White House thanks UAE for agreeing to 10-year, $1.4 trillion investment framework
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has agreed to a 10-year, $1.4 trillion investment framework, the White House announced on Friday, saying it will “substantially increase the UAE’s existing investments in the U.S. economy.” The White House said the investments would be in AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy, American manufacturing and more. The White House said in a press release that the UAE agreed to the framework after President Donald Trump hosted the UAE National Security Advisor, HH Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for a meeting in the Oval Office. IRAN’S LEADER WARNS US COULD RECEIVE ‘SEVERE SLAPS’ FOLLOWING TRUMP’S THREAT TO HOUTHIS STUDENTS WHO SAW CAMPUSES DEVOLVE INTO ANTI-ISRAEL CHAOS WITNESS FIRST-HAND SUCCESSES OF ABRAHAM ACCORDS The sheikh thanked Trump for “the warm welcome and hospitality” in a post on X. He said their discussions focused on the future of U.S.-UAE relations. “The UAE remains committed to strengthening its economic ties with the U.S. by accelerating investments in artificial intelligence, advanced technology, infrastructure, energy, and healthcare – key pillars for sustainable growth and development,” Sheikh Tahnoon added. According to the White House, investments in the framework include Abu Dhabi-based MGX, BlackRock, Microsoft and Global Infrastructure Partners working with NVIDIA and xAI to support “U.S. AI leadership.” The group will mobilize up to $100 billion to support the build-out. Additionally, Emirates Global Aluminum is expected to invest in America’s first new aluminum smelter in 35 years. “These significant investments underscore the close ties between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, and the strong relationship between President Trump and President Sheikh Mohamed,” the White House wrote. While in D.C., Sheikh Tahnoon met with several members of the Trump administration, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. TRUMP HOLDS ‘VERY GOOD’ CALL WITH ZELENSKYY FOLLOWING DEAL WITH PUTIN Trump also wrote about the meeting in a post on Truth Social, saying, “UAE and the U.S. have long been partners in the work to bring peace and security to the Middle East and the world. Discussions also included ways for our countries to increase our partnership for the advancing of our economic and technological futures.”
Trump floats idea of convicted Tesla arsonists serving sentences in El Salvador prisons: ‘Lovely conditions’
President Donald Trump suggested that convicted Tesla arsonists serve out their expected decades-long sentences in El Salvador prisons. “I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla,” Trump wrote Friday on TRUTH Social. “Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!” the president added. TRUMP WARNS OF JAIL TIME FOR TESLA VANDALS, ANYONE FUNDING THE ATTACKS: ‘WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!!!’ The message comes as the FBI is investigating an uptick in attacks against Tesla vehicles and facilities nationwide of domestic terrorism, as top Trump adviser Elon Musk’s company has become a target of protesters and arsonists. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is also facing pushback in federal court over deportation flights to El Salvador. Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele announced last week that the first 238 alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, a U.S. designated terror group, had arrived, releasing video of Salvadorian troops transferring men from planes to his Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. He said they’d stay for one year, though that was “renewable.” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi on Thursday announced charges against three individuals accused of using Molotov cocktails to set fire to Tesla cars and charging stations. “The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended,” Bondi said in a statement. “Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars.” The Justice Department said one defendant, also armed with a suppressed AR-15 rifle, was arrested after allegedly throwing approximately eight Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership located in Salem, Oregon. Another was arrested in Loveland, Colorado after allegedly attempting to light Teslas on fire with Molotov cocktails. Authorities said that defendant was later found in possession of materials used to produce additional incendiary weapons. In Charleston, South Carolina, a third defendant wrote “profane messages” against Trump around Tesla charging stations before lighting the charging stations on fire with Molotov cocktails, the Justice Department said. TESLA VEHICLES, DEALERSHIPS TARGETED WITH ARSON, GUNFIRE AND VANDALISM IN AT LEAST 9 STATES: FBI The DOJ said each defendant faces serious charges carrying a minimum penalty of five years and up to 20 years in prison. “People that get caught sabotaging Teslas will stand a very good chance of going to jail for up to twenty years, and that includes the finders,” Trump wrote on TRUTH Social Thursday, adding: “WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!!!” Tesla vehicles and dealerships have been subjected to arson, vandalism and gunfire in at least nine states, and some of the most prominent cases were reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle. An Oregon man faces charges after allegedly throwing several Molotov cocktails at a Tesla store in Salem, then returning another day and shooting out windows. In the Portland suburb of Tigard, more than a dozen bullets were fired at a Tesla showroom last week, damaging vehicles and windows, the second time in a week that the store was targeted. Four Cybertrucks were set on fire in a Tesla lot in Seattle earlier this month. On Friday, witnesses reported a man poured gasoline on an unoccupied Tesla Model S and started a fire on a Seattle street. In Las Vegas, several Tesla vehicles were set ablaze early Tuesday outside a Tesla service center where the word “resist” was also painted in red across the building’s front doors. Authorities said at least one person threw Molotov cocktails — crude bombs filled with gasoline or another flammable liquid — and fired several rounds from a weapon into the vehicles. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Was this terrorism? Was it something else? It certainly has some of the hallmarks that we might think – the writing on the wall, potential political agenda, an act of violence,” Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office, said at a press conference. “None of those factors are lost on us.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump revokes security clearances of former opponents Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton
