News Analysis India

Tag: Amit Shah

  • Amit Shah to chair meeting of N-E CMs Saturday, likely to take up border issue

    By PTI
    SHILLONG: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is arriving here on two days visit Saturday to chair a meeting with the Chief Ministers of eight Northeastern states in which interstate border issues might be taken up, officials said.

    In addition, Shah has some official engagements in Meghalaya during his stay.

    Officials said Friday that Shah will be chairing a closed-door meeting with the CMs, Chief Secretaries and police chiefs of all the NE states on Saturday, where among other issues, the chief ministers are likely to discuss the interstate boundary issues plaguing the region.

    Northeastern states include Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

    Assam has boundary conflicts with Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram.

    Giving detail of Shah’s program, the officials said he will inaugurate the Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT) at Mawiong in the outskirts of Shillong and the Cryogenic Plant at the New Shillong Township.

    The union minister is also scheduled to visit Sohra (erstwhile Cherrapunji) on Sunday to inaugurate an afforestation project, to inaugurate the Greater Sohra Water Supply Scheme and he is scheduled to pay a visit to the Ramakrishna Mission Ashram there.

    Sohra is about 65 km South of Shillong and on a clear sunny day, one can get a full view of the plains of Bangladesh.

    The home minister has scheduled a 30 minutes meeting with the leaders of civil organisations where he is expected to give a patient hearing to their grievances, a senior official said.

    The organisations are all prepared to apprise the union home minister on various issues of the state which included the need to implement the inner Llne permit (ILP), inter-state border disputes, inclusion of Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule and amendment to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India, sources close to the organisations said.

    Security has been beefed up here ahead of the visit of the union home minister, officials said.

    Police and paramilitary forces have been directed to stay alert, keep a strict vigil and intensify patrolling in the city, especially in the vicinity of the venue and the roads leading to the ISBT and New Shillong Township as Shah is scheduled to inaugurate both the projects, they said.

    A mock drill to facilitate smooth movement of the union minister cavalcade from the helipad to the venue was also undertaken since Thursday as part of the security arrangements.

    All markets and business establishments here have been ordered shut on Saturday and Sunday by the district administration despite the lockdown being relaxed to avoid any law and order issues, a senior home department official told PTI.

    He said all necessary measures are being done in coordination with the state police, central agencies, and the paramilitary forces in all the places the minister is scheduled to visit during his two day-visit to the state beginning Saturday.

  • Pegasus snooping row: Rahul demands Shah’s resignation, BJP calls it a plot

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over the Pegasus spyware controversy, saying they have used it against India, its institutions and it’s no less than treason. BJP said he must submit his phone for investigation on the matter.

    Demanding a Supreme Court-monitored probe and resignation of Shah, Rahul said Pegasus is classified by the Israeli state as a weapon and that weapon is supposed to be used against terrorists.

    “The prime minister and the home minister have used this weapon against the Indian state and our institutions. They have used it politically, they have used it in Karnataka and the only word for this is treason,” he told reporters.

    He claimed his phone has also been tapped and intelligence officials informed him and his friends about it.

    “I get calls from IB people who tap my phone. They call me up and say please be aware we are tapping your phone. My security people tell me that they have to debrief what I say. They have to report to their seniors everything I say. I am under no pretention that my phone is not tapped.”

    BJP’s spokesperson Rajyavardhan Rathore said no phone has been tapped illegally by the Modi government and that Congress is determined to stall Parliament for one reason or another. He said Rahul must submit his phone for investigation.

    He also took a swipe at Gandhi, saying even a “junior copy writer” will not be interested in copying his phone’s content as the Congress leader has nothing “original” to offer.

    Amid a row over the suspected Pegasus snooping, Gandhi had said earlier in the day that all his phones were tapped.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah allegedly used the Pegasus spyware against India and its institutions, and “the only word for this is treason”, Gandhi alleged.

    Rathore said Gandhi’s comments were “irresponsible” while adding that everybody has the right to say what they want in a democracy.

    Gandhi should submit his phone to a probe agency, and investigation will take place according to the Indian Penal Code (IPC), he said.

    The law of the land prevails in India, and no one’s phone is tapped illegally, he claimed, adding that if anyone has any doubt that some agency is doing it illegally, then he can complain and lawful action will be taken.

    “We will now wait for Rahul Gandhi to deposit his phone for investigation to proceed,” he said.

    The Congress cannot accept the country’s development and has been stalling Parliament’s functioning on one pretext or another, he alleged, accusing Gandhi of having a single-point strategy of not letting it function.

    “We are well aware of his record in Parliament,” the former Union minister said in a dig at Gandhi over his frequent absence from Lok Sabha, where he represents the Wayanad constituency.

    He often goes abroad on vacation during monsoon sessions, Rathore said, adding that the former Congress chief is now not letting Parliament function for “manufactured” reasons.

