'Mein Nahin Hum' slogan used by our councillor in 2010: Congress

  


Hitting back at the BJP over its allegation that the ruling party “copied” Narendra Modi’s ad blitz at a BJP convention in 2011, Congress today came out with a video clip claiming that the slogan ‘Mein Nahin Hum’ was used by a Congress councillor of Indore long ago.

“We are showing a mirror to the BJP, who were calling us copy cat over the advertisement that we released yesterday. No particular word can be the monopoly of anybody,” party spokesperson Shobha Oza said.

“Much before BJP or Narendra Modi used this phrase ‘Mein Nahin Hum’, a Congress councillor in Indore had put this in a poster during a mushaiara. So BJP’s contention that Congress copied its slogan does not hold any water. The idea was already with Congress,” she said.

She also showed a video clip of the event held in Indore on November 30, 2010.
Her remarks came a day after the Opposition went hammer and tongs against Congress advertisement with Rahul Gandhi at the centrestage of the campaign ‘Mein Nahi, Hum’ (Not I, we) which appeared in the newspapers.

Accusing Congress of plagiarism, the BJP had yesterday alleged that the party “copied” Modi’s slogan.

Oza, however, claimed that Congress always believed in the principle of us and not me (Mein Nahin Hum) “unlike Modi, who is all for me, my and myself”.

She said Congress being a more than 125 years old organisation does not need to borrow ideas from some other party. 

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Mumbai Republic Day revellers lathicharged as fans mob Salman Khan

       Fans throng the R Day parade by Bollywood stars.

Mumbai's Republic Day celebrations became an eyesore after fans of Bollywood bigwig Salman Khan broke the police cordons and created a ruckus during a parade by major filmstars.




Fans mob the filmstars as police struggles for control
Eyewitnesses say huge crowds had gathered to see their favourite filmstars in open-top vintage cars for Republic Day celebrations. However, the party soon turned ugly as people broke police barricades, came in front of the cars and tried to get to the Bollywood stars, specially Salman Khan. 

The mob soon got out of control and the police had to resort to lathicharging the crowd to bring in some order.



Salman Khan during the R Day parade
Meanwhile, Mumbai witnessed a dazzling Republic Day celebration, with a colourful parade at the picturesque Marine Drive here Sunday.

Cops try and control the crowd around Salman's car.
Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan hoisted the national flag and took the salute at the parade in south Mumbai along the Arabian Sea promenade.

Present on the occasion were Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, his cabinet colleagues as well as Bollywood actor Salman Khan.

Preity Zinta at the R Day celebrations
This is the first time the parade has been held at Marine Drive. The traditional venue was Shivaji Park in central Mumbai.

The parade saw around 25 tableaux put up by government departments and ministries highlighting achievements as well as vintage cars and a cycle rally that were cheered by people from both sides of the Marine Drive.



Ranbir Kapoor
The crowds were thrilled as the army, navy and air force jointly put up demonstrations and daring display of their capabilities.

There were also cultural shows including traditional Maharashtrian dances and other aspects depicting the state's rich culture and heritage.

Cops try and push back fans from mobbing the stars.
Chavan earlier announced that the best float would get Rs.50 lakh, the second best Rs.25 lakh and the third best Rs.15 lakh.

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BJP accuses Congress of Copying Modi's idea

 



The BJP has accused Rahul Gandhi and his team of copying the idea of Narendra Modi.

The present controversy relates to a recent  ad campaign of Congress in which Rahul is seen as encouraging his cadres to believe in  ‘Us’  rather than ‘I’.

The BJP says that this concept  originally belongs to Narendra Modi who first mentioned it during Gujarat govternment's  ‘chintan shivir’  in  2011.

The Chintan Shivir of 2011 was a three day event where govt bureaucrats had assembled to strategize how to achieve inclusive development under leadership of Narendra Modi.


The party has also released the photograph to corroborate its charge. In that photograph, Modi is seen as addressing the gathering with the text ‘Main nahi, Hum’ written in the backdrop.

Meanwhile, the congress party has rejected the BJP charge .

Reacting to the BJP charge, Congress spokesperson Shobha Ozha said, “Congress does not need to copy anybody. Congress sets the agenda and others follow us. The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate keeps harping on ‘I’ only. He does not even mention ‘BJP’. Words are not the property of any individual.”  

