by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Patna : Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP from Bihar’s Kishanganj, Maulana Asrar-ul-Haque Qasmi, passed away early on Friday following a heart attack. He was 76.
According to district officials, he died at the Kishanganj Circuit House. He will be buried at his native Tarabadi village.
Qasmi was a noted Islamic scholar and a popular face of the party in the state, particularly in Seemanchal comprising Kishanganj, Purnea, Araria and Katihar districts.
He won the Kishanganj seat on a Congress ticket in the 2009 general elections after five consecutive failures. He retained the constituency in 2014 despite the Narendra Modi wave in Bihar and across the country.
He had defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Dilip Kumar Jaiswal by a margin of over 1 lakh votes in 2014.
He was a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and also a founder member of the All India Milli Council.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Chennai/Thiruvananthapuram : Congress Working President in Kerala and Lok Sabha member from Wayanad, M.I. Shanavas passed away at a private hospital in Chennai on Wednesday, a party leader said. He was 67.
“The party has lost a stalwart. I have lost a dear brother,” Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala said.
Shanavas, a two time parliament member was ailing for sometime and was admitted at a hospital in the Tamil Nadu capital. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.
“His body will be brought to Kochi today. It will lay in state for the public to pay their last respects and the final rites will take place tomorrow,” said Chennithala.
A long time close aide of former Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, Shanavas along with Chennithala and former Kerala Speaker late G. Karthikeyan in the 1980s parted ways with Karunakaran and formed their own faction, ‘the reformist’.
Shanavas won the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Wayanad, which he retained in 2014.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his cabinet colleagues condoled the passing away of Shanavas.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Koriya/Jashpur/Darima (Chhattisgarh) : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his silence on the Rafale “scam” and assured poll-bound Chhattisgarh of completely waiving off farm loans if his party comes to power in the state.
Addressing rallies in the state, Gandhi tore into Modi and the Raman Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime in the state over a host of issues, particularly corruption and crony capitalism.
Ridiculing Modi for his assertions of being the country’s “chowkidar” (watchman), Gandhi said the entire country knows the “chowkidar has turned into a thief”.
“Modi keeps on making speeches and addresses electing rallies but doesn’t even utter a word on Rafale. The entire country knows that you did the deal to enrich your industrialist crony. The entire nation is now saying ‘chowkidar chor hai’ (watchman is a thief).
“At least now say something about Rafale, tell the people how you stole money from Indian Air Force (IAF) and gave it to your friend,” said Gandhi addressing a rally in Darima in Surguja district.
He charged the ruling BJP with creating two Chhattisgarhs, one of the rich and the other of poor and exploited. He assured that farmers’ loans would be completely waived off within 10 days of his party coming to power in the state.
“Chhattisgarh was created so that it natural resources can be utilised for the welfare of the people but now we have two Chhattisgarhs — one of the rich, of those wearing suit-boot, and the second of the masses — poor, marginalised, farmers and workers.
“We don’t want two Chhattisgarhs, we want justice,” said Gandhi, addressing a rally in the erstwhile princely state of Koriya.
Claiming that Rs 3.5 lakh crore of corporate loans were waived off by the Centre, Gandhi demanded reply from Modi as to why not even a rupee of farm loans was waived off.
“I had asked Modi why he was not writing off loans given to the poor farmers, but he never bothered to reply. So from here I declare that within 10 days of coming to power in the state, we will waive off loans of each and every farmer,” said Gandhi.
He said the waiver of farm loans will be offset by recoveries from fraudsters like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi who, with the help of Modi government, defrauded banks of billions of rupees.
Sharpening his attack on Modi over demonetisation and the Rafale deal, Gandhi alleged that “thieves, with the help of Modi, laundered their black money into white through demonetisation”.
“Modi now doesn’t talk about corruption because the entire nation knows that the ‘chowkidar’ (watchman) himself is the thief,” said Gandhi, accusing the Prime Minister of “only lying before the masses”.
