Congress delegation meets CEC, seeks action against 'voter fraud' in Karnataka
New Delhi, Nov 23: The Congress on Wednesday petitioned the Election Commission, demanding a detailed investigation into what it described as a "voter information theft fraud" in Karnataka under Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
The party alleged that 27 lakh names had been deleted and 11 lakh voters added in the voters list, especially in Bengaluru, with "political patronage".
A delegation led by AICC general secretary in-charge of the party's affairs in Karnataka Randeep Surjewala and KPCC chief D K Shivakumar met the Chief Election Commissioner and other election commissoners and handed over a memorandum.
Surjewala later told reporters that the EC gave them a patient hearing for over an hour and assured of strict action against those behind the voter information theft.
"The EC has taken note of all complaints and assured us that it will carry out a detailed investigation...and anyone found guilty in the scam will be dealt with sternly...," he told reporters after the meeting.
Surjewala said a deputy election commissioner has already been sent to Karnataka to probe the issue and the EC has lodged an FIR.
The EC has told the Congress leaders that action against some officials has been taken and more action is being initiated, he claimed.
"We are confident that this conspiracy to steal voter data of Karnataka people would be investigated thoroughly by the EC and stern steps taken to book the guilty," he said.
Surjewala said the delegation brought to the notice of the CEC and other ECs that a private company had taken voter data by impersonating as government employees.
"Employees of a private company are posing as booth level officers of EC and this proves that a data theft has taken place. This amounts to criminal conspiracy. As many as 27 lakh voters have been deleted and 11 lakh voters added in the voters list. Constituencies have been targeted to add votes in order to affect the election outcomes.
"The EC has assured to clean the voter lists and will not allow any deletion or addition of voters and has already lodged an FIR," the Congress leader said.
Karnataka goes to polls later next year and the Congress is seeking to wrest power back from the BJP.
"Massive addition and deletion in voter list in Bengaluru and Karnataka indicate rigging and fraud. This smacks of an apparent and serious fraud being played out under political patronage," it alleged.
The Congress said the "abnormally high number of additions and deletions" reflects that almost all constituencies of Bengaluru and certain constituencies outside the state capital were targeted.
"It goes without saying that this can only be done by and at the behest of the ruling party, i.e. the BJP. This is a blatant electoral fraud on democracy itself," the party alleged.
It termed it to be a case of "identity theft, theft of private user data, dishonest misappropriation of property, concealment and misuse of stolen property, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy".
"This is also a brazen fraud on our democratic process as votes are being added and subtracted to achieve a political outcome in favour of the ruling party," it said.
"We request an urgent investigation to be initiated by this commission...The ECI must also initiate criminal law and ensure the registeration of an FIR against Shri Basavaraj Bommai, officials and employees of the BBMP and the state government involved in the scam and the officials of the private entities and NGOs who have committed the fraud under political patronage," the memorandum said.
#VoteGate ಹಗರಣ ಸಂಬಂಧ ಇಂದು AICC ಪ್ರಧಾನ ಕಾರ್ಯದರ್ಶಿ ಶ್ರೀ @RSSurjewala ಅವರೊಂದಿಗೆ ದಿಲ್ಲಿಯ EC ಕಚೇರಿಗೆ ದೂರು ನೀಡಲಾಯಿತು. ಮಾತು ಕೊಟ್ಟು ವಂಚಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದ BJP ಸರ್ಕಾರ ಜನರ ಮತದಾನದ ಹಕ್ಕನ್ನು ಕಸಿಯುವ ಹೀನ ಕೃತ್ಯ ಎಸಗಿದೆ. ಹೋರಾಟವು ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಕಾರ್ಯಕರ್ತರ ರಕ್ತದಲ್ಲಿ ಹರಿಯುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಯಾವುದೇ ಕಾರಣಕ್ಕೂ "ತಗ್ಗೋದೇ ಇಲ್ಲ".
— DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) November 23, 2022
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Pope urges 'all people of all nations' to silence arms and overcome divisions in Christmas address
Vatican City, Dec 25: Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message Wednesday urged “all people of all nations” to find courage during this Holy Year “to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions” plaguing the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.
The pontiff's “Urbi et Orbi” — “To the City and the World” — address serves as a summary of the woes facing the world this year. As Christmas coincided with the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration that he dedicated to hope, Francis called for broad reconciliation, “even (with) our enemies.”
"I invite every individual, and all people of all nations ... to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions,'' the pope said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to throngs of people below.
The pope invoked the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, which he opened on Christmas Eve to launch the 2025 Jubilee, as representing God's mercy, which “unties every knot; it tears down every wall of division; it dispels hatred and the spirit of revenge.”
He called for arms to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine and in the Middle East, singling out Christian communities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, “particularly in Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave,” as well as Lebanon and Syria “at this most delicate time.”
Francis repeated his calls for the release of hostages taken from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
He cited a deadly outbreak of measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the suffering of the people of Myanmar, forced to flee their homes by “the ongoing clash of arms.” The pope likewise remembered children suffering from war and hunger, the elderly living in solitude, those fleeing their homelands, who have lost their jobs, and are persecuted for their faith.
Pilgrims were lined up on Christmas Day to walk through the great Holy Door at the entrance of St. Peter's Basilica, as the Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million Catholic faithful to Rome.
Traversing the Holy Door is one way that the faithful can obtain indulgences, or forgiveness for sins during a Jubilee, a once-every-quarter-century tradition that dates from 1300.
Pilgrims submitted to security controls before entering the Holy Door, amid new security fears following a deadly Christmas market attack in Germany. Many paused to touch the door as they passed and made the sign of the cross upon entering the basilica dedicated to St. Peter, the founder of the Roman Catholic Church.
“You feel so humble when you go through the door that once you go through is almost like a release, a release of emotions,'' said Blanca Martin, a pilgrim from San Diego. "... It's almost like a release of emotions, you feel like now you are able to let go and put everything in the hands of God. See I am getting emotional. It's just a beautiful experience.”
A Chrismukkah miracle as Hanukkah and Christmas coincide
Hanukkah, Judaism's eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900.
The calendar confluence has inspired some religious leaders to host interfaith gatherings, such as a Hanukkah party hosted last week by several Jewish organizations in Houston, Texas, bringing together members of the city's Latino and Jewish communities for latkes, the traditional potato pancake eaten on Hanukkah, topped with guacamole and salsa.
While Hanukkah is intended as an upbeat, celebratory holiday, rabbis note that it's taking place this year as wars rage in the Middle East and fears rise over widespread incidents of antisemitism. The holidays overlap infrequently because the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar, which sets Christmas on Dec. 25. The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005.
Iraqi Christians persist in their faith
Christians in Nineveh Plains attended Christmas Mass on Tuesday at the Mar Georgis church in the center of Telaskaf, Iraq, with security concerns about the future. “We feel that they will pull the rug out from under our feet at any time. Our fate is unknown here,” said Bayda Nadhim, a resident of Telaskaf.
Iraq's Christians, whose presence there goes back nearly to the time of Christ, belong to a number of rites and denominations. They once constituted a sizeable minority in Iraq, estimated at around 1.4 million.
But the community has steadily dwindled since the 2003 US-led invasion and further in 2014 when the Islamic State group swept through the area. The exact number of Christians left in Iraq is unclear, but they are thought to number several hundred thousand.
German celebrations muted by market attack
German celebrations were darkened by a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday that left five people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, and 200 people injured. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote his recorded Christmas Day speech to address the attack, saying that “there is grief, pain, horror and incomprehension over what took place in Magdeburg.” He urged Germans to “stand together” and that “hate and violence must not have the last word.”
A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had practiced medicine in Germany since 2006 was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. The suspect's X account describes him as a former Muslim and is filled with anti-Islamic themes. He criticized authorities for failing to combat “the Islamification of Germany” and voiced support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
