log on to thegoan.net @thegoaneveryday SATURDAY MARCH 25, 2023 GOA Facebook.com/thegoaneveryday The Goan (Playstore) 13 pages PRICE ` 8 PANAJI MARGAO GOA VOLUME VIII, NO. 276 How stable is MMC? Margao MLA says there may be differences but… 2 3 GOA Fires continue to cause destruction in Sattari Instagram.com/thegoaneveryday RNI: GOAENG/2015/65729 INFO Essential nutrients you need to lose weight 10 SPORTS Mumbai Indians defeats UP Warriorz by 72-runs to enter WPL final 13 RAHUL DISQUALIFIED AS MP CONG GETS INTO HUDDLE, SAYS WILL FIGHT LEGALLYOPPN CLOSES RANKS BEHIND GANDHI BJP TERMS DISQUALIFICATION 'LAWFUL' TOUGH TASK AHEAD FOR GANDHI SCION PTI NEW DELHI In a big blow to the Congress, its leader Rahul Gandhi was on Friday disqualified from Lok Sabha, nearly 24 hours after a Surat court convicted him in a defamation case, an action the Opposition party slammed as BJP’s “vindictive politics” and vowed to fight legally and politically. The BJP dismissed the charges and termed the disqualification “lawful”. Announcing his disqualification, the Lok Sabha Secretariat in a notification said following his conviction by the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat, Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad constituency of Kerala stands disqualified from the membership of the House from the date of his conviction i.e. 23 March 2023. The disqualification will bar 52-year-old Gandhi, a fourtime MP, from contesting polls for eight years unless a higher court stays his conviction and sentence. The court in Surat sentenced on Thursday Gandhi to two years in jail in a defamation case, filed on a complaint by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi for his remark, “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?” A lawmaker can escape a disqualification under the Representation of the People (RP) Act if the jail term, which should be two years or above, and the conviction both are stayed by the appellate court. „„The immediate challenge before Rahul is to convince a higher court to quash his conviction „„He can only be saved if he manages to get the conviction overturned or reduced to less than two years „„Since it's a criminal case, Rahul can't approach the HC or SC directly… he will first have to appeal before Surat Sessions Court and then to Gujarat HC „„If the appeal for suspension of sentence and a freeze on the order is not accepted there, then he can move SC WHAT THE LAW SAYS „„Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, says that the moment a MP is convicted of any offence and sentenced for at least two years, she or he attracts disqualification ABOUT THE CASE BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed a defamation case against Rahul in 2019 over his remark at an election rally in Karnataka where Rahul had said, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?” Purnesh claimed that the reference had defamed the entire Modi community. C ongress leader Rahul Gandhi, in his first reaction after he was disqualified as a member of parliament today, said he is “ready to pay any cost”. “I am fighting for the voice of India. I am ready to pay any price,” he tweeted in Hindi. Meanwhile, in a blistering attack on the BJP, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said Rahul Gandhi, the son of a martyred prime minister, was called ‘’Mir Jafar’’ and insults were hurled In his first reaction after disqualification, Rahul Gandhi in a tweet said “I am fighting for the voice of India. I am ready to pay any price.” While Congress leaders did not speak openly on the consequences of the verdict and disqualifica- at his family but he would not bow down as he belongs to a family whose members have nurtured democracy by its blood. Her attack came after the former Congress president and her brother was disqualified from Lok Sabha, a day after he was convicted by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case Thursday. In a series of tweets, Priyanka Gandhi launched an all-out attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying in a tweet in Hindi, “Nar- tion, many leaders in the party feel this will help Rahul Gandhi and the party politically. The action against Rahul Gandhi also saw a shift in the dynamics of opposition ranks with Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Samajwadi Party, despite their differences with the Congress, expressing strong support for the embattled leader, along with several other opposition parties. This was Gandhi’s fourth On January 3 this year, a 5-judge Constitution bench ruled that the right to free speech is not unfettered and that defamation was rightly put as one of the restrictions under Article 19(2) Lok Sabha term. First elected to Lok Sabha in 2004 from