Top Stories

By Haresh Jhala
Ahmedabad, Sep 11 (IANS) As Gujarat approaches the assembly elections, each party's social media teams are sharpening their strategies to give an edge to their party's election campaign. Social media experts believe this platform can shape the perception and mindset of voters.


When it comes to spread and reach, negative messages spread like wildfire and in minutes and hours travel to thousands and lakhs of social media users, but positive messages trickle only like drops. Their speed is very slow, but the effect is much more than negative messages, is the experience of social media experts as well as party I.T and social media cells.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is exploring this platform since 2012. The party mostly uses it to send positive messages about development work carried out by their state and central governments. The party's campaigns have achieved their goals, claimed Manan Dani, convener of BJP social media.

Dani cited the BJP's examples of social media campaign, 'Uncho Vikas, Unchu Gujarat' (High Development, Gujarat to achieve new peak) or the campaign in civic polls like 'Gujarat che Makkam, Bhajap che Adikham' (Gujarat is confident, BJP is resolute).

If any political opponent is making false claims, the BJP social media team counters with facts, this helps in building the image of the party. The media is not for immediate results.

It is all about perception management, how effectively the party message is conveyed and whether it is reaching the targeted audience or not and creating an appeal, is the basic focus of the social media team, explained Keyur Shah, chairman of the Gujarat Congress I.T. Cell.

Citing the Congress social media's successful campaign, Keyur cited, "Recently the party has launched it campaign, 'Congress nu Kam Bole chhe' (Congress party's work speaks) it was trending on Twitter, this campaign compelled the BJP to launch a counter campaign, 'BJP nu Kam Dekhay Chhe', (BJP's work is visible) and then they launched a series of colleges, universities and other works, which were trolled and questioned by social media users."

In the run up to the 2017 assembly election 'Vikas Gando Thayo chhe' (Development has gone mad) was so trending, that the BJP had to counter it with the campaign, 'Hu Vikas Chhu' (I am development).

The AAP's social media campaign is "One Chance to Kejriwal". whereas its social media team is more active in exposing the ruling party's claims.

Social media expert Jaydip Parikh said it is said in the documentary, "The Social Dilemma' the platform has the ability to manipulate the people's views, emotions, behaviour and spread disinformation." It helps a party to find it's audience and helps in reaching them, it actually is able to change the perception."

---IANS
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Lucknow, Sep 11 (IANS) The Shiv Sena in Uttar Pradesh has started preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by strengthening its party organisation.

The Sena wants to settle scores with the BJP for toppling its government in Maharashtra and it knows that the BJP draws maximum strength from Uttar Pradesh.

State Shiv Sena president Anil Singh has announced district chiefs in 30 districts, including Moradabad, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Farrukhabad, Noida, Bulandshahr, Kasganj, Firozabad, Amroha, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Mirzapur, Ambedkar Nagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Gonda , Kannauj, Bahraich, Basti, Chandauli, Pratapgarh, Barabanki, Fatehpur, Kaushambhi, Banda, Chitrakoot, Sonbhadra, Prayagraj, and Agra.

The state Sena chief said that he would personally visit each district and ensure a strong organisational structure that can contest elections.

He said that the Shiv Sena would also contest the urban municipal elections, scheduled to be held later this year.

Singh said that top Sena leaders would also visit Uttar Pradesh and mobilise the party workers.

--IANS
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By Saiyed Moziz Imam Zaidi
New Delhi, Sep 11 (IANS) The 3,570-km Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra that will pass through 12 states and two union territories, could be a game changer for the Congress, which is in search of an electoral success to revive itself after being confined to two states -- Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.


The yatra, which is passing through Kerala, is getting good support and the Congress workers are enthusiastic about it. The Congress leaders say the BJP is rattled as it is attacking the yatra.

A few days back Rahul Gandhi said, "The BJP has an opinion. RSS has an opinion but, in the Congress Party, this is a journey, this is an attempt at understanding what is going on on the ground in India and an attempt at undoing some of the damage that the BJP and the RSS have done."

The Congress leaders allege that the BJP is spreading canard as it has sensed that it can't counter the Congress on the issue of inflation and unemployment.

