Archives for February 2019

Nasheman  News :  Two Youth Congress activists were murdered by alleged CPI-M workers in Kerala’s Kasargode on Sunday night, state Congress president Mullapally Ramachandran said. The Left party, however, denied any involvement.

The two Youth Congress activists – Krupesh, 19, and Joshy, 24 – were attacked by three assailants who came on motorcycles and seriously injured. While Krupesh breathed his last at the Kasargode district hospital, Joshy died while being taken to a hospital in Mangaluru in neighbouring Karnataka.

The Kasargode unit of the Congress has called for a dawn-to-dusk shutdown in the district on Monday to protest the murder.

Addressing the media at Kochi after hearing about the incident, Ramachandran said that this murder was a planned one executed by the goons attached to the CPI-M.

“Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who also holds the Home portfolio should explain this ghastly incident. This is not acceptable to the Kerala society… its high time that the CPI-M directs its cadres to lay down arms,” he said.

Kasargode district Congress president K. Hakkim told the media that the incident occurred near Periya near here.

“This is a Kannur model murder that was neatly planned and executed in the dark,” he alleged.

Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala told the media that the CPI-M is using power to eliminate its political opponents and this will be strongly opposed by the Congress.

But Kannur district CPI-M secretary M.V. Balakrishnan told the media that his party has no role in this incident.

“We strongly condemn this incident and our party has no role in this. We want the police to quickly arrest the people behind this,” he said.

Nasheman News : Amid dragging speculation whether he will take the plunge or not, superstar Rajinikanth on Sunday announced that he will not contest the coming Lok Sabha elections nor will he support any political party.

In a statement on a letterhead of his fan club Rajini Makkal Mandram (RMM), a former bus conductor who enjoys frenzied following among Tamil cinema buffs, informed his fans that his name or photograph should not be used by anyone seeking votes.

“I am not going to contest the coming Lok Sabha elections. Our target is Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. I am not going to support any party in the Lok Sabha elections. So nobody can use my photo or the RMM’s symbol in support of or in the campaign of any party,” Rajinkanth said.

The 68-year-old actor, who has worked in over 200 films, appealed to his fans: “Tamil Nadu’s main problem in the coming elections will be water. Any party that will form a strong and stable government at the Centre and which can solve the water crisis of Tamil Nadu permanently through schemes and give an assurance to fulfil them should be given support and fans should vote on that basis.”

There has been a lot of speculation whether Rajinikanth would enter politics and fight elections. He had some time back hinted at entering politics actively to fulfil the political vacuum caused by the death of iconic leaders M. Karunanidhi and J. Jayalalithaa.

While announcing his entry into politics, Rajinikanth had said he would be able to provide “good” governance like the late M.G. Ramachandran, the founder leader of AIADMK.

Rajinikanth had talked of spiritual politics that lent itself to speculation that he could back the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha battle in Tamil Nadu, which elects 39 members to the Lok Sabha.

Reacting to the development, political strategist Jhon Arokiasamy told IANS: “By this announcement, Rajinikanth signals that he is maintaining an equidistance between the BJP and the Congress. Also, he does not want any connection with the likely AIADMK-BJP alliance.

“Perhaps this was done after the reversals suffered by the BJP in the recent Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and other states. That apart, he is setting the Lok Sabha poll narrative for Tamil Nadu by referring to the water problem,” Arokiasamy added.

Rajinikanth has had a pro-BJP image in recent times and it is believed that he perhaps did not float a political party after the BJP suffered defeats in recent Assembly elections.

The actor’s long-time colleague in cinema, Kamal Haasan, who has no love for the BJP, last year floated a political outfit, Makkal Needhi Maiam. He has announced that his outfit will contest the coming Lok Sabha elections on its own.

Meanwhile, BJP’s National Secretary H. Raja told IANS: “Rajinikanth is consistent in his stand. On Dec 31, 2017 he said his target is only the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls.”

According to Raja, it is only the BJP that can provide a permanent solution for Tamil Nadu’s water problem with its schemes of linking of rivers.

On the other hand, Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar said the contest was between the AIADMK-led alliance and the DMK-led alliance.

