Nasheman News : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday stepped up his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal, saying the entire country was “pointing fingers” at him and demanded that a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) must probe the deal to bring out the truth.

In a speech that was marked by shouting from ruling party benches, Gandhi sought to play a purported recording of a conversation of a Goa Minister on the issue that triggered heated exchanges between Congress and BJP members in the Lok Sabha.

Initiating a debate on the controversial deal for acquiring fighter jets from France, he attacked Modi on the “process, pricing and patronage” and said “there are many holes in the Rafale story”.

“I thought `daal me kuch kala hai but puri daal hi kali hai’ (I thought there was some wrongdoing but nothing is right). We demand JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee). It will bring out the truth. Modiji bypased processes, contract was snatched from HAL. A JPC is needed,” he said.

Gandhi was seeking to dismiss Modi’s statement in a television interview on Tuesday in which he said the allegations in the Rafale deal were not directed at him personally but was against the government.

“He (Modi) was looking tired, nervous (in the interview). He said no one has pointed fingers at me but the whole country is pointing fingers at him,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi said a news report had said that that in Defence Ministry’s file notings, it had been stated that “PM Modi shouldn’t interfere in Rafale deal’s negotiation”. 

“Modi must also answer on this,” he said. 

Gandhi accused Modi of bypassing procedures to award an offset contract to a private entity after agreeing to a three-time hike in the price per aircraft and reducing the number of planes to be bought.

Referring to the Supreme Court verdict which rejected pleas seeking a probe into the Rafale deal and said the apex court had said a probe was not in its jurisdiction and had not said that there should not be a JPC or a parliamentary probe. 

Pandemonium broke out when Gandhi took out his mobile phone and wanted to play the recorded conversation of a Goa minister amidst stiff opposition from the ruling benches, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who alleged that after concocting French President Emmanuel Macron on the issue of price, Gandhi was now trying to play a conversation which he knew was false. 

As shouting continued, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan asked Gandhi to authenticate the purported conversation and sternly told him not to play any recording. 

“They are so afraid. I will not play the tape and if it pleases you but…,” he said adding he would read from the taped conversation.

Jaitley interjected to say that Gandhi knew it was false and was refusing to authenticate it. 

“You know it is false,” Jaitley told Gandhi. “Because he knows it is false… he lies repeatedly.” The Minister also referred to Gandhi’s statement on Macron and said it too was false and fabricated.

The Speaker adjourned the House briefly as the two sides were locked in heated exchanges. 

Resuming his speech, Gandhi quoted the Goa minister as saying that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has all the files and notings on Rafale deal. 

“Goa CM has said that I have Rafale files at my home. It has been authenticated by a cabinet minister in Goa who belongs to the BJP,” he said. 

Pointing to Modi’s absence from the House, Gandhi said: “PM is hiding behind AIADMK MPs. He is hiding in his room.”

Gandhi said the Indian Air Force (IAF) wanted 126 fighter jets but the Modi government agreed to purchase only 36 planes from France. 

“Who changed the requirement of Air Force from 126 to 36 in the new deal? The excuse given to purchase 36 aircraft was that they were needed urgently. Why has not a single aircraft landed on our soil till now?” he asked. 

Gandhi alleged that the “entire procedure was bypassed” and the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had said he had “no idea” about the new deal. 

He said the UPA had negotiated price of Rs 526 crore per aircraft and was to procure 126 fighter jets but when Modi went to France and met then French President Francois Hollande, a new deal was done and the price went up to Rs 1,600 crore per aircraft.

“Why did the price go from Rs 526 crore to Rs 1,600 crore?”

He alleged that Hollande had stated that contract was taken away from HAL and the offsets contract was given to a private entity at the behest of Modi.

“Is it a fact that the new price was objected to by Defence Ministry officials? Is there a objection to the new price?”

He said HAL had been making aircraft for the past 70 years and had vast experience in making combat jets also. 

“HAL has tremendous record, it is the future of aviation in the country and gives thousands of jobs. Why was the contract taken away from HAL,” he asked. 

He alleged that Modi put Rs 30,000 crore in the pocket of an individual and claimed that the private entity had brought land from money given by Dassault Aviation, the maker of Rafale fighter jet. 

The Congress leader said that French President Emmanuel Macron had told him that pricing of aircraft can be disclosed. 

He said Modi, during an earlier 90-minute speech in the Lok Sabha, had touched Rafale only for five minutes and not answered questions posed to him. 

Nasheman News The Rajya Sabha was on Wednesday adjourned for the day amid sloganeering by agitating AIADMK and DMK members who, in a very unusual move, defied Chair’s orders to withdraw from the House and stayed put near the podium in the post-lunch sitting.

