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Islamic cleric in Delhi arrested for allegedly raping a 12 year old minor girl inside Mosque

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The Commune
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Another Illegal Bangladeshi Infiltrator Arrested From Kolkata Hotel

An Islamic cleric in northeast Delhi’s Harsh Vihar has been arrested for allegedly raping a minor girl inside a mosque, police said on Tuesday (Jun 1), reports Hindustan Times.

The alleged incident took place on Sunday evening (May 30) when the family had sent the 12-year-old girl to the mosque to fetch water, and on Sunday night the parents of the minor girl filed a complaint with the police.

As per a quote attributed to the Hindustan Times, a police officer associated with the case said that on the night of May 30, the family members of the minor girl had asked her to fetch water from the mosque as they did not have drinking water at home where she was allegedly lured by the cleric who then forced himself on her.

“The girl returned home and told everything to her family members when they asked her why she came late. The family, along with some neighbours, went to the mosque to confront the cleric. Seeing them, the suspect fled through the rear door,” the officer said.

A case was subsequently registered and the girl was counselled and taken for a medical examination, police said.

The name of the accused is Imam Ilyas (48) and he has been booked under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, a senior police officer said.

After the alleged rape Ilyas who ran away from the scene of the crime was later arrested on Monday morning from Loni in Ghaziabad where he lived, a senior police officer said.

Tension ran high and Police had to be deployed outside the mosque as agitated locals along with the girls family members gathered there to protest, police said.

Imam Ilyas hails from Bharatpur in Rajasthan has now been produced before a city court which sent him to 14-day judicial custody.

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Vatican criminalizes sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests on both adults and children

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The Commune
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After years of concealing the sexual crimes committed by ordained Catholic priests, Pope Francis has now issued an order to explicitly criminalize the sexual abuse committed by priests on children and adults using their position and authority.

In a decision that has been long delayed, Pope Francis has unveiled extensive changes to Catholic Church’s criminal code on Tuesday (June 1) by adding details on punishing sexual abuse crimes of minors by priests, measures long demanded by activists against pedophilia.

These revisions were under discussion for more than a decade under Francis’s predecessor Benedict XVI who abhorred and was dismayed by the actions of Catholic priests. The new law aims to make the code’s penal sanctions more effective and applied evenly across the Church.

Under the new heading of “Offences against human life, dignity and liberty,” the code now specifies that a priest will be stripped of his office and punished “with other just penalties” if he commits offences against the sixth commandment (You shall not commit adultery) with a minor.

Under the revised laws, lay people, including founders of lay religious movements and parish employees, can also be sanctioned for sexual abuse.

Sexual abuse of minors was put under a new section titled “Offences Against Human Life, Dignity and Liberty,” compared to the previously vague “Crimes Against Special Obligations”.

Though one can call this progress, the new code falls short of explicitly spelling out sexual offences against minors yet refers to offences against the sixth commandment, which prohibits adultery which now has a broad meaning.

“In the past, much damage has been caused by the Church’s failure to perceive the intimate relationship between the exercise of charity and recourse — when circumstances and justice require it — to the discipline of punishment,” Pope Francis wrote in Pascite gregem Dei.

Through the revision, the Pope aims to reduce the number of penalties left to the discretion of judges, especially in the most serious cases.

The revisions involve all of section six of the Church’s Code of Canon Law, a seven-book code of about 1,750 articles. It will replace the code approved by Pope John Paul II in 1983 and will take effect on Dec. 8.

For decades the Catholic Church has been under criticism for rampant sexual abuse of minor children by paedophile priests and going out of its way to protect them. Over the years hundreds of millions of dollars have been given away as compensation to victims of sexual abuse by the clergy. 

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X-Ray Setu: A new AI-driven platform to facilitate early-COVID interventions over Whatsapp

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The Commune
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A new AI-driven platform will now help early intervention through rapid screening of COVID 19 with the help of Chest X-ray interpretation over WhatsApp for doctors who have access to X-ray machines. The solution called XraySetu can work with low-resolution images sent via mobiles, is quick and easy to use, and can facilitate detection in rural areas.

As COVID 19 continues to wreak havoc across the rural heartlands of India, it has become critical to drive rapid testing, contact tracing, and create dedicated containment zones. At a time when such tests are taking more than a week across some cities, the challenge is even more for rural areas. Easy alternative tests are necessary as RT-PCR tests also give a ‘false negative’ for some variants.

ARTPARK (AI & Robotics Technology Park), a not-for-profit foundation established by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, with support from the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India, in collaboration with Bangalore based HealthTech startup Niramai and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), has developed XraySetu specifically designed to identify COVID positive patients even from low-resolution Chest X-Ray images sent over Whatsapp.

