Month: February 2021

Days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “North-South” remark, fireworks are likely within the Congress party, when upset senior Congress leaders from north India are expected to make a strong statement against the top party leadership in Jammu on Saturday.

While Congress scion Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to head towards the poll-bound Tamil Nadu on Saturday, the party’s dissenters, also known as G-23 (or the group of 23 dissenting leaders, who had questioned the party’s functioning in a letter to interim president Sonia Gandhi), will hold a show of strength in Jammu.

Senior Congress leaders Anand Sharma, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kapil Sibbal, Raj Babbar, Vivek Tankha, Ghulam Nabi Azad will address an event in Jammu on Saturday which Manish Tiwari is also expected to join. They all belong to North India.

On the condition of anonymity, a senior leader of the Congress G-23 told ANI on Friday that it is a message to Rahul Gandhi: “We will tell the country that from north to south India is one.”

Last year in August, G-23 leaders through a letter to interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi expressed their discontent and urged the top leadership of Congress to bring immediate reforms, including organisational elections from the grass-roots to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) level.

Today, they are once again up in arms against the Gandhi family and their loyal close circle who are holding key positions in the party and the parliament.

A senior leader from G-23 said, “What’s happening in Congress today is a clear violation of the agreement reached in Congress Working Committee in December last year, but there are no signs of any reforms or election.”

According to G-23 sources, the leaders are also furious over the treatment meted out to Ghulam Nabi Azad, who recently retired from Rajya Sabha and was not accommodated by the Congress high command.

A leader from the G-23 group said, “When other parties were offering seat to Azad, PM spoke so well about him. Our congress party leadership showed no respect to him. In fact, a lawyer who is fighting cases of Robert Vadra has been brought to Rajya Sabha.”

Mallikarjun Kharge’s appointment as leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha by Congress, while ignoring other senior leaders also enraged members of G23.

A senior leader from the G-23 grouping told ANI that the flashpoint or the tipping point is the north-south statement made by Rahul Gandhi in Kerala recently.

G-23 sources said that leaders will speak their minds, show solidarity, and give a message to the party leadership.

According to sources, Congress’ top leadership is aware about the moves of G-23 leaders.

A top source in the party said leadership is keeping an eye on the whole episode and “not in a hurry to come to any conclusion”.

It is also important to note down that Gandhis have not reacted in the episodes yet, although the last attempt was made to cool down the situation was done in December last year, when G-23 leaders were invited by Sonia Gandhi at her residence for meeting.

According to sources, a few of the Congress leaders were kept out of the meeting on the request of G-23 leaders.

Later, it was said that more of these meetings will be held in near future and issues raised by G-23 leaders will be addressed by the party. However, no such meeting has been called till now and no efforts have been made to address their concerns.

While addressing a public rally in Thiruvananthapuram earlier this week, Rahul said, “For the first 15 years, I was an MP in the North. I got used to a different type of politics. For me, coming to Kerala was refreshing as suddenly I found that people are interested in issues and not just superficially but going into detail in issues.”

Several leaders, including Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, BJP president JP Nadda and Union Minister of State for Finance, Anurag Thakur slammed the Wayanad MP for his statements, accusing him of creating a “north-south” divide.

The BJP had latched onto the comments of Rahul Gandhi and cornered him by alleging that the statement reeked of a bias against North Indians. (ANI)

As many as 824 assembly constituencies shall be going for polls in four states- Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry (Union Territory), said Chief Election Commissioner of India Sunil Arora on Friday.

Tamil Nadu assembly elections to be held in a single phase on April 6, Kerala also goes to polls on April 6; Assam assembly elections to be held in 3 phases- 1st phase of polling- March 27, second phase polling- April 1 and third phase of polling- April 6; Puducherry elections to be held on 6th April.
Counting of all votes will be held on May 2.

“Nearly 18.68 crore electors will vote at 2.7 lakh polling stations for 824 seats in four assembly elections,” Sunil Arora said addressing media persons in New Delhi on Friday.

He also said the Bihar Assembly polls last year in November amid the COVID-19 pandemic was a watershed moment and proved to be a litmus test for the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Addressing mediapersons Arora said, “In the thick of the pandemic, ECI started test trials with elections of 18 seats to Rajya Sabha. After that, came the challenge of the Bihar elections, it was indeed a watershed moment for ECI. It proved to be a litmus test. Voting turnout was 57.34 per cent exceeding the 2015 Assembly polls and 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the state.”

