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Hospet, Oct 12 (IANS) As BJP leaders continued their Jan Sankalp Yatra in Karnataka for a second day on Wednesday, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and his predecessor B.S. Yediyurappa had breakfast at the home of Hirala Kollappa, a Dalit man, in Kamalapur village near Hospet.

The two were accompanied by Ministers Govind Karajol and Anand Singh.

The move is being seen as a damage-control exercise after it came to light on Tuesday that a BJP supporter in Chikkamagaluru district had held 14 Dalits captive and tortured them.

One of the captives, who was pregnant, suffered a miscarriage after she was assaulted.

The ruling BJP in Karnataka had on Tuesday sounded the poll bugle with its Jan Sankalp Yatra from Raichur district.

The yatra is also part of its strategy to counter Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra which is currently passing through the state.

Ahead of the Assembly polls scheduled in the first half of next year, the ruling BJP is making all out efforts to reach out to the Dalit community in the state.

On October 8, the Bommai cabinet had decided to enhance reservations for the SC/STs.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the Union Budget for 2023-24 would be 'carefully structured' where the focus would be on maintaining growth momentum.

Speaking at an event organised by the Brookings Institute in Washington, during the course of her five-day US visit, the Finance Minister in a conversation with Cornell University's Eswar Prasad, said on Tuesday that the focus of the forthcoming Union Budget would be on growth priority.

She said that inflation concerns were also there and managing growth would be the main focus.

On being asked about rising public debt and fiscal deficit, Sitharaman said that in the budgets of 2021-22 and 2022-23, the government focussed on increased capital expenditure to revive the economy in the post-pandemic era.

"We understood the virtue of asset creation. We hiked infrastructure spending in the last two budgets but at the same time managed to maintain fiscal prudence," the Finance Minister said.

Speaking about the immediate risks being faced by India, the Finance Minister said that energy and fertiliser requirements were one of the most immediate challenges the country faced.

She said that there was a limit to which renewable energy infrastructure can be ramped up, but it can't meet all the energy requirements.

Due to the energy crisis, India has for the time being gone back to thermal energy.

Similarly, while India was capable of producing fertilisers and it was doing so, as well as meeting requirements with the government footing the bill, the demand was rising, she said.

Sitharaman said due to the rising international prices of fertilisers there was a crisis and this was an immediate challenge along with energy requirements.

Elaborating on managing the economy during the pandemic days, Sitharaman said that due to the digitalisation of the economy, which had started in 2014 itself, India managed to provide foodgrains to the needy during lockdowns.

Immediate relief was provided to the people due to financial inclusion infrastructure, which the government had already created, she said.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Oct 11 (IANS) A Dalit woman who was into her second month of pregnancy suffered a miscarriage after she was allegedly assaulted by the owner of the farm where she works over a petty issue that arose following a quarrel among the workers' children, officials said.

The incident that took place in Pura village near Janugadde in Karnataka's Chikkamagaluru district has come to light on Tuesday.

According to sources, the farm owner also unleashed brutality on 14 Dalit labourers by locking them up in a room and torturing for many days in a coffee plantation.

The farm owner has been identified as Jagadeesh Gowda, the police said.

Police said a quarrel had broken out between the children of the labourers and others. When Gowda came to know about it, he allegedly assaulted the labourers and women.

Arpita, who suffered miscarriage, was also assaulted by the accused farm owner. Six Dalit families work in the accused's farm.

He had taken away mobile phones of all workers while assaulting them.

When Arpita was being assaulted, her husband tried to rescue her but he was also attacked by the accused. Arpita, who had been attacked seriously, was later taken to the hospital.

According to the health staff, she had suffered severe blood loss and miscarriage.

He mother Geetha has filed a complaint in this regard. The police have lodged a FIR in connection with the case.

The police booked a case against accused Gowda and his son Tilak under IPC Sections 504, 320 and 342.

Geetha said when she had rushed to the farm after being informed by her son-in-law about the situation there, she saw all families were locked up.

When she asked Gowda, he said they need to give him back the money they had taken as loan.

Arpita said that the accused assaulted labourers in the backdrop of the children's quarrel.

"We had decided not to go to work. The accused owner got furious and started asking back the loan amount. He came to assault us... and asked me to hand over the phone to him. When I refused, he hit me," she said.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Oct 10 (IANS) The Congress party in Karnataka buoyed by the response of the party's ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi is planning to rope in another Gandhi family member -- Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, for its Ballary convention.

Sources in Congress said the party leaders are upbeat about the grand old party's prospect in the upcoming assembly elections.

Interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi has joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra recently in Mandya district of Karnataka.

The Congress had come to power in 2013 assembly elections after holding a massive convention in Ballary against the mining mafia and then ruling BJP government.

The Congress managed to garner a simple majority in the elections and Siddaramaiah went on to become the Chief Minister.

