GANDHINAGAR: Flagging off the Vande Gujarat Vikas Yatra showcasing the achievements of the government over the past 20 years, chief minister Bhupendra Patel said on Tuesday that development and trust have become synonyms in governance of the state over the past two decades. For a fortnight between July 5 and 19, 82 decorated trucks will pass through eight big cities and all 33 districts where about 2,500 events will be organized. The government will educate people about the welfare schemes that can be availed of, a CMO statement said. At the inaugural function at Sabarmati riverfront, CM Patel said that BJP governments over the past 20 years have delivered on the promises they have made to the people. “Vikas (development) and Vishwas (trust) have become synonyms in Gujarat. BJP governments have consistently pursued development in the state and the people have repeatedly shown their trust by voting BJP to power,” the CM stated. Ministers will visit different districts over the next fortnight and about 2,500 development works will either be inaugurated, or their foundation stones laid, the CM said at the meeting. The CM listed various successful projects implemented in the state over the past 20 years.
The 145th Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra was concluded in old city Ahmedabad amid huge fanfare and heavy police security Friday as Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel flagged off the procession only three days after he tested positive for Covid-19.The annual yatra was held after a gap of two years after the procession was curtailed for the past two years due to the pandemic.On Friday, the ceremony began around 4 am when Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived at the temple premises to conduct the “Mangla Aarti”. Shah left shortly after.Later, CM Patel flagged off the procession. Uncertainty had prevailed over the CM’s presence in the yatra until Thursday after he contracted Covid. However, late Thursday, the Lord Jagannath Temple management was informed that the CM will attend the event as per “doctors’ advice”. On Friday morning, CM Patel was seen wearing a mask and performing the traditional “pahind” ceremony at the Lord Jagannath Temple premises.“On the occasion of the 145th Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra, I pray for the well being, peace and prosperity of the people of Gujarat. I also congratulate the people of Kutch on Kutchi New Year,” said Patel, while addressing reporters outside the temple.Governor Acharya Devvrat, state Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi, Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court Aravind Kumar and former state home minister Pradipsinh Jadeja were also present at the event.A total of 18 elephants and 101 tableau depicting various Akhadas and Bhajan Mandalis and over 2,000 sadhu saints, along with several hundred thousands of devotees were part of the procession that travelled via sensitive pockets of old city Ahmedabad from 7 am to 6 pm.Security was beefed up with over 25,000 police and security personnel in the Jamalpur area of old city Ahmedabad as a high alert was sounded in the wake of the Udaipur terror killing.The procession was surveilled through drone cameras and a helicopter. For the first time, the Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad was roped in for security measures.Meanwhile, as many as 20 persons, including three children, received minor injuries when the slab of a one-room pucca cabin on which they were standing, collapsed, on the route of the rath yatra.According to police, the incident occurred around 1 pm when the roof of a cabin built alongsidethe road collapsed in Shahpur while the yatra procession was going on.Incidentally, state Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi and Ahmedabad city police commissioner Sanjay Srivastava were present at the spot when the incident occurred and they rushed for help.“As many as 20 people received minor injuries when the roof collapsed on which they were standing. The home minister and police commissioner responded to the accident and helped rescuers and took stock of the situation. The victims received minor bruises,” said a senior police official at Gaekwad Haveli Police Station.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, whose presence in the 145th Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra to be taken out Friday morning in old city Ahmedabad was under clouds due to him testing Covid-19 positive, will attend the event under doctors’ advice. “We have got confirmation from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) that the CM will attend the Yatra and do the Pahind Vidhi,” said Jagannath Temple Trustee Mahendra Jha.As per Jha, since Patel’s presence was in doubt, they had also invited Governor Acharya Devvrat to perform the Pahind vidhi ritual, traditionally performed by the CM where the leader of the state sweeps the path of the chariot of the gods before the procession begins.On Friday, the yatra will be flagged off after the mangala aarti to be conducted by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the temple premises.Amid heightened tension in the backdrop of the recent terror killing in Udaipur, the Gujarat Police has been on high alert to prevent any untoward incident during the Yatra.Several lakhs of devotees are expected to attend the 145th Rath Yatra procession, which will be taken out from Lord Jagannath Temple at Jamalpur Darwaza to Saraspur and then back to the temple, in a full-fledged manner after two years of restricted procession due to the Covid-19pandemic.Other cities of Gujarat such as Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Mehsana, Banaskantha, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Sabarkantha and Gandhinagar, among others, will also see several rath yatra processions marking “Ashadhi Beej” diwas of the Hindu calendar, which also marks the Kutchhi new year.In a first, the state police has also roped in the Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) for the security arrangements for the yatra for which over 25,000 police and paramilitary personnel will be deployed along the nine-kilometre route.The yearly Rath Yatra processions in Ahmedabad have had a history of communal violence during the four decades between 1960s and 90s.Ahmedabad Rath Yatra: With ‘docs’ advice’, CM to flag off Yatra; police on high alerthttps://t.co/yC3Kfivz4h pic.twitter.com/1qSqvN8joj— Express Gujarat (@ExpressGujarat) July 1, 2022On Wednesday, a high-level meet was chaired by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi and senior police officials to discuss the security arrangements ahead of the procession in Ahmedabad and other cities of Gujarat.“Police commissioners of all four cities and superintendents of police of all districts were present in the meeting where the CM gave directions to ensure law and order and facilitate water and other necessary arrangements for the devotees expected to join the procession. In the wake of a recent incident in the neighbouring state (Rajasthan), the CM has asked police to be on high alert for maintaining law and order in the state,” read a statement issued from the Information Department, Gandhinagar.According to police sources, Sanghavi has asked the police to keep a strict watch on social media for any instigation or attempt to disrupt law and order related to Yatra and the Udaipur incident. After the meeting, the police of at least 15 districts issued advisories Thursday asking citizens to refrain from commenting on anything instigating or rumour-mongering on social media.“In the past two days, we have conducted over 350 peace committee meetings in localities of old city Ahmedabad to ensure harmony between communities. We are anyway on high alert and we have been preparing for the yatra for the past three months. The recent Udaipur incident will have no effect on the yatra,” RV Asari, additional commissioner of police, sector 1, Ahmedabad, told The Indian Express.Amit Vasava, the deputy commissioner of police, Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell, said, “We are being vigilant on social media but no adverse impact of the Udaipur incident has been witnessed yet.”Meanwhile, the temple trust management informed The Indian Express that a total of 18 elephants, 101 trucks with different tableaus depicting India’s culture, 30 Akhada Dal groups and 18 Bhajan Mandalis will be part of the procession. A total of 1,200 persons will be pulling the three different chariots in the procession.“We have been requested by the Ahmedabad Police to accompany the procession of elephants. We will have teams of vets from the animal husbandry department and experts from Indroda zoo in Gandhinagar and the Junagadh forest department. The elephants are well-trained and acquainted to walk in public places. If in case any elephant is to be controlled, it can be done by another elephant,” RK Sahu, director of Kankaria Zoo, told The Indian Express.