by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
Rahul Gandhi
By Amulya Ganguli,
One of the oddities of the current political scene is the compliments which the Shiv Sena has been paying to Rahul Gandhi.
The party’s spokesman, Sanjay Raut, noted recently how the Congress vice-president’s “body language” has changed for the better and expressed faith in his credentials to lead the country since the Modi wave has “faded away”.
As an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Sena wouldn’t have been expected to be so forthcoming in its admiration for Rahul Gandhi even if it has come to regard the BJP as an enemy, as Raut has said, and called it “ghotalebaaz” or scamster in a booklet.
The surprise over the Sena’s latest position is all the greater because it is by no means considered close to the Congress, although a BJP leader has said that the Sainiks have always had a soft corner for the Congress ever since their supremo Bal Thackeray supported the Emergency. The Sena did support the Congress’s presidential candidate, Pratibha Patil, in 2007 instead of the BJP’s Bhairon Singh Shekhawat because she is Marathi, which is the only thing that counts for the Sena.
But hailing Rahul Gandhi as a possible Prime Minister denotes a completely different approach unless the Sena plans to walk out of the alliance with the BJP in Maharashtra and at the Centre.
Considering that the Sena chief, Uddhav Thackeray, has called upon his party men to prepare for elections, the possibility of a formal rupture between the two saffron outfits cannot be ruled out although the Sena has been blowing hot and cold for quite some time.
In fact, the Sena has never taken kindly to the BJP replacing it as the No 1 party in Maharashtra in 2014 since it apparently regards that position along with the Chief Minister’s post as its birthright in case the Hindutva group wins.
The Sena is also aware that the BJP looks upon it as a burden of sorts because of its rough and ready ways which can put off some of the “national” party’s more urbane followers.
But if the two have remained together despite the strains in their relationship, the reason is the fear that a break-up will only help the Congress.
The Sena, on the other hand, has come to believe that the BJP of today is not the BJP of 2014 although it may not go as far as Raj Thackeray of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) to say that the BJP will lose in Gujarat.
It appears, therefore, that the Sena is turning up the heat vis-a-vis the BJP, perhaps as a bargaining procedure, and what better way to do so than by extolling Rahul Gandhi who is gradually emerging as the BJP’s primary challenger from the opposition parties in his mother’s absence because of Sonia Gandhi’s indifferent health.
The Sena couldn’t but have noted how the BJP is concentrating nearly all its attention on criticising someone whom it earlier used to derisively dismiss as the “shahzada” and who was lampooned as “Pappu” by the BJP’s legion of foul-mouthed supporters in the social media.
All that satire and caricature are now very much in the past with the Congress’s own band of followers on the Internet effectively countering the Hindu cyber warriors and Rahul Gandhi himself giving back to his detractors in good measure. The part-time, reluctant politician has seemingly come of age.
For the Sena, a BJP on the defensive is a godsent, for it will enable the party to lord over Mumbai and urban Maharashtra as before and not play second fiddle as at present.
It is obvious that the Sena and the MNS have limited ambitions. They do not look beyond the state of their origin, which has been their political arena since the party was formed in the mid-1960s by exploiting local sentiments and taking advantage of the Congress’s slow decline.
All that the two parties led by estranged cousins want is to be the masters of all they survey in Maximum City and the small towns in Maharashtra. For the present, the Sena must be happy that it has an edge over the MNS, but that can change since both depend solely on the parochial Marathi vote, mainly of the lower middle class, which can hardly be considered stable.
The BJP, on its part, banks on the Hindu middle and upper middle classes and also the support of those who were expecting Narendra Modi to deliver on his promise of rapid development.
In its absence, however, the latter will tend to drift away, leaving the BJP with the pro-Hindu and anti-Muslim voters whom it will have to share with the Sena and the MNS.
The assembly elections in several states in the coming days will show whether the Sena has read the political tea leaves right about Modi’s waning influence.
But even if it has misread the scene, its praise for Rahul Gandhi is noteworthy because none of the Congress’s friends on the “secular” side of the political divide — whether the Rashtriya Janata Dal or the National Conference or the Marxists aligned with Sitaram Yechury — have expressed high hopes so far about the Congress vice-president’s chances as the Sena has done.
