LIVE! PM, BJP politicising triple talaq to create vote bank: Congress

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Sat, 29 April 2017

PM, BJP politicising triple talaq to create vote bank: Congress

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21:02 PM, BJP politicising triple talaq to create vote bank: Congress

The Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP of politicising the triple talaq issue and even suggested that the saffron party was trying to drive a wedge between Muslim women and their husbands to

create a new vote bank.

Senior Congress spokesperson Ghulam Nabi Azad said no other political party except the BJP and its ideological mentor the RSS are trying to politicise the issue.

The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said no Muslim believes in triple talaq and the practice is adhered to as per the holy book in which certain norms and time-frame have been laid.

"When the society is already discussing this issue of triple talaq and the court is looking into it, then why is the BJP unnecessarily coming in between Muslim women and their Muslim husbands. The BJP should not make attempts at creating a new vote bank," he told reporters.

Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement urging Muslims not to view the issue of triple talaq from political perspective, he alleged that it was the Prime Minister who was politicising the issue.

"He is the biggest champion of politicising the issue. He is the champion and he started it. And to say not to politicise it, is itself politicising it," he said, adding that the Prime Minister should exercise restraint and rein in

his partymen.

Azad asked if any other political party was seen raising the issue except BJP and RSS.

He said if any other leader was saying so, it was only in response to what the BJP is saying.

"BJP leaders and the RSS have been making this a political agenda before and during the elections. This is the agenda of the BJP and the RSS to politicise it. Other parties have only responded," he said.

The Congress has removed Digvijaya Singh as the party in charge of Goa and Karnataka.

A Chella Kumar has now been given charge of Goa while KC Venugopal has been appointed in charge of Karnataka.

The move comes after the Goa fiasco where Congress failed to form government and ahead of assembly elections in Karnataka to be held in 2018.

Digivijaya had come in for a lot of criticism after the Congress failed to form the government in Goa, despite the party emerging as the single largest party in the assembly elections.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Madhav today attacked separatist leaders in Kashmir accusing them of playing politics of sentiment over dead bodies and said that the Centre had made it clear that it would not hold talks with them.

"Separatists have only one motto -- one dead body a day -- so that they can play sentimental politics over the dead bodies. They use the people of the Valley as guinea pigs in their reprehensible politics of violence and separatism," the BJP General Secretary alleged in a post on facebook.

He said the security forces and the government on the other hand try their best to ensure that the ill intentions of separatists do not succeed.

It is a difficult job being executed with commendable sincerity by the government and the security forces, he said.

Madhav, who is considered to be the BJP's pointsman for Kashmir said the Centre had told the Supreme Court yesterday that there is no plan to hold any talks with separatists and those not loyal to India.

He said the Supreme Court too had taken a strong stand while hearing a petition which demanded that the use of pellet guns be barred by emphasising that stone pelting and street violence had to be stopped.

"The stand of the SC judges including Chief Justice of India (CJI) is commendable and I am sure patriotic people in the country including those in the Valley welcome this position of Court," the senior BJP leader said in his post.

Actress Yami Gautam, who is the face of a fairness cream brand, says there is no harm in endorsing such products as long as they are not hurting sentiments.

Actor Abhay Deol had recently slammed Bollywood celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Sonam Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor and John Abraham for featuring in campaigns on fairness creams.

But Yami says she will not choose her endorsements on the basis of someone else's ideology.

"When we talk about individuality and choice, it's my life, my decisions... why question my credibility? I am a self-made girl. I will not run my career on somebody else's decision or ideology. I have my own mind," Yami said in an interview.

"The brand has the right to advertise a product but you cannot show that not being fair is an upsetting thing. You can advertise your brand but showing that not being fair is something to be upset and sad about is not correct," she said.

Former Union minister Manish Tewari today favoured linking of donations to political parties with Aadhaar in a bid to bring more transparency in political funding.

He also voiced that corporates should not be in the business of funding the political process.

