Protesting over not getting a ticket for 2014 General Elections, Aam Aadmi Party’s legal cell president Ashwini Upadhyay on Sunday called Arvind Kejriwal a ‘liar’ and a ‘CIA agent’.

The founder member of AAP, Aswini blocked Kejriwal’s way outside his residence when the latter was heading for his rally in Mathura.

While engaging in a verbal scuffle with Kejriwal, Ashwini said that the AAP chief is diverting from the real issues he had raised initially. “This man is a liar. He tells lies,” shouted Ashwini.

Besides this, he also said that corruption, communalism, high command culture, dynastic rule and caste-based politics were main issues of AAP, but now compromises were being regarding these issues.

On the other hand, Kejriwal in front of the media refused to give ticket to Upadhyay. “We will not give you ticket,” he told Ashwini.

Ashwini has asked 11 questions to Kejriwal. Moreover, he has also said that he will sit on fast unto death till he gets the answers to his questions.

He had earlier questioned AAP for entertaining people funded by American organisations like the Ford Foundation by including them in the various committees to formulate policies.

Ex-bankers, retired government officials and journalists have been roped in by the EC to hold ‘charcha’ or dialogue sessions with voters as part of its drive to crack down on black money instances in ‘expenditure- sensitive’ pockets.

For the first time, the EC has directed the Chief Electoral Officers of all states and Union Territories to create Village Level Awareness Groups (VAGs) and Ward Level Awareness Groups (WAGs) in all municipal areas of a district, especially in those constituencies which are sensitive from the point of view of illegal money power coming into play in the run up to the polls.

Such groups, comprising retired government officials, bank officers, corporates, eminent journalists and educationists and civil society representatives of the area, will be formed at all such marked polling booths and they will indulge in group discussions, chats and talks with the local voters with an aim to urge them to shun electoral malpractices and also report their occurrence.
The group, the EC directive issued said, will also organise ‘nukkad’ meetings and dialogue sessions against the practice of accepting and doling out cash bribe, liquor or any other inducements during polls.

“These groups will hold talk sessions with local voters and even take out a door-to-door campaign. Talking is doing is the belief behind this initiative,” a senior official involved in the exercise said.

The expenditure sensitive seats are being currently determined by the EC based on “past experiences, the level of development and literacy profile and sensitivity of the area for distribution of cash, liquor or items of bribe.”

The 5-10 member team, according to EC directives, will “spread the message of ethical voting among voters and to abstain from any inducement like cash, gift, liquor or community feat organised for campaign purpose, during election process” and also hold meetings and group discussions with the voters against the evil effects of bribe during elections, which shall also be attended by the local sector officers appointed by the poll panel in view of the election process.

The group will also have the mandate to report “malpractises” noticed in this regard to the EC.

BJP on Sunday attacked Congress leader Digvijay Singh for his barbs at Narendra Modi over his marital status, saying his comments reflected the “depression” creeping in the ruling party leaders over their “certain” defeat in Lok Sabha polls.

Congress leaders have sunk into “depression of defeat”, party spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, and cited Rahul Gandhi’s “baseless” allegation that RSS was behind the murder of Mahatma Gandhi to claim that the ruling party leaders are deliberately raking up irrelevant issues to mislead people.

Singh had attacked the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate over his marital status yesterday.

“I want to ask him if there is slightest respect for women in his heart, why does he leave blank the column where his wife’s name should be written in the election form. Why does not Modi say so if he is not married or he has left her?… How somebody, who cannot respect and take care of his wife, will look after the nation,” the Congress general secretary had said.

Naqvi said the personal attack is nothing but an indication of their state of mind. Taking a jibe, he said, “What will be their condition after defeat in election when they are in such state now. Congress leadership should make arrangements for their treatment”.

He also took potshots at AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for the Z category security accorded to him, saying the “international leader” does not accept anything, but the things, whether it is a house or a chartered plane, are forced on him.

He accused Kejriwal of overstaying in government accommodation given to him when he was Delhi Chief Minister.

CBI in the next couple of days will register a preliminary enquiry into alleged bribery in a Rs. 10,000 crore deal for supply of aircraft engines to state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited by London-based Rolls Royce.

The agency had received a complaint from the Defence Ministry to look into the supply of aircraft engines to HAL and is scrutinising the documents, highly placed sources said.

Defence Minister A K Antony has ordered a CBI probe into the allegations. They said a preliminary enquiry may be initiated by Wednesday on the basis of which a decision could be taken to register the FIRs in the cases. “We will co-operate fully with the regulatory authorities and have repeatedly made clear that we will not tolerate misconduct of any sort,” a Rolls-Royce spokesman has said.

Sources said the role of a London-based arms dealer, who had been probed by the agency in different cases, is also under scanner and if evidence of his role emerges, he might be made an accused in the FIRs.

They said the arms dealer who is already in the list of “undesirable contact” issued by the agency to government officials has been probed in the past but since no evidence had emerged the cases were closed.

The scandal relates to deal in the supply of engines for Hawk trainer and Jaguar fighter aircraft between 2007 and 2011 and an internal probe by the vigilance wing of HAL has prima facie established the charges, the sources said.

