Mahagathbandhan MLAs demonstrate in assembly over Rahul's conviction, JD(U) stays away
Patna (PTI): Members of the ruling Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, barring Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), on Friday staged a march inside the Vidhan Sabha premises in protest against the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, by a Gujarat court, in a defamation case.
RJD, Congress, CPI (ML) Liberation, CPI, CPI(M) and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) took part in the march.
The MLAs alighted from their vehicles at the main gate and marched towards the assembly hall, a few hundred metres away, raising slogans like 'Modi hatao, desh bachao' (dethrone Modi, save the country) and holding banners and placards.
"The court should rethink its judgement. Rahul Gandhi has not defamed anybody in particular by his caustic utterances about a surname that were made in far-off Karnataka. I do not wish to cast any aspersions in the judiciary but it is also true that people get away by making horrific statements like calling for the rape of corpses by digging graveyards," said Manjhi.
Inside the House, Mahagathbandhan members continued to raise slogans following which Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary asked CPIML(L) legislator Mahboob Alam to make a statement on behalf of the alliance.
However, no sooner than Alam repeated the slogan 'Modi hatao desh bachao', members of the opposition BJP were on their feet, furiously registering their protest.
The speaker then decided that he has had enough and he asked marshals to snatch away banners, posters and placards from members who had brought these inside the House and proceeded with the Question Hour.
When asked about JD(U)'s stance, its chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said, "It is wrong to draw a conclusion that we have a divergent view and there is any problem, on this account, in the Mahagathbandhan."
"I am a member of the legislative council. The march was staged by members of the assembly and I am not sure how well was the coordination on this matter. But it will be preposterous to draw a conclusion that it has anything to do with the alleged prime ministerial ambitions of our leader Nitish Kumar," he said.
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China miffed over Indian mountaineers naming Arunachal Pradesh mountain after 6th Dalai Lama
Beijing (PTI): China was on Thursday miffed over Indian mountaineers naming a previously unnamed peak in Arunachal Pradesh after the 6th Dalai Lama, reiterating its territorial claims over the area.
A team from the National Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports (NIMAS) scaled an unnamed and unclimbed 20,942 ft high peak in Arunachal Pradesh and decided to name the summit after the 6th Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso, who was born in 1682 in the region of Mon Tawang.
NIMAS, located at Dirang in Arunachal Pradesh, functions under the Ministry of Defence.
Naming the peak after the 6th Dalai Lama is a tribute to his timeless wisdom and his profound contributions to the Monpa community and beyond, said a Defence Ministry press release.
When asked for his reaction, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing here, "I’m not aware of what you mentioned."
"Let me say more broadly that the area of Zangnan is Chinese territory, and it’s illegal, and null and void for India to set up the so-called "Arunachal Pradesh" in Chinese territory. This has been China's consistent position," he said.
China calls Arunachal Pradesh Zangnan.
Also, China has been renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh since 2017 to assert its claims.
India emphatically rejected China's claims over Arunachal Pradesh, saying it is an integral part of India and assigning "invented" names does not alter this reality.
