by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
New Delhi : The Congress on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of misleading the Lok Sabha by not revealing the price of the Rafale fighter jets bought from France and indicated it could move a motion of breach of privilege against them.
“Deluding and misleading the people of India, the Prime Minister and Defence Minister sought to lie on the floor of Parliament. Neither the revelation of the commercial cost of Rafale aircraft will violate any secrecy agreement with the French government nor will it reveal any classified or protected information,” former Defence Minister A.K. Antony and senior leader Anand Sharma told a press conference.
Party sources said that consultations will be held with legal experts and the leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, will decide on moving a privilege motion against Modi and Sitharaman in a day or two.
Antony and Sharma referred to the discussion during the no-confidence motion against the NDA government in the Lok Sabha on July 20 and said the Prime Minister sought to “hide behind a cloak of pseudo nationalism” in the Rafale deal and said the truth was that the Modi government was “guilty of compromising national interest and national security”.
The two leaders said that “shoddy cover-up, self defeating assertions and deliberate lies were being dished out to divert, dupe and deceive”.
“Grave apprehensions and claims of insurmountable loss being caused to public exchequer stand exposed as government refuses to state the truth,” they said.
Rejecting the government contention that the deal was covered by a secrecy clause under which the price cannot be revealed, Antony said the agreement between the governments of India and France in 2008 during the UPA government does not mention that commercial cost of procurement of defence deals cannot be revealed.
“The scope of the agreement only extends to tactical and technical details of weaponry relating to the capability of the platform in question and its performance and tactics in combat and does not include commercial details and costs. It is clear that the Prime Minister and Defence Minister misled the nation,” Antony said.
Claiming that the per aircraft price of Rafale as per international bid in 2012 during UPA government came to Rs 18,940 crore for 36 aircraft, the leaders said the Modi government purchased the same number of aircraft for Rs 60,145 crore and asked BJP to explain the extra amount of Rs 41,000 crore paid from public money. “This price is apparent from the ‘Annual Report, 2016’ of Dassault Aviation,” they said.
They contended that under the law, the government was bound to provide to full information to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence and the Comptroller and Director General of India (CAG) and asked why the Modi government was not disclosing the commercial cost of the deal.
Antony and Sharma referred to two replies given by the Defence Ministry in 2016 and 2018 in Parliament revealing the price to be approximately Rs 670 crore per aircraft and asked why was the Defence Minister lying today.
They also quoted an interview given by French President Emmanuel Macron to a prominent news channel in India saying that if the Modi government wanted to disclose some of the details with the opposition, it can do so.
“Prime Minister Modi in Parliament took refuge in the statement released by the French government. Modi government must tell that the price of Rafale is not a secret, its specifications and weaponry are. The statement said the agreement ‘legally binds the two states to protect the classified information provided by the partner that could impact security and operational capabilities of the defence equipments of India and France’.”
The Congress asked where had the French government even said that the price of Rafale aircraft cannot be disclosed.
The two leaders also referred to answers given by the UPA government between 2010 and 2013 regarding the price of acquiring INS Vikramaditya, upgrade of Mirage aircraft, procurement of Sukhoi aircraft and development of Kaveri engine.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Mamata Banerjee
Kolkata : Raising the pitch for her proposed Federal Front of opposition parties, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday asked her party workers to launch a fortnight-long campaign from August 1 to defeat the ‘communal BJP’.
She also said her party would organise a “huge” rally in the city on January 19 next year, where leaders of the proposed Front would call for defeating the BJP at the Centre.
Addressing party workers on the party’s Martyrs’ Day rally, she said: “Bengal will show the way to India, we will show the way to Parliament in the coming days.”
Banerjee said the August campaign ‘remove communal BJP, save the country’ would spell out her party’s political programme. “On Aaugust 15 (Independence Day), all of you should raise the Tricolour and take a vow to ensure that none from the BJP raises the national flag from the Red Fort from 2019 onwards,” she told her party workers.
She appealed to Trinamool activists to work for the victory of the party in all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in the next year’s general elections.
Banerjee said the January 19 rally would be held at the sprawling Brigade Parade ground, “from where we will be giving a call to capture power at the Centre.”
“I will bring leaders from across the country on the stage, including those from the Federal Front,” she said. “We will organise the rally in a big way…our workers should ensure a bigger turnout than today’s,” said. Banerjee
The Trinamool supremo, who has in the past made clear her national ambitions, said: “We don’t like the chair (top post) that much, we don’t care for the chair, but we care for the country, the people, the soil of the land”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : After tearing into the BJP-led government in his speech during the no confidence motion on Friday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi walked across to the ruling benches and hugged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, taking everyone in the Lok Sabha by surprise.