It also has semantic annotations of affected areas for review and localized heatmap by doctors to help them verify it easily with other modalities and has already served close to 1200+ reports so far from the interior parts of India.

To conduct the health check, any doctor simply needs to visit www.xraysetu.com and click on the ‘Try the Free XraySetu Beta’ button. The platform will then redirect the person to another page, wherein he or she can choose to engage with the WhatsApp-based chatbot via web or smartphone application. Or the doctor can simply send a WhatsApp message to the phone number +91 8046163838 to start the XraySetu service. Then they just need to click the picture of the patient’s X-ray and obtain the 2-page automated diagnostics with annotated images in a few minutes. While extending the probability of the COVID-19 contraction, the report also highlights a localized heatmap for a quick perusal of the doctor.

Tested and validated with over 1,25 000 X-ray images from National Institute of Health, UK, as well as over 1000+ Indian COVID patients from, XraySetu, has shown excellent performance with Sensitivity: 98.86%, and Specificity: 74.74%

Mr. Umakant Soni, Founder, and CEO, ARTPARK, said, “We need to scale technology for addressing the needs of 1.36 billion people, especially considering we have 1 radiologist for over 1 million people here. Built with the collaboration of industry and academia, XraySetu paves the way for exponential technologies like AI to leapfrog and provide cutting-edge healthcare technology to rural India in an extremely cost-effective manner.

“NIRAMAI has partnered with ARTPARK and IISc to provide a rapid COVID screening method for rural doctors who have access to X-ray machines. XraySetu provides an automated interpretation of Chest X-Rays to predict if a patient has any lung abnormality that indicates COVID-19 infection,” said Dr. Geetha Manjunath, Founder, and CEO, Niramai.

“In the absence of COVID positive X-Ray images, we developed a unique Transfer Learning framework that leverages easily available X-ray images of lungs, not necessarily COVID positive, to learn useful features which have high predictive power. We also developed a confidence score which is guided by the areas of lungs that are infected. The system outputs a prediction, localizes the infected parts, and creates a report which gives a confidence score, all within a few minutes”, said Prof. Chiranjib Bhattacharyya, IISc.

Besides COVID-19, the platform can also detect 14 additional lung-related ailments, including tuberculosis and pneumonia, alongside others. It can further be used for both analog and digital X-rays and has been successfully piloted by more than 300 doctors in rural areas over the last 10 months.

Technologies like XraySetu can enable cutting-edge AI-driven systems powering mobile PHCs, which can make healthcare more accessible even across rural India at a fraction of the cost.

Dr. Padmanabh Kamath, Prof & HOD Cardiology, KMC, Mangalore, who has been an early advisor and user of XraySetu, stressed that technologies like these could take healthcare and technology to the underprivileged and rural areas. Another early user of the service, Dr. Anil Kumar A D, Medical Officer of Health, Shimoga in Karnataka, was happy that the technology is helping to get the quick diagnosis of patients.

“Several Hubs of Cyber-physical Systems established by DST are working on leveraging of Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Data Analytics, Robotics, Sensors and other tools to address the challenges of the health sector from diagnostics, and drug design to biomedical devices to telemedicine,” said Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST.

ARTPARK, initiated under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), is further collaborating with infrastructure partners like C-DAC (for leveraging AI supercomputer ParamSiddi), Nvidia& AWS to scale this free service to all the doctors in rural India.

(Published from PIB)

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Hong Kong VHP donates oxygen concentrators to Tamil Nadu

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The Commune
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Two oxygen concentrators have been donated by the Hong Kong Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) for the use of people in Srivilliputtur and Rajapalayam.

The oxygen concentrators were donated in the presence of Sadagopa Ramanuja Jeeyar Swami at the Srivilliputtur Manavalamamuni Sannidhi.

It was received by Saravana Karthik, an office bearer of the State Monastic Council. Virudhunagar BJP District Secretary Saravanadurai Raja, VHP Disrict Treasurer Anand, VHP Rajapalayam District Secretary Isakkiraj were also present.

People in Srivilliputtur and surrounding region who are taking treatment at home can make use of this oxygen concentrator for free.

(With inputs from Dinamalar)

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“If India is a ‘Union’, is Tamil Nadu a ‘Panchayat Union’?” Dr. Krishnasamy hits out at Palanivel Thiagarajan

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The Commune
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Palaniel Thiagarajan has been in the news cycle ever since he became Tamil Nadu Finance Minister. He has been making headlines for matters unrelated to the portfolio he has been allotted. He has made a number of contentious statements against different public personalities and later issuing statements to clarify his position.

