Addressing a poll rally at Sundernagar in Mandi district, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the people of Himachal Pradesh had made up their minds to retain the BJP in power, saying rapid progress and a stable government were necessary in the hill state.
“The Himachal polls this time are special because the votes cast on November 12 are not just for the coming five years. Every single vote on November 12 will define the state’s development journey for the next 25 years,” he said. “A few weeks ago, India completed 75 years of independence. When India celebrates 100 years of its independence, closer to that, HP will also complete 100 years of its formation. Therefore, the next 25 years are going to be very crucial,” he added.
The PM also claimed that the people knew the BJP stood for stability, “sewa baav” (service), “sam-baav” (equanimity), and accorded highest priority to development.
Criticising the Congress party, Modi said that it always ignored Himachal Pradesh as the State was small and sent only “three to four MPs” to the Lok Sabha.
The hill state has a history of not electing the same party to power for two consecutive terms. The BJP is in power in the state and is leaving no stone unturned to retain it.
Meanwhile, the Congress, which is aiming to wrest power in the State, released its manifesto, promising free electricity up to 300 units monthly to all households and financial assistance of ₹1,500 monthly to women between 18 to 60 years of age.
The party also vowed the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for government employees and promised to constitute the Agriculture and Horticulture Commission, and in consultation with the farmers-horticulturist the minimum procurement price for fruits, including apples would be fixed.
Mobile clinics in villages, one lakh government jobs, interest-free loan to youth in setting up start-up units and a new tourism policy to promote tourism in villages were among the other promises.
Cyrus Mistry accident | Case of rash driving filed against Anahita Pandole
Two months after former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died in a car accident, police in Maharashtra’s Palghar district registered a case against Anahita Pandole for alleged rash driving.
A case under Indian Penal Code sections 304(A) (causing death by rash and negligent act), 279 (rash driving on a public road) and 337 (causing death by act endangering life and personal safety of others) besides the Motor Vehicles Act was registered at Kasa police station, officials said.
Mistry (54) and his friend Jahangir Pandole died in a car crash on a bridge on the Surya river on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway in Palghar district adjoining Mumbai on September 4, 2022. They were riding in the back seat of the Mercedes car.
Anahita Pandole, a Mumbai gynaecologist who was driving the car, and her husband Darius Pandole who was sitting next to her, were seriously injured.
During the investigation, witnesses were questioned and reports were obtained from the Regional Transport Office and Mercedes Benz India Pune, a press release from the police said.
“Based on the reports and probe it has been established that the accident was the result of rash and negligent driving,” and hence a case was registered against Dr. Anahita Pandole, according to the police.
Earlier on Friday, a police official claimed that Darius Pandole (60) told the police in his statement that his wife could not merge the vehicle into the second lane from the third lane of the road that turned narrow near the Surya river bridge. Darius Pandole was discharged from a Mumbai hospital last week.
The statement of Anahita Pandole was yet to be recorded as she was still undergoing treatment at a hospital, police had said.
Navy chiefs of Quad countries meet in Japan ahead of Malabar multilateral exercise
The Navy chiefs of India, Australia, Japan and the U.S., the four countries which comprise the Quadrilateral (Quad) grouping, met in Japan on Saturday and exchanged views on “further enhancing inter-operability” in future editions of the Malabar multilateral naval exercise.
The meeting in Tokyo comes ahead of a series of multilateral engagements in the next couple of weeks to be hosted by Japan, including the naval war games. This year also marks 30 years of the Malabar exercise, which began as a bilateral exercise between India and the U.S. in 1992.
Meanwhile, in another development, a Chinese research vessel, ‘Yuan Wang-6’, entered the Indian Ocean via the Sunda Strait. While the course of the Chinese vessel is not known, official sources said the Indian Navy is keeping a close tab on its movements. This comes just three months after a major diplomatic showdown between India and Sri Lanka over the docking of a similar vessel at the Hambantota Port in the island nation in August.
Earlier in the day, Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral R. Hari Kumar arrived on an official visit to Japan from November 5 to 9, where he will witness the International Fleet Review (IFR) conducted by the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force at Yokosuka on November 6 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of its formation, the Indian Navy said in a statement.
“During the visit, as one of the Observer Navies in the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS), the CNS will attend the 18th WPNS on November 07-08 at Yokohama, being hosted by Japan, as the current Chair of WPNS,” the Navy stated.
Further, Admiral Kumar will also attend the inauguration of the Malabar exercise being held at Yokosuka, and interact with his counterparts and other heads of delegations from close to 30 countries participating in the IFR, WPNS and the Malabar exercise, according to the Navy.
