Leaders who don't keep promise get 'beaten up': Gadkari

Agencies
January 28, 2019

Mumbai, Jan 28: Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said political leaders who sell dreams to people, but fail to make them a reality get "beaten up" by the public.

The minister, who handles a host of infrastructure-related portfolios in the Modi government, asserted he is a doer and delivers on his promises.

"People like (political) leaders who sell them dreams. But if these dreams are not realised, then they beat them up (politically) as well," Gadkari said, speaking at a function here.

"I am not the one who only sells dreams, but I deliver 100 per cent what I talk about," he said.

Gadkari, a former BJP president, also spoke about his stint as Maharashtra's PWD minister when the Shiv Sena-BJP government was in power (1995-99) in the state.

"The media persons in Mumbai know what kind of a person I am as they have seen how I complete projects. They do trust me," said the 61-year-old politician from Nagpur.

"People used to laugh at me when I, as PWD minister, used to claim that I was going to build over 50 flyovers in Mumbai, and bring down the travel time between Mumbai and Pune to merely two hours (via 91-km expressway).

"I was ridiculed but I proved them wrong and completed every project I had promised," Gadkari said.

At the function, Bollywood actor Isha Koppikar joined the BJP and was made working president of the party's women transport wing.

In December, Gadkari said at an event in Pune that leadership should have the tendency to own up defeat and failures.

The remarks had come days after the BJP's dismal show in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly elections.

As the comments created a controversy, Gadkari said his statements had been twisted and alleged "there was a sinister campaign by some opposition parties and a section of the media to twist" his comments and "draw politically motivated inferences to malign" him and his party.

At the valedictory function of the annual Marathi literary meet at Yavatmal on January 13, Gadkari said politicians should not interfere in other fields.

The meet was embroiled in a controversy after an invitation to writer Nayantara Sahgal was withdrawn apparently under pressure from a political party.

Without making a direct reference to the row, Gadkari had said, "Politicians should learn not to interfere in other fields. The people who are in universities, educational institutions, literature and poetry, they should be dealing with their (respective) areas."

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Agencies
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11: People of Delhi have explained the true meaning of nationalism through their mandate, AAP's prominent face Manish Sisodia said as he clinched victory on the Patparganj seat.

Sisodia, who retained his seat for the third time, said the BJP indulged in "politics of hate", but people refused to be divided.

"I am happy to have won the Patparganj seat again. The BJP indulged in politics of hate, but I thank the people of Patparganj. Today, Delhi's people have chosen a government which works for them and explained the true meaning of nationalism through their mandate," he told reporters.

Sisodia, who was the Deputy Chief Minister and led the government's education reforms agenda, defeated BJP's Ravinder Singh Negi by a margin of over 3,500 votes.

The initial trends saw a seesaw battle between Sisodia and Negi.

In 2013, Sisodia had won by a margin of 11,000 votes and in 2015 by over 28,000 votes.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Kashmir, Jan 9: US Ambassador to India Kenneth I Juster along with envoys from 15 other countries arrived in Srinagar on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, the first visit by diplomats since the abrogation of the erstwhile state's special status in August last year.

The Delhi-based envoys arrived in Srinagar by a special chartered flight at Srinagar's technical airport where top officials from the newly carved out union territory received them, officials said.

Later in the day, they would be going to Jammu, the winter capital of the newly created Union Territory, for an overnight stay. They will meet Lt Governor G C Murmu as well as civil society members, they said.

Besides the US, the delegation will include diplomats from Bangladesh, Vietnam, Norway, Maldives, South Korea, Morocco, and Nigeria, among others.

Brazil's envoy Andre Aranha Correa do Lago was also scheduled to visit Jammu and Kashmir. However, he backed out because of his preoccupation here, the officials said on Wednesday.

Envoys from the European Union (EU) countries are understood to have conveyed that they will visit the union territory on a different date and are also believed to have stressed on meeting the three former chief ministers -- Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti -- who are under detention.

Officials said envoys of several countries had requested the government for a visit to Kashmir to get a first-hand account of the situation in the Valley following the August 5 decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 and bifurcate it into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

This is the second visit of a foreign delegation to Jammu and Kashmir since August 5. Earlier, Delhi-based think tank International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies, a Delhi-based think tank took 23 EU MPs on a two-day visit to assess the situation in the union territory.

The government had distanced itself from the visit with Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy informing Parliament that the European parliamentarians were on a "private visit".

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News Network
May 27,2020

Mumbai, May 27: The Maharashtra government on Tuesday ordered re investigation by the CID into the suicide of a 53-year-old interior designer and his mother, allegedly over non-payment of dues by TV journalist Arnab Goswami and two others.

State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said he ordered re investigation after Adnya Naik, daughter of interior designer Anvay Naik, claimed that Alibag Police in neighbouring Raigad district did not probe the non-payment of dues which had driven her father and grandmother to suicide.

"Adnya Naik had complained to me that #AlibaugPolice had not investigated non-payment of dues from #ArnabGoswami's @republic which drove her entrepreneur father & grandmom to suicide in May 2018," Deshmukh tweeted.

"I've ordered a CID re-investigation of the case," the minister, an NCP leader, added.

He also used the hashtag "Maharashtra government cares" while sharing the tweet. Earlier this month, the police registered an abetment of suicide case against Republic TV editor-in-chief Goswami and two others.

The suicide note purportedly written by Anvay Naik, managing director of Concorde Designs Private Limited, said he was forced to take his life as he was not paid dues of Rs 5.40 crore by the three accused.

Republic TV denied the allegation and said that certain vested interest groups were running "a false and malicious campaign and making false statements and innuendos against the company by exploiting the tragic event".

Mumbai Police are also conducting a probe against Goswami over his statements about the Palghar lynching case of April this year.

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