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu — after his appeals to restore order failed on deaf ears and the House had already been adjourned several times — named the agitating members and asked to withdraw from the House for the day under Rule 256 of the proceedings of the House.

“You are forcing me to take action. I am forced to take the names of following members,” Naidu said as he named A. Navaneethakrishnan, Muthukaruppan, Gokulakrishnan, Vijila Sathyanath, A. Selvaraj, R. Lakshmanan, S.R. Balasubramoniyan and V. Vijayakumar of AIADMK, and R.S. Bharathi, Tiruchi Siva, Kanimozhi and T.K.S. Elangovan of DMK.

“I suggest to all these members to immediately withdraw from the House as per the traditions and customs of the House,” he said as he adjourned the House for 15 minutes.

However, as the House reassembled at 2.28 p.m, the named members had not withdrawn and continued shouting slogans near the Chair’s podium. The MPs from Tamil Nadu have been protesting against the proposed Mekedatu dam in Karnataka on Cauvery river.

Deputy Chairman Harivansh, who was in the Chair, asked the MPs named by Naidu to “kindly withdraw” from the House, but they did not heed the advice. Harivansh then adjourned the House till 3 p.m.

As the House reassembled at 3 p.m. the scene was no different and the AIADMK and DMK members were shouting slogans more loudly.

MoS Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel said that Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari had proposed to make a statement in the House over Mekedatu dam but the agitating members were not ready to listen to him.

“It was a statement that would have satisfied all the members but some of the MPs did not let Gadkariji speak. The government is ready to discuss all issues in Parliament,” Goel said.

Amid the continued din, the Chair adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh moved a Resolution for Rajya Sabha to ratify the proclamation of President’s Rule in Jammu and Kashmir on December 19, 2018 under Article 356 of the Constitution.

Rajnath Singh made a small statement on the matter amid the din, but no discussion on the proposal could take place. Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, who hails from Kashmir, stood up to speak on the matter but could not do so owing to the noise.

In the morning, too, the upper House was repeatedly adjourned amid sloganeering by AIADMK members.

Chairman Naidu tried to go ahead with the Zero Hour but the din continued. He then adjourned the House for 15 minutes.

When the House met at 11.40 a.m, it had to be adjourned again till noon.

Again, as the Question Hour began at 12, the agitating MPs refused to relent and continued shouting slogans. The Chair then adjourned the House till 2 p.m.

The decision of the then State government to shelve the proposed steel flyover to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) following an uproar was counted as one of the biggest victories of a citizens’ movement. However, the proposal appears to be getting a new lease of life this year.

Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister G. Parameshwara, on Tuesday, announced that the government is considering reviving the project on ‘popular demand’.

The announcement comes in the backdrop of opposition to yet another project — the 102-km-long network of elevated corridors.

“There is a serious problem of traffic congestion on the international airport road. Asteel flyover between Chalukya Circle and Esteem Mall is the need of the hour. There is a demand from the public to revive the project and ease traffic on the corridor. If a steel bridge is built, commuters can travel to KIA in 20 minutes. The previous Congress government had dropped the project due to political opposition. But we have decided to revive the project on popular demand,” Mr. Parameshwara told mediapersons.

The announcement has taken civic activists who led the #SteelFlyoverBeda campaign, which eventually saw the government scrapping the ₹2,000 crore project in March 2017, by surprise.

Srinivas Alavilli of Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB), an offshoot of the #SteelFlyoverBeda campaign, which is now leading a campaign against elevated corridors, found the Deputy CM citing ‘popular demand’ as ‘strange’ because the government had earlier scrapped the project owing to public opposition.

CfB had taken up campaigns for public transport alternatives to solve congestion in the city. They are #ChukkuBukkuBeku demanding a suburban train network and #BusBhagyaBeku, demanding augmenting of the BMTC bus fleet.

“But in the last two years, the government has not bought a single bus and is going at a snail’s pace on the suburban train network. They have frustrated citizens by not implementing public transport alternatives, and have again proposed flyovers for private transport as a solution – elevated corridors and steel flyover,” he said.

CfB is in talks with several other citizens’ groups and will put up a united front against any mega infrastructure for private transport, he said.

In 2016, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had claimed that 299 people had responded to public consultations over the project and most of them had supported it. However, a civic campaign mobilised nearly 42,000 people to vote against the project in a mock referendum.

Urban expert Ashwin Mahesh said that the steel flyover had failed the test of both public opinion and expert opinion in 2016 and was deservedly scrapped. “The flyover will not solve the congestion on the international airport road and will add no value,” he said.

