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<strong>Issue</strong> No : 81<br />
Email: editor@canadianparvasi.com Contact Number : 905-673-0600 January 18, 2018 | Toronto | Pages 12<br />
Ram Dera chief, 3 others awarded life<br />
imprisonment in Chhatrapati murder case<br />
Panchkula : <strong>The</strong> CBI<br />
Special Court, Panchkula, on<br />
Thursday awarded life imprisonment<br />
to Dera Sacha Sauda<br />
chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in<br />
the journalist Ram Chander<br />
Chhatrapati murder case.<br />
Along with Ram Rahim,<br />
Dera manager Krishan Lal and<br />
carpenters at Dera -- Nirmal<br />
Singh and Kuldeep Singh --<br />
were also awarded life imprisonment.<br />
Special Judge Jagdeep<br />
Singh also imposed a fine of Rs<br />
50,000 each on all the four accused.<br />
Ram Rahim and other three<br />
accused - Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal<br />
Singh and Krishan Lal<br />
- were present in the court<br />
through video conferencing<br />
from Rohtak jail and Ambala<br />
jail, respectively.<br />
It was Kuldeep Singh who<br />
had shot at Chhatrapati outside<br />
his house in Sirsa on the<br />
evening of October 24, 2002.<br />
Chhatrapati later succumbed<br />
to his injuries on November 21,<br />
2002, at Apollo Hospital, New<br />
Delhi.<br />
Kuldeep Singh had come<br />
along with Nirmal Singh on a<br />
scooter.<br />
Nirmal Singh had managed<br />
to flee on scooter but the police<br />
nabbed Kuldeep Singh on the<br />
spot. <strong>The</strong>y revealed the name<br />
of Dera manager Krishan Lal<br />
who had provided his revolver<br />
to them.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Punjab and Haryana<br />
High Court had handed over<br />
the case to CBI on a petition<br />
by Anshul Chhatrapati, son of<br />
Ram Chander Chhatrapati, on<br />
November 10, 2003.<br />
According to CBI, Ram<br />
Chander Chhatrapati was<br />
killed as Dera chief Gurmeet<br />
Ram Rahim was upset over<br />
news items in 'Poora Sach'<br />
newspaper, which he was running.<br />
In May,2002, Chhatrapati<br />
published a news item about<br />
the anonymous complaint of<br />
a Sadhvi regarding sexual exploitation<br />
of Sadhvis in Dera<br />
Sacha Sauda in the newspaper.<br />
From there onwards, he started<br />
receiving threats.<br />
Former driver of Ram Rahim,<br />
Khatta Singh, had told<br />
the court that it was Dera chief<br />
who had ordered Chhatrapati's<br />
This is the triumph of<br />
truth, says son of the<br />
murdered journalist<br />
This is the triumph of truth, I feel<br />
relieved today. <strong>The</strong> prosecution had<br />
demanded capital punishment but<br />
we're satisfied with the punishment,<br />
said Journalist Ramchandra<br />
Chhatarpati's son Anshul on court<br />
pronouncing the quantum of sentence<br />
to Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.<br />
killing in front of him.<br />
He told that on October<br />
23, 2002, 'Poora Sach' had published<br />
a news item regarding<br />
the case of sexual exploitation<br />
of women followers. After reading<br />
the article, Ram Rahim got<br />
angry and told accused Krishan<br />
Lal, Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal<br />
Singh to eliminate Chattrapati<br />
by any means.<br />
Continued on page 09<br />
Front-row seat for Tytler at<br />
Cong event: Sirsa says party<br />
'intimidating' witnesses<br />
Amritsar: A controversy<br />
erupted today over<br />
former MP Jagdish Tytler’s<br />
occupying a front row seat<br />
at a Delhi Congress event<br />
with the Shiromani Akali<br />
Dal (SAD) accusing the<br />
grand old party of trying to<br />
scare witnesses of the 1984<br />
Sikh carnage, even as the<br />
Congress pointed out that<br />
Tytler had not been convicted<br />
in the matter.<br />
Moments after 74-yearold<br />
Tytler took his seat,<br />
SAD spokesperson and<br />
Rajouri Garden MLA<br />
Manjinder Singh Sirsa<br />
slammed the Congress for<br />
attempting to “intimidate”<br />
Sikh riot case witnesses by<br />
openly “patronising” him.<br />
“Tytler was seated in<br />
the front row at an event<br />
where Sheila Dikshit took<br />
over as Delhi Congress<br />
president only to threaten<br />
witnesses of the 1984 Sikh<br />
carnage and prevent them<br />
from deposing against the<br />
accused.<br />
Continued on page 08<br />
Katarpur Corridor: BJP scuttling<br />
Sikhs’ dreams, says Capt<br />
Chandigarh: Punjab Chief<br />
Minister Captain Amarinder<br />
Singh on Thursday accused<br />
Union Minister Vijay Sampla<br />
of putting “unnecessary” roadblocks<br />
in the Kartarpur Sahib<br />
pilgrimage.<br />
“Instead of finding ways of<br />
facilitating the Sikh pilgrims,<br />
the central government, especially<br />
responsible elected representatives<br />
such as Sampla, were<br />
constantly putting hurdles in the<br />
way of the realisation of their<br />
dream to visit the historic gurdwara,<br />
which they had seen being<br />
fulfilled with the decision to open<br />
the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor,”<br />
Captain Amarinder Singh said.<br />
Continued on page 09<br />
Pakistan speed up<br />
Kartarpur Corridor work :<br />
35% work already done<br />
Lahore : <strong>The</strong>re are reports that Pakistan<br />
has already completed 35% of work<br />
for Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib corridor.<br />
<strong>The</strong> corridor would connect Gurdawara<br />
Kartarpur Sahib in West Punjab (Pakistan)<br />
and Gurdawara Darbar Sahib,<br />
Dera Baba Nanak in East Punjab (India).<br />
Continued on page 09<br />
For advertimesment in<br />
Contact : 905-673-0600
<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly Canada<br />
02<br />
January 18, 2018 | Toronto<br />
Police Arrest Man in Relation to<br />
a Road Rage Investigation<br />
Region of Peel: Investigators<br />
from 11 Division<br />
Criminal Investigation<br />
Bureau have arrested a 23<br />
year-old man in relation to<br />
two road rage incidents in<br />
the City of Mississauga.<br />
On Tuesday, January 1,<br />
2019 at approximately 1:40<br />
a.m. the victim, a 50 yearold<br />
man from Mississauga<br />
was involved in a road rage<br />
incident on Old Derry Road<br />
in Mississauga. <strong>The</strong> other<br />
driver stopped in front of<br />
the victim’s vehicle, exited<br />
his vehicle, hit the victim’s<br />
mirror and then returned to<br />
his vehicle and drove away.<br />
No damage was caused and<br />
no injuries were suffered to<br />
the victim.<br />
On Tuesday, January<br />
1, 2019 at approximately<br />
1:45 a.m. another victim, a<br />
37 year-old man from Toronto<br />
was involved in a<br />
separate road rage incident<br />
on Old Derry Road with the<br />
same vehicle. Both vehicles<br />
pulled over and an argument<br />
ensued. <strong>The</strong> other<br />
driver involved brandished<br />
and pointed a black firearm<br />
at the victim and struck<br />
him in the head with it. <strong>The</strong><br />
victim suffered minor injuries.<br />
On Saturday, January<br />
12, 2019 the accused, Houmam<br />
Zeitouny, a 23 yearold<br />
man from Mississauga<br />
was arrested and charged<br />
with:<br />
• One count Assault with<br />
a Weapon<br />
• Two counts Dangerous<br />
Operation of a Motor<br />
Vehicle<br />
• One count Use Imitation<br />
Firearm in Commission<br />
of an Offence<br />
• One count Possession<br />
of Weapon for Dangerous<br />
Purpose<br />
• Two counts Carry Concealed<br />
Weapon<br />
• Two counts Possession<br />
for the Purpose of Trafficking<br />
• One count Possession<br />
For <strong>The</strong> Purpose Of Distributing<br />
$136 Billion And Amazon In <strong>The</strong><br />
Middle Of Jeff Bezos' Divorce<br />
Ontario to cut college and university<br />
tuition fees by 10 per cent<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Canadian</strong> Press<br />
TORONTO : Ontario is set<br />
to announce that it is cutting<br />
tuition fees for college<br />
and university students by<br />
10 per cent.<br />
<strong>The</strong> government says<br />
that means the average<br />
university arts and science<br />
undergraduate student<br />
would save about $660 and<br />
the average college student<br />
would save $340.<br />
<strong>The</strong> current tuition<br />
fee framework, which has<br />
capped increases for most<br />
programs at three per cent,<br />
expires at the end of this<br />
academic year, and the<br />
Progressive Conservative<br />
<strong>The</strong> announcement by Amazon<br />
founder Jeff Bezos, the world's<br />
wealthiest man, and his wife that<br />
they will divorce has captivated the<br />
imagination -- how will they split his<br />
giant fortune, estimated at $136 billion?<br />
And what will happen to the Internet<br />
retail giant -- will his soon-tobe<br />
ex get a significant stake, and how<br />
would that affect his control of the<br />
company?<br />
<strong>The</strong> former MacKenzie Tuttle<br />
knew the 54-year-old Bezos before<br />
fame and wealth came calling.<br />
<strong>The</strong> couple met in 1992 when he<br />
was a hedge fund manager on Wall<br />
Street, before he became an entrepreneur<br />
who changed the way hundreds<br />
of millions of people live. <strong>The</strong>y married<br />
less than a year later.<br />
She was by his side for the entire<br />
Amazon adventure, from the company's<br />
humble beginnings in his Seattle<br />
garage in 1994 to its mammoth success<br />
today. <strong>The</strong>y have four children<br />
-- three sons and an adopted daughter<br />
-- aged up to their late teens.<br />
As of Wednesday, when the couple<br />
formally announced they would<br />
divorce after a long separation, the<br />
48-year-old MacKenzie, a novelist, is<br />
likely to become the richest woman<br />
in the world.<br />
According to celebrity news outlet<br />
TMZ, the Bezoses did not have a<br />
prenuptial agreement -- which could<br />
mean an even split of assets.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were married in Florida in<br />
September 1993, according to documents<br />
