Desperate IT Raids
Finally looks like the BJP has kicked off to a strong campaigning phase in the upcoming loksabha elections. IT dept officials have raided a few selected people including politicians of other parties in the state giving the BJP much needed campaign curtain raiser. In the recent past, the same IT dept officials had raided the house of minister D K Shivakumar’s residence. Centre had sent IT teams for the very purpose when DKS had created a safe haven for Cong MLAs from Gujarat.
A few years back, central governments would use IT department in a rather clandestine manner to issue a veiled threat to their opponents. But now things are not covered anymore. Government issues direct threat to opponents using the IT dept.
When Yeddyurappa’s diary was made public in the recently, a BJP sympathizer IT official had hurriedly clarified that the diary was fake. But one cannot even question how he was authorized to clarify the matter. The raid by IT dept around the same time as coalition partners are entering polls has created some controversy. Both JD(S) and Cong have alleged that the raids are connected with upcoming elections, a claim denied by the officials.
IT dept is bound to investigate into the matters of tax evasion. There is no doubt about this. The offenders might be the big shots or the powerful politicians, if their accounts don’t tally, the department has to investigate into the matter. In this regard, anybody interrupting the officers on job is liable to punishment. But even the IT officials during the raid have to maintain their credibility. The main question now is why are the officials raiding the offices of only one party's workers and supporters? Yeddyurappa diary is testimony to the fact that more tax evaders are present in Karnataka.
Reddys of mining mafia are still capable of spending thousands of crores during elections. Hence sparing all BJP workers, why did the teams raid only those who are with the coalition government? And why did the raids happen only at the time of elections? Why were they silent till now? IT officials are responsible to answer these questions.
The raids conducted by them during the assembly election at DKShi’s residence and now on the residences of JD(S) leaders are same in bear the same motive. Hence no matter how much one wants to defend them, the underlying rot is rather too evident. At the same time, another question also arises. The night prior to the raids, CM had said in no uncertain terms that raids on their party supporters were due soon. How did he get the inkling of this? Who leaked the information to him? If he had known beforehand, would the raid even have any impact? Persons concerned would have hidden important documents and details beforehand itself. What impact would the raids even have as an act? But despite this if the raids have happened, it means there is something more than what meets the eye here. This is about spreading negativity among people about the parties. The main purpose of this raid is over with turning into cover page news. At the same time, BJP leaders defending this raid is a mockery of sorts. If IT officers had been working independently even BJP leaders would have been the aggrieved ones along with JD(S) by now. It would have been a credible thing if the IT officers had raided all politicians that are corrupt irrespective of their party background. People would have appreciated this task by IT officers on the whole.
This raid has been some sort of a humiliating one for the central government itself for having timed it around elections. People are wise enough to understand this. They can sense the game centre is playing with the state. This shows Modi’s desperation, and his fear towards a rather bleak future for his party in the upcoming elections.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
