Criminals carrying placards reading 'arrest us, don't do encounter' since Adityanath became CM: Shah
Barabanki/Lucknow, Apr 28: BJP chief Amit Shah Sunday said while criminals roamed freely when the SP and the BSP ruled Uttar Pradesh, they are seen moving around with a "patta" (placard) reading "arrest us but don't do encounter" since Yogi Adityanath became chief minister.
The Yogi Adityanath government had come in for criticism last year after the UP Police launched a massive crackdown across the state, killing dozens of criminals. Reports had suggested that many people facing criminal cases wanted to be in jail rather than getting killed in encounters.
Addressing a rally here, Shah said, "Till the time the SP and the BSP ruled the state, criminals would roam freely. But, after Yogi Adityanath assumed office, criminals are seen moving with a 'patta' (placard) reading 'arrest us but don't do encounter'."
Shah also claimed that a "pall of gloom had descended on Pakistan and the offices of SP, BSP and Congress on the day of surgical strikes".
He also asked "Buaa-Bhatija (Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav) and Rahul Gandhi" to make their stand clear on having a separate prime minister for Jammu and Kashmir and asserted that no one can take it away from India till his party exists.
The BJP has been aggressively attacking opposition parties for keeping mum on National Conference leader Omar Abdullah's suggestion that there should be a separate prime minister for the state, which enjoys special status through Article 370.
During his election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked several opposition leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, N Chandrababu Naidu and Sharad Pawar, whether they support Abdullah's comment.
While presenting a report card on the completion of two years of his government Adityanath had told a presser earlier this month: "There is zero tolerance for crime and criminals and 73 criminals have been killed in police encounters."
Shah also said at present, only small and middle-scale farmers are benefitting from PM-KISAN scheme, but in the future every farmer will gain from it.
Addressing another public meeting in Lucknow's Mohanlalganj area, Shah said, "Today, land mafia doesn't have the courage to grab land of the poor."
The BJP president also alleged that former prime minister Manmohan Singh kept mum when "terrorists from Pakistan beheaded Indian soldiers".
"Hemraj bhai was beheaded, but mauni (silent) baba did not say anything or did anything. But, this is not the case now. Befitting reply is being given to Pakistan," Shah said.
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Indian-origin translator Padma Viswanathan shortlisted for International Booker Prize 2026
New Delhi (PTI): Padma Viswanathan, a Canadian-American writer of Indian-origin, has made it to the 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist as the English translator of a Portuguese language novella.
"On Earth As It Is Beneath" by Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia, described by judges as a "brutal, haunting and hypnotic novella set in a remote Brazilian penal colony, where the boundaries between justice and cruelty collapse", is among the six worldwide contenders for the coveted literary honour.
The annual prize worth GBP 50,000, divided equally between the author and translator, was won last year by Kannada writer-activist Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi for the short story collection "Heart Lamp". Each shortlisted title guarantees a prize of GBP 5,000 -- also split 50-50 between the book’s author and English translator.
"What struck us most is how spare, unflinching, uncompromising and relentless it is. Maia builds an entire moral universe out of very little: a remote prison, a handful of men, and the rituals of punishment that govern their lives.
"The novel reads almost like a dark fable about power, where brutality is ordinary and civilisation feels frighteningly thin," the judging panel, which also include award-winning Indian novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy, said of the work translated by US-based Viswanathan.
The 58-year-old professor of creative writing at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville is an accomplished playwright and author, whose novels have been published in eight countries.
The list, announced on Tuesday, is dominated by women, with five of the six authors and four of the six translators being female. The authors and translators represent eight countries -- Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Taiwan, the UK and the United States.
"With narratives that capture moments from across the past century, these books reverberate with history. While there’s heartbreak, brutality and isolation among these stories, their lasting effect is energising," said author Natasha Brown, chair of this year’s judging panel.
The other books include "The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran" by Shida Bazyar and translated from German by Ruth Martin; "She Who Remains" by Rene Karabash and translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel; "The Director" by Daniel Kehlmann and translated from German by Ross Benjamin; "Taiwan Travelogue" by Yáng Shuāng-zi and translated from Taiwanese by Lin King; and "The Witch" by Marie Ndiaye and translated from French by Jordan Stump.
The announcement of the winning book will take place on May 19 at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London.
The International Booker Prize is awarded annually for a single work of fiction -- either a novel or a collection of short stories -- written in another language, translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.
According to the organisers, the 2025 winner "Heart Lamp" –- the first collection of short stories to win the prize and the first translated from Kannada –- rapidly sold out in the UK in the subsequent days, with the UK publisher, And Other Stories, immediately reprinting 40,000 copies.
