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Don’t believe in politics that divides people on communal lines, says Narendra Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Tuesday that he does not believe in politics, which seeks to divide people on communal lines and will never speak communal language as he met a delegation of Muslim leaders here.

He discussed social, economic and educational issues related to Muslims with the 30-member delegation, led by Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, Chief Imam of All India Imam Organization.

During the interaction, Modi said the politics of majority and minority has caused a lot of damage to the country, a PMO statement said.

The Prime Minister said he "neither believes in politics which seeks to divide people on communal lines nor will he ever speak communal language," it said.

At the meeting where Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was also present, Modi said employment and development are the solution to all problems and he is focused on delivering them.

In this context, he spoke of the initiatives in skill development taken by the union government and the work done by him as Chief Minister of Gujarat in fields such as education of the girl child as also revival of the kite industry.

The delegation members said the Muslim community had rejected the divisive politics of vote-banks and was interested in development, the PMO statement said.

The members appreciated Modi's leadership over the last one year and said they wanted to forge a partnership for progress and development with the Prime Minister, it added.

The Muslim leaders "congratulated" Modi for his vision for the Muslim youth with a Quran in one hand and a computer in the other, the PMO statement said.

They also congratulated him for the country's success in the adoption of the International Day of Yoga by the United Nations, it added.

The delegation also included Dr. Khwaja Iftekhar Ahmed, President of Quami Majlis-e-Shoora, Qari Mohd. Mian Mazhari, Chairman of the Islamic Council of India, Moulana Mohd. Haroon Imam, Khateeb Jama Masjid, Race Course, Moulana Bilal Ahmed, Member, Shoora Tableeg-e-Jamaat Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, Moulana Mohd. Yunus, Imam of Dargaah Sharif Ajmer and Moulana Usman Gani Qadri, President of Amin-e-Shariat, Gujarat.

Dr. Parvez Ahmed, son of late Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, former President of India, and Dr. Firoz Ahmed Bakht, grand nephew of Moulana Abul Kalam Azad, were also part of the delegation.

Moulna Nasirudeen, Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Kaithal, Moulana Mohammad Ikram Imam, Khateeb Jama Masjid (Bangalore), Moulana Burhan Ahmed Qasmi, Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid (Jaipur), Moulana Ayub Ali, Imam of Masjid Shahjahan (Ajmer), Moulana Abdul Majeed, Shahi Imam-Khateeb Jama Masjid Cantt, Moulana Qari Abdul Lateef, Imam of Masjid Sarai Kale Khan, Moulana Mufti Zulfikar, President of Tanzeem-Aimma Masjid, Uttar Pradesh, Moulana Lukman Tarapuri, Imam of Jama Masjid, Anand (Gujarat), Moulana Aamir, Imam-Khateeb Jama Masjid, Meerut and Moulana Ashgar Ali, Shahi Imam of Patna were also in the delegation.

Dr. Aslam Parvez Ahmed, Principal of Zakir Hussain College, Prof. Qazi Obaid Ur Rehman of Jamia Milia Islamia, Prof. Abdul Haleem Khan, Chairman of Girls College, Indore and Moulana Mufti Afroz Alam Qasmi Qazi, Chairman of Markaji Milli Foundation were part of the delegation too.

  • Published in National

'I eat beef, can somebody stop me?' Union minister Rijiju retorts to Naqvi's statement

Minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju has described as “unpalatable” his colleague Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s remarks that those who eat beef should go to Pakistan, and questioned whether anyone could stop him from eating beef.

Rijiju belongs to Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast, where beef is a staple in the diet of several states with large Christian populations. His remarks came four days after Naqvi, the minister of state for minority affairs, justified the ban on cow slaughter.

“I eat beef, I’m from Arunachal Pradesh, can somebody stop me? So let us not be touchy about somebody’s practices,” Rijiju said during a visit to Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, on Tuesday.

“This is a democratic country. Sometimes, some statements are made which are not palatable,” he was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

“If a Mizo Christian says that this is the land of Jesus, why should someone have a problem in Punjab or Haryana? We have to honour the sentiments of each place and each location,” Rijiju said.
  • Published in National

Jayalalithaa to return as CM, Panneerselvam resigns

Chennai: AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa was re-elected as the party's legislature party leader by her MLAs on Friday, paving the way for her return as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.

Soon after the MLAs' meeting, the current CM and Jayalalithaa's trusted AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam met Governor K. Rosaiah at Raj Bhavan and tendered his resignation.

It is likely that Jayalalithaa will take the oath as CM on Saturday.

In a meeting held at the party headquarters here in the morning, AIADMK legislators unanimously elected Jayalalithaa as the leader of the legislature party, said the leader who did not want to be named.

