Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

Shadnagar (Telangana): Slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “price rise and unemployment” in the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday asked as to why the Prime Minister is not addressing the issues.

Speaking at a meeting as a part of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra,’ Gandhi alleged that government schools, colleges and universities in Telangana are being privatised by the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao-led TRS government.

“Narendra Modiji, say something. Gas cylinder’s cost is now Rs 1,000. Petrol price used to be Rs 70 (per litre). Narendra Modi used to mention in every speech that petrol cost has gone up to Rs 70. Now, it has crossed Rs 100. Diesel used to be Rs 56 (per litre). Now, it has become Rs 100, but Narendra Modi does not say anything on that,” Gandhi charged.

Alleging that BJP and TRS are trying to suppress people’s voices, the Congress leader said his ongoing march replicates true India wherein public concerns are heard.

Gandhi alleged that BJP toppled governments in Goa and other States by using money power.

Describing BJP and TRS are the same and create drama during elections, he claimed that both spend hundreds of crores during polls.
He alleged that Modi ensures that his three or four industrialist-friends get all the business.

The Gandhi scion said no force can stop his yatra from reaching Kashmir.

He said Telangana students have informed him that schools, colleges and universities in the State are being privatised and assured that if Congress comes to power here, it would stop the privatisation and more funds would be pumped into government educational institutions.

According to him, demonetisation in 2016 and goods and services tax (GST) negatively impacted small and medium-scale businesses.

Alleging that Dharani, Telangana’s integrated land records management system, is faulty, Gandhi said when his party comes into power the problems would be solved.

Health and education are neglected in the State and all the money spent on Dharani and irrigation projects so that KCR family gets good commission, he further alleged.

He said both BJP and TRS work in tandem.

Morbi: At least 60 people died after a century-old suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Gujarat’s Morbi city collapsed on Sunday evening, officials said.

The bridge, which reopened four days ago after extensive repairs and renovation, was crammed with people when it collapsed around 6.30 pm, officials said.

“At least 60 persons have died in the tragedy,” Gujarat minister Brijesh Merja said.

Eyewitnesses said there were several women and children on the British era “hanging bridge” when it snapped, plunging them into the water below.

Some people were seen jumping on the bridge and pulling its big wires, an eyewitness said. The bridge may have collapsed due to the “huge crowd” on it, he added.

People fell over each other when the bridge collapsed, he said.

Due to the Diwali vacation and being a Sunday, there was a rush of tourists on the bridge, a major tourist attraction.

A private operator had carried out the repair work of the bridge for nearly six months before it was reopened to the public on the Gujarati New Year day on October 26.

A fire department official said that boats were being used to rescue people from the river.

“We are carrying out rescue work using boats. There are around 40-50 people in the river,” the official said.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said he was saddened by the tragedy.

“Relief and rescue operations by the administration are going on. The administration has been instructed to arrange immediate treatment for the injured. I am in constant contact with the district administration in this regard,” he said.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a tweet that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently in Gujarat, spoke to Patel and officials.

Modi sought urgent mobilisation of teams for rescue ops, the PMO said, adding the PM has asked that the situation be closely and continuously monitored, and all possible help be extended to those affected.

Bhanu (Panchkula): The ITBP that guards the LAC with China is training its personnel in a new unarmed “offensive” combat technique to gain better skills in taking on the adversary in situations like the Galwan clash of 2020 where crude weapons were used to inflict fatal injuries on Indian troops by the Chinese PLA.

The training module comprises 15-20 different fight manoeuvres taken from various martial arts techniques like judo, karate and krav maga that involve moves like punching, kicking, throwing, joint lock and pinning down.

The about three-month long training is being imparted by seasoned Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) trainers who hone new recruits at the basic training centre (BTC) here for battle inoculation just before getting commissioned into the border force.

“The new unarmed combat technique involves both defensive and offensive moves. We brought in this module for our troops last year on the directions of our former director general Sanjay Arora. The combat skills will render the opponent immobile and can also incapacitate them,” ITBP Inspector General Ishwar Singh Duhan told PTI.

Duhan heads the BTC located in the Bhanu area here, about 25 km from Chandigarh.