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Arvind Kejriwal at Republic Day function: Media is being paid to write against AAP

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal seems to be in no mood to let up his revolution, the intense criticism coming his way notwithstanding. 



Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal at the R-Day function in New Delhi on 25th January, 2014.
Speaking at the Republic Day eve function, defending his dharna against the Delhi Police, which garnered him and his fledgling political outfit all-round flak, Kejriwal claimed that what he did was not against the Constitution. "Some people said I worked against the Constitution. I re-read the Constitution, couldn't find where was it written that a CM can't hold a dharna." In fact, he said that the imposition of Sec 144 at his protest site was against the Constitution. And, as call to arms, Kejriwal made it amply clear that he would do it again if need be. "Whatever I can do from the Secretariat I will do from there, if not I will come to the streets to get work done." 

Kejriwal's biggest salvo of the day, however, was reserved for the media, which he claimed was being paid to do negative stories on the AAP. He bolstered his claim, saying, "A journalist called us up to tell us that his bosses asked him to go get a story against AAP. This journalist then went out and spoke to some random people and did not find a single person who said anything against the party."

Kejriwal reserved most of his ire for the system, saying the system as it has developed does not even provide for equality before law. He linked it to corruption claiming, "Had I also directed every police station that Rs.10 lakh should reach me every month, and then all would have been fine. After a rape in the city, if I had also said police is doing its work, investigation is on, then all would have been fine."

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was aggressive, as usual, during his R-Day speech, but chose to remain silent on the controversy surrounding Somnath Bharti.
Kejriwal then made huge claims, saying, "In the last 25 days corruption has come down by 30 per cent. Auto drivers are saying that police has stopped taking bribe from us. Tea sellers say they have reduced rates since the police have stopped extorting money from them." The AAP's attempt to clean the system will not let honest men and women be victimised, he said, adding, "Police has many honest officers that is why we gave Rs.1 crore to officer who fought the liquor mafia".

On women security, Kejriwal said the Delhi government has constituted a committee on a separate wing for women security and it will be headed by the chief secretary.

The Delhi CM also assured the gathering that, "Jan Lokpal Bill is almost ready; we will pass it in a special session at Ramlila Maidan in February."


He ended his speech by singing 'Hum Honge Kamyab', in a move which is fast becoming his leitmotif.

The only discordant note of the morning was when Kejriwal did not wait for the parade commander's salute and walked off the podium beforehand, in a breach of protocol.

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THE BEST ARVIND KEJRIWAL PARODY YET

THE BEST ARVIND KEJRIWAL.

Calling it 'Nayak 2: The Common Man Rises', YouTube comedy group All India Bakchod (AIB) has released a parody video of the rise of Arvind Kejriwal that will leave you in tears.

Taking jabs left, right and centre at other IIT alumni like Chetan Bhagat who turned author as well as Anna Hazare's anti-alcohol stance, AIB's parody shows how Arvind Kejriwal went from becoming a Batman-like vigilante to a chief minister whose weapon of choice is protests.

And here's the icing on top of the hilarious cake - the godfather behind the making of this middle-class superhero is none other than... you guessed it right, the 'sanskaari man', Alok Nath! And the real deal too. We applaud AIB for roping in the actor to perform this guiding angel role.

So, Arvind Kejriwal designs his entire superhero life - from his symbol (he starts out with a vacuum cleaner, but Alok Nath says that's not middle class enough) to his costume (middle-aged uncle half-sweater and security guard muffler), and then he sets out to fight crime in the nation.

A parody video of epic proportions, this is the viral video you must watch.

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AAP forms Delhi Unit of the party

                                              AAP .

    


Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced the formation of its Delhi unit that would be looking after political activities of the party in the national capital.

Ashish Talwar will be the convenor of the committee while Durgesh Pathak will be the co-convenor.

Dilip K Pandey has been appointed as the secretary of the committee.

The state unit has been given the responsibility of preparing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. 

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Is Modi's popularity set to eclipse Vajpayee's?

Basking in the aftermath of the Kargil victory, a confident Atal Behari Vajpayee led a 16-party National Democratic Alliance to electoral triumph in the 1999 general elections. This was the saffron party's finest hour. Vajpayee's personal popularity was at its peak. The National Democratic Alliance led by him managed to cross the 300-seat mark in the Lok Sabha polls for the first time.

