Arrest of YSRCP leaders intended to divert people's attention from failures of government: Amarnath
Addressing a media conference here on Monday, Mr. Amarnath said that Mr. Naidu wants to divert the attention of people from the failures of his government to fulfil their election promises. They have booked around 2,800 cases after coming to power. The way in which two TDP-friendly vernacular dailies were reporting on the remand or arrest of YSRCP leaders even before the investigation agency took any action indicated that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the government was basing its probe on the reports given in those two newspapers, he alleged.
The YSRCP leader said that the liquor scam case was based on 'oral evidence' that some officials had spoken to the YSRCP leaders. It was common for officials to speak to the ruling party leaders, Ministers or the Chief Minister in any government. The officials would be speaking to Mr. Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan on a regular basis and wonder whether it could be construed as nexus with the officials, he ask
Mr. Amarnath alleged that the TDP government was arresting the YSRCP leaders with a political vengeance. He dared the government to show the proof of YSRCP leaders' involvement in the cases. The chargesheet says that the cases were booked based on 'assumption'. It does not say that money was received or that the leaders were caught taking money. This proves that the YSRCP leaders were being implicated in the cases, he alleged.
He recalled that the YSRCP government had shown evidence on the alleged involvement of Mr. Naidu in the skill development scam between 2014-19. He alleged that the TDP-led government was putting the 15 medical colleges sanctioned during the YSRCP regime for sale to privatise them.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
20 minutes ago
- Time of India
Tulsi Gabbard's claims of an anti-Trump conspiracy are not supported by declassified documents
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard this month declassified material that she claimed proved a "treasonous conspiracy" by the Obama administration in 2016 to politicize U.S. intelligence in service of casting doubt on the legitimacy of Donald Trump 's election victory. As evidence, Gabbard cited newly declassified emails from Obama officials and a five-year-old classified House report in hopes of undermining the intelligence community's conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to boost Trump and denigrate his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Project Management Public Policy PGDM Design Thinking Product Management Data Analytics Others Data Science Healthcare CXO Digital Marketing Operations Management Degree healthcare Leadership Finance Data Science others MCA Technology Management Skills you'll gain: Project Planning & Governance Agile Software Development Practices Project Management Tools & Software Techniques Scrum Framework Duration: 12 Weeks Indian School of Business Certificate Programme in IT Project Management Starts on Jun 20, 2024 Get Details Skills you'll gain: Portfolio Management Project Planning & Risk Analysis Strategic Project/Portfolio Selection Adaptive & Agile Project Management Duration: 6 Months IIT Delhi Certificate Programme in Project Management Starts on May 30, 2024 Get Details Russia 's activities during the 2016 election remain some of the most examined events in recent history. The Kremlin 's campaign and the subsequent U.S. government response were the subject of at least five major investigations by the Republican-led House and Senate intelligence committee; two Justice Department special counsels; and the department's inspector general. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The Top 25 Most Beautiful Women In The World Articles Vally Undo Those investigations either concluded - or accepted the conclusion - that Russia embarked on a campaign to interfere in the election through the use of social media and hacked material. The House-led probe, conducted by Trump allies, also concurred that Russia ran an election interference campaign but said the purpose was to sow chaos in the U.S. rather than boost Trump. Several of the reports criticize the actions of Obama administration officials, particularly at the FBI, but do not dispute the fundamental findings that Moscow sought to interfere in the election. Live Events The Associated Press has reviewed those reports to evaluate how Gabbard's claims stack up: Russian election interference CLAIM: "The intelligence community had one assessment: that Russia did not have the intent and capability to try to impact the outcome of the U.S. election leading up to Election Day. The same assessment was made after the election." - Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday. The documents Gabbard released do not support her claim. She cites a handful of emails