Author: News Analysis India

The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court Wednesday rejected a plea to bar 2008 Malegaon blasts accused and BJP candidate Sadhvi Pragya Thakur from contesting the Lok Sabha elections, citing that it is for the electoral officers to take a call on the matter.

“In the ongoing elections, the court does not have any legal powers to prohibit anyone from contesting the polls. It is the job of electoral officers to decide. This court cannot stop the accused number 1 from contesting the polls. This application is negated,” the court was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

“At this juncture, the NIA cannot state that there is no prima facie case against the accused as the NIA has not challenged the order (rejecting discharge of the accused) before the high court,” it added.

The special NIA court’s response came after Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal, whose son Sayyed Azhar had died in the blast, urged it to prevent Thakur from contesting the polls since the trial is still in progress.

Expressing regret has not earned Rahul Gandhi any reprieve after he admitted yesterday to misquoting the Supreme Court on its order on the Rafale fighter jet deal. The Congress chief has been asked to explain by next Tuesday why he should not be held in contempt for suggesting that the court had endorsed his sharpest political attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi this election season. However, he won’t have to appear in person to file his response.

On Monday, Mr Gandhi had said in an affidavit that he had falsely quoted the top court as “rhetorical flourish in the heat of political campaigning”, without having seen, read or analysed the order. Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, acting as Mr Gandhi’s lawyer, today requested that the case be closed. As former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, arguing on behalf of the BJP, objected, Mr Singhvi pointed out that the court had “not issued notice” to his client but only asked for an explanation.

Mr Singhvi would regret that comment.

“You are pointing out we have forgotten to issue notice. We will cure it by issuing notice,” responded the bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

The court had asked for an explanation in the last hearing before it took up the BJP’s contempt petition against Mr Gandhi.

Mr Singhvi maintained that Rahul Gandhi’s statements accusing PM Modi of corruption in the Rafale deal were a political diatribe after the BJP claimed the court had cleared the government of any wrongdoing.

“‘Chowkidar chor hai‘ is being used, has been and will continue to be used as a political campaign,” the Congress leader said later, briefing the media outside.

The Supreme Court will take up the case next Tuesday, along with review petitions against its Rafale order.

On April 10, the court had ruled that classified documents accessed by the media can be used as evidence to consider requests to review its clean chit to the Rafale deal. Hours later, Rahul Gandhi cheered the order with the “chowkidar” slogan that has become central in the Congress attack on PM Modi.

The BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi accused him of putting words in the mouth of the top court and sued him for contempt.

Her lawyer Mukul Rohatgi today questioned the tone of the affidavit filed by Mr Gandhi yesterday, asking how he could make a petty comment on the judgment when he has “so many lawyers at his command”.

“There has to be some limit to cavalier statements,” he said, pointing out that Mr Gandhi’s “least service of apology” for claiming that the Supreme Court had said “chowkidar chor hai“, was expressed “in a bracket”.

India has shared with China “all evidences” of the terrorist activities of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and its chief Masood Azhar during foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale’s visit to Beijing amid reports that China may finally make moves to lift technical hold on the issue in the UN Security Council. 

Gokhale is on a two-day visit to Beijing where he met Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and told him that Beijing needed to be “sensitive” to New Delhi’s concerns including listing of .. 

The power of “voter ID” is much more than the “IED” (Improvised Explosive Device) of terrorists, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday after casting his vote in Gujarat.

Mr. Modi appealed to people to come out in large numbers to vote in all the remaining phases of the Lok Sabha polls.

He arrived at a polling booth in Nishan High School, located in Ranip area of Ahmedabad city, in an open jeep in the morning.

BJP president Amit Shah, who is contesting from the Gandhinagar constituency, which covers Ahmedabad city, welcomed him outside the school and accompanied him to the booth.

While arriving at the polling booth, Mr. Modi greeted thousands of people who gathered on both sides of the road. After casting his vote, he walked some distance from the polling booth and interacted briefly with mediapersons.

Mr. Modi said, “Indian democracy presents an example before the world. While on the one hand, an IED is the weapon of terrorists, on the other, the voter ID [identity] is the weapon and power of democracy. I am confident that the power of voter ID is much more than the IED and we should understand the importance of the voter ID card and come out to vote in large numbers.”

