New Delhi: Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav was detained during a farmers’ protest at Jantar Mantar by Delhi Police Monday night.

The former Aam Aadmi Party, who was trying to march towards the Prime Minister’s official 7 Race Course Road residence has alleged that he was beaten, manhandled and dragged by Delhi Police.

In a series of tweets, Yadav narrated the incident.
I have been dragged, hit and pushed into a police van. Don’t still know my crime.
I have been beaten up, manhandled, dragged, pushed and arrested at the parliament street police station.
Is standing peacefully with a Hal an offence? We were not obstructing traffic, were willing to cooperate with any reasonable condition.

AAP leader Dharamvir Gandhi has demanded the release of Yadav and the others.

“I demand Yogendra Yadav and others should be released who were detained last night,” said Gandhi.

Earlier, a the ‘Tractor March’ of Jai Kisan Andolan, led by Yadav, was stopped on Sunday evening on the Gurgaon-Delhi border near Kapashera.

The march was launched from Thikriwal village in Punjab’s Barnala district on August 1, with members of the Jai Kisan Andolan — avowedly fighting for justice for the nation’s farmers — from Punjab, Haryana, Mahararstra and Uttar Pradesh participating in it.

On Sunday, the march began from Nuh, after a stopover at Rozka Meo Village, at 10 am and moved towards Gurgaon.

The march passing through Sohna and Badshapur reached Kapashera but Delhi Police denied it entry into Delhi, saying tractors were not allowed on the roads of the national capital.

Yadav showed some papers to the police, claiming to have permission to enter the national capital, but in vain.

The march was heading towards Jantar Mantar, where a farmers’ rally is scheduled on Monday.

On being denied entry in Delhi, Yadav tweeted: “& now starts the Tamasha by government! Police not letting our march move inside Delhi. Even though we have had the permission since July 8.”

BJP on Tuesday asked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to stay within his “limits” taking strong exception to the latter”s repeated barbs at the Prime Minister even as it accused the AAP chief of playing “politics over corpses”.

Describing Kejriwal as a “marketing and packaging expert”, BJP said he was using Modi as a shield to hide his shortcomings and failures as Chief Minister and that he did not have the status to advice the Prime Minister.

“He (Kejriwal) has stooped to the lowest level of politics by repeatedly dragging the Prime Minister in every other issue. He clearly cannot function within constitutional norms and have nothing substantial to show to people except presenting old initiatives as new,” Delhi BJP unit president Satish Upadhyay told reporters

New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) Digging in its heels, Government today rejected demand for a probe into charges against Union minister Sushma Swaraj and and two BJP chief ministers, contending they had not violated any law and sharpened its attack on Opposition for stalling Parliament.

As the issue rocked Parliament for the second day, Finance Minister Arun Jailey lashed out at the opposition saying it is “weak on arguments and strong on disturbance”.

He told reporters that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, whose resignation has been sought by the Congress-led opposition parties, had given her “elaborate reasoning” at the BJP parliamentary party meeting today and the party wanted her to give it before the country.

“But obviously opposition is weak on arguments and strong on disturbance,” he said, accusing Congress and other parties of not being interested in debate.

Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje are under attack for their links with Lalit Modi, the controversial former IPL Chairman who is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate for alleged money laundering.

Madhya Prdesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is facing the heat over Vyapam scam and death of nearly 40 persons linked to it.

Jaitley said that the opposition after demanding resignations of Swaraj and others today sought an investigation into the charges against them.

“Investigation is held when some provision of law is violated. Nobody has been able to point out despite our repeated requests as to which provision of law, as they allege, has been violated,” he said, hitting out at the opposition.

Reiterating the government’s wish for a debate on the issues being raised by the opposition, he said the whole country should get to know the facts of the case.

Calling on parties to allow Parliament to function, he said, “There are many important issues of public welfare. Some laws have to be passed. There should be debate over them.

New Delhi, July 22 (PTI) Lok Sabha was repeatedly disrupted over Lalit Modi controversy on the first working day of the Monsoon session today with opposition members storming the Well with placards, ignoring Speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s warning of action.

Members of Congress and Left protested vociferously demanding ouster of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in connection with the row involving Lalit Modi, former IPL chairman.

Members of the RJD and NCP were also seen supporting the opposition demand.

The placards, carried by Congress members, read ‘Bade Modi meherban, to chhote Modi pehelwan’ (a Hindi idiom meaning that a small person is strong if supported by a powerful person) and ‘PM chuppi todo’ (PM, break your silence), Modi ji 56 inch dikhao, Sushma, Raje ko turant hatao (Show your 56 inch chest by removing Swaraj and Raje).

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not present in the House, Swaraj was sitting in the front row along with Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.

