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Top Muslim cleric drops bombshell on Mamata Banerjee, says she could go with Congress

March 18, 2014

Imam_BarkatiKolkata, Mar 18: After the Anna Hazare fiasco, a Muslim cleric who is close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has now dropped a bomb.

Imam Barkati, the Shahi Imam of the Tipu Sultan mosque in Kolkata, says he approves of the strong words Rahul Gandhi uses against Narendra Modi and the BJP and wants Mamata Banerjee to make sharper attacks on them too.

The Imam, who had said at a massive Trinamool Congress rally on January 30 that Ms Banerjee should be PM, has now suggested that if necessary, she should support the Congress after the general elections beginning next month.

"Just like Rahul Gandhi who is saying the BJP is poisonous, that they are dangerous. Mamata also has to speak more strongly. That's what many Muslims are feeling. I also think if there is a coalition government, Mamata should go with the Congress," Imam Barkati said.

Ms Banerjee's Trinamool banks on the over 25 per cent Muslim vote in Bengal and has reacted with caution. "Again and again, time and again Mamata Banerjee has said she doesn't want to see the face of any dangabaj (rioters)," said Mukul Roy, Trinamool general secretary and close Mamata aide, referring to the West Bengal chief minister's assertion that she will not support Narendra Modi for PM.

The BJP is outraged. "An imam of a masjid is dictating to the chief minister and the chief minister is working according to his dictates. Nothing more unfortunate than that," said BJP state president Rahul Sinha.

Ms Banerjee will have to do a fine balancing act. Her political partnership with Gandhian activist Anna Hazare came undone almost before it began. Mr Hazare, she has reportedly said, is already a closed chapter. She cannot afford to shut the door on the Shahi Imam.

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News Network
July 10,2020

Lucknow, Jul 10: Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Friday raised questions on gangster Vikas Dubey's encounter killing after an accident, saying the car did not topple but it was an effort to save the government from toppling if facts came to light.

Dubey was killed in an encounter after a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape from the spot, police said.

"Darasal ye car nahi palti, raj khulne se sarkar palatne se bach gayi hai," (Actually, the car did not topple. It is an effort to save the government which would have toppled if facts came to light)," Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Kanpur) Dinesh Kumar P said that the accident took place in the morning when it was raining heavily and the police vehicle overturned near Kanpur.

Eight policemen, including DSP Devendra Mishra, were ambushed in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur when they were going to arrest Dubey and fell to bullets fired from rooftops shortly after midnight on July 3.

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Agencies
January 15,2020

Mumbai, Jan 15: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday redistributed portfolios of Deputy Governors following the appointment of Michael Debabrata Patra to the post.

An official release said that NS Vishwanathan will handle co-ordination, Department of Regulation (DOR), Department of Communication (DoC), Enforcement Department, Inspection Department (ID), Risk Monitoring Department (RMD), and Secretary's Department.

BP Kanungo will look after Department of Currency Management (DCM), Department of External Investments and Operations (DEIO), Department of Government and Bank Accounts (DGBA), Department of Information Technology (DIT), Department of Payment and Settlement Systems (DPSS), Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), Foreign Exchange Department (FED), Internal Debt Management Department (IDMD), Legal Department (LD) and Right to Information (RIA) Division.

The release said that MK Jain will handle the Department of Supervision (DOS), Consumer Education and Protection Department (CEPD), Financial Inclusion and Development Department (FIDD), Human Resource Management Department (HRMD), HR Operations Unit (HR-OU), Premises Department (PD), Central Security Cell (CSC), and Rajbhasha Department.

Patra will look after the Monetary Policy Department including Forecasting and Modelling Unit (MPD/MU), Financial Markets Operations Department (FMOD), Financial Markets Regulation Department including Market Intelligence (FMRD/MI), International Department (Intl. D), Department of Economic and Policy Research (DEPR), Department of Statistics & Information Management (including Data and Information Management Unit) (DSIM/DIMU), Corporate Strategy and Budget Department (CSBD) and Financial Stability Unit.

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News Network
August 7,2020

New Delhi, Aug 7: The Congress on Thursday demanded the removal of Karnataka minister KS Eshwarappa from the cabinet and his arrest for his statement that grand Krishna and Vishwanath temples would come up in Mathura and Kashi respectively after "liberating" them.

Mr Eshwarappa made the statement while reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying the foundation of the Ram temple in Ayodhya yesterday.

"By asking kar sevaks (volunteers) to launch a similar campaign, the minister (Eshwarappa) is trying to disturb peace in the society," Congress Karnataka unit chief DK Shivakumar said at a press conference in Ballari today.

"Such people should be arrested immediately, police officials should register a case against him and the Chief Minister should remove him from the cabinet,"he said.

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj minister Eshwarappa had said on Wednesday that he was of the firm opinion that "if not today, tomorrow, Mathura and Kashi temples will be liberated and grand temples would be built there."

"A place of devotion has to be built in both Kashi and Mathura. There too, grand temples have to be constructed. The mosques have to be removed from there," he said.

Mr Eshwarappa, a former BJP state president, said the centres of Hindu belief, Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura were a kind of a symbol of "slavery" as "temples of our Rama, Krishna and Vishwanath were destroyed and mosques built."

Stating that Mr Eshwarappa is not an individual but a minister who represents the government, Mr Shivakumar on Thursday sought to know from the Chief Minister whether this was his government's stand.

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