Heading for a two-thirds majority, the BJP has retained power in Gujarat for a record seventh straight term by winning or leading in 156 of the 182 seats with a vote share of nearly 53%.
Riding on the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed 31 election rallies in his home State and continued to hold sway over voters, the BJP steamrolled the Opposition that included the new entrant Aam Aadmi Party. The BJP surpassed its previous best showing of 127 seats in 2002 when Modi was the Chief Minister.
The Congress wrested Himachal Pradesh from the BJP as it crossed the majority mark of 35 seats in the 68-member Assembly in the hill State, which maintained its tradition of not voting any incumbent government to power since 1985. In the latest results and trends available, the Congress has won 40 seats, while BJP registered a win on 24 seats and was leading in one. Three Independents also emerged victorious. The Aam Aadmi Party, which had contested on 67 seats, failed to open its account.
As for the bypoll results, the Samajwadi Party retained the high-profile Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, while the BJP wrested Rampur Sadar Assembly seat in U.P. from it and Kurhani constituency in Bihar from the ruling Nitish Kumar-led alliance. The ruling BJP in U.P., however, lost Khatauli to Samajwadi Party ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). The Congress retained its two Assembly seats — Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh and Sardarshahar Assembly seat in Rajasthan’s Churu district. The party is in power in the two States. The BJD continued its dominance in Odisha, winning Padampur Assembly seat in Bargarh district. Out of the six Assembly seats in five States where bypolls were held on Monday, the Congress and the BJP won two each while one each went to the BJD and RLD.
U.S. WNBA star Brittney Griner freed in a swap for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout
Brittney Griner was freed from prison in Russia and on her way home Thursday, President Joe Biden said at the White House.
The United States agreed to release imprisoned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, Biden said, in a swap of prisoners that ends nearly 10 months of detainment for Griner.
“Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner. She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home,” Biden said. “Held under intolerable circumstances, Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones and she should have been there all along. This is a day we worked toward for a long time. We never stopped pushing for her release. It took painstaking and intense negotiations.”
From Russia, Griner, 32, landed in the United Arab Emirates, where she boarded a plane for the United States.
“These past few months have been hell for Brittney and (wife) Cherelle,” Biden said. “She’s relieved to finally be heading home. The fact remains she’s lost months of her life. She deserves space, privacy and time with her loved ones to recover and heal.”
A two-time Olympic gold medalist and active WNBA player with the Phoenix Mercury, Griner was detained at an airport near Moscow on Feb. 17. She admitted in a courtroom to bringing marijuana vape cartridges in her luggage, as prescribed by her doctor.
“She wrote to me back in July, she didn’t ask for special treatment,” Biden said. “She requested a simple quote, ‘Please don’t forget about me and the other American detainees. Please do all you can to bring us home.’ We’ve never forgotten about Brittney.”
Griner was convicted of criminal drug possession and sentenced to more than nine years in prison. Last month, Russian officials informed Griner’s attorney she had been relocated to a penal colony, where forced labor shifts for prisoners commonly last between 12 and 14 hours per day.
The deal to free Griner had been negotiated for several months. Russia’s deputy foreign minister claimed that there was renewed “activity” in negotiations to free Griner one week before Thanksgiving. The U.S. publicly denied those talks were active.
In initial public disclosures about negotiations, U.S .officials insisted on the release of Michigan corporate security officer Paul Whelan, jailed since December 2018 in Russia on espionage charges. But the White House described the prisoner swap confirmed Thursday as “one for one,” Bout for Griner.
Bout is a former Soviet Army lieutenant was sentenced in 2012 to 25 years for conspiring to sell tens of millions of dollars in arms that U.S. officials said were used against Americans.
Flanked by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House, a grateful Cherelle Griner thanked their administration for their efforts and committed to future work to help bring home wrongly detained prisoners.
“B.G. is not here to say this, but I will gladly speak on her behalf and say that B.G. and I will remain committed to the work of getting every American home, including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today,” she said. “... We do understand that there are still people out here who are enduring what I endured the last nine months of missing tremendously their loved ones.”
Words of support for Griner began to flow on Twitter Thursday morning from her fellow WNBA players. Said Seattle Storm star Breanna Stewart: “BG is FREE!!! 294 days and she is coming home!!!”
Iran executes first known prisoner arrested in protests
Iran said Thursday it executed a prisoner convicted for a crime allegedly committed during the country’s ongoing nationwide protests, the first such death penalty carried out by Tehran.
The execution comes as other detainees also face the possibility of the death penalty for their involvement in the protests, which began in mid-September, first as an outcry against Iran’s morality police. The protests have since expanded into one of the most serious challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Activists warn that others could also be put to death in the near future, saying that at least a dozen people so far have received death sentences over their involvement in the demonstrations.
The “execution of #MohsenShekari must be me(t) with STRONG reactions otherwise we will be facing daily executions of protesters,” wrote Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the Oslo-based activist group Iran Human Rights. “This execution must have rapid practical consequences internationally.”
