by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has an “anti-Muslim” and “anti-Pakistan” approach and claimed New Delhi rebuffed all his gestures due to the upcoming general elections.
Khan made the remarks in an interview to the Washington Post on Thursday. Later, at an event in the capital on Friday the Prime Minister said that “the condition of Muslims in today’s India proved that the demand for a separate homeland was justified”.
Asked during the interview with the Post that why his gestures to India were dismissed since he took power earlier this year, Khan said “The ruling party (in India) has an anti-Muslim, anti-Pakistan approach.”
He claimed that India rejected his repeated calls for peace because it has the general elections coming up in 2019. “India has elections coming up. They rebuffed all my overtures.”
Khan expressed the hope that once the elections get over in India, both countries can resume talks.
He later addressed Baloch students during an event here on Friday and said: “The way Muslims are treated today in India has made people realise now why Pakistan was born.”
In his interview with the Post, Khan said that he opened the Kartarpur border to facilitate visa-free pilgrimage by Indian Sikhs to Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara where Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak Dev spent the last 18 years of his life.
A day earlier, Khan slammed New Delhi for giving a “political colour” to his gesture of Kartarpur border opening and called it “unfortunate”.
“Unfortunately, India portrayed it as us seeking political advantage… The Indian media gave Kartarpur (border opening) a political colour as if we did this to gain some sort of political mileage. This is not true. We did it because it is part of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s manifesto,” he said.
The Pakistani leader also said that he “wants something done about the bombers of Mumbai”, adding that “resolving that case is in our interest because it was an act of terrorism”.
Ten Pakistani terrorists sneaked into Mumbai through the sea in 2008 and went on a killing spree, leaving 166 Indians and foreigners dead. Indian security forces shot dead nine of them while a 10th, who was captured, was hanged.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Hyderabad : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said attempts to provide reservation to minorities are betrayal with the nation and an insult to the framers of the Indian Constitution.
Addressing an election rally of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he called for defeating any such move to protect the country’s unity.
Hitting out at the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government for its move to increase reservation for minorities to 12 per cent, Modi said he was surprised how the power-hungry were pushing for religion-based quota for the sake of their family and to save their seats of power.
Stating that the issue of religion-based reservation was discussed in the Constituent Assembly, the Prime Minister said the great personalities framing the Constitution decided against it in the interest of the country’s unity.
Modi wondered from where the reservation for minorities would come when the Supreme Court had already fixed the upper limit of total reservation at 50 per cent.
“They will take away the rights of Dalits, STs and OBCs from backdoor. Will you allow this crime?” he asked the participants in the rally held at L.B. Stadium.
Telangana Assembly had last year passed a resolution to increase reservation for minorities in jobs and education from current 4 per cent to 12 per cent and the same was sent to the Centre. TRS had blamed Modi for the delay in implementing its poll promise made in 2014.
Modi also came down heavily on TRS, saying it destroyed Telangana the way Congress destroyed the nation.
Countering Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that TRS is ‘B’ team of BJP, Modi said TRS and the Congress had common nature, character, thinking and policies.
The Prime Minister recalled that during the Karnataka Assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi used to dub Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) as the ‘B’ team of BJP, but after the elections formed the government with the same party to keep the BJP out of power.
Branding the TRS and the Congress as the two sides of the same coin, he alleged that they have already started planning backdoor entry to prevent BJP from coming to power in Telangana.
Modi said both TRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had their apprenticeship in the Congress and this made them natural friends.
He described dynasty politics as a threat to the democracy. He pointed out that barring the BJP, all major parties in fray in the Telangana elections were parties with dynasty politics and family rule.
He said the Congress, TRS, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) all were family-ruled parties. “All these parties are becoming threat to democracy,” he remarked.
Modi said Telangana had wasted its five years of welfare due to the arrogance of one family. He alleged that the KCR family exploited emotions of Telangana movement for itself. Stating that Telangana had huge potential, he said the state could not progress because of the kind of rulers it got.
“Why people of Telangana demanded a separate state? Why they suffered so long for separate Telangana. Why so many youth sacrificed their lives? They did it for a bright future of Telangana. One family was not to be given the right to loot Telangana.”
Referring to the TDP’s alliance with the Congress, Modi recalled that N.T. Rama Rao had formed the TDP for the self-respect of Telugu people after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had insulted them.
He alleged that TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu for the sake of power and vested interests put the entire party into the lap of Rahul Gandhi.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Leader of Opposition and BJP MLA Vijender Gupta on Thursday met Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal to urge him to prevail upon the Delhi government not to deny the benefits of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Arogya Yojna to the citizens.
Gupta, along with other Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs O.P. Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan, also wrote a letter to Baijal demanding the same.
“We would like to draw your kind attention to the fact that whereas around 1.25 lakh patients all over India have sought complex tertiary care procedures in the last two months under the Central government’s flagship health scheme, the Delhi government has persistently refused to be its part, thereby depriving benefits of the scheme to more than 20 lakh poor and vulnerable citizens who have hardly any access to medical facilities including hospitalisation”, they wrote.
Gupta said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, out of political “ill-will”, is denying the benefits to the poor.
“Most of the states and Union Territories have adopted the scheme, but AAP government’s insistence on certain unreasonable changes sound politically motivated… There is no logic in depriving the poor people of the benefit of the scheme. We seek your kind intervention in the matter and request you to advise Delhi government to adopt the scheme.”
