NEW DELHI, (ANI): Days ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched its official election campaign 2024 merchandise, the NaMo Merchandise, which is exclusively available on the Narendra Modi App.

The merchandise line-up includes popular campaign slogans such as “Ab Ki Baar 400 Paar” and “Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar,” “Modi Ki Guarantee,” and the timeless “Modi Hai Toh Mumkin Hai”.

The official campaign merchandise is available in several categories, including t-shirts, mugs, caps, badges, stationery, stickers, fridge magnets, and more. ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ reflects PM Modi’s vision for a better India. Let’s unite for progress and show our undying support to live up to the dream of Viksit Bharat by 2047!

Apart from that one of the most prominent themes in the featured merchandise is “Modi Ka Parivar,” which has become a viral catchphrase among millions of Indians who consider Prime Minister Modi as their own family.

“Everything is possible with the ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’! Let’s strengthen our commitment to ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ and aim for ‘Ab Ki Baar 400 Paar’ with the official BJP 2024 campaign #NaMoMerchandise”, Kuljeet Singh Chahal, national convener of the NaMo app, wrote in a post on X.

As Lok Sabha elections are right around the corner, the BJP is not only campaigning on the ground but also aggressively leveraging technology and social media to reach out to voters and receive valuable feedback. Last December, the NaMo App, or the Narendra Modi App introduced the ‘Jan Man Survey’, an innovative survey that aims to tap into the ‘Jan Man’–what is on the minds of the citizens–through an interesting and gamified interface.

The Jan Man Survey presents a set of easy-to-answer questions to citizens, collecting their diverse opinions on various aspects of governance and leadership. To celebrate the true spirit of democracy, these questions include both central-level development and specifics related to the user’s constituency.

The Lok Sabha Elections 2024 will be held in seven phases starting on April 19. Counting of votes on June 4. (ANI)

NEW DELHI, (ANI): The Ministry of Finance has issued a cautionary alert to taxpayers regarding a surge in fraudulent activity involving fake summons purportedly sent by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC). According to recent observations, individuals with fraudulent intentions are generating and dispatching fake summons to taxpayers, regardless of whether they are under investigation by the DGGI, read the press release by the Ministry of Finance.

The fraudulent summons, though seemingly authentic with Document Identification Numbers (DIN), are not issued by the DGGI, raising serious concerns about the misuse of official channels for illicit purposes. In response to these fraudulent activities, the DGGI has initiated stringent measures, including informing and filing complaints with the police against those responsible for creating and disseminating fake summons, read the press release.

To assist taxpayers in discerning the authenticity of communications from the department, the CBIC has issued Circular No. 122/41/2019-GST dated November 5, 2019, emphasizing the importance of generating and quoting DIN on all communications sent by CBIC officers to taxpayers. Additionally, taxpayers are advised to utilize the ‘VERIFY CBIC-DIN’ window on the CBIC’s website or the DIN Utility Search on the online portal of the Directorate of Data Management (DDM), CBIC, to verify the genuineness of any communication, including summons, received from the department.

Individual taxpayers who receive suspicious or potentially fake summons from DGGI/CBIC formations are urged to report them immediately to the concerned jurisdictional DGGI/CBIC office for verification, read the press release. This proactive approach will enable swift action against perpetrators engaged in fraudulent activities and safeguard taxpayers from falling victim to such scams.

The Ministry of Finance underscores the importance of vigilance and encourages taxpayers to remain cautious and vigilant against fraudulent attempts to deceive and exploit them, read the release. By promptly reporting suspicious communications and verifying the authenticity of summonses, taxpayers can contribute to thwarting fraudulent activities and upholding the integrity of the taxation system. (ANI)

NEW DELHI, (PTI): The central government on Tuesday extended the deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar by three months to June 30 to enable people comply with the mandatory income tax provisions.

The deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar was ending on March 31. As per the income tax department, failure to link the two unique identities will lead to the unlinked PAN becoming inoperative.

There have been demands, including from political parties, for giving more time to people to link PAN (Permanent Account Number) with their unique 12-digit identification number Aadhaar.

”In order to provide some more time to the taxpayers, the date for linking PAN and Aadhaar has been extended to June 30, 2023, whereby persons can intimate their Aadhaar to the prescribed authority for Aadhaar-PAN linking without facing repercussions,” the finance ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Earlier also, the government had extended the deadline several times.

