Page 1437 - Politics
Whoever speaks against PM faces IT, ED raids: Chandrababu Naidu
TDP President and Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday alleged that whoever speaks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax (IT) raids."Whoever speaks against Narendra Modi faces IT and ED raids. We will not be afraid of all these acts. We will fight for justice until we achieve it. I am speaking on behalf of 5 crore people. I will not tolerate any injustice to Telugus residing in any part of the world," he said.Naidu's comments came after police registered a case after a complaint was received against the TDP for allegedly using people's data illegally through 'Sevamitra App' to advance the party's electoral prospects in the coming Lok Sabha polls.Hitting out at Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), he alleged, "KCR is threatening our people and businesses in Hyderabad, in order to support Jaganmohan Reddy. Hyderabad is still the common capital. I will not tolerate any injustice to people of Andhra in ...
'There must be difference between terrorists, extremists and political parties'
Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik on Sunday requested political parties to maintain the right conduct and said that there must be a difference between terrorists, extremists and, political parties.Speaking with media here, Malik advised local leaders to avoid making controversial statements and said, "Inflammatory statements of politicians disturb the atmosphere of the valley. In the last 4 months, not even a single youth has gone on the path of terrorism and stone pelting has also reduced. People of Kashmir are very good and want development and peace can be achieved only through talk."Malik was in Ajmer on a one-day visit to the city. He prayed at the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisty and inaugurated a bank here during his visit.His comments come in the wake of heightened cross-border firing and shelling following the Pulwama terror attack carried out by the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the subsequent air strike conducted by the Indian Air Force targetting terror launch ...
Nitish praises PM Modi for his way of handling terrorism
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the way he handled the recent challenges emerging out of terrorism."Under Prime Minister Modiji, the Central government took an initiative. Armed forces were authorised to punish terrorists. The entire nation got united against terrorism," said Kumar, while addressing 'Sankalp Rally' here.The Chief Minister also praised IAF pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman. "Wing Commander Abhinandan was released within 60 hours. I congratulate the Government of India and Modiji for this. Greetings to Abhinandan as well," he said."There will be no compromise on terrorism," the Chief Minister thundered.He also cited several schemes launched by Bihar and Central governments for the poor and underprivileged sections of the society. "Poor women have been benefitted immensely from Ujjawala Yojana," he said.CM claimed that his alliance with the BJP happened for the development of Bihar. He thanked the Central ...
'Boycotting any country emanating terror not in ICC's hands'
The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday said boycotting any country emanating terror is not in its hands, with reference to the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) letter appealing to the international cricket body to sever ties with countries backing terrorism. "They cannot boycott any country which is emanating terror. It should be done by the government. It is not our hand," an ICC source told ANI.The Indian cricket board had urged the global governing body of cricket to sever ties with countries from which terrorism emanates, in a clear reference to Pakistan.BCCI made the appeal in a letter to the ICC against the backdrop of Pulwama terror attack.It referred to the February 14 terror strike and said, "Most countries from which the members of the ICC hail (including the UK) have strongly condemned this terrorist attack and expressed solidarity with India.The letter was sent by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) on behalf of BCCI."BCCI
'Boycotting any country from where terror emanates not in ICC's hands'
The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday said boycotting any country from where terror emanates is not in its hands, with reference to the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) appeal to the international cricket body to sever ties with countries backing terrorism. "They cannot boycott any country from where terror emanates. It should be done by the government. It is not our hand," an ICC source told ANI.The Indian cricket board had urged the global governing body of cricket to sever ties with countries from which terror emanates, in a clear reference to Pakistan.BCCI made the appeal in a letter to the ICC against the backdrop of Pulwama terror attack.It referred to the February 14 terror strike and said, "Most countries from which the members of the ICC hail (including the UK) have strongly condemned this terrorist attack and expressed solidarity with India.The letter was sent by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) on behalf of BCCI."BCCI ..
RSS brainstorming meet in Gwalior ahead of Lok Sabha polls
A three-day brainstorming meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs highest decision-making body 'Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha' will be held from March 8 in Gwalior with Lok Sabha polls high on the agenda.
TMC forms 12-member panel for poll strategy in West Bengal
The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has formed a 12-member committee comprising party supremo Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee and several ministers, to strategise for the Lok Sabha elections, the party's secretary general Partha Chatterjee said Sunday. The committee would look at the applications by aspiring candidates and forward a short list to Mamata Banerjee, Chatterjee told reporters here. The committee comprises Abhishek Banerjee, Subrata Bakshi, Firhad Hakim, Arup Biswas, Suvendu Adhikari, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Sashi Panja, Moloy Ghatak, Jyotipriyo Mallick, Subrata Mukherjee, Derek O'Brien and Partha Chatterjee. "The committee will look into election-related publicity and screening of applications of aspiring candidates in consultation with party supremo Mamata Banerjee," Chatterjee said. While Abhishek Banerjee and O'Brien are Lok Sabha MPs, the other 10 members of the committee are ministers in the state cabinet. Out of 42 Lok Sabha constituencies ..