Elevated corridors, steel flyover to be part of RMP

In an attempt to address criticism that elevated corridors and the steel flyover were not part of the Draft Revised Master Plan – 2031, both projects are set to be included in the new draft RMP-2031, which is expected to be put out for public consultation soon.

“Activists always cry foul that these large infrastructure projects are implemented out of the blue with scant regard for the RMP. But we will include these projects in the RMP this time,” an Urban Development Department official said.

But this move too has drawn criticism. “Preparing an RMP is an organic process where you first diagnose a problem, evaluate all possible solutions and then hit on the most optimal solution. Merely including infrastructure projects that have not evolved out of a large mobility study makes no sense,” said a civic activist.

“The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) is conducting an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for the elevated corridor project. The report is expected to be out in two months,” said M. Ganesh, MD, Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd. (KRDCL). The EIA would be put out for public consultation.

BJP cautions government

Leader of opposition in the legislative assembly B.S. Yeddyurappa cautioned against the government steamrolling its way through the project. “Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy opposed the project when he was in the opposition. Now the deputy chief minister has suddenly revived the project. We are not opposed to development, but the project needs to be discussed threadbare. There have been allegations of corruption and kickbacks,” he said.

Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar shot back saying the government cannot be ‘blackmailed’ over development by the opposition and they would implement the project in the interest of the people. “During the previous government, Siddaramaiah respected their views and dropped the project. If I were to be in his place, I wouldn’t have done so. The opposition sees red in every development project, but that can’t deter us. The allegations of corruption are being made using a diary allegedly found during an IT raid on MLC Govindaraj. The diary is fake and was planted,” he said. “If we do more work, we will have more enemies who will find faults. But we need to do our duty to the people,” he said.

PTI

The Congress has barely spoken of it but JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda wants seat-sharing between coalition partners to be finalised by the end of January.

The Congress has barely spoken of it but JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda wants seat-sharing between coalition partners to be finalised by the end of January. By raising the issue for the second time in less than a week, Gowda has put Congress under pressure to act. He said that going by the same 1/3rds ratio of the coalition pact, JD(S) could get around 10-11 seats and that there are no demands for specific seats.

“The Congress had given us unconditional support to form the government. We have a 1/3rd ratio agreement and this should apply to LS seat-sharing too. We will decide on it this month,” Gowda told media in New Delhi on Tuesday.  

This comes after senior Congress leader  Mallikarjun Kharge said that there were no talks yet on the
issue and all discussions will take place at the strategic committee meeting.

The statement comes after Congress’ tallest leader from Karnataka — Mallikarjun Kharge — said that there were no talks yet on the issue and all discussions will take place at the strategic committee meeting.
The first time Gowda broached the subject, he sought 12 seats for the JD(S) out of 28 seats in total. On Tuesday however, he scaled it down to 10-11 seats.

“There is no need to fight over it. We will cooperate. There will be clarity on seat-sharing once we discuss with state leaders,” he added. Sources from the Congress suggest that six-seven is the most the party can offer its coalition partner — a number far less than Gowda hopes for. “Knowing Deve Gowda, nothing he says is without reason.

While 12 is an unrealistic number to seek for the JD(S), if it is his way to hard bargaining with the Congress, it comes as no surprise,” said A Narayana, Political Analyst and commentator when Gowda had first spoken abou t seat-sharing.

Backing former chief minister Siddaramaiah, Gowda accused the BJP of nursing hopes of toppling the coalition government. Asserting that Siddaramaiah was right in pointing out to the possibilities of horse-trading, Gowda asserted that the government in Karnataka was in no danger. “Siddaramaiah had been chief minister for full five years.

He has spoken about BJP’s attempts of bribing legislators because he had solid information. He has spoken responsibly,” Gowda said. He also mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for getting his facts wrong over the farm loan waiver. Reiterating numbers from the Chief Minister’s Office, Gowda said that 2.2 lakh farmers will benefit from the farm loan waiver and PM Modi had incorrectly claimed that only 800 had benefitted.

Agencies

Nasheman News : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday launched a no-holds-barred attack on Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his family and said he understood only the arithmetic of money and not issues related to national security.

Intervening in a debate on the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal in the Lok Sabha, he said it was a tragedy that the nation’s “grand old party is today headed by a gentleman who doesn’t even understand what a combat aircraft is”.

Jaitley said the Congress and Gandhi were resorting to the simple argument of “Rs 500 (crore) versus Rs 1,600 (crore)” — an apparent reference to the difference in the price of aircraft in contracts signed by the UPA government and the current government.

