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Keshubhai says Modi rule a terror

May 16, 2012
Keshu

Ahmedabad, May 16: The former Gujarat Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, sharing a platform with Mahagujarat Janata Party (MJP) president Gordhan Jhadafiya has unnerved the ruling BJP in the State.

Mr. Patel said the Modi administration had become a “terror” for the people. “It is not the Patels alone, every section of the Gujaratis are living in a state of fear all the time under the present dispensation,” he told the convention organised here by the MJP.

Mr. Patel, who surrendered power to Mr. Modi 11 years ago after the party's central leadership felt he was not doing enough for the relief and rehabilitation of the killer earthquake-hit people in 2001, had always been critical of his successor, but so far preferred to stay behind the scene. He started criticising Mr. Modi before the 2007 Assembly elections also, but confined himself to addressing gatherings of the Patels only and as the situation started warming up, he withdrew and during the run-up to the elections, he did not address any meeting, including the BJP election meetings.

Sources in the party said the BJP high command, particularly veteran leader L. K. Advani, managed to bring Mr. Patel round before the 2007 elections and his staying away from the electioneering helped the party to woo back the Patel voters. But with Mr. Modi's relations with the party high command, including Mr. Advani, strained, the pro-Keshubhai lobby is hoping that the central leadership would not intervene this time to tame the former Chief Minister.

The increasing warmth between Mr. Patel and Mr. Advani was witnessed at a meeting of the Somnath temple trust, of which Mr. Patel was the chairman and both Mr. Advani and Mr. Modi its members, held in Gandhinagar last month.

If Mr. Patel goes all out against Mr. Modi, he is certain to get support from a number of other veteran leaders of the party in the State who have been finding themselves totally isolated and ignored. Besides Mr. Shankarsinh Waghela, “second pillar” of the BJP after Keshubhai Patel, who has since joined the Congress, several other senior party leaders like another former Chief Minister Suresh Mehta, the former Union Minister, Kashiram Rana, are waiting in the wings to join the fray against Mr. Modi.

Growing dissatisfaction

Mr. Jhadafiya, who is also a Patel, was a Minister in the Keshubhai Patel Cabinet and was known to be close to the former Chief Minister. But publicly they parted ways after Mr. Jhadafiya quit the BJP and formed the MJP following differences with Mr. Modi before the last elections.

However, the two leaders again appearing on one platform is certain to cause concern to Mr. Modi, particularly because of growing dissatisfaction against his administration among the “Patels.” Besides that the Patels feel that the Modi administration was focusing attention on the industrial sector than the agricultural sector, the bread and butter for the Patels.

The members of the community are also agitated that the Patels were bearing the brunt of the outcome of the court cases of the 2002 communal riots in the State. The State unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which at least was showing lip sympathy for the Patel convicts of the riot cases, was also totally opposed to Mr. Modi and could help the Patel leaders to mobilise Patel votes against the Chief Minister.

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News Network
February 9,2020

Kochi, Feb 9: P Parameswaran, one of the senior-most "pracharaks" of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and former leader of the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh, died at 91 in the early hours today, Sangh Parivar sources said.

The founder director of the Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram died at 12.10 am while undergoing Ayurvedic treatment at Ottappalam in Kerala's Palakkad district, according to sources.

P Parameswaran, who had worked with leaders like Deendayal Upadhyaya, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani during the Jana Sangh days, was honoured with Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian award in 2018 and Padma Shri in 2004.

Fondly called as Parameswar ji by Sangh Parivar and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, he was a prolific writer, poet, researcher and a widely-respected RSS ideologue. He was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh's secretary (1967-1971) and vice0president (1971-1977), as well as the director of the Deendayal Research Institute (1977-1982) in New Delhi.

Born in 1927 in Muhamma, Alappuzha district, he joined the RSS during his student days.

His body will be brought to the RSS headquarters in Kochi this morning for people to pay their last respects. The cremation will be held in Muhamma in the evening, sources said.

