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BJP brazenly justifies its two ministers who defended temple rapists

coastaldigest.com web desk
April 14, 2018

Srinagar, Apr 14: Even though the two BJP ministers of Jammu and Kashmir government who had taken part in a protest to defend the temple gang rapists, submitted their resignations on Friday, the saffron party has brazenly justified them.

Forest and Environment Minister Lal Singh and Commerce and Industries Minister Chander Parkash Ganga had addressed the rally of the Hindu Ekta Manch, a group campaigning for handing over the case to the CBI, on March 4 and defended those arrested in the rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl.

“The two leaders have submitted their resignations on Friday. The final call on them will be taken at the meeting of the BJP legislators,” said BJP spokesman Ashok Kaul.

Shockingly, Kaul denied that the resignations indicated any wrongdoing. “They have not done anything wrong. They are resigning because a situation has been created around them,” he said.

The resignation of ministers assumes significance in the wake of public annoyance expressed by the BJP’s coalition partner Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other political parties in J&K, including National Conference (NC). 

Senior PDP Minister Naeem Akhtar has said “the party’s rank and file was finding it difficult to work in an atmosphere where such crass communalism is being practised by the Ministers,” while referring to the two BJP leaders.

J&K government sources said Ms. Mufti had raised the issue with the BJP top brass and demanded the removal of the Ministers or “decide to go one way or the other.” Government sources said Ms. Mufti had also spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue and sought his intervention.

In a major climbdown, senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Dr. Nirmal Singh expressed satisfaction over the investigation of the Crime Branch in the rape and murder case.

“We had entered into the alliance by taking a bold and courageous step. We had come together to solve the Kashmir issue and relieve the State of its pain. As it’s looking now we are far from that,” Mr. Akhtar, who is also the J&K government spokesman, said.

Meanwhile, National Conference working president Omar Abdullah sought action against the Jammu Bar Association president B.S. Salthaia for threatening the lawyer of the victim family.

National Conference president Dr. Farooq Abdullah chaired a meeting of the party’s core group in Srinagar and threatened to launch a civil disobedience movement against the State government if it failed to act against the Ministers.

The little girl from the nomadic Muslim Bakerwal community was abducted and then gang-raped inside as well as outside the temple before she was murdered. Seven persons accused in the case have been charged with crimes under Sections 302, 376, 201 and 120-B of the Ranbir Penal Code. They include Sanji Ram’s son Vishal Jangotra, a special police officer (SPO), another SPO, Deepak Khajuria, Head Constable Tilak Raj, Sub-Inspector Anand Dutta, and Parvesh Kumar.

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News Network
July 1,2020

Jul 1: Gold prices in India hit an all-time high on Wednesday, tracking a global rally, as surging coronavirus cases in many countries raised the metal's safe-haven appeal.

Local gold futures hit an all-time high of Rs 48,871 ($646.66) per 10 grams in early trade, taking their gains to 25% in 2020 so far. The contract had gained nearly 25% in 2019.

However, this dampened the retail demand for gold in India, the world's second-largest consumer of the precious metal.

"Retail demand is negligible. Buyers are postponing purchases anticipating a correction in prices," said a Mumbai-based bank dealer with a bullion importing bank.

In thin trade, dealers were offering a discount of up to $22 an ounce over official domestic prices on Wednesday afternoon, up from the last week's $18. The domestic price includes a 12.5% import tax and 3% sales tax.

The country's gold imports in May plunged 99% from a year earlier as international air travel was banned and jewellery shops were closed amid a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.

In overseas market, spot gold firmed near an eight-year peak on Wednesday, as a spike in coronavirus cases in the United and States and many other countries has cast a shadow on hopes for a quicker global economic recovery, driving inflows into safe-haven assets.

According to a latest Reuters tally, the coronavirus has infected more than 10.48 million people worldwide so far.

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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 1,2020

New Delhi, Jan 1: In the backdrop of huge losses borne by airlines, Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said the government is concerned that more airlines will shut down if predatory pricing continues. "Some predatory pricing is taking place" in airfares, the minister told reporters on Tuesday. Mr Puri however ruled out any plan by the government to regulate airfares. The remarks come amid high competition in the country's aviation sector, struggling against high fuel prices and other operating costs.

"The interesting thing that we have observed is that on Delhi-Mumbai route 20 years ago, the average fare was Rs 5,100. Today, the average fare is Rs 4,600. Some predatory pricing is taking place. It means people are selling tickets below their cost," he said.

"One of our concerns is that if there is predatory pricing, then the airlines will stop functioning. This is not Air India's problem only. Jet Airways got shut down. Before that, it was Kingfisher airline," he said.

IndiGo and SpiceJet - two of the country's biggest airlines - reported losses of Rs 1,062 crore and Rs 463 crore respectively in the second quarter of 2019-20. Other airlines have also reported losses in the quarter that ended on September 30, 2019.

Asked if predatory pricing is the reason for the ill health of the airlines, the minister said, "No, there are many reasons... Predatory pricing is one of the factors. But the profitability of an airline is dependent on (a) number of things."

Asked if the trend of predatory pricing has come down after regular discussion with the airlines, he said, "Yes, absolutely."

"It is (a) constant battle. An ideal situation from an airline's point of view is that they grow and they are also able to charge more fares. What fares they charge is their business. Our advice to them is to charge realistic fares," he added. "It should not be too high. And it is not in your business interests if you are imposing predatory fares."

The minister also said that the government is not planning to regulate fares. "No regulation. It has to be done within deregulation system.... If I put a cap on fare, the airline will start charging that cap only... that cap will become the normal fare... So, within a deregulated structure, we have to bring about an equilibrium," the minister said.

"Government, periodically, at my level or at secretary''s level, we sit down with the main aircraft operators and tell them it is in your interest not to allow such practices which undermine the civil aviation sector."

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