"Any donation made to any political party needs to have an address. Therefore, you need to link every donation to Aadhaar, whether a person is donating Rs 1 in cash or Rs 5,00,000 in cash.

"As long as there is Aadhaar linkage whereby the source of funding can be traced, I do not think we really need to go down this entire root of decreasing individual donations from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,000, which only means

you need to print 10 times more coupons," Tewari said addressing the 13th annual national conference on electoral and political reforms organised by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

Commenting on the role of corporates in political funding, the Supreme Court advocate said, "Yes, corporates do not have Aadhaar cards. One possibility which is being explored for a long time is with regard to state

funding of elections. It is an idea which is worth exploring, but how will one ensure that no private funding takes place."

"Corporates are in the business of earning profits for their shareholders. They should not be in the business of funding the political process," he said.

The Congress leader, however, emphasised that transparency in political funding could be achieved if political parties were brought within the ambit of the Right to Information Act (RTI).

The former Ludhiana MP also described the electoral bonds and restricting cash donations to political parties to Rs 2,000 as "non-starters".

In a shocking incident, Miss India finalist Sonika Chauhan died in a car accident on Saturday at Lake Mall in Kolkata.

She was travelling in a Toyota Corolla Altis with Bengali actor Vikram Chatterjee.

Chatterjee hit the divider and climbed on to the pavement on Rashbehahi Avenue.

According to sources, both of them were rushed to the nearby hospital where Sonika was declared dead.

Vikram, who reportedly sustained head injuries, was released from hospital initially but had to be admitted later when he complained of discomfort.

Apart from sports anchoring, Sonika was also a VJ on channel V.

The credibility of the legal system and the rule of law have come under "severe strain" in the absence of timely help to poor and illiterate Indians, Chief Justice of India J S Khehar said on Saturday.

The CJI made the observations while highlighting the importance of para legal volunteers who, according to him, enabled ordinary and helpless people to avail the benefits of the legal system for alleviating their sufferings

and injustice.

"In the absence of timely help to most Indians, the credibility of the legal system and the rule of law comes under severe strain," he said, stressing that the poor and illiterate Indian were the main clients of the justice system.

Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who also spoke at the two-day National Meet of Para Legal Volunteers in New Delhi, emphasised the use of technology in providing access and administration of justice.

Inaugurating two-day national meet, the CJI said the service to poor was a "super divine duty" being carried out by the volunteers, which was move than the "divine duty discharged by the judges".

The last-mile connectivity for a villager under the PLV scheme was not the lawyers but the PLVs working under the competent legal authorities which impart awareness of laws and legal system to them, he said.

When the disputes are such that they are beyond the capacity of these volunteers who have basic training in law, they approach the nearest legal services authority for a dispute settlement mechanism like Lok Adalat, mediation or more formal legal remedies.

"These volunteers trained under the 2009 para legal volunteer scheme act as filters relating to the number and nature of disputes that need to be formally and institutionally dealt with by the legal services. Para legal

volunteers save time and money of the poor, the official administration and the courts," Justice Khehar said.

The Election Commission of India will soon call a meeting of all political parties to assure them that the electronic voting machines were tampering-proof and secured, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said on Saturday.

He also said that the commission intends to use Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail or VVPAT in all coming elections to bring in more transparency and boosting the confidence of people in the electoral process.

"We will soon hold an all party meeting in which they will be told how our EVMs are non-tamperable and secured as per our administrative and technical safeguard system," the CEC told reporters in Chandigarh.

He was responding to questions about allegations levelled by various political parties against EVMs. Recently sixteen opposition parties had urged the ECI to revert to ballot system, claiming the faith of the people in EVMs had been "eroded".

Zaidi also said that the ECI is planning to "hold a challenge" for which time frame is being worked out.

17:13

Mobile Internet services restored in Kashmir after two weeks; ban on 22 websites and applications remains.

