Rahul’s fresh attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his silence on the ongoing farmers’ agitation, Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused the Modi government of only helping the industrialists. “The Prime Minister has never paid the farmers a rupee for their work. You will never see a farmer in his office. The farmers will scream and protest, but he will have time for the rich businessmen,” Gandhi said, addressing the national OBC convention in Delhi.

Stressing that “India doesn’t reward people who have the skills,” Gandhi said, “People who actually work in India are behind the scenes. In our country, one person works and the other gains the benefit. While one has the talent, other walks away with the credit.”

Taking a dig at the flagship projects of the BJP like Make in India, Skill India, Gandhi said, “Modiji says that the country is short of skills. This is not true. The truth is that your talent is not being brought to light.” Adding that many farmers and labourers are not getting any results for their skills, Gandhi said that the Congress party will open its doors for people from all sections of the society.

He also accused the BJP of running the government according to the wishes of a “selected few leaders and the RSS.” “India has become a slave to few leaders of BJP and RSS. Everyone including MPs is afraid to speak. Most them are not allowed to speak. And those of us who do speak, the BJP does not listen to. Only RSS is given a hearing,” Gandhi said, adding that the united Opposition will show PM Modi and Amit Shah that the country can only be run by its people.

Rahul Gandhi also claimed that the non-performing assets of banks have gone up to Rs 1,000 crore. “Rs 2.5 lakh crore were given to 15 industrialists. But the farmer got nothing…the loan waiver was for 15 people but not for the farmer who continues to commit suicide… his children keep crying,” Gandhi said.

A police complaint has been recorded against BJP pioneer and Udupi MP Shobha Karandlaje for her comments against Peshawar Seer. The complaint accuses her for having harmed the people’s religious suppositions by offending the seer by expressing that he “lacks knowledge about Modi’s government.”

On June 1, Sri Vishweshwara Theertha of Sri Pejawar Matt had expressed that Modi’s government had not fulfilled the desires of the people in its four-year tenure. He additionally raised the way that River Ganga had not yet been cleaned in spite of few promises made by the BJP before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

When asked for her opinion with respect to the seer’s comments, Shobha had supposedly called him a “clueless priest” who needs knowledge about Modi’s government. It is accumulated that Nataraj Sharma, a lawyer in Bengaluru, has filed a case at the Vidhana Soudha Police Station claiming these remarks hurt the religious sentiments of the seer’s followers.

In its letter to the Congress dated June 8, the commission said “from the evidence collected from the ground and the analysis of data made available with the complaint suggest that the claim of large scale duplicate, repeat, multiple, illegal, invalid, false etc entries/voters in the electoral rolls of Madhya Pradesh is not based on robust parameter and is not correct”.

It had “immediately” formed inter disciplinary teams to four Assembly constituencies — Narela, Hoshangabad, Bhojpur and Seoni-Malwa — which were shortlisted randomly from the list mentioned in the complaint on June 3.

The EC has also instructed the Chief Electoral Officer of the state to carry out “intensive verification” of the complaint in all other constituencies in a time-bound manner.

As per the reports submitted by the inter disciplinary teams, 2,397 of 2,442 entries in Seoni-Malwa alleged by the Congress to be similar were found to be genuine and 45 entries were in the process of deletion.

In Narela constituency, of 22,252 entries cited in the Congress complaint, 17,684 were found to be unique.

In Hoshangabad, no case of multiple entry was found on verification of alleged 552 incorrect entries while the EC teams found 29 of 36 cases were genuine and the process of deletion was on for the rest seven.

The commission concluded that the “allegation of large scale entries of multiple voters in these four Assembly Constituencies in not borne out”.

“In addition to the complaint of duplication in the voters’ list, it was pointed out that there has been unexplained growth in the electors in the state of Madhya Pradesh as the EP (elector population) ratio which used to be 52.76 per cent in 2008 increased to 61.45 per cent in 2018.

“This has been seen from the perspective of census data and annual increase in the numbers of the electoral roll and nothing unusual could be noticed,” reads the letter.

“From this, it can be safely concluded that there is no basis to dispute the current electoral roll.”

