Bengal: TMC seeks Ghosh arrest for remarks on CM

The Indian Express | 8 hours ago | 08-07-2022 | 05:40 am

Bengal: TMC seeks Ghosh arrest for remarks on CM

Taking exception to alleged unsavoury comments by BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a programme of a media group, Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has demanded his arrest.During an interaction at the ‘India Today East Conclave’, Ghosh had allegedly made some derogatory remarks about Banerjee’s family. He also made comments against the CM, referring to her “Banglar Meye” (Daughter of Bengal) campaign during the last assembly polls in Bengal and her later visit to Goa where she had claimed her affinity with the coastal state.Expressing shock over the utterances of the former state BJP president, the Diamond Harbour MP on Wednesday tweeted, “Outrageous. PM @narendramodi, it is about time to get this loose tongue arrested! Is this how @BJP4India leaders talk about the only sitting woman Chief Minister of the nation (sic)?”Trinamool MP Kakali Ghosh Dastidar in a video expressed shock that such crass words can be used by a political personality against a woman, who happens to be the only female chief minister in the country.Dastidar said she was wearing a black badge in protest against the “misogynistic” comment by Ghosh and demanding action against him. State BJP leaders could not be contacted for reaction.Also, an eight-member Trinamool delegation on Thursday met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and demanded that Dilip Ghosh should tender an unconditional apology to CM Mamata Banerjee for his comments.The delegation arrived at Raj Bhavan in the afternoon had a meeting with the Governor for more than an hour. MP Kakli Ghosh Dastidar, who was part of the delegation, said after the meeting, “We approached the Governor about the manner in which BJP MP Dilip Ghosh made vulgar remarks about the Chief Minister’s family. The Governor is the constitutional head of the state, so we appealed to him to take disciplinary action against Dilip Ghosh.”Dilip Ghosh had made insulting remarks against the CM earlier also, he claimed. “His remarks on Goddess Durga were also insulting. We have appealed to the Governor to mete out severe punishment to him,” Dastidar said.Newsletter | Click to get the day’s best explainers in your inboxThe delegation included Education Minister Bratya Basu, Women and Child Social Welfare Minister Shashi Panja, party deputy chief whip Tapash Roy, MP Sajda Ahmed and South Kolkata MP Mala Roy.Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “Looking at the Governor’s behavior, many consider him the chief patron of the state BJP. But, now he has to prove that he is the Governor of the entire state. I hope he will definitely take some action in this regard.”Later, the Governor tweeted, “Delegation @AITCofficial sought intervention at remarks made against Hon’ble CM was assured of consideration. Indicated to delegation concerns at worrisome Constitutional transgressions, insensitive stance towards human rights and need for working in tandem for public good (sic).”

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Newsmaker | Mahua Moitra: She soared with fiery speeches, now under fire over one
The Indian Express | 1 day ago | 06-07-2022 | 10:40 pm
The Indian Express
1 day ago | 06-07-2022 | 10:40 pm

