July 21, 1985, Forty Years Ago: Kanishka mystery
Flash floods
Flash floods and heavy rains have claimed 23 lives in Punjab, 16 of them in Jalandhar, and disrupted rail and road traffic in the state. In Bihar, the overall flood situation worsened in at least five districts. The situation in West Bengal was also grim, with the Ganga in full fury at Farakka and Manikghat in Malda district. However, it was yet to touch the danger mark.
AIML leaves LDF
The All India Muslim League (AIML) decided to sever its 11-year-old alliance with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and walked out of the Left Democratic Front in Kerala. The decision taken by the working committee of the AIML and its state council was announced here by the AIML legislature party leader, P M Aboobacker. The LDF's strength in the state assembly has dropped to 60 from 64, with the four-member AIML group parting its ways with the Marxist-led front.
Punjab polls
While the Union agricultural minister, Buta Singh, hinted at holding elections in Punjab in the near future, the AICC (I) General Secretary Rajendra Kumar Bajpai told newsmen in Delhi that the party had not yet taken any decision in this regard. Elections in Punjab, she said, depended on the situation in the state.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
20 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Jagdeep Dhankhar's turbulent innings: Face-offs with Oppn, judiciary; Janata Dal to BJP via Congress
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned late Monday night to 'prioritise health care and abide by medical advice'. He stated that his resignation, addressed to President Droupadi Murmu, comes into effect immediately. Dhankhar, 74, who is also the Rajya Sabha Vice-Chairman, is unlikely to attend the proceedings of the House during the ongoing Monsoon Session on Tuesday. In his resignation letter, Dhankhar thanked the President for her 'unwavering support' and the 'soothing, wonderful working relationship' they shared. He expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers for their 'invaluable support,' adding that the warmth and affection shown by MPs 'will remain embedded' in his memory. The resignation came just hours after what turned out to be his final sitting as the Rajya Sabha Chairman. There was no indication about it during the day. Dhankhar assumed office as the 14th Vice-President of India in August 2022. In the Vice-Presidential polls, as the BJP-led NDA candidate, he trounced the Opposition's nominee Margaret Alva comfortably by securing 528 votes against the latter's 182. He had not been a stranger to rows. His stint as the Rajya Sabha Chairman had remained turbulent, as he had runs-ins with the Opposition members on a regular basis. He also stridently took on the judiciary over the issue of separation of powers. Dhankhar has been the only Vice-President against whom the Opposition brought a notice of removal for 'partisan' conduct as the Rajya Sabha Chairman. The notice was rejected by Deputy Chairman Harivansh, even as Dhankhar dubbed it as a 'rusted' vegetable-cutting knife which, he said, was used for a bypass surgery. Prior to the second highest constitutional office, Dhankhar had been the West Bengal Governor. Since July 2019, when the Modi government sent him to the Kolkata Raj Bhavan, Dhankhar had been at loggerheads with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government on a range of issues. For a leader known more for his face-offs with the Banerjee government as the Governor, and whom the TMC had often accused of acting as an 'agent of BJP', the first election Dhankhar contested was on a Janata Dal ticket, when he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu in 1989. His next election was for the Rajasthan Assembly — this time on a Congress ticket. Having represented the Kishangarh Assembly constituency from 1993 to 1998, Dhankhar, a graduate from University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, who completed his LLB degree in 1978-79, was also a former president of the Rajasthan High Court Bar Association. 'From 1998, he was a full-time senior advocate practising in Supreme Court — until he was appointed the Governor of West Bengal in 2019,' according to his younger brother Randeep Dhankhar. After he joined the BJP, Dhankhar, a Jat leader, became the national convener of the BJP's law and legal affairs department in 2016. Born into a farmer's family at Kithana village in Jhunjhunu district in 1951, Dhankhar studied at a local government school before going to Sainik school in Chittorgarh. He is married to Sudesh Dhankhar and they have a daughter, Kamna. During his role as the Bengal Governor, Dhankhar had been virtually a one-man opposition in the state, having taken on the TMC government regularly over various issues. In fact, such acrimonious had been the relationship that CM Banerjee had even blocked Dhankhar on social media. From law and order situation in the state to post-poll violence, and from corruption charges to lapses in bureaucracy, Dhankhar was never short of issues to criticise the TMC government. The relation between Dhankhar and the Mamata government took a turn for the worse when the latter decided to replace the Governor with the CM as the Chancellor of the state universities. While the TMC had accused Dhankhar of not clearing various Bills and creating 'unnecessary hurdles' in the functioning of the state government, the latter claimed he had gone by the book and the Constitution in pointing out issues to the government and the state legislature. Dhankhar had often sought details, especially details of expenditure, from the state government on various issues. Interestingly, in the V-P polls, the TMC MPs had abstained from voting, not backing the Opposition candidate, which left many baffled given the protracted bad blood between the party leadership and Dhankhar. Dhankhar is said to be an avid reader, a sports aficionado — he has been president of the Rajasthan Olympic Association and Rajasthan Tennis Association — and loves travelling with his family. In 1989, the then Haryana CM Chaudhary Devi Lal had vigorously campaigned for Dhankhar when the Janata Dal had fielded him in the parliamentary polls from Jhunjhunu. Ranjit Singh Chautala, Devi Lal's son and former Haryana minister, had earlier told The Indian Express: 'Dhankhar is like a member of our family. He came into politics after being influenced by Devi Lal.' Ranjit had said: 'In 1987, Chaudhary Devi Lal had called for a rally of the Opposition at Boat Club in Delhi. Dhankhar brought as many as 500 vehicles full of people from Jhunjhunu to participate in the rally. Devi Lal patted him on the back. Devi Lal called him from his home and offered a ticket of Janata Dal to contest from the Jhunjhunu Lok Sabha constituency in 1989.' Dhankhar won the election and became minister of state (parliamentary affairs) in the V P Singh-led government when Devi Lal became Deputy Prime Minister. Ranjit Chautala had recalled that 'Following differences, PM V P Singh had dismissed Devi Lal in 1990. Then, Dhankhar was the only minister who resigned from the Union Cabinet standing by Devi Lal. It impressed Devi Lal who called Dhankhar a man of commitment.' Later, Devi Lal became Deputy PM in the minority government led by Chandrashekhar while Dhankhar also became a minister in his government.
