A day after an FIR was registered against AAP MLA Somnath Bharti over a complaint of domestic violence and attempt to murder, his wife Lipika Mitra on Friday said that although she was “not happy with the development”, she had to do “all this” to come out of the alleged abuse.

Accompanied by former DCW chairperson Barkha Shukla Singh, Lipika on Friday met Senior Special Commissioner of Police Deepak Mishra (Law and Order) at Delhi Police Headquarters. The purpose of the meeting, she said, was to thank the police for taking action on her complaint. However, she remarked after the meeting that she was “very sad with whatever is happening”.

What am I achieving ultimately; I will lose my husband, my children will lose their father. I am not happy with the development, but had to do all this to come out of the abuse,” Lipika said. “Even though it has taken three months for them to file an FIR, they have now done the needful. My husband is a powerful man and has the backing of the chief minister. But for the CM, Lipika Mitra doesn’t exist. So, I have come to express my gratitude to them (Delhi Police),” Lipika said, adding that police officials have assured her that they will hold a speedy probe.

Asked to comment on the attempt to murder charge in the FIR, Lipika said, “He (Bharti) had tried to strangulate me when I was pregnant. These are facts, and I have given enough evidence to police.”
The FIR was registered yesterday at Dwarka North police station under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 498(a)(cruelty towards partner in marriage), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC, Joint Commissioner of Police (South-West) Dependra Pathak had said.

Delhi Police had sent a notice last night to Bharti asking him to come for questioning today to Dwarka North police station. Following the registration of the FIR, a Delhi court had yesterday recorded the statement of Lipika before Metropolitan Magistrate Manu Goel Kharb in-chamber under Section 164 of CrPC.

The EU executive has announced a drive aimed at radically overhauling Europe’s dysfunctional and fragmented immigration policies.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, urged a common regime of EU border guards, the opening of legal channels to coordinate arrivals to Europe, as well as binding and permanent systems for absorbing the influx of refugees fairly across the continent.

In a major address to the European parliament in Strasbourg, Juncker called for root-and-branch reform of disparate immigration policies in the EU. He complained that national governments were failing to observe agreements on asylum procedures, and warned that several countries could be sanctioned.

“I don’t want to get despondent, but Europe is not in good shape,” Juncker said, concentrating his first and lengthy ‘state of the union’ speech on the EU’s biggest postwar migration emergency.
Advertisement

Accusing national governments reluctant to take in refugees of historical amnesia, he listed Europe’s long record of helping refugees fleeing and persecution, from the Huguenots in 17th-century France to the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, to emphasise that the Geneva conventions established in 1951 to regulate refugee treatment were aimed at helping Europeans crushed in the fallout of the second world war.

“Today it is Europe that is sought as a place of refuge and exile. It is Europe today that represents a beacon of hope, a haven of stability in the eyes of women and men in the Middle East and in Africa. That is something to be proud of and not something to fear.”

Juncker confirmed that Brussels was asking national governments to agree to distribute 160,000 refugees currently in Italy, Greece and Hungary. This had to be on a binding and not a voluntary basis. “It has to be done and it will be done,” he said.
Refugee crisis: what can you do to help?
Read more

Additionally, he proposed a permanent new system of sharing refugees in case of crisis. He also called for the creation of a European force of border and coastguards to patrol and police the external frontiers of the passport-free Schengen travel zone embracing 26 countries.

Juncker announced that the commission was drafting policies on how to open up legal channels to allow people seeking to get to Europe by highly hazardous routes to do so much more safely. “We have the means to help those fleeing from war, terror and oppression,” he said. “Migration must change from a problem to be tackled to a well managed resource.”

The blueprint unveiled by Juncker sets the scene for a potentially ugly confrontation on Monday in Brussels, when interior ministers from the 28 countries meet to discuss the compulsory refugee quotas demanded by the EU and supported strongly by Germany, France and Italy but vehemently rejected by the younger EU members of central Europe. They remain intensely reluctant to bow to a system of imposed quotas.
Advertisement

Juncker pointedly remarked that today’s wave of immigration from the Middle East and Africa could be tomorrow’s influx from a war-ravaged Ukraine, the message being that the eastern Europeans on the frontline would then demand help from western Europe.

The east Europeans responded robustly to Juncker’s demands. The Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, dismissed the quotas as a non-starter. “We won’t bow down to Germany and France,” he said. “Quotas are irrational.”

The Czech Republic’s Europe minister, Tomas Prouza, described the quotas idea as “nonsensical.”

Beata Szydlo, on Poland’s nationalist right and tipped to become prime minister following elections next month, complained that Warsaw was under pressure from Brussels to accede to a new quotas system. “The Polish government should definitely not yield to this pressure,” she said.

