Pune: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday likened the BJP and RSS to “poison” and termed them as “politically most dangerous” in India.

Addressing a rally in Sangli on the penultimate day before the campaigning for the Maharashtra assembly polls concluded, Kharge used the “killing the poisonous snake” analogy in his speech.

“If there is anything which is politically the most dangerous in India is the BJP and RSS. They are like poison. If a snake bites, the person (who is bitten) dies…such a poisonous snake should be killed,” said Kharge.

He targeted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the death of 10 newborns in a fire at a medical college.

Without naming Vishal Patil, the Congress rebel and Independent MP from Sangli, Kharge accused him of betraying the party and supporting his sister-in-law, who is contesting as an Independent nominee in the November 20 assembly elections.

In a dig at BJP, Kharge said the number of leaders who campaigned in Maharashtra polls outnumbered the number of candidates of the saffron party in the fray.

“The Prime Minister, Home Minister (Amit Shah) and other leaders have come here. Today, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath was also here. No idea what happened to him. In UP, in a fire at a hospital in Jhansi, 10 kids died. Despite that, his rallies in Maharashtra didn’t stop,” the Congress president said.

Kharge took potshots at PM Narendra Modi for holding rallies for state-level elections.

This is an election for assembly and not to elect the prime minister of the country, he said, adding that his (Modi’s) “thirst for authority” is unsatiated.

He slammed Modi for not visiting strife-torn Manipur and instead travelling abroad.

“Modi was here till yesterday. Today he is abroad. Manipur is burning, people are dying, adivasi women are disrespected, and women are raped but Modi never visited Manipur. He is on foreign tours. Today he is also visiting a country. I want to tell him first to look after your home. Make the country strong first. You can go anywhere later,” Kharge added.

He questioned the output of Modi’s meetings with Donald Trump, Pakistan’s prime minister, and presidents of Russia and China from India’s perspective.

The 83-year-old leader said his age didn’t stop him from supporting the Congress’ ideology and meeting people.

“There are leaders who were given positions by the party and benefited. We are not criticising anyone but if the Congress party is giving you everything, you should not betray it,” said Kharge in an apparent dig at Vishal Patil.

Kharge said the Congress didn’t want any rift in the family of (former chief minister) late Vasantdada Patil, who hailed from Sangli.

“I was told that the Lok Sabha MP from Sangli (Vishal Patil) won with the support of Congress party and Congress party has re-inducted him with respect,” he said.

Kharge said he respects the woman candidate who is contesting as an Independent because of her association with Congress.

“I had promised and told Ramesh Chennithala (Maharashtra Congress incharge) that we will offer whatever she wants after the elections. We sent Chennithala and KC Venugopal to talk to them as we did not want any rift in Vasantdada Patil’s house and Sangli,” he added.

Kharge said his assurances, however, didn’t work.

Jayashree Patil, from former chief minister Vasantdada Patil’s family, has entered the fray as an independent candidate from Sangli against Congress nominee Prithviraj Patil.

“It is difficult to wake up those people who are pretending to sleep,” Kharge added.

Guna (MP): A 20-year-old man went missing when he jumped into the water in a dam for the shooting of a social media reel in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna district on Sunday, police said.

The incident occurred around 5 pm at Gopisagar Dam in Ruthiyai area, some 20 km from the district headquarters, an official said.

Dharnawada police station in-charge Prabhat Katare said Deepesh Lodha handed over his mobile phone to his friend Raj to shoot a reel as he dived into the water near the sluice gate of the reservoir, he said.

Lodha also told his friend that he knew swimming, the police official said.

However, the young man started drowning, prompting his friend to seek the help of the people in the vicinity, the official said.

After being alerted, police informed the State Disaster Emergency Response Force (SDERF), which launched a search to trace Lodha, the official said.

Phool Singh Banjara, a farmer, said his children alerted him that someone was in trouble in the dam. By the time he reached, Lodha was drowning and soon went missing, he said.

Dhaka: Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus said on Sunday that the interim government will seek the extradition of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India after the fall of her government following a mass protest movement in August.

In an address to the nation on the completion of 100 days of the interim government, Yunus also said that his government has been continuing its all-out efforts to ensure the security of all citizens, including religious minorities.