The DMK government has been calling the Government of India as ‘Ondriya Arasu’ (‘Union’ government). PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan is no exception. In the 43rd GST Council meeting, he had said that without states there would be no ‘Union’. Also, he has been repeatedly referring and underlining in various pressmeets that the Government of India as ‘Union’ government.

In light of this, Dr. Krishnasamy, the chief of Puthiya Tamilagam has issued a strong statement against Palanivel Thiagarajan saying that his references carry secessionist undertones.

In his statement he said that Palanivel Thiagarajan should speak responsibly as he is holding an important position. He said in his Facebook post “It is not his new invention that the indirect tax should not be higher than the income tax; it is widely held among economists, but he brags about it as if it is his own invention. Tamil Nadu finance minister should concentrate on constructive work rather than opposing central government for no reason.”

“Palanivel Thiagarajan who had no previous experience as a minister or holding any key position in the party and had never engaged in any protest for people, was awarded the Finance Ministry. He is entrusted with improving the livelihoods of approximately 8 crore Tamil Nadu people. Usually, Central and State Finance Ministers avoid being in the limelight. Some Finance Ministers have avoided interacting with media entirely. It’s not that they don’t want to meet the press; it’s just that they don’t want people guessing their next move based on their press meet. There have been instances in the past where people made crores of rupees by knowing the ‘budget secret’.” Dr. Krishnasamy said.

He also said that Jaggi Vasudev has the democratic right to request the government to release temples from its control and added that launching a rant against Jaggi Vasudev for expressing this is contrary to democratic tradition.

“Another instance is the GST Council meeting convened by Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister, in which PTR Thiagarajan engaged in a verbal altercation with the Goa Transport Minister. PTR Thiagarajan belittled Goa for being a small state. Palanivel Thiagarajan has to apologize for belittling the people of Goa in the GST Council meeting.” he said.

“Rather than fighting over trivial issues, Tamil Nadu’s Finance Minister should work with the central government tactfully to bring petrol and diesel under GST and to reduce the tax rate on products used in manufacturing, such as cement, steel, and others, to a 12 percent slab from a 28 percent slab, which is the only way for the economy to recover.” he said.

Dr. Krishnasamy accused the DMK of failing to raise issues in the GST Council that they had previously highlighted while in opposition, and of turning the GST Council into a political conversation forum.

“You are easily belittling the sovereign Indian state as the ‘Union Government’. If India is a ‘Union’, then is Tamil Nadu a ‘Panchayat Union’? You repeatedly boast that you have your roots in Justice party. The Justice Party has never supported Indian independence and has always been a British stooge. You aren’t an exception. How can we rely on your love and affection for the country if you have such a opinion. Your disdain for a certain political party should not be reflected get reflected as hatred for your country. India was ruled by various people. Modi is now in power for seven years. He will continue to rule for a few more years. India existed prior to Modi, and it will continue to exist after Modi.” Dr. Krishnasamy said.

He added that Palanivel Thiagarajan’s persistent use of the term “Union” to refer India on public and social media is ridiculous and arrogant. “How does Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, respond to all of this? Any citizen would want to identify more with his nation than with his family, religion, language, or race of origin. Palanivel Thiagarajan, with his feudal-class mindset and four generations of family pride, is not likely to have that feeling.” he said.

“I never say that a state government should not have disagreements with the central government. The state can fight for the welfare of the people; it has to fight. However, it should not be politically motivated. During his term, MGR fought hard for the rights of the state government. But, he never expressed it in statement or word. But, he worked tactfuly in that matter. During his second term, from 1980 to 1984, he clashed with the central government, refusing to contribute food grains to the national pool when the state was not self-sufficient.” Dr. Krishnasamy said.

He further said that with Tamil Nadu being the worst affected by COVID and suffering a lack of oxygen, medications, and vaccination, it is the DMK government’s responsibility to cooperate closely with the central government rather than engaging in petty politics by calling India a “Union.”

He said that India is not a country like the United States of America, which is a federation of 50 states with only a 300-year history but a glorious multi-ethnic nation that gave birth to the civilizations .

He concluded his post saying, “Before 1947, there was no state of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, or Karnataka. linguistic states were formed only after the formation of the Central Government of India. Do not attempt to demonstrate your brilliance without first learning about the history of the India. Stop referring to the ancient Indian country as “Union.” To honour your promises, you’ll have to go a long way. Don’t let your tenure be limited by foolishness.” Dr. Krishnasamy said.

