India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), a government agency that investigates financial crimes, has conducted raids at the regional office of Amnesty International in what activists claim are efforts to silence dissent.

Indian media reports said the raids at the premises of the rights watchdog in Bengaluru in southern Karnataka state began at 1:30pm (8:30 GMT) on Thursday afternoon and were ongoing.

A statement released by ED said its searches were conducted for alleged violation of foreign direct investment guidelines by Amnesty India. The agency accused the rights group of bypassing rules regarding foreign donations by “floating a commercial entity”.

Amnesty denied those accussations saying its structure is compliant with Indian laws.

“After a crackdown on a number of NGOs, Enforcement Directorate hits at Amnesty. The 10 hour long raid conducted at our Bengaluru office ended at midnight,” Amnesty India said in a statement.

“Our staff fully cooperated with officials. We reiterate, our structure is compliant with Indian laws. ED raid on Amnesty India shows a disturbing pattern of the government silencing organisations that question power.”

Over 5 ED officials raided Amnesty’s Bengaluru office. Ordered employees to not leave, shut their laptops and searched their desks. Employees were not allowed to use their phones to call friends and families. #CrackdownOnAmnesty

The action against Amnesty came within weeks of similar raids at the offices of Greenpeace India by the ED, which accused the charity of violating laws related to foreign funds.

On Wednesday, Amnesty urged the Indian government to initiate “effective, independent and impartial investigation” into the October 21 deaths of seven civilians in a blast in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Amnesty India has campaigned against arbitrary detention of human rights activists and leaders of marginalised groups including Dalit leader Chandrashekhar Azad in recent months.

Indian newspaper, The Hindu, in a report published in August, quoted federal officials saying they were probing whether some entities based in the UK infused funds into Amnesty’s India unit allegedly through commercial channels in violation of Indian laws.

Nikhil Dey at Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, a peasant and workers’ organisation in the western state of Rajasthan, described the raids as “bad signs for Indian democracy”.

“There is a pattern to this. The government doesn’t want any focus on human rights issues. Amnesty is a global organisation of some repute and these critical voices are very important,” Dey told Al Jazeera, calling the ED action “disturbing”.

“India prides itself on being the world’s largest democracy. So, scrutiny of its human rights record is important, especially with this government that is brazenly attempting to muzzle civil society,” he added.

Targeting rights groups
Since assuming office in 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has turned the spotlight on international rights groups and charities, accusing some such as Greenpeace of trying to hamper national projects on social and environmental grounds.

In 2015, the Modi government withdrew permission from Greenpeace to receive foreign funding, saying the money was used to block industrial projects.

India’s Supreme Court criticises police for arresting activists
In recent years, the Indian government has cancelled the registration of nearly 9,000 groups for allegedly failing to declare details of overseas donations.

Activists warn the right-wing government’s efforts to silence criticism and dissent in the world’s largest democracy are growing stronger ahead of an impending general election, due by May next year.

“Why are businesses allowed to bring in all kinds of foreign money and even donate to political parties, while organisations that help the oppressed in this country are being raided and attacked?” asked Dey.

Aljazeera

MP Shobha Karandlaje claimed that BJP’s state president, B S Yeddyurappa, would become the next Chief Minister of the state after the bypolls which will be held next month.

Address the media at Jamkhandi, claimed many Congress legislators would resign from the party to join the BJP after the bypoll results were declared on November 6.

They criticised JD(S) president, former Prime Minister, H D Deve Gowda for backing Congress president, Rahul Gandhi for the post of Prime Minister in 2019.

PTI

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday filed a chargesheet in the the Rs 3,500 crore Aircel-Maxis deal case naming former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and a few others.

The supplementary prosecution complaint was filed before a special court in the Patiala House Courts Complex.

The chargesheet named Chidambaram, S. Bhaskararaman, the Chartered Accountant of Chidambaram’s son Karti, Aircel Televentures Ltd., Augustus Ralph Marshall, a resident of Malaysia, and others as accused in the case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

IANS

Kerala BJP General Secretary K. Surendran on Thursday told a court that he will need two days to decide whether or not to pursue a case against the now dead IUML MLA P.B. Abdul Razak who narrowly defeated him in 2016.