The Prime Minister said he felt fortunate to participate in “the great festival of democracy” in his home State Gujarat. “The third phase of polling is taking place today in the country. I am fortunate that I also got the proud moment to fulfil my duty by voting in my home State Gujarat and to have an active participation in this great festival of democracy. By voting, I feel the same sense of purity that one gets after taking bath at the Kumbh mela.”

Mr. Modi urged people to vote with full enthusiasm. “The intelligence of Indian voters to understand whom to vote and whom not to vote is a matter of case study,” he said.

He also welcomed the active participation of those born in the 21st century in exercising their franchise for the first time and conveyed his best wishes to them.

“This entire century belongs to those who are voting for the first time. They have to vote for the bright future of this century. Therefore, I would especially urge the new voters to commit to hundred per cent voting. I am grateful to all the lovers of democracy who voted in large numbers in the first and second phases of the Lok Sabha elections,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister went to seek the blessings of his mother, Heeraben Modi, at his younger brother Pankaj Modi’s residence at Raisan village, located close to Gandhinagar. He spent around 20 minutes with his mother, who gave him a shawl, sweets and a coconut and her blessings for his victory in the polls.

The BJP on Sunday announced its seven more candidates for the Lok Sabha election, nominating Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri from Amritsar and renominating its four sitting MPs from Delhi.

The party has nominated Shankar Lalwani as its candidate from Indore in place of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Mr Lalwani is chairman of Indore Development Authority.

The party has fielded its four sitting MPs from Delhi — Harsh Vardhan from Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari from Northeast Delhi, Pravesh Verma from West Delhi and Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi.

Mr Puri, whom the party has been grooming as one of its prominent Sikh leaders, has been fielded from Amritsar, from where Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, the Congress announced candidates for five Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, fielding party heavyweight and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder

Singh Hooda from Sonipat and replacing Faridabad candidate Lalit Nagar with Avtar Singh Bhadana.

Mr Nagar, who was dropped as Faridabad candidate, is said to be close to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, sources said.

With the announcement of the new list, the party has declared candidates for all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

When asked to comment on his candidature, Mr Hooda, who is a four-time MLA and has remained Lok Sabha MP on four occasions in the past, said he respects the party’s decision to field him from Sonipat.

“I am a disciplined soldier of the party. I had earlier said that I will contest the polls if my party asks me to do so. My priority is my party,” he said.

Congress in-charge for east UP, Priyanka Gandhi, attacked the BJP government for “not just betraying Amethi but the entire nation”. “PM Modi has not visited a single village in Varanasi. Let them beg for votes, Amethi and Raebareli will never bow down in front of anyone,” she said.

Countering PM Modi’s ‘diwali nuclear button’ comment, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said Pakistan has not kept their nuclear weapons for Eid. “Every other day they (Pakistan) talk about nuclear button. But that doesn’t mean they have reserved it for Eid,” she said. Addressing an election rally in Rajasthan’s Barmer town on Sunday, PM Modi had said the strategic experts earlier used to warn that Pakistan had the nuclear button. “What do we have then? Have we kept our nuclear bomb for Diwali,” he asked, while affirming that India had the capability to launch nuclear attacks from land, air and sea.

Malegaon blast accused and Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency’s BJP candidate Pragya Singh Thakur on Friday said former Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare died in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks as she had cursed him for treating her “very badly” while she was in custody in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

“Hemant Karkare falsely implicated me. He died of his karma. I told him, he will be destroyed. I told him his entire dynasty will be erased. Maine kaha tera [Karkare] sarvanash hoga,” she said.

The IPS Association tweeted in response to her comment, “Ashok Chakra awardee late Sri Hemant Karkare, IPS made the supreme sacrifice fighting terrorists. Those of us in uniform condemn the insulting statement made by a candidate and demand that sacrifices of all our martyrs be respected.”

Karkare was killed along with two other senior police officers while fighting terrorists during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in November 2008.

Pragya Singh Thakur is set to have a direct electoral contest with Congress veteran and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh in Bhopal.

Likening Congress leader Hardik Patel to Hitler, the man who slapped him at a rally in Gujarat’s Surendranagar on Friday, said he had decided in 2015 that he would hit the Patidar leader.

