Four BSF personnel including an Assistant Commandant were martyred in firing by Pakistani forces in Samba district last night. Five jawans were severely injured in Pak shelling.

Pakistani troops from across the border resorted to unprovoked firing targeting Chamliyal and Narayanpur BSF posts in Ramgarh sector around 10 PM Tuesday night.

Pakistan Rangers’ sniper shots resulted in casualties and injuries to the BSF men deployed at the Indian positions. The BSF troops guarding the border retaliated and exchange of fire continued 2 AM.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

It is learned that Karnataka CM, H D Kumaraswamy, who has been tired by the impedance by his father and brother in each aspect of the governance, has told them that their habit of poking nose in all governmental issues is unwelcome.

Kumaraswamy is learned to have spilled out his sentiments in front of his closed ones in which he disclosed that he rose to be the Chief Minister of Karnataka under peculiar conditions and that he has been experiencing pressure from Congress on different issues. He wonders how he can work if relatives too try to have their say in all parts of the government.

Sources expressed that the CM told his brother H D Revanna, and father, H D Deve Gowda, that he doesn’t need the interference of his family members, brothers and all others in the governmental affairs and that he must be without given free hands in these issues.

It is learned that after Kumaraswamy won the trust vote in the assembly, Deve Gowda had held meetings with the chief secretary of the administration, K Ratna Prabha, additional chief secretary, Laxminarayana, director general of police, Neelamani N Raju, city police commissioner, T Sunil Kumar and others. At the point when Kumaraswamy held meetings of officials from departments of horticulture, agriculture and so forth in the Vidhana Soudha, Revanna had assembled a meeting of Karnataka Milk Federation despite the fact that he isn’t associated with it. In addition, when Kumaraswamy was tending to a press meet, Revanna had intervened, which had raged Kumaraswamy.

By virtue of these reasons, Kumaraswamy has advised his family members to stay away from things with which they are not concerned with, reports expressed.

Spiritual guru Bhayyu Maharaj, who had refused to accept ministerial rank granted by the Madhya Pradesh government over two months back, today allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself here, police said.

“Bhayyu Maharaj has committed suicide by shooting himself,” Indore’s Deputy Inspector General (DIG) H C Mishra said.

He shot himself at his home, Mishra said.

Bhayyu Maharaj, whose original name was Uday Singh Deshmukh, was one of the five ‘saints’ to whom the Shivraj Singh government of Madhya Pradesh had granted Minister of State (MoS) rank in April.

However, he had refused to accept it, saying “a post holds no importance for a saint”.

Prior to becoming the spiritual guru, he had done a modeling stint, his disciples said.

He enjoyed a large following among politicians and film stars.

Mostly all Mahrashtra Chief Ministers including the incumbent, Devendra Fadnavis and former President Pratibha Patil used to pay obeisance to him.

When India Against Corruption (IAC) movement led by Anna Hazare was at its peak some years back, he had negotiated with the agitators to break their fast

The plush office meant for Karnataka speaker K R Ramesh Kumar has been given to former chief minister Siddaramaiah, even though he has no constitutional post in the newly formed H D Kumaraswamy government.

Kumar had worked out of the office on the first floor of the complex for the past two weeks. However, he vacated it for Siddaramaiah.

Siddaramaiah was unanimously elected as the leader of the Congress Legislative Party in May and is also the chairman of the JD(S)-Congress government coordination committee.
The new office of Siddaramaiah has high-end wooden furniture, including luxurious sofas, chairs, LED TV and other comforts.

Former Karnataka speaker K B Koliwad had renovated this office at a cost of Rs 68 lakh expanding the single-room space into two during his term. The lavish expenditure was severely criticized by the BJP, which termed it unnecessary when farmers are committing suicide.

However, Koliwad citied space crunch, difficulty in organizing meetings and justified the renovation activity.

While Siddaramaiah was blamed by some of his party leaders for Congress defeat and rumours making rounds of him being sidelined in the new government, the swanky office allotted to him which was actually meant to be that of the Speaker’s has raised eyebrows.

A case was registered against controversial Telangana BJP MLA T Raja Singh Lodh for allegedly posting an “inflammatory” video on the social networking site over ‘Iftar’ parties, police said today.

The city police suo-moto registered the case under IPC section 153A (promoting enmity among people on grounds of religion) against him last night, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Falaknuma Division) Syed Fiyaz.

The MLA from Goshamahal constituency, known for making contentious statements, had posted the video message on a social networking site saying many legislators including from Telangana are busy hosting ‘Iftar’ parties, and declared he would neither host nor attend such events.

“Those who sit with them (those attending Iftar) are ‘vote ke bhikhari’ (beggars for a vote). My thinking is different,” he said in it.

Singh said his religion Hinduism taught him to give respect to everyone.

“But some religions and their religious books preach to kill Hindus as they are ‘Kafir’ (a term literally meaning non-believers but often construed as insulting to followers of other religions). How can I attend an Iftar or host one for those who talk of killing Hindus?” he asked.

In support of his claim, the MLA said it was mentioned in the “green book.”

“This green book is responsible for the spread of terrorism in India and it should be banned. I will fight to get it banned,” he had said.

Singh had also accused Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of hosting Iftar at different mosques in the state to “appease” the minorities.

The MLA has been booked by the Hyderabad police several times over alleged provocative speeches and statements.

The BJP on Monday hit back at Congress for calling “wheels” of the Indian economy “punctured” and accused it of making “baseless and irresponsible” allegations against the government.

“Allegations labeled by (former Finance Minister P.) Chidambaram are baseless and irresponsible. He has raised the issue of growth rate while we have emerged today as the fastest growing economy in the world.

“This quarter (4th of FY 2018), the growth rate was 7.7 percent. It was more than that of 2014 when they (UPA) left the government. We maintained the pattern of growth rate even when the situation in the world was different,” Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters here at a press conference.

Attacking the Congress, he said that it was their record that growth rate was always low while the rate of inflation was always high.

“Our government has changed it. The growth rate has increased while the rate of inflation has gone down,” he said.

Javadekar was responding to Chidambaram’s remarks in which he said that three out of the four wheels – exports, private investment, capital formation – of the national economy have been “punctured” and held the BJP government’s “administrative incompetence”, “reckless decisions” and “policy blunders” responsible for the rising farm distress, unemployment, and economic failure.

He said the only tyre that seemed to be inflated was government expenditure.

“But here too, the government’s options are getting limited because of the pressure on the current account deficit (CAD) and the fiscal deficit (FD),” he said.

Chidambaram said the gross NPAs (Non-Performing Assets) had risen in the last four years from Rs 2,63,000 crore to Rs 10,30,000 crore and would rise further.

Responding to the charges on NPA, Javadekar blamed Congress for the NPA crisis.

He said that the government is working seriously on long term solution over the hikes in rates of petrol and diesel prices.