Former Chief Minister of Karnataka said “It is nevertheless normal for individuals nursing desires of becoming ministers to get frustrated when their expectations are dashed. It is likewise evident that there is dissatisfaction among a couple of individuals in the party. None of them will leave the party, and each one of them will be counseled,”

Addressing media people at BN Jalihala village on Friday, June 8, Siddaramaiah admitted that former minister, M B Patil, had met him and had talks. In any case, he rejected reports which asserted that Patil had shed tears at not being made a minister. “Both myself and Chief Minister, Kumaraswamy, have consoled M B Patil,” he cleared up.

When he was addressed about the inverts his party may endure in light of the disappointment with respect to M B Patil, who claims support of 22 officials, Siddaramaiah abruptly appeared to lose his cool and needed to know what sort of inverts the concerned was alluding to. He said that there is no doubt of him going to Bengaluru to mollify displeased aspirants, as all the concerned have been talked to and consoled.

In the meantime, he communicated ignorance about resignation offered by Satish Jarkiholi to the post of the secretary of All India Congress Committee. Siddaramaiah, whose attention was drawn to the call given by the president of Kurubara Sangha asking Kuruba legislators of the party to walk out of the party, he feigned ignorance about the identity of the said president.

“Operation Kamala has failed to have any effect. Nobody will leave our party. BJP has their own issues inside to deal with,” Siddaramaiah expressed.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Friday, said that disgruntlement over not getting ministerial berths was an issue that his coalition accomplice Congress was confronting and not JD(S). He stated that things were ‘alright’ in his party.

“The issue is in the Congress. I will attempt my best to determine it. To the best of my capacity, I will bring them into certainty,” Kumaraswamy stated, even as a disappointment among Congress leaders proceeded on Friday.

Numerous senior Congress leaders, including former minister H K Patil, Satish Jarkiholi and M B Patil did not make the cut when the party reported the names of 14 ministers who are currently part of the Kumaraswamy-drove Cabinet.

The displeased pioneers have been holding separate parties and are endeavoring to mount pressure on the party authority. Their supporters, in the meantime, proceeded with protests demanding ministerial positions for their leaders.

“Everyone has goals, the inclination that they deserve and the needing to function as a minister. However, the sharing needs to occur inside a framework. These issues are regular when you are attempting to shape a government. In time, it will get diluted,” Kumaraswamy said.

Congress ministers in the Kumaraswamy government in Karnataka will be replaced with new faces after two years while non-performers will be dropped even earlier on the basis of an assessment every six months.
Congress has come up with this rotation plan to keep its ministers on their toes and send the message across that they will make way for others waiting in line. KPCC president G Parameshwara had announced a similar performance assessment for ministers in the previous Siddaramaiah government but it did not take off.
AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, K C Venugopal, told TOI on Thursday that the party high command had worked out a three-point formula on the induction of ministers and their continuity. “This is not the final cabinet. The ministers’ performance will be reviewed every six months and those not meeting targets will be asked to go. For the time being, no first-time MLA will be inducted into the cabinet. The six berths which have not been filled will be kept on hold. The ministers’ tenure is on a rotation basis for two years,” Venugopal added.
KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao said when the reshuffle happens after two years, the new ministers who come in will have a tenure of three years. “But those who do not perform will be asked to go during the periodic six-month performance assessment,” he said.
Party members who could not make it to the cabinet have accused Venugopal and Parameshwara of failing to make the right choices. The party high command is taking a dim view of the dissent by ministerial aspirants, party sources said. “Those who are speaking against the leadership will not be considered for berths in future,” a source said.

Karnataka gets a Cabinet, Congress, JD(S) rebellions
Even a day after the swearing in, portfolios were not allocated. A senior functionary said it is likely to happen on Friday by when it is expected that the dissidence will die down.

However, many functionaries, including key members of the previous Siddaramaiah ministry who have been dropped, are not relenting. One of them, Kuruba leader H M Revanna, said he is already in talks with BJP functionaries and plans to join the party. BJP functionaries, too, admitted that Revanna had approached them and they would be glad to accommodate him.

A meeting at M B Patil’s residence in Bengaluru on Thursday was attended by disgruntled MLAs, including M T B Nagaraj, Satish Jarkiholi, K Sudhakar and Baig. Emerging from the meeting, Jarkiholi, who is also an AICC secretary, said they discussed the cabinet expansion as many were upset over not getting ministership despite their efforts to “strengthen the party”.

Recipe for disaster. Soon Congress will disappear completely. A family business led by a stupid man will surely fail.
Anilk Khan
“We’ve discussed how to set it right by bringing it to the notice of the party high command for ignoring capable and efficient aspirants,” he added.
However, Patil, who was at the forefront to demand minority religion tag for Lingayats, downplayed the meeting, saying they discussed the welfare of the party.

