Kejriwal helping forces wanting to disturb Punjab peace: Rahul

February 2, 2017

Sangrur (Pb), Feb 2: Launching an all-out attack against Arvind Kejriwal in the backdrop of the Maur Mandi blast, Rahul Gandhi today accused him of "helping" forces who want to disturb Punjab's peace and push it back to the dark days of militancy.

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On the last day of the poll campaign in Punjab, Rahul addressed a gathering in Ballian village here and referred to the Tuesday night's car explosion in Maur Mandi, which left six dead.

The blast had occurred shortly after the "jansabha" of Congress candidate Harminder Singh Jassi, who is contesting the February 4 elections from Maur Assembly seat.

"The most important thing is the atmosphere you live in. If that atmosphere gets spoiled, violence starts or anger prevails, then the work of farmers, labourers, weaker sections suffers, entire state suffers," Rahul said.

Taking a veiled dig at the ruling Akalis and the AAP, Rahul said, "from one extremist thinking, Punjab should not go to other extremist thinking. Congress is one such party which takes all sections along. We want that Punjab should rapidly progress."

"But if violence breaks, anger prevails, then everything will be destroyed. We have to understand that those forces, which destroyed Punjab earlier (referring to militancy period in the state), because of whom violence broke, such forces are yet again raising their head."

"Bomb blast took place and six people died (Maur). Arvind Kejriwal, who is Delhi's Chief Minister, is helping these forces and helping them raise their head. And this is most dangerous thing for Punjab.

"If these forces raise their head again, then entire agenda will be hijacked and Punjab will look in some other direction," he warned.

Rahul said, "So, it is necessary all of us together, be from any religion, caste or creed, we all should again stand up so that we can build a Punjab, which was known for its spirit of giving, a path as shown Guru Nanak Dev and Guru Gobind Singh."

Addressing the gathering while sitting a cot with villagers and farmers of Ballian here, Rahul also talked about farmers issues, saying during UPA's time loans of farmers amounting to Rs 70,000 crore were waived off and promised that if Congress forms the next government in the State, the burden of state's farmers will be lessened.

Rahul is also scheduled to address poll rallies in Malwa belt today, which constitute bulk of the seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly.

After interacting with local villagers, Rahul also sat on a mat and shared food with them.

From Sangrur constituency, Congress has fielded its former MP Vijay Inder Singla, who was also present.

With the drug menace becoming a major election issue in Punjab, Rahul promised a tough law to wipe out "chitta" and jail for those responsible for playing with the lives of youth.

He appealed to the people to strengthen the hands of the Congress to bring growth back on the rails in Punjab.

Promising to generate employment avenues for the youth if Congress forms the government in Punjab, Rahul said backlog in jobs will be cleared and employment will be given to the Dalit youth.

The state, alleged Rahul, had seen destruction under the rule of the Badals.

He said the Congress would restore the spirit of `tera hai' (it's yours) and not `mera hai' (it's mine), "which the Badals had established over the past 10 years".

Targeting the Badals, he said, "Guru Nanak Sahib said `sab tera' but the Badals' philosophy is `sab mera'".

"The money of Punjab is the money of its farmers and labourers and would be spent on their development," promised Rahul, reiterating that the loan of Punjab farmers would be waived off once the Congress comes to power.

The Congress Vice President alleged that the Badals were squarely responsible for all the mess in the state, including industrial and agricultural ruin.

"They plundered the State for their own interests. They have ruined the State by controlling everything here," he alleged.

"The industry is shifting to Jharkhand and Haryana," he said.

With the Malwa belt of Punjab also infamous for number of cancer cases, Rahul promised to have a world class cancer hospital set up so that people do not have to go elsewhere for treatment.

Referring to the train between Bathinda and Bikaner, which has come to be known as Malwa's "cancer train", Rahul said once a hospital is set up here, people need not go anywhere.

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News Network
March 22,2024

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday produced Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal before the Rouse Avenue court and sought a 10-day custody in the excise policy-linked money laundering case. "Kejriwal was the kingpin of the scam," the ED reportedly told the court after the AAP chief was produced before Special Judge Kaveri Baweja around 2 pm amid tight security. 

