Rahul Gandhi lying on Rafale, comes from family of "middlemen": BJP

Agencies
October 12, 2018

New Delhi, Oct 12: Rejecting Rahul Gandhi's allegation of corruption against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal, the BJP on Thursday accused the Congress chief of "lying through his teeth shamelessly" and indulging in "politics of misinformation" to build his political career.

Repeatedly calling Gandhi a "clown prince", the BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra at a press conference also alleged the Congress leader comes from "a family of middlemen" and his his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was "officially a middleman" in a defence deal.

The Gandhi family had made money from every defence deal till 2014, Patra alleged, claiming that Rahul Gandhi has not been able to come out of that mindset.

Patra was talking to journalists hours after the Congress president addressed a press conference where he demanded an investigation into prime minister Modi's role in the Rafale deal, alleging that he was a "corrupt man" who helped Anil Ambani pocket Rs 30,000 crore in the purchase of 36 aircraft.

Rejecting the allegations, Patra said the BJP stands with the truth and accused Gandhi of making a mockery of national security. He also said the Indian Air Force Chief has recently described the purchase of the fighter aircraft as a "game-changer".

Patra also read out from a statement of Dassault Aviation, manufacturer of Rafale fighter aircraft, to claim that Gandhi inserted "Reliance" deliberately where the firm has spoken about its commitment to offset purchase from India.

The BJP leader further said the Supreme Court has also dismissed a PIL (public interest litigation) that had questioned the aircraft's price and sought the deal cancelled.

He said the people will decide whether to believe Gandhi or the Supreme Court and the Air Force Chief.

"People of this country do not want a clown prince to play with the national security. His press conference was full of lies and deception which he is using to build his political career. This will not happen," he said.

Reacting sharply to the Congress president's allegation that Modi acted like a "chowkidar" of Anil Ambani, the BJP leader asked whether former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was a prime minister only for Ottavio Quattrocchi, an accused in the Bofors case.

Patra accused the Congress leader of "lying through his teeth shamelessly" in wrongly quoting former French president Francois Hollande as referring Modi as corrupt.

Gandhi had earlier also quoted French president Emmanuel Macron as having told him that the aircraft's pricing was not part of the secrecy clause, and the French government later denied it, Patra said.

"He (Gandhi) still has the audacity to hold a press conference and lie through his teeth. This is shamelessness," the BJP spokesperson said.

The Congress-led UPA government had jeopardised the country's defence as the squadron strength of the Air Force fell to 31 from 44, he alleged.

Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law Robert Vadra did not get his share in the Rafale deal and therefore the UPA government cancelled it, he claimed.

On Gandhi's charge that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's trip to France was part a government cover-up, Patra said her ministry has already clarified that the visit was scheduled earlier.

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News Network
January 18,2020

New Delhi, Jan 18: The Supreme Court Friday refused to entertain a PIL seeking conferment of 'Bharat Ratna' on Mahatma Gandhi saying that people hold the father of the nation in “high esteem”, beyond any formal recognition.

A bench, comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, however asked petitioner Anil Dutta Sharma to give representation to the central government in this regard.

“Mahatma Gandhi is the father of nation and people hold him in high esteem, beyond any formal recognition,” the bench said.

The issue of directing the government to award Bharat Ratna to the father of the nation was not a “justiciable issue”, it said.

The bench however said that it agreed with the sentiments of the petitioner for granting official decoration to Mahatma Gandhi.

Disposing of the petition, the top court said, “We will allow you to give a representation to the Centre in this regard.”

Sharma, in his PIL, had sought a direction to the government to give “official decoration” to Mahatma Gandhi to honour him for the contribution to the nation.

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News Network
February 10,2020

New Delhi, Feb 10: A 44-year-old man allegedly killed his daughter and son before ending his life by jumping in front of a Delhi metro train at Haiderpur Badli Mor station on Sunday, police said.

No suicide note has been recovered, but police claimed that the man, Madhur Malani, was depressed since his sandpaper-manufacturing factory was closed some six months ago due to financial crunch leaving him jobless. Madhur's parents had been supporting his family financially since then.

He used to stay with his wife Rupali, daughter Samiksha (14) and six-year-old son Shraiyans at a rented house in northwest Delhi's Shalimar Bagh area, they said.

Rupali was not at home when Madhur strangled their children. He might have also smothered their daughter but the exact cause of death would be ascertained only after the post-mortem reports arrive, a police official said.

After killing his two children, he jumped in front of an approaching train at Haiderpur Badli Mor Metro station following which he was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him 'brought dead', the official said.

Metro services on the Yellow Line were briefly delayed due to the incident.

"Delay in services from Samaypur Badli to GTB Nagar due to a passenger on track at Haiderpur Badli Mor," the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) tweeted.

After about 15 minutes, it again tweeted that normal services have been restored. The Delhi Metro's Yellow Line connects Samaypur Badli in Delhi to HUDA City Centre in Gurgaon.

The suicide was reported to the police around 5.40 pm while the Shalimar Bagh Police station received a call about the killings around 6.50 pm.

On reaching the house, police found bodies of the children lying in beds in two rooms. During enquiry, it was learnt that their father has left the house, a senior police officer said.

While police were trying to trace Madhur, they learnt about a suicide at the metro station. On verifying the details, it surfaced that Madhur committed suicide after killing his children, the officer said.

Rupali told police that she had gone to a nearby market around 3 pm and on returning home she found the bodies of her children while her husband was missing.

A case under relevant sections of the IPC has been registered and investigation was underway, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Vijayanta Arya said.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 6,2020

New Delhi, May 6: The government on Wednesday said no data or security breach has been identified in Aarogya Setu after an ethical hacker raised concerns about a potential security issue in the app.

The app is the government's mobile application for contact tracing and disseminating medical advisories to users in order to contain the spread of coronavirus.

On Tuesday, a French hacker and cyber security expert Elliot Alderson had claimed that "a security issue has been found" in the app and that "privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake".

Dismissing the claims, the government said "no personal information of any user has been proven to be at risk by this ethical hacker".

"We are continuously testing and upgrading our systems. Team Aarogya Setu assures everyone that no data or security breach has been identified," the government said through the app’s Twitter handle.

The tweet gave point-by-point clarification on the red flags raised by the hacker.

"We discussed with the hacker and were made aware of the following... the app fetches user location on a few occasions," it said, but added that this was by design and is clearly detailed in the privacy policy.

The app fetches users’ location and stores on the server in a secure, encrypted, anonymised manner - at the time of registration, at the time of self assessment, when users submit their contact tracing data voluntary through the app or when it fetches the contact tracing data of users after they have turned COVID-19 positive, it said.

On another issue that users can get COVID-19 stats displayed on the home screen by changing the radius and latitude-longitude using a script, Aarogya Setu said that all this information is already public for all locations and hence does not compromise on any personal or sensitive data.

"We thank the ethical hacker on engaging with us. We encourage any users who identify a vulnerability to inform us immediately...," it said.

Responding to Aarogya Setu's clarification, Alderson tweeted, "I will come back to you tomorrow".

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