LIVE! PM suspends ‘Mann ki Baat’ till LS poll, promises to be back in May

Saudi Arabia has named a princess as its first female ambassador to the United States, a key appointment as the fallout over journalist Jamal Khashoggis murder tests relations between the allies.

Princess Reema bint Bandar replaced Prince Khalid bin Salman, the younger brother of the powerful crown prince who was appointed vice defence minister in a flurry of late-night royal decrees announced on state media.

The reshuffle comes as Saudi Arabia seeks to quell an international outcry over Khashoggis murder last October in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which strained relations with its key ally.

12:22  PM suspends ‘Mann ki Baat’ till LS poll, promises to be back in May:  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday suspended his monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ broadcast for March and April, and said he will be back with the programme on the last Sunday of May, by when results of the Lok Sabha elections are expected to be declared.

In this monthly address through the radio broadcast — the 53rd since Modi came to power in 2014 — he said he was doing so keeping in mind healthy democratic traditions.

“Elections are the biggest celebration of democracy. In the next two months, we will be busy in the hurly-burly of the general elections. I myself will also be a candidate. Respecting healthy democratic traditions, the next episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ will be broadcast on the last Sunday (May 26) of May,” Modi said.  

Opposition parties have in the past demanded stopping the broadcast of Mann ki Baat during elections, saying it violated the model code of conduct as the interaction amounted to the misuse of the prime minister’s programme for political purposes.

Sounding confident of his return to power, he said he will begin the series of conversations under the programme from May with the “power of your blessings” and will keep speaking to people through ‘Mann ki Baat’ for years.

The fate of Modi’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ broadcast will depend on the results of the Lok Sabha elections as the programme will continue only if he is reelected and becomes prime minister. — PTI  

11:46  Pulwama aftermath: Pak sets up ‘crisis management cell’:  

Pakistan has set up a “crisis management cell” in the wake of heightened Indo-Pak tensions following one of the worst terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group that killed 40 Central Reserve Polcie Force soldiers, according to a media report.

The cell will keep all stakeholders updated over border situation and diplomatic contacts, foreign office spokesperson Muhammad Faisal was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune on Saturday.

The cell, set up in the ministry of foreign affairs, will remain operational throughout the week without any break, Faisal said.

Days after the Pulwama attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said security forces have been given free hand to avenge the dastardly act. — PTI  

Authorities Sunday imposed restrictions in parts of the city as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order in the wake of a strike called by separatists.

Restrictions under Section 144 Code of Criminal Procedure have been imposed in five police station areas of Srinagar, a police official said.

He said curbs were imposed in police station areas of Nowhatta, Khanyar, Rainawari, MR Gunj and Safakadal.

The official said restrictions were imposed as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order in view of the strike call.

Separatists, under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), Saturday called for a shutdown in the valley on Sunday against the crackdown on separatists.

The strike affected normal life across the Kashmir valley.

Shops, fuel stations and other business establishments were shut in Srinagar, officials said.

They said public transport was off the roads, but some private cars and auto-rickshaws were seen plying in some areas of the city.

The weekly flea market was also shut as no stalls were put on the TRC Crossing-Batamaloo axis through city centre Lal Chowk, the officials said.

They said similar reports of shutdown were received from other district headquarters of the valley.   — PTI

11:04  Now, Vadra hints at joining politics:  

Robert Vadra, the brother-in-law of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, has hinted at joining politics, a month after his wife Priyanka Gandhi made her debut into active politics and was appointed a general secretary in the party.

In a Facebook post, Vadra said, ‘All these years of experience and learning cannot be just wasted and should be put to better use… Once all these accusations and allegations are over, I feel I should dedicate a larger role in serving the people.’

‘Years and months I spent campaigning, working in different parts of the country, but mainly in UP, gave me a feeling to do more for people and make smaller changes possible by me, in areas and when they got to know me, the genuine love, affection, respect I earned was humbling,’ he said.