The government had imposed a fee of Rs 500 on linking of PAN with Aadhaar from April 1, 2022 and the amount was later increased to Rs 1,000 from July 1, 2022.

So far, more than 51 crore PANs have been linked with Aadhaar.

Under the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961, every person who has been allotted a PAN as on July 1, 2017 and eligible to obtain Aadhaar Number, was required to intimate his or her Aadhaar to the prescribed authority on or before March 31, 2023, on payment of a prescribed fee.

Failure to do so would have attracted certain repercussions under the Act from April 1, 2023.

”The date for intimating Aadhaar to the prescribed authority for the purpose of linking PAN and Aadhaar has now been extended to June 30, 2023,” the statement said.

From July 1, 2023, PAN of taxpayers who have failed to intimate their Aadhaar shall become inoperative.

Once the PAN becomes inoperative, the tax payer concerned will not be able to claim tax refund nor interest on it. Also, TDS and TCS will be deducted /collected at a higher rate from them.

”PAN can be made operative again in 30 days, upon intimation of Aadhaar to the prescribed authority after payment of fee of Rs 1,000,” the ministry said.

Those persons who have been exempted from PAN-Aadhaar linking will not be liable to face action.

This category includes those residing in specified states, a non-resident as per the Income Tax Act, an individual who is not a citizen of India or individuals of the age of eighty years or more at any time during the previous year.

Last week, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to extend the deadline by six months for linking PAN with Aadhaar and remove the Rs 1,000 fee. (PTI)

PATNA, (PTI): Political strategist turned activist Prashant Kishor on Saturday termed as ”excessive” the two years’ imprisonment awarded to Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case and urged the ruling dispensation to show ”a big heart” on the Congress leader’s disqualification.

Kishor, who is now touring Bihar, his home state, as part of ”Jan Suraaj” campaign, also underscored that the Congress did not seem to be well prepared to reach out to the masses with the message that it has been wronged.

”I am not a legal expert but with due respect to the process of law, the sentence awarded to Rahul Gandhi seems to be excessive. In the heat of elections, people say all types of things. This was not the first instance and not going to be the last”, asserted the IPAC founder who has, in his professional capacity, worked with many political parties, including the BJP and the Congress.

”Two years in prison seems to be excessive for what is essentially a defamation case”, said Kishor, adding ”I would like to remind the government at the Centre of a famous line by Atal Bihari Vajpayee that nobody becomes great with a petty heart (chhote man se koi bada nahin ban jaata)”.

”The ruling dispensation may hide behind technicalities and insist that Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification was inevitable, given his conviction. I would still say they should have taken a leaf out of the book of late Vajpayee, their own revered leader and not rushed to disqualify Rahul Gandhi”, said Kishor.

”They (the BJP) are in power today. The onus was on them to have shown a big heart. They should have waited for a few days and allowed the aggrieved party to go in appeal and acted only if no relief was in sight”, added Kishor, who first shot into limelight with his handling of the spectacularly successful Lok Sabha poll campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.

Kishor, who decided to return to his home state and launch ”Jan Suraaj” after his proposal to revamp the Congress failed to take off, despite several rounds of talks with the top leadership, also had a word of advice for the grand old party.

”The Congress seems to have little realization of what it is up against. Its top brass needs to understand that you cannot fight a political battle simply by sitting in Delhi, tweeting furiously and staging marches to the Parliament”, he said.

”I would like to share my own experience here, in Marhaura block of Saran district. I am yet to come across a single Congress worker who is meeting people and trying to explain to them how it is being wronged. There are more than one lakh panchayats across the country. I wonder if Congress workers made an effort in any of these”, he added.

”Be it the Congress, or any other opposition party, all need to realize that making a buzz with some press conferences and social media presence may be okay but unless they reach out to the villages, they cannot win the political battle (against BJP)”, added Kishor. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, (PTI): A Delhi court on Thursday granted interim bail till February 28 to Congress leader Pawan Khera, arrested by the Assam Police in a case related to his alleged objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Archana Beniwal granted interim bail to Khera, who was produced before the court, on a bail bond of Rs 30,000 and one surety of the like amount.

