“As India has ratified the Convention, it will be the violation of Articles 2, 6, 7, 19, 20, 22, 31 and 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,” the lawyer said.

The Supreme Court on Monday is likely to hear a petition related to deportation of Rohingya refugees who had fled the persecution in Myanmar last year. A top court bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, will hear the matter wherein the Centre has questioned the credentials of the petitioners seeking to block the deportation of Rohingya refugees, saying the genesis of the PILs threaten to change the country’s demography and destabilise it.

Last month, a bench comprising Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud had directed the Centre to file a comprehensive report on the conditions in Rohingya refugee camps across various states, particularly Haryana, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir. The order came after senior advocate Colin Gonsalves claimed that the conditions at the camp are unhygienic and “filthiest to say the least”.

Appearing for petitioner Zaffar Ullah, Gonsalves said the poor and unhygienic conditions had led to several deaths of refugees living in these camps. The senior lawyer urged the apex court to direct the Centre and states to provide better hygienic facilities in these camps.

Earlier this year, the Centre had urged the top court to leave the issue of securing the country’s border to the executive. It also rejected charges that Border Security Force personnel are using “chilli and stun grenades” to turn away Rohingya refugees.

Responding to a petition filed by two Rohingya refugees who accused the BSF of using chilli and stun grenades to push back refugees at the border, the affidavit said the MHA had sought a report from the BSF following this and found that the charges were “false, incorrect and far from truth.” The MHA stated, “it is submitted that no such devices are used either as alleged or otherwise.”

In October last year, SC said the Rohingya refugee problem was of a “great magnitude” and the state would have to play a “big role” while dealing with the contentious issue.

PTI

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first list of 72 candidates for the 12 May Karnataka Assembly Election on Sunday, which included prominent names such as the party’s chief ministerial face BS Yeddyurappa, veterans such as KS Eshwarappa, B Sreeramulu, and Jagadish Shettar among others.

The committee met under the party’s national president Amit Shah and among its members, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj attended the meeting at the party’s head office in New Delhi.

BS Yeddyurappa

The Karnataka BJP head and former chief minister is one of the only two Members of Parliament (MPs) who has been given a ticket to contest the state polls. He will be contesting from his home turf Shikaripura assembly constituency in Shivamogga district.

Projected as the party’s chief ministerial candidate, Yeddyurappa has been elected from Shikaripura to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly for seven terms in the past. A prominent leader of the Lingayat community, the BJP state chief tried to float his own party, Karnataka Janata Party, prior to the 2013 Assembly polls but later joined hands with BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Recently, Yeddyurappa undertook a 75-day Parivartana Yatra covering a distance of around 6,000 kilometres to strengthen the party’s support base across the state. He was the first chief minister of Karnataka to spent 25 days in prison for corruption.

Speaking on calls for a separate Lingayat religion, Yeddyurappa told Firstpost, “BJP has never used religion or caste to win elections. We believe in nationalism. For us, everyone is a proud child of Mother India. About this Lingayat-Veerashaiva issue, BJP’s consistent stand has been that the Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha, the apex body of the entire community, should guide the society. We will go by that.”

KS Eshwarappa

In a crucial move, BJP has given KS Eshwarappa, Yeddyurappa’s arch rival, the ticket to contest from Shivamogga city assembly constituency. The move is seen as an attempt by the BJP top brass to put an end to the rift between the two leaders. Currently the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, party workers had expressed their discontent that if Eshwarappa was offered the ticket, BJP would be defeated, as was the case in the 2013 Assembly polls.

Eshwarappa is a Kuruba, but his influence in the community remains limited as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is a more popular leader among the Kurubas, backward castes and Dalits. A firm believer in Hindutva, he launched the Sangolli Rayanna Brigade in 2016, an organisation named after an 18th-century warrior to mobilise the backward castes, a move which was viewed by many party members as a way to create alternate centres of power with the BJP in the region.

Jagadish Shettar

A lawyer and Lingayat leader, former Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shivappa Shettar will be contesting from Hubli-Dharwad Central constituency. In 2008, he was elected to the Assembly for the fourth time from the constituency with a margin of 26,000 votes.