ASG S V Raju was appearing for the agency, while Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi is representing Kejriwal. 

Raju in his argument said Kejriwal was "directly involved in formulation of the (liquor) policy... he was involved in handling of proceeds of crime as well in the Goa election campaign."

"The expert committee was constituted but it was a sham committee. The policy was made in such a manner that it would enable the taking of bribes and recoupment of people who gave the bribes," the ED counsel said. 

Kejriwal was produced in the trial court shortly after he withdrew from the Supreme Court his plea against arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the excise policy-linked money laundering case. Kejriwal's counsel said he would contest the remand proceedings before the trial court and then come back to the apex court with another petition.

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News Network
March 16,2024

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New Delhi: The 2024 general election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases from April 19, Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar said today, announcing the largest democratic exercise in the world. Results will be announced on June 4.

The seven phases: 
April 19
April 26
May 7
May 13
May 20
May 25
June 1

Simultaneous election for Lok Sabha and assembly will be held in four states -- Sikkim, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Andhra.  

By-elections will also be held for 26 assembly seats across multiple states, including Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

Mr Kumar, announcing the dates, sent out a strong message on fake news on social media, saying political parties should ensure responsible social media behaviour -- "verify before you amplify".

"Fake news will be dealt with severely as per existent laws.. Section 79 (3)(B) of the IT Act empowers nodal officers in each state to remove unlawful content," he said.

The other strong message was on violation of model code in terms of hate speeches. "There should be issue-based campaign, no hate speeches, no speeches along caste or religious lines, no criticism of anyone's personal lives," he said.

The media must clarify when they carry political adverts, those cannot masquerade as news, he said. Individual messages regarding this would be sent to the candidates, he added.

The commission has employed 2,100 advisors to keep an eye on these issues and strong action will be taken regarding this, he said.

Voters above the age of 85 years and persons with disabilities, with 40 per cent disability can vote from home, Mr Kumar said. Around 82 lakh voter are above the age of 85, he said.

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News Network
March 15,2024

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New Delhi, Mar 13: The Supreme Court on Friday took exception to the State Bank of India (SBI) for not disclosing complete details of Electoral Bonds, including unique alfa numeric numbers, furnished to the Election Commission for uploading on the website.

A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud issued notice to the SBI seeking its response on Monday after the court was informed that the issuing bank for the Electoral Bonds has not disclosed unique alfa numeric number of each bond.

"They have not disclosed the bond numbers. It has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India. All details have to be provided by the SBI," the bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, noted.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said as per the Constitution bench judgment of February 15, 2024, all details were to be disclosed.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted since the SBI was a party to the judgment, notice may be issued to it.

The court said the counsel for SBI should have been here.

"If you see the judgment, we have specified that bond numbers have to be provided," the bench said.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the main petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

On an application by the EC, the bench said the details of Electoral Bonds furnished by the poll panel before the top court should be scanned and returned to it for the purpose of uploading on the website.

The Election Commission through advocate Amit Sharma filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to release data on electoral bonds furnished to the top court in terms of previous orders of April 12, 2019 and November 2, 2023.

As per March 11, 2024 order, the Election Commission on Thursday uploaded the data on electoral bonds furnished to it by the SBI.

However, in an application, the poll panel said it had furnished to the Supreme Court a number of sealed envelopes, containing details on EBs encashed by the political parties, during the course of hearing in the matter.

It sought a direction for the return of those sealed envelopes to comply with the directions to upload it on the website as per order of March 11.

On Monday, the Supreme Court had told the SBI to furnish details of purchasers of Electoral Bonds and names of political parties redeemed those instruments by March 12 to the Election Commission, rejecting its plea for extension of time until June 30 for the purpose.

It had then directed the Election Commission to publish the information provided by the SBI on its website on March 15.

In its February 15, 2024 judgment, the SC had declared the Electoral Bonds scheme, introduced in 2018 for donation to political parties, as "unconstitutional" for being violative of the right to information.

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