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BJP agrees to maintain status quo on Article 370

March 2, 2015

Jammu, Mar 2: PDP chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed called for peace Sunday after taking oath as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, heading a coalition that brought the BJP to power for the first time in India's only Muslim-majority state.

Sayeed sworn

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders Amit Shah and L.K. Advani were among the 1,400 guests who witnessed the ceremony, over two months after the PDP and the BJP won 28 and 25 seats respectively in a hung verdict that exposed deep divisions between the Muslim and Hindu areas.

After taking oath in English, Sayeed, 79, warmly hugged Modi and sat close to him on a flower-decked stage at the Jammu University's General Zorawar Singh auditorium to witness the entire ceremony.

Later, addressing the media, Sayeed said he had told Modi that peace was a must if Jammu and Kashmir had to prosper.

He said the Modi government must address the need for a dialogue between India and Pakistan, two countries which dispute the ownership of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiris, he said, must be involved in the process.

In an indication as to what he desired, Sayeed lavished praise on former prime minister and now ailing BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee for starting a peace process with Pakistan in 2003 - when Sayeed was chief minister the first time.

And in comments that would not have pleased many BJP supporters, he credited Pakistan, the separatist Hurriyat group and militants for what he said was a peaceful ballot in November-December last year.

"The PDP-BJP government is a historic opportunity to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and take the state to new heights of progress," Modi tweeted.

The National Conference and the Congress stayed away from the oath-taking ceremony.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah took a dig at BJP ministers for taking oath to uphold the Jammu and Kashmir constitution - the only Indian state to have its own constitution and a flag.

Son of a religious preacher from the Kashmir Valley, Sayeed will head the government of his Peoples Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, and will be the chief minister for all of six years.

BJP leader Nirmal Singh will be the deputy chief minister. He said the two parties would provide a stable government.

Former separatist leader Sajjad Gani Lone took oath as a BJP ally, and then warmly hugged Modi and Sayeed, triggering thunderous applause.

Inclusive of Sayeed, the PDP will have 11 cabinet berths and the BJP six, Lone included. The PDP and BJP have three and five junior ministers respectively. Two of the junior ministers are women: Priya Sethi (BJP) and Asiya Naqash (PDP).

The PDP cabinet ministers are Abdul Rehman Bhat Veeri, Javaid Mustafa Mir, Abdul Haq Khan, Syed Basharat Bukhari, Chowdhary Zulfiqar Ali, Haseeb Drabu, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, Altaf Bukhari, Imran Raza Ansari and Naeem Akhtar.

The BJP's cabinet members are Nirmal Singh, Chander Prakash, Choudhary Lal Singh, Bali Baghat, Sukhnandan Kumar and Lone (Peoples Conference).

The junior ministers are Chering Dorjay, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Abdul Ghani Kohli, Priya Sethi and Pawan Gupta (all BJP) and Abdul Majeed Paddar, Muhammad Ashraf Mir and Asiya Naqash (all PDP).

In the evening, the PDP and the BJP released a common minimum programme (CMP), promising to transform Jammu and Kashmir as "the most ethical state ... from the present day position of being the most corrupt state".

The CMP promised "genuine autonomy of institutions of probity", and "a sustained and meaningful dialogue" for peace with "all internal stakeholders ... irrespective of ideological views and predilections".

It revealed the continuing difference of opinion between the two parties on the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives sweeping powers to armed forces in the state. The PDP wants it to go.

This is the second time Sayeed heads a coalition government in Kashmir. He took power in 2002, heading a PDP-Congress alliance, for three years.

The Kashmir verdict brought about a clear divide between the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-dominated Jammu region, with the PDP winning almost all its seats in the valley and the BJP sweeping Jammu.

This is the first time the BJP is tasting power in Jammu and Kashmir, where a separatist campaign which has raged since 1989 has left thousands dead.

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News Network
January 29,2020

New Delhi, Jan 29: The Janata Dal (United) today expelled its vice-president Prashant Kishor and senior leader Pavan Kumar accusing them of "anti-party" activities.

