Congress calls Modi 'frog, national embarrassment', BJP at his defence

August 17, 2013

Modi_frog New Delhi, Aug 17: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh continued to generate heat on Friday, with UPA ministers and Congress leaders attacking him sharply for hitting out at the Prime Minister on Independence Day and the BJP springing to his defence.

External affairs minister Salman Khurshid said in Uttarakhand, "What should I say about Modi? He is like a frog just out of the well and at a loss to find the right place for himself in the big wide world."

Reacting to Khurshid, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman questioned the use of non-diplomatic language in criticism, recalling that terms like frog, monkey, snake, and maut ka saudagar have been used in the past.

She also defended Modi’s attack on the PM on Independence Day, saying the Congress could not question the timing of the attack at a time when the economy was deteriorating and the rupee was falling.

Minister for information and broadcasting Manish Tewari dubbed Modi’s attempt to compete with the PM as “crass” and “cheap”.

“The Prime Minister addresses the nation from the Red Fort as a symbol of faith and aspiration of 120-crore people. If one thinks that he can compare himself from the Prime Minister’s address made from the Red Fort, then nothing can be more ridiculous than this,” Tewari said.

“This is a very crass and cheap attempt on which we would not like to make any comment.”

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh used BJP patriarch LK Advani’s tacit disapproval of Modi’s speech a day back to hit out at the Gujarat CM. "On Modi's Independence (Day) Speech, I and Advani ji are on the same page. Modi's abrasive hunger for power has no limits," Singh wrote on microblogging site Twitter.

Advani had reacted to Modi’s attack on the Prime Minister on Thursday saying: “Today on Independence Day, without criticising anybody, we all should realise that India has unlimited potential for the future.” Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had also agreed with the patriarch.

However, the BJP tried to brush aside Advani’s tacit criticism of Modi. "There is no conflict of interest at all because Advaniji has not taken any name. It is very clear that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is answerable to the nation. He has failed, therefore we have every right to question him. But no personal criticism should be made," senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said in Kolkata.

"But yes, there can be criticism of his performance. The Prime Minister is accountable to the nation."

In Delhi, Sitharaman said the BJP took everything said by Advani seriously and introspected on it, while underlining that the national economy was the prime concern.

Union minister Anand Sharma termed Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as a "national embarrassment".

Sharma said that as per social indices, Gujarat has the highest school dropout rate, high malnutrition deaths compared to other states and low availability of safe drinking water.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

India responding with utmost urgency to COVID-19: WHO regional director

News Network

July 22,2020

New Delhi, Jul 22: India is responding with utmost urgency to coronavirus from the very beginning and has been continuously strengthening preparedness and response measures, WHO Regional Director (South-East Asia) Poonam Khetrapal Singh said on Wednesday.

"India is responding with utmost urgency to COVID-19 from the start. It's been continuously strengthening preparedness and response measures, including ramping up testing capacities, readying more hospitals, arranging and stocking up medicines and essentials," Singh said at a virtual briefing.

"India took bold, decisive and early measures earlier in the outbreak. The country did not witness an exponential increase in cases like some other countries which reported their first few cases along with India. Like in any other country the transmission of COVID-19 is not homogenous in India. There are areas yet to see a confirmed case, some have sporadic cases, in some areas some small clusters while we are witnessing large clusters in some megacities from the densely populated areas," Singh said.
She said WHO was aware of varying capacities at sub-national levels.

"Not unusual in a country as big as India and its population size that measures taken may often not be uniformly sufficient across all areas. Scaling up capacities and response remains a constant need in India."

Replying on the question of what more needs to be done in controlling the spread of COVID-19, she said all countries including India must continue to implement core public health and social distancing measures.

"Local epidemiology to guide our response for finding hotspots and testing, detecting, isolating and providing care to the affected, promoting safe hygiene practices and respiratory etiquette, protecting health workers and increasing health system capacity is also key," she said.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

Gangster Vikas Dubey killed in police 'encounter'

Agencies

July 10,2020

Kanpur, Jul 10: Kanpur encounter main accused Vikas Dubey, who was injured in an encounter with the police, died on Friday, the police said.

"Gangster Vikas Dubey arrested for killing eight policemen is dead," confirmed the police.

According to SP Kanpur West Anil Kumar, gangster Vikas Dubey attempted to flee after the car overturned. Dubey attempted to flee by snatching pistol of the injured policemen. However, he was shot in the retaliatory firing.