"It was a short meeting mainly to elect Amma (Jayalalithaa) as the AIADMK's legislature party leader," he told IANS.

At the MLAs' meeting, Panneerselvam proposed Jayalalithaa's name as the leader of the legislature party, much to the clapping of all the law makers. He also said there that he would resign as Chief Minister and leader of legislature party.

It is also expected that Jayalalithaa would be sworn in as the Chief Minister on Saturday, according to party sources.

Jaya in public event today

Party cadres in large numbers were assembled at the AIADMK headquarters here since early morning.

Later in the day, Jayalalithaa would offer floral tributes at the party founder late M.G. Ramachandran's (MGR) statue, DMK founder late C.N. Annadurai's and Dravidar Kazhagam founder late E.V. Ramaswamy's statue here.

Jayalalithaa had to leave the position of Chief Minister and assembly seat (Srirangam constituency) after she was convicted and given a four-year jail term along with Rs 100 crore fine by a trial court in Bengaluru in a disproportionate assets case.

The Karnataka High Court upheld her appeal against the conviction and acquitted her on May 11.

The court had set aside her conviction by the trial court and the four-year jail sentence awarded to her and three others, which has led to her automatic disqualification as MLA and exit as Chief Minister in September last year.

Jaya to contest from Radhakrishnan Nagar

On May 17, P. Vetrivel, a party legislator representing Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency, resigned from his post and the same was accepted by the speaker. It is expected that Jayalalithaa would contest for re-election from Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency.

With Vetrivel's resignation, the AIADMK's strength in the 234-member assembly comes down by one to 150, excluding the speaker.

Plea against Jaya dismissed

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Karnataka High Court dismissed a PIL against Jayalalithaa being sworn in as Tamil Nadu CM, observing that the petition had been filed for 'publicity purpose'.

The vacation bench of Justices Venugopal Gowda and Veerappa imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on the petitioner, advocate Raviraj Gururaj Kulkarni.

The petitioner submitted that since the recent High Court order acquitting Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case had 'flaws', there are possibilities of someone moving the Supreme Court challenging the judgement.

Hence, she should not be allowed to be sworn in as chief minister, he said.

The bench observed that the motive behind filing the petition appeared to be publicity purpose. It had also been filed with 'an ulterior motive', the bench said, adding the petition was liable to be dismissed.

Jayalalithaa was cleared of all charges in the disproportionate assets case by Justice C.R. Kumaraswamy of the Karnataka High Court on May 11.

As the prosecuting state, Karnataka is yet to take a decision on filing an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court verdict which cleared the decks for her return as Chief Minister.
  • Published in National

Let JD-U decide whether to continue in UDF: Kodiyeri

Palakkad: CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan Thursday has said it is for the Janata Dal (United) to decide whether they should continue in the UDF.

“It was due to the seat sharing issue the relationship between the JD(U) and LDF had turned murkier, not on the ground of the political conflicts,” Kodiyeri told reporters.

“The crisis that is now faced by the JD(U) is akin to that of the reasons that led Congress (A) of A.K Antony to leave the LDF earlier,” he said.

Reigniting speculation over the party getting closer to the LDF, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan Monday had held talks with JD(U) state president M P  Veerendrakumar at his office in Kozhikode.

After the meeting, Kodiyeri said the LDF leadership had not branded the JD(U) as untouchable. Veerendrakumar, however, said the CPI(M) leader’s visit was only a courtesy call.
  • Published in Kerala

BHP by Congress proved politics is all about religion

Politics or politicians are here to respond to the grievances of the society. We elect them make them our representatives in a hope that they will make changes in the society in a positive way. Too often we come across with situations when politics has been proved that politics is all about exploiting people’s religious emotions but we were optimistic and voted in every election. But the formation of BHP-Bharatiya Hindu Parishat by congrees, the grand old party of India which always boasted to be a secular party has clearly proved that politics all about religion.

Raise of Narednra Modi and anti incumbency against congress government was the reason behind the pathetic defeat of the party in all the elections that were held after Lok sabha election in 2014. Narednra Modi reigned as Prime Minister of India. People noticed new hope in his leadership comparing to his predecessor Manmohan Singh. The Modi waved continued in the country and Congress was swept away in all part of the nation in the elections. Does that mean BJP or Narendra Modi  won only because they were right wing supporters?

Why Congres thought that there is need to form a Hindu parishat? Is this not dividing the people on religious basis?

People of India don’t want to fight in the name of religion. They only want is development and whichever government meets their need will be voted to power. Formation of Hindu parishat is a clear sign that Congress was following anti Hindu policies before. Otherwise they wouldn’t have thought of forming a BHP.