seen by AFP. But their last<br />
place of residence would be the deciding<br />
factor in any divorce proceedings.<br />
<strong>The</strong> couple has numerous residences:<br />
in Seattle, where Amazon is<br />
based, but also in Washington DC,<br />
Texas and Beverly Hills, California.<br />
<strong>The</strong> National Enquirer tabloid<br />
reported Thursday that Bezos was in<br />
a relationship with the wife of powerful<br />
Hollywood talent agent Patrick<br />
Whitesell, former news anchor and<br />
entertainment reporter Lauren Sanchez.<br />
<strong>The</strong> relationship, launched eight<br />
months ago, was the final nail in<br />
the coffin of the troubled Bezos marriage,<br />
the tabloid said.<br />
government will formally<br />
announce a new one on<br />
Thursday.<br />
Under the new framework,<br />
tuition would decrease<br />
by 10 per cent for<br />
the 2019-2020 year, then be<br />
frozen for the following<br />
year.<br />
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Region of Peel : Investigators from 22 Division<br />
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year-old woman in relation to a stolen vehicle investigation<br />
in the City of Mississauga.<br />
On Friday, January 11, 2019 at approximately 1:00<br />
p.m. police were investigating a stolen Jeep Wrangler<br />
in a parking lot in the area of Tomken Road and Eglinton<br />
Avenue in the City of Mississauga. <strong>The</strong> vehicle<br />
was being operated by Michelle Garcia-Arguello, a 27<br />
year old woman from Toronto. In an attempt to evade<br />
police Michelle Garcia-Arguello drove through the<br />
parking lot where she collided with two police vehicles,<br />
one of the investigating officers and a white cube<br />
truck before being taken into custody. Significant<br />
damage was caused to the vehicles involved however<br />
only minor injuries were suffered.<br />
Michelle Garcia-Arguello was arrested and<br />
charged with:<br />
• One count Possession of Stolen Property<br />
• Two counts Dangerous Operation<br />
• One count Dangerous Operation Cause Bodily Harm<br />
• One count Flight from Police<br />
• Three counts Fail to Remain<br />
• One count Escape Lawful Custody<br />
• One count Breach of Probation<br />
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<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly Canada<br />
January 18, 2018 | Toronto<br />
03<br />
Who’s who in the federal cabinet shuffle:<br />
new faces, and old faces in new places<br />
OTTAWA: David Lametti loves<br />
the law, he said just after being<br />
sworn in as Canada’s new justice<br />
minister.<br />
“I know it’s a cliche to say<br />
that, but I do,” the 56-year-old<br />
said outside Rideau Hall. “I have<br />
done my best to teach and to<br />
think about the ways in which<br />
law has an impact on our daily<br />
lives. I’ll continue to do that.”<br />
Lametti is the child of Italian<br />
immigrants. As a boy, he went<br />
to construction sites with his<br />
father, a carpenter who founded<br />
his own construction company.<br />
His mother was a caterer in the<br />
Niagara region after his father’s<br />
early death.<br />
His education took him from<br />
the University of Toronto to<br />
McGill University, to Yale Law<br />
School and Oxford University,<br />
where he co-captained the Oxford<br />
Blues men’s hockey team with<br />
Mark Carney, who’d become governor<br />
of the Bank of Canada.<br />
Ex-teammate Trevor Farrow<br />
called Lametti smart, funny and<br />
highly organized, a guy who took<br />
charge of the team and organized<br />
trips and games. Farrow, now<br />
associate dean of Osgoode Hall<br />
Law School at York University<br />
in Toronto, said Lametti always<br />
had something nice to say about<br />
teammates and never took himself<br />
too seriously even when he<br />
was focused on the game.<br />
During a 2012 lunchtime seminar<br />
at the University of Cambridge<br />
— the video of which is<br />
posted online — Lametti spoke<br />
about how he was a bit of a philosophy<br />
junkie and sat in on lectures<br />
at Oxford, which led to him<br />
focus on the intersection of legal<br />
and ethical ideas.<br />
Lametti became a law professor<br />
and a founding member of<br />
the Centre for Intellectual Property<br />
Policy at McGill. Pierre-<br />
Emmanuel Moyse, the centre’s<br />
current director, said Lametti’s<br />
interest is in how the law influences<br />
public policy and where<br />
both need improvement.<br />
“He’s a good scholar, a good<br />
academic, but he needs a position<br />
where he can make a difference<br />
… and translate what he<br />
knows into something concrete,”<br />
Moyse said, adding it was partly<br />
why Lametti go into politics.<br />
Lametti won the riding of<br />
LaSalle-Emard-Verdun — once<br />
held by former prime minister<br />
Paul Martin — in 2015 and served<br />
as a parliamentary secretary for<br />
the last three years.<br />
<strong>The</strong> father of three was also<br />
involved in his community, including<br />
as an assistant coach for<br />
an under-16 competitive soccer<br />
team.<br />
Here’s a quick look at the rest<br />
of the ministers involved in Monday’s<br />
cabinet shuffle.<br />
Bernadette Jordan<br />
• First woman elected to represent<br />
the Nova Scotia riding of<br />
South Shore-St. Margarets<br />
• Spent eight years prior to politics<br />
as part of a team raising<br />
millions of dollars for health<br />
care in the region around<br />
Bridgewater, N.S.<br />
• A former president of the Atlantic<br />
Community Newspaper<br />
Association<br />
Seamus O’Regan<br />
• Former television personality<br />
who spent a decade as<br />
co-host of CTV’s Canada AM<br />
show<br />
• From St. John’s, Newfoundland,<br />
and raised in Goose<br />
Bay, Labrador<br />
• Former executive assistant<br />
to justice minister and later<br />
senior policy adviser to premier<br />
in the Newfoundland<br />
and Labrador government<br />
• Appointed minister of veterans<br />
affairs in 2017<br />
Jody Wilson-Raybould<br />
• First Indigenous woman to<br />
hold the post of justice minister<br />
and attorney general<br />
• Worked as a provincial prosecutor<br />
in Vancouver after being<br />
called to the bar in 2000<br />
• Former regional chief of the<br />
B.C. Assembly of First Nations.<br />
• Descendant of the Musgamagw<br />
Tsawataineuk and<br />
Laich-Kwil-Tach peoples<br />
Jane Philpott<br />
• Spent three decades as a physician<br />
— in Niger and then as<br />
a family doctor in Stouffville,<br />
Ont.<br />
• Former chief of family medicine<br />
at Markham Stouffville<br />
Hospital and taught medicine<br />
at the University of Toronto.<br />
• Previously served as health<br />
minister and Indigenous services<br />
minister<br />
Fraudulent<br />
iPhone Sales<br />
Afghani Singer Looks Just Like<br />
<strong>Canadian</strong> PM Justin Trudeau<br />
Region of Peel: Peel Regional Police would<br />
like to make the public aware of a current scam that<br />
is occurring in<br />
Mississauga and<br />
Brampton. Several<br />
incidents have been<br />
reported to investigators<br />
where an<br />
individual is selling<br />
what appears to be<br />
an authentic iPhone<br />
X on several online<br />
classified websites.<br />
<strong>The</strong> transactions<br />
typically include a<br />
fraudulent bill of<br />
sale for the iPhone X.<br />
Potential purchasers examine the phone and due<br />
to similar characteristics to iPhone X, they believe<br />
the item to be authentic. It is only after the transaction<br />
is complete and the purchaser attempts to use the<br />
phone that they discover it to be fake. Investigators<br />
are aware of individuals that have not reported these<br />
types of transactions due to embarrassment. Peel Regional<br />
Police would like to encourage the community<br />
to report incidents such as these so that investigators<br />
can locate the person(s) responsible.<br />
When purchasing items through online classified<br />
websites, consider the following:<br />
1. Always ask yourself if this is too good to be true?<br />
2. Do not make online purchases from unverified<br />
and unknown sources.<br />
3. Use buy and and sell exchange zones provided<br />
by Peel Regional Police located at, 11, 12 and 22 Division.<br />
<strong>Canadian</strong> Prime Minister<br />
Justin Trudeau has<br />
an unlikely doppelganger<br />
more than 6,000 miles<br />
away.<br />
A contestant on the Afghan<br />
singing talent competition<br />
"Afghan Star" has<br />
gone viral for his uncanny<br />
resemblance to Trudeau,<br />
47, despite his not even<br />
knowing of the world leader.<br />
"People have forgotten<br />
my name and now they just<br />
call me 'Justin Trudeau,'"<br />
Abdul Salam Maftoon, 29,<br />
told AFP. "I didn't know<br />
anything about Justin<br />
Trudeau until I saw the<br />
photos on social media."<br />
<strong>The</strong> comparisons first<br />
surfaced on Afghanistan's<br />
equivalent of "American<br />
Idol" after a judge pointed<br />
out the similarities.<br />
"He looks like my<br />
prime minister," Afghan<br />
and <strong>Canadian</strong> musician<br />
Qais Ulfat, one of the four<br />
judges, said while comparing<br />
Maftoon's voice to<br />
another famous <strong>Canadian</strong>.<br />
"This guy could be the next<br />
Justin Bieber."<br />
Despite becoming<br />
an overnight celebrity,<br />
Maftoon is focused on winning<br />
the title with the romantic<br />
folk songs that he<br />
sings in Dari and Pashto,<br />
Afghanistan's official languages.<br />
<strong>The</strong> wedding singer<br />
from Badakhshan is in<br />
the top eight.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> resemblance has<br />
boosted my chances of winning<br />
the competition by 50<br />
percent," the father of four<br />
told AFP. "When I go back<br />
to my hometown, people<br />
will definitely call me."<br />
<strong>The</strong> final will take<br />
place on March 21, on the<br />
Persian new year's eve, according<br />
to AFP and BBC.<br />
"Afghan Star," which premiered<br />
in 2005 following<br />
