1. Home
  2. Modi slams Shinde’s directive on arrest of Muslim youth for terror

Modi slams Shinde’s directive on arrest of Muslim youth for terror

January 13, 2014

Modi-GoaNew Delhi, Jan 13: Narendra Modi has long associated Delhi with all the negative facets of the Congress led UPA regime. With the Aam Aadmi Party’s success in the national capital and the buzz around its electoral potential on a national scale, the BJP prime ministerial candidate referred to`Delhi’ in a different perspective – to question media obsession, (television news in particular) towards the new party and talking about how it was blind to the good work being done by the BJP chief ministers elsewhere, particularly in Goa, where he said chief minister Manohar Parikar stood taller than the much talked about Arvind Kejriwal.

Modi’s massive public rally in Goa, is more significant than being a simple voter mobilisation in the scenic coastal state. Goa after all sends only two MPs to the Lok Sabha. It was instead, important for the national perspective of the party. Given that the state receives visitors from all parts of the country and also various parts of the world, Modi wants to portray Goa, along with Gujarat, as a model BJP ruled state and also project Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, an IIT Bombay alumnus, in direct opposition to Kejriwal, for his honesty, integrity, simplicity, firm and people friendly approach.

Modi said “Goa should act as messenger to the country”. Though he didn’t name the Aam Aadmi Party or Kejriwal, his reference to it was loud and clear.

The BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate knows that he has already taken the campaign against the Congress to a certain level and has been successful in both creating and encashing on the rising exasperation against 10 years of Congress rule at the centre. Modi only had to keep going strong vis-à-vis the Grand Old Party but he realises that he can no longer afford to ignore the new kid on the block which has been gaining lot of traction in some of his social constituents. “Those acting as a shield of the Congress are equally guilty”, he said.

By talking about Parrikar’s credentials, and then his own, Modi tried to convince the people not to vote for “television faces” which were neither tried nor tested. “Imagine what would happened had Manohar Parrikar had been in Delhi. The country would have known about his good work but what can we do, he is in Goa and media can’t see anything beyond Delhi. I have been working so hard, serving the people of Gujarat for the last 12 years but I have always been portrayed as vanquished in TV and newspapers. I could never make a place for good. Leading the country needs a big vision and implementation of the right policies. The country could advance only if it is led by leaders who have a tried and tested track record and experience. TV faces can’t do that well.”

The Aam Aadmi Party has begun expanding nationally with an aggressive membership drive. Kumar Vishwas created a buzz on Sunday by his visit to Congress president Rahul Gandhi's bastion of Amethi, while Yogendra Yadav made a foray into Haryana.

If Modi chose his public rally to attack Aam Aadmi credentials, other party leaders are taking different other routes to question the young party’s capabilities. His trusted party colleague, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun has made a strong and direct pitch against AAP. “The AAP government has so far confused substantive governance with style of governance. It may be entitled to its unconventional style of governance. The unconventional style is not a substitute for substantive governance. Publicity without any substantive governance is simply gimmickry. Responsible governance has a long lasting impact. Gimmickry is always short lived", he said.

Kejriwal’s experiments to hold a Janata Darbar on the streets of Delhi and subsequent chaotic scenes have raised questions about their ideas of governance.

Though Modi for a change did not directly target Rahul Gandhi, he went after Jayanti Natrajan, a Gandhi-Nehru family loyalist, who was the environment and forest ministry. “We had heard of Income Tax, Sales Tax but in Delhi a new kind tax, Jayanti (Natrajan) tax was being levied. A file in the environment ministry would not move without payment of the Jayanti tax.” He then went on to say how the UPA government disallowed a decision to lease mining rights in Gujarat through auction.

Former Environment and forest minister Jayanti Natrajan’s resignation had officially been publicised as her desire to work for the party than as a removal from the government on charges of money making for clearing or keeping files on hold in perpetuity.

The BJP leader is also making home minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s directive to states to review terrorism related cases against arrested Muslim youth under various criminal offences a big electoral issue, which can have socially polarising effects.

Though Modi was cautious enough to also clarify that criminals have no religion and law does not discriminate between accused on basis of their religion, he did make it political by accusing Congress of vote bank politics. “See the audacity of the home minister. He writes to us in the states to ensure that Muslims are not arrested for involvement in criminal acts. The state functions on one philosophy -punishment of the guilty and justice to the innocent. Moreover law and order is a state subject. How can the home minister dictate to states?”

Goa has been lucky for Modi. First in 2002 it was the venue where his chief ministerial position was saved, and then in June 2013 when he was officially made the face of the party’s 2014 campaign.

Now after this sudden AAP challenge Modi will hope that Goa yet again proves lucky for him.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
January 9,2020

The World Bank says that a lack of credit and drop in private consumption have led to a gloomy growth outlook for India with a steep cut in growth rate for the current fiscal year and only a modest gain projected for the next year.