For the next two general elections, the BJP struggled to do an encore. And after 10 years in political exile, the morale among the party cadre was beginning to sag and Delhi seemed a distant dream.

But the Mood of the Nation (MOTN) Opinion Poll data compiled by polling agency C-Voter for the India Today Group has some significant revelations. The MOTN data reveals that BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is projected to lead the BJP to its strongest showing ever at the hustings. At the peak of Vajpayee's popularity in 1999, the BJP bagged 182 seats.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi

The India Today Group-C-Voter poll projects that the BJP under Modi could end up with 188 seats, six more than what Vajpayee delivered for the BJP. The findings of the C-Voter survey are mirrored by a separate survey done by CSDS for CNN-IBN. CSDS has projected a tally in the range of 192-210 seats for the BJP and between 92-108 seats for the Congress.

What makes Modi's performance even more laudable is that the NDA he leads is much weaker than the NDA led by Vajpayee. In 1999, the NDA had 16 parties including the Telugu Desam Party which lent outside support to the BJP. Heavyweights like the Janata Dal (United) which won 21 seats, DMK which bagged 12 seats, Biju Janata Dal with 10 seats, Trinamool Congress with 8 seats and Telugu Desam with 29 seats added to the heft of the NDA and helped the BJP bag seats in states like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa where it had historically been unable to turn its relatively moderate vote share into seats.

In these four states alone, the BJP had bagged a substantial tally of 22 seats in 1999, while the MOTN projections for January 2014 show the BJP drawing a blank in these four crucial battleground states.

This means that the asking rate for Modi is much higher than the asking rate for Vajpayee. A comparison between the actual data of the 1999 elections with the MOTN projections for January 2014 shows that Modi could be helping the BJP maximise its performance in its traditional areas of strength. Of the 25 seats in Rajasthan, the BJP is projected to win 21 seats while it won 16 seats in 1999. In Karnataka, buoyed by the return of BS Yeddyurappa, the BJP is projected to win 13 seats in 2014. The party had bagged only 7 seats in the state under Vajpayee in 1999.

Comparisons in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are more complex since these states were bifurcated in 2000. But for the sake of making a comparison, if we add up the seat shares of united UP, MP and Bihar, the BJP is projected to bag seven extra seats in Bihar and Jharkhand combined, five extra seats if UP and Uttarakhand are taken together as a block and one extra seat in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh.

The CNN-IBN CSDS poll is even more bullish about Modi's prospects in Uttar Pradesh than the poll done by C-Voter. CSDS projects between 41-49 seats for the BJP in UP while C-Voter has given the BJP 30 seats in Uttar Pradesh.

While the BJP is delighted with the projections of the latest round of opinion polls, the party is guarded about any talk of Modi eclipsing Vajpayee. BJP Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra said, "This is an unfair comparison. Conditions in India for the BJP at the time Vajpayee became PM were not as receptive as they are now. In 1999, BJP was still an up and coming party and Vajpayee's popularity actually soared after he became PM. Till Vajpayee became PM very few people were willing to consider BJP as a party of governance. It is during Vajpayee's tenure that BJP showed the country that the party could govern. The party is on a far firmer footing now. Vajpayee was a towering national leader while Modi is in the process of reaching Vajpayee's stature."

The JD(U), which broke away from the NDA alliance on the issue of Modi being made in-charge of the BJP's election campaign committee, feels that Modi can never hope to match Vajpayee's stature let alone beat it. Former diplomat and Nitish Kumar's political advisor Pawan Verma said, "The appeal of Vajpayee had a far more enduring basis than what polls may be showing for Modi at the end of a very aggressive campaign. The BJP needs a Vajpayee to enlarge its popular base both in the long and short run."
Vajpayee's former media advisor and speech writer Sudheendra Kulkarni dismissed the notion that Modi's popularity had begun to exceed that of Vajpayee. "There is no doubt that Modi has galvanised BJP's election campaign but there is no basis to jump to the conclusion that he is already more popular than Vajpayee. We have to make a distinction between abiding popularity and electoral success. In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi got the Congress to win more seats than his mother and grandfather. That does not mean that Rajiv was a bigger leader than Indira or Nehru. Modi's political personality is still a work in progress. He is not as established a national leader as Vajpayee was when he became PM."