“I have not an iota of hatred or hard feelings against you. You hate me. You may call me Pappu, you can use a stream of expletives for me. But I don’t hate you or have even slightest of anger for you. I am the Congress,” Gandhi said at the end of his nearly 40-minute fiery speech.
Gandhi accused Modi of lying to the nation and making empty rhetoric “jumlas” to deceive the poor of the country. He also lashed out at the government and questioned Modi’s silence over women not feeling safe in the country and people from the minority communities being lynched.
Gandhi said the Prime Minister and BJP President Amit Shah were different type of politicians unlike those from the Congress.
“We are okay with winning and losing, staying in and out of power. But they cannot afford to lose power. They fear losing power. It is this fear that is turning into anger… But I will turn this anger into love because I am the Congress,” he said.
Resuming his speech after a brief adjournment, Gandhi said some opposition MPs congratulated him for speaking “really well’.
“I was surprised when your own members shook my hand and said, ‘you spoke really well’. This voice is also there within you. This voice doesn’t exist just within us. This Akali Dal leader (pointing towards Harsimrat Kaur) was looking at me and smiling. This feeling is there in the entire country. Our job is to connect these feelings.
“The entire opposition and a few people among you..together we are going to defeat the Prime Minister in the election.
“You may think there is anger, hatred in my heart for the prime minister. But, I want to say this from the bottom of my heart that I am very grateful to the Prime Minister, the BJP and the RSS. They made me understand the meaning of the Congress. They taught me the meaning of being a Hindustani.
“Hindustani means – one may say or do anything against you, one may tell a lie or abuse you or use a lathi against you, but you will show love towards them. Narendra Modi, the BJP and the RSS have taught me this. I would like thank you for this from the bottom of my heart.
“You taught me my religion, made me understand the meaning of Shivji, you made me understand the meaning of being a Hindu. I want to thank you for this.
“This is the history of our country. You may have hatred and anger towards me. The Congress and this very feeling has built this nation. Don’t forget this. This feeling is there within all of you, and I will bring it out from all of you. I will bring out that love that is there within you and I will turn all of you into the Congress.”
Gandhi then walked across to the ruling benches and hugged Modi who was taken by surprise. The Congress leader was heard telling the Prime Minister to get up and allow him to do “pranaam” to him.
The Prime Minister was taken aback at first and gestured as if asking Gandhi why he was there. But the Congress President bent over, threw his arms around Modi and hugged him tight.
A visibly nonplussed Modi hugged him back. After recovering from an apparent shock moment, the Prime Minister called Gandhi back towards him and the two shook their hands. He patted Gandhi on his back and exchanged a word or two with him, smilingly.
As the opposition members gave Gandhi a standing ovation and thumped their desks, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said such a conduct was against the rules of the House.
Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal questioned Gandhi for saying she was smiling at him when he was speaking. “This is Parliament and not a ‘pappi jhappi’ area of Munna Bhai,” she said, mocking at him.
Speaker Mahajan said but “you were smiling” when Gandhi was speaking. There was a burst of laughter in the House.
By this time Gandhi had returned to his seat amid a loud cheer from his Congress colleagues. He was seen winking at Jyotiraditya Scindia, a Congress MP from Madhya Pradesh.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Sheikh Qayoom,
Srinagar : Beware of predators and poachers, take care of your flock. This is the classic warning for shepherds while they graze their flock in the Himalayan meadows. In Kashmir’s political meadow of expedient opportunities, the same warning is now visiting mainstream politicians.
After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew from the ruling alliance in Jammu and Kashmir, the politics of make and break is back with a vengeance.
Dissident MLAs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including the influential Shia leader and former minister Imran Ansari and his uncle, Abid Ansari, who is also an MLA in the 87-member legislative assembly, were the first to hit the road against Mehbooba Mufti, the former Chief Minister and the PDP president.
Three more PDP MLAs — Abbas Wani, Abdul Majeed Paddar and Javaid Hussain Baig — found common cause with the Ansaris to rebel against the party leadership.
Encouraged by the trend set by rebel MLAs, two PDP legislators from the upper house of state’s bicameral legislature, Yasir Rishi and Saifuddin Bhat, also joined the dissident group.
Alarmed by the cracks in her party, Mehbooba Mufti warned the Centre against attempting a split.
