Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 25 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed meetings of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Congress “corruption hackathons” and said the Opposition’s style of politics is based on bullying and harassing.
Addressing a public meeting on Thursday after inaugurating and laying the foundation stone of several projects, the Prime Minister said the way the NDA government at the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government have worked is a classic example of cooperative federalism.
“The nation is witnessing two distinct styles of politics today. The opposition’s misgovernance with corruption and NDA’s governance with compassion. Both methods are very different. For Opposition, what matters is personal gain. They want to be in power to fill pockets,” he said.
“DMK and Congress meetings are like Corruption Hackathons. Their leaders sit and brainstorm how to loot. Those who give the most innovative ways are given posts and ministries. The Opposition style of politics is based on bullying and harassing,” he added.
PM Modi said leaders who troubled former chief minister Jayalalitha have been rewarded by the DMK and Congress.
“Whenever they come to power, they promote a strongman culture. In every district, they have anti-social elements who trouble innocent citizens. Party cadres leave no chance to get extortion money. Women of Tamil Nadu suffer because of this. The entire Tamil Nadu knows how DMK treated Amma Jayalalitha Ji. This shows their attitude towards women. Sadly, leaders who troubled Jayalalitha Ji have been rewarded by DMK and Congress,” he said.
The Prime Minister said the DMK has lost the right to be called an All Tamil Nadu party.
“The last time they won a full majority on their own in the state was 25 years ago. Both Congress and DMK are suffering from internal contradictions. Both parties have tried to launch and relaunch their respective first families but to no success. There’s continuous family drama there! They cannot deliver good governance to Tamil Nadu,” he said.
PM Modi said the people of India have given a strong message and spoken that they want development-oriented governance in the last few years.
“This year, Tamil Nadu will elect a new government. The Assembly Elections are happening at a critical moment in Indian history. In the last few years, the people of India have given a strong message and spoken that they want development-oriented governance. People want anti-development elements to be at a distance,” he said. (ANI)

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], February 25 (ANI): Hitting back at the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who during his recent Kerala visit had criticised the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) led Kerala Government, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that “No one should think that the people of Kerala can be deceived if they come up with planned lies as the elections approach.”
Addressing a press meet here on Thursday, Vijayan said, “Adityanath came to Kerala the other day and said that Kerala was lagging behind in everything and there was total chaos here. One of his findings is that this is a land of corruption and anarchy. I want to remind him in 2019, Kerala was the least corrupt state in the Corruption Survey conducted by the Center for Media Studies. Instead, Shyamprakash, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA himself said that UP has the highest level of corruption in the country in July 2020. In January 2021, Uttar Pradesh (UP) Power Minister Srikanth Sharma said that his department was the most corrupt,”
Further, he said, “His other finding is that young people in Kerala are leaving the country without getting a job. Educated youth in Kerala are looking for jobs all over the world because they have the ability to work anywhere in the world. About 15 per cent of the guest workers in Kerala are from Uttar Pradesh. They have the best facilities in Kerala including insurance cover. Ask them and they will make him understand better about Kerala.”
“Another remark by the UP Chief Minister was that the government was trying to divide the people. This is a state where no communal riots have taken place in the last five years. People here hold secular values. But what is the situation in UP? The media itself has reported on how many communal riots and hate activities are taking place there. UP has the highest number of murders in the country,” alleged Vijayan.
Giving figures of UP, Vijayan said, “According to a 2017 report by the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 4,324 murders in UP. Recently, eight policemen, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, were killed in a goonda attack. How many encounter murders are going on there? UP has the highest crime rate against women. According to a 2019 report, violence against women in UP has increased drastically in the last four years by 66.7 per cent.”
Regarding the UP Chief Minister’s remark that the world is laughing at Kerala for its poor COVID-19 management, Vijayan said, “There are 3.5 crore people in Kerala and population of UP is 20.5 crore, which is six times the population of Kerala. The COVID tests in Kerala have already passed 1,10,00,000. In UP, which has a population six times larger than Kerala, it is estimated that only about 3 crore tests have been conducted. The test per million rates in Kerala is double that of UP.”
Kerala Chief Minister further said that Kerala is a model for controlling mortality in the country.
“UP is also lagging behind in preventing COVID deaths. Kerala is a model for the country in controlling mortality,” he added. (ANI)

