by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Countering the BJP’s attack on Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and terming it a ‘witch hunt’, the Congress on Wednesday demanded to know who paid for over 100 trips Prime Minister Narendra Modi made by chartered plane across India and abroad when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister between 2003 and 2007.
The party also accused the BJP of trying to divert attention from allegations against BJP President Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah by raising the Vadra issue.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the estimated cost of these air travels was around Rs 16.56 crore.
“The nation wants to know, we want to know, as to who paid for these chartered plane travels by Modi. No information has been furnished till date in response to an RTI query made in 2007,” Singhvi said.
Defending Robert Vadra in a case of alleged favour he took from arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, Singhvi said the mails selectively leaked by the government prove nothing against the son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi whereas details of Modi’s travels have been officially sought through the RTI.
Singhvi disclosed, based on RTI revelations, that Modi travelled to Switzerland (July 1, 2007), South Korea (June 16, 2007), Japan (April 15, 2007) and China (November 1, 2006) along with some well-known industrialists and business tycoons. “They are all by charter firm called Planet Aviation,” he said.
Waving a picture of Bhandari with Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Singhvi alleged that he was close to Bharatiya Janata Party leaders.
The Congress leader also demanded to know how Bhandari was allowed to flee abroad in December 2016 even though his passport had reportedly been impounded by the government in June that year.
“Who helped Bhandari fly out of the country much like Vijay Mallya? It was not our government in 2016.”
The BJP had on Tuesday asked the Congress to explain the alleged links between Vadra and arms dealer Bhandari.
Citing the documents which were received by Gujarat CLP leader Arjun Modhwadia on the travel of the then Chief Minister of Gujarat through RTI replies in 2007, Singhvi asked who paid for the 100 trips.
“Deafening silence continues, he has recrived no reply to his RTI. These trips, are clearly trips by a constitutional functionary, position holder, they are provided for by private persons and we do not have any accounts of them.
“We must have an accountability first,” he said.
Singhvi also said that of the amount Rs 16.5 crore (for the 100 trips), Rs 5 crore was for four foreign charters.
“The people accompanying these charters include industrialists like Sudhir Mehta of Torrent, Parimal Nathwani, Pankaj Patel of Cadila, Prasad Menon of Tata, Harishankaran of ILFS, Nikhil Meshwani of Reliance, Rajeev Jyoti of Bombay Rubber, Gautam Adani, H.K. Patel, B.K. Goenka,” said Singhvi.
He also said under the law, any constitutional position holder, cabinet Minister or Chief Minister – must declare a gift above Rs 500. “If the state government has not paid for these trips even partially, it is deemed to be a gift to that constitutional position holder,” said Singhvi.
“It is not a question of doing for Vibrant Gujarat or for Gujarat’s Industry’, it is the question of receiving a benefit from beneficiaries of Gujarat’s Industrial Policy because somebody has to pay,” he added.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday asked the Congress party to explain the alleged links between Vadra and Sanjay Bhandari.
Defending Vadra, Singhvi said: “The government could not find anything in 41 months. We have not heard of any conviction and no prosecution successful.
“Vadra’s lawyer had said in a written statement that he owns no such property and the emails are manufactured,” he added.
Singhiv also pointed out that Sitharaman selectively did not mention that the government had earlier proudly listed as their achievement the import of Swiss-made basic trainer aircraft Pilatus, which was completed in 2015. Bhandari’s company, Offset India Solution Private Limited, is under the scanner for alleged corruption in the Pilatus deal.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amulya Ganguli,
The reason why the UP election results in May were a showpiece for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was that they represented, in the party’s opinion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s continuing forward march.
Yet, the overblown nature of this self-congratulatory assessment will be evident if the outcome of the five elections which took place at the time are taken into consideration.
A more realistic picture will be available if all the results are taken together, for it will show that the original verdict was 3-2 in the Congress’s favour with an outright win in Punjab and emerging as the largest party in Goa and Manipur.