16:54 Why Amit Shah will rent a house in Bengaluru

Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah is already gearing up for elections in Karnataka where assembly polls are due in the first half of 2018.

According to sources, Shah is looking for a bungalow in Bengaluru on a rental basis for a year near the airport till the election gets over. This is to ensure that his election office will start to function from May.

As per his election strategy, Shah never stays in a hotel in any poll-bound state to reduce the expenses. He rents a bungalow to set up his election 'war-room' which has huge car parking area to hold mini meetings with party cadres.

Raising questions about electronic voting machines, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that when petrol can be stolen with the help of a chip, there also were possibilities of misuse of the machines used during polls.

"When petrol can be stolen with the help of a remote through a chip without having any internet connection then through EVMs too. Need to stop the wrong use of technology," Yadav tweeted.

He was referring to the state police on Friday raiding seven petrol pumps in Lucknow which were allegedly using remote- controlled electronic chip in fuel dispensing machines to dupe unsuspecting consumers.

The Election Commission has rubbished any allegations of misuse of the EVMs.

Akhilesh, whose party was drubbed by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, had earlier also claimed that the EVMs cannot be relied upon and demanded that future elections be conducted through ballot papers.

Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Swami Prasad Maurya has charged that Muslims use triple talaq to change wives and satisfy their "lust", remarks that are likely to spur a controversy.

The BJP minister's comments come at a time when there is a raging debate over the issue of triple talaq.

Maurya said triple talaqs have no basis.

"The BJP stands with Muslim women who have been given talaq unreasonably and arbitrarily," Maurya, who was here to participate in a function at the house of a local BJP leader in Basti, told news persons on Friday.

"These talaqs have no basis.... if someone only for satisfying his lust keeps changing his wives and forces his own wife and children on the streets to beg... no one will call this as right", he said.

Maurya said that the BJP will help such victims to them get respect.

Representative image

14:41 Undertrial shot dead outside Delhi court

An undertrial in a murder case was today shot dead allegedly by a person outside the Rohini district court.

The accused was apprehended from the spot.

Rajesh was arrested by the Haryana Police in a murder case in December 2016,

DCP (Rohini) Rishi Pal said, adding he was listed as a "bad character" in Bawana police station of the city.

He was brought to Rohini to be produced before the court by personnel of the Haryana Police,

He was in judicial custody in the neighbouring state since he was arrested on the charge of murder.

The accused, Mohit, belongs to Jhajjar district of Haryana, the DCP said. Police are probing the incident and the reason behind the murder is yet to be ascertained.

14:07 Nearly 400 judicial officers transferred in UP

The Allahabad high court has transferred close to 400 judicial officers, nearly half of them of the additional district and sessions judge rank, in a major reshuffle in the lower judiciary in Uttar Pradesh.

According to the notifications issued on Friday by the high court's Registrar General Dinesh Kumar Singh, the transferred judicial officers include 199 ADJs posted in regular courts and another eight of the same rank posted at fast track courts in various districts.

All the judicial officers have been directed to "keep themselves ready to hand over charge at their present place of posting on May 8".

The reshuffle has been markedly comprehensive in the districts like Jhansi, Banda, Moradabad and Sitapur -- each of them having six ADJs to have been shifted elsewhere.

Lucknow, Meerut, Mainpuri, Bijnor and Hamirpur have five transferred ADJs each.

Besides, the list of those transferred include another 118 judicial officers holding the rank of chief judicial magistrate, chief metropolitan magistrate, additional CJM, additional CJM (Railway), additional CMM, civil judges/additional civil judges (senior division) and judges/additional judges small causes courts.

The largest number of judicial officers of the aforesaid rank to have been transferred are from Aligarh (10), followed by Agra (five) and Kanpur Nagar, Meerut, Saharanpur, Sonbhadra and Varanasi (four each).

Also, 43 judicial officers of the rank of civil judge/additional civil judge (Junior Division), judicial magistrate and metropolitan magistrate have been assigned new places of posting, according to the notifications that have

been put out on the high court's official website.

