Took Care of Article 370 in J&K Without Creating Any New Problems, Says Modi in Jharkhand Rally.

Source – news18.com

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said his government had taken care of Article 370 without creating any new problems in Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing a poll rally in Jharkhand, where the second phase of voting is scheduled for December 7, Modi said: “We abolished Article 370… it was a mess created by congress but we took care of it without creating any new problems… I know that people of Jharkhand will help in the growth of J&K.”

The Centre on August 5 scrapped provisions of Article 370 and divided Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories — J&K and Ladakh.

Modi, who was in Khunti, also said Jharkhand was like a growing child and “like a parent who is worried about the future of their growing child I am also working for Jharkhand”.

“Jharkhand is now 19 years old. It will soon stop being a teenager… I want you to stand with me and I promise you that when Jharkhand turns 25 you will not be able to recognise it.”

The Prime Minister said BJP had succeeded in breaking the back of Naxals in Jharkhand and thanked the people of the state for putting up a fight against elements who tried to disrupt polling in the first phase on Saturday.

“I have always had a close connection with Jharkhand… I have visited the state while holding many positions. I thank you for the way you have voted in the first phase,” Modi said.

He added: “There were some elements who tried to disrupt polling in the first phase but you fought then and still turned up to vote.”

Enumerating the achievements of the BJP, Modi said: “Today we have managed to bring electricity to places where earlier opposition leaders did not even bother to visit. BJP brought the magic of solar power to Jharkhand.

“We are ensuring that farmers in Jharkhand are getting money straight into their accounts… look at the condition of farmers in non BJP states… Congress and their allies are deceiving them,” he said.

Vajpayee govt created Jharkhand, Modi taking it forward: Amit Shah

Source – indiatoday.in

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Thursday said that it was the Narendra Modi government at the Centre which was taking Jharkhand on the path of the development.

Speaking at an election rally Chatra he said that Jharkhand had witnessed large scale corruption during the previous governments but there is not a single charge of graft against the Raghubar Das government in the state.

He said the JMM, Congress and the RJD are fighting the state Assembly election in an alliance. “I would like to ask Hemant Babu (Soren) what was the stand of Congress when youth of Jharkhand were fighting for a separate state.”

“The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had created Jharkhand and the Narendra Modi dispensation is taking it forward,” he said.

The Home minister claimed that the law and order situation has improved in the state and the “Raghubar Das government has buried Naxals “20 feet under the earth in Jharkhand”.

The BJP president that the Das government has provided electricity to 38 lakh households in the state.

Later speaking at another poll rally at Garhwa, where polls are slated to be held on November 30, Shah said that development cannot take place through use of brute power and warned Naxals that they would get “back with interest” for their violence.

Four policemen were martyred in Latehar recently. I tell the Naxals that they will get back “sudh samet” (with interest) for their actions and will be rooted out by the BJP government which will return to power in the state,” Shah, who is also the union home minister said.

Development cannot take take place through the use of bullets. It will happen when you press the button on Lotu (BJPs election symbol) in the assembly elections, Shah said, appealing to the people to give the BJP absolute majority to continue the development work in the state.

LWEs killed four state police personnel in Latehar district on November 22 and gunned down two persons, including a local BJP leader in Palamau district the next day.

Hitting out at the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which have a seat sharing understanding in Jharkhand in the coming Assembly poll, Shah said JMM leader

Hemant Soren is sitting in the lap of Congress for power.

Referring to the welfare schemes of the BJP-led government at the Centre, Shah said the Narendra Modi government had enhanced the allotment to the state to Rs 3,08,490 crore in five years from Rs 55,253 crore sanctioned by the Manmohan Singh government.

Speaking on the security measures taken by the Narendra Modi government, Shah said there were terrorist strikes during the Manmohan Singh dispensation, but it was the Narendra Modi government which gave a befitting reply after Uri and Pulwama terror attacks by targeting terrorist camps in Pakistan territory.

Our Army will not leave anybody staring or glaring at our borders, Shah said, adding youths from Jharkhand are also standing guard on the borders.

Producer of incendiary song, “Jo na bole jai shree Ram,” claims its writer is a “patriot”

Source: caravanmagazine.in

These are the opening lyrics to a new song uploaded on YouTube on 23 July, on a channel called “Varun Bahar official.” The three-minute-long song, titled, “Those who will not chant victory to lord Ram, send them to the graveyard,” is by a Bhojpuri singer, Varun Bahar Upadhyay. The video features Bahar dressed in an all-saffron outfit, sporting rudraksh beads—seeds that are used as prayer beads, usually by followers of the Hindu god Shiva—against a fixed backdrop splashed with images of the Hindu god Ram. The video switches between Bahar singing, images of young men carrying swords and threatening bystanders, and groups of saffron-clad boys and girls dancing. An unidentified graveyard—the cemetery is dotted with Christian crosses—makes an appearance every time Bahar sings the chorus, accompanied by some fist-pumping for added effect. The hashtags accompanying the song are equally unimaginative: “#saffron#terrorist#varun.” The description has a single line in Hindi which translates as “after singing this song, the media has declared Varun Bahar as a saffron terrorist.” A casual search on Google did not reveal any such media reports.