When the matter came up for hearing, the Kerala High Court asked Surendran’s counsel whether the Bharatiya Janata Party leader still wished to pursue the case following Razak’s death on Saturday.

The counsel sought two days to ponder over the issue, prompting the court to post the matter on October 31 for next hearing.

Surendran told reporters that he needed to consult his party leaders before taking a call on whether to pursue the case or not in the High Court.

“I am confident after watching the proceedings … that I will be getting a favourable verdict,” Surendran said.

Surendran had challenged in the High Court his slender 89-vote loss to Razak in the 2016 Assembly polls in Manjeshwaram.

The BJP leader moved the High Court alleging that bogus votes had been cast in the name of 298 persons who were either believed to be dead or not residing in the Assembly constituency.

During the trial, 170 people claimed they had not voted but their votes were found to be cast. Surendran urged the court to annul the election of Razak and declare him the winner.

In the 140-member Kerala Assembly, the BJP has just one member.

IANS

Six persons were killed in a clash in a village in Gujarat’s Kutch district Tuesday night following a long-standing feud between two families over the local panchayat elections, police said.

Among those killed were the son and the father-in-law of woman sarpanch (village head) Shakinaben Bhulia, they said.

A heated argument broke out between members of the two families, belonging to two different communities at Chhasra village over the sarpanch’s election which had taken place two years ago, Kutch (West) Superintendent of Police M S Bharada said.

It escalated as the two groups attacked each other using sharp weapons, killing six persons and injuring four, he said.

The deceased included the sarpanch’s son Abid (25) and her father-in-law Adam Bhulia (65).

The others who were killed were identified as Mangal Ahir (27), Bharat Ahir (28), Bhargav Ahir (26) and Chetan Ahir (38), said an official of Mundra police station.

Some villagers were unhappy after Shakinaben was elected as sarpanch by defeating Raniben Ahir two years ago, and some of them had lodged a complaint against the sarpanch’s family, Kutch range inspector general of police D B Vaghela said.

After Tuesday’s incident, Ahir and Bhulia families lodged FIRs against each other at the Mundra police station for offences of murder and attempt to murder, a police official said.

Nobody has been arrested yet, he added.

Senior police officials, including the IG and SP along with a large team of local police, rushed to the village after the incident and camped there through the night.

Gujarat Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja said the situation was under control.

“FIRs of both parties have been taken and evidence has been collected, including technical evidence for forensic examination…Two companies of the State Reserve Police force have been deployed along with local police,” Jadeja said.

In his FIR, the sarpanch’s husband Aarab Abdulla Bhulia said that Chetan Ahir’s family was resentful for the last two years after Chetan’s wife Raniben Ahir was defeated in the local panchayat elections.

Holding a grudge against his family, the Ahirs attacked them last night, armed with sharp weapons and iron rods, Bhulia said.

In the attack, his father and son were seriously injured and died on the spot, and one of the assailants ran over an SUV over his son after he fell down, Bhulia alleged in the FIR.

Four unidentified persons attacked their house with a tractor and damaged CCTV cameras installed there, he added.

In a counter FIR, complainant Ritesh Ahir alleged that the relatives of the sarpanch attacked members of his family after the latter lodged a complaint against the sarpanch a week ago. Some of the accused tried to run him over under a vehicle, he alleged.

A total of 19 persons were mentioned in the two FIRs, four of them unnamed, police said.

The injured have been admitted to a hospital in Bhuj.

PTI

YSR Congress Party President Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, who was injured in a knife attack by a youth at Visakhapatnam airport on Thursday, said such cowardly acts will not dissuade him from working for the people.

The Leader of Opposition, who sustained an injury on his left shoulder, tweeted that he is safe.

“To everyone worried about my safety, I’d like to inform you that I am safe. God’s grace and the love, concern & blessings of the people of Andhra Pradesh will protect me,” he tweeted.

