Citizenship Bill: Congress Offers Support to Assam CM Sonowal For New Govt if He Quits BJP

Agencies
January 13, 2019

Guwahati, Jan 13: Congress leader Debabrata Saikia on Saturday asked Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal to quit the BJP and form a new government with his party's support, while the AGP said it may restore its alliance with the saffron party if the Citizenship Amendment Bill is scrapped.

Saikia, the leader of Opposition in Assam Assembly, talking to a local TV news channel here said, "In view of the current situation in the state following the Citizenship Amendment Bill giving rise to protests here, Sarbananda Sonowal should leave BJP and come out with even just 40 of his MLAs."

"We will have Sonowal only as the chief minister of Assam again. We have 25 legislators in the 126-member House. We can take support from AGP and other parties to form the new state government," said the Congress leader.

The current 14th Assembly has 61 BJP, 25 Congress, 14 Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), 13 AIUDF, 12 Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) and one independent MLA.

Meanwhile, the AGP, which had snapped ties with the two-and-a-half-year-old Sonowal government on January 7 over the Centre introducing and passing the Bill in Lok Sabha, indicated before reporters in Golaghat that it may restore its ties with BJP in the state.

Asked if his party would renew its alliance with the saffron party, AGP president Atul Bora said, "If the government scraps the bill giving rise to the need to discuss the issue in our party forum and depending on the need of the political situation...we may reconsider our alliance with BJP. Cannot say anything now till the Bill is dropped. We will observe their activities and as of now take a wait and watch stand".

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News Network
February 28,2020

Feb 28: Life was limping back to normalcy in some parts of the riot-hit northeast Delhi, with police and paramilitary personnel maintaining strict vigil in view of Friday prayers at mosques.

Police officers said they were also making extra efforts to quell rumours, and holding regular flag marches and interactions in the neighbourhoods of affected areas as confidence-building measures.

In some areas of northeast Delhi, signs of normal life were witnessed with opening of shops. In violence-hit areas also, shops in streets and bylanes were open.

Nearly 7,000 paramilitary forces have been deployed in the affected areas of the northeast district since Monday. Besides, hundreds of Delhi police personnel are on the ground to maintain peace and prevent any untoward incident.

At least 38 were killed and over 200 injured in the communal clashes that broke out in northeast Delhi on Monday after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control The areas affected include Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura..

The Union Home Ministry had said on Thursday night that no major incident was reported from the northeast district in the past 36 hours, It had said that prohibitory orders imposed under Section 144 would be relaxed for 10 hours in view of improvement in the situation.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

Kochi, Jul 30: The Kerala High Court on Thursday refused to grant the extension for the stay of a 74-year-old US citizen, Johnny Paul Pierce, who had earlier said that he felt safer to remain in India than in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The single-judge bench of Justice CS Dias, which considered the writ petition, observed that the grant or extension of visa to foreign nationals fall exclusively within the domain of the Government of India (GoI) and that judicial review in such matters is minimal.

The power of the GoI to expel foreigners is absolute and unlimited, the bench said.

"In view of the categoric declaration of law by the Supreme Court, the plea of the petitioner to permit him to stay back in India cannot be accepted, as it falls within the purview of the guidelines and the discretion of the Government of India," the order said.

"The petitioner cannot be heard that the guidelines/policies/regulations formulated by the Government of India, that an American national though has been granted a visa having validity of five years has to leave India within 180 days, is irrational or unreasonable," it added.

The High Court, which was hearing a plea to permit the US citizen to stay in India for a further period of six months, said that the petitioner does not have a case that there is an infraction of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

"The petitioner was well aware of the visa conditions when he arrived in India, and it is too late in the day for him to raise a grievance on the visa conditions," the bench said noting that the petitioner's love for India was heartening.

The High Court also directed the Foreigners Registration Officer to consider the petitioner's representation within a period of two weeks in accordance with the applicable guidelines and policies.

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News Network
May 14,2020

London, May 14: Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Thursday urged the Central government to accept his offer to repay 100 per cent of his loan dues and close the case against him.

While congratulating the Centre for introducing Rs 20 lakh crore relief package to boost the economy amid the coronavirus lockdown, Mallya, lamented that his repeated attempts to pay back his dues have been ignored by the Indian government.

"Congratulations to the Government for a Covid 19 relief package. They can print as much currency as they want BUT should a small contributor like me who offers 100% payback of State-owned Bank loans be constantly ignored? Please take my money unconditionally and close," he tweeted.

Earlier this month, Mallya had sought permission to appeal against a ruling ordering his extradition to India in Britain's highest court the UK Supreme Court.

The application comes two weeks after the High Court in London - the UK's second-highest court - dismissed Mallya's appeal against a lower court ruling that he be sent to India to face charges of defrauding a consortium of Indian banks of more than Rs 9,000 crores relating to the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines in 2012.

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