Akhilesh, Mayawati 'PM material' for being CMs: Sinha

Agencies
April 25, 2019

Patna, Apr 25: Under attack within the Congress for describing BSP supremo Mayawati and SP leader Akhilesh Yadav "Prime Minister material", actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesday said anyone having successfully ruled a state is competent for the top job in the country.

The Patna Sahib MP, who recently severed his ties with the BJP and joined the Congress which has fielded him from the same seat, also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi dubbing his interview with actor Akshay Kumar as one conducted after "rehearsals" and with the help of "scriptwriters".

"I hold that a prime minister does not need to have exceptional qualities. It is basically a number game. If you and I have the support of the requisite number of MPs, we too can become the prime minister," he told a news channel here.

"Moreover, I think that anybody who has had a successful tenure as chief minister does have the necessary experience for the top job," Sinha said.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is also a prime minister material though the JD(U) president is now with the BJP, he said adding that Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav also ruled Uttar Pradesh and therefore they too fit the bill.

"After all, what are the credentials of Narendra Modi except that he had served as the chief minister of Gujarat. It was ordinary BJP workers like me who created the buzz around him which resulted in the Modi-Modi-Modi chant heard across the country. I have seen it all. I know the tricks of the game," he said.

Sinha had ruffled many feathers within the Congress when he recently campaigned for his wife Poonam who is contesting from Lucknow on a Samajwadi Party ticket though the Congress has also fielded its candidate from there.

His praise for Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav has drawn censure from a section of Congress leaders who found it objectionable in the wake of the SP-BSP alliance giving a cold shoulder to the party in Uttar Pradesh.

About Modi's interview by Akshay Kumar telecast earlier in the day, Sinha said, "As far as the prime minister is concerned, I have known him closely as a friend. He gives interviews after lots of rehearsals which are conducted with the help of scriptwriters. What to speak of it?"

He said he knows Akshay and his family well.

Of late he is supporting many a cause through his choice of movies though he has so far been apolitical, the former actor said.

To a query, Sinha said, "I would love to interview Modi, which is not choreographed and rehearsed. But he would not agree to it."

He said Modi must be the only democratically elected prime minister in the world, who has not held a single press conference during the five years he has been in power.

About his wife contesting from Lucknow on SP ticket, Sinha claimed that Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have knowledge of it and supported her candidature.

"We may be contesting from different parties, but we are working towards the common goal of defeating the one-man army and two-man army," he said referring to Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Sinha claimed that Akhilesh and Mayawati wanted him to contest from Lucknow.

"But I told them that I am committed to fight from Patna Sahib. Then they said my wife who is a social activist and an active participant in my election campaigns could be a good choice," he said.

So, Sinha said, Lucknow is witnessing a fight between Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the "home minister of Ramayana. We will have a thrilling contest between two home ministers".

Ramayana is the name Sinha's Mumbai residence.

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News Network
February 17,2020

New Delhi, Feb 17: Indian officials denied entry to British lawmaker Debbie Abrahams on Monday after she landed at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Debbie Abrahams, a Labour Party Member of Parliament who chairs a parliamentary group focused on the Kashmir, was unable to clear customs after her valid Indian visa was rejected, her aide, Harpreet Upal, told The Associated Press.

Abrahams and Upal arrived at the airport on an Emirates flight from Dubai at 9 am. Upal said the immigration officials did not cite any reason for denying Abrahams entry and revoking her visa, a copy of which, valid until October 2020, was shared with the AP. A spokesman for India's foreign ministry did not immediately comment.

Abrahams has been a member of Parliament since 2011 and was on a two-day personal trip to India, she said in a statement.

"I tried to establish why the visa had been revoked and if I could get a 'visa on arrival' but no one seemed to know," she said in the statement.

"Even the person who seemed to be in charge said he didn't know and was really sorry about what had happened. So now I am just waiting to be deported ... unless the Indian Government has a change of heart. I'm prepared to let the fact that I've been treated like a criminal go, and I hope they will let me visit my family and friends."

Abrahams has been an outspoken critic of the Indian government's move last August stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its semi-autonomy and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories.

Shortly after the changes to Kashmir's status were passed by Parliament, Abrahams wrote a letter to India's High Commissioner to the UK, saying the action "betrays the trust of the people" of Kashmir.

India took more than 20 foreign diplomats on a visit to Kashmir last week, the second such trips in six months.

Access to the region remains tight, with no foreign journalists allowed.

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News Network
January 18,2020

New Delhi, Jan 18: Senior advocate Indira Jaising urged the mother of Nirbhaya to pardon the men on death row who were convicted for the 2012 gang rape of her daughter.

Jaising took to Twitter to make the request shortly after Asha Devi on Friday expressed her disappointment following a Delhi court postponed the date of the execution of the four convicts.

"While I fully identify with the pain of Asha Devi I urge her to follow the example of Sonia Gandhi who forgave Nalini and said she didn't not want the death penalty for her. We are with you but against the death penalty," Jaisingh tweeted.

Asha Devi lashed out at Jaisingh suggesting pardon for the convicts. "I can't believe how Indira Jaising even dared to suggest such this. I met her many times over the years in Supreme Court, not once she asked for my wellbeing and today, she is speaking for convicts. Such people earn livelihood by supporting rapists, hence rape incidents don't stop," Asha Devi told ANI.

Nalini was arrested and convicted for her role in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

Earlier on Friday Asha Devi had lashed out at the courts and the government stating that "the same people who had in the year 2012 gone around participating in rallies and raised slogans for women's safety are playing with the death of my daughter for their political gains. They have stopped the execution for their political gains."

The death-row convicts who were earlier slated to be executed on January 22 at 7 am are set to be hanged on February 1 at 6 am.

Asha Devi rued that the convicts got what they wished for. "I will not be satisfied until they are hanged," she added.

Four convicts, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan and Mukesh were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus in the national capital on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012.

The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.

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News Network
May 12,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, May 12: Kerala Government on Tuesday issued modified guidelines for infrastructure arrangements and procedures to be followed to ensure smooth interstate movement of stranded persons during the lockdown.

"Necessary permission, if any, required from the State where you are presently located need to be taken for ensuring a smooth journey till Kerala border," read the order by the state government.

It has also made it clear that people will only be allowed to travel if they have the permit from the state government and local authorities.

"You are requested to start the journey only after receiving the travel permit from the Government of Kerala and the local authority of your present location to avoid any problem during travel. Those who reach at the check post without passes will not be allowed entry," it further read.

The orders by the government further read:

*To maintain social distancing norms, only 4 persons will be permitted to travel in a car, 5 in an SUV, 10 in a van and 25 in a bus. The maximum number of passengers in a van /bus will be half of the seating capacity).

*Keep sanitiser, use masks and maintain physical distancing throughout the journey.

*An exit and entry pass/passes shall be issued by the District Collectors to those persons who seek to go outside states to bring back their stranded child/ children, spouse and parent/s.

*Everybody including those coming from red zones shall remain under home quarantine for 14 days from the date of arrival.

*Only priority groups and persons will be allowed entry passes:

a) Those from neighbouring states seeking Medical aid in Kerala

b) Pregnant ladies with family

c) Family members including children separated due to lockdown

d) Students

e) Senior citizens with family members

f) Persons who had lost a job.

The guidelines further added that all luggage must be disinfected and temperature checks must be carried out with Infrared flash thermometer among other things.

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