Page 1864 - Politics
DMK announces Raj Bhavan protest over Kodanad heist issue
Opposition DMK Tuesday announced it would stage a demonstration in front of the Raj Bhavan here on January 24 demanding that Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit take action against Chief Minister K Palaniswami in the backdrop of claims made in a video clip about the Kodanad heist. In the video released on January 11, two of the accused in the sensational robbery at the Kodanad estate, where a guard of the property was found dead in April 2017, had linked the chief minister to the break-in, prompting opposition calls for his resignation even as Palaniswami dismissed the charges. The sprawling property was frequented by the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa when she was alive. DMK has already urged Purohit to direct Palaniswami to resign from his post to ensure a free and fair probe. However, Palaniswami, refuting the allegations, had said those who were unable to take on AIADMK politically were resorting to such cheap acts and asserted that a probe would expose their
Maha govt approves Rs 100 cr for Thackeray memorial
The BJP-led Maharashtra government on Tuesday approved Rs 100 crore for the construction of a memorial for late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, a move seen as an attempt to reach out to the bickering ally ahead of the general election. The decision of the state cabinet to approve the funds came on the eve of the birth anniversary of Thackeray. The Sena expressed happiness over it, but maintained that the government's decision had got nothing to do with alliance prospects between the two parties for the upcoming polls. On Wednesday, the city civic body will hand over the memorial land's possession to the trust set up to construct the structure, according to sources. After the cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said relations between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena "were and will remain sweet". There are "high chances" of a tie-up between both the parties because the BJP has always been in favour of an alliance, Mungantiwar said. The Sena, an ally of the .
Sense of duty turned into sense of entitlement: Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the sense of duty among people before India's Independence has now turned into a sense of entitlement. He also asked citizens as well as social and political leaders to draw inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and take up the cause of cleanliness as a mass movement. Modi was addressing a gathering at Sanosara village in Gujarat's Bhavnagar district through video conference at the concluding ceremony of a 150-km foot-march organised by Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya as part of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Gandhi this year. "Mahatma Gandhi always stressed on duty. However, after Independence, this sense of duty slowly turned into a sense of entitlement. To take our country ahead and bring development, we need both of them today," he said. "They are the platforms on which the vehicle of country's development would move forward. Both of them are incomplete without each other," he added. The seven-day march, aimed at spreading ...
Goa govt may recommend dissolution of Assembly, fears Cong
The Congress in Goa Tuesday expressed fear that the BJP-led state government might recommend dissolution of the Legislative Assembly after the passage of the vote-on-account during the upcoming session scheduled to be held next week. Congress Legislative Party (CLP) members, who met at Porvorim near here, expressed concerns over the shortness of the assembly session, saying there would be no time to discuss important issues. The three-day-long Assembly session will begin on January 29 with the address of Governor Mridula Sinha. "The government is holding only vote-on-account. We are worried...this might indicate that they want to dissolve the assembly," Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar told reporters in the presence of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief Girish Chodankar. He said the state government had opted for "immature dissolution" of the Assembly in the past and called for fresh polls. Kavlekar said the three-day-long session was not enough to discuss ...
Trump's proposal to break budget deadlock falls flat
Senate Republicans have released a measure designed around President Donald Trump's proposal for breaking a budget impasse, its centerpiece his demand for USD 5.7 billion to build a southern border wall all but guaranteeing Democratic opposition and no foreseeable end to a partial government shutdown. As the shutdown dragged through its fifth week, another missed paycheck loomed for hundreds of thousands of workers. Voting in Congress was not expected to unfold until later in the week. Even then it seemed doubtful that the 1,300-page measure, dubbed the "End The Shutdown And Secure The Border Act," had any chance of passing swiftly. Senate Republicans hold a 53-47 majority but would need Democrats to reach the usual 60-vote threshold for bills to advance. Not a single Democrat publicly expressed support for Trump's proposal since he announced it over the weekend. Details of the measure released late Monday highlight the trade-off of border wall funding for temporary protection from ...
