Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday attacked the Congress, targeting its president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia, saying the party’s “politics begins and ends with one family”.

Addressing a poll rally here ahead of the second phase polling in the state on November 20, Modi also made a strong pitch for development, saying the pace of development under the Congress regime in the state was “far slow” than the one under the BJP-led government.

Singling out the Gandhis, Modi said the “mother-son duo” were out on bail and hit out at them for questioning the government’s demonetisation move. “They forget it was due to demonetisation that they had to seek bail,” Modi said, adding “those seeking bail are giving a certificate to Modi”.

He also targeted the Congress president, saying when Congress released its 36-point manifesto for Chhattisgarh polls, ‘Naamdaar’ (Rahul Gandhi) was referred to as ‘Sir’ 150 times which shows he is more important for them (Congress) than Chhattisgarh.

PTI

 A BBC research has revealed that fake news is fast spreading in India owing to a “rising tide of nationalism” where right-wing networks are much more organised than on the left, pushing “nationalistic fake stories” further.

The research found that in India, “facts were less important to some than the emotional desire to bolster national identity”.

“There was also an overlap of fake news sources on Twitter and support networks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the findings showed.

The research, commissioned by the BBC World Service, was part of “Beyond Fake News” — a series across TV, radio and digital where users gave the BBC unprecedented access to their encrypted messaging apps in India, Kenya and Nigeria.

In its bid to fight the menace of fake news, the BBC last week said it would launch on November 12 a project with a major focus on global media literacy, panel debates in India and Kenya, hackathons exploring tech solutions and a special season of programming.

“In all three countries, distrust of mainstream news outlets pushed people to spread information from alternative sources, without attempting to verify it, in the belief that they were helping to spread the real story. People were also overly confident in their ability to spot fake news,” the researchers noted.

The worrisome part is that participants in the research made little attempt to query the original source of fake news messages, looking instead to alternative signs that the information was reliable.

“Widespread sharing of false rumours on WhatsApp has led to a wave of violence in India, with people forwarding on fake messages about child abductors to friends and family out of a sense of duty to protect loved ones and communities,” said the report.

More than 30 people have been killed so far in incidents involving lynching rumours on various social media platforms.

“We examined one case in detail – the deaths of Nilotpal and Abhishek in Assam – while another reporter travelled to Mexico to see how WhatsApp rumours fuelled similar deadly violence there,” said the BBC report.

To reach the conclusion, the researchers spent hundreds of hours with 80 participants across the three countries. Nearly 16,000 Twitter accounts and 3,000 Facebook pages were analysed.

The “Beyond Fake News” season will include “Fake Me”, a documentary revealing how far young people will go in pursuit of social media perfection, as well as the in-depth story of what happened when WhatsApp turned one Indian village into a lynch mob.

“Poor standards of global media literacy, and the ease with which malicious content can spread unchecked on digital platforms mean there’s never been a greater need for trustworthy news providers to take proactive steps,” Jamie Angus, Director of the BBC World Service Group, said in a statement.

“We have put our money where our mouth is and invested in real action on the ground in India and in Africa,” Angus added.

There will also be reports on Russia’s disinformation campaign, how Facebook is being exploited in the Philippines to spread false information, and a debate with the world’s big four tech firms on what role they play in stemming the spread of fake news, the BBC said last week.

IANS

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and his sons should be awarded PhD degree in shedding tears and indulging in black magic said M P Renukacharya, BJP MLA of Honnali on Sunday, November 11.

Speaking to the press persons, Renukacharya said that in order to remain in power and be financially successful Deve Gowda and his sons are on a temple run and also indulging in black magic. He further said that with regard to this Deve Gowda and his family stand in number 1 position in the country.

Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has time to visit as many as temples as possible but has no time to listen and solve the people’s problems, he added.

On the advice of an astrologer Public Works Minister H D Revanna used to travel from Hassan to the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru for the session, holding a lemon in his hand till he was allotted a particular bungalow, said Renukacharya.

PTI

Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar died on Monday at a private hospital here due to multi-organ failure, a party spokesman said. He was 59.

“Kumar passed away at around 3 a.m. at Shankara Cancer Hospital in the city’s southern suburb due to multi-organ failure three weeks after he was admitted on return from the US on October 21,” party’s spokesman S. Shantaram.

The Minister is survived by his widow Tejaswani and two daughters Aishwaraya and Vijayeta.

Kumar, who represented the Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency since 1996, had undergone treatment for cancer in the UK and US since August.

“Kumar first went to London after the monsoon session of Parliament in July-August for treatment and was shifted to another hospital in the US. The cancer spread to other parts of the body, resulting in multi-organ failure,” added Shantaram.

IANS

 Faizul Hasan Qadri, who hit headlines for building a ‘mini-Taj Mahal’ in memory of his late wife in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, has been killed in a road accident, police said on Saturday.

Qadri sustained serious injuries in the late Thursday hit-and-run incident in Kesar Kalan. The 83-year-old retired Postmaster was admitted in hospital where he died on Friday.

He had begun constructing his mini Taj Mahal in 2012 in memory of Taja Mulli Bibi. The couple was married in 1953.

He could not complete his ‘monument of love’ as he spent all his savings in the basic structure.

After the news of the ‘Taj Mahal’ spread, the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav summoned Qadri to Lucknow and offered him funds to complete the structure and get the marble work done.