Both the leaders have been attacking the party leadership over its pro-CAA stand.

The spat between Nitish Kumar and Kishor was out in the open yesterday when the former reminded the political strategist that he was inducted into the party on the recommendation of Union home minister Amit Shah.

It all began when Nitish, while talking to the media here, said, “I don’t have any problem if he (Kishor) wants to leave the party. But if he wants to stay, then he will have to follow the basic structure of the party.”

Varma had also questioned the JDU's alliance with the BJP in Delhi Assembly polls while Kishor has more than once voiced his differences with the party known on the issue of CAA and NRC.
 

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Rajouri, Aug 3: Ashfaq Mehmood Choudhary, a 17-year-old boy from Chattyear of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, has developed a file-sharing app 'Dodo Drop' which would enable users to share audios, videos, images, and texts between two devices without Internet access.

While speaking to media persons, Ashfaq Mehmood said that the 'Dodo Drop' application is an alternative to the Chinese 'SHAREit' app. "The Indian government has banned several Chinese apps due to data breaching, and among those apps was SHAREit which was used for sharing files.

Users faced a lot of problems due to the ban, and so I decided to make this file-sharing app. With 'Dodo Drop', users can share audios, videos, images, and even texts," he said.

Ashfaq said that it took him four weeks to develop the application, and it was launched on August 1 this year. The 'Dodo Drop' application has a transfer rate of up to 480 mbps, which is faster than the SHAREit app and is "quite easy" to use.

"Users can transfer data comprising photos, videos, audios, apps, texts, etc. between two devices with no Internet access. The transfers are fully encrypted and secure," he added.

"Our Prime Minister has always asserted the need for decreasing the dependency on foreign products and apps and to focus on the development of India-based apps. I tried to be part of the initiative of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' by developing an India-based file-sharing app. I want to develop global-standard apps for India," he added.

"We support and cooperate with him. He generates his own income by working on some projects and utilises it. We will continue to support him," said Parvez Ahmed Choudhary, Ashfaq's father.

In July, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) banned 47 apps, which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps banned earlier in June. These banned clones included SHAREit Lite, Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite, and VFY Lite.

The 59 apps had been banned by the Centre in June in view of the information available that they were engaged in activities which were "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity and defence" of the country.

Almost all the apps banned had some preferential Chinese interest and the majority had parent Chinese companies.

The ban came amid border tensions with China in the Eastern Ladakh region.

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News Network
January 24,2020

Kochi/Mumbai, Jan 24: Two students who recently returned from China have been kept under medical observation at the Ernakulam Government Medical College here for possible exposure to the coronavirus, an outbreak of which in China has triggered a global health scare.

Reports from Mumbai said two persons there too have been put observation at the civic-run Kasturba Hospital in Chinchpokali, PTI reported.

Health officials said no cases of the deadly infection have been detected.

One of the students being screened in Kerala and both being screen in Mumai have reported symptoms such as cold and fever and has been kept in isolation wards.

The additional district medical officer of Ernakulam, Dr S Sreedevi, said samples of the student’s body fluids would be sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for tests.

The youngster consulted a doctor at a private hospital and was referred to the Ernakulam hospital in the wake of the virus outbreak in Wuhan city of China.

A stringent screening system has been set up at the Kochi International Airport to screen passengers who have been in the affected province in China. Persons who have been to Wuhan and showing symptoms of cold, cough and fever are being immediately shifted to the Ernakulam hospital.

All quariantine facilities have been put in place there including an isolation ward and a ventilator.

The other person under observation in Kerala is an MBBS student from Kottayam district who recently returned from his college in China. The district medical office said she has no health issues. She was put under observation as a precautionary measure.

In Mumbai, 1,789 passengers have undergone thermal screening at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport for the coronavirus since January 19.

Coronavirus cases were first reported from Wuhan, the capital of central Chinas Hubei province in China.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in China, doctors at international airports have been asked to screen travellers for symptoms if they are returning from China. All private doctors have been asked to alert the authorities if they observe symptoms of the coronavirus.

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