The Congress leaders believe if Priyanka Gandhi joins padayatra in Ballary district and addresses the convention there, it would help boosting the party's chances in the central as well as the northern Karnataka region.

'Bharat Jodo Yatra' will cover a total distance of 511 km across 21 days in Karnataka covering eight districts. The only public rally in the state as part of the yatra will be organised in Ballary.

The party is trying to bring in over lakh people for the rally.

Party insiders say that Rahul Gandhi was keen on including Ballary in the route of Bharat Jodo Yatra.

The yatra is scheduled to reach Ballary on October 19.

The convention is organised on the next day.

Ballary is also special to Gandhi family as it had given a major boost to Sonia Gandhi's political career when she contested from here against BJP's late former union minister Sushma Swaraj.

--IANS
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Guwahati, Oct 10 (IANS) Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday took an indirect jibe towards his rival candidate Shashi Tharoor while visiting Assam to campaign for the upcoming Congress presidential election.

"Some people have been roaming with their own manifesto, but, why should I have it? In the Udaipur Chintan Shivir, a detailed roadmap for the party was prepared by the various internal committees. I have those declarations with me and once I sit in the Congress president's chair, I will implement these one by one."

"Decisions taken at Udaipur have declarations for all wings of Congress party like Youth Congress, Mahila Congress, etc. I will try to materialise those declarations taken by the leaders of our party," he said.

Stressing on his credentials for the Congress President's post, Kharge said that he has more than 50 years of experience working from the block level to a Congress Working Committee member to end as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

The veteran Congress leader also launched a sharp attack on BJP saying that the ruling party is doing a 'Bharat Todo' exercise in the country.

Citing his reason to contesting for the top party post, Kharge said that interim party chief Sonia Gandhi clearly declared that nobody from Gandhi family will compete for the post and party delegates will decide the next Congress President. She will not interfere in the whole process.

"Then our senior leaders and party workers reached out to me with a request to fight for the post because the BJP has been continuously instigating fights between communities, religion, etc. The democratic institutions are facing a threat from the ruling party and they have been undermining the country's constitution too," he said.

The senior Congress leader alleged that BJP has been trying to break the Congress in almost every state.

"They broke our government in at least 6-7 states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Arunachal, etc. In Gujarat, we had given them a strong fight in the last Assembly election, but there also, the BJP tried to do the same thing."

"When a party MLA or MP does not fall into their trap, BJP uses the ED, or the CBI against them or lure opposition leaders by promising to give some big responsibilities. This is a total insult to democracy. (Pandit Jawaharlal) Nehru ji was Prime Minister for such a long time but he never did such malicious things, instead, he used to show respect for opposition party leaders," Kharge told reporters here.

The Congress presidential candidate also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his desperation to campaign for the party.

"If Prime Minister has charisma, why he had to go for the campaign even in the corporation elections," he questioned.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Oct 10 (IANS) Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Janata Dal-S (JD-S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday came down heavily on the Central government, saying the ruling BJP is "conspiring to make Bharat a Hindistan by imposing Hindi language".

Kumaraswamy has slammed that the report submitted by the Parliamentary Committee headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to President Droupadi Murmu. Reacting to the report -- which recommends making Hindi a compulsory medium of instruction -- the JD-S leader said "it will ensure destruction of federalism in the country".

"The Union government is enacting a fake drama to control the whole of India through a hidden agenda. After reading the recommendations, I was shocked," he said.

"With the mindset of a dictator, it is being conspired to make India Hindistan by trampling Kannada and regional languages. The recommendations of the report have potential to break the federal structure into pieces," the former Chief Minister said.

"Amit Shah has an agenda of destroying federal structure through his policy of one nation, one language and one religion. India will not agree to the dominance of one language. This might lead to the breaking of the country," he added.

He said the "Central government should take back the report and uphold the objectives of the constitution".

"The people who speak non-Hindi languages are more in numbers in this nation. Knowing this fact well, the BJP is imposing Hindi. This is a conspiracy," he said, adding: "The Union government has come forward to finish off regional languages like Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia and others.

"All states, especially southern states must protest this and get united to fight. BJP in Karnataka only talks Kannada at the outset, but it is imposing Hindi language in the state. BJP can't be trusted with protection of regional languages," he stated.

"If Hindi is imposed on India just because BJP has got a majority, India is going to suffer in the name of language. Bharat does not stand for Hindu and Hindi. It belongs to all," Kumaraswamy added.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) Shiv Sena leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has moved the Delhi High Court seeking a stay on the order of the Election Commission to freeze the party's bow and arrow symbol.

Amid the tussle between the two factions of Shiv Sena led by Thackeray and Eknath Shinde, the Election Commission on Saturday froze the party's bow and arrow symbol.

Thackeray approached the high court seeking to allot his candidates the symbol chosen by them for the upcoming bypolls rather than restricting it to three choices that the ECI has given.

