LIVE! Kim Jong-un appears on 'CPI-M poster' in Kerala

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Sun, 17 December 2017

Kim Jong-un appears on 'CPI-M poster' in Kerala

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21:06 Kim Jong-un appears on 'CPI-M poster' in Kerala

A poster erected outside a local shop in Kerala has now become the subject of a heated political debate.

The poster which has huge symbol of the Communist Party of India-Marxist carries a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

The BJP was quick to resort to political mudslinging, accusing the CPI-M in Kerala of aligning its ideologies to that of the aggressive North Korean leader.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra shared the photograph of the poster on Twitter, adding: "No wonder they have converted Kerala into "Killing fields for their opponents!"

"Hope the left is not planning to launch missiles at the RSS,BJP offices as their next gruesome agenda!" he wrote.

However, the CPI-M has claimed no knowledge or involvement in putting up the poster.

20:24 Anybody living in India is Hindu: RSS chief

Anybody living in India is a Hindu, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said today, asserting that the meaning of Hindutva is to unite all communities.

Hindutva is different from Hinduism, he told a public function at the Swami Vivekananda Maidan in the heart of Tripura's capital.

"The Muslims in India are also Hindus," the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarsanghchalak said.

Bhagwat, who is on a five-day tour of Tripura since Friday to review the organisational work of the RSS in the north-eastern region, said, "We have no enmity with anyone. We want welfare of all. To unite all is the meaning of Hindutva."

Maintaining that India is a land of Hindus, he said "tortured" Hindus from across the world come to the country and get shelter.

The RSS supremo said, "Hindus believe in truth, but the world respects strength. There is strength in organisation. Being organised is the natural law."

Referring to the Partition, he said parts of India got separated in 1947, leading to the weakening of the spirit of Hindutva and a decline of the "Hindu Samaj".

"India was united for so long. There was unity among the Hindus," Bhagwat said.

Highlighting the rich heritage of the country, he said, "A perturbed and confused world is looking at India for a new world order that can accommodate the materialist as well as the idealist."

He urged the Hindus to get organised and trained at RSS "shakhas" (daily meetings), saying these were the only places where one could prepare for nation-building and self- development.

The "sanatan dharma" wants to work together with everybody on board, Bhagwat said.

The Left Front-ruled Tripura is scheduled to go to polls early next year and the BJP is making a serious bid to increase its footprint in the north-east. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur have BJP governments. -- PTI

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today hit out at Rahul Gandhi for accusing the BJP of spreading hatred and violence in the country, saying it was his party which is dousing the fire lit by the Congress.

Addressing a party rally in Bengaluru, Singh posed several questions to Rahul Gandhi who made the charge against the BJP in his first speech after formally taking over as Congress President yesterday.

"The Congress has got a new president. I congratulate him. He says that BJP is responsible for the unrest in the country. I want to ask him who is behind the conmunal tensions, terrorism, Naxalism and unrest in Kashmir?

"Who is behind the dynastic politics in the country? Let Rahul Gandhi know that it is the BJP which is trying to douse the fire lit by the Congress," Singh said.

He also said the whole world knew that the BJP alone knows how to run the nation.

"The Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh election results (tomorrow) will prove it again. Already exit polls have predicted that we are going to form the government in these two states," the senior BJP leader said.

The BJP rally was organised as part of "Parivarthan Yatra" with the party leaders crisscrossing the state to "expose the misdeeds" of the Siddaramaiah government ahead of the Assembly polls, which are due early next year.

Gandhi yesterday hit out at the BJP, accusing it of spreading hatred and violence in the country, and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking India back to the medieval times.

In his first speech to party workers after formally assuming charge as the Congress president, he had said, "The Congress's respect for all Indians extends to even the BJP. We do not fight hate with hate. They crush voice, we allow the most vulnerable to sing. They defame, we respect and defend."

"Today, the BJP people are trying to spread fire and violence in the entire country and only the force of lovable Congress workers and leaders can stop them. They break, we unite. They ignite fire, we douse it," he had said. -- PTI

Photograph: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Photo

19:31 Milkha Singh bats for Indo-Pak sporting ties

Sprint legend Milkha Singh today advocated resumption of sporting ties between India and Pakistan, as sports help in developing friendship between countries.

"In sports, our teams should go there (Pakistan) and their teams should come here," Singh, popularly known as 'the Flying Sikh', said.

He was talking to reporters in Patna, after flagging off a half marathon race.