He applauded the frontline workers, healthcare workers and ECI officials for performing election duty during the COVID times last year.

All poll officials will be vaccinated against Covid-19 before elections,” Arora said

“Our tributes to the COVID warriors, doctors, paramedics, nurses, researchers, scientists and all our officials on election duty who are located on the frontline,” said Arora.

Emphasising on security issues, Arora said, “Adequate CAPFs deployment shall be ensured during elections. All critical, vulnerable polling stations have been identified and an adequate number of CAPFs will be deployed.”

“A total of 824 assembly constituencies shall be going for polls during these elections. 18.68 crore electors will cast vote at 2.7 lakh polling stations in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry,” added Arora.

He also announced guidelines for the upcoming elections.

These include– door-to-door campaigning to be restricted to five persons including the candidate, Polling officials to be vaccinated, separate norms for suspected COVID-19 patients.

The terms of the legislative assemblies of five states — West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry — will come to an end either in May or in June this year.

Elections for the Legislative Assembly of West Bengal that comprises 294 seats will be held soon as the current tenure ends on May 30. (ANI)

India’s GDP grew by 0.4 per cent in the October to December quarter (Q3 FY21), marking a return to positive zone after two-quarters of recession but showing a lingering weakness in the economy, government data showed on Friday.

A sharp improvement in the Covid-19 situation and rising public spending are the two factors behind uptick.

“The GDP at constant (2011-12) prices in Q3 of 2020-21 is estimated at Rs 36.22 lakh crore as against Rs 36.08 lakh crore in Q3 of 2019-20, showing a growth of 0.4 per cent,” said the National Statistical Office (NSO).

A continuing fall in domestic consumption is seen as a strong reason behind the sluggish pace.

According to second advance estimates of economic growth, the real GDP in current financial year (2020-21) is estimated at negative 8 per cent as compared to growth rate of 4 per cent in 2019-20.

Agriculture sector is estimated to see a growth of 3 per cent in FY21 as compared to 4.3 per cent in 2019-20.

The manufacturing sector is likely to contract by 8.4 per cent during FY21. More worryingly, services sectors like trade, hotel, transport are projected to contract by 18 per cent.

However, electricity is likely to grow at 1.8 per cent.

The economy contracted by 23.9 per cent in the April to June quarter (Q1 FY21) and by 7.5 per cent in the July to September quarter (Q2 FY21) as normal activities were disrupted due to nationwide coronavirus lockdowns. (ANI)

Bollywood star Kiara Advani on Friday treated fans to an adorable boomerang as she posed amid the picturesque view of snow-capped mountains.

The ‘Good Newwz’ actor hopped on to Instagram and posted a short clip in which she is seen cherishing the chilling weather in a hilly region.
Putting her ‘snow glow’ face on display, the actor is seen clad in a cute brown winter cap and donned a white ensemble.

Kiara is seen all smiles as she smilingly winks at her fans. With her luscious locks open, the actor is seen donning a low make-up look and added a pair of trendy hoop earrings.

Taking to the caption, Advani wrote, ” Snow Glow,” and added a snowflake emoticon.

More than 1 million fans liked the post over the photo-sharing platform, while many chimed into the comments section, leaving adorable comments.

Scores of fans left red heart and fire emoticons as they loved the video posted over the actor’s social media handle.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Kiara was last seen in the 2020 horror-comedy ‘Laxmii’ opposite superstar Akshay Kumar. She will next be seen in Raj Mehta’s ‘Jug Jug Jeeyo’ alongside actor Varun Dhawan. (ANI)

Amid a rise in attacks on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in Balochistan, Pakistan has beefed up its security in the province to protect the facilities.

The information about the strengthening of security in Balochistan province was shared by Pakistan Military, reported Xinhua.
“We have raised two division-size security settlements which are dedicated to providing security to CPEC, besides that, we have increased the number of paramilitary troops’ units from one to two in the province to ensure security,” said Major General Babar Iftikhar, Director General of the military’s media wing Inter-Services Public Relations.

The security for the CPEC has been beefed up directly and indirectly by providing more security to CPEC projects and enhancing security in the whole province to ensure smooth work at CPEC projects after recent attacks on the facility, reported Xinhua.

Though Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan with ample natural resources, it remains the poorest and least populous. The Balochs have often raised the issue of under-development, but Pakistan has responded to it with forced abduction, torture, and harassment.

