Nasheman News : Days after burying differences and finalizing seat-sharing agreement with Bharatiya Janata Party in Punjab, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday lashed out at the Opposition for asking how many people died in air strike on terror camps in Pakistan.

In an interview with IANS, the Union Minister of Food Processing said the Congress and 21 opposition parties are speaking the language of Pakistan.

“It is shameful that you are questioning our armed forces and believing what Pakistan is saying,” she said launching a blistering attack on the Opposition for not believing the the armed forces.

The minister said she was worried that the Opposition’s stand will affect the morale of the armed forces. She said that going into the enemy territory and targeting terror camps in itself is a commendable achievement and required guts.

“Forget about how many people died. Are you not believing the head of our air force who said we went into the enemy territory. Even Pakistan has accepted this fact,” she said.

Confident after the seat-sharing agreement under which the SAD (Badal) and BJP decided to contest the same number of seats as in 2014 (SAD-B will contest 10 and the BJP 3 of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab), Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the alliance will hit the bull’s eye this time by winning all 13 Lok Sabha seats.

She brushed aside fierce infighting within her own party’s camp saying these dissenting voices were “zeroes to start with and if you keep adding zeros the result is going to be zero”. 

The Union minister said the Congress has been attempting divide-and-rule in Punjab for many years, and that this time it was no different.

Amidst reports that SAD (B) patriarch Parkash Singh Badal may enter electoral fray as the party is facing one of its toughest battles, Harsimrat Kaur said the party will decide he will contest or not, but at the moment he is not keen. 

Dismissing Aam Admi Party (AAP), the third force in Punjab, as an irrelevant factor, she said the contest is going to be two-way only. “No one knows which AAP is there in Punjab. Punjab has four AAPs,” she said saying AAP was in total disarray.

The Union Minister, who is a Member of Parliament from Bathinda, said the party will decide if she will contest from the same constituency, but she has a lot to show in terms of work. 

She is not afraid to take on even Congress leader and arch rival Navjot Singh’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu from Bhatinda. “It will make the contest interesting,” she said on reports that the Congress might field the wife of the cricketer whom SAD-B has labelled as anti-national for supporting Pakistan.

BAGALKOT: Former Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday made a controversial statement about people wearing vermillion (tilak or tikka) on their foreheads.          

Addressing an event in Bagalkot’s Badami, he said, “I am scared of people who wear long tikas with kumkum or ash.” He had pointed to a man who was wearing a ‘tikka’ in the crowd and made the remark,

Wearing vermillion on the forehead is an ancient Hindu practice.

In January, Siddaramaiah had lost his cool and was caught on camera furiously snatching a mikefrom a woman, in the process of which her ‘dupatta’ also fell.

However, clarifying the incident later he said, “It was an accident, there was no bad intention. I know her for 15 years, she is just like my sister.”

Siddaramaiah is a sitting MLA from Badami constituency in Karnataka.

Nasheman News : For the second time in a week, Kerala’s ruling CPI-M said that the government has no plans to implement the Church Act, with now Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan making the assurance to a group of bishops from various Christian denominations who meet him on Wednesday.

The proposed Act aims to put in place a Devasom-like structure of administration over churches in the state and make heads of different churches accountable to the state government.

The draft act was put online by Law Reforms Commission chairman, Justice (retd) K.T. Thomas, a former Supreme Court judge, to solicit public opinion but sparked off protests from various Christian denominations.

Vijayan’s office on Wednesday issued a statement to the media which said that his government has no plans at all to implement the Act.

“This Commission before doing this never ever consulted with the Kerala government. We categorically wish to inform all concerned, this government has no plans to implement the Church Act at all,” it read.

During the previous LDF tenure (2006-11), the then Law Reforms Commission had come up with a similar Act but the government never acted upon it, it added.

On March 1, CPI-M state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told the media that the Left government was not going forward with the Act, a day after the Inter-Church Council got together near Kottayam to protest the proposed move.

Nasheman News : Pledging to intensify the fight to reclaim the encroached work properties across Karnataka the social democratic party of India has launched a Wakf bachao andolan(save wakf Movement) in the state.

Presiding over with the inaugural function of the movement at Darussalam Auditorium here on Tuesday SDPI State president IIlyas Mohammad Thumbey said that his party would create awareness among Muslim community to protect Wakf property and keep all work documents in order.

He also pointed out that many prominent politicians in the state have been facing allegations of encroaching and selling Wakf properties in the state.

Delivering the introductory remarks. SDPI state General Secretary Abdul Hannan laid emphasis on the necessity to protect the Wakf properties. make use of them and pass them to the next generation.

 Karnataka state unit president of imams Council of India, Maulana Ateequrrahman inaugurated the programme and said that if a properties is handed over to Wakf it will remain the property of community forever and no one can misuse of Sell it

Popular front of India Karnataka State president Mohammed Shakif. SDPI state secretary Akram Hasan and SDPI national wise president prof Naznin Begum also spoke.

Nasheman News :The Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) wants to contest 10 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, party chief H.D. Deve Gowda said on Wednesday after holding talks on seat sharing with Congress President Rahul Gandhi here.

“Several points about seat sharing were discussed. We wanted 12 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, now we have come down to 10 seats,” the former Prime Minister said. 

“Our leader Danish Ali and Congress’ K.C. Venugopal will hold further discussions. (Congress President) Rahul Gandhi will take the final decision,” he told the media.

The Congress and the JD-S are in alliance in the Karnataka government. Of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in 2014, the BJP won 17, the Congress nine and the JD-S two.

Documents linked to the Rafale deal have been stolen and petitioners are violating the Official Secrets Act by relying on classified documents, the government told the Supreme Court today as the court’s notice was drawn to a newspaper report.

“These documents were stolen from the Defence  Ministry either by former or present employees. These are secret documents and can’t be in the public domain,” the Attorney General told the court, representing the central government.

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi questioned what action the government had taken.

“We are investigating how these documents were stolen,” said the centre.C

“It is a criminal offence. We are objecting preliminary because secret documents can’t be annexed with the petition. Review and perjury petitions must be dismissed,” said the Attorney General.

Agencies