“We must ensure justice in every killing…We will also ask India to send back fallen autocrat Sheikh Hasina,” Yunus was quoted as saying by the state-run BSS news agency.

His remarks indicate a U-turn as in an interview with the UK-based Financial Times newspaper last month, Yunus said his government would not immediately seek Hasina’s extradition from India.

Yunus, who assumed office on August 8, claimed that about 1500 people, including students and workers, were killed while 19,931 others were wounded during the protest against the Hasina government.

“Our government is very careful to collect information on every death,” he said, adding that the government made arrangements for treatment of the injured in various specialized hospitals, including 13 hospitals in Dhaka.

Hasina, 77, resigned and fled to India following massive protests by students and others against her government over a controversial quota system in government jobs.

She landed at the Hindon airbase near Delhi on August 5. She was believed to have been shifted later to an unspecified location and has not been seen in public since then.

Hasina and her party leaders face accusations of ordering brutal suppression of the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, resulting in numerous casualties during the July-August protests.

Yunus said his government is investigating every incident in a few cases where religious minorities were subjected to violence.

“We have tried our best so that any citizen of the country, not only Hindu community members, doesn’t become a victim of violence. We will continue these efforts,” he said in his address to the nation.

He said Bangladesh was a completely insecure country when the interim government assumed office.

Yunus said an attempt was made to spread unnecessary fear among the religious minorities.

“In some cases, they have also been subjected to violence. But all the hype about it was completely exaggerated. Those little cases of violence that took place were mainly political,” he said.

But ill efforts were made to make the country unstable again by giving religious colour to these events, he said, adding that the government dealt with the situation firmly with the cooperation of all.

He said that after two months of assumption of office by his government, Durga Puja was celebrated in around 32,000 puja mandaps across the country.

He said the government took extensive security preparations during the Durga Puja so that the Hindu community members celebrate the festival smoothly.

Hindus constitute just about 8 per cent of the 170 million Bangladesh population. The minority Hindu community members have faced regular vandalism of their businesses and destruction of temples during and since the protest erupted, resulting in the ouster of Prime Minister Hasina.

Yunus also said that the Election Commission (EC) will be formed soon while an election roadmap will be announced after competing reforms in the electoral system.

“Once the electoral reforms are decided, you will get the election roadmap very soon,” he said.

Noting that there is a question in everyone’s mind about when the elections will be held, Yunus said the government has started taking necessary steps to hold the elections.

Lucknow/Jhansi (UP): Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero’s role by saving several babies.

Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others’ help.

“I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread,” James said.

Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.

Faced with an enormous blaze, James’s mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.

“My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working,” she told PTI Videos.

James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.

“There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies,” she said.

Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. “It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it.”

Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James’s valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.

“The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha’s salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside,” she said.

Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.

“The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying,” she said.

Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.

“In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.

“In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation,” he said.

“This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives,” Jain said.

A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.

Mumbai: A Mumbai court has acquitted veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar in a defamation case against him over his alleged objectionable remarks on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as the complainant has withdrawn the case.

Judicial Magistrate (First Class), Mulund, S D Chakkar, on November 8 disposed of the case as withdrawn.

A copy of the order was made available on Monday.

Advocate Santosh Dubey, who claims to be an RSS supporter, filed a complaint against Akhtar before the magistrate court in October 2021 for the offences under sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.

He had alleged that Akhtar in a television interview unnecessarily dragged the name of the RSS and defamed the Nagpur-based organisation in a “calculated and well planned move”.

As per the complaint, Akhtar, in the TV interview, had allegedly drawn parallels between the Taliban and Hindu extremists in the backdrop of the radical outfit seizing power in Afghanistan.

However, Dubey recently filed another plea before the magistrate to withdraw the complaint against Akhtar.

The complainant told the court that the “matter is settled between the parties in mediation” and therefore, he “does not want to prosecute the accused”.

Hence, the court acquitted the lyricist and disposed of the case as withdrawn.

New Delhi: Senior journalist Gautam Lahiri was elected the president of the Press Club of India for the second consecutive term, according to poll results announced on Sunday.

Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty was elected the vice president, Neeraj Thakur secretary general, Afzal Imam joint secretary and Mohit Dubey treasurer.The polling was held to elect candidates for the top five positions and 16 management committee members on the premises of the Press Club of India here on Saturday.