Sonia Gandhi too is hopeful about the Congress getting back after this yatra. On the launch day, she said, "This is a landmark occasion for our great party with such a glorious legacy-the Indian National Congress. I am confident that our organisation will be rejuvenated. It is also a transformational moment in Indian politics."

The Congress is saying that it is a battle between the ideologies, which has been going on for ages. "This battle has been going on for a couple thousand years now between two different visions. So, I don't think this battle is new. There are two different visions of India. There have always been two different visions of India. One vision, which is rigid, controlling and another vision, which is plural, open minded and I think, this battle will continue. We are playing our role in this fight."

Congress has to face seven major elections ahead of the 2024 polls. This year it will be Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, then next year Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. These account for 150 Lok Sabha seats approximately.

Rahul Gandhi said they are not fighting a political party anymore, they used to fight a political party and "now, the fight is not between one political party and another political party. Now the fight is between the structure of the Indian state and the Opposition and everybody understands this. Now, this is not an easy fight. This is a difficult fight."

He said under pressure from agencies many leaders are leaving the party "but the party will fight for a certain idea of India, a certain notion of this country and there are many-many people in the Congress Party and in the opposition, who are convinced of this fact."

The Congress says that "the aim of yatra is to counter polarisation and to connect with the people, listen to the people, understand what they are facing and also communicate to them a few things, communicate the fact that India has changed. The institutional framework of India has been captured and there is an attempt to place one vision on top of this country. This country which has multiple visions, one vision has been enforced."

Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the "country is divided along religious lines, that is very clear. The country is divided along state lines, that is very clear. People do not have employment; people do not have work, that is very clear."

He said, "Two or three big businesses are controlling everything; the third richest man is now in India, who is probably going to become the richest very soon, a close confidante of the leader of the country, that is not harmonious. But there is a massive price rise."

--IANS
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Lucknow, Sep 11 (IANS) The Lucknow Police have arrested a dog owner on the complaint of the injured person who was mauled by the dog.

The action comes almost a week after the incident took place in the Krishna Nagar area.

Earlier, the Lucknow Municipal Corporation team reached the owner's house on Saturday and took away the dog as the owner had violated norms of registration.

The victim said the dog had bitten his private parts following which his bladder tube was damaged and the doctors of King George Medical University (KGMU) had told him that treatment would take a long time.

Inspector in-charge of Krishna Nagar police station, Alok Kumar Rao said the pet owner Shiv Shankar Pandey, resident of Prem Nagar, had been arrested after registering an FIR.

He said the incident took place outside the house of the accused in Prem Nagar when the victim, Sankalp Nigam, was returning home from a Jagran at around 10.30 p.m. on September 3.

He said the FIR was lodged on September 8 under Indian Penal Code section 289 (negligent conduct with respect to animals) and investigations were underway.

The complainant told the police that the dog had badly bitten him and its owner kept watching instead of rescuing him.

He said the dog attacked his private parts and he saved himself by running away from there.

"I started bleeding profusely and rushed to the nearby Lok Bandhu hospital to get first aid. I was later shifted to the KGMU for further treatment. The doctors there told me that my bladder tube had been damaged due to deep dog bite and would take a long time to heal. I was admitted to the hospital for around four days and lodged the FIR after returning from there," he said.

Earlier on July 14, an 82-year-old woman Sushila Tripathi was mauled to death by her pet dog in Lucknow's Wazirganj area. The dog, a pit bull, kept attacking the retired teacher for over an hour before she could be taken to hospital, where she died of the injuries.

--IANS
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Lucknow, Sep 11 (IANS) The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, around midnight on Saturday, has suspended 15 officials for alleged laxity in connection with the Levana Suites hotel fire incident that claimed four lives in Lucknow on September 5.

Besides, action under applicable rules would also be taken against four retired officials.

These steps come as a high-level probe pointed towards alleged "connivance" in connection with the functioning of the Lucknow hotel where the blaze erupted.

A departmental inquiry has been ordered against the officials as well.

A government spokesman said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath gave directives for strict action after receiving the report of Police Commissioner S.B. Shirodkar and Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Roshan Jacob who jointly conducted a high-level inquiry into the incident.

