The Aam Aadmi Party announced Tuesday names of five candidates in Punjab for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing media here, the party’s core committee chairman Budh Ram said sitting MPs Bhagwant Mann and Sadhu Singh will contest from their respective constituencies, Sangrur and Faridkot.
Ravjot Singh, who had contested 2017 Assembly polls from Sham Chaurasi seat, will contest from Hoshiarpur seat.
Party’s Majha zonal incharge Kuldip Singh Dhaliwal will contest from Amritsar seat and Narinder Singh Shergill, who had contested 2017 Punjab Assembly polls from Mohali, has been given ticket from Anandpur Sahib seat.
Ram said names of candidates for the remaining eight seats will be announced later.
The AAP had won four out of total 13 seats during 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
A massive fire broke out at a slum in suburban Bandra Tuesday morning, a fire brigade official said.
No loss of life has been reported so far and eight water tankers, nine fire engines as well as ten fire tenders have been rushed to the spot to put out the blaze, the official said.
The incident was reported at 11.50 am in Nargis Dutt Nagar slum, located opposite Bandra fire station in Bandra (West), the disaster management cell of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a statement.
“A joint team of fire brigade, ward staffers and Mumbai Police personnel has been mobilised to douse the flames,” it added.
Local MLA and Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar, who is overseeing the rescue operation, said prima facie the blaze was triggered by a cylinder blast in the slum.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) national prachar pramukh Arun Kumar on Monday said that the Supreme Court must take a decision on construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya or the central government should bring a law to pave the way for the construction.
Kumar’s statement comes a day after the apex court adjourned the hearing of Ayodhya title suit till January.
“The High Court in its decision has already accepted that it is the birthplace of Lord Ram. Facts and evidence have also proved that a structure was erected there only after the destruction of a temple and hence a temple existed there before. Sangh is of the opinion that a grand temple must be constructed at the birthplace of Lord Ram at the earliest and a land for it must be provided.”
He also asserted that the construction of the temple would create an atmosphere of harmony in the country. “Temple construction will create an atmosphere of goodwill and solidarity in the country. With this vision in mind, the Supreme Court must take a decision very soon. If there are any difficulties in this, the Government must bring an ordinance to remove all hurdles in the way of constructing a grand temple,” he added.
On Monday, the top court adjourned the matter which challenged the Allahabad High Court ruling of 2010, which had ordered division of the disputed land in Ayodhya into three parts for each of the parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
Private sector HDFC Bank on Monday said that the RBI has approved re-appointment of Aditya Puri as managing director of the bank for another two years.
“Reserve Bank of India, vide its letter dated October 22, 2018, has accorded its approval to HDFC Bank Ltd. for re-appointment of Aditya Puri, as MD & CEO of the bank, from November 1, 2018 to October 26, 2020 (i.e. till the date of his attaining age of 70 years),” the bank said in a filing to stock exchanges.
Shareholders had already approved his appointment in 2015 for a period of five years subject to RBI approval, it said.
Puri has been with the bank since 1994, making him the longest-serving head of any private bank in the country.
During his tenure, Puri has led the bank through two major mergers in the Indian banking industry — merger of Times Bank Limited and Centurion Bank of Punjab Limited with HDFC Bank.
CBI Deputy SP AK Bassi, the former probe officer in the alleged corruption case against Special Director Rakesh Asthana, moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday against his transfer.
Bassi said his transfer to Andaman and Nicobar Islands on October 24 is “malafide and derails a sensitive probe” and added that allegations against Asthana are “grave”.
He further sought an urgent hearing on his plea against the transfer on November 2.
Having missed the first three industrial revolutions, India is now in a position to lead the fourth on the back of its vast tech-savvy young population and is on the way to becoming one of the three richest countries in the world, billionaire Mukesh Ambani said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the 24th MobiCom conference here, Ambani, who heads the oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries, said India’s digital transformation is “unmatch and unprecedented” after it took leadership position from being 155th in wireless broadband technology adoption in just 24 months.
Back in the 1990s, when Reliance was building its oil refinery and petrochemical projects, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) was around $350 billion and had just come out of a severe financial crisis.