The magistrate passed the order around 6.10 pm after receiving a copy of the apex court’s order for Khera’s release.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud had earlier in the day ordered grant of interim bail to Khera till February 28 in the case lodged in Assam.

The apex court had said Khera will be produced before the competent magistrate in Delhi and released on interim bail. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, (PTI): Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has approved the formation of medical boards in all 11 districts of the city for dealing with matters related to the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, Raj Niwas officials said on Monday.

The Act was notified by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on December 25, 2021. Section 4(iii) of the Act states that no surrogacy or surrogacy procedure shall be conducted, undertaken, performed or initiated without the intending couple possessing a certificate issued by the appropriate authority (district medical board) specifying the need for gestational surrogacy.

”However, constitution of the district medical boards (DMBs) was kept pending by the Delhi government ever since the regulation was notified by the central government, which forced intending beneficiaries to approach court,” an official said.

The DMBs will be headed by the chief medical officer or chief civil surgeon or joint director of health services of the district serving as chairperson. It will comprise chief gynaecologist and chief paediatrician of the district as its members.

The proposal for constitution of DMBs was approved by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the health portfolio, and was endorsed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. (PTI)

MUMBAI, (PTI): Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Monday demanded that the Election Commission of India, which ruled that the Eknath Shinde-led faction is the real Shiv Sena, should be dissolved.

“The name (Shiv Sena) and symbol (bow and arrow) of our party have been stolen, but the name ‘Thackeray’ cannot be stolen,” he told reporters at Sena Bhavan in Dadar here.

Thackeray’s media briefing came after the Supreme Court, earlier in the day, refused to entertain an oral mentioning made by his faction to urgently list its plea challenging the EC decision.

“The Election Commission’s order is wrong. Supreme Court is the last ray of hope,” Thackeray said.

“There is not a single instance where the party name and symbol were directly given to one faction,” Thackeray said.

”What was the need for the EC to give this decision in a hurry?” the former Maharashtra chief minister said.

“Even if the other faction took our name and symbol, they can’t take our Thackeray name. I was lucky to be born to the family of Balasaheb Thackeray,” he said.

Accusing the BJP of destroying democracy with the help of democratic institutions, Thackeray said, “What the BJP did with us today, they can do it with anyone. If this continues, after 2024, there won’t be any democracy or election in the country,” he said.

He said he had received calls in support from Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Nitish Kumar and many other leaders.

Thackeray said he had never left Hindutva, though he was accused of doing so when he ended his decades-old alliance with the BJP in 2019.

Thackeray said that during the Assembly bypoll in Andheri, his party candidate had used the name given by the Election Commission. The other faction didn’t even have the courage of fighting that bypoll, he added. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, (PTI): Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said labelling remarks by George Soros as an ‘attempt to topple the democratically elected government in India’ was a puerile statement.

He wondered if the Modi government was ”so feeble” that it can be toppled by a stray statement of a 92-year-old rich foreign national.

Chidambaram’s statement came after the BJP reacted angrily to remarks made by Soros on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Munich Security conference, alleging that Soros was targeting the Indian democratic system so that people ”hand-picked” by him get to run the government here.

”The people of India will determine who will be in and who will be out of the government of India.

”I did not know that the Modi government was so feeble that it can be toppled by the stray statement of a 92-year-old rich foreign national,” Chidambaram said in a series of tweets.

He also alleged that the Modi government’s policies have created oligopolies instead of ushering in competition.

”I did not agree with most of what George Soros had said in the past and I do not agree with most of what he says now. But to label his remarks as an ‘attempt to topple the democratically elected government in India’ is a puerile statement,” Chidambaram noted.

”Ignore George Soros and listen to Nouriel Roubini. Roubini warned that India is ‘increasingly driven by large private conglomerates that can potentially hamper competition and kill new entrants’,” he said.

The former finance minister said Liberalisation was to usher in an open, competitive economy.

”The Modi government’s policies have created oligopolies,” he said.

In his remarks, Soros had said the turmoil engulfing industrialist Gautam Adani’s business empire may open the door to a democratic revival in India.

The Congress on Friday said whether the Adani issue will spark a democratic revival in the country depends entirely on the grand old party and other opposition parties, and has nothing to do with billionaire investor George Soros. (PTI)