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, whose presence in the 145th Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra to be taken out Friday morning in old city Ahmedabad was under clouds due to him testing Covid-19 positive, will attend the event under doctors’ advice. “We have got confirmation from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) that the CM will attend the Yatra and dothe Pahind Vidhi,” said Jagannath Temple Trustee Mahendra Jha.As per Jha, as the CM’s presence was in doubt, they had also invited Governor Acharya Devvrat to perform the Pahind vidhi ritual, traditionally performed by the CM where the leader of the state sweeps the path of the chariot of the gods before the procession begins.On Friday, the yatra will be flagged off after the mangala aarti to be conducted by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the temple premises. Amid heightened tension in the backdrop of the recent terror killing in Udaipur, the Gujarat Police has been on high alert to prevent any untoward incident during the Yatra.Several lakhs of devotees are expected to attend the 145th Rath Yatra procession, which will be taken out from Lord Jagannath Temple at Jamalpur Darwaza to Saraspur and then back to the temple, in a full-fledged manner after two years of restricted procession due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Other cities of Gujarat such as Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Mehsana, Banaskantha, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Sabarkantha and Gandhinagar, among others, will also see several rath yatra processions marking “Ashadhi Beej” diwas of the Hindu calendar, which also marks the Kutchhi new year.In a first, the state police has also roped in the Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) for the security arrangements for the yatra for which over 25,000 police and paramilitary personnel will be deployed along the nine-kilometre route.The yearly Rath Yatra processions in Ahmedabad have had a history of communal violence during the four decades between 1960s and 90s.On Wednesday, a high-level meet was chaired by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi and senior police officials to discuss the security arrangements ahead of the procession in Ahmedabad and other cities of Gujarat.“Police commissioners of all four cities and superintendents of police of all districts were present in the meeting where the CM gave directions to ensure law and order and facilitate water and other necessary arrangements for the devotees expected to join the procession. In the wake of a recent incident in the neighbouring state (Rajasthan), the CM has asked police to be on high alert for maintaining law and order in the state,” read a statement issued from the Information Department, Gandhinagar.According to police sources, Sanghavi has asked the police to keep a strict watch on social media for any instigation or attempt to disrupt law and order related to Yatra and the Udaipur incident. After the meeting, the police of at least 15 districts issued advisories Thursday asking citizens to refrain from commenting on anything instigating or rumour-mongering on social media.“In the past two days, we have conducted over 350 peace committee meetings in localities of old city Ahmedabad to ensure harmony between communities. We are anyway on high alert and we have been preparing for the yatra for the past three months. The recent Udaipur incident will have no effect on the yatra,” RV Asari, additional commissioner of police, sector 1, Ahmedabad, told The Indian Express.Amit Vasava, the deputy commissioner of police, Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell, said, “We are being vigilant on social media but no adverse impact of the Udaipur incident has been witnessed yet.”Meanwhile, the temple trust management informed The Indian Express that a total of 18 elephants, 101 trucks with different tableaus depicting India’s culture, 30 Akhada Dal groups and 18 Bhajan Mandalis will be part of the procession. A total of 1,200 persons will be pulling the three different chariots in the procession.“We have been requested by the Ahmedabad Police to accompany the procession of elephants. We will have teams of vets from the animal husbandry department and experts from Indroda zoo in Gandhinagar and the Junagadh forest department. The elephants are well-trained and acquainted to walk in public places. If in case any elephant is to be controlled, it can be done by another elephant,” RK Sahu, director of Kankaria Zoo, told The Indian Express.
Gujarat has progressed from ‘tanker raj’ to Nal Se Jal and undergone transformation in other sectors, thanks to the ‘revolutionary’ decision taken by Narendra Modi, Gujarat Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel said as he flagged off a Vande Gujarat Vikas Yatra Rath (chariot) from Rajkot Tuesday.Addressing a public meeting on the yard of the Rajkot agricultural produce marketing committee (APMC) in Bedi village on the outskirts of the city before flagging off the rath, Patel narrated the development march of Gujarat after Modi took over as the chief minister in 2001. “Thanks to the revolutionary decisions taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gujarat has scaled new peaks of achievements. There was a time when there was tanker raj (water was supplied through tankers) but today, thanks to the Nal se Jal scheme, water is reaching households through pipes,” an official release quoted Patel as saying.The Vande Gujarat Vikas Yatra campaign was launched by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel from Ahmedabad as simultaneous events were organised in other districts of the state. As a part of the campaign, raths or modified trucks mounted with LED screens will go to towns and villages of the state and showcase progress made by the state under the BJP reign beginning from 2001.Various BJP leaders and ministers will welcome these raths at various places until the two-week-long campaign ends on July 19. The Rath will go to clusters of villages decided as per the 36 seats of Rajkot district panchayat.Patel claimed that Gujarat has witnessed transformation in other sectors also. “Thanks to tremendous decision-making power of Modi, today, Narmada water has reached Saurashtra and Kutch through SAUNI Yojana. Earlier, there used to be only a handful of check-dams. But today, there are more than one lakh check-dams. By winning the confidence of people, there has been a comprehensive development in fields like education, industry, health, women empowerment etc,” the minister was further quoted in the release.The minister also laid the foundation stone for development projects worth around Rs 2.80 crore and dedicated projects worth Rs 7 crore to the public.
The Gujarat government Tuesday launched the Vande Gujarat Vikas Yatra to showcase the development works done by the state government in the past two decades under the leadership of Narendra Modi first as the Chief Minister of the state and then as the Prime Minister. “The development of 20 years and the trust of 20 years have become synonymous with each other and Gujarat is moving forward as the growth engine of the country,” CM Patel said addressing a public gathering from Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad before flagging off the yatra Tuesday. Similar functions were also held in all the districts of the state under the leadership of various ministers. The CM said Gandhi and Sardar had got us Swaraaj whereas Narendrabhai (Modi) and Amitbhai (Shah) got us Suraaj. “Narendrabhai has given us a mantra of (also) inaugurating those public works, foundation stones of which we are laying,” he said.He compared various parameters in various sectors like education, power, health, roads, tribal development, water, women and child development, tourism, industrial production, law and order, etc, between 2002 and 2022 to highlight the development done in the past 20 years.“(People) Trusted us and we did development (works) and because we did it, people kept trusting us. And we are witnessing its result… We are going to start this Vande Gujarat Yatra to give account of the trust people put in us,” the CM added.Under the initiative, the state government has prepared 82 Vande Gujarat Vikas Rath (chariots) that will travel through all the villages and cities of the state. The chariots are equipped with LED screens that will showcase the development Gujarat has witnessed in the last 20 years in the form of mini films.In all, 2,500 public programmes will be held across the state under the initiative in which local authorities will dedicate, declare or lay foundation stones of more than 25,000 public works. Camps distributing benefits of various government schemes will also be organised at various places along with cultural events. Events such as essay competitions among school children, cleanliness campaigns at public places, health check-up camps, yoga shibir and tree plantation drives will also be held in cities and villages.
