New Delhi: In view of complaints regarding “unverified” claims in political advertisements, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has asked all political parties and candidates to get “clearance” from the media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC) before publishing any advertisement in the print media on the date of polling and a day prior.
“No political party or candidate or any other organization or person shall publish any advertisement in the print media on poll day and one day prior to poll day unless the contents of political advertisement are got pre-certified by them from the MCMC committee at the State/District level, as the case may be,” a letter to the political parties dated May 7 said.
ECI on Sunday also held all major local newspapers in the state responsible for all matters including advertisements published in their newspapers.
Citing the Press Council of India’s norms for journalistic conduct, the ECI, in a letter said, “An editor shall be responsible for all matters, including advertisements, published in the newspaper. If responsibility is disclaimed, this shall be explicitly stated beforehand.”
It said to the political parties that instances of advertisements of an offending and misleading nature published in print media have been brought to the notice of the commission in the past.
“Such advertisements in the last stage of the election vitiate the entire election process,” ECI said.
In the advisory to the parties, the poll body also stressed on “clean and serious” campaign which is set to end on Monday for the Karnataka assembly elections.
The 224-seat Karnataka assembly will go to polls on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13.
New Delhi: No party or candidate shall publish any advertisement in the print media on poll day and one day prior without clearance from the media certification and monitoring committee, the Election Commission said on Sunday in an advisory ahead of the May 10 voting in Karnataka.
The campaign for the Karnataka assembly elections is set to end on Monday.
In the advisory to political parties, the poll authority also emphasised on “clean and serious” campaign as electioneering reached feverish pitch for the polls.
In a separate letter to editors, the Election Commission (EC) made it clear to them that the Press Council of India’s norms for journalistic conduct hold them responsible for all matters, including advertisements, published in their newspapers.
“If responsibility is disclaimed, this shall be explicitly stated beforehand,” the Commission said in a letter to editors of newspapers in Karnataka.
The advisory to political parties stated that advertisements during the silence period — on the election day and one day prior to the poll day — will have to be pre-certified by the media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC).
“No political party or candidate or any other organisation or person shall publish any advertisement in the print media on poll day and one day prior to poll day unless the contents of political advertisement are got pre-certified by them from the MCMC at the state/district level, as the case may be,” the advisory stated.
Guwahati: Eleven opposition parties in Assam, including the Congress, submitted a memorandum to the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Saturday against the delimitation process of Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies.
They claimed that the issues over which the delimitation exercise was deferred in the state earlier have remained unresolved.
The memorandum stated that the process was undertaken in the country under the Delimitation Act, 2002, on the basis of 2001 census, but it was met with such widespread opposition in Assam that the exercise was deferred.
A detailed order for deferring the exercise in Assam was issued by the president on February 8, 2008, noting a few reasons.
Among those was the likelihood of arousing “the sentiments of the people living in the state of Assam due to their apprehension that the ongoing delimitation in many electoral constituencies may result in breakup of affiliation between publics and its representatives, change of boundaries thereof, which may cause alienation of different groups of tribes”.
Representations seeking to defer the exercise until NRC is finalised, a large number of agitational programmes by ethnic organisations, and the likelihood of breach of public order were other reasons for deferring the delimitation process in the state, the memorandum said.
It noted that the president passed an order on February 28, 2020, rescinding the earlier order, and paving the way for the formation of a delimitation commission, which the opposition parties claimed was erroneously constituted.
This commission was challenged in the Supreme Court, which led the Centre to remove the reference of North Eastern states from this term in 2021, and the delimitation commission conducted the exercise only in Jammu and Kashmir, it said.
The opposition parties, in the memorandum, noted that the reasons for the objection to the exercise as raised earlier remained valid till date.
The exercise is being sought to be conducted on the basis of the 2001 census, which was the main point of objection for the people of the state, they maintained.
Noting that the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) is yet to be notified, the memorandum maintained that the government should have sought views from all parties before giving its support to the order of delimitation.
“But that has not been done and the present government and the party in power have acted unilaterally to support a process which has potential to create instability in the state,” the memorandum said.
“In the light of above, we the eleven political parties together raise our voice against the proposed delimitation exercise in the state of Assam,” said the document, signed by leaders of Congress, CPI(M), Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, Jatiya Dal Asom, CPI, NCP, CPI (ML), RJD, JD(U) and TMC.
The full bench of the Election Commission (EC) visited Guwahati in March, during which they held discussions with different stakeholders, including political parties, to take their views on the delimitation process. The Congress had, however, boycotted meeting.
The process for delimitation in the state started on January 1, 2023, as per a notification issued by the EC on December 27 last year.
