BSP, Trinamool rule out support to Modi-led BJP

May 9, 2014
Lucknow, May 9: BSP supremo Mayawati and Trinamool Congress today dashed any hopes of a post-poll alignment with the BJP-led NDA, an option about which Narendra Modi had talked in an interview.

"BJP leader Narendra Modi in his recent interview had claimed that if needed he might seek support of AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa, TMC's Mamata Banerjee and BSP national president...

maya"I want to make it clear that BSP will not extend any kind of support to Modi or NDA to form the government at any cost," Mayawati told reporters here.

Rejecting the possibility of a tie up with BJP, Trinamool Congress also said "if he says BJP's doors are open for a Modi-led government, then I will use the same analogy to say that our doors are shut and the keys have been thrown away".

Both were reacting to Modi's comments in a television interview last night hinting at keeping the doors open for doing business with leaders like Jayalalithaa, Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati, notwithstanding strong attacks on them during the campaign.

However, there was no reaction from Chennai either from the Tamil Nadu chief minister or her party AIADMK.

In his interview, Modi said "Whatever I wanted to explain, I have. This can also be a tactic to keep the door open....I won't explain it now but will do so after May 12."

Mayawati told reporters today that Modi's statement betrayed nervous on his part as the BJP has realised that it might not be able to form the government.

"When elections started, Modi was claiming that NDA will not require support of any other party. No party talks about taking support of any other party unless it is unsure of its victory...The interview of Modi is a ploy to create confusion in the minds of minority community which are voting for us," she said.

Trinamool spokesman Derek O'Brien said in Kolkata, "if the doors are open, then our doors are shut and the keys have been thrown away."

He said the BJP's claim of 372 was a "hallucination" and suggested the party may get 180 to 190 seats.

"The Congress can fit into a railway compartment with 72 seasts. The results are going to be very very different. One thing is that Trinamool Congress will be third largest party in Lok Sabha," he said.

O'Brien said leaders like Jayalalitha, Naveen Patnaik and Banerjee and "many like us will be the engine. It is time to wait to wait till May 16."

On Wednesday, Banerjee had ruled out supporting BJP or Modi in forming the government. "The BJP will not get more than 160 seats and will not be able to form the government in Delhi. There is no question of backing you (the BJP) even if you beg," she told a public meeting on the outskirts of Kolkata.

Mamata Banerjee today continued her attack on Modi saying she would have sent Narendra Modi to jail had she been in Delhi. The Congress, she claimed, was 'cocooned in fear' and did not have the guts to act against the BJP.

"They (Congress) have no guts. It is a party cocooned in fear. They survive through understanding and play got-up matches and indulge in match-fixing. Not a single word against Narendra Modi. It (Congress) is in head over heels in love with Narendra Modi," Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress chief, told an election rally here in Murshidabad district.

"Had I been in Delhi in place of Congress, I would have sent Narendra Modi to jail by tying a rope around his waist," she said hitting out again at the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate for his remark that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants would be sent packing after May 16.

Picking on what Modi said, his party leader Amit Shah said it does not believe in "political untouchability" and is open to support from any party.

"All parties are welcome to join the NDA if they want to give their support for development of this country," he told reporters in Varanasi when asked to comment on Mayawati dismissing the possibility of backing BJP or Modi in government formation.

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News Network
January 13,2020

Jan 13: India lost more than $1.33 billion to internet restrictions in 2019 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government pushed ahead with his party’s Hindu nationalist agenda, raising tensions and sparking nationwide protests.

The worst shutdown has been in Kashmir, where after intermittent closures in the first half of the year, the internet has been cut off since Aug. 5 following the government’s decision to revoke the special autonomous status of the country’s only Muslim-majority state, a study said. The prologued closure was criticized by India’s highest court, which ruled Friday that the “limitless” internet shutdown enforced by the government for the last five months was illegal and asked that it be reviewed.

