The BJP on Thursday alleged that the Congress, which failed to forge a mahagatbandhan (grand alliance) in the country, was appearing to form an international alliance with the break India forces of which ‘Pakistan’ is an important component.

The BJP also hit out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of allegedly receiving funds from anti-India forces and accused it of compromising the national security.

“A few political parties in the country are trying to form an international mahagathbandhan with the anti-India forces to break the country of which Pakistan is an important component,” BJP leader Sambit Patra told media at a press conference here.

He said that there seems to be a mahagatbandhan of break India forces, of which Congress is also included. “They are unable to form a mahagatbandhan at home and they are forming a mahagatbandhan at international platform with break India forces,” he alleged.

The BJP leader said: “We have seen how Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu hugged the Pakistan Army Chief. There are many people in Pakistan who want to see Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister.”

Citing other references, the BJP leader said, “When (External Affairs Minister) Sushma Swaraj spoke about Pakistan at the United Nations (UN), then Congress instead of supporting it objected to it.”

The BJP leader said there has been a sting operation by an English channel Republic TV about the leaders dealing with the Khalistan Front forces. “These are anti-India forces and these anti-India forces have a political pattern.

“And these forces have been regrouping and they have become quiet active,” he said, adding that Shamsher Singh who heads the National Sikhs Youth Federation, Gurcharan Singh of the Dal Khalsa and Paramjit Pamma, who was a terrorist and was arrested in Poland.

Patra said that in the sting operation Shamsher Singh can be heard saying that the Khalistan movement which they are running in London is a “secessionist movement to break India”.

“In the video Shamsher is heard saying that ‘we want India to break up, we want naxals to be free, we want a dravidsitan to be created. We shall help them as our enemy is same. Our enemy is New Delhi’,” Patra said.

The BJP leader said that Shamsher also said that “Pakistan is an ally and it has not done any genocides against Sikhs. “Pakistan recognises Khalistan as a legitimate nation, it is a natural ally,” he said.

He said that in the video Paramjit Singh Pamma also claimed that in India minorities are not being treated properly.

“This is what Rahul Gandhi is doing. He is going to international forums and saying that there is no freedom in India, there is no peace, no employment, minorities not being treated properly. But in China there is everything,” he pointed out referring to Gandhi’s recent visit to the European countries where he interacted with people and attacked the government over several issues.

Attacking Kejriwal and AAP, Patra said, in the sting operation Gurcharan Singh exposes their nexus.

He alleged that Kejriwal for his “political ambitions” was playing with national security which is “unpardonable.”

IANS

Notwithstanding BSP supremo Mayawati’s ruling out any alliance with the Congress in the upcoming state assembly polls, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday exuded confidence that the two parties will get together for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here, Gandhi said the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief’s move to not align with his party, would not impact Congress’ fortunes in the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls.

“Alliance in the states and alliance at the Centre are two different things and Mayawati has sort of indicated that.

“I don’t see the BSP not aligning (with Congress) will impact us in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan,” said Gandhi.

The Congress President also apparently corroborated Mayawati’s assertions that certain party leaders were “adamant” in their stance severing the tie.

“We were flexible in the states (about seat sharing). In fact I was more flexible than some of our state leaders. We were amidst talks when they (BSP) decided to go their own way.

“But in the national elections, the parties (BSP, Congress) will come together. That is the indication we have,” added Gandhi.

After tying up with Ajit Jogi’s Janta Congress for the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, Mayawati on Wednesday dealt the Congress a severe blow by ruling out any ties with the party in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

While praising Gandhi and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati on Wednesday targeted Madhya Pradesh Congress leaders, particularly, former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh for “sabotaging” the BSP-Congress alliance.

IANS

In a blistering attack on the Narendra Modi government, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said it has gone into a war with its own people imposing a single suffocating ideology on 1.3 billion Indians.

Delivering the keynote address at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2018, here, Gandhi lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party regime saying it dislikes thinkers like journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh who was shot dead last year and others who are sacked merely for criticising the Prime Minister.

