Jammu: Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju escaped unhurt on Saturday after a truck hit his vehicle on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
Police sources said a fully-loaded truck hit the black Scorpio in which the Union minister was travelling in the Banihal area on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
Reports said the security guards of the minister rushed to Rijiju’s vehicle and opened its back door as the minister came out unhurt.
“No one was injured in this incident,” the police said.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju luckily escaped unhurt after his car collided with truck.
Incident took place just a month after his statement against former Judges. There should be proper investigation. pic.twitter.com/kydvVeUhG9
Earlier on Saturday, the minister had ytweeted, “Going from Jammu to Udhampur in Jammu & Kashmir to attend Legal Services Camp. Many beneficiaries of the Central Govt Schemes are attending the function along with Judges and NALSA team. Now, one can enjoy the beautiful road throughout the journey.”
Bengaluru: Reacting to Congress leader DK Shivakumar’s promise of cancelling the scrapping of the four per cent Muslim quota after coming to power, Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai said that the Congress party cannot even touch the reservation.
His remarks came after Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on Friday said, “As soon as our government comes, we will cancel the reservation issue and will protect the minority interest”.
Talking to the mediapersons here on Friday, CM Bommai said, “They (Congress) don’t have clarity in any issue in reservation and policies. They are just raining statements. Let them remove the reservation, they can’t touch it, let us see what they can do”. He said that the whole ticket selection procedure is going properly in a constitutional way, and the final list will be announced soon.
“I told you on Thursday only, that there will be more aspirants for the ticket as there is a lot of competition. The party will have a meeting on April 8 and 9, and tickets will be distributed on April 10. We have collected the opinions of our party workers, leaders and the people. The final list will also be made accordingly,” he said.
The Chief Minister further said that the Congress party is very “weak” from within and will badly lose the upcoming assembly polls in the state.
“As far as I know, Congress doesn’t have proper candidates even on 60 seats, that’s why they are swapping candidates. They are just making voices, but are weak from the inside. Fights are going on within the party between different factions. They will lose very badly in the coming elections,” CM Bommai added.
The Karnataka government last month scrapped the four per cent OBC reservation for Muslims and distributed it to the two dominant communities, Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas. The government also decided to move OBC Muslims to the 10 per cent Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.
The Assembly election in Karnataka is scheduled to be held on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attends the Central Board of Directors meeting of the RBI after the Union Budget 2023-24 on Saturday
Bengaluru: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday hit back at the Congress questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “silence” on Chinese actions on the border, saying the country’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru had washed his hands off north-east.
She said that in 1962, the entire north-east was “left to meet their own fate” and Nehru had washed his hands off the region.
“We have stopped Chinese from coming into Arunachal Pradesh. Our action speaks for it. So they (Congress) can go on saying ‘Oh, Prime Minister doesn’t speak. I want him (Rahul Gandhi) to please check up on what their first Prime Minister, our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had said. He washed his hands off (north-east)”, Sitharaman said.
She was responding to questions at a press conference here.
“If you travel to Arunachal Pradesh and some parts of Assam, people themselves will say. The people of Arunachal Pradesh at the ground kept steadily with India and every Chinese had to go away,” the Union Minister said.
The Congress took strong objection on Tuesday to China renaming several places in Arunachal Pradesh, and charged it is the result of Modi’s “clean chit” to the neighbouring country and his “eloquent silence” on Chinese actions at the border.
India outrightly rejected the renaming, asserting that the state is an integral part of India and assigning “invented” names does not alter this reality.
New Delhi’s reaction came in response to Beijing announcing Chinese names for 11 more places in Arunachal Pradesh, which the neighbouring country claims as southern part Tibet.
“I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office. Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who twice voted to convict Trump in impeachment trials that would have rendered him ineligible to run for president. “The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system.”
“You’ve got to work hard to make President Trump a martyr,” added Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), another GOP lawmaker who has been critical of Trump. “Congratulations to Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, who has managed to do just that.”
Some wondered why Bragg revived a case he had appeared to leave for dead just months ago. Others questioned the specifics — like how Bragg was able to elevate the “falsification of business records” charges against Trump into felonies, a move that requires evidence that Trump attempted to conceal a second crime. Still others focused on the delay in bringing charges — six years after the core underlying conduct — and anticipated that Trump will seek to toss the case for exceeding the statute of limitations, despite the assessment of some legal experts that the case is not time-barred.
Bragg left those questions largely unanswered in Tuesday’s filings and public comments. When asked why he changed course and charged Trump after having reportedly expressed reservations about aspects of the investigation, Bragg declined in a press conference to offer specifics, saying only that his prosecutors had “more evidence made available to the office and the opportunity to meet with additional witnesses.”
Legal experts who had awaited Bragg’s charging documents to resolve some of the lingering mysteries about the case remained confounded by some aspects of the prosecution.
“It is said that if you go after the king, you should not miss,” wrote Richard Hasen, a campaign finance law expert at UCLA. “In this vein, it is very easy to see this case tossed for legal insufficiency or tied up in the courts well past the 2024 election before it might ever go to trial. It will be a circus that will embolden Trump, especially if he walks.”
