The Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party during a state-wide rally in Bihar and said that all the left and secular forces in Bihar and throughout India will come together against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024 general election.
The CPI-M’s Bihar state committee organized a massive state-wide public meeting from 35 districts, at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna as part of the party’s nationwide campaign from September 14 to 22 against the Modi-led BJP government.
Recalling the Emergency of 1975, Yechury said that the whole of Bihar struggled against the Emergency which succeeded in restoring democracy and saving the country and the Constitutional order.
“Today again the time has come to save democracy, secularism, the Constitution and the country from the BJP-RSS. All the left and secular forces in Bihar and throughout India will come together and mobilise the people to oust the Modi regime in 2024. Like in 1974, the road to Indraprastha will again begin from Pataliputra,” Yechury said at his rally.
Ashok Dhawale, Bihar in charge of the party attacked Centre government policies, saying that these policies led to astronomical price rise, unemployment, poverty and hunger, and attacked the working class, peasantry, agricultural workers, women, youth and students.
“It is shamelessly selling off the country to its crony corporates, and is using the British imperialist policy of Divide and Rule on the basis of religion and caste,” Dhawale said.
Yechury on Wednesday met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad in Patna separately and discussed opposition unity.
He took to Twitter and said, “Was warmly received by Nitish Kumar ji when I called on him in Patna today. We followed up on our discussions in Delhi to mobilize the broadest unity of secular democratic forces to safeguard the Indian Constitution and the unity and integrity of our country.”
Was warmly received by Nitish Kumar ji (@NitishKumar ) when I called on him in Patna today. We followed up on our discussions in Delhi to mobilise the broadest unity of secular democratic forces to safeguard the Indian Constitution and the unity & integrity of our country. pic.twitter.com/VfY7px6aZl
Talking about his meeting with Lalu Prasad Yadav he said, “It was truly pleasant to chat with Lalu ji at his home in Patna today. We discussed the imperative to save India, its Constitution and people’s inalienable fundamental rights being severely assaulted today.”
It was truly pleasant to chat with Lalu ji ( @laluprasadrjd ) at his home in Patna today. We discussed the imperative to save India, its Constitution & peoples inalienable fundamental rights being severely assaulted today. pic.twitter.com/TCo02douQA
Accusing Uddhav Thackeray of “stabbing the BJP in the back” by joining Congress and NCP, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis claimed on Thursday that the former chief minister had tried his best to finish him politically but failed.
Fadnavis was reacting to Thackeray speech on Wednesday, in which he had attacked the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra and for not speaking to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the multi-billion Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor plant deal went to Gujarat.
Speaking to agencies, Fadnavis, however, said that Uddhav Thackeray’s speech was “filled with despair”.
“You tried your best to eliminate me with the help of Congress-NCP combine, yet you could not finish me,” Fadnavis said launching a sharp attack at his erstwhile ally Thackeray.
“In Wednesday’s speech, Uddhav Thackeray Ji was speaking in despair. I have a question for him. When he asks us to resign and go for elections, why did he not resign and go for election in 2019, when he had contested with the BJP and won because of Modiji’s picture on the poster, stabbing the BJP in the back,” Fadnavis said.
Earlier, former chief minister Thackeray had also made a scathing attack at the Shinde government. “Why do Maharashtra projects go to other states? Why doesn’t he speak to the PM about this? Doesn’t he have the courage to speak on it?” Thackeray had said.
Thackeray, who was addressing party workers, said that the Maharashtra government should bring back the Foxconn-Vedanta semiconductor project rather than hurling allegations adding that both ruling and Opposition should come together for the larger interest of the state and bring back the project.
Thackeray also launched a scathing attack on Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for not speaking on the issue. Thackeray had also challenged Home Minister Amit Shah to conduct Mumbai civic polls and assembly elections within a month.
“I challenge Union HM Amit Shah to hold BMC election along with state assembly elections, we will show Shiv Sena’s strength. Earlier too many Nizams and Shahs tried to capture Mumbai but failed in their nefarious attempt,” he had said.