In an interim order on Saturday, the poll panel said: "The Commission hereby makes the following Interim Order, to cover the purpose of the current by-elections and to continue till the final determination of the dispute into the matter."

It said that neither of the two groups led by Shinde and other led by Thackeray be permitted to use the name of the party "Shiv Sena" and neither of the two groups shall also be permitted to use the symbol, reserved for "Shiv Sena".

"Both the groups shall be known by such names as they may choose for their respective groups, including, if they so desire, linkage with their parent party 'Shiv Sena'; and both the groups shall also be allotted such different symbols as they may choose from the list of free symbols notified by the Election Commission for the purpose of the current by-elections," the poll panel said.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Oct 9 (IANS) After the resounding success of their new release 'Kantara', the makers of 'KGF', Hombale Films are getting ready to produce their next project, 'Dhoomam' starring Fahadh Faasil and National Award winner Aparna Balamurali.

The production house Hombale Films took to their twitter handle to share the muhurat shots of their new movie.

Speaking at the muhurat, the producer Vijay Kiragandur said: "We are delighted with our association with Fahadh and Aparna. Dhoomam has a unique storyline which is different from all the genres of traditional cinema.

Director Pawan Kumar has worked on the script for several months and we believe this is going to cause frenzy among the fans. We are very excited for this upcoming movie with a solid cast and crew by our side'.

'Dhoomam', is to be directed by Pawan Kumar who is known for his unique storytelling and for helming acclaimed films like 'Lucia' and 'U Turn'.

'Dhoomam', a thriller, will be released in 4 languages including Malyalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.

The film marks the second announcement from Hombale Films into the Malayalam film industry, after the grand announcement of 'Tyson' earlier.

Apart from Fahadh and Aparna, the movie stars Achyut Kumar, Joy Mathew, Dev Mohan, Anu Mohan, Nandhu in the pivotal roles. The music for the movie will be given by Poornachandra Tejaswi and cinematography will be done by celebrated cinematographer Preetha Jayaram. National award winners Anees Nadodi (Production Design) and Poornima Ramaswamy (Costume Design) have also been roped in for the interesting project.

Last month, the filmmakers had released an intense poster, revealing the title of the movie. It was captioned: "What you sow, so shall you reap".

According to the makers, the film promises to be a racy fast paced thriller with an intensive plot. The movie is set for a summer release and will be extensively shot in Karnataka and Kerala.

The production house has already produced 2 cult classics this year with 'KGF Chapter 2' and their latest release 'Kantara'.

Their other mega project 'Salaar', starring Prabhas is due for a release in September 2023.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 9 (IANS) After the date of withdrawal of nominations for the Congress presidential poll, the party now has two contestants -- Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge -- for the October 17 polls, in which 67 booths have been set up in all the states, the party's central election authority (CEA) has said.

Madhusudan Mistry, Chairman of the CEA, said, "In AICC also there will be a booth, especially for all senior leaders, working committee members and all those whose identity card is from a different state but are staying in Delhi. If they write to us that they want to vote in Delhi then we will make arrangements here as well, they can also vote here in AICC."

A camp booth will be set up for Rahul Gandhi and others who are participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

"So the process of campaigning for these candidates starts from Saturday onwards, officially, although they have already started the campaign earlier, because, I mean, they seem to have decided not to withdraw from the contest. Technically, according to the constitution, we have to provide them with a seven day withdrawal period."

The election will take place on October 17 in every state capital. Time is between 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.

The vote will be by the secret ballot. All the ballet boxes will be brought to the AICC headquarters and then, on October 19 the counting of votes will start and the result will be declared as soon as the counting gets over.

--IANS
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Guwahati, Oct 8 (IANS) Taking a jibe at the Congress, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that earlier Assam was only known for bandhs, protests and insurgency under the Congress regime.

"Congress gave this region only tension with the rest of India. When BJP came to power at Centre in 2014, Assam along with the entire northeast started to walk on the path of peace and development," Shah said while inaugurating a six-storey building of a new headquarters for the state unit of Assam BJP in Guwahati.

The Union Home Minister further said that since the Independence of the country, northeast India was pushed to violence and anarchy by the Congress governments. The region could join the mainstream of development only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took several steps to uplift this region.

"Almost 9,000 militants laid down their arms in last eight years which brought peace to the Assam and northeast," he added.

Shah also claimed that the Centre has increased the budget allotment to bring infrastructural development to the NE states.

Earlier, Amit Shah along with BJP president J.P. Nadda inaugurated Assam BJP's new headquarters in Guwahati. The six-storey building was named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Foundation stones for nine district party offices and 102 BJP regional offices in Assam were laid down virtually by Nadda and Shah respectively.

Shah said that the BJP offices reflect the emotion, commitment and dedication of all party workers.

Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam BJP president Bhabesh Kalita, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, and other party leaders were also present on the occasion.

--IANS
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