Chennai: Siddaramaiah conferred with Ambedkar Sudar award by VCK
Chennai, Jul 30: Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah, who received the Ambedkar Sudar award instituted by the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), at a gala function here on Saturday evening accused the BJP government at the Centre of 'duplicity' in ensuring social justice.
Though he hailed Droupadi Murmu becoming the President of India, the Centre was not keen on implementing social justice, he claimed and referred to a statement by former Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde, who had said his party came to power to change the constitution drafted by Ambedkar.
"The Minister in Narendra Modi's cabinet made a statement: 'We have come to power only to change the constitution written by Ambedkar.' He should have made the statement with the knowledge of the Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah, otherwise he would have been sacked immediately," Siddaramaiah claimed.
"I welcome Droupadi Murmu becoming the President but wonder if the RSS has ever followed social justice in elevating its leaders," the leader of the opposition in Karnataka Assembly said.
The award was in recognition of his tireless service in opposing the 'Sanatana' and following the footsteps of "revolutionary social reformer" B R Ambedkar said Lok Sabha MP Thol Thirumavalavan, after presenting the award.
"Siddaramaiah's past 16 years of political journey has been with the Congress. He remains firm in opposing the principles of 'Sanatana' because of his own backward class background and his ideological commitment to activist Ram Manohar Lohia, Ambedkar and social reformer Basavanna," Thirumavalavan, also founder of the TN-based VCK said.
The former Karnataka CM remained committed to opposing the hate politics of the Sangh Parivar that engineers divisions within society and caste on religious lines," the VCK leader said and added that Siddaramaiah's ascension to the position of Chief Minister was a result of his relentless hard work and the politics of social justice taken forward by him.
S V Rajadurai, writer and human rights activist, V G Santhosam industrialist, Chellappan former IAS officer, Tehlan Baqavi, leader of Social Democratic Party of India, Prof K Rajan, archaeologist and R Jawahar (posthumous) writer and activist were presented the Periyar Oli, Kamarajar Kathir, Iyothee Thass Aadhavan, Quaid-E-Millat Pirai, Semmozhi Gnayiru and Marx Mamani awards, respectively.
"I am very very happy to receive this prestigious Ambedkar Sudar award given by VCK," Siddaramaiah said after receiving the award.
Advocating the abolition of the caste system in India, AAP Minister for Social Welfare, SC & ST, Rajendra Pal Gautam pointed out that world over caste system has been dispensed with and only in India it has been kept live.
"Why was the caste system not abolished in India? The Centre and BJP-ruled States want the caste system to be alive. They want the atrocity to continue. They are not willing to give us our share. So, we have to fight for justice and fulfill the dreams of Ambedkar," he said.
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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.