In Berlin, Angela Merkel offered vocal support for Juncker, arguing that the commission proposals did not go far enough. “Generally we need a binding agreement on a binding distribution of refugees between all member states based on fair criteria,” the German chancellor told the Bundestag.

Juncker’s figure of 160,000 was only a first step, she added. Receiving refugees was a European responsibility, but there was no point in putting a ceiling on the numbers to be shared.

Germany and others receiving the lion’s share of refugees are warning that national border controls within the Schengen area could be re-established if countries continue to veto equitable sharing of the new arrivals.

Juncker stressed that the Schengen zone would not be sacrificed while he remained in charge of the commission. Speaking of “common” and “united” refugee and asylum policies, he said they had to “be permanently anchored in our policy approach and our rules”.

“We will propose ambitious steps towards a European border and coastguard before the end of the year,” he said. “The commission will come forward with a well-designed legal migration package in early 2016.”

The proposed overhaul aimed at establishing a new uniform EU asylum and refugee regime, which will be extremely difficult to achieve given national sensitivities and the prominence of immigration issues in national politics across Europe, is unlikely to affect Britain.

The UK is not part of the Schengen zone and will be unaffected by a common European border guard system. It also enjoys special status allowing it to choose whether to take part in common asylum policies and has already declared it will have no part of any refugee-sharing quotas system.

However a cross-party group of 14 British MEPs have written a letter to David Cameron urging him to listen to the views of European experts on the issue of relocation and to take part in Juncker’s proposed scheme.

The Liberal Democrats’ only MEP, Catherine Bearder, said the UK’s European partners were exasperated by the UK prime minister’s “stubborn refusal to take part in a collective European response to this crisis”.

“By refusing to take a single refugee that has arrived on Europe’s shores, the UK government is shirking our international duty and lowering Britain’s standing in the world,” she said. “Of course we must do more to tackle the causes of the refugee crisis at source, but we cannot turn a blind eye to the human tragedy unfolding right now on our continent.”

Glenis Willmott MEP, Labour’s leader in the European parliament, said: “The prime minister should be leading efforts for a common EU plan for relocation and resettlement of refugees – not acting in isolation, weeks after Germany and other countries have taken the lead.”
Advertisement

A spokeswoman for Cameron said Juncker’s speech covered “the importance of a fair deal for Britain”.

“The point I’d make is that the UK is already playing its part and – in terms of a financial contribution to tackling the refugee crisis from Syria – we are the leading donor nation on that,” she said.

“In terms of any relocation, we have already been clear on our position, which is that we are not bound by it and we are going to focus our efforts on resettlement.”

The biggest speech of Juncker’s 10 months as head of the commission came close on the heels of family bereavement. His mother died last Sunday, since when his father has been taken into hospital.

In a plea for European generosity towards the 500,000 he said had entered the EU this year, Juncker said: “Europe is the baker in Kos who gives away his bread to hungry and weary souls. Europe is the students in Munich and in Passau who bring clothes for the new arrivals at the train station. Europe is the policeman in Austria who welcomes exhausted refugees upon crossing the border. This is the Europe I want to live in.”

NEW DELHI: A three-member Hurriyat delegation from the hardline Syed Geelani faction met the Pakistan high commissioner, Abdul Basit, Tuesday. The delegation also handed over a letter from Geelani to Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif.

This was the first meeting between the Pakistan envoy and Hurriyat leaders since the collapse of NSA dialogue last month.

“We handed over Geelani sahab’s letter for PM Sharif to the officials at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi,” Ayaz Akbar, spokesperson for the Hurriyat Conference, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Geelani’s top aides — Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah and Altaf Ahmad — met Basit at his office and stayed for more than an hour.

“The letter is confidential but highly important,” Akbar told a news agency.

“Officials at the high commission assured us that the letter will be dispatched to the Pakistan prime minister on Wednesday,” Akbar said.

?While India and Pakistan had agreed to a meeting between Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz and his counterpart Ajit Doval on August 24, the dialogue couldn’t took place after Pakistan backed out citing India’s “preconditions” – that Aziz not meet Hurriyat leaders before the talks and that agenda be restricted to terror. Geelani himself was scheduled to meet Aziz hours before the NSA talks on August 24.

New York, Aug 26 (PTI) An appeals court here has affirmed a district judge’s order to dismiss a human rights violation lawsuit?filed?against Congress president Sonia Gandhi by a Sikh group in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, ruling that the petition lacked merit.

The three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that it found the arguments presented by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) in its case against Gandhi “without merit”.

The bench of Circuit Judges Jose Cabranes, Renna Raggi and Richard Wesley affirmed the district court’s order of June 9, 2014 in which the judge had dismissed the human rights violation lawsuit?filed by SFJ?against Gandhi.

US District Judge Brian Cogan had granted Gandhi’s motion to dismiss the complaint due to “lack of subject matter jurisdiction” and failure to state a claim.