On December 31, 2022, the Assam Cabinet decided to merge four districts with the ones from which they were carved out. Biswanath was merged with Sonitpur, Hojai with Nagaon, Tamulpur with Baksa and Bajali with Barpeta.
The decisions to merge the districts were taken just a day before the EC’s ban on creating new administrative units in the state came into force.
SRINAGAR: Political parties of JK expressed outrage over the killing of five army personnel in an encounter in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Condemning the attack, former chief minister Omar Abdullah said terror is a scourge that has blighted numerous lives over the decades in J&K.
In a tweet, he wrote, “Tragic news from Rajouri where 5 army personnel have laid down their lives in the line of duty. Terror is a scourge that has blighted numerous lives over the decades in J&K & deserves unreserved condemnation. I send my sincere condolences to the families of those we lost today.”
Terming the loss of lives of soldiers as ‘terrible’, former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti took to Twitter and said, “Terrible news coming in. My deepest condolences to the families of those who died in the line of duty.” She also expressed condolences.
Former Union Minister and veteran Congress leader Prof Saifuddin Soz in a statement said, “ Rajouri terror attack that claimed lives of five army men in the line of duty is a terrible news and I unequivocally condemn this heinous attack,” Soz said.
President of the Apni Party and senior political leader Altaf Bukhari said the sacrifice of the soldiers for the safety of the nation will never be forgotten.
Bukhari tweeted, “Deeply saddened by the tragic news from Rajouri. My thoughts are with the families of the brave soldiers who lost their lives in the ongoing encounter. Their sacrifice for the safety of our nation will never be forgotten.”
“We strongly condemn the act of terror in Rajouri. These are senseless acts of violence perpetrated by lunatics. And they will inshallah rot in hell,” the chairman of Peoples Conference Sajad Lone tweeted.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee. (File photo/ANI)
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday once again emphasised that the anti-BJP forces in the country should avoid cross-voting among themselves in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to prevent the saffron camp taking the benefit of division in opposition votes.
“Let all the opposition parties get united. Let us ensure a one-to-one fight. Let us all try to work together,” the Chief Minister said while addressing a rally at Samserganj in Murshidabad district.
However, she continued to remain silent as to whether the Congress is included in Trinamool’s blueprint for united opposition. Previously too, she had remained silent on this matter even during her recent meeting with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav in Kolkata.
Political analysts feel that her call for avoiding cross-voting among opposition forces is a reflection of her strategy to ensure that Trinamool doesn’t have to make any compromise in West Bengal in any possible seat-sharing agreement.
According to political analysts, her call for avoiding cross-voting among opposition forces means those parties which are strong in their respective states should only contest against the BJP in that state, and by that calculation, Trinamool will get an upper-hand in West Bengal, where she will not have to make any compromise in any seat-sharing agreement.
Banerjee herself is aware that in West Bengal, multi-polar contest ha to be avoided at any cost. Already the Trinamool leadership has announced that the stand of the party is to maintain equal distance from the BJP as well as the Congress.
And that GOP agreement is highly unlikely to materialize any time soon. Jeffries’ plan landed with a thud among Republicans who want to see Biden give ground first, despite the Treasury Department’s warning that the nation could exhaust its ability to pay bills as early as June 1.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed that he will attend next week’s White House meeting while stressing that a deal must be struck by Biden and McCarthy: “There is no solution in the Senate.”
Biden must “make a counteroffer” during next week’s scheduled meeting with both parties’ top Hill leaders, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) agreed on Tuesday. “And a counteroffer cannot be a clean debt ceiling.”
No matter what compromise Biden can stomach, Tillis added, “there’s no question that” it would lose votes from House Republicans who supported McCarthy’s conservative opening bid last week. That bill would lift the nation’s borrowing cap by $1.5 trillion or through March 2024, whichever comes first, while slashing $130 billion in government funding and tightening work requirements for federal benefits.
Tillis described a Senate vote on a clean debt ceiling hike through the 2024 election, which Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is considering, as a “gimmick” and a “waste of chamber time” given the certainty of a GOP filibuster.
Senate Democrats will decide whether to put a clean debt ceiling increase up for a vote after the White House meeting on May 9, Schumer told reporters Tuesday.
If the Senate passes a clean debt limit increase, Congress could use the House GOP’s fiscal bill as a potential vehicle for a bipartisan government funding deal, Schumer said Tuesday. Yet the chances of that happening appear slim at the moment, with Republicans demanding massive federal funding cuts in exchange for raising the borrowing limit and GOP leaders refusing to decouple spending from debt.
