Surjewala in Karnataka to 'prepare grounds' for Siddaramaiah's resignation, says BY Vijayendra
Bengaluru, Jul 2 (PTI): Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra on Wednesday claimed that senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala arrived in the state to "prepare grounds" for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's resignation.
The state’s administrative machinery has collapsed and governance is in disarray. Infighting among Congress legislators is worsening, and development work has come to a standstill, he alleged.
"Congress leader Randeep Surjewala is in Bengaluru for the past few days. Why is he here? He is not bothered about the downturn of the corrupt Congress government," Vijayendra told reporters here.
The AICC president is gathering MLAs’ views and is preparing grounds to remove Siddaramaiah from the CM's post. The fight for the top post has intensified due to which horse trading would happen in the state, he claimed.
Referring to Ramnagar MLA Iqbal Ansari’s recent statement that Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar enjoys the support of 100 MLAs and should be made as the CM, the BJP state chief said several senior Congress leaders, including B R Patil and Raju Kage, have also spoken against Siddaramaiah. This shows that the CM has lost the confidence of his own legislators, he said, and urged the Governor to take note of the situation.
He blamed the Congress government for the rising prices of essential commodities and accused it of "rampant corruption and administrative breakdown".
He further stated that the government’s failure has led to a spate of suicides among farmers, officials and contractors. Even Congress MLAs privately acknowledge this dysfunction, he added.
On the Karnataka High Court’s decision to hand over the Valmiki Development Corporation scam to the CBI, Vijayendra termed it as a significant victory for the BJP.
He alleged that the Rs 187 crore meant for the welfare of Scheduled Tribes was diverted to neighbouring Telangana and misused to purchase properties, jewellery and election expenses. Thousands of fake bank accounts were created for this purpose, he said and referred to the suicide of officer Chandrashekhar, who had reportedly detailed the scam in his death note.
Siddaramaiah was compelled to drop Minister B Nagendra from the Cabinet under pressure from the BJP, but efforts are still being made to reinstate him, he claimed.
Nagendra, facing allegations in connection with an illegal money transfer case involving a state-run corporation resigned from the Ministry last June.
Vijayendra alleged that the CM himself is involved in the scam and said no money could have moved out of the state without the approval of the Finance Department, a portfolio held by the CM himself.
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SC slams WhatsApp, Meta over privacy policy, says will pass interim order on Feb 9
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on Meta Platforms Inc and WhatsApp while hearing their appeals against a Competition Commission of India order imposing a penalty of Rs 213.14 crore over the privacy policy, saying tech giants cannot “play with the right to privacy of citizens in the name of data sharing”.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi said that it will pass an interim order on February 9. The top court ordered that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology be made a party to the petitions.
It was hearing appeals filed by Meta and WhatsApp against a National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) judgment that upheld the CCI’s findings of abuse of dominance, while granting limited relief on advertising-related data sharing.
"You can't play with the right of privacy of this country in the name of data sharing. We will not allow you to share a single word of the data, either you give an undertaking...you cannot violate the right of privacy of citizens,” the CJI said.
The bench said the right to privacy is zealously guarded in the country and noted that the privacy terms are “so cleverly crafted” that a common person cannot understand them.
“This is a decent way of committing theft of private information, we will not allow you to do that... You have to give an undertaking otherwise, we have to pass an order,” the CJI said.
