Hitting back at Narendra Modi, former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan said his party wanted him to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Nanded due to the anti-incumbency factor and that his family including sitting MP and brother-in-law Bhaskarrao Patil was firmly behind him.
“They (my family) are with me (for campaigning). I was surprised over his (Modi’s) remarks. The sitting MP from here himself said he does not want to contest (the polls). Party took the decision considering the anti-incumbency factor,” Chavan told select journalists at his residence here.
“I was consulted by the party high-command before taking the decision (on giving the ticket),” he stated.
The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, in a rally here on Sunday had teared into Congress’ decision to field Adarsh Housing scam accused Chavan and also alleged that he “snatched” the Nanded Lok Sabha seat from his brother-in-law.
“Does anybody snatch away the right of a sister. One should instead give something to the sister and should not loot her,” Modi had said.
Rebutting Modi’s remarks, Chavan said, “I am accompanied by my wife, sister and even by my brother-in-law. My family campaigns for me. Which member from his (Modi’s) family campaigns for him?”.
Chavan also slammed the allegations levelled against him in the Adarsh scam and blamed the media for deliberately creating a perception on the issue.
“Unfortunately, things have gone to a low level. Deliberately, a perception is created by the media. Some (media persons) are hand in glove with some politicians who cannot win (the elections). Things have gone to a micro-level. Accidents cannot be called as malafide intentions. One has been branded as a criminal,” he said.
He also took on the BJP for the coffins scam and said “It was one of the biggest scams…It took place during the NDA’s regime.”
Chavan said the Adarsh scam would not hamper his poll prospects.
“It (Adarsh) is not an issue. What are you talking about Kargil…The Justice J A Patil commission report on the scam has made crucial findings and one of them is that the land belonged to the state government and not to the Centre. The Opposition will not be able to score on the issue,” he said.
Hearing a Habeas Corpus petition, the Bombay High Court issued summons to the superintendent of Dongri children’s remand home, asking him to remain present tomorrow along with papers pertaining to a minor girl who was lodged there.
The order was given by a bench headed by Justice Naresh Patil on a petition filed by 45-year-old Mohammed Sadique Mohammed Zuber Shaikh whose daughter was sent to the remand home by police.
Shaikh alleged that Govandi police had registered a false case against him contending that his wife and daughter had escaped to Surat in neighbouring Gujarat, where “they were being forced into prostitution by him”.
The minor girl was detained by police in the wee hours of March 6 and later sent to the remand home after which police asked for money from her father to let her off the hook, the petition alleged.
Petitioner’s counsel Amin Solkar argued the girl’s statement against her father was forcibly recorded by police. Solkar said the case attracted the provisions of Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act.
He also urged that the court may interview the girl to find out what she had to say on police allegations that she was being pushed into flesh trade by her own father.
The judges inquired as to why no action was being taken by police on the statement made by the girl to which the prosecutor Aruna Pai replied that she had changed her statement when produced before the committee of remand home.
The petitioner alleged that his daughter was detained unlawfully in the police station late on March 6 and that he was not aware of the reasons why she had been taken into custody. He alleged that police had recorded her statement only after taking her into custody.
A Sikh militant convicted for a car bombing in Delhi more than two decades ago will not be hanged, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, reducing his punishment to life sentence. Devinderpal Singh Bhullar’s wife had petitioned the court to stop his execution because he allegedly developed mental illness while languishing on death row and because of a long delay in deciding his appeal for clemency. Bhullar was sentenced to death in 2001 for masterminding a bombing in Delhi which killed nine people.
Last week, the union government told the top court that it has “no problem” with the 49-year-old being spared the death sentence. In January this year, the Supreme Court stopped the 15 death row prisoners on the grounds that “inordinate and inexplicable” delays in hanging are grounds for reducing the penalty.
Earlier the Supreme Court rejected the mercy petition of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar. The court said that delay cannot be a ground for commuting death sentence to a life term. Since execution is irreversible, the later reflection was of no use to the executed convict nor to the justice delivery system. Then there is the split in judgment wherein one judge is for acquittal while the other two differ and deliver their separate judgement.
