department has said that an air strike was carried out on an al-Qaeda-affiliated group described interestingly as a mid-level target.”

“More details have come from the Libyan government. The strike apparently took place in the east of the country near Tobruk, and according to Libyan news websites it was aimed at Ansar al-Sharia group where several commanders of the group were meeting.

“What we await is word here in Washington that indeed is the case.”

‘Mr Marlboro’

Belmokhtar was a leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, but later split from the group in 2012 to form his own militia, called Those Who Sign With Blood, that later became al-Mourabitoun.

He has been involved in cigarette smuggling and one of his nom de guerre is “Mr Marlboro”. He has also been associated with various groups involved in attacks on governments in the region including, Mali.

“Belmokhtar has a long resume of involvement in violence in the region. He came out of the Algerian civil war and struggled in 1990s and early 2000,” Al Jazeera’s Lak said.

“He has been involved in abduction of tourists and UN officials. He looms large over the Maghreb region and the Sahara desert,” he said.

Five million dollar bounty

The death of Belmokhtar has been declared at least on four occasions in recent years. In 2013, Chad’s military claimed to have killed Belmokhtar, who was behind a bloody mass hostage-taking at an Algerian gas plant the same year.

“If this is confirmed it will be a very significant development,” the Al Jazeera correspondent said.

The Americans have charged him with terrorism and related offences in connection with the attack in 2013 on the Algerian gas refinery. At least 35 hostages, including three Americans were killed.

The US had offered a $5m reward for information on his whereabouts.

It’s the first publicised operation by the US forces in Libya since 2011, when long-time Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was unseated from power in a NATO-backed revolt.

Libya has rival governments and parliaments, and powerful militias are battling for influence and a share of its oil wealth.

Congress protests outside Sushma Swaraj's residence; demands resignation

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Sushma Swaraj Lalit Modi

New Delhi: Scores of Congress workers today protested outside residence of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj demanding her resignation for “extending help” to scam-tainted former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi in procuring travel documents in the UK.

Shouting slogans and holding placards, the Congress workers demanded action against Swaraj and said she must quit or Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack her immediately from the Union Cabinet. The protesters also burnt effigies of Swaraj.

Congress has been attacking Swaraj since yesterday after reports surfaced that she had written to British lawmaker Keith Vaz to allegedly recommend travel documents for Lalit Modi for visiting Portugal.

Swaraj has said she had written to Vaz on “humanitarian grounds” after Lalit Modi said his wife was ill.

Modi is wanted in India and has made London his home since 2010 to avoid a probe in the alleged betting and misappropriation of funds in the T20 cricket tournament.

Some of the Congress protesters also broke barricades outside Swaraj’s Safdarjung residence in posh Lutyens Bungalow Zone in central Delhi. Around 100 protesters were detained by the police and were later released.

Earlier in the day, Congress sharpened attack on Swaraj alleging there was “quid pro quo” involved in her “assistance” to Modi and demanded that the former IPL Commissioner be brought back and tried in India.

“There are circumstances which establish contact between Sushma Swaraj and Lalit Modi. As a quid pro quo, Sushma Swaraj has done favour to a tainted person who is accused of Rs 700 crore money laundering, tax evasion and several other charges,” said Congress national spokesperson P L Punia.

(PTI)

Indian Army's importance diminished due to lack of wars, says Manohar Parrikar

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Manohar Parrikar (Photo credit: HT)

Manohar Parrikar (Photo credit: HT)

Jaipur: Kicking up a storm, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday said that the Indian Army’s importance has diminished because the country hasn’t gone to war in the past 40-50 years.

“Soldiers were facing immense difficulties because people’s respect for the army has reduced during peacetime,” he said at a seminar in Jaipur.

However, he clarified his statement saying that he doesn’t endorse wars.

“I have written to many chief ministers (over defence matters). Some have acted on it and at many places it (response) has ended. The primary reason for this is that we have not been to war for 40-50 years. I don’t mean to say that we should go to war. I mean to say that without war the army’s importance has diminished,” he added.

He also said that two generations of officers have retired without seeing a war.

“A country that fails to protect its Army cannot progress.”

(PTI)

Caliph Umar’s governance impressed me; will try to follow him: Arvind Kejriwal

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Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: Stating that he was deeply impressed by the governance of Hazrat Umar bin Khattab, Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, said that he would try to emulate the second Caliph of the Muslims for the betterment of the people.

Mr Kejriwal was addressing a personality development workshop conducted by the India Islamic International Centre in collaboration with Nobel Education Foundation, here.

“I am extremely impressed by the governance of Caliph Umar and will try to follow his model of governance for the betterment of people,” Mr Kejriwal said.

His comments were in response to Aateqa Siddiqui, a girl student, who presented a book on the governance of Caliph Umar.

Mr Kejriwal reiterated that he would study the whole book and try to implement the model of Caliph Umar.

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