The report that was submitted in the early hours of Saturday also found that officials did not raise a red flag on various violations in the hotel premises, people privy to the development said. The chief minister had formed the committee comprising Shirodkar and Jacob soon after the incident.

The five departments, whose officers face action include the departments of home, energy, appointment, housing and urban planning (Lucknow Development Authority) and excise.

Sushil Yadav, the then fire officer, Yogendra Prasad Yadav, fire officer (II), chief fire officer Vijay Kumar Singh, assistant director (electricity security) Vijay Kumar Rao, assistant engineer Ashish Kumar Mishra and sub divisional officer Rajesh Kumar Mishra, Mahendra Kumar Mishra PCS (then competent authority) Lucknow Development Authority have been placed under suspension.

Departmental inquiry will also be initiated against them.

Others placed under suspension include Lucknow Development Authority's then assistant engineer Rakesh Mohan (housing and urban planning department), junior engineer Jitendra Nath Dubey, junior engineer Ravindra Kumar Srivastava, junior engineer Jaivir Singh and Ram Pratap Mate, the then district excise officer Santosh Kumar Tiwari, excise inspector sector 1 Amit Kumar Srivastava and deputy excise commissioner (Lucknow) Jainendra Upadhyay.

Action under applicable rules would be taken against chief fire officer (retired) Abhay Bhan Pandey, LDA executive engineer (retired) Arun Kumar Singh, executive engineer (retired) Om Prakash Mishra and assistant engineer (retired) Ganeshi Dutt Singh.

The probe report also mentioned multiple flaws related to the entry and exit routes, ventilation as well as faulty fire-safety gadgets, people privy to the issue said.

In the joint report, deficiencies were reportedly found in fire-fighting equipment inside the hotel. Besides it came to light that though fire-fighting arrangements were inadequate, the fire department had given an NOC to the hotel.

The report stated that there was no emergency exit but no civic department objected to it. Besides, no notices were issued to the hotel highlighting these deficiencies.

Moreover, the parking lot in the basement was used for storing other things instead of parking vehicles.

The kitchen had open wiring exposing everyone to fire in case of a short-circuit.

The bar was reportedly operational without safety equipment required to douse flames. Besides, there were poor arrangements for evacuation, improper training of hotel staff and improper construction at numerous points.

A senior police officer, who examined the spot, had stated earlier that liquor bottles were found lying on the third floor, and there was a bar on the floor above it. He suspected that due to the inflammable nature of alcohol, the fire tore through liquor bottles, causing the flames to spread to the third floor.

Shirodkar said, "We finalised the report late night on Friday and signed it around 12 a.m. on Friday/Saturday midnight. Thereafter, the report was sent to the state government."

The police had earlier filed an FIR under Indian Penal Code sections 304 (causing death due to negligent act), 308 (risking people's lives by making them unconscious with their act) against four people, including the hotel's two owners Rahul and Rohit Agarwal, Rohit's father Pawan Agarwal, and the hotel's general manager Sagar Srivastava. Three of them - Rahul, Rohit Agarwal and Sagar Srivastava - were sent to 14 days' judicial custody.

The allegations mentioned in the FIR lodged on the complaint of Hazratganj police station senior sub-inspector Daya Shankar Dwivedi had stated that no fire safety measures were in place at the hotel. Besides, the hotel did not have emergency entry and exit routes.

--IAND
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Gurugram, Sep 10 (IANS) Gurugram Police have busted a gang of cyber cheats who were extorting money from people on the pretext of providing small loans through China-based/funded loan applications, officials said on Saturday.

According to the police, the culprits were running call centres in Gurugram and Noida. Four persons have been arrested in connection with the case though the police are yet to disclose their identity.

"The accused registered a company under dummy directors and were running call centres to extort money from people by harassing them," said a senior police officer.

During interrogation, it was revealed that the accused used to provide loans to needy persons and then recovered higher amounts by blackmailing them with chats containing derogatory remarks and morphed photographs.