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Srirangam temple property gets restored back to the temple after 40 years

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The Commune
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The shops occupying the temple property near the Rajagopuram of the Ranganathar Swamy Temple in Srirangam were removed by court order after 40 years of encroachment. Various commercial vendors and hawkers had occupied the four-foot halls in front of the Rajagopuram of the Ranganathaswamy Temple and ran shops.

In the year 2018, a fire broke out in the shops operating in the Vasantha Raayar Hall at the Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai. Following this, the Department of HR&CE decided not to allow the use of temple property for commercial purposes. On this basis, all the barriers that had been in place in the halls inside and outside the temples were removed.

In that regard, the HR&CE Department issued a notice to the shop owners to vacate the shops which were functioning in the property of the Srirangam Ranganathaswamy Temple. But those who have been running their shops in the temple property for years had appealed to the court against this.

The case, which came up for hearing in the Madurai branch of the Madras High Court, ruled that the shops were operating in the temple property which was several hundred years old, was damaging the architectural significance of the property and that it was right to order the shops to be vacated as it was the duty of the authorities to protect them. The court dismissed the petition of the traders, pointing out that these pillars on the property, which were built several hundred years ago, were not built for commercial purpose.

It also ordered the shops to be vacated by May 30. The HR&CE Department was in the process of removing the structures that occupied the halls and erected the last day on Monday, as the merchants did not vacate the shops.

Officers removed 3 shops operating in two halls located on Amma Mandapam Road and erected a fence around the halls.

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Madurai corporation feeds stray dogs during lockdown

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The Commune
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Animal welfare activists are taking to the streets and distributing 40 litres of milk and 600 kg of bread to the street dogs, which are provided daily by the Madurai Corporation during the Coronavirus lockdown.

There are more than 50,000 stray dogs in 100 wards of Madurai Corporation. These dogs survive by eating leftovers from people’s homes, food waste from storefronts and hotels, and various wastes dumped in landfills and bins. Animal activists living in urban areas are preparing and serving exclusive meals to these street dogs.

A lot of stray dogs were found to be dying without water and food. In this situation, the executives of the Maravel Street Dogs Conservation Federation urged the Madurai Corporation Commissioner to help feed the stray dogs during the COVID pandemic.

Based on this, the corporation administration is currently providing 40 litres of milk and 600 kg of bread pieces daily to the stray dogs in the Coronavirus lockdown. It also promises to provide cooked meals to be given as food to the dogs.

KP Marikkumar, Chief Coordinator, Maravel Street Dogs Conservation Federation, said, “The food items provided by the corporation daily to more than 15 community activists who have been feeding the stray dogs are being distributed to more than 300 stray dogs with their support. The service will continue till the end of the curfew. The Corporation Commissioner has promised to look into our activities and assist us in collecting food and other necessities for this hunger strike. We would like to thank all those who are concerned about the protection of community dogs and animal welfare activists for their commitment and assistance to the Madurai Corporation during this horrific epidemic.”

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Palani temple funds and the DMK controversy

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The Commune
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Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sakkarapani’s statement that an oxygen production center at a cost of ₹2 crore will be set up on behalf of the Palani Dandayuthapani temple has caused a stir, amid strong opposition since the donations previously made to corona patients using the temple fund had DMK emblems and party symbols on the donations.

During the AIADMK regime, the government sent a circular asking for ₹10 crore for corona relief work from the funds of large temples. Criticisms arose as to whether the government would use the temple funds only for this purpose, as many temples did not even have the funds to perform basic rituals. The court ruled that the temple property should not be used for any other purpose other than temple development and related activities. The controversial circular was subsequently withdrawn. The newly-elected DMK government has announced a new scheme to provide food to one lakh people daily through the HR&CE Department so that it cannot directly touch the temple funds.

Accordingly, aid is being distributed on behalf of the temples to corona patients, other patients, their relatives and sometimes, even to the medical staff who are treated in government hospitals. During the distribution, banners were placed with the DMK flag and emblem, along with DMK leader Stalin and HR&CE Minister Sekar Babu.

Hindu organizations and social activists, including the Hindh Munnani, demanded that pictures of the respective temples be displayed, as well as images of the temple’s deity, to show that these emergency aid and alms were given through the temples themselves. In this situation, it has been rumoured that a ₹2 crore oxygen manufacturing center will be set up on behalf of the Palani temple as the issue is still unresolved.

An Oxygen Center was set up at the Palani Government Hospital at an estimated cost of ₹33 lakhs on behalf of the Palani Chamber of Commerce. Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sakkarapani who attended the inauguration ceremony, said that an oxygen production center at an estimated cost of ₹2 crore would soon be set up on behalf of the Palani Dandayuthapani Swami Temple.