President Donald Trump revoked the security clearances of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Liz Cheney and several other opponents who either severely criticized or acted against him. The White House released a memo on Friday that read: “I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information: Antony Blinken, Jacob Sullivan, Lisa Monaco, Mark Zaid, Norman Eisen, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Andrew Weissmann, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Cheney, Kamala Harris, Adam Kinzinger, Fiona Hill, Alexander Vindman, Joseph R. Biden Jr., and any other member of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s family.” TRUMP STRIPS SECURITY CLEARANCES FROM LAW FIRM TIED TO JACK SMITH CASES Earlier this month, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced that she had revoked the security clearances of several people listed in Trump’s memo and blocked them from having access to classified information. She said “the 51 signers of the Hunter Biden ‘disinformation’ letter” also had their clearances rescinded. “The President’s Daily Brief is no longer being provided to former President Biden.” In addition to having their security clearances revoked, the individuals listed in Trump’s memorandum have had their “unescorted access to secure United States Government facilities” rescinded. TRUMP REVOKES SECRET SERVICE PROTECTION FOR ADULT BIDEN CHILDREN HUNTER AND ASHLEY Several people listed in Trump’s memo mostly dismissed it in social media posts reacting to the news. Both Zaid and Eisen said it was “like the third time” their security clearances were revoked. Kinzinger posted a video saying that he “retired a year ago from the military” and doesn’t have a clearance before calling the president a “dumba–.” The security clearance memo comes just days after Trump announced that he was stripping Hunter and Ashley Biden of their Secret Service protection. “Hunter Biden has had Secret Service protection for an extended period of time, all paid for by the United States Taxpayer. There are as many as 18 people on this Detail, which is ridiculous!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Please be advised that, effective immediately, Hunter Biden will no longer receive Secret Service protection. Likewise, Ashley Biden who has 13 agents will be taken off the list.” While under federal law, former presidents and their spouses receive life-long Secret Service protection, but that protection ends for members of their immediate family when they leave office. According to the Associated Press, both Trump and Biden extended protection for their children before leaving office.
Here’s what happened during Trump’s ninth week in office
President Donald Trump signed more executive orders this week — including one to upend the Department of Education — battled the judicial branch, and spoke to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Thursday, Trump announced plans to work with Congress to upend the Department of Education. Closing down an agency requires the approval of Congress, according to the U.S. Constitution. “We’re not doing well with the world of education in this country, and we haven’t for a long time,” Trump said Thursday before signing the executive order. A White House fact sheet on the executive order said the directive aims to “turn over education to families instead of bureaucracies” and instructs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.” Trump said Thursday programs for Pell Grants, student loans for undergraduate students, and others that provide resources for children with special needs would continue to exist, just under different agencies. “They’re going to be preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them,” Trump said. Those in favor of shuttering the agency have pointed to the “Nation’s Report Card,” the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released every two years, released on Jan. 27. The exam tests fourth and eighth grade students and found almost stagnant math scores for eighth graders compared to 2022. Reading scores dropped two points at both grade levels. As a result, Trump said without evidence that new efforts to upend the Department of Education would allow states like Texas to provide education comparable to countries like Norway, Denmark and Sweden. “And then you’ll have some laggards, and we’ll work with them,” Trump said. “And we can all tell you who the laggards will be, right now, probably, but let’s not get into that.” Here’s also what Trump did this week: Trump called for the impeachment of Judge James Boasberg of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in a social media post Tuesday, prompting Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare statement condemning Trump’s remarks. Trump’s pushback stems from Boasberg issuing an order on Saturday halting the Trump administration from deporting migrants allegedly part of the Tren de Aragua gang under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The law permits deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing. The flights carrying the migrants continued to El Salvador, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Sunday the order had “no lawful basis” since Boasberg issued it after the flights departed from U.S. airspace. JUDGES BLOCKING TRUMP’S ORDERS ARE ACTING ‘ERRONEOUSLY,’ WHITE HOUSE SAYS In response to Boasberg’s order, Trump said the judge should be impeached. However, Roberts said that “it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.” Boasberg’s order is one of multiple injunctions issued against the Trump administration, blocking various executive orders he’s signed since taking office in January. The White House has accused judges of behaving as partisan activists to stop Trump’s agenda. “I would like to point out that the judges in this country are acting erroneously,” Leavitt said in a Wednesday news briefing. “We have judges who are acting as partisan activists from the bench.” Trump also