BJP strengthened its position by installing Bommai as CM in Karnataka: Amit Shah
Davangere, Sep 2: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday lauded Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai for his "small but significant moves" in a short time and said those monitoring Karnataka from the national capital say that the BJP has strengthened its position in the state by installing him.
"Bommai has made some small but significant beginning. He has stopped the tradition of receiving police guard of honour, put a brake on many VVIP practices and he has taken certain steps for transparency.
It is a very short time since Bommai took over but people who are sitting in Delhi and closely watching the developments in Karnataka, say that the BJP has strengthened its position by installing him as the Chief Minister," Amit Shah said at an event here.
In his maiden visit to Karnataka after Bommai took over as Chief Minister on July 28, the BJP leader exuded confidence that the party would come back to power by winning the Assembly election due in 2023.
"Bommai has experience of running the government and leading a decent public life, and he being in the BJP for a very long time, I have full confidence that under his leadership the BJP will come back to power with full mandate (in 2023)," Shah opined.
The Home Minister also heaped praises on former Chief Minister and BJP stalwart B S Yediyurappa, whose resignation as Chief Minister on July 26, brought Bommai to power.
"I am confident that Yediyurappa did not leave any stone unturned for the development of villages and farmers. If a new era of development has started in Karnataka, it happened in the BJP government during the tenure of Yediyurappa," Shah said.
According to him, Yediyurappa himself had decided to give new faces a chance to lead Karnataka and the BJP leadership decided to give the responsibility to Bommai.
Speaking about the COVID-19 management, Shah praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the best handling of pandemic and bringing out the country to a good extent from it with public support.
He said the entire world was watching with surprise how a nation of 1.3 billion population will face the challenge.
"However, under the leadership of the Prime Minister, the nation abided by the lockdown norms initially and then carried out the biggest vaccination drive of the world in India.Today we can proudly say that if there is a nation, which has given maximum vaccines, it is India," Shah said.
The Home Minister also pointed out that the country broke its own previous record of one crore jabs on a single day by vaccinating 1.36 crore people on a single day a couple of days ago.
Speaking about the vaccination drive in Karnataka, Shah said the state has vaccinated almost 90 per cent of its eligible population by carrying out 5.2 crore inoculations.
"Over four crore people have received the first dose while 1.16 crore people have taken the second dose. It is an example what a government can do by taking along people," he explained.
Noting that the economically weaker section was hit hard due to the pandemic, the Home Minister said the BJP government at the Centre gave five kg rice to each member of BPL families for 10 months from May last year.
According to him, 80 crore people from weaker sections had received five kg rice every month for 10 months.
Shah added that the Prime Minister has also announced financial packages to deal with any further wave of COVID-19.
Recalling the oxygen crisis during the second wave of COVID-19, the Home Minister said many new oxygen plants which came up in a very short period have started operations.
Exuding confidence that India will be self reliant in oxygen production in the event of any epidemic outbreak in future, Shah said the country will not require to go anywhere for oxygen.
Seeking public support in the fight against COVID-19, Shah expressed his disappointment over vaccine resistance among some communities. He said it is everyone's responsibility to make sure that no one in the family, friends, and neighbourhood is left without vaccine.
"The 'mantra' to win the battle against coronavirus is the vaccine," Shah said.
He appealed to BJP activists to work with people in spreading awareness about the vaccine and take those people to the vaccination centre who have not taken it.
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US SC rejects 26/11 attack accused Tahawwur Rana’s plea seeking stay on his extradition to India
New York, Apr 7 (PTI): The US Supreme Court has rejected 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana's appeal seeking a stay on his extradition to India, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice.
Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles.
He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks. Headley conducted a recce of Mumbai before the attacks by posing as an employee of Rana’s immigration consultancy.
Rana had submitted an ‘Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus' on February 27, 2025, with Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit Elena Kagan.
Kagan had denied the application earlier last month.
Rana had then renewed his ‘Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan’, and requested that the renewed application be directed to US Chief Justice John Roberts.
An order on the Supreme Court website noted that Rana's renewed application had been “distributed for Conference” on April 4 and the “application” has been “referred to the Court.”
A notice on the Supreme Court website Monday said that “Application denied by the Court.”
Rana was convicted in the US of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the terrorist plot in Denmark and one count of providing material support to Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba which was responsible for the attacks in Mumbai.
New York-based Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra had told PTI that Rana had made his application to the Supreme Court to prevent extradition, which Justice Kagan denied on March 6. The application was then submitted before Roberts, “who has shared it with the Court to conference so as to harness the entire Court’s view.”
The Supreme Court justices are Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In his emergency application, Rana had sought a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13.
In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates US law and the UN Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture."
"The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.
The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto" death sentence in this case.
The US Supreme Court denied Rana's petition for a writ of certiorari relating to his original habeas petition on January 21. The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington on February 12 to meet with Trump, Rana’s counsel received a letter from the Department of State, stating that “on February 11, 2025, the Secretary of State decided to authorise” Rana’s "surrender to India,” pursuant to the “Extradition Treaty between the United States and India”.
Rana’s Counsel requested from the State Department the complete administrative record on which Secretary Rubio based his decision to authorize Rana’s surrender to India.
The Counsel also requested immediate information of any commitment the United States has obtained from India with respect to Rana’s treatment. “The government declined to provide any information in response to these requests,” the application said.
It added that given Rana’s underlying health conditions and the State Department’s findings regarding the treatment of prisoners, it is very likely “Rana will not survive long enough to be tried in India".
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Modi in the White House in February, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.
A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.
