by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh) : Raking up the controversy over the reported remarks of Rahul Gandhi that the Congress is a party for Muslims, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the Congress and other parties of wanting continuance of practices like triple talaq.
He also wondered whether the Congress was interested only in the welfare of Muslim men and not women.
“For the last two days I am hearing that a naamdar leader (a sarcastic reference to Rahul Gandhi) recently said that the Congress is a party of Muslims. I’m not surprised. Even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once said that Muslims have the first right over nation’s natural resources.
“But I want to ask the naamdar of Congress, congratulations to them. But please tell us whether the Congress is only for Muslim men? Or does it have space for Muslim women too because they don’t stand with Muslim women on issues of triple talaq and nikah halala,” he said addressing a public meeting after inaugurating the Purvanchal Expressway in a speech aimed at the next Lok Sabha polls in the battle ground state.
Modi said all the parties have been exposed on the issue of triple talaq. It concerns the lives of lakhs and crores of Muslim women. Even in Islamic countries, there is a ban on triple talaq, he said.
The Prime Minister’s attack on Gandhi and the Congress on the issue of Muslims came a day after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accused the Congress of dividing the country on communal lines and playing a dangerous game before 2019 general elections.
Citing a report in an Urdu daily which claimed that Gandhi told a meeting of Muslim intellectuals earlier this week that the Congress is a party for Muslims, she had demanded an apology from the Congress President.
The Prime Minister also accused the opposition parties of not allowing Parliament to function. “They don’t allow the Parliament to function. They stall the proceedings. I would like all anti-Modi leaders to go and meet these women who have been affected by triple talaq and nikah halala and then come to Parliament. People have to be alert about such parties.
“These parties want triple talaq to continue. I will try to make them understand and bring them together for the sake of Muslim women so that they get freedom,” he alleged.
He said these are 18th century parties in the 21st century and cannot do any good for the country.
Modi said that Purvanchal Expressway will take Uttar Pradesh to greater heights. “More than Rs 23,000 crore will be spent on the project. All cities, towns between Lucknow and Ghazipur, that fall on this route will witness a change.”
The Prime Minister also said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had changed perception about Uttar Pradesh.
“The Yogi Adityanath government has been able to control crime rate, corruption in Uttar Pradesh. He has contributed immensely in the state’s development,” Modi said.
He also said besides highways, work was also on relating to waterways and airways.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amulya Ganguli,
Ever since the A.K. Antony committee identified the Congress’s Muslim “appeasement” tag as a major reason for its electoral reverses, the 133-year-old Grand Old Party (GOP) has been unable to formulate a clear-cut policy on the country’s largest minority community.
In a transparent attempt to shed the derogatory label given by its opponents, Congress President Rahul Gandhi has engaged in what has been called “temple hopping” and has even expressed a desire to go on a pilgrimage to Kailash Manasarovar, the ultimate pilgrimage destination in Tibet for Hindus.
The chances, however, of these gestures persuading Hindus to turn away in droves from the avowedly pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and support the Congress are minimal. Instead, the latter’s new Hindu card may confuse the Muslims.
Rahul’s father, Rajiv Gandhi, also made the mistake of following a muddled policy when he opposed the Supreme Court’s judgement in favour of a divorced Muslim woman, Shah Bano, at the behest of Muslim fundamentalists and then ordered the opening of the locks of the Babri Masjid to please their Hindu counterparts.
However, the fact that religious overtures do not matter if the nation is seen to be advancing economically was proven in 2009 when the Congress increased its tally of Lok Sabha seats at a time when India was experiencing the fastest-ever reduction of poverty, according to Arvind Subramanian, the former Chief Economic Adviser of the Narendra Modi government.
Yet, only five years later, the Congress suffered its worst ever defeat largely because of the “socialistic” policies favoured by Sonia Gandhi advocated by the crypto-communist members of her National Advisory Council at the expense of economic reforms.
What these ups and downs show is that economy is the key. There is no need either to display an overt devotion to Hinduism or hold a meeting with a select group of Muslim intellectuals, as Rahul Gandhi has done, to find out what their community wants.
It is another matter that at the moment, the Muslims want a sense of security, which was pointed out by former Vice President Hamid Ansari. Their angst is understandable at a time when a Union minister garlands a group charged with killing a Muslim.
But, in the long run, the most palpable sense of safety is provided by a buoyant economy as it fosters a feeling of wellness which few want to disrupt through targeted violence.
The BJP’s success in 2014 was the outcome of Modi’s appropriation of the economic reforms which the Manmohan Singh government had neglected in its twilight years when, as former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said, the government made the mistake of taking its foot off the accelerator of reforms.
It is patent enough that the BJP would not have fared so well in 2014 if large sections of the Muslims had not voted for it. If they are now feeling uneasy, as Ansari has said, the reasons are not only the sporadic acts of violence of the saffron activists, but also that the reforms have not delivered to the extent they were expected to do.
