News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Rajasthan BJP MLA Gautam Lal Meena dies of COVID, CM Ashok Gehlot expresses condolences

    By ANI
    DHARIAWAD: BJP MLA from Dhariawad constituency, Gautam Lal Meena passed away at a hospital where he was undergoing treatment for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot condoled Meena’s demise.

    धरियावद (प्रतापगढ़) से भाजपा विधायक श्री गौतमलाल मीणा के कोरोना संक्रमण से असामयिक निधन की जानकारी बेहद दुखद है। ईश्वर से प्रार्थना है कि शोकाकुल परिजनों, स्व. श्री मीणा के समर्थकों तथा मित्रों को यह आघात सहने की शक्ति दें एवं दिवंगत आत्मा को शांति प्रदान करें। #Rajasthan
    — Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) May 19, 2021

    “The news of untimely demise of MLA Gautam Lal Meena from Dhariawad (Pratapgarh) due to corona infection is very saddening. I pray to god to give the grieving family members, the supportes and friends of Shri Meena the power to bear the brunt and to give the peace to the departed soul. #Rajasthan”, Gehlot tweeted.

    According to the Union Health Ministry, there are 1,59,455 active coronavirus cases in Rajasthan while 7,080 people succumbed to the infection.

  • Author of toolkit to defame PM Modi, India is member of Congress research wing, alleges BJP

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: The controversy over Congress’ alleged use of toolkit to tarnish the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over handling of COVID-19 intensified on Wednesday as Bharatiya Janata Party revealed the identity of the alleged author of the document as a member of the Congress’ research wing.

    Responding to the Congress assertion that the document shown by the BJP was fake and its threat to lodge an FIR against BJP President JP Nadda, senior BJP leader and party spokesperson Sambit Patra stated that the party had itself exposed the author of the toolkit.

    Patra, with details collated by domain experts of the toolkit in hand, named Saumya Verma as the author of the toolkit that aimed to defame the Prime Minister and the country by directing to call Covid strain B.1.617 as “Indian Variant” or “Modi variant”.

    ALSO READ| Congress to take BJP to court over toolkit ‘forgery’: Prof Rajeev Gowda

    Patra, with details collated by domain experts, named Saumya Varma as the author of the toolkit that aimed to defame the Prime Minister and the country by directing to call Covid strain as ‘Indian variant’ or ‘Modi variant’.

    Patra said that Varma according to her profile is a member of the research wing of All India Congress Committee (AICC) and works directly for Congress leader Professor Rajeev Gowda.

    The BJP leader presented papers of the toolkit author where the name of the project was given as ‘Central vista vanity project AICC Research’ along with various photographs of Varma with Rahul Gandhi and Gowda as a member of the AICC research team.

    Congress had threatened to lodge an FIR against Nadda and Patra accusing them of forgery of a toolkit to divert the country’s attention from the government’s failure to tackle the COVID pandemic. Patra said that the pointers mentioned in the ‘Congress toolkit’ were used by various Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi and “this should be evidence enough”.

    “The toolkit mentioned that how a certain variant should be called Indian or Modi variant. Rahul Gandhi tweeted Covid as Modi pandemic and Sonia Falerio is the daughter of a Congress leader called the variant as Modi variant. Shashi Tharoor too has called it an Indian variant as mentioned in the toolkit. We now know the origin of the toolkit,” said Patra.

    The BJP had come out with an ‘expose’ on Tuesday where it alleged that Congress has come out with a toolkit to tarnish Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s and government on handling of the pandemic. The contents of the toolkit ranged from targeting PM Modi to taking the help of foreign publication journalists for building a narrative against the government over its handling of the pandemic.

    BJP President JP Nadda had condemned Congress for “dividing society and spewing venom at a time when the country is fighting COVID-19 while urging Congress to go beyond toolkit models and do something constructive.”