However, Shinde hit back at Thackeray saying that the Vedanta will come to Maharashtra. “Our government is two months old and we have taken decisions that were not taken in two years. Vedanta will come to Maharashtra. I have spoken with PM Modi and HM Amit Shah and have been assured. A lot of industries went out of the state because of the previous government,” said Maharashtra Chief Minister.
Earlier, Vedanta group chairman Anil Agarwal had announced that the Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor plant will be set up in Gujarat. Vedanta’s landmark investment of Rs 1.54 lakh crores will help make India’s #Atmanirbhar Silicon Valley a reality, Agarwal said.
This project, which is expected to reduce India’s electronic imports besides providing 1 lakh direct skilled jobs, will help the country’s manufacturing sector, he said in another tweet.
Four people were killed after a portion of a five-storey building collapsed in Ulhasnagar town of Maharashtra’s Thane district on Thursday, authorities said.
A couple of other persons were feared trapped in the debris, Ulhasnagar tehsildar (revenue officer) Komal Thakur said.
Rescue and relief operations were underway, she said. A slab of the third storey of the building located in Ulhasnagar camp 5 collapsed around 11.30 am, the official said, adding the structure having 30 flats was illegal and had already been served a notice.
Five families were still staying in the building, she said.
After getting information about the incident, local firemen, disaster management team, police, revenue and civic officials rushed to the site and started rescue and relief operations, the official said.
The four deceased included two women. They were identified as Sagar Occhani (19), Priya Dhanvani (24), Renu Dholandas Dhanvani (54) and Dholandas Dhanvani (58), the official said
Arrested, Police,Thane Municipal Corporation, ACB | Image: Representative
A Thane Municipal Corporation clerk was arrested on Thursday by the Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe from a man over property matters, an official said.
The complainant wanted a house he had recently bought to be transferred in his name and Pravin Sartape (46), a clerk with the civic body’s property tax department, sought a bribe of Rs 5,000, he said. “Sartape was held in a trap in his office while accepting Rs 5,000.
A case under Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered in Vartak Nagar police station,” he added.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal meets with UAE counterpart on sidelines of G20 ministerial meet 6
Union Minister for Commerce Piyush Goyal Thursday met with the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi and held discussions to bolster the trade and investment ties between the two countries.
The meeting occurred on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) nations’ trade, investment, and industry ministerial meeting.
In a tweet, Goyal wrote, “Delighted to meet UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi at G20, Indonesia. Took stock of the progress under the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and discussed further strengthening of our trade and investment ties.”
Took stock of the progress under the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and discussed further strengthening of our trade and investment ties ?? ? ?? pic.twitter.com/GNzKwqaq8c
Piyush Goyal also held a meeting with the Saudi Arabia Minister of Commerce Majid Alkassabi and held talks to strengthen economic ties between India and Saudi Arabia.
“Met H.E.Majid Alkassabi, Minister of Commerce, Saudi Arabia at G20IndonesiaI. Deliberated on ways to attract greater investment & strengthen bilateral trade to further bolster economic ties between India and Saudi Arabia,” wrote Piyush Goyal.
Deliberated on ways to attract greater investment & strengthen bilateral trade to further bolster economic ties between India & Saudi Arabia.????? pic.twitter.com/g93KGOehxd
Earlier, Piyush Goyal met with the US trade representative Katherine Tai and held discussions on World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Reforms and exchanged ideas on ways to strengthen the mechanism making it more efficient.
The meeting came ahead of the G20 Summit which will be hosted by Indonesia in Bali in the month of November.
India’s G-20 Presidency next year will be a golden chance for the country to correct the long-standing anomalies that go against the developing countries, especially in the domain of agriculture and food subsidies, SBI.
Research said in its latest report. India is going to hold the G20 presidency from December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023.
Piyush Goyal also held a meeting with the Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis and discussed on expediting Free Trade Agreement negotiations which will benefit both sides.
