Not Congress but CBI preparing to fight LS polls: Modi

September 25, 2013
Bhopal, Sep 25: The Congress has lost the capacity to fight the BJP, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said Wednesday, adding that the coming assembly and Lok Sabha polls will be fought by the "CBI and not the Congress". NaMo

Addressing a massive "Karyakarta Mahakumbh" (party workers' mega conclave) here, Modi, who is the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate, took repeated digs at the Congress and called upon party workers to rid the country of the party that heads the coalition central government.

He said that "a Congress-free India" will fulfil "Mahatma Gandhi's desire of disbanding the Congress".

The BJP sought to put up a show of unity at the rally in the poll-bound state with party veteran L.K. Advani sharing dais with Modi for the first time after the latter was named as the party's prime ministerial candidate.

Advani had not attended a party meeting earlier this month that selected Modi as the BJP face in the 2014 general elections.

A galaxy of BJP leaders attended the Bhopal rally.

Modi, who was the main speaker at the rally, referred to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government as "sultanate" and "Delhi ke shahanshah (rulers of Delhi)" in his nearly 35 minute speech.

Attacking the Congress, Modi said the party was not going to put up candidates in the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and in the general elections and the CBI would fight the elections on its behalf.

"The Congress is not going to put up its candidates. It is not the Congress but the CBI which will fight the polls. The Congress does not have the capacity to fight the BJP. They have fielded the CBI. It (Congress) should hear clearly how it had been paid back by people for the atrocities of the emergency," he said.

Former prime minister Indira Gandhi had imposed a state of emergency in 1975 that lasted 18 months during which political opponents were jailed, civil liberties curtailed and press censored.

The BJP has often accused the Congress of misusing the CBI for its political ends.

Modi's close aide and former Gujarat minister Amit Shah is expected to be quizzed by the CBI in the Ishrat Jahan alleged staged shootout case.

The Modi government has been facing the heat over alleged stage shootouts in the state with suspended police officer D.G. Vanzara alleging in a letter that the chief minister and Shah were also to blame for the incidents.

The workers conclave was organised on the birth anniversary of party ideologue Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay and seen as a show of strength by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP is seeking a third successive term in the assembly elections to be held later this year.

Modi heaped lavish praise on Chouhan and said the chief minister deserved the maximum credit for "forcing" the Congress to talk of inclusive growth.

Attacking the Congress over corruption, he said if "numeral one is put in Bhopal, the number of zeros (for the money involved in graft) will go upto Janpath (the Delhi road which has the residence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi".

He said people should think of their future generation while casting their vote.

"You have faced difficulties but do you want your children to be forced to live in poverty and illiteracy...," he said.

He said all surveys were in favour of the BJP. "People say there is a storm in favour of the BJP from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. We also feel good listening to this," Modi said.

Modi said it was the duty of party workers to translate the wave of support into votes.

He said the Congress-led central government had stopped bringing out a progress report on the 20-point programme as the BJP or National Democratic Alliance-ruled states had been among the top five performers for the past several years.

Modi alleged the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh led by former chief minister Digvijay Singh had "destroyed" the state.

"Today Madhya Pradesh is ready for a leap. The Congress is hungry for the last 10 years. If a mistake is made (Congress comes to power), you can imagine how things will take a turn for the bad," Modi said.

He accused the UPA government ofdiscriminating with the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh.

Chouhan slammed the Congress for corruption. "A stands for Adarsh scam...Z for zamin (land) scam," he said.

BJP president Rajnath Singh accused the Congress of resorting to lies to drag the name of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological fountainhead of BJP, in a blasts case in Jaipur.

The rally was also attended by BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Uma Bharti.

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Agencies
May 19,2020

Ahmedabad, Nay 19: Over 2,200 Indian nationals stranded in the UK due to the coronavirus related international travel restrictions have been flown back home during the first phase of India's biggest ever repatriation exercise, according to official figures.

Since the first special Air India flight took off from London’s Heathrow Airport for Mumbai on May 8, there have been eight routes to different Indian cities from the UK for Indian students and tourists.

Indian nationals were flown home to the cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Ahmedabad.

“We have facilitated repatriation of 2,288 Indians stranded in the UK through eight Air India flights till 17 May. Vande Bharat Mission continues to get Indians home,” said the Indian High Commission in London.

The Vande Bharat Mission is India’s biggest ever repatriation exercise to bring back Indians from abroad who are unable to travel home due to COVID-19 related international travel restrictions.

As the second phase of the repatriation process gets underway, retired Indian High Commissioner to the UK Ruchi Ghanashyam will be among the Indians flying back to New Delhi on Thursday.

“It has been such a hectic period, but I hope to return to the UK to say goodbyes in person sometime in the future,” Ghanashyam said during a virtual farewell organised by the Indian Journalists’ Association (IJA UK) on Monday.