A comparison between the MOTN Opinion Poll done during the elections in September 1999 reveals that Vajpayee's pan-India appeal was a solid 5 per cent points more than Modi's popularity at present. Fifty two per cent of the respondents in September 1999 thought Vajpayee was the best candidate to lead the country while 47 per cent favoured Modi for prime minister in January 2014.

Modi may still have some distance to go to match Vajpayee's appeal and still needs to show that he can work with recalcitrant allies but the latest round of opinion polls make it clear that he is the only leader in the BJP who has any chance of coming close to beating the former PM's vote catching ability. (For detailed vote share projections from 1999 and 2014 and the seats won in 1999 and the projections for 2014, see table below)

For more news from India Today, follow us on Twitter @indiatoday and on Facebook at

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/narendra-modis-popularity-eclipsing-atal-bihari-vajpayee/1/339629.html

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7 FAMOUS PERSONALITIES WHO JOINED AAM AADMI PARTY RECENTLY

Confidence in Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party has hit record levels after he became the Chief Minister of Delhi in a surprise twist no one saw coming. Now with ambitious plans of contesting the general elections from maximum seats this year, the party has seen an increasing influx of top professionals join the party that espouses removal of corruption. Here are the five professionals who have decided to pursue political ambitions and ride the AAP wave.

Captain G. R. Gopinath

© BCCL

The founder of erstwhile Air Deccan and pioneer of low-cost airlines in India, Captain G. R. Gopinath has joined the movement against corruption by joining the Aam Aadmi Party as he was drawn to the India Against Corruption movement founded by Anna Hazare. Upon joining he wrote on his blog that he felt more than a political party, AAP is a movement for clean politics of humility, transparency, honesty, good governance and inner party democracy. And he feels he must give his time to support the party and help build it into an enduring organisation.

Mallika Sarabhai

© BCCL

Danseuse, social activist and actor Mallika Sarabhai is among the notable women who have joined hands with Arvind Kejriwal's party to ensure that the party wins maximum seats in the general elections in Gujarat. A vocal critic of Narendra Modi, Sarabhai's inclusion in the AAP will set up the stage for an interesting fight for votes in Gujarat. Speaking to reporters, Sarabhai said her values aligned with the Aam Aadmi Party that led her to join the party.

V Balakrishnan

© BCCL

AAP's acceptance by the business community has gone through rough weather in the past but with V Balakrishnan, Infosys' former CFO, joining the party, the estrangement may finally be coming to a close. Balakrishnan wrote in a blog that "I think it is necessary for all like-minded people to join together and support the AAP movement in whatever way they can. Lot of youngsters I spoke to were craving for a change and there is a silent revolution happening in the country. I genuinely want to be part of such a change and revolution. I strongly believe that the real impact of AAP will be felt in the 2014 parliamentary elections."

Meera Sanyal

© BCCL

Meera Sanyal was the head of Royal Bank of Scotland in India until March 2013 and is a well-known name in the banking sector. She joined AAP after being influenced by Kejriwal's "idealism, integrity and courage". She believes the party is bringing about a "peaceful but powerful revolution" in the country and has pledged her support to the party to fight corruption in high places.

Adarsh Shastri

© BCCL

Adarsh Shastri's grandfather is the late Lal Bahadur Shastri, former Prime Minister of India. Adarsh himself left a cushy job with Apple Inc to join Arvind Kejriwal's AAP even though his grandfather was a Congress loyalist. Adarsh, who said he was impressed with Kejriwal's conviction, is willing to take up any job with the party and the pedigree he brings with him will definitely come in handy.

Ashutosh

© Google Plus

Former IBN 7 editor-in-chief Ashutosh is among the latest entrants to the AAP. Stressing on the need to change the system, the former journalist who covered Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement in great detail believes that the country's two main parties - Congress and BJP - do not have any ideology and that he believes AAP will bring about credible change in India.

Medha Patkar

© BCCL

Eminent social activist Medha Patkar has announced her complete support to AAP via her National Alliance of People's Movements that takes active interests in many grassroots-level movements across India. Patkar said that her organisation's micro and macro economics issues agree with AAP's policies.

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ARVIND KEJRIWAL: THE DAVID WHO TOOK DOWN POLITICAL GOLIATHS.