Social media giant Twitter has moved the Karnataka High Court, challenging the Central government orders to take down content under the new IT laws, saying it is an abuse of power by officials. According to reports, the microblogging site has termed the orders “overbroad and arbitrary”. The government had previously said that big social media firms, including Twitter, have not complied with removal requests, despite their legal standing. Late last month, Twitter was warned by the IT ministry of criminal proceedings if it did not comply with some orders.The outer windshield of a SpiceJet aircraft, flying from Kandla in Gujarat, cracked mid-air today after which the plane made a priority landing in Mumbai. The Kandla-Mumbai flight was at 23,000 feet altitude when the windshield’s outer pane cracked. This is the second incident in the day involving a SpiceJet aircraft. Earlier in the day, a SpiceJet aircraft on its way to Dubai from Delhi landed in Karachi as it developed a technical glitch. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is now investigating the two incidents, along with the previous five incidents.Underlining that the observations of the Supreme Court on suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma violate judicial propriety and fairness, a group of former judges and bureaucrats wrote an open letter addressed to the Chief Justice of India. “The observations, simultaneously relayed by all channels in high decibel, are not in sync with judicial ethos and by no stretch these observations, which are not part of the judicial order, can be sanctified on the plank of judicial propriety and fairness,” the letter stated. The signatories include former chief justice of the Bombay High Court Kshitij Vyas, former Gujarat High Court judge S M Soni, former Rajasthan High Court judges R S Rathore and Prashant Agarwal, former Delhi High Court judge S N Dhingra, 77 bureaucrats, and 25 army veterans.POLITICAL PULSEFrom the Urdu Press this week: The flux of news over the past week was breathtaking. In Maharashtra, the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government collapsed and rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the new Chief Minister with the BJP’s ex-CM Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. The ghastly killing of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, filmed and flaunted online by his killers, convulsed the country. Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair was arrested by Delhi Police for a 2018 tweet. And the Supreme Court, while rejecting Nupur Sharma’s plea to club FIRs over her controversial remarks, came down heavily on her. The coverage of these developments and more, along with analysis and commentary, dominated the news and opinion pages of the Urdu dailies.On Sunday, as office-bearers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) took oath in Ahmedabad, national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched an attack on the Congress, calling it “a party only on paper”. The statement indicated that AAP, which had contested 29 seats in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections, has identified the Congress as its main opponent. And that as the first step in a state ruled by the BJP now for 27 years, is seeking to replace the Congress as the main Opposition. BJP too seems to be recalibrating its political messaging, ahead of the approaching elections. Its attacks are now increasingly directed at the Congress in a bid to downplay the challenge from AAP – a party that has been causing the BJP some heartburn in several parts of the country. Vaibhav Jha reports.Express ExplainedSingapore-headquartered cryptocurrency lending and trading platform Vauld suspended withdrawals, trading and deposits Monday because of volatile market conditions and financial difficulties, the company announced in a blog post. With this, Vauld joins major crypto broker Voyager Digital and crypto lender Celsius Network LLC to suspend trading and withdrawals. Why are cryptocurrencies witnessing such a sharp decline, why are crypto platforms suspending withdrawals, and what are its implications? We explain.India and Australia have decided to strengthen their partnership in the field of projects and supply chains for critical minerals. As part of his six-day tour of Australia, Union Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi met his counterpart, Resources and Northern Australia Minister Madeleine King, after which Australia confirmed that it would “commit A$5.8 million to the three-year India-Australia Critical Minerals Investment Partnership”. As countries around the world scale up their transition towards clean energy and digital economy, critical resources are key to the ecosystem that fuels this change. So what are these critical minerals? Read here.Preparing for Civil Services and other competitive examinations. Read The Indian Express’ UPSC Key and UPSC Essentials to stay informed.
On a tough day for SpiceJet, two of its aircraft were forced to make priority landings after they developed technical glitches on Tuesday. Including the two new ones, as many as seven such incidents have happened on SpiceJet flights in the last 17 days.Here is the list of all technical glitches reported on SpiceJet aircraft in the last 17 days:June 19* A Delhi-bound Boeing 737-800 operated by the Gurugram-based low-cost airline made an emergency landing in Patna, minutes after take-off from there, after one of its engines suffered a bird hit. The aircraft was carrying 185 passengers and six crew members.* A Bombardier Q400 Dash 8, developed a cabin pressurisation issue after departure from Delhi. As the aircraft climbed out of Delhi, the pilots noted that the cabin pressure did not build up in line with the altitude gain. Following this, the crew decided to return and the aircraft landed safely back in Delhi.June 24* The fuselage warning light on a SpiceJet Q400 aircraft (Guwahati-Kolkata) lit up when it was on ‘rotation’, forcing them to abandon their journeys and return. The pilots of the flight found that the warning was coming from the baggage door at the rear end of the plane, the officials said.June 25* A similar incident took place on SpiceJet’s Patna-Guwahati flight on June 25. A SpiceJet Q400 aircraft was forced to ditch its take-off roll at the Patna airport after the aircraft’s fuselage door warning light lit up. Here too, it was found that the warning had come from the baggage door at the rear end of the aircraft.July 2* A Jabalpur-bound flight operated by the low-cost carrier on a Bombardier Q400 Dash 8 plane made an emergency landing in Delhi after the smoke alarm was triggered. The aircraft took off from Delhi early Saturday, and while climbing past 5,000 feet, the crew noticed smoke in the cabin along with the lavatory smoke alarm sound going off, a top official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.July 5* A SpiceJet Boeing 737 Max aircraft on its way to Dubai from Delhi with 150 people on board landed in Karachi, Pakistan on Tuesday after it developed a technical glitch. Pilots of the Dubai-bound flight noticed unusual fuel reduction in one of the plane’s fuel tanks, following which they decided to divert the plane to the closest airport, officials said. The flight was cruising at 36,000 feet in the Pakistan airspace when the glitch was observed, a source said.* The outer windshield of a SpiceJet aircraft, flying from Kandla in Gujarat, cracked mid-air today after which the plane made a priority landing in Mumbai. Officials said the Kandla-Mumbai flight of SpiceJet was at 23,000 feet altitude when the windshield’s outer pane cracked.The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is investigating all seven incidents.Meanwhile, shares of the budget carrier fell over two per cent on Tuesday following reports that the SpiceJet Boeing 737 Max aircraft had to land in Karachi. The SpiceJet stock fell 2.33 per cent to end at Rs 37.65 apiece on the BSE while on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), it declined 2.20 per cent to settle at Rs 37.70 per share.
The outer windshield of a SpiceJet aircraft, flying from Kandla in Gujarat, cracked mid-air today after which the plane made a priority landing in Mumbai.Officials said the Kandla-Mumbai flight of SpiceJet was at 23,000 feet altitude when the windshield’s outer pane cracked.This is the second incident in the day involving a SpiceJet aircraft. Earlier in the day, a SpiceJet aircraft on its way to Dubai from Delhi landed in Karachi as it developed a technical glitch.On 5th July, 2022, SpiceJet Q400 aircraft was operating SG 3324 (Kandla – Mumbai). During cruise at FL230, P2 side windshield outer pane cracked. Pressurization was observed to be normal. The aircraft landed safely in Mumbai: SpiceJet Spokesperson pic.twitter.com/DYypQXmTyk— ANI (@ANI) July 5, 2022A statement issued by a SpiceJet spokesperson read: “On July 5, 2022, SpiceJet Q400 aircraft was operating SG 3324 (Kandla – Mumbai). During cruise at FL230, its P2 side windshield outer pane cracked. Pressurisation was observed to be normal. The aircraft landed safely in Mumbai.”The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating the two incidents which took place on Tuesday, along with the previous five incidents, the officials noted.(With inputs from PTI)
This is the 7th safety-related concern in SpiceJet in less than 3 weeks, say sources (Representational)New Delhi: A SpiceJet aircraft, flying from Kandla in Gujarat, made a priority landing in Mumbai after its outer windshield developed a crack mid-air, said the airline. This is the second incident in the day involving a SpiceJet plane.Officials said the Kandla-Mumbai flight of SpiceJet was at 23,000 feet altitude when the windshield's outer pane cracked.All passenger and crew members are safe, the airline said in a statement."During cruise at FL230, P2 side windshield outerpane cracked. Associated non normal checklist actions were carried out. Pressurization was observed to be normal. Priority landing was carried out and aircraft landed safely at BOM (Bombay)," the airline said in a statement.Aviation sources have told NDTV that this is the seventh safety-related concern in SpiceJet in less than three weeks. The other incidents, all of which have been brought to the attention of the regulator, including two door warnings, a bird hit, oil leakage from an engine, a pressurisation problem in addition to today's malfunction.The aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) conducted a fleet-wide safety audit of SpiceJet aircraft just last month and continues to carry out inspections on a case-by-case basis.Earlier today, a SpiceJet plane flying from Delhi to Dubai had to be diverted to Karachi due to a malfunctioning indicator light.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comJust two days ago, the pilot of a SpiceJet Q400 airliner flying from Delhi to Jabalpur made a 'May Day' distress call and returned to Delhi after smoke was detected in the cabin.On June 19, a Delhi-bound SpiceJet aircraft, with 185 passengers on board, made an emergency landing in Patna right after take-off as its left engine caught fire following a bird hit.
