The BJP is the only “nationalist” party while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is “anti-nationalist”, BJP candidate and former army chief V.K. Singh said on Thursday.

Singh said that he was not taking Ghaziabad’s AAP candidate Shazia Ilmi seriously.

“This county cannot forgive anti-nationalists. They (AAP) are anti-nationalist. They are arguing for the Line of Control (LoC) to be made the international border. They advocate referendum in Kashmir.”

Singh added: “The Bharatiya Janata Party is the only nationalist party.”
He said he was contesting the Lok Sabha election from Ghaziabad as “a patriotic and disciplined soldier” and that he had no particular opponent in the sprawling constituency bordering Delhi.

“No one is my opponent. I am contesting this election against poverty, social disparities and the step-motherly treatment meted to this city.”

He added that Congress governments had paid “low priority” to the needs of the military.

“And you will be shocked to know that Congress candidate Raj Babbar, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, does not know the ABCD about (armed forces).

Singh said that if elected, he would pay attention to building basic infrastructure and develop the traffic system in Ghaziabad, which adjoins Delhi.

He said he would also pay attention to improving the state of law and order in Ghaziabad.

“Till now I have been engaged in securing the border from external threats. I will … now protect my countrymen from internal threats, with the same spirit.”

Uma Bharti deflected a question on yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s suggestion that the BJP should field her against Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh.

The 54-year-old leader, known as a firebrand politician, told, “Ramdev is like a guru and younger brother to me. His proposal is for the BJP, the BJP has to give a reply. I am already campaigning in Jhansi now.”

Ms Bharti has already been named by her party as its candidate in Jhansi, also in Uttar Pradesh, where she will take on union minister Pradeep Kumar Jain ‘Aditya’ of the Congress.

The party is yet to announce who will contest from Rae Bareli and from neighbouring Amethi, the constituency of Mrs. Gandhi’s son and deputy, Rahul Gandhi.

Similarly, the Congress is yet to name a candidate against the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi in Varanasi.

Baba Ramdev, who has aligned himself with the BJP and recently shared the stage with Mr. Modi said at a press conference, “If the BJP wants to defeat Sonia in Rae Bareli, it must field Uma Bharti from the constituency.” He offered to conduct a door-to-door campaign for Ms. Bharti in the Gandhi family stronghold.

Ms. Bharti belongs to Madhya Pradesh and there was speculation that she wanted to contest the general elections from Bhopal, a seat she has won before, after the BJP rejected senior leader LK Advani’s request that he be allowed to shift there from Gandhinagar this time.

Ms Bharti said her having wanted to contest from Bhopal was “a rumour.” The outspoken BJP leader, who describes herself as a “sanyasin” or a monk, returned to the BJP in 2011, six years after she was expelled for indiscipline.

Mrs. Gandhi has been winning from Rae Bareli – held for many years by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, since 2004 – when she shifted from Amethi to make way for Rahul.

Subrata Roy, the chief of the Sahara conglomerate, will remain in jail for at least another week because his lawyers say they are struggling to find the 10,000 crores needed for his bail.

On Wednesday, Supreme Court judges asked Sahara to deposit Rs. 5,000 crore with the court and furnish a bank guarantee of another Rs. 5,000 crore with market regulator SEBI or the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

Mr. Roy, 65, was arrested on February 28 for failing to refund Rs. 20,000 crores raised by Sahara from small investors through two bond schemes that were declared illegal in 2012.

Mr. Roy’s case will next be heard on April 3 by the Supreme Court, granting him another week in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

Different proposals offered by Sahara since his arrest to refund investors in installments have been turned down as inadequate by the Supreme Court.

Sebi had brought contempt proceedings against Mr. Roy and Sahara for failure to comply with a 2012 Supreme Court order to repay billions of dollars to investors. Sahara had earlier argued that it repaid most investors and that its remaining liability was less than the Rs. 5,000 crore it deposited with Sebi, a claim that has been disputed by the regulator and the court.

Sahara is best known as the former main sponsor of India’s national cricket team, as well as owner of New York’s Plaza Hotel and London’s Grosvenor House. It has a net worth of $11 billion or around Rs. 66,000 crore and more than 36,000 acres of real estate, according to its website. It also co-owns the Sahara Force India Formula One auto racing team with liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

Upping the ante against Switzerland for not sharing information on Indians stashing money in its banks, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has threatened to drag the European nation to multilateral foras like G20 for continuing to block its requests.

Chidambaram, in a terse two-page letter to his Swiss counterpart Eveline Widmer Schlumpf, reminded him of the April 2009 declaration adopted by G20 leaders stating the “era of bank secrecy is over.”

In a strongly worded letter, he said India might examine further steps like declaring Switzerland a non-cooperative jurisdiction if non-cooperation continues.

Chidambaram said Switzerland has not honoured the terms of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) between the two nations, under which information about Indians with accounts in Swiss banks has been sought by the tax authorities.