Clearly, a process of political churning is on.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Vishal Gulati,
Shimla : It’s literally a do-or-die battle for both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief ministerial faces in the upcoming Himachal Pradesh assembly polls. Both veterans — one in his eighties and the other in his seventies — are struggling for their political survival.
One is veteran Congress leader and incumbent Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, 83, who is pushing hard to get to the helm for the seventh time. The other is the BJP’s Prem Kumar Dhumal, 73, who is making a strong bid to ensure the party’s victory with a record margin to silence his detractors within the party.
For almost two decades, both the parties in the state have fought almost every assembly and parliamentary polls under their leadership.
“This time, Virbhadra Singh is fighting on two fronts — one is to establish his son Vikramaditya Singh, who is contesting his maiden assembly election, and the second is to ensure the party’s repeat as he forced the Congress to announce him as the chief ministerial candidate despite all odds,” a political observer told IANS.
For Dhumal, it’s simply the battle for “self-survival” after facing a humiliating defeat in the 2012 assembly polls. Since then, he was almost marginalised by the BJP faction led by Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda.
After thwarting foes within, Virbhadra Singh donned his battle gear much ahead of this arch rival Dhumal, whose name was cleared by the BJP as its chief ministerial candidate just days ahead of the polling for the 68-seat assembly on November 9.
“The announcement of Dhumal as the chief ministerial candidate was part of the BJP’s strategy to boost the morale of the cadres as the party for long was divided in two camps — one led by Dhumal and the other by Nadda,” a senior state BJP leader admitted.
Interestingly, both Virbhadra Singh and Dhumal are seeking re-election from new seats and that is not going to be easy for them.
The Congress leader is in the fray from Arki in Solan district, the BJP’s pocket borough that he chose himself, while Dhumal is contesting from Sujanpur, the seat he was asked to contest from.
The Sujanpur contest seems interesting as the Congress has fielded Rajinder Rana, who knows the Dhumal family well.
Virbhadra Singh knows the assembly poll will be a vote on the performance of his five-year-old government.
“We are seeking votes on the basis of development by our government, especially in the education, health and connectivity sectors,” a confident Virbhadra Singh, who first became the Chief Minister in 1983, told IANS.
The Chief Minister, who has been in active politics for over 50 years, is a regular target of the top BJP leadership, who point to his being out on bail and facing corruption charges in the Delhi High Court during the time he was the Union Steel Minister 2009-11.
But against all odds, he alone tours across the state seeking votes for the Congress. Party leaders said the Chief Minister is single-handedly campaigning and he is conducting 15 to 20 meetings in two to three constituencies every day.
He starts his campaign at 9 a.m. and continues till late into the night. He holds closed-door meetings with party workers in the evening for their feedback.
The only saving grace for the Congress is that its Vice President, Rahul Gandhi, will tour the state on November 6, a day before the campaigning comes to an end.
Contrary to this, the BJP has fielded its entire top brass — from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his cabinet colleagues, including Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and J.P. Nadda.
Even party President Amit Shah is aggressively touring the hill state.
“The Congress has failed to handle even sensitive cases like gang-rape of a schoolgirl. Our focus on coming to power will be eliminating forest, mining, liquor and transfer mafias that are active in the state for long. This will greatly help restoring the faith of the public,” Dhumal told IANS.
Political observers say issues like development have been pushed to the background as personal attacks dominate most of the election rallies.
“Apart from mudslinging, there is no public-specific agenda with both the leaders. They are just trying to woo voters by raking up personal issues,” an observer said.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Singh is the main “star” of the party campaign in the state.
“Virbhadra Singh is campaigning on the ground and the BJP is baffled at the response he is getting. We don’t have to be loud to impress the people, like the BJP is doing,” Surjewala told reporters in Shimla on Thursday.
Virbhadra Singh is targeting Dhumal by saying he has always worked with a political vendetta against him.
But a confident Dhumal believes there is a favourable wind prevailing for the BJP’s return as the present government has wasted much time in the ongoing corruption cases against Virbhadra Singh and his family rather than focusing on development.
