Had guilty been punished for 1984, there would have been no Gujarat and Dadri

November 1, 2015

New Delhi, Nov 1: Had the guilty been punished after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, incidents like in Gujarat and Dadri would not have happened and "such intolerance" would not have spread, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today.

kejriThe Chief Minister along with his Deputy Manish Sisodia distributed the enhanced compensation cheques of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of each of the 1,300 people killed in the violence and paid homage to the victims on the 31st anniversary of the riots.

"If those guilty in the 1984 riots were punished in the past 31 years, then incidents like those in Gujarat and Dadri would not have happened.

"No one would have dared to spread hatred among people on basis of religion and such intolerance would not have spread in the country," the Chief Minister said after distributing the cheques in West Delhi's Tilak Vihar here.

The Chief Minister also claimed that "intolerance and hatred is thriving because those perpetrating it know that those in power will protect them".

He claimed that the Centre ordered constitution of Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the riots because it was "afraid" that once his government takes charge the guilty will be brought to book. Kejriwal also said that he will get it legally examined if the Centre was within its rights to constitute the SIT in this matter.

"In these 31 years, almost every party formed government in Delhi as well as at the Centre. BJP and Congress formed governments in Delhi, NDA and Congress formed government in Centre and every party and government kept on saying that Sikhs should be given justice. But who else will ensure justice if the government doesn't?

"During our 49-day regime we had ordered the constitution of SIT which wasn't formed in 30 years. But when we had resigned from the government, it was cancelled.

"However, when we formed government again on February 14, just a day before that the central government constituted an SIT because they were scared that when Arvind will come to power, all those who are guilty will be booked," he added.

The Chief Minister said "the intolerance in the country has reached so high that even the President has raised concern on the same four times during this month".

In October last year, a hike in compensation to Rs five lakh had been announced by the central government, five months after the BJP had formed its government at the Centre.

In August this year, the Delhi Cabinet decided to distribute enhanced compensation cheques as announced by the central government to the kin of the 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims.

Delhi Government has estimated an expenditure of around Rs 130 crore on compensation for around 2,600 families of ant-Sikh riot victims. The Centre will later refund the compensation amount to the Delhi Government.

Kejriwal said that former party leader and senior advocate HS Phoolka has asserted that the central government doesn't have the power to constitute the SIT.

"Phoolka ji has said that the central government doesn't have the power to form SIT, it lies with the Delhi Government. Tomorrow itself I will get this examined whether the SIT formed by centre government is legal or not," he said.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who along with Kejriwal wore a black band on the sleeves as symbolic protest, hit out at the then Congress government.

"The riots were not a tragedy but a government supported murder. The government has not only kept the guilty shielded but also given them tickets for elections, made them ministers too," he said.

"Incidents like Sunped and Dadri are indicative of that there has been no development. We might have developed technologically, infrastructurally but our politics is still the same, our mentality is still the same, which is very dangerous.

"People are burnt alive and our leaders say that if any dog is hit by a stone what can be done. If after 31 years the mentality of those in power has not changed, we have surely not made any progress," he added.

Sisodia said that 1,300 families whose verification and other required formalities were completed were given the cheques today and the rest will be handed over their compensation cheques within 15 days.

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Agencies
January 15,2020

Mumbai, Jan 15: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday redistributed portfolios of Deputy Governors following the appointment of Michael Debabrata Patra to the post.

An official release said that NS Vishwanathan will handle co-ordination, Department of Regulation (DOR), Department of Communication (DoC), Enforcement Department, Inspection Department (ID), Risk Monitoring Department (RMD), and Secretary's Department.

BP Kanungo will look after Department of Currency Management (DCM), Department of External Investments and Operations (DEIO), Department of Government and Bank Accounts (DGBA), Department of Information Technology (DIT), Department of Payment and Settlement Systems (DPSS), Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), Foreign Exchange Department (FED), Internal Debt Management Department (IDMD), Legal Department (LD) and Right to Information (RIA) Division.

The release said that MK Jain will handle the Department of Supervision (DOS), Consumer Education and Protection Department (CEPD), Financial Inclusion and Development Department (FIDD), Human Resource Management Department (HRMD), HR Operations Unit (HR-OU), Premises Department (PD), Central Security Cell (CSC), and Rajbhasha Department.

