Calcutta High Court restrains Mamata Banerjee from making defamatory remarks against Governor ::::: India backs Mauritius in sovereignty dispute with UK on Chagos Island

 Calcutta High Court restrains Mamata Banerjee from making defamatory remarks against Governor

A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee upheld her statement that women had expressed fear about visiting Raj Bhavan, Calcutta High Court on Tuesday restrained her from making defamatory statements against Governor CV Ananda Bose.

Governor Ananda Bose filed a defamation suit against CM Banerjee after she made a statement that women were not feeling safe in entering the Raj Bhavan in West Bengal due to the recent allegations against the Governor. 

While noting that Bose, who is a constitutional authority, cannot counter personal attacks against him using social media platforms, a single-bench judge, justice Krishna Rao, observed that in the name of the right to freedom, one cannot make defamatory statements and tarnish the reputation of a person.

In May, the Calcutta High Court stayed the police investigation against the Officer on Special Duty to the Governor (OSD) and other Raj Bhavan staffers accused of wrongful restraint by a former female worker who had accused Governor Bose of molestation.

The woman alleged that Raj Bhavan officials had restrained her in a room, tried to take away her bag and cell phone, and warned her not to raise her voice against the Governor. She also said that she would write to President Droupadi Murmu requesting her intervention in the matter. 

Telangana Congress MLA and former minister Danam Nagender made a remarkable statement on Friday, asserting that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) would soon merge into the grand old party. He claimed that many of the leaders from K Chandrashekar Rao's party were poised to defect in the coming days.

"Around six MLAs will join in the next two days and over the next 15 days, the entire BRS will be merged into the Congress. Only three or four MLAs will stay with KCR," the Congress leader said.

Till date, seven MLAs and six MLCs of BRS have switched over to the Congress since the Assembly polls. Several other leaders, including BRS Rajya Sabha member K Keshav Rao, his daughter and Hyderabad Mayor Vijaya Laxmi R Gadwal, also joined the Congress.  

Reacting to the defections, BRS Working President K T Rama Rao slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and asked if this is the way the latter is going to safeguard the Constitution.

India backs Mauritius in sovereignty dispute with UK on Chagos Island

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar assured Mauritius that India will support the island nation on the issue of the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean.  

The Chagos Islands include the strategic US airbase of Diego Garcia. The archipelago has been operated as a British Indian Ocean Territory. Mauritius has, however, disputed this and is demanding its rights over the islands. The dispute has been going on for decades.

The Chagos dispute centres around the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, which Britain claimed along with Mauritius in 1814.

In 1966, Britain leased Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands, to the United States, which was seeking a military base in the region. This move led to the forced removal of approximately 2,000 Chagossians in the 1960s and 1970s, who were relocated to Mauritius and the Seychelles, hundreds of miles away.

The Chagossians, who are mostly descendants of African slaves brought to the islands in the 18th century, have since been engaged in a prolonged legal battle for the right to return to their homeland. 

Despite several British court rulings in their favor, Britain's highest court overturned these decisions in 2008, citing security concerns due to the American military presence on Diego Garcia, a critical base during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

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