“There is a reason for that. Some people and families in India only understand the arithmetic of money… They don’t understand national security but only ‘paisa’,” he said.

Without naming the Gandhi family, he asked why was it that one family’s name came up in the Bofor’s case, the National Herald case and the AugustaWestland case.

“Had it been one case, I would have given them the benefit of doubt. But three is a bit too much.”

Referring to a dialogue in the famous James Bond movies, the Finance Minister said: “If it happens once, it’s happenstance; if it happens twice, it’s a coincidence; but if it happens thrice, then it’s a conspiracy.

“And today conspirators who have played with India’s national security have the audacity to raise questions on a defence deal.”

Dismissing Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of irregularities in the Rafale deal, Jaitley said he “took unprecedented liberties with truth” while making those charges.

“Some people have a natural dislike for truth. From first to last — every word spoken (by Gandhi) in the last few months has been utterly false.

“It is a big tragedy for the country’s most grand old party which was once led by remarkable leaders that it is today being led by a gentleman who doesn’t even have the basic understanding of what a combat aircraft is.”

Seven persons sustained injuries after a hydrogen gas cylinder, which was used to fill air in balloons, exploded near Lourde Matha church in Horapete in Tumakuru on Tuesday.

The police said Abdul Khader, a resident of Tumakuru, was selling balloons near the church. The cylinder exploded while he was filling air in balloons in the early hours of Tuesday. People had gathered to celebrate the new year. Many people were buying balloons from Abdul Khader when the cylinder exploded, the police said.

The injured are Abdul Khader, 35, Sudeep, 13, Maria Das, 35, Anthony Francis, 45, Kiran Babu, 32, Ravi, 25, and Thomas, 29.

Maria Das and Kiran Babu, who have been seriously injured, were shifted to NIMHANS in Bengaluru while the others are receiving treatment in Tumakuru district government hospital, the police said.

All the injured are residents of Tumakuru.

A case has been registered in Tumakuru Town police station.

The activities of 15 rebel Congress MLAs, headed by Ramesh Jarkiholi, have again put the coalition leadership in a dilemma as the political drama seems to be heading towards a climax, with BJP MLA Balachandra Jarkiholi joining his brother in New Delhi today.

Balachandra is said to be woring closely with the dissidents in Delhi. According to sources, top BJP leaders have held talks with the Jarkiholis, but are yet to come to a consensus on some issues before giving their final nod to the group.

Despite claims by Congress leaders in Bengaluru that no legislators are involved in the dissident activities, sources confirmed that at least 14 MLAs have assured Ramesh to join him in quitting the Congress.

Commenting on BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa’s denial to have had talks with Ramesh, an associate of the latter was wondering why Yeddyurappa rushed to New Delhi. He added that what Congress leader Siddaramaiah had said about the BJP offering party MLAs Rs 25- Rs 30 crore was true, by asserting that a bonus was being given to the legislators.

A few days after stating that the coalition government will collapse within 24 hours, BJP MLA Umesh Katti said, “Siddaramaiah should admit that he is planning to bring down the coalition,’’ added Katti.

Agencis

Nasheman News : The Manipur government tightened security in the state ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit on Friday.

Director General of Police L.M. Khaute has instructed police and para-military forces to be on duty round the clock. 

Twenty-five men from the Special Protection Group (SPG) are already in Manipur coordinating the security measures by the state and central forces.

Police said that cordon and search operations were being conducted in trouble-prone areas. Some insurgents including those on bail had been detained. Some guns and explosives were also seized during the police operations.

Meanwhile, Corcom, the apex body of six banned insurgent groups in Manipur, announced on Wednesday that the Prime Minister’s visit will be boycotted. 

It said that a “public curfew” shall be remain in force from 1 a.m. on Friday till Modi leaves the state.

The state government has cancelled all leave for Friday except on medical grounds.

Reports suggest that most government employees are likely, as in the past, to stay in hotels or houses of relatives and friends to go to office since there shall be no public transport on Friday.

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Nasheman News : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch NDA’s election campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Uttar Pradesh’s Agra on January 9, according to party sources and MP Ram Shankar Katheria.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will visit Agra on January 4 to review preparations for Modi’s visit.

Notably, Modi had addressed a huge election rally in November 2013 to kick-start the campaign for 2014 Lok Sabha polls, with a Vijay Shankhnad rally at the Kothi Meena Bazar ground.

Before the state Assembly elections, Modi had addressed a Parivartan rally in Agra on November 20, 2016.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sources feel Agra has proved lucky for the party which won nine Assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats.