Lynching bad for India's reputation: Alphons in China
Beijing, Aug 29 : Incidents of lynching have hurt India's image, Tourism Minister K.J. Alphons, who is in China to draw in more tourists, has admitted.
The minister, however, said that the ban on beef has not affected tourism in the country and sought to debunk a survey showing India as the most unsafe country for women in the world.
"Well, it (lynching) shouldn't happen. Simple. And, the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has called them criminals. And, he told the states you have to take action because law and order is a state subject," Alphons said on Tuesday interacting with Indian journalsits.
Asked if incidents of lynching have affected tourism in India, the Minister said: "Well, not on a big time basis...not really. But anything happening like that is bad for the reputation of the country. We won't say it's good for the reputation of the country."
Has the ban on beef kept foreign tourists away from India, Alphons said that was not the case. "Not really... you see there are states like Kerala, Goa and the Northeast... these are all beef eating states."
"These are all big tourism destinations... So people would go wherever they are comfortable "I think we need to respect the sentiment of the people anywhere... that's so fundamental."
India has witnessed incidents of lynching over cow slaughter and beef eating in the country. The majority of Hindus in the country consider the animal as sacred.
Alphons is visiting China to attract Chinese tourists who currently generate some 21 per cent of tourism receipts in destinations in the world. He opened a road show in Beijing on Tuesday and will visit Shanghai and Wuhan.
Despite swelling number of outbound Chinese tourists, Indian receives only a very small fraction of them. "Last year, 144 million Chinese were abroad, but only 300,000 came to India," the minister said.
He said India plans to get at least 14 million Chinese tourists in the next three years.
Asked about women's safety, an issue which is among the prime concerns among Chinese to visit India, Alphons said it was "a perception battle".
He tore apart a recent survey by Thomson Reuters which said India is the most unsafe country for women.
"Thomson Reuters put out a story saying it's (India) unsafe. We asked them how? They say they interviewed 540 people or something out which 43 from India."
"You can't ask the 43 so-called knowledgeable people of India whether India is safe or not because most of these so-called feminists would be anti-government ... it is the politics of it," he said.
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SC quashes FIR against Karnataka BJP MLA R Ashoka in land allotment corruption case
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court has quashed an FIR registered by the Karnataka Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against former deputy chief minister and BJP MLA R Ashoka in a land allotment corruption case.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Vipul M Pancholi said the FIR shows a concerted effort on the part of the complainants to cast aspersions on the credibility of the appellant as a public leader and impute ill intention on him.
"The actions against the appellant ex-facie appear to be politically motivated and thereby afflicted by malice, even if delay was kept aside, the prosecution of the appellant could not proceed in the eyes of the law," the bench said.
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In this case, an FIR was registered by the Karnataka ACB to probe the allegations made regarding illegalities in land allotments during Ashoka's tenure as head of the Bengaluru South Taluk Bagar Hukum Land Regularisation Committee.
A complaint was filed that during his tenure, illegal allotment of government land meant for SC/ST and the poor was made to his family members, political followers and corporators.
The top court referred to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's 'Tryst with Destiny' speech in which he said, "The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity."
Setting aside a Karnataka High Court order that dismissed Ashoka's petition seeking quashing of the FIR against him, the apex court observed that the proceedings were initiated against Ashoka, a public servant, without obtaining a sanction order from the state government.
"Not to overextend the issue, it is seen that the record is conspicuously silent on any sanction having been obtained against the appellant. Since no investigation could have begun without such sanction, the preliminary report of the ACB, subsequent FIR and any and all proceedings thereafter have operated in the face of an express bar," the bench said.
