He may be PM, may be best vote catcher, but Modi remains an organisation-soldier

He may be PM. may be best vote catcher, but Modi remains an organisation-soldier

New Delhi

Winning elections and being one of the most talked about and hailedPrime Ministers of India, but Narendra Damodardas Modi essentially remainsan organisation 'foot soldier' to the core. 

At the BJP parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday, March 15, Mr Modi ensused thatparty's national president J P Nadda is garlanded first.

This was certainly a gesture meant to acknowledge the role of the organisation in thejust concluded assembly elections where the saffron outfit recorded an unprecedentedvictory returning to power in four states.

Of course Mr Modi was given a rousing welcome at the Ambedkar Bhavan here in recognition ofhis stewardship at the fiercely contested polls especially in Uttar Pradesh.

Obviously as Modi asked Mr Nadda to be garlanded first, for party lawmakers it was a messagethat in a disciplined political party like the BJP, the organisational leadership and works matter.

Top party leaders Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh - three former presidents of the party and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi were present at the meeting.

The BJP has returned to power winning 41.29 per cent of votes and as many as 255 seats in the 403-memberassembly.

It also came to power on its own in Manipur winning 32 seats in the 60-member assembly and emerged the singlelargest party picking up 20 seats in the 40-member Goa assembly.

The saffron party also returned to power in Uttarakhand for the second consecutive term with a two-third majority.This is for the first time that a ruling party could return to power in Uttarakhand that was carved out of Uttar Pradesh by the Vajpayee government in 2000.

Modi's importance to organisational leadership vis-a-vis party's national president's office had come to light in2019 when addressing a press conference at the party headquarters the Prime Minister requested the thenparty chief Amit Shah to field most questions from the journalists.

In fact, the Prime Minister was asked a question on Sadhvi Pragya, to which Shah had said, the Prime Minister need not answer that question.  Modi immediately said he follows discipline and for him the party president is the real boss. The question was then answered by Shah.

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-Nirendra Devpls visit my bloghttp://bestofindiarestofindia.blogspot.in/

Indian High Court says wearing Hijab is not essential religious practice of Islam

New Delhi

Karnataka Hight Court on Tuesday ruled that wearing Hijab is not an essential religious practice of Islam.

"Wearing of Hijab by Muslim women does not form Essential Religious Practice in Islamic faith," the court ruled.

It also said that prescription of school uniform is a reasonable restriction which student could not object to.

On the petitions challenging Karnataka government's orders, the court said no case is really made out for 

invalidating the Government Order of February 5. 

Tension prevailed in various parts of Karnataka last month as the parents and students had staged sit-in 

demonstrations in front of various institutions after the students with Burqa were not allowed inside.

Karnataka police had also said many people who were not associated with the colleges took part in the 

protests. 

In some parts, police also had detained the demonstrators.

A group of students from Udupi in Karnataka had gone to court and challenged the ban on headscarves in the 

state-government run educational institutions. The students had contended that there is no law that 

prohibits the use of headscarves in educational institutions.  

The petitioners had contended that Hijab is protected under the religious freedoms granted by the Constitution 

of India and no college development body or state authority is equipped to take a call on whether it can be 

banned in view of public order violation.  

The Karnataka government run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party has told the court that 

there is no restriction on wearing hijab in India except 'reasonable restrictions' subject to institutional discipline.

The row had started in January 2022 as students at a school in Udupi refused to remove headscarves and stop 

their use despite requests from teachers. 

Five students then went to court.  

The opposition parties including the Congress had slammed the BJP government on the issue.

But the court order today (March 15) said all the writ petitions "being devoid of merits are liable to be and 

liable to be dismissed".

Some postings went viral in the social media the row over headscarves was also seen as a roadblock to 

education of Muslim girls, a charge the pro-Hindu BJP regime had dismissed.

Predictably, the Government of India has welcomed the court verdict.

"I welcome the Court's decision. I appeal to everyone that the state and the country have to go forward, 

everyone has to maintain peace by accepting the order of the court," the federal Parliamentary Minster 

in the Modi cabinet and a lawmaker from Karnataka Pralhad Joshi told journalists in Delhi.

"The basic work of students is to study. So leaving all these rows aside they should study and be united,"

the Minister said. 

The High Court said that it had formulated a few questions on the row and answered them.

Analysing things in detail, the bench said the government has "power to issue" order dated 5-02-2022 banning

Hijab in educational institutions.

"....no case is made out for its invalidation". 

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai also said the students should now focus on studies. 

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Exact cause of Missile incident can be known only after probe : Rajnath

Nirendra Dev

New Delhi

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday told Parliament

that the exact cause of the 'missile incident' can be known only after a probe.

