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BJP may back PA Sangma as President candidate

May 21, 2012

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New Delhi, May 21: Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday stepped up her advocacy for P A Sangma as president, rallying support across the political spectrum. She called up BJP veteran L K Advani, who is believed to have told her that he was "positively inclined" towards Sangma personally but a decision would only be taken only after consultations within the party and with NDA leaders.

The NDA is likely to discuss its strategy by Tuesday in light of the intense lobbying for the former Speaker by the AIADMK chief.

Jayalalithaa also spoke to CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI's A B Bardhan, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal, the AIADMK said.

YSR Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy is also learnt to be in favour of Sangma's candidature. In a coordinated move, Jayalalithaa and her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik had floated Sangma's name on May 17.

While Jayalalithaa and Patnaik had propped up Sangma as a "tribal" candidate, Advani is learnt to be of the view that the NCP leader's credentials as a "Christian" has greater weight as the tribal block is fragmented, while the Christian block less so.

In fact, Advani is learned to have received a letter from the Council of Churches, a body of Christian clerics, who without naming Sangma, seem to be backing him. The letter pointed out that there had been presidents from other minority communities -three Muslim presidents and one belonging to the Sikh community - implying that a Christian should get the top job this time.

After Jayalalithaa's phone call to Mulayam, SP said it was not a hurry to decide on the presidential candidate and that the party had not taken a decision on whom to support. The CPI said it would decide on the issue after a party meeting on May 23.

Interestingly, the Nationalist Congress Party, to which Sangma belongs, has ruled out supporting his candidature, saying it would go with the UPA decision.

Lok Janshakti Party chief Ramvilas Paswan said in Tiruchirapalli on Sunday that his party would support the UPA candidate for presidency. Asked about Sangma's candidature, he said, "All are our friends. But we will support only the candidate chosen by UPA."

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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
February 17,2020

New Delhi, Feb 17: Indian officials denied entry to British lawmaker Debbie Abrahams on Monday after she landed at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Debbie Abrahams, a Labour Party Member of Parliament who chairs a parliamentary group focused on the Kashmir, was unable to clear customs after her valid Indian visa was rejected, her aide, Harpreet Upal, told The Associated Press.

Abrahams and Upal arrived at the airport on an Emirates flight from Dubai at 9 am. Upal said the immigration officials did not cite any reason for denying Abrahams entry and revoking her visa, a copy of which, valid until October 2020, was shared with the AP. A spokesman for India's foreign ministry did not immediately comment.

Abrahams has been a member of Parliament since 2011 and was on a two-day personal trip to India, she said in a statement.

"I tried to establish why the visa had been revoked and if I could get a 'visa on arrival' but no one seemed to know," she said in the statement.

"Even the person who seemed to be in charge said he didn't know and was really sorry about what had happened. So now I am just waiting to be deported ... unless the Indian Government has a change of heart. I'm prepared to let the fact that I've been treated like a criminal go, and I hope they will let me visit my family and friends."

Abrahams has been an outspoken critic of the Indian government's move last August stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its semi-autonomy and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories.

Shortly after the changes to Kashmir's status were passed by Parliament, Abrahams wrote a letter to India's High Commissioner to the UK, saying the action "betrays the trust of the people" of Kashmir.

India took more than 20 foreign diplomats on a visit to Kashmir last week, the second such trips in six months.

Access to the region remains tight, with no foreign journalists allowed.

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Agencies
March 14,2020

New Delhi, Mar 14: India on Friday was mulling over the option of deporting The Wall Street Journal's South Asia deputy bureau chief for misreporting Delhi riots in which over 50 people were killed last month. However, the government denied that it had made any such decision.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that a complaint was registered against Eric Bellman, the WSJ South Asia deputy bureau chief based in New Delhi, by a private individual on the government's online grievance redressal platform.

"Referring the complaint to the related office is a routine matter as per standard procedure. No such decision on deportation has been taken by the Ministry of External Affairs," Kumar said.

However, government-funded Prasar Bharati News Services had earlier tweeted screenshots of the complaint which was filed by an undersecretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, Vinesh K Kalra, saying that the ministry has asked the Indian embassy in the US to "look into the request for immediate deportation of Bellman for his "anti-India behaviour".

The official had complained to the embassy about Bellman's controversial reportage on the killing of an Intelligence Bureau staffer named Ankit Sharma.

The WSJ had reported that Ankit Sharma's brother had said that he was killed by a mob belonging to a particular religious community. Ankit's brother later told Indian media that he never spoke to the WSJ reporter.

After the Prasar Bharati tweet got circulated widely on social media, the government backtracked and said that no such decision has been taken.

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