announced that Boeing had won out among defense companies for a contract to build the Air Force’s next-generation fighter jet, known as the F-47. “I’m thrilled to announce that at my direction the United States Air Force is moving forward with the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet,” Trump said Friday in the Oval Office at the White House. “Nothing in the world comes even close to it, and it’ll be called the ‘F-47,’ the generals picked that title.” BOEING TO BUILD NEXT-GEN ‘F-47’ US FIGHTER JET, TRUMP ANNOUNCES The Next Generation Air Defense initiative that the Biden administration put on the back burner will oversee the effort. The Trump administration revived the program, a move that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Friday “sends a very direct, clear message to our allies that we’re not going anywhere, and to our enemies that we will be able to project power around the globe.” An experimental version of the jet has been covertly flying for “years,” according to Trump. “The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built,” Trump said. Trump also spoke with both Putin and Zelenskyy this week over the phone, amid ongoing efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Following the calls, both Russia and Ukraine agreed to a limited ceasefire against energy. The next step is for respective teams to conduct meetings to navigate how to reach a full ceasefire, according to the White House. “Technical teams will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the Black Sea on the way to a full ceasefire,” the White House said in a statement Thursday. “They agreed this could be the first step toward the full end of the war and ensuring security. President Zelenskyy was grateful for the President’s leadership in this effort and reiterated his willingness to adopt a full ceasefire.” The Associated Press and Fox News’ Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
Odisha hits JACKPOT as massive reserves of… found across state
These discoveries could transform Odisha’s economy by attracting investments and creating jobs.
New polls reveal what Americans think about Trump months into his second term
President Donald Trump, with the stroke of a pen, signed an executive order this week to begin the longstanding conservative goal of demolishing the Department of Education. “Today we take a very historic action that was 45 years in the making,” Trump said at a White House signing ceremony. “It’s about time.” Trump has been on a tear since returning to the White House two months ago, flexing his political muscles to expand presidential powers as he’s upended longstanding government policy and made major cuts to the federal workforce through a flurry of executive orders and actions. Trump has signed close to 100 executive orders since his inauguration, according to a count from Fox News, which far surpasses the rate of any recent presidential predecessors during their opening weeks in office. CHECK OUT WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS NATIONAL POLL SAYS ABOUT PRESIDENT TRUMP The president touts that “a lot of great things are happening” and that “things are doing very well,” but it’s clear that Americans are divided on the job Trump’s doing so far in his second tour of duty in the White House. Trump’s approval rating stood at 49% in the latest Fox News national survey, with 51% giving the president a thumbs down in the survey, which was conducted March 14-17. PROBLEMATIC POLL NUMBERS FOR THE DEMOCRATS The Fox News poll is the latest national survey to Trump’s approval rating slightly underwater, and it’s also the latest to indicate a massive partisan divide over the president and his agenda. Ninety-two percent of Republican respondents approved of the president’s performance, while an equal percentage of Democrats gave Trump a big thumbs down. More than six-in-ten independents said they disapproved of the job Trump is doing. The president’s 49% overall approval rating matches the all-time high for Trump in Fox News polling, which he last reached in April 2020, near the end of his first term in office. And that’s six points higher than where he stood at this point in his first administration (43% approval in March 2017). Trump’s poll numbers were almost entirely in negative territory in most surveys for the entirety of his first term in office. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING “The difference is largely a function of the consolidation of the Republican base,” Daron Shaw, who serves as a member of the Fox News Decision Team and is the Republican partner on the Fox News Poll, noted. “The party’s completely solidified behind him,” added Shaw, a politics professor and chair at the University of Texas, who noted that Trump’s current rock-solid GOP support wasn’t the case at the start of the first term, when he had troubles with some Republicans. Shaw highlighted that “Democrats were consolidated against Trump in 2017. They’re consolidated against him now.” Pointing to recent polls indicating Democratic Party favorability at all-time lows, he said “they don’t like their own party very much, but they all agreed that they don’t like Trump.” While Trump’s poll numbers are superior to where he stood eight years ago, there’s been a bit of slippage. An average of all the most recent national polls indicates that Trump’s approval ratings are just below water. Trump has seen his numbers edge down slightly since returning to the White House in late January, when an average of his polls indicated the president’s approval rating in the low 50s and his disapproval in the mid-40s. Contributing to the slide – the economy and jitters that Trump’s tariffs on both foes and friends will spark further inflation, which was a pressing issue that kept former President Biden’s approval ratings well below water for most of his presidency. The latest Fox News poll as well as other recent surveys point to growing skepticism about Trump’s economic actions and policies. Shaw says it all comes down to independents. “If the Republicans are locked down in favor of Trump and Democrats locked down in opposition, it’s just independents,” he said. Polls indicate independents are currently giving Trump a thumbs down on his handling of the economy. But Shaw offered that “if inflation comes down a bit, if there’s some growth, those numbers are going to flip. That’s what independents do. They go with the times.”
