Udupi: ISRO space exhibition at NMAMIT attracts students

Bengaluru, Jan 29: The Karnataka unit of BJP has urged the Centre and the State governments to ban the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), accusing them of harbouring terrorist tendencies.

Addressing a press meet, N Ravi Kumar, state general secretary of the party, alleged that there was a nexus between the Congress, the PFI and the SDPI.

“Recent reports have exposed the links between the PFI and the Congress,” he said, accusing Congress leader Kapil Sibal of receiving huge funds from PFI to defend their cases in the Supreme Court.

He also accused the organisations as the ones responsible for the death of 23 Hindu activists in Karnataka. Such incidents have proven that both SDPI and PFI are dubious organisations, he said.

Mangaluru, May 26: Days after the government of India approved the use of chartered flights for the repatriation of Indians stranded across the world amidst covid-19 lockdown, two NRI entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia have offer to bear the cost of repatriation if they get formal green signal to repatriate stranded Indians from Dammam to Mangaluru International Airport before June 5.

Althaf Ullal and Basheer Sagar, the two Kannadiga Directors of Al Khobar-based Saqco, have made this offer in a letter written to Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

The duo have assured that their company will bear the cost of the first chartered flight from Dammam to Mangaluru if the government paves way for its operation by June 5. 

It is learnt that many private airliners have come forward to operate chartered flight and are waiting for final clearance from the government. It will cost approximately Rs 45 lakh to hire chartered flight with 180 capacity from Dammam to Mangaluru. 

Pregnant women, medical emergency cases, senior citizens on visit visas, those who lost jobs due to lockdown among other stranded Indians will be given priority in this flight, they said.

"Our company will completely bear this cost. Passengers only need to bear the cost of institutional quarantine after reaching Mangaluru," they have clarified. 

Hubballi, Jan 30: Seeking to disabuse people of the notion that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), recently passed by the BJP-led central government threatened the legitimacy of Muslims in the country, yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Wednesday said that he would among the first to take to the streets should the community face any such trouble. “If the National Register of Citizens (NRC) threatens injustice to Indian Muslims, it I not just I, but a billion Indians will protest against its implementation,” he added.

Recalling his longstanding association with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ramdev said, “I have known Modi for more than 15 years, and I can assure you that he cannot be called anti-Muslim. There is nothing in the CAA that threatens the rights of Muslims, some of whom are being misled by a few.”

The yoga guru said that, while 99% of the Muslims in India were patriotic, the remaining ones were seeking to divide the country, which he said was resulting in Islam falling into disgrace. “I appeal to all Muslims to keep away from such anti-national forces seeking to bring a bad name to Islam,” said Ramdev, calling on the people to stay united in the face of the severe economic crisis that the country was presently in the grips of.

He added that he was as committed to his goal of getting black money back to India. However, when quizzed by journalists as to how long he was willing to wait for PM Modi to realise this objective, Ramdev said, “Chodi, mere aur Modi ke beech jagada mat lao (Please do not incite a fight between Modi and me).”

The yoga guru also endorsed the decision of the Centre to recognise singer Adnan Sami with a Padma award.