Bhullar was sentenced to death in 2001 for carrying out a bomb blast outside the Delhi Youth Congress office in 1993 that left nine people dead. Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar is a convict on death row in India. He was found guilty of killing 9 bystanders in a 1993 car bombing intended to kill Maninderjeet Singh Bitta. He is also a suspect in two other deadly terrorist attacks in India. On 11 September 1993, a car bomb exploded outside the offices of the Indian Youth Congress on Raisina Road in New Delhi. The bomb used RDX as explosive and was remote-controlled. 9 people were killed by the bomb. The Khalistan Liberation Force claimed responsibility for the attack. The primary target for the mid-day bombing was identified as Maninder Singh Bitta, a vocal critic of Khalistani separatists, who was leaving the Youth Congress offices in his car. Bitta survived the attack with shrapnel wounds to his chest. However, two of Bitta’s body guards were killed. Bitta was also the target of an earlier 1992 bombing in Amritsar in which he lost a leg. 13 people were killed in the 1992 Amritsar bombing. After investigation, authorities named Bhullar, a militant affiliated with the Khalistan Liberation Force, as the bomber responsible for the 1993 Raisina Road car bomb. Bhullar was awarded death penalty. The Supreme Court had on March 26, 2002, dismissed Bhullar’s appeal against the death sentence awarded by a trial court in August 2001 and endorsed by the Delhi High Court in 2002.
Inordinate and unexplainable delay in disposal of mercy petitions does constitute an agonising additional punishment for the death row convicts. Hurdle in punishment cannot dilute the intensity of the grave crimes committed by the convicts awarded the Capital Punishment. Any injustice to any under-trial convict is unlikely in view of multiple levels of appeals available to all without any prejudice. Overexcited sensationalism by human rights activists is a matter of shame. Why nobody talks about rights of the victims? Coming to this case, when the law has a provision for capital punishment, the Supreme Court is the final decision maker.
Bhullar was one of the masterminds to execute the first RDX attack to blow up the car of, Sumedh Singh Saini, then SSP of Chandigarh, (now director general of Punjab Police) who was known for combating terrorism in Punjab, in which many security personnel were killed on August 29, 1991, though Saini himself escaped. However, apart from these accounts of brutality, little is known about Devinderpal, or how this brilliant country lad from Dialpura Bhai Ka village took to terrorism. Investigations revealed after passing his matriculation from Jalal village high school of Bathinda district with distinction, Devinderpal joined Guru Nanak Engineering College, Ludhiana and completed his BE (mechanical). Immediately after that, he joined as an instructor in a polytechnic college in Ludhiana, but was soon forced to resign due to ill-health. Then he shifted to Chandigarh and joined as an assistant engineer in a computer firm in 1990, where he came into contact with Amarpal Singh alias Badesha, an event that changes his life. There was no looking back after that. Devinderpal Singh, a promising engineer, was swept away by a surge of religious emotion following Operation Bluestar, investigations revealed.
There is no provision of any time limit in constitution. In fact, the police that is part of executive fights to get death penalty, and public prosecutor, and state attorney fights in court to get death sentence. So, it sounds very silly that President, who heads executive also, pardons and waste the efforts of police and prosecutors. In fact, constitution should be amended and the convict pardoned by the president should be quashed. Death penalty should be retained and extended to rape cases as well. Law is above all and nobody is above the Law. Any person whosoever indulged in the terrorist activities and creates a threat to the unity and integrity of the nation does not need mercy, but finally he has been spared.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to review its verdict commuting death sentence of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to life imprisonment and dismissed Centre’s review petition.
“We have carefully gone through the review petition and the connected papers. We find no merit in the review petition and the same is accordingly dismissed,” a bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and justices Ranjan Gogoi and SK Singh said.