The future of the arch rivals will be pronounced on December 18, the day the votes cast will be counted along with those in Gujarat.
The Congress won 36 of the 68 seats in Himachal Pradesh in 2012 with a 42.81 per cent vote share, while the BJP bagged 26 seats with a 38.47 per cent vote share.
(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Subramanian Swamy
New Delhi : BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday said that compulsory linking of Aadhaar was a threat to national security and expressed confidence that the Supreme Court will strike down the government directions making it mandatory for availing various services.
“I am writing a letter soon to PM detailing how compulsory Aadhaar is a threat to our national security. SC will I am sure strike it down,” Swamy said in a tweet.
The Supreme Court had on Monday said a five-judge constitution bench would hear a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Aadhaar law on charges of being intrusive and violating the right to privacy.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the hearing on the petitions challenging the government move would take place in the last week of November.
The court said this after Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told the bench that the government had filed a detailed affidavit refuting all the allegations on expanding the area under Aadhaar linkage.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had earlier this week accused the Modi government of using Aadhaar as a “monitoring mechanism” and said it will have serious consequences.
He had said the Aadhaar programme, which was initiated by the Congress-led UPA government, was designed to be a supporting mechanism and not a monitoring mechanism.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Ahmed Patel
New Delhi : The Congress and BJP on Saturday sparred over terror allegations against Ahmed Patel, with the ruling party on Saturday seeking clarifications from Congress President Sonia Gandhi over the allegations against her political secretary. The Congress said the BJP was “rattled” at the prospect of defeat in Gujarat and was thus making “baseless” charges against the leader.
The BJP said if the Congress doesn’t come clean on the issue then it will be linked to terrorism by people.
The Congress said the BJP was trying to take revenge against Ahmed Patel for the Rajya Sabha election defeat and they “should refrain from politicising the issue” and not link it with the Gujarat elections.
“The investigative agencies have arrested an IS suspect from a hospital in Gujarat. Ahmed Patel is associated with the hospital. Congress will have to answer. It cannot run away,” Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said at a press conference.
He said that Congress President and Vice President Rahul Gandhi need to come forward and clarify on the matter.
“Terror suspect’s link to hospital is a serious issue. It’s a matter of national security. We want Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to give clarification,” he said.
The Minority Affairs Minister said that the NDA government has adopted a zero tolerance policy against terrorism and hit out at the Congress leadership for defending Patel.
“After a few days people will start saying ‘Congress ka hath Aatank ke sath’ like they used to say earlier ‘Congress ka hath corruption ke sath’. People are questioning Ahmed Patel’s links to the IS operatives. Congress has a history of favouring anti-national elements,” he said.
Referring to Mohammed Qasim Stimberwala, one of the two alleged IS operatives arrested by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad from Surat on Wednesday, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had demanded resignation of Patel from the Rajya Sabha.
Stimberwala had resigned recently as an echo-cardiogram technician in the Sardar Patel Hospital and Heart Institute in Ankleshwar, which Patel had helped grow into a modern facility.
Patel was one of the trustees during the hospital’s formative years. He had resigned as a trustee in 2014 facilitating a new board of trustees to take over the facility.
Reacting to Gujarat Chief Minister Rupani’s allegations against Patel, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the BJP was hatching a conspiracy against the Congress MP and asked the party to look inwards.
The Congress leader said: “The BJP is staring at defeat in Gujarat and that is why they are rattled and making such baseless allegations against Congress leaders. Truth will win and the BJP will be defeated in Gujarat.”
“Sardar Patel Hospital is a charitable hospital in which 150-200 employees work. Neither Ahmed Patel nor any of his family members is a trustee of the hospital. They also don’t hold any office of profit in the hospital,” said Surjewala, adding that Stimberwala was one the employees.
He said the ATS should initiate a probe against the suspected terrorists if it has evidence.
“The Gujarat Chief Minister, in order to hide his incapability, is trying to hatch a conspiracy against Congress leader Ahmed Patel and making baseless allegations against him in a very despicable attempt,” the spokesperson said.