  • Congress alleges BJP citing ‘fake toolkit’ to defame it, files police complaint seeking FIR against Nadda, Irani

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP of propagating a “fake toolkit” to defame it and lodged a police complaint against the party’s chief JP Nadda, Union minister Smriti Irani, and leaders B L Santosh and Sambit Patra seeking to book them for “sharing and creating fake news”.

    Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the country would not have been in such a painful situation if access to vaccines was made as easy as arresting people for raising questions in the Modi ‘system’ and noted, “Stop Corona, not questions raised by the public.

    ” Addressing a joint press conference, party’s research cell head Rajeev Gowda and spokesperson Pawan Khera said instead of helping people during the COVID-19 pandemic, the BJP is stooping to low-level politics, asserting that it will neither bow nor be cowed down to such pressure tactics.

    They claimed this is being done to divert the attention of people from the government’s failures in handling the COVID pandemic that has led to a large number of deaths across the country in the wake of shortage of ICU beds, oxygen and essential medicines.

    “The BJP is propagating a fake ‘toolkit’ on ‘COVID-19 mismanagement’ and attributing it to AICC research department.

    We have filed a complaint with Delhi Police commissioner for registering an FIR of forgery and other relevant sections of law against JP Nadda, Smriti Irani, BL Santosh and Sambit Patra,” Gowda said.

    “When our country is devastated by COVID, instead of providing relief, BJP shamelessly concocts forgeries,” he also alleged.

    “This outrageous behaviour of the BJP we have taken up with the police authorities so far and we mean to take it further with authorities of platforms like twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

    Now, basic point is that what these people have done is fraud and forgery and this is a crime, which needs to be taken up with the police and that is the agenda that we are pursuing right now,” Gowda said.

    Khera said, ” You cannot scare us into silence. We are not afraid”.

    “BJP president J P Nadda, party spokesperson Sambit Patra, Union minister Smriti Irani and BJP general secretary BL Santosh and others in connivance with each other had forged, fabricated and manufactured the said documents on the letterhead of AICC Research Department and printed such material on the same which has to potential of creating communal disharmony, civil unrest in the country and the said document is being utilized by the BJP to spread fake news which has to potential to be escalated into violence and fueling hate at the hands of BJP leaders directly,” the complaint made by Gowda and Congress Social media cell chairman Rohan Gupta said.

    “It is stated that in delicate and tough times like this when the nation is fighting to survive against the COVID-19 virus the BJP functionaries are sharing and creating fake news with intent to create communal disharmony and civil unrest in the country, in order to divert attention of the people from the failures of the Modi government of handling the pandemic,” the complaint further said and demanded registration of an FIR on basis of this and punishing them strictly in accordance with law.

    The opposition party was reacting after the BJP alleged that the Congress wants to tarnish the image of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by calling the new strain of the coronavirus the “India strain” or the “Modi strain”.

    Citing a purported Congress toolkit, Patra said according to the document, it is clear that the Congress extending help to the needy during the pandemic is “more of a public relations exercise with the help of friendly journalists and influencers than a soulful endeavour”.

    However, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate at a virtual press conference claimed that there is no such document as shown by the BJP spokesperson and the party was initiating legal action.

    The party’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “Soon after the BJP forged the ‘fake toolkit’, all its ‘fake devotees’ and ‘friends in the media’ came out to set the agenda.

    ” “But, the truth about their misdeeds will not be left hidden,” he said.

    Khera alleged that the Prime Minister is only worried only about saving his false image and not about vaccines, even as people are dying due to Covid but he only wants to attain the position of “vaccine guru” in the world.

    He also alleged that such toolkits are brought out by the BJP the moment someone raises questions on the government as has been done by them in the past during students agitation, anti-CAA protests and the farmers agitation.

    This has exposed the ugly face of the BJP once again, he said, asking that instead of answering questions, the ruling party is accusing those who raise questions and target them.

