Palestinians call days of rage over US' Jerusalem recognition

Bengaluru: Mines and Geology Minister S S Mallikarjun on Monday did not rule out a Cabinet reshuffle after the election results. 

"You should ask the chief minister. But one can't say... it (reshuffle) might happen," Mallikarjun told reporters when asked about speculation that some ministers may be dropped. 

Mallikarjun said this a week after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said there was no plan to reshuffle his Cabinet. 

There is speculation over a Cabinet rejig and that the Congress high command would hold ministers accountable if the party does badly in the Lok Sabha polls. 

Mysuru, May 24: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah stated on Friday that the family of fugitive JD(S) MP and prime accused in the sex videos case, Prajwal Revanna, knows everything about him.

When asked about the warning to Prajwal Revanna by his grandfather, former Prime Minister, HD Deve Gowda, that he would be isolated from the family, CM Siddaramaiah questioned, “Has Prajwal gone without informing his family? Hasn’t he been in contact with his family members?

“His uncle Kumaraswamy had stated that Prajwal was not in touch with him from the beginning. However, while campaigning for him, Kumaraswamy claimed that Prajwal was like his son.

“Doesn’t this statement prove that there was communication between them? Prajwal’s matter is known to his family.”

Prajwal Revanna is facing serious charges and the FIR against him contains charges of rape, sexual assault, disrobing women and forcibly videographing sexual acts in order to threaten the victims.

“I have not stated that Prajwal Revanna is a criminal. I have been saying that he is an accused in the case,” the CM clarified.

Answering a question on former CM Kumaraswamy’s accusation that the government was tapping his phone, CM Siddaramaiah said, “Kumaraswamy is saying anything that comes to his mind to divert attention from the Prajwal Revanna case. Kumaraswamy must first learn to respect the law of the land.”

CM Siddaramaiah stressed, “I have written letters twice to PM Modi seeking the cancellation of Prajwal Revanna’s passport and haven’t received a response yet. The PM has not responded to my letters. I am confident that a letter from the CM will get a response. Let me see if my second letter is answered.”

Regarding his son, former MLA Dr. Yathindra getting the post of MLC, CM Siddaramaiah stated that the high command had promised that Yathindra would be made an MLC.

“We have to wait for the decision of the high command,” he maintained.

“I was contemplating contesting from the Kolar Assembly seat. I was asked to contest from Varuna, and Yathindra was asked to vacate the seat for me. Yathindra, following the words of the high command, vacated the seat for me. It remains to be seen what the high command will do,” he stated.

In yet another brazen act of support for Israel’s months-long genocide against the besieged Gaza Strip, the administration of US President Joe Biden has hinted that the regime’s deadly strikes targeting displaced Palestinians in the southern city of Rafah did not cross a “red line” and would not lead to a change in Washington’s policy towards Tel Aviv.

In press briefings on Tuesday, multiple administration officials described the Israeli massacre in Rafah as “heartbreaking” but claimed that the assault, which left dozens of Palestinians dead, was an airstrike and not a major ground operation.

“We still don’t believe that a major ground operation in Rafah is warranted. We still don’t want to see the Israelis, as we say, smash into Rafah with large units over large pieces of territory. We still believe that, and we haven’t seen that at this point,” White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

“As a result of this strike on Sunday, I have no policy changes to speak to,” Kirby added. “It just happened. The Israelis are going to investigate it. We’re going to be taking great interest in what they find in that investigation. And we’ll see where it goes from there.”

The White House spokesperson said that “no civilian casualties is the right number of civilian casualties,” but he acknowledged innocent people are often killed in war.

“There’s not like a measuring stick here or a quota,” he said, when asked if there were a number of civilian deaths that would prompt action from the US. “As we’ve said many times, the right number of civilian casualties is zero.”

Despite providing Israel with untrammeled support over the past eight months, the White House claims to have urged Israel against sending forces into Rafah without a clear plan to evacuate civilians safely.

In another presser on Tuesday, a Pentagon official said Sunday’s airstrike, which was the deadliest incident in Rafah since Israel launched an offensive there, did not amount to what the White House has warned against.

“It is still our assessment that what is happening in Rafah and what the [Israeli military] are doing, it is limited in scope.” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan last week told reporters there was “no mathematical formula” for assessing Israel’s conduct in Rafah, but officials would look at “whether there is a lot of death and destruction from this operation or if it is more precise and proportional.”

Israel's three-week-old Rafah offensive stirred renewed outrage after an airstrike on Sunday set ablaze a tent camp in the west of the city.

Some 50 people, including many children, were killed in Israel’s attack on the tent camp in Rafah late, prompting global condemnations and calls for the implementation of a World Court order to halt Israel's assault on Gaza.  

The attack came two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop its US-backed aggression on Gaza that has killed more than 36,000 people since it started in October last year.