Rahul Gandhi calls PM ‘Big Boss’ who spies; BJP rubbishes charge

Agencies

March 26, 2018

New Delhi, Mar 26: The Congress and the BJP on Monday again locked horns on the prickly issue of data sharing with Rahul Gandhi dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi the “Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians” and the ruling party accusing the opposition party of “theft”.

Taking to Twitter after allegations surfaced that data from the Prime Minister’s official app was being shared without the consent of users, the Congress president said the NaMo app secretly recorded audio, video, contacts and even tracked location via GPS.

“Modi’s NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. He’s the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.

“Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP,” Gandhi said on Twitter using the hashtag ‘DeleteNaMoApp’.

The BJP, however, rubbished the charge and alleged that the Congress chief was speaking a “lie”.

Hitting out at Gandhi, BJP’s IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya said it was his party’s app that was sharing user data with his friends in Singapore.

“Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India’s oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore,” Malviya said, mimicking Gandhi's tweet on Sunday.

“Full marks to Congress for stating upfront that they’ll give your data to **practically anyone** - undisclosed vendors, unknown volunteers, even ‘groups with similar causes’. In theft of all forms, Congress has never been discreet!” Malviya tweeted.

Malviya went on to allege that the Congress, inspired by its leader Sonia Gandhi’s “all power no accountability”, will take all your data, even share it worldwide with organisations like Cambridge Analytica but will not take responsibility of it.

The party had on Sunday said that contrary to Rahul Gandhi’s lies, data was being used for only analytics using third party services, similar to Google Analytics.

“Analytics on the user data is done for offering users the most contextual content,” it said.

The party claimed the Narendra Modi app is unique and gives access to users in ‘guest mode’ without even any permission or data.

“The permissions required are all contextual and cause-specific,” the BJP stated on its Twitter handle.

The Congress chief had on Sunday attacked Modi over allegations of data sharing from his official app without users’ consent. Gandhi also accused the media of “burying” the story.

His attack on the Prime Minister was based on a media report in which a French vigilante hacker has purportedly alleged that data was stolen from his official NaMo app without the consent of the users.

“Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India’s Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies,” Gandhi said on Twitter.

In the tweet, he also attached a news report titled, ‘Data theft allegation reaches PM Modi’s doorstep, French vigilante hacker’s stunning revelation’.

The Congress and the BJP have indulged in a slinging match over data theft and the use of services of Cambridge Analytica, accused of harvesting data from Facebook.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

Air India Express brings back Mangaluru–Muscat direct flights from March 2026

News Network

December 15,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 15: Air India Express has announced that it will resume direct flight services between Mangaluru and Muscat from March 2026, restoring an important international air link for passengers from the coastal region.

Airport authorities said the service will operate twice a week—on Sundays and Tuesdays—from March 1. The initial flights are scheduled on March 3, 8 and 10, followed by March 15 and 17, with the same operating pattern to continue thereafter. The flight duration is approximately three hours and 25 minutes.

The Mangaluru–Muscat route was earlier operated under the 2025 summer schedule, with services beginning on July 14. At that time, Air India Express had operated four flights a week before suspending the service.

Officials said the summer schedule will come into effect from March 29, after which changes in flight timings and departure schedules from Mangaluru are expected. Passengers have been advised to check the latest schedules while planning their travel.

The resumption of direct flights to Muscat is expected to significantly benefit expatriates, business travellers and others, further strengthening Mangaluru’s air connectivity with the Gulf region.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

IndiGo CEO says less than 1,000 cancellations on Dec 6; normalcy by Dec 15

News Network

December 5,2025

New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said.

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

Comments