Last week’s rebel Shiv Sena MLA who turned Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena Chief Minister this week; a former Maharashtra CM facing prospect of losing control of a party founded by his father; an activist and a former police officer arrested after Supreme Court’s clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2002 Gujarat riots case; two Lok Sabha bypoll candidates — a winner from Punjab’s Sangrur while another who lost from UP’s Azamgarh yet made the biggest impact.New Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath ShindeA day after Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray resigned as CM ahead of a floor test, bringing to an end the 31-month rule of his Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition, Shiv Sena rebel leader Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra with BJP leader and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy on Thursday. From working in a beer brewery in Thane and driving an autorickshaw to make ends meet, to becoming the most powerful leader in the Shiv Sena after the Thackerays, to splitting the party and becoming the 20th Chief Minister of the state, Eknath Shinde, 58, has had an eventful career. In this crisis, two other qualities helped Shinde prevail: the fact that he has the loyalty of many party MLAs for being an accessible leader – especially when appointment at Matoshree got tough – and being generous with economic largesse.Former Maharashtra Chief MinisterIn the last few days, Uddhav Thackeray faced the worst crisis in his short political life, emerging from the overarching shadow of father Bal Thackeray. Not only did he lose chief ministership after taking a gamble with an unlikely coalition, he is facing the prospect of losing control of a party founded by Balasaheb and deriving sustenance from the Thackeray name. In hindsight, it seems Uddhav sowed the seeds right at the beginning when, on November 28, 2019, he took over as Chief Minister. He thus became the first Thackeray to hold a public office, with Balasaheb choosing to let a Sainik be CM while he held full control over the party.Activist Teesta Setalvad and retired Gujarat DGP R B SreekumarA day after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit by the SIT to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots, the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) earlier this week arrested Mumbai-based activist Teesta Setalvad, who backed petitioner Zakia Jafri, and retired Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar, whose role had been called into question by the Court. Teesta Setalvad, a journalist and activist based out of Mumbai and a Padma Shri, is a founding trustee and secretary of the NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) established in 2002 in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots, with one area of work being providing legal assistance to victims of the riots. She was among the first activists to take up the cases of riot victims in Gujarat in 2002, finally leading the Supreme Court to set up a special investigation team to probe the post-Godhra riots, six years later, under former CBI director R K Raghavan. Setalvad has also faced several allegations over the years.A decorated police officer, R B Sreekumar challenged the Narendra Modi government’s claims of peace in Gujarat in the aftermath of the 2002 riots, spoke of the alleged collusion between government agencies and rioters, and was shunted out and denied promotion while in service. The Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch arrested the 75-year-old former Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) from his home in Gandhinagar on charges such as forgery and criminal conspiracy. This came a day after the Supreme Court called into question his role in the petition against Modi in the riots. The court made the observation while upholding the clean chit Prime Minister Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat, had received from a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with the riots.Guddu Jamali, the BSP candidate in Lok Sabha bypollsThe Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Shah Alam — a two-time MLA — lost the Azamgarh Lok Sabha by-election but made the biggest impact. Alam, popularly known as Guddu Jamali, garnered 2.66 lakh votes, with a vote share of 29.27 per cent, effectively damaging the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) chances of retaining the seat that its president Akhilesh Yadav had won in 2019 with a 60.36 per cent vote share. The SP had contested the election in alliance with the BSP. With Jamali, 49, putting in a strong performance, the SP saw its vote share slide to 33.44 per cent even as the BJP almost held on to its vote share, which dipped marginally to 34.39 per cent. The SP ultimately lost to the BJP by 8,679 votes. Sangrur Lok Sabha bypolls victor Simranjit MannDealing a severe blow to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president, Simranjit Singh Mann, emerged as the victor Sunday in the crucial bypoll in the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency, the bastion of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, defeating AAP candidate Gurmail Singh in a neck-and-neck fight. The bypoll was necessitated when the incumbent Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann resigned from the seat after becoming the CM in March following the AAP’s landslide victory in the state Assembly elections. It was considered to be the first test of the fledgling Mann-led AAP government’s popularity. Pushed to the margins of Punjab’s mainstream politics for over two-and-half decades, the 77-year-old pro-Khalistan leader and ex-IPS officer Simranjit Singh Mann’s stunning win is likely to boost the Panthic politics in the border state.
AHMEDABAD: The special investigation team (SIT) formed to probe charges of fabrication of evidence against activist Teesta Setalvad, former DGP R B Sreekumar, and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt began an inquiry into the case on Monday and interrogated Setalvad and Sreekumar. The newly formed SIT will analyse the documents of the SIT appointed in 2008 by the Supreme Court and headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan. The old SIT had probed whether the state's functionaries were involved in the 2002 riots. "We will examine all the documents, especially the affidavits, filed with the 2008 SIT and with the Justice Nanavati panel that had inquired into the 2002 riots," said an officer of the SIT. The apex court had on June 24 dismissed a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, the wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the February 28, 2002 massacre at Ahmedabad's Gulbarg Society. The petition filed by Jafri and Setalvad had demanded a probe into the "larger conspiracy". The petition had challenged the clean chit given to then chief minister Narendra Modi and 62 others in the post-Godhra riots. A team headed by Gujarat ATS chief Deepan Bhadran, along with ATS SP Sunil Joshi and DCP (crime) Chaitanya Mandalik, on Monday jointly interrogated Setalvad and Sreekumar, who are in the custody of the Ahmedabad crime branch. The two were arrested after the Ahmedabad crime branch filed a complaint against Setalvad, Sreekumar, and Bhatt over the alleged fabrication of documents with the intention to prosecute certain innocent people for the riots. The SIT officer said the investigators will try to ascertain why and how the accused had prepared the fabricated documents and whether they were aided and instructed by some other people. To a query about how the accused had hatched the conspiracy and when they had met for the first time, the officer said: "The investigation is at a very early stage and it will take a few days to gather more evidence to establish how they had conspired against innocent persons." Police officials said that Bhadran and all the officers of the SIT will camp at the Ahmedabad crime branch office in Raikhad to interrogate the accused. On Bhatt's arrest, another special investigation team officer said they were yet to move a transfer warrant in the case. Denied venue twice, activists hold meet at lawyer’s officeMembers of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Ahmedabad civil society had to change their venue twice to hold a meeting on Monday evening to express solidarity with recently arrested social activist Teesta Setalvad, former DGP R B Sreekumar and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt.
