NCP workers observe 'traitors' day' to mark 1st anniversary of Shiv Sena rebellion, stage protest
Mumbai (PTI): The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders and workers observed "gaddar din" (traitor's day) on Tuesday in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra to mark the first anniversary of the rebellion by Shiv Sena legislators, including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Led by NCP working president and Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule, the party workers in Mumbai shouted slogans and carried symbolic "khoke" (cartons) to claim the rebel legislators took money to come to power in the state.
The rebellion in June last year led by Eknath Shinde culminated in the collapse of the then Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, comprising the Sena, NCP and Congress.
On June 30, 2022, Shinde became the chief minister along with Devendra Fadnavis of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as deputy CM.
On Tuesday, the NCP workers along with Sule gathered at their party office in south Mumbai to stage a protest.
Sule and others shouted slogans like "Pannas (50) Khoke, Ekdum Ok", to allege that the rebel legislators had taken Rs 50 crore each as bribe.
In neighbouring Thane, which is also the home town of CM Shinde, NCP leader and former minister Jitendra Awhad led a similar protest.
The NCP workers piled up several cartons with "Pannas Khoke, Ekdum Ok" stickers on them at a spot and later burnt them as a mark of protest.
In Nagpur, the NCP workers staged a demonstration at the Variety Square in Nagpur and shouted slogans like "Khoke sarkar murdabad, gaddar aamdar murdabad" against legislators of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
Notably, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has written to the United Nations, urging it to declare June 20 as "World Traitors Day" to mark the "desertion" of his party chief Uddhav Thackeray by 40 Shiv Sena MLAs, including Shinde.
Maharashtra NCP president Jayant Patil last week asked the party cadres to protest against the rebel Shiv Sena legislators.
"NCP workers should organise protests in the nook and corner of the state by displaying symbolic 'khoke' (boxes of money) based on which the Eknath Shinde government has come to power," he said on Saturday.
Patil appealed to NCP workers to tell people that the temporary happiness of the Shinde camp, which was recognised by the Election Commission as real Shiv Sena, is on the wane and their days in government are numbered.
The Sharad Pawar-led party had earlier organised public meetings explaining the Supreme Court verdict on the political crisis in Maharashtra and how speaker Rahul Narvekar is duty-bound to disqualify 16 rebel MLAs.
The Supreme Court last month ruled that then Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was not justified in calling upon then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to prove a majority in the Assembly on June 30, 2022. A constitutional bench had also observed that it cannot restore the Thackeray government as he resigned without facing a floor test.
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Trump pauses Project Freedom, claims great progress for final agreement with Iran
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump has suspended “Project Freedom,” to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, claiming progress in negotiations with Iran toward an agreement to end the war.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said, “Great progress has been made toward a complete and final agreement with representatives of Iran.”
“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump said.
Project Freedom was launched on Monday to escort ships, stranded due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, out to safety. Trump had announced the operation on Sunday and the US Central Command began implementing it the next day.
However, the Project led to friction in the vicinity of the narrow seaway, a key route for transporting one-fifth of the global oil supplies, with the UAE claiming that its ships were attacked by Iran. The US also claimed to have destroyed several Iranian small boats.
Trump’s statement on Truth Social came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Operation Epic Fury, launched on February 28, had concluded as its objectives have been achieved.
"Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation. We're not cheering for an additional situation to occur. We would prefer the path of peace. What @POTUS would prefer is a deal... that is, so far, not the route that Iran has chosen," Rubio told a press conference at the White House on Tuesday.
On Project Freedom, Rubio said the goal was to rescue almost 23,000 civilians from 87 different countries who were trapped inside the Persian Gulf and left for dead by the Iranian regime.
"This is not an offensive operation. This is a defensive operation, and what that means is very simple: there’s no shooting unless we're shot at first. We’re not attacking them, but if they're attacking us or they’re attacking a ship, you need to respond to that," Rubio said.
