After mocking Shah over illness, Cong MP B.K Hariprasad stokes another row
Bengaluru, Jan 18: A day after mocking Amit Shah over his illness, Congress Rajya Sabha member B K Hariprasad stoked another controversy Friday saying the BJP president was not suffering from 'swine flu'.
"We also know people in AIIMS. He has not been admitted because of the flu. Let me get the fact. Then I will get back to you," the MP said when asked by reporters what he meant by his 'pig fever' jibe.
When asked about the ailment of Shah if it was not swine flu, Hariprasad said that was the report he got.
To a question whether Shah was suffering from something else, he said, "I don't know."
Hariprasad also refused to retract from his remarks made Thursday despite furious reaction by the BJP which has demanded that the Congress sack him and tender a public apology.
"Whatever statement I made is there. I will talk to you later," he said, adding that he spoke in Kannada, which was his mother tongue and there was nothing wrong in that.
Speaking at a Congress protest in Bengaluru against the alleged attempt by the BJP to dislodge the Congress-JDS government in Karnataka by luring the ruling coalition MLAs, Hariprasad had said in Kannada,"As a few legislators have already come back, Amit Shah is shaken and has got fever. It is not a normal fever. It is swine flu."
He added that "You should know that if you try to destabilise the Karnataka government, not just swine flu, you will get vomiting and dysentery also."
Shah was Wednesday admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi for treatment of swine flu.
Union ministers, BJP leaders in the state and in Delhi had slammed Hariprasad and used his comments to attack the opposition party.
"The kind of ugly and indecent comments Congress MP B K Hariprasad have made about BJP president Amit Shah's health show the standards of the Congress. Flu is curable but it is difficult to cure Congress leaders' mental illness," Union minister Piyush Goyal had said.
Apart from Goyal several union ministers, including Rajyavardhan Rathore, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, had reacted sharply.
The Congress sought to distance itself with its spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi saying the party could never think of wishing illness to any BJP leader.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