Even Ian Millhiser, the liberal legal commentator for Vox, called the legal theory on which Bragg’s case is built “dubious.”
The dynamic underscored the extraordinary risk Bragg took in deciding to mount the first-ever criminal prosecution of a former president — particularly one who is not shy about stoking outrage at the justice system. Trump did just that in a speech at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night, attacking not only Bragg but also the judge who will preside over the case, Juan Merchan, and the judge’s wife.
Two former White House officials defended the case Bragg laid out, calling it legally sound and “an important case for democracy” even as they acknowledged the mixed reviews from legal experts.
“There are a number of important critiques of the case in the furor and they are worthy of consideration,” former Obama White House ethics adviser Norm Eisen and former Nixon-era White House legal counsel John Dean wrote in a CNN op-ed Wednesday morning. “But ultimately, they are all wrong.”
Bragg, a Democrat who colleagues say isn’t particularly politically savvy, found himself without a large number of prominent Democratic allies Tuesday. New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Rep. Jamaal Bowman have been vocal supporters, with both elected officials attending a rally in support of the indictment Tuesday. Bowman has also taken to cable TV to advocate for Bragg, saying he has done “an exceptional job.”
And at times Bragg has marshaled the support of surrogates, though mainly regarding non-legal aspects of the case. After Trump called the district attorney an “animal” last month, Bragg allies such as Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. Adriano Espaillat came to his defense to ask people to “stand with us now to stare down this unprecedented attack on the foundation of our democracy,” with Espaillat later holding a rally for him.
But Bragg hasn’t had a backer with a megaphone the size of Trump’s, and the district attorney is relatively limited in the public remarks he can make about an ongoing case — an uneven playing field that Trump has used to his advantage.
Others in Bragg’s position have said leaving the politics to election season is the best course of action for an elected district attorney. John Flynn, the district attorney of Erie County, New York, and the president of the National District Attorneys Association, said in a radio interview last month that “you have to separate it.”
“Once the election is over and you take over and start the job you have to remove yourself from politics. Once you do that, you can ward off the criticism,” he told Buffalo station WBEN.
Trump sought to highlight the fissures between his political adversaries and Bragg during his remarks at Mar-a-Lago late Tuesday, but he also appeared to damage his own cause with a fusillade aimed at Merchan — just hours after the judge warned Trump’s lawyers that their client should not made any statements that “incite violate or create civil unrest.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Andaman and Nicobar: An earthquake of magnitude 4.6 on the Ritcher scale occurred 140 km ENE of Portblair, Andaman and Nicobar island on Tuesday, according to the National Center for Seismology (NCS).
The earthquake occurred at around 10.47 pm.
“Earthquake of Magnitude: 4.6, Occurred on March 4, 2023, 22:47:49 IST, Lat: 9.12 and Long: 94.22, Depth: 60 Km, Location: 237 km N of Campbell Bay, Andaman and Nicobar island,” tweeted NCS.
On April 1, an earthquake of magnitude 4.0 on the Ritcher scale occurred 140km ENE of Portblair, Andaman and Nicobar Island at 11:56 pm according to the National Center for Seismology (NCS).
“Earthquake of Magnitude: 4.0, Occurred on March 31, 2023, at 23:56:44 IST, Lat: 12.20 and Long: 93.88, Depth: 28 Km, Location: 140 km ENE of Portblair, Andaman and Nicobar island,” tweeted NCS.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is an international organization founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states
The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has followed with ‘deep concern’ the acts of violence and vandalism targeting the Muslim community in several states in India during the Ram Navami processions, including the burning of a madrasa and its library by an extremist Hindu mob in Bihar Sharif on 31 March 2023, a press release said.
The OIC General Secretariat denounced such provocative acts of violence and vandalism, which are a vivid manifestation of ‘mounting Islamophobia’ and ‘systemic targeting’ of the Muslim community in India, OIC said.
The OIC General Secretariat called upon the Indian authorities to take firm action against the instigators and perpetrators of such acts and to ensure the safety, security, rights, and dignity of the Muslim community in the country.
Indian government hits back
India on Tuesday slammed the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for its ‘communal mindset’ and ‘anti-India’ agenda.
India’s strong reaction came after the OIC secretariat issued a statement alleging the targeting of the Muslim community in several states in India during Ram Navami processions.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi condemned the statement issued by the OIC.
“We strongly condemn the statement issued by OIC Secretariat today regarding India. This is one more example of their communal mindset and anti-India agenda,” Bagchi said.
“The OIC only does its reputation damage by being consistently manipulated by anti-India forces,” the statement said.
New Delhi: Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Tuesday launched a fresh attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar over incidents of violence on Ram Navami, accusing them of indulging in “appeasement politics” for minority votes.
Such kind of vote bank politics creates many problems and poses many challenges before the country, the Information and Broadcasting minister said while addressing an event organised here to observe the World Peace and Harmony Day on the 2622nd birth anniversary of Jain Tirthankara Mahavir.
Parts of West Bengal and Bihar witnessed incidents of violence on Ram Navami last week.
