If Lord Ram’s name is not taken in India, will it be chanted in Pakistan: Amit Shah
BJP president Amit Shah on May 7 alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not allowing people to chant Jai Shri Ram in the State, and wondered if the Lord’s name cannot be taken in India, will it be uttered in Pakistan.
Mr. Shah also dared Ms. Banerjee to arrest him for chanting Jai Shri Ram at the multiple election rallies he addressed in the State on May 7.
“Lord Ram is a part of the culture of India... Can anybody stop people from taking his name? I want to ask Mamata didi , if Shri Ram’s name is not taken in India, will it be chanted in Pakistan?” he said.
“I want to tell Mamata didi that this is West Bengal and not Pakistan... I am going to Kolkata from here (Bishnupur), put me in jail if you have the guts,” the BJP chief said.
He addressed rallies at Ghatal, Keshiari and Bishnupur in West Bengal.
Mr. Shah claimed that Ms. Banerjee had stopped her car a few days ago to tell people that they will be put in jail if they chant the name of Lord Ram.
A video had appeared in the social media that showed Ms. Banerjee stopping her car at a place in West Midnapore district on May 4, and chasing some persons who chanted Jai Shri Ram as her carcade was crossing the area.
Mr. Shah said he has come to know that the CM has cancelled permission for two rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the State — one at Purulia and the other at Bankura, scheduled for May 9.
“Can you (Ms. Banerjee) prevent your defeat in this manner,” he asked.
On Mr. Modi invoking the Bofors scandal, the BJP president wondered if reminding people what had happened was tantamount to insulting former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
“What wrong has PM Narendra Modi done by saying that the Bofors scam happened during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure... Rahul baba says his father has been insulted. Is it an insult to be reminded of what had happened?” Mr. Shah said.
The BJP chief was referring to Mr. Modi’s recent remarks at a rally in Uttar Pradesh, where he said that Rajiv Gandhi’s life ended as “bhrashtachari no. 1” (corrupt no. 1 ) .
Mr. Shah also asked Mr. Rahul Gandhi whether or not the Bofors scandal, the Bhopal gas tragedy, blunder of sending peacekeeping force to Sri Lanka or the massacre of Kashmiri pandits happened during his father’s tenure as Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989.
He claimed that the Congress and its partners in the Mahagathbandhan have “abused Modi on 51 different occasions“.
Mr. Shah said Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had recently likened Mr. Modi with Duryodhana, and asserted that “people of the country will tell on May 23 whether PM Modi is Duryodhana or Arjuna“.
Mr. Shah also said that Congress leaders have compared Mr. Modi with Osama Bin Laden and Hitler in the past.
The polls in West Bengal are for restoring democracy in the State, where the BJP will win “more than 23 seats” out of the total 42 Lok Sabha seats, he asserted.
“The Narendra Modi government has given Rs. 4,24,800 crore to West Bengal in its five-year tenure, but it has not reached the people, and, instead, gone to the syndicates,” Mr. Shah alleged.
He said the UPA-II government under the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had granted only around Rs. 1,32,000 crore to the State.
The BJP chief reiterated his party’s resolve to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the State to flush out illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
Go to Italy and teach abuses to youth of your maternal country, Adityanath tells Priyanka
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on May 7 accused Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh (East), of teaching abuses to children in Amethi.
Referring to her as princess, Mr. Adityanath went on to advise Ms. Vadra to go to Italy and teach abuses in her maternal country if she wants to.
“I saw what princes of Congress was doing... I can’t believe that they can stoop so low that she will start teaching children of Amethi how to abuse,” Mr. Adityanath said referring to a video that went viral, in which some youths are seen abusing the Prime Minister in front of her.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addersses an election rally in Delhi on May 7, 2019. Photo: Twitter/@myogiadityanath
“Priyanka ji , don’t teach Indian youths how to abuse... if you want to teach abusing then go to Italy and teach the youth of your maternal country,” Mr. Adityanath added to the attack.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister was addressing an election rally in East Delhi’s Mandawali area, seeking votes for BJP candidate Gautam Gambhir.
Mr. Adityanath, who reached the venue about five hours late, appreciated the Central government’s steps to improve security in India. He also claimed that the Congress has been making fake promises since Independence and does not deserve to be back in power. — IANS
Congress dumps farm loan waiver documents at Chouhan's residence
Senior Congress leader Suresh Pachouri and other party leaders display outside the Bhopal residence of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on May 7, 2019 a purported list of beneficiaries of the Kamal Nath government’s farm loan waiver scheme.
Senior Congress leader Suresh Pachouri on May 7 dumped loads of documents at former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s residence as a “proof” that his party has waived loans of 21 lakh farmers after coming to power in the State in December 2018.
However, Mr. Chouhan refuted the Congress claims, dubbing it as a “bundle of lies“.
Mr. Pachouri, a former Union Minister, along with State Minister P.C. Sharma and other Congress leaders brought cartons of documents in two vehicles near Mr. Chouhan’s residence.
They then put the cartons on their heads and walked to the former Chief Minister’s official residence where they dumped the documents.
The Congress claimed that these documents proved that the Kamal Nath government has acted on the party’s pre-poll promise of waiving farm loans.
