by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, Politics
Bhubaneswar : Hectic political activities were witnessed here on Monday with three major political parties — the BJD, the Congress and the BJP — taking out rallies and staging demonstrations on farmers’ issues.
While Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal staged a demonstration near Raj Bhawan, blaming the Central government for not hiking Minimum Support Price on paddy, the BJP resorted to ‘Secretariat gherao’ for delay in disbursing agriculture input subsidy to the farmers, whose crops were damaged due to unseasonal rain.
The Congress, on the other hand, trained its gun at both the Union and state governments for ignoring the plight of farmers and playing politics on their agony.
BJD spokesperson Amar Satapathy said: “We are demanding hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) on paddy to Rs 2,930 per quintal.”
“Even though the matter was passed in the state Assembly and it was decided to meet the Prime Minister to press the demand, the Prime Minister did not give time to meet the all-party house committee led by Assembly Speaker.”
The party has also submitted a memorandum to Governor S.C. Jamir addressed to the President of India, said Satapathy.
The state wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party took out a rally in a bid to barge into the state secretariat — an attempt thwarted by the police.
“The state government should waive farm loan for the benefit of the distressed farmers,” said state BJP president Basant Panda.
“It should also announce bonus on paddy. But it did nothing. Moreover, the state government is yet to disburse agriculture input subsidy to the farmers hit by unseasonal rainfall and pest attack.”
The Congress submitted a memorandum, addressed to the President, to the Governor seeking his intervention to address the farmers’ issue.
“We have submitted a memorandum to Governor S.C. Jamir demanding an increase in the MSP of paddy to Rs 3,000 per quintal,” said Congress Farmers’ Cell President Amiya Patnaik.
“Both the Central and state governments have betrayed the farmers. The party will fight for the rights of the farmers.”
Meanwhile, the state government has received crop damage reports from all the 30 districts relating to unseasonal rain.
The reports are to be compiled on Monday and agriculture input subsidy would be disbursed after the report is finalised, said an official of the Special Relief Commissioner.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Arvind Kejriwal
New Delhi : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday accused the BJP of dividing India on Hindu-Muslim lines and said it had done in three years what Pakistan and its ISI could not do in 60 years.
“Pakistan’s biggest dream is to divide Hindustan on the lines of Hindus and Muslims. Those who’re dividing the country on the lines of Hindus and Muslims are ISI agents,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader said at the party’s National Conference here.
“Under the veil of patriots, they’re anti-nationals. They want to weaken the country. This dream has been harboured by Pakistan. What Inter-Services Intelligence could not do in 60 years, the BJP has done in three years,” he said and asked voters in Gujarat to defeat the BJP.
Thousands of party workers participated in the conference at the Ramlila Maidan here, from where the India Against Corruption movement led by Anna Hazare started and later gave birth to the AAP party in 2012. The event drew participation from 22 states.
Talking about the December Gujarat elections, Kejriwal said: “I request the people of Gujarat to give your vote to the candidate or party who can defeat the BJP.”
“If somewhere, the AAP is winning, give your vote to AAP. If any other party is winning, give the vote to them. But defeat the BJP,” Kejriwal said.
Speaking on the occasion, AAP founder-member Kumar Vishwas said the party had moved away from the path it set out on and has to find the right way forward.
“Don’t you think we have gone somewhere else from where we were moving to five years ago? We have to find the right way,” the AAP leader said.
He also called for introspection on the part of the AAP leadership and cadres. “We should think about ourselves as to where we started five years ago and where we are now.”A
Vishwas said some party leaders do not talk about social activist Anna Hazare, under whose leadership many of them participated in the 2011 anti-corruption movement. “Anna was the creator of this campaign.”
Referring to the AAP National Council meeting held this month, he said his name was not in the list of speakers at the event. However, he said, he will not go anywhere and stay in the party.
In October, AAP revoked the suspension of AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, who had accused Vishwas of being a traitor. In May, Khan was suspended, days after making the accusation and Vishwas was named AAP incharge of Rajasthan.
While thousands of party volunteers in the crowd sported the trademark AAP white cap with the party symbol “broom”, many like Munesh Rani, 53, had the broom symbol and “AAP” painted on their cheeks.
AAP party flags with Kejriwal’s face and party symbol dotted the ground as volunteers waved them as AAP leaders spoke from the stage.
Party leaders, including Delhi Ministers Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai, AAP Spokesperson Ashutosh, National Secretary Pankaj Gupta, as well as Punjab MP Bhagwant Mann spoke on the occasion, as were a large number of AAP MLAs from Delhi and Punjab as well as AAP corporators from the national capital.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
Kolkata : Asserting that the BJP-led central government does not have any differential attitude towards any state, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Friday said his department has allocated more than Rs 200 crore for the development of minority inhabited areas in West Bengal over the last two years.
Naqvi was answering a question in the India Today Conclave East on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s allegations earlier in the day that Central ministers are more interested in the growth of BJP in Bengal than the development of the state.
“I respect Mamata Banjerjee but the claim she is making is incorrect. If I talk about my ministry, it has given more than Rs 200 crore for the development of minority inhabited areas in West Bengal. The money was allotted for the development of schools, colleges, hostels, and also for developing the drinking water and road infrastructure,” he said.
“The central government has never shown any differential attitude against anyone and will never do so in the future. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a strong commitment towards the federal structure. He is tirelessly working with that commitment,” he said.
Asked about Banerjee’s claims that the fund for two new ports in Bengal is being halted by the Central government, Naqvi said there might be some technical reasons behind it
“I do not deal with that department. But I think there might be be some technical reasons behind it. I am sure she is also aware that there are some technical issues in that regard. This government never brings electoral politics in the way of development,” he added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
For representational purpose only (google photo)
By Saeed Naqvi,
It is one of the great ironies of our times that Muslims are a problem for all political parties, except the BJP. In a totally different way, for Mamata too. Without Muslims as a foil, there would be no Hindutva gameplan. If, by some miracle, Indian Muslims were to vanish into thin air, the social edifice erected so far, around which politics is spun, would collapse. Communities and castes would splinter. A new adhesive would be required to put Humpty Dumpty together again.
For the Congress, Muslims are a squeezed lemon. It would be indiscreet for them to say so, but it is a fact they have internalised. Having been copiously used, the Muslim can now be discarded. The party may discard them but the far right, for its own reasons, can still allege a Congress collusion with minorities: “Look they are silent on Love Jihad, how our women are being exploited.”
Confronted with this “have you stopped beating your wife” question, the Congress looks the other way. The other day, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India expressed his exasperation with what he called the “Muslim question”. To navigate politics past communalism, it is important to set aside “the Muslim question”, he said. I suppose “setting aside” means ignoring the issue, not talking about it.
This is easier said than done. How do you set aside a community whose would be leaders pop up, like eager beavers, on the most aggressive channels only to be brutalised by the anchors? They may imagine their being willingly pummelled earns them brownie points with the Qaum and for their own next life, but in this life their rants only swell the ranks of the BJP. As a function of deep strategy, the Muslim must shut up.
That the BJP-led government has appointed an interlocutor for Kashmir is welcome because any talk is an advance on the jam in which Kashmir is. But anyone with minimal common sense knows that the interlocutor has not been appointed to proceed towards any resolution of the issue. That would require reaching out to Pakistan.
Such a scenario is unthinkable before the 2019 general election. And for a very simple reason. Indo-Pakistan talks would bring down the communal temperature. It would cause the saffron in the air to turn pale. National Anthem, Vande Mataram, lynching for the cow, Love Jihad, Ram Temple are all nudging the nation towards a crescendo, a climactic clashing of the cymbals. This carefully crafted backdrop would begin to fray if the interlocutor were to be infused with serious purpose.
In this national mood, with saffron as the dominant shade, political parties can quite sensibly avoid responding to issues the Hindutva tribe is tossing up to provoke Muslims, a sort of invitation for their most willing but least articulate spokesmen to rush to TV channels.
It is a toss-up whether these solo operators do more harm to the Muslim cause or the collective called the Muslim Personal Law Board. Both are self appointed and both, by the sheer quality of and frequency of their utterances, serve as multipliers for the Hindutva cause. A contrived feeling of pre-eminence in the wider community is so heady for this lot that it blinds them to the harm they do. It serves the Hindutva purpose to confer recognition on this growing multitude of spokesmen in the clerical mould, supremely identifiable as the “other”.
It is not that the Hindutva spokesmen on show are God’s gift to brilliant debates. They are quite as hopeless as the counterparts they have been set up to tease. Their job is to peg away at a nagging length on an issue in such a way as to invite bumbling responses and thereby add a few shades to the saffron already in the air.
