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Varanasi battle to save the country: Arvind Kejriwal

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Afternoon Voice
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AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said that his fight against BJP prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi is not a “battle of prestige” but one to save the country from corrupt forces.

Kejriwal said the party’s electoral win in Varanasi and Amethi would be “enough to shake up the country” even if the rookie party does not win 100 seats in the Lok Sabha poll.

“Modiji brought me to Varanasi. And this is not a battle of prestige, but one to save the country from corrupt forces like the BJP and the Congress,” Kejriwal after his hectic and back-breaking campaigning in the temple town.

In Amethi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded Kumar Vishwas against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.

Asked whether it was purely out of electoral reasons that he decided to contest in Varanasi, Delhi’s former chief minister Kejriwal said: “It is not so… Wherever the Aam Aadmi Party enters once, it maintains an everlasting tie with that place and its people.”

“We have come to Varanasi and we will never leave it,” he adds.

Varanasi will go to the polls May 12. The contest between the Gujarat chief minister and Kejriwal is the most keenly-watched contest, in which the former seems to have the upper hand.

Both the leaders filed their nomination papers accompanied by large numbers of supporters and their cavalcades.

Modi’s road show – a day after Kejriwal’s – was joined by thousands, sending out a strong signal of his popularity.

Besides Modi, Congress’ Ajay Rai is another contender.

Asked about the number of seats AAP was hoping to muster in the house of 543, Kejriwal said: “We will get what people will give. I am not worried about the results. Imagine you seeing news on TV and coming to know that both Modiji and Rahul Gandhiji got defeated. The Congress will be destroyed and BJP will cease to exist,” he added.

As to why the over a-year-old party did not wait for the 2019 general election, Kejriwal answered: “People said we should have contested 30 seats (in Lok Sabha) and gradually taken the graph higher, but that is conventional politics. Had we waited till 2019, the country would not have been there,” he said.

Perhaps, the biggest challenge for Kejriwal is to justify his resignation from Delhi’s chief ministership to the voters of Varanasi.

“You have only one point against me that I resigned from the post of Delhi chief minister. But I did no corruption whereas Modiji is the agent of Ambani.

BJP knows where black money is hidden: Anand Sharma

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Afternoon Voice
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Accusing BJP of spending Rs 10,000 crore on media campaign of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, senior Congress leader and Union Minister Anand Sharma on Sunday claimed that BJP leaders knew where the black money had been stashed away, and “how to use it”.

“Modi’s media campaign is remarkable. As per my knowledge, Rs 10,000 crore were spent just on media, such as full-page advertisements in major newspapers and campaigns on more than 500 TV channels,” he said.

“BJP leaders claim they will bring black money back. I agree with them, as they are the ones who know where that money is hidden. They also know how that money can be used,” Sharma said at a press conference here. Modi, in his rallies, has been raising the issue of black money.

Criticising the Gujarat model of development, he said, “In education, Gujarat stands 17th, in curbing malnutrition, it is last. It has the highest school drop-out ratio in India. With a debt of Rs 1,70,000 crore, it is the third most indebted state in India. This is the reality of Gujarat model.”

Sharma also accused Modi of spreading lies about UPA government’s performance.

“From Rs 24,000 in 2004, India’s per capita income now stands at Rs 69,000. From mere USD 500 billion, India’s GDP stands at USD 2 trillion now. Our exports rose from USD 60 billion in 2004 to USD 300 billion in 2014. Foreign Direct Investment multiplied 15 times in last ten years under UPA government,” he said.

Taking a dig at Modi over his pet project of Sardar Patel’s gigantic statue, Sharma said, “Sardar Patel never supported the RSS ideology. I request that when his statue is made, (an inscription of) the letter written by him criticising the RSS be installed beneath the statue.”

Sharma also refuted Modi’s claim that the Centre was giving subsidy for meat export, adding that the state governments give permission to meat-processing units, not the the Centre. “As per Gujarat government’s website, 25 million tonnes of meat was processed in the state last year,” the Union Minister said.