“What we see today in India is defaming, a maligning of the Indian imagination. The Indian government has gone into war with its own people because it wants to impose one ideology on 1.3 billion of us.

“It wants to impose one singular suffocating memory on our 1.3 billion people,” said Gandhi in his scathing criticism of the Modi rule.

“What is the nature of the war, farmers are committing suicide by the thousands. Economy is decimated, rupee is on its knees, petrol is at an all-time high, the stock market is imploded, 12 lakh crore in NPAs and the banking system is jammed shut. Unemployment is at a 20-year high.

“Unorganised sector has been decimated as a result of the demonetisation and extremely complex multilayered GST. Millions and millions of small and medium business have been wiped out. Public confidence is in tatters,” he said castigating the government’s policies.

He said peoples’ aspiration was turning into anger — Dalits and tribals agitating across the country and there are vicious attacks on the minorities.

“Our friends in the media are sacked because they criticised the Prime Minister, Gauri Lankesh is shot dead because of what she wrote.

“Fresh thinking is unwelcome, in fact, forget about fresh thinking they dislike thinkers — (former Reserve Bank of India Governor) Raghu Ram Rajan, (Nobel laureate) Amartya Sen…the list goes on.

Gandhi said “institutions are attacked, Supreme Court judges are compelled to go public because they feel intimidated and in the same breath they speak of Judge B.H. Loya (a CBI judge who died under mysterious circumstances in 2014), they speak of their fear”.

He said the sole qualification of choosing Vice Chancellors to lead the country’s top universities was that they subscribe to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideology.

India today was “burning”, Gandhi said, while the government was only talking about its slogans like — Make in India and Clean India, which he said have translated into zilch.

“People in charge are convinced that they have a monopoly on knowledge, only they understand and no one else anything about India or the Indians’ dreams,” he said.

Reciting lines from Rabindranath Tagore’s “Where the mind is Without Fear”, Gandhi called upon people to reimagine the India where all Indians were free and not discriminated against.

IANS

Pakistan has asked India to immediately share the data showing inflow and discharge of water at the Kishanganga hydropower project in Jammu and Kashmir, a media report said on Friday.

It has also sought dates for inspection of the 330MW hydroelectric project that India had agreed to during a two-day meeting held in August in Lahore between Indus water commissioners of the two countries.

“We recently asked Indian authorities for Indus waters in writing to give us dates for inspection of the Kishanganga dam as soon as possible,” Pakistan’s Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Muhammad Mehr Ali Shah told Dawn news on Thursday.

“Through a letter, we have also pressed Indian authorities to immediately share the data concerning flows of water at the river and releases/discharges, in/outflows at the dam with us under the relevant provisions of the Indus Water Treaty.

“We are receiving water at Jhelum basin in our territory, but to ascertain our need or requirement we need data India is obligated to share with us time to time,” he added.

During the 115th meeting of the Permanent Commi­ssion for Indus Waters, India had agreed to allow Pakistan to inspect the projects built on the Jhelum basin, including Kishanganga hydroelectric project, in the near future.

Similarly, Islamabad had agreed to allow New Delhi to carry out inspection of the Kotri barrage over the Indus.

Besides Kishanganga, India had also agreed to let Pakistani experts inspect sites of two hydro­power projects – 1,000MW Pakal Dul and 48MW Lower Kalnal at Chenab basin – by the end of September.

But the inspections were postponed.

Shah told Dawn that Pakistani authorities wanted to have a detailed tour of the Kishanganga project since Pakistan had already raised various objections on its design and construction.

The project was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 19 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora district.

Islamabad has accused New Delhi of violating the Indus Waters Treaty — a 1960 water distribution pact between India and Pakistan — by setting up the dam.

The Kishanganga project was delayed for several years as Pakistan dragged India to the International Court of Arbitration, which ruled in India’s favour in 2013.

IANS

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday alleged that TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, actor-politician Pawan Kalyan and YSR Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy have colluded with the BJP to target him.

With Telangana’s acting Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief Chandrasekhar Rao continuing his bitter attack on Naidu, calling him a “thief and betrayer”, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president accused Rao of colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Naidu was talking to reporters on the sidelines of inauguration of a facility by Xiaomi and Dixon Technologies to manufacture Mi LED TVs in this temple town.