"I would ask both Pakistan and India that it would be better if they live with love and affection... We should play games as much as possible as sports help in developing friendship," Singh said.

After Pakistan aided a terror attack in Pathankot in 2016, India have severed sporting ties with the country. -- PTI

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam today has alleged that Rs 100 crore were given to voters by the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ahead of the byelections in Chennai's RK Nagar, represented by former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in the state assembly.

DMK working president MK Stalin has accused the AIADMK of paying Rs. 6,000 to each voter, and the operation, he insisted, had the support of the police.

Stalin has written to the Election Commission, saying asking that action be taken against AIADMK candidate E Madhusudhanan.

"Take appropriate and necessary action against AIADMK and the erring officials and to ensure free and fair election RK Nagar assembly Constituency," his letter read.

The bypoll was cancelled in April following allegations of cash distribution in the constituency.

This time around, the EC has appointed nine observers for the bypoll, said to be the highest for an election in a single constituency.

On Saturday, election officials seized Rs 13 lakh from premises in R K Nagar which witnessed chaotic scenes with some men accused of trying to distribute cash to voters being chased by police and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham cadres.

Veteran actor Rekha said Smita Patil was a far better actor than her and she has no qualms accepting that.

Rekha, who received the first Smita Patil Memorial Award in Mumbai last night, said she will always consider Patil as her younger sister.

"I am here to receive this award which signifies the excellence of her craft, her acting, dancing abilities or her ability to be fearless in front of the camera or the way she could lift those beautiful eyes of hers and make a statement without saying a word. All of this is not why I have received this award," Rekha said.

"She was way more brilliant as an actress, which I got to know 30 years ago when I saw her films. She is far better actor than me or anybody else. She was, is and will always remain my choti si pyaari behen (younger sister)," she added.

Patil's son, actor Prateik Babbar and noted music composer Anandji Virji Shah were also present at the ceremony.

Addressing Babbar, Rekha said, "Prateik, I know you have not spent time with her in the worldly sense but you've spent nine months with her which are very integral, very pure and important. You were the purest form of creation by God...

"In moments of doubts, you can call me. I shall try to be someone, who is a part of her. I always felt a connection with her. Pratiek is a living example that she is right here with us," she added. -- PTI

18:02 Brexit will not be derailed, says Theresa May

British Prime Minister Theresa May today said she will not allow Brexit to be "derailed" as she claimed that her government had proved doubters wrong by moving negotiations with the European Union to the next phase.

Writing in UK newspapers today, May said she is determined to get the most "ambitious" deal for Britain as it prepares to leave the 28-member economic bloc by March 2019.

"This is a government that is getting on with the job. We are proving the doubters wrong and we will stick to the task: securing the best possible Brexit and building a Britain fit for the future," she writes in 'The Sunday Telegraph'.

"Amid all the noise, we are getting on with the job. In the face of those who want to talk Britain down, we are securing the best and most ambitious Brexit deal for our whole United Kingdom," she said.

She said the talks with the EU would now move to the "exciting part" of discussions on the implementation period for Brexit and the future of trading relationships.

Despite her House of Commons defeat earlier in the week as a result of her own party's rebellion to vote with the Opposition on giving UK Parliament more say in the final Brexit agreement, May struck a defiant tone in her message.

"And my message today is very clear: we will not be derailed from this fundamental duty to deliver the democratic will of the British people," she said.

She spelt out her stance ahead of a crunch week for the UK government as the Cabinet prepares to discuss for the first time what the terms of a future deal with the EU should be.

UK Cabinet ministers are due to discuss the UK's "end state" plans as the Brexit "war cabinet" -- a sub-committee of senior ministers chaired by Theresa May -- will meet on Monday, with a meeting of the full Cabinet scheduled for Tuesday.

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a hard Brexiter, warns in a 'Sunday Times' interview that the UK must not mirror EU law in the long term to avoid becoming a "vassal state" of the EU.

He believes the UK needs "something new and ambitious, which allows zero tariffs and frictionless trade" but maintains the freedom to "decide our own regulatory framework and own laws".

Many of his other Cabinet colleagues are in favour of a less hardline shift.

Meanwhile, two Conservative party peers have warned the British PM that she could face defeats in the House of Lords if the government tried to "bully" its members over the issue.

May lost her first Brexit vote in the Commons earlier this week when MPs, including 11 Tory rebels, voted to give Parliament a legal guarantee of a vote on the final Brexit deal struck with Brussels as part of the EU Withdrawal Bill.

