Relief to Hooda as HC junks Haryana land case report
NEW DELHI: The Kerala unit of the Congress has revamped its information technology cell and named Anil Antony as its convener, eyeing the social media space that has emerged as an increasingly important platform shaping the political discourse.
Antony earlier helped the party run its digital campaigns ahead of the state assembly elections in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka.
“After completing my engineering course in Kerala, I went to Stanford University in the US. I have also done a course on artificial intelligence from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology),” said Anil, the son of former defence minister AK Antony.
While the cell will prepare the ground for the Lok Sabha polls this year, Anil Antony will also have to tackle factionalism in the Kerala Congress from spilling over to social media. Shashi Tharoor, the state incharge for digital media, had earlier given a report on how to curb factionalism and anti-party activities on social media, people familiar with the developments said. Antony will also monitor state Congress leaders’ activities on social media. NEWDELHI: Kuala Lumpur is looking for more evidence from New Delhi before it can act on any request for the extradition of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, Malaysia’s prime minister-inwaiting Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday.
Last year, India made a request for the extradition of Naik, who was given permanent residency status by the previous Malaysian government of Najib Razak. Though India has an extradition treaty with Malaysia, current Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said last July his government will look at all faclines tors before deciding on Naik’s case.
“I’ve seen that PM Mahathir has already said we are looking into it, we are waiting for more arguments or the case from India, for the Malaysian government to look at it because what we have now is a request to bring back (Naik),” Ibrahim said on the side- of a meeting with Indian Muslim intellectuals.
Speaking shortly after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ibrahim said he had made it clear to the Indian leaders “that issues of terrorism, in any way, will never be supported or condoned by the Malaysian government”.
The National Investigation Agency has charged Naik with allegedly inciting youngsters to take up terror activities and giving hate speeches.
Ibrahim said Malaysia needs India to furnish “documents and reasons” for the extradition request. “I think you must appreciate the fact that the Malaysian government needs to study this.”. CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday quashed the report of Justice SN Dhingra (retd) Commission of Inquiry into a land case in Gurugram.
The commission was set up by the Manohar Lal Khattar government in 2015 to probe allegations that laws were flouted in granting land licences in Gurugram during the Bhupinder Singh Hoodaled Congress regime.
A division bench of Justice AK Mittal and Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal upheld the government decision of appointing the commission, a decision termed by Hooda an act of “witchhunt and political vendetta”.
The HC rejected the report and restrained the government from acting on it and making it public.
The judges had perused the report and found that it touches and opines on the conduct of Hooda and affects his reputation. Hence, he should have been given an opportunity to defend himself.
The judges, however, differed on further course of action. The constitution of the panel was challenged by Hooda in November 2016. NEWDELHI: At least 10,000 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers including top leaders will gather in New Delhi from Friday for a two-day conclave to discuss preparations for the national elections due in April and May this year.
The conclave will start with party president Amit Shah’s speech on Friday and conclude with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pep talk on Saturday.
This for the first time that the party’s national council has been called on such a scale, said a BJP office bearer. The party’s national council meets once every year, with roughly 3,000plus leaders attending it. “Leaders from up to district units have been invited for the conclave which comes months ahead of the crucial parliamentary election,” the BJP leader said.
The conclave will possibly be the last before the elections. It is being organised as the BJP is trying to overcome the setback it faced with the loss of power to the Congress in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.
“... a couple of resolutions covering economics, politics and other relevant subjects [will be passed at the conclave],” a second BJP leader said.
BJP strategists said the party’s strategy for the conclave and afterwards is two-fold. It will attempt to set a “positive narrative” for the party by again showcasing the “impressive size” of beneficiaries of central schemes.
The BJP says about 220 million people have benefitted from the schemes. The schemes include the flagship Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme. The party will also try to dismiss criticism on the economic front by focussing on how India has attained the status of the world’s sixth largest economy last year, the strategists said.
The BJP would seek to counter the opposition’s attempts to form a grand alliance by highlighting how it could push the country into a state of political instability again.
The proposal to provide the economically weaker sections 10% quota in educational institutions and government jobs will be “hailed” at the conclave.
Centre for Reforms, Development and Justice president Sidharth Mishra called a repeat of the BJP’S 2014 type performance a challenge for the party. “Its main challenge is to retain the vote share it got in the previous parliamentary election,’’ he said.