Archives for February 2019

Nasheman News : As the Congress braces for a meeting of its key working committee and a massive rally here on Thursday where Priyanka Gandhi will deliver her first public address after being anointed party’s General Secretary, the BJP prepares to match this effort the same day with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national video conference with lakhs of party workers.

Briefing the media here on Monday, Congress’s Gujarat unit chief Amit Chavda said they had requested party president Rahul Gandhi to convene a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, in Gujarat and he had agreed.

Rahul Gandhi, his mother and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and newly-inducted General Secretary for East Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi and AICC treasurer Ahmed Patel will be present at the meeting.

The meet will be followed by a Jan Sankalp Rally, where Priyanka Gandhi is expected to deliver her maiden public address after being inducted full time into the party affairs. Chief Ministers of all Congress-ruled states would also converge at this mega show of the party.

Determined to ensure the Opposition party does not hog the complete limelight in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s prized home state, the BJP will have Modi addressing lakhs of party workers through video-conferencing across 450 centres in Gujarat under its “Mera Booth Sabse Majboot” programme. Nationally the address will cover 15,000 places.

This will be preceded by the launch of a mass contact programme on Tuesday where 50,000 BJP workers will fan out across areas covered under 50,000 polling booths to propagate the central government’s public welfare schemes.

Announcing this here on Monday, State BJP Spokesman Bharat Pandya said on the same evening “Kamal Deep” event would be held where a lamp would be lighted across 47 lakh homes of party workers and beneficiaries of Central schemes.

The party’s entire top brass in the state would oversee this with Chief Minister Vijay Rupani being stationed at Dehgam and president Jitubhai Vaghani at his home district Bhavnagar. “Similarly, all top leaders have been assigned various locations, ” Pandya said.

Meanwhile, the party’s national general secretary in charge of Gujarat for Lok Sabha elections Om Mathur would arrive here on Tuesday for a four-day visit up to March 1.

While Prime Minister Modi’s national video conference would begin at 12.30 pm on Thursday, Chavda informed that Congress’s Sankalp Rally at Trimandir in Adalaj, located between Gujarat’s political capital Gandhinagar and commercial capital Ahmedabad, would start from 3 pm after the all-importamt CWC meeting.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara triggered a political row in his state and within his party when he hinted that Dalits have been ignored by the Congress when it comes to the top job.

Addressing the Chalavadi community in Davangere, the Congress leader said that he was thrice denied the CM post because he belonged to the Dalit community.

“B Basavalingappa and KH Ranganath missed the CM post. Mallikarjun Kharge also couldn’t become CM. I missed it thrice. Somehow I was made Deputy CM,” he said referring to the three tallest Dalit leaders from the state.

While the late Basavalingappa was a senior Congress leader, KH Ranganath and Mallikarjun Kharge are former KPCC presidents. Kharge is currently the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha.

Reacting to Parameshwara’s comment, former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Monday that he is unsure of why the Deputy CM gave the statement.

“It’s the Congress party which is taking care of Dalits and other neglected sections of society,” stressed Siddaramaiah.

“I don’t know in what context he made a statement like that. It’s better you ask him,” he was quoted as saying by media.

While speaking about discrimination against Dalits at the government level, Parameshwara said that even Dalit leaders have never been given a chance to be the Chief Minister.

“Even though reservation is facilitated, there has been injustice in promotions,” he alleged.

According to The New Indian Express, Parameshwara alleged that seven government officials had committed suicide after they were demoted.

“Our government will come out with rules next week to implement reservation in promotions, he added.

Chalavadi, a Scheduled Caste community, has a large presence in Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad, Vijayapura and Bidar districts.

Parameshwara, a former KPCC president, is the first Dalit to become Deputy CM of the state. He also served as Home Minister of the state for a brief period in the previous Congress government led by Siddaramaiah.

