New Delhi, Jul 18: Textiles Minister Smriti Irani was today given the additional charge of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry after M Venkaiah Naidu resigned from the Cabinet to contest the vice-presidential poll.
The portfolio of urban development, which too was with Naidu, was given to Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, the PMO said.
The BJP had yesterday decided to field Naidu as NDA's candidate for the post of vice president.
Patna, Jan 12: Prashant Kishor, national vice-president of the Janata Dal (United), a key ally of the BJP-led NDA, has thanked Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi and former AICC chief Rahul Gandhi for their support in opposing CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and NRC (National Register of Citizens).
Perceived as one of the closest associates of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is also the party’s national president, PK (as Prashant is fondly called) also assured the two top Congress leaders that the contentious legislation would not be implemented in Bihar where JD (U) is ruling the State with the support of the BJP.
“I join my voice with all to thank #Congress leadership for their formal and unequivocal rejection of #CAA_NRC. Both @rahulgandhi and @priyankagandhi deserve special thanks for their efforts on this count….also would like to reassure to all – CAA/NRC won’t be implemented in Bihar,” tweeted PK on Sunday.
The development assumes significance as a day back, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, chaired by Sonia Gandhi, had strongly opposed CAA/NRC/NPR as it was aimed at “sinister design of the present regime to divide Indian people into religious lines.”
The latest tweet by PK is also being seen as a rebuff to the BJP, which again recently reiterated that “the BJP should project its own chief ministerial candidate during the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections.”
The JD (U) had taken umbrage over such provocative statements by BJP leaders and asked the saffron camp to rein in its ‘loudmouths’ as BJP chief Amit Shah had already made it clear that the next Assembly polls in Bihar would be fought under the leadership of Nitish.
Of late, PK has been quite vocal about his opposition to the Centre’s policies, particularly the contentious issues of NRC and CAA. Besides, he even dubbed senior BJP leader Sushil Modi as the man who became Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister due to ‘circumstances’ as the BJP was decisively decimated during the 2015 Assembly elections.
Nitish never reprimanded PK for his jibe against Modi, thereby giving rise to speculations whether Bihar was again heading for a political churning ahead of Assembly polls slated for October this year.
New Delhi, Mar 24: Nearly 500 coronavirus cases have been reported in India so far, according to Health Ministry data on Tuesday.
According to the data updated Tuesday morning, the total number of COVID-19 cases rose to 492, including 446 active cases.
The figure includes 41 foreign nationals and the nine deaths reported so far, the Health Ministry said.
West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh reported a casualty each on Monday while seven deaths were earlier reported from Maharashtra (two), Bihar, Karnataka, Delhi, Gujarat and Punjab.
Thirty-seven people have been cured/discharged/migrated, it added.
The number of active cases at 446 saw an increase of 22 from last night's figure.
As cases of the viral infection surged, authorities have put almost the entire country under lockdown, banning gathering of people and suspending road, rail and air traffic till March 31.
Kerala has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases so far at 95, including eight foreign nationals, followed by Maharashtra which recorded 87, including three foreigners, according to the ministry data.
Karnataka has reported 37 cases of coronavirus patients, while cases in Rajasthan increased to 33, including two foreigners.
Uttar Pradesh has 33 positive cases, including a foreign national.
Telangana has so far reported 32 cases, including 10 foreigners.
Cases in Delhi rose to 31, including one foreigner, while Gujarat has reported 29 cases.
In Haryana, there are 26 cases, including 14 foreigners, while Punjab has reported 21 cases.
Ladakh has 13 cases, while Tamil Nadu has reported 12 cases, including two foreigners.
West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have reported seven cases each so far.
Chandigarh has six cases, while Jammu and Kashmir has four cases.
Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have reported three cases each, while there are two cases each in Bihar and Odisha.
Puducherry and Chhattisgarh have reported a case each.
Mumbai, Jun 27: The Shiv Sena on Saturday hit out at the BJP over its charge that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) had accepted donations from the Chinese embassy, and asked it whether the issue had any connection with intrusion by the neighbouring country in Ladakh and the martyrdom of 20 Indian soldiers.
The Sena also alleged that those raising questions against the government over the standoff with China were being labelled as Chinese agents by the BJP.
BJP chief J P Nadda had on Thursday targeted the Congress and the Gandhi family saying that the RGF had allegedly accepted donations from the Chinese embassy. Hitting back, the Congress had said that the RGF issue raised by the BJP government was a "manufactured charge" and "diversionary tactic" to deflect attention from the LAC crisis.
"What do you mean by Congress gets money from China? Instead of responding to the issues raised by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi over the Chinese incursions, the BJP leaders accused the Congress of receiving funds from China," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.
"Will BJP's revelations about the donations stop the Chinese activities along the border? The BJP should tell what connection does these donations have with the Chinese incursion and the martyrdom of 20 soldiers," it added.
"In our country, many political leaders and parties, and not just the Congress, are beneficiaries of foreign countries. The BJP speaking about this is like throwing stones in the mud," it said.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led party said that Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India twice in the last six years.
"He was hosted in Gujarat. But it is a fact that China has betrayed. Holding talks on the one hand and continuing with the offensive along the border on the other hand is China's old policy," it said.
In the present scenario, the entire country stands firmly with PM Modi. This crisis is not for the BJP or the Congress, but for the entire country, whose prestige is at stake, it said.
"The BJP can fight with the Congress any time later.
But now is the time to fight against China. It should speak on that," the Sena said.
Comments
We better prepare another list of those who got killed by saffron terrorists and send it to President of India.
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