Facing an FIR several police cases across the country over her remarks on a controversy over a film poster featuring Goddess Kaali, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra was on Wednesday defiant, tweeting: “Jai Ma Kali! The goddess Bengalis worship is fearless & non-appeasing.”While her remarks were endorsed by a large number of the TMC’s young social media volunteers, Moitra may find the support dry up soon. With its vigorous invocation of Bengali sub-nationalism at odds with its plans to expand in other regions, the TMC was quick to officially distance itself from Moitra’s remarks, made at the India Today Conclave East. It also issued a strong censure of the first-time MP.Jai Ma Kali!The goddess Bengalis worship is fearless & non-appeasing.— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) July 6, 2022“Moitra should realise that as a public representative, the world is not her oyster. Exercising a degree of restraint is also necessary in these fraught times, notwithstanding our personal beliefs,” said a Trinamool MP, on the condition of anonymity.While it was precisely her fiery oratory and articulation that fuelled Moitra’s meteoric rise in the TMC after she joined it in 2010 – with the party looking for faces to represent it in the national capital – her star has been on the decline.As a parliamentarian, Moitra has often made it to headlines with her speeches tearing into the Modi government and the RSS-BJP ideology. In her maiden speech in 2019, she talked about “early signs of fascism”, saying: “The very nature of the overwhelmingness of this mandate (the BJP’s win), of the totality of this mandate, makes it necessary for us to be heard today, for the voice of dissent to be heard today.”In 2021, the TMC rewarded her by making her Goa in-charge, hoping to leverage her strengths in the coastal state. But the TMC’s drubbing in the Assembly polls did not reflect well on Moitra.Before that, she was at the receiving end of public admonishment by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee during an administrative review meeting in Nadia district, under which Moitra’s constituency Krishnanagar falls, over bickering regarding ticket distribution.A TMC insider said, “Over the months, the leadership had received complaints over her autocratic style of functioning. A combination of such complaints from local leaders and her outspokenness in sensitive matters were to be her undoing.”Born in Assam’s Cachar district in 1974, Moitra had a fairly affluent upbringing in a family of tea-planters, and graduated from a Massachusetts college with a degree in Economics and Mathematics. She left a successful career as a banker with JP Morgan’s London and New York operations to pursue, what she calls, a life-long interest in public life.Her first stop was the Congress, where she was almost immediately picked to lead the “aam aadmi ka sipahi (common man’s soldier)” booth-level campaign conceived by Rahul Gandhi. Two years later, she moved to the TMC. She attributed it to the Congress’s weak organisational presence at the grass-roots level.She managed to win first as a TMC MLA from a largely rural Karimpur constituency in 2016 and is now an MP from Krishnanagar.As the controversy over her Kaali remarks spread, trailed by complaints against her, Moitra characteristically shot back on Twitter: “Bring it on BJP! Am a Kali worshipper. I am not afraid of anything. Not your ignoramuses. Not your goons. Not your police. And most certainly not your trolls. Truth doesn’t need back up forces.” Through the day, she liked many tweets that expressed disappointment over the position taken by the TMC on her.However, in these thin-skinned times, perhaps Moitra would do better to heed her own words once. Addressing students at a school in Delhi in July 2019, she said people had warned her about politics. “I was always what, unfortunately, in slang was termed as ‘smart ass’. Everyone said there are sharks out there, they will eat you up, it’s dirty, it’s corrupt, you don’t know anyone, your father’s not an MP, it’s impossible.”

Newsmaker | Mahua Moitra: She soared with fiery speeches, now under fire over one
Newsmaker | Transport business to casinos, in driver’s seat and out of it: Karnataka Cong MLA now under ACB lens
The Indian Express | 1 day ago | 06-07-2022 | 10:40 pm
The Indian Express
1 day ago | 06-07-2022 | 10:40 pm

On Tuesday, as visuals of the Karnataka Anti-Corruption Bureau’s (ACB) raid on the properties of Congress MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan came in, many were struck by the opulence of his three-storeyed house in Bengaluru’s Cantonment area – complete with tall columns, arches and chandeliers.Among Karnataka’s richest MLAs – according to the affidavit he filed ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections, Zameer declared assets worth about Rs 40.34 crore – the four-time legislator’s family runs National Travels, a transport business that runs a fleet of inter-state services.On Tuesday, ACB officials carried out raids at Zameer’s home near the Cantonment Railway station, his flat at Silver Oak Apartments, a guesthouse at Sadashivanagar, and the office of National Travels in the city’s Kalasipalya area. ACB officials on Tuesday said the raids were carried out in a disproportionate assets case that was registered based on the report of the Enforcement Directorate which had raided Zameer’s residence last August.Zameer’s supporters in the party and his family, however, questioned the timing of the raids and alleged that the BJP government was trying to divert attention from two high-profile arrests – a day before the raids on Zameer, senior IPS officer ADGP Amrit Paul was arrested in the Police sub-inspector recruitment scam while IAS officer J Manjunath were arrested in a corruption case. The arrests of the senior government officers had left the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government red-faced.Zameer started his career in the JD(S) and was among those who left the party with Siddaramaiah to join the Congress. His first electoral outing was in 2005, when, on a JD(S) ticket, he contested the Chamrajpet seat that’s a traditional Congress stronghold. But with Congress leader SM Krishna vacating the seat after he was named Governor, the JD(S) sensed its chance and fielded Zameer, who defeated the Congress’s R V Devaraj – a win that established him as a prominent Muslim leader in Karnataka.A close aide of JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy then, Zameer was appointed Haj and Wakf Board Minister during the JD(S)-BJP coalition government. In 2007, with the government teetering on the brink of collapse as Kumaraswamy refused to step down and all three major parties of the state were securing their MLAs, Zameer took the legislators to a resort in Goa – and drove the bus, too. Though the JD(S)-BJP government collapsed, Zameer stayed by Kumaraswamy’s side.However, their relationship soured as Zameer, along with five other JD(S) MLAs, officially joined the Congress ahead of the 2018 state elections. In the faction-ridden party where loyalties are split between the Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar factions, Zameer has identified himself with the former. He had even declared that he would vacate his Chamarajpet seat if Siddaramaiah wants to contest from the constituency in the next elections.Zameer, a popular leader in his minority-dominated Chamarajpet constituency, had organised relief measures during the pandemic.Apart from the transport business, Zameer’s family is known to run casinos in Sri Lanka. Zameer is said to have hosted parties at his casinos that have seen celebrities from Karnataka and elsewhere in attendance. Bollywood stars Sanjay Dutt, Shakti Kapoor and Jackie Shroff had turned up for Zameer’s 50th birthday celebrations in Bengaluru.Zameer has usually been vocal in his support of Tipu Sultan and opposed the BJP whenever it issued statements against the 18th Century Mysore ruler. He had also demanded the state Haj House be renamed after Tipu.Zameer has periodically found his way into controversies and is often the butt of social media memes and trolls. At a recent public event, Zameer fed a morsel of food to a Dalit priest, asked him to spit it out, before eating it himself – a video that went viral.Zameer is never too far from controversies. His name had also come up in the 2018 multi-crore IMA ponzi scam, but he was later given a clean chit.Recently, in the midst of the hijab controversy, he landed himself in a spot when he said it was necessary for Muslim women to wear the hijab to prevent themselves from rape. He later apologised for his remarks.

Newsmaker | Transport business to casinos, in driver’s seat and out of it: Karnataka Cong MLA now under ACB lens
PM Modi, HM Shah have assured full support for Maha development: CM Shinde
The Indian Express | 2 days ago | 05-07-2022 | 02:40 pm
The Indian Express
2 days ago | 05-07-2022 | 02:40 pm