RS Prasad corners Cong on allegations made at EVM Hackathon
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday questioned the presence of senior advocate and Congress leader Kapil Sibal in the London EVM Hackathon event on Monday."What was Mr Kapil Sibal doing there? In what capacity was he present there? I believe he was monitoring the situation on behalf of Congress party. Is the Congress sponsored event designed to insult the popular mandate of 2014?" Prasad asked during a press conference here.During the event, allegations surfaced about the possibility of tampering EVMs. Taking note of the same, the Election Commission of India (ECI) refuted the same and threatened legal action against the 'cybersecurity expert'.Allegations had also surfaced that late BJP leader Gopinath Munde was aware of alleged EVM tampering ahead of the 2014 general elections.NCP MLC Dhananjay Munde, however, demanded a probe in the "shocking revelation"."He (Syed Shuja) said 14 people including Gopinath Munde were aware of EVM hacking. This is a shocking revelation for ...
Congress never had will to end corruption: Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that successive Congress governments since Independence never had the will nor intention to end corruption, but his government has done it in the last four-and-a-half years.
BJP govt schemes didn't help farmers: MP Agriculture Min
State Agricultural Minister Sachin Yadav on Tuesday said that previous government's "Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana" failed to improve the condition of the poverty-ridden farmers.Yadav's comment came hours after Chief Minister Kamal Nath-led Madhya Pradesh government scrapped the Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana, which was introduced by former state chief Shivraj Singh Chouhan in 2017.Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, Yadav said, "Schemes by BJP government did not focus on farmers. Since the time Bhavantar Yojana was introduced, 'prices of farmers' products have fallen. Even the government support was harming the farmers. So, we have decided to scrap this scheme."Responding to criticism, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shiv Singh Chouhan said, "Government is only working with a vision to change schemes started by the previous government. It is unfair to the people. How can they change everything blindly? We will protest in February if they don't give the right price to farmers.This scheme was ...
Passport, visa processes being eased for diaspora Indians
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told overseas Indians that his government is making efforts to ease the processes concerning their social security, passport, visa and PIO and OCI cards and that work is on to issue chip-based e-passports.
BJP workers asked scripted queries to PM in video interaction:
Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed BJP workers from South Goa via video link, the opposition Congress Tuesday claimed the questions posed to the PM were pre-decided and not spontaneous. The prime minister had addressed booth-level workers from South Goa as well as parliamentary constituencies of Kolhapur, Hatkanangle, Madha and Satara in neighbouring Maharashtra. "The questions that were asked during the Sunday interaction were filtered and planted through the BJP workers," Goa state Congress chief Girish Chodankar claimed in a press conference. Chodankar said BJP workers themselves had told him the questions were pre-decided. It seems PM Modi is not able to face workers of his own party now, he said. "The PM who cannot face the media and the common people, is not able to face his own workers. He lacked proper answers for the planted questions, and instead was reading through a teleprompter (during the video conferencing)," the Congress leader ...
Kamala Harris' 2020 US presidential bid excites Indian-Americans
Kamala Harris' plunge in the US presidential race has thrilled the Indian-American community which considers the first Indian-origin Senator's "groundbreaking" announcement a "proud moment" and a reflection that Indian-Americans have finally arrived. Harris, 54, officially launched her campaign for the US presidential election in 2020 to take on President Donald Trump on Monday, saying she was "honoured" to announce her bid on a day when Americans celebrated Martin Luther King Jr who sought inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi. A rising party star and vocal critic of President Trump, Harris, who is quite often described as the female Barack Obama in the Democratic party is the fourth Democrat to join the battle for the party's nomination in the next year's election. While it's too early to say on the results of the grilling presidential primary that would conclude with the Democratic National Convention in July 2020, the Indian-American community leaders said Harris who is of mixed ...
BJP calls EVM row Congress sponsored
The BJP on Tuesday alleged that the EVM hackathon in London where a US-based self-claimed cyber expert said the 2014 Lok Sabha elections were rigged and that EVMs can be hacked was a "conspiracy" sponsored by the Congress to defame the country's election process.
