New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday attacked the BJP over bulldozers razing several structures in violence-hit Jahangirpuri during an anti-encroachment drive, saying “we see the rule of law break down everyday” and soon there will be “no law and no rules”.

Several concrete and temporary structures close to a mosque were brought down on Wednesday morning as part of an anti-encroachment drive by the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), days after the northwest Delhi neighbourhood was rocked by communal violence.

The Supreme Court had to intervene twice to stop the drive after it took cognizance of a petition filed by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind against the demolition.

In a series of tweets, Chidambaram said, “We see the Rule of Law break down every day.Soon there will be no law and no rules.”

“Once arbitrary ‘Orders’ override ‘Law’, we are on the road to hell. The Bulldozer represents the arbitrary ‘Order’. The Supreme Court represents ‘Law’. Yesterday, we saw the Bulldozer defy the Law. Let’s see what happens today,” the former home minister said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had also attacked the government on Wednesday over the use of bulldozers in violence-hit areas and alleged that this is a demolition of India’s constitutional values and targeted against the poor and minorities.

Ahmedabad: Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani was arrested by Assam Police from Palanpur town in Gujarat on late Wednesday night over a tweet and taken to Assam by air in the early hours, officials said here on Thursday.

The prominent Dalit leader from Gujarat was arrested soon after a First Information Report (FIR) under section 153A of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with offences related to promoting enmity between communities, was registered at Kokrajhar police station in Assam, said his aide Suresh Jat.

“As per a document shared by the officials of the Assam police, an FIR has been lodged over a tweet by Mevani few days back. However, the tweet has been withheld by Twitter. It was about Nathuram Godse. Mevani was first brought to Ahmedabad by road and then taken to Assam by air early today morning,” he added.

Mevani is independent MLA from Vadgam seat in Banaskantha. He recently joined Congress. In a statement, Mevani’s office said he was arrested by Assam police from Palanpur circuit House at 11:30 pm on Wednesday.

Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor and other Congress leaders rushed to Ahmedabad Airport after learning about his arrest and shouted slogans against the BJP government.

Ahmedabad: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in Ahmedabad on Thursday morning to start his India visit, and was accorded a grand welcome along the four-km route from the airport to a hotel in the city.

Johnson was received at the Ahmedabad airport by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Governor Acharya Devvrat. Senior state officials and ministers were also present to receive him. The British prime minister was greeted by troupes performing traditional Gujarati dances and music at the airport and along the road as his convoy headed for the hotel.

The `roadshow’ started outside the airport and passed through Ashram Road via Dafnala and Riverfront.

As many as 40 platforms were erected at regular intervals on the four-km stretch from the Airport Circle to the five-star hotel on Ashram Road where again troupes performed traditional Indian dances to welcome Johnson.

During his day-long stay in Gujarat, the British prime minister is scheduled to have a closed-door meeting with prominent business leaders from the state, sources said.

After that, he will head for a manufacturing facility of JCB, a British construction equipment firm, near Halol in Panchmahal district.

The British PM will then visit the campus of under-construction Gujarat Biotechnology University in Gandhinagar as the varsity is coming up in cooperation with the UK’s University of Edinburgh, a Gujarat government release said.

The British PM would visit the famous Akshardham temple of the Swaminarayan sect in Gandhinagar before winding up his Gujarat visit and leaving for New Delhi.

In Delhi, Johnson will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.

Mumbai: Delhi Capitals showed remarkable resilience to overcome a COVID crisis in their camp and hand Punjab Kings a nine-wicket thrashing in the Indian Premier League here on Wednesday.

Delhi, who had a chaotic build up to the game with a sixth COVID positive case being reported on the morning of the game, dished out a clinical bowling display to bowl out Punjab Kings for a below-par 115.

On a track where the deliveries wre holding up a bit, even Lalit Yadav became unplayable leave alone Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav.

Delhi seemed in real hurry to close the game with Prithvi Shaw (41 off 20) and David Warner (60 not out off 30 balls) getting them off to a flying start.

Their 83-run partnership off 39 balls ensured Delhi cantered to victory in 10.3 overs, giving a big boost to their net run rate.