“Upon due consideration…, it is hereby ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the judgement of the District Court is affirmed,” the three-judge bench said in its order issued here yesterday.

Gandhi’s lawyer eminent Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra termed the appeals court ruling as “historic” and said the judges have upheld a nation’s sovereignty by declared Gandhi free of any fault – despite SFJ’s “reprehensible defamatory efforts”.

Batra told PTI in a statement that SFJ should “publically apologise” to Gandhi and to every leader it has sued without just cause or any legal right or standing to do so, and state that it will no longer hurt genuine victims of 1984 by selling false hope that only re-victimises them.

“SFJ making false, reprehensible and defamatory allegations against India’s leaders is the wrong recipe,” he added.

SFJ legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said the group will file a petition for a “rehearing en banc” with the appeals court challenge the order?within 14 days of the order.

SFJ had filed a lawsuit in 2013 against Gandhi accusing her of allegedly shielding and protecting Congress party leaders in the anti-Sikh riots that had erupted following the assassination of former Prime Minister and her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi.

Mamata Announces Bhutia Development Board – “No More Boards” She Says

After the formation of separate development boards for the Lepcha, Sherpa and Tamang communities, chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced the formation of a separate development board for the Bhutia community as well.

She further announced during the Clean and Green Darjeeling programme held at Chowrastha today that Rs.5 crore will be provided for the Bhutia Development Board.

“Initially I had formed development boards for the Lepcha, Sherpa and Tamang communities, now I have formed a development board for the Bhutia community as well,” Banerjee said, adding, “They have been living here since a long time. With regard to the other communities, we have incorporated them in the Tamang board. Everyone will work united. After all everyone lives in the hills.”

It may be mentioned that during her last visit to Darjeeling, the Mangar community of the hills had also submitted a memorandum demanding the creation of a separate development board for the Mangar community. All India Bhutia Association (AIBA) had been demanding the formation of a separate development board for the Bhutia community for the past three years. “Denzongpa, Drukpa, Singsapa, Toto, Khampa, Yolmo and Tibetan ethnic groups fall under the Bhutia community. We are very happy and we welcome the decision of the chief minister,” said Palden Bhutia, president of AIBA.

However, when asked GTA executive member and Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha (GJMM) general secretary Roshan Giri regarding the formation of the new development board, he preferred not to answer.

Meanwhile, Banerjee announced that the state government will sanction a sum of Rs.500 crore for the ‘Clean and Green Darjeeling’ project. She added that every development board will have to construct 5000 toilets.

The chief minister said that Nadia district has been number one in implementing the Nirmal Bangla Abhiyan. “I have chosen Darjeeling, and I want Darjeeling to be number one. My dream is sky high for the people of Darjeeling.”

GTA and GJMM chief Bimal Gurung also attended the programme.

Darjeeling, Aug. 20: Bimal Gurung today said fighting with the state government over the Gorkhaland demand was a “mistake” as a separate state can be achieved only through the Centre.

While addressing a programme organised by the Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha to celebrate Bhasa Divas, Gurung said: “We were fighting with the Bengal government and this was a mistake because even if Bengal wants, it cannot give Gorkhaland. Statehood can be given only by the Centre and I am 110 per cent confident that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will live up to his words.”

At a public meeting in Siliguri on April 10, Modi had said; “The dream of the Gorkhas is my dream.”

Gurung also spoke about the need to maintain peace in the hills. “There must be peace in the hills. Our party, since its inception (in 2007), has always talked about the need for peace. There was lot of bloodshed in Nagaland, but ultimately, they had to come to the negotiating table,” he said.

During the last phase of agitation in 2013, nearly 1,000 Morcha supporters were arrested, including senior leaders.

“Right now, tourists are coming to Darjeeling hills. Funds are also flowing to the GTA. The GTA is a test of our administrative ability and very soon, we will be administering a state,” Gurung said at the Gorkha Rangamanch Bhavan.

The Morcha chief, who had famously said that Gorkhaland would be created by March 10, 2010, today said: “… we have not lost hope and we will not do anything that will go against our community.”

Gurung said he will meet Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling in Gangtok tomorrow and not on August 23. Sources said Chamling is scheduled to leave for Delhi tomorrow.

Gurung will meet Chamling to drum up support for the inclusion of 10 Gorkha communities in the ST list.

Morcha aid

Gurung, the chief executive of GTA, today handed over cheques of Rs 2 lakh to each of the next of kin of the 34 people who died in the June landslides. The GTA has decided to give additional help of Rs 50,000 each to Vivek Rai, a Class VI student from Kalimpong, and Selushna Thapa, a first-year student from Mirik, who lost their parents in the landslides.

Ruling BJP on Thursday suffered a setback in Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s pocket-borough of Dholpur and Jhalawar where it was defeated in the civic polls, though the party emerged ahead in around 60 municipal bodies out of 129 in Rajasthan.

Congress, which was routed in the Lok Sabha elections last year, has made significant gains attaining or nearing majority in around 40 bodies and was neck and neck with BJP in 17 bodies. In seven civic bodies, Independents were holding sway.

While BJP won 1,416 wards of the 3,300 whose results were declared so far, Congress bagged 1,146 wards.

Congress won majority in two civic bodies in Jhalawar district represented by Chief Minister Raje in Assembly and her son Dushyant Singh in Lok Sabha, while BJP won three. In Dholpur, Congress secured majority in all three civic bodies of Badi, Dholpur and Rajakhera. Raje belongs to the erstwhile royal family of Dholpur. BJP also lost majority in Baran district’s two civic bodies which falls in Parliamentary constituency of Dushyant Singh.

Calling the results as a “vote of no confidence” against BJP Government in Rajasthan, Congress state unit president Sachin Pilot said the vote difference between BJP and Congress has reduced to 1 per cent from 26 per cent in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. “Congress won in the home turf of chief minister who is facing corruption charges. Voters have understood and are looking at Congress with hope,” Pilot said at a press conference here.
Results for 3,300 wards of total 3,351 have been announced so far, a spokesman of State Election Commission (RSEC) said here.

Independent candidates won 697 wards whereas NCP, BSP, CPI and CPI(M) got 19, 16, 5 and one seats respectively.

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday extended full support to his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar’s bid for another shot at power as the two leaders attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for announcing a Rs 1.25 lakh crore package for the election-bound state.

Sharing a public platform for the first time, the two also made a common cause over special category status for Bihar and full statehood for Delhi.

Kejriwal also agreed to visit Bihar at Kumar’s invitation, hailing him for his “committment” to fighting corruption when the two Chief Ministers came together at a function to give away awards to people of Bihar and Poorvanchal (eastern Uttar Pradesh) living in Delhi, who have made significant contributions in various fields.

tate to ensure the victory of Kumar’s party JD(U) in the assembly elections in the same manner in which they helped catapult his own party to power in Delhi where it won 67 of the 70 assembly seats.

Attacking the Prime Minister over his announcement of a whopping Rs 1.25 lakh crore package for Bihar, both questioned whether Modi was trying to “buy out” Bihari voters and accused him of “insulting” them.

Citing a number of poll promises made by Modi in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, Kejriwal asked how will people of Bihar believe he will give the state so much money.

“Modi should tell whether he will give this money after winning the polls or losing it. He is not going to give either way. Not to speak of Rs 1.25 lakh crore, he will not give them even Rs 1.25,” Kejriwal said.

Kumar took serious exception to the manner in which Modi made the announcement and wondered whether he thought Bihar was being put to “auction”.

New Delhi, Aug 16 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi today wished Arvind Kejriwal on his birthday and the Delhi Chief Minister immediately responded with thanks and desired to meet him to discuss the situation in the national capital.

“Spoke to Delhi CM Shri @ArvindKejriwal & wished him on his birthday. My prayers for his long life and good health,” the Prime Minister tweeted.

The Chief Minister thanked the Prime Minister for the wishes.

“@narendramodi Thank u so much sir for your wishes. I am touched. I look forward to meeting u soon to brief u on Delhi’s situation,” Kejriwal said.

The exchange came amid a standoff between the Centre and Delhi government over struggle of power in the national capital and other issues.

New Delhi, Aug 12 (PTI) In a spirited fight back, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today tore into Congress, saying it had helped Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi and Bhopal gas leak accused Warren Anderson flee from India and roped in Rajiv Gandhi in this regard.

Making a statement in Lok Sabha, she specifically responded to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s charge that she had got money to help Lalit Modi by telling him to ask his “mamma” as to “how much money had been taken from Quattrocchi” and “why did ‘daddy’ (Rajiv Gandhi) get released the killer of 15,000 people (in Bhopal gas leak),” an apparent reference to Anderson.

Swaraj, who has been battling demands for her resignation over alleged ‘quid pro quo’ in relation to Lalit Modi, said, “this is called quid pro quo… Rahul should ask (his mother), why they did the quid pro quo” with regard to Quattrocchi and Anderson.

While she spoke amid slogan-shouting by Congress members, Sonia Gandhi was seen listening to the speech in rapt attention using headphone.

Swaraj also targeted former Union Minister P Chidambaram, saying he had failed to bring back Lalit Modi from United Kingdom as he did not try for his extradition as suggested by the host government and confined his requests to deportation.

“For four years, you (Congress government) did nothing.

You remained inactive. There was no effort for extradition.

You are asking me how he (Lalit Modi) got right of residency (in UK). He got it during your time. Whatever happened, it was during your tenure,” she told the Congress. .