22,000 votes–that was the margin by which Arvind Kejriwal won over Sheila Dikshit. Those 22,000 votes–apart from the anyway thumping victory of the newly floated Aam Aadmi Party this assembly election–speak volumes of how the people of New Delhi are ready for a change. A change from the stagnant, rotting corruption of the Congress and the opportunistic BJP.

©  BCCL

While these parties realized yesterday, much to their chagrin, that they had underestimated the khadi-wearing, soft-spoken Kejriwal and his ‘jhaduwalas’, psephologists and political gurus agreed on one thing–the man has arrived. It is now only a matter of time before AAP is mobilized to be launched as a national party–and this band of broom-wielding idealists set out to sweep corruption from the rest of India.

©  BCCL 

When Arvind Kejriwal set out to contest for the 2013 elections, he faced his fair share of brickbats. Accused of ideological differences with Anna Hazare, slapped with a notice from Income Tax department and at the 11th hour – faced with the sting operation on AAP members. However, he moved past them to go on to impact the Delhi poll results in a dramatic manner.

©  BCCL 

Some random political commentary with an autowallah yesterday while he drove me to my destination drove home the influence of the AAP leader even deeper. The auto driver, after dissing Sheila Dikshit and the rest of the Congress, said, “Arvind Kejriwal is a good man–he would have done great things if he formed the government this time. Almost all of us auto drivers voted for the jhaduwalas.”

I nodded in agreement, realizing only then how many people have pinned their hopes on this one man and his party. The unswerving faith in his ideals, the hope for the end of the status quo – this is what Delhi stood for, if the poll results were any indication. For a new party to take away 40 per cent of the seats at the first go is a testimony of this. While AAP’s promise of getting the Jan Lokpal Bill passed on 29thDecember is now a pipedream, it does not seem unlikely anymore. Like Kiran Bedi said, what Kejriwal and his team now need to do is “to have patience, and consolidate – so as not to spread themselves too thin once they go on to become a national party.”

©  BCCL

Cornered and worried politicians like Ravi Shankar Prasad of the BJP – with who Arvind has already declined to ally with – have warned AAP to not be arrogant of their victory. Say what they might, it is only the emergence of the Gandhian party that checked what otherwise would have depicted the apathy of the Delhi voters via the ‘None Of The Above’ option.

©  BCCL 

The others states – Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh – saw considerable NOTA votes, the highest being in the former. Meanwhile, Delhi saw the least NOTA votes – with just over 0.5 per cent of the total votes. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that AAP took away the rest of the protest votes in the capital.

©  BCCL 

The road is long and difficult for Arvind Kejriwal and his troupe, especially with them vehemently opposed to the idea of coalitions and alliances. With just months away for the General Elections, they carry with them the weight of the hopes of millions of people. The assembly elections were all the affirmation that the jhaduwalas needed, but there is not resting on laurels – not yet. Like Robert Frost had said, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep/But I have promises to keep/And miles to go before I sleep.”

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Narendra Modi hired beautician for himself, says a minister of Nitish Kumar govt

     Narendra Modi hired beautician for himself.

         

A minister in Nitish Kumar government has alleged that Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had hired a professional ‘beautician’ for himself. 

Bhim Singh, Panchayati Raj minister in Nitish Kumar led Bihar Govt, says that the beautician charges huge amount on a daily basis.

The minister further said that Modi’s speeches lacked merit and all his utterances were full of expressions and gestures.
 
Blasting Modi for his vague approach on crucial issues like poverty, unemployment, reservation and social welfare, Bhim Singh said that Modi was just not aware of the basic needs of poor and that he was just playing into the hands of corporate houses. 

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Dwarka Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati loses cool when asked about Narendra Modi as PM.

Shankaracharya Swaroopanand SaraswatiWhen a news channel reporter prodded Dwarka Peeth Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati to know his views on Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the seer lost his cool and slapped the reporter instead.

The seer was in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh to attend a religious programme.

While the religious leader tried to brush off the matter, saying he did not want to discuss politics, the incident has taken political colours with both Congress and BJP taking different stands.

The Congress jumped to the seer's defence saying that such questions should not be put before religious leaders in the first place.

State Congress leader Mayan Aggarwal said, "Sadhus should not be asked political questions in the first place. Secondly, the seer had slapped the reporter only lovingly and this should be blown out of proportion."

Aggarwal also added that the seer felt bad at being asked about Modi as he wanted the discourse to be around religious issues.