Jeffries announced to House Democrats in a Tuesday letter that their party’s top member on the Rules Committee, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), had taken the first steps toward a discharge petition on a debt limit increase with no added conditions designed to win over Republicans.
“The filing of a debt ceiling measure to be brought up on the discharge calendar preserves an important option,” Jeffries wrote in a letter first reported by the New York Times. “It is now time for MAGA Republicans to act in a bipartisan manner to pay America’s bills without extreme conditions.”
His announcement came one day after the Treasury told lawmakers that the government could run out of cash by the beginning of June. Any discharge petition would require at least five Republicans to sign on in order to bring a bill to the House floor if it has sat in committee for more than 30 days.
McCarthy (R-Calif.) has vowed not to pass any debt ceiling bill without concessions in exchange, and his Republicans cleared a package last week that offers a slew of them — all enacting conservative priorities, on topics from energy to Biden’s student loan relief plan.
“Nobody wants to see the United States government have to change the name of the Department of Treasury to the Department of Debt because there’s no longer any treasury there,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said. “So, the time has come for the president to sit down with the House and be a leader.”
On Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration “won’t negotiate in public” about the potential for a short-term increase in the debt limit or any other options for averting a default.
“And our position is going to be very clear: that Congress needs to avoid a default — and I’ll leave it there — without conditions,” she told reporters.
Jean-Pierre also dismissed the suggestion that Biden’s inclusion of Schumer and McConnell in next week’s meeting is a sign that the president wants the Senate to take a leading role in the talks.
Meanwhile, with just over four weeks until the U.S. could risk defaulting on $31.4 trillion in debt, a temporary increase in the borrowing limit might be needed to head off economic tumult while leaders in Congress work with Biden on a longer-term solution.
Schumer on Tuesday swatted down that idea, however.
“We should not kick the can down the road. We should go for the full two-year extension,” he said.
Anthony Adragna and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
#solution #Senate #parties #dig #debt
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Lucknow: BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday said “casteist” and “communal” political parties are having sleepless nights ahead of the urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh due to her party giving a proper representation to the Muslim community in these elections.
“Politics has heated up here due to the BSP giving a proper representation to the Muslim community in the elections for the mayors’ posts in 17 municipal corporations. Casteist and communal parties are having sleepless nights due to this,” the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said in a tweet in Hindi.
“The BSP is an Ambedkarwadi (Ambedkarite) party that follows the policy and principle of ‘sarvajan hitay’ and ‘sarvajan sukhay’ and has formed its government in Uttar Pradesh four times on that basis. It always gave proper representation to Muslims and other communities. Therefore, I appeal to people to pay more attention to their own interests and not to the conspiracies of our rivals,” she added.
Of the 17 mayoral seats, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded Muslim candidates on 11, which is being seen as a move to split the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) traditional Muslim-Yadav vote bank.
The urban local body polls are scheduled to be held on May 4 and May 11 and the counting of votes will be taken up on May 13.
The UAE has myriad interests before the U.S. government, including weapons acquisition, and more than a dozen firms actively registered with DOJ to represent government clients.
Otaiba said his favorite event to host is an interfaith Iftar dinner during Ramadan with Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists and others. Former Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Special Olympics Chair Timothy Shriver have all attended the event, which started before the pandemic.
The dinner in late March drew a lineup of prominent Jewish movers and shakers: Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Biden antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt, Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog and Republican wordsmith Frank Luntz. The menu included salmon, saffron chicken, eggplant and beef kibbeh labanieh, and guests received a box of dates from the UAE as a party favor.
“Everybody leaves feeling good after that,” Otaiba said. “It’s about tolerance, it’s about inclusion, all of the values that we represent and stand for in the Emirates.”
Iftar dinners, however, are relatively mundane compared to many embassy shindigs. The French ambassador’s residence in recent years has held an Améthyste event, an homage to the purple stone. Washington bigwigs who attended last year included Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), senior White House officials Shalanda Young and Mitch Landrieu and Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
The purpose is to bring together Democrats and Republicans, said a French official in Washington who was granted anonymity to discuss the thinking behind the event. But it also hasn’t hidden its connections to K Street influences. Heather Podesta, a mega-lobbyist who that quarter lobbied for companies including Toyota and SpaceX, co-hosted Améthyste in December.
“Any time you put Republicans, Democrats, the media, corporations, nonprofits, entertainment industry, and diplomatic corps in the same room, good things are going to happen,” Podesta said in a statement. “In a town that too often is bifurcated by party, we all need opportunities to know each other better.”
