AAP seeks 48-hour campaigning ban on Amit Shah
New Delhi, Jan 29: The AAP has asked the Election Commission to impose a 48-hour campaigning ban on Union Home Minister Amit Shah for allegedly tweeting a "fake" video on Delhi government schools, party leader Sanjay Singh said on Wednesday.
AAP leaders Singh and Pankaj Gupta complained to the EC against the circulation of the "fake" videos of Delhi government schools by BJP leaders to "falsely defame" Delhiites.
The AAP, in its complaint to the EC, also said BJP MPs - Gautam Gambhir, Parvesh Verma and Hans Raj Hans - made "false and fabricated" videos to put out a wrong picture of Delhi government schools to the people.
The AAP has also sought action against the three BJP MPs.
"Today we met Election Commission and demanded that Amit Shah be banned for 48 hours from campaigning. FIR should also be lodged against all their leaders who made and circulated such fake videos and all such tweets be deleted," Singh told reporters.
Eight BJP MPs visited the schools and on Tuesday shared videos of their findings.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday had asserted that the videos of alleged deficiencies in the city's government schools shared by Home Minister Amit Shah were false.
Singh said the BJP has been completely baffled by Delhi's education model, and Shah is running a campaign to insult the 16 lakh children of Delhi, the 32 lakh parents of Delhi and thousands of teachers.
"This shows that in these elections in Delhi, the BJP is a party without any mission or vision. It is difficult to even imagine that the Union Home Minister is circulating a fake video and insulting the entire education system of Delhi," he said.
The AAP leader said Shah should apologise to the people, students, teachers and parents in Delhi for insulting them.
"In your Parliamentary Constituency of Gandhinagar, 375 children died and he had nothing to say. At least spare the children of Delhi. You want to see Delhi government schools, go to those schools which used to be covered by cobwebs under your administration and now AC rooms have been constructed there.
"Go and see the swimming pools, athletics grounds which have been constructed now, PTMs happen, teachers are sent to foreign countries for training. Why are you insulting this system? What is your enmity with the children of Delhi" he asked.
Later, addressing a press conference, Singh said parents of students studying in Delhi government schools would file a Rs 100-crore defamation case against Shah for sharing the fake videos.
Parents were hurt by the fabricated videos shared by the BJP leaders, he added.
"Many parents of the children who study in Delhi government schools are very hurt by the statement of Amit Shah and the other BJP MPs regarding the condition of the schools. The parents of Delhi government school students have decided to file a defamation case of Rs 100 crore against Mr Amit Shah. The process will start from tomorrow," said Singh.
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.
Iran reimposes restrictions on Strait of Hormuz, accusing US of violating deal to reopen it
Cairo (AP): Iran swiftly reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway on Saturday after the US said it would not end its blockade of Iran-linked shipping.
Iran's joint military command said on Saturday that “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.” It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the US blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.
The announcement came the morning after US President Donald Trump said that even after Iran announced the strait's reopening on Friday, the American blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the US, including on its nuclear programme.
The conflict over the chokepoint threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy after oil prices began to fall again on Friday on hopes the US and Iran were drawing closer to an agreement. Roughly one-fifth of the world's oil passes through the strait, and further limits would squeeze already constrained supply, driving prices higher once again.
Control over the strait has proven to be one of Iran's main points of leverage and prompted the United States to deploy forces and initiate a blockade on Iranian ports as part of an effort to force Iran to accept a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire to end almost seven weeks of war that has raged between Israel, the US and Iran.
Iran said it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. But after Trump said the blockade would continue, top Iranian officials said his announcement violated last week's ceasefire agreement between Iran and the US and warned the strait would not stay open if the US blockade remained in effect.
A data firm, Kpler, said movement through the strait remained confined to corridors requiring Iran's approval.
US forces have sent 21 ships back to Iran since the blockade began on Monday, US Central Command said on X.
Truce in Lebanon could help US-Iran peace efforts
------------------------------------------------------------
The ceasefire in Lebanon could clear one major obstacle to an agreement. But it was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a deal it did not play a role in negotiating, and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.
Trump said in another post that Israel is “prohibited” by the US from further strikes on Lebanon and that “enough is enough” in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The State Department said the prohibition applies only to offensive attacks and not to actions taken in self-defence.
Shortly before Trump's post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceasefire in Lebanon “at the request of my friend President Trump,” but that the campaign against Hezbollah is not complete.
He claimed Israel had destroyed about 90 per cent of Hezbollah's missile and rocket stockpiles and added that Israeli forces “have not finished yet” with the dismantling of the group.
In Beirut, displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.
The Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon reported sporadic artillery shelling in some parts of southern Lebanon in the hours after the ceasefire took effect.
An end to Israel's war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking last week's ceasefire with strikes on Lebanon. Israel had said that the deal did not cover Lebanon.
The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed.
