Eight Maoists were killed and one was injured on Monday in a gun fight with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district, police said.

A joint team of the paramilitary forces and the police went inside the core area of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) — an armed wing of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist — as part of an operation against the Maoists.

It started around 10.30 a.m. in a forested stretch near Sakler village.

Over 150 Left wing extremists clashed with troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the District Reserve Group of the Chhattisgarh Police, an official said.

“Security forces of different units went inside the PLGA’s core area from different directions,” CRPF Deputy Inspector General M. Dinakaran told IANS.

All eight bodies were recovered while the injured PLGA member was taken into custody. A large quantity of arms and ammunitions was seized. They were being taken to Kistaram police station.

The CRPF called it a big achievement. A combing operation was still underway.

IANS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the Congress Sunday for dragging his parents into a political slugfest, alleging that it was being done at the behest of party chief Rahul Gandhi.

Calling the Congress a “burden on the nation”, he also justified his own tirade against the Nehru-Gandhi family, pointing out that unlike his parents, they occupied top positions in politics and the government. Congress leaders have kicked up a controversy recently by first comparing the falling value of the rupee to the advanced age of Modi’s mother and then claiming that the father of the prime minister was not someone illustrious.

“What has happened to the Congress party? The ‘naamdar’ (dynast, referring to Rahul Gandhi) is tacitly supporting it and therefore, its leaders are dragging the name of my father, who passed away 30 years ago,” Modi said, addressing a rally here in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. “The Congress is running out of steam in this election, so they have started dragging my parents into politics. No Congressman would make such a statement against me or my family without the consent of the party president. It is the ‘naamdar’ who is making his leaders speak against me,” he added.

“My mother sits in her house, performing religious rites, confining herself to a room, and has never visited Madhya Pradesh. She does not even know the ‘R’ of ‘rajneeti’ (politics),” Modi said.

“Yesterday, they took the name of my mother and now my father. The Congress chief is behind this…,” he alleged. “Hundred generations of my family have no links with politics. We lived in a small village….lived like the poor. “And the naamdar says, Modiji is also speaking against my family’,” the prime minister said.

“Naamdar, I do not talk about your family members. I talk about former prime ministers, former Congress leaders. I speak against former Congress leaders, seeking an account of their work. “Yes, I have to take their names as they were in politics, unlike my family members, who sit quietly in their home and do their job,” he added.

“You throw questions at Modi, (then) just as Modi is accountable, your family too is answerable,” the prime minister said. The opposition party was left with no issues and was, therefore, indulging in this kind of abusive rhetoric, he added.

The previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had introduced a crop loan waiver scheme in 2008, but of the Rs 6-lakh crore agricultural debt, loans of only Rs 60,000 crore were waived, Modi claimed. Former Union minister Vilas Muttemwar made a controversial statement at a Congress meeting in Rajasthan Saturday, saying nobody knew “the name of your (Modi’s) father but everyone knows the name of Rahul Gandhi’s father”.

Before that, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar had compared the falling value of the rupee to the advanced age of Modi’s mother. At Vidisha, Modi also mentioned his cabinet colleague and local MP Sushma Swaraj, lauding her for ensuring the development of the constituency, despite facing health issues.

Speaking at a rally in Jabalpur later, he alleged that of the last 15 years under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, “10 years were lost because the government of Madam (UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi) put hurdles in the way of development”.

“You have to decide. One mistake will take you back to the age of misgovernance when there was no power, the roads were broken, the education system was pathetic due to the absence of schools and the health services were poor,” Modi said.

The Congress, which had lost elections in states after states, “has become a burden on the nation”, he added. “…they (Congress) are unable to decide who will be their leader in Madhya Pradesh….There is a courtier (apparently referring to state Congress chief Kamal Nath), a raja (Digvijay Singh) and a maharaja (Jyotiraditya Scindia). None of them will become the chief minister,” Modi asserted.

In a jibe at Rahul Gandhi, who has promised to make Madhya Pradesh a hub of mobile phone production if the Congress is voted to power in the state, the prime minister said there were only two mobile factories in the country in 2014, while now there were 125, ensuring the availability of low-cost smartphones.

Modi also said Jabalpur would emerge as a major defence production centre, adding that the earlier governments were more interested in buying weapons as that served their purposes. The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly will go to the polls on November 28 and the results will be announced on December 11.

Rajasthan will witness high-voltage campaigning today with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi scheduled to address election rallies. While Modi will be addressing rallies in Bhilwara, Dungarpur and Kota, Rajnath Singh will be covering Rajakheda, Basedi (both in Dholpur) and Virat Nagar (in Jaipur) Assembly constituencies. Rahul Gandhi began the tour by paying obeisance at the Ajmer dargah, followed by a visit to Pushkar Sarovar. After that he will leave for Pokhran in Jaisalmer, where he will address a public meeting. Adityanath will also address a public meeting in Pokhran. Besides this, he will speak at public rallies in Makrana (Nagaur), Fatehpur (Sikar), Ratangarh (Churu) and Dungargarh (Bikaner).