While there is nothing wrong with temples funding or donating in this crisis situation where the entire world is suffering from a pandemic, these decisions should be made by the temple administrations and made known to all that they are done by the temples themselves as part of the services of the temples. But because they are controlled by the state, devotees are enraged that the state is making arbitrary decisions and turn them into party work and seek publicity.

A temporary solution would be for the court to order that temple funds not be used for anything other than religious worship activities, just as the temple property should not be used for any purpose other than worship.

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CBSE Class 12 Board Exams cancelled, decision taken after PM Modi’s meeting with Cabinet and officials

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The Commune
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The Prime Minister chaired a review meeting regarding the Class XII Board exams of CBSE. Officials gave a detailed presentation on the wide and extensive consultation held so far and views received from all stakeholders, including State governments.

In view of the uncertain conditions due to COVID and the feedback obtained from various stakeholders, it was decided that Class XII Board Exams would not be held this year. It was also decided that CBSE will take steps to compile the results of class XII students as per a well-defined objective criteria in a time-bound manner.

The Prime Minister said that the decision on Class 12 CBSE Exams has been taken in the interest of students. He stated that COVID-19 has affected the academic calendar and the issue of Board Exams has been causing immense anxiety among students, parents and teachers, which must be put to an end.

PM said that the Covid situation is a dynamic situation across the country. While the numbers are coming down in the country and some states are managing the situation through effective micro-containment, some states have still opted for a lockdown. Students, parents and teachers are naturally worried about the health of the students in such a situation. PM said that students should not be forced to appear for exams in such a stressful situation.

The Prime Minister stressed that the health and safety of our students is of utmost importance and there would be no compromise on this aspect. He said that in today’s time, such exams cannot be the reason to put our youth at risk.

PM said that all stakeholders need to show sensitivity for students. PM directed officials to ensure that the results are prepared in accordance with well-defined criteria, in a fair and time-bound manner.

 

Referring to the wide consultative process, PM expressed appreciation that a student friendly decision has been reached after consulting all stakeholders from across the length and breadth of India. He also thanked the States for providing feedback on this issue.

It was also decided that like last year, in case some students desire to take the exams, such an option would be provided to them by CBSE, as and when the situation becomes conducive.

The Hon’ble Prime Minister had earlier held a high-level meeting on 21/05/21 which was attended by Ministers & officials. Thereafter a meeting under the Chairmanship of Union Defence Minister was held on 23.05.2021 which was attended by the Education Minsters of States. Various options for conduct of CBSE examinations were discussed in the meeting and feedback obtained from the States and UTs.

Today’s meeting was attended by Union Ministers of Home, Defence, Finance, Commerce, Information & Broadcasting, Petroleum and Women & Child Development Ministries and Principal Secretary to PM, Cabinet Secretary & Secretaries of School Education & Higher Education Departments & other officials.

(Published from PIB)

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War of words continue between TN Fin Min PTR and Goa Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho

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The Commune
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Transport Minister of Goa Mauvin Godinho, on Monday (1 June) said that Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan needs to gain more knowledge on how the GST Council works.

He called Thiagarajan an ’empty vessel’  and responded to the statement issued by Thiagarajan saying, “Again I am reiterating that I did not say anything offensive to this gentleman. All I was pleading for is for my small State of Goa, and if by his own statement, he is trying to strike at the very architecture of the GST council, where if you are a larger State, with the larger population, his vote should have more value, that there should be proportional representation. What is he talking about?”. 

“On the one side, he also talks about his budget, his Rs 3 lakh crore budget, his population of more than 8 crore citizens. Why is he boasting about the size of the State? Does any council or anybody function on that number of people living in the particular country or State or based on its population size and or for that matter even the budget, which is even worse that he is suggesting,” Godinho added. 

Godinho further said, “Such a learned person… I am not able to understand. He is using such intemperate language and is trying to redefine the whole constitutionally constituted GST council! He has just come, perhaps he had a long break of more than ten years, being in the opposition and then come back he is not able to digest power so quickly,”. 

Godinho added thanked the support he received from Thiagarajan’s fellow Tamilians who have been tweeting in the former’s favour.

“He should realise that the entire Tamil Nadu is not with him, he may be in the ruling party, he should realise that in a political set up, in a democracy, even one vote is a majority, even if you get one vote more than anybody elected, that is a majority, and that is how democracy functions,”  Godinho stated

Godinho also said he will treat this chapter as closed but added that if Thiagarajan wished to push any further it would be at his own peril as he would be the one landing in trouble. He called on the MIT educated Minister to work together for the country and to ensure the GST Council functions in a healthy manner. 

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