    “Instead of answering questions, the BJP way is to defame and attack those raising questions. That is the BJP toolkit. That is why the country in such a state today with people dying due to Covid amid shortage of essential drugs and oxygen,” he said, alleging that the government’s priorities are misplaced and had it spent half of this time to helping those affected by corona, India would have been far better.

    “In your attempts to make Mr Modi become a leader, the country is being made to suffer. Address the crisis instead of resorting to such tactics,” he said.

    Shrinate alleged that the government’s priorities are misplaced as it was resorting to such “tactics” instead of helping the COVID affected.

    “We never expected that the national spokesperson of the BJP would resort to such blatant lies,” she said.

    Meanwhile, Nadda hit out the Congress, alleging that the opposition party is a “master” at “dividing society and spewing venom against others”.

    “India is seeing the Congress’ antics, while the nation is fighting COVID-19. I would urge Congress to go beyond ‘Toolkit Models’ and do something constructive,” the BJP chief tweeted.

  • Yogi government’s COVID managment faces Opposition, HC heat amid lack of medicines, meals among home isolation patients

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government as to why it was not providing medicine and meals to Covid-19 patients in home-isolation as it was doing during the first wave of the pandemic.

    The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court further sought a response of the state government on paramedical staff not being provided lodging facility after duty hours as they risk infecting their own family members if they visit home after taking care of Covid-19 patients.

    It also asked the state counsel to obtain instructions from the government on the shortages of vaccines for the 18-44 age group.

    A bench of justices Rajan Roy and Saurabh Lavania passed the order on a PIL moved by lawyer HP Gupta.

    Hearing the petition through video conferencing, the bench directed the additional chief standing counsel HP Srivastava to seek detailed instructions on the issues.

    Earlier, the court kept open the question of maintainability of the PIL at the Lucknow bench because the Allahabad HC has already been hearing issues related to Covid-19 in the state on suo-motu basis.

    The bench said, “While we are conscious of the fact that similar issues have taken the attention of this Court at Allahabad in a PIL, there are certain contentions which need to be taken note of, therefore, keeping the question open as to whether this petition should be entertained and proceeded with or the petitioner should be asked to intervene in the proceedings pending at Allahabad, we take note of contentions raised by the counsel for the petitioner Dr V K Singh, here.”

    ALSO READ | ‘If I speak up, I face treason charge’: Another BJP MLA questions Yogi government’s handling of pandemic

    The bench further asked the counsel for the high court administration Gaurav Mehrotra to obtain instructions as to whether there is feasibility of establishing a makeshift Covid-19 hospital on the new campus of the HC at Gomti Nagar for lawyers, judicial staff, employees and their family members.

    Meanwhile, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday hit out at the Yogi Adityanath dispensation over the alleged low COVID-19 testing in Uttar Pradesh, and asked if the state government was preparing to make way for a third wave and then fight it.

    Her attack on the government came a day after the Allahabad High Court said the entire medical system in villages and small cities of Uttar Pradesh is at God’s mercy (‘Ram bharose’).

    “Only 800-1,000 RT-PCR tests are being conducted every day for the same 32 lakh population of Bijnor. The honourable high court has said that 4,000-5,000 RT-PCR tests should be done daily in a district like Bijnor or else we are inviting the third wave,” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

    “Is the UP government preparing to make way for the third wave and then fight it,” the Congress general secretary said, tagging media reports on the high court’s observations.

    If a self-praising government was not there in Lucknow, it would have tried to look at the reality of COVID-19 in the ‘Indira Gramin Kshetra’ just 35 km away, Gandhi said in another tweet in Hindi and shared a media report on it.

    ALSO READ | Congress accuses UP government of hiding data about COVID deaths amid state’s downward trend in fresh infections

    “Neither there is testing, nor treatment, nor medical kits, but the government says that everything is fit,” she said.

    The Allahabad High Court had made the ‘Ram Bharose’ observation while hearing a PIL over the coronavirus spread and the condition of quarantine centres in the state.