Following the vote there were calls for the Tory rebels to be deselected by the party and some reportedly even received death threats. -- PTI

Censor board chairman Prasoon Joshi today took a dig at television debates, saying "byte- based, one-line sort of arguments are resulting in language extremism".

The noted lyricist-poet said the country will have to find a new way to listen to the arguments and also win them.

"We, in this country, (if) want to be truly democratic, will have to find a new way to listening to arguments and winning the arguments. It can't be this byte-based, one-line sort of argument. This is language extremism," Joshi said.

The Central Board of Film Certification chief was participating in an interactive session during the "India Ideas Conclave 2017", an initiative of the India Foundation.

"So many times you look at the people in the arguments and you will feel they are helpless," he said, referring to the contemporary debates on news channels.

Joshi said debating on the small screen has become a privilege for a select few.

"A few privileged in the country have been very irresponsible. To be able to argue on the television today is a privilege."

Such debaters believe they know the structure and lexicon of arguments and are hence better placed to win them, the 46-year-old Padma Shri award winner said.

"So the people who are not trained to argue, their voices are not heard in the whole ecosystem. Even before they formulate the argument, you have dismissed them. I think the people trained in (making) arguments are taking undue advantage," Joshi rued. -- PTI

The National Investigation Agency has lodged a case against five alleged Islamic State sympathisers, hailing from Kerala's Kannur district, the agency said today.

The central probe agency said it took over the case from the Kerala police, which had booked the five men in October.

The NIA case against the five was registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for "being members of the proscribed terrorist organisation, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/Daesh, and for supporting the organisation by travelling out of India to join the terrorist organisation in Syria and fight on its behalf."

The five accused are -- Midhilaj (26), Abdul Rasak (34), Rashid M V (24), Manaf Rahman (42) and Hamsa U K (57). -- PTI

The Wi-Fi service at a college in Surat was suspended after the Congress candidate from the Kamrej assembly seat complained of possible hacking and tampering with the electronic voting machines, used in the recently held Gujarat assembly polls, kept on its campus.

Following a complaint by Congress nominee Ashok Jariwala, the Wi-Fi service was suspended on the campus of the Gandhi Engineering College, situated in the Athwa Lines locality.

"We detected that a Wi-Fi network was available near the strong room (in the college), after which we asked the collector to take action," Jariwala said.

He said they had made a similar complaint two days back, after which the collector had ordered the suspension of the Wi-Fi service on the campus.

"But we found it active again today. We cannot take a chance as there is a possibility of hacking and tampering with the EVMs," said Jariwala.

Following the complaint, Surat Collector and District Election Officer Mahendra Patel ordered the college authorities to suspend the Wi-Fi service on their campus.

The complainant feared a possibility of tampering with the EVMs stored inside the strong room, using Wi-Fi, Patel said.

"The Wi-Fi service they are talking about is of the college and meant for students, and we understand that there is no possibility of EVM tampering using it. However, to dispel their doubt, we have ordered its suspension," the collector said.

The EVMs from six assembly constituencies -- Olpad, Mandvi, Mahuva, Vyara, Kamrej and Mangrol -- are kept in the strong room of the college.

Following the exit poll results shown by the news channels, which predicted a majority to the ruling BJP in the recently-held election, several opposition leaders, including those from the Congress, Patidar quota agitation spearhead Hardik Patel and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, had raised the issue of a possibility of EVM hacking.

Hardik Patel today said on Twitter that if a human body, made by god, could be tampered with, then why not an EVM, which is made by humans? "If ATMs can be hacked, why not an EVM!!! (sic)," he asked.

He also alleged that there had been attempts to hack EVMs using its "source code" in the Patidar-dominated and tribal areas of the state.

Patel had also claimed in a tweet yesterday that 150 software engineers of an Ahmedabad-based company were preparing to hack 5,000 EVMs. -- PTI

In a major development reported after decades of cross-border insurgency along India's eastern frontier, the Border Security Force has said that camps and hideouts of Indian Insurgent Groups across the country's frontier on the Bangladeshi soil have been reduced to "almost zero".

The director general of the Border Security Force, K K Sharma, told PTI that this first-time achievement was the result of an excellent and positive cooperation between the border guarding forces of the two countries over the past few years.

The BSF's counterpart in the neighbouring country is the Border Guard Bangladesh.