THE GUJARAT government on Sunday formed a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the state’s Anti-Terrorism Squad DIG Deepan Bhadran to investigate retired DGP R B Sreekumar, Mumbai-based activist Teesta Setalvad and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt for criminal conspiracy and forgery, and other charges, “as per directions of the Supreme Court”, a top official told The Indian Express.The move follows an FIR lodged against the three at the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) on Saturday, a day after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit given to the then chief minister Narendra Modi, his council of ministers and bureaucrats on their role in the 2002 riots.Setalvad, who was brought from Mumbai to Ahmedabad by an ATS team, and Sreekumar, who was arrested from his home on Saturday, were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate S P Patel on Sunday with the police seeking remand.According to sources, even as the hearing was on, Setalvad was taken to hospital for a “medical check-up” after she complained of injuries caused by an alleged assault by the police while detaining her. The police have denied the allegation.Sources said Bhatt was taken under custody on Sunday by a DCB team from Palanpur jail in Banaskantha where he has been lodged in a 1996 narcotics case. DCP (Crime) Chaitanya Mandalik told The Indian Express that the process of bringing Bhatt to the DCB office in Ahmedabad on a transfer warrant and arresting him “will take two to three days”.Mandalik is part of the new SIT under DIG Bhadran. The other members are: ATS SP Sunil Joshi, Deputy SP (Special Operations Group) B C Solanki, who will be the Investigating Officer, police inspectors P G Vaghela and A D Parmar, and a woman inspector H V Raval. The terms of reference include collection of evidence to investigate the case “as per the directions of the Supreme Court”.On Friday, while dismissing a petition filed by Zakia Jafri against the clean chit given to Modi, the Supreme Court had ruled that “no material was discovered pointing towards any meeting of minds/ conspiracy in the higher echelons of the administration or the political establishment conspired with other persons to cause such riots or turned a Nelson’s eye when the riots had triggered and continued”.It pointed to a “coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the state of Gujarat along with others… to create sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge. The falsity of their claims had been fully exposed by the SIT (in the Gujarat riots case) after a thorough investigation”.It noted that “intriguingly, the present proceedings have been pursued for the last 16 years…to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design…all those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law”.Asked about the charges against the three, DCP Mandalik said: “The charges are forging government records, submitting forged documents and abuse of power. The arrested accused have been uncooperative so far and we are investigating the case from all angles. Prima facie, the charges against two ex-IPS officers are their affidavits and documents submitted in the case. We are also in the process of retrieving the documents they have submitted in front of commissions, courts and the SIT for further probe. The investigation is at an early stage but we believe that there could be other persons also behind the conspiracy.”Asked why the time frame of the offence in the FIR was recorded as “January 1 2002 to June 15, 2022”, Mandalik said: “The entire case began after the Godhra riots in February 2002 , therefore we have kept a time period bracket of 2002 to 2022 to investigate all angles in it.”Setalvad was brought to the DCB office in Ahmedabad’s Jamalpur early on Sunday after which she was taken to civil hospital for a RT PCR test. Later, while being presented in court, Setalvad told reporters that she is “not a criminal”.Setalvad, Sreekumar and Bhatt have been booked under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 468 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence, 211 (false charge of offence made with intent to injure) and 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture).Based on the Supreme Court verdict, the FIR states that the accused would be investigated for “finding out the behind the scene criminal conspiracy and financial and other benefits, inducements for commission of various serious offences in collusion with other individuals, entities and organisations”.(With Sohini Ghosh)
AHMEDABAD: Chief minister Bhupendra Patel watched the 145th Jagannath Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad and other cities on a dashboard. The chief minister performed the Pahind ritual early in the morning at the Jagannath temple in Ahmedabad and flagged off the Rath Yatra. After reaching his residence, Patel indulged in real-time monitoring of the event through the dashboard. In this year's Rath Yatra, the state home department is using drones to monitor the yatra from a height of 65 metre. The CM also observed the activities of the personnel of Gujarat Police who are stationed at sensitive places and points in this Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad. The police personnel were equipped with about 2,500 body-worn cameras. In this year's Rath Yatra, akhada-bhajan mandli’s and real-time monitoring of trucks and vehicles involved in the Rath Yatra were provided through GPS was also seen on the video wall of the dashboard.
The Ahmedabad city police on Wednesday announced traffic diversions and laid out the final route for the Jagannath Rath yatra procession along 18 kilometres on July 1.The Rath Yatra will start from Jamalpur Darwaza around 7 am to Saraspur after an aarti by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and will return back to Jagannath Temple in Jamalpur by 6 pm. According to officials of the Jagannath Temple trust, three to four lakh devotees are expected to join the procession from across the state.Over 25,000 personnel of the Gujarat Police and other security agencies will also be deployed along the yatra route.As per Ahmedabad police, the final route for the yatra procession is Jamalpur Chakla-Vaishya Sabha-Gollimda-Astodia Chakla-Madangopal ni haveli-Raipur Chakla-Khadia Juni Gate-Khadia crossroads-Panchkuva-Kalupur circle-Kalupur bridge-Saraspur. The route from Saraspiur would be Kalupur bridge-Kalupur circle-Prem Darwaza-Jordan Road-Bechardas Lashkarini Haveli-Dilli Darwaza-Shahpur Darwaza-Shahpur Chakla-Rangila Chowki-Otampol-RC High School-Dilli Chakla-Ghee Kanta road-Pankor Naka-Kuvara-Chandla Ole-Danapith-Gollimda-Khamasa-back to temple.“The concerned routes mentioned in the map will be shut for a few hours as yatra proceeds from them, the roads will be opened. Commuters can use the alternate route of Raikhad Char Rasta to Victoria Garden to riverfront to Flower market to Jamalpur bridge in order to travel to Geeta Mandir road,” said Mayanksinh Chavda, joint police commissioner, in a statement.“Similarly, commuters travelling towards Paldi can use the diverted route of Astodia Char Rasta to Geeta Mandir to Jamalpur bridge to Sardar bridge. Similar diversions will be facilitated by the police on the route of Rath Yatra,” Chavda added.The 145th Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra is being held in a full-fledged manner after a gap of two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, the state government had ordered a symbolic procession of chariots inside the temple premises while in 2021, only three chariots and a few priests were allowed to carry the procession without devotees.