--IANS
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Doddaballapur (Karnataka), Sep 10 (IANS) Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani, on Saturday termed the killers of BJP Yuva Morcha activist Praveen Kumar Nettare, who was hacked to death by bike-borne miscreants on July 26 in Dakshina Kannada district, as cowards.

Addressing a large gathering at BJP's 'Janaspandana' mega event in Doddaballapur near Bengaluru to commemorate completion of one year in office of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and three-year tenure of BJP in Karnataka, Irani claimed that the intention of killers was to create terror in the minds of people.

"Praveen has given his blood for the country. I congratulate the organisers for paying tribute to him by placing his photograph here," she said.

"The grave of terrorist Yakub Memon was beautified during the tenure of the Congress government. Rahul Gandhi does not have the courage to question this. If Rahul Gandhi opposes terrorism, why did he fail to condemn this," Irani questioned.

She also said the Congress has included those who raised anti-India slogans in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

"This is an anti-national act. It is betrayal to the nation to support those who raised slogans against the country. This anti-national act must be questioned by the Congress workers," the Union minister said.

She also accused the Congress of discriminating against the people of Karnataka.

"During its tenure at the Centre, Congress gave Rs 2,000 crore to Karnataka through the Central Finance Commission. The BJP, which runs a double engine government, has given Rs 5,000 crore to the state.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 10 (IANS) In a counter-attack to the Bharatiya Janata Party's jibes at Rahul Gandhi's costly T-shirt, the Maharashtra Congress hit back by questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expensive suit, watches, shades, car and aircraft, here on Saturday.

State Congress President Nana Patole said that instead of worrying about Rahul Gandhi's T-shirt, the BJP should concern itself with PM Modi's Rs 10 lakh suit, Rs 12 lakh car, Rs 1.5 lakh shades, Rs 80,000 shawl and the Rs 8,000-crore aircraft in which he flies.

"After owning all this, he continues to call himself a 'fakir' (beggar). The BJP should worry how the Modi government has brought the 130-crore people of the country to the streets. Due to this government's miserable performance, its end is near," said Patole.

The Congress leader claimed at a media briefing that the BJP is sleepless as Rahul's Kanyakumari to Kashmir 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is getting an overwhelming response wherever it is passing.

"The BJP has got a strong blow with the public spontaneously thronging the Yatra in large numbers and that is why it is raking up petty issues like the price-tag of Rahul Gandhi's T-shirt," Patole said.

He added that dozens of BJP ministers, leaders and spokespersons predicting that the Congress is finished and Rahul does not matter now, are ironically working full-time to criticise and defame him (Rahul) and the Yatra.

"The BJP is shaken by the response to the Yatra from day one... Rahul is fighting for the masses and raising the issues of the common man like spiralling inflation, massive unemployment, the state of the economy, the problems of farmers and workers, etc. with whom he is interacting during the long march," Patole pointed out.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra will cover 3,500 km through 12 states and 2 Union Territories in 150 days and even as it has just begun, the BJP is getting rattled and resorting to such diversionary issues, he said.

Entering Maharashtra on November 7, the Yatra will go around covering 383 km in 6 of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies over 16 days, with a large number of people including celebrities expected to join it.

--IANS
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Kolkata, Sep 10 (IANS) As counting of notes seized by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from the residence of city-based businessman Nasir Khan and his son Amir Khan in connection with the mobile gaming app fraud continues on Saturday evening, more Trinamool Congress leaders are coming up with their own logic to criticise the central agency action.

According to sources, over Rs 16 crore have been recovered till now from the Garden Reach residence of Amir Khan, who allegedly launched a mobile gaming application named E-Nuggets, which was designed for the purpose of defrauding the public.

Veteran Trinamool leader and three-time Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy claimed that the ED raids are deliberately meant to deprive the Trinamool Congress from any assistance from the business community in the future.

"This is not happening just in case of Trinamool Congress. This happens in any state which is not ruled by the BJP. The idea is to conduct raids and search operations at the premises of businessmen so that they refrain from helping the Trinamool in future. But ultimately such ploys will not work out. In the past, there had been several actions by the central agencies in the state. But nothing happened," Roy said.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, when the recovery amount was Rs 8 crore, state minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim said the continuous raids and search operations by the central agencies, in his opinion, are part of the Union government and BJP's ploy to show West Bengal in bad light and to destroy the state's economy.