Earlier an activist with Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Shettar comes from a family that’s rooted in the erstwhile Jan Sangh. He is currently the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly. In March this year, Shettar condemned the Karnataka government’s move to recommend granting of minority religion status to the Lingayats and claimed Siddaramaiah did so to gain political mileage.

B Sreeramulu

The Ballari MP, known to be a close associate of the Reddy mining brothers, will contest the polls from Molakalmuru (reserved for Scheduled Tribe) constituency in Chitradurga district, marking a departure from his Ballari rural seat he has represented in the past.

According to Myneta.info, Sreeramulu has eight criminal cases pending against him including charges of bribery, attempt to murder and criminal intimidation. Like Yeddyurappa, he floated his own party BSR Congress before the 2013 Assembly polls but merged with the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and was among 17 BJP Lok Sabha members elected from Karnataka that year.

Known as a strong leader of the Valmiki Nayak community, Sreeramulu is a key participant in most of the core committee and strategy meetings of the party. He is also a prominent face seen at Modi’s rallies and is trusted by Yeddyurappa to win over the Scheduled Tribes vote bank in the state, according to this News18.

Even after Shah declared the party has nothing to do with mining baron Janardhan Reddy, Sreeramulu said, ““I can only say that Mr. Reddy is a staunch supporter of the BJP and is with the party.” The north Karnataka district of Ballari is known for its thousands-of-crores-worth illegal mining scam between 2007 and 2012, which forced Yeddyurappa to resign as chief minister in 2011.

R Ashoka

The BJP leader and former deputy chief minister of Karnataka will be contesting from the Padmanabhanagar Assembly constituency in Bengaluru (South). He currently represents the constituency, which comprises eight Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) wards, in the Vidhan Soudha. Being a Vokkaliga, it plays out in Ashoka’s favour as the Padmanabhanagar constituency has a sizeable population of Vokkaliga voters. The MLA is an RSS worker and has held the transport and health portfolios in the Karnataka state government in the past.

PTI

The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Saturday staged demonstrations at various petrol pumps across Odisha protesting against the hike in prices of petrol and diesel.
Hundreds of activists of Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD) and Biju Chhatra Janata Dal (BCJD), the youth and student wings of the ruling party, staged a peaceful demonstration at various petrol pumps.

In a bid to create awareness among the people on the frequent hike in the price of petroleum products, the party activists distributed leaflets to the public.

They alleged that the central government has failed to take steps to reduce the price of the petroleum products.

“The BYJD and BCJD have been staging protests against the oil price hike since long. But as they fail to have any impact on the people, we have decided now to make the people aware of all the hidden agenda of the Union government,” said BCJD president Rana Pratap Patra.

Reacting to the protest, state wing of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the naveen Patnaik government should press for inclusion of the petroleum products under the ambit of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

“While the central government slashed tax on the fuel, the state government did not do so for the benefit of the public and it is protesting against the fuel price hike.

“It should request the GST council to include the petroleum products under GST ambit,” said BJP state general secretary Bhrugu Buxipatra.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said that he has never involved himself in caste politics and misused the opportunities given by the people.

Addressing to the leaders of the Vokkaliga community at a meeting here, Siddaramaiah said that he has confronted a few good and bad times in his 40-year political vocation.

Siddaramaiah said “I have never played caste politics. My political vocation resembles an open book. I have never affronted the public, who wished me great”. Safeguarding himself, he said a couple of political leaders have been leveling affirmations that Siddaramaiah is casteist.

“I have never indulged in caste politics throughout my life and the allegations are politically inspired,” he said.

Denying the bits of gossip that he won’t challenge from Chamundeshwari constituency, Siddaramaiah advised the party not to trust it. “I will challenge from the Chamundeshwari constituency in the forthcoming elections. Despite the fact that i have a pressure to challenge from north Karnataka, I have chosen to challenge from here,” Siddaramaiah said.

Dr Yathindra, son of Siddaramaiah, Congress leaders Sathyanarayana, Krishnamadegowda and others were also present at the event.

JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy on Saturday accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for misusing power to win elections and included that he would stage a protest with the Election Commission for damaging the model code of conduct.

“The state Intelligence division has given its report saying about the sheltered constituencies for the Chief Minister. He has acquired the Intelligence report even after the election schedule was declared. This is abundant proof of abuse of power,” he said.

“The Intelligence report, which is circulating in social media, has listed Siddaramaiah against challenging from Chamundeshwari consituency. It says that the JD(S) leaders, including the sitting MLA from the party G T Devegowda, are assembling Vokkaliga votes and that challenging from Chamundeshwari isn’t a suitable alternative for CM,” Kumaraswamy said

Alleging mental torture by KPCC working president Dinesh Gundurao, Minister for Bengaluru Development K.J. George and several police officers, former BBMP corporator and rowdy V. Nagaraj alias Bomb Naga tried to consume poison, while addressing the media here on Friday.

Nagaraj was rushed to St. Martha’s Hospital, where he is now said to be out of danger.
On Friday afternoon, Nagaraj had come prepared to the Press Club, and as he started addressing the media, he placed the bottle on the table.

Nagaraj alleged that Dinesh Gundurao, George and others were making life difficult for him and were trying different tricks to stop him from contesting the election from the Gandhinagar constituency.

He claimed that he is a winning candidate and Gundurao, George and others are stopping him by foisting false cases against him. He alleged that they are also threatening him that they would use the police against him.

After he finished his list of charges, he sipped a few drops of poison, and his followers and journalists who were at the press meet rushed to stop him.

In his ‘death note’, Nagaraj alleged that Dinesh Gundurao, scared of losing the Gandhinagar seat, has filed nine false cases against him and through the police opened rowdy sheets against his two sons, Gandhi and Shastri, who are students.

He said, “There is a gang of 80 people, including 50 policemen, who are troubling me and my family. I was planning to hold a press conference soon after my release on bail in September last year, but the police and politicians threatened me. Since the day I was released, they are mentally torturing me and my family members. They are speaking to me over phone every day and threatening me to leave Karnakaka and settle down in Tamil Nadu. They are also pressuring me to sell my property at 20 per cent of the market value. They have also threatened me that they will book me and my sons under KCOCA and Goonda Act, if I reveal to anyone about false cases foisted against me and my sons,” he alleged.

In his list of 80 people who were targeting him, he has named Gundurao, his wife Tabu, K.J. George, IGP Hemant Nimbalkar, his wife Anjali Nimbalkar, DCP (West) Ajay Hilori, around 45 policemen, including ACPs and police inspectors, and others. The police raided Nagaraj’s house in April 2017 and seized Rs 14.80 crore in demonetised currency. Nagaraj who was evading arrest had released a video, levelling serious allegations against the police department. He had claimed that the money found at his house belonged to IPS officers and the chief minister’s special PA.

Amit Shah today said he is a “Hindu Vaishnav”, refuting Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s claim that the BJP chief is a Jain.

Shah, while speaking to reporters after a rally to mark the BJP’s 38th foundation day here, also said, “I maintain that the Karnataka government’s move to give Lingayats a separate religion status is a move to divide the Hindus.”

“The UPA government had rejected the recommendation (to give Lingayats the status of a minority group) in 2013. The present decision has only been taken to stop Yeddyurappa from becoming the CM. This is an election gimmick,” Shah said.

When asked about the Karnataka chief minister’s comment last month that Shah is a Jain, the BJP chief said, “I am not a Jain, but a Hindu Vaishnav.”

Responding to Shah’s barb that Siddaramaiah is not an ‘AHINDA’ (a Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) leader but ‘AHINDU’ (non-Hindu) leader, the Karnataka chief minister had said last month in Mysuru that Shah should first clarify whether he himself is “AHINDU or not”.

“Amit Shah is a Jain. He needs to clarify first whether he is AHINDU. Jain is a separate religion. How can he talk about me like that,” Siddaramaiah had said.

Ahead of the Assembly elections, the Congress government in Karnataka on March 19 decided to recommend to the Centre that Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats should get the status of religious minority.