The TDP chief, however, said he would not respond to personal attacks by KCR. “I speak on ideologies and policies. I never resort to personal attacks,” he said when asked to react to KCR’s bitter attacks on him during election meetings in Telangana.

With KCR also targeting Naidu for TDP’s alliance with the Congress in Telangana, Naidu said the party took the step due to political compulsions. The TDP president, however, ruled out similar arrangement with the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, saying the latter does not have much presence in the state.

Indirectly defending the alliance with the Congress in Telangana, Naidu recalled that the United Front, of which he was the Convener, had taken the Congress party’s outside support to form the government at the Centre.

Claiming that he developed Hyderabad as the information technology hub when he was the Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, Naidu said he did it for Telugu people. He pointed out even KCR and his family members admitted that the credit of developing Hyderabad goes to him.

Naidu alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hatched a conspiracy to target him and the TDP. He said Modi was using central agencies against him. Stating that he was not afraid of anybody, Naidu said he had clean record and credibility in his 40-year-long political career.

The TDP leader said Modi was trying to tarnish established political leaders and demolish established institutions. He condemned what he called attempts by the Centre to take over the affairs of Tirupati temple.

Naidu predicted that an alternative will emerge to the BJP-led government at the Centre. Such an alternative was necessary to undo the injustice done to people of the country, especially the people of Andhra Pradesh, by the Modi government, he said.

Naidu, whose TDP pulled out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in March this year, said BJP had done more injustice to Andhra Pradesh than the Congress which bifurcated the state.

“You have not given the special status which you had promised in 2014,” he said and accused Modi of also going back on the promise to implement Andhra Pradesh Bifurcation Act.

The TDP chief also slammed the Modi government over “Rafale scam”, saying Bofors was small compared to this.

He alleged that people have lost faith in the banking system as those who committed bank frauds fled the country. He also targeted the Centre for rising fuel prices, devaluation of rupees, its failure to achieve anything from demonetisation and improper implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.

IANS

 Bengaluru’s new Deputy Mayor Ramila Umashankar died following a massive heart attack early on Friday, said an official. She was 44.

“Ramila died after a massive cardiac arrest around 12.50 a.m. at a private hospital in the city,” Bengaluru civic corporation official L. Suresh told IANS.

She is survived by her husband, a son and a daughter.

The ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) counsellor from Kaveriapura was elected on September 28.

“Ramila’s husband (Umashankar) rushed her to the hospital after she complained of chest pain and difficulty in breathing,” Suresh said.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) declared a holiday for its offices, schools and civic wards across the city. Hospitals and markets though would remain open.

Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, former Prime Minister and JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and Bengaluru Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun have mourned Ramila’s death and expressed condolence to her bereaved family, among many others.

IANS

The BJP on Wednesday appointed three senior Central Ministers as poll managers for Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana.

BJP President Amit Shah appointed Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan as party’s election incharge for Madhya Pradesh, Prakash Javadekar for Rajasthan and Health Minister J.P. Nadda for Telangana, a party statement said.

In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where elections are due by the end of this year, the BJP and the Congress will be in direct contest. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao dissolved the Assembly nearly nine months before its term was to end to clear the way for early elections. Elections in Telangana are likely in January or February.

New appointments in BJP’s West Bengal unit, where ruling TMC and the BJP are at loggerheads, were also announced. Former Trinamool Congress leader and Union Minister Mukul Roy, who joined the BJP last year, was appointed coordinator of election management committee of the party.

The BJP has appointed RSS pracharak Arvind Menon as co-incharge of West Bengal. Menon served as BJP’s General Secretary (Organisation) in Madhya Pradesh and will now work under party General Secretary Kailash Vijaywargiya.

The BJP has been ruling Madhya Pradesh since 2003 after ousting the Digvijay Singh government of the Congress from power.

The BJP is ruling Rajasthan since 2013 when it swept the polls by bagging 163 of the 200 assembly seats under the leadership of present Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

(IANS)