Days after a security guard was found murdered at former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's sprawling estate in the state, her former driver was killed in a road accident in Salem district on Fridya night.

Kanagaraj, 36, was employed at Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden home in Chennai and sacked three years ago. Police sources indicate he was one of the suspects in the the guard's murder and was questioned by the Nilgiris police. However, another officer says they had not questioned him yet.

The driver-turned-taxi owner, Kanagaraj, was on his motorcycle when he was hit by a four-wheeler. Another suspect in the case and close friend of Kankaraj, Sayan was seriously injured while his wife and child died in a road accident involving their two-wheeler and a car in Kerala's Thrissur district today, police said.

On April 24, a security guard at Jayalalithaa's Kodanad estate in Nilgiris district was found dead. His mouth was stuffed with cloth and taped up, the police said.

The guard, Om Bahadur, was found at the bungalow that Jayalalithaa frequently visited in the years before she died.

The police believe a gang broke into the bungalow to steal documents and valuables. Another guard, Kishore Bahadur, was also attacked. Villagers had reportedly told the police that a gang was seen entering the estate in two cars.

Kanakaraj and Sayan were key suspects in the break-in and murder case, the police said citing information provided by three persons taken into custody yesterday in connection with the murder.

Amid a raging debate over triple talaq and the rights of Muslim women, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that the contentious issue of triple talaq should not be seen from political prism.

"Main Muslim samaaj se aagrah karunga ki triple talaq ke mudde ko rajneeti ke daayre mein mat aane dijiye. Aap log aage aakar iska samaadhan kijiye (I request Muslim society not to politicise the triple talaq issue. Rather, come forward and solve the matter)," Modi said at the launch of translated volumes of Vachana, penned by 12th-century social reformer Basavanna and other saints in 23 Indian languages on the occasion of birth anniversary Basavanna.

Modi said he would fight against the suffering of Muslim daughters in the country, saying his government would work towards finding a solution.

As many as 8-9 lakh registered companies are not filing annual returns with the ministry of corporate affairs and are a potential source of money laundering, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said today.

Speaking at the Enforcement Day event in New Delhi, Adhia said the task force set up by the PMO is monitoring these companies every 15 days.

"There are 15 lakh registered companies... as many as 8-9 lakh are not filing annual returns with the corporate affairs ministry. They have become a potential threat for money laundering," he said.

He said further that if companies do not file returns after getting registered with the MCA, then these are used as potential source of money laundering.

"We have given notices to some of them," he said, adding that the task force co chaired by him and the MCA Secretary is keeping a close watch on them.

According to Adhia, trade based money laundering is also getting prominent these days as was witnessed in the Rs 6,000-crore Bank of Baroda case.

In a major crackdown on domestic shell companies, the government in February had decided to take "harsh punitive" action, including freezing of their bank accounts used to launder money or evade taxes.

The Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar today said that lack of "spirituality" was one of the reasons that leads to farmer suicides.

To a question about farmer suicides in Maharashtra and elsewhere, the spiritual leader said, "We have done pad-yatra in 512 villages of Vidarbha, and on that basis we can say that poverty alone is not the reason behind the farmer suicides. They lack spirituality.

"Therefore, I appeal to all the people who work in this field (of spirituality) to reach out to farmers," he said.

Yoga and pranayam were essential to "remove suicidal tendencies" among the farmers, he said.

Asked about the controversy over the cultural event organised by Art of Living Foundation on the banks of Yamuna which is alleged to have damaged the river's floodplains, Ravi Shankar said, "The truth will triumph."

"I have full faith in the judicial system....There is an NGO which is carrying on malicious campaign...There is some disadvantage of being popular," he said.

"But we have not done anything wrong. Our panel of 15 independent scientists have established fair report and we have always been and would be extra-sensitive towards the environment," he said.

BJP president Amit Shah is visiting Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday as a part of his Vistaar Yatra.