However, the state unit of BJP has taken the matter lightly. Without hitting on the seer directly, party's state spokesperson Hitesh Bajpai said, "We believe that religious leaders are flag-bearers of religion, ethics and truth. They should be epitome of forgiveness. Questions from media are of prime importance and should not be brushed aside."

The seer himself is unfazed. Clarifying on the matter, Shankaracharya Saraswati said, "I slapped the reporter and told him 'you are talking about him (Modi) so that he can remain a topic of discussion'."

On his seething anger at the mere mention of Gujarat Chief Minister, the seer said, "I've no objection in Narendra Modi becoming PM, but he must clarify to people what he wants

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Read the statement of Shiv Menon, son of Sunanda Pushkar, who says his mother was too strong to kill herself

   
        

Shiv Menon, son of Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, wife of Union minister Shashi Tharoor who was found dead in a Delhi hotel last week, today issued a statement in which he said his mother was too strong to commit suicide. He also says that he doesn't believe Shashi Tharoor was capable of harming her.

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Shinde says he had to cancel Delhi cops' leaves due to a 'yeda' CM's dharna

Notorious for making controversial remarks, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday termed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as "yeda", meaning crazy or stubborn in Marathi, without taking his name.

Talking at a function in Nanded in Maharashtra, Shinde said, "When I was in Kherwadi (as a policeman), my leave was cancelled right after my wedding because there were riots. Now, because of a crazy chief minister on dharna, I had to cancel the leaves of policemen."

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal



The home minister was under attack from the ruling party in Delhi as Kejriwal himself led the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) dharna outside the Rail Bhavan, demanding action against some police officials for alleged dereliction of duty. The two-day protest ended on Tuesday evening

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Personality-oriented rule not in national interest: Rahul Gandhi on Narendra Modi

Deriding the BJP campaign to make Narendra Modi as the next Prime Minister, Rahul Gandhi today said that personality-oriented rule is "not in national interest".

"Government should not be run on the whims and fancies of a particular person. The future of 120 crore people can be shaped up and improved only by taking everybody along", the Congress Vice President said in an interview to a newspaper. He prefaced his remarks by saying, "BJP today wants a personality-oriented rule, which is not in the national interest". 

He was asked about the BJP campaign for a "Congress-free India" and how he sees the popularity of Modi, who is the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP.

Slamming the BJP for its "Congress-free India" pitch, he said, "Congress is in the DNA of this country." "BJP is talking of a Congress-free India. It does not understand that Congress alone is the political power, which has kept people of this country united," he said.

"We are a democratic organisation...The people of India will decide through their elected representatives, who will be the Prime Minister of the country. It is necessary for Congress to come to power in the interests of the nation and for that whatever responsibility the organisation has given me or will give me, I will carry out that with full dedication," he said in reply to a question.

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Must pull Indian economy out of 'gloom': Narendra Modi

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday said there was an atmosphere of gloom in the Indian economy, and there was need to pull the country out of it.

"We need to come out of the current gloom and bridge the trust deficit in India. An atmosphere of confidence and trust is very important in India now," Modi said, addressing business leaders in Gandhinagar.

"Running away from decision-making will not help run a country," he said, taking an indirect jibe at the Congress-led coalition at the centre, which the BJP has accused of "policy paralysis".

The Gujarat chief minister said it was important to increase purchasing power to ensure growth.

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Sunanda is unwell, says Tharoor on Facebook, seeks privacy.

The Shashi Tharoor-Sunanda Pushkar-Mehr Tarar triangle which kept the microblogging site Twitter abuzz on Thursday seems to have now moved to Facebook.

In an attempt to put the controversy to an end, former Union Minister and his wife posted a joint statement on Tharoor's Facebook page, saying that the couple were distressed following the controversy. They pleaded privacy.   


"We are distressed by the unseemly controversy that has arisen about some unauthorised tweets from our Twitter accounts," the post read.

Tharoor said in the post, "Various distorted accounts of comments allegedly made by Sunanda have appeared in the press. It appears that some personal and private comments responding to these unauthorised tweets -- comments that were not intended for publication -- have been misrepresented and led to some erroneous conclusions."