"Whenever we have information about exodus or insurgents of the northeastern states in Bangladesh, we share the information and immediate raids are undertaken (by the BGB).

"As a result, the number of training places and hideouts of these insurgents have been reduced to almost zero," the BSF DG said.

If there are some still existing, they are of a floating nature, Sharma said, indicating that no permanent camps of these banned terror and insurgent groups now exist on the Bangladeshi side.

"I congratulate our counterparts (BGB)," the DG said.

The development is being seen as a major victory of the security forces over the insurgency and terrorism situation along the Bangladesh border in the northeast.

For the past so many years and decades, the BSF used to hand over a list of IIGs and terror groups to the BGB during the DG-level talks seeking action against them, a senior officer said requesting anonymity.

"The numbers of these IIGs used to be 150-200 everytime a list was handed over to the Bangladeshi side. That situation has now changed and the IIGs are now on the run, without being able to stay put at a place on the other side for long," the officer said. -- PTI

A tribal village in Chhattisgarh's Balrampur district got electricity connection for the first time since Independence

The Jokapatha village, situated in mountainous region, had been deprived of power supply.

Expressing happiness over the development, a villager said that the electricity supply would help their children do well in their studies.

"We are very happy now that we finally have electricity in our village. Now our children can study well and progress in life," the Sarpanch of Jokapath village told ANI.

The students also seemed excited and said they did not like the village in darkness and were happy that they have electricity now. -- ANI

Image used only for representational purposes.

Cold wave tightened its grip over Kashmir as the night temperature decreased by several degrees at most places owing to dry weather, even as the weather office predicted a further drop in the minimum temperature.

The night temperature dropped at most places in Kashmir division, including Ladakh region, last night, an official of the Meteorological Department in Srinagar said.

He said Pahalgam, in south Kashmir, and Kargil, in Ladakh region, experienced the coldest night of this winter so far last night.

The mercury at Pahalgam decreased nearly six degrees from minus 3.5 degrees Celsius the previous night to register a minimum of minus 9.2 degrees Celsius, the official said.

It was the lowest night temperature of the season at the resort and the coldest December night there in the last four years.

Pahalgam had recorded minus 9.6 degrees Celsius on 27 December 2013 and the mercury had not dropped lower than that in the month over the years till last night.

The official said Kargil also experienced the coldest night of this winter last night as the minimum temperature there dipped over two degrees from minus 11.2 degrees Celsius to minus 13.4 degrees Celsius.

He said the mercury at nearby Leh settled at the low of minus 12.2 degrees Celsius last night -- also over two degrees down from the previous nights minus 9.6 degrees Celsius.

The official said Srinagar -- the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir -- recorded a low of minus 3.7 degrees Celsius, down from from the previous nights minus 1.1 degrees Celsius.

He said the mercury in Qazigund in south Kashmir settled at a low of minus 3.8 degrees Celsius a degree down, while Kokernag town recorded a low of minus 3 degrees Celsius.

Kupwara town in north Kashmir registered a low of minus 3.8 degrees Celsius, the official said.

The famous ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 7.5 degrees Celsius last night compared to the previous nights minus 8.4 degrees Celsius.

The MET Office has forecast mainly dry weather in the state till 22 December, but predicted further drop in the night temperature.

The minimum temperature will drop further but the days will be slightly warmer, the official said. -- PTI

Hailing Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jamaat-ud Dawah terror groups as "patriotic", former military dictator Pervez Musharraf has said that he was ready to enter into an alliance with them for Pakistan's "safety and security", according to a media report.

The 74-year-old retired general, who is on self-exile in Dubai, had last month said that he was the biggest supporter of the LeT and its founder Hafiz Saeed, the Mumbai terror attack mastermind who heads the banned Jamaat-ud Dawah.

"They (LeT and JuD) are patriotic people. The most patriotic. They have sacrificed their lives for Pakistan in Kashmir...," the ARY News channel quoted him as saying.

Musharraf said the two groups have large public support and good people and no one could object if they formed apolitical party.

The LeT was banned following the 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people were killed, while the JuD was declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.

JuD chief Saeed, accused of masterminding the Mumbai attack, had last month unveiled his political ambitions by formally announcing that his group will contest the general elections in 2018 under the banner of the Milli Muslim League.

The former military ruler further said that so far the two groups have not approached him but if they desire to enter into an alliance with his party, he has no objection.