As the original initiator of the reforms, the Congress’s focus should be on ways to rev up the economy and not on photo-ops at temples and powwows with Muslim notables. If the party can generate enough confidence about its ability to do what it alleges the Modi government has failed to do, there will be no need for any kind of religious overtures.
Along with the articulation of development-oriented ideas, the Congress will have to be less apologetic about its pursuit of secularism. While Jawaharlal Nehru’s Fabian socialism can be discarded when it doesn’t exist even in the fatherland of the creed, his secularism has to be preserved and nurtured.
If the Congress earned the reputation of being a “Muslim party”, as Sonia Gandhi has said, it is because of the misapplication of the secular principles as the Shah Bano fiasco showed, for the doctrine does not entail pandering to the Muslim hardliners as was done in the mid-1980s but to the ordinary members of the community.
Their value is immense not because they constitute 14.2 per cent of the population, numbering 172.2 million, second only to Indonesia (209 million) and ahead of Pakistan (167.4 million), but because of their contributions to India’s art, architecture, cuisine and culture. Moreover, their interest lies in advancing in step with the rest of the country as M.S. Sathyu’s iconic film, “Garam Hawa”, depicted in the 1970s.
The Congress, however, made the mistake of seeing the community through the lenses of the bigoted and bearded maulvis (clerics) and abiding by their prejudices. Hence, the “Muslim party” nomenclature because the BJP was quick to capitalise on the GOP’s lapses in judgement.
It is time for the Congress to clarify that secularism does not stand for appeasement of minorities but ensuring that they have a place of honour in the country.
(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 Jaideep Sarin,
Chandigarh : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi once caused a stir by claiming over 70 per cent Punjab’s youth were addicted to drugs. The party, which returned to power in March last year, had used every political trick to highlight the rampant drug abuse in the state during the campaign for the assembly polls. The issue has now returned to haunt its leaders.
With over 30 deaths linked to drug abuse being reported in June from different parts of Punjab, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is facing an onslaught from the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for his government’s failure to curb the menace.
Before coming to power, Amarinder Singh had, in December 2015, publicly taken a religious pledge by holding a copy of the “Gutka Sahib”, a Sikh holy book, and saying that if he came to power, he would wipe out the scourge of drugs from Punjab within four weeks.
His Congress government is now over 15 months old, and has clearly failed to contain the drug menace.
Faced with criticism and pressure from the opposition, Amarinder hurriedly called a special meeting of his cabinet on Monday to address the issue.
However, other than making statements and claims, and passing the buck to the central government by suggesting stronger laws against drug peddlers and smugglers, the Amarinder government has failed to do enough to contain the drug problem, say opposition leaders.
Be it heroin or “Chitta” (a white powder drug), other lifestyle chemical drugs and opium, the supply chain has not been broken in Punjab despite the Amarinder government’s claim that there has been a crackdown on those dealing in drugs.
The Chief Minister has, however, gone on record to claim that thousands of people linked to the drugs trade had been arrested.
“The intensive action plan unfolded and executed by us during the last over a year has resulted in arrest of 18,977 drug peddlers and treatment of more than two lakh drug victims,” Amarinder said this week.
In a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday, the Chief Minister pointed out that the existing Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, provides for death penalty for certain offences if these are committed for a second time.
“This means that a person can indulge in these nefarious activities and get away at least once, causing substantial damage to the youth and the society,” Amarinder pointed out, adding that a harsher penalty for first-time offenders in drugs could be a deterrent to those indulging in this illegal activity.
For the past over two decades, the unholy nexus of the drug peddlers and smugglers with police officials and politicians has been alleged but it has not been broken.
The Congress and AAP leaders used to accuse an Akali Dal minister of being involved in the drugs racket. The drug trade in Punjab has also been linked to Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and other countries.
Leader of Opposition and AAP leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira is not impressed by the statements being issued by the Amarinder government.
“The government is not doing anything concrete at the ground level. None of the so-called big fish in the drug trade have been arrested so far,” Khaira pointed out.
The government started on a positive note last year by setting up a Special Task Force (STF) to deal with the drugs menace.
A year down the line, the STF finds its wings clipped and its chief, senior police officer Harpreet Singh Sidhu, is not being allowed to use his powers to get to the bottom of the drug trade.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that there has been significant improvement in the internal security situation in the last four years with “recurrent terror attacks that were common under the UPA” now being history and Maoist violence declining by 20 per cent in the affected areas.
In an interview with ‘Swarajya’ magazine, the Prime Minister said: “I would like to salute our brave security forces who are eternally vigilant and are ensuring peace as well as prosperity for 125 crore Indians.
“You can ascertain our security situation from the fact that recurrent terror attacks that were common under the UPA are now history.”
Describing his vision for Jammu and Kashmir, which is under Governor’s rule after the BJP withdrew its support last month from the ruling coalition led by the PDP, Modi said: “In Kashmir, our goal is good governance, development, responsibility and accountability.”
Asked about possibility of dialogue with stakeholders in Kashmir, he avoided a direct answer.
“We have appointed an interlocutor and he is in touch with many people. He is travelling to the interiors and engaging with people.”
On Maoist front, the Prime Minister said geographically, the influence of Maoist violence has shrunk substantially.
“The numbers vis-a-vis Maoist violence in the last four years should make every Indian happy. Maoist violence has declined by 20 per cent in the affected states, with a concomitant reduction of 34 per cent in deaths in 2017 compared to 2013,” he said.
Asked whether the area under Left Wing Extremism (LWE) has really shrunk, Modi said 44 out of 126 districts have been removed from the list of LWE-affected areas based on changed ground realities.
“These are the districts that did not see any violence for the last four years.
“It (LWE) adversely impacts the psyche of the local population… Due to the government’s policies, about 3,380 Maoists surrendered from 2014 to 2017. From 2010 to 2013, the number stood around 1,380,” he said.
Asserting that only development can solve people’s problems, Modi said that his government adopted the approach to devote unparalleled resources towards the development of areas prone to violence.
“It is true that Maoist violence had stalled the progress of many districts in central and eastern India. That is why in 2015, our government formulated a comprehensive ‘National Policy and Action Plan’ to eradicate Maoist violence.
“Along with zero tolerance towards violence, we have also focused on a massive push to infrastructure and social empowerment to bring a positive change in the lives of the poor people in these regions.
“The unparalleled development focus is reaping rich dividends,” he said, adding that about 4,500 km of roads have already been built in 34 Maoist-affected districts.
“Work at such speed and scale was not even imaginable,” Modi said.
Asked about the threat to his life, the Prime Minister said: “Whenever I am travelling, I see that a lot of people, from all age groups and sections of society, are out on the streets to greet me and welcome me.
“I can’t just remain seated in my car, aloof from their display of affection and care. That is why I invariably get down and greet, interact with people as much as I can.
“I am not a Shahenshah or an imperious ruler who is unaffected by their warmth. Being among people gives me lot of strength,” he said.
Modi also said the security situation in the Northeast has improved tremendously.
“In 2017, we had the lowest insurgency-related incidents and casualties among civilians and security forces in the last 20 years,” he said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of using the 2016 surgical strike carried out in Pakistan as “political fodder” to gain votes and listed many similar strikes done in the last two decades to assert this was not the first action of its kind.
Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala’s comments came a day after the release of the video footage of the Indian Army’s surgical strikes in September 2016 when troops crossed the Line of Control (LoC) to attack terror hubs in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Surjewala told reporters that BJP President Amit Shah had “dishonoured” the 70-year-long history of bravery and sacrifice of the armed forces by making a “disgraceful statement” on October 7, 2016 that the “Indian Army had crossed the LoC for the first time in 68 years”.
Stressing that Congress President Rahul Gandhi and her predecessor Sonia Gandhi supported the armed forces and the government in the 2016 action, Surjewala said the Army had conducted strategic surgical strikes “with utmost precision and effective penetration” at different times in the last two decades.
He listed eight “surgical strikes” conducted prior to 2016.
“We are proud that our forces successfully conducted multiple surgical strikes over the last two decades, particularly post 2000 — January 21, 2000 (Nadala Enclave, across Neelam river); September 18, 2003 (Baroh Sector, Poonch); June 19, 2008 (Bhattal Sector, Poonch); August 30 to September 1, 2011 (Sharda Sector, across Neelam river Valley in Kel); January 6, 2013 (Sawan Patra Checkpost); July 27 to 28, 2013 (Nazapir Sector); August 6, 2013 (Neelam Valley); January 14, 2014; September 28 to 29, 2016.”
He said the Modi government sought credit for the sacrifices of the soldiers but had “utterly failed” to provide the direction, vision and policy for dealing with Pakistan and checkmating Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.
“No wonder the apathy and incapacity of the Modi government has resulted in the sacrifice of 146 soldiers, more than 1,600 ceasefire violations by Pakistan and 79 terrorist attacks post September 2016,” Surjewala said.
“Doublespeak of the Modi government and the BJP’s stand is reflected in the stepmotherly treatment of our armed forces, both in terms of providing for security apparatus as also in slashing their budgetary allocation.”
Surjewala alleged that Army Vice Chief Sarath Chand was “forced” to say that 68 per cent of all equipment was vintage.
“On account of budgetary cuts, procurement from ordinance factory is being reduced from 94 per cent to 50 per cent, which will force our soldiers to buy uniforms, combat dress, belts and shoes on their own.”
Surjewala said the report of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence highlighted lack of money for emergency purchases by Armed Forces after the Uri terror attack, the surgical strike and the Doklam standoff with China.
—IANS