Congress members were also sporting black badges on their arms to register their protests and continued wearing them and carrying placards despite Speaker’s warning against doing so.

Due to the uproar, the House was repeatedly adjourned.

Patna, July 10 (ANI): The BJP-led NDA is leading in the 24 seats of the Bihar Legislative Council elections.
According to reports, the counting in 21 seats has been completed, with the NDA winning 11 seats, while the JDU-RJD-Congress alliance winning eight seats.
Two independent candidates also won in the polls.
Further details are awaited.
The election for the Bihar Legislative council were held on Tuesday with an estimated 94 percent voting recorded during the polls. (ANI)

New Delhi, June 28 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi today spoke about a number of social issues in his monthly radio address but chose to avoid any reference to the political storm that has been generated by Lalit Modi issue for which Congress warned him that the issue will continue to “haunt” him.

CPI and AAP also attacked Modi for remaining silent on the controversy.

In his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme on radio, Modi refrained from speaking on politics or the recent controversies surrounding Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj over the Lalit Modi issue which some quarters were expecting.

Among various topics, he talked about the girl child, voicing concern over the depleting sex ratio in 100 districts of the country, with the situation being more serious in Haryana. He pitched for a mass campaign to save the girl child.

During the 20-minute programme, he also spoke about the recently-launched three social security schemes and three developmental schemes, including ‘housing for all’ by 2022, as well as the Yoga Day celebrated on June 21. He also emphasised on the need for saving water and planting trees to preserve the environment.

Speaking soon after the ‘Man ki Baat’ programme was aired, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad expressed disappointment over the “failure” of the Prime Minister to speak on Lalit Modi controversy.

His other senior party colleagues P Chidambaram and Digvijay Singh as also CPI’s D Raja and AAP leader Ashish Khetan.

“All over India, no one is ready to listen to ‘Mann Ki Baat….Everyone wants to listen to voice of people in the programme,” said Azad, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.

Taking a dig at Modi, Azad said he continued to be a “dream merchant” in the programme as he has been merely selling dreams in India and abroad.

“It is in the interest of the Prime Minister to take immediate action against those involved in corruption.

Otherwise nationally and internationally, it is going to haunt him wherever he goes,” he told reporters. .

New Delhi, Jun 25 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party government today presented a Rs 41,129 crore budget with a major focus on education, health and transport sectors besides allocating funds to provide free wifi facility in colleges and villages.

Presenting the budget, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said his government will put major focus on reforming tax collection system and asserted that it will develop Delhi as a world-class skill centre and medical hub.

Calling it the country’s first “Swaraj” Budget, he said government has decided brought down the Value Added Tax rates for certain items.

Reaching out to the youth, he announced free wi-fi facility in all colleges as the AAP government’s first budget saw a 106 per cent rise in allocation to education sector.

He said the Budget document was a milestone towards achieving the ideal of “Swaraj” and a development model that was driven from the bottom instead of a top-driven one as it was prepared by the public at the ‘Mohalla Sabhas’.

In the budget, Rs 19,000 crore has been set aside for plan outlay while the non-plan outlay stands at Rs 22,129 crore.

“The government is working towards making Delhi the first corruption free city in the country,” Sisodia, who holds the finance portfolio, said.

The government allocated Rs 9,836 crore for the education sector out of which Rs 4570 crore was given under the plan outlay, an increase of around 106 per cent over the last budget.

“This (increase) is probably a first in the country which indicates our commitment to the cause of education. For us it is not expenditure but investment,” Sisodia said.

He said the government was in the process of installing CCTV cameras in all classrooms of government schools across Delhi to bring in “transparency and accountability”.

“We are also trying to inculcate value in the education.

and education with skill and value. Fifty schools would be developed as model schools in this regard,” he said.

Stressing on skill development, he said Rs 310 crore has been alloted for skill development and proposed the establishment of a skill university.

As BJP faces more heat over the controversies surrounding four of its women ministers, the Congress and the AAP today staged protests here and demanded that they be sacked and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “inaction”.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje are embroiled in a row over extending help to tainted former IPL boss Lalit Modi while HRD Minister Smriti Irani faced trouble with a Delhi court taking cognizance of a complaint against her for allegedly misrepresenting educational qualifications in her election affidavits. Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde is the fourth minister caught in a row.

Sharpening its attack on BJP after the emergence of a document backing Lalit Modi’s immigration application in the UK which purportedly bears Raje’s signature, the Congress said the party should ask the Chief Minister to step down as it can no longer “continue to defend the indefensible”.

“I am of the opinion that after what has now been made public, there is absolutely no scope left, no face left for BJP to manoeuvre and defend its leadership,” it said.

“There cannot be two laws in this country. One for common citizens and one for high-ranking BJP officials. Therefore… I think it is in the best interest of the state and also of BJP to ask the chief minister to put in her papers as soon as possible,” Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot said.

