BJP's southern foray: Tale of scams and compromises

March 19, 2012

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Bangalore, March 19:The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) maiden rule in Karnataka is set to end as a sordid tale of scandals and compromises.

Two days ahead of the budget presentation, more than half the party’s 23 ministers are holed up in a resort on the outskirts of Bangalore, devising a strategy to get rid of Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda. The assembly session starts Tuesday. The budget presentation is scheduled the next day.

Giving them company are scores of party legislators, all wanting the return of B.S. Yeddyurappa as chief minister though he still faces nearly a dozen corruption and illegal land deal cases.

He has been summoned by a Supreme Court appointed panel to appear before it in person or send a representative Tuesday to answer charges of making several hundred crore rupees by favouring iron ore mining companies.

The panel, the Central Empower Committee appointed by the apex court to study illegal iron ore mining in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, is to decide whether the charges against Yeddyurappa need to be probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

However grave these issues may appear to the people, for Yeddyurappa, largely credited with bringing BJP into power for the first time in south India in May 2008, they are of no consequence as his sole aim is to be chief minister.

This unbridled hankering after power has been given a boost by the reported division of opinion among the national leaders on reinstating him.

It is generally believed that BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and a few other central leaders do not mind Yeddyurappa coming back as chief minister.

But his return is said to be strongly opposed by senior leader L.K. Advani, who fears this will further damage the party’s image and take the sting out of its campaign against the scandals of the Congress-led central government.

Yeddyurappa claims he was asked by the national leaders to quit July 31, 2011 with the promise that he will be brought back if a court clears him of charges of taking money from mining companies in return for favours.

Then Lokayukta (ombudsman) N. Santosh Hegde had July 27 recommended Yeddyurappa’s trial on the ground that his family members had received Rs.30 crore from two mining companies. This amounted to corruption.

The high court on March 7 quashed the Lokayukta findings and also the case against Yeddyurappa, which he has seized to demand that party national leaders honour their word.

The national leaders appear to be paying for the compromise formula they devised to make Yedddyurappa quit, though by that time he was already facing six cases of corruption and illegal land deals filed by two Bangalore advocates.

Both he and the party dismiss these cases as politically motivated.

Yeddyurappa’s lucky -- the institution of the Lokayukta in Karnataka, the first state to set it up, has been headless since September and there is no one to decide whether to challenge the high court ruling in the Supreme Court.

There are two Upa Lokayuktas (deputy ombudsmen) S.B. Majage and Chandrashekaraiah (only one name). While Chandrashekaraiah has said the high court verdict should be challenged, Majage is silent.

BJP’s rule in Karnataka began with several compromises - over ministry formation and giving all five independents who helped the party gain majority in the assembly cabinet berths.

Then followed rebellion, twice, by mining baron Reddys against Yeddyurappa.

At least 20 of BJP's 120 legislators have been involved in scams - from rape to porn viewing to illegal land deals.

As BJP enters last year of its first term in office, it is Yeddyurappa’s turn to don the mantle of the rebel.

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News Network
February 1,2020

New Delhi, Feb 1: India has uplifted 271 million people out of poverty, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday.

In her second Budget presentation, the finance minister said the Budget for 2020-21, is woven around aspirational India, economic development and caring society.

The government aims to achieve seamless delivery of services through digital governance, she added.

"We shall strive to bring ease of living for every citizen," Sitharaman said.

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Agencies
July 29,2020

New Delhi, Jul 29: The new National Education Policy (NEP) approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday is set to usher in a slew of changes with the vision of creating an education system that contributes directly to transforming the country, providing high-quality education to all, and making India a global knowledge superpower.

The draft of the NEP by a panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief Kasturirangan and submitted to the Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal when he took charge last year. The new NEP replaces the one formulated in 1986.

Some of the key highlights of the New Education Policy are:-

The policy aims to enable an individual to study one or more specialized areas of interest at a deep level, and also develop character, scientific temper, creativity, spirit of service, and 21st century capabilities across a range of disciplines including sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, among others.

It identified the major problems facing the higher education system in the country and suggested changes such as moving towards multidisciplinary universities and colleges, with more institutions across India that offer medium of instruction in local/Indian languages, a more multidisciplinary undergraduate education, among others. 

The governance of such institutions by independent boards having academic and administrative autonomy has also been suggested.

Under the suggestions for institutional restructuring and consolidation, it has suggested that by 2040, all higher education institutions (HEIs) shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions, each of which will aim to have 3,000 or more students, and by 2030 each or near every district in the country there will be at least one HEI.

The aim will be to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in HEIs including vocational education from 26.3 per cent (2018) to 50 per cent by 2035.

Single-stream HEIs will be phased out over time, and all will move towards becoming vibrant multidisciplinary institutions or parts of vibrant multidisciplinary HEI clusters.

It also pushes for more holistic and multidisciplinary education to be provided to the students.

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Agencies
June 5,2020

Jodhpur, Jun 5: A video has gone viral on social media showing what could be called Jodhpur's George Floyd moment with a twist, showing cops throwing a person on the ground and pressing his neck with their knees for roaming around without a mask.

However, unlike the unfortunate incident in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the cops in Jodhpur reportedly acted after the person, said to be mentally challenged, turned violent after being confronted by the police.

Dumb TV media is playing the initial part of this video as 'India's George Flyod moment'. Doesn't matter to them that the same video shows the man beating the cops back badly pic.twitter.com/vGSaON6oii

— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) June 5, 2020

George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after being arrested by the police outside a shop in Minneapolis in the US on May 25. Footage showed a white officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes while he was pinned to the floor. He was pronounced dead later in the hospital, triggering widespread protests across the US.

However, in the Jodhpur incident, the man, identifed as Mukesh Kumar Prajapat, did not die but instead started fighting with the policemen.

Jodhpur police officers confirmed that the video was shot in the city on Thursday after the police wanted to issue a challan against the man for roaming on the streets without wearing a mask before he started manhandling the police.

The video shows a cop pressing his neck with his knee while two other cops held the young man's legs. A huge crowd gathered when the scuffle broke out.

Meanwhile, the SHO of Dev Nagar police station, Somkaran, said that the police were issuing a challan to Prajapat when he attacked them and tore their uniform. An FIR has been lodged against Prajapat on a complaint lodged by the Pratap Nagar police station. He will be produced in the court later in the day.

Prajapat is said to be mentally challenged and had damaged his father's eye earlier for which a case was registered against him, the poice said. Action is being initiated against Prajapat under the Epidemic Act, they added.

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