Sri Lanka: 9 Muslim Ministers, 2 Governors step down in protest against demonization of community

News Network
June 4, 2019

Colombo, Jun 4: Nine Muslim Ministers in Sri Lanka — including four of Cabinet rank — resigned on Monday, taking a collective stand against the community being “demonised” since the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

The move will give the authorities “space and time” to probe allegations linking Muslim politicians to the terror suspects, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakeem told journalists. “Either they should apprehend and punish any of us found guilty, or they must vindicate us. We hope they will look into this in a month and bring some closure to this,” he said.

“The survival of the government will depend on the manner in which it handles the probe and deals with hate speech, racial violence and impunity,” he said.

‘Innocent victimised’

“Innocent Muslims are at the receiving end…they are being victimised despite the community unequivocally condemning the heinous terror attacks,” he added.

Earlier, the Muslim Governors of the Eastern and Western Provinces, M.L.A.M. Hizbullah and Azath Salley, stepped down, days after a prominent Buddhist monk began a fast demanding that they resign in connection with the April 21 bombings that killed over 250 people.The monk, Athuraliye Rathana Thero, is a parliamentarian from the ruling United National Party (UNP), led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Rathana Thero began fasting on Friday, in front of the iconic Buddhist temple Dalada Maligawa in Kandy, with five demands, including the resignation of Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, and Governors A.L.A.M. Hizbullah and Azath Salley, accused of having links to Easter attack suspects. The politicians have denied the allegations.

President Maithripala Sirisena’s office said on Monday that he accepted the resignation letters of the two Governors, of the island’s Eastern and Western Provinces.

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Colombo-based NGO Centre for Policy Alternatives, said Buddhist priests fasting unto death were effectively “holding the country to ransom”, when “there are laws, there are due processes that should apply in these situations.” Further, Monday’s developments showed that an ethnic community’s political representation was “holding together and willing to sacrifice a certain amount of political power”, he told The Hindu . If the Muslim community’s political power is relegated to a secondary status in the wake of concerns around national security, he said the country might be heading for a politics that had no place for “an expression of unity in diversity.”

Tamil National Alliance spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran said it was “most unfortunate that Muslim Ministers succumbed to pressure from racists.” “Yesterday us, today you, tomorrow a new ‘other’. We continue to stand in solidarity with Muslim people & call on all right thinking SriLankans to do the same,” he tweeted.

Support for monk

Meanwhile, thousands marched to Kandy on Monday, in support of the monk.

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News Network
March 23,2020

Singapore, Mar 23: Oil prices fell at the open in Asia on Monday after a trillion-dollar Senate proposal to help the coronavirus-hit American economy was defeated and death tolls soared across Europe and the US.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate initially tumbled more than three percent but then pulled back some ground to trade 1.5 percent lower, at $22 a barrel.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 4.9 percent to $25 a barrel.

Prices have fallen to multi-year lows in recent weeks as lockdowns and travel restrictions to fight the virus hit demand, and top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia engage in a price war.

The latest drop came after a trillion-dollar Senate proposal to rescue the US economy was defeated after receiving zero support from Democrats, and with five Republicans absent from the chamber because of virus-related quarantines.

The bill had proposed funding for American families, thousands of shuttered or suffering businesses and the nation's critically under-equipped hospitals.

Coronavirus deaths soared across Europe and the United States at the weekend despite heightened restrictions.

The death toll from the virus -- which has upended lives and closed businesses and schools across the planet -- surged to more than 14,300 Sunday, according to an AFP tally.

AxiCorp chief markets strategist Stephen Innes said that "total demand devastation" had set it.

"Oil markets collapsed out of the gate this morning as prices react... to stringent containment lockdown measures," he said.

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News Network
June 29,2020

New Delhi, Jun 29: India recorded 19,459 new coronavirus cases and 380 deaths in the last 24 hours.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday, the total coronavirus cases in the country stands at 5,48,318 including 2,10,120 active cases, 3,21,723 cured/discharged/migrated and 16,475 deaths.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 count touched 1,64,626 and cases in Delhi have reached 83,077.

The total number of samples tested up to 28 June is 83,98,362 of which 1,70,560 samples were tested yesterday, as per the data provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). 

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Agencies
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11 Congress's performance touched a record low in the Delhi Assembly election as the party bagged less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled and 63 of its candidates lost their deposits.

The party, which ruled Delhi for 15 years on the trot under former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, failed to open its account for the second consecutive assembly election in Delhi.

Only three of its candidates Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Devender Yadav from Badli and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar managed to save their deposits.

Security deposit of a candidate is forfeited if he/she fails to secure one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency.

Most of Congress candidates got less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled in their respective constituencies.

Delhi Congress chief Shubhash Chopra's daughter Shivani Chopra, who was the party candidate from Kalkaji, also could not save her deposit.

Former Delhi Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri's daughter Priyanka Singh also forfeited her deposit.

The party's campaign committee chairman Kirti Azad's wife, Poonam Azad, lost badly and stood fourth, polling only 2,604 (2.23) votes.

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