“Switzerland’s refusal to provide information to India and other countries on the grounds that the source of the information requested is based on ‘stolen data’ means that, in practice, Switzerland still believes in bank secrecy and is therefore not in tune with the modern era,” he said in the letter dated March 13.

Recalling the G20 stand that sanctions may be deployed to protect their public finances and financial systems, he said: “If information continues to be denied to India under DTAC (Double Taxation Avoidance Convention), the Government of India will be constrained to take a position in the global forum.”

He said India would not hesitate to tell global forums that Switzerland still does not comply with the standards of transparency and that the required legal and regulatory framework is still not in place in Switzerland.

“Further, the Government of India may also have to raise this issue in other multilateral fora such as the G20,” he added.
Chidambaram said India was “seriously concerned” that some Indian taxpayers may have parked substantial unaccounted income and assets in offshore jurisdictions, and “it expects cooperation from those jurisdictions to deal with them effectively.”

“In the event of continued denial of access to vital information, which Switzerland is obliged to provide under the DTAC, India may be constrained to actively consider the options available under our domestic laws,” Chidambaram said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Thursday charge sheeted Congress’s Rajya Sabha member Vijay Darda and Nagpur-based AMR Iron and Steel in connection with the coal blocks allocation case.

The sets of charges were filed before Special CBI Judge Madhu Jain, who posted the matter for May 1 for further hearing.

The CBI sources said that Darda and others are booked under various charges dealing with criminal conspiracy read with cheating and under the relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

According to the FIR, AMR Iron and Steel Pvt. Ltd., its directors Manoj Jayaswal, Arvind Kumar Jayaswal, Ramesh Jayaswal, Devendra Darda, son of Vijay Darda, with unknown public servants of minister of coal, and unknown others, were named as accused in the case.

The CBI said in the FIR that the firm, in its application form for allocation of coal blocks, had “fraudulently” concealed the fact that its group companies had previously been allocated five coal blocks.

Delhi government has issued a notice to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal asking him to pay a rent of Rs. 85,000 per month for the flat in which he has been staying for the past more than a month even after resigning from the Chief Minister’s post.

Kejriwal had sought an extension to stay in the C-II/23 house at Tilak Lane in Central Delhi till his daughter’s examinations in May.

The notice was issued by the special Secretary of Public Works Department on Monday. When asked, an AAP spokesperson said Kejriwal will pay the rent.

As per the notice, Kejriwal has been asked to pay Rs. 85, 000 per month as rent from March 1, that is 15 days after he resigned from the chief minister’s post on February 14.

Sources said the former chief minister has been asked to respond to the notice within a week. Earlier this month, PWD had sent a letter to Kejriwal asking him to vacate the house as he had already crossed the 15-day deadline for staying in the official accommodation.

As per norms, a Delhi government minister can stay a maximum of 15 days in his official residence after demitting office without paying market rent.

Kejriwal in return had sought an extension to stay in the house till his daughter’s examinations got over in May.

According to sources, the notice was issued to Kejriwal after taking the Lt Governor’s approval. The PWD sent the letter to Kejriwal after the Urban Development Ministry had asked the Delhi government to return the flat which had been allotted to Kejriwal as Chief Minister.

The central government on Thursday admitted there was delay in the deciding death row convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar’s mercy petition and the court could decide on his wife’s plea for commutation of death sentence into life imprisonment.

Attorney General GE Vahanvati told the apex court bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam that the court in its January 21 verdict had already decided that inordinate and unexplained delay in deciding the mercy petition by the President is a ground for commuting death sentence into life imprisonment.

Vahanvati told the court that since the centre’s plea for the recall of the January 21 verdict has already been dismissed, the delay in deciding the mercy petition as the ground of commuting death sentence into life imprisonment is now a law of the land.

In the wake of Vahanvati’s submission, the court said it will decide the matter Monday or Tuesday.

In a major breakthrough, the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad on Wednesday night arrested two suspected suicide bombers planning to launch suicide attacks during Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s rally.

The suspected terrorists were arrested near the railway station in Gorakhpur city of Uttar Pradesh.

Reports suggest that the ATS officials recovered 1 AK-47, a number of pistols, and live cartridges from them.

The two are likely to be produced in court later today.

The suspects were part of a terror module which was planning to target senior political leaders, including BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, during campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls, informed sources told a news agency.

Reports also claimed that the men were trained by Taliban.

Both the men, identified as Barkat and Muzammil, are said to be Pakistani nationals, and were taken to the Lucknow headquarters of the Anti-Terror Squad for further questioning.

Officials while refusing to comment on specific leads in the case confirmed that the two were “directed” to target prominent leaders as “human bombs” during election rallies.

“We were given some leads by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police after the arrest of Indian Mujahideen terrorist Tehsin Akhtar, and the arrests in Gorakhpur are a fall out of this tip off,” an official told a news agency.

Inspector General (ATS) Rajeev Sabharwal confirmed the arrest, but refused to divulge any further details.

Both the suspects are natives of Multan in Pakistan.