The allegations surfaced in the form of a letter received by HAL recently claiming that bribes were paid to officials in HAL and other departments concerned to bag contracts.

The BSF has handed over a list of 66 camps of north-east insurgents to the Border Guard Bangladesh, seeking actions against them.

“We have requested our counterparts in Bangladesh for cooperation in dismantling the camps of insurgents from the region. We have handed over a list of 66 camps that exist in Bangladesh,” Sudhir Kumar Srivastava, IG, BSF Assam Frontier, told reporters here on Sunday.

The list was handed over at the 3-day bi-annual Inspector General level meeting of border management and coordination held from March 6 at the headquarters of Meghalaya Frontier of the BSF here.

The camps belonged to ULFA and NDFB (anti-talks) of Assam, PLA and KYKL of Manipur, NSCN (IM) of Nagaland besides those of the Tripura’s NLFT and Meghalaya’s HNLC and ANVC-B, the BSF official said.

Brig General Habibul Karim, Region Commander North East Region, who led a 20-member delegation from Bangladesh, had assured actions against those camps located all along the northern parts of Bangladesh, Srivastava said.

The inspectors general of Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Cachar frontiers of BSF officials attended the meeting along with an official representative of the Ministry of External Affairs.

“The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere and discussed many issues like better border management, tackling smuggling of banned cough syrup Phensydyl and fake currency and reducing border crimes and dacoities,” he said.

BSF also requested for early solution of disputes regarding erection of barbed wire fencing in some patches of the border, especially the single row fencing, he said.

Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam share a 1,880-km border with Bangladesh.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not ready to give credit to Narendra Modi for development work in Gujarat and feels her own model is much better and has paid good dividends. In the ‘development-versus-development’ debate, she says there is a “huge difference” between the models pursued by her and Modi because of circumstances.

“Let me answer your question directly. Did Mr. A, or Mr. B, have the Junglemahal (naxal) problem to resolve? We have brought peace there. Did Mr. A or Mr. B have the Darjeeling-like problem to resolve? Darjeeling is now smiling. Did Mr. A or Mr. B inherit a debt burden for his state of over Rs. 2 lakh crore,” she said.

“Inspite of overcoming all these, we have been on the path of development,” added Mamata who became the Chief Minister in August 2011.

She was responding when asked if she sees a difference between the models of development being pursued by Modi and her own.

Seeking to justify how her model of development was better, the Trinamool Congress leader said, “Let me talk facts and show how the two states (West Bengal and Gujarat) cannot be compared.”

She suggested that Gujarat has had sustained development without facing any problems while West Bengal “had to rise from bottom upwards” as it had been “ruined for over 34 years by the Communists”.

In West Bengal, she said, every parameter had gone down. There was “flight of capital” from the state, 50,000 factories had been closed down and one crore people had been rendered unemployed.

“This was the story of West Bengal when my government took over. Other states have had sustained development for many decades,” she contended.

“What West Bengal is doing today, India must do tomorrow. These are not hollow words,” Mamata insisted.

To buttress her point, the Chief Minister listed “some concrete examples” like setting up of fair price medicine shops, web-based procurement policy of medicines and ‘Kanya Shree’ scheme.

“My state also now has a PPP policy, an IT policy, a Textile policy. We have done more in 34 months than what the Communists have done in 34 years,” she maintained.

These schemes, she said, could be replicated by other states for their betterment. Mamata said that before she came to power, the work culture in her state had been ruined.

Former IT Czar, co-founder of Infosys and Aadhar founder chairman Nandan Nilekani has officially joined the Congress at a simple ceremony in KPCC office in Bangalore on Sunday.
The Congress has fielded him as its candidate against five time BJP MP and its national general secretary HN Ananth Kumar from the prestigious Bangalore South Lok Sabha seat.
Nilekani will be making his political debut in this election. The 58-year-old Congress leader was born and brought up in Bangalore.
Nilekani was given ticket against BJP’s Ananth Kumar even before he joined the Congress.
An alumnus of IIT Bombay, Nilekani co-founded Infosys with six others. NR Narayanamurthy is the main founder of Infosys.
Nilekani was inducted into the party by KPCC president Dr G Parameshwar. Transport minister and senior Congress MLA from Bangalore city, B Ramalingareddy was also present at the programme.
After joining the Congress, Nilekani updated his Facebook page. He wrote “It’s official! I went to the KPCC office to complete the formalities of joining the party. I have been officially inducted into the party and congratulated by the KPCC president and senior officials. I followed this with a visit to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s house, where I received a warm welcome.
“Its heartening to see the energy and the passion of the people on the ground. This is not just about me – the demand is for more energy and vision in the public space. I deeply believe that the more people with a passionate agenda, get involved, the more we will see the kind of politics we dream of.
“Let’s get it done”.
Later he met chief minister Siddaramaiah at his residence. Nilekani’s candidature has added colour to Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka. Considered a Brahmin stronghold, Bangalore South is witnessing a mega fight between two Brahmins after a long time.