People do not care about fuel price hike, not a factor in polls, claims BJP's Kerala unit chief
Kochi, Dec 8: The BJP's Kerala unit president K Surendran on Tuesday claimed the public does not care about the rise in fuel prices and it will not affect the local body polls in the state.
Petrol and diesel prices rose for the sixth day in a row on Monday as rates went up by 26-30 paise per litre and rates for petrol in Delhi rose to Rs 83.71 per litre, from Rs 83.41 while diesel price went up from Rs 73.61 to Rs 73.87 per litre.
Surendran said it was the Congress party which handed over the price regulation authority to the oil companies.
"The rise in fuel prices in the country will not affect the public and it is not a factor in the election. It was the Congress which gave the price determination authority to the oil companies," Surendran told reporters here.
His comment came as the first phase of the three tier local body polls was being held today.
When asked about his protest against fuel price hike during the previous UPA rule, by pushing his scooter through the road, Surendran said "today there are other people in the Opposition to take up that role."
"I protested when I was in the Opposition.That's how things work. It's not a big deal. We will protest when we are in the Opposition.The public does not care about the fuel prices.
We are providing free rice, cooking gas, cheap medicine, kisan samman nidhi and other benefits for the public and that's why we are winning all elections across the country," Surendran said.
The BJP state chief claimed that the price of petrol in the country was Rs 87 during the UPA rule and now it is around Rs 83.
When reporters pointed out that it was around Rs 67, Surendran dismissed it and said it was part of the justification given by the Congress and CPI(M).
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Trump sues BBC for USD 10 billion, alleges defamation over edited Jan 6 speech
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday seeking USD 10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices.
The 33-page lawsuit accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 US presidential election.
It accused the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump's speech on January 6, 2021” in order to ”intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”
The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court, seeks USD 5 billion in damages for defamation and USD 5 billion for unfair trade practices.
The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The broadcaster apologised last month to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him, after Trump threatened legal action.
BBC chairman Samir Shah had called it an “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC's top executive and its head of news.
The speech took place before some of Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.
The BBC had broadcast the hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 US presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
Trump said earlier Monday that he was suing the BBC “for putting words in my mouth.”
“They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with Jan. 6 that I didn't say, and they're beautiful words that I said, right?" the president said unprompted during an appearance in the Oval Office. "They're beautiful words, talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said. They didn't say that, but they used terrible words.”
The president's lawsuit was filed in Florida. Deadlines to bring the case in British courts expired more than a year ago.
Legal experts have brought up potential challenges to a case in the US, given that the documentary was not shown in the country.
The lawsuit alleges that people in the US can watch the BBC's original content, including the “Panorama” series, which includes the documentary, by using the subscription streaming platform BritBox or a virtual private network service.
The 103-year-old BBC is a national institution funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds (USD 230) paid by every household that watches live TV or BBC content. Bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial, it typically faces especially intense scrutiny and criticism from both conservatives and liberals.