If I am being carried away it is because the imagery in my mind derives largely from the Hindi belt, Maharashtra and Gujarat. There being no monolith in India, the communal interplay in the South, for instance, is different, except Telengana where memories from Nizam’s rule have faded but attitudes linger.
Communal politics in Kerala became possible because currents came together in the ’80s. The quadrupling of oil prices attracted labour from Malabar who returned with irritating new wealth, some of which went into the building of garish villas, the Dubai houses, quite out of character with Kerala’s austere skyline. Along with the nouveau riche came nouveau Islam, complete with hijab and other marks of assertion. The phenomena coincided with Nizam-e-Mustafa in Zia-ul Haq’s Pakistan. The huge play given to the 1981 Meenakshipuram conversions in neighbouring Tamil Nadu was the final cherry on the communal cake.
The RSS has, therefore, gained — though only enough to break its duck in the Kerala Assembly. But it is making inroads through its undeclared B team, the Congress. The purpose of this configuration is to devour the CPI-M.
It is this RSS-Congress interplay — which peaked during K. Karunakaran’s chief ministership — that makes CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury’s proposed line for the 2019 elections so reckless. He sees Narendra Modi as the ogre which all democratic forces, primarily the Congress, must combine to crush. His heavyweight Politburo comrade Prakash Karat says “plague on both their houses”. How can the CPI-M support the Congress which it fights tooth and nail in Kerala? And you never know when they start playing toey toey with each other.
Yechury’s basic anxiety is to recover the Kingdom of West Bengal lost to Mamata Banerjee. For this reason, the CPI-M coordinated with the Congress for the 2016 Assembly elections and came a cropper.
Mamata has mobilised the state’s 30 per cent Muslims as the central column of her support. While Mamata, with cent percent Muslim support, is willing to stand on the secular democratic platform against Modi, Yechury sees Mamata as the main enemy.
To take advantage of the confusion, the BJP has rushed to pre-empt the opposition by announcing November 8, the first anniversary of demonetisation, as Anti-Black Money Day. The Congress, JD-U, RJD, DMK, SP, BSP, Trinamool, etc, have sworn to dwarf BJP with their very own “Day of Shame”. Why is the Left missing from this galaxy? Because the CPI-M is unwilling to stand on the same platform as Mamata.
Instead, the Left will have their own show — day of protest. Does this not weaken the opposition against Modi?
No, no, no, Yechury’s voice wafts across. We shall walk separately but strike together.
(Saeed Naqvi is a commentator on political and diplomatic affairs. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Jay Shah
Shimla : Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Friday targeted BJP President Amit Shah over the meteoric rise in the revenues of his son’s company, a year after the party came to power at the Centre.
Virbhadra Singh, charged by the CBI with holding assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, lashed out at Prem Kumar Dhumal, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate for the November 9 election in the hill state, saying his party’s main achievement was “ease of doing corruption”.
“Dhumalji, your remarks on BJP’s supposed fight against corruption made me laugh. Last time, I saw your own sons were out on bail,” the Chief Minister tweeted.
“Your party’s (the BJP) main achievement is ‘ease of doing corruption’. Amit Shah and son’s miracle of 16,000 times lucre hike happens only in BJP rule.”
According to a report on The Wire news website, Temple Enterprises, a company owned by Jay Shah, reported a 16,000 per cent increase in its turnover at Rs 80.5 crore in 2015-16 from a meagre revenue of Rs 50,000 and a profit of Rs 18,728 in 2014-15. The company is involved in the business of exporting agri-products.
Virbhadra Singh said the BJP had launched personal attacks on him because it was fearing his government’s “real vikas (development)” in Himachal Pradesh.
“Let’s not forget the time when your party chose a joyous day of the wedding of my daughter, Himachal’s daughter, to carry out a CBI raid,” he added.
Virbhadra Singh’s response came after Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi sharply criticised the Chief Minister over the Congress poll manifesto vowing zero tolerance on corruption if the party retains power in the hill state.
“”Singh ‘saheb’ is claiming there will be zero tolerance against corruption. Can anyone believe him? Can you digest it?
“The Congress has become a laughing club. Their Chief Minister has a corruption case against him. He is out on bail. Nothing is left for them and they have lost their hold from every part of the country,” Modi told an election rally in Kangra in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday.
—IANS