Gandhi attacked Chief Minister Raman Singh over a Rs 5,000-crore chit-fund scam and a Rs 36,000-crore scam in the public distribution system (PDS).
“In the PDS scam, Rs 36,000 crore was siphoned off. A diary was seized where it was written that the money was given to CM Madam and Dr. Saheb. I want to ask Singh who are these CM Madam and Dr Saheb?”
The Congress leader also alleged that Chief Minister’s son Abhishek has undisclosed offshore accounts as per revelations in the Panama Papers.
Addressing another rally in Jashpur, Gandhi alleged the “Rafale deal was done by Modi to give Rs 30,000 crore to his industrialist crony”.
He also promised setting up food processing units in all the blocks in the state so that farmers could easily sell their produce and get the right price, and their sons and daughters jobs in these factories.
He also flayed the Singh regime for unemployment, saying despite thousands of vacancies in various government departments and institutions, youth were not employed due to corruption.
Gandhi said the difference between the Congress and Modi was that his party always strove to fulfill its promises.
“Unlike Modi, who makes tall promises only never to fulfil them, we make promises knowing we will fulfil them,” he said exuding confidence that his party would come to power in the state.
The second phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly polls in 72 constituencies spread across 19 districts will held on November 20.
The first phase of polling in 18 constituencies across eight Maoist-affected districts was held on November 12. The results will be declared on December 11.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Former Union Minister P. Chidambaram on Monday took a dig at the BJP for promising statues and temples ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, after failing to fulfil its earlier poll promises of development and jobs.
“At the beginning of five years, the promise is for development, jobs and money in every citizen’s bank account,” the Congress veteran tweeted.
“Nothing achieved, at the end of five years, the new promise is for grand temples, giant statues and doles,” he said as he reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his earlier promises of vikas (development), providing two crore jobs annually and bringing back black money stashed in foreign tax havens and filling up the poor man’s coffer with Rs 15 lakh each.
Chidambaram’s latest jibe at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party comes at a time when the saffron brigade has been raising the pitch for the construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The BJP on Monday accused the Congress of trying to build a momentum against the construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya and asked party President Rahul Gandhi to clear his stand on the issue.
“They are trying to build a momentum against the construction of Ram Temple. We want an early verdict but they are trying to delay,” BJP Spokesperson G.V.L. Narasimha Rao told a press conference.
His comments came in the wake of the reported remarks of Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor. who said on Sunday that while a vast majority of Hindus believe that Ayodhya was the birthplace of Lord Ram, no good Hindu would want to see a Ram temple built by demolishing somebody else’s place of worship.
Rao said Tharoor’s comments is yet another attempt to somehow “muddy waters” at a time when the Supreme Court is likely to take up this issue on a fast-track basis.
“Linking construction of temple to demolition of the structure several years ago is an attempt by the Congress to indulge in vote bank politics,” he said.
Rao said that the BJP hopes for an early verdict in this regard while many of the Congress leaders are again and again giving statements against the construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya.
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal had earlier demanded that the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute should be heard after the 2019 general elections which triggered a major political storm.
Rao, a Rajya Sabha member, also took on Rahul Gandhi accusing him of indulging in vote bank politics.
“Rahul Gandhi sometimes turns into a Shiv Bhakt and then goes to meet the intellectuals to say that they are a party for the Muslims. He should answer whether he is a Hindu or not. Will Rahul clearly speak about his party’s stand on Ram temple,” he said.
On his part, Tharoor accused the media of distorting his words vis-a-vis the Ram temple issue and stressed that whatever he said was his personal opinion and not his party’s opinion.
“I condemn the malicious distortion of my words by some media in the service of political masters. I had said, ‘Most Hindus would want a temple at what they believe to be Ram’s birthplace. But no good Hindu would want it to be built by destroying another’s place of worship’,” Tharoor said in a tweet.
“I was asked for my personal opinion at a literary festival and gave it as such. I am not a spokesperson for my party and did not claim to be speaking for it,” he added.
—IANS