Indian Express
20 minutes ago
- Indian Express
UK, France and 23 other nations condemn Israel over ‘inhumane killing' of civilians
A group of 25 Western countries including Britain, France, and Canada said on Monday Israel must immediately end its war in Gaza and criticised what they called the 'inhumane killing' of Palestinians, including hundreds near food distribution sites. The countries in a joint statement condemned what they called the 'drip feeding of aid' to Palestinians in Gaza and said it was 'horrifying' that more than 800 civilians had been killed while seeking aid. The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, which the United States and Israel backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations. 'The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,' the countries' foreign ministers said in a joint statement. 'The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths.' Israel's foreign ministry said the statement was 'disconnected from reality' and it would send the wrong message to Hamas. 'The statement fails to focus the pressure on Hamas and fails to recognise Hamas's role and responsibility for the situation,' the Israeli statement said. Much of Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland during more than 21 months of the war that began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, with the latest deaths reported on Monday as Israel began a new incursion in central Gaza. The call by about 20 European countries as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand for an end to the war in Gaza and the delivery of aid comes from many countries which are allied with Israel and its most important backer, the United States. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing the UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation. The UN has called the GHF's model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards, which the GHF denies. The countries behind the statement said Israel was denying essential humanitarian assistance and called on the country to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law. They urged Israel to immediately lift restrictions to allow the flow of aid and to enable humanitarian organisations and the United Nations to operate safely and effectively. They added they were 'prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace' for Israelis and Palestinians.
The Hindu
20 minutes ago
- The Hindu
V.S. Achuthanandan helped transform socio-economic, political landscape of Kerala, says Antony
Veteran Congress leader and former Defence Minister A.K. Antony stated that the late V.S. Achuthanandan had played a pivotal role in transforming the socio-economic and political landscape of Kerala, when the vestiges of exploitative feudalism remained a fact of life for the labouring classes. Mr. Antony, who paid his last respects to Mr. Achuthanandan at the old AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, told reporters that as a school student in the early 1960s at Cherthala, he used to wait beside paddy fields to listen to the communist leader address agricultural workers. Mr. Antony rejected any comparison between himself and Mr. Achuthanandan. 'Mr. Achuthanandan's life and struggles and the torture and beatings he endured in the vanguard of the communist agitations for bonded agriculture workers in Kuttanad are unequalled and historical,' he said. Mr. Antony said that Mr. Achuthanandan, who joined the Communist Party at the age of 17 in 1940, was second only to T.V. Thomas, K.R. Gouri, and R. Sugathan in the party's hierarchy in central Kerala. In the grip of poverty 'In the early 50s, poverty plagued Cherthala, Ambalappuzha and Kuttanad in Alappuzha district. I remember seeing hundreds of women making a beeline for the Thaneermukkam harbour at dawn. Their employers paid them slave wages. Many returned home late at night after enduring humiliation and exploitation with a small bunch of tapioca for the family dinner,' he said. Mr. Antony said Mr. Achuthanandan led the Communist Party's successful struggle for better wages and restored the self-esteem of the women by unionising them and placing himself at their head. Mr. Antony said that Mr. Achuthanandan was the spearhead of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] in the Assembly when EMS Namboodiripad was the Leader of the Opposition. 'VS, Balanandan, K.R. Gouri and M.V. Raghavan were the CPI(M)'s firebrands,' he added. Mr. Antony said that Mr. Achuthanandan was seen generally as a martinet in the CPI(M) and a dogmatic party apparatchik with a limited public profile before he became the Leader of the Opposition. Champion of forgotten causes 'I watched with amazement when Mr. Achuthanandan emerged as the champion of forgotten causes, including women's rights and environmental protection, human rights, rights of sexual minorities, wetland conservation and became an idol of the masses, perhaps comparable only to A.K. Gopalan,' Mr. Antony said. When Mr. Achuthanandan became Chief Minister in 2006, he became a champion for State development. 'I was the Defence Minister, and Mr. Achuthanandan sought my assistance for making the Kochi metro a reality and for security clearance for the Vizhinjam port. I always went and met him at the Kerala House whenever Mr Achuthanandan came to New Delhi,' he added. 'A mind of his own' Mr. Antony said Mr. Achuthanandan had a strong moral compass and a mind of his own, which, he said, were not always subservient to party diktat. 'Perhaps, few remember that as a political prisoner, Mr. Achuthanandan donated his blood for soldiers during the Indo-China conflict, raising a few eyebrows and leaving behind a few ruffled feathers in the CPI(M),' Mr. Antony said. 'He was the strongest when in the Opposition, and he troubled us no end. But Mr. Achuthanandan never let politics creep into a personal relationship. An era has ended,' Mr. Antony said.
