New Delhi, Sep 27: A day after RSS-linked weekly "Panchjanya" dubbed Amazon as "East India Company 2.0", the Congress on Monday said whatever the Sangh says is irrelevant as it does not say anything in national interest, but in the interest of the ruling BJP.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, however, said the allegations against the US e-commerce giant are serious and cannot be ignored.

"The issue of Amazon is a serious one and it merits everybody's attention. The allegations against Amazon are very serious and they cannot be ignored," he said.

Asked about the comments of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Khera said, "What the RSS says about Amazon is irrelevant because there is a duet going on between the RSS and the BJP.

"We have seen that duet and they stand exposed in the farmers' agitation. We have seen the dubious role played by the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh as it has not come in support of the farmers even for one day in the last 10 months."

The Congress leader said "nobody takes what the RSS says seriously anymore, because they do not speak the language in national interest, they talk in the interest of the BJP."

Amazon was dubbed as "East India Company 2.0" by "Panchjanya", which has also alleged that the firm has paid crores of rupees in bribes for favourable government policies.

In its latest edition, which will hit the stands on October 3, the RSS-linked weekly has carried a cover story that is highly critical of Amazon.

"Whatever the East India Company did in the 18th century to capture India, the same is visible in the activities of Amazon," the article titled "East India Company 2.0" reads.

Claiming that Amazon wants to establish its monopoly in the Indian market, it says, "For doing so, it has started taking initiatives for seizing the economic, political and personal freedom of the Indian citizens."

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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.

The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.

Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.

Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.

What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.

"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,

which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.

"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.

"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.

"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.

In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.

The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.

With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.

Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).