“Very few in the world thought that our country’s prospects were bright. Today our GDP is nearing $3 trillion, and India is well on its way to becoming one of the three richest countries in the world,” he said.
Ambani, the richest Indian, said mobile computing as a catalyst is driving massive data consumption and this has given young Indians a fertile ground for disruptive ideas.
Cloud computing and networking technologies have used broadband as a foundational enabler leading to Indian entrepreneurs starting to make a global impact.
“In the next two decades, I can confidently say that India shall be leading the world and shall contribute to the next wave of global economic growth,” he said.
India languished on the fringes during the first two industrial revolutions powered by coal and steam and electricity and oil, respectively, and only started playing catch-up in the computer-driven third industrial revolution, he said.
“The fourth industrial revolution is now upon us. It is marked by a fusion of technologies straddling the physical, digital and biological worlds,” he said. “I can say with full confidence that India has a chance of not just participating in the fourth industrial revolution, but also leading it.”
This is possible because the India of today is remarkably different from the India of yesterday. “India’s vast tech-savvy young population is its key strength. Just imagine the kind of connected intelligence India can create if the power of billion-plus minds is combined!,” he said.
Also, being a democracy that is run on the model of equitable and inclusive growth, it is openly embracing the digital technologies of tomorrow. It is a rich and fertile ground for entrepreneurship and has emerged as the fastest growing start-up base worldwide, he said.
“Today, the nation is home to the third largest number of technology-driven start-ups in the world. Never before has India witnessed such an explosion of entrepreneurial spirit,” he added.
Ambani said India needs to prepare itself for a period of information and digital abundance, adapt itself to the scorching pace of innovation and learn to collaborate on scale, quickly transform the idea into a breakthrough innovation, shift from a system of time-bound education to a mode of continuous learning and create more employment opportunities than what new and disruptive technologies take away
“We have to groom our children to be digitally-savvy right from school. Schools should train students in ‘the four C-s’ critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. These are the skills required to build the foundation for a sustained leadership in the digital age for India.
“Within a single generation, we can empower and enrich our vast and young human resources to give India a competitive edge in the world,” he said.
Governments, businesses and civil society organisations should put together an ecosystem for massive upskilling of the workforce, he stated.
“We now have the opportunity to digitally reinvent all sectors of our economy be it financial services, commerce, manufacturing, agriculture, education, and healthcare. India can leapfrog the competition and lead the world in each of these sectors,” he said.
Ambani said there was a pressing need to create a digital green revolution by encouraging adoption of technologies for water conservation, soil management, precision farming and waste reduction to enhance agricultural productivity.
Secondly, there is a need for good quality education to make India’s youth a productive asset, he said adding there is also a requirement to make healthcare affordable.
Talking about Reliance Jio, his telecom venture that stormed the industry by combining free voice calls and SMS with cheap data, he said India is ranked quite low at 134th in the global ranking for fixed broadband.
“Jio is determined to move India to among the top 3 in fixed-line broadband, too,” he said. “Our state-of-the-art digital infrastructure provides mobile and broadband connectivity across the country, with the largest fibre footprint.”
This fibre connectivity will now be extended to homes, merchants, small and medium enterprises and large enterprises simultaneously across 1500 cities to offer the most advanced fibre-based broadband connectivity solutions, he said.
Tennis star Sania Mirza and her cricketer husband Shoaib Malik, who were expecting their first child, are now proud parents of a baby boy.
The cricketer announced the happy news on his official Twitter handle.
“Excited to announce: It’s a boy, and my girl is doing great and keeping strong as usual #Alhumdulilah. Thank you for the wishes and Duas, we are humbled,” he wrote.
Though Mirza has been away from the tennis field for a long time now, she has been quite active throughout her pregnancy period. The 31-year-old tennis star has been sharing pictures on her social media through the different stages of her pregnancy.
Bollywood filmmaker Farah Khan Kunder and a close friend to Mirza congratulated the couple on her official Instagram account.
“Finally!! Best news in a long time!! Congratulations @mirzasaniar @realshoaibmalik @anammirzaaa @imranmirza58 n of course the nani n daadi God bless our lil angel,” the post read.