The Balochs also oppose China’s increasing involvement in the province. The CPEC has not benefited the people of Balochistan while people of other provinces enjoy the fruits of the mega project. This has led to widespread protests as the Chinese are viewed as encroachers who are squeezing out all the wealth from the region.

This has resulted in a surge in the deadly attacks by Baloch separatists on CPEC facilities.

In 2015, China announced the project in Pakistan worth USD 46 billion, of which Balochistan is an integral part. It would link Pakistan’s southern Gwadar port in Balochistan on the Arabian Sea to China’s western Xinjiang region. It also includes plans to create road, rail and oil pipeline links to improve connectivity between China and the Middle East. (ANI)

Activist Nodeep Kaur, a 23-year-old member of the Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan from Punjab, was granted bail by Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday.

Nodeep Kaur was arrested on January 12 after she had participated in the farmer’s protests at Kundli in Haryana.
On February 11, Punjab Social Security, Women and Child Development Minister Aruna Chaudhary had urged the National Women Commission (NCW) to immediate intervene for releasing Kaur, whose medical examination conducted after her arrest revealed injuries on her body and private parts.

“Manohar Lal Khattar led-BJP government in Haryana has been trying to annihilate farmers’ agitation from day one. Under its threatening theatrics, and at the behest of the Union government, the Haryana government forcibly picked up Nodeep Kaur and other labourers, who were peacefully protesting,” Chaudhary had said in an official release.

“Kaur has been charged under section 307 (attempt to murder) and extortion, which is not acceptable at all,” she added.

Chaudhary appealed to the NCW that the Punjab government, through Punjab State Women’s Commission, would lend legal assistance to Nodeep Kaur and the Haryana government should be directed to arrange a meeting of the Punjab State Women’s Commission’s delegation with the labour rights activist.

She also said that the allegations of outraging the modesty of Punjabi trade unionist Nodeep Kaur in police custody as per her family members and not even granting bail after several weeks, was a horrifying moment for the entire womanhood. (ANI)

Allaying concerns of people over the upward spiralling of fuel price, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said the price will decrease as winter season ends.

“Increase in petroleum price in international market has affected consumers too. Prices will come down a little as winter goes away. It is an international matter, price is high due to increase in demand, it happens in winter. It will come down as the season ends,” Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Petroleum, Natural Gas and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in an exclusive interview with ANI, explained why the North-eastern Region (NER) which includes Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim are important for oil and gas sector of the country.

“The first oil deposits in the country were discovered near the town of Digboi and Duliajan areas of Assam and around 18 per cent of the country’s oil resources are located in the northeast east region (NER). Assam, Arunachal, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura are the areas that are full of oil and gas fields. When the Modi government came in power in 2014 we decided to create an infrastructure of the crude pipeline, gas pipeline, increase our exploration, refining and gas production capacity,” he said earlier.

Prices of LPG, petrol and diesel have been repeatedly hiked in the country. Opposition parties held protests in different parts of the country over the rise of prices of diesel and petrol. (ANI)

Progressing from the initial idea of hosting the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in one city, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is exploring the option of playing the league across four to five cities. While the logistical part will need further discussion, the idea has been floated and is being discussed by the senior officials of the board.

Speaking to ANI, a BCCI official in the know of developments said the idea has indeed been discussed and while it is still early days, the 14th edition of the league could well be played in more than one city if things go as per plan.

“We are exploring the possibility of conducting the IPL at more venues than originally planned. The intent is to take it to more fans as the situation is moving towards normalcy. The feasibility of the bio-secure bubble and logistics will of course be crucial to determine the venues finally. It is a fluid situation and the health of the participants is our primary concern,” the official said.

Some of the cities that have been discussed are Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad among others.

While the tournament is still some time away, franchises too are open to the idea of having the league in more than one city as that will help to stay flexible with an eye on the COVID-19 situation.

“See, there is still some time left for the league to get underway, but we are more than keen to play the league across a few cities. The worry with hosting it in one city is that the COVID-19 situation is constantly changing. So, if by chance one of the cities picked sees a situation where it gets difficult to host the games, another city can go ahead and logistically it will be easier for the board and the franchises,” an IPL franchise official said.

While the BCCI is keen to take the most successful domestic league to as many fans as possible, the board is also clear that the bio-bubble restrictions will be made keeping the safety of the players in mind as was the case when the tournament was moved to UAE in 2020.

“With multiple cities, obviously there will be individual bubbles. While we want fans from different cities to enjoy the games, safety of the players and those involved in the league will be a priority,” the BCCI official said. (ANI)