The match, which was shifted to the Brabourne Stadium from Pune, was given a go ahead barely an hour before the start of play after Delhi keeper-batter Tim Seifert tested positive on Wednesday morning

Shaw and Warner looked in devastating touch dispatching a deflated looking Punjab bowling attack to all corners of the grounds. However, Punjab bowlers could not be blamed on the night with batters letting the team down on a good pitch.

With Delhi racing to 81 for no loss in the powerplay, the game was as good as over.

It was Delhi’s third win in six games while Punjab, who had a game to forget, suffered their fourth loss in seven games.

Earlier, the Delhi spin trio of Lalit (2/11), Kuldeep (2/24) and Axar (2/10) did the bulk of the damage.

Punjab were tottering at 35/2 after losing openers Mayank Agarwal (24) and Shikhar Dhawan (9) early.

Mayank, who recovered from his toe injury that forced him to miss the previous game, started with a cut for a boundary. He then launched into Shardul Thakur, striking three fours in the third over that fetched 14 runs.

But off-spinner Lalit removed Dhawan (9) cheaply, after the left-handed batter’s attempted paddle resulted in a nick to Rishabh Pant.

Punjab were soon reeling at 46/3, as Axar struck in his first over removing the in-form Liam Livingstone (2), who was stumped by Pant. Livingstone came down the wicket to have a go at Axar, but the left-arm spinner turned the ball away from him to get Pant into action.

Wickets kept on tumbling for Punjab as Jonny Bairstow (9) gifted a sitter to Mustafizur at fine-leg in the seventh over off Khaleel Ahmed (2/21).

Jitesh Sharma (32), who struck five boundaries and Shahrukh Khan (12) tried to resurrect the innings, but managed to add only 31 runs before Axar trapped the former in front of the wickets, as Punjab lost half their side for 85.

From 85/5, it became 92/8, as Punjab lost wickets in quick succession with chinaman Kuldeep castling Kagiso Rabada (2) and Nathan Ellis (0) in the 14th over.

Khaleel got his second wicket dismissing Shahrukh in next over with a cross-seam slower while Rahul Chahar (12) became Lalit’s second scalp.

Pacers Khaleel and Mustafizur shared three wickets and ably supported the spinners.

New Delhi: A special committee of Congress leaders constituted by party president Sonia Gandhi to suggest measures for strengthening the organisation and to make it ready for the next round of elections will submit its report in the next two-three days.

The committee on Wednesday met chief ministers of Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and held deliberations with them on the way forward and for evolving the party’s poll strategy.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel also met Gandhi here and discussed the organisation’s strategy for the upcoming assembly and general elections.

The meeting was part of the deliberations being held to evolve a long-term strategy for the Congress and discuss the plan presented by poll strategist Prashant Kishor.

Gehlot and Baghel landed in the national capital on Wednesday morning and met the Congress chief at her residence where Kishor was also present.

During the meeting that lasted several hours, the two chief ministers discussed their poll plans for the respective states and asked Kishor to give his additional suggestions to be implemented there, sources said.

They are learnt to have discussed Kishor’s strategy and deliberated on it with other party leaders who are part of the committee.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters that the committee has been holding deliberations for the last two-three days and would submit its report in the next three days after completing deliberations.

“For the last three days, these deliberations have been held. We propose to conclude these deliberations over next 48 to 72 hours,” he told reporters after the five-hour meeting.

Asked on whether the committee will give its decision on the entry of Kishor in the Congress fold, Surjewala said, “The role of the committee is not to suggest whether a particular persons should be included in the Congress party or not and is to suggest measures to strengthen the organisation for contesting elections and prepare it for 2024 general elections and other state assembly elections.”

The committee has taken note of the suggestions given by Kishor and has been deliberating on them, he said.

Surjewala said the committee was set up by Gandhi to help strengthen the organisation and dwell on its future poll strategy and bring about organisational changes and help make the Congress policies to highlight the pain of people of the country.

“Those suggestions include the ways and means to strengthen the Congress organisation and connect it to the large amount of masses. Those suggestions also include gearing up of the Congress for upcoming elections leading up to 2024,both the state assembly and central elections,” he said.

“The Congress organisation must adapt to all these changes and that is why this committee has been holding deliberations for the last three days on the various suggestions given by Prashant Kishor as also by various seasoned leaders from time to time to Congress president,” he said.

Surjewala said since the two chief ministers have vast organisational and administrative experience, the committee thought it fit to request them to join the deliberations. “We have had a fruitful round of discussions with both Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel,” he said.

