Shashi Tharoor touched by Modi's Malayalam tweet

New Delhi, Jan 22: The BJP on Wednesday cited statements of several opposition leaders to accuse them of "abusing" Hindus for their appeasement politics and referred to the Congress as "Muslim League Congress".

Seeking apologies from Congress president Sonia Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said leaders of these parties have used the ongoing protests against the amended citizenship law to "abuse" Hindus.

Chavan has said in a public meeting that the Congress decided to join hands with the Shiv Sena to form government in Maharashtra as Muslims wanted the party to stop the BJP, Patra stated, claiming that it shows the opposition party has nothing to do with people belonging to other religions, including Hindus.

Patra also referred to a statement from an NCP leader to attack the opposition.

Asked about Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge's reported jibe at the RSS for its "non-participation" in the freedom movement, the BJP leader shot back, asking if parents of Sonia Gandhi, who is of Italian origin, had fought in India's independence struggle.

The Indian National Congress, he said referring to the opposition party's full name, should be called "Muslim League Congress".

New Delhi, Apr 24: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has termed the government decision to freeze Dearness Allowance of Central government employees for a year as "insensitive and inhuman."

The former Congress President in a tweet said: "Lakhs and crores are being spent on the Bullet Train and New Delhi's Central Vista which should have been suspended, but the government has deducted DA of Central government employees and pensioners... It is insensitive and inhuman."

"The tragic part is that by deducting this amount from January 1, 2020 up to 30th June, 2021 for a period of 1.5 years, the government of India proceeds to deduct almost Rs 38 thousand crore from the income of these middle class government employees and pensioners, who rely completely on the pay and pensions that they receive," said Randeep Surjewala, chief spokesperson of Congress.

There are about 50 lakh such serving government employees and about 62 lakh pensioners.

"Even more tragic and objectionable is the fact that the government of India has not even spared our armed forces. The government has deducted Rs 11 thousand crore of the 15 lakh serving armed forces personnel and nearly 26 lakh military pensioners. What is their fault? They are serving the nation in times of all types of crises," said Surjewala.

The Congress alleged that the government did not spare the savings scheme.

Instead of curbing the wasteful expenditure, the government has been constantly hitting at the income of government employees and the middle class, it added.

New Delhi, May 15: With an increase of 3,967 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, India's tally of coronavirus cases reached 81,970 cases, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday.

According to the latest figures, 51,401 patients are active coronavirus cases while 27,919 patients have been cured/discharged and one patient has been migrated.

With a rise in 100 deaths due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the number of deaths now stands at 2,649.

According to the Health Ministry, Maharashtra is the worst-hit state with regard to the number of COVID-19 cases with 27,524 cases of which, 6,059 patients have been cured/discharged and 1,019 succumbing to the virus.

Tamil Nadu has a tally of 9,674 cases inclusive of 2,240 patients cured/discharged and 66 fatalities.

Gujarat has a total of 9,591 cases which include 3,753 patients cured/discharged while 586 have lost their lives due to coronavirus.

Delhi has a tally of 8,470 cases of which 3,045 patients cured/discharged and 115 fatalities.