Swamy links Sonia with chopper deal, Cong forces adjournments

April 27, 2016

New Delhi, Apr 27: Angry exchanges between opposition Congress and ruling BJP members over Subramaniam Swamy seeking to drag Sonia Gandhi's name in the controversial AgustaWestland helicopter contract bribery case led to two adjournments of the Rajya Sabha in the pre-noon session.

SwamyHowever, Gandhi's name was later expunged by Deputy Chairman P J Kurien.

Swamy had raised the issue through a zero hour notice, his first intervention since he took oath in the House yesterday, and referred to the allegations made by Christian Micheal, the middleman in the scandal, through a letter in the High Court of Italy.

The naming of Gandhi led the Congress members to angrily storm into the Well, with a handful even moving closer to the treasury benches menacingly. Members of the treasury benches too got up on their seats to counter the opposition.

Fearing an ugly showdown, a couple of marshalls too stepped into the Well to act as a wall between the opposition and the ruling side.

Before things got out of hand, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien adjourned the House for 10 minutes.

When the House reassembled, Kurien expunged Swamy's reference to Gandhi saying he should not name a member who cannot come and defend himself or herself.

"I am not admonishing you as this is your first speech in the House" after being nominated to the Upper House. "But the name is expunged," Kurien said.

This did not satisfy the Congress members who were in the Well again shouting slogans against Swamy.

Kurien said though it was Swamy's first day today after being nominated to the Rajya Sabha, "you have been member of this House before and you should know that the name of a member of the other House cannot be taken here".

As Congress members continued to raise slogans from the Well, the Deputy Chairman again adjourned the House till noon.

During the 10 minute break, Swamy was surrounded by BJP members, seemingly complimenting him for provoking an angry reaction from Congress.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar walked up to him and was seen exchanging notes with Swamy. HRD Minister Smriti Irani too walked up and complimented him.

Few Congress leaders including Anand Sharma and Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley walked into the Chairman's chamber during the break.

Just before the House reassembled, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi took Swamy aside, apparently to give him some advice.

After the second adjournment, Jaitley took Swamy with him for a chat on the issue.

Earlier Jaitley, while responding to Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad's question, said the reports about a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart were "false and untrue in entirety."

"No such meeting at all has been held," he said debunking a media report of Modi offering to free Italian marines in exchange of information on Gandhi family.

He said the principal issue was that there were allegation of bribe being paid to secure the defence deal. "The bribe giver has been convicted and now bribe taker has to be identified," he said adding written admission by the alleged middle man has to be examined.

"Investigation is underway," he said.

Earlier, Azad quoted media reports to ask the government if the Prime Minister had during a meeting with his Italian counterpart in September last year offered to free two Italian marines in exchange of information on Gandhi family in the controversial chopper deal.

"Pronouncement of judgment (on the chopper deal) has come and now NDA government is now allowing Italian marines to return home. So the deal is struck," he said.

Azad said the Congress-led UPA government had in 2013 cancelled the deal when wrong-doings were reported and had directed the CBI and ED to investigate corruption charges.

Also, the then Government had encashed bank guarantee and got back advance money paid. Besides, three helicopters received as part of the deal were not returned, he said.

The VVIP chopper deal relates to a 2010 decision of the UPA government to buy 12 helicopters from Italian manufacturer, Finmeccanica. But reports later said the Italian company had paid a bribe of up to Rs 3,565 crore to swing the deal.

Though the Italian company was blacklisted by UPA, it was part of Modi government's 'Make in India' drive, the Congress leader alleged.

Comments

Fair talker
 - 
Wednesday, 27 Apr 2016

Swamy( Asamy) is receiving Wahee from the shaitan.

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News Network
February 28,2020

New Delhi, Feb 28: The months of March, April and May are "likely to be warmer than normal" over northwest, west, central and parts of south India, the India Meteorological Department said today in its summer forecast.

Above normal heat wave conditions are also likely in the core heat wave (HW) zone during the season (March-May), the weather department said.

The core heat wave zone covers the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana and parts of Maharashtra and coastal Andhra Pradesh.

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Agencies
May 19,2020

Lucknow, May 19: The administration of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) has ordered a probe into the cardiac procedure conducted on a corona positive patient in the hospital.

The patient underwent a cardiac procedure without being tested for corona before the surgery. He later tested positive for COVID-19, leading to panic among the staff and other patients.

The medical staff that came in contact with the patient were quarantined on Monday while the area was sanitized.

As per orders from the State Medical Education Department, even in emergency cases, patients are to be screened for Covid-19 before procedures are done.

According to the SGPGI administration, the incident took place late on Sunday night.

In an official statement, director, Prof R.K. Dhiman said, "The 63-year-old patient was a case of complete cardiac blockage and needed an urgent temporary pacemaker. The patient was admitted to the holding area of the institute and later shifted to the MICU for permanent pace making."

He said that when the patient's corona status was found to be positive on the Hospital Information System, she was shifted to the Rajdhani COVID Hospital.

The Director said, "Though the involved areas have been sanitized and healthcare workers were quarantined as per protocol, a probe has been ordered to investigate the lapses."

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News Network
April 15,2020

New Delhi, Apr 15: Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi has been booked for culpable homicide after some of the attendees of the religious congregation died due to coronavirus, police said on Wednesday.

Kandhalvi had organised the religious gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz last month against the social distancing protocol imposed by the Centre to curb the spread of the deadly disease.

An FIR was registered against the cleric on March 31 at Crime Branch police station on a complaint of the Station House Officer of Nizamuddin.

He was earlier booked for holding the event, police said.

“After several attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat event succumbed to coronavirus, we added IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) in the FIR against the leader, a police official said.

Some foreigners who attended the event have also been booked for violation of visa norms.

In an audio message, Kandhalvi had said that he was exercising self-quarantine after several hundreds who visited the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamudddin Markaz tested positive for coronavirus.

The FIR registered against the Tablighi Jamaat event says that the Delhi Police contacted the authorities of Nizamuddin Markaz on March 21 and reminded them of the government order which prohibited any political or religious gathering of more than 50 people.

It says that despite repeated efforts, the event organisers failed to inform the health department or any other government agency about the huge gathering inside the Markaz and deliberately disobeyed government orders.

“The sub district magistrate of Defence Colony inspected the premises several times and found that around 1,300 people, including foreign nationals, were residing there without maintaining social distance. It was also found that there were no arrangements of hand sanitizers and face masks,” the FIR adds.

The Nizamudddin centre, attended by thousands, turned out to be a hotspot for spread of coronavirus not only in the national capital, but the entire country.

More than 25,500 Tablighi members and their contacts have been quarantined in the country after the Centre and the state governments conducted a "mega operation" to identify them.

At least 9,000 people participated in the religious congregation in Nizamuddin. Later, many of the attendees travelled to various parts of the country.

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