The Janata Dal (Secular), which is an ally of the Congress in the government and to which Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy belongs, is yet to comment on Parameshwara’s statement.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday asked his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to “give peace a chance” and assured him that he “stands by” his words and will “immediately act” if New Delhi provides Islamabad with “actionable intelligence” on the Pulwama attack.

Khan’s remarks came a day after PM Modi in a rally in Rajasthan, recalled his conversation with the Pakistan PM during a congratulatory call after he became the country’s premier.

PM Modi had told him “let us fight against poverty and illiteracy” and Khan gave his word saying he is a Pathan’s son “but went back on it”.

“There is consensus in the entire world against terrorism. We are moving ahead with strength to punish the perpetrators of terrorism…The scores will be settled this time, settled for good…This is a changed India, this pain will not be tolerated…We know how to crush terrorism,” PM Modi further said.

A statement released by the Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office said, “PM Imran Khan stand by his words that if India gives us actionable intelligence, we will immediately act.”

PM Modi should “give peace a chance”, Khan said in the statement.

In his first statement issued since the February 14 attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan had on Tuesday accused India of blaming his country “without evidence” and warned of retaliation against any military action by India.

However, he assured India that he would act against the perpetrators of the deadly Pulwama terror attack, carried out by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror group and said that the issue between the two countries can be solved through dialogue.

India had called Khan’s offer to investigate the attack if provided proof as a “lame excuse”.

The already sour relations between India and Pakistan have worsened over the past few weeks as New Delhi accused Islamabad of the Pulwama attack.

India has accused Islamabad’s spy agency ISI of being involved in the attack and has maintained that the terror group JeM is a “child of the Pakistan Army”.

Following the attack, India immediately withdrew the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ status granted to Pakistan and initiated steps to isolate the neighbouring country from the international community.

Earlier, India had also announced its decision to stop the flow of its share of water from the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej to Pakistan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in many of his public speeches after the attack, said that the security forces have been given full freedom to decide the future course of action regarding the terrorist attack in Pulwama.

India’s neighbours, including Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Bhutan—and other countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Russia, Germany, Canada, UK, Australia and Canada came out in strong support of New Delhi following the terror attack.

Over 44 CRPF personnel were killed and many injured on February 14 in one of the deadliest terror strikes in Jammu-Kashmir when a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) suicide bomber blew up an explosive-laden vehicle near their bus in Pulwama district.

The bus was part of a convoy of 78 vehicles carrying around 2500 CRPF personnel from Jammu to Srinagar.

Agencies

Nasheman News :  Megastar Amitabh Bachchan says it is unfortunate to have come across stories about married women who are thrown out of their house because they are suffering from Hepatitis B. He is against this kind of discrimination towards women and says he will fight for it as long as he is alive.

Amitabh was addressing the media at the launch of a national action plan combating Viral Hepatitis in India along with Maharashtra Minister for PWD, Public Health and Family Welfare Eknath Shinde here on Sunday. 

“I was interested in this great campaign that the government of India and other associations including the World Health Organisation (WHO) have put into practice. My family doctor and his other doctor friends visited me and made me aware of that… how very little is known about it,” said the cine icon.

“I immediately agreed in whatever way I could. There were two things that attracted me, first thing was dissemination of information about Hepatitis B. Most people aren’t aware of this disease but it is a life threatening one so, I felt it’s my duty as a citizen of India to create awareness about it.”

He also said that he feels sad when he sees discrimination towards women when it comes to fighting with diseases. 

“Second thing that surprised and hurt me was that the factor of discrimination particularly to women… it’s really unfortunate that I have come across such stories where married women are thrown out of their house because they are suffering from Hepatitis B.

“Women are half of the power of the country. They are the strength of our country so, they must be treated with respect and dignity that they deserve. If we begin to discriminate them, just because they are suffering from a particular disease, then it is not acceptable and I will fight for this as long as I am alive.” 

Talking about himself, he said: “Today, I am free from tuberculosis because it was diagnosed and treated at the right time so, I feel we must pay a lot of attention to the process of detections of these diseases because if they are detected on time, then there is a cure and I am an example of that.”