Modi govt took credit for valour of armed forces; failed to ensure their safety: TDP
Visakhapatnam:The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Sunday alleged the Narendra Modi government was quick to take credit for action of the armed forces against terrorists but failed to gave them bullet proof vehicles which could have prevented the attack on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.
TDP national spokesperson Dinkar Lanka told PTI that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated bullet proof buses for the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in September 2017, but the paramilitary force has not received them yet.
The attack on a CRPF bus in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama happened due to negligence on the part of the government. Sitharaman inaugurated bullet proof buses for CRPF on September 7, 2017. There are 200 such vehicles in the inventory of the Defence Ministry, but the forces haven't got them yet. Where are those buses? he asked.
The Narendra Modi government was quick to take credit for the valour of the armed forces, but has failed to ensure their safety, he alleged.
Lanka also said that his party will win more than 20 out of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh and will play a pivotal role at the Centre.
The TDP had won 15 seats in the 2014 elections in an alliance with the BJP and actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena party.
Eying the role of a kingmaker at the Centre, TDP president Naidu has been travelling around the country, rallying opposition parties against the BJP.
Asked if going solo in the elections will cost the TDP, Lanka said his party lost minority votes due to the alliance with the BJP in 2004. "Going solo will benefit us."
The TDP leader said both the Congress and the BJP cheated the people of Andhra on the issue of special category status, but "Rahul Gandhi's party has passed a resolution to meet the demand if voted to power".
Simultaneous polls will be held in Andhra Pradesh on April 11 for 25 Lok Sabha seats and to elect the new 175-member Assembly.
On Sunday evening, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal will address a rally along with Naidu in Visakhapatnam.
Kejriwal had also campaigned for Naidu on March 28. Earlier, National Conference President Farooq Abdullah had attended public meetings in support of Naidu in the state.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda and DMK chief M K Stalin will also canvass for the TDP the next week.
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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.
