BJP govt should reconsider Citizenship Act: Stalin
Chennai, Dec 15: DMK chief M K Stalin on Sunday expressed concern over the violence in Delhi and Aligarh Muslim University during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and said the Centre should reconsider it.
Protestors torched four public buses and two police vehicles as they clashed with police in south Delhi's New Friends' Colony near Jamia Millia Islamia University during a demonstration against the contentious law this evening.
Soon after the violence, Jamia Millia Islamia Chief Proctor Waseem Ahmed Khan claimed, the Delhi Police entered the campus forcibly without any permission and beat up staff members and students who were forced to leave the premises.
At the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Uttar Pradesh, hundreds of students protesting against the amended legislation clashed with police who used batons and teargas to disperse them.
"BJP government must reconsider CAA2019 (Citizenship Amendment Act) in the wake of widespread, continuous protests," Stalin said in a tweet.
"Shocked to see visuals of brutal attacks on students in Jamia Milia and Aligarh Muslim University," he said.
"Every drop of blood spilled will need to be answered for in the days to come," he added.
The amended Citizenship Act seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslim religious minorities from three neighbouring countries who arrived in India till December 31, 2014, to escape religious persecution.
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Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani whose nomination form was rejected suspended from Congress
Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.
Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