As the packed flights take off daily, there are some still desperately waiting their turn, including those wanting to fly to some cities that are yet to be scheduled, including Kolkata.

“I have two young daughters, elderly parents, and a wife back at home. There is no way to return to Kolkata. I am worried for my parents,” says Suvendu, who came to the UK for work but recently lost his job.

“I am really surprised there are no Kolkata flights yet, but I am hoping they will be announced in the future,” adds Dr Arpita Ray, whose father needs to fly back home.

Another group waiting their turn to return home to their families in India includes students in the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) category, which remains suspended in India’s extended COVID-19 lockdown.

According to the regulations issued by the Indian government last month and updated last week, visas of foreign nationals and OCI cards, that provide visa-free travel privileges to the people of Indian-origin, have been suspended as part of the new international travel restrictions following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our plight is no different from the struggles being faced by Indian students who hold Indian passports – India is home for all us,” says Tridip, an undergraduate at SOAS University of London.

“Yes, air travel at this point of time may be a risk but we are of course ready to take all precautionary measures and undergo the mandatory quarantine period upon arrival in India," adds the 18-year-old.

“Having lived in India for the greater part of my life, India is home to me as much as it is to an Indian citizen, and just as any Indian citizen wishes for the comfort of home and family, so do I. I can only hope that the government reviews its policy on OCI holders and appeal to them to include us in their repatriation plans," says Atulit, an under-graduate student at Imperial College London.

Bianta, a student at Bangor University in Wales, adds: “Along with all of the mental stress, financially the UK is too expensive. In the coming weeks my rental agreement will expire, after which I will have nowhere to go.

“I cannot continue funding myself here in the UK as I only planned to be here till May marking the end of my course. Please help us get home. The colour of my passport does not define where my home is."

As all commercial international flights continue to be grounded, the second phase of the Vande Bharat Mission with a total of 149 flights is aimed at bringing back Indians from 40 countries. On landing in India, these travellers have a 14-day quarantine requirement at venues organised by the respective state governments. 

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Rajouri, Aug 3: Ashfaq Mehmood Choudhary, a 17-year-old boy from Chattyear of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, has developed a file-sharing app 'Dodo Drop' which would enable users to share audios, videos, images, and texts between two devices without Internet access.

While speaking to media persons, Ashfaq Mehmood said that the 'Dodo Drop' application is an alternative to the Chinese 'SHAREit' app. "The Indian government has banned several Chinese apps due to data breaching, and among those apps was SHAREit which was used for sharing files.

Users faced a lot of problems due to the ban, and so I decided to make this file-sharing app. With 'Dodo Drop', users can share audios, videos, images, and even texts," he said.

Ashfaq said that it took him four weeks to develop the application, and it was launched on August 1 this year. The 'Dodo Drop' application has a transfer rate of up to 480 mbps, which is faster than the SHAREit app and is "quite easy" to use.

"Users can transfer data comprising photos, videos, audios, apps, texts, etc. between two devices with no Internet access. The transfers are fully encrypted and secure," he added.

"Our Prime Minister has always asserted the need for decreasing the dependency on foreign products and apps and to focus on the development of India-based apps. I tried to be part of the initiative of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' by developing an India-based file-sharing app. I want to develop global-standard apps for India," he added.

"We support and cooperate with him. He generates his own income by working on some projects and utilises it. We will continue to support him," said Parvez Ahmed Choudhary, Ashfaq's father.

In July, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) banned 47 apps, which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps banned earlier in June. These banned clones included SHAREit Lite, Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite, and VFY Lite.

The 59 apps had been banned by the Centre in June in view of the information available that they were engaged in activities which were "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity and defence" of the country.

Almost all the apps banned had some preferential Chinese interest and the majority had parent Chinese companies.

The ban came amid border tensions with China in the Eastern Ladakh region.

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News Network
January 27,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 27: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange for airlifting the Indians stranded in Wuhan province of China, the epicentre of coronavirus, saying the ground situation there has further worsened.

In a letter to Mr. Modi, he said since the situation in Wuhan was grave, it would be appropriate to operate a special flight to Wuhan or a nearby functional airport and airlift Indian nationals stranded there.

Mr. Vijayan also wanted the Prime Minister to give necessary instructions to the Indian Embassy in China to act pro-actively and provide necessary assistance and reassurance to Indians, including Keralites, stranded in Wuhan and Yichang.

The Chief Minister offered assistance of medical professionals from the State in case of evacuation of the Indians from Wuhan.

Chinese health authorities have announced the death toll due to coronavirus has sharply increased to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

The confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus officially described as 2019-nCoV included 461 patients who are in critical condition.

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