Iran’s Mizan news agency reported the execution of the man, identified as Mohsen Shekari. It accused the man of blocking a street in Tehran and attacking a member of the security forces with a machete. The member of the forces required stitches for his wounds, the agency said.
The Mizan report also alleged that Shekari said he had been offered money by an acquaintance to attack the security forces. Iran’s government for months has been trying to allege — without offering evidence — that foreign countries have fomented the unrest in the country, rather than Iranian citizens angry over the collapse of the country’s finances, heavy-handed policing and the nation’s other woes.
Mizan said Shekari had been arrested on Sept. 25, then convicted on Nov. 20 on the charge of “moharebeh,” a Farsi word meaning “waging war against God.” That charge has been levied against others in the decades since 1979 and carries the death penalty. Mizan said an appeal by Shekari’s lawyer against the sentence had failed before his execution.
The Mizan news agency, run by the country’s judiciary, said Shekari had been convicted in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, which typically holds closed-door cases that have been internationally criticized for not allowing those on trial to pick their own lawyers or even see the evidence against them.
After his execution, Iranian state television aired a heavily edited package showing the courtroom and parts of Shekari’s trial, presided over by Judge Abolghassem Salavati.
Salavati faces U.S. sanctions for overseeing cases “in which journalists, attorneys, political activists and members of Iran’s ethnic and religious minority groups were penalized for exercising their freedom of expression and assembly and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, lashes and even execution,” according to the U.S. Treasury.
Iran has been rocked by protests since the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained by the country’s morality police. At least 475 people have been killed in the demonstrations amid a heavy-handed security crackdown, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that’s been monitoring the protests since they began. Over 18,000 have been detained by authorities.
Iran is one of the world’s top executioners. It typically executes prisoners by hanging. Already, Amnesty International said it obtained a document signed by one senior Iranian police commander asking an execution for one prisoner be “completed ‘in the shortest possible time’ and that his death sentence be carried out in public as ‘a heart-warming gesture towards the security forces.’”
White House supports passage of bill that eliminates per country quota for Green Cards; Indian-Americans set to benefit
The White House has supported Congress to pass a legislation that seeks to eliminate the per country quota on green cards to allow U.S. employers to focus on hiring people based on merit, not their birthplace, a bill if passed would benefit several hundreds of thousands of immigrants, specially Indian-Americans.
A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the U.S. as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently.
This week, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act of 2022. The EAGLE Act would eliminate a per-country cap on employment-based green cards — a policy that disproportionately affects Indian immigrants.
If passed, this legislation would phase out the per-country caps over the course of nine years to ensure that eligible immigrants from less populated countries are not excluded as the EAGLE Act is implemented. “The administration supports efforts to improve our immigrant visa system and ease the harsh effects of the immigrant visa backlog,” the White House said.
“Accordingly, the administration supports the House passage of HR 3648, the Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment [EAGLE] Act, and its goal of allowing U.S. employers to focus on hiring immigrants based on merit, not their birthplace, by eliminating the “per country” limitation on employment-based immigrant visas [green cards],” it said.
These changes would take effect over a nine-year transition period to ensure that no countries are excluded from receiving visas while the per-country caps are phased out.
During the transition period, visas would also be set aside for nurses and physical therapists to address urgent needs in the healthcare industry, and for employment-based immigrants and their family members who are not currently in the United States, the White House said.
“This legislation would be life-changing for hundreds of thousands of immigrants currently stuck in legal limbo as they wait for green cards,” said Neil Makhija, executive director of the Indian American Impact.
The per-country cap on Green Cards is a relic of a discriminatory system that excluded Asian immigrants entirely in the past, he said. “The caps were enacted decades ago and do not reflect our country’s values. It is time for Congress to act and provide fair and equitable treatment to so many immigrants who call this country home,” Makhija said.
The bill among other things also includes important provisions to allow individuals who have been waiting in the immigrant visa backlog for two years to file their Green Card applications, the White House said. Although the applications could not be approved until a visa becomes available, this would allow employment-based immigrants to transition off of their temporary visas and provide them with additional flexibility in changing employers or starting a business, it said.
Importantly, the bill would also keep families together by ensuring that children of employment-based immigrants do not age out of dependent status or lose their eligibility for a green card, the White House noted.
“In addition to passing HR 3648, the administration urges Congress to pass the U.S. Citizenship Act, which would further reform and improve the immigrant visa system by increasing lawful pathways to the United States, providing a path to citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants, and establish a new system to responsibly manage and secure our border,” said the White House.
In Brief:
India logged 241 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases further declined to 4,244, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The total tally of Covid cases stands at 4.46 crore (4,46,74,190). The death toll has climbed to 5,30,647. The active cases comprise 0.01% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.80 per cent, according to the ministry website. A decrease of 11 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. According to the ministry’s website, 219.95 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