While the tour focuses on expanding the BJPs support base in five states, Shahs two-day visit in Jammu and Kashmir assumes more significance considering the political unrest in the state and reports of trouble in the PDP-BJP alliance.

BJPs objective of the tour, it appears, is to reach out to its cadre in states where the BJP lost seats in 2014 general elections.

While it is a coalition partner in the PDP-led government in Jammu and Kashmir, the party has three MPs and 26 MLAs from that state. Following Jammu and Kashmir, Shah will also be visiting Odisha, Lakshadweep, Telangana, and Gujarat for 15 days each.

10:44

JUST IN: Jayalalithaa's driver found dead in Tamil Nadu's Salem, reports Times Now

10:27 Judge who granted bail to Gayatri Prajapati in rape case, suspended

A POCSO court special judge OP Mishra has been suspended for granting bail to former UP Minister Gayatri Prajapati in a rape case.

A departmental inquiry has been ordered on the same.

The bail had been granted on Tuesday to him and his two accomplices who were arrested for allegedly gang-raping a woman and attempting to molest her minor daughter. They had been asked to deposit a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each and also two sureties each of the same amount.

The bails reprieve was short-lived, however, as a local court remanded him to judicial custody in two separate cases on Wednesday. He could not walk out of jail.

On Friday, the government decided to move Allahabad high court to seek cancellation of the bail granted. The government is currently examining all relevant papers before challenging the bail order given by a POCSO court in the case, Advocate General Raghavendra Singh said.

SS Rajamouli's Bahubali 2: The Conclusion is enjoying great box office success. The film has been running to packed houses across cinemas and Baahubali is all there is on people's minds.

While millions will make it to cinemas to find out the answer to that pertinent question, Mumbai police had another question on their mind. "Why don't people follow traffic rules?" they tweeted. With the hashtag #BahubaliOfTrafficDiscipline, they asked citizens why people don't follow rules on the road.

Their tweet, a hit just like the film, had nearly 700 retweets in a day.

On the eve of completing his first 100 days in office, President Donald Trump has said this landmark timeline has been the most successful in the US' history.

In just fourteen weeks, Trump said his administration has brought profound change to Washington.

To mark the first 100 days in office, Trump is set to fly to Pennsylvania to address a massive rally to celebrate the landmark occasion.

"I truly believe that the first 100 days of my administration have been just about the most successful in our country's history," Trump said in his weekly radio and web address to the nation.

Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on January 20 and completes hundred days in office today.

In his weekly address, Trump said that during this short span of time, his administration has been successful in bringing back jobs.

"Most importantly, we're bringing back jobs. You asked the people of Michigan; you asked the people of Ohio; you can ask the people of Pennsylvania. See what's happening. See the car companies come roaring back in. They don't want to leave. They want to stay here. They want a piece of the action," the 70-year-old said.

Asserting that the US was "going up" and that too at a fast pace, he said American companies were doing better.

They just announced fantastic profits, all because of what has happened in this rather short period of time, Trump said.

"And that's just the beginning. We're putting in a massive tax cut for the middle class and for business. It's going to have an enormous effect," he said.

09:29 Is Dawood critical in Pakistan hospital?

Dawood Ibrahim, Indias most wanted criminal and an accused in the 1993 Mumbai bombings, has been unwell and frequently visiting a hospital in Karachi, according to a report in the Hindustan Times.

Dawoods health came into focus after overnight reports that the mob boss had suffered a heart attack and was hospitalised.

However, the sources told HT neither was Dawood in hospital nor was he critical.

According to the sources, Dawood is suffering from gangrene of limbs and had a stroke in the past. He is known to visit the Karachi hospital frequently for medical rehabilitation.

The 61-year-old fugitive, who fled India in the 1990s and is believed to have since settled in Pakistan, was last seen at a party at former Pakistan cricketer Javed Miandads house on April 19, the sources said.