“Met Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis on the sidelines of G20 Indonesia. Both sides are keen to expedite FTA negotiations with mutually beneficial results,” he added.
Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said the UK is keen to stick to the Diwali deadline for India-UK free trade agreement and both countries are working towards it. He referred to the passing away of Queen Elizabeth II and said “as we are expanding our engagements, the UK is at a cusp”.
“Two days ago, I received a letter from the UK again reiterating that they want to stick to the Diwali deadline (for the India-UK Free Trade Agreement),” Goyal said at an event here.
Speaking of India’s engagements and the quest to become self-reliant, Goyal said, “If we don’t engage with the international market, we are the losers. Today the whole world is talking of Atmanirbhar…There is no power that can stop us from becoming a developed nation in the next 25 years…The world wants to engage with us, the world has more confidence in us than we have.”
Earlier, in the day, British High Commissioner to India, Alex Ellis said that India and the United Kingdom have the high ambition of completing the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by Diwali this year.
Commuting in Mumbai is very difficult with the kind of available transport 8
Today morning, I booked an Ola Auto from my place to the office. The app showed the ride was three minutes away. I waited almost a minute and did not find him at my location. While tracking, I got to know he hadn’t moved at all from his initial position. So, I gave him a call to know his whereabouts. He told me his net pack finished, that’s why I am unable to track him; he is right below my building. I rushed down and saw there was no auto. Again, I called him and asked his location, he said his phone is broken and hence could not navigate to my location. He gave me his location two minutes away from my gate, and since he was two minutes away, I thought I would walk up to his location. He still was not there; I cancelled my ride and I was charged for cancelling my drive. In this entire process, I wasted 40 minutes and got bullied by Ola and the driver.
Let us take another scenario if you wanna go to place A from B. A is a hugely populated area where the frequency of getting a ride is high and B is the lesser one. As soon as you book a cab, They ( Ola or Uber drivers) wouldn’t call or come to your place, instead, they (not all) would wait for us to call them, after that they would ask for the location where you need to go and after getting to know your location, they would cut your call saying that they would be coming but after some time they won’t come and ultimately you have no other option than cancelling the ride (obviously, you can report it to Uber or Ola but if you are going for some urgent work then those 30 minutes waiting period to reach customer executive or help desk is a task, even if you succeed in reaching them they will render an apology for the inconvenience and you have to get ready for another brutal experience.
These Ola cab drivers are not limited to cheating clients, they cheat their company too. For example, the cab driver comes to your pick-up point. As soon as you get inside the cab, he would tell you that I am going to cancel the ride, instead, you give me the same amount as displayed by Uber or Ola before booking. And now if I am in a hurry I would do it because I have to reach my destination as soon as possible. This is one example but they have their various ways of cheating people. The irony is that Ola Uber drivers demand a guaranteed monthly income of 1.5 lacs. Engineering and medico Even highly qualified degree holders don’t get this guarantee. They are not reasonable in their demands. Apart from all this, if you look at these cabs you will find Car interiors dirty as most drivers do not bother to keep them clean daily. There smells they do not bother in keeping an air freshener/fragrance to mask the foul smell. Most of the time car A/C does not work, either there is a fault with the A/C or the driver wants to save on fuel costs. Car insides are sometimes infested with mosquitoes as the drivers keep the windows open during breeding time. Nowadays many drivers do not use Google Maps navigation while driving; instead, they keep asking the passenger constantly for guiding them in the right direction, which is very much annoying.
The worst of all experiences is this one I had recently – nowadays most of the drivers are not allowed to cancel customer’s requests more than once or twice, so they employ a nasty and possibly illegal tactic to cancel a customer’s request – what they do is that as soon as they get your request, they drive for some distance till your pick up point & input in the phone app that they have already picked you up & then drive away and disappear. Once you realize this and press Cancel, you are charged with an Rs. 50/- cancellation charge, which you have to contact Customer Support and contest with them.
