Modi's tenure as Gujarat CM a black spot: Mayawati
Lucknow: Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BSP president Mayawati on Wednesday said his legacy as the chief minister of Gujarat is a "black spot" and "burden" on the BJP as well as the communal history of the country.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also said that Modi was "unfit" as chief minister and prime minister and his tenure has seen "anarchy and hatred".
"My tenure as chief minister of UP for four times has been clean and works done on law and order, development, peoples welfare front are remembered even today. PM Modi has been CM of Gujarat for a longer time but his legacy is such it is a black spot not only on himself but also on the BJP and a burden on communal history of the country," she said here.
"It is clear how fit the BSP president is on issues of peoples welfare and national interest and how unfit the prime minister is," she said.
"During our government, UP remained free of anarchy and riots but Narendra Modi's tenure not only as the Gujarat CM but also as the prime minister has been full of anarchy, violence, tension and hatred and so it can be said that he has failed in holding public office and is unfit," Mayawati said.
"As the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he had been unfit in adhering to the 'raj dharma' in accordance with the Indian culture, Constitution and the law and has also been unfit as the prime minister," she said.
Alleging that the BJP forced GST and note ban on the country in an immature manner, she said it had been done so as to prove themselves as 'doodh ka dhula'(honest) and others as wrong.
"Their favourite and corrupt capitalists fled the country with the money of the common people deposited in banks. This was made possible only with connivance of Modi government," she charged.
The BSP president said BJP appears to be suffering from the "disease" of proving themselves as honest and others as wrong and "corrupt" but the country knows that most of those having benami properties and corrupt are connected with the BJP.
"But like he is an OBC on paper, prime minister is honest only on paper.The BJP and PM are different in reality and their actual accounts are kept hidden under a carpet," she charged, adding all efforts to defame her proved futile as the accounts of her party were clean.
On some Opposition parties terming the BSP president as 'daulat ki beti' instead of 'dalit ki beti', Mayawati said this has been done mostly by those who had casteist and narrow mindset.
Such people have also opposed reservation to Dalits and oppressed and the BJP is number one in this, she said.
Charging the ruling party with misusing official machinery in proving Opposition leaders as corrupt , Mayawati said at election time, Modi is "misleading" the people by saying he is poor, fakir and had no property.
"The entire country knows that BJP is the richest party run by capitalists but still the 'guru-chela' have been crying about how poor they are in their rallies. This is nothing but an election trick," Mayawati said.
The BSP president said during poll time rival parties try to indicate that whatever she or her party has was accumulated through dishonest means and the prime minister is also adopting such methods in his rallies.
"Whereas whatever the BSP has was contributed by those associated with this movement .The prime minister has no shame in terming the BSP as the personal property of its president. He has crossed all limits of decency," she charged.
Terming note ban as the "biggest scam", she said it is also an issue which needs investigation.
"The country also knows what their politics is in not getting back black money from abroad," she added.
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Iran, US receive proposal for 45-day ceasefire and reopening of Strait of Hormuz
Dubai (AP): Iran and the United States received a draft proposal late Sunday calling for a 45-day ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, two Mideast officials speaking on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press.
The proposal comes from Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators, hoping the 45-day window would provide enough time for talks to reach a permanent ceasefire. Iran and the US have not responded to the proposal, which was sent to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, the officials said.
The head of intelligence for Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was killed Monday in an attack targeting him, Iranian state media said.
Strikes on cities across Iran have killed more than 25 people from Sunday to Monday, while in Israel's Haifa, two people were found dead and two others were missing in rubble a day after an Iranian attack.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday stepped up his threat to hit Iran's critical infrastructure hard if the country's government doesn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz by his Tuesday deadline.
Trump punctuated his threat with profanity in a social media post, saying Tuesday will be “Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran.”
The war began with joint US-Israel strikes on Feb. 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes from the United Nations and international law experts.
Here is the latest:
An Iranian drone strikes the UAE telecommunications building
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An Iranian drone attack damaged a telecommunications building in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, the state-run WAM news agency reported.
The attack targeted a building of the state-funded du telecom company.
No one was injured, WAM reported, quoting officials in Fujairah.
South Korea's spy agency sees no signs of North Korea supplying Iran
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South Korea's National Intelligence Service says there are no signs North Korea is providing Iran with weapons or other war-related supplies.
The spy agency's officials told lawmakers Monday that North Korea may be taking a cautious approach to preserve the possibility of dialogue with the Trump administration, according to two lawmakers who attended the closed-door briefing.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry has condemned the US-Israeli attacks on Iran as illegal, but the NIS said Pyongyang has not sent an official condolence message over the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's late supreme leader.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in recent years, has embraced the idea of a “new Cold War” and attempted to expand cooperation with countries confronting the US, including an economic delegation sent to Iran in April 2024.
South Korea plans to send ships and special envoys to Saudi Arabia
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South Korea plans to send at least five ships to Saudi Arabia's Yanbu port in the coming weeks to establish new oil transport routes in the Red Sea.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said Monday the ships will be deployed in phases beginning in mid-April, and the number of vessels could increase depending on contracts with Saudi partners.
Officials did not disclose the companies involved but said some domestic refiners may use non-Korean shipping firms.
South Korea also plans to send special envoys to Saudi Arabia, Oman and Algeria to step up diplomatic efforts to secure alternative fuel supplies, ruling party lawmaker Ahn Do-geol said.
The foreign ministry did not immediately reveal when the envoys would be sent.
Iran executes a man over the January protests
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Iran has executed another man convicted over charges stemming from the nationwide protests that swept Iran in January.
The judiciary's Mizan news agency identified the man hanged as Ali Fahim in a report on Monday.
It was unclear when he was executed.
Fahim had been convicted of allegedly storming a military base to seize weapons.
Amnesty International said Fahim and others convicted in the case “were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention, including beatings, floggings, prolonged solitary confinement, and death threats at gunpoint before being convicted in grossly unfair trials that relied on forced confessions extracted under torture and lasted only a few hours.”
The Human Rights Activist News Agency had said Fahim and others had entered a Tehran base of the all-volunteer Basij militia, an arm of the Revolutionary Guard, after it had been burned, then had been forced into confessions.
Iranian missiles hit central Israel
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Israeli rescue services reported Monday morning that several sites were hit by missiles launched from Iran toward multiple cities in the centre of Israel.
In Petah Tikva, paramedics provided medical treatment to an injured woman in serious condition with a chest injury from shrapnel and evacuated her to the Beilinson Hospital.
Firefighters in that city are handling cars on fire and continue searching to ensure there are no people trapped in the rubble.
In Tel Aviv, a man slightly injured by glass shrapnel was evacuated to the Ichilov Hospital.
Footage provided by the rescue service Magen David Adom shows damage to residential buildings due to the attack.
Meanwhile, Israel's military warned the public Monday morning of another missile barrage coming from Iran, the fourth such alert of the day.