Centre had contended in its petition that the three-judge bench did not consider the merits of the case and also ventured into the domain of government by commuting the death sentence in the case.
It had further contended the February 18 judgement was passed without jurisdiction by the three-judge bench instead of by a larger bench of five judges as the case involved substantial interpretation of law and provisions of the constitution.
“It is respectfully submitted that the impugned judgement is patently illegal, suffers from errors apparent on the face of the record and flies in the face of well-established principles of law laid down by this Court and contained in the constitution and other statutes,” the petition had said.
“It is submitted that in the present case, the issue raised was that of the commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground of delay, which allegedly attracted Article 21 in favour of the convicts. Therefore, it involved a substantial issue of interpretation of the constitution and ought to have been heard by a bench of five judges, as mandated by the Constitution,” the petition had said.
The apex court had on February 18 commuted the death sentence of Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan to imprisonment for life on the ground of delay in deciding their mercy plea by the Centre.
A day after stirring a controversy by questioning the oratory skills of her party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, outspoken BJP leader Uma Bharti on Tuesday reiterated that the Gujarat Chief Minister is a popular leader but not a very good orator.
“I stand by what I said. Modi ji is extremely popular but not a good orator as AB Vajpayee ji,” Bharti told.
Bharti had on Monday said that Modi is “not a good orator” and people go to his rallies to show support rather than listen to him.
“Have you heard Modi making speeches? Atal Bihari Vajpayee is the best orator of our party. Nobody equals his oratory skills in Indian politics,” she said, addressing a BJP workers meet in Jhansi from where she has been nominated by the party for the Lok Sabha polls.
“If you have analysed deeply, Modi is not a good orator. But many people flock to his rallies to listen to his speech, but do you know why? The crowd goes to Modi’s rallies to show support, rather than to listen to him,” she said.
The firebrand BJP leader also attacked Congress chief Sonia Gandhi by saying that she is not a strong candidate and can be easily defeated.
“Sonia is not a strong contender. You (media) have made and consider Sonia Gandhi a strong candidate otherwise she is not,” Bharti said while hitting out at the Congress chief.
Interestingly, Uma Bharti had given a tough time to her party in finalising a strong candidate to contest against the Congress president as she was reluctant in leaving Jhansi from where she is contesting the Lok Sabha polls.
She, however, said that she was ready to fight against Sonia in Rae Bareli but would also contest from Jhansi. BJP finally fielded noted Supreme Court lawyer Ajay Aggarwal against Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said Tuesday the Gujarat model of development would burst after the Lok Sabha election – as the BJP’s India Shining had burst after 2004 and 2009 polls.
“In 2004, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was banking on the India Shining but it burst after the elections,” Gandhi said while addressing an election rally in Jharkhand’s Godda district.
“In 2009, the BJP again went to people with the shine India (India Shining) campaign. We also went to people and asked them to continue our services as we provided the MNREGA and they pressed button for us. Now the opposition has come out with the Gujarat model and pumping air in the balloon and blowing it up. The model will also burst after the elections.”
He reminded people about the performance of the UPA-I and UPA-II governments in the last 10 years.
Gandhi promised that the Women’s Reservation Bill would be passed if UPA III comes to power.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Centre over its decision to include the Jat community in central list of OBCs in nine states that will benefit around nine crore people.
The apex court passed the order in response to a plea challenging the Centre’s notification on inclusion of Jats in OBC category.
The apex court, while directing the Centre to file its reply by April 9, said, “It seems to be a serious matter, we want to know if serious application of mind went into it.”
The country’s highest court asked the Centre to place before it the entire material and files that provided the ground for its decision to bring Jats under the OBC category.
The court also sought the assistance of Attorney General in this case.
The development comes nearly ten days after the Union Cabinet cleared an ordinance paving way for Jat reservation in government jobs.
The decision aims at providing the Jat community members the benefits of reservation in central government jobs and central education institutions as per the existing norms.
The Central list of OBCs for the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarrakhand, Uttar Pradesh and the National capital territory of Delhi will include the Jat community.
