by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
PM Narendra Modi
Lucknow: Dec 25,Condemning violence over the new citizenship law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the problem over the Citizenship Amendment Act was one of “legacy issues”, asserting that “we will challenge the challengers”.
More than a dozen people have died across Uttar Pradesh in protests against the law. The damage to public property is estimated around Rs 100 crore in seven districts of the state.
Addressing a gathering in the state capital after inaugurating the 25-ft tall bronze statue of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Lok Bhawan, the state secretariat, Modi said the legacy problems included Article 370, Ram temple issue and Citizenship Amendment Act.
“We have solved some of the problems that we got as legacy…We will challenge the challengers,” he said, adding the way to give citizenship to refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan has been cleared.
The nation celebrated the 95th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Wednesday.
On the occasion, the Prime Minister also said that a government should work for future generations.
“So far, we have focused on our rights. But now, we should focus on our duties. A government should not work only for five years but also for five generations,” he said, adding those who damage public properties should question themselves. People should not believe in rumours and misinformation,” said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister also praised Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for development works he has undertaken in the state.
“Good governance is possible only when one takes an inclusive view. And, I am glad that Yodi Adityanath is following this,” he said.
Modi also laid the foundation of Atal Medical University in Lucknow and underlined the importance of preventive healthcare. He said programmes such as Swachch Bharat, Yoga and Fit India are a part of this.
“Preventive healthcare for animals is good for human health too,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister said the priority of his government is “affordability of healthcare” and Ayushman Bharat is the biggest such scheme in the world.
He also said as an MP, Vajpayee had given a new identity to Lucknow and now (Union Defence Minister) Rajnath Singh is carrying forward the the good work.
–Ians
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Ahmedabad : Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has re-opened the issue of renaming Ahmedabad as ‘Karnavati’, days after his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj and mooted the idea of changing Faizabad to Ayodhya.
Soon after offering ‘darshan’ at the Bhadkrakali Temple on the Hindu new year on Thursday, Rupani said his government was committed to rename Ahmedabad as Karnavati. The task would be accomplished and the renaming would happen before the 2019 parliamentary elections.
The Chief Minister said all legal hurdles would be tackled for this purpose as “millions of Hindus in Ahmedabad and most parts of Gujarat wished” that the city was renamed as Karnavati.
The BJP has been using this name in all its official functions, events and publicity paraphernalia.
“My government is committed to the cause and we will ensure the the process is completed ahead of the Lok Sabha elections,” he told reporters.
In 2002 the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government with party veteran L.K. Advani as the Union Home Minister had rejected a 1990 proposal of the then BJP-ruled Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to rename Ahmedabad as Karnavati.
Later, the subsequent Congress-ruled local civic body overturned the proposal and retained the original name.
The Gujarat Congress asserted that Rupani’s idea to re-open the renaming issue was provoked by political motivation.
“The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is under the BJP without a break for the last 13 years, the State Government for more than two decades and the Centre for the last four and a half years.
“Why was this not initiated all these years and being brought up again, just when the Lok Sabha elections are around the corner?” former state Congress president Arjun Modhvadia asked.
He asserted that the ruling BJP wanted to distract the distract public attention from the failures of the Modi government across all spheres and keep people bogged down in non-issues.
The BJP, meanwhile, stated that “Karnavati” was Ahmedabad’s original ancient after King Karnadev who had set up his kingdom here in 12th century. Ahmed Shah had conquered it in 1411 and the city was renamed after him as Ahmedabad.
A party spokesperson said, “The people of Ahmedabad have already embraced Karnavati, it is only a matter of legal process to be completed. It should be noted that this has nothing to do with the 2019 elections.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Thane (Maharashtra) : The RSS on Wednesday reiterated its demand for enacting a law or promulgating an ordinance to enable the speedy construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
RSS Joint General Secretary Manmohan Vaidya said that “construction of the Ram Mandir is a matter of national pride” and so far the Ayodhya dispute had not been resolved in the courts.
His comments came in the wake of the three-day Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s ‘Akhil Bharatiya Karyakarni Mandal’ which was inaugurated by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Bhagwat had first raised the demand for such a legislation at his annual Dassehra rally in Nagpur on October 18.
Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray has also made the same demand.
Top RSS functionaries and heads of various affiliates are attending the deliberations at the picturesque Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini in Bhayander town in Thane.
Vaidya said that issues concerning national and social importance shall be deliberated during the conclave.
To a question on Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s targeting the RSS, he dismissed is as “nothing new… they have been attacking us for long.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Hashimpura massacre
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sentenced to life imprisonment 16 personnel of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) for killing 42 people in the 1987 Hashimpura massacre in Meerut.
In doing so, the court set aside a March 2015 the trial court verdict giving the 16 PAC personnel the benefit of doubt and acquiting them.
There were originally 19 accused but three had died during the trial.
The killings took place during a riot in Meerut when the victims were picked up from the Hashimpura neighbourhood by the 41st Battalion of the PAC during a search operation.
The charge sheet was filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Ghaziabad in 1996.
The case was transferred to Delhi in September 2002 on the order of the Supreme Court following a petition by the families of the massacre victims and survivors.
A sessions court here in July 2006 framed charges of murder, attempt to murder, tampering with evidence and conspiracy against all the accused.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Supreme Court will likely pronounce on Thursday its verdict on the plea by Muslim litigants seeking direction that a larger Constitution bench hear the batch of petitions challenging the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict which directed splitting into three parts the disputed site at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
The bench of chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer reserved the verdict on the plea by the Muslim litigants seeking reconsideration of the part of 1994 top court judgement which had said that “mosque was not essential to Islam for offering namaz”.
The judgment was reserved on July 20.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court in its September 30, 2010, verdict ordered that the disputed site be divided into three parts — one for deity (Ramlala Virajmaan), another for Nirmohi Akhara — a Hindu sect — and third to the original litigant in the case for the Muslims.
The Uttar Pradesh government, which is not a party in the title suit, had questioned the Muslim litigants in the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit case for making “belated efforts” seeking a relook at the 1994 Ismail Farooqui judgment that had said that mosques were not an integral part of religious practice of offering prayers.
The State government had said that the Muslim parties did not question the legality of the 1994 judgement till the appeal against 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment on the ownership of the disputed land was taken up for hearing by the top court.
During the course of the hearing Justice Bhushan had observed that nobody was questioning that mosque is essential to Islam, but the question is whether offering namaz in mosque was essential.
The Hindu parties said that reference to 1994 judgement in the hearing of the title suit in no way impacted the 2010 High Court judgment.
The court was told that the birthplace of Lord Ram cannot be shifted to another site, while a mosque with no particular religious significance to the Muslims can be shifted as that will “not affect the right to practice religion by offering ‘namaz’ in other mosques”.
To go to pilgrimage is a practice of religious faith both for the Muslims and the Hindus as well, but for the Muslims, “Mecca and Medina alone are places of particular significance” as pilgrimage centres, but for them such was not the case with Ayodhya/Babri Masjid.
—IANS
