Page 1843 - Politics
Driven by greed, Akhilesh did not spare even holy rivers: BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday lashed out at former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav for alleged corruption in the Gomti riverfront project rolled out during his tenure, hours after raids by Enforcement Directorate at many places involving the multi-crore project.
Scotland's former First Minister Alex Salmond arrested
Alex Salmond, the former First Minister of Scotland who had been under investigation over allegations of sexually harassing two women, was arrested on Thursday.
People will make PM Modi step down from his post: Rahul on Lok Sabha polls
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asserted that the people of India are going to defeat the BJP and make Prime Minister Narendra Modi step down from his post in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections."Prime Minister Modi spreads hatred wherever he goes. He makes Hindu-Muslim fight. In Punjab, he makes Hindu and Sikh fight. In Gujarat, he says throw out people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. This country can't run on hatred. Only love and togetherness can take this country forward," Rahul said while addressing a rally here."The people of this country are going to make Narendra Modi step down from the post of Prime Minister in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. People of this country know that 'Chowkidaar chor hain'," he added.Questioning the promises made by the BJP before 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Rahul at a different rally said, "I want to ask the youth, four years back Prime Minister Modi said, 'Achhe din ayenge'. Did it happen? The Prime Minister in all his speech used to say that he will ...
Jharkhand anti-BJP 'front' finds seat-sharing a tough task
Opposition parties have agreed to form a 'grand alliance' against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Jharkhand, but seat-sharing seems to be a tricky task given the backdrop of talks among anti-BJP parties in recent days, political observers said.
Appointing honest CBI chief won't rid agency of all ills: Ex-Rear Admiral
Picking an honest officer as the chief of CBI isn't a panacea to rid India's top investigation agency of all ills, especially when its lower rung officers are shoddy, corrupt and prone to political manipulation, according to retired Rear Admiral B.R. Menon, whose book on his legal battle with the CBI was released recently.
In-depth probe in Munde death when NCP, allies form govt:Patil
A detailed probe will be carried out into the death of former Union minister Gopinath Munde after the NCP and allies will form the next government, the party's Maharashtra unit chief Jayant Patil said Thursday. Patil's remark comes a few days after a "cyber expert" claimed senior BJP leader Munde was "killed" as the latter was aware of alleged hacking of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP-led NDA had won the polls. The cyber expert, identified as Syed Shuja who is seeking political asylum in the US, had last Monday claimed the 2014 polls were "rigged" through the EVMs, which he had said, could be hacked. The Election Commission of India had denied the charge and asked the Delhi Police to lodge an FIR against the self- proclaimed cyber expert. Shuja did not provide any proof to back his claims made at a press conference in London he addressed via Skype. Munde died in a road accident in New Delhi in 2014, a week after taking over as .
Odisha MLA Naba Das joins BJD
Former Odisha Congress Working President and Jharsuguda MLA Naba Kishore Das formally joined the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Thursday.
Modi government has no right to present full budget: Congress
The Congress on Thursday warned of massive protests inside and outside Parliament if the Modi government tried to present a full-fledged budget instead of a vote on account saying it will violate Constitutional propriety and parliamentary norms.
UK finance minister Hammond pulls out of event
LONDON (Reuters) - British finance minister Philip Hammond will not attend an event with European leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Thursday as organisers had billed, the government said.
Priyanka's appointment Congress' internal matter, poses no challenge: Rajnath
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday made light of appointment of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as the Congress's General Secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh and termed it an "internal matter" of that party.
Priyanka, Scindia given target to form Cong govt in UP: Rahul
Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday said he has given his sister Priyanka Gandhi, newly entrusted with eastern Uttar Pradesh, the target of ensuring that the party forms the next government in the state. The Congress will also fight the coming Lok Sabha polls with full strength, he said at a public meeting in his constituency. His two-day visit to Amethi had coincided Wednesday with the formal entry of Priyanka Gandhi in politics, after years of speculation on whether she would take the plunge. She has been appointed general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East, while Jyotiraditya Scindia holds charge of UP West. "Priyanka and Scindia have been given a target. That is to form a Congress government in Uttar Pradesh in the next election by defeating and wiping out the BJP, the Congress president said. Unlike PM Modi, I do not talk of a 'BJP-mukt Bharat' but speak with respect," Gandhi said, referring to Narendra Modi's call to free India of the Congress. Whether it is Gujarat, Uttar ...
China 'opposes' foreign interference in Venezuelan crisis
China said Thursday it opposed external interference in Venezuelan politics, after the US and major South American countries sided with opposition leader Juan Guaido over President Nicolas Maduro in a power struggle. China is Venezuela's main creditor and Maduro visited the country in September, striking energy and gold mining deals as he sought Beijing's support to help his crisis-hit nation. Maduro now faces trouble at home, where Guaido proclaimed himself acting president on Wednesday amid rival protests in Caracas. "China has consistently pursued the principle of not interfering with other countries' internal politics, and opposes the interference (in) Venezuelan affairs by external forces," said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a press briefing in Beijing. "We are paying close attention to the current situation in Venezuela and are calling on all parties to remain rational and calm, and to seek a political resolution to Venezuela's problem through peaceful ...
Anybody becoming AICC Gen Secy won't impact polls: Minister
In a veiled attack on the Congress party over Priyanka Gandhis appointment as partys General Secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Union Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha on Thursday said that anybody becoming the "AICC General Secretary or in-charge will not matter in the polls".