Trying to dispel reports that there was trouble in their three-and-a-half-year-old marriage, Tharoor posted on Facebook, "We wish to stress that we are happily married and intend to remain that way. Sunanda has been ill and hospitalised this week and is seeking to rest. We would be grateful if the media respects our privacy."

Following a series of tweets from Tharoor's Twitter account on Thursday which talked about the former minister love affair with a former Pakistani journalist, Tharoor said his account was hacked.

However, in a report published in the Economic Times, Sunanda was quoted as saying that she sent out the tweets. "Our accounts have not been hacked and I have been sending out these tweets. I cannot tolerate this. This is a Pakistani woman who is an ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) agent, and she is stalking my husband. And you know how men are. He is flattered by the attention. I took upon myself the crimes of this man during IPL (Indian Premier League). I will not allow this to be done to me. I just can't tolerate this. I have nothing more to say."

In another report published in the Indian Express, she said, "I completely stand by my tweets, I 100 per cent stand by that. That woman pursued and pursued him... men are stupid anyways...for all you know she is a Pakistani agent. Where's love, where's loyalty in this world...I am so distraught."

She further told the newspaper that she would be seeking divorce from Tharoor. However, replying to Headlines Today's Ruchica Tomar on Twitter on Thursday, she wrote, "for her information Shashi and I are very happy together sad for her to know i guess i get sick and go away 4 treatment &the vultures pounce."

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At a speed of 49 mbps, you can now download a movie in just two minutes!

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) plans to offer a top data transmission speed of 49 megabit per second (mbps) downlink and uplink between 8-9 mbps through its pan-India 4G network, which is 10-12 times faster than 3G.

An RJIL official said that at a speed of 49 mbps, a subscriber can download a full-length movie of 600 megabytes in about 2 minutes. The average top speed of 3G network is 4 mbps.
"We are practically achieving a speed of 49 megabit per second downlink (download), and uplink is between 8-9 mbps. Theoretically, the present set-up that we have can achieve speed of 112 mbps downlink," the official said.


Apart from phones, the high-speed Internet connection will also be linked to household TV sets. The 4G network-based Jio Television can serve as a third alternative for consumers.

RJIL will provide outdoor customer premise equipment (CPE), which will be connected to its mobile tower.

RJIL will also enable homes that do not get strong signals to connect with its optical fibre network. "There will be wires which will run through houses of subscribers from this CPE that can be connected to various devices and create a local wi-fi network for people to access broadband.

There will be a set-top-box that we will facilitate both broadband and television services," the official added. Gearing up to foray into TV services market, RJIL has loaded 150 channels that it will provide across all devices ranging from mobile phones to TV sets using the 4G network.

"We have almost all leading TV channels By Mail Today Bureau in New Delhi across all genres from leading houses-Sony, Zee, TV18, Star and others. This is a trial phase and we will add more channels as we get ready for commercial launch," the official said.

The TV service will have a Catch UP feature that will allow users to see programmes of the past seven days. "We have our data centre ready which will automatically store these content," he added.

The cable TV market had more than 9.6 crore subscribers till the end of December 2012 followed by DTH services with over 5.45 crore.

RJIL recently tied-up with Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel to share the latter's telecom infrastructure such as optic fibre network, submarine cable networks, towers and Internet broadband services. Last April, RJIL inked a deal to use the optic fibre network of Mukesh's younger brother Anil to roll out its 4G services.

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Lok Sabha elections: AAP focussing on 9 states, Bengal, TN, Kerala tough : Yadav

  

The one-year-old ruling party in Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party, will be focussing on 9 states in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections - Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. 

Party ideologue Yogendra Yadav told a Delhi newspaper that West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala were tough because parties in these states were mostly cadre based. 

Yadav said, political parties in these nine states have been thoroughly discredited because of corruption and people have lost confidence in these parties, giving AAP an opportunity to take advantage of people's anger. 

Haryana and UP alone account for 90 Lok Sabha seats, and Yadav believes his party will get a Delhi-like response, if not better, in these two states. 

He said, there are corruption charges against politicians of both Congress and BJP, and AAP has come to provide the true alternative.

On Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal, he said, cadre based parties are ruling the roost there and AAP may find it a bit difficult to create a larger base. 

"We hope to contest from at least 20 states", said Yadav.

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Prashant Bhushan wants referendum on Army presence in Kashmir, sees AAP govt at Centre.