The Chinese government recently decided that all spermatozoa donated to Beijing’s main sperm bank must be loyal to the communist party.

Good idea! But how do you check? You can’t interview them.

Sperm bank staff make it clear that sperm donors must be card-carrying party members with Correct Political Attitudes, which means atheists who “love the party”. This will prevent fertilised eggs growing into offspring with Dangerously Wrong Ideas, such as “maybe the world is not actually on the cusp of being taken over by the glorious rising sun of Communism”.

There are similar concerns around the world. If a gay couple from the United States wants a baby carried by a surrogate mother in Asia, the Medical Tourism Corporation promises to scour India to try to find one of a particular belief group, so they can make sure the initial cells of their child-to-be are Jewish or atheist or whatever — but the company points out that most available mothers are Hindu or Muslim.

Yet maybe the main culture of the next generation will be something else altogether. A baby in the UK recently spoke his first word, the Caters News Agency reported. Instead of “mama” or “dada”, little Joe Brady said “Alexa”.

May be “digital assistant” gadgets like Alexa will take over all parental duties? Fine with me. They can raise the kids until they are old enough to understand vital commands such as “Go get me a beer.”

Parents are becoming more flexible. Several news sites recently carried the story of a mother who asked a tattooist to permanently write the name of her son Kevin on her arm. The tattooist misspelled it as “Kelvin”. So Johanna Sandstrom of Sweden changed her child’s name to Kelvin to match her tat.

People criticised her for this. But raising children is all about thinking on your feet, plus, of course: Bribery, corruption, cheating and lying.

Here are two Evil Dad Tricks that worked for this columnist: 1) Tell your children that the display of chocolate next to the supermarket checkout queue is special “dogs only” candy. 2) Instead of buying expensive tickets to the aquarium, show the children the fish display in the window of your local fishmonger shop and say: “Shh! They’re sleeping.”

Oh, you start off imagining that you are going to raise an angelic child who wears only natural fibres. Pretty soon, you’re happy enough if you can keep the little monster from running naked out of the house. One father recently wrote on Twitter that he asked his six-year-old son to get dressed for school and the boy snapped back: “OMG, why are you so obsessed with clothes?”

A TV presenter recently admitted that she and her husband sometimes travel first class in aircraft while putting their children in economy. First class should be “a huge treat that you have earned”, explained Kirstie Allsopp of the UK. I like this idea. I wonder if her children live in a small hut in the yard of the family mansion, not having earned a house?

Meanwhile, non-parents should practise their acting skills by ordering a whole fish whenever they are dining with children. “Shh! It’s sleeping.”

(Nury Vittachi is an Asia-based frequent traveller. Send ideas and comments via his Facebook page)

Elections to six legislative council seats, three each from graduates and teachers constituencies began across the state on Friday June 8.

Polling began at 7 am and will go on till 5 pm. The results will be announced on June 12.

The three major parties Congress, JD(S) and the BJP have fielded candidates in all six seats.

Mangaluru teachers’ constituency candidate of the BJP Ganesh Karnik cast his vote at University College in Hampankatta.

Former deputy chairman of legislative council Maritibbegowda is seeking re-election from south teachers’ constituency, while former Hebbal MLA YA Narayanaswamy is in the fray from southeast teachers segment. Senior BJP leader Ganesh Karnik is seeking re-election from southwest teachers’ constituency and former MP from Shivamogga Ayanur Manjunath is contesting from southwest graduates’ constituency. Kannada activist and former MLA Vatal Nagaraj is in the fray from northeast graduates’ constituency.

Overall, 35 candidates, including 18 from the three parties, are in the fray for the six seats, which will see 2.14 lac voters in the graduates’ constituency and 60,561 in the teachers’ constituency.

 
On the second leg of his ongoing two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will arrive in Jammu this afternoon (Friday, June 08).

Singh will visit R.S. Pura Sector along the Indo-Pak International Border to take stock of the prevailing security situation in wake of escalated tension along the border and subsequent shelling during ceasefire violations.

The Home Minister is also scheduled to interact with the people displaced due to shelling along the border and review the condition of the border people. Before leaving for New Delhi, Singh is scheduled to address media persons in Jammu this evening.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw