Goa Congress splits, 10 MLAs join BJP

Mangaluru: The passenger vessel service between Lakshadweep and Mangaluru has recommenced operations with the arrival of Parali, a high-speed craft, at the Old Mangaluru Port on Thursday, May 2 

With 160 passengers on board, along with a pilot, a ship engineer, an assistant, and eight labourers, the arrival of the vessel brings hopes of reinstating this vital transportation link.

The passengers were welcomed by Congress brass. The vessels that used to arrive before the Covid-19 pandemic took 13 hours to reach Mangaluru from Lakshadweep. However, the introduction of the high-speed craft, Parali, has reduced the travel time to approximately seven hours, said Abubakar Ashraf Bengre.

Bengre is part of a team that has been instrumental in liaising with the authorities of both Lakshadweep and Karnataka to facilitate the revival of this service. He told reporters that the service would bring better economic activity to Mangaluru. 

Over recent months, discussions have been held with Hamdullah Sayeed, president, Lakshadweep Congress Committee, as well as Karnataka Speaker UT Khader and district minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, to garner support for the reintroduction of the service.

The passengers who arrived mostly sought medical treatment, went shopping or met relatives here. They said that they traveled for Rs 450. Former MLA J R Lobo said that they will urge the government to ensure regular vessel services continue.

The passenger service was discontinued due to a lack of demand, it is learnt. In the year 2018-19, 4,955 passengers embarked and 7,422 disembarked from the Old Mangaluru Port. Subsequently, the figures declined to 3,779 (embarked) and 2,294 (disembarked) in 2019-20. The numbers further plummeted to 561 (embarked) and 19 (disembarked) in 2020-21, leading to the suspension of the service.

At present, the administration of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep has released a schedule for high-speed craft movement from April 29 to May 5.

Congress leader Sam Pitroda has stepped down from the post of Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress and his resignation was accepted by the party. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to X and announced that Sam Pitroda had decided to resign from the key post "of his own accord".

Pitroda had been under fire over his controversial remark that Indians in the East resemble the Chinese while those in the South look like Africans.

"We could hold together a country as diverse as India -- where people on East look like Chinese, people on West look like Arab, people on North look like maybe White and people in South look like Africans. It doesn't matter. We are all brothers and sisters," Pitroda said during an interview with The Statesman.

The Congress immediately distanced itself from Pitroda's remarks, terming them "unacceptable".

"The analogies drawn by Mr Sam Pitroda in a podcast to illustrate India's diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable. The Indian National Congress completely dissociates itself from these analogies," Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.

The BJP also hit out at the Congress over Pitroda's remarks and termed them "racist and divisive".

The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) on Monday responded to Karnataka’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) regarding a blue corner notice issued against JDS MP Prajwal Revanna.

In its response, Interpol said that all 196 member countries were alerted to identify and report if Prajwal Revanna is spotted at any port in their jurisdiction.

The Karnataka government issued a Blue Corner Notice on Sunday against Prajwal Revanna, who is facing allegations of sexual abuse by his staff members.

A Blue Corner Notice is issued by the international police cooperation body to collect additional information from its member countries about a person’s identity, location or activities about a crime.

The notice was issued after the 33-year-old Hassan MP reportedly flew to Germany soon after the Karnataka State Commission for Women chairperson Nagalakshmi Chowdhary wrote to the CM to order a probe into the sexual allegations against Prajwal.

Last week, the anticipatory bail application of Prajwal Revanna was also denied by Justice Santosh Gajanana Bhat’s bench of People’s Representative Court in Bengaluru.

Earlier, his MLA father and son of former Prime Minster HD Deve Gowda, HD Revanna was remanded to Karnataka SIT custody in a kidnapping-related sex scandal case.

His arrest came after the kidnapped victim was rescued from Revanna’s close assistant Rajasekhar’s farmhouse in Kalenahalli, Hunsur Taluk after the SIT conducted the rescue operation to find her, the police said.

The abduction case was filed by the son of a woman who worked at the Revannas’ house for nearly five years. He alleged that his mother was kidnapped from her home on April 29 by Satish Babanna a relative of Revanna.

The Karnataka Sex Scandal case pertains to explicit video clips allegedly involving the 33-year-old Prajwal, grandson of JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, which went viral on social media.

Those videos began to make rounds in Hassan in recent days, following which the state government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the sexual abuse allegations against the MP.