the fall of the Taliban, is<br />
one of Afghanistan's mostwatched<br />
shows.<br />
Maftoon has never<br />
been to Canada, but didn't<br />
rule out connecting with<br />
his long-lost twin.<br />
"I want to meet him if<br />
he wants to, because he is<br />
a global personality and I<br />
am a poor man from a remote<br />
part of Afghanistan,"<br />
he told AFP. "We will see<br />
what happens."<br />
USA TODAY reached<br />
out to the office of the<br />
Prime Minister of Canada<br />
to see if he has any words<br />
of encouragement for his<br />
lookalike.<br />
(With thanks from<br />
www.thespec.com)
<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly WORLD<br />
January 18, 2018 | Toronto 04<br />
UK opposition seeks end of May’s ‘zombie<br />
govt’ as PM faces no-trust motion<br />
Washington : Kim<br />
Yong-chol, North Korea’s<br />
lead negotiator in nuclear<br />
talks with the US, is expected<br />
to arrive in Washington<br />
on Thursday, according to<br />
informed sources.<br />
After his arrival, Yongchol<br />
is likely to meet Secretary<br />
of State Mike Pompeo<br />
and US special representative<br />
to North Korea Steve<br />
Biegun on Friday, CNN<br />
quoted informed sources as<br />
saying on Wednesday.<br />
It remains unclear if he<br />
will visit the White House.<br />
<strong>The</strong> dates for meetings<br />
between North Korea’s top<br />
negotiator and US officials<br />
in Washington have only<br />
been confirmed to CNN by<br />
London: <strong>The</strong> UK on Wednesday<br />
stood at its most dangerous<br />
crossroads in decades after parliament<br />
emphatically rejected<br />
PM <strong>The</strong>resa May’s Brexit deal<br />
and left her facing an uncomfortable<br />
vote to oust her government<br />
Pressing for May’s ouster, opposition<br />
leader Jeremy Corbyn<br />
said she was leading a “zombie<br />
government” and that her “Frankenstein<br />
deal is dead”. Corbyn<br />
tabled a no-confidence motion<br />
against May immediately after<br />
her withdrawal deal was voted<br />
down by a 230 majority on Tuesday<br />
night. “ This government<br />
cannot govern and cannot command<br />
the support of parliament<br />
on the most important issue facing<br />
our country. Every single<br />
previous prime minister in this<br />
situation would have resigned<br />
and called an election. <strong>The</strong> blame<br />
for this mess lies at the feet of the<br />
PM and her government,” Corbyn<br />
said as the House of Commons<br />
debated his motion on<br />
Wednesday.<br />
But May remained defiant<br />
against the challenge to her<br />
the US side.<br />
A source familiar with<br />
US-North Korea denuclearisation<br />
talks told CNN that<br />
the meetings would happen<br />
“by this weekend”. No firm<br />
details have been publicly<br />
announced yet.<br />
leadership. “I believe a general<br />
election is the worst thing we<br />
could do. It would deepen division<br />
when we need unity, bring<br />
chaos when we need certainty<br />
North Korean negotiator headed to<br />
Washington; will meet Secy of State<br />
“A lot of positive things<br />
are happening. He (Trump)<br />
and Chairman Kim (Jongun)<br />
have established a good<br />
relationship, and conversations<br />
between the United<br />
States and North Korea<br />
continue,” a White House<br />
spokesperson told CNN. “We<br />
are working to make progress<br />
on our goal of achieving<br />
the final, fully verified denuclearisation<br />
of North Korea,<br />
and the President looks forward<br />
to meeting Chairman<br />
Kim again at their second<br />
summit at a place and time<br />
yet to be determined.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> location and the<br />
date of the second summit<br />
are expected to be discussed<br />
during the meeting in Washington.<br />
Yong-chol last came<br />
to the US in June 2018. He<br />
visited New York and met<br />
Pompeo before travelling to<br />
Washington, where he delivered<br />
a letter from Kim Jongun<br />
to Trump in the Oval Office.<br />
and bring delay when we need to<br />
move forward,” she told MPs. “It<br />
is not in the national interest.”<br />
May was widely expected<br />
to see off the opposition’s bid<br />
to bring down her government,<br />
having secured the backing<br />
of her own party’s rebels and<br />
the small Northern Irish party<br />
which props up her minority<br />
administration. However, many<br />
within and outside May’s party<br />
have criticised her for not getting<br />
cross-party support for the<br />
withdrawal deal from the EU in<br />
the first place. <strong>The</strong>y include Gina<br />
Miller, who took the government<br />
to court, forcing the government<br />
to hold the meaningful vote. She<br />
told Sky News: “It should be<br />
cross-party, remainers, leavers<br />
and other parties negotiating<br />
this deal.”<br />
PIO Labour MP Seema Malhotra<br />
said during the debate: “In<br />
2017 she went to the country and<br />
asked for a mandate, she lost her<br />
majority. Last night she saw the<br />
biggest defeat for a government<br />
vote in the history of this House.<br />
She has refused to open dialogue<br />
with the front bench. This looks<br />
like more of a strategy to divide<br />
and conquer rather than to bring<br />
this House and country together<br />
and work out how we move forward.”<br />
Punjab-origin Tanmanjeet<br />
Singh Dhesi MP called on May to<br />
resign, telling the House: “Homelessness<br />
has spiralled out of control<br />
and the usage of food banks<br />
has risen exponentially.” However<br />
there was a ray of hope that<br />
a Brexit crisis could be averted<br />
as on Wednesday EU’s chief negotiator,<br />
Michel Barnier, said<br />
that if May shifted on her red<br />
lines, the EU was open to renegotiation.<br />
It is widely expected that<br />
Article 50 will get extended and<br />
a nodeal Brexit will not happen.<br />
Israeli student killed in 'horrendous attack' in Australia<br />
Melbourne : An Israeli<br />
woman who was killed in<br />
the Australian city of Melbourne<br />
had been on the telephone<br />
to her sister when she<br />
was followed from public<br />
transport and attacked close<br />
to the university where she<br />
was studying, police said on<br />
Thursday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> body of Aiia Maasarwe,<br />
21, was found by passers-by<br />
early on Wednesday<br />
near La Trobe University's<br />
Bundoora campus in the<br />
northeast of Melbourne,<br />
Australia's second-largest<br />
city. Police described her as<br />
an Israeli national.<br />
"This is an horrendous<br />
crime that has been inflicted<br />
on an innocent member of<br />
our community," Detective<br />
Inspector Andrew Stamper<br />
told a news briefing on<br />
Thursday.<br />
"Our presumption is<br />
that this was a random attack<br />
and opportunistic,"<br />
he said. It was the second<br />
time in seven months that<br />
a young woman had been<br />
killed on her way home at<br />
night in Melbourne, which<br />
has an active night life and<br />
is popular with overseas<br />
university students.<br />
Police said Maasarwe<br />
had taken a tram home after<br />
an evening out seeing a<br />
comedy show. She had been<br />
speaking with her sister on<br />
the phone at the time of the<br />
attack and her sister alerted<br />
authorities, Stamper said.<br />
"She heard the sound of<br />
the fall, the phone falling to<br />
the ground and heard some<br />
voices and that was it," he<br />
said.<br />
Family members arrived<br />
from Israel on Thursday.<br />
Maasarwe had been in<br />
Melbourne on a six-month<br />
study abroad programme as<br />
part of a degree at Shanghai<br />
Android 'Q' may bring<br />
system-wide 'Dark Mode'<br />
San Francisco : A leaked preview of Google-owned<br />
operating system (OS) Android's next major update tentatively<br />
named "Q" has confirmed several new features<br />
and tweaks including "Dark Mode" as a system theme,<br />
according to media reports.<br />
<strong>The</strong> "Dark Mode" in Android Q OS would turn<br />
quick settings, launcher, volume panel and other elements<br />
part of the user interface (UI) to turn into pitch<br />
black colour. "XDA acquired the latest internal build of<br />
Android 'Q' and flashed it on a Pixel 3 XL with screenshots<br />
of this build, featuring the February 2019 security<br />
patch," 9To5Google reported late on Wednesday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> leak also suggested a "Developer" option to<br />
"override force-dark" where apps that do not feature<br />
built-in themes switch from white backgrounds to dark<br />
gray. <strong>The</strong> new update leak also displays a redesigned<br />
app info screen "Material <strong>The</strong>me" elements like a new<br />
row of buttons for uninstalling, force stop and opening<br />
the app. Other changes involve the Ambient Display<br />
moving the battery indicator to the top-right corner,<br />
while new "Time to take action" and "Time to read"<br />
settings possibly let users customise heads-up notifications,<br />
the report added.<br />
University.<br />
Police said forensic testing<br />
was being conducted on<br />
two pieces of clothing found<br />
nearby that they believe was<br />
likely to have been left by<br />
the person responsible for<br />
her death.<br />
In June, 22-year-old Eurydice<br />
Dixon was followed<br />
as she walked home from<br />
performing at a Melbourne<br />
comedy club before she<br />
was sexually assaulted and<br />
killed in a central park.<br />
Dixon's death provoked<br />
an outpouring of grief, with<br />
more than 5,000 people attending<br />
a vigil at the park,<br />
and a wider push by police<br />
to acknowledge that women<br />
should be free to come home<br />
alone late at night and be<br />
safe.<br />
More broadly, Australia<br />
has been reviewing its policies<br />
around violence against<br />
women. Sixty-nine women<br />
died violently in Australia<br />
in 2018, up from 54 in 2017,<br />
according to community<br />
group Destroy the Joint.