American missile award for top Indian defence scientist
State-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman G. Satheesh Reddy is the joint winner of the 2019 Missile Systems Award given by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the US, said the Virginia-based aerospace technical society on Sunday.
Several injured in clashes as police stop BJP bike rally in Bengal
Several people, mostly BJP members, were injured as clashes broke out in various parts of West Bengal on Sunday when police sought to stop party activists from taking out 'Vijay Sankalp' bike rallies.
CEC to pay 2-day visit to J&K to asses state's poll preparedness
Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora will be paying a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir from Monday to assess the ground situation in the state for holding the Lok Sabha and assembly polls together. A poll panel team led by CEC Arora would also take stock of the state's preparedness for the Lok Sabha polls due in April-May, sources said. The Election Commission team would hold meetings with state administration officials and political parties in Srinagar on March 4 and in Jammu on March 5. As per a Supreme Court ruling, the outer limit for holding fresh polls after dissolution of a House is six months and in case of J&K, this deadline ends in May 2019. The SC verdict on a Presidential reference had also said the polls have to be held on the first occasion which means even before the six-month period. State Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the assembly in November 2018 after Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti staked claim to form government in the state with ...
White House security chief defends Trump-Kim summit
US national security advisor John Bolton denied Sunday that last week's nuclear summit with North Korea was a failure, despite President Donald Trump coming home empty-handed. A high-stakes second meeting to strike a nuclear disarmament deal between the North's leader Kim Jong Un and Trump broke up in disarray Thursday, without even a joint statement. But Bolton told CBS's "Face the Nation" Trump's failure in getting commitments from Pyongyang on destroying its nuclear capability should be seen as "a success, defined as the president protecting and advancing American national interests." The White House aide said the issue was whether North Korea would accept what the president called "the big deal" -- denuclearizing completely or something less, "which was unacceptable to us." "So the president held firm to his view. He deepened his relationship with Kim Jong Un. I don't view it as a failure at all when American national interests are protected." The outcome in Hanoi fell far short ..
Amethi Kalashnikov plant a symbol of Indo-Russian friendship: Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday said the Kalashnikov rifles manufacturing unit launched here by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will bolster Indias defence potential besides creating employment.
Country safe only under PM Modi's leadership: Katiyar
Senior BJP leader Vinay Katiyar Sunday asserted the air strike on terror hubs in Balakot amply proved that the country can be safe and secure only under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership. Noting that Pakistan has been attempting to destabilise India by sponsoring terrorism for years, he said previous governments had failed to take bold steps to eliminate terrorism. "However, Narendra Modi government exhibited the courage to give a befitting reply to Pakistan-backed terrorists after the terror strike in Pulwama," the BJP leader said addressing party rallies in Sambalpur and Balangir districts in west Odisha. "The action taken by the BJP-led government showed that the country and its people can remain safe and secure only under the leadership of Narendra Modi," Katiyar said. Apart from its ability to safeguard the country's frontiers, the BJP-led government has launched a host of schemes and programmes for speedy development of all regions and welfare of all ...
BJP workers clash with police in West Bengal
BJP workers clashed with the police at several places of West Bengal Sunday as the saffron party was prevented from holding its 'Vijay Sankalp' motorbike rally. The law enforcers said they prevented them as permission had not been granted for the rallies owing to a ban on public rallies during the ongoing school board examinations. The 'Vijay Sankalp' bike rally is part of the BJP's countrywide pre-poll exercise to establish contact with people. Clashes between BJP workers and policemen took place at Durgapur and Asansol in West Burdwan district, Midnapore town and Goaltore in West Midnapore, and Balurghat in South Dinajpur when they took out the motorcycle rallies. At Goaltore, a DSP level officer and four other policemen were injured, police sources in West Midnapore said. The police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the saffron party workers at Asansol and Goaltore leaving some people from both sides injured. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh accused the ruling ...