    A high court bench of justices Siddharth Verma and Ajit Kumar made the observation while taking into account the death of Santosh Kumar (64), who was admitted to an isolation ward at a Meerut hospital.

    Gandhi and other Opposition leaders have hit out at the state government over the handling of the COVID-19 situation, while the UP government has been rejecting all such criticism.

  • BJP demands the governor to provide security to women child development officer

    BJP Mahila Morcha Sarguja has demanded the governor to provide protection to the female child development officer of the district Bodle, who is fasting against corruption in Mahasamund. On Tuesday, the delegation of BJP, including Mahila Morcha District President Phuleshwari Singh, District General Secretary Abhimanyu Gupta, Divisional President Madhusudan Shukla and District Vice President Madhu Chaudha under the leadership of BJP District President Lalan Pratap Singh submitted a memorandum to the Governor to the Additional Collector. In the memorandum, the Mahila Morcha has demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter, accusing the state government of stubbornly suppressing the tax.

  • SC agrees to hear plea by kin of two BJP workers killed in West Bengal in poll related violence

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea field by kin of two BJP workers, who were killed in poll related violence on May 2 in West Bengal, seeking court monitored probe and transfer of cases to CBI or Special Investigation Team (SIT).

    A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B R Gavai issued notice to West Bengal government and the Centre on the plea filed by Biswajit Sarkar, whose elder brother was killed and co-petitioner Swaranalata Adhikari, whose husband was killed in poll related violence.

    The bench said that it would hear the matter on May 25 and asked senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani to serve the copy of the petition to standing counsel of the state government.

    At the outset, Jethmalani said that this is a very serious case and state has not been taking any action into the brutal killing of two BJP workers, which happened on the day of counting of votes for assembly elections in the state.

    He said that this is a matter which requires probe by a agency like CBI or a SIT under court supervision, as the state police has not been taking any action despite a complaint being made.

    “The murders took place when election results were declared in West Bengal.

    One of the petitioners is the younger brother of a BJP worker, who was murdered and the other petitioner is the wife of the deceased,” he said.

    Jethmalani said that there is total inaction by state and police has tried to subvert the investigation.

    “This was even encouraged by the state administration”, he alleged.

    The bench asked senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for West Bengal, whether copy of the petition has been served upon the state, to which he replied that, he has not been served till now.

    It asked Jethmalani to serve the copy and listed the matter for further hearing on May 25.

    Jethmalani said that the body of Abhijit Sarkar has not been cremated and court may direct that post mortem of the body be conducted and it should be videographed.

    He said that body should not be allow to be cremated by the state government authorities till the next date of hearing and this is what the family wants.

    The bench, however, did not pass any such directions instantly.

    The plea field by advocate Sarad Kumar Singhania alleged that Abhijit Sarkar, was killed on May 2, by a mob comprising of 20 supporters of the All India Trinamool Congress party.

    It said that the mob entered the house of Biswajit Sarkar, dragged his elder brother (Abhijit) and killed him in front of his mother and other family members.

    “Petitioner No.1 (Biswajit Sarkar), his mother who was also molested are the eye witnesses of this gruesome murder, while Petitioner No.2 (Swaranalata Adhikari) is the widow of Haran Adhikari, who was a local booth worker at Booth No.199A at Sonarpur Dakshin Vidhan Sabha.

    He was attacked with bricks, sticks, spade, shovel at his home and brutally killed in the presence of his 80 year old father, who was also kicked”, the plea said.

    It said that the Petitioners, who are both victims and eye witnesses have been constrained to invoke the extraordinary writ jurisdiction of this Court seeking fair investigation by a Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the murders and large scale incidents of violence unleashed at the behest of a particular political party.