First Muslim woman to enter civil services awarded Padma Shri

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Afternoon Voice
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She broke the glass ceiling many a times, from being the first woman to enter any Class-I civil service to becoming the first IRS officer to be appointed a UPSC member and to being the only woman to have worked in the Central Narcotics Department.

After donning multiple hats during her long career, it was another proud moment for Parveen Talha, when she was conferred the Padma Shri award on Saturday for her contribution to the Civil Services. But the road to success wasn’t that easy for Talha and the biggest hurdle was to overcome the anti-women mindset of her bosses at the initial stages of her career.

“It is indeed a proud moment for me but I am grateful to my bosses too. Though I had to initially deal with their anti-women mindset when I joined services 45 years ago, after a few years I was able to prove that I could handle the tricky jobs as efficiently as my male colleagues,” Talha said.

70-year-old Talha joined Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) in 1969 where she worked for 35 years and was then picked up as a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in 2004.

“Once my bosses began to trust in my capabilities, I started getting challenging assignments including posting as Deputy Narcotics Commissioner in Uttar Pradesh,” she said.

“There was a large-scale leakage of opium going on in UP then. While I tried my best to play a stringent officer dealing with certain illegal channels, poppy cultivators were surprised too because they had never seen a woman at that level,” she added.

By halting for days in the cultivation areas and delving deep into all processes of poppy cultivation from sowing to lancing and harvesting, she gathered foolproof intelligence which was put to good use by her hand-picked preventive parties.

Now, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra takes on Narendra Modi over 56-inch chest remark

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Afternoon Voice
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Taking a dig at Narendra Modi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said it is not a 56-inch chest that is needed to run the country but a “big heart” and “moral strength”.

The Congress star campaigner was taking a jibe at BJP’s prime ministerial candidate’s “56-inch chest” remark during a rally in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh recently.

“A 56-inch chest is not needed to run this country, a big heart is needed to run it. To run this country cruel force of power is not needed, but moral strength is needed. It needs an internal strength,” Ms Vadra said while addressing a meeting.

“Such type of strength is needed, which could even sacrifice life to save the culture of the country,” she said.

Mr. Modi had said during the Gorakhpur rally that it would take a “56-inch chest” to convert UP into Gujarat.

“Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav), do you know the meaning of converting UP into Gujarat? It means 24-hour electricity, no power cut for 365 days in every village and street. You can’t do it. You don’t have the guts to turn UP into Gujarat. It takes a 56-inch chest,” Mr. Modi had said.

Ms Vadra said this is the country of Mahatma Gandhi and people of all religions, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Jains have sacrificed their lives for its freedom.

“Dalits and tribals sacrificed their lives for its freedom,” she said.

“This is your country and you are its guard. This is my country and the blood which runs in my veins has mixed with its soil,” Mrs. Vadra said, adding, “It your duty to protect the country and the ‘dharma’ of my family”.

Dalit family ostracised, locked in house for daughter’s second marriage

By
Afternoon Voice
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A Dalit family was ostracised, locked in the house and fined Rs 2 lakh by Botunda village panchayat in Todaraisingh area of Tonk for allowing their daughter to get engage with other man under Nata custom.

Nata Pratha is a traditional practice whereby a man or woman can annul their present marriage and can seek new partner by paying a specified amount to their former partner.

Ramswaroop, the father of the girl, took the step to marry off his daughter second time after the old in-laws did not bother to take the bride with them.

The village panchayat had asked the family to pay Rs 2 lakh as fine to the former in-laws of the of girl for breaking the marriage.

The administration has ordered a probe into the matter.

Entry and exit of FDI: A case of Docomo- Part I

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Afternoon Voice
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Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an important aspect for a growing economy like India. Our nation has allowed FDI in different sectors like multi-brand retail, single brand retail, telecom, insurance, media, defence and so on. Presence of a foreign investor not only adds quality but also some glamour to the sector. The entry of foreign investors gives confidence to a country that it is investment friendly and their exit equally gives pain. The appearance of fault line in TATA DOCOMO resulting in TATA and NTT DOCOMO is a case in point.

