Deletion of voters' names in Bihar worse than terrorism: Stalin
Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Aug 27 (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday asserted that the INDIA bloc will win the Bihar assembly polls "if the elections were free and fair", and described deletion of voters' names from electoral rolls as "worse than terrorism".
The DMK president flew down to the eastern state, along with sister and party MP Kanimozhi, where they joined Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav and CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya for the ongoing 'Voter Adhikar Yatra'.
Addressing a rally in Muzaffarpur, the largest town in north Bihar, Stalin delivered his speech in Tamil, which evoked applause from the crowds as it was translated into Hindi.
"For the past one month, the entire nation has been looking keenly at Bihar... the Election Commission has become a remote-controlled puppet," alleged Stalin, who was impressed with the response to the yatra taken out in protest against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.
"Is the deletion of names of 65 lakh people (from the draft electoral rolls) not worse than terrorism?" the Tamil Nadu CM asked.
When Rahul Gandhi raised doubts over the fairness of elections held in the past, he was challenged by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to furnish an affidavit, Stalin said.
"But you cannot scare Rahul Gandhi," the DMK chief said, lauding his alliance partner.
"I have seen Rahul's camaraderie with Tejashwi, who ride motorcycles together. This friendship is deeper than a run-of-the-mill political partnership. And I am sure that if the elections are free and fair, the BJP-led NDA will be defeated," he asserted.
"I promise you that after the INDIA bloc wins the assembly polls, I will be back to attend the swearing-in ceremony," Stalin said.
Bihar is the land where the foundation of this nationwide coalition (INDIA bloc) was laid, and this alliance succeeded in bringing down to 240 the tally of the BJP, which was boasting of winning more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha polls last year, he said.
The Tamil Nadu CM began his speech by recalling the close friendship between his late father K Karunanidhi and RJD president Lalu Prasad, the father of Tejashwi Yadav, whom he hailed for "tirelessly championing social justice and never getting cowed down by the BJP".
The DMK president's reverence for Prasad was also evident in a post on his X handle, immediately after he landed in Bihar.
"Touchdown #Bihar. The land of respected @laluprasadrjd greets me with fire in its eyes, the soil heavy with every stolen vote. Joined my brothers @RahulGandhi, @yadavtejashwi and sister @priyankagandhi as the #voteadhikaryatra turns people's pain into unstoppable strength," he wrote.
Gandhi shared a selfie he took with Stalin and other prominent leaders and wrote, "Welcome to Bihar and the #VoterAdhikarYatra my brother Thiru @mkstalin. Your presence here strengthens our fight against Vote Chori in Bihar and the entire country."
Back in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK's main rival AIADMK is a BJP ally, the saffron party sought to highlight the troubled equations of the chief minister's party with migrants from Bihar.
Former Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai shared a few video clips in which supposedly derogatory remarks were made about Biharis and north Indians by Stalin and his cabinet colleagues.
In a sarcastic note, Annamalai wrote that he hoped Stalin "proudly repeats... every one of those insults in front of the very people he and his party members mocked".
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Iran offers to reopen Strait of Hormuz if US lifts its blockade and the war ends: officials
Cairo (AP): Iran has offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US lifting its blockade on the country and an end to the war, while proposing that discussions on the larger question of its nuclear programme would come in a later phase, two regional officials said Monday.
US President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the US and Israel to go to war on February 28.
With a fragile ceasefire in place, the US and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. The US blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store the oil.
The strait's closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.
The closure has also had far-reaching effects throughout the world economy, raising the price of fertilizer, food and other basic goods.
The proposal would push off negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.
The two officials, who had knowledge of the proposal, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials this weekend. The Axios news outlet first reported Iran's proposal.
It came as Iran's foreign minister visited Russia, which has long been a key backer of Tehran. It's unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.
Strait of Hormuz remains blocked
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Iran's ability to choke off traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has proved one of its biggest strategic advantages in a war that has often boiled down to which side can take more pain.
Oil prices have risen steadily since the war began and tankers full of crude became stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely transit through the strait and reach global distribution points.
On Monday, the spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at around $108 per barrel, nearly 50 per cent higher than when the war began.
Iranian foreign minister holds talks as negotiations with US stall
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Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire the US and Iran agreed to on April 7 that has largely halted fighting. But a permanent settlement remains elusive in the war that has killed thousands of people.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi landed in St. Petersburg on Monday morning ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It is a good opportunity for us to consult with our Russian friends about the developments that have occurred in relation to the war during this period and what is happening now,” Araghchi said in a video interview posted by IRNA.
It comes as Pakistan has been seeking to revive stalled talks between Iran and the US, and negotiations had been expected in Islamabad over the weekend. Instead, Trump called off a trip by his envoys and suggested the talks could take place by phone instead.
Over the weekend, Araghchi made two stops in Pakistan and a visit to Oman, which shares the strait with Iran. He also spoke by phone with counterparts in Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Iran wants to persuade Oman to support a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels passing through the strait, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the matter.
Oman's response wasn't immediately clear.
The official, who is involved in mediation efforts, also said Iran insisted on ending the US blockade before new talks and that Pakistan-led mediators are trying to bridge significant gaps between the countries.
Trump says Iran has offered a much better proposal
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Trump told journalists Saturday that after he called off a trip by his envoys to Pakistan, Iran sent a “much better” proposal.
He did not elaborate but stressed that one of his conditions is that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon”.
Iran insists its programme is peaceful, but the US wants to remove Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build a bomb, should Tehran choose to pursue one.
Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,509 people in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group resumed two days after the Iran war started. Another 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 US service members in the region and six UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been extended by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.
