Feature

Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh comes in action, takes charge of offices

Published

8 months ago

June 1, 2019

Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Home Minister, Defence Minister, National news

New Delhi: Newly elected Union Defence Minister Rajanth Singh on Saturday took charge of his office and immediately held a meeting with the top military brass.

Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik, Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra and top officials of the ministry accorded a warm welcome to Singh.

On other hand, the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah also on Saturday took charge as the 30th Union Home Minister at a time when the country is facing terrorism, secession-ism and Maoist insurgency challenges.

The 55-year-old BJP leader assumed charge a day after he was assigned the crucial Home portfolio, succeeding Rajnath Singh, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government returned for a second term.

After taking charge, the former home minister held a meeting with Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa and newly appointed Navy chief Karambir Singh.

To begin their duties Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh takes charge of offices:

The defence secretary and several other senior officials of the ministry were also present at the meeting.

The leadership change in the high-profile ministry is expected to usher in certain decisiveness and an iron-handed approach to terror, insurgency and secession-ism.

However, former Home Minister Rajnath Singh had given a free hand to security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, leading to heavy casualties among terrorists, Shah is expected to be more proactive and lead from the front.

He was welcomed by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba and IB chief Rajiv Jain soon after he reached his North Block office.

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Feature

Trump knew exactly what was going on: Giuliani aide

Published

7 days ago

January 16, 2020

S S

Washington: An aide to Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, has said that the US President “knew exactly what was going on” regarding efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, it was reported on Thursday.

Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnass, who is facing separate criminal charges, made the comments in an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday after letters, phone records, notes and flash drives were obtained from him earlier this week, the BBC said in a report.

Documents show that the Ukraine-born Parnas was in regular contact with Giuliani as well as Ukrainian officials, and suggests that the businessman was directly involved in trying to have Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky look into the Bidens.

In the interview, Parnas said Trump was “aware of all my movements”.

“I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the President. Why would President Zelensky’s inner circle or (Interior) Minister (Arsen) Avakov or all these people or (former) President (Petro) Poroshenko meet with me?

“Who am I? They were told to meet with me. And that’s the secret that they’re trying to keep. I was on the ground doing their work,” he added.

Parnas further said that the President was lying and knew that unless there was an investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was a director of a Ukrainian gas company, military aid to Kiev would be withheld.

He also claimed that the investigation was about digging up dirt on Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, some of the materials obtained show Parnas and Giuliani discussing the removal of Marie Yovanovitch, the then US ambassador to Ukraine, said the BBC report.

In Wednesday’s interview, Parnas claimed the only motivation to get Yovanovitch removed from her post was because she was in the way of the effort to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe Biden.

Trump was impeached by the Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives on December 18, 2019 and is accused of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The two articles of impeachment were sent to the Republican-majority Senate on Wednesday night, paving the way for the starting of a trial against the President.