from 2016 in which officials conclude that Russia had no intention of manipulating the U.S. vote count through cyberattacks on voting systems. President Barack Obama's administration never alleged that voting infrastructure was tampered with. Rather, the administration said Russia ran a covert influence campaign using hacked and stolen material from prominent Democrats. Russian operatives then used that information as part of state-funded media and social media operations to inflame U.S. public opinion. More than two dozen Russians were indicted in 2018 in connection with those efforts. Republican-led investigations in Congress have affirmed that conclusion, and the emails that Gabbard released do not contradict that finding. Shift in assessment? CLAIM: "There was a shift, a 180-degree shift, from the intelligence community's assessment leading up to the election to the one that President Obama directed be produced after Donald Trump won the election that completely contradicted those assessments that had come previously." - Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday. There was no shift. The emails Gabbard released show that a Department of Homeland Security official in August 2016 told then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper there was "no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count." The public assessment the Obama administration made public in January 2017 reached the same conclusion: "DHS assesses that the types of systems Russian actors targeted or compromised were not involved in vote tallying." Putin's intent CLAIM: The Obama administration "manufactured the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that they knew was false promoting the LIE that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government helped President Trump win the 2016 election." - Gabbard on Truth Social Wednesday. The material declassified this week reveals some dissent within the intelligence community about whether Putin wanted to help Trump or simply inflame the U.S. public. That same question led to a partisan divide on the House Intelligence panel when it examined the matter several years later. Gabbard's memo released last week cites a "whistleblower" who she says served in the intelligence community at the time and who is quoted as saying that he could not "concur in good conscience" with the intelligence community's judgment that Russia had a "decisive preference" for Trump. Such dissent and debate are not unusual in the drafting of intelligence reports. The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee examined whether there was any political interference in the Obama administration's conclusions and reported that "all analysts expressed that they were free to debate, object to content, and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper." In 2018, Putin directly addressed the question of whether he preferred Trump at a press conference in Helsinki even as he sidestepped a question about whether he directed any of his subordinates to help Trump. "Yes, I did," Putin said. "Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal." Steele dossier CLAIM: "They used already discredited information like the Steele dossier - they knew it was discredited at the time." - Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday. The dossier refers to a collection of opposition research files compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, whose work was funded by Democrats during the 2016 election. Those files included uncorroborated tips and salacious gossip about Trump's ties to Russia, but the importance to the Russia investigation has sometimes been overstated. It was not the basis for the FBI's decision to open an investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, the Justice Department's inspector general found. Some of the records released by Gabbard this week also reveal that it was a Central Intelligence Agency human source close to the Kremlin that the agency primarily relied on for its conclusion that Putin wanted to help Trump and hurt Clinton, not the Steele dossier. FBI agents on the case didn't even come to possess the dossier until weeks into their inquiry. Even so, Trump supporters have seized on the unverified innuendo in the document to undercut the broader Russia investigation. Many of Steele's claims have since been discredited or denied. It is true, however, that the FBI and Justice Department relied in part on the Steele dossier to obtain surveillance warrants to eavesdrop on the communications of a former Trump campaign adviser, the inspector general found. FBI agents continued to pursue those warrants even after questions arose about the credibility of Steele's reporting. The dossier was also summarized - over the objections of then-CIA Director John Brennan, he has said - in a two-page annex to the classified version of the intelligence community assessment.