Moreover, drivers on behalf of partners run most of the Ola cabs, these cars are purchased on car loans for business purchase and owners of the car hardly drive these cars. About 50% of the cars operating in the city are in jeopardy of being seized by banks and other financial institutions, as most drivers are not able to service their debts, which may result in loan defaults, the pamphlet claimed. It further said that if the demands for better remuneration and improved working conditions are not met, the drivers will go on a hunger strike. The drivers alleged that their incomes have reduced drastically with the taxi-hailing firms continuing to acquire more cabs while restructuring the incentive schemes.
With no real regulation on the number of taxis on the roads, their numbers have swelled. When Uber and Ola started their services, they attracted drivers by offering them extraordinarily generous incentives and facilitating loans for cars. Attracted by the charm of owning their taxis, and blinded by the incentives, many of the drivers did not question the sustainability of the tariffs they were made to offer. Nor did they question the longevity of the incentives. Over time, with enough taxis on their apps, the companies have withdrawn most incentives. Some of the drivers will eventually have to stop playing their taxis, dashing their entrepreneurial dreams. Already, some have started defaulting on their loans, prompting some lenders to stop new loans to drivers wanting to buy cars and join the app-based taxi revolution. With the companies making losses—then, they are funded by venture capital and expected to make losses. The companies have other problems as well. The companies see their drivers as contractors. The drivers want to be considered employees. This is true in India too; so much for the whole entrepreneurship thing. In the UK, a court has ruled that Uber should recognize its drivers as employees. There are cases in other parts of the world as well. Recognizing drivers as employees would dent the much-vaunted asset-light model of these companies.
However, as the markets matured, systems for holding these companies accountable have become stronger. The cab services are gaining ground, as are pressures on these services to invest in their own infrastructure and comply with local norms. As the costs of these changes add on, the balance sheets of aggregators like Uber and Ola could start looking more and more like those of traditional players, making them potentially undifferentiated and unattractive to investors. Too big to fail: As mentioned, most aggregators run on very asset-light models. This means someone else owns the infrastructure, the people, the maintenance, the depreciation, the compliance and the domain expertise – these companies come in and hoist an app on top of it and call all of it their own. What happens if and when they choose to stop or withdraw from a market? The ecosystem that depends on demand generation and subsidies could potentially collapse.
The Mumbai civic body has denied permission to both the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the rival faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to hold a Dussehra rally at the Shivaji Park ground here citing law and order concerns.
The dispute over the iconic venue has now moved to the Bombay High Court which would be hearing the petitions filed by the rival factions on Friday.
The Uddhav Thackeray faction maintained that it would hold the annual event at the Shivaji Park despite the denial of permission while accusing the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of following the BJP’s script.
The Shiv Sena, founded by Bal Thackeray, has been holding its annual Dussehra rally at the Shivaji Park since 1966 except for the last two years of the coronavirus pandemic, it said.
Deputy municipal commissioner (zone-2) in separate letters sent to the two factions on Wednesday denied permission to use the ground in central Mumbai’s Dadar area.
The Shinde faction had last week obtained the nod for holding the rally at the MMRDA ground in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) on the same day, October 5, as an alternative.
The Thackeray group too has sought permission from the BMC to hold its rally at the MMRDA ground, though Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday vowed to hold the event at the Shivaji Park.
In its letters rejecting the applications, the BMC cited remarks by the Shivaji Park police station that “if any one of the applicants is granted permission to hold the rally, this may create a serious problem of law and order in the sensitive area of Shivaji Park”.
On August 22, Anil Desai of the Thackeray-led Sena had applied to the BMC for permission for Shivaji Park.
On August 30, MLA Sada Sarvankar of the Shinde faction also made a similar application. Following the BMC’s decision, the Bombay High Court on Thursday allowed the Thackeray-led Sena to amend its earlier petition so as to challenge the denial of permission.
In the original petition, the Sena had sought a direction for the BMC to decide its application.
A division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and Kamal Khata said it would hear the petition on Friday.
