India has two 'rashtra pita', Narendra Modi father of New India: Amruta Fadnavis
Nagpur (PTI): Amruta Fadnavis, wife of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has called Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the father of New India, adding the country has two rashtra pita' (father of the nation).
"We have two rashtra pita'. Narendra Modi is the father of New India and Mahatma Gandhi is the father of the nation of earlier times," Amruta, a banker and singer, said during a mock court interview.
Congress leader and former Maharashtra minister Yashomati Thakur slammed the senior BJP leader's wife over the remarks.
"People following the BJP and RSS ideology keep trying to kill Gandhiji again and again. They keep doing such things as they are obsessed with changing history by repeating lies and maligning great people like Gandhiji," Thakur said.
In the mock court interview (abhirup nyayalay), Amruta was asked about her calling Modi as rashtra pita last year. The interviewer asked her if Modi is the rashtra pita, then who is Mahatma Gandhi.
Amruta replied that Mahatma Gandhi is the country's rashtra pita and Modi is the rashtra pita of New India. "We have two rashtra pita; Narendra Modi is the rashtra pita of New India and Mahatma Gandhi is rashtra pita of that (earlier) era," she added.
Amruta's remarks came days after Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari faced flak from Opposition over his remarks about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
After he was slammed by the Opposition for his comments on the Maratha warrior king, Koshyari had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah explaining his stand and clarifying he would "never even imagine" insulting such icons.
"I cannot even imagine in my dreams to insult icons like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Maharana Pratap and Shri Guru Govind Singh. You are aware that I do not hesitate to express regrets or apologise immediately even if I unintentionally made a mistake," Koshyari wrote in the letter addressed to Shah.
The letter came amid demands by the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance that Koshyari be removed from his post for insulting Shivaji Maharaj.
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Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