“The breaking up of my party will produce more Sallahuddins and Yasin Maliks,” Mehbooba said on July 13, the day Kashmir remembers its martyrs who fought against the autocratic rule of the erstwhile Maharajas.
BJP leaders including Ram Madhav, the party’s national general secretary who played a pivotal role in forging an alliance with the PDP that brought the coalition to power in 2015, washed their hands off.
“This is an internal issue of the PDP and we have nothing to do with it. Our priority is to improve the situation in the Valley under governor’s rule,” Madhav said.
Former Chief Minister and regional National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah came out strongly against encouraging dissidence in the state’s regional parties.
Omar has been pleading from day one after the imposition of the governor’s rule by N.N.Vohra that keeping the state assembly in suspended animation gives an opportunity for horse trading.
The NC Vice President wants dissolution of the state assembly and announcement of fresh elections to restore democracy in the state.
Omar’s worry has valid reasons. His father and party president, Dr.Farooq Abdullah, lost the Chief Minister’s post in 1984 when NC dissidents, with the support of the Congress Party, installed his brother-in-law, G.M. Shah, as the Chief Minister.
Sajad Lone of the Peoples Conference (PC), who was a minister in the Mehbooba Mufti led coalition, is believed to be the front-runner for the Chief Minister’s post if a viable third front supported by the BJP is able to take shape.
Forty-four MLAs is the minimum number to stake claim to power in the state. In the 87-member assembly, the PDP has 28, BJP 25, NC 15, Congress 12, PC 2 and CPI-M 1, while four MLAs are unattached.
Sajad Lone was given a ministerial berth in the erstwhile PDP-BJP ruling coalition out of the BJP quota.
J&K has a tough anti-defection law which makes changing parties very difficult for the rebels.
What irks the regional parties is the fact that seven BJP MLAs who were expelled by the party in the former state assembly were allowed by the then Speaker to sit separately in the assembly without losing their membership.
The top leadership of both the NC and the PDP are worried about such a situation arising again if horse trading succeeds in breaking the PDP to reach the magical figure of 44 with BJP support.
“That would be the darkest day for democracy in the state”, said a senior NC leader.
There are no indications at present that the NC faces a similar crisis as the PDP does, but as the saying goes — once bitten, twice shy.
Some senior BJP leaders in the state, including the former Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta, have started saying that the tradition of having a Muslim Chief Minister in the state has no constitutional basis.
“Anybody who becomes the leader of the majority in the assembly can be the Chief Minister. There is nothing in the constitution that debars a non-Muslim becoming J&K’s Chief Minister”, Gupta said.
Ironically, the growing voices in Jammu for a Hindu Chief Minister could prevent the PDP dissidents from fishing in the troubled waters.
“Why should the dissidents give up their claim to have one of them as the Chief Minister? After all, none of the dissidents has stuck his neck out to pave way for a Chief Minister who is not among them,” asked a senior PDP leader who owes unflinching loyalty to Mehbooba Mufti.
Politics being the art of the possible can make for strange bedfellows, but definitely not those who take risks for somebody else to get the top job in Kashmir.
(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The BJP on Monday questioned the intention of Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking support for the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha. Raising the women’s quota issue now is nothing but an attempt to divert public attention from his remark that ‘Congress a party of Muslims, the BJP said.
Addressing the media here, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said: “Why did he raise this issue today? It is an attempt to divert the people’s attention from his remark that the Congress is a party of Muslims…This is the double standards of the Congress.”
Javadekar sought to know from the Congress chief whether he would also ensure the support of parties that were opposed to the bill in the past.
“The Congress has alliances with parties opposed to this bill. Will they come out of the alliance? Will they ask for letters of support from parties opposed to the bill,” Javadekar asked when questioned on Gandhi’s letter to Modi on Monday. However, he did not name the Samajwadi Party or the Rashtriya Janata Dal which had opposed the Bill and are now allies of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The BJP leader’s response came soon after Rahul Gandhi wrote to the Prime Minister to seek his support for the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament’s monsoon session. Gandhi said the BJP appears to have had second thoughts on the proposed law even though it was a key promise in its 2014 manifesto.
The Congress leader said the bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha in March 2010 during the UPA II government headed by Manmohan Singh, has been stalled in the Lok Sabha on one pretext or the other.
Gandhi said the bill holds the potential to transform the country’s governance and any further delay will make it impossible to implement it before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The monsoon session will be held from July 18 till August 10.
—IANS