British foreign minister in Yemen govt bastion of Aden
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt held talks with his Yemeni counterpart in government-held Aden on Sunday, in the first visit by a western foreign minister to the war-torn country in years. "I am here because this is really the last chance for peace," Hunt said from Aden, in a video uploaded to his Twitter account. Hunt held talks with Yemen's top diplomat Khaled al-Yamani on the conflict and "international efforts to bring peace to Yemen", state news agency Saba said. They discussed an agreement on a ceasefire and prisoner exchange between the warring sides, brokered by the United Nations at talks in Sweden in December, Saba said. On Friday, Hunt tweeted a picture with Mohammed Abdelsalam, head of the rebel delegation to the UN talks, saying the two had met in the Gulf state of Oman to discuss the implementation of the Sweden agreements. Britain has resisted pressure to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which along with the UAE leads a pro-government alliance in Yemen battling ...
Ashok Khemka among 9 IAS officers transferred in Haryana
The Haryana government on Sunday issued transfer and posting orders for nine IAS officers with immediate effect, including 1991-batch senior bureaucrat Ashok Khemka. Ashok Khemka, principal secretary of Sports and Youth Affairs Department has been posted as principal secretary of Science and Technology Department, where he had been posted earlier as well. The 1991-batch IAS officer had first been mentioned by the media in 2012 when he had cancelled the mutation of a land deal between Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's Skylight Hospitality and major real estate developer DLF. The IAS officer, who was posted for nearly 15 months in the Sports and Youth Affairs Department, headed by Minister Anil Vij, has been transferred over 45 times in his career so far. The other IAS officers transferred include Amit Jha, additional chief secretary of Medical Education and Research, advisor to Haryana Saraswati Heritage Board and additional chief secretary of Science and ...
J-K Cong advocates dialogue between India, Pak to resolve issues
The Jammu and Kashmir unit president of the Congress, G A Mir, Sunday advocated dialogue between India and Pakistan for resolution of political issues through peaceful means. He also asked Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to convert his words into action and ensure an end to terrorism in the region. "Both the countries (India and Pakistan) need to sit on the table and work out a solution to the political issues politically," Mir told reporters during his visit to forward villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district. Mir led a party delegation to areas hit by shelling by Pakistani forces to take stock of the situation. The delegation met the border villagers and expressed their solidarity with them. Mir said the tension along the borders are resulting in avoidable fatalities. "Innocent civilians on this side and the other side of the border are getting killed, injured and dislocated and their properties are being damaged. What is their fault? The people on the other ..
Tripathi slams those questioning success of Balakot air strike
West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi Sunday said the people raising questions about the success of IAF air strike at Balakot should be condemned. These people in the country are sceptical about what was achieved in the operations by the forces, Tripathi said without naming anyone. "These people are asking what has been done by our forces, where the bomb had been actually dropped, how many (terrorists) were killed etc etc. Those raising such doubts and questions about our security forces, about our army should be condemned," Tripathi said during his address at a function in the city. On Saturday, Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh demanded that the Centre present evidence of the air strike on terrorist camps in Balakot. Banerjee Thursday said the nation has a right to know what actually happened at Balakot in Pakistan following the IAF's air strike there, as several foreign media had reported that not much damage was done by the air strike. She had said, "We have
Khattar govt ignored Mewat region: Surjewala
Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Sunday accused the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana of meeting out step- motherly treatment to the Mewat region and not giving it development opportunities. Addressing a 'Parivartan Rally' here, Surjewala called on the people to vote out the BJP governments from the Centre and the state, alleging they "disappointed with their non-performance and utter failure to keep their poll promises". Attacking the BJP government in the state, Surjewala alleged that the Khattar dispensation was meeting out step-motherly treatment to the Mewat region "by not giving due share in development opportunities". He claimed the previous Congress government started a number of development projects for the region, but the present dispensation had "ignored" Mewat. If the Congress came to power after the next assembly polls in Haryana, it would establish a university in Mewat, among other projects. "We will also request Maruti Suzuki India Limited to ..
Pak may withdraw its opposition to proposal to designate Azhar as global terrorist: Report
Pakistan may take "decisive action" against all proscribed organisations, including Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM), and even withdraw its opposition to the move to list terror outfit's chief Masood Azhar in the UN Security Council terror list, according to a media report on Sunday. The US, the UK and France on Wednesday moved a fresh proposal in the UN Security Council to designate Pakistan-based chief Azhar as a global terrorist, a listing that will subject him to global travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo. In a major policy decision, Pakistan is set to take decisive action against all proscribed organisations as well as against the head of banned JeM, a senior security official familiar with the development quoted as saying by the Express Tribune. It is not clear what specific action would be taken against Azhar but the official hinted that Pakistan may withdraw its opposition to the listing of JeM chief as global terrorist by the UN Security Council. "The state has to decide whether .