49-year-old Vadra, who has been repeatedly questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in the recent past in connection with money laundering and land grab cases, accused the government of targeting him to divert the attention from the real issues confronting the country.

‘More than a decade of different governments being after me, using and highlighting my name to divert real issues of the country (sic),’ he said.

‘People of the country gradually realised this Modus and knew there was no truth in any of these allegations. People reach out and show respect and wish me luck for a better future,’ he said.

Vadra, ‘Now with my visits to the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi and Rajasthan, almost  8 visits, of many hours  and since I have always adhered to rules and surely not above the law, I have been a person to learn from every event I go through.’

Priyanka Gandhi joined Congress on January 23 and was appointed general secretary for Uttar Pradesh (East).She has been assigned a tough task to revive Congress in UP, particularly the eastern part of the state.

On Saturday, Congress had announced various committees for UP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

In his post, Vadra also referred to the social service he has been doing with various organisations.

Of late, Vadra’s Facebook page is full of his pictures doing social service. His close aide Jagdish Sharma has also been putting out Vadra’s pictures on social media.

Vadra had also in the past hinted at joining politics and had been seen in the Gandhi strongholds of Raebareli and Amethi.

According to a source, he was keen to contest about a decade back, but it was put on hold at that time.

Asked about Vadra’s questioning by the ED, Priyanka Gandhi had told ANI in Lucknow, “These things will go on and I will do my work.” — ANI

10:39  Stone chunks hit Vande Bharat Express; driver’s screen, windows damaged:  The main driver’s screen and some side windows of the Vande Bharat Express were damaged when the train was hit by stones during its Varanasi-New Delhi journey on Saturday, official said.

Northern Railways Chief Public Relation Officer said a shower of ballast came flying towards the train near Achalda in Uttar Pradesh when the Dibrugarh Rajdhani, crossing on the adjoining line, run over a cattle.

“The stone chunks hit the driver’s windscreen and one each side outer glasses of windows of coach numbers C4, C6, C7, C8, C13 and two glass panes of C12, causing damage,” the CPRO said.

The statement said the technical staff on board the train assessed the damages and after careful careful examination the train was found fit to run.

“So it carried on its onward journey to its destination station at its normal speed. The Train has since then reached New Delhi railway station at 11.05 pm,” it said.

The Northern Railways CPRO also said officials attended to the damaged windows and put on safety sheets to ensure passengers are not inconvenienced in any way during its Sunday journey.

The train left for Varanasi Sunday morning on its scheduled time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on February 15 flagged off the semi-high speed train from New Delhi Railway Station.

Its commercial operations began on February 17.  — PTI

10:23  Kim departs for second summit with Trump in Hanoi:  

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un departed by train for Vietnam on Saturday for the upcoming second summit with United States President Donald Trump.

He boarded the train from Pyongyang Railway Station for the 60-hour journey, which will see the train travel around 4,500 kilometres to reach the Vietnamese border city of Dang Dong on Tuesday.

Kim will then travel by car to Hanoi for the summit.

The North Korean leader is accompanied by several senior officials including his sister Kim Yo Jong and aide Kim Yong Chol, Yonhap News Agency quoted North Korea’s state media as saying.

The second summit, slated to be held in Hanoi on February 27 and 28, comes after the first landmark US-North Korea summit was held in Singapore in June last year.North Korea had agreed to completely denuclearise during the first meeting — a move which was hailed as a major stride by the international community.

However, ties between the United States and Pyongyang hit a roadblock over ease of sanctions, where North Korea sought relief in economic sanctions as recognition of the steps taken towards denuclearisation.

The United States has, until now, reinforced that relief in sanctions would only be given after North Korea carries out complete denuclearisation.

Both the sides aim at working towards the concretisation of steps for a peaceful Korean Peninsula, including complete denuclearisation, when Kim sits down with Trump in Hanoi this week.  — ANI

09:50  SC order on eviction of tribals: Rahul asks C’garh CM to file review:  

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday told Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel to file a review petition against a Supreme Court’s order, which asked the states to ensure eviction of tribals and forest dwellers whose claim for the forest land have been rejected.