The court will also hear an application filed by Sada Sarvankar, opposing the Thackeray-led Sena’s petition. Sarvankar’s application said that the dispute as to who represents the “real Shiv Sena” was pending before the Supreme Court, hence, the high court should not hear or pass any directions on the present petition.
The Thackeray-led Sena pointed out in its plea that the party has been holding the Dussehra rally every year at the Shivaji Park since 1966, with the exception of 2020 and 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic intervened.
Reacting to the BMC’s decision, former mayor Kishori Pednekar, spokesperson of the Thackeray-led Sena, accused the BJP of trying to corner her party. It was “very bad script of the BJP,” she said.
Ajay Choudhary, leader of the Thackeray faction in the Maharashtra Assembly, asserted that the rally will be held at the iconic ground irrespective of the denial of permission by the civic body. The party will resort to “guerrilla warfare tactics” to hold its rally at the Shivaji Park, he said.
The Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, which comprised the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, collapsed in June this year after a revolt led by Eknath Shinde against the Sena leadership. Shinde was later sworn in as chief minister with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.
Kiran Pawaskar, spokesperson of the Shinde camp, said it will keep trying to get the Shivaji Park for its event till the last moment.
The BMC denying their group the permission despite Shinde being chief minister showed that it was not acting under pressure, he added. To Choudhary’s comment that his group will use “guerrilla” tactics to reach Shivaji Park on Dussehra, Pawaskar said his group has plans but they would not be “guerrilla” if disclosed beforehand.
Aaditya Thackeray, Sena leader | Image : Twitter/@AUThackeray
Shiv Sena leader and former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray will lead a protest in Talegaon in Pune on September 24 against the shifting of the Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor manufacturing project to neighbouring Gujarat. A statement from the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena said the ‘Jan Aakrosh Andolan’ is being organised as the project, which entails an investment of Rs 1.54 lakh crore, was lost after the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government had laid the groundwork for it to be located in Talegaon.
It said the project was “almost finalised” due to the efforts of then state industries minister Subhash Desai and tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray, and it getting shifted to Gujarat had affected the employment opportunities of one lakh youth. “The dreams of one lakh youth have been crushed. What should the youth do now? What is the state government doing to provide employment? We will seek answers,” the statement said.
Recently on social media Sena leader also mentioned that Aaditya Thackeray said that “Due to recent decision, State has lost Vedanta- Foxconn’s 1 lakh jobs and Bulk Drug Park’s 70,000 jobs.To see such an ad for a job placement of available skill, in another state, is of great pain and expense to people from all over India who come to Maharashtra for jobs”.
Under the current dispensation, State has lost Vedanta- Foxconn’s 1 lakh jobs and Bulk Drug Park’s 70,000 jobs. To see such an ad for a job placement of available skill, in another state, is of great pain and expense to people from all over India who come to Maharashtra for jobs
At a time when the Aadhaar authority accepts transgender cards as valid documents, but quite a few people discriminate against the transgender community, a Durga puja organiser in Siliguri is setting up a pandal to highlight the struggles of the community.
The Sashtika Yubak Sangha has taken ‘Transgender rights’ as its Durga Puja theme. Durga Puja is the largest festival in West Bengal.
In North Bengal only, more than 2000 Pujas are organised, including 652 Pujas in Siliguri itself, which comes under the Darjeeling district and is considered the gateway of Northeastern states.
This year as well, the organisers are gearing up with colourful pandals, wonderful lighting and theme-based Durga idols to catch more and more Puja lovers.
At that time, Sashtika Yubak Sangha, a popular Durga puja organiser of Siliguri depicted its theme on the Transgender community to highlight the struggles and neglect of the community.
Bappa Paul, the Secretary of Sashtika Durga Puja Committee said, “We are giving out a message by highlighting the issues of transgenders. The transgender community did not get due respect.
People use to neglect them or avoid them during festivals. So we have decided that we are going to highlight their issues in the pandal and will try to send a message that they are also part of our society.”
Maina Kinnar, a transgender, welcomed this decision and called upon the civil society to accept the community.