Political analyst Raveendhran Dhuraiswamy told IANS: “Rajinikanth’s announcement may have a positive fallout for possible AIADMK-BJP alliance.”

Nasheman News : The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Sunday said some miscreants were putting up fake photographs of body parts of troopers, killed in the Pulwama attack, to spread “hatred”, and appealed people to not share or ‘like’ such posts.

“It has been noticed that on social media some miscreants are trying to circulate fake pictures of body parts of our martyrs to trigger hatred. Please do not circulate, share or ‘like’ such photographs or posts,” the CRPF said in a statement. 

Such posts/pictures should be reported to webpro@crpf.gov.in, it added.

The CRPF also said “miscreants” were spreading “fake news” about harassment of students from Kashmir on social media.

“The CRPF helpline has enquired about complaints of harassment and found them incorrect. These are attempts to spread hatred. Please do not circulate such posts,” it said.

As many as 49 personnel were killed on February 14, when a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a CRPF convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar highway in Pulwama.

The woman was arrested after people complained about her post on social media.

A woman in Karnataka has been arrested for writing “objectionable” posts on social media against the armed forces after the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF jawans on February 14.

Police said angry locals tried to burn down her house. The incident took place in Kadabi Shivapur village of February 16.

News agency reported that her house was attacked after police arrested her for allegedly posting an objectionable post on social media.

Police say, “She has been arrested and sent to judicial custody. Locals tried to set her house abalze.”

Quoting a local police officer, Media said the case was registered after some people complained that the woman’s post praises Pakistan. “We registered a complaint under sections 121 A, 153 and 153 A of the Indian Penal Code. She was arrested and sent to judicial custody. Some villagers tried to set her house on fire but situation was brought under control,” a police officer said.

Nasheman News :  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated three medical colleges in the state and laid the foundation stone for the Women’s Engineering College in Ramgarh district.

The three medical colleges inaugurated by Modi are located in Dumka, Palamau and Hazaribagh. According to Chief Minister Raghubar Das, academic sessions in the three colleges will start from June this year.

During his visit, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the Women’s Engineering College in Ramgarh district, the third such institute in the country and the first in eastern India. 

Modi also laid the foundation stone online for four 500-bed hospitals at Jamshedpur, Palamau, Hazaribagh and Dumka, which will be constructed at a cost of Rs 1,904 crore.

This apart, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stones for a Rs 517 crore drinking water project for Hazaribagh and pending and new irrigation projects worth Rs 160 crore.

“The Central government is focusing on the health of the people of the state. In coordination with the state government, three new medical colleges have been opened in one day. There were only three medical colleges in the state before and now three more have been added. People will get treatment and the youth will get medical education,” said Modi while addressing a rally here.

Modi also opened the Jharkhand government’s scheme to provide mobile phones to the farmers by handing over cheques worth Rs 2,000 each to five farmers.

He launched another scheme to provide 200 ml milk to school students daily as part of the midday meal programme.

“Our government is dedicated to do away with the ‘middlemen’ so that benefits reach the people directly,” Modi said.

Nasheman News :  A purported audio tape in Kannada has put the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader B.S. Yeddyurappa in Karnataka in the dock. Its contents expose their desperation to topple the JD-S-Congress coalition government in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, due in April-May.

Defying the adage “once bitten, twice shy” Yeddyurappa not only got too ambitious only to get caught on the wrong foot but has also pushed the party into trouble by trying to lure a senior JD-S legislator to join the BJP.

Trying to fish in the troubled waters of the Congress, which is witnessing power struggle between state leadership and a dozen of legislators, including four rebels, the BJP made a desperate bid to dislodge the government to grab power or ensure a spell of President’s Rule during the general elections.

According to a police complaint and a counter-complaint by the JD-S and the BJP, Yeddyurappa tried to “bribe” JD-S member Naganagouda Kandakur of Gurmitkal through the latter’s son Sharanagouda at Devadurga on February 7.

