Archives for May 2019

The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its order on the contempt petition filed by BJP MP Meenakashi Lekhi against Rahul Gandhi for attributing his ‘chowkidar chor hai’ comment to the apex court.

The Congress president, on the other hand, requested the top court to close the criminal contempt proceedings against him since he has apologised over the wrong attribution of the remarks.

Appearing for Gandhi, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that Gandhi has tendered an unconditional apology in the matter.

But senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Lekhi, told the bench that the apology tendered by Gandhi should be rejected and action must be taken against him as per the law.

He also argued that the court should ask Gandhi to make an apology to the public for his remarks.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph is hearing the case against the 48-year-old Congress chief.

Meenakshi Lekhi, the BJP Member of Parliament from the New Delhi constituency, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court alleging that Rahul Gandhi had committed contempt by attributing his ‘chowkidar chor hai’ remarks on the Rafale controversy to the top court.

Rahul Gandhi, while welcoming the Supreme Court’s decision to examine fresh revelations on the Rafale deal on April 10, made remarks about the prime minister and corruption

Ecstatic over the Supreme Court’s decision, Gandhi claimed a moral victory and said that the court has made it clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “committed theft”.

“The Supreme Court has made it clear that ‘chowkidarji’ (watchman) has committed a theft,” Gandhi told reporters during a rally in Amethi.

Lekhi said that the imputation that the court had ruled as such was contempt because it imputed words to the court that it hadn’t said.

Gandhi had on Wednesday filed a three-page affidavit stating his unconditional apology to the apex court.

In an earlier affidavit, Gandhi had said that he had no intention of dragging the court into politics and alleged that it was Lekhi who is playing politics. He had earlier expressed regret for his remarks.

On 30 April, Singhvi had said that the Congress president will file a fresh affidavit with an apology after BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that Gandhi has only expressed regret even as he “deliberately” put words in the mouth of the court.

Agencies

Deoria, May 9 : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh here on Thursday claimed that India was gaining respect, power and prestige under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing a rally here in Salempur area, Mr Singh said India was known as a weak and poor country in early days but now our country has emerged as strong, powerful and influential country in world. He said that PM Modi worked hard day and night for betterment of the country.

Mr Singh said that India is fastest developing country of the world. Our economy was growing swiftly and we have gained sixth position in terms of development while in earlier days the rank was 9, he pointed out adding that our country will be their biggest economy of the world in coming days.

Hitting out at Congress for underdevelopment Mr Singh said that Congress provided 25 lakh homes in six years under Pradhanmantari Avas Yojna while in BJP government regime about 1.30 crore houses were gifted to poor, unprivileged and backwards. Apart from that poor families got free LPG connection and electricity in past five years, he added.

Union minister claimed that every poor family will have shelter and gas connection in coming days if Modi government comes to power at the Centre. He said that constriction of roads at grand scale was started in Atal government and now in Modi government national highways were being constructed at the rate of 32 kilometer per day.

He said that inflation was under control in BJP regime and over 7 crore poor were lifted above poverty line and the line will be eliminated in next five years.

Bengaluru, May 9 : Notification was issued for holding elections to 63 Urban Local Bodies in Karnataka and over 14 lakh eligible voters are expected to exercise their franchise on May 29.

Thus filing of Nominations began for 22 City Municipal Councils, 33 Municipalities and 22 Town Panchayats in 22 districts of the State.

As both the Coalition partners in the Government–Congress and JDS– have decided to go alone in the ULB election there will be a triangular fight.

Last date for withdrawal of Nomination is on May 20, while counting of votes polled will be taken up on May 31. The election code comes into force with immediate effect in all the ULBs where election are scheduled.