It is another matter that what the Congress won in the swings, it lost in the roundabouts because a nimble-footed BJP managed to lure away a sufficient number of MLAs to its side to rob the Congress of its No.1 position in the Goa and Manipur assemblies.
But if the BJP had been humble enough to look at the results in their entirety, then it might not have gloated over its success in UP. That election was one which the BJP could not but win because its principal opponent, the Samajwadi Party (SP), had shot itself in the foot via its internal factional battles.
It was the belief, however, that the BJP had decimated the opposition in the country’s largest state which apparently made the party commit what may turn out to be a fateful mistake by choosing one of the most hawkish of the hardliners to be the Chief Minister.
True, Yogi Adityanath has toned down some of his utterances in deference to Modi’s “development for all” rhetoric.
But it is as an administrator that his inadequacies have come to the fore, thereby showing that devotion to the saffron cause may give a leg-up while climbing the official ladder, but it doesn’t help in running the government.
Since law and order in UP has always been dismal, it will be unfair to blame the present government for its failures on this count. But what has attracted countrywide attention are the deaths of scores of children in the state’s hospitals.
Considering that UP once witnessed a Rs 9,000 crore (over $1 billion) scam in connection with a rural health programme when two Chief Medical Officers were killed and their deputy died in custody, the latest tragedy may appear to be a part of a dreadful pattern.
But its hurtful impact on the Chief Minister and his party cannot be denied.
To make matters worse, the upsurge of student demonstrations in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) over what the Vice Chancellor initially dismissed as an incident of eve-teasing has been seen as yet another evidence of dissatisfaction with the ruling dispensation.
The unrest in BHU has followed the defeat of the BJP’s affiliate, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), in student union elections in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Hyderabad University, Gauhati University and elsewhere.
The Vice Chancellor’s ouster has been sought by, among others, the National Commission for Women, but a BJP government can hardly be expected to remove someone with a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) background.
There is little doubt, however, that episodes such as these have deprived the BJP of much of the sheen of its victory in less than six months.
The party will be wary, therefore, of the reports that the rift in the SP between Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav has healed. It is the rupture between father and son which had contributed largely to the BJP’s success by undermining its biggest challenger.
But it isn’t only the reconciliation which will be of concern to Yogi Adityanath and Co. Of even greater worry will be the possibility of the SP under Akhilesh teaming up with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to take on the BJP.
Akhilesh has been talking of such an alliance for quite some time although his father is against it. But now that the son is fully in control of the party, a tie-up between the SP and the BSP is a distinct possibility, not least because the two know that the BJP cannot be unseated otherwise.
The SP-BSP combination’s advantage is that their combined vote share of 44 per cent in the last assembly election — the SP 21.8 and the BSP 22.2 — is higher than the BJP’s 39.7 per cent.
If the Congress’s 6.3 per cent is added to the SP-BSP’s 44, then the trio becomes a formidable force.
It was only to be expected, therefore, for Yogi Adityanath to turn to building a 100-metre tall statue of Lord Ram on the banks of the Saryu river to boost the BJP’s fortunes.
Since he appears incapable of providing efficient governance, recourse to religion to consolidate the Hindu vote is the only way out for the Chief Minister and his party.
There are also reports that he will be fielded by the BJP as a campaigner in the upcoming elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat to rev up the party’s position with a strong dose of Hindutva at a time when the economic slowdown has robbed Modi’s ‘vikas’ (development) slogan of much of its appeal.
The BJP has probably never felt the need for a saffron hawk more than at present.
(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
Patna : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said it was a “blot” that Indian universities do not figure among the top 500 of the world and added that the government has decided to give autonomy and Rs 10,000 crore to top 10 public and 10 private universities over the next five years to make them world-class.
Addressing the centenary celebrations of Patna University here in presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Modi said Indian universities such as Nalanda and Takshashila attracted students from all over the world.
“We are not among the top 500. We should remove this blot or not. The situation should change through our determination and hard work,” Modi said.
He said the government has come out with a scheme to make 10 private and 10 public universities world-class by providing them autonomy from the constraints of government rules and freedom to grow.
“They will be given Rs 10,000 crore in the next five years,” Modi said.
