ODDUP › brandcapitalus › wp... · that Ajit Pawar could get into tro-uble with the law ‘any...

Samanwaya.Rautray@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: The Supreme Court onTuesday cited the Sabarimala ver-dict to issue notices to the govern-ment and several Muslim bodies ona petition demanding equal rights toMuslim women to pray in mosques.A bench led by Justice SA Bobde as-ked the Centre, the All India MuslimPersonal Law Board and the CentralWakf Board to submit their views tothe court in four weeks.

“Is a mosque, or a temple, or achurch, ‘state’ (as defined in theConstitution)? Can you seek yourfundamental rights against indivi-

SC Notice on Women’s Mosque EntryPune Muslim couple’splea admitted citingSabarimala verdict,notice issued to AIMPLB & Wakf Board too

7 Parl Seats in 3 NEStates to Go to Polls

Bikash.Singh@timesgroup.com

Guwahati: In the crucial second phase onApril 18, seven parliamentary seats inthree states of the North east will go topolls. About 90, 97,159 voters in the threestates will decide the fate of 71 candidatesin the fray. Apprehending breach of peaceand tranquillity, the Hailakandi district ad-ministration in Assam has been clampedSection 144 of CrPC in the entire district.

In Assam parliamentary constituenciesof Mangaldoi, Silchar, Karimganj, Autono-mous District and Nagaon will vote in thesecond phase. While Mangaldoi and Naga-on seat were won by BJP in 2014, Silcharand Autonomous District (comprises twohill districts) seat is held by Congress. AllIndia United Democratic Front (AIUDF)had won the Karimganj seat in 2014.

In Tripura, East parliamentary seat andManipur’s Inner Manipur parliamentaryseat will cast ballot on Thursday. CPI (M)MP Jitendra Choudhury had won the seatin 2014. Maharaj Kumari Pragya Debbur-man, daughter of late Tripura king, KiritBikram Kishore Debburman is contestingfrom this seat as Congress candidate, ru-ling BJP has fielded Rebati Tripura. Cong-ress is seeking reelection from Manipur’sInner Manipur seat.

Hailakandi comes under Karimganj par-liamentary seat.

#Main Bhi Voter About 90, 97,159 voters in the three northeast stateswill decide the fate of 71candidates tomorrow

tion in irrigation projects invol-ving the NCP, the PM in all his ral-lies this time around has referredto corruption within the NCP justtwice.

Once in Gondia, where he spokeof how a certain NCP leader wassweating because of the BJP, andon another rally, the PM spoke ofhow the Congress and NCP wereinvolved in corruption in irriga-tion projects. But the farthest hehas gone to attack Pawar waswhen he talked about his diffe-rences with his nephew, Ajit Pa-war.

In his speeches, Modi has inste-

ad been questioning on how Pa-war could still stick with theCongress. In Latur, he said, “Doesit suit a man of Pawar’s stature tostand with such divisive politicalparties?”

In Ahmednagar too, he tried topaint Pawar as a nationalist by sa-ying, “When there is a talk of twoPMs in J&K, how can you be si-lent? After shaking hands withthe Congress, you have been see-ing the country from the eyes of aforeigner -- how can you sleep inthe night?” Modi has also cancel-led a rally in Baramati – Pawar’sbastion -- on April 10. Baramati iswhere Supriya Sule, daughter ofPawar, is contesting from. In 2014,a Rashtriya Samaj Paksha candi-date, riding on the Modi wave andbacked by the BJP, gave Sule a sca-re in Baramati.

“This seems to be an attempt tostay in Pawar’s good books. Also,one has to remember that the BJPhas not acted against Ajit Pawar

in the irrigation scam these pastfour years in spite of naminghim. If they had arrested Ajit, itwould have hurt Pawar Sr. Thisway, there could be back channeltalks,” said Prakash Joshi, a poli-tical analyst.

Incidentally, for the past twomonths, Maharashtra CabinetMinister Chandrakant Patil,known to be close to BJP presi-dent Amit Shah, had said publiclythat Ajit Pawar could get into tro-uble with the law ‘any time soon’.

The BJP and the NCP have beenfighting publicly, with the BJPcharging the NCP of being invol-ved in irrigation project scamsduring the 2014 parliamentaryand assembly polls.

The NCP surprised many whenin the 2014 assembly polls it unila-terally supported a BJP minoritygovernment in Maharashtrawhen it didn’t have the numbersand hadn’t even sought its sup-port.