“Such cowardly acts will not dissuade me but only strengthen my resolve to work for the people of my state,” he added.

Jagan was attacked by a waiter when he was in the VIP lounge, waiting for a flight to Hyderabad. The attacker was overpowered by security personnel and handed over to police.

After being administered first aid at Visakhapatnam airport, Jagan boarded a flight to Hyderabad. After landing here, he drove to a city hospital for further treatment.

IANS

A total of 20 assembly seats are vacant in Tamil Nadu as of Thursday following the Madras High Court judgment in the AIADMK MLAs case and it will be a sort of mini-assembly elections if bypolls are to held simultaneously.

The bypolls for 20 seats will be an acid test for the leadership of Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, DMK President M.K. Stalin and the sidelined AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran, now an independent legislator, said a political analyst.

“Normally bypolls are to be held within six months of a seat falling vacant. Owning to the death of MLAs — M.Karunanidhi (Tiruvarur) and A.K.Bose (Thiruparankundram) two seats are vacant.

“The Madras High Court on Thursday upheld the Tamil Nadu Speaker P. Dhanapal’s decision to disqualify 18 dissident AIADMK legislators, taking the total of vacant seats to 20. If the bypolls are held by the Election Commission then it will be a sort of mini-assembly elections,” political analyst John Arokiasamy told IANS.

“The Election Commission cannot postpone holding bypolls for 20 constituencies leaving. The people need their representatives in the assembly with more than three years left for the assembly polls,” he said.

There are various possibilities of holding the bypolls separately or along with the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

According to him, it is advantage DMK if the bypolls are held. Even if DMK wins 10 seats then the stability of the AIADMK government will be an issue.

“The bypolls if held for 20 seats will be like a mini assembly poll. It will put to test the leadership of Palaniswami, Stalin and Dhinakaran,” Arokiasamy said.

He said the polls will also test the strength of two leaves symbol of AIADMK under the current party leadership.

Differing with him another analyst S. Raveenthran Thuraiswamy told IANS: “In my view the bypolls will be held along with the Lok Sabha polls. The split in AIADMK is between two major castes-Gounder and Devars. The Devar community will back Dhinakaran while the Gounder will back Palaniswami. The DMK may not get any advantage but may lose the votes of these two castes,” Thuraiswamy said.

Meanwhile Stalin in a statement said the bypolls for the 20 assembly constituencies should be held immediately.

In the 235-member Assembly, the AIADMK has 115 members followed by the DMK with 88, Congress eight, one of the IUML, one Independent, the Speaker and 20 vacant seats (18 disqualified and two dead). Besides, there is a nominated member.

Three legislators though belonging to three different parties won their seats under the AIADMK’s two leaves symbol. Of that, one legislator Karunas is openly supporting Dhinakaran.

Reacting to the judgement in the MLAs disqualification case, Dhinakaran told reporters: “We will discuss with the 18 legislators and decide on the future course of action.” He said it was “an experience for us”.

“If the 18 disqualified legislators decide to go on appeal against the decision, then we will go for an appeal,” Dhinakaran said.

Speaking to reporters after the Madras High Court verdict the advocate for 18 disqualified legislators N. Raja Senthoor Pandian said there are three options — appeal to the Supreme Court, face bypolls or prefer an appeal and face the bypolls.

A spokesperson of PMK N.Vinobha said that the Election Commission has to hold the bypolls for Thiruparankundram and Tiruvarur constituencies by February 2019.

The PMK, as a policy, does not contest in bypolls.

Queried whether the party would continue with that policy if bypolls are held for 20 seats simultaneously Vinobha said: “Two scenarios are there. The bypolls could be held separately or held together with Lok Sabha polls. The party high command would take a decision on that.”

IANS

The Supreme Court will hear on Monday a Maharashtra government’s plea against a High Court order disallowing more probe time to the state police to investigate five activists accused of being linked to banned Maoist outfit.

The Bombay High Court in its October 24 order had set-aside the Special Court’s order permitting another 90 days time to the Maharashtra Police to complete its investigation against Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonzales.