When a party or a person get defeated, he will think  about what went wrong. Similarly when Congress leaders gathered to review about their defeat they might have struck with the fact ‘Oh God! we were using anti Hindu tactics, this is the reason for our debacle. It had worked in earlier elections but it’s an outdated formula. So we need to woo Hindus now’.

Whoever is forming the BHP is doing more damage to the party. Congress will lose confidence of the minority community in this process. Above all nation has thousands of social problems to deal with. Religious problems emerge only if somebody scrabble it. Everybody wants a peaceful life. Middle class people don’t want to fall into the pit of religious fights. All the communal conflicts happening in India are nurtured by religious outfits and politicians. The formation of BHP will add on to these religious organizations.

The politicians are not at all worried about the problems of the people. If they did they wouldn’t have formed another organization, but they would have done good to the people, regained the confidence of the people and waited patiently for five years for Modi era to end and jumped into the election with the certificate of their good works. But very sadly I have to say, Congress has chosen the other way, it chose to form an religion based organisation and tell the Hindus,`Look all Hindus we have formed an organizations for your safety. Now we do care about. Vote for us in the next election’. Who should we pity on, the politicians or ourselves?


- By Manthan Bangera
  • Published in People

Fresh probe launched into Vadra land deal



CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has ordered a fresh probe into the allotment of 350.17 acres of prime land in Gurgaon to realty firm DLF. The allotment was quashed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in September last year.


CM Khattar said, “The first priority of the state government was to ensure good governance, transparency and provide people a graft-free system. Initiatives such as Good Governance Day, CM Window, CM portal and transparent registration have been taken in this direction, and it has increased people’ s faith in the government.” Sources close to the government said the probe has been ordered on the basis of a letter written by senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka.

It is worth mentioning that Khemka had also cancelled the mutation of the land purchased by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’ s son-in-law Robert Vadra.

Khemka in his letter has nailed the DLF and Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Ltd.

Terming it a politico-bureaucratic nexus, Khemka has said the separate appeals filed to get the allotment restored were part of the predetermined strategy.

The senior IAS officer has also said the HSIIDC officials had connived the prime land at throwaway prices, neglecting other bidders on a single bid basis.

Khemka has also accused the HSIIDC officials of providing interest waiver to the DLF, which was also offered additional piece of land measuring 54.6 acre without making changes in the reserve price.

Khemka has said the vested interests had reducing the land price by 23 per cent of the prevailing market rates. He said the original allotment price was Rs 1,703.2 crore, which was reduced to Rs 1,203 crore by lowering the allotment price by 30 per cent.

Khemka has also hinted the possible motives behind the DLF land allotment as there was a Congress government in the state when the land was allotted. One of the controversial land deals between Vadraowned Skylight Hospitality and the favours done to the DLF. The Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 3, 2014, had cancelled the allocation of 350 acre of land in Wazirabad village near Gurgaon.

The then Haryana government had attracted criticism for selling the Wazirabad village panchayat land in 2010 to the DLF for Rs 1703.2 crore for the development of a recreation park. Interestingly, the DLF was a sole bidder of the land when it was auctioned in 2009.

The allotment of 350 acres of prime land in Gurgaon was quashed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in September last year.
  • Published in National

AAP volunteers launch ‘Muffler Man’ game


 
NEW DELHI: The Muffler Man campaign, started by Aam Aadmi Party volunteers on social media, has now reached mobile phones with a group of volunteers launching a mobile game by the same name in which the main character goes by the name of Muffler Man and overcomes hurdles like corruption and bribe to win the game.

The Android-based game was developed by party volunteers and digital agents interactive private limited, in an effort to increase donations. “We wanted to use the Muffler Man tagline and impart the ideals of our party which are honesty, fighting against corruption and women safety,” said Mohit Ramani, an engineer, who along with six volunteers developed the game.

The team has decided to keep Muffler Man faceless so as to represent the common man. “There are platforms like women safety, water supply and good governance which the player will have to cross to keep moving in the game. Then we have some platforms like Janlokpal, which can make the player jump two platforms at once. The player can get powers by getting broom. With every third broom you get some extra power,” Ramani said.

But like every other game there are hurdles as well. “There are platforms like bribe, scam and corruption which will bring you down. We have around seveneight such platforms which the player will have to jump over,” he said.

The mobile application is free of cost and will soon be made available on Apple and Windows. “It is a 2D game and we have had over 500 downloads in just one day. In the game you can earn various merchandise,” said Ankit Lal, who heads AAP’ s social media cell.

“Our focus is to increase donation. We will link all new campaign hastags on the game page. The game will also change background depending on location, so if you are playing it in Delhi it will have India Gate as the background while in Mumbai it will change to Taj hotel,” he said.
  • Published in National
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