Air India Express flight with 182 Indians evacuated from Ukraine lands in Mumbai
Mumbai(PTI): An Air India Express flight carrying 182 Indian nationals evacuated from war-torn Ukraine landed here from the Romanian capital Bucharest on Tuesday morning, an airline spokesperson said.
Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane received them at the Mumbai airport, the spokesperson said.
The AI Express flight IX-1202 from Bucharest via Kuwait touched down the runway at 7.40 am, he said.
An aircraft to bring back Indian nationals from Ukraine had left from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) for Bucharest on Monday.
This is the second evacuation flight operated to Mumbai from Bucharest to bring back Indians from war-hit Ukraine since February 27. The Air India Express is the international budget arm of Air India, which is now owned by the Tata Group.
On Saturday, the Air India had operated the first chartered flight to CSMIA from Bucharest with 219 Indian evacuees from Ukraine.
India began the evacuation of its citizens from Romania and Hungary - western neighbours of Ukraine - on Saturday after Russia launched a military offensive there.
Around 14,000 Indians, mainly college students, were stranded in Ukraine. PTI IAS GK
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