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Dumbing Down<br />
Quotas across the board will<br />
be disastrous for higher education<br />
While India’s agrarian crisis is well recognised<br />
by now, less mentioned is that India also<br />
has a full-blown education crisis on its hands – of<br />
which the latest ASER report by NGO Pratham is<br />
an indicator. Among class VIII children 56% are<br />
unable to divide a 3 digit number by a 1 digit one;<br />
a quarter of them lack even basic reading skills.<br />
Standards have declined even over the past decade.<br />
In 2008, 37% of class V children could do<br />
basic math and 84.8% of class VIII students could<br />
read class II level texts; now those numbers have<br />
declined to 28% and 72.8% respectively.<br />
Moreover, recent government actions appear<br />
calculated to make India’s education crisis<br />
worse. Scrapping the no-detention policy means<br />
that children will be penalised for the education<br />
system’s failures. It is also likely to increase the<br />
dropout rate. Alongside, HRD minister Prakash<br />
Javadekar announced reservations will be extended<br />
to all private higher educational institutions,<br />
including unaided ones. This means<br />
that merit as well as the fundamental right to<br />
equality will be superseded by caste. It also destroys<br />
space for policy autonomy of private institutions,<br />
including unaided ones, and is legally<br />
contentious. <strong>The</strong> Allahabad high court ruled in<br />
2011 that quotas do not apply to private unaided<br />
institutions.<br />
<strong>The</strong> government is likely to introduce a bill<br />
to override legal objections. But SC should not<br />
allow legislation to trample on the fundamental<br />
right to equality, part of the Constitution’s basic<br />
structure. <strong>The</strong> Centre seems to be extending a<br />
familiar povertarian logic into education, which<br />
will only deepen its crisis: make up for public<br />
sector deficiencies by beating up on the private<br />
sector. If schools functioned well and imparted<br />
decent education to all, there would be no need<br />
for reservations in higher education.<br />
While India seems to have adopted the Maoist<br />
dictum of “politics in command” when it<br />
comes to education, it’s instructive to look at<br />
how far China has come since it discarded Maoist<br />
precepts (at which time India and China were<br />
roughly level in scientific, educational and economic<br />
terms). Now, Times Higher Education<br />
rankings feature seven Chinese universities in<br />
the top 200, and zero Indian. <strong>The</strong> emerging economy<br />
rankings feature 25 Indian but 72 Chinese<br />
institutions, including four in the top five. China<br />
has overtaken the US in number of scientific<br />
papers. Meritocracy and vaulting ambition, in<br />
place of pretend egalitarianism and fake science,<br />
make China five times richer than India today.<br />
And thereby hangs a tale. TNN<br />
2019: A Scary Story<br />
<strong>The</strong> election outcome that’s terrifying for India,<br />
BJP and Congress<br />
Saubhik Chakrabarti<br />
We are not going to<br />
mince words saying this: A<br />
terrifying prospect awaits<br />
India if general election results<br />
go a certain way. That<br />
way is best understood by<br />
doing a little, basic math.<br />
Suppose BJP plus Congress<br />
seats add up to well<br />
short of 300 in the 543-seat<br />
Lok Sabha. That means 250-<br />
plus Lok Sabha seats will<br />
be in the kitties of a motley<br />
crew of regional parties.<br />
Two questions are relevant<br />
immediately. How will such<br />
a situation come to pass?<br />
And why is this terrifying?<br />
Let’s, first, take a look at<br />
some Lok Sabha numbers<br />
from the recent past. <strong>The</strong><br />
following are Congress plus<br />
BJP numbers in successive<br />
Lok Sabhas since 1989 elections.<br />
In eight Lok Sabha elections<br />
from 1989 there have<br />
been five stable, that is fiveyear,<br />
governments – in 1991,<br />
1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. All<br />
these governments have<br />
been unquestionably led by<br />
either Congress (1991, 2004,<br />
2009) or BJP (1999, 2014). In<br />
all these five stable governments,<br />
the BJP plus Congress<br />
Lok Sabha seat count<br />
has been over or close to 300.<br />
More important, in all these<br />
five stable governments, the<br />
national party in power was,<br />
unquestionably and by a big<br />
margin, in a command position<br />
and had enough allies.<br />
When Congress or<br />
BJP gave outside support<br />
because they didn’t have<br />
enough seats to take the<br />
pole position or when they<br />
were especially vulnerable<br />
to blackmail by allies, India<br />
had unstable governments.<br />
That’s what happened between<br />
1989 and 1991 and<br />
again, between 1996 and<br />
1999.<br />
So, this basic math suggests<br />
that the BJP plus Congress<br />
Lok Sabha seat count<br />
crossing 300 is possibly a<br />
necessary but not a sufficient<br />
condition for a stable<br />
government of any variety.<br />
<strong>The</strong> sufficient condition is<br />
that either BJP or Congress<br />
has enough seats to be the<br />
natural leader and, if required,<br />
enough reasonably<br />
well-behaved allies.<br />
Keeping this context in<br />
mind, let’s answer the first<br />
question: How can a BJP<br />
plus Congress seat count fall<br />
well short of 300 in the coming<br />
national election?<br />
In 2014, BJP won 100 out<br />
of the 106 seats that saw pretty<br />
much direct BJP versus<br />
Congress fights. And it won<br />
71 seats in 80-seat UP. If BJP<br />
loses a substantial minority<br />
of the direct BJP versus<br />
Congress contest seats, if the<br />
SP-BSP alliance gets around<br />
60 seats in UP, and BJP’s performance<br />
elsewhere is middling,<br />
today’s ruling party<br />
can slump to below 200 and<br />
in the worst case scenario,<br />
well below 200.<br />
But Congress may not<br />
be the biggest gainer if BJP<br />
takes such a hit. Even if the<br />
party gets more seats in<br />
the direct Congress versus<br />
BJP fights, it can become<br />
a two-seat party in UP (the<br />
Nehru-Gandhi family bastions)<br />
and it may not really<br />
do very well anywhere else.<br />
Congress can then end up<br />
not crossing 100 seats.<br />
Let’s assign, for ease of<br />
analysis, two nice round figures<br />
to the two national parties.<br />
BJP: 160 and Congress:<br />
90. So, BJP plus Congress<br />
will be 250 seats. <strong>The</strong> motley<br />
crew of regional parties, including<br />
some pre-poll BJP<br />
and Congress allies, will<br />
then have 293 seats in the<br />
543-seat Lok Sabha.<br />
BJP likely won’t have<br />
enough allies to have a shot<br />
at power. Plus, since today’s<br />
BJP is yesterday’s Congress,<br />
that is, the party against<br />
whom most other parties are<br />
fighting, post-poll realpolitik<br />
will be aimed at forming a<br />
non-BJP government. And<br />
since Congress won’t have<br />
enough seats to be in a command<br />
position, regional parties<br />
eyeing power will tell<br />
the grand old party that it<br />
needs them more than they<br />
need it.<br />
Thus will be born a<br />
Third Front government<br />
that will see one national<br />
party as a bit player and<br />
another, as a much-demoralised<br />
opposition.<br />
Of course, this may not<br />
happen. It’s foolish to either<br />
underestimate Narendra<br />
Modi-Amit Shah’s BJP or<br />
even the newly energised<br />
Rahul Gandhi’s Congress.<br />
But anyone with a passing<br />
understanding of Indian<br />
politics can’t say for certain<br />
that this will absolutely, utterly<br />
not happen. In punditspeak,<br />
there’s a non-trivial<br />
probability attached to this<br />
outcome.<br />
So, the second question.<br />
Why is this terrifying for<br />
India? Simple: A government<br />
such as this will be<br />
inherently unstable, permanently<br />
squabbling, it will be<br />
comprised mostly of parties<br />
that can be brutally transactional,<br />
every constituent<br />
party will try to push its<br />
regional, caste/ voter base<br />
special interests, therefore<br />
the chances of national policy<br />
coherence will be minimal;<br />
also, since parties in<br />
power will know their government<br />
may not last five<br />
years, they will have major<br />
incentives for, shall we say,<br />
using the system to enhance<br />
their capital base.<br />
Markets will likely tank,<br />
India as foreign investment<br />
destination will lose much<br />
of its lustre, India Inc will<br />
wish it hadn’t complained<br />
so much about earlier BJP<br />
and Congress governments,<br />
the economy, poised for<br />
a substantial uptick, may<br />
take hits, and, of course, it<br />
will be middle and low income<br />
Indians who will bear<br />
the brunt.<br />
This is not the government<br />
India, currently the<br />
world’s fastest-growing major<br />
economy, should have.<br />
But if both BJP and Congress<br />
falter badly, that’s the<br />
government India may get.<br />
And that, as we said, is terrifying.<br />
Source Credit: This article<br />
was first published in <strong>The</strong> Times<br />
of India.<br />
(<strong>The</strong> writer is Senior Journalist<br />
in times of India)<br />
