Biden's speech writer is Indian-American Vinay Reddy
Washington: Joe Biden, in his maiden address to the nation soon after being sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, would deliver a forward-looking speech built around the theme of unity, advisors close to the President-elect said.
According to the advisors, in his first moments after being sworn in as the 46th President of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts after the clock strikes 12 noon (local time) at the West Front of the Capitol, Biden will speak about the need to bring the country together during an unprecedented moment of crisis.
He will reach out to all Americans, and call on every citizen to be part of meeting the extraordinary challenges facing fellow Americans, his advisors said Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.
Biden's remarks will be a forward-looking vision for his presidency while addressing the moment we are living in as a country. The speech is built around the theme of unity, said the advisors who were not authorized to speak to the press.
The speech is likely to last between 20 and 30 minutes. The theme of the speech is America United.
As the President-elect would often say on the campaign trail, there is nothing this country cannot do when we do it together, the advisors said.
Notably, Biden's speech writer is Indian American Vinay Reddy. Raised in Dayton, Ohio, Reddy was the chief speech writer to Biden during his second term as the vice president of the US from 2013 to 2017. He is the first ever Indian American to be appointed as a presidential speech writer.
According to The Wall Street Journal, people familiar with his plans said Biden has been drafting the speech since the start of his presidential transition in November. Aides have said his speech will be in keeping with the major themes of his campaign, including unity, bipartisanship and optimism, the daily noted.
He wants to use the moment to call Americans to unity, incoming White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal.
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