Two days ahead of the 145th Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra in old city Ahmedabad, the city police announced traffic diversions and laid out the final map for the 18 km yatra procession scheduled on July 1, where lakhs are expected to arrive, after two years of no-show due to the pandemic.The Ahmedabad Traffic Police on Wednesday laid out the route map of the Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra from Jamalpur Darwaza to Saraspur and back to Jagannath Temple in Jamalpur. The yatra is scheduled to begin by 7 am after Union Home Minister Amit Shah will conduct an aarti at the temple premises and the procession is expected to return to the temple by 6 pm.The 145th Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra is being held in a full-fledged manner after two years of the yatra being cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, the state government had ordered a symbolic procession of chariots inside the temple premises itself while in 2021, only three chariots and a few priests, sans devotees, were allowed to carry the procession.According to officials of the Jagannath Temple trust, around 3-4 lakh devotees across Gujarat are expected to join the procession. Over 25,000 personnel of Gujarat Police and other security agencies will also be deployed during the yatra on July 1.As per Ahmedabad police, the final route for the yatra procession is Jamalpur Chakla-Vaishya Sabha-Gollimda-Astodia Chakla-Madangopal ni haveli-Raipur Chakla-Khadia Juni Gate-Khadia crossroads-Panchkuva-Kalupur circle-Kalupur bridge-Saraspur. The route from Saraspur would be Kalupur bridge-Kalupur circle-Prem Darwaza-Jordan Road-Bechardas Lashkarini Haveli-Dilli Darwaza-Shahpur Darwaza-Shahpur Chakla-Rangila Chowki-Otampol-RC High School-Dilli Chakla-Ghee Kanta Road-Pankor Naka-Kuvara-Chandla Ole-Danapith-Gollimda-Khamasa-back to the temple.“The routes mentioned in the map will be shut for a few hours. As yatra proceeds, the roads will be opened. Commuters can use the alternate route of Raikhad Char Rasta to Victoria Garden to riverfront to flower market to Jamalpur bridge in order to travel to Geeta Mandir Road. Similarly, commuters travelling towards Paldi can use the diverted route of Astodia Char Rasta to Geeta Mandir to Jamalpur bridge to Sardar bridge. Similar diversions will be facilitated by the police on the route of Rath Yatra,” said Mayanksinh Chavda, joint police commissioner, Ahmedabad Traffic Police, in a statement.
Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi conducted an inspection of the Rath yatra route along with senior police officials, priests, and local Member of Legislative Assemblys (MLAs), on Tuesday morning, ahead of the 145th Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra scheduled in old city Ahmedabad on July 1.Later in the day, Sanghavi also took Dilip Dasji Maharaj, the head priest of Lord Jagannath temple, and Congress MLA Imran Khedawala to interact with the local residents of Jamalpur, as a confidence building measure between two communities ahead of the yatra. A total of 25,000 personnel of Gujarat Police, State Reserve Police, Home Guard, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Rapid Action Force (RAF) and other agencies will be deployed at the 18 kilometres long stretch of the yatra on July 1. In that regard, a total of 51 persons were detained under sections of the CRPC.“On June 29 at 8 am, idols of Lord Jagannath, Subhadra and Baldev will enter the garbh gruh (sanctum santorum) and then after pooja ceremony, the idols will be blindfolded as per ritual. Then at 9:30 am on Wednesday, Gujarat BJP President CR Paatil will attend a flag hoisting ceremony at the temple premises and later, former deputy CM Nitin Patel will honour the saints,” said Mahendra Jha, one of the trustees at Lord Jagannath Temple.“On Thursday, a pooja ceremony of elephants will be conducted followed by the placing of the three chariots carrying the three idols. Then a peace committee meeting will be called at the temple premises and later CM Bhupendra Patel will conduct an aarti in the evening,” he added.🚨 Limited Time Offer | Express Premium with ad-lite for just Rs 2/ day 👉🏽 Click here to subscribe 🚨“On July 1, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will conduct an aarti at the temple around 4 am and then the yatra will begin by 7 am,” he added.Lakhs of devotees will walk 18 kilometres along the route of Lord Jagannath from Jamalpur Darwaza to Saraspur to theLord Jagannath temple. The historic yatra was curtailed for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in 2022, the state government has given permission to organise the rath yatra in a full-fledged manner. Surat all set In Surat, the procession will be taken out from five different locations — Pandesara, Mahidharpura, Katargam, Sachin and the main one from Surat railway station to Jehangirpura at Iskcon temple. After holding a meeting with leaders from the Hindu community and Muslim community on Tuesday, Surat police commissioner Ajay Kumar Tomar said, “We have given assurances that the police will assist each procession and see no untoward incident takes places. Police vehicles with cameras and personnel with body cameras will also travel with the procession.”Giving details about the yatra, Saroj Kumar Das of Iskon temple said, “Our procession will start from Surat railway station at 3 pm on July 1. It will reach Athwagate area and cross Tapi river from Sardar bridge and reach Adajan area, before culminating at Jehangirpura area by 9 pm.”
AHMEDABAD: Apart from catching glimpses of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balbhadra and sister Subhadra during the Rath Yatra, devotees will also be able to see a cop flying with a pilot on a paramotor. This unit is likely to be introduced if rain and heavy wind do not hinder flying. The decision to use a paramotor for the Rath Yatra on July 1 came after the plan to use a gyrocopter was dropped as it was not feasible in the narrow lanes of the Walled City, said a police officer. City police will, for the first time, have air patrolling over Rath Yatra route and adjoining areas from Thursday. “We have engaged two paramotors for patrolling during the Rath Yatra along with two youths from Vijapur, who used them for adventure sport so far,” said a police officer. Three cops have been trained for riding in the paramotor for around a month. “A pilot will fly the paramotor and the cop will sit with him and monitor the Rath Yatra,” said the cop. A paramotor is a paraglider with a propulsion motor and a harness. There are two basic types of paramotors, foot launched and wheel launched. City police will use the wheel launched version. “The only difficulty is rough weather in paramotor,” said the police officer, adding that there will be no life-threatening situation as the chances of crashing are very low. Even if the paramotor is not used, there will be a helicopter continuously carrying out sorties, starting from Tuesday itself.