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<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly world<br />
January 18, 2018 | Toronto<br />
07<br />
Thailand signals more tolerant<br />
refugee policy after Saudi case<br />
Bangkok: Thailand’s<br />
immigration chief has<br />
vowed not to force refugees<br />
to return home “involuntarily”,<br />
after a Saudi woman’s<br />
desperate plea for<br />
resettlement drew global<br />
attention to a country that<br />
does not recognise asylum<br />
seekers.<br />
<strong>The</strong> country is not a<br />
signatory to a UN convention<br />
on refugees and has<br />
long come under fire for<br />
holding them in detention<br />
centres or deporting them<br />
back to repressive regimes<br />
where they face prison or<br />
worse.<br />
Many cases do not<br />
make headlines but that<br />
changed earlier this<br />
month when 18-year-old<br />
Saudi runaway Rahaf Mohammed<br />
al-Qunun arrived<br />
in Bangkok and staved off<br />
deportation by barricading<br />
herself in a hotel at the<br />
airport, live-tweeting the<br />
standoff to an international<br />
audience.<br />
She was handed over<br />
to the UN refugee agency<br />
within days and resettled<br />
to Canada within a week,<br />
where she was welcomed<br />
by Foreign Minister Chrystia<br />
Freeland after landing<br />
in Toronto on Saturday.<br />
Qunun said she suffered<br />
abuse in the ultraconservative<br />
kingdom and<br />
refused to see family members<br />
who came to Thailand<br />
after her flight.<br />
<strong>The</strong> lightning-fast processing<br />
of her case was unprecedented<br />
for Thailand<br />
and was overseen almost<br />
from start to finish by immigration<br />
chief Surachate<br />
Hakparn, a blunt-talking<br />
media-savvy official nicknamed<br />
“Big Joke” who was<br />
recently appointed to the<br />
role and vowed reforms.<br />
Responding to questions<br />
about Thailand’s<br />
treatment of refugees,<br />
Surachate told an audience<br />
at the foreign correspondents’<br />
club on Wednesday<br />
he would take a new approach<br />
and that under his<br />
supervision “there will be<br />
no one involuntarily sent<br />
back to the country if they<br />
don’t want to go back”.<br />
He added that as chief<br />
of the department, “we will<br />
now follow international<br />
norms”.<br />
But the claims were met<br />
with scepticism given the<br />
November arrest in Thailand<br />
of refugee footballer<br />
Hakeem Alaraibi, who had<br />
been granted permanent<br />
residency in Australia but<br />
was stopped at the airport<br />
in Bangkok while trying to<br />
go on vacation.<br />
Alaraibi, a former player<br />
for Bahrain’s national<br />
team, is wanted on charges<br />
relating to the damage of a<br />
police station during the<br />
Arab Spring in the Gulf<br />
State, but rights groups<br />
say he was playing a match<br />
at the time and the allegations<br />
are false.<br />
Surachate said the case<br />
was different as there was<br />
an outstanding arrest warrant<br />
for Alaraibi in Bahrain,<br />
but said that he could<br />
argue his case in court.<br />
Australia has called for<br />
Alaraibi to be returned to<br />
the country, where he lives<br />
in Melbourne and plays for<br />
a semi-professional football<br />
team.<br />
He also said that the<br />
processing of Qunun’s experience<br />
would not serve<br />
as a model for future cases<br />
in Thailand and denied<br />
that authorities caved to<br />
pressure as the story went<br />
viral and the young woman<br />
picked up tens of thousands<br />
of Twitter followers.<br />
“Each case will be considered<br />
case by case.”<br />
Sikhs in Texas feed US govt<br />
employees hit by shutdown<br />
Houston : In a unique<br />
gesture, the Sikh community<br />
in San Antonio, Texas,<br />
offered free meals to fellow<br />
American government<br />
employees affected by the<br />
ongoing shutdown that has<br />
left thousands without pay<br />
in the US. <strong>The</strong> partial government<br />
shutdown, which<br />
entered the fourth week, has<br />
left more than 8,00,000 federal<br />
government workers out<br />
of work across key departments.<br />
Trump wants to build a<br />
US-Mexico border wall and<br />
is seeking USD 5.7 billion<br />
in funding for the physical<br />
barrier which, according to<br />
him, is a must to prevent the<br />
flow of illegal immigrants<br />
into the US. <strong>The</strong> Democrats<br />
assert that such a move is a<br />
“waste” of taxpayers money.<br />
All federal employees, who<br />
have been forced to work<br />
without pay, or have been<br />
furloughed during the partial<br />
government shutdown<br />
were offered freshly prepared,<br />
hot vegetarian meals<br />
for three days beginning<br />
January 11.<br />
Sikh community workers<br />
prepared the gurdwara<br />
menu which comprised lentils,<br />
vegetables, rice and tortillas.<br />
“Workers and families<br />
affected by the shutdown are<br />
invited to the Sikh Centre all<br />
weekend for free meals starting<br />
today,” the centre posted<br />
on its Facebook.<br />
<strong>The</strong> idea that originated<br />
from the community’s willingness<br />
to offer help during<br />
this hour of difficulty for<br />
many American families<br />
soon drew volunteers who<br />
offered to cook to feed.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Sikh community<br />
is there to support the federal<br />
employees who did not<br />
receive their pay cheques.<br />
Also, the Sikh community<br />
appreciates their services<br />
and believes in showing<br />
gratitude to those men and<br />
women for their wonderful<br />
service to the nation,” Balwinder<br />
Dhillon, president of<br />
the Sikh Centre of San Antonio,<br />
told the media.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> least we could<br />
do is support them with a<br />
hot meal for the next three<br />
days,” he said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Sikh Centre is the<br />
oldest gurdwara in the city<br />
and was established in 2001.<br />
It also offers food, clothing<br />
and shelter to needy new immigrants.<br />
Afghan President thanks Pakistan PM for peace efforts<br />
Kabul : Afghan President<br />
Ashraf Ghani on<br />
Thursday telephoned<br />
Prime Minister Imran<br />
Khan to discuss the ongoing<br />
international efforts<br />
for peace and reconciliation<br />
in Afghanistan.<br />
During the call, Ghani<br />
"expressed his gratitude<br />
for Pakistan's sincere facilitation<br />
of these efforts"<br />
that were initiated by the<br />
US special envoy for peace<br />
in Afghanistan, Zalmay<br />
Khalilzad, the Dawn newspaper<br />
quoted an official<br />
statement as saying.<br />
Khan assured Ghani<br />
that Pakistan was making<br />
"sincere efforts for a negotiated<br />
settlement" of the<br />
Afghan conflict through<br />
an inclusive peace process<br />
"as part of shared responsibility".<br />
Ghani also invited<br />
Khan to visit Afghanistan<br />
and the Pakistan Prime<br />
Minister reciprocated the<br />
gesture.<br />
"Both leaders also<br />
agreed to remain engaged<br />
and create an environment<br />
for resolving all outstanding<br />
issues," the statement<br />
said.<br />
Smelling high-calorie<br />
food for 2 minutes<br />
can help you eat less<br />
New York: Does a whiff of pizzas, burgers or sandwiches<br />
entice you, but you refrain from eating them<br />
due to the high-calories it contains? Take heart, smelling<br />
these for longer than two minutes will make you<br />
feel satiated, suggest researchers, including one of an<br />
Indian-origin.<br />
<strong>The</strong> study showed that ambient food scent can directly<br />
satisfy the belly because the brain does not necessarily<br />
differentiate the source of sensory pleasure.<br />
"Ambient scent can be a powerful tool to resist cravings<br />
for indulgent foods. In fact, subtle sensory stimuli<br />
like scents can be more effective in influencing children's<br />
and adults' food choices than restrictive policies,"<br />
said lead author Dipayan Biswas, Professor at the University<br />
of South Florida in the US.<br />
<strong>The</strong> researchers discovered a direct connection between<br />
the length of exposure time and whether or not<br />
one will indulge.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y also conducted<br />
a series of tests using a<br />
nebuliser that separately<br />
gave off the scent of<br />
healthy and unhealthy<br />
food items (cookies versus<br />
strawberries, pizza<br />
versus apples).<br />
<strong>The</strong> findings, published in the Journal of Marketing<br />
Research, showed that participants exposed to the<br />
smell of cookies for less than 30 seconds were more<br />
likely to want a cookie.<br />
However, those exposed for longer than two minutes<br />
did not find that cookie desirable and picked strawberries<br />
instead.<br />
<strong>The</strong> results were the same in case of the scent of<br />
pizza and apples.<br />
Since non-indulgent foods do not give off much of<br />
an ambient scent, they are typically not connected with<br />
reward, therefore they have little influence on what we<br />
order, the study noted.<br />
High caloric foods are high in fats and sugars and<br />
extraordinary intake of these types of foods increase<br />
your risk factors for obesity Type-2 diabetes, heart disease<br />
as well as cancers.