The Special Court hearing the trial had on September 2, granted the extension to the state police as is permissible under Section 43(d) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

The apex court’s three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Thursday directed the listing of the matter on October 29 as Maharashtra government’s lawyer Nishant Kanteshwarkar mentioned it for an urgent hearing.

Kanteshwarkar told the court that if the Bombay High Court order was not stayed, then the accused “urban naxals” may apply for bail and even secure it.

While Navlakha was granted relief from remand by the Delhi High Court, the others were put under house arrest, which will end on Friday.

IANS

The two men most important to the Congress party in Karnataka – former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and water resources minister DK Shivakumar – are the hardest hit by the party’s decision to face the November 3 bye-elections to two Assembly and three Lok Sabha seats jointly with arch rival-turned-alliance partner JD(S).

If Siddaramaiah is the mass leader in the Congress, Shivakumar is the man who does all the backroom work and ensures that the party’s intent and wishes are carried out. They don’t like each other, but both are in the same boat over these bye-elections, as sacrificial goats for the larger cause that their party espouses.

Both are self-made politicians from the Old Mysuru region, who have worked their way up the party ranks and have the arrogance to mark it. If Shivakumar was former Chief Minister SM Krishna’s go-to man, Siddaramaiah was the same for former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. Both are considered sharp strategists and men who can win elections – Siddaramaiah by eloquence and governance, Shivakumar with money and muscle.

Shivakumar has been a Congress man right from 1985, when he contested and lost against Deve Gowda of the Janata Party (later Janata Dal) at his Assembly constituency of Sathanur. Since then, he has won all elections from this seat, and the subsequently redesigned and renamed seat of Kanakapura, against the Janata Dal, including once in 1989 as an independent when the Congress denied him a ticket. He defeated the current Chief Minister, Deve Gowda’s son HD Kumaraswamy, in Sathnur in 1999, and ensured the defeat of Kumaraswamy’s wife Anitha against his brother, DK Suresh, in the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha bye-election in 2013. The only other defeat that he suffered in his career was also against Deve Gowda, in the 2002 Kanakapura Lok Sabha bye-election.

The rivalry between him and Deve Gowda-Kumaraswamy is almost the stuff of legend. It is incomprehensible to the Congress and JD(S) party workers how their leaders could have buried the hatchet in this manner, when they were forced by politics to work together. In the Old Mysuru districts of Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagaram, Mandya, Mysuru, Hassan and Tumakuru, Congress-JD(S) loyalties have split families vertically. There are self-designated Congress and JD(S) villages, who do not speak to each other, have periodic fights and no relations, whatsoever.

Two of the five seats in the bye-elections – Ramanagaram Assembly segment and Mandya Lok Sabha constituency – fall in the Old Mysuru region. Ramanagaram is one of the two seats that Kumaraswamy contested and won. He chose to retain Channapatna and field his wife Anitha from Ramanagaram. The Congress-JD(S) alliance worked out by Rahul Gandhi has now pushed the party loyalist Shivakumar and his brother, Bengaluru Rural MP DK Suresh, into the unenviable situation of ensuring the victory of their bitter opponents.

Shivakumar has largely run away to Ballari, the other hard-to-win Lok Sabha seat in this bye-poll, which he is tasked to wrest from the grip of BJP leader B Sriramulu and his close friend Janardhan Reddy. However, he and Suresh had to address Congress party workers in Ramanagaram and convince them to support Anitha for the sake of “the larger good” of keeping the BJP away from governance.

The Congress workers are trying to put on a good face, but most are miserable at this turn of events. “We are also not in a position to say anything to them. This is a decision forced upon us by the High Command. We agree in principle, but how can we change decades of rivalry with one stroke?” a Congress leader from Old Mysuru asked.

