AGRA: A right wing organisation has filed a petition in an Agra court seeking prohibitory injunction against the observation of the ‘Urs’ at the Taj Mahal.

The petitioner, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, has also challenged the free entry for ‘Urs’ inside the Taj Mahal.

The court accepted the petition and fixed March 4 as the date of hearing.

The three-day ‘Urs’ event will take place this year from February 6 to February 8.

The period is observed to mark the death of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who got the Taj Mahal constructed in 1653 on the banks of of the Yamuna river.

Petitioner’s counsel Anil Kumar Tiwari said, “On Friday, the petitioner ABHM through its divisional head Meena Diwakar and district president Saurabh Sharma filed a petition in the Court of IV Additional Civil Judge (Junior Division) Room No 4 at Civil Court premises in Agra.

“They have sought for a permanent prohibitory injunction against the committee celebrating the ‘Urs. The petitioner has also objected to having free entry for the Urs at the Taj Mahal.”

ABHM spokesperson Sanjay Jat contended that the body had filed the petition on the basis of an RTI which revealed that neither the Mughals, nor the British allowed Urs to take place inside the Taj.

“The petition has been filed on the basis of an RTI filed by a Raj Kishore Raje, an historian of Agra city. In the RTI, he asked ASI who permitted ‘Urs’ celebration and ‘Namaz’ in Taj Mahal premises. The ASI replied that neither Mughals, nor the British government or the Government of India have allowed ‘Urs’ celebration in the Taj Mahal

“So, on that basis we have filed a petition seeking the prohibitory injunction, stopping the organisers of Shahjahan ‘Urs’ Celebration Committee, headed by Saiyyad Ibrahim Zaidi, from celebrating the ‘Urs’ at the Taj Mahal.”

The three-day ‘Urs’ sees the rituals of ‘chadar poshi’, ‘sandal’, ‘gusul’, ‘kul’ among other events.

On the last day of the ‘Urs’, a ‘chadar’, measuring 1,880 metre or more, is offered.

NEW DELHI: Confident of winning the upcoming General Election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said in the third term of BJP-led central government, India will become the world’s third-largest economy.

“India is on the move and is moving fast. Today’s India is moving forward to make ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047…This is the start of golden period for the Indian mobility sector. Today, India’s economy is growing at a brisk pace. In our third term, India’s economy is sure to become the third largest in the world,” said the PM at Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2024.

According to IMF data, India is currently placed at the fifth spot with the size of its economy pegged at over $3.7 trillion. The United States sits at the (around $27 trillion) and is followed by China (around $17.7 trillion), Germany ($4.4 trillion) and Japan ($4.2 trillion).

While giving numbers as to how the country’s mobility sector has grown in size over the last 10 years since his government first came to power in 2014, Modi said that in Amrit Kaal, India’s passenger vehicle, commercial vehicle and auto component industry should strive to become number 1 in the world. As per Modi, the emergence of neo-middle class, expanding spheres and growing income of the middle class will continue to generate demand for the mobility sector.

To lure the driver community who recently protested against the new hit-and-run law, Modi said that a new scheme is in the works to develop modern buildings with facilities for food, clean drinking water, toilets, parking and rest for drivers on all national highways. He added that the government is preparing to build 1,000 such buildings across the country in the first phase of this scheme. The PM advised tyre manufacturers to hold discussions with farmers to meet the need for natural rubber domestically.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will not appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday for questioning in an alleged money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, according to the AAP.

The ED on Wednesday had issued a fresh and the fifth summons to Kejriwal after he skipped four earlier summonses over the last four months.

“Kejriwal will not appear before the agency for questioning,” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said.

Terming the summons “illegal”, the party said the ED is repeatedly sending notices to Kejriwal to arrest him

The AAP also alleged that the BJP wants to topple its government in Delhi by getting Kejriwal arrested.

The AAP will not let this happen, it said.

The Delhi chief minister is, however, scheduled to take part in a protest of the AAP outside the BJP headquarters here at 11 am.

Kejriwal skipped ED summonses for November 2 and December 21 in 2023 and January 3 and January 18 this year.

It is alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge repeatedly refuted by the AAP.

The policy was subsequently scrapped and Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe, following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

NEW DELHI: Delhi Speaker Ram Niwas Goel and Deputy Mayor Aaley Mohd Iqbal have been placed under house arrest ahead of the protest planned by the Aam Aadmi Party, Gopal Rai said at a press conference on Friday.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged that several AAP MLAs and volunteers coming to participate in the party’s protest outside the BJP headquarters here against the “cheating” in the Chandigarh mayoral polls were being stopped or detained.

Security has been stepped-up in Central Delhi with police barricading several roads leading to the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg and deploying additional personnel in view of the Aam Aadmi Party’s demonstration as well as a protest by the BJP against “corruption” in the Kejriwal government. The BJP will stage its protest near the AAP head office.

“First votes were stolen in the Chandigarh mayoral elections. Now, people coming to protest peacefully against this are being stopped at various places across Delhi,” Kejriwal said in a post on X, ahead of the demonstration scheduled to begin at 11 am.

In another post, he said that “across Delhi, they are detaining elected MLAs, councillors and volunteers, who were coming to the party office”.

“What is this going on?” he asked.

Officials said roads leading to the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg have been closed since morning and barricades have been set up near the headquarters of the BJP and the AAP.

In a post on X, Delhi Minister and AAP leader Atishi said, “Heavy barricading all across Delhi. Buses full of AAP volunteers being detained. Hundreds of para-military forces outside the AAP office.”

“Why is the BJP so scared of a protest on the Chandigarh mayor elections?” she asked.

Her cabinet colleague Saurabh Bharadwaj in a video statement asked whether the BJP was scared of Kejriwal.

“The entire entire country saw how votes were stolen in the Chandigarh mayoral polls by the BJP. Two elected chief ministers — Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann are coming to protest against it,” he said.

The BJP on Tuesday swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls, retaining all three posts of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, in a setback to the Congress-AAP alliance which has alleged tampering with ballot papers by the presiding officer.

RANCHI: After a high-voltage political drama in Jharkhand for the past three days, JMM legislature party leader Champai Soren was sworn in as the chief minister of Jharkhand at the Raj Bhawan in Ranchi.

Champai Soren was appointed to the chief minister’s post on Thursday after he urged the governor to accept his claim to form the government at the earliest as there was “confusion” in the state which was without a chief minister since the resignation of Hemant Soren on Wednesday, deepening a political crisis.

The Governor appointed Champai Soren as the CM designate and asked him to decide on the ceremony at his convenience.

The Governor also asked the leaders for a floor test within 10 days of taking the oath of office.

Senior JMM leader Alamgir Alam and lone RJD MLA Styanand Bhokta also took oath of office and secrecy as Cabinet Ministers along with Champai Soren.

Notably, the resignation of former Chief Minister Hemant Soren has triggered a political crisis in Jharkhand as the state is left leaderless without a government for over 36 hours

Earlier on Thursday evening, 38 lawmakers from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Congress, and Rashtriya Janata Dal coalition headed to Birsa Munda Airport to travel to Hyderabad in Telangana due to a delay in government formation in the state. However, because of foggy weather and poor visibility at Ranchi Airport, their chartered flights were unable to receive clearance for takeoff, leading them to return to the circuit house.

Meanwhile, the Jharkand BJP has called an urgent legislature party meeting in Ranchi on Friday, in which apart from Babulal Marandi and senior State leaders, party’s top leaders BL Santosh and LK Vajapey are scheduled to participate.