    The plea said that the court should also examine “the failure of the State administration which while identifying itself with this vengeful cause of the ruling political party in the State has chosen to turn a blind eye leaving victims of these crimes remediless as the entire genocidal attacks are part of a well thought of political design of the party in power to take political revenge after declaration of results of assembly elections on May 2, 2021”.

    It further said that there are series of such well planned attacks with the active connivance, knowledge, support and at times participation of the local police under the instructions of the State Government.

    The plea also sought direction to monitor the investigation, trial and the progress of criminal cases emanating from the incident and attacks occurring in the aftermath of the assembly elections in the state of West Bengal.

    It also sought transfer of two murder cases registered in police station Narkeldanga and Sonarpur to be transferred to CBI or such another SIT as may be appointed by this court.

  • Narada row: Kolkata High Court stays bail order of two Trinamool ministers, Bengal MLA; Opposition hits out at Modi government

    By Online Desk
    KOLKATA: In late night hearing, amidst raging coronavirus pandemic, Kolkata High Court on Monday stayed order granting bail to the four accused, TMC’s two ministers, one MLA and former TMC minister, after the CBI moved the higher platform of the state’s judiciary challenging the lower court’s order.

    The High Court said it would hear the matter on Wednesday and till then the four accused, Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukharkjee, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee, will be in judicial custody.

    Sources said the four will be taken to Alipore Presidency jail.  

    Earlier, TMC supporters held demonstrations defying lockdown norms in various places, while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered to court arrest protesting detention of two West Bengal ministers in the Narada case by CBI.

    Later, Special CBI court judge Anupam Mukherjee granted bail to senior ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former minister Sovan Chatterjee after hearing their lawyers and the counsel for the agency, lawyer Anindya Raut said.

    The high court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation on April 16, 2017.

    The agency submitted its charge sheet in the special court against the four, besides IPS officer SMH Meerza who is already out on bail.

    The Trinamool Congress (TMC) accused the BJP-run Centre of using the CBI for political vendetta due to the saffron party’s recent loss in the assembly election, after the agency arrested the four leaders, who were allegedly caught on camera while taking bribes in the 2014 sting by a news channel.

    The CBI office at Nizam Palace in Kolkata became the latest political battleground in the state as chief minister Mamata Banerjee arrived along with the kin of these politicians and demanded that she also be arrested while angry protestors gathered at the site, defying the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, and hurled stones and bricks at security personnel.

    In New Delhi, the CBI spokesman, R C Joshi, said the agency “today arrested four then (former) ministers, the government of West Bengal in a case related to the Narada sting operation. it was alleged that then public servants were caught on camera while receiving illegal gratification from the sting operator”.

    During a virtual hearing, where the agency submitted its charge sheet, Special CBI judge Anupam Mukherjee granted bail to all four after hearing their lawyers and the counsel for the agency, lawyer Anindya Raut said.

    Soon after, the central agency moved a division bench of Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta HC Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee seeking cancellation of the bail.

    The division bench said it deemed it appropriate to stay the special court’s order and direct that the “accused person shall be treated to be in judicial custody till further orders”.

    The CBI was represented in the high court by Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta.

    On a day of fast-paced events, Banerjee sat on a dharna from 11 AM to around 5 PM demanding the release of the TMC leaders, reminiscent of her protest against the CBI’s move to question the then Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in 2019 in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam case.

    The CBI officials said Banerjee’s actions are akin to interference in the probe handed over to the agency by the Calcutta High Court.

    As the news spread, hundreds of TMC supporters gathered defying the ongoing lockdown, raised slogans against the BJP-led NDA government and clashed with security personnel.

    The agitators also burnt tyres and blocked roads in several other parts of the state, including Hooghly, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts.

    Taking note of the widespread protests across the state, state governor Jagdeep Dhankhar urged the chief minister to contain the “explosive situation” and asked her to weigh the “repercussions of such lawlessness and failure of constitutional mechanism”.