Earlier in April, Sania took to her official Twitter handle and announced the arrival of ‘Baby Mirza Malik’.
On April 12, 2010, Sania and former Pakistan skipper Shoaib got married in a traditional Hyderabadi Muslim wedding ceremony at the Taj Krishna Hotel in Hyderabad followed by a Pakistani wedding customs for a mahr of Rs. 6.1 million.
Notwithstanding the Shiv Sena’s frequent criticism of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has expressed hope that the two parties stitch an alliance for the 2019 general and state assembly polls.
Fadnavis, whose government will complete four years in office on Wednesday, said that the Sena understands the “political fact” that the two parties would suffer if they contest the polls separately as he said the coming together of Congress, NCP and others has “consolidated the opposition’s vote bank”.
The Chief Minister, interacting with a group of select media persons late Monday night, said he did not think the general and state assembly elections would be held simultaneously and that his party had favoured against the idea.
He rubbished some recent media reports that cited a survey by a Delhi-based agency which claimed that six BJP MPs and around 50 of its legislators were likely to taste defeat due to their “poor performance”.
Fadnavis said BJP’s internal survey was rather “encouraging” and also claimed that the party will have more of its MLAs getting elected.
In the 2014 Maharashtra polls, the BJP had emerged as the single largest party, winning 122 seats of the total 288.
Fadnavis, however, ruled out the possibility of the BJP having any understanding with NCP for the polls.
“I think the political fact in Maharashtra right now is that the Congress, NCP and some other parties have come together. Their coming together has consolidated the vote bank of the opposition,” he observed.
He stressed that the BJP and Shiv Sena were “close to each other ideologically” and shared a big common chunk of the vote bank.
“Both the parties would suffer (due to division of votes) in case their candidates are pitted against each other. We understand this political fact, so does the Shiv Sena. Hence, I think both the Shiv Sena and we will come together,” he added.
The chief minister also made light of the Sena’s criticism of his government through its leaders and mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, saying it “does not have a bearing on the government”.
“The government is run by the cabinet which is held peacefully. We discuss issues and take decisions unanimously. There has not been a single decision in the last four years that we took by vote,” he claimed.
Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Danve had on Monday said in Nagpur that the party’s internal survey had showed that it would win 200 Assembly seats in the 288-member state assembly.
When asked about the chances of BJP-Sena alliance in view of Danve’s comments, Fadnavis said the party’s state unit chief only talked about the number of seats the BJP was capable of winning.
“But we have to work together (with the Shiv Sena). We will decide on the number of seats to be shared (by both the parties) and will contest (accordingly),” he added.
To a question whether the Maratha and Dhangar communities would still support the BJP in the polls in view of their intense agitation for quota, Fadnavis replied in the positive.
He said “historically” it was seen that the demand for reservation and elections were unrelated.
Citing examples, the chief minister said the previous Congress-NCP coalition had announced quota for Marathas ahead of the 2014 Assembly elections and yet suffered defeat.
Similarly, the BJP won the civic body polls in Sangli and Jalgaon despite the pro-quota stir by Marathas being at its peak earlier this year, he added.
In a stunning decision, a Bangladeshi court on Tuesday doubled former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s jail term from five to 10 years in a corruption case.
The decision came a day after she was sentenced to seven years in prison in another graft case.
A High Court bench comprising Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Mostafizur Rahman announced the verdict after accepting the Anti-Corruption Commission’s review petition to increase Zia’s imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case, The Daily Star reported.
“This verdict means that Khaleda Zia will not be able to contest in the upcoming election,” ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told reporters.
A Dhaka court sentenced Zia to five years in jail in the orphanage corruption case on February 8. Her son Tarique Rahman and four others Kamal Uddin Siddique, Salimul, Sharfuddin, and Ziaur Rahman’s nephew Mominur Rahman were sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
Zia has been imprisoned at the former central jail since then.
On October 6, she was taken to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital, where she is currently receiving treatment.
The verdict is crucial as it came ahead of the parliamentary elections in December. Zia’s party had boycotted the 2014 elections.