Voices of BJP’s two other legislators, Shivanagouda Naik from Devadurga and Preetham Gowda from Hassan, are also apparent in the tape offering “crores” to Sharanagouda to get his father Kandakur resign and contest from the same seat (Gurmitkal) on a BJP ticket in a by-election.

With Sharanagouda recording the conversation between him and the BJP trio and playing it to the media the next day (February 8) here in the presence of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, the BJP and Yeddyurappa tried to wriggle out of the situation by first boycotting the 2019-20 budget presentation on February 8 and disrupting the 10-day session.

Going on offence to defend itself, the BJP protested against the state government’s decision to inquire into the audio tape through a special investigation team (SIT) and sought a judicial or a House committee probe.

The state government rejected the BJP demand for a judicial probe into the veracity of the 80-minute audio tape and got the budget for fiscal 2019-20 passed in the Assembly by voice vote on Thursday amid the din caused by the opposition.

Though Yeddyurappa initially denied that the voice in the tape was his and accused the JD-S of producing a fabricated and distorted version, a damaging reference to Assembly speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar by Naik that he could be bribed Rs 50 crore for not disqualifying Kandakur in the event of defection to the BJP embarrassed him (the Speaker).

An attack on Preetham Gowda’s house at Hassan, about 180 km from Bengaluru, on Wednesday, allegedly by JD-S workers in retaliation to the former’s remarks against JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, as recorded in the audio tape, also led to the 104-member BJP group to disrupt the Assembly proceedings, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House ahead of the last day of the budget session on Friday.

However, the BJP continues to make a brave face. “The audio tape will have no bearing on our prospects in the Lok Sabha elections as the probe into it is by the police and not judiciary. Depending on outcome, we will challenge it in a court,” BJP’s state unit spokesman Vamanacharya told IANS here.

Even as the Congress heaved a sigh of relief with dissident and rebel legislators attending the Assembly on Wednesday and voting on the budget, the JD-S has been mocking the BJP for failing to topple the eight-month-old coalition government.

“The state government will not succeed in its bid to embarrass our party as courts will need presentable evidence, appearance of witnesses, which will only drag the case on. The audio tape will die its own death,” said Vamanacharya.

Reiterating the demand for a judicial probe into the audio tape, the BJP leader said it was only the judiciary that has the right to give out the report on the issue as the police will be under pressure from the state government in the inquiry.

It’s not the end of the story. Be ready to expect more such revelations and political cacophony as the Lok Sabha elections near. 

Nasheman News :  BJP president Amit Shah has termed the Pulwama attack “cowardice” and said that the sacrifice of the martyrs will not go in vain as there is a BJP government and not a Congress one at the Centre.

Shah was addressing a BJP youth rally in Lakhimpur district of Assam on Sunday. 

“By killing our soldiers, if you think you have won the battle, then you’re wrong. Be it in the Northeast or in Kashmir, the BJP government has never tolerated a threat to India’s security. Our government is committed to fight against terrorism and we have proved it in the past through the surgical strikes as well as through diplomacy. The whole world accepts the political will of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fight against terrorism,” Shah said.

Promising not to let Assam become another turmoil-ridden state like Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), the BJP chief defended the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 and said, “We’ve put a stop to infiltration by bringing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. If we come to power again, we will bring the CAB to identify and deport each one of the illegal Bangladeshis living in Assam.”

Claiming that there was a misinformation campaign over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, he added, “Things are going to be very bad in Assam given the demographic changes that are taking place here. But some people want to use the anger over this Bill for their petty benefits.” 

Shah questioned the roles of the state’s Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Congress governments in implementing the Assam Accord and said that none of these parties took any steps to stop infiltration.

Referring to Clause VI of the Assam Accord, which assures a constitutional safeguard for the indigenous people of the state, Shah said the Modi government has constituted a high powered committee for its implementation and it will be implemented if the BJP comes back to power in the next elections.

The BJP president also highlighted the development work done by the Modi government in Assam and said that while the previous UPA government gave merely Rs 79,000 crore to the state, the NDA government has so far sanctioned close to Rs 3 lakh crore under different schemes and in the 14th Finance Commission.

He appealed to the people of the Northeast to vote for the BJP in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and said that the BJP is bound to come back to power.