He also said that the Government of India gives "highest priority to safety and security" of the Indian weapon 

system. 

"If any shortcoming is found ....it will be immediately rectified," he said.

"I would like to tell this House about an incident that occurred on March 9, 2022. 

It's related to an accidental missile release during the inspection. During routine maintenance and 

inspection of the missile unit, around 7 pm, one missile got accidentally released.

"The exact cause of the incident can be known only through a probe," he said. 

"I would also like to say that in the context of this incident, standard operating procedures of operations, 

maintenance and inspections are also being reviewed," Rajnath Singh said. 

"We give highest priority to safety and security of our weapon system. If any shortcoming is found,

it will be rectified immediately," he said.

"I would like to assure the House that our missile system is highly reliable and safe. Our safety procedure 

and protocols are high level," the Defence Minister maintained.

The Government of India had said last week that it 'accidentally fired a missile' that landed in 

Pakistan and that the "deeply regrettable" incident was caused by a technical malfunction during routine 

maintenance.

The United States had endorsed Indian views on the matter.

"We have no indication as you also heard from our Indian partners that this incident was anything 

other than an accident," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

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Ukraine crisis: US warns China against helping Russia

New Delhi 

China will face 'consequences' if it helps Russia in its intense military conflict with Ukraine and evades sanctions the United States has said.

"We are watching very closely the extent to which China or any other country provides any form of support, whether that's material, economic or financial support to Russia, any such support from anywhere in the world would be of great concern to us," said Ned Price, US Dept of State Spokesman. 

Meanwhile, "unnamed US officials told multiple news outlets that China had signalled willingness to provide military assistance to Russia", says a BBC report.

The Chinese foreign ministry accused the US of spreading disinformation. Russia has denied asking Beijing for military help.

Media outlets, citing Washington officials, say that Russia has in recent days asked China specifically for military equipment, including drones.

The report came as US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, for talks in Rome and has cautioned Beijing.

"The national security adviser and our delegation raised directly and very clearly our concerns about the PRC's (China's) support to Russia in the wake of the invasion, and the implications that any such support would have for the PRC's relationship not only with us, but for its relationships around the world," said State Department spokesman Ned Price. 

"Mr Sullivan raised a range of issues in US-China relations, with substantial discussion of Russia's war against Ukraine," a readout of the meeting said. "They also underscored the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the United States and China."

In an earlier CNN interview, Mr Sullivan said the US was "communicating directly, privately to Beijing that there will absolutely be consequences for large-scale sanctions evasion efforts or support to Russia to backfill them".

"We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country, anywhere in the world," he said.

He added that while the US believed China was aware that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was "planning something" before the invasion happened, Beijing "may not have understood the full extent of it".

Meanwhile, White House officials are discussing the possibility of Biden traveling to Europe to meet with allies for in-person talks about the crisis in Ukraine. 

The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the trip hasn't been finalised.

One possibility is a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels on March 24 with other potential stops in Europe. 

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Govt to start COVID Vax for 12 to 13 years and 13 to 14 years age groups 

New Delhi 

The central government and the Union Health Ministry after due deliberations with scientific bodies have decided to start COVID19 vaccination for 12 to 13 years and 13 to 14 years age groups from March 16. 

It will be for those born in 2008, 2009 and 2010 those who are already above 12 years of age. 

The COVID19 vaccine to be administered would be Corbevax manufactured by Biological Evans, Hyderabad,

an official source said.

It is to be noted that the population above 14 years of age is already being administered COVID-19 vaccine 

under the ongoing COVID19 vaccination programme.

The government has also decided that the condition of co-morbidity for COVID19 Precaution Dose for 

population over 60 years of age will be removed forthwith. 

Hence, from March 16 onwards, the entire population above 60 years of age will be eligible for the Precaution 

Dose of COVID19 vaccine.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a tweet that if the children are safe then the country is 

safe. Expressing happiness, the Minister informed that from March 16, the Covid vaccination for children 

in the age group of 12 to 13 and 13 to 14 will start. 

He said, everyone aged 60 plus will now be able to get precaution doses.

Official sources say 180 crore population have been vaccinated at least one,

fully vaccinated is population 81.2 Crore and percentage of population fully vaccinated

is 58.8 per cent.

The nationwide vaccine drive is billed as the world's largest vax drive in the new century - albeit post the 

pandemic - so far. 

It may be also mentioned that India's vaccination drive was also marked by large scale export and global 

assistance provided by India to countries across the globe. 

But at home, there were reports of the Congress party abusing vaccines

including dumping them in Rajasthan. 

In some states, they allegedly focused on profit making. Vax hesitation was also encouraged by likes of 

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

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