The decision, which was largely seen as an attempt by the ruling Congress to woo a large chunk of Jat voters, was hailed by Jat Mahasabha, which said it was a long-pending due for the members of the community who have limited land holdings.
Around nine crore Jats live in nine states – Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Bihar.
The government also issued notification in this regard, which mentions that Muslim Jats in Gujarat are also included in the central list, but in other states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi, there is no mention of it.
Misa Bharti, the daughter of Lalu Prasad, who heads the Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD, is contesting her first election in an awkward face-off with two men she has referred to as “uncle” or “chacha.”
Ram Kripal Yadav, 56, wanted to run for parliament from Pataliputra, a constituency within the capital of Patna. When Misa was picked as the RJD’s candidate instead, Ram Kripal moved to the BJP, ending a close relationship with her father that had spanned two decades.
Running opposite Misa and Ram Kripal is Ranjan Yadav of the ruling Janata Dal (United) who won the last election in 2009 and was at one time a minister in the government headed by Lalu Prasad in Bihar.
On the campaign trail, Misa has flaunted her family – Lalu addressed a rally for her recently. Ram Kripal, through his lengthy stint with the RJD, can leverage Muslim support, otherwise tough to draw for the BJP. And Ranjan Yadav feels his effort in getting better roads for the constituency will not go unrewarded by voters.
Roughly a third of the voters in Pataliputra are made up of Muslims and Yadavs. All three candidates are Yadavs. Upper caste voters who add up to 20 per cent usually back the BJP.
Local BJP leaders say the added benefit of the momentum being generated by prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi could help Ram Kripal win.
Sri Lankan Navy, who on Saturday surprised Indian fishermen trawling near Katchatheevu by offering them soft drinks and sweets, attacked eight fishermen in the Indian territory off Dhamushkodi coast early today, Fiseries Department sources said.
Four fishermen suffered severe injuries on the head, hand and shoulder while others sustained internal injuries.
All of them were admitted to hospital, the sources said.
Two boats and 10 fishing nets were damaged in the attack with bottles, stones and sticks. The Navy personnel also took away the fishermen’s catch, the sources said.
“I don’t think our fishermen were at fault. They have been hit with bottles, stones and sticks in the sea off Dhanushkodi coast. They made futile attempts to contact the Indian Coast Guard personnel,” local fishermen’s association President Emiret said.
He said the fishermen had enough evidence to prove that they were fishing in Indian waters.
Sri Lanka has often accused Tamil Nadu fishermen of straying into their territorial waters, while the latter maintain they are only fishing in their traditional areas.
Sri Lankan navy, however, has denied the allegations.
Former Army chief and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate General VK Singh has hit back at Aam Aadmi Party Ghaziabad candidate Shazia Ilmi for her remarks against him. General Singh said that the AAP is making irresponsible statements without knowing the facts.
“The AAP seems to have made a habit of making irresponsible statements with apparently little or no compulsion to stick with the truth. These hit-and-run tactics need to be questioned by the Election Commission, a body which is doing a difficult job in these trying times in an attempt to maintain some sense of decorum and decency in a scenario that at times veers off into a complete free-fall,” General Singh said in a statement.
This came after Shazia Ilmi on Monday took on the BJP for giving a Lok Sabha ticket to General Singh, saying it had set a wrong precedent. Ilmi said that although every citizen has a right to get involved in active politics after retirement, the way the Bharatiya Janata Party was projecting Singh “is posing a dangerous trend”.
“We have seen the fate of Pakistan… and the BJP is encouraging such trends in India for its narrow political aims,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader told the media in Ghaziabad.
Regarding VK Singh’s comment that the AAP was “anti-national”, Ilmi mocked at the former general for forgetting even his date of birth. “What can we expect from him?” She recalled that he had once published an article in a newspaper praising AAP leader and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to review its verdict commuting death sentence of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to life imprisonment and dismissed Centre’s review petition.