War of words over Kolkata violence during Amit Shah’s roadshow: Key facts

Conflicts broke out between BJP supporters and understudy activists and those of the Left and Trinamool Congress Chatra Parishad (TMCP) amid Amit Shah’s roadshow in the city on Tuesday.

BJP national president Amit Shah’s roadshow prompted a noteworthy peace emergency in the state capital as an extensive number of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) individuals conflicted with Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) supporters at College Street on Tuesday evening. While Shah got away safe, he was compelled to stop the roadshow and must be escorted to security by police.

ABVP supporters burst in to the close-by Vidyasagar College at Shankar Ghose Lane and went out of control, harming school property. They likewise brought down a statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a prominent scholar and a key figure of Bengal Renaissance, and set two or three bikes ablaze.

Contingents of Kolkata Police conveyed for the roadshow swung without hesitation and were seen pursuing ceaselessly the warring gatherings. “There was an endeavor by TMC crooks to assault me. Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal boss priest) attempted to incite savagery. In any case, I am protected,” Shah stated, including that police remained a quiet observer amid the conflicts.

Addressing News18, Vidyasagar College important Gautam Kundu stated, “I denounce this episode. How might somebody enter a school and harm its property? This is disturbing as I have never seen such an occurrence as of late. In addition to the fact that they broke the furnishings they broke an antique statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. We will hold up an objection with the police against the BJP aggressors.”

“They fled with a PC and a satchel of a female school staff. It’s a dishonorable episode,” Kundu included. Inconvenience began around 5.40 pm when Shah’s caravan entered College Street. Waving dark banners, TMCP individuals had accumulated in the zone close Calcutta University. Raising mottos, they requested that Shah return…

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Original promoter of NaMo TV denies running channel on PM Modi anymore

The channel was originally run by a Gujarat based company whose promoter denies being behind the channel’s re-appearance on the airwaves.

Current Affairs: One of the original promoters of a company that first aired NaMo TV, a channel dedicated to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has said that he or his company isn’t involved in running the channel anymore. NaMo TV beamed on major direct-to-home networks Sunday.

“We were earlier involved with NaMo TV. We are not running it anymore,” Sujay Mehta told Business Standard over the phone from Ahmedabad. Mehta was asked when and to whom he transferred operations of NaMo TV. He replied, “I am not involved anymore. I do not know anything.”

The BJP hasn’t officially claimed ownership of NaMo TV, but the party’s official social media posts have urged people to watch Narendra Modi’s speeches on the channel. On March 31, when the channel suddenly appeared on TV, the BJP posted on social media, “Capture the colours of elections. Watch the dance of democracy. Say NaMo again with NaMo TV. Tune in to get real-time coverage of PM Modi’s election campaign and a lot more fascinating content.”

NaMo TV was aired by Mehta, a homoeopath, through a company called New Hope Infotainment incorporated in 2012. The channel was reportedly first aired in October 2012, a couple of months before assembly elections in Gujarat. The company was registered at the same address where Mehta runs his homeopathy clinic in Vastrapur locality of Ahmedabad…

DMK promises to abolish NEET, bring back old pricing for petrol & cylinders

A separate budget for agriculture, loan waiver for students, free electricity are other poll promises for Lok Sabha 2019 elections

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: The M K Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has promised to abolish the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), formerly the All India Pre-Medical Test, as part of its poll promise. The party, which has joined hands with the Congress for the upcoming LokSabha election has also promised to bring back the old pricing models for petrol & gas cylinders.

DMK President Stalin released the party’s election manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls scheduled for April 18 in the state. The other promises of the party include metro rail projects for Madurai, Trichy, Coimbatore and Salem, and permanent Indian citizenship for Sri Lankan refugees currently living in camps in Tamil Nadu.

The party also promised to release seven prisoners jailed in the Rajiv Gandhi assassin case, loan waivers for students, a separate budget for farmers at the Lok Sabha, free electricity for weavers, museum at Keezhadi, 0.5 per cent GDP for natural disasters, MNREGA up to 150 days….