India imposed more internet restrictions than any other large democracy, according to the Cost of Internet Shutdowns 2019 report released by Top10VPN, a U.K.-based digital privacy and security research group. The South Asian nation recorded the third-highest losses after Iraq and Sudan, which lost $2.31 billion and $1.86 billion respectively to disruptions. Worldwide internet restrictions caused losses worth $8.05 billion, the report said.

The cost of internet blackouts was calculated using indicators from groups including the World Bank, International Telecommunication Union, and the Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Center. It includes social media shutdowns in its calculations.

India’s ministry of information and technology didn’t respond to an email seeking a response to the report’s findings.

‘Conservative Estimates’

Through 2019, India shut access to the internet for over 4,000 hours. The report added shutdowns in India were often narrowly targeted, down to the level of blocking city districts for a few hours to allow security forces to restore order. Many of these incidents were not included in the report.

“These are conservative estimates,” said Simon Migliano, head of research at U.K.-based Top10VPN. “Internet shutdowns are increasing and it shows a damaging trend.”

India’s other major internet disruptions coincided with two moves by the government that affect India’s Muslim minority. The first disruption took place in November in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan after the Supreme Court handed a victory to Hindu groups over Muslim petitioners in a long-simmering dispute over a plot of land.

There were further disruptions in December when protests erupted against the introduction of a religion-based law that allows undocumented migrants of all faiths except Islam from neighbouring countries to seek Indian citizenship. The government enforced shutdowns across Uttar Pradesh and some Northeastern states in order to quell the protests, the report said.

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News Network
January 30,2020

Wayanad, Jan 30: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday compared Mahatma Gandhi assassin Nathuram Godse with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying both believed in the same ideology.

Gandhi, at an anti-CAA rally here, launched a scathing attack on Modi and said he was making Indians to prove that they are Indians.

Addressing participants at "Save the Constitution" march at Kalpetta in Wayanad, his Lok Sabha constituency on Martyr's Day, Gandhi said there was no difference between Godse and Modi.

"Today, an ignorant man is trying to challenge Gandhi's ideology. He is creating an atmosphere of hatred. The ideology is same. Nathuram Godse and Narendra Modi, they believe in the same ideology. There is no difference except that Modi does not have the guts to say he believes in the ideology of Godse," the Wayanad MP said.

Attacking the Prime Minister on the new Citizenship Law, Gandhi questioned Modi and asked who was he to ask Indians to prove that they were Indians.

"Indians are being made to prove that they are Indians. Who is Narendra Modi to decide who is an Indian. Who gave Modi the licence to ask for my Indianness? I know I am an Indian and I don't have to prove it to anyone. Likewise, 1.4 billion Indians do not have to prove that they are Indians," he said.

The Congress leader led the march here as part of efforts to intensify the party's protests against CAA in the state.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: The Centre has written to all states and Union Territories stating that smartphones and tablet devices should be allowed for hospitalised Covid-19 patients so that they can interact with family and friends through video conferencing, which would provide them psychological support.

Though mobile phones are allowed in hospital wards, the missive was issued following some representation from the kin of patients alleging otherwise.

Director-General of Health Services (DGHS) in the Health Ministry Dr Rajiv Garg in the letter to the principal secretaries of health and medical education of states and Union territories said appropriate protocols for disinfecting devices and allotting timeslots can be developed by the hospital concerned to facilitate contact between patients and their family.

He underlined that administrative and medical teams should be responsive to the psychological needs of patients admitted in Covid-19 wards and ICUs of various hospitals.

"Social connection can calm down patients and also reinforce the psychological support given by the treating team. Please instruct all concerned that they should allow smartphones and tablet devices in patient areas so that the patient can video conference with their family and friends," stated the letter issued on July 29.

"Though mobile phones are allowed in the wards to enable a patient stay in touch with his or her family, we received representations from the patient families from some states stating mobile phones are not being allowed by hospital administrations because of which they were not being able to stay in contact with the patient," said Dr Garg.

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