“This is a very relevant topic in the present times. One part of the world has been witnessing a war for a long time. When I see the situation in India, there is an atmosphere of peace but Ram Navami processions are not allowed to be taken out peacefully,” Thakur said.
Referring to the violence during Ram Navami processions in West Bengal, Thakur asked whether the chief minister of the state is resorting to dividing the society as she said Hindus should not pass through certain areas.
“This itself is a matter of concern,” he said.
“A war between two countries is one thing but creating such a situation in our own country, in Bihar and Bengal, where you are not allowed to take out a procession peacefully on Ram Navami and forced to commit arson, stone pelting and murder, raises many questions,” the minister charged.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tells countries around the world that this is not the era of war and is the time to discuss, deliberate, be part of democracy and decide, Thakur said.
“And the world accepts this point but the chief ministers of two states of our country talking like that and resorting to partiality raises a big question as to whether a particular community was involved in the violence or politics of appeasement fans their passion,” he said.
The creation of unrest in society in such a manner for vote bank politics poses “many challenges and problems” to the country, the minister said.
Islamabad: Pakistans monthly inflation blew past forecasts in March and soared to a nearly all-time high level — 35.4 per cent — from a year earlier, with people feeling more pain from some of the fastest rising consumer prices amid straining budgets as cost of living continues to outstrip average incomes, according to a media report.
The fresh inflation reading issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Saturday also multiplied the prospects of a further rise in interest rates in the upcoming monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for April 4, Geo News reported.
The pace of increase in the prices endorsed the expectations of the Finance Ministry that said inflation was expected to stay at an elevated level owing to market frictions caused by relative demand and supply gap of essential items, exchange rate depreciation, and recent upward adjustment of administered prices of petrol and diesel, the report said.
The monthly inflation rate, however, declined to 3.7 per cent in March over February.
The inflation situation has worsened to its worst, steeping the masses, whose purchasing power has eroded by leaps and bounds, into misery, as the price of almost every edible item has gone through the roof over a period of months.
Core inflation, which was calculated after excluding the volatile energy and food prices, increased in March to 18.6 per cent in urban areas and 23.1 per cent in rural areas.
Analysts believe Pakistan is now heading towards hyperinflation a situation when prices are out of control and in the territory of a 50 per cent surge, Geo News reported.
Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Tuesday hit out at Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh for “provoking” people through an ultimatum to the AAP government to release all Sikh youths in a police action against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his aides.
Mann accused the Jathedar of favouring the Badals and also told him that the Badals had “used” several Jathedars for their “vested interests”.
The CM told the Jathedar of Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, that it would have been better had he issued the ultimatum in the sacrilege and missing ‘saroops’ of Guru Granth Sahib.
Mann’s reaction came a day after the Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpeet Singh had given a 24-hour ultimatum to the AAP government to release all Sikh youths who were held during the police crackdown against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his aides.
The Jathedar also condemned the state government for invoking the National Security Act against a few people during the police crackdown.
The Jathedar of Akal Takht in Amritsar had convened a special gathering of Sikh organizations, including intellectuals, Sikh lawyers, journalists, religious and social leaders to discuss the current situation in Punjab following the March 18 action against elements of ‘Waris Punjab De’ headed by Amritpal Singh.
Lambasting the Jathedar over his ultimatum, Mann in a tweet in Punjabi said, “Jathedar Sri Akal Takht Sahib ji. Everyone knows you and SGPC have been favouring the Badals.
Look at the history, many Jathedars were used by the Badals for their own interests. It would have been better had you given the ultimatum for the sacrilege and missing ‘saroops’ of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji instead of provoking happily living people.”
The incidents related to the theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib, putting up handwritten sacrilegious posters, and torn pages of the holy book being found scattered at Bargari had taken place in Faridkot in 2015.
In another case, 328 ‘saroops’ (copies) of Guru Granth Sahib had gone missing from the records of the publication house of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday refuted BJP chief J P Nadda’s allegation that Rahul Gandhi compared OBC communities to thieves and accused the ruling party of indulging in “caste politics”.
Amid a political fight between the BJP and Congress following Gandhi’s conviction in a defamation case over the “Modi surname” remarks, Nadda alleged that “lies, personal slander and negative politics is integral” to his politics.
“By comparing OBC communities to thieves, Rahul Gandhi has shown a pathetic and casteist mindset. However, his latest tirade is not surprising. For the last many years, he has always reduced levels of political discourse,” Nadda said.
Hitting back, Kharge, in a tweet in Hindi, said, “Modi government cannot escape from JPC! Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, and Mehul Choksi fled with the money of PNB and the public. OBCs did not do so, then how were they insulted?”
“SBI/LIC suffered losses due to your ‘best friend’!” he said slamming the government.
“‘Ek toh chori mein sahyog phir jatigat rajneeti ka prayog’ (First providing help in stealing then applying caste politics),” Kharge said and termed it “shameful”.
Gandhi was on Thursday sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his “why all thieves have Modi surname” remarks.
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate H H Varma, which held 52-year-old Gandhi guilty under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500, also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court.
Gandhi can escape immediate disqualification as a member of parliament if the appellate court suspends the conviction as well as the two-year jail term.
