After a staggering defeat in the national election, the Congress is battling the blame-game. Congress leaders Milind Deora and Priya Dutt appeared to criticise the party leadership.

“Field party work & electoral battles are key to comprehend ground realities. This should form the basis for leadership posts in Congress,” Mr. Deora tweeted on a day a newspaper report quoted him as saying that “those with no electoral experience’ were calling the shots in the party and those taking advice should also bear responsibility.

“My comments are out of emotions of deep loyalty to the party, pain of our performance & a sincere desire to see us bounce back. Nothing more,” he added. His comments were seen as a critique of Rahul Gandhi, who led the party’s national election campaign, and his advisers.

Mr. Deora, a former union minister who lost his seat in Maharashtra, is the first Congress leader to go public with his criticism.

Two-time MP Priya Dutt, who also lost the polls, said for cautiously, “I would not really like to talk about Milind’s comments but there is disconnect between people on the ground and top leaders. The top leadership should take opinion from a wide range of people and MPs.”

Ms Dutt met party president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi today.

Responding to Mr. Deora’s comments, Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi said, “After a win, this question is not applicable. Only after loss, the question is apt. Yesterday those who used to praise Rahul Gandhi, now they are blaming him. Rahul has taken full responsibility for the results.”

Air India has been put on cash-and-carry mode by Mumbai Airport authorities after its dues mounted to Rs. 450 crore even as the airline today said it has paid about Rs. 40 crore and certain outstanding were yet to be reconciled.

The GVK-led Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), which runs the city airport, yesterday communicated its decision to the Air India management, MIAL sources said, adding that the airline has been “put on cash-and-carry mode as it has failed to clear the dues in the required time”.

Normally, airlines use airport services on credit but when the dues mount, they are asked instead to pay cash on a daily basis for availing the facilities.

The dues relate to various airport charges like those for landing, navigation, parking and other services, which an airline has to pay to the airport operator.

The national carrier, the sources said, has been told to pay at least Rs. 200 crore by June if it wanted to be taken off from the cash-and-carry mode. “As of now their cumulative dues stand at Rs. 450 crore,” they said.

Discounting this, senior Air India officials told that the airline had paid Rs. 650 crore to GMR-led Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) and over Rs. 100 crore to MIAL in 2013-14 to clear its backlog.

On top of this, about Rs. 40 crore was paid to MIAL only yesterday, they said, adding that dues to MIAL and DIAL are “yet to be reconciled since they have charged us interest on certain outstanding heads, which is not acceptable to Air India.”

Air India’s flight operations out of Mumbai would not be affected, the officials said.

Observing that payment of old outstandings were linked to equity infusion by the government, they said escrow accounts for both DIAL and MIAL have been created to pay dues relating to user development fee, development fee and passenger service fee which were collected and remitted on a monthly basis.

In addition, payments were also being made for parking space and landing, parking charges every month, the airline officials said.

A sessions court on Thursday granted bail to the Bollywood singer Ankit Tiwari, arrested earlier this month for allegedly raping a woman.

Judge V M Mohite asked Tiwari to furnish a cash bond of Rs. 20,000. Tiwari’s bail application said he had been falsely implicated, and there were several contradictions in the statement of the woman who has accused him of rape. It pointed out that the woman, who alleges that Tiwari had a sexual relationship with her, is married and has a child.

Tiwari (24), a playback singer, was arrested by the suburban Versova police earlier this month (on May 8) after the woman, allegedly his one-time girlfriend, filed a complaint saying that he raped her repeatedly between October 2012 and December 2013 after promising to marry her, but did not keep the promise.

Tiwari’s brother Ankur was also arrested for allegedly threatening the victim. The singer was booked by the police under sections 376 (rape), 493 (cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage) and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

Tiwari is known for the hit song ‘Sun Raha Hai Na’ from the film ‘Aashiqui 2’.

Leaders of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Thursday said they were in favour of projecting the party president Raj Thackeray as the Chief Ministerial nominee ahead of the coming Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

The MNS office-bearers met, and unanimously decided that Raj Thackeray should be projected for the top post of the state, on the lines of BJP’s well-in-advance projection of Narendra Modi for the Prime Minister’s post.

“Today’s meeting was convened to boost the morale of the cadre,” MNS leader Pravin Darekar told reporters.

“If the people want to see Raj saheb lead the state, as was the case with Narendra Modi (at the national level) who was projected for the Prime Minister’s post, we will insist that he (Thackeray) agree to it,” Darekar said.

Thackeray was not present at the meeting. Darekar said the MNS chief was not slated to be present, but he would address a big rally on May 31, “to give a direction to the party”.

Asked about Bala Nandgaonkar, a key MNS leader, skipping two important party meetings in the wake of the Lok Sabha election results, Darekar said, “He is in Konkan with his family.”

He added that MNS workers were not demoralised by the party’s poor showing in the polls.

All the ten candidates of MNS lost in the Lok Sabha elections, and some of them forfeited their deposits. Its arch rival Shiv Sena, on the other hand, won 18 seats.

An MNS source said some organisational changes were expected before the Assembly polls which are due later this year.

Observing that law had not been followed, the Bombay High Court has set aside an order of a District Magistrate taking a person under preventive custody.

The Jalgaon District Magistrate had passed an order on February 2 last year detaining Madhukar Ramkrushna Patil under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Slumlords, Bootleggers, Drug Offenders, Dangerous Persons and Video Pirates Act (MPDA) to prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order.
However, the detenu made a representation to the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), which was not considered at all, prompting the court to hold that the law envisages that such representation made by a detenu should be considered.

As this had not been done, the detention order had been vitiated, Justice MS Sonak and Justice Abhay Oka said recently while hearing a petition filed by Patil.

“The facts of this case indicate that there is virtual non-consideration of the detenu’s representation by Additional Chief Secretary (Home). As observed earlier, even delay in consideration of representation, would render the detention unconstitutional,” the judges remarked.

“The representation must be taken up for consideration as soon as it is received and unless it is absolutely necessary to wait for assistance from some other source, it must be dealt with expeditiously and the final decision communicated to the detenu,” said the bench.
In matters of preventive detention, there is a dual obligation upon the government and corresponding dual rights in favour of a detenu, namely to have his representation independently considered by the government, and to have that representation in the light of all facts and circumstances of the case considered by an Advisory Board, the judges opined.

The fact that Article 22(5) of the Constitution enjoined upon the Detaining Authority to afford the detenu the earliest opportunity to make a representation must implicitly mean that such a representation must, when made, be considered and disposed of as expeditiously as possible, they observed.

In this case, there is no consideration at all, much less disposal of the representation made by the detenu-petitioner. This is sufficient to vitiate the continued detention of the petitioner.