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Kejriwal a 'small single city leader': Modi

March 16, 2015

New Delhi, Mar 16: AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal may have inflicted a massive defeat on BJP in Delhi Assembly polls last month, but months earlier Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw him as a "small single city leader" not even worth "my time to ignore".

These comments were made by Modi to former BBC journalist Lance Price in July last year explaining his decision not to name Kejriwal during the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.

Kejriwal modi

Price, who spoke to Modi four times during that period, recounts Modi's responses on a variety of issues in his new book "The Modi Effect: Inside Narendra Modi's Campaign to Transform India".

It makes a mention of the contest between Modi and Kejriwal for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. After Kejriwal announced his candidature and promised a 'political earthquake', Modi decided to keep mum.

When asked about it, he told Price, "My silence is my strength..You should know that in the grand scheme of things, Kejriwal was nothing but a small single city leader. He was getting far more coverage than he deserved as compared to other more established Opposition party leaders. So why spend time even ignoring someone. It was, therefore, not even worth my time to ignore Kejriwal.

"Kejriwal was elevated by select group of vested media interests fuelled by the Congress to target Narendra Modi and try and save the Congress. Keep in mind he was not even a Member of Parliament; had lasted only 49 days as CM and had won less than one per cent of the national vote."

Kejriwal lost to Modi in Varanasi but led AAP to a resounding victory clinching 67 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly. BJP won the remaining three seats while Congress drew a blank.

Modi recounted that while all eyes were on the Lok Sabha results on May 16 last year, he was alone in his room meditating with no television on and took telephone calls only after 12 noon.

"In the morning when the counting was going on, I was totally alone and had no TV on. I was finishing off my own spiritual activities and enjoying my meditation time after the grueling elections," the Prime Minister says.

On the day of counting, he says he "started taking calls only from 12 noon and the first call on the results was from BJP president Rajnath Singh telling me that it was a foregone conclusion that we would sweep the polls".

This and several other titbits about Modi, his life - both personal and political - find mention in the book by Price, former media advisor to the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Published in India by Hachette, the book is based on the author's interviews with the prime minister, his Cabinet colleagues like Piyush Goyal, Prakash Javadekar and Smriti Irani and his team of advisers and analysts.

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Agencies
July 27,2020

New Delhi, Jul 27: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said he is not going to lie about Chinese transgressions in eastern Ladakh even if it costs him politically, asserting he will say the truth as far as Indian territory is concerned.

Gandhi made these remarks in a tweet, along with an over-a-minute-long video, as part of a series launched by him on the India-China face-off along the Line of Actual Control(LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Asked in the video how he would react to people who say his questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on China weakened India, the former Congress chief said, "If you want me to lie that the Chinese have not entered this country, I am not going to lie. I will simply not do it. I do not care if my whole career goes to hell. I am not going to lie."

"This disturbs me. Frankly, it makes my blood boil. How can some other nation just come into our territory?"

"Hiding the truth is anti-national. Bringing it to people's attention is patriotic," Gandhi said.

"So frankly, I do not care if it costs me politically. I do not care if I have no political career at all after that. But I am going to say the truth as far as Indian territory is concerned," he added.

Gandhi has been repeatedly attacking the prime minister and the government over Chinese transgressions on the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

"As an Indian, my number one priority is the nation and its people," he said on Monday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has hit back at Gandhi over his attack on the government on the Ladakh face-off, alleging he is seeking to politicise defence and foreign policy matters and "wash their past sins of 1962 and weaken India".

BJP president JP Nadda has also alleged that for years, a dynasty has been trying to destroy Modi, while adding that those who want to destroy the prime minister will only end up causing further damage to their own party.

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Agencies
March 6,2020

Mumbai, Mar 6; The Indian equity indices slumped on Friday morning, with the BSE Sensex falling over 1,450 points

The slump across the sectoral indices was led by the finance and banking stocks as the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday superseded the board of directors of Yes Bank and placed it under moratorium.

Persistent fears of the coronavirus outbreak severely impacting global economy also weighed on the investor sentiments, analysts said.

At 9.36 a.m., the BSE Sensex trimmed some losses and was trading at 37,376.66, lower by 1,093.95 points or 2.84 per cent from the previous close of 38,470.61

So far, the index has touched an intra-day low of 37,011.09, falling by 1,459.52 points.

It had opened at the intra-day high of 37,613.96.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 10,938.75, lower by 330.25 or 2.93 per cent from its previous close.

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Agencies
June 6,2020

Ahmedabad, June 6: Rattled by resignations of three MLAs ahead of the June 19 Rajya Sabha polls, the Congress in Gujarat on Saturday shifted several of its legislators to resorts and bungalows near their constituencies to thwart any "poaching" bid, a party leader said.

With the resignations of Akshay Patel and Jitu Chaudhary on June 3 and that of Brijesh Merja on June 5, the Congress' strength in the 182-member House has been reduced to 65.

The effective strength of the House, however, stands at 172 as of now as ten seats are currently vacant - two due to court cases and the rest because of resignations.

While several MLAs from north Gujarat were shifted to a resort near Ambaji in Banaskantha district, those from south and Central Gujarat were moved to private bungalows in Anand, Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said, adding that legislators from Saurashtra region were shifted to a resort in Rajkot.
 

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