The event’s corporate sponsors included the South Korean conglomerate SK Group and the French investment firm Ardian, which is looking to invest in the U.S., said Steve Clemons, another co-host of the event whose day job is writing a newsletter for the media startup Semafor. Clemons, a familiar face to those operating at the nexus of journalism and the embassy party circuit, became a Chevalier in France’s Legion of Honor in 2021.
In a statement, Ardian did not comment on its involvement in the party. The party also featured Chevron-branded coasters for the energy company, another sponsor. SK Group did not provide a comment. Chevron spokesperson Bill Turenne said in a statement: “Like other brands and news organizations, Chevron is proud to support events in Washington, like Amethyste, that bring Republicans and Democrats together to benefit important charity partners.”
Though denizens of the embassy party circuit say corporate sponsorships date back a number of years, they have at least become more noticeable of late. As part of the festivities around the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner, the Swiss commodity company Mercuria is sponsoring Time Magazine’s after-party Saturday night at the Swiss ambassador’s residence.
A representative for Mercuria said in an email: “Mercuria is a Swiss company, so the company often sponsors events at the Swiss embassy. We also sponsor the Soiree Suisse at the Swiss Embassy with other Swiss companies each year.” Spokespeople for the Swiss embassy and Time either declined to comment or did not respond.
One Republican lobbyist said that a company with business with a foreign government or in a foreign country might sponsor an event as a means to build relationships. A defense contractor, for instance, might use the venue to schmooze with a diplomat from a country to whom it hopes to sell military equipment, the lobbyist said.
Alternatively, part of a government’s mission in the U.S. is often wooing companies to show that the country is “open for business” and encourage investment, the person noted.
Asked why more companies are sponsoring events at embassies, Gérard Araud, who was France’s ambassador to Washington from 2014 to 2019, said: “I think it’s money. I think it’s really the foreign ministries are all fighting under budget constraints.” He said that when he was ambassador, he had to get approval from the foreign affairs ministry in Paris for any proposed sponsorship of an embassy event.
POLITICO has partnered with embassies in the past, including hosting an event earlier this month at the home of the European Union ambassador. Thursday’s event took place at the home of Ambassador Karen Pierce.
“POLITICO proudly convenes high-level gatherings of influential people which is why we are so excited to partner with the British Embassy in April to showcase our reporting teams from both here and London for a fantastic audience,” said Brad Dayspring, executive vice president of global communications and brand at POLITICO. “More conversations are needed in Washington, not less, which is why our reporters and editors regularly attend events like these and why we prioritize hosting and connecting people at them.”
One of the quirkiest draws on the embassy party circuit is the Finnish Embassy’s long-running sauna series, which brings together journalists and Hill staffers for a long night of sauna time, conversation and Scandinavian food. The ambassador has his own sauna that he uses to have one-on-ones with top government officials and journalists.
[ad_2]
#Baby #showers #icicle #music #sauna #time #embassy #parties #Street
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Lucknow: Senior BJP leader Dinesh Sharma hit out at the opposition parties in UP on Thursday for demanding a caste-based census, asserting that they care for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Dalits only when they are removed from power.
Targeting the Samajwadi Party, Sharma said their leaders should be asked why they did not start a caste-based census when they were in power in Uttar Pradesh for “so many years”. This, he added, would clearly show how much they care for the backward community.
In recent days, the Samajwadi Party and the Congress have made a strong pitch for a caste census.
“When Raju Pal was killed, Umesh Pal was killed, Sandeep Nishad, the gunner of Umesh Pal, who was also from a backward community, was killed, Samajwadi Party and Congress remained silent and did not utter a word in favour of them. Instead they shed their tears in favour of the mafia,” the former deputy chief minister alleged.
Raju Pal, an MLA, was killed allegedly by gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and his gang members in 2005. Umesh Pal a key witness in the murder case was gunned down with his two security personnel in February this year by Ahmad’s gang in Prayagraj.
Ahmad and his brother Ashraf, who were in police custody in connection with the Umesh Pal murder case, were shot dead by three assailants outside a hospital on April 15. The three assailants were arrested.
Sharma also said that the BJP promotes mayors who perform better.
Citing his own example, he said he remained the mayor of Lucknow for 11 years and then he was made the vice president of the BJP and he was also made the deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Similarly, he added, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis too served as Nagpur mayor before being promoted. Fadnavis also served as the chief minister of Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019.
Baby Rani Maurya, who was the mayor of Agra, was made the Uttarakhand governor from August 2018 to September 2021, Sharma said.
“If mayors do good work they eventually get promoted in the party and government,” he said.
Polling for the urban local bodies in the state is slated in two phases – on May 4 and May 11.
