UAE rulers mark Eid-ul-Fitr with prayers, greetings

Congress leader Pawan Khera on Monday, April 29, shared a letter purportedly written by BJP leader Devaraj Gowda to the Karnataka state president of the saffron party expressing concern about the pendrive containing sleazy videos of JD(S) leader and Lok Sabha MP Prajwal Revanna.

The letter was apparently written on December 8, 2023.

The letter, written in Kannada by the Hassan BJP leader states that 2,976 clips were already with Congress leaders and would be ammo for the grand old party during the Lok Sabha elections. The letter also states that if Revanna is allowed to contest under the NDA banner, it is likely to negatively impact the BJP's image in the state.

Sharing this letter, Khera launched an attack on the BJP, asking why the party had chosen to enter into an alliance with JD(S) despite knowing about the pendrive. He also questioned the lack of action, sharing the stage with Prajwal Revanna, and asked who helped him 'escape to Germany'.

Khera also questioned PM Narendra Modi's silence on the matter. Notably, the PM has been vocal about women suffering sexual abuse elsewhere in the country, when a leader of the opposition party has been involved. Modi attacked the TMC government over Sheikh Shahjahan's actions in Sandeshkhali, which allegedly involve sexual harassment and illegal land grabbing.

The Congress leader, however, remained confident that Modi would stay mum on the Hassan sex scandal issue.

"Modi ji will be in Karnataka the entire day today. I can guarantee that he won’t find the courage to utter even a single word on this horrific case in the state wherein his alliance’s politician went around recording thousands of sex videos of several women in his pen drive, and has now absconded abroad!," Khera said on X (formerly Twitter).

While Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has ordered a special probe into the incident, the JD(S) has distanced itself from Prajwal with H D Kumaraswamy saying that while he wanted to wait for facts to come out after the probe, there was no question of forgiving someone who had committed a crime as per the law.

A sexual harassment and stalking case has been filed against former Karnataka Minister H D Revanna and his son Prajwal, who is at the centre of the Hassan scandal.

A woman complainant said that she worked in Revanna's house from 2019 for three and a half years. During her time there, Revenna allegedly misbehaved with her, as did Prajwal, according to the woman's claims. She also claimed Prajwal sexually assaulted her repeatedly.

She also claimed the MP had used obscene language with her daughter during video calls, forcing her to block the number and quit her job.

H D Revanna is the elder son of JD(S) supremo and former PM H D Deve Gowda, and Prajwal is the party patriarch's grandson.

At least 900 protesters have been arrested since the launch of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on university campuses across the US, where students are raging against the Israeli regime’s US-backed genocidal war on Gaza.

The Washington Post reported the tally on Sunday, the 10th straight day of the protests that began after Columbia University set up an encampment to demand cessation of the war and press the school to divest from Israeli financial interests.

The crackdown then started when university authorities called in the police, a move that sparked more than 100 arrests on the university’s Manhattan campus.

Two other highlights in the crackdown saw police forces rounding up roughly the same number of people at New York University and Emerson College in Boston.

Protests have also erupted across numerous other seats of learning, including Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and California State Polytechnic in Humboldt.

The ensuing countrywide counter-campaign of suppression has seen law enforcement resorting to riot control methods against the protesters.

The methods have featured “the same tools and tactics” that were deployed to confront the thousands-strong protests that sparked across the country after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd four years ago, the daily reported.

“At Emory University last week, Atlanta police said officers used ‘chemical irritants’ to clear an encampment, and a Georgia State Patrol officer was captured on video using a stun gun to subdue a man on the ground,” it said.

Academics have, meanwhile, been banding together throughout the US under the banner of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP).

Earlier in April, the FSJP’s Georgia chapter called on Morehouse College in Atlanta, which invited Joe Biden as its 2024 commencement speaker, to rescind its invitation as a means of objecting to the president’s role in enabling the Israeli genocide.

At Biden’s behest, the United States has been providing the Israeli war with unreserved military and intelligence support.

The US has also vetoed several United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in the brutal military onslaught that has so far claimed the lives of at least 34,454 Gazans, mostly women and children.

Mangaluru/Udupi: The Dakshina Kannada and Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituencies recorded a tentative voter turnout of 77.4% and 76.1% respectively until 6 pm on Friday. In the 2019 polls, Dakshina Kannada recorded 77.9%, while Udupi recorded a 75.8% voter turnout.

The DK Lok Sabha constituency recorded a poll percentage of 71.8% at 5 pm. Among the constituencies, Sullia recorded a maximum of 78.4%, followed by Belthangady at 75.6%, Puttur at 75.2%, Bantwal at 73.7%, Mangalore at 73.5%, Mangalore City North at 69.8%, and Mangalore City South at 61.8%.

Urban apathy continued, with Mangalore City South recording the lowest polling percentage.

Meanwhile, Banjarumale, a remote village in Belthangady taluk, recorded 100% polling with all 111 voters showing up two hours before polling ended at 6pm.

Another interior polling station at Elaneer in the same taluk recorded 82% polling at 4 pm. The booth has 471 voters. The district has a total of 18,18,127 voters, with 9,30,928 females, 8,87,122 men, and 77 transgender individuals.

A good number of people turned out to vote during the early hours. Voters are bearing the scorching sun while stepping out to exercise their franchise as heat wave is sweeping through the state. 

The polling process remained largely peaceful, with long queues observed at polling stations from 7 am onwards in several polling stations. However, technical glitches caused delays at a polling station in Karopady, and at St. Xavier School Bejai, where polling was reportedly delayed by nearly two hours.

Polling staff at a booth near the Mulki police station mistakenly marked the wrong finger with ink during voting. They reportedly applied ink to the index finger of the right hand. According to sources, at least 50 individuals had their index finger of the right hand inked. Deputy Commissioner Mullai Mulihan clarified, "The matter was promptly addressed by the sector office. This error affected 8-9 voters"

A total of 18.18 lakh voters in the Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency and 15.85 lakh in Udupi-Chikmagalur hold the power to determine the fate of candidates competing for their respective segments. The polling process is currently underway across 1,876 booths in Dakshina Kannada and 1,842 polling stations in the Udupi-Chikmagalur segment.

In Dakshina Kannada, a closely contested battle is anticipated between Captain Brijesh Chowta representing the BJP and Padmaraj R Poojary from the Congress. Meanwhile, in the Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency, Kota Shrinivas Poojary of the BJP and K Jayaprakash Hegde of the Congress are the prominent contenders.