Musharraf had last month announced the formation of a grand political alliance after a consultative meeting between representatives of around two dozen political parties.

However, several parties dissociated themselves from Musharraf's Pakistan Awami Ittehad alliance. -- PTI

A day before Gujarat election results, Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani today rubbished the exit polls and said the Bharatiya Janata Party would not form the government this time.

"These exit polls are fake and rubbish. These are nonsense. The BJP is definitely going to lose this time and will not form the government," he said.

Mevani, who contested polls from Vadgam in Banskantha district with the indirect support of the Congress, made this remarks after all exit polls predicted that the BJP would secure a win in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home turf.

The results of the Gujarat assembly polls will be declared on December 18.

13:25 'Sonia Gandhi is a tough taskmaster'

After heading the party for 19 years, Sonia Gandhi on Saturday handed over the reins of the Congress to her son, Rahul Gandhi.

The 71-year-old Member of Parliament was once seen as an unlikely heir to the Gandhi political legacy, but crowned her innings by becoming the longest serving president of India's grand old party.

How her party men convinced her to take the mantle of the Congress? How did she manage to stick the party together?

Watch Sonia's former political secretary Ahmed Patel sharing his experience about the former Congress chief.

Former Union minister P Chidambaram has said that the Congress will create an alternative narrative based on fairness, equal opportunity and jobs for the youth under the leadership of new party chief Rahul Gandhi.

In a series of tweets, Chidambaram said Gandhi's inaugural speech yesterday laid down the contours of an alternative narrative that the Congress will put forward before the people.

"The Congress will build an alternative narrative based on fairness, equal opportunity, jobs for the youth, and lifting 250 million people out of poverty," he said.

The senior Congress leader said that his party's recall of India's history was different from the BJP's.

"Our idea of India is different from the BJP's. Mr Rahul Gandhi called upon India's youth to defend our idea of India, and I am sure the young will respond," Chidambaram tweeted.

In his first speech to party workers after his formal takeover yesterday, Gandhi set the tone of its future course and how the party would take on its arch-rival BJP, saying the Congress was for inclusive politics and that it respects all Indians that extends even to the ruling party.

His party, the new Congress president said, brought India into the 21st century and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking India back to the medieval times. -- PTI

12:27 India: No country for Muslims

A rising tide of hate is surging through India, of toxic speech and attacks on religious minorities, mostly Muslims.

A permissive environment that tacitly or openly encourages hate speech and assaults is actively, even aggressively, fostered by the majoritarian anti-minority ideology of the countrys political leadership.

Muslims are systematically demonised as sexual predators, as being sympathetic to terrorism and as people who slaughter and eat cow, which is held sacred by many Hindus. Most hate attacks on Muslims are never publicly condemned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is otherwise extremely voluble on Twitter and public addresses. This has fostered widespread social legitimisation of anti-Muslim prejudice, hate speech and hate crimes.

Read human rights activist Harsh Mander's column here.

Controversial writer Taslima Nasreen says the condition of religious minorities is much better in India than in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The exiled Bangaldeshi author alleged that atrocities are committed against Hindus and Buddhists in Bangladesh.

"Though I have never been to Pakistan, but have read that members of religious minorities there are being converted and persecuted," the 55-year-old writer told PTI in an interview.

The author was in the city for the Indore Literature Festival on December 15.

She said, "The condition of religious minorities is much better in India as compared to these two nations. The Constitution of India is same for all."

"However, I am not saying that minority communities do not have any problem in India," said Nasreen, who had fled Bangladesh in the early 1990s after right wing Muslim outfits issued death threats to her.

"I am a citizen of Europe but India appears to be home to me. I am thankful to the Indian government to have given me permission to stay here. I want to work for the betterment of the Indian society," the writer of the much-acclaimed book 'Lajja' (Shame) said.

On her write-up in an online magazine over the killing of a Muslim labourer in Rajasthan, Nasreen denied that she had equated the Hindu community with terror group Islamic State after the incident.

"It is totally wrong to say that I, in my article, equated the entire Hindu community with the ISIS. I had mentioned one particular incident (about the posting of video on social media of the killing of a Muslim labourer). I am quite upset with these false allegations," she said.

She alleged that some people were distorting a part of her article and intentionally fanning bitterness and hatred against her on social media.

Hailing Indian laws and their implementation, she noted that the accused in the Rajasthan killing incident was arrested and sent to jail.

A 48-year-old Muslim labourer, from West Bengal, was hacked and burnt to death in Rajasthan's Rajsamand earlier this month.

