Pranab was more qualified than me to be PM: Manmohan Singh

Agencies
October 14, 2017

New Delhi, Oct 14: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Pranab Mukherjee would be justified in feeling aggrieved on being passed over for the top job in 2004 since the former President was better qualified to lead the government, but added that he "had no choice in the matter" as the decision to install him was that of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

"In 2004, Mukherjee had all reason to feel the grievance that he was better qualified than me to be the PM but he knew that I had no choice," Singh said at a function to release the third instalment of Mukherjee's book 'Coalition Years'.

The remark provoked loud guffaws on the dais that seated Mukherjee, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury , SP head Akhilesh Yadav, CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy and DMK's Kanimozhi, as well as the front row which had Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. BSP's SC Mishra, who was slated to be on the dais, did not turn up.

The occasion was marked by a strong push by non-Congress leaders for putting together an anti-BJP coalition. Reddy said the threat facing democracy had revived the need for an anti-BJP coalition. Akhilesh said Mukherjee's lessons on coalition would be a big help ahead of the 2019 polls.

Kanimozhi praised Mukherjee for condemning "intolerance" and stressing on the need for "dialogue" even while being the President. She said rights of states were being taken away under the BJP regime and a voice like Mukherjee's would "make a difference". But it was Singh's candid comments which turned out to be the highlight. It was his first ever remark on his relationship with Mukherjee, often described as tense because of the latter's widely speculated resentment over having to make way for Singh in 2004 when Congress pulled of an upset to form the government.

"He is a politician by choice. He is the greatest politician living in the country .I became a politician by accident when P V Narasimha Rao asked me to become the finance minister," Singh said.

The comments appeared a conscious effort to cap the incessant chatter about their relationship -something which remained the grist of grapevine during the UPA regime with insiders on many occasions insisting that the friction was not merely a piece of imagination of the gossipy elite of Lutyen's zone.

For Mukherjee, being passed over for Singh was seen as an especially cruel blow because he happened to be Singh-the-bureaucrat's superior more than once during earlier Congress regimes. Given the context, Mukherjee's election as President was seen to have restored parity , with Singh again reporting to him, that is, in terms of protocol, for his last two years as PM. Singh said he was "grateful" for Mukherjee's help in managing the UPA coalitions."If UPA was smooth, a large measure of credit goes to Mukherjee," he said.

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News Network
June 10,2020

New Delhi, Jun 10: India on Wednesday reported a spike of 9,985 more COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country's COVID-19 count to 2,76,583, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

279 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours taking the total death toll to 7,745.

The total number of active cases has reached 1,33,632 while 1,35,205 patients have recovered. While one person has migrated.

With 90,787 cases, Maharashtra reported the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country followed by Tamil Nadu with 34,914 cases.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 1,45,216 samples were tested in the last 24 hours while overall 50,61,332 samples have been tested so far.

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News Network
February 3,2020

New Delhi, Feb 3: In the third such incident inside of a week, two unidentified persons opened fire outside Gate No. 5 of Jamia Millia Islamia on Sunday night, the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) said.

A statement issued by the committee, a group comprising students and alumni of the university formed to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, said the attackers were on a red Rcooty.

No one was injured in the attack. One of the miscreants was wearing a red jacket, the statement said.

"Firing has taken place at Gate No.5 of Jamia Millia Islamia right now by two unidentified persons. As per report, one of them was wearing a red jacket and driving a red Scooty having vehicle no. 1532 or 1534," the statement said.

Police said they were verifying the JCC's claims.

Asim Mohammed Khan, former Congress MLA from Okhla, said the incident occurred around 11.30 pm. "We heard the gunshot. That is when we stepped out to see and the two men left on a Scooty," a student said.

"We have taken down the vehicle number and called police," he added.

This is the third firing incident in the Jamia Nagar area in a week.

On Thursday, a minor fired at anti-CAA protesters marching towards Rajghat, injuring a student.

Two days later, a 25-year-old fired two rounds in air in Shaheen Bagh in Jamia Nagar. No one was hurt in the incident.

The incident on Sunday night triggered panic in the area. A police vehicle had reached the spot after the incident but was chased away by angry students.

Hundreds of students and locals gathered outside the university.

Many raised slogans against the Delhi Police. They also staged a dharna outside the Jamia Nagar police station.

Shezad Ahmed, a JMI student and resident of Zakir Nagar, said they were not even allowed to protest peacefully.

"We are not going to be deterred by such incidents. We will continue with our protest," he added.

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News Network
May 21,2020

Bengaluru, May 21: The COVID-19-induced lockdown saw a spurt in crybercrimes in India with Kerala recording the highest number during the period, according to an analysis of IT security solutions provider K7 Computing.

The report analyses various cyberattacks within India during the pandemic and reveals that threat actors targeted the States with COVID-19-themed attacks aimed at exploiting user trust.

The sudden surge in the frequency of attacks witnessed from February 2020 to mid-April 2020 indicates that scamsters across the world were exploiting the widespread panic around coronavirus at both the individual and corporate level, the company said in a statement.

These attacks aimed to compromise computers and mobile devices to gain access to users confidential data, banking details and cryptocurrency accounts.

The key threats seen during this period ranged from phishing attacks to rogue apps disguised as COVID-19 information apps that targeted users sensitive data.

Phishing attacks were noticed more in Tier-II and Tier-III cities while the metros fared better.

Smaller cities saw over 250 attacks being blocked per 10,000 users.

Users from Ghaziabad and Lucknow seem to have faced almost six and four times the number of attacks, respectively, as Bengaluru users.

In Kerala, regions like Kottayam, Kannur, Kollam, and Kochi saw the highest hits with 462, 374, 236, and 147 attacks respectively, while the state as a whole saw around 2,000 attacks during the period, the highest thus far in the country.

This was followed by Punjab with 207 attacks and Tamil Nadu at 184 attacks, the statement said.

A majority of the recorded attacks were phishing attacks with sophisticated campaigns that could easily snare even the most educated users, it said.

These attacks were aimed at heightening users fears and creating a sense of urgency to take action.

The report noted phishing attacks where scamsters posed as representatives of the United States Department of the Treasury, the World Health Organisation, and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Users were encouraged to visit links that would automatically download malware on the host computer such as the Agent Tesla keylogger or Lokibot information-stealing malware, infamous banking Trojans such as Trickbot or Zeus Sphinx, and even disastrous ransomware.

Other attacks included infected COVID-19 Android apps like CoronaSafetyMask that scam users with promises of masks for an upfront payment; the spyware app Project Spy; and seemingly genuine apps that are infected with dangerous malware like banking Trojans such as Ginp, Anubis and Cerberus, it was stated.

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