Rajkot district superintendent of police Gagandeep Gambhir said this evening that the police would be registering an FIR against the Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel for “insulting” the national flag.

According to Gambhir, Hardik’s feet touched the national flag which he was carrying as he jumped on a car in an attempt to talk to the media when he was stopped by the police at Madhapar crossroads in Rajkot on Sunday afternoon.

“Hardik always tries to be in media…when he was stopped by police, he suddenly jumped on the roof of his car with the national flag. While doing so, the flag touched his feet, which is against the dignity of the tricolor,” said the SP.

“Whatever he has done is not allowed as per the law. So we will file an FIR for disrespecting the national flag.” Hardik was detained by police on his way to Khandheri cricket stadium in Rajkot ahead of the India-South Africa One Day International. He had threatened to stage a protest at the stadium.

Also read- Patel agitation: Hardik Patel’s detention sparks sporadic protests in Gujarat

Gambhir said that action will also be taken against the driver of the car in which Hardik was travelling.

“We have also seized the car as the occupants failed to produce any document related to the vehicle. The person who was driving did not have driving license,” he said.

Former Congress leader Cherian Philip said that women leaders in the Congress party had to perform sexual favours in order to secure tickets for elections. Philip made the statement on his Facebook page on Sunday.

Kerala Congress chief VM Sudheeran condemned his statements while Mahila Congress leaders Bindu Krishna and Shanimol Usman said his statements were an insult to women. The two women leaders are contemplating taking legal action against him, media reports say.

In his Facebook post, Cherian Philip clarified saying that his comments were not targeted at the women but at the men who exploited women in the party. He referred to Mahila Congress leaders Bindu Krishna and Shanimol Usman as his sisters. He said that since they had known him for many years now they should not misunderstand his statements.

“When Antony was president and Sudheeran was vice president in the state Congress, I was the party general secretary. Sudheeran knows what happened then and so do I,” stated Philip. He said he knew ‘secrets’ about how women in the party got tickets and that if VM Sudheeran filed a case against him, he’ll have to take a polygraph and the secrets will come tumbling out.

His remarks on Facebook come after a ‘shirtless’ protest undertaken by some Congress activists in Thrissur recently. The protest was against tickets denied to them for the local body polls to be held in November. Philip stated that this was a new model of protest that should be followed by people. He added on his Facebook post that this is similar to the protest carried out by women earlier in order to get tickets.

In another Facebook post, Philip added that he had nothing to hide and was willing to reveal the truth, but that it would mean Congress leaders in the state would get exposed. CPI-M Rajya Sabha MP and AIDWA leader TN Seema have asked Philip to withdraw the comments and apologise.

Philip is a former close aide of senior Congress leader AK Antony. In 2001, he was denied a ticket for the assembly elections and quit the party in revolt.

The political firestorm in the wake of rape of two minors in the national capital intensified on Sunday with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stepping up attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he will not let him sleep “peacefully” if “jungle raj prevails”.

After a meeting with Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, Kejriwal lambasted the Centre and Delhi Police, asserting that he will not remain silent on the issue of women’s security even as investigators claimed to have cracked the case of rape of a two-and-half year old child with arrest of two juveniles. “We will not allow the Prime Minister to sleep peacefully if women in Delhi do not get proper safety and the present trend of rapes continues. That is guaranteed,” Kejriwal said.

Claiming that “jungle raj” was prevailing in the capital, Kejriwal urged Modi not to remain “stubborn” and hand over law and order control to city government for at least one year, a demand he had made yesterday as well. “The Prime Minister must understand that I am not (previous Chief Minister) Sheila Dikshit. I will not remain silent,” he said. Dikshit had yesterday accused Kejriwal of indulging in blame game. Without giving details, the Chief Minister said his government was exploring all options to ensure safety of women and improve overall law and order situation. Sources said Delhi Government was contemplating approaching the Supreme Court “to fix accountability” of the Delhi Police.

