CM Bommai visits temple, chants 'Hanuman Chalisa', a day before Assembly polls
Bengaluru/Hubballi (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and state Congress president D K Shivakumar visited Anjaneya temples on Tuesday, a day ahead of Assembly polls. While Bommai visited the shrine at Vijayanagara in Hubballi and chanted "Hanuman Chalisa" with devotees there, Shivakumar paid a visit to the temple at KR Market in Bengaluru and offered prayers.
The visits gain significance in the backdrop of controversy over the proposal in the Congress' manifesto for banning the Bajrang Dal.
Both BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi aggressively picked up the issue to portray the grand old party as being against Lord Anjaneya and the sentiments of Hindus, and repeatedly using 'Jai Bajarangbali' slogans constantly during the campaign.
Congress leaders including Shivakumar have stood by the manifesto promise, and have maintained that Lord Anjaneya or Bajarangi and Bajrang Dal are two different things and cannot be compared, and they too were devotees of Anjaneya and Lord Rama.
"I have prayed to Lord Anjaneya to give me strength to serve the people like he served with loyalty," Shivakumar said, after visiting the temple.
Union Minister and State BJP Election Management Committee chief Shobha Karandlaje also visited Shri Prasanna Veeranjaneya temple at Mahalakshmi Layout in Bengaluru along with party workers and offered prayers.
She hit out at the Congress proposing to ban Bajarang Dal in its manifesto. She also accused AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala of insulting Lord Anjaneya and raising doubts about his birth place, and thereby causing threat to Hindu beliefs.
The Union Minister said that people are chanting "Hanuman Chalisa" at temples across the State and prayed to Anjaneya to give strength to "save Dharma"
On May 7, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its youth wing Bajrang Dal, decided to chant "Hanuman Chalisa" on May 9 throughout the country.
The call comes as a counter to the Congress party which in its manifesto released last week said it was committed to taking firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred amongst communities on grounds of caste and religion.
The party said: "We believe that law and Constitution is (are) sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities. We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on such organisations."
According to the VHP secretary general Milind Parande, the programme has been organised to invoke "Bajrang Bali (Hanuman) to give Sadbuddhi' (good sense) to the Congress and other organisations and activists who stand to advocate for and promote the terrorists, anti-Bharat elements and anti-Hindu mindsets, so that good sense and pro-nationalist character should prevail with them."
ಜೈ ಹನುಮಾನ ಗ್ಯಾನ ಗುಣಸಾಗರ!
— Basavaraj S Bommai (@BSBommai) May 9, 2023
ಜೈ ಕಪೀಸ ತೀಹು ಲೊಕ ಉಜಾಗರ !!
ರಾಮ ದೂತ ಅತುಲಿತ ಭಲದಾಮ !
ಅಂಜನಿ ಪುತ್ರ ಪವನ ಸುತ ನಾಮ !!
"ಭಜರಂಗಬಲಿ ಕೀ ಜೈ"
ಇಂದು ಹುಬ್ಬಳ್ಳಿಯ ವಿಜಯನಗರದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಕೆಂಪಣ್ಣನವರ ಕಲ್ಯಾಣ ಮಂಟಪದ ಆವರಣದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಆಂಜನೇಯ ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆದ ಹನುಮಾನ ಚಾಲೀಸ್ ಪಠಣ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಂಡು,
1/2 pic.twitter.com/IYyPD2QrEe
"It is very insulting that in the election manifesto of Karnataka Congress, the party has promised a ban on Bajrang Dal and after that in several states, including Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, the Congress and some other anti-Hindu leaders have made demands to ban the Bajrang Dal," Parande said.
He said it was "irrational, ridiculous and outlandish" to compare "this nationalist and patriotic organisation" (Bajrang Dal) with the anti-national, terrorist, violent organisation PFI (Popular Front of India which has been banned). The Hindu society will surely teach a democratic lesson to the unreasonable perpetrators for such humiliation," he added.
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Los Angeles county wildfires could be costliest in US history, early estimates say
Los Angeles, Jan 11: The wildfires that erupted this week across Los Angeles County are still raging, but already are projected to be among the costliest natural disasters in US history.
The devastating blazes have killed at least 11 people and incinerated more than 12,000 structures since Tuesday, laying waste to entire neighbourhoods once home to multimillion-dollar properties.
While it's still too early for an accurate tally of the financial toll, the losses so far likely make the wildfires the costliest ever in the US, according to various estimates.
A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between USD 135 billion and USD 150 billion. By comparison, AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic losses caused by Hurricane Helene, which tore across six southeastern states last fall, at USD 225 billion to USD 250 billion.
“This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in US modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country,” said Jonathan Porter, the private firm's chief meteorologist.
AccuWeather factors in a multitude of variables in its estimates, including damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and vehicles, as well as immediate and long-term health care costs, lost wages and supply chain interruptions.
The insurance broker Aon PLC also said Friday that the LA County wildfires will likely end up being the costliest in US history, although it did not issue an estimate. Aon ranks a wildfire known as the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, in 2018 as the costliest in US history up to now at USD 12.5 billion, adjusted for inflation. The Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed about 11,000 homes.
The LA County wildfires, which were fuelled by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and an extreme drought, remained largely uncontained Saturday. That means the final tally of losses from the blazes is likely to increase, perhaps substantially.
“To put this into perspective, the total damage and economic loss from this wildfire disaster could reach nearly 4 per cent of the annual GDP of the state of California,” AccuWeather's Porter said.
In a report Friday, Moody's also concluded that the wildfires would prove to be the costliest in US history, specifically because they have ripped through densely populated areas with higher-end properties.
While the state is no stranger to major wildfires, they have generally been concentrated in inland areas that are not densely populated. That's led to less destruction per acre, and in damage to less expensive homes, Moody's noted.
That's far from the case this time, with one of the largest conflagrations destroying thousands of properties across the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars and executives with multimillion-dollar properties. Already, numerous celebrities have lost homes to the fires.
“The scale and intensity of the blazes, combined with their geographic footprint, suggest a staggering price tag, both in terms of the human cost and the economic toll,” Moody's analysts wrote. The report did not include a preliminary cost estimate of the wildfire damage.
It could be several months before a concrete tally of the financial losses from the wildfires will be possible.
“We're in the very early stages of this disaster,” Porter said.
