Sharad Pawar on May 5 took back his decision to resign as NCP national president.
“Because of my decision, there was an intense reaction among NCP workers. There was a great deal of uneasiness among partymen with my party workers and well-wishers urging me to reconsider. I cannot disrespect your feelings. The affection and faith shown in me has overwhelmed me. Respecting the committee’s decision, I take back my resignation,” Pawar said addressing the party cadre.
Earlier on Friday, the NCP committee formed to decide on the issue of the party’s national president had unanimously rejected Pawar’s resignation and decided to urge him to remain in the party’s top post.
Following a half-hour meeting at the NCP office in Mumbai, party national vice-president and former Union Minister Praful Patel said: “The committee has passed a proposal unanimously rejecting Sharad Pawar’s decision to step down as NCP national president. Mr. Pawar is a pillar of the NCP. It is our wish he remain permanently in this position.”
Senior NCP leaders including Patel, Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Supriya Sule (Pawar’s daughter) and others then proceeded to convey the committee’s decision to Sharad Pawar at the latter’s ‘Silver Oak‘ residence.
J&K decision by India slammed door shut, even for those advocating talks in Pakistan, says Bilawal Zardari Bhutto
India’s decision to reorganise Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019 has made it “difficult” for those in Pakistan who advocated engagement in the past, said Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, adding that the restoration of statehood to the union territory could be “one step”. However, he said that the action was the “only thing” holding up India-Pakistan talks at present, and that he had not requested any bilateral meeting with his SCO host, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar as a result. He also said that the decision on whether Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif will travel to India in July, to join Russian and Chinese Presidents and other leaders invited by PM Narendra Modi to Delhi for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit is still not made, but Pakistan is committed to the SCO process.
“There is genuine willingness on the Pakistan side, to address all issues and resolve all issues through dialogue. But the actions on August 5 really slammed the door shut on that process,” Bhutto told The Hindu in an exclusive interview during his visit to Goa to participate in the SCO Council for Foreign Ministers (SCO-FMM). “We would like India, the Indian government to create an environment conducive to talks and as soon as we return to the status quo of August 4 2019, I believe we can engage in a meaningful dialogue.”
Bhutto is the first Pakistan Foreign Minister to visit India since 2011, although Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing in ceremony in 2014. Since 2019, after the Pulwama suicide bombing that killed 40 soldiers in India, and Pakistan’s reaction to the government reorganisation of Jammu Kashmir and the amendment of Article 370, India and Pakistan have no High Commissioners in each other’s capitals, and have snapped all trade and travel links between them. When asked why Pakistan had objected to the moves, which were internal to India and the Indian constitution, and didn’t pertain to Pakistan, Bhutto said that Pakistan’s objections were to India’s alleged violations of international law and United Nations Security Council resolutions. “Not only the international position on this issue, but the bilateral position on these issues was undermined and undermined unilaterally,” he said. Prior to 2019, however, Pakistan had held that it did not recognise Article 370 that mandates Jammu and Kashmir’s relations with the Centre.
To India’s contention that there can be no talks without an end to cross border terrorism, and when asked about the recent attack on an Army vehicle that left five Indian soldiers dead in Poonch, Bhutto said that he condemns all terrorist acts “from India to the US”, and that no Indian official had blamed Pakistan for the attack in Poonch. “The new unity government in Pakistan has taken this issue by the horns, we have rejected [Imran] Khan’s policy of appeasement when it comes to this issue”, he claimed, but said actions against LeT chief Hafiz Saeed and JeM chief Masood Azhar, wanted for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and 2001 Parliament attack respectively, as had been demanded by the Financial Action Task Force, were pending as they are “under trial” and the matter is “sub judice”. However, he raised the acquittals of suspects accused in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts in India, where Pakistani citizens died, asking why the government had not prosecuted the case further.
Bhutto also denied that there were any back-channel talks ongoing between India and Pakistan at present, although he conceded that these had been “productive” in the past.
Bhutto’s visit to India marked the first time he came face to face to Jaishankar since both Ministers were at the UN in New York in December 2022, had traded charges and Bhutto had even made a direct attack on PM Modi for his role as Chief Minister during the 2002 Gujarat riots. When questioned about his comments about PM Modi, Bhutto said that he didn’t think his comments were a “personal attack”, and that “there’s nothing personal in diplomacy and in politics”, indicating that he wouldn’t apologise for the comments that had sparked considerable outrage in India.
FinMin permits 22 finance companies to undertake Aadhaar-based verification of clients
The Finance Ministry has allowed 22 financial companies, including Amazon Pay (India) and Hero FinCorp, to undertake Aadhaar-based authentication of clients.
The ministry, through a notification, said these 22 companies, which are already reporting entities under the PMLA, will be able to verify the identity of clients and beneficial owners’ details using their Aadhaar numbers.
These 22 financial companies include Godrej Finance, Amazon Pay (India) Pvt Ltd, Aditya Birla Housing Finance, Tata Motors Finance Solution, IIFL Finance and Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Ltd.
Nangia Andersen LLP partner, Sandeep Jhunjhunwala said that while Aadhaar authentication of clients is made available as one of the modes of verification for banking companies, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) provides that Aadhaar authentication can also be adopted by reporting entities other than banking companies as may be notified by the central government.
“Accordingly, the CG has notified a list of 22 financial institutions/intermediaries, which are permitted to use Aadhaar authentication to verify the identity of clients/ beneficial owners,” Jhunjhunwala said.
The other modes of verification prescribed under the Money Laundering Act include offline verification under the Aadhaar Act, use of a passport and any other officially valid document or modes of identification as may be notified by the central government, and the client has a voluntary choice to opt for the mode of verification.
“In the interest of safeguarding the identity information and authentication records of individuals, the Money Laundering Act prohibits reporting entities from storing the Aadhaar number or core biometric information of the client, where Aadhaar is used to verify identity,” Jhunjhunwala added.
Congress counters Amit Shah: ‘Centre spent ₹640 crore to promote Sanskrit, only ₹3 crore for Kannada’
Contesting Home Minister Amit Shah’s claim that the Narendra Modi-led Central government promotes all Indian languages equally, the Congress on May 5 cited a few examples to suggest the contrary.
In an exclusive interview with The Hindu, Shah had said that the perception that Modi government wanted to impose Hindi at the cost of regional languages was a “political campaign” against the government. The Home Minister made the statement in the context of the upcoming Karnataka Assembly election, where the politics of regional identity has played a key role in the poll campaign.
Responding to the interview, Congress general secretary for communication Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter to challenge this claim. “The HM has claimed in an interview that the BJP stands for ‘promotion’ of all languages. Is that why the Modi Govt has spent ₹640 cr to promote Sanskrit and JUST ₹3 cr to support promotion of Kannada, one of the six classical languages of the country?” asked Ramesh. “Is that why the man who insulted the great Kuvempu (who penned the state anthem) was made Chairman of the text book revision committee by the 40% Commission Sarkara in Karnataka?” he added.
Ramesh, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, also noted that “a tradition has begun with the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 to do away with English names for laws and replace them with Hindi names.”
“I could go on and on, Mr. HM. But then you work for a man whose motto has been Asatyameva Jayate [Untruth wins],” Ramesh said.
In Brief:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday searched seven locations in Mumbai including the premises of Jet Airways and its founder Naresh Goyal in Mumbai in connection with an alleged ₹538 crore bank loan fraud case. The CBI searches were spread across residences and offices of Goyal, his wife Anita Goyal, and former airline director Gaurang Ananda Shetty. The agency has registered a new case of alleged bank fraud of ₹538 crore on a complaint from Canara Bank, they said.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
