Emirate Khader Bhai: Loved by everyone; hated by none

Bengaluru, Feb 21: Amulya Leona, a college student, who raised to pro-Pakistan slogans to embarrass organisers of a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) here on Thursday evening, has been charged with sedition.

The student-activist, who was allowed to talk on stage, suddenly raised pro-Pakistan slogans. She was arrested by police after All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi snatched her mike.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Ramesh Bannoth confirmed the girl has been charged with sedition, provoking enmity between groups, and intentional insult to provoke breach of peace.

It was just after Mr. Owaisi’s arrival on the stage at Freedom Park here that the 19-year-old student was asked to speak. After preliminary remarks, she suddenly shouted “Pakistan zindabad” thrice, leaving the crowd and organisers stunned.

Some of the organisers rushed to her and tried to take the mike away and stop her from speaking further. Mr. Owaisi too joined in and snatched the mike. Holding on to the mike, the girl then went on to shout “Hindustan zindabad” twice, before a posse of police personnel and organisers whisked her away from the stage

Soon after the student was taken away, a visibly upset Mr. Owaisi told the crowd: “Whatever has been spoken [by the girl] is wrong. Neither my party nor I has any connection with it. As long as we are alive, we will be raising Bharat zindabad slogans. Never had we any relationship with Pakistan nor will we have anything in future,” he announced.

He further stated: “This is condemnable. The organisers should not have invited such people to this place. If I had known that these kind of things would be said here, I would not have come here.”

It is unfortunate that the organisers have invited such people and a wrong message is going out, he said. “Now, BJP has got an opportunity and will blame me,” he added.

Every speaker, who took the podium after the incident, condemned the pro-Pakistan slogans raised by Amulya.

Janata Dal (S) councillor representing Gurappanapalya, Imran Pasha, one of the organisers of the protest under “Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isayi Federation”, claimed that they had not invited the “activist” and were not aware that she would be speaking from the stage. Mr. Pasha said that such statements were “a deliberate attempt to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims”.

Meanwhile, the BJP State unit tweeted, “Truth is that protests against CAA are a joint venture between Pakistan and anti-National forces led by INC India.” In a press release, BJP State unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel termed this as an “anti-national act” and urged the police to take action.

Bengaluru, Apr 11:  Amid nationwide lockdown in the wake of COVID-19, former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Saturday urged the state government to announce a relief package for farmers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held a video conference with Chief Ministers.

Taking to Twitter, Kumaraswamy wrote, "As the lock down continues, what action plan does the government have to tackle the challenges of ensuring marketing channels for farm produce with timely transport and ensuring uninterrupted supply of essential groceries to towns and cities?"

He later asked the government to act "swiftly and effectively".

"On one hand we see farmers throwing their produce in despair and losing their livelihoods. On the other hand supplies to towns are depleting. This is threatening both lives and livelihoods. The government must act swiftly and effectively," Kumaraswamy tweeted.

"I urge the state government to immediately announce relief package to farmers by way of direct benefit transfer mechanism and purchase all the agricultural produce so as to avoid farmer suicides," he added.

With 40 deaths and 1,035 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, India on Saturday witnessed a sharpest ever increase in coronavirus cases, taking the tally of the infected people in the country to 7,447, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

New Delhi, Jul 9: The Central Board of Secondary Education has strongly defended its decision to drop topics like democratic rights, citizenship, federalism, secularism etc in the name of reducing the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 due to COVID-19 pandemic. 

The board has claimed that the dropped lessons "are either being covered by the rationalised syllabus or in the Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT".

The CBSE said it had to come up with the clarification after realizing its decision was "interpreted differently".

"The rationalisation of syllabus up to 30 per cent has been undertaken by the Board for nearly 190 subjects of class 9 to 12 for the academic session 2020-21 as a one-time measure only. The objective is to reduce the exam stress of students due to the prevailing health emergency situation and prevent learning gaps," it said.

While it has said that no questions can be asked from the reduced syllabus in the next board exams, the CBSE has also directed schools to follow alternative calendars prepared by the NCERT.

"Therefore each of the topics that have been wrongly mentioned in media as deleted have been covered under Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT which is already in force for all the affiliated schools of the Board," it clarified.

On Wednesday, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "Shocked to know that the central Government has dropped topics like citizenship, federalism, secularism and partisan in the name of reducing CBSE course during the COVID crisis."

"We strongly object to this and appeal the HRD Ministry to ensure these vital lessons aren't curtailed at any cost," Banerjee added.