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Modi doesn't understand India, snoops on women: Rahul
CHANDAULI (UP): Taking Narendra Modi head on, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the BJP's
Prime Ministerial candidate does not understand the strength of India and its people and accused his party of following a politics that was "full of anger".
Also attacking him on "snoopgate" issue, Gandhi advised Modi to change slogans on his posters where it was promised that he would give power to women, as "he was the person sending
the police after women and tapping their phone in Gujarat."
Addressing a public rally here after holding a massive roadshow in Varanasi constituency earlier on Saturday, the Congress vice-president took
potshots at Modi for his alleged links to Gujarat-based industrial house Adanis.
"We (Congress) want to fulfil your dream. He (Modi) shows dream to Adani," Gandhi said, but clarified that Congress was not against industrialists.
"If the country has to move forward, then there has to be partnership between industrialists and labourers. Everybody will be part of the development, labourers, farmers and workers," he said.
Gandhi said that BJP leaders' speeches were "full of anger, but India works on love and not on anger."
"India is for everybody. It is for Hindus, Muslims, Sikh and Christians. It belongs to every caste and community, poor and rich people and it will remain for everybody."
On Modi, he said, "Few days back, I saw a poster in Delhi which had Modji's image and it was written that "Mahilaon ko main shakti doonga". Me, not we, only me."
"He (Modi) comes to you and says, you have not done anything. Nothing happened in India for the last 60 years. He asks farmers, workers, what have you done. Says India was sleeping.
"The US presidents understood that India has risen. Traders, farmers, industrialists, workers have took India forward. India has risen like a tiger and Modi comes to you and says make me Chowkidar. Nothing happened in the last 60 years. Modi says he will make the difference," Gandhi said.
Continuing his diatribe against the Gujarat Chief Minister, the Congress leader said that Modi tells women that they do not have power and he would give them the power.
"He does not have understanding about India. There is no need to give strength to women of India. They have huge strength. Nobody can give strength to the country. It has strength. You have power in your hands, in your heart. Nobody will give you strength from above," Gandhi said.
"We cannot say we will change the country. You will do it. Your power will change it. This is the difference between them and us. They (BJP) make people fight, spread anger. We spread love and
compassion," he said.
Attacking the Samajwadi Party and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who also held a roadshow in Varanasi today, Gandhi accused them of stalling the Women Reservation Bill.
"We want to ensure 33 per cent reservation to women in Assemblies and Parliament. The parties in Uttar Pradesh have been stalling the Bill providing for the reservation. They did not allow it. Our first job will be to ensure the reservation for women. We will open 2,000 police stations only for women.
And we will recruit 25 per cent women in the police," he said.
He asked the Chandauli's Congress candidate Tarun Patel to "fight for truth, fight for rights of the farmers, labourers and poor people." He also thanked the people of Varanasi for giving him "so much love". — PTI
Two militants killed as Army foils infiltration bid in Poonch
JAMMU: Two militants were killed when the Army foiled an infiltration bid along Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, the second this month.
A jawan was also injured in the exchange of fire late Friday night.
A group of four militants were seen moving inside Indian territory along LoC in forward belt Kalsia in Poonch district, a Army officer told PTI on Saturday.
Army troops challenged them and the militants opened fire on the troops, who retaliated. In the ensuing encounter, two militants were killed and a soldier suffered injuries.
He has been hospitalised, the officer said, adding bodies have been recovered and a search operation is going on.
On May 3, troops foiled an infiltration bid along LoC in Sawjian belt of Poonch district.
There were inputs that militants were trying to infiltrate into India and the firing from Pakistani side was “probably a ploy”, the Army officer said.
“They resort to ceasefire violation by resorting to firing on Indian posts to give cover to infiltrating militants and divert attention of the troops,” the officer said.
There has been four ceasefire violations in past fortnight along LoC. On May 5, Pakistani troops violated ceasefire by resorting to firing from automatic weapons on Indian posts along the LoC in Bhimber Gali area of Rajouri district.
On May 3, Pakistani troops indulged in firing from small arms and automatic weapons on Indian posts along the LoC in Mendhar in Poonch district from 2330 hours but there was no loss of life or injury.
On April 28, Pakistani troops resorted to firing from small arms and automatic weapons on Indian posts along the LoC in Bhimber Gali in Rajouri district.
On April 25, Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire by firing with small arms and mortars on Indian posts in Doda battalion areas along the LoC in Poonch district. —
PTI
MH370:
Mini-sub set to re-launch underwater quest
PERTH: A mini-submarine hunting for the crashed Malaysian jet in the Indian Ocean will be back in the search zone within days as the Australian ship carrying it was now headed back to the sea.
The Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield is returning to the search area off Western Australia to continue the hunt for missing flight MH370, officials said.
The Beijing-bound plane — carrying 239 people, including five Indians, an Indo-Canadian and 154 Chinese nationals
— had mysteriously vanished on March 8 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.
The ship will deploy underwater vehicle Bluefin-21, which will search the seabed in a location in the southern Indian Ocean where pings from suspected black boxes were detected in April.
Ocean Shield has been taking on supplies and undergoing routine maintenance during the past week at HMAS Stirling near Perth, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
The initial deployment of Ocean Shield ran from March 31 until May 5. After five weeks at sea, it returned to port where a software update was run on Bluefin-21's scanner.
It is now heading back out to sea and will take about three days to reach the search zone, Captain Mark Matthews from the US navy told a press conference.
A total of 4.64 million square kilometres of ocean had been searched as of Tuesday, but no sign of wreckage from the plane has been found so far.
At the request of the Australian government, the US navy will continue to support the underwater efforts in the intensified underwater phase of the search.
Matthews was quoted as saying that the equipment will be used in the same area where sounds consistent with a black box locator were detected last month.