Patra will look after the Monetary Policy Department including Forecasting and Modelling Unit (MPD/MU), Financial Markets Operations Department (FMOD), Financial Markets Regulation Department including Market Intelligence (FMRD/MI), International Department (Intl. D), Department of Economic and Policy Research (DEPR), Department of Statistics & Information Management (including Data and Information Management Unit) (DSIM/DIMU), Corporate Strategy and Budget Department (CSBD) and Financial Stability Unit.

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News Network
April 11,2020

New Delhi, Apr 11: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with chief ministers, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday urged CMs of states where the party is in power to unanimously demand for transfer of cash to every poor family.

He said the poor have lost their jobs and have exhausted their savings. They are now standing in lines to get free food, the former Union finance minister said.

Chidambaram said remonetising the poor would cost only Rs 65,000 crore, which is economically viable.

"Chief ministers Amarinder Singh, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, V Narayanasami, Uddhav Thackeray and E Palaniswani should tell the prime minister today that just as LIVES are important LIVELIHOOD of the poor is important, he tweeted.

"The poor have lost their jobs or self-employment in the last 18 days. They have exhausted their meagre savings. Many are standing in line for food," Chidambaram said.

Can the state stand by and watch them go hungry," he asked, adding that chief ministers should demand that cash be transferred to every poor family immediately.

"Remonetise the poor should be their unanimous demand," Chidambaram said.

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News Network
July 18,2020

Jaipur, Jul 18: BJP leader Laxmikant Bhardwaj filed a complaint against Congress leaders including Randeep Surjewala and Govind Singh Dotasra for associating Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat's name with an alleged audio clip related to "conspiring to topple" the elected government led by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan.

"Mahesh Joshi, Randeep Surjewala, and other accused have regularly been giving false and inflammatory statements against the BJP to criminally damage its reputation so that the blame for the current sorry state of affairs of the Congress can be pinned on the BJP. With the ill-intention of damaging the BJP''s reputation, a conspiracy was formed at the Chief Minister''s residence situated at 8 Civil lines," read the letter written by BJP Rajasthan spokesperson Bhardwaj to the Station Officer of Ashok Nagar police station read.

"From there (CM's residence) imitation of (voices) of people were falsely told to be of that of reputed leaders from the BJP and a fake phone conversation was created through which the false narrative of crores of rupees being offered to buy off Congress MLAs was created. The accused involved in this conspiracy have severely misused their position and power and the whole crime has been conducted by one named Lokesh Sharma, who calls himself an OSD of the Chief Minister," the letter further stated.

The complaint letter also said that Lokesh Sharma had "released three audio tapes to media workers on July 16, 2020, somewhere around 8:25 pm through WhatsApp so that the defamatory material can be circulated on a large scale to fulfill the criminal intent."

Mr Bhardwaj said that a news report in the Jaipur edition of a Hindi newspaper, published on July 17, 2020, had conveyed that the audiotape was released by Mr Sharma.

He further said that Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala, Govind Singh Dotasra, in a press conference held on Friday read out the conversation in the audio tapes publically and "using them as a basis accused the BJP of throttling democracy, sabotaging the mandate, and toppling the government."

Through this conspiracy, Mr Bhardwaj said that hateful and insulting comments are being made on the BJP and its supporters, and "on the basis of this the Special Operation Group (SOG) has filed fake lawsuits under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code and is also threatening BJP leaders of arrest."

The BJP leader has urged the police officer to file a complaint against Mr Sharma, Mr Surjewala, Mr Dotasra, and others involved in the alleged conspiracy and take necessary action and recover the equipment used by them.

On June 17, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had accused Union Cabinet Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Congress legislator Bhanwarlal Sharma of conspiring to topple the elected government led by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan and subvert the voters' mandate.

"Yesterday, shocking tapes were aired by the media in which Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, BJP leader Sanjay Jain and Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma spoke about bribing MLAs and bringing down Rajasthan government. Congress has suspended MLAs Bhanwar Lal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh from the primary membership of the party. The party has also issued show-cause notices to them," Mr Surjewala had said.

"We demand Rajasthan government and Special Operations Group (SOG) to register FIR and arrest the culprits as plenty of evidence has surfaced now," he had further stated.

Mr Surjewala had read out a transcript of an audio of alleged horse-trading between rebel MLAs and BJP, stating, "BJP has breached the trust of people. The audio clip reveals a horse-trading deal. This is a dark chapter in the history of democracy."

"This time the Narendra Modi government has challenged the wrong state," the Congress leader had said. He had alleged that the BJP has been "conspiring to topple Rajasthan government and buy legislators' allegiance."

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