    The first week of the session has been all but a washout due to opposition’s protests over a host of issues, including the suspected Pegasus snooping and price rise.

    Opposition parties have accused the government of being behind the snooping.

    The government has called the entire Pegasus Project as “sensationalism” without having any substance and described it as a bid to malign India.

    Rathore claimed that while the country has been progressing, some forces have been trying to stall its development.

    The former Congress chief, whose name is also on the list of people whose phones are allegedly tapped, said Pegasus cannot be bought by just anyone as it can be sold only to the government of a country.

    “Pegasus was used against the Supreme Court, to scuttle the Rafale investigation. The home minister should resign and a judicial inquiry by the Supreme Court should be conducted on Narendra Modi as no one else can authorise the use of Pegasus,” he said.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Pegasus row: Opposition demands debate; Rahul raises the heat on snoopgate

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  With the Pegasus snoopgate pushing the government to the back foot, the Opposition raised the heat further as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home minister Amit Shah of committing ‘treason’ by deploying the military grade cyber weapon against citizens and institutions.

    In the Rajya Sabha, Trinamool member Santanu Sen was suspended for rest of the session as he snatched and tore up a copy of a statement on Pegasus from Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw the previous day. V Muraleedharan (BJP) moved a motion for suspension of Sen, which was accepted by voice vote. 

    Sen’s refusal to leave the House resulted in one of the day’s multiple adjournments. Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge told the chair that he has given notice for suspension of business to discuss the surveillance. But, the Centre said the minister had already made a statement on it. “The Trinamool wants the Parliament to function. But we want discussion on Pegasus and scrapping of three farm laws immediately,” said Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien.

    No substantial business could be transacted in the Lok Sabha, as ruckus continued over various issues, including Pegasus. 

    Outside Parliament, Rahul Gandhi demanded a Supreme Court monitored probe on snooping and the resignation of Shah. But, BJP’s Rajyavardhan Rathore rebutted the charges, saying no one’s phone had been illegally tapped, adding Rahul should submit his cell phone to a probe agency for a thorough probe.

    Besides Gandhi, a host of senior Congress MPs like Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, party’s leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K C Venugopal and Shashi Tharoor, DMK’s Kanimozhi and Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, were present during the protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue inside Parliament complex.

    Carrying a banner which read “#PegasusSnoopGate We demand Supreme Court Monitored Judicial Probe”, the MPs raised slogans like “ye jasoosi bandh karo (stop this spying)”.

    Opposition parties have stalled proceedings in Parliament alleging the union government’s involvement in the alleged snooping following reports that nearly 300 mobile phone numbers including of journalists, activists, opposition leaders from India and even of union ministers figured in a list of potential snooping targets by Israel’s NSO group which sells its Pegasus spyware only to “vetted” governments and government agencies.

    The government and the ruling BJP have dismissed the Pegasus Project reports as concocted and evidence-less.

    The media reports have been published by The Wire in collaboration with 16 other international publications including the Washington Post, The Guardian and Le Monde, as media partners to an investigation conducted by Paris-based media non-profit organisation Forbidden Stories and rights group Amnesty International.

    Congress Friday claimed the grant allocation to the National Security Council secretariat went up to Rs 333 crore in 2017-18 from Rs 33 crore the year before, and asked if this hike was related to “purchasing” the Israeli spyware.

    Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the UPA government in 2011-12 had allocated Rs 17.

    43 crore to the National Security Council Secretariat in terms of grants.

    This amount was marginally increased to Rs 20.

    33 crore in 2012-13 and further to 26.

    06 crore in 2013-14, he said, noting that National Security Council Secretariat is largely concerned with administration and co-ordination.

    In the year 2014-15, when the Modi government came to power, the amount of grant to the National Security Council Secretariat increased to Rs.44.46 crore, further it came down to Rs 33 crore in 2016-17, Khera said.

    “But what raises serious red flags and concerns is that in the year 2017-18, a new sub-head was added to the National Security Council Secretariat called the Cyber Security Research and Development.

    Interestingly, that year, the grant allocation to the National Security Council Secretariat shot up from Rs 33 crores in the preceding year to Rs.333 crores in 2017-18, and the chronology here reflects that the Pegasus snooping allegedly began in the same year,” the Congress spokesperson alleged at a press conference.

    What explains the huge rise in the allotment of grants to the National Security Council Secretariat with 300 of the 333 crore being spent on Cyber Security Research and Development itself, Khera said.

    This trend has continued ever since with Rs.228.72 crores being allocated in 2021-22, he said, adding that allegations of snooping using Pegasus are from 2017.

    Referring to the media reports that eight phones of the then CBI director Alok Verma and his family members were put in the list of devices allegedly targeted for snooping using the Pegasus spyware by an unknown Indian agency soon after he was divested of the coveted charge on October 23, 2018, Khera said the expose reveals that prominent names from the corporate world and serving bureaucrats of the time, no less than those in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) were also snooped upon.