Dismissing as being “lame” BJP’s claim that the signature in the said document are forged, Pilot said, “I don’t think it is possible for anyone to put up that lame an argument… And, if she had to deny the signatures, she should have done it perhaps in the beginning.”

Pilot’s remarks came amid reports that claimed that the signature on the affidavit to help Modi get UK stay permit indeed belonged to Raje putting the chief minister and the BJP leadership in a spot. There was no official word yet on the authenticity of the signature.

The BJP has rejected demands for resignation of the ministers.

Congress staged twin protests at Jantar Mantar and outside its headquarters and demanded the immediate resignation of Swaraj, Irani and Raje.

The protesters also tore an effigy of Irani and placards inscribed with messages that mocked the “farce” of her academic qualifications and warned the government against “toying with education”.

Scores of AAP workers staged a protest outside Irani’s residence demanding her resignation.

Congress’s Delhi unit chief Lalit Maken accused the prime minister of “inaction” in the wake of the raging controversies involving his party leaders.

He also raised the issue of allegations against Munde and accused her of “playing with the health of children”.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Munde, however, said “prima facie” there appears to be no discrepancies in the case involving her department, as alleged by the opposition.

Munde, who is the Minister for Women and Development, was at the centre of a controversy with the Congress accusing her of involvement in a “scam” by clearing purchases worth Rs 206 crore on a single day instead of inviting tenders in violation of the norms.

Mumbai, Jun 4 (PTI) Shiv Sena today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plain-talk on zero tolerance against religious discrimination was not aimed at “pro-Hindutva” forces and suggested that he might have on his mind those “bigots” who convert Hindus to their respective faiths by “deception”.

“Prime Minister has taken a strong view against extremists by saying that communal intolerance will not be accepted. But the question is for whom these comments were meant for. Modi’s statement is projected as it is meant for ‘anti-Hindutvavadis’ (pro-Hindutva forces) in certain sections. But, we don’t think that Modi had only Hindutvavadis in mind when he made those comments,” Sena said in its party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ today.

Modi had recently asserted that he won’t tolerate any discrimination or violence against any community and termed anti-minority comments by some Sangh Parivar leaders as “unfortunate” and “uncalled for,” which is viewed as his strongest response so far on growing incidents of hate speeches.

“Hindutva is a culture and it should not be overzealous.

But at the same time to convert tribal and poor Hindus to Islam or Christianity by allurement is also terrorism. Modi’s plain-talk is for such bigots,” the editorial said.

It said the Hindutva forces were very much active under the previous Congress regimes as well. “Had it not been so the Babri mosque could not have been demolished. Because of this Hindutva wave only the BJP could achieve its current position of power,” the editorial said.

Sena said Modi’s assertion also applies to those who convert tribal and poor Hindus to Islam or Christianity “by deception.”

The editorial said the recent attacks on churches opened Modi to criticism from Christian community across the globe.

“However, the real reasons behind attacks on churches and who were the culprits are still unknown. If these attacks (on churches) happened due to conversion row then Modi’s message was also for those who are indulged into conversion,” it said.

Sena said, “Modi’s comments were also directed to those who oppose the uniform civil code and those who oppose the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution. His comments also seem to be directed to (AIMIM president Assaduddin) Owaisi who is stoking (communal) fire. Modi has also taken on those (through his comments) who unfurl flag of Pakistan in Kashmir.

Kolkata, May 28 (PTI) Amid talk of bonhomie between the two, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his two-day visit to Bangladesh beginning June 6.

“The Chief Minister will go along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh next month. We hope this visit will strenghten relations between the two Bengals (West Bengal and Bangladesh) and also between the two countries,” state’s Education and Parliamentary Affiars Minister Partha Chatterjee told PTI.

There was speculation in the media about whether the Chief Minister will accompany Modi on his first trip to Bangladesh after taking office.

Teesta water sharing issue is likely to come up for discussion during the visit. The Teesta deal was set to be inked during the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Bangladesh in September 2011 but was postponed at the last minute due to objections by Mamata.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Kolkata that India and Bangladesh would soon approve the long-pending Teesta river water-sharing agreement.

“Both the countries will give their approval to it very soon. We are hopeful that we will get full cooperation from West Bengal government”, Singh said.

Last week, Bangladesh had hoped that the pact will be inked during Modi’s trip.

The Teesta water is crucial for Bangladesh, especially in the leanest period from December to March when the water flow often temporarily comes down to less than 1,000 cusecs from 5,000 cusecs every year.

Asked if the Chief Minister had given her consent to the Teesta treaty, Partha Chatterjee said, “I am not aware of it and I cannot comment on this matter.