Blow to Congress, TRS says no to merger, JD(U) refuses tie-up

March 4, 2014

TRS_refusesNew Delhi/Hyderabad, Mar 4: On a day the Janata Dal (United) snubbed its alliance overtures, the Congress was dealt another blow on Monday when in the evening Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) not only ruled out a merger but also indicated it was open to a tie-up with other political parties.

TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao announced in Hyderabad that his party had unanimously decided not to merge with the Congress. After a six-hour meeting of its general body, TRS also set up a five-member committee to discuss alliance with other parties, including the Congress.

The developments are a blow to the Congress’ Lok Sabha math. It braved opposition within and outside to go ahead with the Andhra split, expecting to reap rich electoral dividends in Telangana, which has 17 Lok Sabha seats, in alliance with TRS. With anger against the split, Seemandhra with 25 Lok Sabha seats is largely seen as a lost cause for the Congress.

TRS sources said the majority in the party favoured maintaining an independent identity and having a “level-playing field” with all parties. Another view was that the party should take a decision on tie-ups only after the elections.

Earlier in the day, JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav ruled out any tie-up with the Congress and said his party would work to strengthen the Third Front of 11 non-BJP, non-Congress parties. “We will strengthen that and spoil the game of the Congress and BJP,” he said.

In view of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad’s refusal to concede more than 11 seats to it in Bihar, the Congress opened back-channel talks with CM Nitish Kumar’s party. But the JD(U)’s demand for special status for Bihar remained the biggest stumbling block.

Read : Lalu relents on deadline to Cong, offers 11 LS seats

The JD(U) snub has now left the Congress with two options — to go it alone or accept Prasad’s offer. It has since scaled down its demand for seats from 15 to 12 seats. Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats.

Many JD(U) leaders viewed the Congress overtures as a tactic to build pressure on the RJD. The indication that the Congress was inching closer to finalising the deal with the RJD came from party

spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi. “We are moving in the direction that will be proper and effective for both the Congress and RJD,” he said.

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February 11,2020

Aligarh, Feb 11: Paediatrician Dr Kafeel Khan, who was arrested from Mumbai on January 29 after he delivered a speech at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) against communalism and politics of hate, will be released from jail on Tuesday after he was granted bail by an Aligarh court.

Khan will be released from Mathura jail on Tuesday after legal formalities are completed.

Chief judicial magistrate Karuna Singh granted bail to Khan on Monday on a bail bond of Rs 60,000. Two surety bonds of Rs 60,000 each would also be furnished by the guarantors.

Dr Khan's lawyer, Mohammad Irfan Gazi, told reporters, "The court was told that Khan was falsely implicated by police under political pressure. After hearing the arguments, the court granted him bail."

The suspended doctor was arrested by special task force (STF) of the UP police from Mumbai on January 29, when he reached the city to attend a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

He was arrested in connection with a case registered against him in Aligarh under section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion) of the Indian Penal Code at Civil Lines police station on December 13

The case was filed after his speech at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

According to the FIR, while addressing students, without naming anyone, Dr Kafeel Khan said that 'Mota Bhai' is teaching everyone to become Hindu or Muslim but not a human being. "This is a fight for our existence. We have to fight."

The FIR also said that Dr Kafeel Khan made an attempt to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere and disturb the communal harmony with his speech.

Dr Khan was in the news in 2017 when he was named as one of the nine accused in a case involving deaths of several children due to alleged disruption in supply of oxygen at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur. Though he was granted clean chit in a departmental inquiry, his suspension has not yet been revoked.

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News Network
July 1,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 1: A day after the Government banned several Chinese apps, popular short-form video app Mitron reported that its daily traffic jumped up by more than 11 times.

Just 5 days after crossing the 10 million (1 crore) downloads milestone, Mitron has now announced that the app has been downloaded by 17 million (1.7 crore) users in India. Mitron app has been one of the most downloaded apps in India during the last two months.

"It is incredibly exciting to see the rapid adoption of Mitron by Indian users. 11-fold jump in traffic, immediately after the ban of Chinese apps, was beyond our expectations," said Shivank Agarwal, Founder, and CEO, Mitron.

Anish Khandelwal, Founder and CTO said, " We have built a solid backend infrastructure and our platform is now completely scalable and autonomous and that is helping us to cater to the sharp rise in traffic on Mitron App."

Mitron has been rapidly enhancing the product with several improvements for the users including an updated video upload process that is much easier, enhanced audio library with a wide choice of Indian content, and a feature that enables users to flag any inappropriate content easily.

Users uploaded millions of videos in 10 different languages and the number of videos viewed on the platform increased sharply to cross 30 million video views per hour.

Shivank added "We are a young company and we are hiring some of the best product & engineering talent to scale up Mitron rapidly. We are confident that we can build Mitron into one of the best apps in the short-form video space. Our focus is on building features and content that uniquely resonates with Indian users, while being sensitive to community standards and local laws in India and we believe that will help us build Mitron into a very large business."

Founded by two Computer Science engineers, Shivank Agarwal (alumnus of IIT Roorkee) and Anish Khandelwal (alumnus of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology), Mitron app is a short-form video app that allows users to create, upload and view entertaining short videos.

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April 21,2020

New Delhi, Apr 21: Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, who has been booked by the Delhi Police for holding a religious congregation here during the lockdown, on Monday urged the followers of the organisation to pray at home in the month of Ramzan.

"I request all, both in India and abroad, to strictly follow the guidelines and instructions of the local or national governments and till the time restrictions are in place and please observe prayers at home. And even in this, we should not invite people from outside," he said in a statement.

Ramzan begins later this week.

While addressing an online briefing on Sunday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal cited the Tablighi Jamaat congregation last month, a major hotspot, and the large inflow of travellers from other countries to Delhi as the reasons for the spread of the virus, and said the city was "fighting a difficult battle".

The Delhi Police crime branch, had on March 31, lodged an FIR against seven people, including the cleric, on a complaint by the Station House Officer of Nizamuddin police station for holding the congregation in alleged violation of the orders against large gatherings to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Later, the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) was added to the FIR.

The cleric is wanted by the Delhi Police and he responded twice to them. He is currently under home quarantine.

In an audio message released earlier this month, Kandhalvi had said he was exercising self-quarantine after several hundreds who visited the congregation at Nizamudddin Markaz tested positive for coronavirus.

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