Kashmir could see a Delhi style referendum if the Aam Aadmi Party were to form the next government at the centre. In an interview with Aaj Tak's Seedhi Baat, senior AAP leader Prashant Bhushan called for a referendum in the valley to decide whether or not the Army should be deployed to deal with internal threats in Kashmir. 

"People should be asked whether they want that the army to handle the internal security of Kashmir. Any decision which does not have the backing of the people is undemocratic. If people feel that the Army is violating human rights and they say they don't want the Army to be deployed for their security then the Army should be withdrawn from the hinterland," he said.

Bhushan nuanced his views adding, "The government can decide if the Army needs to be deployed to deal with external threats along the border. The government can also decide if the Army needs to be kept to help protect the minorities in the valley. But there should be a referendum on whether people want AFSPA to continue in the valley or not."

When pressed on what would happen if the referendum suggested that the people of Kashmir wanted to break away from India, Bhushan said, "Secession from India is unconstitutional. We have to find solutions within the purview of the constitution. We have to win the hearts of people in the valley who have moved away from the mainstream since they feel that they Army has been deployed in Kashmir against their wishes and is violating their human rights."

Bhushan had stirred a hornet's nest in September, 2011 when he had called for a plebiscite in Kashmir at a press conference in Varanasi and had said that Kashmir should be allowed to break away from India if Kashmiris did not want to stay as part of India. Bhushan no longer supports severing Kashmir from India but still backs the idea of a referendum on deploying the Army. Prashant Bhushan's controversial comments come on a day the Aam Aadmi Party announced ambitious plans to contest the general elections of 2014 and the party's views on national issues are now being put under intense scrutiny.

Opponents of the Aam Aadmi Party pounced on Bhushan's views on Kashmir. BJP spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh said, "Prashant Bhushan should remember he no longer runs a NGO. Demilitarisation of Jammu and Kashmir is a language that is being spoken by separatists in Pakistan and Bhushan as a senior AAP leader is playing into the hands of the separatists by making such comments. Till the terror infrastructure in Pakistan is dismantled, any reduction in Army presence would be disastrous for the country and unacceptable to the people of India."

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abudallah's political advisor and National Conference spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq too opposed Bhushan's views. Sadiq said, "There is an elected government in J&K and they along with the centre are the best judge of whether AFSPA should be kept or removed. National Conference too believes that AFSPA can be withdrawn from some areas but why does AAP want to politicise AFSPA?" 

Only Mehbooba Mufti's PDP supported Bhushan's call for a referendum on AFSPA. Party spokesperson Sameer Kaul said, "The heart and mind of AAP is in the right place. We are happy to hear about Bhushan's views that the people of Kashmir should be consulted on Army deployment."

However, senior Army officers who have served in the valley were aghast at Bhushan's call for a referendum. Former Army chief General VP Malik told Mail Today, "Prashant Bhushan has shown complete lack of awareness of the kind of situation that exists in J&K both in the hinterland and along LoC. It reflects poorly on his knowledge of politics and strategy. He has totally ignored the proxy war that Pakistan has waged over the last few decades. His comments have come as a great disappointment to people who are supportive of the Aam Aadmi Party."

Major General (Retired) GD Bakshi who commanded the Army's Romeo force in Rajouri said, "I hope Bhushan is aware that as soon as US soldiers are withdrawn from Afghanistan, terrorists will be redirected into the valley by Pakistan. I am sorry to say, this is an anti-national view. This would initiate the process of break up of the country."

Bhushan also sounded extremely confident about the prospects of the Aam Aadmi Party in the forthcoming general elections and said that there is now a very real chance that AAP may be able to form the next government at the centre. "One month ago I felt that we may be able to win around 50 seats in the general elections. But after forming the government in Delhi the response that we are getting from across the country is beyond our imagination. No limit can be drawn on the number of seats that AAP can win. Why just a simple majority, the Aam Aadmi Party could even end up with over 400 seats."

Bhushan drew a parallel with the 1977 elections held after the emergency and said that there is a wave of positive change that is blowing across the country and people now believe that AAP can clean up the corrupt politics of the country. Bhushan said, "Indira Gandhi revoked the emergency in January 1977 and called general elections in March. Who would have thought that in two months the Janata Party would be able to field candidates on every seat and that the Congress would be decimated across north India. Once people make up their minds then anything is possible."

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