Nasreen, meanwhile, alleged that in Bangladesh, the people who committed excesses on minorities were roaming free.

"The society and the environ you love, you want to see it free from violence and bitterness. That is why I write indiscriminately against extremists of every religion," the writer said.

Advocating a common civil code across the world, Nasreen said due to religion-based laws, women were facing harassment and discrimination. -- PTI

Election officials in Chennai have seized Rs 12.6 lakh unaccounted money from RK Nagar, where the by-poll will be held on 21 December.

On a tip-off the officials searched a physiotherapy centre at Tamil Nadu's Korukkupet, falling within the constituency and seized the amount from there.

The officials have so far recovered nearly Rs 20 lakh unaccounted money from various locations in the constituency.

The election was earlier scheduled for April 12, but was cancelled following allegations that sums of money were distributed in a vote-for-cash scam.

The seat of RK Nagar is vacant following the death of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in December 2016, who represented it for two terms. -- ANI

Image for representation only.

09:53 BJP MP says party will lose Gujarat

As most exit poll surveys predicted the Bharatiya Janata Party to win the Gujarat assembly polls, its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kakade has claimed that the party would not win enough seats to form the next government in the state.

"Forget absolute majority, the party will not even get enough number of seats to form the government. The Congress on the other hand will reach close to the majority mark," Kakade claimed.

"If at all the party retains power in the state, it will be only and only because of Narendra Modi," he said.

Kakade claimed his team has conducted a survey in Gujarat and his claim was based on the outcome of that survey.

"I had sent a team of six people to Gujarat. They mostly covered the rural part of the state where they met farmers, drivers, waiters and labourers. Based on their survey and my own observation, I feel the BJP will not get absolute majority in Gujarat," he said.

Kakade cited anti-incumbency against the BJP government as a reason for his prediction.

"The BJP has been in power in Gujarat for 22 years. Since Independence, apart from the communists in West Bengal, there is not a single party in the country which has remained in power for 25 years," he claimed.

Kakade said the negative feeling against the party may cost BJP in this election.

He pointed out that BJP leaders did not talk about development in any of the campaign rallies in the last phase.

"In the last a few rallies, there was no word on development by the party leaders. There was no mention of employment generation in Gujarat or about any major decision taken by the party during last three years. The rallies were aimed at targeting the Opposition and making an emotional appeal to voters," he said. -- PTI

09:44 Civilian killed in Army firing

A civilian was killed allegedly in army firing during an ambush in north Kashmir's Kupwara district, police said today.

Asif Iqbal, a driver by profession, was injured in firing by army personnel during an ambush at Thandipora area of Kupwara last night, a police official said.

He said the forces had laid an ambush in the area following intelligence inputs about the movement of terrorists.

Iqbal was rushed to a hospital at Kralpora where from he was referred to a hospital in Srinagar, but he succumbed on the way, the official said.

He said further details are awaited.

Army officials were not available for a comment. -- PTI

Mani Shankar Aiyar writes, 'Indeed, the prime minister has darkly hinted that I was hiring a contract killer ('supari') to get him. Invoking a fake Facebook post, he slyly let slip that the dinner was a 'secret' conclave to hatch a 'conspiracy' with the Pakistanis to make -- horror of horrors -- a Gujarati Muslim the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Utter rubbish, total balderdash, but a nasty move to establish a salience between Pakistan and Indian Muslims to polarise a crucial election.'

Read his column HERE

08:37 Re-polling begins at six booths in Gujarat

Re-polling begins at six polling booth in Gujarat.

The Election Commission had said yesterday that re-polling will be conducted at six booths in four assembly constituencies in Gujarat today.

Fresh voting is being held at two booths each in Viramgam and Savli constituencies and one each in Vadgam and Daskroi constituencies.

The poll body, however, did not specify the reason for fresh polling.

Chhaniyana-1 and 2 polling booths in Vadgam, Viramgam-27 booth in Viramgam, Nava Naroda in Daskroi and Nhara and Sankrada booths in Savli will have re-polling, the EC said.

Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani contested from the Vadgam constituency.

The EC also ordered that Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips should be counted at 10 booths in seven constituencies, as the presiding officers of these booths had failed to wipe out the votes cast during the mock poll from control units.

Also, there would be random counting of VVPATs at a booth each in every constituency when votes would be tallied across the state on December 18. -- PTI

Photograph: ANI

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