TATA DOCOMO (TD) created a new trend of 1paisa (ps) per second, when it made a foray into the Indian telecom sector. Prior to the entry of Tata Docomo, other mobile service providers were offering a minute’s pulse rate. Whether a person spoke for 15 seconds or 1 minute 2 seconds, he had to pay the price for 1 minute and 2 minutes respectively. During that period, Tata Docomo’s offer asking customers to pay for what they use was a new thing for Indian telecom industry and was expected to create a boom! Some long talkers soon realised that they will end up paying more if they choose this service as already established service providers like Airtel, Idea, BSNL and Vodafone were providing 50ps/minute call rate. However, it was very useful for those who made many short duration calls!

But then change in the number was a problem for many at that point of time as Mobile Number Portability (MNP) option did not exist. This prevented many from shifting completely to TD and some people used it as an alternative number. The entry of dual sim phones in the Indian mobile market was a boon for such people. Unfortunately, for TD, the competitors never lagged behind in providing 1ps/second offers. In fact, service provider like Airtel which had very good penetration, a large customer base and was appreciated by customers for its signal strength provided an option for them to choose between minute pulse and second pulse. So long talkers continued their existing plans and short talkers changed their plans and not the service provider. This prohibited many customers from buying new TD sims which had limited network coverage and had only second pulse rate option and not minute pulse rate. To tackle this, TD introduced other offers like 1ps/2seconds, 3ps/4seconds and so on. But bringing similar offers was not a big deal for the competitors! Rather, it helped them in diversifying tariff plans. Due to poor network connectivity, other Value Added Services (VAS) of TD didn’t help in attracting more customers.

Later, it was the turn of ‘cost of sim’ game! At a time when customers had to pay an amount nearly Rs. 100 to obtain a new sim, TD started providing sims at as cheap as Rs. 2! For students like me, it was like buying chocolates! The expenditure to get our photo and ID cards was more than the cost of buying a sim! With such an offer, a single customer bought 5 to 6 sims at a time. I am no different. I too had bought four sims of TD at a cost of Rs. 8! To make the offer more interesting, the company had also provided a talktime of Rs. 40 in each of those sims! I myself didn’t know what to do with so many sims! But I purchased them. I and most of the customers like me thought that the one who bought maximum sims was more intelligent in grabbing such offers! There was an upper limit of eight sims in a person’s name! Otherwise, many people including me would have purchased 25 to 30 or even 50 sims! I used to call my parents everyday from different sims in order to keep them activated.

(This is the first part of the article the remaining part will continue tomorrow)

Akshara Damle

Choose the right candidate

By
Afternoon Voice
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A city like Mumbai needs AAP to have a peaceful atmosphere and genuine development. Looking at ArvindKejriwal’s work as CM of Delhi, though only for a few days, I enrolled my name into the voting list. Previously, there were people who came down to my house with forms and asked me to enrol but I never did. I never had faith in any of the parties be it BJP or congress or others.

After watching ArvindKejriwalstruggle to reform the country from corrupt practices, you cannot demean his party and neither is there any cheat code to break them down. This year I enrolled myself and twice checked the list to confirm whether my name was there or missing so that I couldvote for AAP. Once I just logged into AAP’s website to check what credentials Arvindhad and it was really fascinating to know about his qualification and previous job profile.

The other day we received a press release from Gopal Shetty, stating that he was not involved in the murder case of Smt. Rita MahesDadarkar’s husband. He also claimed that she since she belonged to the opposition, she is doing propaganda against him. On the other hand,Sanjay Nirupam from Congress racks up police against Gopal Shetty for land grabbing case in Borivali. These two are candidate and opposition from the same constituency.

But still many Gujaratis voted for BJP looking at Modi and minorities surely must havevoted for Congress though there are also people who have voted for AAP. Somewhere again we people have landed ourselves into trouble. Why do we ignore the meaning of democracy? That does not mean that if my constituency has a candidate with a criminal background, the other candidate will also bear the same tag. Why don’t we go through the bio data of our candidates? Don’t we have a clear picture about politicians who hailed from very poor backgrounds, financially and academically but today they enjoyriding in major fancy cars even a graduate or a MBA can’t afford. We all are dying for jobs; we all want something better for ourselves to live luxuriously and run our family comfortably. It’s almost been decades but we still are suffering from the same problems. And actually there is no point of blaming the government when we are the creators of our own problems.

