New Delhi, April 18: A day after his appointment as Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's adviser was cancelled, Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha on Wednesday said he had returned Rs 2.50 he received as "salary" for 75 days he was on the post in 2016.
The Delhi government's General Administration Department (GAD), citing a Home Ministry letter dated April 10, on Tuesday cancelled the appointment of nine advisers and consultants in various departments, including that of Chadha as Adviser (finance).
In a letter to the Ministry, Chadha said that he was appointed to the post from January 15 to March 31 in 2016 to assist Sisodia in the preparation of the 2016-17 Budget.
"...I accept my retrospective sacking from the post I held for 75 days two years ago," he said in the letter, tagging along a draft for Rs 2.50.
He criticised Delhi bureaucrats, claiming that they were working "hand in glove" with the Bharatiya Janata Party by choice or under duress and were "uncooperative" over the Delhi government's reforms, and thus the role of advisers was "ever more important".
The nine advisers whose appointments were cancelled are Amardeep Tiwari (Media adviser to the Law Minister), Arunoday Prakash (Media Adviser to Deputy CM), Atishi Marlena (Media Adviser to Deputy CM), Dinkar Adib (OSD to Minister Satyender Jain), Ram Kumar Jha (Adviser, logistics, to Sisodia), Samir Malhotra (consultant, Satyender Jain), Prashant Saxena and Rajat Tiwari (Aide de Camps to Power Minister).
"I too was one of these young foolhardy individuals who thought they brought value to the table...," Chadha wrote in the letter.
Taking a dig at BJP leaders Sambit Patra and Shazia Ilmi over their appointment as Directors in the Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd and Engineers India Ltd respectively, the AAP leader derisively questioned if he would have been better placed at a "plump position" in public sector undertaking with "considerable pecuniary benefits".
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.
I ended eight wars, India and Pakistan were going at it: Trump
New York (PTI): US President Donald Trump repeated his claim that he has solved the conflict between India and Pakistan, saying he ended eight wars but still did not get the Nobel Peace Prize.
"I ended eight wars. I — If you look at those wars, these were tough wars to end, too. And let me tell you, India and Pakistan were going at it. As you know, they were going at it...But that was one of eight. But we ended eight strong wars. Some have been going on for more than 30 years,” Trump said in an interview to The New York Times last week.
He asserted that no one else has ended eight wars and repeated his criticism of former President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
"I've ended — remember this, I’ve ended eight wars. Nobody else has ever done that. I’ve ended eight wars and didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize. Pretty amazing. Obama got it. He was there for a few weeks, and he got it. He didn’t even know why he got it. They asked him, why did he get it? He was unable to answer the question,” he said.
This was the third time in as many days last week that Trump claimed credit for stopping the conflict between India and Pakistan, an assertion he has now made about 80 times since May 10 last year, when he announced on social media that India and Pakistan agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington.
India has consistently denied any third-party intervention.
During a meeting in the White House on Friday with oil and gas executives to discuss plans for the Venezuelan oil reserves, Trump said “Look, whether people like Trump or don't like Trump, I settled eight wars, big ones. Some going on for 36 years, 32 years, 31 years, 28 years, 25 years, some just getting ready to start like India and Pakistan, where already eight jets were shot out of the air, and I got it done in rapid order without nuclear weapons.”
Trump also said that Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif, who had visited the White House last year, credited him for saving millions of lives by stopping the conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The Pakistani leader "made a very public statement. He said that President Trump saved a minimum of 10 million lives, having to do with Pakistan and India, and that was going to be raging,” he said.
Earlier, in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump said he stopped the war between India and Pakistan, the two nuclear powers "ready to go at it big” as he again claimed that eight planes were shot down in the conflict.
He said one should get a Nobel Prize for stopping each war.
“Because some of these wars were going on for 30 years. India and Pakistan were ready to go at it big. And these are two nuclear countries. I got that one stopped. Eight planes were shot down. They were really at it, and I got it stopped. It was a big one,” Trump had said.