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have assured him full support for the development and growth of the state.Addressing hundreds of Shiv Sainiks on Monday night during his first visit to his hometown Thane after taking over as the CM, Shinde said the risk that he took (referring to political developments over the last fortnight) has been appreciated by people, despite criticism from certain quarters.“I am going to undertake a tour of the entire state and allot projects in every constituency. There will be a total transformation of the state. I do not exaggerate much, I do work and then speak,” he said.He said Prime Minister Modi has told him to work for the development and growth of the state.“He (the PM) told me that he and the central government would support me. Even Union Home Minister Amit Shah has expressed his full support. They said I am good work for Hindutva,” Shinde said.Referring to the political developments of the last fortnight when he along with some Sena MLAs left for Surat, later stayed in Guwahati and then in Goa before returning to Mumbai, Shinde said 50 legislators had faith and confidence in him.“We had stood up against injustice and not revolted. (Shiv Sena founder) Balasaheb Thackeray had asked us to rise against injustice, this was his teaching and also of (Shinde’s mentor) Anand Dighe,” he said, adding that it was due to the blessings of the two leaders and good wishes of citizens that he became the CM.“We were out for 15 days, and as much as you wanted to meet me, I was also eager to meet my Shiv Sainiks and activists. Even now I don’t feel like I am the CM. I am one among you. Henceforth also, I will be a ‘karyakarta’ among you all,” he said.Shinde said no matter how big his stature may grow, the Shiv Sainik in him will always remain.The CM also said he has given a commitment to the 50 MLAs who supported him that none of them will face defeat in the next elections.“If I give a commitment once, I never listen to even myself till it is fulfilled,” he said.Referring to some strong critical remarks made by Sena leaders after he had left Mumbai with some MLAs, Shinde said “Kamakhyadevi (the deity of a famous temple in Guwahati) gave her blessings to us.” “Truth always wins. We will make the best use of the golden opportunity we have got now to lead the state,” he said.“We have to make our mission successful and honour Hindutva, which also means respect every religion,” he said.Shinde said every caste, creed, and region will get due respect and everyone, including farmers and the poor people, will get justice in his government.In his speech in the Assembly after the floor test, he said, “Everything was spontaneous, whatever I spoke was an expression of my feelings. I could not believe that I could deliver such a speech.” “I have contributed to the Shiv Sena all my life at the cost of my family,” Shinde said while lauding his supporters who gathered in a large number during his address braving the heavy rain.The CM also visited the BJP office here and was greeted by BJP city president and MLC Niranjan Davkhare.

PM Modi, HM Shah have assured full support for Maha development: CM Shinde
Daily Briefing: BJP-Eknath Shinde coalition wins trust vote in Maharashtra; scientists look at Omicron sub-variant amid spike in Covid cases
The Indian Express | 3 days ago | 05-07-2022 | 11:40 am
The Indian Express
3 days ago | 05-07-2022 | 11:40 am

Good morning,The BJP-Shinde Sena coalition won the trust vote with 164 votes, the same number it previously garnered in the Speaker’s election. The last day of the special assembly session was marked by an emotional speech from Shinde, who referred to the death of two of his children in a boat accident in June 2000. He also tried to reassure his political rivals saying: “We don’t subscribe to the politics of vendetta…”🔴 Having comfortably won the floor test, the coalition may not press for disqualification of the 15 MLAs left with Uddhav Thackeray. Highly placed sources in the BJP said the party wanted “truce”, even though Speaker Rahul Narwekar said he would seek their disqualification as they had ignored a whip issued by the Shinde side for the Speaker election.