The timing of the entry of Yuan Wang-6 coincides with a planned long range missile test by India next week. While research activities are allowed in international waters as per international regulations, the data generated has a dual nature, including military, and many times, the motive of Chinese vessels seems doubtful, Defence officials had stated.
ED summons to Hemant Soren | JMM, Congress take to the street; RJD skips
Differences within the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in Jharkhand came to the fore as coalition partners Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Congress took to the streets in Ranchi against the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) summons to Chief Minister Hemant Soren but Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) stayed away.
The RJD, which has only one member in the State Assembly, said it had not received any official communication on the protest.
Jharkhand’s Drinking Water & Sanitation Minister Mithilesh Thakur tweeted an image from the rally in Ranchi on November 5, 2022. Photo: Twitter/MithileshJMM
“We have not been communicated anything about the protest by our alliance partners. JMM takes its own decisions and executes them with the Congress. Nothing is discussed with us. So, we decided to stay away from the protest,” RJD State president Sanjay Singh Yadav said.
The ED had summoned Soren for questioning on November 3 in a money-laundering case linked to alleged illegal mining in the State. Soren, however, skipped summons and went to Chhattisgarh on Thursday to attend a pre-scheduled programme and is stated to have sought three weeks’ time to appear before the Central probe agency.
On Saturday, several JMM workers marched to Raj Bhawan, raising slogans against the BJP and ED. They staged a dharna, in which several senior Congress leaders participated. JMM workers took out protest rallies in Dumka, Giridih and Bokaro. In Giridih the agitation was led by MLAs Sudivya Kumar and Sarfaraj Ahmed.
JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said the party will apprise the president how a tribal who is running the government is being harassed through a well-planned conspiracy.
Jharkhand Congress working president Bandhu Tirkey accused the BJP of “misusing” central agencies. ”Before the UPA government there was the BJP government led by Raghubar Das in Jharkhand and many big scams and corruptions took place during his regime. But the Central agencies remained silent. They are working under its pressure,” he said.
North Korea fires more missiles as U.S. flies bombers over South
North Korea added to its recent barrage of weapons demonstrations by launching four ballistic missiles into the sea on November 5, as the United States sent two supersonic bombers streaking over South Korea in a duelling display of military might that underscored rising tensions in the region.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the four short-range missiles fired from a western coastal area around noon flew about 130 kilometres (80 miles) toward the country’s western sea.
The North has test-fired more than 30 missiles this week, including an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday that triggered evacuation alerts in northern Japan, and flew large numbers of warplanes inside its territory in an angry reaction to a massive combined aerial exercise between the United States and South Korea.
The South Korean military said two B-1B bombers trained with four U.S. F-16 fighter jets and four South Korean F-35s jets during the last day of the “Vigilant Storm” joint air force drills that wraps up on Saturday.
It marked the first time since December 2017 that the bombers were deployed to the Korean Peninsula. The exercise involved around 240 warplanes, including advanced F-35 fighter jets from both countries.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry late on Nov. 4 described the country’s military actions this week as an appropriate response to the exercise, which it called a display of U.S. “military confrontation hysteria”. It said North Korea will respond with the “toughest counteraction” to any attempts by “hostile forces” to infringe on its sovereignty or security interests.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the participation of the B-1Bs in the joint drills demonstrated the allies’ readiness to “sternly respond” to North Korean provocations and the U.S. commitment to defend its ally with the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear.
In Brief:
Power blackouts across Ukraine amid Russian shelling
Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state electricity operator, announced blackouts in Kyiv and seven other regions of the country – Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv – in the aftermath of Russia’s missile strikes on energy infrastructure. The move comes as Russian forces continue to pound Ukrainian cities and villages with missiles and drones, inflicting damage on power plants, water supplies and other civilian targets. Later in the day, however, Ukrenergo updated that scheduled outages for a specific number of hours aren’t enough and instead there will be emergency outages, which could last an indefinite amount of time.
Australia eliminated from T20 World Cup as England beats Sri Lanka; enters semifinals
Ben Stokes hit a gutsy unbeaten 42 as England made the Twenty20 World Cup semifinals, with a tense four-wicket win over Sri Lanka, shattering the hopes of defending champions Australia whose title defence is now over. England needed to win to make the last four from Group 1 alongside already-qualified New Zealand, and they achieved the feat in a nail-biting finish with two balls to spare. If they had lost, Australia would have gone through.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