Panaji, May 9 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa on Thursday filed a complaint before Election Commission against Congress candidate for Panaji by-election Atanasio Monserrate alleging that he had failed to publish in newspapers list of criminal cases filed against him.
In the complaint, BJP Goa unit President Vinay Tendulkar said, “The Supreme Court judgment in writ petition 536 of 2011 makes it mandatory that the candidate having criminal background and the political party who has set up such a candidate must inform the general public three times on different dates in the period between the last day of withdrawal of nominations and the last day of campaigning about the same through print media as well as electronic media..”
“Therefore, it is our strong contention that Atanasio Monserrtae and the Congress have clearly violated the aforesaid mandatory provision laid down by the ECI and have also attracted a serious case of contempt of Supreme Court,” he said.
Mr Tendulkar claimed that by not complying with the Supreme Court directions, Mr Monserrate had also attracted contempt of court.
Besides Mr Monserrate, Valmiki Naik of Aam Adami Party (AAP), Sidharth Kuncaliencar of BJP and Subhash Velingkar of Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM) are also in the fray. The by-elections are scheduled to be held on May 19.

New Delhi, May 9 : Twenty eight years after the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, the Congress party has suddenly “discovered” a BJP role in his death, Union Finance Minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said on Thursday,
He called the Congress “desperate” and said that from May 1991 to 2004, the grand old party was blaming its ally DMK for Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, and after 28 years one of its leaders had found the BJP responsible for his death.

“From December 1990 till May 1991, when Shri Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, the Congress Party supported Chandra Shekhar government in power.

“From May 1991 till 2004, the Congress blamed its present ally the DMK for Shri Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. It even withdrew support from the United Front government on this ground. 28 years later, today a desperate Congress has discovered a BJP role,” he tweeted.

Mr Jaitley ‘s sarcasting comment came in wake of senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel’s statement that lack of security provided by “BJP-backed government” led to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.
“Abusing a martyred Prime Minister is the sign of ultimate cowardice. But who is responsible for his assassination? The BJP backed V P Singh govt refused to provide him with additional security and left him with one PSO despite credible intelligence inputs and repeated requests,” Mr Patel had said in a Twitter post.
Mr Jaitley then repeated what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said on Wednesday about the former premier using INS Viraat for personal holidays.
“The Kaamdars use India’s Naval assets to strike at terror. The Naamdars use them for personal vacations with family and in-laws,” he added.
“At the time when INS Viraat was positioned for protection of maritime boundaries, it was sent to take Rajiv Gandhi and his family to an island for their holiday. Even his in-laws were onboard INS Viraat. Was it not a compromise of national security?
”Even Navy personnel were put on service of Rajiv Gandhi and his family while they were vacationing at the island. INS Virat was also stationed at the island for 10 days during that time,” he had said.

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition seeking direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to debar Congress president Rahul Gandhi from contesting the Lok Sabha polls after he had “voluntarily acquired British nationality.”

CJI Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the plea stating that “there was no merit in it”.

The petitioners – Jai Bhagwan Goyal and Chander Prakash Tyagi – had said that in a form along with the annual data of a UK-based company in 2005-06, it was allegedly mentioned that Rahul Gandhi is a British citizen.

“If some company in some form mentions his nationality as British, does he become a British citizen?” the bench also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna asked the petitioners.

In April, the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi over his citizenship after receiving a complaint from Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy.

The Ministry had also asked Gandhi to intimate the factual position in the matter within 15 days.

“I am directed to say that this ministry has received a representation from Dr Subramanian Swamy, in which it has been brought out that a company named Backops Limited was registered in the United Kingdom in the year 2003, with address 51 Southgate Street, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 9EH and that you were one of the directors and secretary of the said company,” the letter from BC Joshi, Director, Citizenship, in the home ministry read.

The letter further said the complaint mentioned that in the company’s annual returns filed on October 10, 2005, and 31 October 2006, Gandhi’s date of birth has been given as June 19, 1970, and that the Congress president had declared his nationality as British.

In the Dissolution application of the company dated 17/02/2009 too, the letter said, his nationality has been mentioned as British.

The notice came as a major setback for the Congress president who is contesting from the constituencies of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad in Kerala in the Lok Sabha polls.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had played down the notice to Gandhi as a “normal process”.