Congress sacks Sachin Pilot as Rajasthan Deputy CM, PCC chief

Bengaluru: The Janata Dal (Secular) is grappling with its most tumultuous political crisis yet, with speculation rife about imminent defections among its lawmakers. This storm comes in the aftermath of party scion Nikhil Kumaraswamy's humiliating defeat in the Channapatna bypoll—his third consecutive electoral loss after setbacks in Mandya (2019) and Ramanagara (2023). With the regional party’s Assembly tally shrinking to 18 from 19, questions are being raised about its survival.

The murmurs of rebellion were amplified on Monday when Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao and Congress MLA CP Yogeshwar openly hinted at possible desertions within the JD(S) ranks. Yogeshwar, newly elected from Channapatna, declared he could orchestrate a migration of JD(S) MLAs to Congress. “I’ll meet them at the Belagavi session. Within a month, they’ll be in Congress,” he confidently stated during a televised interview. Yogeshwar has a history of engineering defections, having played a pivotal role in the collapse of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in 2019 during his stint with the BJP.

Dinesh Gundu Rao, not mincing words, slammed the JD(S) leadership for fostering "self-serving politics," criticizing the HD Deve Gowda family for failing to nurture party talent. “There’s no trust. Their MLAs will seek survival—either in BJP or Congress,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, the expelled JD(S) state president CM Ibrahim added fuel to the fire by claiming that 12-13 MLAs are "disillusioned" with the current leadership. Speculations around senior JD(S) leader GT Deve Gowda joining Congress have also intensified. DK Shivakumar, Karnataka’s Deputy CM and Congress president, described GT Deve Gowda as a “valuable leader” who might be frustrated with the party’s internal dynamics.

While Congress leaders seem eager to poach JD(S) legislators, the BJP is not far behind in targeting the floundering party. The situation signals a decisive moment for the JD(S), as its survival now hinges on how it manages this brewing storm of discontent.

Bengaluru, Nov 22: For the second day running, the Karnataka BJP on Friday staged a statewide protest condemning the government’s alleged move to notify land of farmers as Waqf property.

The BJP staged a protest before the offices of Deputy Commissioners at district headquarters.

The BJP leaders are vehemently demanding that the state government cancel a 1974 Gazette notification in this regard.

The agitators are also demanding scrapping of the Waqf Board and the resignation of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Minister for Waqf and Housing Zameer Ahmad Khan.

The BJP MLAs, MLCs, MPs gathered in the premises of Freedom Park and staged a protest under the leadership of Leader of Opposition R. Ashoka and slammed the state government.

MLA T.S. Srivatsa led the protest in Mysuru and hundreds of party workers and farmers staged the protest under the leadership of former MP Pratap Simha in Kodagu.

Former MP Sumalatha Ambareesh led the agitation in Mandya.

This was the first time that Sumalatha took part in the party’s programme after the Lok Sabha elections.

State President B.Y. Vijayendra claimed, “The Congress government in Karnataka is issuing notices to farmers claiming the ownership of their lands to the Waqf Board and pushing them on the streets overnight.”

In the first week of December, three teams formed by the BJP will travel across the state and record the grievances of farmers.

“The state government is attempting to snatch away the lands belonging to temples as well,” Vijayendra alleged and added that the teams would comprise all senior leaders of the BJP.

Meanwhile, the police have taken Sri Ram Sena chief Pramod Muthalik into custody while staging a protest march to the office of Zameer Ahmad Khan in Bengaluru.

Muthalik along with Hindutva activists was planning to lay siege to Zameer’s office over the Waqf row.

The police stopped Muthalik and requested him to submit the memorandum by reaching the minister’s office in a vehicle. However, Muthalik refused to go with the police and continued his footmarch. The police took him into custody following arguments.

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.