Pranab was more qualified than me to be PM: Manmohan Singh

Agencies
October 14, 2017

New Delhi, Oct 14: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Pranab Mukherjee would be justified in feeling aggrieved on being passed over for the top job in 2004 since the former President was better qualified to lead the government, but added that he "had no choice in the matter" as the decision to install him was that of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

"In 2004, Mukherjee had all reason to feel the grievance that he was better qualified than me to be the PM but he knew that I had no choice," Singh said at a function to release the third instalment of Mukherjee's book 'Coalition Years'.

The remark provoked loud guffaws on the dais that seated Mukherjee, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury , SP head Akhilesh Yadav, CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy and DMK's Kanimozhi, as well as the front row which had Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. BSP's SC Mishra, who was slated to be on the dais, did not turn up.

The occasion was marked by a strong push by non-Congress leaders for putting together an anti-BJP coalition. Reddy said the threat facing democracy had revived the need for an anti-BJP coalition. Akhilesh said Mukherjee's lessons on coalition would be a big help ahead of the 2019 polls.

Kanimozhi praised Mukherjee for condemning "intolerance" and stressing on the need for "dialogue" even while being the President. She said rights of states were being taken away under the BJP regime and a voice like Mukherjee's would "make a difference". But it was Singh's candid comments which turned out to be the highlight. It was his first ever remark on his relationship with Mukherjee, often described as tense because of the latter's widely speculated resentment over having to make way for Singh in 2004 when Congress pulled of an upset to form the government.

"He is a politician by choice. He is the greatest politician living in the country .I became a politician by accident when P V Narasimha Rao asked me to become the finance minister," Singh said.

The comments appeared a conscious effort to cap the incessant chatter about their relationship -something which remained the grist of grapevine during the UPA regime with insiders on many occasions insisting that the friction was not merely a piece of imagination of the gossipy elite of Lutyen's zone.

For Mukherjee, being passed over for Singh was seen as an especially cruel blow because he happened to be Singh-the-bureaucrat's superior more than once during earlier Congress regimes. Given the context, Mukherjee's election as President was seen to have restored parity , with Singh again reporting to him, that is, in terms of protocol, for his last two years as PM. Singh said he was "grateful" for Mukherjee's help in managing the UPA coalitions."If UPA was smooth, a large measure of credit goes to Mukherjee," he said.

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Agencies
February 23,2020

Motera, Feb 23: A day before US President Donald Trump's visit to Ahmedabad, a makeshift VVIP entry gate erected outside the newly-built cricket stadium in Motera area here collapsed due to gusty winds on Sunday morning, an official said.

The entire incident was recorded by a bystander and aired on local television channels.

The makeshift entry gate was made of welded steel rods and covered in flex banners.

After some time, a portion of another makeshift gate structure at the stadium's main entrance also collapsed due to the windy weather, another official said.

No one was injured in both the incidents and work was underway to put the structures back in place, he said.

"The (VVIP) entry gate collapsed when fabrication work was going on. It was not a major incident. No one was injured in the incident," said Special Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Ajay Tomar said.

President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in a roadshow here on Monday and later address the 'Namaste Trump' event at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera area where over one lakh people are expected to be present.

The stadium has already received 'Building Use' permission from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, an official earlier said.

It is the world's largest stadium with a capacity to accommodate 1.10 lakh spectators.

The stadium has been rebuilt after demolishing the old one which had a seating capacity of 49,000 spectators.

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Agencies
July 18,2020

Days after Twitter accounts of several billionaires were hacked to engineer a crypto scam, Twitter on Saturday said it is embarrassed, disappointed and, more than anything, sorry for what happened with some of its high-profile users as attackers successfully manipulated its employees and used their credentials to access internal systems, including getting through the two-factor protections.

In the first detailed summary of the "social engineering attack" via a crypto scam that hit at least 130 users this week, Twitter said for 45 of those accounts, the attackers were able to initiate a password reset, login to the account and send Tweets.

"We are continuing our forensic review of all of the accounts to confirm all actions that may have been taken. In addition, we believe they may have attempted to sell some of the usernames," the micro-blogging platform said in a statement.

For up to eight of the Twitter accounts involved, the attackers took the additional step of downloading the account's information via "Your Twitter Data" tool.

This is a tool that is meant to provide an account owner with a summary of their Twitter account details and activity.

"We are reaching out directly to any account owner where we know this to be true. None of the eight were verified accounts," said Twitter.

The company said the attackers were not able to view previous account passwords, as those are not stored in plain text or available through the tools used in the attack.

"Attackers were able to view personal information including email addresses and phone numbers, which are displayed to some users of our internal support tools," informed Twitter.

In cases where an account was taken over by the attacker, they may have been able to view additional information, Twitter added, saying its forensic investigation of these activities was still ongoing.

"We are actively working on communicating directly with the account-holders that were impacted".

The company said it will soon restore access for all account owners who may still be locked out as a result of the remediation efforts.

The New York Times reported on Friday that the Twitter crypto scam can be traced back to a group of hackers who congregate online at OGusers.com, a username-swapping community where people buy and sell coveted online handles.

The report said that the Twitter hack is not from Russian, Chinese or North Korean hackers but was done by a group of young people, "one of whom says he lives at home with his mother".

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Agencies
August 9,2020

New Delhi, Aug 9: Indian on Sunday achieved a grim milestone after recording the highest single-day spike of 64,399 coronavirus cases, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As many as 861 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative toll to 43,379.

With the new cases, the country's coronavirus count has reached 21,53,011 including 6,28,747 active cases and 14,80,885 cured/discharged/migrated.

Maharashtra has 1,47,355 active coronavirus cases, the highest in the country.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 7,19,364 samples were tested on August 8 while over 2.41 crores samples so far have been tested in the country.

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