by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : After a day of heated debate on the controversial Rafale deal Parliament, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday again picked up the gauntlet and said that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke for two hours and still did not answer the two questions posed by him on the Rafale deal.
Gandhi’s remarks came as he shared an “edited” video on his Twitter account of the Parliament debate on the Rafale deal. In the video, he is seen posing two questions: Who took away the contract from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL); and whether Indian Air Force (IAF) officers objected to the changes in the deal.
Sitharaman and other Bharatiya Janata Party ministers are shown to be sitting silently in response to the questions.
“Watch and share this video. Let every Indian ask the Prime Minister and his ministers these questions,” the Congress President said.
Gandhi, on Friday, had said that Sitharaman evaded his questions on the controversial Rafale deal and “ran away” when asked a pointed question if the IAF objected to the changes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made in “two minutes” to the deal, negotiated over eight years.
“Instead of answering the question, she started doing drama — ‘Oh I was insulted. I was called a liar’. My simple question was that after such a long negotiation by the Air Force chief, Defence Minister, secretaries and Air Force officers, did those who did the whole negotiation object when Modi did the bypass surgery to the negotiated deal,” Gandhi had said.
Sitharaman dismissed all allegations of corruption in the Rafale deal and in a reply lasting over two-and-half hours in the Lok Sabha on Friday to a debate on the deal with French manufacturer Dassault, said: “Bofors was a scam, but Rafale was a decision taken in national interest. Rafale will bring back Modi to build a new India and remove corruption.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Panaji : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday slammed the BJP for what he described as an orchestrated attack on his party workers at a demonstration organised here by the state BJP to protest against his allegations of irregularities in the Rafale fighter jet deal.
In his message shared on Facebook, Gandhi also said that he was proud of the “spirit of Gandhigiri” displayed by Congress’ state women’s chief Pratima Coutinho, who was allegedly attacked by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters during the clash on Thursday afternoon.
“Democracy frustrates the BJP. This designed, deliberated and organised attack on Congress workers in Goa is an exemplification of that feeling. The attempt is to instil fear,” Gandhi said on the social media site.
“The cowards who came to attack us in Goa, and their bosses sitting here in Delhi, should know, fear is alien to the workers of the Congress party,” Gandhi said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should “read about the fate of those rulers who chose to attack non-violent Congress workers in this country”.
Meanwhile, the state Congress legislative party and the Pradesh Congress Committee on Saturday met to condemn Friday’s attack on the party’s workers.
“It was a completely state-sponsored mob which included members of the Chief Minister’s Office, Speaker’s Office, MLAs, Ministers, top BJP functionaries including the state president and was supported by the police machinery,” state Congress President Girish Chodankar said.
Congress leaders also met state Director General of Police Muktesh Chander and demanded action against senior BJP functionaries named in the complaint.
Both the Congress as well as the BJP leaders have filed First Information Reports against each other following the clash, with each accusing the other of rioting, assault, and outraging the modesty of women.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions, Politics
By Amulya Ganguli,
By setting in motion the process of undoing the pronounced pro-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tilt in Indian politics when the party secured a majority in the Lok Sabha and ruled at one time over 19 states, the voters of the three heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have sent out two unambiguous messages.
One is the old warning about pride preceding a fall. The hyperbole of the BJP president Amit Shah’s declaration that his party will rule for 50 years has been shown to be so much hot air as has been the observation of a loyal mandarin, national security adviser Ajit Doval, that the country needs a strong, stable government – obviously meaning Narendra Modi’s rule – for the next 10 years.
It was in keeping with these grandiose assertions that the BJP built the world’s tallest statue – of Congress stalwart Vallabhbhai Patel, whom the BJP can be said to have misappropriated from the Congress – and announced the plans for an almost equally large statue of Lord Ram.
But none of these achievements and claims have saved it from a 0-3 drubbing at the hustings. The lesson from this electoral whitewash of the three BJP-ruled states is that no mercy can be expected from the electorate for the Modi government’s failure to keep the promise of vikas or development. It is obvious that economic stagnation and agricultural distress have spelt doom for the BJP.
The second message from the results is that Rahul Gandhi has succeeded in exposing the falsity of the charges that had been levelled against him ever since he came into politics. Yet, neither being derisively called “Pappu” or an adolescent kid, or of being a “pathological liar”, to quote Arun Jaitley, had any effect on his emergence as a capable leader, who took the lead in addressing the media after the recent opposition conclave while veterans like Sharad Pawar and H.D. Deve Gowda remained in the background.
It is now obvious after the Congress’s success in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh that Rahul Gandhi will increasingly be in the forefront of the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) efforts, especially when the other major convener of the alliance, Chandrababu Naidu, has suffered a setback because of his Telugu Desam Party’s poor showing in the Telangana elections.
The taking of centre-stage by the Congress president is likely to turn the 2019 general election into a presidential-style contest between him and Narendra Modi. Up until last Tuesday, the BJP would have looked forward to such an unequal fight, in its view, between Pappu and the party’s hero with his macho image.
But no longer. Now, it will be a confrontation between the youthful standard-bearer of a rejuvenated party and the aging leader of an organisation which is seen to be on a slippery slope because of failures on several fronts – economic, administrative as the disarray in the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Reserve Bank of India shows, and an “inability” – whether inadvertently or by design – to rein in the Hindutva storm-troopers.
It is possible that these Hindu militants were let loose with one of the BJP’s chief propagandists, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanah, instigating them with his venomous Ali-Bajrang Bali communal polasization because the party had been sensing for quite some time – presumably after its setbacks in Karnataka – that it was losing ground.
