Amit Shah Launches High-Decibel Campaign In Odisha, Calls For Overthrowing 24-Yr-Old Naveen Govt

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Amit Shah Launches High-Decibel Campaign In Odisha, Calls For Overthrowing 24...

by Hemanta Pande

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Senior BJP leader and Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday gave a call to the party leaders and workers in Odisha to oust the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in the state.

Sonepur, Apr 25: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday gave a call to the party leaders and workers in Odisha to oust the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in the state for achieving faster prosperity and addressing some critical challenges like poverty, economic empowerment of farmers and weaker sections of the society.

Addressing a massive public rally here at Sonepur in Western Odisha, Shah said Odisha is now being ruled by a group of “corrupt officers” who have launched a reign of terror in the state.

“Odisha is now being ruled by a person who does have regard for the language of the land, its culture and rich history. The state is now being ruled by a bunch of ‘Bhayankar Bhrastachari’ (highly corrupt) bureaucrats,” Shah said.

His observation was seen as a clear criticism of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s inability to speak Odia and his over-reliance on a group of top officials who are allegedly managing BJD’s party affairs, violating code of conduct for civil servants.

He called upon voters to elect more than 20 Lok Sabha members from the state and give an absolute majority to the BJP in the 147-member Odisha Legislative Assembly.

In 2019, the BJP had won 8 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats.

The home minister’s broadsides against the Odisha CM and the BJD were seen as clear departures from the BJP’s “cool approach” towards the BJD. Though the BJD is the principal political opponent of the BJP, the latter had bought peace with the regional party, ostensibly to get its support for crucial passing bills in Rajya Sabha.

Also Read: Amit Shah Urges Odia People To Oust BJD Govt For Development Of "Mineral-Rich Odisha''

Shah blamed Odisha’s lack of prosperity to the inefficiency of the 24 years of Naveen Patnaik government.

“Odisha is rich in mineral resources. It also has a huge water resource. However, the state continues to languish in abject poverty and lakhs of people are migrating to Gujarat, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad in search of job. Farmers are also not getting due remuneration for their crops,” he said.

The BJP leader observed that the 24 years of the BJD rule in Odisha were just “lost years.”

“When I started reviewing the progress of various states under the Narendra Modi government, I found provinces having BJP governments have made significant strides in development. However, I found Odisha stands at the same place when Naveen Babu started his reign here,” he said.

He criticized the “rebranding” of the rice given under the public distribution system (PDS) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by the Naveen Patnaik government.

Read More: Odisha News

IPL 2024: PBKS Win Toss, Elect To Bowl First Against CSK

by Hemanta Pande

Dharamsala, May 5: Punjab Kings have won the toss and elected to bowl first against Chennai Super Kings in match 53 of IPL 2024 at the picturesque HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala on Sunday afternoon.

PBKS are placed at eighth position on the points table, while CSK are sitting at fifth place. The last time these two teams met in IPL 2024, PBKS beat CSK by seven wickets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on May 1.

After winning the toss, PBKS captain Sam Curran said his playing eleven is unchanged. "Day game, try and see how it plays and chase it down. We've had two really good wins with the same team. Conditions should be fairly even throughout, it's about batting, bowling and fielding well," he said.

CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad said left-arm spin all-rounder Mitchell Santner comes into the playing eleven in place of left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who is in Bangladesh for T20I series against Zimbabwe. Tushar Deshpande is also back in the playing eleven after missing the last game due to flu and comes in place of Deepak Chahar, who is down with a hamstring injury.

"We've just stuck to our process and doing little things right. We don't look at the track record of the opposition, we focus on ourselves and see what we can do right. This season there have been a lot of injuries, flus and forced changes so we've had to tinker with our team. I'd say losing 10 tosses but winning 5 games is a positive," he said.

Playing XIs-

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali, MS Dhoni (wicket-keeper), Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande and Richard Gleeson

Substitutes: Sameer Rizvi, Simarjeet Singh, Shaik Rasheed, Prashant Solanki, and Mukesh Choudhary

Punjab Kings: Jonny Bairstow, Rilee Rossouw, Shashank Singh, Sam Curran (captain), Jitesh Sharma (wicket-keeper), Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh

Substitutes: Prabhsimran Singh, Harpreet Bhatia, Tanay Thyagarajan, Vidwath Kaverappa and Rishi Dhawan (IANS)

Read More Sports News

PM Modi’s 10 Years Of Reign Has Set India Firmly On Path Of Viksit Bharat

by Hemanta Pande

Bhubaneswar, May 5: External affairs minister Dr. S. Jaishankar on Saturday said the past ten years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a phase of laying a strong foundation for making India a “strong nation” and the next five years will be dedicated to achieve the goal of Viksit Bharat in the next 25 years which is now known as ‘Amrit Kaal.’

“In 2014, Narendra Modi sought five years for BJP to serve the nation. As Prime Minister he delivered on all fronts – starting from salvaging the nation from an utter state of despair to hope and aspiration. People of all sections were taken up. Country made progress on all sectors and an economy boomed. People appreciated PM Modi’s performances and blessed him with another term in 2019. Now, after 10 years, people’s trust in him has doubled and they have reposed faith in his leadership to take the country on the path of progress to reach our goal of Viksit Bharat,” he said during an interaction with editors of different newspapers and television channels.

Speaking on the foreign policy of India, Jaishankar said India is playing the role of a peace-broker across the globe as the world leaders trust the country's leadership.

“Now, you see turmoil in different parts of the world. The Russia-Ukraine war, the tension in Gaza following the terrorist attack on Israel and the more recent Israel-Iran conflicts have created tensions in those regions, besides affecting the world order. However, during such critical times, whenever leaders of all these countries have looked to India to play its role to ease the tension, our country has obliged in the best possible manner,” said the minister.

Stating that India’s foreign policy was on the right track, Jaishankar said the country had succeeded in asserting itself in the global platform as one of the forward-looking countries.

On the strained relationship with Canada, Jaishankar said, “Our relationship with Canada and its Prime Minister is not the same as with other nations. You can see Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as an exception. What’s the reason? Some people who profess Khalistani ideology have made use of that democracy and formed a lobby and vote bank. Some parties in Canada, some parties in that country feel that if they maintain good relationships with these people, it will benefit. It’s all about vote bank politics in Canada. Now, the matter is more serious because the Trudeau government lacks a majority in the parliament. The leaders of other political parties on whom Trudeau is dependent are pro-Khalistani.”

The minister said though India wrote to Canada for extradition of 25 Khalistani leaders, the latter did not take any action on that.

Also Read: Balangir, Nuapada Become "Hubs Of Migrant Workers" Under Naveen Govt: Dharmendra Pradhan

To a query, Jaishankar said Odisha should have a BJP government to carry forward the development of the Narendra Modi government.

“I concur what Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently said that Odisha has not progressed much in the past two decades despite it having huge mineral resources. We need to have a young person with a sharp outlook to lead the state,” he observed.