The Chinese soldiers used stones, nail-studded sticks, iron rods and clubs in carrying out brutal attacks on Indian soldiers after they protested the erection of a surveillance post by China on the Indian side of the LAC at Galwan (Ladakh) in June, 2020 resulting in 20 casualties on the Indian side while China belatedly claimed only four of its troops were killed.

The Russian official news agency TASS had reported that 45 Chinese servicemen were killed in the Galwan Valley clash. According to an American intelligence report, the number of casualties on the Chinese side was 35.

The unarmed combat technique trains the troops to channelise their power in such a manner that can land a deadly punch to the opponent, a senior officer supervising the training here said.

Duhan said the force has also introduced special training capsules aimed at enhancing the “physical capacity” of the troops deployed in some of the most arduous posts along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that continuously face vagaries of nature like snow blizzards, avalanches and thin oxygen levels.

“We have now put in place a plan where a troop deployed on the border and higher altitudes will not be deployed for more than 90 days at a stretch. Logistics have been put in place that will ensure timely replacement of troops from the border posts,” the IG said.

It is not that these measures and instructions were not there earlier but we are implementing these things seriously as the border is very active now, Duhan said.

Officials said the ITBP studied a number of scientific parameters and got inputs from the DRDO’s Defence Institute of Physiology Allied Sciences (DIPAS) that showed how prolonged deployment of personnel can bring about “irreparable damage” to the human body.

It was then decided that troops deployed at high-altitude need to be rotated within a three-month duration.

Given the standoff, the ITBP has implemented the directive in letter and spirit now, the senior officer quoted above said.

India and China are locked in a lingering border standoff in eastern Ladakh for over 29 months. The bilateral relationship came under severe strain following the deadly clash in Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh in June, 2020.

The eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas.

Both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers and heavy weaponry.

As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process last year on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area.

Last month, the Indian and Chinese militaries carried out disengagement from the Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area.

However, there has been no progress yet on resolving the standoff in the Demchok and Depsang regions.

The about 98,000 personnel strong ITBP is mandated to guard the 3,488 km long LAC running across from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh and is currently deployed along with the Army at these locations since the standoff started.

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday alleged that the BJP was trying to ‘buy’ 20 or 30 MLAs of the ruling TRS and topple his government.

Addressing a poll rally at bypoll-bound Munugode Rao segment, Rao referred to the TRS MLAs case and said “brokers” from Delhi came and attempted to bribe the MLAs by offering Rs 100 crore each. However, the legislators, who are real sons of the soil, rebuffed the offer.

“You have seen yesterday. (BJP thinks) KCR is talking loudly. Let’s see his (political) end. They have sent brokers to buy each MLA for Rs 100 crore. They wanted to buy 20 or 30 MLAs and topple KCR’s government and encroach Telangana so that they can implement privatisation as per their will,” Rao alleged.

His statement comes a day after three people who tried to “poach” four TRS legislators were arrested and remanded to judicial custody.
Rao paraded all the four legislators in the public meeting.

Based on a complaint by P Rohith Reddy, one of the TRS legislators, cases under relevant sections – criminal conspiracy, offering bribe and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 – were filed against Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy — on October 26 night.

According to the FIR copy, Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused offered him Rs 100 crore and in return the legislator had to leave the TRS and contest as a BJP candidate in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Patna: Political strategist turned activist Prashant Kishor on Sunday compared the BJP-RSS combine to a cup of coffee in which the party was like the frothy top and the parent body was the real thing underneath.

Kishor, who is on a 3,500 kilometres long “pada-yatra” in Bihar, came up with the colourful analogy at Lauria in West Champaran district which he has been covering on foot since October 2.

Kishor lamented that it took him long to realise that “the ideology of (Nathuram) Godse can be defeated only by reviving Gandhi’s Congress” and “it would have been better had I worked in that direction instead of helping people like Nitish Kumar and Jagan Mohan Reddy realise their ambitions”.

The IPAC founder, who has been sceptical of a united opposition’s efficacy in halting the Narendra Modi juggernaut, emphasised that one cannot defeat the BJP unless one understands what it is.

