AAP claims Kejriwal's movement still 'restricted', Delhi Police denies claim
New Delhi, Dec 9: The AAP on Wednesday alleged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's movement is still "restricted" and the main gate of his residence remains closed at the behest of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, a claim denied by the city police.
Police sources said the chief minister left his residence around 11 am to attend a programme.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had on Tuesday alleged the Delhi Police put Kejriwal under house arrest after he met farmers protesting against the Centre's agriculture reform laws at the city's Singhu border.
However, a senior Delhi Police officer dismissed the claim as "totally baseless".
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha said there is an atmosphere of "undeclared emergency" around the chief minister's residence.
"I am telling you with full responsibility that the movement of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is still restricted at the behest of the (Union) home minister. The main gate of the chief minister's residence is still closed," Chadha said.
"In a way, there is an atmosphere of undeclared emergency. All this, just because we did not allow the stadiums to be converted into prisons for farmers," he said.
A senior police officer said there is no restriction on any kind of movement of the chief minister.
"The police deployment outside the chief minister's residence is part of security protocol," he said.
According to police sources, Kejriwal left his residence around 11 am to attend a programme.
On Tuesday, Kejriwal came out of his residence after hours of drama outside.
Addressing party workers, he said the Centre tried its best to ensure that he did not step out.
He said if he was not stopped, he would have gone and supported farmers in their Bharat Bandh movement.
Kejriwal claimed the Centre was "very angry" as his government did not allow Delhi stadiums to be used as prisons for farmers.
"We faced a lot of pressure to allow the use of stadiums as temporary prisons, but we did not give permission and I feel this helped the movement. But since then the Centre has been very angry," the chief minister said.
Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, are protesting at various border points of Delhi against the new farm laws.
The Centre's offer to amend the contentious laws has failed to cut ice with the protesting farmers who have stuck to their demand for a repeal of the legislations.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Trump sues BBC for USD 10 billion, alleges defamation over edited Jan 6 speech
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday seeking USD 10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices.
The 33-page lawsuit accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 US presidential election.
It accused the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump's speech on January 6, 2021” in order to ”intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”
The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court, seeks USD 5 billion in damages for defamation and USD 5 billion for unfair trade practices.
The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The broadcaster apologised last month to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him, after Trump threatened legal action.
BBC chairman Samir Shah had called it an “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC's top executive and its head of news.
The speech took place before some of Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.
The BBC had broadcast the hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 US presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
Trump said earlier Monday that he was suing the BBC “for putting words in my mouth.”
“They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with Jan. 6 that I didn't say, and they're beautiful words that I said, right?" the president said unprompted during an appearance in the Oval Office. "They're beautiful words, talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said. They didn't say that, but they used terrible words.”
The president's lawsuit was filed in Florida. Deadlines to bring the case in British courts expired more than a year ago.
Legal experts have brought up potential challenges to a case in the US, given that the documentary was not shown in the country.
The lawsuit alleges that people in the US can watch the BBC's original content, including the “Panorama” series, which includes the documentary, by using the subscription streaming platform BritBox or a virtual private network service.
The 103-year-old BBC is a national institution funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds (USD 230) paid by every household that watches live TV or BBC content. Bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial, it typically faces especially intense scrutiny and criticism from both conservatives and liberals.