The song has, however, been shared widely on social media, drawing sharp reactions, and scathing criticism for inciting lynching and mob violence against minorities. The unequivocal exhortations in the song’s lyrics are undeniable. Bahar’s YouTube channel, which had 549 subscribers as of 6 pm on 24 July, has been online since 2013, but the oldest video is from just a year ago. The channel is an absurd mix of devotional songs, Bhojpuri love songs, videos proclaiming and seeking support for the prime minister Narendra Modi and content that can only politely be termed titillating.

Bahar’s mobile phone has been switched off since the morning of 24 July, following the furore on social media, and I could not get in touch with Santosh Singh Yadu, the writer of the song and a co-curator of the channel. Rajesh Verma, who runs a YouTube channel called Janta Musical And Pictures, produced and directed the video. Verma told me that the video was originally uploaded on his channel “two or three days ago, but we removed it from Janta music because it became controversial.” He said that some “Pakistani channels and local channels” contacted him and told him that “it’s wrong to say ‘send them to the grave,’ and so we took it down.”

Verma denied that the lyrics were inflammatory and said that “the singer did not take names” of any religion. He argued that “both Hindus and Muslims use graves.” When I pointed out that Hindus are cremated and so the song targets minority communities who bury their dead, Verma claimed that “only married Hindus are cremated, unmarried and single Hindus are buried.” He appeared to have forgotten that the Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch, Atal Bihari Vajpayee—an avowed bachelor—was cremated with full state honours. “I am not anti-Muslim,” Verma told me, when I pushed him to explain the anti-minority lyrics of the video. “I visit dargahs every Thursday and do pranam whenever I go past a mosque.”

Verma’s Janta Musical channel has released 598 videos as of 24 June. One song is titled, “’If you don’t like saffron, get out of India” and boasts of 5.5 million views. Another is called “Every Hindu’s call: Temple first, government only after that,” and has 252,000 views. All the songs feature violent imagery of men dressed in saffron, carrying swords and other similar tropes of majoritarian assertion. The channel also contains several videos supporting Modi and the BJP.

“Bahar and Yadu came to me with the idea of the song,” Verma said. He added that Bahar hails from a village called Mankapur, “near Ayodhya.” He noted that he had heard the song before uploading it but justified the offensive lyrics and its call to violence. “Some people are saying we won’t let the Ram temple be built,” Verma told me. “We are devotees of Ram, so we have made a song in praise of Ram.”

Verma was puzzled by the objection to providing a platform to the song: “If it was a matter of hurting anyone, why would we upload it?” When I asked him who the video was addressed to, he blithely responded, “The writer of the song is a deshpremi”—a patriot—“and he may have had the stone-pelters in Kashmir in mind while writing the song.” Verma also denied any connection to a political party or group and said he was an “independent music producer.” Janta Musical has a Twitter account, which tweeted on 23 July, “We apologise for the rumours spread due to the song of one singer. It was not the intention of Janta Music to hurt the religious feelings of any group.”

While Verma claimed that he removed the video soon after uploading it, the song was available on the “Varun Bahar official” channel till around 6 pm on 24 July. It has now been removed but is still being shared widely on other social-media platforms. The singer and writer, though unavailable, seem to have no regrets about the song or its content. Just hours before the video was removed, at around 3 pm on 24 July, Bahar and Yadu posted this statement, from their official account, in the comments section:

Bihar’s 1.48 crore power consumers to get smart prepaid meters by 2020

Source: newindianexpress.com

PATNA: Come August 2020 and Bihar’s 1.48 crore power consumers will get smart prepaid electricity bill measuring meters installed in their houses. 

After successful completion of the target, Bihar would become the first state in the country with all its power consumers availing facility of prepaid electricity meters.

Buoyed by recent Lok Sabha victory, the Nitish Kumar government has directed officials of Bihar State Power Holding Company Limited (BSPHCL) to achieve the target of complete installation of smart prepaid electricity bill measuring metres by August 2020, ahead of the state assembly elections in 2020.

CM Nitish Kumar has assigned the task of completing the installation to chairman-cum-chief managing director(CMD) of BSPHCL Pratay Amrit, who has played an effective role in ensuring the complete electrification of villages in record time in the state. 

In the last five years, Bihar has spent a whopping Rs 55,000 crore on electrification works and ensuring availability of power.
 
The CM while lauding the performances of electricity department at a function organised to inaugurate and kick-start various schemes worth Rs 697 crores on Tuesday, said that department should also achieve the target of installing the prepaid meters on top priority.

“Once the prepaid meters are installed, consumers will face not problems like inflated bills of which is major complaint by consumers”, Kumar said.
 
He also asked the power officials to replace all the old wires within the stipulated time frame and ensure separate power connection under the agriculture incentive plan to the farmers.

Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, also present at the function, said that the number of power consumers in the state has increased from 37 lakh in 2012 to 1.48 crores in 2019.

“Thanks to the ample availability of power in even remotest parts, state government got a huge revenue of Rs 9,072 crores. The ample power availability has reduced the sales of inverters and gensets in the state to a great extent”, Modi said.

Pratay Amrit said that installation works of smart prepaid meters will start in July from Arwal and Sheohar districts of the state. He informed the government in his welcome speech that old wires in 28874 circuit km were replaced. “The number of power sub-stations has increased also from 95 to129 with a registered demand of power around 5389 megawatts in the state”, he said.