Following the mass exodus and reports of in-fighting within the party, Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal struck a note by admitting that the party made some crucial mistakes which led to their heavy defeat in the Delhi's civic polls.

Accepting his mistakes, Kejriwal asserted that it's time to get back to work.

This admission comes after Kejriwal's defiance post the exit polls predicted a BJP sweep in the civic polls.

He had then said that he would launch a 'movement' if the exit poll results came out to be true.

Even on Wednesday afternoon, two of Kejriwal's close aides blamed EVMs for the party's defeat. One of them, labour minister Gopal Rai said that the BJP had won because of an "EVM wave", not because of a 'Modi wave'.

Meanwhile, taking a dig at the AAP, following party member Kumar Vishwas's doubts over Kejriwal, the BJP said, it looks like a civil war going on within the party.

Image: The post the Delhi CM put up on Twitter promising an evolution of the party.

Days after the UP governments decision to cancel holidays marking a birth or death anniversary, the Delhi government has decided to follow suit, with the deputy CM announcing that holidays on the birth or death anniversary of eminent personalities will be cancelled.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced on Twitter, The Delhi government will cancel holidays on birth or death anniversary of eminent personalities. I have issued instruction to the chief secretary in this regard.

Sisodia also lauded the Yogi Adityanath government in UP for their April 25 decision, which cancelled 15 public holidays in educational institutions on the birth or death anniversaries of eminent personalities. We should always be ready to learn from other states, Sisodia added.

The country's elite administrative service is doing more than just mourn the brave who lost their lives in anti-Naxal and anti-terror operations.

Taking a voluntary initiative, IAS officers will adopt families of these martyrs to ensure that their children get a good education and other family members get timely financial assistance that is due to them under the government's compensatory policy.

An association of IAS officers from across the country decided that each of them will adopt one family of the security personnel (defence, central armed police forces and state police) who died in such action and support them for 5-10 years. The adopted family would preferably be from the state (cadre) to which the officer belongs.

The officer will not be required to provide any direct financial assistance to the adopted family, but support and handhold its members on a sustained basis so that they live with a sense of security and assurance that the country is taking care of them in their hour of crisis and tragedy," said Sanjay Bhoosreddy, honorary secretary of the Indian Civil and Administrative Service (Central) Association.

08:05 North Korea missile test fails near capital

North Korea on Saturday launched a ballistic missile that blew up over land, a spokesman for the US Pacific Command said.

The missile didn't leave North Korean territory, US Navy Cmdr Dave Benham said.

A US military assessment found the main part of the missile landed approximately 35 kilometres from Pukchang airfield, a US official told CNN.

"North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!," US President Donald Trump tweeted.

Asserting that the final battle against the Naxals will be fought in Chhattisgarh, Chief Minister Raman Singh on Friday said his government will not sit idle till there was peaceful development in the Bastar region.

He was replying to a discussion over adjournment motion notice in Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly on the recent Maoist attack in the state's Sukma district in which 25 Central Reserve Police Force jawans were killed.

The main opposition Congress had sought the discussion.

In his reply, the chief minister said, "The final battle against Naxalism in the country will be fought in Chhattisgarh. Anti-Naxal operations will continue in Bastar and the state government will not rest till there is peaceful development in Bastar for the betterment of the people."

"Maoists fear development. They do not like development of facilities like roads, bridges, health and education, but despite all odds the state government is working to ensure every kind of development in Bastar," he said. "The incident in Burakpal in Sukma is definitely very painful as we have lost our brave soldiers," Singh said.

"The state government's policy against Naxalism is very clear. First, there is no compromise with terrorism and Naxalism. We will continue the fight to save democracy," he said.

"The construction of 57-kilometre long road connecting Sukma-Doranpal-Jagargunda is being carried out in collaboration with Central and state security forces. Our soldiers have achieved martyrdom while protecting the roads being built in Bastar zone....I would like to bow down to their martyrdom," the CM said. -- PTI

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