Rajasthan is one of the five states that will go to polls in the ongoing election season. While Chhattisgarh voted in two-phase elections on November 12 and 20, the next two seats to vote will be MP and Mizoram on November 28. Rajasthan and Telangana will be the last to vote on December 7. The results, billed as the semi-final to the big battle for Lok Sabha in 2019, will be declared on December 11.

The election narrative has shifted back to the Ram Mandir issue with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s visit to Ayodhya coinciding with a massive rally by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). While Thackeray warned that the BJP would lose power if it doesn’t pave way for construction of temple at disputed site, the VHP said the government must bring a legislation for the same.

Following the action in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had at a rally in Alwar alleged that the Congress threatened Supreme Court judges with impeachment when they tried to hear the Ayodhya dispute cases earlier this year.

Without naming anyone, Modi claimed that Congress party’s Rajya Sabha members, who are also lawyers, had tried to scare away the apex court judges to ensure the hearing in the cases is delayed until after the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

In an unprecedented move, seven opposition parties led by the Congress had moved a notice for the impeachment of then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in April this year, accusing him of “misbehaviour” and “misuse” of authority.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected the notice, saying the case against the then CJI was based on “suspicion and conjectures”.

At the political rally in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, Modi said the Congress has no faith in democracy and judiciary. “It does not hold dialogue and stall proceedings in Parliament, but the new game they are playing now is dangerous and this must be debated for a bright future of the country.”

“If a Supreme Court judge does not prepare the time-table (for hearing cases) as per their (Congress’s) political intentions and wants to hear all to deliver justice on a serious and sensitive issue, such as Ayodhya, then the party’s lawyers, who are Rajya Sabha members, start the game of scaring the judges in the name of impeachment,” Modi said.

He urged intellectuals to analyse this “dangerous game” of the Congress in the interest of the country.

“They are working to scare judiciary on the ground of their numbers in Rajya Sabha. But we will not let this ‘kaala kaarnama’ happen in the temple of democracy,” he said.

The prime minister said the opposition party has “no courage” to talk about development and hence “they ask about the caste of Modi.”

“Will you vote on the basis of the caste of Modi? Will the future of Rajasthan be decided on basis of birthplace of Modi,” he asked the crowd gathered at his rally.

Modi’s remarks were a reaction to former Union minister CP Joshi’s statement when he had questioned the caste of Modi and others during a speech in Rajsamand district’s Nathdwara.

Joshi is the Congress candidate from Nathdwara assembly constituency.

“They are deep neck involved in casteism. Casteism and feeling of hate against poor, deprived, underprivileged is in their veins and such statements reflect the basic behaviour and conduct of the Congress. It does not matter who spoke that (Joshi’s remarks) because everyone knows about the ‘naamdaar’ who make them speak,” he said, apparently referring to the Gandhi family.

Modi also targeted the Congress over issues and discrimination faced by Dalits, saying the party “forgot” to give the Bharat Ratna to B R Ambedkar.

Ambedkar was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1990, 34 years after his death.

“Congress has only divided the country. For them, Dalits are a votebank while our values and traditions are different,” Modi claimed, trying to contrast his party’s attitude to the community, of whose members have been assaulted and beaten by right-wing activists for allegedly indulging in cow trade, with that of the Congress.

In Rajasthan, Modi praised the BJP’s Vasundhara Raje government, saying it has done lot of work.

He also attacked Congress over a recent video in which a Congress candidate is seen stopping a party supporter shouting “Bharat Mata ki jai” and then the supporter starts shouting: “Sonia Gandhi ki jai”.

“For us, the country is bigger than the party but Sonia Gandhi is bigger than Bharat Mata for them,” he said.

Modi recalled BJP leaders like former vice president the late Bhairo Singh Shkhawat and said he had started election campaign during the 2013 assembly elections in Rajasthan from Alwar.

Chief Minister Raje and the party’s candidates on all 11 constituencies of Alwar district were present at the rally.

In Lok Sabha bypolls earlier this year, the BJP had faced defeat in Alwar.

In the 2013 assembly election, the BJP won nine out of the 11 seats in Alwar but one of its sitting MLAs, Dharmpal Chaudhary, died in April this year; the party has given ticket to his son Manjit Chaudhary from Mundawar seat.

Located in eastern part of the desert state, Alwar shares border with Haryana and forms a part of Mewat region having a sizable population of Mev (Muslim) community people.

It also touches Jaipur, Bharatpur and Dausa districts.

Alwar’s Ramgarh, a constituency represented by Gyan Dev Ahuja, who has been dropped by the BJP this time, was in bad light following the mob lynching of Akbar Khan on suspicion of cow smuggling in July this year.

 A total of 190 countries will take part in Expo 2020 Dubai, it was announced here on Monday.

The announcement comes on the opening day of Expo 2020’s third International Participants Meeting (IPM), which will see hundreds of delegates from around the world gather in Dubai to receive information and updates on the delivery of the biggest event to ever be held in the Arab world.