I also heard people saying that no this politician from my area has helped me a lot so I would vote for him only no matter what. And eventually, we become selfish… you voted because he only helped you, might be you had good connections with him but what about others.

Even if AAP does not triumph I will be happy with the fact that my first vote was not wasted.

Voters’ names missing from rolls: BJP blames poll authorities

By
Afternoon Voice
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A day after thousands of Mumbaikars, including several prominent personalities, were left disenfranchised after their names were found missing from the electoral rolls, the BJP asked the election authorities on Friday, to undertake an exercise to revise electoral rolls.

Prominent citizens who could not vote in Mumbai included HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani and Bombay Stock Exchange Chairman Ashishkumar Chauhan.

Maharashtra BJP president Devendra Fadnavis said that many of them had cast their ballots during both general as well as assembly elections in 2009 and also carried valid voter identity cards.

“Almost 90 per cent of the names deleted are of those who were considered traditional voters of the Shiv Sena and the BJP,” he said.

“How can the name of a person like Parekh, who has voted earlier be deleted,” Fadnavis asked, adding that “Due procedure was not followed before deleting names and no intimation was given to those concerned”.

Deletion of names on such a large scale is unnatural, Fadnavis said. “I heard about an employee of a company involved in electoral roll work offering to delete names from the list at the rate of Rs 300 per name,” he said.

“The Maharashtra chief electoral officer and returning officers of constituencies say that it is voters’ responsibility to check if their names are present in electoral rolls. If that is indeed the case, then please let us know what is your (Election Commission’s) responsibility,” Fadnavis said.

BJP’s candidate from Mumbai North East Kirit Somaiya filed a police complaint for “criminal negligence and conspiracy”. “Over one lakh names were either deleted or simply went missing across Ghatkopar, Mulund and Bhandup in my constituency,” he said.

EC apologises to Mumbaikars after lakhs of names missing from voters list

By
Afternoon Voice
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After Pune, where as many as one lakh names of electors with ID cards were missing from the voters list, now there are reports that over two lakhs Mumbaikars couldn’t cast their vote in polling as their names were not on the voters list.

In Mumbai, where polling was recorded at 56 per cent after a late surge of voters, several voters including HDFC chairman Deepak Parakh and Noted jurist Ram Jethmalani, complained after didn’t find their names at the polling booths in the city where voting was held for six Lok Sabha seats in the sixth phase of General Elections.

Mumbai residents, who turned up to cast their ballot, complained that they were denied to voting after the poll officials told that their names were not on the list available at their respective polling booths.

Meanwhile, Election Commissioner HS Brahma has apologised while admitting that it was a lapse on their part. “I apologise that many Mumbaikars were not able to vote due to missing name. It is our responsibility to ensure that everyone’s name is on the voters list, we will try to rectify the mistake as soon as possible,” he said.

What was called dismal turnout in the early hours of polling in the metropolis Mumbai was seen remarkable turnaround in the last 25 years as the city recorded the highest percentage of voters since 1991.

In Pune, polling was marred by faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) at a booth and over one lakh missing names from the voters list.

Angry Pune voters had boycotted the elections for nearly three hours before frantic election officials ordered a replacement EVM and resumed voting.

An average 61.7 per cent voting in 19 Lok Sabha constituencies was registered in the second phase of polling in Maharashtra.

Congress may support Third Front, says Prithviraj Chavan

By
Afternoon Voice
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prithviraj-chavanSenior Congress leader and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has in a way accepted that the ruling party is going to fare badly in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections and may play a supportive role in government formation.

Chavan said the Congress would do well in Mumbai and that the possibility of the Third Front and the Congress coming together could not be ruled out.

According to Chavan – whose remarks were published on a website – the BJP-led NDA, whose prime ministerial candidate is Narendra Modi, will not secure more than 180 seats compared to the 230+ predicted by opinion polls.

He referred to the 2009 surveys which had predicted a poor show for the Congress, but poll results returned a different picture altogether.

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