Qadri politely declined the offer and asked the Samajwadi Party leader to establish a girls inter-college in his village instead.

The college is up and running and even was donated some land by Qadri.

His relatives said the former Postmaster had saved Rs two lakh and was set to purchase marble from Jaipur to end his edifice, but destiny intervened.

His relatives now plan to bury him alongside his wife, just like Mughal emperor Shah Jahan was by his Mumtaz.

They would also complete Qadri’s Taj Mahal in a grand manner. The family has refused post-mortem of his body.

IANS

Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government is greedy and wants to take away the central bank’s reserves.

“This government is greedy. No government in the past has asked for the reserve with the Reserve Bank of India,” said Chidambaram, who was in Guwahati to hold consultations for preparation of the party’s manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

He said that the RBI is not a limited company. “The RBI has a board of directors, but that cannot be compared with any private or public company. It is the central bank. The BJP government is trying to see the RBI as a limited company. They hardly have the understanding of the central Banks’s role and function,” he said.

Chidambaram said that the Centre was eyeing the RBI’s reserves, for it did not get anything out of demonetisation as most of the money came back to the banks.

Asked about the RBI’s board meeting scheduled for November 19, he said that even if the RBI Governor (Urjit Patel) resigns or complies with the government order of giving money from the reserves, the result will be catastrophic, and even worse than demonetisation.

“My information says that the government may force to pass a resolution at the RBI board meeting to transfer a large sum of money from the reserves. Two scenarios can emerge if such a situation happens. Either the RBI gives in or the Governor resigns. Both the situations will be a disaster and will have catastrophic impact on the country’s economy,” he warned.

“The Congress party believes that the RBI has the mandate to maintain monetary stability and nothing should be done to impair its ability to do so. The immediate goal of the government is to lay its hands on the reserves of the RBI and appropriate a sum of at least one lakh crore to meet its fiscal deficit target and to increase spending in an election year,” he added.

Earlier on Friday, the government dismissed reports that it had sought Rs 3.6 lakh crore from the RBI reserves. Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said that there was no such proposal and that the country’s fiscal deficit target was on track.

“Lot of misinformed speculation is going around in media. Government’s fiscal math is completely on track. There is no proposal to ask RBI to transfer (Rs) 3.6 or (Rs) 1 lakh crore, as speculated,” Garg said in a tweet.

IANS

Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government is greedy and wants to take away the central bank’s reserves.

“This government is greedy. No government in the past has asked for the reserve with the Reserve Bank of India,” said Chidambaram, who was in Guwahati to hold consultations for preparation of the party’s manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

He said that the RBI is not a limited company. “The RBI has a board of directors, but that cannot be compared with any private or public company. It is the central bank. The BJP government is trying to see the RBI as a limited company. They hardly have the understanding of the central Banks’s role and function,” he said.

Chidambaram said that the Centre was eyeing the RBI’s reserves, for it did not get anything out of demonetisation as most of the money came back to the banks.

Asked about the RBI’s board meeting scheduled for November 19, he said that even if the RBI Governor (Urjit Patel) resigns or complies with the government order of giving money from the reserves, the result will be catastrophic, and even worse than demonetisation.

“My information says that the government may force to pass a resolution at the RBI board meeting to transfer a large sum of money from the reserves. Two scenarios can emerge if such a situation happens. Either the RBI gives in or the Governor resigns. Both the situations will be a disaster and will have catastrophic impact on the country’s economy,” he warned.

“The Congress party believes that the RBI has the mandate to maintain monetary stability and nothing should be done to impair its ability to do so. The immediate goal of the government is to lay its hands on the reserves of the RBI and appropriate a sum of at least one lakh crore to meet its fiscal deficit target and to increase spending in an election year,” he added.

Earlier on Friday, the government dismissed reports that it had sought Rs 3.6 lakh crore from the RBI reserves. Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said that there was no such proposal and that the country’s fiscal deficit target was on track.

“Lot of misinformed speculation is going around in media. Government’s fiscal math is completely on track. There is no proposal to ask RBI to transfer (Rs) 3.6 or (Rs) 1 lakh crore, as speculated,” Garg said in a tweet.

(IANS)

Former Karnataka Minister T B Jayachandra on Friday sparked a row by raking up Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement during demonetisation that he would not get bogged down even if he was burnt alive for the decision, drawing the BJP’s ire.

The Bharatiya Janata Party dubbed the Congress leader’s remark “outrageous and despicable.”

“The prime minister had sought 50 days time to set things right (after demonetisation). He had asked people to set him on fire alive if he failed to overcome this test ..probably the time has come to burn him alive,” Jayachandra said Friday at Tumkuru.

Making an emotional appeal at a function in Goa in November 2016, Modi had said there were certain forces up against him that may not let him live and destroy him due to his decision on demonetisation. He had asserted that he would not get bogged down even if he was burnt alive.

The former minister said if the prime minister has any faith in democracy, he should step down immediately.

The BJP’s Karnataka unit president B S Yeddyurappa condemned the statement, saying “This is absolutely an outrageous statement by any standard and by any parameter.

What is shocking is that such a despicable statement has come from Jayachandra, who had functioned as the law and parliamentary affairs minister of our state.”

Yeddyurappa wanted to know if Congress state unit president Dinesh Gundu Rao endorsed Jayachandra’s statement.

PTI