<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly India<br />
January 18, 2018 | Toronto 08<br />
It’s a Sangam of humanity as 2<br />
crore take a dip at Kumbh<br />
Allahabad: It was still<br />
pitch dark, with biting cold<br />
wind blowing from the<br />
Ganga, when sadhus at 13<br />
prominent Akharas — put<br />
up under temporary tents<br />
at the Kumbh Mela ground<br />
— started smearing ash on<br />
their bare bodies before<br />
they took the first plunge<br />
in the Triveni Sangam, the<br />
trijunction of three holy<br />
rivers — Ganga, Yamuna,<br />
and the now extinct Saraswati<br />
— on the first day of<br />
the Kumbh Mela o Tuesday.<br />
Brightly lit tents had<br />
devotees from across the<br />
country and the world<br />
thronging the grounds<br />
ahead of the first ‘shahi<br />
snan’ (royal bath), which<br />
began at 5.15 am on Makar<br />
Sankranti on Tuesday.<br />
Over two crore people took<br />
the holy dip on the auspicious<br />
occasion of Makar<br />
Sankranti.<br />
Kinnar Akhara, the<br />
monastic order of the<br />
transgender community,<br />
created history on Tuesday<br />
when they took part<br />
in the shahi snan at the<br />
Kumbh Mela as a separate<br />
entity.<br />
“Historic moment is<br />
our biggest victory, more<br />
precious than the Supreme<br />
Court verdict favouring the<br />
LGBTQ community. Juna<br />
Akhara came forward to<br />
give space and dignity to the<br />
Kinnar community— it is a<br />
Front-row seat for Tytler at Cong event:<br />
Sirsa says party 'intimidating' witnesses<br />
Continued from page 01<br />
<strong>The</strong> Congress is frustrated after Sajjan Kumar’s<br />
conviction in a 1984 case and is resorting<br />
to petty tactics to scare away riot survivors<br />
and witnesses. It is afraid that Tytler and<br />
Kamal Nath may be jailed for their role in the<br />
riots,” Sirsa claimed. He quoted the Delhi High<br />
Court as saying Sajjan Kumar had escaped justice<br />
for years owing to political patronage.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Congress accused the Akalis of “politicising<br />
a tragedy”. Delhi Congress working<br />
president Rajesh Lilothia said, “<strong>The</strong> Congress<br />
has always said it will respect the court verdict<br />
in every 1984 Sikh riot case. We respect<br />
the decision on Sajjan Kumar. But Tytler has<br />
not been convicted by any court. Contrast this<br />
with the history of BJP president Amit Shah.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Congress gave India its first Sikh PM.<br />
Our support for the Sikh community is for everyone<br />
to see. <strong>The</strong> Akalis should stop exploiting<br />
the grief of the Sikhs to further their political<br />
agenda.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> controversy comes on the eve of a<br />
January 31 Delhi court hearing in the Gurdwara<br />
Pul Bangash case in which Tytler is a<br />
suspect. Three Sikhs were burnt alive after<br />
a mob attacked the gurdwara in November<br />
1984. After Sajjan Kumar’s conviction, this is<br />
the second case of anti Sikh-riots involving a<br />
former Congress MP. <strong>The</strong> case was one of the<br />
three that Nanavati Commission had ordered<br />
to be reopened, the other two being the killing<br />
of five members of Jagdish Kaur’s family in<br />
Delhi Cant (in which Sajjan Kumar has been<br />
convicted for life) and Sultanpuri killings in<br />
which Sajjan Kumar is facing trial.<br />
great moment for the community,”<br />
said Mahamandaleshwar<br />
Lakshmi Narain<br />
Tripathi, the head of Kinnar<br />
Akhara.<br />
Outside the Kumbh<br />
Mela area, the city was a<br />
sea of pilgrims walking in<br />
groups on foot, with vehicular<br />
traffic barred from the<br />
Mela grounds.<br />
As the processions commenced<br />
from 5.15 am, each<br />
of the 13 akharas were divided<br />
into categories of<br />
sanyasi, bairagi, and udaseen<br />
and allotted an hour to<br />
cross the pontoon bridge to<br />
reach their bathing areas<br />
and given 40 minutes to<br />
take the holy dip. <strong>The</strong>y were<br />
then given another hour to<br />
return to their temporary<br />
ashrams across the Ganga.<br />
A devotee takes a dip<br />
at the trijunction of<br />
holy rivers in Allahabad<br />
Three Union ministers, Smriti Irani, Uma Bharti<br />
and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti took a dip at the Sangam on<br />
Makar Sankrantion Tuesday. On a day which marked<br />
the first shahi snan, the ministers<br />
took a dip like ordinary pilgrims<br />
without any security baggage. President<br />
Ram Nath Kovind and PM<br />
Narendra Modi are also likely to<br />
visit Kumbh. Kovind and Modi are<br />
likely to visit Allahabad on January<br />
17 and 24, respectively. <strong>The</strong><br />
visits of Irani and Bharti remained<br />
low key as UP chief minister Yogi<br />
Adityanath had earlier this month<br />
banned VIP protocol in the mela<br />
area on the day of shahi snans and<br />
on the previous and corresponding days. Irani shared<br />
a picture of her Sangam dip on Twitter. <strong>The</strong> post was<br />
retweeted over 4,000 times and received 28,000 likes till<br />
7pm on Tuesday. “Union textiles minister Smriti Irani<br />
arrived in Allahabad on Monday and stayed at a camp<br />
on the Mela Ground,” ADM (Kumbh Mela) Chandra<br />
Pal Tiwari said, adding that it was a personal visit and<br />
none was apprised of her programme.
<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly india<br />
January 18, 2018 | Toronto<br />
09<br />
Katarpur Corridor: BJP scuttling<br />
Sikhs’ dreams, says Capt<br />
Continued on page 01<br />
Sampla is a former BJP state unit<br />
chief.<br />
Singh said Sampla’s statement rejecting<br />
passport waiver and making<br />
visa mandatory for “the poor and illiterate<br />
pilgrims” crossing the Kartarpur<br />
Sahib Corridor showed neither the ruling<br />
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) nor<br />
its ally Shiromani Akalu Dal were interested<br />
in making the travel “hasslefree”.<br />
“Sampla’s claim that all Punjabis<br />
had passports was highly irresponsible<br />
and wrong, and showed how misinformed<br />
and disconnected from the<br />
masses the Minister was,” he said, adding<br />
that the BJP was on the one hand<br />
trying to take credit for the corridor<br />
and one the other, trying to impede its<br />
smooth operationalisation.<br />
He said Sampla’s statement reflected<br />
the BJP’s “anti-minority attitude”<br />
and the Modi government’s continued<br />
attempts to sideline the country’s minorities<br />
to further its political agenda.<br />
Pakistan speed up Kartarpur Corridor work : 35% work already done<br />
Lahore : <strong>The</strong>re are report that Pakistan<br />
has already completed 35% of work for<br />
Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib corridor. <strong>The</strong><br />
corridor would connect Gurdawara Kartarpur<br />
Sahib in West Punjab (Pakistan)<br />
and Gurdawara Darbar Sahib, Dera Baba<br />
Nanak in East Punjab (India). While here<br />
is not much progress on the East Punjab<br />
side by the Indian government, Pakistan<br />
is expected to finish the work before the<br />
predicted deadline.<br />
Pakistan government’s Religious Affairs<br />
and Interfaith Matter minister Noor<br />
Ul Haq Qadri visited the site of Kartarpur<br />
corridor work in Narowal district of West<br />
Punjab and took stock of the construction<br />
work. He was accompanied by Tariq<br />
Wazir, additional secretary of Evacuee<br />
Trust Property Board and Bishan Singh,<br />
former president of Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara<br />
Prabhandak Committee. Pakistani<br />
minister said that the Pakistan Government<br />
will ensure the completion of corridor<br />
work before 550th Parkash Gurupurab<br />
of Guru Nanak ji will falls in later part of<br />
this year.<br />
SC asks search panel on Lokpal<br />
to recommend names by Feb<br />
New Delhi : <strong>The</strong> Supreme Court on Thursday asked<br />
the search committee for the Lokpal, headed by former SC<br />
judge Ranjana Desai, to prepare a panel of names by the end<br />
of February for consideration of the selection committee.<br />
A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi--which<br />
is hearing a PIL seeking direction to the government to appoint<br />
the Lokpal expeditiously--posted the matter for further<br />
hearing on March 7.<br />
It asked the government to provide all necessary support<br />
in terms of office, manpower and infrastructure to enable<br />
the search committee to complete its task within the<br />
timeframe fixed.<br />
Petitioner’s counsel Prashant Bhushan demanded that<br />
there should be transparency in the functioning of the committee.<br />
<strong>The</strong> CJI said at this juncture it was only needed that<br />
the committee should complete its task at the earliest. <strong>The</strong><br />
CJI said once the committee submitted to the panel, all the<br />
names would be given to the petitioner.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bench asked Bhushan to have faith in the committee<br />
headed by a former Supreme Court judge and see things<br />
in a positive manner.<br />
Ram Dera chief, 3 others<br />
awarded life imprisonment in<br />
Chhatrapati murder case<br />
Continued from page 01<br />
On hearing this, accused Krishan Lal went out of the<br />
cave of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and came back with<br />
his own revolver which he gave to Kuldeep Singh and<br />
Nirmal Singh.<br />
<strong>The</strong> CBI Special Court had earlier sentenced Ram<br />
Rahim for 20-year rigorous imprisonment (RI) on August<br />
28, 2017, in a case of rape of two women followers.<br />
He had also been facing Ranjit Singh murder case before<br />
the same court where he is an accused along with<br />
Krishan Lal, Jasbir, Indersen, Avtaar and Sabdil. Ranjit<br />
Singh was murdered on July 10, 2002. <strong>The</strong> CBI has alleged<br />
that Ram Rahim suspected him to be behind the<br />
circulation of anonymous letter of a sadhvi alleging<br />
sexual exploitation of sadhvis at Dera.