Bengal's contribution to national production has fallen: Shah
Taking a dig at the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal, BJP President Amit Shah on Tuesday said the states contribution to national production has come down to 3.3 per cent under her regime as against the figure of 27 per cent just after independence.
People now believe there is an alternative to BJP: Tharoor (IANS Interview)
Going by the results of the recent Assembly polls, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor feels the ruling BJP is now in choppy waters across the Hindi belt and people now "genuinely" believe there is an alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For 9-month tenure, Haryana parties sweat it out in Jind
For an Assembly seat in the "Jat" land in Haryana that will have a tenure of just nine months, major political parties are sweating it out apparently with an eye on the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections set for this year.
Sharad Yadav refutes merger of LJD with RLSP
Loktantarik Janata Dal chief Sharad Yadav on Tuesday refuted reports of his party's merger with former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP).
Cambodia leader says China to give USD 600 million in grant aid
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, making a four-day visit to China, says Beijing has agreed to provide his nation with nearly USD 600 million in grant aid as part of a three-year assistance fund. Hun Sen announced the aid from Cambodia's most important political and economic ally on his Facebook page on Tuesday before any announcement by Beijing. He said the commitment was made in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Hun Sen said the two countries also agreed to increase their bilateral trade to USD 10 billion by 2023 and Xi promised to buy 400,000 tons of rice from Cambodia in 2019 and push more Chinese businesses to invest in Cambodia. The agreements come as some Western countries are threatening to impose economic sanctions on Cambodia for repressing democratic rights.
ICCI thanks PM for setting up defence industrial corridor in
The Coimbatore chapter of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Tuesday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for setting up the defence industrial corridor envisaging a total investment of Rs 3,100 crore in Tamil Nadu. The Prime Minister's vision will pave the way for Tamil Nadu's development and facilitate further investment in the defence corridor and create enormous scope for scaling up production of defence equipment through MSMEs, Chamber president V Lakshminarayanasamy said. The initiative of the Centre will also boost indigenous production of defence equipment and ensure connectivity among various defence industrial units, he said in a statement here. The chamber also thanked the government for sanctioning the country's first Defence Innovation Hub to CODISSIA (Coimbatore District Small Industries Association) here and appealed for sourcing of components from Coimbatore MSMEs, since they have huge spare ...
AP govt to provide 5 pc quota for Kapus out of 10 pc EWS
The Andhra Pradesh government Tuesday decided to earmark five per cent reservation for upper caste Kapus out of the ten per cent quota for economically weaker sections provided by the Centre recently. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who made the announcement, said the state government had urged the Centre to earmark the quota for Kapu community a long time ago, but the Narendra Modi government had not acceded to it. "We had requested the Centre to extend five per cent reservation to the Kapu community long ago but the BJP leaders did not agree. "Now, out of the 10 per cent reservation provided by the Centre to the economically weaker sections, we will give five per cent to Kapus and the balance to the EWS," Naidu told TDP leaders during a teleconference. Parliament earlier this month passed a Constitution amendment bill providing for 10 per cent reservation in government jobs and education for economically weaker sections in the general category. The Telugu Desam ...
Tej Pratap invites Shatrughan Sinha to join RJD
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav has invited Shatrughan Sinha to join the RJD, saying that he remains in touch with the BJP leader."I talk to Shatrughan Sinha from time to time. I have also been to his place in Mumbai. I am still inviting him (to join RJD). He can join us at our Janta Darbar," Tej Pratap told reporters on being asked if Sinha would leave the BJP to join RJD. His statement came after Sinha criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi while sharing dais with opposition leaders at an anti-BJP rally organised by All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Kolkata on Saturday. "If speaking truth amounts to rebellion then, of course, I am a rebel," Sinha had said."I am in BJP but before that, I am with the people of the country. Party is bigger than individual and nation is bigger than the party," he added.