National News

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday is expected to question and record the statement of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia as part of its money laundering probe into alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy, official sources said.

The federal probe agency also made a fresh arrest in this case as it took into custody Hyderabad-based liquor businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, they said.

Officials of the ED will reach the Tihar Jail around noon to record the statement of Sisodia under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI in this case last month and he is currently in judicial custody.

Pillai was taken into custody under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Monday evening following a long session of questioning.

The businessman, alleged to to have represented the ‘Soith Group’ of liquor traders in this case, is the 11th person to be arrested in the case by the ED.

He will be produced before a local court where the ED will seek his further custody for interrogation, they said.

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in an interaction at the Chatham House in London said that the basic idea behind the Chinese troops on the Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh borders is similar to what is happening in Ukraine, adding that he mentioned this to Foreign Minister S Jaishankar but he disagreed terming it a “ludicrous idea”.

He said, “In my view, the basic idea behind the troops in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh is similar to what is happening in Ukraine. I mentioned this to the Foreign Minister (S Jaishankar) but he completely disagrees with me and thinks it is a ludicrous idea.”

Comparing the Indian borders to that of Ukraine, the Congress leader said, “The basic principle that has been applied in Ukraine is that Russia has told Ukraine that we do not accept your relationship with Europe and America and if you do not change this relationship, we will challenge your territorial integrity.”

“I think this is what is happening on the borders of my country. China doesn’t want us to have a relationship with the US. It is threatening us by saying if you continue to have a relationship then we’ll take action. That is why they have got troops in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh,” Rahul Gandhi added.

LONDON: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) likes to believe it will be in power in India eternally but that is not the case, and to say the Congress is “gone” is a ridiculous idea, Opposition MP Rahul Gandhi said in London on Monday.

Addressing an in-conversation session at the Chatham House think tank on Monday evening to round off his week-long UK tour, Gandhi also pinpointed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s lack of focus on a shifting nature of the political discourse in India as the key factor behind its failure.

“To put it in perspective, if you look at the time from independence to now, the Congress party has been in power for the majority of the time,” he said.

“Before the BJP was in power for 10 years, we were in power for 10 years. The BJP likes to believe that they have come to power in India and they are going to be in power eternally, that is not the case,” the Congress leader added.

The BJP-led government came to power in India in 2014.

Gandhi, the MP from Kerala’s Wayanad, pointed to a set of changes taking place in India that had caught the Congress and the UPA government off guard, such as a shift from rural to urban.

“We were focusing a lot on the rural space and we missed the ball in the beginning on the urban space, that is a fact. Those things are there. But to say that the BJP is in power and the Congress gone, that is actually a ridiculous idea,” he said.

The BJP has accused Gandhi of maligning India on foreign soil while praising China.

Union minister Anurag Thakur hit out at the Congress leader on Monday for his remarks and asked him not to betray the nation.

“Don’t betray India, Rahul Gandhiji. The objections to India’s foreign policy are evidence of your scant understanding of the issue. No one will believe the lies you spread about India from foreign soil,” Thakur told reporters in New Delhi.

He alleged that Gandhi has resorted to “maligning India” from foreign soil as part of a conspiracy to hide his failures.

Panaji: Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said the government would push a bill in the Parliament session, which will resume on March 13, to repeal 65 more obsolete laws and other such provisions.
Addressing the 23rd Commonwealth Law Conference in Goa, the minister informed
that more than 4.98 crore cases are pending in various courts in India and the pendency would be handled using technology, with a “paperless judiciary” being the ultimate aim of the government.

“Today, in every part of our country, every citizen is a beneficiary of the welfare steps taken by the Government of India. As a welfare state, it is very important that we listen to every individual,” he said.
Rijiju said the Modi government has been at the forefront of taking various steps, especially in creating “ease of living” for common citizens. “Policies of the government regarding the ease of living are successful,” he said.
The law minister said the government believes that laws are for the people and if laws become obstacles and compliances become a burden on the lives of people, then such provisions must be done away with.

“In the last eight-and-a-half years, we have removed 1,486 obsolete and redundant laws. In the ongoing budget session, which will resume on March 13, I am going to push a bill to remove another 65 bills (laws) and other provisions that are obsolete,” he added.
Rijiju said the government wants a reduction in the pendency of the cases.
“More than 4 crore 98 lakh cases are pending in various courts of India. It is not easy to reduce the pendency simply because new cases are double the number of cases being disposed of. Indian Judges are working extraordinarily hard but it is becoming more challenging,” he added.
The minister said, in normal circumstances, a judge handles 50-60 cases a day on average. “Some judges have disposed of 200 cases in a day but the pendency of cases is on the rise”.