🔴 Meanwhile, the failure of 11 Congress MLAs, including former CM Ashok Chavan, to cast their vote in the floor test led to raised eyebrows within the party with senior leaders raising concern and questioning their “recklessness” and “casual behaviour”. Chavan said: “We were late by two or three minutes. They closed the gates. There is no foul play. We were stuck in traffic.”At least 26 recommendations for appointment of judges to the Bombay High Court, which is currently functioning at almost half its sanctioned strength, are pending with the government at different stages of consideration, The Indian Express has learnt. The Bombay High Court currently has 57 judges against a sanctioned strength of 96 judges. At least five more judges are expected to retire this year.Scientists in India probing the possible causes for the recent rise in Coronavirus cases said BA.2.75, one of the several sub-variants of the parent Omicron variant, was now one of the most commonly detected sub-variant in the country in recent results of genome sequencing. It has been found to have an 18 per cent growth advantage over the other currently circulating Omicron sub-variants. However, there is no evidence as of now to suggest that the BA.2.75 also causes a more severe form of infection.The government has barred hotels and restaurants from adding service charge “automatically or by default” in the food bill. It said that in case of violation, a consumer can ask the hotel/ restaurant to remove the service charge, or seek redressal by filing a complaint.As drama swirled around the Maharashtra government’s survival, one of the characters at the heart of it was a politician from Haryana, Sonia Doohan. The 30-year-old national president of the NCP students’ wing was held along with an aide for allegedly using fake identification documents to check into a hotel in Goa, where Sena rebels were staying. Doohan, who played an “important role in the fall of the three-day BJP government in 2019” according to NCP’s Dheeraj Sharma, has denied the allegations.A day after their capture of two heavily armed LeT militants, the residents of Tukson village in J&K remain firm: they will not give way to terrorists, at any cost. One of the residents involved in the capture, a BA student, told The Indian Express about how he had alerted his brother of two “unknown people posing as traders” at a dhok. This led to a gathering of seven residents, who formed a cordon, and eventually went on to overpower the duo.A year since the Covid-induced oxygen crisis, hospitals in Delhi are struggling to keep the pressure-swing adsorption (PSA) plants going. Most of them switch on the plant once a week or for a couple of hours every day to ensure that the machine remains functional. The reason for this are multiple: High operation and maintenance cost, lower quality of oxygen generated, and fear of antagonising the regular liquid medical oxygen suppliers.Mumbai’s chawl and low-income housing localities have always boasted of a community dance culture. B-Girl Bar-B, born Siddhi Tambe, took her first steps in Breaking at a similar community centre. The 18-year-old has now earned a ticket to New York after emerging India champ at the Red Bull BC One Cypher earlier this month. We take a look at her journey.Delhi Confidential: Union Minister Amit Shah annually visits his village on the occasion of Bhaidooj and the second day of Navratri and participates in the meeting of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies. Shah revealed this while responding to Cabinet colleague Parshottam Rupala, who took a jibe at cooperative leaders and asked them how they contribute to the sector, during an event to mark the 100th International Day of Cooperatives.In today’s episode of the ‘3 things’ podcast, we talk about Maharashtra’s new government clearing the floor test in the Assembly and the protests against its decision to build a metro shed in Aarey forest. We also discuss a fratricide case in BSF and the rising concern of mental health issues among police forces.Until tomorrow,Leela Prasad and Sonal Gupta