    The CBI had approached the West Bengal Governor seeking sanction to prosecute Hakim, Mukherjee, Mitra and Chatterjee, the officials said, adding the sanction was received on May 7, following which the CBI finalised its charge sheet and moved to arrest them.

    The case pertains to a purported sting operation conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada TV news channel in 2014 in which TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were purportedly seen receiving “illegal gratification” from representatives of a fictitious company for favours, the CBI has alleged.

    The agency has alleged that Hakim was seen to have agreed to accept a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from the sting operator while Mitra and Mukherjee were caught on camera receiving Rs 5 lakh each.

    Chatterjee was seen receiving Rs 4 lakh from the sting operator, it added.

    The tapes became public just before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal but had no impact on the poll results and Banerjee returned as the chief minister of the state.

    The CBI had named 13 persons in the FIR registered on April 16, 2017, which included four TMC leaders-Hakim, Mukherjee, Mitra and Chatterjee, who held the position of ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government in 2014.

    Hakim, Mukherjee and Mitra were re-elected as MLAs in the recently concluded West Bengal assembly polls, while Chatterjee, who left the TMC to join the BJP, has severed links with both parties.

    The sanction to prosecute the remaining eight FIR accused, all the then Members of Parliament, has not been accorded yet, officials said.

    The sanction for prosecution by the governor was questioned by the West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee who contended that the arrests were illegal.

    “I have not received any letter from the CBI nor has anybody sought any permission from me as per the protocol,” he said.

    “I do not know for what unknown reason they went to the governor and sought his sanction. This sanction is absolutely illegal and arresting anyone on the basis of this sanction is also illegal,” Banerjee claimed.

    Reacting to the arrests, TMC spokesman Kunal Ghosh claimed that the CBI action was a vengeful act and a fallout of the BJP’s loss in the West Bengal assembly elections.

    BJP state president Dilip Ghosh condemned the protests by TMC workers and said the agitation, amid the COVID-19 lockdown, only shows that they have no respect for the law of the land.

    Left Front Chairman Biman Bose in a statement also said the central investigating agency did not take any effective step in all these years and questioned why other politicians tainted in same Narada scam and currently in BJP were let off.

    “The Narada issue could have been addressed much earlier, but that was not done. Instead at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented devastation, the CBI action is nothing but a cover up of colossal failure” of the ruling party at Centre, the CPIM-led front said.

    Stating that tackling the Covid-19 pandemic remained the most important task before the country, before the state at present, Bose said “TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee should keep in mind she definitely got the anti-BJP mandate of the people of the state she should remember people did not support the corruption and autocratic practices of her party leaders.”

    “Left front believes to prevent a dangerous force like BJP coming to power, TMC should stop giving indulgence to corrupt people. We strongly oppose the conspiracy of BJP when fighting corona pandemic on an urgent basis should be our top priority,” the statement said.

    Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Ashwani Kumar on Monday said, “The imprint of partisan politics is writ large in the blatant abuse of prosecutorial processes by the CBI against political adversaries of the ruling BJP.”

    Kumar said detention of the accused militates against recent judgments of the Supreme Court that scoffs at routine incarceration of political activists.

    “The insistence by the CBI on detaining the accused who are public men of high standing and not expected to tamper with the course of justice, is clearly an abuse of authority,” he asserted.

    The former law minister added that depriving the citizens of their fundamental liberties is clearly against the first principles of the country’s libertarian constitution.

    “Bail and not jail is the fundamental tenet of our criminal and libertarian jurisprudence. The CBI’s insistence on custody of the accused is therefore, wholly unsustainable in law. The manner of exercise of power of law enforcement in a democracy is accountable to constitutional imperatives. And it is important that justice is not only done but is also seen to be done,” he said.

    (With PTI and ENS inputs)

  • In letter to Shivraj Chouhan, BJP MLA claims he is victim of Jabalpur Remdesivir racket

    By PTI
    BHOPAL: The MLA brother of a Union minister has claimed he was given fake Remdesivir injections in a hospital in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh and demanded a high-level probe into what he said was a racket in the district.