Rijiju said the government is using technology to handle this situation.
“We have started e-courts and special projects-phase III,.. our ultimate target is to make Indian Judiciary paperless,” he said, adding that the government is also exploring other dispute redressal mechanisms like arbitration and mediation.
“Very soon we will be able to push through Mediation Bill so that mediation and arbitration can be institutionalized in the country,” he added.
Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and others were present during the inauguration of the five-day conference on Monday.
Representatives from 52 countries are participating in the event.

ISLAMABAD — At least nine security personnel were killed and 13 others injured in a suicide attack near the truck of Balochistan Constabulary personnel on the Kambri bridge on the Quetta-Sibi highway in Balochistan province of Pakistan, media reports said on Monday.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Kachhi, Mehmood Notezai, according to the reports said that the preliminary evidence suggests it was a suicide attack. However, the exact nature of the blast could be ascertained after investigations.

He said that a bomb disposal team reached the site of the incident and the area is being searched after the explosion. At least nine personnel of the Balochistan Constabulary were killed and 13 were injured in the bomb attack in Bolan, he said.

The Balochistan Constabulary personnel were returning from duty in Sibi Mela when they were targeted. The truck overturned due to the intensity of the explosion, the report said.

The bodies and injured personnel were shifted to Sibi district where they were provided medical aid. The condition of some of the injured is reportedly critical.

The Balochistan Constabulary according to the report is a department of the provincial police force that provides security at important events and in sensitive areas, including jails.

NEW DELHI: Manish Sisodia, former Delhi deputy chief minister, was sent to 14-day judicial custody in the liquor policy case on Monday. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader has been in the CBI’s custody for a week following his arrest. Sisodia will be lodged in Tihar jail till March 20.

Sisodia was arrested in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22.

During the hearing, the CBI told the court that the agency is not seeking further custody right now, but will seek it in future as “the conduct of the accused person is not correct”.

“They are terrifying the witnesses. They are giving political colour to the proceedings,” the CBI told the court.

“I am being asked the same questions from morning to evening all day. It is mental harassment for me,” Sisodia had said soon after his CBI remand was extended for two more days on Saturday. He was produced before special judge MK Nagpal today on expiry of his 7-day custodial interrogation allowed by the court earlier.

The CBI has alleged that the former Delhi deputy chief minister was arrested as he gave evasive replies and did not cooperate with the investigation despite being confronted with evidence.

Meanwhile, Sisodia has also filed a bail application before a Delhi court, which will be taken up for hearing on March 10. The court has asked the CBI to file its reply.

In the bail plea, Sisodia said that keeping him in custody would serve no fruitful purpose as all the recoveries in the case have already been made.

NEW DELHI: Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Monday hit out at Rahul Gandhi for his remarks seeking intervention from the US and European nations over “disappearing” democracy in India and asked the Congress leader not to betray the nation.

“Don’t betray India, Rahul Gandhi ji. The objections to India’s foreign policy is an evidence of your scant understanding of the issue. No one will believe the lies you spread about India from foreign soil,” Thakur told reporters here.

Speaking at a function in London, Gandhi alleged that the structures of Indian democracy were under “brutal attack” and regretted that democratic parts of the world, including the US and Europe, have failed to notice it.

“His party had done it earlier, when it took local issues to the United Nations, and now to ask other countries to intervene in India. They have not yet come out of the thought of slavery,” the Information and Broadcasting Minister said.

Thakur said Gandhi has resorted to “maligning India” from foreign soil as part of a conspiracy to hide his failures.

“Rahul Gandhi has become a storm of controversies. Be it foreign agencies, foreign channels or be it foreign soil. He does not lose a single opportunity to malign India,” Thakur said.

“His language, his thoughts, his style of functioning. Everything is suspect. This is not the first time, he has done it time and again. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, he raised questions on India’s vaccines,” Thakur said.

The former Congress president also raised questions on the armed forces when the Chinese tried to encroach Indian territory. He, indeed, met officials from China, Thakur charged.

“When our soldiers were martyred, he said they were killed by a car bomb. Is this the manner in which Rahul Gandhi thinks about the armed forces? Sometimes to malign our soldiers, he says they were slapped. What all he says,” Thakur said.

