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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News Network
June 27,2020

New Delhi, Jun 27: Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Saturday called an emergency meeting here to discuss the situation following a locust attack in neighbouring Gurugram.

The minister also directed the administration to be alert, an official said.

"After the emergency meeting, an advisory will be issued on steps to be taken to deal with the situation," Rai told PTI.

He asked the officials of the Agriculture department to make field visits to areas close to Gurugram.

The development secretary, divisional commissioner, director, Agriculture department, and the district magistrates of South Delhi and West Delhi will attend the meeting, the official said.

Earlier in the day, the skies over many parts of Gurugram turned dark as swarms of locusts descended on the town.

However, the migratory pests are likely to spare the national capital for now, officials said.

The swarms of locusts, spread across two kilometres, moved from west to east. They entered Gurugram around 11.30 am, K L Gurjar of the Locust Warning Organisation, Ministry of Agriculture, told PTI.

The pests, he said, were headed towards Faridabad and Palwal in Haryana.

Alarmed at the invasion of the locusts, which settled on trees, rooftops and plants, many residents of Gurugram shared videos from their high-rise perches.

In May, India battled a devastating desert locust outbreak. The crop-destroying swarms first attacked Rajasthan and then spread to Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

According to experts, broadly four species of locusts are found in India – desert locust, migratory locust, Bombay locust and tree locust. The desert locust is considered the most destructive.

It multiplies very rapidly and is capable of covering 150 kilometers in a day.

This insect, a type of a grasshopper, can eat more than its body weight. A one square kilometer of locust swarm containing around 40 million locusts can in a day eat as much food as 35,000 people.

Experts blame the growing menace of desert locusts on climate change. They say breeding of locusts is directly related to soil moisture and food availability.

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Agencies
June 7,2020

New Delhi, Jun 7: The Islamic Centre of India on Saturday issued an advisory for those visiting mosques in view of the Centre’s decision to allow reopening of religious places from June 8.

Islamic Centre of India chairman Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali advised people above 65 years and under 10 years of age not to visit mosques and instead offer prayers at home.

He also advised against crowding in mosques, stressing that not more than five people should be present at a time and social distancing be maintained, with the ‘namazis’ using masks and keeping a distance of six feet among themselves while offering prayers.

He added that the situation would be reviewed after 15 days and if required, another advisory would be issued.

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News Network
January 28,2020

Mumbai, Jan 28: Flag carrier Air India has kept one of its 423-seater jumbo planes ready in Mumbai for the evacuation of Indian citizens from Wuhan in China in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in that country, an official source said on Tuesday.

The airline is awaiting necessary approvals from the ministries of external affairs and health to operate the special flight, the source said. The health ministry's nod is required because the operating crew has to fly in a virus outbreak territory.

"We have kept a Boeing 747-400 ready in Mumbai to operate an evacuation flight to China whenever we get a go ahead from the government," the source said.

Some 250 Indians are to be evacuated.

At a meeting of top secretaries called by the cabinet secretary on Monday, the government decided to be prepared for possible evacuation of Indian nationals in Wuhan.

Accordingly, Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities for evacuation of Indian nationals, mostly students, stuck in Wuhan city. The Ministry of Civil Aviation and Ministry of Health will make arrangements for transport and quarantine facilities respectively, an official release said on Monday.

Wuhan along 12 other cities have been completely sealed by the Chinese authorities to stop the virus from spreading. The death toll climbed to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

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