Archives for January 2019

Nasheman News : The Sabarimala temple in Kerala was shut on Wednesday “for purification” after two women from the hitherto banned age group said they had prayed there, and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed this was true.

“Yes, it’s true. The women have had the temple darshan,” the Chief Minister said in Thiruvananthapuram.

As the news spread, the chief priest and temple tantri held a meeting and also held talks with the Pandalam Royal family and decided to close down the hill shrine.

Kantararu Rajeeveru, the tantri, said the temple had been shut for “purification” and would reopen later.

The two women, Bindu and Kanaka Durga, said they had ‘darshan’ at 3.30 a.m.

On December 24, the two had made a failed attempt to pray at the temple as they were chased away by predominantly male pilgrims opposed to the entry of girls and women in the age group of 10 to 50 in line with tradition.

Speaking to the media over telephone, Bindu said she along with Durga reached the Pamba base camp around 1.30 a.m. and along with a few police officers in civilian clothes went up the pathway.

“The government had assured us all help. We reached the base camp and went up the pathway and we had the darshan at 3.30 a.m. We, however, did not climb the hallowed 18 steps, instead went through the way normally used by VIPs,” said Bindu.

She added that both of them returned from the temple with police escort.

“Now we have passed Pamba and are going back and we have police security. We did not have any problems. Barring a few minor protests, there was no other issue,” added Bindu.

Rahul Eashwar, a member of the temple tantri family, said that if there had been a breach of tradition, “then corrective rituals will have to be done”.

“If they had ‘darshan’, they would have camouflaged themselves. If this has happened, it’s most unfortunate. This is nothing but an organised attempt by the Kerala government,” he said.

The temple town has witnessed protests by Hindu groups since the September 28 Supreme Court verdict that allowed women of all ages to enter the temple.

Ever since the verdict, around three dozen women in that age group have tried but failed to go up the pathway leading to the temple due to protests.

Nasheman News : The Congress on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his television interview on the New Year Day, saying the reverse countdown for his government has begun and that he is a “defeatist PM” who cannot even say for sure whether he would be contesting the next election.

Addressing a press conference soon after Modi’s interview aired on Tuesday, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala accused him of peddling lies and said his interview was a monologue around “I, me, mine and myself”.

Surjewala attacked Modi on a range of issues including jobs, economy, Goods and Services Tax (GST), national security, corruption and agrarian problems and said that he is PM only for 99 days and will be ousted in the Lok Sabha polls in April-May this year.

“A defeatist PM who is even not able to tell where he is going to contest the next parliamentary polls from or whether he is going to contest at all. So, with defeat written on his face as also in the arrogant words of ‘I, me, mine and myself’, the first interview of 2019 has put entire future in perspective that now there are only 99 days left to say ‘bye-bye people of India’,” Surjewala said.

Modi was asked whether he would re-contest from Varanasi or shift to Puri in Odisha, to which he gave a cryptic reply that media persons should also get some work.

Surjewala said the “monologue interview” of Modi turned out to be much ado about nothing.

“Modiji your ‘I’s and lies’ have destroyed India’s societal fabric and India’s economy,” he said, adding that Modi has “trampled upon constitutional institutions as also rights of individuals and snatched livelihoods”.

“We expected that in 2019 you will at least express regrets for policy blunders that you have committed but you are peddling lies…that is indeed unfortunate. The country suffers as Modi dithers,” Surjewala said.

He said the next Lok Sabha elections is public versus “thagbandhan” (alliance of crooks).

He said people want to know answers to 10 key promises made by Modi. 

“Where are Rs 15 lakh that was promised in each Indian’s bank account by you? Rs 80 lakh crore of black money that was to be brought to India within 100 days from abroad? Did it come? The truth is that not a single rupee has been brought back,” Surjewala said.

The Congress leader said Modi had promised to create two crore jobs a year. 

“It would have been nine crore jobs in 55 months, but could you create even nine lakh jobs for India’s youth? You promised cost plus 50 per cent profit to India’s farmers, but today they are forced to sell their onion crops at 50 paise a kg. Farmer distress and farmer suicides rule the roost (sic),” he said.

He alleged that GST has become “Gabbar Singh Tax” and its flawed implementation has “destroyed small and medium businesses”.

“The nation wants to know the demonetisation disaster, the scam and the people responsible for it. Rs 3.5 lakh crore were lost due to the demonetisation disaster. 12O people died in bank lines. People lost all their earnings. Women of India lost their entire ‘stri dhan’. Yet you continue to justify the DeMo scam and disaster,” he said. 

Touching up the issue of national security, he said: “It (national security) has been deeply imperilled. In 55 months, 428 jawans were martyred in Jammu and Kashmir alone as 278 civilians were lost to terrorism. Naxalism cost us lives of 248 jawans and 378 civilians,” he added. 