The senior BJP leader said the Congress can be so weak but India is not. “Why should he ask the US to intervene? I would only say that India’s democracy is strong, people are strong and the armed forces too are strong. India has a leadership that is strong and farsighted and world leaders have said they believe in India and they trust Modi,” the minister said.

He said Gandhi was out on bail in a corruption case and has “lost trust in constitutional bodies”.

NEW DELHI : Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that life-savers like medicines, vaccines and medical devices were weaponised during the COVID-19 pandemic, and asserted that his government has been consistently trying to minimise India’s dependence on foreign countries in the health sector.
Addressing a post-budget webinar on ‘Health and Medical Research’, Modi said India’s health sector was marred by a lack of integrated approach and long-term vision for decades but his government has not confined it to the health ministry alone and has dealt with it with the “whole of government” outlook.
Our entrepreneurs should ensure India doesn’t have to import any technology and becomes self-reliant, he said, highlighting various measures taken by his government to boost entrepreneurship in the field.
The prime minister said making treatment affordable has been a top priority, adding that the ‘Ayushman Bharat’, a government health insurance scheme, and ‘Jan Aushadhi’ centres, where medicines are sold at cheaper rates, have saved citizens Rs 80,000 crore and Rs 20,000 crore respectively.
The country’s pharma sector earned global confidence during the pandemic, Modi said, urging the sector to build and capitalise on the trust.
The health sector should be seen with a pre-Covid and post-Covid dividing line, he said, noting that the pandemic showed that even developed systems of prosperous countries are destroyed during such a crisis.
His government is not focusing on health care alone but overall wellness of citizens, he said.
Now critical health care infrastructure is being taken to tier 2 cities and smaller habitations, leading to the development of a health ecosystem there, he said.
The government is also focussing on ensuring that people get treatment, including testing facilities, near their homes, he added. (Agencies)

NEW DELHI — Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan on Sunday said that India is “dangerously close” to the Hindu rate of growth in view of subdued private sector investment, high interest rates and slowing global growth, PTI reported.

The “Hindu rate of growth” is a term describing low Indian economic growth rates from the 1950s to the 1980s, which averaged around 4%. The term was coined by Raj Krishna, an Indian economist, in 1978 to describe the slow growth.

According to the report, Rajan expressed worry over the slowdown in the quarterly growth, as revealed by the latest estimate of national income released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter (October-December) of the current fiscal slowed to 4.4% from 6.3% in the second quarter (July-September) and 13.2% in the first quarter (April-June).

The growth in the third quarter of the previous financial year was 5.2%.

“Of course, the optimists will point to the upward revisions in past GDP numbers, but I am worried about the sequential slowdown. With the private sector unwilling to invest, the RBI still hiking rates, and global growth likely to slow later in the year, I am not sure where we find additional growth momentum,” Mr. Rajan said in an email interview to PTI.

On Indian growth in fiscal 2023-24, Rajan said, “I am worried that earlier we would be lucky if we hit 5% growth. The latest October-December Indian GDP numbers (4.4% on year ago and 1% relative to the previous quarter) suggest slowing growth from the heady numbers in the first half of the year.”

“My fears were not misplaced. The RBI projects an even lower 4.2% for the last quarter of this fiscal. At this point, the average annual growth of the October-December quarter relative to the similar pre-pandemic quarter 3 years ago is 3.7%. This is dangerously close to our old Hindu rate of growth! We must do better, he said.

LONDON — Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in a “denial mode” over Chinese incursions into Indian territory.

“We do not accept anybody entering our territory and bullying us. The Chinese have entered our territory and killed our soldiers but the PM is in denial. That’s the problem,” he said in an interaction with the Indian Journalists Association in London.

Claiming that 2,000 sq km of Indian territory is being controlled by China’s PLA, Gandhi said that the PM himself has stated that not a single inch of Indian land has been taken and “this has destroyed our position to negotiate with Beijing”.

The Congress leader also accused the BJP of twisting his statements to claim that he was defaming the country.

“The BJP likes to twist my statements. I will never defame my country. The people of India felt disrespected when our PM went abroad and said that no work has been done in the country in the last 70 years of Independence,” he said.

He also claimed that the opposition is functioning in hostile environment in India as it was no longer fighting a political party, but were “now fighting the institutional structure of India. We have to compete against the BJP-RSS which has captured all our independent institutions”.

“There is suppression of voices across the country. The BJP wants India to to be silenced because it wants to hand over country’s wealth to 4-5 people,” he alleged. — (IANS)