Amethi, he represented that constituency for two more terms. In 2019, he lost the Amethi seat to Smriti Irani but managed to win from Wayanad. Sawant likely to present Budget on March 29 THE GOAN I NETWORK with the inconvenience for some time as they will get good facilities," Monserrate said, adding that engineers and technically qualified professionals are at the sites and will be held responsible for it. PANAJI The countdown for the State Budget is in the final phase as Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, in all likelihood, will present the Budget 2023-24 on Wednesday. The government will officially declare the day for the presentation of the Budget by Sunday, the eve of the Budget Session of the Legislative Assembly. The government has insisted on an all-inclusive Budget based on ‘Swayampurna Goa’ as it also examined proposals of the general public. On Thursday, the CM held a marathon pre-Budget consultation with the industry players and other stakeholders, who submitted their proposals for the financial year’s Budget. “The Budget will focus on reaching all schemes to the last mile. My government has set the target of availing maximum benefit out of centrally sponsored schemes. The State >Continued on P8 >Continued on P8 IN SHORT >> Land fraud: New FIR against 14 persons VASCO: Officers of the civil supplies along with police and other officials carried out joint checks and raids on various establishments and eateries in Vasco to check if they were using domestic LPG cylinders for cooking purpose, instead of commercial cylinders.  >> See pg 3 APEX COURT SAY endra Modi ji, your sycophants called the son of a martyred prime Minister a traitor, Mir Jafar. One of your Chief Minister raised questions as to who is the father of Rahul Gandhi? Following the custom of Kashmiri Pandits, a son wears ‘’pagdi’’ after his father’s death, maintaining his family’s tradition.” “Insulting the whole family and the Kashmiri Pandit community, you asked in Parliament why we don’t keep the name Nehru. But no judge gave you a sentence of two years. Did not disqualify you from the Parliament,” she said. Southampton Goan association plans new events and activities Another Goan gets into Aussie politics Surprise checks on Vasco eateries „„Based on the court order, LS Secretariat disqualified Rahul and declared his constituency vacant „„EC can now announce a special election for the seat FIGHTING FOR VOICE OF INDIA, READY TO PAY ANY PRICE: RAHUL page 7 PANAJI: The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the large-scale land fraud in the State, has registered a new FIR against 14 persons including Rohan Harmalkar, who unsuccessfully contested the State assembly elections last >> See pg 3 year.  ALL EYES ON EC FAST BREAK: Muslims have their evening meal after Iftar on the first day of Ramadan at Jama Masjid, Panaji on Friday.  Narayan Pissurlenkar Patience will pay off: Babush THE GOAN I NETWORK SMART CITY CHAOS PANAJI Even as the chorus of discontent over the unplanned and haphazard execution of 'Smart City' works grows louder by the day, Revenue Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate again waded into the controversy arguing that the inconvenience will have to be borne by citizens for some time to experience better facilities in the future. "People will have to bear Covid infection can change genes structure: Study PTI NEW DELHI eople infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus may experience changes in genome structure that could explain their immunity-related symptoms and risk of long Covid, according to a study. The genetic materials in our cells are stored in a structure called chromatin. Some viruses of other categories have been reported to hijack or change our chromatin so that P Huge spike in Covid, 55 new cases in Goa PANAJI: In a sudden spike in Covid cases in the State, 55 people tested positive in the last 24 hours. The health bulletin released by the Directorate of Health Services said 55 of the 555 samples had tested positive for the dreaded virus. The bullettin also revealed that the positivity rate of the State presently stands at 9.9 percent and with 19 recoveries, the active Covid caseload has now increased to 178. they can successfully reproduce in our cells. Whether and how SARSCoV-2 may affect our chromatin was not known. The latest study, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, comprehensively characterised the chromatin architecture in human cells after a Covid-19 infection. “We found that many wellformed chromatin architectures of a normal cell become de-organised after infection,” said Wenbo Li, senior author on the study and associate professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, US. “For