Siddaramaiah is in almost as hard a place as Shivakumar. Once the chief lieutenant of Deve Gowda and the man who built the JD(S) along with him as the state unit’s president, Siddaramaiah exited the party when Kumaraswamy began getting more prominence. After building his entire career on anti-Congressism, Siddaramaiah went to that party as a new convert, and initially had a very tough time convincing their workers that he was their man now. Every action of his since has been put through the lens of ‘does it favour the JD(S)?’ Many Congress workers and the party’s old hands don’t trust him. But Siddaramaiah has the trust of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, who made him the state’s CM – something that Deve Gowda refused to do. The bitterness has been such that Deve Gowda and Siddaramaiah refused to meet each other or even talk to each other till as late as 2016, when a Cauvery crisis forced a truce.

Officially, they are now on the same side and addressed a joint press conference with Siddaramaiah sitting between Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy, with Shivakumar sitting next to the CM as well. Siddaramaiah holds Kumaraswamy responsible for the old break with Deve Gowda, and feels that this son of his mentor belittled him at every given opportunity. Under pressure from Rahul Gandhi and in deep sorrow over his defeat in his home constituency Chamundeshwari in the state Assembly elections in May that threw up a hung Assembly, Siddaramaiah consented to the ruling alliance in Karnataka with his former party JD(S) under Kumaraswamy. His deciding not to campaign in Ramanagaram for the bye-election is a clear sign that he has not been able to stomach the situation yet.

The former CM, however, did visit Mandya, which again is a hot-bed of Congress-JD(S) animosity. He addressed a press conference where he stuck to a tired line: “Congress and JD(S) may have fought each other (in the past), but in order to face communal forces in the interest of the country, we have formed an alliance.” Siddaramaiah also met with Congress workers in KR Nagar of his home district of Mysuru, which is part of the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, and tried to convince them to vote for the JD(S). His situation in Mandya is slightly easier than Shivakumar’s in Ramanagaram, as the alliance candidate put up by the JD(S) is LR Shivarame Gowda, a long-time Congress man who switched sides in 2017.

TNM

Congress-JD(S) victory in the November 3 by-polls, former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah Wednesday said both the parties would work for the coalition’s win despite “initial hitches”.

“See for many years both parties have fought against each other, so there will be initial hitches. But it will be OK… everyone will work together in the election,” he told reporters at Mysuru.

Stating that the perceived lack of understanding between workers of both parties would in no way affect the election results, the Congress leader sought to know why anyone would support the BJP.

“If there is some other candidate I can understand, but in this case, it is only between BJP and Congress-JD(S) alliance,” he said.

Bypolls for three Lok Sabha constituencies- Shivamogga, Ballari and Mandya– and two assembly constituencies– Ramanagara and Jamkhandi will take place on November 3.

The counting of votes will be on November 6.

Congress has fielded candidates in Jamkhandi and Ballari and the JD(S) in Shivamogga, Ramanagara and Mandya.

To a question about lack of understanding between the coalition partners at the grass root level in Mandya, the Congress Legislature party chief said his party workers would work for the JD(S) candidate’s win and that was the reason behind his visit to the constituency Wednesday.

The Congress and JD(S), which had bitterly fought each other during the May 12 assembly elections in the state, especially in old Mysuru region, joined hands to form a coalition government as the state assembly polls threw up a hung verdict.

Mandya Lok Sabha constituency comes under the old Mysuru region and is dominated by Vokkaligas, a community considered as JD(S)’s strong vote bank.

As Congress too has a considerable vote base in the region, a section of local party leaders and workers are said to have strong reservations against their leadership’s decision to leave the seat for the JD(S).

Asked about BJP’s claim that the coalition government would fall after the by-polls, Siddaramaiah retorted that the saffron party had been claiming so from the day the Congress-JD(S) government assumed power.

“By repeatedly making such claims, they (BJP) have destabilised themselves,” he said.

The by-elections were necessitated after BJP’s

B S Yeddyurappa (Shivamogga), B Sriramalu (Ballari) and

C S Puttaraju of JD(S) (Mandya) resigned as MPs on their election to the assembly in May this year.

By-polls to Jamkhandi assembly seat was caused by the death of Congress MLA Siddu Nyamagouda, while Ramanagara fell vacant after Kumaraswamy gave up the seat, preferring Chennapatna.

PTI