On September 12, 2011, when the Supreme Court had sent the complaint filed by Zakia Jafri against then chief minister Narendra Modi and 62 others back to the Metropolitan Magistrate’s court in Ahmedabad without issuing directions, Modi had tweeted “God is Great”. A few days later, on his 62nd birthday, he launched the ‘Sadbhavna’ fasts, meeting people from all faiths in different districts.As Prime Minister, Modi has chosen not to react to the verdict of a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on the same complaint, which upheld the clean chit to his administration for alleged role in “the larger conspiracy” related to the 2002 Gujarat riots.However, the BJP has been in celebratory mode. All its top leaders almost immediately issued statements welcoming the judgment, while condemning the role played by activist Teesta Setalvad, retired DGP R B Sreekumar, former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt and others in “defaming” Modi who was the then CM of Gujarat. State chief C R Paatil called Setalvad a “Congress puppet”, and accused the three of “fabricating evidence” to “frame” Modi.A day later, Union Home Minister Amit Shah gave an interview to ANI solely centred around the Gujarat riots, repeating the charges against a “triad of media, political parties and NGOs”, and suggesting even the courts had been “swayed” due to their campaign. Hours later, Setalvad and Sreekumar were arrested on charges of forgery, criminal conspiracy etc, on an FIR that extensively quoted the Supreme Court order. Bhatt, who is serving a life term in another case, was also booked on the same charges.While the BJP’s stand publicly is that the riots order won’t be made a poll issue, the party is set to celebrate it as “a moral victory”. A lawyer actively associated with the BJP, who also represented some of the accused in the 2002 riot cases, said: “As a lawyer, I knew how witnesses were being tutored and many innocent people were framed and faced jail terms. This judgment will pave the way for justice, against those who framed Modiji.”The lawyer added that the Court order as well as arrests of Setalvad and Sreekumar would also send out a message to those party supporters “falsely” accused in riot cases. “Back then, the party was unable to check their persecution,” he said.The BJP especially expects a boost for those BJP leaders closely tied to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The Godhra train burning, in which kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya as part of the campaign were killed, is seen as the trigger for the 2002 riots.For those in the Ram temple campaign, this is the second big Court endorsement after the Supreme Court in 2019 gave the go-ahead for the shrine in Ayodhya.Only one big BJP leader was convicted in the riots, who was also acquitted later. Maya Kodnani was sentenced for the Naroda Patiya violence, one of the biggest massacres of 2002, by a Supreme Court-appointed special court. Since she was acquitted by the High Court, Kodnani is again a presence at the party office at Shree Kamalam.Trial is on in only one more 2002 case under the apex court’s scrutiny, the Naroda Gam deaths. Kodnani is also on trial in this apart from Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi. In its order, the Supreme Court set aside the Tehelka sting operation that had caught Babu Bajrangi bragging about the killings.The Congress’s half-measures on the Supreme Court order – first choosing cautiousness, then speaking out after criticism – won’t help the party’s cause in a state where it is in a direct fight with the BJP.Since 2002, the Assembly elections in Gujarat have been largely polarised on communal lines, with the BJP winning one election after another. Only in 2017 did the Congress show some revival spark, though that is now also seen as snuffed out in face of the AAP’s fledgling competition.The BJP has further put the Congress on the defensive over the Supreme Court order, by alleging the hand of Congress president Sonia Gandhi in propping up Setalvad.Asked how important the Supreme Court judgment was for the BJP, C R Paatil told The Indian Express: “The judgment is important not only for Gujarat, but for the entire country. It is very dangerous in a democracy that some political party hatches such conspiracy or gets it hatched or supports it, by which its rival can get capital punishment.”On whether it will help the party electorally in Gujarat or not, Paatil said: “It is the biggest victory for us that Modi saheb has got a clean chit after such a long struggle. If you ask electorally, we are going to win (the state Assembly elections); it does not matter whether the judgment came now or afterwards. We are going to win because we are doing people’s work, we are connected with the people.”A senior BJP leader, who did not want to be identified, said: “Our party will definitely gain from this development. Narendrabhai and the party as a whole have faced a lot of stress due to these false allegations. Now, sympathy will be in favour of Narendrabhai among people. They will realise that he (Modi) was personally targeted and the entire state of Gujarat was defamed.”According to this leader, the order has ensured that the coming Assembly elections are fought solely on the issue of development. “Narendrabhai has set the tradition of fighting elections on the issues of development. Coming elections will also be fought on the same lines,” said the leader.Indicating the line the party is set to take, one also adopted by Shah in his interview, a senior office-bearer said: “Narendrabhai has always respected the law. He did not act against any of these people who hatched conspiracies (against him). Being the Chief Minister, he could have easily got an FIR registered against them. But he has set a benchmark for respecting the process of law.”The party leader also said that the cases against Setalvad, Sreekumar and Bhatt’s had been registered by the Gujarat government as per the direction of the Supreme Court. “The only gain for our party due to the Court order is that our stand has been vindicated. Our party is not going to make it an election issue and will stick to the politics of development.”
Gujarat Riots: Supreme Court dismissed the petition filed by Zakia Jafri, wife of Ehsan Jafri.New Delhi: "Satyamev Jayate" was the unanimous reaction of BJP leaders on Friday after the Supreme Court upheld the SIT's clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the Gujarat riots of 2002, when he was the state's chief minister, and dismissed a plea by Congress leader Ehsan Jafri's wife Zakia alleging a larger conspiracy.Union minister Anurag Thakur said,"Satyamev Jayate! Supreme Court of India gives a clean chit and has dismissed the plea filed by Zakia Jafri challenging the SC-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) report on post-Godhra violence in Gujarat. The Supreme Court says the petition is without merit." "Satyamev Jayate,"(Truth alone triumphs) was how another Union minister Smriti Irani put it while party spokesperson Sambit Patra also tweeted the same expression.BJP secretary Y Satya Kumar claimed that Congress' last attempt to malign PM Modi has fallen flat and justice prevailed as he cited the top court's observation that Zakia Jafri's appeal was devoid of merits and deserved to be dismissed.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comBringing the curtains down on the bid to reopen the probe, a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said the material collected during the investigation does not "give rise to strong or grave suspicion regarding hatching of larger criminal conspiracy at the highest level" for causing mass violence against Muslims.The bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar, termed Zakia Jafri's plea devoid of merit. It spoke of "the devious stratagem to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design" and noted that all those involved in "such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law".
PM Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat during the 2002 riots (File).New Delhi: An appeal against the exoneration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a 2002 Gujarat riots case by the wife of a Congress MP killed in the violence is "devoid of merits" and filed "to keep the pot boiling", the Supreme Court said on Friday.Upholding the clearance issued to the then Chief Minister of the state by a Special Investigation Team or SIT, the top court dismissed the petition filed by Zakia Jafri, wife of Ehsan Jafri, who was among the 68 people killed in what came to be known as the Gulbarg Society massacre.The plea was filed "to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design", the court said, in strong comments that, it added, were borrowed from arguments made by the SIT."All those involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law," the judges said, surmising that the appeal was filed under "dictation of someone".They said petitioner's arguments were bordering on "undermining the integrity and sincerity" of SIT members and most of the content in the plea was "based on versions of others which have been found to be replete with falsehood".It also said that the submissions by Ms Jafri were "far-fetched and an attempt to undo and undermine the industry of the SIT in investigating the cases".The Gulbarg Society massacre was one of the worst incidents of violence in the riots that began after a train coach carrying pilgrims was burnt in Godhra, killing 59 people, a day ago.Ms Jafri, 84, had sought a fresh investigation into the communal riots, alleging a larger conspiracy involving politicians and the police.Supreme Court Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar had reserved the verdict last December.The massacre at Ahmedabad's Gulbarg Society - a cluster of 29 bungalows and 10 apartment buildings housing mostly Muslims - was among the 10 major Gujarat riot cases re-investigated by the special team appointed by the Supreme Court.Ehsan Jafri, a former Congress parliamentarian, was among 68 people dragged out, hacked and burnt by the rioters. The Congress leader's frantic phone calls to police officers and senior politicians for help went unanswered, Zakia Jafri had alleged.The Special Investigation Team had submitted its closure report in February 2012 - a decade after the riots - and exonerated Prime Minister Modi and 63 others, citing "no prosecutable evidence".PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comIn 2016, a special court in Ahmedabad convicted 24 attackers for the massacre that the court described as the "darkest day in the history of civil society." But the court, which also acquitted 36 people including a BJP corporator in this case, underlined that there was no larger conspiracy.Over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the three-day violence in Gujarat in 2002.