Responding to a question, Surjewala said that if anybody had questioned the Army’s valour it was Modi and not the Congress.

“Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Ganhdi appreciated the Army when surgical strikes were conducted. But what did the Prime Minister do? He threw in the dustbin all the surgical strikes done by the Army since 1947 till September 8, 2016. If anybody palyed with the valour of the Army, it was none other than Prime Minister Modi,” he said.

He also questioned as to why the Modi government did not make a noise when the Chinese were building motorable roads and bunkers in North and South Doklam and reached “within 100 feet of our Army lines”. 

“Is it not a fact that China has openly built motorable roads till the Chicken’s Neck and can potentially cut off our northeastern states from us? But the Modi government did not make a noise. It did not dare stare in the Chinese’s eye. At least he (Modi) should have been honest on the national security in his intreview,” the Congress leader said.

Nasheman News : The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Tuesday hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remraks on construction of a grand Ram temple at Ayodhya as “positive” and hoped that his government will fulfil its promise during this tenure.

In a series of tweets, RSS’s Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said: “Today’s Prime Minister’s remarks on the construction of Ram temple seems to be a positive step. And the Prime Minister remembering his promise of constructing temple in his interview is in line with the 1989 BJP resolution in its Palampur Convention.”

“In its resolution, the BJP had said that to construct the temple in Ayodhya it will try its best by either consulting or by bringing an enabling legislation,” he said recalling the 1989 resolution where the BJP said that it shall discuss the matter with all the stakeholders. 

Reminding Modi of his party’s poll promise, Hosabale said: “Under the leadership of Modi, the BJP in its 2014 poll manifesto has promised to construct a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya under the constitutional ambit. The people believed the promises made by the BJP and gave it a huge mandate.”

“People of India expect the government to fulfil the promise within its tenure,” he added.

His remarks came soon after Modi in his interview said that an ordinance on Ram temple will be considered only after legal process gets over.

The demand for construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya gained momentum late last year with the BJP’s ideological mentor the RSS, VHP and the NDA allies demanded the government to bring a law for the construction of temple.

Nasheman News : Senior BJP leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday said his new year resolution is to ensure victory of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in all the 40 seats in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“Our New Year resolution is clear, we will work hard to ensure victory of NDA in all 40 seats in the state in the parliamentary elections in 2019,” Sushil Modi told the media here.

He said the people of Bihar are with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and they would support and vote for the NDA under his leadership.

“People want a government working for development and transparency and which is has honest people in it. People will vote for NDA again to ensure the return of Narendra Modi as PM in 2019,” he said.

Sushil Modi taunted convicted RJD chief Lalu Prasad, saying Lalu sitting in jail may form a Grand Alliance of several small parties, but people will not support and vote for the return of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-Congress combine to power in the state.

“People of Bihar will not go with the RJD-led Grand Alliance.”

Actor Prakash Raj has announced that he will contest in the upcoming Parliament elections as an independent candidate. Taking to Twitter on New Year’s Eve at midnight, the actor tweeted, “HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE..a new beginning .. more responsibility.. with UR support I will be contesting in the coming parliament elections as an INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE. Details of the constituency soon. Ab ki baar Janatha ki SARKAR #citizensvoice #justasking in parliament too (sic).”

Prakash Raj has been vocal about his politics and has been a severe critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government ever since his close friend Gauri Lankesh, a journalist, was shot dead in Bengaluru in January last year. In May 2018, he launched ‘just asking’, a series of questions that he regularly poses to Narendra Modi and his government.

The Special Investigation Team probing the death of Gauri Lankesh had revealed that her killers had Prakash Raj too, on their hit list.

Prakash Raj has been in the eye of a storm many times in 2018 with his remarks making headlines. Recently, he was quoted as saying that PM Modi is an NRI when elections are not taking place. “He turns resident Indian during elections. When elections are over, he [Mr. Modi] goes back to foreign locations,” Prakash Raj had said.

The actor has also extended his support to several politicians including Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his plans for a ‘Federal Front’, which would include a consortium of regional parties. In April this year, Prakash Raj was part of a meeting that included KCR and former PM Deve Gowda at the latter’s home.

“For the last few months I have been having discussions with KCR. Why I am here is because he is not talking about party politics. It is for us to come together and understand why the issues which have been going on for years have not been solved and to find another way to come to a consensus and create a mass movement so that all like-minded people can come together and ensure that the issues are solved and we deliver to the people,” he told reporters.

With Prakash Raj taking the political plunge and announcing that he would stand as an independent candidate, it remains to be seen if parties like the Congress and JDS would tacitly support him.

TNM