AAP stages protest over alleged non-compliance of Rs 2,500 to women scheme in Delhi: ‘Bank of Jumla’
Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday staged a protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Delhi government over the alleged non-implementation of Mahila Samman Yojana, which aims to provide financial support of Rs 2,500 every month to eligible women.
Trump admin pulling legal status for more than 530K migrants
The Trump administration will revoke the temporary legal status of more than half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who entered the U.S. legally, according to a notice posted Friday in the Federal Register. The roughly 532,000 migrants have been told to leave the country before their humanitarian parole and accompanying work permits are canceled on April 24, giving them a month from when the notice is formally published on March 25. The migrants were allowed to fly directly to the U.S. after applying from abroad under a policy started during the Biden administration that was designed to open legal migration pathways, but President Donald Trump suspended the program when he returned to office in January. The program, CHNV, allowed the migrants and their immediate family members to fly into the U.S. if they had American sponsors. They could then remain in the country for two years under a temporary immigration status known as parole. DHS’ KRISTI NOEM SAYS TRUMP ADMIN WILL RESUME CONSTRUCTION OF 7 MILES OF SOUTHERN BORDER Launched in 2022, the program first applied to Venezuelans before it was expanded to additional countries. The Biden administration had argued that CHNV would help reduce illegal crossings at the southern border and allow better vetting of people entering the country amid an influx of migrants entering through the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump’s Department of Homeland Security criticized the Biden administration on Friday, arguing that the program failed to achieve its goals, the BBC reported. The agency said in a statement that Biden officials had “granted them [migrants] opportunities to compete for American jobs and undercut American workers; forced career civil servants to promote the programs even when fraud was identified; and then blamed Republicans in Congress for the chaos that ensued and the crime that followed.” But the notice in the Federal Register said some migrants in the U.S. under CHNV may be allowed to remain in the country on a case-by-case basis. CHNV helped about 213,000 Haitians enter the U.S. amid deteriorating conditions in their home country, as well as more than 120,700 Venezuelans, 110,900 Cubans and more than 93,000 Nicaraguans, according to the BBC. Last month, DHS announced plans to end another immigration designation, temporary protected status, or TPS, for 500,000 Haitians living in the U.S. legally. TPS was given to migrants from designated countries facing unsafe conditions, including armed conflict. The agency also ended TPS for Venezuelans living in the U.S., although this is being challenged in court. JUDGE GIVES MAHMOUD KHALIL LEGAL TEAM MORE TIME TO REVIEW IMMIGRATION CASE Trump’s efforts to remove legal and illegal migrants from the U.S. since taking office in January as part of his immigration agenda have faced numerous legal obstacles. The Trump administration is also reportedly dismantling internal watchdogs for DHS, including its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which investigated allegations of abuse and discrimination within immigration enforcement, according to Bloomberg News.
MK Stalin leads Joint Action Committee meet on delimitation in Chennai, calls for fair delimitation
Tamil Nadu Deputy CM Udhayanidhi Stalin stated that the states that have participated in the meeting have made significant efforts to control and manage the population growth but instead of being rewarded for this achievement, they are now at risk of losing their political representation.
India’s ‘political iftars’ once stopped riots. Are they corrupt stunts now?
