Another Nehru-Gandhi scion enters politics; BJP calls it family rule

Agencies
January 24, 2019

New Delhi/Lucknow, Jan 24: In a strategic move to bolster its prospects in upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the opposition Congress on Wednesday appointed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, as party general secretary in-charge of east Uttar Pradesh.

She is likely to address a public rally in Lucknow next month, marking the start of the Congress campaign.

The development comes after the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi Party formed an alliance in the state which returns the highest numbers of parliament seats.

“We will not play on the backfoot," Congress president Rahul Gandhi told reporters in state capital Lucknow.

Asked if Priyanka will contest the Lok Sabha polls, he said, “It’s up to Priyanka to take a decision.”

The BJP reacted quickly to the announcement and termed the formal entry of Priyanka to national politics as yet another episode of ‘dynastic politics’.

The party also said her entry highlights the failure of Rahul Gandhi.

"Aaj ek rajyabhishek hua hae (This is only part of dynastic politics and passing of the responsibility within a family)," said BJP spokesman Sambit Patra.

He said the country has embarked on the path of a 'New India' and today the 'New India' is asking the question - "How long will this continue...after Jawaharlal Nehru, there came Indira Gandhi, then Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi...after Sonia Gandhi - Rahul Gandhi and now Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and after this who else?

"This shows the fundamental difference between the BJP and the Congress. In BJP, the party is the family whereas in Congress party, 'parivar hi party hae' (the family is the defacto party)".

Talking to reporters in Lucknow, Rahul Gandhi denied the development in the Congress has come because the party was not included in the 'Mahagathbandhan' of regional parties either in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar.

He asserted that the INC will field candidate in all the 80 seats.

But UP Congress president Raj Babbar earlier in the day accused the SP and the BSP of finalising the alliance without consulting the grand old party.

“The duo underestimated the oldest political outfit of the country while announcing Mahagathbandhan," Mr Babbar asserted.

“We have recently showed our strength in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where INC contested alone and formed the government”, said Babbar. The same, he said, will happen in UP with the Congress winning maximum seats.

Meanwhile, the Congress president in Lucknow asserted that the INC will field candidate from all the 80 seats.

In another significant move, the Congress party also made Jyotiraditya Scindia general secretary in-charge for western Uttar Pradesh.

Mr Scindia will take up his new assignment, following the Lucknow rally, which sources said could be held on February 10.

In 2004, Priyanka was instrumental in introducing brother Rahul to the media in Amethi and thereafter he contested the elections for the first time in 2004 from Amethi, once represented by his father late Rajiv Gandhi.

Before that, in the Lok Sabha elections of 1999, Priyanka helped her mother Sonia Gandhi win the two crucial seats of these constituencies by campaigning on her behalf. She stayed in Amethi for two weeks. Sonia had won the constituency by a huge margin.

In 2014, while Rahul and Sonia Gandhi campaigned in the entire nation, Priyanka took charge of Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Congress workers in Lucknow, Amethi and Rae Bareli along with other parts of the state celebrated with much fanfare on the appointment of Priyanka.

They distributed sweets, bursted crackers and danced at the state Congress headquarters in Lucknow and offices in Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said,'We welcome Priyanka Gandhi’s appointment as General Secretary. Her entry into active politics will energise cadres and be a catalyst for the rising fortunes of the Congress Party.'

Senior Congress leader Motilal Vora said,'The responsibility given to Priyanka ji is very important. This will not only have an effect on eastern Uttar Pradesh but also other regions.'

However, Mr Gandhi hinted that a “bigger” alliance can be formed in UP for the upcoming LS polls to take on the BJP if SP-BSP agree to include Congress.

“If SP and BSP want to talk to us for a bigger alliance in UP, then they are welcome, there is no problem," Mr Gandhi said adding that all, including Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati, have similar mission--defeating the BJP.

“We still have door opens for larger alliance and anyone who can defeat the BJP is welcome,” Mr Gandhi said.

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Agencies
May 26,2020

In a startling revelation, cybersecurity researchers have claimed that a hacker has posted personal details of nearly 2.9 crore Indian job seekers at one of the hacking forums on the Dark Web for free.