Scroll.in
36 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
BJP ally TIPRA Motha demands voter roll revision in Tripura
The Bharatiya Janata Party's ally in Tripura, TIPRA Motha, met Election Commission officials in New Delhi on Wednesday to demand a special intensive revision of the state's electoral rolls, similar to the exercise underway in Bihar, The Hindu reported. A delegation led by party founder Pradyot Debbarma urged the commission to conduct a detailed survey to identify undocumented migrants allegedly included in the rolls. 'Tripura and the entire North East would suffer if we stayed silent on the infiltration of foreigners,' The Hindu quoted Debbarma as saying. On Wednesday evening, the TIPRA Motha chief said on social media that if the concern was not addressed, Tripura ' will become Assam before long'. He said: 'I am not against citizens of any religion. My single thought is that if illegal people from Bangladesh or Myanmar keep on coming to Tripura and become legal Indians, get Aadhaar card, become MLAs even, get government facilities, whose loss is it?' Tribal communities make up around 30% to 33% of Tripura's population. Of the state's 60 Assembly seats, 20 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes. The autonomous district council governing tribal areas has a 95% reservation for the Scheduled Tribe communities. TIPRA Motha's demand came a week after the BJP-led government in the state formed district-level task forces to identify and deport undocumented migrants, The Indian Express reported. Chief Minister Manik Saha said that the drive would target only those who entered India after December 2014, as those arriving earlier would be recognised under the Citizenship Amendment Act. TIPRA Motha did not specify any cut-off date in its demand. The TIPRA Motha, or Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance, has 13 MLAs in the 60-member Tripura Assembly. The party is part of the BJP-led coalition government in the state. The Citizenship Amendment Act is aimed at providing a fast track to citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and have entered the country by December 31, 2014. In June, the Election Commission announced a special intensive review of voter rolls in Bihar, just months before the Assembly elections are expected to be held in the state. As part of the exercise, persons whose names were not on the 2003 voter list will need to submit proof of eligibility to vote. Opposition leaders have alleged that the exercise risks disenfranchising a large number of voters as they may not be able to submit the necessary documents.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
36 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Trump raises base tariff to 15%, hints at 50% cap ahead of Aug 1 deadline
US President Donald Trump announced that there will be a baseline tariff starting at 15 per cent and going up to 50 per cent on all imports, during an artificial intelligence summit in Washington on Wednesday (local time). 'We'll have a straight, simple tariff of anywhere between 15 and 50 per cent,' Trump said, adding that countries with which the US has strained diplomatic ties could face duties at the higher end of the range. Trump administration confirms August 1 deadline The announcement comes just days before the revised rates are set to take effect on August 1, and marks a shift from Trump's earlier stance. At the beginning of July, the administration had proposed tariffs between 10 and 15 per cent on imports from over 150 countries. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reiterated the timeline in a CBS News interview on July 20, noting that many smaller economies in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa would face lower tariffs closer to 10 per cent. ' The new rates will be effective from August 1,' Lutnick had confirmed. 'That's a hard deadline. Countries can still negotiate after that date, but the tariffs will apply in the meantime.' White House prioritises tariff-based deals over formal trade pacts In a significant departure from conventional trade diplomacy, the White House is now treating tariff notifications themselves as de facto deals. A report by Bloomberg suggests that President Trump is moving away from formalised trade agreements and using tariff levels to set the terms of engagement. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said earlier this month that few nations should expect tariff-free access. 'There's not a lot of evidence right now that we're going to get a tariff-free deal,' he noted. 'The global trade landscape has fundamentally changed.' Reduced tariffs for pro-US markets Despite the steep tariff band, Trump has indicated that nations willing to open their markets to US firms could secure lower duties. One such example is Japan. Trump confirmed this week that a planned 25 per cent tariff on Japanese goods had been lowered to 15 per cent after Tokyo agreed to lift import restrictions and back a US-led investment plan worth $550 billion. The European Union is also engaged in ongoing talks. 'If they agree to open up the union to American businesses, then we will let them pay a lower tariff,' Trump said, adding that a simplified rate structure would apply where detailed negotiations were not feasible. India seeks interim trade pact before deadline India is among the countries racing to finalise a bilateral arrangement. Five rounds of negotiations have taken place since March 2025, with the latest held in Washington between July 14 and 18. Talks are reportedly focused on market access for US tech firms, easing agricultural regulatory barriers, and lowering duties on Indian exports such as pharmaceuticals and textiles. While a formal deal has yet to be announced, both sides have expressed interest in fast-tracking an interim agreement before the August deadline. India-UK likely to sign FTA today India and the UK are set to sign a landmark Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on Thursday, marking a major milestone in their bilateral relationship. The deal, set to be signed by Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Keir Starmer at Chequers, comes after years of negotiations and is expected to significantly boost trade and investment between the two nations. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and UK Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds will formalise the pact, followed by a business summit featuring top Indian and British executives. The agreement will reduce, and in some cases eliminate, tariffs on the vast majority of goods traded between the two countries, enhancing Indian exports in sectors like textiles, jewellery, and leather, while also increasing UK access to the Indian market.