<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly India<br />
January 18, 2018 | Toronto 10<br />
MLA quits AAP, blames ‘arrogant’ leaders<br />
Bathinda: <strong>The</strong> Aam Aadmi<br />
Party MLA from Jaitu, Master<br />
Baldev Singh, resigned from the<br />
party’s primary membership on<br />
Wednesday, saying that he was<br />
dissapointed by AAP’s “dictatorial”,<br />
“arrogant” and “overconfident”<br />
leadership.<br />
Baldev Singh (60) said he was<br />
going to join Bholath MLA Sukhpal<br />
Singh Khairaled Punjabi<br />
Ekta Party (PEP) “very soon”.<br />
He had hinted at quitting the<br />
party on January 7, when he said<br />
he would consult his supporters<br />
before reaching a decision.<br />
<strong>The</strong> move comes just ahead of<br />
AAP national convener Arvind<br />
Kejriwal’s visit to Punjab for<br />
launching the party’s Lok Sabha<br />
poll campaign. In his resignation<br />
letter, Baldev said he was pained<br />
to see the party “completely giving<br />
up on its ideology and principles”.<br />
“After few years, I feel<br />
AAP too has started behaving<br />
like other traditional parties and<br />
decisions are not taken with unanimity,<br />
but with a dictatorial attitude.<br />
Pained by all this, I have<br />
decided to resign,” he wrote in<br />
the letter to Kejriwal.<br />
Baldev said he would continue<br />
to be an MLA and had only left<br />
the party. He said in the letter he<br />
had, initially, seen AAP as a party<br />
with a difference. “I was motivated<br />
by the movement launched<br />
by Anna Hazare and became a<br />
part of AAP. To improve the situation<br />
of our country and Punjab,<br />
I quit my government job as a<br />
head teacher, though I had more<br />
than 4 years of service left,” he<br />
wrote. “This panicked my family,<br />
but I took the risk merely<br />
due to the lofty promises made<br />
by you and AAP,” he wrote.<br />
Khaira resigned from AAP’s<br />
primary membership on January<br />
6. With Khaira and Baldev<br />
leaving, AAP’s strength in the<br />
assembly has fallen to 18. Some<br />
other MLAs are in touch with<br />
Khaira and more resignations<br />
cannot be ruled out. <strong>The</strong> Shiromani<br />
Akali Dal has 14 MLAs.<br />
Belonging to Takhanbadh<br />
village in Moga, Baldev was the<br />
head teacher of a government<br />
primary school in Machaki Mal<br />
Singh village near Faridkot when<br />
he took pre-mature retirement in<br />
January 2014 and applied for the<br />
AAP ticket from Faridkot parliamentary<br />
constituency.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ticket was allotted to<br />
Sadhu Singh, but Baldev continued<br />
to work for the party and got<br />
its assembly ticket from Jaitu in<br />
2017. Baldev described AAP leadership’s<br />
attitude as “arrogant<br />
and overconfident”, saying that<br />
it led to the party’s “crushing”<br />
deafeat in the assembly polls.<br />
“You never bothered to look<br />
into the reasons of this humiliating<br />
defeat and once again handed<br />
over the reins of Punjab to outsiders,”<br />
he wrote.<br />
In Kandela, bull’s blessings<br />
opens doors for politicians<br />
Chandigarh: <strong>The</strong> fourcornered<br />
battle for the Jind<br />
assembly seat has raised<br />
the stakes for all contestants<br />
in the byelection —<br />
politicians are not only<br />
bowing in front of voters,<br />
but also a bull to ensure<br />
their victory.<br />
Congress media incharge<br />
and its bypoll candidate<br />
Randeep Singh<br />
Surjewala visited Kandela<br />
village, near Jind, on Monday<br />
and offered prayers to<br />
“Khagar (bull),” which is<br />
believed to have saved the<br />
villagers during police firing<br />
in 2002.<br />
<strong>The</strong> temple on the<br />
Jind-Chandigarh highway,<br />
which houses an idol of the<br />
bull, attributed with divine<br />
powers by the villagers, is<br />
maintained by the village<br />
panchayat. <strong>The</strong>re is a music<br />
system in the temple<br />
and ‘aarti (prayer)’ is offered<br />
twice a day — in the<br />
morning and evening. <strong>The</strong><br />
bull temple perhaps has<br />
more devotees than any<br />
other conventional temple<br />
in the vicinity.<br />
All politicians or dignitaries<br />
visiting the village<br />
do not forget to offer<br />
prayers at the memorial of<br />
the bull, which saved the<br />
village from a major tragedy.<br />
For every villager, this<br />
bull is paramount and people<br />
respect those who pay<br />
tribute to their saviour,”<br />
Ram Mehar Kandela, a resident<br />
of village and a khap<br />
leader told media.<br />
<strong>The</strong> village had turned<br />
into a battleground between<br />
farmers and the OP<br />
Chautala government in<br />
2002 over non-payment of<br />
electricity bills.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Kandela farmers as<br />
part of the anti-government<br />
agitation had blocked the<br />
highway and the Haryana<br />
police, in retaliation,<br />
opened fire on them. <strong>The</strong><br />
BJP was supporting the<br />
INLD government at the<br />
time.<br />
<strong>The</strong> bull, according to<br />
the villagers, stood like a<br />
wall between the police and<br />
the farmers and saved lives<br />
of the protesters. Narrating<br />
the details of the bull’s powers,<br />
the villagers claimed<br />
the bull charged towards<br />
the cops when they opened<br />
fire.<br />
Almost simultaneously,<br />
the police rifles stopped<br />
working, their vehicles<br />
could not move and the<br />
horses, which had cops<br />
riding them, fled on seeing<br />
the bull, they added. Nine<br />
villagers lost their lives<br />
in the firing, but Kandela<br />
residents believe that the<br />
bull was their saviour and<br />
helped avert a major loss of<br />
lives.<br />
<strong>The</strong> bull died a few<br />
years after the 2002 incident<br />
and a temple was constructed<br />
in its memory by<br />
the villagers. Since then,<br />
the villagers first offers<br />
prayers to the bull before<br />
beginning any new work<br />
or before any auspicious<br />
event in their families. A<br />
portion of the first harvest<br />
is offered first to the bull by<br />
the villagers.<br />
With the villagers suspicious<br />
of the motives of the<br />
undivided INLD and the<br />
BJP — the two parties in<br />
power at the time — khap<br />
leader Ram Mehar Kandela<br />
said the villagers would<br />
wait and see if the BJP, JJP<br />
or INLD candidates would<br />
also offer prayers at the<br />
temple.<br />
So emotive is the 2002<br />
firing issue in the village,<br />
that after offering prayers<br />
at the bull memorial, Surjewala<br />
addressed an election<br />
meeting in the village<br />
and reminded its residents<br />
that OP Chautala was responsible<br />
for the violence<br />
in Kandela.<br />
An MBA enters the frame,<br />
sparks speculations in BSP<br />
Lucknow: He was there<br />
beside BSP chief Mayawati<br />
when she welcomed and<br />
accepted greetings from<br />
SP president Akhilesh<br />
Yadav at her residence<br />
here on her birthday on<br />
Tuesday. He was also by<br />
her side when RJD’s Tejaswi<br />
Yadav came calling<br />
on Sunday.<br />
While there is a sudden<br />
spurt in public appearances<br />
of Mayawati,<br />
the person who is arresting<br />
people’s attention is<br />
24-year-old Akash Anand,<br />
standing besides her in<br />
most photographs.<br />
Akash is her nephew,<br />
the son of her brother<br />
Anand Singh, who served<br />
as BSP vice-president till<br />
2017.<br />
<strong>The</strong> photos also set<br />
speculations rife about<br />
Akash, an MBA from London,<br />
being assigned an<br />
important political role.<br />
But, senior leaders ruled<br />
out any such development,<br />
citing Mayawati’s<br />
announcement in May<br />
last year that no family<br />
member of the national<br />
president would be given<br />
a post in the party. In the<br />
past, she even had Anand<br />
Singh removed from the<br />
post of national vice-president<br />
to refute charges of<br />
promoting dynasty politics<br />
in BSP.<br />
BSP sources said<br />
Akash had accompanied<br />
Mayawati to Lucknow on<br />
January 10 and stayed<br />
with her to celebrate her<br />
birthday on January 15.<br />
He featured prominently<br />
in all official photo ops.<br />
“Akash handles his father’s<br />
business and it<br />
will be incorrect to read<br />
anything political into<br />
his visit. His last visit to<br />
Lucknow was probably<br />
in April last year,” said a<br />
party member.<br />
However, Akash and<br />
his father have made several<br />
public appearances<br />
with Mayawati in the<br />
past.<br />
Sources indicated that<br />
the nephew, who was initially<br />
being groomed by<br />
Mayawati for a bigger<br />
role in the party before<br />
she announced that no<br />
family member would be<br />
given a party position,<br />
may be playing a part in<br />
the upcoming Lok Sabha<br />
elections.<br />
“His first official public<br />
appearance with Mayawati<br />
was in 2016 when he<br />
accompanied her to Saharanpur.<br />
He was also on stage<br />
with her during a rally in<br />
Meerut in February 2017.<br />
In October 2017, when<br />
Anand was still the party<br />
vice-president, their<br />
names were mentioned<br />
in a press release for the<br />
first time,” said party<br />
sources.<br />
He has a Facebook<br />
page ‘Akash Anand-BSP’<br />
that was created in September<br />
2017. <strong>The</strong> closed<br />
group has seen activity<br />
pick up over the past few<br />
weeks with 1,427 members<br />
out of a total 8,467<br />
added in the past 30 days.
