Pranab Mukherji in Tirupathi Today

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today (07-01-2012) offered prayers at the famous temple of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala near here. Mukherjee, accompanied by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kirankumar Reddy, was in the temple for about 30 minutes. Before leaving the shrine, Mukherjee was presented with sacred laddu prasadam and holy water by temple management.

Complimenting Andhra Pradesh for its "powerful" SHG network which was working like a revolution, Mr. Mukherjee said that an exclusive financial institution with a corpus fund of Rs. 500 crore would be set up soon at the national level to exclusively meet the financial requirements of the SHGs. Earlier, he formally declared open the 'historic arch' at the entrance of Sri Venkateswara Medical College. MP Chinta Mohan, District in-charge Minister N. Raghuveera Reddy, TTD Chairman K. Bapi Raju, MLAs K. Chiranjeevi (Tirupati) and P. Ravi (Puthalpat), MLCs Y. Srinivasulu Reddy and R. Reddeppa Reddy were present.

After his worship, Mukherjee left for Delhi, the sources said. This was his second visit to the ancient hill shrine. He had worshipped Lord Venkateswara when he was the External Affairs Minister on August 25, 2007, the sources said.

Modi Is Not Our PM: Owaisi

MIM is a recognized state political party based in the Indian state of Telangana, with its head office in the old city of Hyderabad, which has its roots in the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen founded in 1927. Unlike most of the regional and national level parties, MIM party leaders ‘fight’ only for the well-being of Muslims, whereas no other party has such communal feelings. In their each and every speech, MIM leaders speak only about Muslims. If these leaders are here to fight for Muslims, then why there are no development works are happening in old city area for decades. Akbaruddin Owaisi faced criticism for making hate remarks on Narendra Modi and Hindus. Recently, his elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi made some notorious annotations. In a one-on-one debate between BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi on the topic of demonetization in a popular Hindi channel, the former left no stone unturned in exposing the latter’s communal designs. Owaisi claimed how most of the Muslim community still remains unbanked and that demonetization has caused severe inconvenience to Muslims. He even went on to say that ATM’s in Muslim-dominated areas weren’t fed enough money. He indirectly alleged that the Modi government hadn’t done anything for Muslims. Even after being pressurized Owaisi didn’t call Narendra Modi as his Prime Minister. He went on said, “Your Prime Minister…” On the other hand, Sambit spoke wisely and called Owaisi a leader of small stature because he talked only of Muslims. He said that no area was Muslim or Hindu and that all areas belonged to India. Owaisi was constantly quoting an RBI report, to which Sambit challenged him to show where the RBI had used the word ‘Muslim’. Sambit even said that if a Muslim leader speaks of Muslims it’s not an issue, but the moment a VHP leader speaks of Hindus people go crazy accusing them of imposing the Hindutva ideology. The most amazing of his counters was to Owaisi’s claims of Muslims not having been brought into the banking system. Sambit said that when banks or ATMs are to be opened in Muslim areas leaders like Owaisi shout that banking is un-Islamic and that Muslims should refrain from it! This video of debate between Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi is going viral in social media.