“Have you ever looked at a cup of coffee? There is froth at the top. BJP is like that. Below that there is the deep structure of the RSS. The Sangh has wormed its way into the social fabric. It cannot now be beaten with shortcuts,” said Kishor.

The political strategist’s first claim to fame was his handling of Modi’s poll campaign in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, a spectacular success that helped the BJP get a majority on its own.

Kishor also continued to hurl barbs at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) has been calling him a “BJP agent”.

“I was the JD(U) national vice president when the nation was on the boil against CAA-NPR-NRC. I was appalled to learn that MPs of my party had voted in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament,” recalled the 45-year-old, often perceived to be as ideologically agnostic.

“I confronted Nitish Kumar, who was then our national president. He claimed he was away on a tour and not aware of the development but glibly assured me that he will not allow NRC in Bihar. The duplicity made me realise I cannot work with this man,” said Kishor who was expelled from JD(U) over the spat with Kumar.

Kishor, whose much-anticipated entry into the Congress could not fructify last year despite meetings with its top leaders, hinted that he still admired the organisation but in its old avatar under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.

“Godse’s ideology can be defeated only by reviving the Congress of Gandhi,” said Kishor, in an oblique reference to alleged RSS links of the Mahatma’s assassin.

TMC MP Shatrughan Sinha |

Kolkata: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has proved his leadership abilities through the Bharat Jodo Yatra, TMC MP Shatrughan Sinha said.

Sinha said Gandhi’s 3,570-km-long march that began in Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu will help the Congress double its tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress won 52 seats in 2019 elections.

“Bharat Jodo Yatra is getting a very good response. Rahul Gandhi’s charisma has started working, and he is getting an excellent response from the people. I feel that Gandhi’s yatra will help double the tally of the Congress in Parliament in the next Lok Sabha polls,” he said.

“This is a ‘yatra’ in a true sense as Gandhi is walking unlike ‘Rath yatras’ by BJP leaders. Lakhs of people are coming out in his support. He has proved his leadership qualities. People have accepted him as a leader. And, those who made fun of him as ‘Pappu’ and didn’t take him seriously have been proved wrong,” Sinha added.

The actor-turned-politician won the Asansol Lok Sabha seat on Trinamool Congress ticket in a bypoll in April this year. Before fighting the election on a TMC ticket, he had switched over to the Congress from the BJP in 2019.

“BJP leaders are making fun of Gandhi, but let them also conduct a similar yatra on foot if they have the fire in their belly. The magic spell of Rahul Gandhi will work in the next elections, I feel and I want it to happen,” Sinha said.

Speaking on the Gujarat elections, the TMC leader said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would either emerge as the “kingmaker or the king” himself.

“In Gujarat, Kejriwal will either emerge as the king or the kingmaker. There is a churning in the saffron camp in Gujarat. The BJP cannot milk Hindutva or the Ram Mandir issue every time. Kejriwal has played a masterstroke through his demand of photos of Goddess Laxmi and Lord Ganesh on currency notes,” he said.

Last week, Kejriwal appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to print images of Lord Ganesh and Goddess Lakshmi on currency notes for the progress of the country.

“Kejriwal has paid the BJP back with the same coin. The BJP used to act as if they were the master of the ‘Hindutva school of politics’ but Kejriwal is now the headmaster of that school. The BJP can neither swallow it nor discard it,” Sinha said.

Claiming that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be a “game-changer” in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Sinha hoped that the relation between the TMC and the Congress would improve.

“There is no last word in politics. Today, the relations are not good doesn’t mean it won’t improve tomorrow. I personally feel that if major opposition parties come together, the political situation of the country will be completely different,” he said.

On the face of the opposition for the 2024 elections, Sinha said that the people of the country will choose the right leader.

“This question that who will be next (prime minister) comes up in every election. Once you reach the top politically, it will be decided based on numbers and the mandate. The country never stops, governments keep changing, and new leadership comes up,” he said.

Sinha, a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA government, asserted that the anti-BJP parties are gaining momentum in the states — whether it is Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu or Karnataka.

Sinha also targetted the BJP for the “missing” posters that surfaced in Asansol, his constituency, last week.