“Sometimes people accept us but sometimes reject us. It is not easy for the transgender community. People should give us the minimum respect. We welcome the decision taken by a club of Siliguri for highlighting our issues. Civil society should come forward and accept us,” Maina said.
In a bid to enhance transparency and accessibility in its functioning, the Supreme Court has decided to live-stream its proceedings of all constitution bench hearings from September 27, exactly four years after a path-breaking verdict in this regard was delivered in 2018.
A unanimous decision was taken by the 30 judges of the apex court in the full court meeting headed by Chief Justice of India U U Lalit held on Tuesday evening to implement an apex court verdict of 2018 in the Swapnil Tripathi case.
On August 26, for the first time since its inception, the Supreme Court had live streamed its proceedings of a bench headed by then Chief Justice NV Ramana through a webcast portal.
It was ceremonial proceedings as Justice Ramana was to demit office on August 26.
Exactly four years back on September 26, 2018, the Supreme Court had taken a major leap in imparting transparency in the functioning of the judiciary by allowing live-streaming of court proceedings of cases of “constitutional and national importance”, saying this openness was like “sunlight” which is the “best disinfectant”.
It had said as a pilot project, only a specified category of cases that are of constitutional or national importance and are being argued before a constitution bench should be live streamed.
The top court had said that sensitive cases such as those dealing with matrimonial disputes or sexual assault should not be live streamed.
Several important cases are to be heard by the five-judge constitution benches of the apex court next week including the validity of the 103rd constitution amendment granting a 10 per cent quota to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act and others.
Recently, activist-lawyer Indira Jaising, who had also filed a separate petition in 2018, seeking live streaming of the court proceedings has written a letter to CJI UU Lalit seeking implementation of the 2018 verdict and live broadcast of proceedings of constitution bench cases heard by the apex court.
According to sources, initially, the apex court may live stream the proceedings through ‘YouTube’ and would later host them on its server.
People would be able to access the proceedings of the apex court on their cell phones, laptops, and computers without any hassle.
On September 6, Justice DY Chandrachud, who is next in line to become chief justice of India and heads the E-Committee of the apex court while hearing a case recalled an incident when he had seen someone recording court proceedings on a cell phone.
“Yesterday, I saw someone using a mobile phone, perhaps recording what we were saying during the proceedings. Initially, I thought, how can he record the proceedings? But then, my thoughts changed. What’s the big deal in it? It’s an open court hearing. Nothing is confidential here”, Justice Chandrachud had said.
Justice Chandrachud, who was also one of the authors of the 2018 verdict along with now-retired Justice AM Khanwilkar and then Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that there has to be a changed mindset and instead of taking a traditional view, judges have to adopt a view of today’s time.
Justice Chandrachud, however, said that one should refrain from recording the discussions of judges among themselves.
He has been responsible for shifting the judiciary from Supreme Court to trial court level to virtual-hybrid mode proceedings, which enabled the judiciary to sail through the COVID-pandemic times when courts were closed for physical hearings.
On July 31, Justice Chandrachud while speaking at a valedictory ceremony of the first All India District Legal Service Authorities meet held at Vigyan Bhawan here said that the judicial institution has to give up resistance to adopting modern means of communication to reach out to the masses and earn the respect of the community at large, or else it will “lose the game”.
While referring to tools like social media platforms, he has said that the courts have been “reticent” to modern means of communication.
He was of the view that judges and judiciary have to “shed their fear”, whether it is about using platforms like Twitter and Telegram, which are now widely prevalent, or the live streaming of proceedings.
“There is a world of accountability at large and I think we can earn the respect of the community at large provided we adopt and come on the platforms which are so prevalent in the society. The judicial system cannot be left behind if we are to be the harbinger of change,” Justice Chandrachud had said.
He had added, “Unless, we as a judicial institution, shake this resistance to adopting these means of communications, which are so widespread in our society today, we would perhaps lose the game and I do believe that we are already in the process of losing the game unless we shake this fear as to what would happen if we use modern means of communication”.