Also read- Delhi Child Rape: BS Bassi hits back at CM Arvind Kejriwal over ‘jungle raj’ remarks

Responding to Kejriwal’s jungle raj comment, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi said “these type of remarks should not be given much importance as they are made keeping political positioning in mind. There is no jungle raj in Delhi.” In the meeting with Jung, Kejriwal submitted figures of crime against women in the last four years and cases of missing children and requested him to take urgent measures to improve the law and order situation. Kejriwal has called a cabinet meeting tomorrow to discuss the law and order situation.

A two-and-half-year-old girl and another five-year-old were brutally raped in the capital on Friday, barely a week after a sexual assault of a minor, triggering widespread outrage and a political slugfest. “We met the L-G along with last four years’ record on crime cases. Around 31,000 cases of crime against women were recorded. Out of these, chargesheets were filed in only 13,000 cases. In 18,000 cases, there was no charge sheet. Only 146 people were punished overall. So you can see how safe our women are,” the Chief Minister said.

BJP attacked Kejriwal over his jungle raj comments, saying his outburst on the city’s security scenario was a mere “political skulduggery”.

In the 45-minute-long meeting which was attended by several top officials, Kejriwal questioned the “control” over police, emphasising that they must be made accountable. Jung on the other hand assured the Chief Minister that all possible measures will be taken to improve security of women in the city. “There is absolutely no democratic control over Delhi Police which is very dangerous for a democratic country,” Kejriwal said, adding the law and order situation will see significant improvement if police was handed over to Delhi Government.

Kejriwal said that people of Delhi are “very angry” over the rapes and that there was a sense of insecurity among them. “Rapists know that they commit crime and get away with it,” he said.

Meanwhile, investigators said two juveniles have been apprehended in connection with the rape of the toddler at west Delhi’s Nihal Vihar area. Both the accused, aged around 17 years, live in the same neighbourhood and were known to the girl’s family, police said.

On Friday night, they took advantage of powercut in the area and allegedly abducted the girl, after which at least one of them raped her, a police official said. “More than 15 teams were formed in this case and around 250 locals were questioned throughout the night, after which the police zeroed in on a few and later the accused juveniles were apprehended,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Dependra Pathak. In the second incident, a five-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped by a co-tenant and two of his associates at a slum cluster in east Delhi’s Anand Vihar area last evening.

The girl’s parents are labourers and she was alone at home when the accused lured her to their accommodation just above the victim’s house. As the incident came to light, the neighbours thrashed the three and handed them over to police. The accused have been identified as Prakash, Rewati and Sitaram.

Both the girls suffered severe injuries and are recovering in separate hospitals. The two rape incidents came a week after brutal rape of a four year-old girl in north west Delhi’s Keshavpuram area.

As the second phase of Bihar polls was underway, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday anticipated a victory for Nitish Kumar and claimed that the BJP, led by Narendra Modi, was all set to “badly” lose the elections.

The AAP convenor said that incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will get another shot at power. Kejriwal has openly endorsed Kumar’s candidature.

“As per my information, Modiji is losing Bihar elections badly. Nitishji is winning the polls,” Kejriwal tweeted.

Kejriwal had extended full support to his Bihar counterpart’s candidature at a conclave organised by the Delhi government in the capital in August.

However, he did not campaign for the JD(U) in the ongoing polls.

Making common cause against Modi, the duo also attacked him for announcing a Rs 1.25 lakh crore package for the election-bound state.

AAP has had to walk a tightrope in supporting Nitish as his party JD(U) is part of a grand alliance of which Lalu Prasad-led RJD is also a part.

Naing/EPA
Oliver Holmes in Bangkok and Jason Burke in Delhi
Wednesday 7 October 2015 10.41 BST Last modified on Sunday 11 October 2015 12.27 BST
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Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s opposition leader, has said she plans to lead the country if her party triumphs in forthcoming parliamentary elections despite a ban on her serving as president, indicating there will be a fierce post-poll battle with the country’s entrenched military rulers.

Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), is expected to win the polls, but Aung San Suu Kyi, who received the Nobel peace prize in 1991, is barred from the presidency due to a constitutional provision that excludes those with foreign children from the office.

Her late husband was British and she has two British sons and the clause was specifically aimed at denying her the post.

“If the NLD wins the elections and we form a government, I am going to be the leader of that government whether or not I am the president. Why not?” she said in an interview with prominent Indian journalist Karan Thapar to be broadcast by the India Today TV network on wednesday. “Do you have to be president in order to lead a country?”