Incidentally, the residence of Nasir Khan and Amir Khan at Shahi Astabal Lane in Garden Reach falls under the Kolkata Port Assembly constituency, which is held by Hakim since 2011.

Meanwhile, ED sources said that Amir Khan, who is the mastermind behind developing and launching the mobile gaming application that duped people of several crores of rupees, is absconding and his three mobile phones are switched off since Saturday morning.

ED officials are currently questioning his family members to find out his whereabouts.

As opposition leaders have started targeting Hakim alleging his connections with Nasir Khan, Hakim has said that recovery of money from the residence of a businessman that comes under his constituency does not make him an accomplice in the matter.

ED started conducting raids on Saturday morning under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at six premises in Kolkata.

According to sources, the case was registered at the Park Street police station based on a complaint filed by Federal Bank authorities against Aamir Khan and others.

"Amir Khan had launched a mobile gaming application named E-Nuggets, which was designed for the purpose of defrauding public. During the initial period, the users were rewarded with commission and the balance in the wallet could be withdrawn in a hassle-free manner. This provided initial confidence to the users, who started investing bigger amounts for greater percentage of commission and a greater number of purchase orders," said an ED official.

The official said that after collecting handsome amounts from the public, all of a sudden withdrawal from the said app was stopped at one pretext or the other.

Thereafter, all data, including profile information, was wiped out from the said app server.

--IANS
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London, Sep 10 (IANS) Scientists have discovered a new mechanism through which very small pollutant particles in the air may trigger lung cancer in people who have never smoked,

Particles linked to climate change also promote cancerous changes in airway cells, they found, paving the way to new approaches for lung cancer prevention and treatment.

Scientists of the Francis Crick Institute and University College London, funded by Cancer Research UK, presented the data at the 'ESMO Congress 2022'.

According to them, the particles which are typically found in vehicle exhaust and smoke from fossil fuels, are associated with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) risk, accounting for over 250,000 lung cancer deaths globally per year.

"The same particles in the air that derive from the combustion of fossil fuels, exacerbating climate change, are directly impacting human health via an important and previously overlooked cancer-causing mechanism in lung cells," they informed.

The risk of lung cancer from air pollution is lower than from smoking, "but we have no control over what we all breathe".

"Globally, more people are exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution than to toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke, and these new data link the importance of addressing climate health to improving human health," said Charles Swanton from the Francis Crick Institute.

The new findings are based on human and laboratory research on mutations in a gene called EGFR which are seen in about half of people with lung cancer who have never smoked.

In a study of nearly half a million people living in England, South Korea and Taiwan, exposure to increasing concentrations of airborne particulate matter (PM) 2.5 micrometres (Im) in diameter was linked to increased risk of NSCLC with EGFR mutations.

In the laboratory studies, scientists showed that the same pollutant particles (PM2.5) promoted rapid changes in airway cells which had mutations in EGFR and in another gene linked to lung cancer called KRAS, driving them towards a cancer stem cell like state.

"We found that driver mutations in EGFR and KRAS genes, commonly found in lung cancers, are actually present in normal lung tissue and are a likely consequence of ageing," said Swanton.

However, when lung cells with these mutations were exposed to air pollutants, "we saw more cancers and these occurred more quickly than when lung cells with these mutations were not exposed to pollutants", suggesting that air pollution promotes the initiation of lung cancer in cells harbouring driver gene mutations.

"The next step is to discover why some lung cells with mutations become cancerous when exposed to pollutants while others don't," said Swanton.

Tony Mok from Chinese University of Hong Kong, who was not involved in the study, said that the research is intriguing and exciting.

"It means that we can ask whether, in the future, it will be possible to use lung scans to look for pre-cancerous lesions in the lungs and try to reverse them with medicines such as interleukin-1I inhibitors," said Mok.

"We don't yet know whether it will be possible to use highly sensitive EGFR profiling on blood or other samples to find non-smokers who are predisposed to lung cancer and may benefit from lung scanning, so discussions are still very speculative," he added.

--IANS
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