The Centre’s health scheme was launched in September across the nation.
The MLAs also urged Baijal to restart and strengthen the Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) scheme to strengthen the ration system in Delhi.
“It can be built on the pattern of a similar scheme in Haryana and on the basis of the terms and conditions signed a deal with a company named BEL. When the process for identifying fake ration cards started in accordance with the scheme, all of a sudden in November 2017, Kejriwal started talking about cancellation of this scheme and for adopting Door Step Delivery system,” Gupta told the media.
Gupta added that in December 2017, referring to some complaints, Delhi’s Food Minister issued instructions to ban the E-PoS scheme. It must now be fully restored.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : BJP MP Manoj Tiwari on Tuesday said that he would bring a Private Member Bill in Parliament for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Tiwari made the statement after a delegation of over 25 Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders led by Bachan Singh met him at his residence here and gave him a memorandum for the temple construction.
“I just received a memorandum from the VHP delegation. And I want to assure them that I will raise the issue in Parliament and in my party,” Tiwari told the media here.
Asked if he would bring a Private Member Bill , he replied, “If required I will be the first person to bring a Private Member Bill in Parliament for the construction of the Ram temple.”
The MP said that he was shocked to learn that the matter of Ram temple has been pending for over 490 years, since 1528.
“The matter of Ram temple has been pending in court since 1950. And as the court is extending the matter and delaying the construction, we have submitted our memorandum to Tiwariji to raise the issue in Parliament,” Singh said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that the Congress has scored a self-goal by dragging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parents into the election campaign. The BJP will be glad to fight the 2019 Lok Sabha elections if the Congress made it a contest between the “son of lesser known parents” and “someone who is known only for parentage rather than merit and competence,” he said.
In an article `What was the name of Sardar Patel’s Father’ on BJP’s website, he targeted Congress President Rahul Gandhi and said the weakness of dynastic parties is that their strength is co-existent with the strength of the present generation of the dynasty.
He sought to tear into the Congress by referring to the remarks of party leader Raj Babbar, who had talked of age of Modi’s mother in connection with the falling value of rupee, and to comments of another leader Vilas Muttemwar, who had said that nobody knew the name of Modi’s father.
“The debate whether India should be a dynastic democracy has been ignited by a self-goal of the Congress Party. The Prime Minister’s mother’s age was made a subject matter of the electoral debate. His father’s anonymity was commented upon as an inadequate credential of the Prime Minister. The argument given was that if you represent the legacy of a well-known family, it is a political point in your favour,” Jaitley said.
The BJP leader said Congress considers only a great surname as a political brand. “Millions of talented political workers who come from modest family backgrounds would fail by the Congress test of leadership. Merit, talent, ability to inspire and lead would not be a virtue.”
Jaitley said he asked his well-informed friends if they knew the name of Mahatma Gandhi’s father or Sardar Patel’s father or wife but none of them had a definitive answer.
Referring to contributions of Gandhi and Patel, he said no photograph of Patel’s wife or her details are available even after extensive research by modern day historians.
“The reason is simple. Decades of Congress rule, naming colonies, localities, cities, bridges, airports, railway stations, schools, colleges, universities, stadiums after one family was intended to declare the ‘Gandhis’ as India’s royalty.”
Jaitley said that after Sardar Patel’s death in Mumbai, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru requested many of his cabinet colleagues that the best tribute to the Sardar would be to work on the day of his funeral and not go to Mumbai but the then Head of State and several union ministers defied the advice.
“The proposal for building his statue at Vijay Chowk was rejected. The country had to be satisfied with the installation of his statue at a traffic round-about on Parliament Street,” he said.
The BJP leader said many believe Sardar Patel was a farmer leader because of his participation in Bardoli Satyagraha but he was one of Ahmedabad’s most successful practising barristers.
“Panditji is passed off as a great lawyer though he never argued a single case in his entire career. He only went to court once for reasons of tokenism to sit behind senior lawyers led by Bholabhai Desai, who was arguing for the three INA officers in the mutiny trial inside the Red Fort,” Jaitley said.
The BJP leader said that dangers of officially glamourising one family at the cost of those who made a far greater contribution is dangerous both for the nation as also for the party to which they belong.
“The contribution of other great stalwarts like Patel and Subhash Chandra Bose is downplayed. Members of one family are projected as larger than life. The party adopts them as its ideology.”
He alleged that Nehru promoted Indira Gandhi as his successor and laid the foundation of India as a dynastic democracy.
He said when Sikhs were massacred in 1984, “communal polarisation against them was considered a legitimate electoral strategy.”
“Today anti-BJPism leads the Congress to a situation where it can tie up even with its political rivals and sympathise with the Maoists, separatists and disruptionists.”
He said the real strength of Indian democracy would be when the charismas of some families is completely shattered and parties, through a democratic process, throw up leaders of merit and competence.
“This was more than adequately proved in 2014 where most dynastic parties lost miserably. India of 2019 is different from India of 1971. If the Congress Party wants the 2019 elections to be between Prime Minister Modi, who is the son of lesser known parents and someone who is known only for his parentage rather than capacity, merit and competence, the BJP would gladly accept the challenge. Let this be the agenda for 2019.”
Modi had also targeted the Congress over its leaders referring to his parents during elections and said in one of his rallies that his father had passed away 30 years ago.
—IANS