Modi Brings up Pawar in Maha Rallies,Questions NCP Chief ’s Ties With Cong

NCP HAD GOT FOUR SEATS IN 2014

BJP insiders feel if party fails to have requisite numbers to form govt then equations with NCP can help

INDIAVOTES

2019

Krishna.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Mumbai: Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi’s rallies in Maha-rashtra had a recurring theme:Sharad Pawar. The NationalistCongress Party (NCP) chief hasfound a mention in all his spee-ches, leaving even those in theNCP somewhat bemused.

This isn’t without reason tho-ugh as BJP insiders believe thatNCP, which had got four seats inthe 2014 Lok Sabha elections, islikely to increase its tally this ti-me. A conservative estimate putsthe NCP tally at nine seats (mini-mum), and in a post poll scenariowhere the BJP doesn’t have the re-quisite numbers to form a go-vernment at the Centre, then equ-ations with the NCP can come inhandy.

While the BJP in 2014 had gone totown talking about the corrup-

3�THE ECONOMIC TIMES | KOLKATA | WEDNESDAY | 17 APRIL 2019 | WWW.ECONOMICTIMES.COM Pure Politics

duals? When entity concerned is notstate, can we issue directions? Canwe ask police to help you if you wantto enter somebody’s house,” JusticeBobde, who is slated to succeed Ran-jan Gogoi as the next Chief Justiceof India later this year, asked.

The SC response came on a publicinterest litigation filed by YasmeenZuber Peerzade and her husbandZuber Ahmad Peerzade, a Pune cou-ple, through their counsel AsutoshDubey, demanding equal access forwomen in mosques and equal rightsto pray under the Constitution of In-dia. Currently, women are allowed toenter and pray in separate enclosu-res in some mosques of particular

PROTECTING RIGHTS

Separateenclosu-res for

women in mos-ques violate Mus-lim women’s fun-damental right todignity, says plea

separate enclosures for women inmosques were a form of discrimina-tion which violated Muslim wo-men’s fundamental right to dignity.The court demanded to know fromDubey whether the couple had at-tempted to enter mosques but disal-lowed. Dubey said the couple had,without success. Justice Bobde thencited the majority verdict in the Sa-barimala case to issue notices. AConstitution bench in a 4-1 verdicthad ruled last year that religiouspractices would have to be tested onthe anvil of the Constitution in mo-dern day India, while striking downthe Sabarimala tradition of barringwomen of reproductive age from en-tering the shrine.

denominations of Islam, while theyare not allowed entry to Sunni mos-ques.

The petition said there was no gen-der segregation in Islam and alleged

of Northeast India Sanjay Ba-hadur held a meeting with of-ficers of the Investigation Di-rectorate to deliberate strate-gies for further tighteningelection expenditure monito-ring process in the upcomingsecond and third phases ofpolling.

“All the 12 AIU functioningunder joint director Mrinal K

Das will remain ac-tive across theNorth East tillApril 23, the last

polling dates in the region.AIU is also monitoring uns-cheduled and chartered pri-vate flights at airports and In-come Tax surveillance teamshave asked state district aut-horities to alert them of heli-copter landings in districts. ASpecial Task Force is beingconstituted to investigate su-spicious bank transactionsinvolving high value cash de-posits and withdrawals,” thecommunique added.

NE Cash SeizuresJump Over 500%Since 2014 Poll

Our Political Bureau

Guwahati: The Investiga-tion Directorate of IncomeTax, North East Region, hasso far seized Rs 7.33 crorefrom the date of announce-ment of polls by the ElectionCommission of India.

“This massive haul duringthe last one month far exceedscash seizures of Rs 1.21 croremade during the 2014 generalelections and is already 505%of the total amount seized inthe previous election. Nearly75% of the seizures have ta-ken place in the past two we-eks and includeoperations basedon independent in-telligence againstmoneylenders andinterceptions atairports by the Di-rectorate’s air in-telligence units(AIU) across the se-ven states of theNorth East,” an of-ficial statement sa-id.

Principal director

Cash worth .̀ 7.33 crhas been seized sofar against .̀ 1.21crbefore 2014 polls

CCI NG 3.7 Product: ETKolkataBS PubDate: 17-04-2019 Zone: KolkataCity Edition: 1 Page: ETKCPG3 User: kathakali.nandi Time: 04-16-2019 21:51 Color: CMYK

R FINITIVPARTNERS WITHODDUPFor improved digita l ledgerasset data transparency

REFI N ITIV oddup13 o

r. .

=̀ j a;q

#WeAnalyse www.oddup.com

Captain Kohli?D b s fj ! b FJ /,

0 1 n..,b

1

rte. 1

_L -mss

Amulselects itself!

0API"L

AGARWAL PACKERS AND MOVERS LTD.

p;

WIL

(. 1 I 1 I I 1 1com