India's growth rate is forecast to be only 5 per cent for the current fiscal year, weighed down by a growth of only 4.5 per cent in the July-September quarter, according to the 2020 Global Economic Prospects report released on Wednesday.

"In India, [economic] activity was constrained by insufficient credit availability, as well as by subdued private consumption," the Bank said.

The growth rate is forecast by the Bank to pick up to 5.8 per cent in the next fiscal year and to 6.1 per cent in 2021-22.

India's growth rate was 6.8 per cent in 2018-19.

The 5 per cent growth rate projection for the current financial year is a sharp cut of 2.5 per cent from the 7.5 per cent forecast made by the Bank in January last year, toppling it from the rank of the world's fastest growing economy.

India's performance follows a global trend of lowered growth weighed down by developed economies.

The report estimated world economic growth rate to be only 2.4 per cent last year and forecast it to edge up 0.1 per cent to 2.5 per cent in the current year.

Even with the lower growth rate of 5 per cent in the current fiscal year and 5.8 per cent forecast for the next, India holds the second rank among large economies, behind only China with an estimated growth rate of 6.1 per cent for 2019 and 5.9 per cent this year.

The report blamed "weak confidence, liquidity issues in the financial sector" and "weakness in credit from non-bank financial companies" for India's slowdown.

The Bank predicated India's recovery to 5.8 per cent in the coming financial year for India but "on the monetary policy stance remaining accommodative" and the assumption that "the stimulative fiscal and structural measures already taken will begin to pay off."

It also warned that sharper-than-expected slowdown in major external markets such as United States and Europe, would affect South Asia through trade, financial, and confidence channels, especially for countries with strong trade links to these economies."

The Bank said that the growth of advanced economies was 1.6 per cent last year and "is anticipated to slip to 1.4 per cent in 2020 in part due to continued softness in manufacturing."

In contrast the growth of emerging market and developing countries is expected to accelerate from 3.5 per cent last year to 4.1 per cent this year, the report said.

In South Asia, Bangladesh is estimated to have the highest growth rate of 7.2 per cent in the current fiscal year, although down from 8.1 per cent last fiscal year.

But its higher regional growth rates are coming off a lower base with a per capital gross domestic product of $1,698 compared to $2,010 for India.

Bangladesh is expected to grow by 7.3 per cent in the next financial year.

Pakistan's growth rate is estimated at only 2.4 per cent in the current fiscal year and is projected to rise to 3 per cent in the next, according to the Bank.

The Bank blamed monetary tightening in Pakistan for a sharp deceleration in fixed investment and a considerable softening in private consumption for the fall in growth rate from 3.3 per cent in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Sri Lanka's growth rate was estimated to be 2.7 per cent last year and forecast to grow to 3.3 per cent this year.

Nepal grew by an estimated 6.4 per cent in the current fiscal year and will rise to 6.5 per cent in the next.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 25,2020

Chennai, Apr 25: Civic authorities on Saturday turned down a plea for exhuming the body of a doctor who died of COVID-19 here and burying it in another cemetery, citing health experts' view that it was unsafe to do so. Citing a request from the wife of the deceased doctor to allow exhumation and then re-burial at a cemetery in Kilpauk, the Greater Chennai Corporation said it sought a report from a committee of public health experts to ascertain the feasibility of entertaining her plea.

The spouse of the doctor had appealed to the GCC on April 22 to exhume and bury again her husband's body. She had said that burial in the Kilpauk cemetery here was her husband's last wish and he had conveyed it to her before he was put on a ventilator.

The report of experts has said that "it is not safe" to exhume and again bury the body of a COVID-19 victim and hence "it is not possible to accept her request," the GCC said in an official release. On April 19, a city-based 55-year-old neurosurgeon died of coronavirus and his burial at the Velangadu crematorium here was marred by violence.

A mob which falsely feared that the burial may lead to the spread of contagion had attacked the corporation health employees and associates of the deceased doctor. The doctor's wife and son also had to leave the burial ground in view of the violence.

The body was brought to Velangadu as people of Kilpauk area had opposed his burial there. Over a dozen men involved allegedly in violence were arrested and remanded to judicial custody. Later, in a video message, the surgeon's wife had said that it was her husband's last wish to be interred at the Kilpauk cemetery as per Christian rituals

Chief Minister K Palaniswami and DMK president M K Stalin had spoken to her on Wednesday over the phone and condoled her husband's death.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 14,2020

New Delhi, May 14: With a spike of 3,722 new cases in the last 24 hours, the COVID-19 count in India reached 78,003 on Thursday morning, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As per the latest update by the Ministry, there are 49,219 active cases in the country while 26,235 patients have been cured and discharged, and one migrated, so far.

With 134 new deaths being reported due to the disease since yesterday, the toll due to the disease reached 2,549.

With 25,922 confirmed cases, Maharashtra is the worst affected by the infection in the country so far.

Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, with 9,267 and 9,227, cases respectively are the next worst affected by the disease.

The national capital, Delhi, is just a couple of cases behind the 8 thousand mark as per the update on Thursday morning.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.