Periscope: PM Modi's packed home visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in his home state, Gujarat, on Monday to inaugurate several projects, including a hospital in Surat and Sumul Dairy’s cattle feed plant in Tapi district. The PM is also scheduled to inaugurate Phase-I of the SAUNI (Saurashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation) project. Providing details of Modi’s scheduled visit, BJP MP from Surat, C R Patil said, “Modi would land at the Surat airport on the evening of April 16, where we will give him a grand welcome. Next morning, he will inaugurate Kiran Hospital in Katargam area of Surat.” The hospital has been built at a cost of Rs 400 crore by a trust, he said.

PM Modi would then head to Bajipura village in the neighbouring Tapi district to inaugurate a cattle feed plant and an ice cream plant of Surat District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union, popularly known as Sumul Dairy. “He will also address a large gathering at Bajipura. We expect that over 300,000 women would turn up for this mega event,” Sumul Chairman Rajubhai Pathak said. According to him, the PM had performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the project in 2014 during his tenure as the Gujarat chief minister.

Rahul’s defamation case to be heard 

The defamation case filed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) against Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s alleged remark regarding Mahatma Gandhi's assassination will come up for hearing on Friday. He was not present at the last hearing. Last November, Rahul was granted bail on the basis of personal surety by Maharashtra's Bhiwandi court. A local RSS functionary, Rajesh Kunte, had filed the case against Rahul for claiming at an election rally on March 6, 2014, that the right-wing organisation had killed Mahatma Gandhi.

Though the apex court has stayed the proceedings against him, the Congress leader appeared before Magistrate D P Kale in Bhiwandi on July 8 last year. He had in September last year withdrawn his petition filed in the Supreme Court and said that he would face trial.

He expressed his readiness to face the trial after the top court refused to interfere with the criminal proceedings pending against him before the trial court.

He moved the apex court challenging the Bombay High Court's order refusing to quash the defamation case and summons issued to him by the trial court.