Daily Briefing: BJP-Eknath Shinde coalition wins trust vote in Maharashtra; scientists look at Omicron sub-variant amid spike in Covid cases
In Maharashtra political drama, cameo by a 30-year-old from Haryana makes people sit up
The Indian Express | 3 days ago | 05-07-2022 | 05:40 am
The Indian Express
3 days ago | 05-07-2022 | 05:40 am

IT’S A long way from Petwar in Hisar to Mumbai. However, twice now, as drama has swirled around the Maharashtra government’s survival, one of the characters at the heart of it has been a politician from this Haryana village, Sonia Doohan.On Saturday, the 30-year-old national president of the NCP students’ wing was held along with an aide for allegedly using fake identification documents to check into Hotel Taj Resort and Convention Centre in Dona Paula, Goa, where Shiv Sena MLAs who had rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray were staying. The two got bail on Sunday.It was Doohan who was at the fore in November 2019 too when the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis had tried to form the government with the NCP’s Ajit Pawar, after the Assembly poll results threw up a split verdict. Doohan was credited with “rescuing” four NCP MLAs from right under the BJP’s nose from a hotel in Gurgaon, Haryana.The NCP has denied the claims of the Goa Police that Doohan and aide Shray Kothiyal (28), who belongs to Dehradun, used fake papers to try gain entry into the hotel where the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs were put up. NCP youth wing national president Dheeraj Sharma said the two were just “tourists” and were being “harassed” by the BJP Goa government for no reason.On Doohan allegedly using “fake papers”, Sharma said: “They (the authorities) were keeping an eye on Sonia because she had played an important role in the fall of the three-day BJP government (in Maharashtra) in 2019…. When Sonia came to Goa, she got to know that there was very tight security at the hotel and no one with Maharashtra or political IDs was being allowed. So the two of them checked in with Kothiyal’s ID, he paid with his card, the booking was in his name. Sonia used the identity card of Shrey’s wife Shruti Narang. It was not a fake document.”On whether Doohan was in Goa at the NCP’s behest, Sharma said their student wing national president was senior enough to take her own decisions and did not require permission from anyone in the party.NCP spokesperson and observer and co-in-charge of Goa unit of the party, Clyde Crasto, said the party was not aware of Doohan’s movements, but added: “The rebel MLAs were taken there (to the hotel in Goa) suddenly. When someone has made a booking in advance, you cannot cancel it. The two could have been there for tourism… Just because she is the president of the NCP students’ wing does not mean you always put two and two togther.”NCP’s District President, North Goa, Shankar Phadte claimed Doohan and Kothiyal were accosted by “unknown persons” in their hotel room. “They said they were Crime Branch officers. Sonia Doohan was abused in the most filthy language and Shrey Kothiyal was beaten,” Phadte alleged, adding that they were in the process of filing a complaint over the way Doohan and Kothiyal were treated.Sources said that the MLAs, now back in Mumbai with their leader and the newly sworn in Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, were tipped off that a woman linked to the NCP was at the hotel and making enquiries about them. The court granted them bail against a personal bond of Rs 20,000 and a surety of the same amount each, apart from the condition that they not leave Goa for the next few days.Speaking to The Indian Express, Doohan denied the allegations, adding: “The police along with Black Cat Commandos and workers of a political party picked me up from the hotel room at 5.30 am on Saturday. They treated me like a terrorist. For hours, the Intelligence Bureau and police questioned me… It’s an attempt to suppress the voice of youth. What was the need to treat me like a terrorist?”Doohan’s Instagram page prominently features a newspaper article detailing her role in the 2019 government formation drama. That was just one year after she took over as president of its students’ wing, despite the NCP not having much of a presence in Haryana. Proud of that, Doohan says: “I am the first girl from Haryana who was given the responsibility of president of the students’ wing of any national political party.”Closer home, acquaintances are not surprised that the “feisty” youngster has made her way in politics despite her humble beginnings as the eldest of three siblings of a farming family. She did her schooling in the village before moving to Ambala to do graduation from Kurukshetra University. For a while, she trained as a pilot in Pune, which is when she got involved in student politics.Doohan lives in Gurgaon now, to be close to the NCP office in Delhi, but keeps visiting her village Petwar and participating in local events. A villager, Sunil Kumar, says Doohan takes an active interest in girl education.Doohan told The Indian Express that she hopes for a day when women feel safe alone at night on the streets, same as in Pune or Mumbai. “I tell parents of girls that when you ask them to become doctors, pilots, engineers or teachers, you should ask them to become politicians too. Till, the girls don’t become politicians, the upliftment of women is impossible,” she said.Doohan clearly proved herself up to the task, against those steeped far deeper in politics, during the 2019 episode. Describing it in great detail, she recounted: “We booked a room on every floor of the Gurgaon hotel except the fifth, where no one was allowed because the MLAs were kept there. That floor had nearly 50 security personnel in civilian dress apart from local administrative officials, and 60-70 political workers, who kept a close watch on visitors. We first looked for escape routes where there were no CCTV cameras. Then messages were sent to the MLAs who had expressed their willingness to come out. We came to know that there were plans to move the MLAs to Manesar the next day. So, without any delay, we initiated taking them out from the back door, which was linked to another hotel. We took out one MLA silently. A hungama started when we were taking out two more. I left my car and took another car from the gate of the hotel for the two MLAs.”About how they took the MLAs from the hotel, Doohan said: “We had arranged six cars outside the hotel and three at the Delhi border. With the two MLAs, I rushed towards the residence of Sharad Pawar in Delhi at full speed during night hours despite police patrol vehicles following us. The fourth MLA, who was quite old, was rescued at 2:30 am in the night. During the process, this MLA was assaulted too.”Warming up to the topic during a recent visit to her village, Doohan was wishful: “Probably, a movie will be made on this episode.”

In Maharashtra political drama, cameo by a 30-year-old from Haryana makes people sit up