Appeal filed under the "dictation of someone", the Supreme Court saidNew Delhi: The Supreme Court rejected an appeal against exoneration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a 2002 Gujarat riots case. The appeal by Zakia Jafri, wife of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the violence, was "devoid of merits", the court said Here are top five observations by the court:Quoting from the Special Investigation Team's arguments, the court said the plea was filed "to keep the pot boiling" for "ulterior design".All those involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law, the court said.The appeal was filed under the "dictation of someone", the Supreme Court said in its verdict.The court said most of the content in the plea based on the versions of others and found to be "replete with falsehood".The court said the petitioner's arguments border on "undermining the integrity and sincerity" of the probe team's members and question the "wisdom" of Supreme Court. Comments
Zakia Jafri, widow of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, had challenged the clean chit to PM Modi (File)New Delhi: The Congress on Monday termed as "deeply disappointing" the Supreme Court ruling upholding the SIT's clean chit to the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 communal riots, and asked whether Modi and the state government will ever be held accountable.The opposition party said it stands by party leader, the late Ehsan Jafri, and his family and asserted that what happened to him in a most tragic manner was the result of a "fundamental lapse on the part of the state government".Ehsan Jafri, a former Congress MP, was among the 68 people killed at Ahmedabad's Gulberg Society during the violence on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train burning that claimed 59 lives.The Congress' detailed reaction to the Supreme Court ruling came after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the SIT's clean chit to PM Modi and 63 others in the 2002 communal riots in the state, saying there is no "title of material" to show the violence after the Godhra train carnage was "pre-planned" owing to the criminal conspiracy allegedly hatched at the "highest level" in the state.The top court dismissed a plea by Jafri's wife Zakia, terming it as "devoid of merits".In a statement on the top court ruling, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the Supreme Court judgment in the Zakia Jafri case is "deeply disappointing".Despite the judgment dated June 24, 2022, certain fundamental questions still remain unanswered, Mr Ramesh said."What is the constitutional and moral responsibility of the chief minister and the state government in cases of large-scale communal riots," Mr Ramesh said."Is the responsibility in such cases only ever that of the Collector & Deputy Commissioner of Police and not of political executive? Will the chief minister, cabinet and state government never be held accountable, even if a state is thrown into a circle of violence & riots?" he said.While the Supreme Court has pronounced its judgment, there are five questions that will continue to haunt Prime Minister Modi, including was he not the Gujarat chief Minister when the horrific riots took place in 2002, Mr Ramesh said."Why was PM Vajpayee so affected by his lack of action that he had to publicly remind him to do his duty, to follow his ‘Rajdharma'?" Mr Ramesh said.Was it not the Supreme Court which called out the conduct of the Modi Government in Gujarat as that of "modern day Nero's (who) were looking elsewhere when ...innocent children and helpless women were burning, and were probably deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime can be saved or protected”, the Congress leader asked.''Why did sections of the BJP, including now member of the Modi Cabinet Smriti Irani protest and call for his dismissal as CM if he was not guilty of any wrongdoing," Mr Ramesh asked."What about all the numerous convictions that have been carried out on the basis of the evidence collected by the SIT relating to the Gujarat riots? Can the BJP claim that those also stand invalidated?" he said.Mr Ramesh asserted that no amount of "propaganda'' by the BJP can ever erase these facts.The riots that the Godhra carnage triggered killed 1,044 people, mostly Muslims. The Central government had informed the Rajya Sabha in May 2005 that 254 Hindus and 790 Muslims were killed in the post-Godhra riots.The top court had observed that inaction or failure of some officials of one section of the administration cannot be the basis to readily infer a pre-planned criminal conspiracy by the authorities or to term it as a state-sponsored crime against the minority community Bringing the curtains down on the bid to reopen the probe into the 2002 riots, a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar also spoke of “the devious stratagem to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design”.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comIt said disgruntled officers of the Gujarat government need to be in the dock and proceeded against in accordance with law for creating a sensation by making false revelations. (This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SURAT/AHMEDABAD: Tanvir Jafri, son of slain former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed during 2002 riot, on Friday said that he was disappointed with the Supreme Court decision. The SC rejected his mother Zakia Jafri’s plea challenging the clean chit given to former Gujarat chief minister and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others by the special investigation team (SIT) that probed the 2002 riots. Jafri talked with TOI over a phone from Macca as he is on haj. Jafri lives with his mother and family in Surat. “I am yet to read the order, but I came to know from people that our plea has been rejected. I am disappointed over the Supreme Court order,” said Jafri. “Due to old age, my mother is living with a relative and she is also not in a position to read the entire order immediately. I will read the order copy once I get it and later will plan my next move,” said Jafri. Senior Congress leader from Gujarat Arjun Modhwadia said there was no option other than to accept the supreme court’s verdict. “Many people were burnt alive during the riots. One of them was our party’s former MP Ehsan Jafri. His wife Zakia was fighting the case even at the age of 85 because she was hoping to get justice. Now, there is no other option for us than to accept the supreme court verdict,” said Modhwadia, former state Congress chief. “The judgement in the Zakia Jafri case was delivered on Friday and it was over in precisely two minutes. The SIT report of February 8, 2012, has been fully accepted by the SC. The protest petition dated April 15, 2013, has been completely rejected. There was no infraction of rule of law, said the supreme court, and accordingly the appeal has been dismissed,” said activist Teesta Setalvad in her reaction. Setalvad had supported Zakia Jafri throughout her legal battle. Ehsan Jafri was among 68 persons killed at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002. A day earlier, 59 people including karsevaks had been killed when a coach of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire at Godhra.
After the Supreme Court rejected a petition moved by Zakia Jafri — wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre — against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others, Gujarat BJP Friday said that truth has prevailed.Quoting Gujarat BJP president CR Paatil, a party release said, “One more attempt to link Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the 2002 riots with malafide political intentions has failed…”In the entire litigation, the BJP said, people of the country have seen to what extent the Congress can go to get power. The release added that as part of a conspiracy of Congress and other opposition parties to defame Modi, more than 60 inquiry commissions, government and non-government agencies, international NGOs and Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), too, have investigated the matter.“Still, after so many years and despite clean chit to Modi by a number of times, this lobby has continued hatching conspiracies with political prejudice. And, therefore, the Supreme Court has commented that ‘this procedure has been followed only to keep the issue alive for the past 16 years and it is clean that its motive is malafide’,” the release stated quoting Paatil.“Notwithstanding the fact that the entire legal process went on for 20 years and the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to Narendrabhai Modi in 2012, this case was filed… And after a magistrate and Gujarat High Court dismissed the same, Congress leader Kapil Sibal argued for eight days before the Supreme Court and its verdict has come today… the Supreme Court has dismissed it with strong words. In the process, entire country has seen to what extent the Congress can go for power. We hope this will be the permanent end to the case,” it added.Addressing a press conference, Gujarat BJP general secretary Rajni Patel said, “Anti-Gujarat people, anti-India people and those against Narendrabhai Modi continuously did such activities so that he (Modi) is pushed to margins, lags behind and Gujarat’s progress is hindered. They did not spare any effort to do such activity.”“When Congress, too, strongly aligned with all those, this (Supreme Court decision) is a strong reply to it as well that those doing development, those progressing forward, those aligning with truth will always triumph,” Patel said.He added, “The entire investigation was done by Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government and this verdict exposes Congress’s mentality of victimisation.”“The only aim of Congress was to stop Narendrabhai Modiji anyhow. The way Narendrabhai was moving ahead, the way Gujarat model was progressing, entire country’s eye was on Gujarat and it seemed certain to Congress that BJP and Narendrabhai will come to rule the country. And therefore, all attempts were made by them (Congress) to stop him from here (Gujarat) itself,” Patel said, adding “Truth has triumphed and people of Gujarat and entire country are happy.”