If at all you remember the speech of Donald Trump, he loudly said, “I love Hindu”. Speaking to a cheering audience of Indian Americans at an election rally in 2016, he added, “We are going to be best friends. There won’t be any relationship more important to us.” Well, that was his election speech and to win, the political leaders make all sorts of claims. Since he became the President of the US, things have changed for India. Recently, he has turned down India’s invitation to be the chief guest during the Republic Day Parade. This comes at a time when the relations between the countries are not in the best of health. The US had recently issued warning against India if it goes ahead with signing the S-400 missile system deal with Russia. India signed the deal for five such systems when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited India earlier this month. Besides this, the Trump administration has been threatening India with sanctions if it continues to procure oil from Iran. India continues to import oil from Iran.
Donald Trump’s decisions are always unpredictable, whether for his own country or with other countries worldwide! Image of the US — superpower and highly developed country — is diminishing day by day. Trump’s recent remark that “Modi is a good person, but he is of no use to the United States” reveals an increasingly waning attitude and cold-shouldering feelings of the United States towards India. Indian leadership obsession for the presence of the US President on the Republic Day ceremony, when due regard for our own concerns — be it with regard to visa issues or India getting waivers to import oil from Iran to maintain energy security — has largely been ignored, and even during the visit of Obama when we are taught to practice religious tolerance and protect the right of minorities, sounds ludicrous. A responsible government should be able to address its own concerns with due engagement and yet maintain a credible distance. After the initial affability between the US President Donald Trump and PM Modi, Trump is now speaking out against India on the trade issues. He accused India of charging 100 per cent tariffs on some US goods and threatened to sever trade ties with countries that he said were ‘robbing’ America. Trump’s visit was being seen as an opportunity to mend ties between the two countries that have seen several ruptures over India’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missiles, impending US sanctions over Iranian oil imports, as well as an impasse on trade tariffs. In sharp contrast to his frequent conversations with the then President Obama, Modi and Trump last spoke over the telephone in February and last met a year ago in Manila. Well, the world is angry with him and he is angry about the world. That’s the problem with the civilisations across the globe.
The government is now exploring several other options for the event.
According to multiple government and diplomatic sources, a final decision has been conveyed to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), with Trump’s “crowded calendar” being cited as the primary reason for his not accepting the invitation.
In 2015, when the US President Barack Obama had come to India for the parade, he had been able to negotiate to bring forward the address to January 20 and travelled to India after it.
In the current situation, however, the current Speaker, Paul Ryan, has resigned and Trump would not be able to even begin the negotiations until December, when a new Speaker is elected by representatives going into the mid-term elections on November 6. The misgivings over Trump’s schedule had been conveyed to India when the officials had first “sounded out” the US administration early this year, an official confirmed. Well, that is again once convenience, but unfortunately, the media is showing it as Modi’s failure. The Opposition and the social media brigade all are humiliating out PM but they need to realise that by doing so, they are bringing a bad name to the country and its leader.
India or rather Indians are as divided about Trump as they are about Modi. Most Modi bhakts seem to support Trump irrespective of all his ugliness just because he says things against Muslims. Looking at the overall scenario, India needs to learn to be self-sufficient. India — which makes very few of its own weapons — is the world’s biggest defence buyer and Russia supplies most of its military equipment and spare parts. The US wants to change the dynamics. It has increased its arms exports to India more than five times in the past five years, taking its share in Delhi defence procurement to 15 per cent. In comparison, Russia’s share has fallen from 79 per cent to 62 per cent over the past five years, according to a study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Washington has traditionally not objected to India buying defence equipment from Russia.
The US has long believed that India needs to be a strong militarily to counter China in the region — even if it comes at the cost of Delhi buying arms from Russia. Indian diplomats have hinted that India would not back out from the Russia deal because the air defence system was crucial for its security.
India will not lose or miss much if Trump is not coming to attend the Republic Day events. In fact, except for the photo ops, he will not add any value. The Republic Day is significant to India and Indians. Some guests from abroad —among real friends of India or others with manifest goodwill — may be welcomed as the guests. From another angle, India can well do without Trump for now. Both Trump and India have other more important things facing them.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