‘The recent order of the honourable Supreme Court of India in Wildlife Trust of India & others vs. Union of India & others, deserves your urgent intervention. The court has directed state governments to evict tribals and other forest dwellers whose claims under the Forest Rights Act were rejected,’ Gandhi said in his letter dated February 23.

The Congress president said ‘in order to preempt largescale evictions’ it would be ‘expedient to file a review petition’ and ‘take any other action’ as deemed fit by Baghel.

‘The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) in its status report on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act highlighted that less than 45 per cent of the Individual Forest Rights and 50 per cent of the Community Forest Rights claims were approved as on April in 2018,’ he said.

‘Further, the MoTA has pointed out that forest staff often raised ‘frivolous’ objections leading to rejection,’ he said.

He said in this backdrop eviction based on rejected claims alone, without a proper review and appeal process violates the due process of law.

‘For millions of adivasis and other forest dwellers ‘Jal, Jangal and Zameen’ is integral to their Right to Life guaranteed by our Constitution. It is time for us to work towards deepening the promise of India for everyone,’ the Congress chief said.

The apex court, in its February 13 order, asked the chief secretaries of the states concerned to file affidavits stating whether those against whom the rejection orders were passed have been evicted or not and if not, the reasons for the same.

On February 21, the Supreme Court asked 21 states to apprise it about the action taken by them over the eviction of tribals and forest dwellers whose claim for the forest land have been rejected.

The states which have come under the scanner of the top court are — Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Manipur.  — PTI

08:48  Pak takes U-turn, says Bahawalpur seminary not linked to Jaish:  

Taking a complete U-turn, the Pakistan government on Saturday dismissed its own claim of taking over the control of the Jaish-e-Mohammad headquarters in Bahawalpur and said the complex has no link with the terror outfit, which claimed responsibility for the deadly Pulwama suicide attack that killed 41 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir.

In a video message on social media, Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the Punjab government took administrative control of Madrassatul Sabir and Jamia-e-Masjid Subhanallah in Bahawalpur in line with the decisions taken during the National Security Council meeting held on Thursday and as part of the National Action Plan.

Rejecting his earlier announcement that the complex was JeM headquarters, Chaudhry said, “This is the madrassah (seminary) and India is doing propaganda that it is the JeM headquarters.”

On Friday, the minister had told PTI that the Punjab government has ‘taken over the control of the JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur’, about 400 km from Lahore.

“The government of Punjab has taken over the control of a campus comprising Madressatul Sabir and Jama-e-Masjid Subhanallah in Bahawalpur, allegedly the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammad, and appointed an administrator to manage its affairs,” he said.

This was the first time in years that the campus, about 430 km from Lahore, had been acknowledged by Pakistan to be the headquarters of the terror outfit JeM led by Masood Azhar.

A statement issued by the Interior Ministry on Friday also said the crackdown on Jaish ‘has been taken in line with the decision of the National Security Committee meeting held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan’.

The Islamic seminaries in the campus has a faculty of 70 teachers and currently 600 students were studying in it, the statement said, adding that Punjab police is providing security and protection to the campus.

Meanwhile, The Pakistani government on Saturday took a group of local journalists to the campus in Bahawalpur and claimed that it is a ‘routine seminary having no link with JeM’.

Bahawalpur Deputy Commissioner Shahzaib Saeed accompanied a group of journalists to the campus showing ‘business as usual’ there.

The commissioner denied association of the seminary and the mosque with Masood Azhar.

“Some 600 students are studying here and none of them is associated with any banned organisation or involved in any terror activity,” he said.

A local journalist, who visited the seminary and spoke to some students and teachers there, said, “When asked about the JeM and Masood Azhar, they showed complete ignorance about them. Perhaps they were briefed before our visit.”  — PTI