Modi vs Yogi: Whose campaign was more effective during recent 5-state polls

Modi spoke and campaigned at 30 places across 80 constituencies, of which the BJP won 23 and lost 57

Latest News: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost more than 70% of assembly constituencies where Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned during recent five-state assembly elections–Madhya Pradesh (MP), Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram–according to an IndiaSpend analysis of electoral data.

Modi spoke and campaigned at 30 places across 80 constituencies, of which the BJP won 23 and lost 57. In MP and Rajasthan, where the PM held more than 70% (22 rallies) of his rallies, the BJP managed to win 22 out of 54 seats (41%). In Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram, the BJP won just one of 26 constituencies, across which Modi held eight rallies.

Is Yogi Adityanath a better campaigner than Modi?

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath emerged as a lead campaigner for the BJP in the Hindi heartland states (MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh) and Telangana, Livemint reported on November 27, 2018.

Adityanath addressed 58 rallies across these four states, where the BJP won 27 seats and lost 42, our analysis showed. Adityanath fared slightly better than Modi with a winning percentage of 39.13% compared to Modi’s 28.75%….

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UP has a water crisis but why are voters indifferent to it?

As parties promise to clean up the Ganga and Yamuna, why is clean water not an electoral issue?

"Yes, Ganga and Yamuna have turned into drains. But no candidate is talking about this, nor is any voter asking,” says Abhishek Srivastava, as he buys a wallet in Agra’s Sadar Bazar. “Why not?” “I don’t know. Voters only echo the points raised by candidates during the campaign.”

Over 140 million people are eligible to vote as UP ELECTIONS 2017 — the land of the Ganga and the Yamuna — gets set to elect a new state government. The ongoing campaign is characterised by bitterness, sarcasm and extravagant promises of laptops to each student. Opinion polls show a tight race between the Bharatiya Janata Party that rules India, the state’s ruling Samajwadi Party which is in alliance with the Congress, and the Bahujan Samaj Party, with around 40% of voters still saying they are undecided. Polling will be in five phases in February and March.

Agra will go to the polls in the first phase on February 11. Looking outside the shop where he is choosing his wallet, Srivastava points to a stagnant open drain with its stink and cloud of mosquitoes, and says, “No one raised the issue of such drains even in the municipality polls. Do you think they will do it in the state assembly polls? No way.”

Sadar Bazar is less than a kilometre from the Taj Mahal, and behind that the Yamuna, which is literally a drain downstream of Delhi — around 200 kilometres to the north — till the Chambal joins the river 200 km further downstream of Agra.

Widespread apathy

Everybody agrees that the poison affects drinking water and irrigation. Still, the apathy is mirrored in town after town of western Uttar Pradesh, all in that fertile belt between the Ganga and the Yamuna.

Gokul Ram, who plies a cycle rickshaw in Hathras, says, “It’s the same everywhere. My village is in eastern Uttar Pradesh, near Sonebhadra. There the ash flying from a power station has made the soil infertile. Here you can’t get any clean water to drink unless you buy a bottle, and we don’t have the money for that. The water in the wells is yellow, and it stinks.”

Has he heard anybody talking about it during the campaign? “No.” Why not? “I don’t know.”

There’s a heartening example of philanthropy in the Khurja town centre. Coordinated by the district administration, there is a place for donating and collecting warm clothes. But within 100 metres, on the road leading to the town’s poorer neighbourhood inhabited mostly by Dalits and Muslims, there’s the omnipresent open garbage dump with wallowing pigs.

Butcher Akhlaq Qureshi has his shop right in front of the dump. “I don’t have clean water even to wash the meat,” he says. “One of the candidates was holding a meeting in our neighbourhood. I asked him if he would provide at least one tap for us. He did promise. Let us see.” | READ MORE....