As part of the regular sweep over the Deep Web and Dark Web, researchers from cybersecurity firm Cyble came across an interesting item, where a threat actor posted 2.3GB (zipped) file on one of the hacking forums.

"The leak actually has a lot of personal details of millions of Indians Job seekers from different states," Cyble said in its blog on Friday.

This breach includes sensitive information such as email, phone, home address, qualification and work experience etc from job seekers spanning across states, from New Delhi to Mumbai and Bengaluru. 

Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for such personal information to conduct various nefarious activities such as identity thefts, scams, and corporate espionage.

"It appears to have originated from a resume aggregator service given the sheer volume and detailed information," it added.

Cyble indexed this information at ‘AmIbreached.com; – Cyble's data breach monitoring and notification platform.

Cyble researchers have identified a sensitive data breach on the dark web where an actor has leaked personal details of nearly 29 million Indian job seekers from various states. 

"Cyble's team is still investigating this further and will be updating their article as they bring more facts to the surface,” it said in a statement.

Cyble said it has acquired the leaked data. 

The same cyber security firm earlier exposed that Bengaluru-based edtech firm Unacademy was hacked.

According to Cyble researchers, nearly 22 million Unacademy user accounts were affected and the data was dumped and sold on Dark Web.

'We would like to assure our users that no sensitive information such as financial data or location has been breached," said Hemesh Singh, Co- Founder and CTO, Unacademy, in a statement.

In April, hackers sold personal data of a whopping 267 million Facebook users for just Rs 41,500 (approximately 500 Euros) that includes email addresses, names, Facebook IDs, dates of birth and phone numbers.

No passwords of the 267 million Facebook users were exposed by the hacker, according to Cyble.

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News Network
July 6,2020

New Delhi, Jul 6: India's COVID-19 tally neared the 7 lakh mark with 6,97,413 cases after 24,248 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As per the Health Ministry, there are 2,53,287 active cases in the country while 4,24,432 patients have been cured or discharged. While one patient has migrated.

425 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours in the country due to COVID-19, taking the number of patients succumbing to the deadly virus to 19,693.

As per the Health Ministry, Maharashtra continues to be the most impacted state from the infection with 2,06,619 cases and 8,822 fatalities due to the virus. Tamil Nadu in second place has a total of 1,11,151 cases and 1,510 fatalities.

The national capital's COVID-19 cases are also nearing the 1-lakh mark with 99,444 coronavirus cases and 3,067 deaths.

The total number of samples tested up to July 5 is 99,69,662 of which 1,80,596 samples were tested yesterday, informed the Indian Council of Medical Research on Monday. 

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News Network
January 1,2020

New Delhi, Jan 1: The new Army chief Lieutenant General MM Naravane on Wednesday said that India needs to pay more attention to its border along China and asserted that the force is capable of dealing with any security challenge.

"We have been giving attention to our western front in the past. The northern front now also requires an equal amount of attention... The Army is capable of tackling any dangers to the country," General Naravane told reporters after receiving the first Guard of Honour as the Army chief.

"In that context, we are now going in for capability development and enhancement of our capacities even in our northern borders which includes the northeastern part of our country," he said.

On the border dispute with China, the Army chief said that continuing peace along the border will pave the way for a solution.

He said: "We have been able to maintain peace and tranquility along borders and I'm sure that situation will prevail. By maintaining this, we will be able to set the stage for the eventual solution."

General Naravane said that operational readiness and modernisation will be among the top priorities of the Army under his leadership.

"Our priority will be to be ready to meet any challenge and to be operationally prepared at all times. This will happen as a result of modernisation. We will continue to build our capability especially in the North and Northeast region of our country," he said.

He said that the Indian Army will pay special attention to respect human rights. "We will also pay special emphasis on raising security awareness among ranks and file and pay special attention to respect human rights," the Army chief said.

Assuring the country on security, he said, "All three services — the Army, the Navy and the Air Force — are ready to defend the country."

He extended wishes to people in the new year and hoped that the country will make huge progress in this decade.

General Naravane took over as the 28th Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) on Tuesday, succeeding General Bipin Rawat who has become India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

General Naravane was previously the Vice Chief of Army Staff.

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