Reem Al Hashemy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, and Director General, Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau, said: “In less than two years’ time, Expo 2020 Dubai will welcome the international community to the UAE for a six-month celebration of human ingenuity and progress, allowing millions of people to experience the world in one place.”

The two-day IPM will cover a wide range of topics relating to the design, delivery and content of country pavilions.

Vicente G. Loscertales, Secretary General of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the governing body of World Expos, said: “As the first World Expo in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region, the UAE and Dubai has been working to create a platform to foster creativity, innovation and partnership globally.”

For the first time in the 167-year history of World Expos, each participating country will have its own pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.

A number of nations will sign their official Expo 2020 participation contracts during the IPM, after confirming their chosen sub-theme and pavilion plot.

Countries that have already unveiled their pavilion plans include Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Oman, Poland, Switzerland, the UK and the United Arab Emirates.

More are expected to follow in the coming months.

With 25 million visits expected between October 2020 and April 2021, and 70 per cent of visitors projected to come from outside the UAE, Expo 2020 Dubai will bring the international community together for a six-month celebration of human ingenuity and progress.

Expo 2020 Dubai is slated to take place in October 2020.

IANS

 Kerala Minister for Water Resources Mathew T. Thomas resigned on Monday in accordance with a decision by the national leadership of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).

The party has decided to replace Thomas with veteran K. Krishnankutty.

With Thomas submitting his resignation to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan earlier in the day, he became the fourth minister to quit the Vijayan cabinet since it assumed office in 2016.

Thomas addressed the media outside Vijayan’s residence and said there was no pre-condition to his quitting.

“There is no question of me moving towards the ‘right’. The natural place of the Socialist is always with the Left and there is no question of me moving anywhere else,” said Thomas as he was proded about his next move.

The JD-S is the third largest ally of the CPI-M-led government and has three legislators Thomas, former State Minister C.K. Nanu and K. Krishnankutty.

JD-S national President and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda called his three legislators to Bengaluru last week, but Thomas did not turn up and the meeting with the others took place on Friday, when the decision was taken.

The present impasse in the JD-S began when the Vijayan government completed its two-and-a-half years in office.

Even though Thomas denied that there was an agreement that he would step down after completing half the term of five years, the other faction in the party led by Krishnankutty has always claimed there was one.

Thomas also denied he was in the running for the post of the party president in the state unit, as Krishnankutty would be soon sworn in.

In the past, CPI-M’s E.P.,Jayarajan quit over nepotism allegations, NCP leader A.K. Saseendran quit over sleaze allegation and Thomas Chandy, who replaced him quit over land grab allegations.

Earlier in 2018, both Jayarajan and Saseendran returned to the cabinet after the court cleared them.

IANS

Floral tributes were paid Monday to those who laid down their lives while fighting Pakistani terrorists who had attacked the metropolis on this day 10 years ago.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was among the dignitaries who paid homage at the 26/11 police memorial site at the Mumbai Police Gymkhana in south Mumbai.

“I pay homage to the brave policemen who fought for Mumbai’s safety and laid down their lives for us on 26/11. We are proud of them and we will strive hard for the safety and security of our state,” Fadnavis said.

Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, Maharashtra Police Chief Datta Padsalgikar and Mumbai Commissioner of Police Subodh Kumar Jaiswal also attended the ceremony.
Family members of the policemen who lost their lives during the attacks were also present during the ceremony.

On November 26, 2008, 10 Pakistani terrorists arrived by sea route and opened fire indiscriminately at people killing 166, including 18 security personnel, and injuring several others, besides damaging property worth crores.

The then Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, Army Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Mumbai’s Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte and Senior Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar were among those killed in the attack.

The attacks had begun on November 26 and lasted till November 29.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Hotel, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital and the Nariman House Jewish community centre, now renamed Nariman Light House, were some of the places targeted by terrorists.

Ajmal Kasab was the only terrorist who was captured alive. He was hanged four years later on November 21, 2012.

PTI

 A woman fashion designer was on Sunday arrested here after her speeding car ran over a man, police said.

The accident took place in the city’s Eastern Metropolitan bypass on Sunday afternoon.

“A man in his 40s was waiting for a bus on the E.M bypass when he was hit by a speeding car. He was declared dead in the hospital. The woman who was on the wheels has been arrested,” an official from the Pragati Maidan police station said.

Onlookers said that the car, cruising at a high speed, jumped the traffic signal before hitting the man.

The police said that CCTV footages were being checked and the arrested woman was being interrogated.

IANS

Shocked over the death of Rebel Star Ambareesh, one of his fans committed suicide by jumping before a running train at Maddur on Sunday.

Reportedly, his body was found on the railway track at 10.30 am this morning. His slippers, a T-shirt and a photo of Ambareesh were also found nearby the track.

It is suspected that Thammaiah, who was a die-hard fan of Ambareesh, was not able to digest the news of the actors’ death and therefore, he committed suicide.

PTI