"They'll either find something or they won't, that's about all I can box in, but what you do is you go look at your best indications and you pursue them until they're exhausted," he said.
Matthews said the Bluefin-21 vehicle will be deployed to do a site scan survey to look for "any non-normal items, any metallic items".
"That whole area has not been fully surveyed so they're continuing work there," he said.
"Concurrently there's a team in Canberra that includes Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Boeing and Inmarsat looking at the satellite data, just to take a fresh look, make sure they refine as much as they can the broader search area," he added.
The ship will return at the end of the month, and what happens beyond that will be determined by Malaysian, Australian and Chinese authorities, Mathews said. — PTI
Set own house in order, implement UNSC reforms:
India to UN
UNITED NATIONS: India has said the United Nations should "set its house in order" and implement the much-delayed reform of the Security Council before it seeks to embark upon an ambitious post-2015 development agenda.
It also said the relevance of the world body is at stake if the UN is not reformed to be more effective and representative.
India's permanent representative to the UN Asoke Mukerji on Friday said an "over-riding view" of a majority of participants in the previous five rounds of talks is that the requirement to reform the council to make it more effective and representative cannot be delayed any longer.
He was addressing an informal plenary meeting of the intergovernmental negotiations (IGN) on 'Question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Council'.
"During these past months, even as we have engaged in making statements at each other, the Security Council has been paralyzed by its inherent flaws. The result of this paralysis is visible. The failure of the Security Council to respond to eruptions of crises, and create sustainable frameworks of political stability, whether on the continent of Africa, or in Asia and in Europe, has been starkly documented for the wider public.
"This failure has already extracted a huge human and material cost, which the UN can ill afford at a time our organization is poised to articulate the blueprint for the post-2015 Development Agenda for the World. At stake is the relevance of the United Nations to embark upon such an ambitious exercise when it has not been able to set its house in order," Mukerji said.
The sixth meeting of the IGN saw participation of 64 speakers, of which more than 40 spoke in favour of India's position for early UNSC reforms.
There was broad convergence on expanding the council in both permanent and non-permanent categories of membership and for delivering concrete outcomes by 2015, a position supported by countries such as Japan, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, Germany, UK, France, Nicaragua, Palau, Benin, Malawi, St. Vincent and Grenadines and nearly 30 more countries.
Mukerji said the mandate for "early reforms" of the UN Security Council was given by global leaders at the 60th anniversary Summit of the United Nations in 2005 and UN member states must build on the convergences to carry the negotiations forward and concretise outcomes for adoption by the 70th Anniversary Summit of the UN in 2015. — PTI
17
killed as bus plunges into gorge in Uttarakhand
Gopeshwar (Uttarakhand): At least 17 persons, including seven women, were killed and five others injured today, when a private bus they were travelling in fell into a deep gorge in Chamoli district in Uttarakhand.
Fifteen were killed on the spot and two succumbed to injuries on way to a hospital, Chamoli District Disaster Management official Nand Kishore Joshi said.
The impact of the fall was so huge, the bus was broken into pieces, a police official here said.
Going from Rishikesh to Ghat, the bus fell off a steep slope on Nandprayag Ghat motorway into a 300m-deep gorge at about 12:45 pm, when it was around half a kilometre away from its destination, he said.
Five injured persons are being treated at district hospital in Chamoli, he said, adding
the 22 persons, mostly villagers from Ghat block, were on board the ill-fated bus, he said.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat and Governor Aziz Qureshi expressed deep shock over the tragic mishap saying so many precious lives were lost in the accident.
Wishing the injured a speedy recovery, Rawat asked officials concerned to make all facilities available for the treatment of the injured admitted at district hospital Chamoli.
The bus was owned by Garhwal Motor Owners Company. Most of the passengers of the bus are said to have been hailing from Ghat block, the official said.
— PTI
US senators against export of natural gas to India, China
WASHINGTON: A bi-partisan group of 22 American senators have expressed reservation on the export of natural gas to Asian countries such as India and China, arguing that such a move by Obama Administration would result in an increase in cost for consumers and businesses at home.
“Natural gas prices in Asia are currently three to four times higher than those in the
US. Integration of US and Asian natural gas markets through US exports could lead to further increases in prices for American consumers and businesses, which may fundamentally reverse many of the economic benefits that have led to the current surge in manufacturing job growth in the
US,” the senators said in a letter to Obama.
They said the “large-scale exports of natural gas to Asia could also jeopardize America’s goal of achieving energy independence, a goal made more achievable by the recent increase in domestic gas production”.
The senators urged Obama to consider the impacts on American manufacturing and families that rely on natural gas.
In the letter released to the press on Friday, they pointed to the hundreds of thousands of American manufacturing jobs created in the last few years, in part because of low natural gas prices.
“Families and businesses depend on affordable and reliable supplies of natural gas. This winter many parts of the country faced tight supplies of propane and natural gas and families were left to face high energy bills... Taking a longer-term view, the United States has benefited from rising supplies and lower prices for natural gas since 2008.”
“Thanks in part to lower natural gas prices, America’s manufacturing sector has created more than 600,000 jobs since 2010. The Boston Consulting Group concluded that affordable natural gas prices could lead to 5 million more manufacturing jobs by the end of the decade.
“We must ensure that we do not squander what is clearly an American competitive advantage right now for American manufacturers and for the American economy,” they said.
The senators said that the recent approval for export of liquefied natural gas from a sixth export facility has meant that the total approved exports now exceeds the amount of gas currently being used in every single American home and commercial business.
The exports well exceeds the high export scenario referenced by a Department of Energy study in 2012 that indicated prices could increase by up to 54 per cent, the senators said, adding that it would translate into more than $60 billion a year in higher energy costs for American consumers and businesses, they said. — PTI
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