Seeing the receding mirage of the Hindu rashtra, which was thought by the saffron brotherhood to be within reach because of the BJP’s political clout, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), purportedly a “cultural” organization, jumped into the fray with its demand for the immediate enactment of a law for constructing the Ram temple.
Its calculation apparently was that the law would shore up the BJP’s sagging political fortunes by mobilising the Hindus behind the party. If BJP MP Subramanian Swamy is to be believed, it is the drive for Hindutva which enthuses the saffron cadres and brings in votes for the party, and not vikas.
But the ploy, which included a pledge by the RSS to revive the Ramjanmabhoomi movement of 1992-93 which led to the Babri masjid’s demolition, failed to check the Congress’s revival and the signs of erosion of the BJP’s base of support.
Now that a presidential-style contest is on the cards, it will be advisable for Rahul Gandhi to live up to the lesson which he says he has learnt from Modi’s mistake – that of a lack of humility because “arrogance is fatal for a politician”.
While the Prime Minister has tweeted his acceptance of the people’s “mandate”, some of the spokespersons of the BJP and the RSS have been describing the Congress’s success in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh as “accidental” because of the marginal difference in the vote share of the two parties.
In Rajasthan, the Congress received 39.3 per cent of the votes while the BJP got 38.8. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP’s percentage was higher at 41 compared to the Congress’s 40.9 per cent although the Congress won a larger number of seats.
The BJP is evidently unwilling to accept a result which has upended its dream of ushering in a Congress-mukt (free) India.
(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
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 | Opinions, Politics
By Amulya Ganguli,
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) hope of avoiding the nightmare of a united opposition may well be fulfilled.
After K. Chandrashekhar Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi poured cold water on the idea of a federal front floated by him and Mamata Banerjee some time ago, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) czarina, Mayawati, has scuttled the possibility of a united opposition battling the BJP by charting out her own course.
By forming an alliance with breakaway Congress leader Ajit Jogi in Chhattisgarh and unilaterally announcing the names of 22 BSP candidates in Madhya Pradesh, Mayawati has virtually dumped the Congress and exposed the hollowness of the bonhomie which the non-BJP leaders had displayed at the swearing-in of Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru last May.
All eyes will now be on Uttar Pradesh to see whether the understanding between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BSP, which paid rich dividends for the two in recent by-elections, will last till 2019.
Given Mayawati’s disinclination to go along with the Congress and her demand for a “respectable” share of seats in an electoral arrangement, it is open to question whether the Uttar Pradesh tie-up will survive the strains of her mercurial temperament.
Several reasons have been cited to explain her hesitancy to be a part of a broad-based anti-BJP front. One is that she is under pressure because of the pending cases against her being pursued by the Enforcement Directorate and other government agencies.
The other is that she wants to assert her hold on the Dalits at a time when young leaders of the community like Jignesh Mewani and Chandrashekhar Azad “Ravan” are coming to the fore.
A third factor is her known unrealiability as an ally which was in evidence in Uttar Pradesh in the mid-1990s when she dumped the SP in favour of her sworn enemy at the time, the BJP, and then ditched it as well.
More recently, she is back to an understanding with the SP which, too, had become a sworn enemy following the so-called circuit house incident in Lucknow in 1995 when she faced a serious threat from a group of Samajwadi Party “goons”.
However, what the latest uncertainties in the wake of her politicking suggests is that a far more concerted attempt to form an alliance of the national opposition parties is needed than the present desultory initiatives that are being undertaken by leaders like Mamata Banerjee and Sharad Pawar.
For this purpose, an occasional dinner or a march to “save” the Constitution are not enough. There have to be regular meetings of the leaders of parties whose commitment to take on the BJP is unequivocal — a test in which the BSP has failed.
Among the parties whose “secular” credentials and reliability can be trusted are the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Samajwadi Party, the National Conference, the Left parties and the Nationlist Congress Party — although Sharad Pawar’s comment that the people do not doubt Modi’s intentions on the Rafael deal will bother the Congress.
The prime ministerial ambitions of some the leaders like Mamata Banerjee are known, but these motivations need not come in the way of bringing together like-minded parties on a common platform, leaving the leadership question for the future. But to do so, there is a need for someone to assume the responsibility of doing the hard work of networking.
Can Rahul Gandhi be the person since Mamata does not quite have a pan-Indian persona while Sharad Pawar at 78 may not have the energy to do the running around a la Amit Shah?
The West Bengal Chief Minister’s other difficulty is that she is apparently facing considerable problems at home. As the violence during the panchayat elections showed, there are widespread misgivings about the law and order situation in the state where the Trinamool Congress cadres are seemingly emulating the earlier lawlessness of the Marxists.
Since the unsettled conditions are being exploited by the BJP to establish itself in the state, the Chief Minister faces a political challenge as well. She may not have the time, therefore, to stitch together an opposition combine by reaching out to the various leaders across the country.
The Congress president is better placed in this respect. He is relatively young at 48 and is not burdened by administrative duties. He is also now far more energetic than when he was caught napping in parliament.
His disadvantage is that he is not a “natural” politician like his sister Priyanka and is generally seen to be standoffish and ill at ease with the leaders of other parties, especially the elder ones among them.
But it is now generally agreed that he is becoming more adept at interactions. Given the challenges which the Congress is facing in the wake of Mayawati’s cynical manoeuvres, Rahul has no alternative but to leave no stone unturned in the quest for forging a viable opposition unity.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
—IANS