“The Congress has always fought against terrorism while the BJP has had an opposite record. Would Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah explain how terrorist Dawood Ibrahim’s wife came to Mumbai under their nose in March 2016 and then left the country. How the Maharashtra government and intelligence agencies didn’t even get a whiff of it and could not arrest her?”
Surjewala also said that some Islamic State agents arrested in Madhya Pradesh were found to have links with the BJP. “One of them Dhruv Saxena, was also a member of BJP’s IT cell,” he said.
“Is it not true that the BJP-PDP government in Jammu and Kashmir gave compensation to the family of terrorist Burhan Wani in December 2016,” Surjewala asked.
He also pointed out that the previous NDA government had released dreaded terrorists like Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Jargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh from the Indian custody in the Kandahar hijacking incident.
“A Maharashtra BJP leader Eknath Khadse had to resign for his alleged links with Dawood. So, the BJP should look inwards before pointing fingers at others.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Narendra Modi government on Tuesday approved an ambitious road construction and expansion programme of over 83,000 km over the next five years with an investment of about Rs 7 lakh crore.
The aim is to improve infrastructure, entail faster transportation and generate employment.
Briefing reporters after a cabinet meeting, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa said the road building projects will generate 14.2 crore man-days of jobs.
The massive road building programme includes 34,800 km of BharatMala project to be constructed with an investment of Rs 5,35,000 crore.
“The historic road building programme for progress and prosperity involves building 83,677 km of roads at an investment of Rs 6.92 lakh crore,” Lavasa said.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who also addressed the media, later tweeted that the huge public investment in road construction will generate employment.
There is a need to increase public investment and Rs 7 lakh crore for road expansion will generate employment opportunities, Jaitley tweeted.
The government has consistently battled accusations from the Congress and other opposition parties that the growth under the Modi government has been “jobless”.
Lavasa, who made a detailed presentation, said BharatMala includes economic corridors, border roads, coastal roads and greenfield expressways.
He said there will be 9,000 km of economic corridors, inter-corridor and feeder routes (6,000 km), national corridors efficiency improvement (5,000 km), border roads and international connectivity (2,000 km), coastal roads and port connectivity (2,000 km), Greenfield expressways (800 km) and balance national highway development works (10,000 km).
The BharatMala project will be funded by obtaining Rs 2.09 lakh crore from the market, private investment of Rs 1.06 lakh crore and Rs 2.19 lakh crore from central road fund, toll-operate-transfer model and from toll.
The remaining 48,877 km roads under other schemes with an outlay of Rs 1.57 lakh crore will also be undertaken in parallel by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways with 0.97 lakh crore from the central road fund and 0.59 lakh crore from budgetary support.
Lavasa said monetisation of 82 operating highways with an investment potential of Rs 34,000 crore has been taken up.
The bid for the first bundle of nine highway stretches of 680.64 km has been made with a monetisation value of Rs 6,258 crore, he added.
The road projects are aimed not only at improving connectivity but faster movement of trucks on highways for speedier transportation of goods and bringing down logistical costs.
Lavasa said India’s trade with its eastern neighbours will improve due to improvement in road infrastructure till border points.
He said India’s mercantile trade with Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal was $12 billion and linking Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal motor vehicles agreement and India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway will make India’s northeast region “a hub of East Asia trade”.
Lavasa said border connectivity will improve with development of 3,300 km of roads along the eastern and western borders.
The first phase of the programme will involve construction of 1,000 km of roads.
He said 2,100 km of coastal roads will be built to boost tourism and industrial development and 2,000 km for port connectivity.
“Connectivity to ports and road development will be in conjunction with the Sagarmala project and 2,000 km will be developed in the first phase.”
While 5,013 km of national highways were constructed in 2011-12 and expenditure incurred on road construction was Rs 35,186 crore, it had gone up to 8,231 km of national highways and Rs 82,091 crore of expenditure in 2016-17.
Referring to the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Lavasa said Rs 88,185 crore will be spent by the central and state governments over the next three years.
He said 1,09,302 km of rural roads will be laid to cover 34,434 habitations. In addition, 5,411 km of roads will be upgraded and new roads will be completed in three years in the districts affected by Left Wing Extremism.
—IANS