However, Mr. Chouhan was not convinced with the Congress claim. — PTI
Modi's Delhi rally will be last nail in Opposition’s coffin: Vijay Goel
Union Minister and BJP leader Vijay Goel has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally at the iconic Ramlila Maidan will be the last nail in the coffin of the AAP and the Congress in Delhi, and that the BJP is expecting Muslim women and first-time voters to participate in it in large numbers.
He said the party chose Ramila Maidan for the Prime Minister’s rally on May 8 considering its political significance and that the public meeting would be the largest-ever in Delhi.
Large digital screens will be put up on the roadside. Arrangements have been made to ferry people from Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad for the rally, the senior Delhi BJP leader said.
The party has ensured enough number of ambulances, drinking water and route maps.
“I understand that after this rally, Congress and AAP candidates will find it difficult to save their deposits. This will be the last nail in the coffin of the opposition in Delhi,” he said.
“In the run-up to the rally, we have held meetings in all of our 272 divisions in the city over the last 10 days. We have reached out to students, especially the first-time voters, traders and Muslim women, urging them to participate in the rally in greater numbers,” Mr. Goel said.
The seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital will go to polls in the sixth phase on May 12. — PTI
BJP hiding behind the facade of nationalism to deflect attention from its government's failures: Priyanka
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government, accusing it of adopting anti-poor policies.
Addressing a rally in Ambala, Haryana, Ms. Vadra claimed the BJP was trying to deflect the attention from its failures of the last five years on all counts by raising by hiding behind the facade of nationalism.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have the courage to fight this election on based issues that relate to unemployment, farmers distress, women problems etc. They (BJP) should come forward and tell people what NDA government has done for poor people of our country,” she said.
Where can we take Lord Ram's name, if not in India, asks Amit Shah
BJP president Amit Shah alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not allowing people to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in the state, and wondered if the Lord’s name cannot be taken in India, will it be uttered in Pakistan.
A video had appeared in the social media that showed Ms. Banerjee stopping her car at a place in West Midnapore district on Saturday, and chasing away some persons who chanted ’Jai Shri Ram’ as her carcade was crossing the area.
At an election rally in Ghatal, Mr. Shah said: “Lord Ram is a part of the culture of India... Can anybody stop people from taking his name? I want to ask Mamata didi, if Shri Ram’s name is not taken in India, will it be chanted in Pakistan?”
South India got step-motherly treatment, will play key role in voting out Modi: Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor. File Photo
In an interview to PTI, Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor alleged that south India received “step motherly” treatment under the Modi government
“I think the south will definitely play an instrumental role in deciding the political fate of the country, particularly in the context of voting out the present ruling dispensation, under whose tenure, the south has an understandable case of step-motherly treatment under the Centre,” Mr. Tharoor told PTI.
“This is partly on account of cultural factors such as the beef ban and the drive to impose Hindi as a national language, but also because of larger issues such as the uproar regarding the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission which has implications on the financial and political security of the southern states,” he added.
Stalin may not meet KCR on May 13
Madurai, Tamil Nadu, 17/02/2019. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M.K. Stalin. Photo; G. Moorthy.
The DMK on Tuesday indicated its party chief M.K. Stalin may not meet Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekar Rao on May 13, as announced by Mr. Rao's office earlier.
Sources close to the DMK President only said Mr. Stalin was ’busy’ with his campaign schedule for the May 19 by-polls to four constituencies in the state and declined to divulge more details.
Earlier, a statement from the Telangana Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) had said that Mr. Rao would meet the DMK chief at his residence here on May 13.
He had met his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday , even as Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy also rang up Rao after learning about his visits to Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Mr. Rao, who had floated the idea of a non-Congress, non-BJP front some time ago, had last met Mr. Stalin in April as part of his outreach to regional parties, with the DMK leader hosting lunch for the visiting TRS supremo and his party colleagues.
However, the Dravidian party later entered into a poll pact with Congress and faced the April 18 Lok Sabha polls in the state in alliance with the national party as part of a mega coalition that also includes the Left.
The DMK’s move is perceived as a signal to the Telangana veteran that it was keen to carry on its alliance with the Congress even after the results of the seven-phase polling are out on May 23.
Incidentally, it was Mr. Stalin who had declared Congress President Rahul Gandhi as the Opposition's Prime Ministerial candidate at a party meeting here, though the idea did not find favour with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. - PTI
Decision taken on 43 of 49 model code complaints: EC
The Election Commission said on Monday that it had received 49 complaints for violation of model code of conduct (MCC) during the Lok Sabha elections of which 43 had been disposed off and six were under its consideration.
Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena said that the MCC was violated in 28 of these cases and different decisions have been taken including warnings, censure, “no campaign for a certain period” and FIRs in a few cases.
SC dismisses Opposition's plea seeking 50% counting of VVPAT slips
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed plea filed by 21 Opposition leaders seeking review of its order on random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs during Lok Sabha polls. In its earlier order, the apex court had asked EC to ensure VVPAT slips five booths from each Assembly constituency be counted to check for discrepancy, if any. But the Opposition bloc sought a review, as they wanted 50 per cent of VVPAT slips to be checked.