<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly India<br />
January 18, 2018 | Toronto<br />
11<br />
Cong suspends Zira for ‘gross indiscipline’<br />
Chandigarh: <strong>The</strong> Punjab<br />
Congress on Wednesday<br />
suspended its MLA<br />
from Zira constituency,<br />
Kulbir Singh Zira, for<br />
“gross indiscipline” and<br />
“undermining” efforts of<br />
the Congress state government<br />
to fight the drug menace.<br />
Congress state president<br />
Sunil Jakhar said instead<br />
of raising his issues<br />
on a public platform, Zira<br />
should have discussed it<br />
within the party. He said<br />
the MLA had been suspended,<br />
but would continue<br />
to be a legislator.<br />
Jakhar said Zira was issued<br />
a show-cause notice.<br />
“Though he submitted a<br />
reply, he failed to explain<br />
his conduct and this resulted<br />
in the suspension,”<br />
he said.<br />
Jakhar said the next<br />
course of action would be<br />
decided after discussion<br />
within the party. However,<br />
interacting with media,<br />
Zira said he had been<br />
unnecessarily targetted<br />
for raising the issue and<br />
would take up the matter<br />
with higher-ups in the<br />
party.<br />
Zira had boycotted a<br />
district-level function on<br />
January 12, alleging that<br />
authorities were not acting<br />
against the liquor mafia<br />
in Ferozepur. He had<br />
also levelled allegations<br />
on Ferozepur range IGP<br />
M S Chhina. Jakhar said<br />
Zira also met DGP Suresh<br />
Arora and submitted his<br />
complaints, and these had<br />
been marked to different<br />
officers for investigation.<br />
To a question on why<br />
the Congress did not to<br />
act against Rajya Sabha<br />
MP Pratap Singh Bajwa<br />
and Amargarh MLA Surjit<br />
Singh Dhiman, when they<br />
had earlier openly criticised<br />
the state government<br />
on various issues, including<br />
drugs, Jakhar said,<br />
“Somewhere, one has to<br />
draw the line.”<br />
“Indiscipline in the<br />
party will not be tolerated.<br />
If someone has any issue,<br />
he should take up the matter<br />
within the party,” he<br />
said.<br />
Dhiman had in 2017 left<br />
the state Congress government<br />
embarrassed when<br />
he said that “chitta” (synthetic<br />
drug powder) was<br />
still being openly sold in<br />
the state.<br />
Jakhar rubbished the<br />
allegations that Congress<br />
leaders were grabbing<br />
land of those supporting<br />
the SAD and the BJP, as<br />
was alleged by SAD president<br />
Sukhbir Singh Badal<br />
on Tuesday.<br />
On resignations by<br />
Punjab MLAs Sukhpal<br />
Singh Khaira and Master<br />
Baldev Singh from the primary<br />
membership of the<br />
Aam Aadmi Party, Jakhar<br />
said the law would take its<br />
own course.<br />
SC rejects Punjab, Haryana<br />
plea on selection of DGPs<br />
Chandigarh/New<br />
Delhi: In a major setback<br />
to five states, including<br />
Punjab and Haryana, the<br />
Supreme Court on Wednesday<br />
dismissed their pleas<br />
seeking modification of its<br />
order issued last year on the<br />
selection and appointment<br />
of directorsgeneral of police<br />
(DGPs).<br />
<strong>The</strong> five states had<br />
sought the SC’s permission<br />
to select and appoint their<br />
DGPs according to laws that<br />
they have enacted for the<br />
same. Punjab and Haryana<br />
had amended their respective<br />
Police Acts last year.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Supreme Court in<br />
its July 3, 2018 verdict had<br />
made it mandatory for all<br />
the states to send a list of<br />
names of eligible IPS officers<br />
to the Union Public<br />
Service Commission<br />
(UPSC) three months before<br />
the incumbent DGP was to<br />
retire and, in turn, the commission<br />
would choose three<br />
officers from that list and let<br />
the final choice rest with the<br />
state governments.<br />
A bench headed by<br />
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi<br />
said on Wednesday that the<br />
earlier directions of the SC<br />
were issued in larger public<br />
interest and to protect officials<br />
from political interference.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Punjab government<br />
in its petition had submitted<br />
since police is a state<br />
subject, it should have the<br />
liberty to appoint the DGP,<br />
contending that the selection<br />
of DGP from amongst<br />
the three officers finalised<br />
by the UPSC was against<br />
the basic structure of the<br />
Constitution and contrary<br />
to the Centre-State relations.<br />
Punjab DGP Suresh<br />
Arora on Wednesday got a<br />
nine-month extension after<br />
the SC rejected the Punjab<br />
government’s plea on the<br />
appointment of the state police<br />
chief.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Appointments<br />
Committee of the Cabinet<br />
approved Arora’s extension<br />
for an overall period of 12<br />
months beyond the date of<br />
his superannuation, September<br />
30, 2018.<br />
After Punjab DGP<br />
Suresh Arora got two extensions,<br />
a three-month one till<br />
December 31 and onemonth<br />
extension till January 31,<br />
the Punjab government had<br />
taken up the issue with the<br />
Centre and sought a third<br />
extension for the director<br />
general of police (DGP)<br />
and that was allowed on<br />
Wednesday.<br />
Arora was appointed<br />
the DGP by the then SAD-<br />
BJP government in 2015.<br />
However, Haryana DGP<br />
BS Sandhu, who along with<br />
Arora had first got a threemonth<br />
extension and then<br />
one-month extension till<br />
January 31, has not been<br />
given a longer extension<br />
yet. He too was due to retire<br />
on September 30 last year.<br />
After the Punjab DGP’s<br />
tenure extension, Arora<br />
will retire on September<br />
30, but before that two of<br />
the next five IPS officers in<br />
the seniority list will reach<br />
their age of superannuation<br />
— DGP law and order Hardeep<br />
Singh Dhillon will retire<br />
on March 31 and 1986-batch<br />
IPS officer Jasminder Singh<br />
(DGP internal vigilance<br />
cell) on August 30. '<br />
BSF-NHAI team visits Dera Baba Nanak<br />
Amritsar: A day after the<br />
Union home ministry discussed<br />
land acquisition at Dera Baba<br />
Nanak in Gurdaspur district for<br />
the construction of the Indian side<br />
of the Kartarpur corridor, BSF inspector<br />
general (Punjab frontier)<br />
Mahipal Yadav and officials from<br />
the National Highway Authority<br />
of India (NHAI), accompanied by<br />
those from the Gurdaspur district<br />
administration, visited the border<br />
areas of Dera Baba Nanak.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y visited places close to the<br />
International Border (IB) with Pakistan<br />
and inspected the land that<br />
could be acquired for construction<br />
of the passage and corridor<br />
complex that would have offices<br />
of the border paramilitary force,<br />
immigration and customs.<br />
Yadav confirmed that he<br />
had gone to Dera Baba Nanak,<br />
but to visit his battalion. “Since<br />
I had gone there, I decided to<br />
visit other places as well,” he<br />
said. Sources said that the BSF<br />
had put a requirement of around<br />
70 acres for its new complex at<br />
Dera Baba Nanak.<br />
AAP writes to Speaker;<br />
Khaira set to be<br />
disqualified as MLA<br />
Chandigarh : On a day when the third MLA of the<br />
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Baldev Singh, representing<br />
Jaito Assembly segment, resigned from the party’s primary<br />
membership, the top brass swung into action to<br />
save AAP from further “political erosion”.<br />
<strong>The</strong> party, after its core committee meeting, today<br />
sent a letter to Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP, saying<br />
that Sukhpal Singh Khaira had resigned from the party.<br />
Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema handed<br />
over the letter to the Speaker. With this, the disqualification<br />
of Khaira as MLA from Bholath in the Vidhan<br />
Sabha becomes inevitable.<br />
Bhagwant Mann, AAP MP, who is also part of the<br />
core committee, told <strong>The</strong> Tribune that the decision to<br />
send the letter to the Speaker was taken in the meeting<br />
late this evening and endorsed by the Political Affairs<br />
Committee of<br />
AAP in Delhi and<br />
national convenor<br />
Arvind Kejriwal.<br />
Crushing the<br />
surging rebellion<br />
in the party became<br />
necessary<br />
as the third resignation<br />
of AAP<br />
MLA from the party will bring down their number in<br />
the House to 17.<br />
HS Phoolka, though not part of the rebel group led<br />
by Khaira, had resigned on January 3, citing differences<br />
in ideology with the party. Khaira, who has the<br />
support of six other MLAs, had resigned on January 6.<br />
He floated his own party last week and the rebel MLAs,<br />
Kanwar Sandhu (under suspension), Jagtar Singh<br />
Jagga, Nazar Singh Manshahia, Jagdev Singh Kamalu<br />
and Pirmal Singh, besides Baldev Singh, were present<br />
at the party launch function. Sources in AAP say that<br />
these MLAs are still in two minds about resigning from<br />
the party.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP, too, jointly<br />
have 17 MLAs (14 of the Akali Dal and three of the BJP).<br />
With both Opposition parties having similar number of<br />
MLAs (provided the three above mentioned MLAs are<br />
disqualified), the SAD-BJP, too, can stake claim to the<br />
post of Leader of Opposition.<br />
Probably sensing this, the AAP leadership has<br />
taken action only against Sukhpal Khaira. <strong>The</strong> move is<br />
meant to stem the rebellion, as other rebels would not<br />
like to give up their Vidhan Sabha membership and<br />
force byelections in their segments.
<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly January 18, 2018 | Toronto 12<br />
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