New Delhi, India – It was the month of Ramadan in 1974, and the northern city of Lucknow, a hub of India’s Shia community, was on the boil. Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, a stalwart of India’s then-ruling Indian National Congress party, had taken over as the chief minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh, whose capital is Lucknow, only a few months earlier. Shia-Sunni clashes had erupted at a time on the Muslim calendar that represents peace, prayer, reflection and a sense of community. To push for a truce, Bahuguna invited Shia leader Ashraf Hussain for a meeting. Hussain refused, saying he was unable to come because he was fasting. So Bahuguna made Hussain an offer: He could break his fast at the chief minister’s residence. Hussain accepted. The menu included fruit, sherbet, sheermal, kebabs and Lucknow’s famous biryani. And successful truce talks. At a time when Hindu-Muslim tensions in Uttar Pradesh and many other parts of India were also on the rise, Bahuguna’s iftars became a yearly affair. In subsequent years, the meals were planned, and guest lists started expanding. Advertisement In his book An Indian Political Life: Charan Singh and Congress Politics, Paul R Brass noted that Bahuguna established “a happy rapport with the Muslims” by acting boldly to suppress “anti-Muslim rioting”. The veteran politician started a phenomenon that has since become a staple of India’s political calendar: Ramadan is crammed with iftars hosted by parties and politicians eager to host influential Muslims as they court the community’s votes. Over the past 50 years, these iftars have become shows of political strength and platforms to forge alliances or to forgive past skirmishes to move on. On the one hand, analysts said, political iftars help underscore India’s secular identity – non-Muslim political leaders hosting Muslims for a meal during the holy month. “Iftar reflected a certain notion of plurality, an idea of celebrating differences in commonality,” sociologist Shiv Visvanathan told Al Jazeera. But political iftars have also attracted increasing pushback — and not just from current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which has for the most part shunned these events. Critics have argued that these iftars are performative acts that are more about the interests of the leaders hosting them than about the Muslim community. “It was not sought by Muslims, and we must always remember that. Political iftar parties were not a creation of the Muslims,” said Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst who has attended several such events. “Political iftar was a kind of religious outreach programme.” Advertisement “It was envisaged by non-Muslim political actors, and the Muslims were guests. They were just the showpieces.” Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi invited elite Muslims to her iftars but failed to hold on to enough Muslim voters to win the 1977 elections [File: AP Photo] When Indira Gandhi used iftars for revival — but failed By the mid-1970s, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s relations with Bahuguna, her party leader in charge of the politically critical state of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous, often dominated headlines. The narrative: Bahuguna’s popularity in Uttar Pradesh, across all communities, unsettled Gandhi, whose courtiers tried to shape her mind against the state leader. In 1975, Bahuguna resigned. Some said he was pushed into quitting. That year would prove the start of one of independent India’s most tumultuous periods. Faced with a student movement against her and an emboldened political opposition, Gandhi was also found guilty by a High Court of misusing state resources to win the 1971 elections. A day after India’s Supreme Court upheld that verdict, which also barred her from contesting elections for six years, Gandhi imposed a state of national emergency, arresting opposition leaders and suspending civil liberties. The state of emergency would also strain the Congress party’s ties with one of its most loyal support bases: India’s Muslims. Since independence in 1947, the community — India today has 200 million Muslims, behind only Indonesia and Pakistan — had largely voted for the Congress party, initially under the nation’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and then under Gandhi. Survivors of the bloody partition of British India, which killed more than 2 million people and displaced millions, India’s Muslims faced questions about their place in the new nation, and a secular Nehru, who committed himself to safeguarding their security, was seen as their best bet. Advertisement That pattern held all the way up until and including the 1971 elections, which Gandhi won, Theodore P Wright Jr, the late political scientist known for his work on South Asian politics, wrote in 1977 in Asian Survey, a California-headquartered journal. However, during the national emergency, Gandhi’s government oversaw two campaigns that alienated Muslims. An aggressive family planning initiative aimed at controlling population growth used forced sterilisations that spawned fears among Muslims that a Hindu majority country was in essence trying to end the growth of their community. In several instances, men from villages with large Muslim populations were rounded up and taken to sterilisation camps, where they were forced to undergo vasectomies. In some cases, the men fought back, leading to deadly clashes with security forces. In all, from 1974 to 1979, India sterilised more than 18 million people — double the number that underwent sterilisation in the previous five years. At the same time, Gandhi’s government led a large slum demolition campaign as part of an urban beautification effort that sought to clear informal settlements in cities. Tens of thousands of people were forcibly evicted from their homes as bulldozers tore down their shanties. In many cases, they were not offered any alternative housing. Muslims, India’s poorest community by religion, were disproportionately impacted. Gandhi’s younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, was the face of these campaigns, which stirred widespread resentment among Muslims. Advertisement After the state of emergency was lifted, Bahuguna left the Congress to join a newly formed group of other defectors called the Congress for Democracy (CFD). Religious leaders like Abdullah Bukhari, the shahi imam of Delhi’s Jama Mosque, openly backed the new group,