“Those who are yet to digest the defeat in the bypoll are behind this. I was in my constituency during Durga Puja, and was here till last week. I am spending Chhaath here in Asansol. I have been regularly visiting Asansol and the people of my constituency will vouch for it,” he said.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear around 240 PILs, including a large batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), on Monday when it would reopen after a nine-day Diwali vacation.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and justices S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi has listed for hearing as many as 232 petitions, mostly PILs, on October 31 on the issue of CAA alone.

Earlier, the bench headed by CJI Lalit, who is scheduled to demit office on November 8, had said that the pleas challenging the CAA will be referred to a three-judge bench.

The 2019 amended law, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain, and Parsi communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have come to the country till 2014, has come in for stinging criticism by opposition parties, leaders and other entities over the exclusion of Muslims.

The lead plea on the issue was filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

In January 2020, the apex court made it clear it will not stay the operation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act without hearing the Centre.

Seeking a response from the central government in four weeks to a batch of pleas challenging the CAA, the top court had also restrained high courts in the country from proceedings with pending petitions on the issue.

The IULML has claimed the Act violates the fundamental Right to Equality and intends to grant citizenship to a section of illegal immigrants by making an exclusion based on religion.

Several other petitions have been filed challenging the constitutional validity of the amended law, including by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, RJD leader Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi.

Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, All Assam Students Union (AASU), Peace Party, CPI, NGO ‘Rihai Manch’, advocate M L Sharma, and law students have also approached the apex court challenging the Act.

Besides the pleas on CAA, the apex court, according to the list of businesses uploaded on its website, is also scheduled to hear a PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.

It seeks directions to the Centre and the states to publish draft legislations prominently on government websites and in the public domain at least 60 days before they are introduced in Parliament and state assemblies.

The CJI-led bench would also hear another PIL seeking to establish special anti-corruption courts in every district to decide cases related to various economic offences like money laundering and tax evasion within one year.

The top court would also consider a PIL for a direction to the Centre to declare the Law Commission as a “statutory body” and appoint the chairperson and members to the panel.

A PIL seeking a direction to the Election Commission to remove party symbols from ballots and electronic voting machines (EVMs) and instead put age, educational qualification and photograph of candidates are listed for hearing on October 31.

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Hyderabad: The Telangana government has withdrawn general consent given to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the state. According to a state government order issued on August 30, prior consent of Telangana is required for the central probe agency on a case-to-case basis to investigate in the state.

Though the government order (GO) was issued two months ago, it did not figure in the public domain until Saturday when the Additional Advocate General (AAG) informed the Telangana High Court, during arguments on a petition filed by the BJP seeking a CBI probe into the TRS MLAs poaching case, that the general consent for CBI was withdrawn by the state government.

“Government of Telangana hereby withdraws all previous general consents issued by the State Government under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (Central Act XXV of 1946), vide any letters or notifications including the Notification issued in G.O.Ms.No.160, Home (SC) Department, dt.23.09.2016, to all the Members of Delhi Special Police Establishment to exercise the powers and jurisdiction under the said Act in the State of Telangana,” the GO read.

The development comes after the BJP and TRS have indulged in a war of words over several issues in recent past that has led to acrimony between the two parties.

The BJP also dragged Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha’s name in the Delhi liquor policy scam which is being probed by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. She, however, denied the allegations.

On August 31, the Chief Minister had said in Bihar’s capital Patna that all states should withdraw the general consent given to the CBI.

Addressing a press conference in Patna with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar by his side, Rao alleged that all central agencies were being “misused” by the BJP to target its political opponents.

“All central investigative agencies, including the CBI, are being misused by the Centre to target the BJP’s political rivals in the country. This should stop now and all state governments should withdraw their consent to the CBI. After all, policing is a state subject,” he said.

According to Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, the CBI needs consent from the respective state governments for conducting investigations in their jurisdictions.

If the general consent is withdrawn, the agency has to seek permission from the state government for registering a case.

Eight states, including West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Meghalaya, have currently withdrawn general consent for the CBI to probe cases in their jurisdiction. Maharashtra had earlier withdrew the consent but later revoked the decision.