Gehlot also told reporters that Kishor has become a brand in the country, who was with Narendra Modi in 2014 Parliament elections and later with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and then with the Congress in Punjab and with many other leaders.

“It will be good if his experience is used in uniting the opposition and in fighting the NDA government of PM Modi and there is need to do so, as the manner in which there is violence during festivals and which way it will take the country towards,” Gehlot said, noting that this is not the first time the advice of experts like him is being taken.

A group of senior party leaders including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal, P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Digvijaya Singh and Randeep Surjewala, are looking into Kishor’s plan and will present a report to the Congress president on it within the next two-three days.

The poll strategist had presented his plan before the top Congress leadership on Saturday and the party president had formed a panel to look into it and give its report.

The Congress is striving to strengthen the organisation and fight the BJP at the hustings after suffering a series of electoral losses in recent assembly polls. The party has admitted that it failed to impress upon the people about the “failures” of the BJP government.

MUMBAI: The Mumbai police on Tuesday arrested a person in connection with the attack on NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s residence during a protest by MSRTC workers here, an official said.

With this, the total number of persons arrested in the case has reached 118, he said.

Mudaliar had conducted a recce of Pawar’s residence ‘Silver Oak’ with an accomplice ahead of the attack that took place on April 8, he said.

The accused also took part in the meeting, which was allegedly held at the main accused lawyer Gunratna Sadavarte’s residence on April 7, the official said, adding that he also has knowledge of some financial transactions.

Earlier this morning, a team of Kolhapur police had reached Mumbai to take custody of Sadavarte in a case registered against him at Shahupuri police station, the official said.

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday responding to the queries related banning the entry of non-Hindus in the Char Dham shrines- Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri said that the state government will conduct a verification drive to check if people from outside of the state have encroached upon illegally.

“Ours state is a peaceful one and we should work towards preserving our religion and culture. We will conduct a verification drive to check if people from outside of Uttarakhand have encroached illegally,” said the CM. 

He further added that there is no space for ‘encrochers’. “There is no space for encroachers, spreaders of religion based frenzy. The law will take its own course in such matters,” said CM Dhami.  Last week, Swami Anand Swaroop, a seer who was part of Haridwar Dharam Sansad hate speech has written to Uttarakhand Chief Minister to ban entry of non-Hindu people in Char Dham shrines. 

He also warned the CM of increasing footprints of non-Hindus in the Himalayan state.  The seer had also warned that his ‘Kali Sena’ will teach a lesson to those non-Hindus who ‘violate the sanctity of the Char Dham’. Swami Anand Swaroop, one of the organizers of Dharam Sansad in Haridwar in December 2021 is also convenor of the Dharam Sansad core committee. 

Last year, intelligence aganecies had alerted authorities in Uttarakhand about ‘Demographic Changes’ in certain areas of the hill state warning about these changes, especially in border districts of Udham Singh Nagar, Champawat and Pithoragarh of Kumaon disvision of the state.

All three districts share border with Nepal. Officials from Uttarakhand government told that a report was sent to the union home ministry in January 2021 citing the situation in these districts as ‘sensitive’. 

In September 2021, the state government citing too much increase in population in certain areas of the state which is causing ‘Demographic Change’ resulting into ‘Migration of some communities from those areas’, issued directions to take steps to find the ‘solutuion of the problem’.

Release from the state government stated, “It has come to the notice of the government that in certain areas of the state due to too much increase in population demographic changes have occurred resulting in ‘migration by some communities from those areas’. No only this, there is also an apprehension of disturbance in communal harmony.”

However, the release did not name any community.  The release further stated that the director general of police of the state, all the district magistrates and district police chiefs to take steps to find solution of the problem. 

The state government had also issued instructions to form district level committees along with ‘Peace Committees. These committees will advise to find ‘solution’ of the ‘problem’ and meetings will be organized from time to time to maintain peace.

The directions had also been issued to identify people in every district of Uttarakhand who are from other states with criminal history living in the state and verify their documents as well as records. 

Directions also include taking action by authorities who have forged their documents including foreigners and keeping an eye on sale of properties to see if anyone is not selling the property out of pressure or fear.  Interestingly, union home ministry in an RTI reply had stated that threats to Hindus and Hinduism are ‘imaginary’ or ‘hypothetical’.