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], February 25 (ANI): After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the Left government, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said that Congress is responsible for the agrarian crisis today and he should offer unconditional apologies to farmers.
“The unrest in the Opposition ranks over the acceptance of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government is coming out in many ways. Rahul Gandhi is coming to Kerala and making extraordinary interventions. He even drove tractors for farmers and swam in the sea for fishermen. I am grateful to him for his interest in Kerala,” the Chief Minister said.
“On January 16, a national media outlet reported about 70 farmers had been killed in farmers’ protests in Delhi. However, Rahul Gandhi came to Kerala and declared his support for the farmers here, ignoring the farmers’ struggle that was gripping the country as a whole,” he further said.
He said Rahul Gandhi should offer unconditional apologies to farmers on behalf of Congress.
“All this happened as a result of ruthless anti-farmer policies. The blood of millions of slain farmers is in the hands of Congress. Rahul Gandhi should unconditionally apologize to the farmers for these crimes on behalf of Congress. These policies need to be amended. The country needs new alternatives,” he said.
Holding Congress responsible for the agrarian crisis today, Vijayan said it all started with the neo-liberal policies implemented in the 1990s.
“Farmers were forced to commit suicide by being left to the unfair competition of the market and by the withdrawal of support and security from the government. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, about three lakh farmers have committed suicide in India during this period. This is due to the policies and governance reforms implemented by the Congress and which are still on their agenda today,” he added.
The Chief Minister said the former Congress chief should understand what happened in the Wayanad district, which is part of his constituency.
“How did the coffee and pepper crops, the backbone of Wayanad district, collapse? Without realizing the loss, it is impossible for him to understand why farmers are still struggling on the streets of the country’s capital, battling death in the bitter cold,” he said. (ANI)

By Siddharth Sharma
New Delhi [India], February 25 (ANI): After LPG prices were hiked by Rs 25 on Thursday, Congress leaders Supriya Shrinate and Vineet Punia, in an eyecatching endeavour, sat on LPG cylinders while addressing media here on Thursday over the continuous rise of prices of fuel.
Addressing the press conference, Shrinate said, “Today we are sitting on empty gas cylinders because I do not think, any of us, the common man have the wherewithal to get these cylinders refilled. So, they are best kept as showpieces in our homes.”
“We expected this government to bring down prices, but prices were further hiked by Rs 25 per LPG gas cylinder,” she said.
Questioning the central government, she said, “Why are you anti-people, why are you raising prices, why are you not rolling back the excise duty hikes?
She further accused the Modi government of being a “shameless” administration.
Targeting Prime Minister, she said, “Prime Minister says that the current situation is because of the imports made by the previous governments and he is helpless. This is a big lie, because, in his tenure, our imports of crude oils have gone up. In the Congress party’s tenure, they were 83 per cent and in his tenure, it has gone to 88 per cent and it is not because we are consuming more but due to the economic slowdown. Our consumption growth rate has dipped from 6.7 per cent to 2.2 per cent.”
Shrinate also questioned why funds and cash reserves of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) were halved.
“Earlier ONGC had funds worth Rs 12,000 crores and now they are left with funds of only Rs 6,000 crores. It was sitting on cash reserves of Rs 11,000 crores and today they have cash reserves of less than a thousand crore rupees. This is because they made ONGC forcibly buy Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited due to which ONGC has been left with very little cash reserves.”
She said that the government has not only just increased the prices but has also lied to the people.
“They lie about subsidy on LPG cylinder; the reality is that this Government has made market price and controlled price the same. It is the difference between market prices and controlled prices, which is the subsidy. So, if you were paying Rs 794 as market prices for LPG and the controlled price was Rs 500, you would have got Rs 294 as a subsidy. LPG cylinder in Delhi now costs Rs 794 and because they have been raising prices so frequently, the market and the controlled prices are the same and hence there is no subsidy. Dharmendra Pradhan, stop lying to the country about paying subsidy on LPG cylinder and it is very evident, in your budget this year. Nirmala Sitharaman has put fuel subsidy at Rs 12,000 crore, which is one-third of what it was last year.”
“This government has become morally dead. As being in government, getting the comfort, getting used to the luxury of being a Minister, perhaps make you oblivious and perhaps make you blind towards the plight of the common people, but, it is these common people, who have put you in positions of power and it will take no time before they pull you out,” she added. (ANI)

Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], February 25 (ANI): Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday announced that people travelling from Maharashtra and Kerala to Rajasthan will need an RT-PCR negative report to enter the state in the view of COVID-19.
The decision was taken during a COVID-19 review meeting chaired by Gehlot.
In the meeting, it was decided that a vaccination awareness camp will be launched from the first week of March, Gehlot said in a video posted on his Twitter handle.
He has urged people to follow all COVID-19 guidelines and avoid any kind of carelessness.
Expressing concerns over the rising COVID-19 cases in the neighbouring states, Gehlot had called a meeting with officials.
According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there are 53,153 active COVID-19 cases in Kerala, while 60,559 active cases are in Maharashtra.
There are 1,204 active COVID-19 cases in Rajasthan, according to MoHFW. (ANI)

Kochi (Kerala) [India], February 25 (ANI): Additional Special Sessions Court in Kochi on Thursday dismissed the petition seeking cancellation of bail granted to Malayalam actor Dileep, who is the eighth accused in the Kerala actress attack case.
The prosecution had approached the trial court for cancellation of bail arguing that Dileep had intimidated two witnesses in the case to make statements in his favour.
Dileep pointed out that the Crime Branch which probed the matter had not found any evidence on this allegation.
The actor was in jail for over two months before being released on bail.
Dileep has been charged with conspiracy in the case in which an actor, who has worked in Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu films, was allegedly abducted and molested inside her car by a group of men, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017. She later escaped. (ANI)