Aung San Suu Kyi said “the constitution will have to change to allow civilian authorities to have the necessary democratic authority over the armed forces” – a direct challenge to the powerful military.
“I am sure they won’t like it. I don’t expect them to like it,” she said. “But I do believe there are many members of the army who want what is best for the country and if we can agree with one another what would be best for the country then we can come to the arrangement.”

The 8 November election is for seats in both houses of parliament for five-year terms. About 30 million people are eligible to vote, and 90 parties are contesting it. The military, however, is guaranteed a quarter of the seats under the constitution it drafted.

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A president will not be chosen until early 2016 after elected MPs have nominated two candidates. MPs appointed by the military nominate a third candidate, and then all parliamentarians vote to determine who becomes president.

As a quarter of seats in parliament are reserved for the army, the NLD will have to win 67% of the vote for a majority.

It is unclear if during that transition period the parliament would be able to amend the constitution to allow her to be nominated as president or to change the system of government. Parliament failed in June to amend the clause.

“You wait and see and hope I win the elections 100% to see what I have in my mind,” she said.

The hour-long interview with Thapar was the first Aung San Suu Kyi has given since August. That it was granted to an Indian network is an indication of how important the emerging south Asian power is to her and the senior leadership of the NLD, even though Delhi failed to support her and other pro-democracy campaigners.

Formerly known as Burma, Myanmar emerged from international pariah status when a semi-civilian government took power four years ago following decades of military rule.

However, the ruling Union Solidarity and Development party is in effect a political extension of the military and the NLD and activists have criticised widespread economic reforms pushed through while, despite some releases, many political prisoners remain in jail and the media is strictly controlled.

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“They have been cracking down on the press since about a year ago, and there are a few journals and news weeklies that are bravely carrying on the fight but a lot of our media are learning to self-censor to a certain extent,” Aung San Suu Kyi said on Wednesday.

The politician also expressed concerns about the electoral roll and the political sympathies of the election commissioner, the senior official overseeing the poll.

The army regime have a history of tough action when their power is threatened. A landslide victory by the NLD in the 1990 general elections was ignored by the junta. Aung San Suu Kyi, now 70, spent 15 years since then under house arrest.

In August, the military dismissed parliament speaker Shwe Mann, a rare member of the establishment who was also an ally of Aung San Suu Kyi, from his post.

Aung San Suu Kyi, known locally as “the Lady”, has asked the world to keep its eye on the country after the elections.

She rejected recent criticism that she has not been sufficiently outspoken against sectarian violence in her country, particularly attacks on the Rohingya Muslim minority in the west of the country.

She said she was restricted by laws against mixing religion and politics but expressed concern about rising religious intolerance in Myanmar.

There has also been criticism of her dominance of the pro-democracy movement in her country, and doubts over her ability to make compromises or deals some say are necessary in day to day politics as a leader.

“I have always been a pragmatic politician,” she said. “I have always said I don’t like to be called an icon, because icons do nothing except sit on the wall. And I have had to work very hard.”

Darjeeling, Oct. 7: Bimal Gurung today said he would propose to the Centre that the Darjeeling hills be merged with Sikkim if forming the Gorkhaland state was difficult.

It is the first time that Gurung has proposed a merger.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief who said they “have to separate from Bengal”, added that he would continue to fight for Gorkhaland and undertake a march to cover 9,000km starting tomorrow.

At a programme to mark the ninth foundation day of the Morcha in Motor Stand here today, Gurung said: “On October 3, I had a talk with a BJP leader and he told me that the NDA did not have a majority in Rajya Sabha now. But once they get a majority, they are thinking of settling the issues of not just this region but also three-four places like Vidarbha. I am proposing that if creating a separate state of Gorkhaland is difficult, you should merge Darjeeling with Sikkim.”

He said: “Anyhow, we have to separate from Bengal. I am proposing that if separating from Bengal can be achieved by merging Darjeeling with Sikkim, the issue would have to be looked into. I will talk to the Centre. Historically, too, Darjeeling was part of Sikkim.”