example, there is one type of chromatin architecture termed A/B compartments that can be analogous to the yin and yang portions of our chromatin. After SARS-CoV-2 infection, we found that the yin and yang portions of the chromatin lose their normal shapes and start to mix together,” Li said. Such mixing, the researchers said, may be a reason for changes in some key genes, including a crucial inflammation gene, interleukin-6, that can cause cytokine storm in severe Covid patients. A cytokine storm is a severe immune reaction in which the body releases many cytokines into the blood too quickly. More trouble for Rahul The Delhi high court on Friday sought the national child rights panel’s response to a plea seeking the registration of an FIR against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly revealing a Dalit girl’s identity, who was raped and killed in 2021, by posting on Twitter a photo with her parents Congress leader to file defamation case against PM Congress leader Renuka Chowdhary will file a defamation case against PM Narendra Modi for the alleged ‘Surpnakha’ comment made in parliament in 2018. Renuka shared an old video of a parliamentary session, where PM Modi compared her laugh to ‘Ramayana’ serial’s character ‘Surpanakha’ -infamous for her laughter, without naming her. “This classless megalomaniac referred to me as Surpanakha on the floor of the house. I will file a defamation case against him. Let’s see how fast courts will act now...” the Congress leader tweeted. A NEW LOW FOR DEMOCRACY: MAMATA R eacting to Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee tweeted: “In PM Modi's New India, Opposition leaders have become the prime target of BJP! While BJP leaders with criminal antecedents are inducted into the Cabinet, Opposition leaders are disqualified for their speeches. Today, we have witnessed a new low for our constitutional democracy.” TOTALLY SHOCKING, SAYS KEJRIWAL A AP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday launched a blistering attack on the Centre over the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from Lok Sabha, saying it was “shocking” and that the country was passing through very difficult times. He said it was “quite a worrisome situation”. “It’s not just a fight of the Congress or Rahul Gandhi, it’s a fight of the entire Opposition,” he said adding BJP wanted to create a situation wherein there is just one party in the country. BJP DIVERTING ATTENTION: AKHILESH S amajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav claimed that Congress leader Rahul disqualification from Lok Sabha is BJP's tactic to divert people's attention from issues like inflation, unemployment and an industrialist friend sinking India's money. He alleged alleged that since the BJP came to power in UP in 2017, it filed false cases against Samajwadi Party MLAs like Azam Khan and got them disqualified. LAW IS EQUAL FOR EVERYONE: BJP U nion ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Anurag Thakur hit out at the Congress, saying the Nehru-Gandhi family suffers from “feudal mindset” and a “sense of entitlement”. “Law is equal for everyone,” Pradhan told reporters, accusing Gandhi of “abusing” backward castes with his “thieves” jibe aimed at “Modi surname.” Union Minister of State for Law and Justice S P S Baghel termed the disqualification “lawful” as he too asserted that everyone is equal before the law. WITH BUDGET JUSTS DAYS AWAY… Seamen keep fingers crossed for permanent pension plan THE GOAN I NETWORK MARGAO Will retired Goan seafarers and widows finally find a provision in the ensuing Budget estimates to be tabled in the Goa Legislative Assembly to make pension scheme for seafarers permanent? During the ongoing pre- budget consultation exercise initiated by the government, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had a meeting with a delegation of the Goan Seamen Association of India committee members President Frank Viegas, Vice President Gabriel Pinto and Secretary Joseph Fernandes. While the GSAI insisted on making the pension scheme for seafarers and widows permanent, more so after his announcements in the last two Assembly sessions, the Chief Minister is reported to have assured to consider the demands put forth by the association regarding the Goa >Continued on P8 X¡Xr߶‘mZ dmQ>Mmb XeH$nyVuH$So> gào_ Z_ñH$ma, AmnUm gdmªÀ`m nmR>~imda XeH$nyVuH$So> `eñdr dmQ>Mmc H$aV, H$moH$UM§ Z§.1 _hmM°Zoc "H$moH$UgmX LIVE' Amncm Zddm dYm©nZ [XZ gmOam H$aV Amho. H$moH$UMr g_¥ÜXr Am[U [dH$mg `mgmRr H$Qr~ÜX Agcoë`m Am_À`m Qr_cm AmnUm gdmªMo ew^merdm©X cmI_mocmMo AmhoV. `mMgmRr dYm©nZ[XZ gmohù¶mg Amncr CnpñWVr àmW©Zr` Amho. AmnUm gdmªZm ho AJË`mMo [Z_§ÌU. YÝ`dmX ! 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