"Vikas Dubey attempted to flee by snatching pistol of the injured policemen after the car overturned. Police tried to make him surrender, during which he fired at the policemen. He was injured in retaliatory firing by police. He was later rushed to the hospital," SP Kanpur West told reporters here.

Dubey, the main accused in the Kanpur encounter was arrested by the police in Ujjain on Thursday morning. He was on the run for the last six days and had come to Ujjain to offer prayers at Temple, where he was identified by a security guard at the shrine.

The gangster is the main accused in the encounter that took place in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur last week, in which a group of assailants allegedly opened fire on a police team, which had gone to arrest Dubey. Eight police personnel were killed in the encounter.

Dubey managed to escape after the killing. The Uttar Pradesh police launched a hunt for him and raised the bounty on him to Rs 5 lakh.

Bahua Dubey and Prabhat Mishra, close aides of the main accused, were killed in separate encounters in Etawah and Kanpur respectively, on Thursday.

The main accused's other aide Shyamu Bajpai was arrested by the Chaubeypur police following an encounter. He carried a reward of Rs 25,000, the police informed on Wednesday. Earlier the same day, Uttar Pradesh's Special Task Force (STF) gunned down Vikas Dubey's close aide Amar Dubey in Hamirpur district.

Comments

No one fool other than ghobar society will believe on this news. Totally a goonda raj by yogiraaj. He tried to offer 1crore to all killed policemen. But locals obligation now this is the new drama. One way this is a lesson to his and his chaddi society's followers that party can take their own soldiers life for the self benefit.

Long Live India

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

Kerala CM announces Rs 10 lakh solatium for flight crash victims, free treatment for injured

Agencies

August 8,2020

Kozhikode, Aug 8: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of each passenger who died when an Air India Express flight veered off the runway while attempting to land at the Karipur International Airport here on August 7.

He was briefing the media after visiting the crash site at the airport and the injured at the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital.

Offering his condolences, the Chief Minister said, "Apart from the solatium for the victims, the state government would bear the treatment expenses of all those injured in this unfortunate plane crash irrespective of the hospitals they are in. The Civil Aviation Ministry and other Central Government agencies are expected to announce compensation for the air passengers.

If any further assistance is required, the State Government will take an appropriate decision at that time to support them to get back to a normal life."

"However, the immediate task now is to ensure the best possible treatment for the survivors of the accident. The District Authority is coordinating the treatment of those rescued who are now in 16 hospitals across Kozhikode and Malappuram Districts," added Vijayan.

Of the 190 people on board the ill-fated plane, there were 184 passengers and six crew members. Of the 18 dead so far, 14 are adults (seven males and females each) and four are children. Both the Pilot and the Co-Pilot are among those dead. At present, 149 passengers are hospitalised, of them 23 with serious injuries. Till now, 23 passengers have been discharged. There are few passengers from Tamil Nadu and Telangana also.

All the dead have been identified, eight from Kozhikode district, six from Malappuram district and two from Palakkad district. The post mortem process has been expedited despite the Covid threat and is expected to finish before evening. All the accident victims will be tested for Covid including those who died in the crash. So far, only one victim has tested positive for coronavirus, the Chief Minister said.

He also appreciated the instant response by the local public living in the vicinity of the airport and also the local authorities to this tragedy which ensured the minimum loss of lives in a disaster of such large magnitude as a plane crash. The rescue operations were finished in the shortest possible time yesterday.

"Even though 18 precious lives have been lost due to the impact of the crash, the rescue operations were a miraculous work. The general public and the officials played a big role in spearheading the rescue operations," he said.

Vijayan along with Governor Arif Mohammad Khan reached Kozhikode this morning.

Governor Arif Mohammad Khan expressed his condolences and sympathies to the families of the accident victims and his best wishes for the speedy recovery of those injured.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by the Niyamasabha Speaker, P. Sreeramakrishnan; Minister for Industry E.P Jayarajan, Minister for Health and Social Justice, K K Shailaja; Minister for Agriculture V.S Sunilkumar; Minister for Ports Ramachandran Kadannappalli; Minister for Transport AK Saseendran, Minister for Excise T.P Ramakrishnan, Chief Secretary, Dr Vishwas Mehta; and State Police Chief, Loknath Behra, DGP.

The Minister for Local Self Governments, A C Moideen and the Minister for Higher Education and Welfare of Minorities, Dr K T Jaleel were already present in Kozhikode.

Comments