Darjeeling was gifted to the British by the Rajah of Sikkim after he executed the Deed of Grant on February 1, 1835.

In Darjeeling, Gorkha Rashtriya Congress and Darjeeling-Sikkim Ekikaran Manch have been advocating the merger. In Sikkim, however, most parties are opposed to the idea. On several occasions, Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling has said the people of the state are happy and content with the present contours.

Asked if he had spoken to Chamling about the issue, Gurung said: “No, I have never spoken to him. If the need arises, I will speak.”

Gurung, who started a padayatra from Kalimpong on October 2, said: “I will undertake a march of 9,000km from tomorrow. I will not enter my house till I complete it. The march is for Gorkhaland and also to defeat her (Mamata) mission of dividing the hills. Each day, I plan to cover 25km and it will take nearly 400 days to complete the march.” He announced a relay hunger strike in Delhi from December 7 to 19. “We will also organise a rally in Delhi on December 17, 18 and 19, which will be attended by 50,000 to 60,000 supporters.”

Today, during most part of his nearly 45-minute speech, Gurung criticised Mamata Banerjee. “Mamata Banerjee always says in Darjeeling that Kanchenjungha is smiling but you never see our hearts crying. Our heart will smile only when we are separated from Bengal.”

A day after Rajdeep Sardesai wrote an open letter to Aaditya Thackeray condemning the smearing of ink on Sudheendra Kulkarni and the young Sena leader replied promptly , the eminent journalist has written another open letter in reply.

Sardesai, in his letter, has tried to puncture the arguments given by Aaditya Thackeray. He asks why Sena didn’t withdraw support when Modi met Pak PM Nawaz Sharif in Ufa. He also points out that Sena didn’t utter a word when the book was being released in Delhi with BJP patriarch LK Advani in attendance. Sardesai asks if Sena’s protest is confined to Mumbai only.

Shiv Sena, on Monday, justified the ink smearing incident branding it ‘non-violent’ and ‘historic’. Sardesai attacked this definition saying it was nothing but brazen use of muscle power and termed it ‘undemocratic and unconstitutional’.

In the letter, Sardesai asked if the Sena is above the land of the law and whether they are a political party or local militia. According to Sardesai, Sena has always believed in justifying acts of violence and it has not changed cutting across generations.

He points out that Sena’s stand of holding each Pakistani guilty of terror is fundamentally flawed. Sardesai also rejects Aaditya’s hypothesis that boycotting Pakistan, as done to South Africa during its apartheid days, will help. Instead, he believes in creating global opinion against Pakistan sponsored terror.

He says while Sena in opposition periodically highlighted farmers issue, it lost considerable edge and focus while being in power. Sardesai believes Sena as a party is suffering from an image trap. He ends his letter saying that Sena should take cue from Aaditya’s books and try to focus on civil debates rather than resorting to hostility.

Days after the Aam Aadmi Party dissolved its Maharashtra unit, Subhash Ware, its former state convener, too resigned from the party.

“The reason for resigning was that the political affairs committee took the decision to dissolve the state unit. I did not oppose the decision but disagreed with it. However, on October 2 when they gave the reason that the party here was dysfunctional, that was total lie. There are thousands of volunteers who were working here,” Ware said.

Ware added that he will not be quitting the party and will be working for it. “I will continue to work for the party,” he said.

he decision, however, has not gone down well with all volunteers and in particular office bearers of the party.

“Till two months ago, both Pankaj Gupta and Ashutosh complimented us for doing a good job in the city with our unit. We understand that if there is some issue, they transfer or move out some people. But if they dissolve the entire unit all of a sudden, you do feel there is something wrong. The high command culture has crept into this party too. At the end of it, I am left with a feeling that whether I was an idiot to have left everything,” said Mayank Jain.

Others like Sundar Balakrishnan, another member of the party, said, “Actually, volunteers are annoyed and a little disturbed. They did not take us into confidence when they took this decision. The appointment of a fact-finding committee was not informed to us and when we got an intimation that something like this was cooking, we wanted to meet Arvind Kejriwal. But that meeting did not materialise.”

