Archives for 2018

New Delhi: AAIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday demanded that the government should bring a law to punish with three-year jail term any person who calls an Indian Muslim “a Pakistani”.

Owaisi, who was taking part in the debate in the Lok Sabha on the motion of thanks to the President’s Address, also said the triple talaq bill was “anti-women.”

“Bring a law that if any Muslim is called Pakistani, the person will be face three year jail term,” he said, but added that the BJP-led government will not bring such a bill.

Owaisi said Muslims living in India had rejected Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s two-nation theory.

(IANS)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will deal with the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi matter as a “pure land dispute” and indicated that impleadment applications of those which were not before the High Court would be dealt with later.

A special bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that it would hear the appeals on March 14 and clarified that it never intended to hear the case on a “day-to-day basis”.

The bench, also comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer asked parties before the Allahabad High Court to file in two weeks English translation of documents exhibited by them.

The top court said the excerpts of vernacular books, which have been relied upon in the case, be translated in English and be filed within two weeks from Thursday.

The apex court also directed its Registry to provide copies of video cassettes, which were part of high court records, to parties on actual cost.

The special bench of the apex court is seized of a total 14 appeals filed against the high court judgement delivered in four civil suits.

The Supreme Court had in December last year rejected the vehement submission of Sunni Waqf Board and others that hearing of appeals in the sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute be conducted in July 2019 after the general elections.

The headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra also “prima facie” had declined the demand put by a battery of senior lawyers including Kapil Sibal and Rajeev Dhavan that the appeals be either referred to a five or seven judge bench, keeping in mind the sensitive nature of the case and its ramifications on the country’s secular fabric and polity.

A three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had in 2010 ordered that the land be partitioned equally among three parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Yet another incident of friction between the Union government and the Congress-led Karnataka government, CM Siddaramaiah took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after Prime Minister’s criticism against Congress led government by Siddaramaiah accusing it to be a ’10 percent commission government, Chief Minister verbally attacked the Prime Minister on Tuesday asking him to perform what he talks.

He also added that he was happy about the speech on corruption by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and invited him to “walk the talk”. With this, Siddaramaiah listed down four major controversies for the Prime Minister to start off with his action. These issues include investigation into Judge Loya’s death, probe on ascend of Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, appointment of Lok Pal and the appointment of untainted person as BJP’s CM candidate in Karnataka.

Siddaramaih also pointed out that people were expecting the prime minister to speak on the Mahadayi dispute but there was no mention of the water sharing dispute in his speech.

“Modi should realise he is also the Prime Minister of the country. Instead, he made irresponsible allegations saying we were running a 10 per cent commission government. I want him to produce documents for this. He should instead ask his Chief Minister candidate BS Yedyurappa who was in jail for corruption charges about his tenure as former Chief Minister” he said.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: A fact finding team that visited Uttar Pradesh’s violence-hit Kasganj on February 2, in its report, released on Monday, raised serious questions over the state police’s integrity and its role. The activists also expressed concern at the silence of political parties at the incident.

The members of the team also categorically dismissed claims that the incident was a spontaneous act of communal violence and asserted that it was a “pre-meditated, well-planned and engineered act of violence and spreading communal hatred”, and feared that many more such incidents might be seen in near future.

The team, led by retired IPS officer S.R. Darapuri and consisting senior journalists Amit Sengupta, Hasanul Banna and Aleemullah Khan, activists Rakhi Sehgal, Banojyotsna Lahiri, Khalid Saifi, Mohit Pandey and others visited the Uttar Pradesh town where communal violence had erupted on January 26, and spoke with locals of both communities apart from local administration and police.

They underlined that amid the “biased” administration and “rabid” attempts by the Hindu right wing elements to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims, the silver lining is that people from both communities are still feeling for each other and mourning each others’ losses.

However, the Hindu neighbours are not willing to come out and identify the culprits, probably for fear of their own safety, the report pointed out.

The losses of property have been suffered only by the Muslims whose 27 shops were looted and set on fire by the mobs and the police avoided lodging their FIRs, the report said.

On the death of Chandan Gupta, the only person killed in the violence, the report underlined that police statements in media “are at odds with pictures of the deceased about the entry of the bullet”.

“The wound is on the upper arm, not in the collar bone. The angle and location of the bullet wound are different,” it said, adding that there is no certainty on at which place Gupta was shot and died or who shot him.

On the role of police, the report said: “The first FIR that was filed after the violence was FIR no59/2018. This was filed by SHO Ripudaman Singh. The FIR names four Muslims — Nasiruddin, Akram, A. Khan and Taufiq. But not a single Hindu was named in the FIR, although the report mentions both communities were involved in the clash.”

“No temples were attacked but two mosques were attacked. The police, report however, omits this fact of attack on a religious place which is a very serious crime,” it added.

The team also found that among those arrested or detained by police, Muslims are more than double in number that of Hindus despite the fact that no Hindu property was damaged or a temple desecrated whereas two mosques were completely burnt.

“No leader of any political party has reached out to the Muslim community, or the Hindu shopkeepers and locals, or tried to visit them and express solidarity even though messages were sent to them. There was no peace initiative by the political class…perhaps for fear of being labelled as minority appeasers,” the activists said.

(IANS)

New Delhi: The opposition on Tuesday boycotted the Rajya Sabha in the post lunch session, complaining that their voice was being muzzled outside as well as inside Parliament.

As soon as the House met at 2 p.m., Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad raised the issue of the House being adjourned without conducting the Zero Hour and the Question Hour for the past few days.

He asserted that Parliament works according to “rules, regulations, procedures and conventions” and not “according to one’s whims”.

Azad was joined by other opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party’s Naresh Agarwal, Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien and Communist Party of India-Marxist’s Tapan Sen in the protest.

Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien said that the Chairman’s decisions could not be questioned in the House and the aggrieved members may meet the Chairman in his chamber.

At this, an enraged Azad announced that the opposition was boycotting the House for the day and the entire opposition then walked out of the House. Kurien adjourned the House till 3 p.m.

In the morning, Derek O’Brien had given a notice under Rule 267 to discuss the alleged overreach of West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi in trying to bypass the state government in administrative matters.

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected the notice and when O’Brien persisted with the matter during the Zero Hour, Naidu adjourned the House till 2 p.m., skipping even the Question Hour that is held from 12 noon to 1 p.m.

The TMC leader had tweeted: “Murder of democracy. Opposition being muzzled in Rajya Sabha #Parliament. We are not even being allowed to raise issues in Zero Hour. We will not put up with this.”

Outside the House, opposition leaders told media that an attempt was being made to stifle the opposition’s voice for the “last one week or so” and called it an attack on their democratic rights.

Speaking to the media, Azad said: “In the Zero Hour, important issues are raised. But what is happening for the last one week that when a member gives notice for speaking in Zero Hour, without hearing him/her, the House is adjourned till 2 p.m. That means the House is not being run according to rules and procedures of Parliament.

“So if we are not allowed to speak as per the rules and procedures of the House, naturally we will have to boycott and we will have to air our views in public through the media.”

Asked if he is attacking the Vice President of India, Azad said that he is not attacking one person in particular but “any person presiding over the House, who fails to conduct the House according to rules and procedures”.

(IANS)