In HC, Maha govt defends Rs 100cr grant for Thackeray memorial, says it is well within its powers
Justifying its decision to allocate Rs 100 crore for the proposed Bal Thackeray memorial, the Maharashtra government Thursday told the Bombay High Court it was within its discretion to allot land or money for a monument for a prominent person and it cannot be questioned in court. The government made the submission before a division bench of Chief Justice N H Patil and Justice N M Jamdar which was hearing two petitions challenging the state's decision to convert the mayor's bungalow in central Mumbai into a memorial for Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray. The petitions were filed by activist Bhagwanji Rayani and NGO Jan Mukti Morcha in April 2017 when the government had proposed to set up the memorial. When the petitions came up for hearing Thursday, petitioners' advocates Pradeep Havnur and Uday Warunjikar sought to amend the pleas so as to also challenge the decision of the BJP-led government to allocate Rs 100 crore for the memorial. The decision was taken earlier this week. Havnur ...
Cong workers want Priyanka to take on Modi in Varanasi
Posters urging Priyanka Gandhi to contest the coming general elections from Varanasi-- Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency-- came up in the holy city on Thursday. The local unit of the Congress too demanded that Priyanka, who formally entered politics on Wednesday and was appointed the general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East, be pitted directly against Modi to galvanise voters of UP and neighbouring states. The posters featuring Priyanka Gandhi in the middle, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on the top and local Congress leader Ajay Rai, who had contested against Modi in 2014, at the bottom, have come up across Varanasi. The lines, "Kashi Ki Janta Kare Pukar, Priyanka Gandhi Ho Sansad Hamar. We want Priyanka", were printed in bold letters in the centre of the posters. Holding the posters and shouting slogans, some youth Congress workers also took out a march in the Lahurbir locality demanding that Priyanka be declared the party's candidate from Varanasi. "The ...
Former Scottish leader charged in sex harassment probe
Former Scottish first minister and pro-independence figurehead Alex Salmond was on Thursday arrested and charged in a probe over allegations of sexual harassment, police said. "We can confirm that a 64-year-old man has been arrested and charged," a spokeswoman for Police Scotland said in response to a question about reports of Salmond's arrest. Salmond became Scottish first minister in 2007 and took Scotland to the brink of independence in a historic referendum in 2014 before stepping down. He is set to appear in court later on Thursday. A staunch nationalist, Salmond resigned from the Scottish National Party last year after it emerged police were probing two harassment allegations against him. He has fiercely denied the claims, which were formally raised with the Scottish government last January and date back to 2013 when he was still in office. Salmond took legal action against the government -- now led by former party colleague Nicola Sturgeon -- over how it handled the complaints
Russia slams 'usurpation' of power in Venezuela
Russia on Thursday slammed what it called foreign interference in Venezuela and denounced the opposition's "usurpation of power", calling President Nicolas Maduro the crisis-hit country's legitimate leader. In a strongly-worded statement backing Moscow ally Maduro, the Russian foreign ministry warned that international support for opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president Wednesday, was a "direct path to lawlessness and bloodshed". "Only Venezuelans have the right to determine their future. Destructive outside interference, especially in the current extremely tense situation, is unacceptable," it said. In a separate statement to reporters, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman slammed attempts by the opposition to usurp power. "We consider the attempted usurpation of power in Venezuela as... a breach of the foundations of international law," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a conference call. "Maduro is the legitimate head of ...
Priyanka's appointment will have no impact on LS polls: BJP
Asserting that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's formal entry in active politics will have no impact on Lok Sabha polls, the BJP on Thursday said her appointment as Congress general secretary of Uttar Pradesh-East may have generated a buzz in Delhi but it has drawn no response from the region of which she has been made in-charge by her party. Union Minister Manoj Sinha,who is Lok Sabha MP from Ghazipur in eastern UP, said Piyanka's appointment is an attempt by the Congress to gain some importance in the state as it was left in a "bad shape" after being left out of the SP-BSP alliance. At a BJP press conference, he also played down ally Shiv Sena's praise for Priyanka, saying it is the party's "personal opinion". "Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was made a general secretary in Delhi and you people have been discussing it here. But it seems that people of the region of which she has been made in-charge are not noticing it," Sinha said, adding her presence would have no impact on the general election. He ...
Trade tensions essentially a political problem, says UN chief
United Nations head Antonio Guterres on Thursday said trade tensions impacting the world economy were essentially a "political problem" and warned that a fragmented response to global challenges was a recipe for disaster. In a special address here at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2019, he also said the world was today facing challenges that are more and more interlinked but the responses are fragmented. "If this is not reversed, it's a recipe for disaster," said Guterres, a former Portuguese Prime Minister who has been Secretary-General of the UN since January 2017. He said if one looks at global politics and geopolitical tensions -- with the global economy, the mega-trends, climate change, the movement of people and digitalization -- the truth is that they are more and more interlinked, interfering more and more with each other and indeed the problems are global but the responses are fragmented. "Looking at the global economy, we are now growing still with a relatively ...
Russia: no OPEC, non-OPEC meeting proposed over Venezuela turmoil
MOSCOW (Reuters) - There have been no proposals to convene an emergency meeting of the OPEC and non-OPEC monitoring committee because of the political turmoil in OPEC member Venezuela, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday.