Archives for May 2019

Amid hectic campaigning in her parliamentary constituency,  Minister Smriti Irani hit out at Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and claimed that people should keep their children away from the latter.

Irani was reacting to news of a viral video of a group of children raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Priyanka’s presence. While the authenticity of the video hasn’t been verified, Irani said, “She makes children abuse. She asked children to abuse the Prime Minister. You cannot use children for political campaigns. What will children learn out of this? I will ask all cultured families to keep their children away from Priyanka Gandhi. I am happy that the family which claims to be cultured stands unmasked.”

Talking to media, Irani said that the Congress was fighting a losing battle in UP. “We gave such a chase to Congress President that he had to literally run even after SP-BSP pledged support on this seat. This is not a fight between BJP & Congress, this is a genuine fight between people & a ‘lapata sansad’.”

Irani’s jibe was directed at Rahul Gandhi who is contesting from Amethi as well as Wayanad in Kerala.

Earlier, while addressing a gathering in Rae Bareli, Priyanka had taken a veiled dig at both the Prime Minister and the UP Chief Minister and said, “The Prime Minister did not get time to visit a single village of his constituency during five years. Had he talked to
farmers about their lives, he would have come to know what name the farmers have given to stray animals around them.”

To this, Irani said, “This is her real face. She is disrespecting a prime minister and a state chief. She denigrated Gorakhnath math adhyaksh (Yogi Adityanath). Will she do the same in Gorakhpur?”

As to Priyanka’s role, Irani said the former was standing in for her brother who had already ceded ground in Amethi. “Priyanka is not a candidate, in fact, her very presence here is recognition of Rahul’s incapacity,” she said.

Agencies

New Delhi, May 2 : Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said he is more concerned for Hindus than Mr Modi is.
In an interview to a news channel, Mr Kejriwal said,”Mr Modi doesn’t love Hindus, but actually hates Muslims and gets them killed. People are targetted for speaking against Mr Modi. I want to ask if you are a party of Hindus, what have you done for Hindus?
Have the BJP people arranged for school admission of even one Hindu child? Have BJP people even provided employment to one Hindu youth in these years? Did BJP people get even one Hindu child admitted in a hospital for treatment? Kejriwal did it.”
”Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) even admitted Hindu students in schools. They even provided employment to Hindu youth. AAP even helped in the medical treatment of Hindu kids. I am more concerned for Hindus than Modi is. Modi does not think about Hindus,” he said.
”What does Mr Modi do? Modi kills Muslims. And after killing Muslims he says I care for Hindus. You hate Muslims, you don’t love Hindus. We love Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains,” Mr Kejriwal said.
Expressing displeasure at Congress’ refusal to form an alliance with AAP, he accused the latter of ‘cutting anti-BJP votes’.

Agencies

Addressing the media, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also slammed the opposition parties for their stand on the declaration.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley jointly addressed a press conference on Thursday where they praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “persistent efforts” behind the designation of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UNSC.

“We would like to highlight the fact that the zero tolerance policy for terrorism by the PM has borne fruit. This is something this government will draw attention of the people of India to,” Sitharaman said at the press conference in New Delhi.

“In every opportunity the PM had during his bilateral meetings and in multilateral fora, (raised) the need to recognise Pakistan as the land where, as per publically available data, has more than 35 declared terror organisations are located.

“Azhar’s name as the leader and mastermind of several attacks has all been recognised. But it is the persistent effort taken by this government under the leadership of PM which has brought this result for us today,” she added.

“The outcome of persistent measures taken by MEA under the leadership of PM and the PM’s own visits have resulted in this,” Sitharaman said.

Addressing the media, Jaitley slammed the opposition parties for their stand on the declaration.

“The whole country is praising the government and the PM. When the country wins, every Indian wins but it is unfortunate that some friends in the opposition think that if they join in this victory they might have to pay a political price for it,” he said.

He also took a jibe at the claims by the opposition that they carried out “invisible surgical strikes” when they were in power.

“When we succeeded after 10 long years, they reacted by saying that there is no big deal. India’s tradition was that all parties were united when it came to the country’s foreign and defence policy but in the last few days have witnessed attempts at breaking this tradition,” he said.

Calling the Congress a “fringe organisation”, Jaitley said that “Congress blackmails institutions and if the institutions do not agree with them they tarnish the institutions”.

He also said that Congress comes out with frivolous complaints and puts unnecessary pressure on Election Commission.

“Model Code of Conduct does not encroach into free speech. It is subject to free speech; both have to exist together harmoniously,” he said.

“How can calling for votes in the name of nationalism violate MCC? Has Article 19-1(A) been deleted from the Constitution? Is MCC a substitute for free speech? The answer is no. The MCC is subject to free speech. It doesn’t shrink free speech,” Jaitley added.

Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar was on Wednesday declared as a global terrorist by the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee 1267.

The proposal was recently moved by France, UK and the US but was blocked by China.