“My wife was pregnant when Patidar agitation happened, she was undergoing treatment at a hospital, I had faced problems then, I had decided then, I’ll hit this man. I have to teach him a lesson anyhow,” the attacker Tarun Gajjar was quoted by ANI as saying

“During his rally in Ahmedabad when I had gone to get medicine for my child, everything was shut down. He shuts down the roads, he shuts down Gujarat whenever he wants to, What is he? Gujarat’s Hitler?” added Gajjar, who was admitted in hospital after being attacked by Congress workers following the slapping incident.

The Election Commission of India sent a notice to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi today, for violation of Model Code of Conduct, over banners put up in family stronghold Amethi on Wednesday. The banners, which had a picture of Rahul Gandhi, said, “Ab hoga nyay“. Rahul Gandhi has been asked to reply to the Election Commission’s notice in 24 hours.

The election body, in its notice, said that the banners were put up without the permission of the local election officers and the owner of the building. 

Flying squads of the poll body came across seven, 10 X 25 feet banners across Amethi, said the election body in its notice. The Election Commission further said that when its officers asked for relevant papers, the Congress workers could not show anything.

The poll panel said action will be taken if the Congress chief is unable to give a satisfactory reply. 

“Nyay“, which means justice, is a flagship scheme promised by the Congress to provide basic minimum income support to the poorest of the poor families in the country if it is voted to power

Party chief Rahul Gandhi in a tweet urged people to “vote for nyay“, as polls for phase two of Lok Sabha elections began in 95 seats across 11 states yesterday.

Barter trade between India-Pakistan across the Line-of-Control (LoC) has been suspended from tomorrow, a notification of the Union Home Ministry (MHA) issued on Thursday said, ascribing the move to suspicion that the avenue is being used to smuggle weapons, drugs, and fake currency into India. .

The cross-LoC trade was started in 2008. Goods worth Rs 5,000 crore have been bartered since. From both sides of Kashmir, traders were allowed to deal in 16 items, including spices, vegetables, dry and fresh fruits, carpets, rugs, embroidery items, shawls, paper mache goods, clothes and wooden furniture.

The decision to start cross-LoC barter trade was agreed upon by New Delhi and Islamabad in 2004 but the trade started four years later, in 2008.

The cross LoC trade was through “Trade Facilitation Centres” at Salambad in Uri , Baramulla District and Chakkan-da-Bagh, Poonch District. The trade takes place four days a week.

“This action has been taken as the Government of India has been receiving reports that the Cross LoC trade routes are being misused by the Pakistan based elements for funnelling illegal weapons, narcotics and fake currency etc,” the statement of the MHA said and added that “it has, therefore, been decided by the Government of India to suspend the LoC trade at Salamabad and Chakkan-da-Bagh in Jammu and Kashmir with immediate effect. Meanwhile, a stricter regulatory & enforcement mechanism is being worked out and will be put in place in consultation with various agencies. The issue of reopening of LoC trade will be revisited thereafter.”

After the Pulwama attack by a terrorist of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed on February 14, that left 40 soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) dead, India withdrew the “Most Favoured Nation Status” (MNF) from Pakistan.

“Inputs have also been received that in order to evade the consequent higher duty, LoC trade is likely to be misused to a much larger extent,” MHA added in its statement. .

Earlier, in 2014-2015, the National Investigative Agency (NIA) investigated the cross- LOC trade. It allegedly found items were under and over-invoiced , generating a huge surplus, part of which was being diverted to fuel protest in the valley.

The suspension of cross-LoC trade evoked sharp political reactions in Jammu and Kashmir. Former J&K chief minister and the vice- president of National Conference, Omar Abdullah blamed the BJP government for ending the legacy of former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “The Modi Govt buries another of the Vajpayee era CBMs (confidence building measures). Cross LoC trade was a legacy of the Vajpayee Govt decision to facilitate greater people to people contact across the Line of Control in J&K. That the LoC trade may have been used by some traders for illegal activities was suspected for years now and it was to plug this that the state has been pleading for the installation of full truck scanners at the trade points,’’ tweeted Omar Abdullah.

PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti accused BJP of using Kashmir as a scapegoat. “Using Kashmir as a scapegoat to claw its way to power won’t help BJP. This is an excuse to worsen ties with Pakistan despite their peace overtures. By doing this PM Modi has dismantled a CBM Initiated by Vajpayee ji . Won’t be surprised if an attack on Pak is in the offing.” .