When contacted, Pankaj Gupta said, “We have to talk to Subhash Ware. I am out of Delhi and will be getting back to him later. With respect to people leaving their work and getting into it, we all have done that and we do not go on publicising it. There is a hierarchy to decide. It is not that people will not have roles. And this team was also nominated like the one which will be nominated now. These teams are to create teams till the booth level, which will then elect a state body. They were not supposed to be the owners of the team. It was like an amanat which they have to take care of. Once they would have formed a team, the state unit would have been made out of that.”

Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi faces arrest in connection with a case registered against him for allegedly making an inflammatory speech at an election rally in Bihar.

Following registration of an FIR against Akbaruddin on Monday at Kochadhaman Police Station in Kisanganj district, Kisanganj Superintendent of Police Rajiv Ranjan issued the arrest order against him.

Akbaruddin, younger brother of AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asauddin Owaisi, is an MLA of Telangana.

Asked about his reaction to the matter, Asauddin told reporters in Hyderabad that the matter will be tackled by the party’s legal team.

“The legal team of our party is trying to get the certified copy of FIR and it depends upon them.Whatever steps they will take accordingly..

“I don’t want to comment on what kind of language should or should not be used. 3000 people died in Gujarat and the then incumbent Chief Minister failed to do anything. Nobody can forget that,” he said.

Owaisi said as the FIR has been filed, the legal team would tackle the matter.

Asked if Bihar Police would go to Hyderabad to arrest Akbaruddin or wait for his arrival at Kisanganj, the SP told PTI “These are operational details which I cannot share.” The FIR was lodged against AIMIM leader for violation of provisions of section 144 of Crpc and under sections 153 A and 188 of IPC.

Section 153A deals with promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, while section 188 deals with disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant.

Akbaruddin had addressed an election meeting at Sontha Haat under Kochadhaman Assembly constituency on Sunday Akbaruddin had allegedly used abusive language against all MPs except his elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi. He also allegedly made provocative remarks against BJP leaders.

The AIMIM Legislator was booked in the wake of tension in the town after damage to idols in two temples were found on October 5 morning.

The SP had said that the police would probe whether damage to idols at two temples in the town was a fallout of his speech.

According to various media reports, leaders from BJP, VHP and RSS are involved in what can be best described as the fight against Love Jihad.

For the uninitiated, the term Love Jihad is used to describe the act of a Muslim man wooing young Hindu girls and then converting them to Islam.

According to India Today, BJP MLA Suresh Rana has admitted that he had fabricated rape charges against Muslim boys to teach them lesson for marrying Hindu girls. A Cobrapost sting suggested that that while the inter-faith marriage was consensual, the Muslim boys were charged with rape to teach them a lesson.

According to a post on Youth Ki Awaaz, Suresh Rana said: “Now I will tell you the truth. We charged them with rape, but it wasn’t rape, it was consensual. We slapped a rape case against them to teach them a lesson. The girl wasn’t ready to give a statement against them. If you look at the case in depth, the girl was willing. Three people didn’t take her away by force… Girls are girls…it has been said about them that they will change according to circumstances in five minutes…when she was slapped and coerced, she wrote the FIR (that we wanted).”What do you think?”

Another BJP leader embroiled in this scandal is current Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan who was in the news on Tuesday for announcing that labs would set up at ports to check illegal cow-meat export.

Balyan was quoted saying by The Wire: “In the beginning, (Muslim) boys would roam around on motorcycles in front of schools and Plus Two Colleges using Hindu names like Sonu, Monu, with a kalawa (sacred thread) tied around their wrists, pretending to be Hindus. A girl who falls in this trap would come to know only later, after eloping with the boy, that she is not with a Hindu. There have been a lot of such cases.”

Another BJP leader, Sangeet Som who was booked for making inflammatory remarks about the Dadri lynching, explained how they persuade Hindu girls who have married Muslim men to return to their parents: “We make her see the reason that this is not good for her. We tell her that they are Muslims, they never settle for one woman, whereas a Hindu boy will be automatically sent to jail if he does so. Most importantly, we exert on her emotionally that her mother will die, her father will die and brother might even commit suicide as he would not be able to face the society.”

You can check out the whole Cobrapost report here.