RSS, VHP urge govt to keep temple ‘promise’

“We’re not engaged in a conflict with any community. We are not begging but expressing sentiments,” he added. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, of late, has been vocal about the need for a law to build the temple.

Meenakshi Lekhi and Ramesh Bidhuri, BJP parliamentarians from Delhi, attended the event. Lekhi said Joshi’s remarks did not indicate that the BJP tried to stall the temple. She added that no one can imagine that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and even ordinary party workers were not committed to the cause. “The question is how to achieve this. There have been delays in the court, and the BJP has been pleading...to expedite the hearing,” she said.

Interacting with the media in Mathura, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya would be a matter “of happiness for all”. The opposition Congress party did not comment on the VHP gathering, saying the matter was sub-judice.

The Ayodhya dispute is among India’s most sensitive and divisive political issues. A section of Hindus believes a 16th century mosque, Babri Masjid, in the Uttar Pradesh town was built over a temple dedicated to Hindu god Ram, whose birthplace is considered to be at the site. A mob of thousands demolished the mosque in December 1992, triggering a cycle of violence and riots across India.

In October, the Supreme Court turned down requests for an early hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-babri Masjid title dispute and said it will decide the course of hearings in the first week of January. The decision effectively meant that the verdict was unlikely to be out before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections expected around April-may. The court is hearing 14 petitions challenging a 2010 Allahabad high court decision that trifurcated the disputed site between Hindus, Muslims and the representatives of Ram Lalla, a petitioner.

The VHP event in Delhi came about two weeks after a similar meeting in Ayodhya, where an estimated 100,000 supporters of the Ram temple gathered to mount pressure on the government. If the government did not bring a bill in the upcoming Parliament session, the next step will be decided in Allahabad on the sidelines of the Mahakumbh on January 31 and February 1, said a senior VHP leader.

VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal said all “true Hindus” of India want a temple in Ayodhya. “The government must give the people what they want,” he added.

As the crowd swelled and sounds of conch shells reverberated around Ramlila Ground, about 4,500 policemen, 2,000 traffic police, 290 additional cameras and five special command rooms kept a watch on the gathering.

Around noon, a ruckus was reported when some people tried to forcefully enter Ramlila Ground from Gate Number 2, which was reserved for VIP movement. “The incident was just a brief altercation and quickly managed. Police did not require to use force. No case was registered,” said deputy commissioner of police (central) Mandeep Singh Randhava.

The “three chapters”, according to lawyer Mark Summers, who is representing India, are alleged misrepresentations made to banks to secure loans, what was done with the loans secured, and what Mallya and his companies did when banks recalled the loans.

Mallya left India for the UK in 2016 after a consortium of 17 banks accused him of defaulting on loans.

In its first charge sheet filed against Mallya, the CBI focused on a loan default of ₹900 crore that the fugitive liquor baron took from the IDBI bank. The agency is now readying its second charge sheet against Mallya, wherein it is probing the alleged default of loan of about ₹6,000 crore from 17 banks. The ED, too, is i nvestigating charges of money laundering against him and has attached his properties. Kumar Singh and a 21-year-old man named Sumit Kumar died of gunshot wounds.

Principal secretary (home) Arvind Kumar said on Sunday Akhtar was transferred to the post of ASP, Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) headquarters in Lucknow. Manish Mishra (a Provincial Police Service officer), who was serving as in-charge of a modern control room in Ghaziabad, will replace Akhtar, an IPS officer of the 2014 batch, he said.

The three other police officers are senior superintendent of police Krishna Bahadur Singh, Syana circle officer Satya Prakash Sharma and Chingrwathi police outpost in-charge Suresh Kumar.

Top UP officials swung into action soon after the CM held a meeting with the principal secretary and director general of police OP Singh on Friday night. The meeting was held after the submission of a report on the violence and killings.

Police have arrested nine accused in the Bulandshahr case but the main conspirator, Yogesh Raj, the district convener of Bajrang Dal, is on the run. Raj claimed innocence in a video that surfaced online on Wednesday. book that will spell out how various provisions of the agreement kick in to force.

Professor NH Ravindranath of Indian Institute of Science, who was a co-author of IPCC’S fifth assessment report, said Saudi Arabia was a hard negotiator that hired the best people to protect the interests of oil-exporting countries. “The world will have to start cutting down on coal and oil consumption very soon...climate change concerns will surely lead to increased use of electric cars, rails, metros, biofuels, improved efficiency...all this will lead to decline in demand for oil. So surely Saudis will not be happy,” he said.

Joyashree Roy, a professor of economics at Jadavpur University (on lien) and one of the Indian authors of the IPCC report titled ‘Global Warming of 1.5 Degrees’, said, “The special report was published on October 8, 2018, after it was approved by all countries. The Paris agreement was adopted by 195 nations at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in December 2015...So, there is no question of further approval or acceptance...”

Aarti Khosla of Climate Trends, a research and communications organisation, said the approach by Saudi, the US and Russia on the report could certainly serve short-term interests, but it would take the wind from the sails for several small and least developed countries, which are facing the worst impacts of global warming.

“Limiting the worst impacts of climate change requires strong political will. At a time when extreme events continue to build, if nations go back and question fundamentals, there will be less hope for global collective climate action,” she said.

A senior official of the Union environment ministry said the US was present in Incheon when the report was approved and released. “I don’t think this can be taken as a rejection of the IPCC report...they have decided not to welcome the report and applied Rule 16, which means the matter will be discussed again at the next COP. Let’s see how the rest of the Paris rule book comes up and how soon.”

Developing nations and least developed countries have been asking developed nations, particularly the US, to take historical and moral responsibility for being one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters. Smaller nations have asked for equity in CO2 emission cuts to curb global warming, a time frame and funding from developed nations for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. The US has been resisting large cuts in CO2 emissions.

POLICE HAVE ARRESTED NINE ACCUSED IN THE CASE BUT THE MAIN CONSPIRATOR IS STILL ON THE RUN