    In a letter to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Narsinghpur BJP MLA Jalam Singh Patel, who is the younger brother of Union Culture and Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel, said a fake Remdesivir business was thriving in Jabalpur amid the COVID-19 outbreak and he was a victim when he contracted the infection during the Damoh Assembly bypoll campaign last month.

    “I am a sufferer, an eyewitness and a victim of fake Remdesivir,” Patel said in the letter, pointing out that his lung infection worsened despite taking a total of 12 “phony” Remdesivir injections in a hospital on April 17 and then later when he was readmitted.

    He said people of 15 districts come to Jabalpur to get good medical treatment and some unscrupulous people had played with the lives of people by supplying fake Remdesivir injections to facilities here.

    He claimed a relative had died of coronavirus, adding that the fake Remdesivir issue had created distrust among people.

    “I will fight this issue to the finish, I will go to court and raise the matter in MP Assembly to ensure victims (of this racket) are compensated. A Central team should carry out a probe and the culprits should be severely punished,” Patel said.

    The MLA said he had written to the Jabalpur Inspector General of Police and Divisional Commissioner in this connection earlier.

    Queried about whether the CM had replied as yet, Patel said he had written the letter just two days ago.

  • West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee creating hurdles for CBI in its Narada sting operations probe: BJP

    Banerjee had rushed to the CBI office, shortly after state ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim and TMC MLA Madan Mitra were arrested by the central agency.

  • We have to think big like BJP to succeed, says Congress leader Salman Khurshid

    By PTI
    BENGALURU: Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid wants his party to think big like the BJP, and refuse to accept “pessimistic view” that the outfit has now become too small, weak and cannot regain its lost ground.

    “One take-away that I have from (West) Bengal and Assam (Assembly elections) is: You should never, never accept that you are too small, you are too weak and that you can’t make it big in a particular region or State. I think, BJP has done that (think-big strategy) where they had no existence at all. They tried to do it in other places where they still don’t have any existence,” he told PTI in an interview on Monday.

    The Congress, the former Union Minister insisted, should not accept the “pessimistic view” that it has lost too much ground and it cannot now regain. “I think with determination and confidence, we can and that’s what we should do,” he added.

    Khurshid agreed with analysis in some quarters that there was tactical voting in the recent Assembly elections in West Bengal, where the Congress and the Left were “wiped out”. “That’s true. One analyst said the extent of tactical voting that happened in Bengal may not have happened in Assam but obviously tactical voting happened in both the places…what do you do with it (tactical voting) as a party for the future, it’s something that we will have to consider,” he said.

    Khurshid was asked about his take on assessment by some of his party leaders who blamed a tie-up with Indian Secular Front contributing to the rout in West Bengal and those who claimed that the partnership with AIUDF cost the party dearly in Assam.

    “Whenever you don’t succeed, this is the kind of explanation that you are given; when you succeed, you are given a different explanation. So, I don’t think post-hoc explanations are sensible although they help you analyse your decision-making process and merits of that decision. All I can say is: much can be said on both sides,” he said.

    Khurshid also said that the Congress manifesto for Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, due next year, would be a manifesto “from amongst” the people. “Idea is to be a little more analytical about what is it that people want and see if we can give it,” he said.

    Khurshid added: “Of course, we continue to face that problem of irrational division along castes and communities, and that will get resolved over a period. That (the division) can’t be something which can be wished away. It will get resolved over a period.”

    In the Assembly elections, the results of which were declared on May two, the Congress was decimated in West Bengal, where the Trinamool Congress won with a tally of 213 of 294 seats. The Congress also failed to defeat incumbent governments in Kerala and Assam.

    In Puducherry, the party was defeated by the NR Congress-led National Democratic Alliance. However, in Tamil Nadu, the Congress was a constituent of the winningDravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led alliance.