BJP MP Mansukh Vasava takes a U-turn, says he will withdraw resignation

Agencies
December 30, 2020

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Ahmedabad, Dec 30: A day after tendering his resignation from the BJP, Lok Sabha member and former Union minister Mansukh Vasava on Wednesday said he has dropped the idea of quitting the party following talks with its senior leaders.

Vasava, a six-time MP from tribal-dominated Bharuch in Gujarat, had on Tuesday said he was quitting the BJP only due to health problems and had no issues with the government or the party.

Talking to reporters after meeting Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Gandhinagar on Wednesday morning, he said, "Senior party leaders told me that I will get free treatment for my back pain and neck pain only if I continue to be an MP. This is not possible if I resign as an MP. Party leaders asked me to take rest and assured that a system will be put in place wherein local party workers will do work on my behalf."

"The only reason why I had decided to resign from the party and as an MP was my health issues. I also discussed the same with the CM today. Now, after getting assurance from the senior BJP leaders, I have decided to withdraw my resignation.

I will continue to serve my people as an MP," Vasava said.

The tribal leader claimed that it was a misconception that he was upset with the government or the ruling BJP over some issues pertaining to tribals of Narmada district, particularly about the inclusion of 121 villages in the Eco Sensitive Zone.

"The governments in the state and at the Centre are putting all their efforts into resolving the issues related to the Eco Sensitive Zone. I have no issues with the party or the government. On the contrary, I firmly believe that tribals benefited more under the BJP rule than under any previous governments," he said.

On Tuesday, Vasava had resigned from the party and also claimed that he will resign as MP after meeting Lok Sabha Speaker during the upcoming Budget Session of the Parliament.

Vasava had tendered his resignation in the form of a letter to Gujarat BJP President C R Paatil.

In the letter, Vasava, an outspoken and straightforward tribal leader, said although he had tried his best to be loyal to the party and also tried to assimilate the party's values in his life, he is ultimately a human and prone to commit "mistakes".

"I am ultimately a human and humans tend to commit mistakes. To ensure that the party does not suffer due to my mistakes, I hereby resign from the party, and I seek forgiveness from the party for it," he had said in the letter.

Paatil had told reporters on Tuesday that Vasava was particularly unhappy about the declaration of the Eco Sensitive Zone in his constituency.

"The main issue is the declaration of an Eco Sensitive Zone by the Centre in his constituency. Now, it appears that some people are misguiding locals over the issue after the Collector had made some entries about the land parcels. We are trying to convince Vasava and I am confident that a solution will arrive soon," the state BJP chief had said.

Vasava was inducted into the Cabinet as the union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2014. However, he was abruptly dropped in July 2016.

On December 20, he had dashed off a letter to the PM demanding withdrawal of the Eco Sensitive Zone from 121 villages of Narmada district.

He claimed that local tribals were angry because of the "unnecessary interference" by the officials after those 121 tribal-dominated villages were included in the Eco Sensitive Zone.

Later in the afternoon, Vasava claimed that it was his health, not Eco Sensitive Zone, which forced him to take the decision.

"I am having no issues at all with the BJP or the government. The only thing is that I remain unwell most of the time and the doctors have advised me to take rest now, Though I am an MP, I could not travel much and be with my people due to this back pain, which has now started affecting the functioning of my brain," Vasava had told reporters on Tuesday.

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News Network
November 18,2024

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.

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News Network
November 25,2024

Udupi: Six junior artists from the prequel of Kannada blockbuster film ‘Kantara’ were injured, when the bus they were travelling in overturned in the district, police said on Monday.

According to police, the accident occurred near Jadkal on Sunday night when the mini-bus carrying the crew of the film overturned.

“The incident happened while they were returning to Kollur after completing the shoot at Mudoor in Jadkal. The mini-bus was carrying 20 junior artistes when it met with the accident,” a police officer said.

The injured were rushed to hospitals in Jadkal and Kundapur for treatment, they said.

The Kollur police are investigating the matter.

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News Network
November 15,2024

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Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has killed or captured 69 terrorists linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad during a major counterterrorism drill in the country's southeast, its spokesman says.  

General Ahmad Shafaei, the spokesman for the “Martyrs of Security” drill, said Friday that a total of 23 terrorists have been killed and another 46 arrested in various clean-up operations ever since the IRGC Ground Force launched it in the Sistan and Baluchestan province on November 1.

Seven terrorists have also turned themselves in during the period.

“The undeniable fact about terrorists is that they rely on arrogant powers, particularly the intelligence service of the wicked and vicious Zionist regime," Shafaei said.

“Unfortunately, weapons and munitions at terrorists’ disposal are among the most sophisticated ones in the world. This accounts for their heavy dependence.” 

The official stated that several members of the disbanded terror teams were non-Iranian nationals, who had been hired by foreign intelligence agencies to carry out acts of sabotage and terror inside Iran.

In a most recent operation, six terrorists were arrested and four others were eliminated, three of whom were non-Iranians, he added. 

On October 26, ten members of Iran's law enforcement forces were killed in a terrorist attack in the Gohar Kuh district of Taftan in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.

The so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group claimed responsibility for the assault, which was one of the deadliest in the province in recent months.

The group has carried out numerous terrorist attacks in Iran, primarily in Sistan and Baluchestan.

Its tactics include the abduction of border guards as well as targeting civilians and police stations within the province to incite chaos and disorder.

In January, Iran launched a military operation during which the headquarters of the Pakistan-based terrorist group was targeted in missile strikes, destroying its infrastructure.

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