Nothing shameful in Mamata blocking Salman Rushdie's visit to Kolkata: TMC's Sultan Ahmed

February 1, 2013

Salman_Rushdies_visit_to_KolkataKolkata, Feb 1: Trinamool Congress leader Sultan Ahmed defended West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying she did nothing wrong in blocking author Salman Rushdie's visit to Kolkata. "There is nothing shameful, I am congratulating the state government for taking the right decision," Ahmed said.

Hitting out at Rushdie, Ahmed said, "You cannot denigrate Islam and get away with it. I welcome the decision of Mamata Banerjee to not let him in. It is not free thinking, abusing a religion is not free thinking. In the land of Swami Vivekananda, Kazi Nazrul Islam, we don't support this kind of a thing in the name of free thinking."

This came after Salman Rushdie accused the Mamata government of blocking his visit to Kolkata. Reacting on Twitter, Rushdie blamed Mamata Banerjee for ordering the police to block his arrival. Rushdie's trip to Kolkata on Wednesday was cancelled as the venue for his press conference could not be confirmed. He was to promote Deepa Mehta's film Midnight's Children, which is based on his novel. Rushdie has also refuted the claim of the Kolkata Literary meet organisers that he wasn't invited for the meet.

In his tweets, Rushdie said, "The simple fact is that the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered the police to block my arrival. The Kolkata lit meet organizers are lying when they say I wasn't invited. I have emails and plane tkt sent by them to prove it. The police gave my full itinerary to the press and called Muslim leaders, clearly inciting protests."

Rushdie ridiculed TMC's Saugata Ray saying, "I did not get 'friendly advice' to stay away from Kolkata. I was told the police would put me on next plane out."

The writer himself has expressed anguish at the growing cultural terrorism. In a statement, Rushdie said, "The assaults upon the artistic and intellectual freedoms of, for example, Maqbool Fida Hussain, Rohinton Mistry, AK Ramanujan, James Laine, Deepa Mehta, Ashis Nandy, Kamal Haasan and others add up to what I have called a cultural Emergency. I can only hope that the people have the will to demand that such assaults on freedom cease once and for all."

Meanwhile, Director Deepa Mehta who was also invited to the literary meet, said she cancelled her visit out of solidarity. "I didn't go to Kolkata out of solidarity for Salman Rushdie. It is not fair that he was disinvited at the last minute. He was told by the police, or I'm not clear who were the powers who told him, I think it was the Chief Minister's decision. He was told that he shouldn't fly in or if he does, he'll have to fly right back, so he decided it didn't make sense to go," Deepa Mehta said.

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Agencies
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11: Senior Delhi Congress leader and national spokesperson of the party Sharmishtha Mukherjee alleged delay in decision making and lack of strategy and unity at the state level for the party's humiliating performance reflected in the Assembly poll results on Tuesday.

Mukherjee, president of Delhi Mahila Congress, stated that it was high time that the party takes some action. She added that she too was responsible for the Congress' poor show.

The Congress is on the verge of drawing blank again in the Assembly polls as all its candidates were way far behind their AAP and BJP opponents on all the 70 seats. In the 2015 Assembly elections too, Congress failed to win any seat.

"We r again decimated in Delhi. Enuf of introspection, time 4 action now. Inordinate delay in decision making at the top, lack of strategy & unity at state level, demotivated workers, no grassroots connect-all r factors. Being part of d system, I too take my share of responsibility (sic)," Mukherjee tweeted as the results came out.

She also accused the BJP of playing divisive politics while crediting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for playing "smart politics" as the results showed a clean sweep by the AAP to return to power.

"BJP playing divisive politics, Kejriwal playing ‘smart politics’ & what r we doing? Can we honestly say that we’ve done all 2 put our house in order? We r busy capturing Congress whereas other parties are capturing India. If we r 2 survive, time 2 come out of exalted echo chambers! (sic)," she said in another tweet.

The Congress contested the Delhi polls in alliance with the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), fielding candidates on 66 seats and leaving four to its partner.

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Agencies
May 31,2020

New Delhi, May 31: India registered its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases on Sunday with 8,380 new infections reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 1,82,143, while the death toll rose to 5,164, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood to 89,995, while 86,983 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

"Thus, around 47.75 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.

The total confirmed cases include foreigners.

The death toll has gone up by 193 since Saturday morning, of which 99 were from Maharashtra, 27 from Gujarat, 18 from Delhi, nine each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, seven from West Bengal, six each from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, five in Bihar, three from Uttar Pradesh, two from Punjab, and one each from Haryana and Kerala.

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News Network
March 4,2020

Mar 4: Twenty-one Italian tourists and three Indian tour operators have been sent to an ITBP quarantine facility in Delhi on Tuesday for suspected coronavirus exposure, official sources said.

Health Ministry sources said these foreigners, 13 women and eight men, were in the same group of which an Italian and his wife have tested positive in Rajasthan capital Jaipur.

“His (Italian in Jaipur) condition is stable,” a source said.

Three Indians, who were accompanying this Italian group as tour operators, have also been sent to the ITBP facility in Chhawla area of south-west Delhi, they said.

All these people, staying at a five-star hotel in south Delhi, have been put in “preventive isolation” at the ITBP camp and their samples will be taken on Wednesday, sources said.

The centre already has 112 people, 76 Indians and 36 foreigners, since February 27 after they were evacuated by an IAF plane from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the coronavirus.

The first samples of these 112 people had tested negative when reports came in last week.

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