Snoopgate will not be whitewashed or brushed under carpet: Cong
New Delhi: Snoopgate will not be allowed to be “whitewashed or brushed under carpet”, Union Minister Kapil Sibal said on Thursday, asking BJP to replace Narendra Modi as its PM candidate. Upping the ante against the Gujarat Chief Minister over the issue, Sibal said that snoopgate is a national issue and hence the government will take it up very seriously. “We believe that action should happen in this case. We assure that we will not allow it to be whitewashed or brushed under carpet. If people are involved they will be punished,” he said when told that Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia has expressed annoyance that the Centre was not taking action into this case in the manner in which it had acted in call-detail record case of BJP leader Arun Jaitley. He also dismissed the two-member inquiry commission set up by the state government to probe the issue, saying the government is “trying to whitewash the matter.” “What will happen when the Gujarat Chief Minister, who himself is a potential accused, he sets up the committee…He is Chief Minister and his men will inquire it. They are trying to whitewash the matter by setting up this inquiry. “It will also take 11 years like the Nanavati Commission, which is yet to submit its report despite 20 extensions in 11 years. People will not accept it…this is a very serious issue,” Sibal said. (PTI)
Dikshit to ‘hangout’ with Delhi citizens on Google
New Delhi: With some opinion polls showing her trailing behind other contenders, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is set to go interactive on Google Plus Hangout – an instant messaging and video chat platform – with the people of Delhi, particularly the youth, on Nov 30, three days before the crucial Delhi assembly elections. The hangout would begin around 12:30 pm and would last for an hour at the office of Google located in the heart of the city in Connaught Place, party sources said. The arrangements for the Google Hangout have been made by a team of young IT professionals who were hired for the Delhi elections. Dikshit would meet the people through webmedia sitting inside a closed room, Congress party sources said. Dikshit is not known to be internet-savvy, unlike Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who held a Google hangout earlier this year and is a frequent tweeter. According to party members, the three-time Congress chief minister has even started getting on the website questions many people have posed. At a time she will give answers to eight people, and the participants would be selected on the basis of their questions. (IANS)
CPI-M demands new bill renaming township after Jyoti Basu
Kolkata: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Thursday demanded that West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress government introduce a new bill restoring the nomenclature of a sprawling township on the city’s eastern fringes after former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. A day after Governor MK Narayanan disapproved of the state government’s move to withdraw a bill passed by the erstwhile Left Front regime that had named New Town as Jyoti Basu Nagar, Leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra said the Left would continue to protest till they got “justice”. “We want that a bill should be brought in, amending the exclusion of Jyoti Basu’s name from the nomenclature of the township. In other words, we want an amendment of the amendment that the government has done (by withdrawing the earlier bill),” Mishra told reporters here. Thanking the Governor for his stand, he said: “Unless and until we get justice our protests will go on.” Speaking to reporters on the sideline of a programme here on Wednesday, Narayanan had said: “Well, I’m certainly not in favour of change of name.” (IANS)
Andhra escapes devastation as cyclone Lehar weakens
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh escaped devastation as the cyclonic storm Lehar in the Bay of Bengal weakened before crossing its coast on Thursday. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the cyclone weakened into deep depression as it crossed the coast near Machilipatnam in Krishna district. It is likely to weaken further. The deep depression triggered rains in Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, East Godavari and West Godavari districts. Winds with the speed 50-60 kmph would prevail along and off Andhra Pradesh during next 12 hours, said an IMD bulletin. It also forecast rainfall at most places with isolated heavy falls over coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam district of Puducherry during next 24 hours. Rainfall at many places with isolated heavy falls would also occur over Telangana during next 36 hours. Earlier, the IMD withdrew the cyclone warning, much to the relief of the people in five of the nine coastal districts which feared devastation. (IANS)