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Saumitra Khan lone Muslim face from BJP, representation of community rises to 27 in LS

Agencies
May 27, 2019

New Delhi, May 27: Saumitra Khan, who won from Bishnupur Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal, will be the lone Muslim lawmaker from BJP in the 17th Lok Sabha and is among the 27 parliamentarians from the community who will be representing the new House.

The number of Muslim MPs in the lower house has marginally risen to 27, compared to 22 in the outgoing.

The BJP won 303 seats in the recently concluded elections. Along with its allies, the party crossed 353 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

Among the NDA, Lok Janshakti Party's (LJP) Mahbub Ali Kaiser is another Muslim candidate who won from Khagaria Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.

The remaining 25 Muslim members are from the opposition parties.

In Uttar Pradesh, six Muslim MPs have made their way to the Lok Sabha. In the 2014 general elections, no candidate from the community emerged victorious.

While Afzal Ansari from Ghazipur, Fazalur Rahman from Saharanpur and Danish Ali from Amroha won on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket, Azam Khan, Shafique Rehman Barq and ST Hasan emerged victorious in Rampur, Sambhal and Moradabad from Samajwadi Party (SP). The two parties had contested the elections together.

In West Bengal, five MPs -- four from Trinamool Congress and one from Congress -- have been elected to the new House. The TMC candidates are -- Nusrat Jahan (Basirhat), Abu Taher Khan (Murshidabad), Sajda Ahmed (Uluberia) and Khalilur Rehman (Jangipur).

Aparupa Poddar, who converted to Islam and is now known as Afrin Ali, also found her way to the new House after winning from Arambagh seat.

With five Muslim MPs, the TMC has the most number of lawmakers from the community that will represent the new House.

Congress' Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury won from Maldaha Dakshin Lok Sabha seat.

In Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah retained his Srinagar seat, while Hasnain Masoodi (Anantnag-NC) and Mohammad Akbar Lone (Baramulla-NC) too emerged victorious from their respective constituencies.

Mohammed Faizal of the Nationalist Congress Party won the lone parliamentary seat in Lakshadweep.

Mohammad Sadique of Congress also won the Faridkot seat from Punjab. Indian Union Muslim League's K Navas Kani also emerged victorious from Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) supremo Asaduddin Owaisi, who won from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat for the fourth consecutive time, will get another five-year-term to represent his constituency in the 17th Lok Sabha.

Apart from Owaisi, another Muslim candidate, Imtiaz Jaleel, too emerged victorious from Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency.

Muslim representation in the 16th Lok Sabha had dipped to 22, the lowest figure so far. In the 15th Lok Sabha, 33 members of the community were elected.

In 1980, 49 Muslim members were elected to the Lok Sabha, which was the highest number of the community representing the Lower House of the Parliament.

Muslim representation in the Lok Sabha was the lowest during the 1952 general elections when 11 members from the community were elected to the Lower House of the Parliament.

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Agencies
August 6,2020

Mumbai, Aug 6: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said on Thursday that overly focusing on what sovereign rating agencies think can take one's eyes off what needs to be done for the economy.

"It is also important to convince both domestic and international investors that after the crisis associated with the pandemic is over, we will return to fiscal responsibility over the medium term, and the government should do more to convince them of that," Rajan told the Global Markets Forum.

India was placed under one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in late March for more than two months to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but cases have continued to rise steadily since the government eased restrictions in June, stymieing hopes of an economic recovery.

The government has announced several initiatives to help the poor and small- and medium-size businesses, but actual cash outgo from the government's measures has been estimated at just about 1% of GDP.

Several attribute the fiscal prudence to fear of a downgrade after Moody's cut India's rating and outlook in early June followed closely by a change in outlook from Fitch.

The central bank on its part too has reduced the key lending rate by 115 basis points on top of the 135 bps last year and is widely expected to cut rates by another 25 bps later on Thursday.

"The RBI and government have certainly been cooperating, but it seems like it is elsewhere, the ball is in the government's court to do more," Rajan said.

He said the RBI needs to focus on whether credit is reaching the stressed areas of the economy and also if the viable firms were able to access credit and not the unviable ones.

"And I think that's where it has to focus its attentions, because resources, as you well know, are limited in India today."

Recently analysts, however, have cited the growing possibility the RBI may prefer to pause and cut rates only at its October meeting.

Government officials too have suggested the possibility of any more fiscal stimulus being announced, would only come in the second half of the fiscal year, once a recovery has taken root and coronavirus cases have peaked.

"What India should focus on at this point is protecting its economic capabilities, so that when it has dealt with the virus it can go resume activity in a reasonable way. That should be the focus," Rajan said.

"And if it does that, there is no reason why the rating agencies will not see that as an appropriate policy".

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Agencies
February 26,2020

Hyderabad, Feb 26: Hyderabad Police on Tuesday registered a case against well-known poet Imran Pratapgarhi for his statement asking why there was "no Shaheen Bagh in Hyderabad".

According to Charminar Police, the complaint was registered by Sub-Inspector S Guruswamy, who was on duty at the QQ Stadium on February 24 where an Ehtaji Mishaira (Poetry Program) against the Citizenship Amendment Act, National Register Commission and National Population Register was held.

Permission for the said event was granted by Hyderabad Additional Commissioner of Police to the program organisers with certain guidelines including that poetry program should be held on February 24 from 6 pm to 9 pm, and no speaker should give provocative speeches in the program.

However, police said that the program was started by the organisers at 6 pm and continued till 9:48 pm even after police officers asked them to end the event by 9 pm. The program was attended by around 3,000 members at QQ stadium.

According to police, while addressing the meeting Pratapgarhi said: "Mujhe hairath hai us Hyderabad mein koi Shaheen Bagh kyu nahi hai (I am surprised why there is no Shaheen Bagh in Hyderabad)", which is "provocative" and may cause fear to any section of the public.

In this regard, a case has been registered against organisers for disobeying public servants' orders and the poet has been booked for delivering provocative statements under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Further investigation is underway.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir took to Twitter to condemn the police action.

"Hyderabad Police booked a case against poet Imran Pratapgarhi for expressing surprise on why there is no Shaheen Bagh in Hyderabad. For police, this sentence is provocative. Is Shaheen Bagh not a part of India?," Shabbir tweeted.

"Shame on TRS Government and Hyderabad Police for targeting a poet for no-fault," he added.

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News Network
January 28,2020

Kolkata, Jan 28: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday said she is ready for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of Citizenship Amendment Act but the Centre has to first withdraw the contentious law.

Banerjee said protesting against the decisions of the centre doesn't make opposition parties anti-national and iterated that she will not implement CAA, NRC or NPR in the state.

"It is good that the prime minister is ready for talks but the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) must be revoked first. They (Centre) did not call an all-party meeting before taking a decision on Kashmir and CAA.

"We are ready for talks but first withdraw this Citizenship Amendment Act," Banerjee, a staunch critic of the BJP, said addressing a protest programme against CAA through paintings.

The West Bengal assembly had on Monday passed a resolution against the CAA to become the fourth state after Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan, to do so. The state assembly had on September 6, 2019, passed a resolution against the NRC.

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