Beijing lifted its “technical hold” on Wednesday just over a week after Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in China, thus making it a huge diplomatic win for India.

Syed Akbaruddin, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said that Azhar’s listing is a significant outcome for India because “we have been at it for several years”.

“The first effort was made in 2009. More recently, we have been persistent, diligent and, in a subterranean manner, making all our efforts towards this goal. Today that goal stands achieved,” he said.

Masood Azhar is the chief of JeM, which carried out a series of terror attacks on India including the 2001 Parliament attack, the January 2016 Pathankot terror attack and the September 2016 Uri terror attack. The most recent attack was the 14 February Pulwama terror attack which killed 40 CRPF personnel.

Agencies

Higher education minister G T Devegowda dropped a bomb on Wednesday when he said that JDS supporters may have voted for the BJP and not the Congress in Mysuru. While he clarified soon after that he was referring to just one gram panchayat, his statements came as no surprise to leaders of the Congress, especially those in the close circles of legislative party chief Siddaramaiah.

Gowda simply spoke what was on Siddaramaiah’s mind all along, ever since phase II voting concluded in Karnataka. Sources close to the coordination committee chief suggest that the JDS leadership’s inability to ensure a transfer of votes to alliance candidate Vijayshankar has him fuming. “Despite the rebellion in Mandya, Congress leaders tried their best to coax their workers into voting for CM H D Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumar, but not a single leader of the JDS was willing to even ask the local leadership to campaign or vote for Vijayshankar,” said a Congress leader close to Siddaramaiah.

Mysore Lok Sabha seat was a matter of pride for Siddaramaiah, who had bargained hard to retain it with the Congress during seat sharing agreement. With coalition candidate Vijayashankar, a Kuruba, Siddaramaiah had hoped to beat the BJP’s number game with absolute consolidation of Kurub, OBC votes and gain a major chunk of Vokkaliga votes from the JDS, considering that the SC/ST vote would be split between the coalition and the BJP.

“Transfering the JDS vote to Krishna Byregowda, a Vokkaliga, in Bangalore North, was not a challenge but convincing cadres to vote for Vijayshankar, a Kuruba, when another Vokkaliga — Pratap Simha — was in the fray was never going to be easy,” another Congress leader said. Congress is basing its argument on voter turnout in all eight assembly segments of Mysore Lok Sabha seats. Congress has an MLA in just one of the eight assembly segments, while JDS has three MLAs and BJP has four. Madikeri, considered a BJP bastion, recorded the highest voter turnout, followed closely by Hunsur — a seat where JDS holds the sway.

Sources close to Siddaramaiah insisted that the former CM is waiting for May 23. “He will speak to the central leadership on the bearing of this coalition on the Congress after elections. His argument will be based on vote share and actual transfer,” said an aid of Siddaramaiah. While the Congress acknowledges that some vote transfer has taken place, will that suffice to ensure a victory to the coalition candidate, is the real question.

Agencies

The remarks come in the wake of an IED blast triggered by Naxals in Maharashtra’s Gadchroli district earlier on Wednesday which left 16 people dead including 15 security personnel.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for claiming that no major blasts had taken place in the country since 2014.

Naming a few blasts including the Pulwama terror attacks, Gandhi said there had been as many as 942 major bombings over the past five years adding that the “PM needs to open his ears and listen”.

The remarks come in the wake of an IED blast triggered by Naxals in Maharashtra’s Gadchroli district earlier on Wednesday which left 16 people dead including 15 security personnel.

The Naxals triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) to blow up the police vehicle on the Kurkheda-Korchi road in Gadchiroli when a team of the C-60 commandoes, an anti-Naxal unit, was patrolling the area.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had strongly condemned the “despicable” attack on the security personnel, adding that the perpetrators of the attack will not be spared.

Last week, Congress leader P Chidambaram said the prime minister has said once again that there were no bomb blasts during his five-year tenure.

“Is it due to memory loss or due to a compulsive habit,” Chidambaram asked in a tweet.

He also posted a list of blasts in Mohra, Dantewada, Palamu, Aurangabad, Koraput, Sukma, Awapalli, Chhattisgarh and said “will someone please read to the PM” the partial list of major bomb blasts.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera also slammed the Modi government alleging that “fake chest thumping” characterises the BJP-led government’s narrative towards national security.

He hit out at the Modi government over the Maoist attack and said that despite its “tall talk” no lessons from Pulwama are learnt.

“The Congress strongly condemns this mindless and despicable act, and pays homage to their martyrdom and their sacrifice will not go in vain,” Khera said addressing a press conference here.

“In the past five years, fake chest thumping, hyperbole, empty slogans and acronym building have characterised Modi government’s narrative towards our national and internal security,” he said.

Giving the figures of the attack on the security forces across the country by the Maoists, Khera said in the last five years, 1,086 Maoist attacks have taken place in which 391 jawans and 582 civilians have been killed.

“Will Prime Minister Modi take responsibility about the growing menace of Maoism?” he asked.

Agencies