Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday drew loud cheers from the crowd when he said he was looking forward to Kerala having a woman chief minister.. Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, coupled with a bicycle ride alongside local candidates, drew enthusiastic responses from the crowd. (PTI file photo). Addressing a rally in Puthuppally here, Gandhi spoke about the guarantees announced by the Congress if it comes to power, including free KSRTC bus travel for women and a monthly assistance of ₹1,000 for college-going girl students.. He said the Congress wants women to be active participants in Kerala’s development.. ALSO READ | Model of injustice against Dalits, tribals in Gujarat: Rahul Gandhi. “In fact, we are looking forward to the day when we have a woman chief minister of Kerala,” he said, drawing a loud response from the crowd.. He also remarked that men were not clapping enough for the statement.. “We want women of Kerala to fulfil their dreams. Whatever they want to do, we want them to succeed,” he said.. He said the Congress would ensure that women have the freedom to go wherever they want and pursue the jobs they choose.. ALSO READ | Losing turf, 2021 upset: What is behind Congress’s ‘solo’ gamble in West Bengal. “For this purpose, our guarantees include free travel for women in KSRTC buses,” he said.. No woman has so far been elevated to the post of Chief Minister in Kerala, despite prominent leaders, including K R Gouri Amma, playing significant roles in the state’s politics.. In this election, the Congress has fielded only nine women candidates out of 92, while UDF allies, the Indian Union Muslim League, have fielded two women candidates, and KK Rama of the Revolutionary Marxist Party is also contesting the April 9 poll.. ALSO READ | Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan attacks Rahul Gandhi, says he lacks understanding. After the event in Puthuppally, Gandhi joined sitting MLA Chandy Oommen and the Congress candidate for a bicycle ride.. Oommen has been riding a bicycle as part of his election campaign.. Both rode for a few miles, giving security personnel a tough time as they had to run behind them.. Crowds gathered on both sides of the road cheered the leaders.. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. 

 Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday hit out at the Congress party, stating that the root cause of naxalism in India dated back to the 1970s when Indira Gandhi served as the Prime Minister.. Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Lok Sabha during the budget session of Parliament, in New Delhi (Sansad TV). Speaking in the Lok Sabha, the senior BJP leader stated that the root cause of naxalism in India was not the demand for development, but rather the embrace of left wing ideology.. “I want to tell, the main reason of Naxalism is not the demand of development, but an ideology, to win the Presidential election, from 1970 Indira ji accepted that due to leftist ideology, Naxalism spread,” he said, alleging that Gandhi used the ideology to tilt the 1971 presidential election in favour of V.V. Giri.. “Twelve states- Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Kerala, parts of Karnataka, and three districts of Uttar Pradesh were affected. A complete ‘Red Corridor’ was formed, and the rule of law ended there. Twelve crore people lived in poverty for years, and no one showed any concern. Thousands of young lives were lost. Many were left permanently disabled or crippled for the rest of their lives. Who is responsible for this?” Shah asked further.. The BJP leader further hit out at the Congress party, accusing them of pushing aside the focus on development of India.. “For sixty years, you failed to provide them with homes or access to clean water; you built no schools for them; you prevented mobile towers and banking facilities from reaching their areas, and yet, now you are the ones demanding accountability?” said Shah, adding that development only took place from 2014 onwards, with the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.. (With inputs from PTI, ANI) 

 Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday hit out at the Congress party, stating that the root cause of naxalism in India dated back to the 1970s when Indira Gandhi served as the Prime Minister.. Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Lok Sabha during the budget session of Parliament, in New Delhi (Sansad TV). Speaking in the Lok Sabha, the senior BJP leader stated that the root cause of naxalism in India was not the demand for development, but rather the embrace of left wing ideology.. “I want to tell, the main reason of Naxalism is not the demand of development, but an ideology, to win the Presidential election, from 1970 Indira ji accepted that due to leftist ideology, Naxalism spread,” he said, alleging that Gandhi used the ideology to tilt the 1971 presidential election in favour of V.V. Giri.. “Twelve states- Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Kerala, parts of Karnataka, and three districts of Uttar Pradesh were affected. A complete ‘Red Corridor’ was formed, and the rule of law ended there. Twelve crore people lived in poverty for years, and no one showed any concern. Thousands of young lives were lost. Many were left permanently disabled or crippled for the rest of their lives. Who is responsible for this?” Shah asked further.. The BJP leader further hit out at the Congress party, accusing them of pushing aside the focus on development of India.. “For sixty years, you failed to provide them with homes or access to clean water; you built no schools for them; you prevented mobile towers and banking facilities from reaching their areas, and yet, now you are the ones demanding accountability?” said Shah, adding that development only took place from 2014 onwards, with the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.. (With inputs from PTI, ANI) 

 Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday questioned Debasish Kumar, Trinamool Congress MLA and candidate for the upcoming assembly poll from south Kolkata’s high-profile Rashbehari assembly seat, in connection with alleged land deals in the city, an official from the federal agency said, requesting anonymity.. Debasish Kumar, a member of the Mayor-in-Council at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), won the Rashbehari seat for the first time in 2021. (https://www.debasishkumar.com). Kumar, a member of the Mayor-in-Council at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), won the Rashbehari seat for the first time in 2021. In the coming two-phase Bengal polls, he is pitted against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Swapan Dasgupta, a senior journalist and former Rajya Sabha member.. “Kumar came under scrutiny after documents recently seized from the residence of a real estate businessman, Amit Ganguly, indicated that some disputed lands were sold at a high price for real estate business. Papers used for these land deals could only be provided by KMC insiders,” the ED official said.. Kumar was summoned in the morning and asked by ED officials to return in the afternoon with relevant documents.. “I will not utter a word about the investigation or why I was summoned,” Kumar told reporters outside the ED office.. TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar alleged that the ED probe was politically motivated.. “The BJP knows it cannot win the Bengal polls. This is not the first time it has used federal agencies against TMC leaders before elections,” Majumdar said.. Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar dismissed the allegations as “baseless.”. “Why is ED questioning Kumar and not you or me? TMC should stop making the same baseless allegation whenever there is an ED or CBI operation. Why don’t they move court saying their candidate is being harassed unnecessarily,” Sarkar said. 

 In a recent conversation on Hindustan Times’ show Point Blank, Executive Editor Shishir Gupta sat down with Senior Anchor Aayesha Varma to unpack why a new terrorism thriller ‘Dhurandhar’ centred on 26/11 has struck such a powerful chord with Indian audiences – and how much of it is rooted in reality. What emerged was less a film review and more a hard‑hitting tour through four decades of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, India’s political responses, and the personalities now driving New Delhi’s national security doctrine.. HT decodes Dhurandhar movie success. Why this film has ‘clicked’. Gupta’s starting point is blunt: the film works because it mirrors the angst of a majority that has lived through repeated waves of terror. He describes the movie as a “cinematic interpretation” of real events over the past 25 years – facts woven with “a bit of fantasy” to create a gripping narrative – but insists the underlying incidents are real.. According to him, more than 2,000 to 3,000 innocent Indians have been killed in terror attacks in the hinterland alone in this period, with “thousands” more in Kashmir. The Hindu majority, he argues, has been “hit very hard by terrorism sponsored by Pakistan and its proxies within India,” and that lived experience is what makes audiences instinctively empathise with the director’s message. The film, in his telling, is not changing minds so much as giving cinematic expression to a sentiment already widely held.. From Afghanistan to Khalistan to Kashmir. To explain the film’s portrayal of Pakistan’s ISI, underworld and politicians as the main villains, Gupta goes back to 1979 and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At that point, he says, Pakistan – backed by the US and UK – “played a double card”: fronting the anti-Soviet jihad while simultaneously using the jihadi infrastructure to escalate terrorism against India.. He sketches a continuum:. First, Pakistan-backed Khalistan terrorism through the 1980s and early 1990s, funded by drug money and arms smuggling.. Then, from 1989 onwards, Kashmir-focused militancy, using local proxies while Islamabad described Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular vein” – a characterisation Gupta calls “totally incorrect.”. After 9/11, a shift to “homegrown” and Islamic terror networks like the Indian Mujahideen, again leveraging the underworld and building cells in Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, Karnataka and Kerala.. He underlines Western complicity, arguing that the radicalisation pipeline – Wahhabi and Salafi ideology spread to fight the Soviets – was encouraged by major powers and then “couldn’t be controlled.”. 26/11: Intelligence, Failure and Politics. The film is centred on the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and Varma presses Gupta on whether the state “failed the country” – an issue that has animated public debate since 2008. Gupta’s answer is unequivocal: there was intelligence, and it was specific.. He says US agencies tip