During the days of Emergency between 1975-77, he courted arrest as part of the all India Satyagraha against it and was jailed for 16 months.

Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram was established by P Parameswaran in 1982 "to promote nationalist thoughts among Keralites".

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Agencies
August 6,2020

Mumbai, Aug 6: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said on Thursday that overly focusing on what sovereign rating agencies think can take one's eyes off what needs to be done for the economy.

"It is also important to convince both domestic and international investors that after the crisis associated with the pandemic is over, we will return to fiscal responsibility over the medium term, and the government should do more to convince them of that," Rajan told the Global Markets Forum.

India was placed under one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in late March for more than two months to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but cases have continued to rise steadily since the government eased restrictions in June, stymieing hopes of an economic recovery.

The government has announced several initiatives to help the poor and small- and medium-size businesses, but actual cash outgo from the government's measures has been estimated at just about 1% of GDP.

Several attribute the fiscal prudence to fear of a downgrade after Moody's cut India's rating and outlook in early June followed closely by a change in outlook from Fitch.

The central bank on its part too has reduced the key lending rate by 115 basis points on top of the 135 bps last year and is widely expected to cut rates by another 25 bps later on Thursday.

"The RBI and government have certainly been cooperating, but it seems like it is elsewhere, the ball is in the government's court to do more," Rajan said.

He said the RBI needs to focus on whether credit is reaching the stressed areas of the economy and also if the viable firms were able to access credit and not the unviable ones.

"And I think that's where it has to focus its attentions, because resources, as you well know, are limited in India today."

Recently analysts, however, have cited the growing possibility the RBI may prefer to pause and cut rates only at its October meeting.

Government officials too have suggested the possibility of any more fiscal stimulus being announced, would only come in the second half of the fiscal year, once a recovery has taken root and coronavirus cases have peaked.

"What India should focus on at this point is protecting its economic capabilities, so that when it has dealt with the virus it can go resume activity in a reasonable way. That should be the focus," Rajan said.

"And if it does that, there is no reason why the rating agencies will not see that as an appropriate policy".

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News Network
January 19,2020

New Delhi, Jan 19: Reacting to a tweet by ace lawyer Indira Jaising urging her to forgive the four men on death row for brutally raping that finally took her life, Nirbhaya's mother said on Saturday: "Even if God asks me, I won't forgive them."

Speaking to news agency, over the phone, the mother who had been fighting for seven long years to send her daughter's killers to the gallows, said, "...even if god comes and asks me to forgive them, I will not. People like these (Jaising) are a blot on the society."

Commenting on Jaising's tweet, she said: "Who is she to tell or suggest to me to forgive them. What relation does she have with me. I have nothing to do with such people. She can be a relative of those (the convicts) that she is having a soft corner for."

"She is an insult to women. She is running a business in the name of human rights. She is a veteran, she should give a message to the society. But she instead will go against her own kind," she added.

Earlier in the day, Jaising had requested Nirbhaya's mother to follow the example of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who had moved for the clemency of a woman, Nalini Murugan convicted for the assassination of her husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

"While I fully identify with the pain of Nirbhaya's mother I urge her to follow the example of Sonia Gandhi who forgave Nalini and said she didn't want the death penalty for her. We are with you but against death penalty," Jaising tweeted on Friday.

A Delhi Court on Friday issued fresh death warrants against the four convicts -- Akshay, Pawan, Mukesh and Vinay in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Satish Kumar Arora fixed 1 February as the date of execution of the four death row convicts. They will be hanged at 6am.

The move came after the prosecution moved an application seeking issuance of fresh death warrants following the rejection of the mercy plea of one of the convicts Mukesh by President Ram Nath Kovind.

The 23-year-old victim was brutally gang-raped and tortured on December 16, 2012, which later led to her death.

All the six accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused was a minor and appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another accused committed suicide in Tihar Jail.

Four of the convicts were sentenced to death by a trial court in September 2013, and the verdict was confirmed by the Delhi High Court in March 2014 and upheld by the Supreme Court in May 2017, which also dismissed their review petitions.

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