He said the selection will not be on any recommendation. “The universities will be a selected on the basis of a challenge in which they will be required to prove their mettle. The selection will be based on factors such as history, performance and its roadmap reach global benchmarks. A third party professional agency will be involved in the selection process,” Modi said.
Referring to demands for making Patna University a central university, Modi said it should strive to be among the globally-ranked varsity based on the competition and “this was many times ahead of being a central university”.
“Patna University should not stay behind (in the challenge),” he said.
Modi said reforms in the country’s education sector have progressed at a slow speed and there have been differences among educationists which had hampered innovation with the governments too not measuring up to the task.
The Prime Minister said that for two years he heard arguments for and against granting more autonomy to Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and then a big decision was taken.
“It is for the first time that the IIMs are out of government control and have been professionally opened up. This is a big opportunity for them and they would make the best use,” he said.
Modi said that Patna University was known to produce IAS and IPS officers and in the same manner IIMs are known to produce Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of global companies.
He also urged universities to move from conventional teaching to innovative learning and involve alumni associations more actively.
Modi said both students and universities face challenge due to technological intervention and there was need to “un-learn, de-learn and re-learn”.
He said 65 per cent of the population of the country was below 35 years in age and the dreams of development can be fulfilled.
“We need to understand the changing trends across the world and the increased spirit of competitiveness. In that context India has to make its place in the world,” Modi said.
He appreciated the efforts of Nitish Kumar towards development of the state and said the progress of eastern India is the Centre’s topmost priority.
“The commitment of Nitish Kumar towards the progress of Bihar is commendable. The Centre attaches topmost importance to the development of eastern India,” Modi said.
He said when the country celebrates the 75th anniversary of Independence day in 2022, he wants to see Bihar standing among the list of prosperous states.
Modi also said that many top level officials of civil services are students of Patna University.
“In every state, the top level of the civil services has people who have studied in Patna University. In Delhi, I interact with so many officials, many of whom belong to Bihar… I consider it my honour to visit Patna University and be among the students. I bow to this land of Bihar. This university has nurtured students who have contributed greatly to the nation.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Patna : Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Saturday to attend the centenary celebrations of the Patna University.
Modi was received by Bihar Governor Satyapal Malik, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders.
Unprecedented security arrangements were in place for Modi’s visit. Patna has been turned into a fortress with thousands of security personnel deployed and traffic diversions made.
After attending the centenary celebrations of the Patna University, Modi will lay the foundation stones for several projects here.
Four sewerage projects under the Namami Gange Programme and four national highway projects in Mokama area of Patna district.
The total outlay of these projects will be over Rs 3,700 crore.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, Employment, News, Politics
New Delhi : With the economy slowing down and joblessness becoming a major issue, the newly-constituted Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday identified 10 major priority areas including accelerating economic growth and employment over the next six months.
The 10 themes were identified during the first meeting of the council chaired by NITI Aayog Member Bibek Debroy. The council was reconstituted a fortnight ago in what was seen as the government acknowledging for the first time the problem of economic slowdown.
Apart from giving recommendations to the Prime Minister on these issues, the EAC-PM would also focus on the next budget preparation over the coming months, Debroy told reporters here after the meeting.
During the meeting, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian focused attention on accelerating economic growth — including investments and exports — using a combination of different policy levers.
The council took stock of the current economic, fiscal and monetary policy environment and resolved to focus on key identified issues.
“We have identified 10 themes that we would initially work on till we have our next meeting one month from now,” Debroy said.
“The 10 themes identified are economic growth, employment and job creation, informal sector and integration, fiscal framework, monetary policy, public expenditure, institutions of economic governance, agriculture and animal husbandry, patterns of consumption and production, and the social sector,” he added.
Debroy said the entire thrust of the council would be on specific implementable recommendations, which would distinguish it from other bodies.
“Our view will be on specific thing you can change,” he said.
The council members would come up with a report in the coming months through consultative processes with ministries, states, private sector and other stakeholders.
They would also come out with specific issue papers to address key concerns, a statement said.
—IANS