    “Along with Mr Alok Verma, two other senior CBI Officers Mr. Rakesh Asthana and his colleague Mr A K Sharma’s phones were also snooped upon. This also seems to show a direct connection with the raging controversy on the Rafale deal because in October, Alok Verma, the then CBI Director had met with Prashant Bhushan and Arun Shourie who had personally handed over the complaint pertaining to Rafale,” he said.

    Posing questions to the government, Khera asked whether the government of India or any of its agencies buy Pegasus software or not.

    Pointing out that the government has not yet directly denied using Pegasus, Khera said if the government did not buy this software, which was the other government, from which country snooping on Indian citizens.

    Was this budgetary grant increased for the National Security Council Secretariat to purchase Pegasus, he asked.

    Mamata chosen Parliamentary party leader

    West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee was unanimously chosen chairperson of the Trinamool Parliamentary Party, possibly to build her national profile before her high voltage Delhi trip. A seven-term MP, she is not a member of Parliament at present.

    Trinamool raps suspension

    “We consider Sen’s suspension as malicious and arbitrary. We condemn it. The order was without any justification and has no provision in law,” Trinamool chief whip Sukhendu Shekhar Ray said.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Home Minister Amit Shah hits out at Congress, global organisations over snooping allegation

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday hit out at the opposition Congress and international organisations for suggesting that the government was involved in surveillance of phones of politicians, journalists and others, saying such “obstructors” and “disruptors” will not be able to derail India’s development trajectory with their conspiracies.

    In a hard-hitting statement, Shah said that the report about the alleged snooping has been amplified by a few whose only aim is to do whatever is possible to humiliate India at the world stage.

    “This is a report by the disrupters for the obstructers. Disrupters are global organisations that do not like India to progress. Obstructers are political players in India who do not want India to progress. People of India are very good at understanding this chronology and connection,” he said.

    The home minister said he wanted to assure the people of India that the Modi government’s priority is clear – ‘National Welfare’ – and it will keep working to achieve that no matter what happens.

    Opposition parties on Monday hit out at the government over the alleged phone-tapping of prominent personalities in the country using Israeli Pegasus spyware and demanded an independent judicial or parliamentary committee probe.

    An international media consortium reported Sunday that more than 300 verified mobile phone numbers, including of two serving ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders and one sitting judge besides scores of businesspersons and activists in India could have been targeted for hacking through the Israeli spyware sold only to government agencies.

    Shah said those who intend to derail India’s progress are peddling the same old narratives about the country.

    “To see the rudderless Congress, jump on to this bandwagon is not unexpected. They have a good past experience in trampling over democracy and with their own house not in order, they are now trying to derail anything progressive that comes up in Parliament,” he said.

  • All gaps in Indian borders will be plugged before 2022, says Shah

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah Saturday asserted that unfenced gaps along India’s over 7,500-km-long land border will be sealed before 2022, thus covering areas that lead to infiltration and smuggling of arms and narcotics.

    He also asserted that India’s security policy was either “influenced or was overlapping” with the foreign policy and it was only after Narendra Modi became prime minister that the country got an independent security strategy.

    Shah was delivering the annual ‘Rustamji memorial lecture’ instituted by the Border Security Force (BSF) in the memory of its first director general (DG) K F Rustamji.

    An officer of the 1938 batch of the British-era Imperial Police, Rustamji headed the 1965 raised force for nine years.

    He died in 2003.

    Shah also gave away gallantry medals to the serving personnel and to the family members of those who were killed in the line of duty from the country’s largest frontier force.

    “I assure that there will no gap in our fencing before 2022 (2022 se pehle),” he said.

    Shah said about three per cent of the unfenced area leaves a “big gap” and makes the border vulnerable for infiltration of terrorists and other border crimes like smuggling of arms, ammunition and narcotics among others.

    India has fenced borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh and there are certain areas including the riverines ones which are not fenced.

    The Modi government has been plugging these gaps after resolving administrative obstacles and even by talking to neighbouring countries, he said.

    “I believe that (ensuring) border security is (ensuring) national security,” Shah said adding they are developing a “new model” of the border fence that cannot be cut or broken.

    He also spoke about the security policy of the Modi government.

    “I used to think if there is a security policy of this country or not? Till Narendra Modi became the prime minister we did not have any independent security policy,” Shah said.

    “It was either influenced by foreign policy or it was overlapping with the foreign policy,” he said.

    After Modi became prime minister, the country got an independent security policy.

    “Our idea is to have peaceful relations with all but if someone disturbs our borders, if someone challenges our sovereignty, the priority of our security policy is that such an attempt will be replied in the same language,” Shah said.

    He said this security policy was a “big achievement” as the country wanted such a good plan.

    “I believe without this (security policy) neither the country can progress nor democracy can prosper,” the home minister said.

    “Modiji (PM) has done this big job. I do not want to give examples as it is well known,” he said adding the policy was made operational on the ground by his government.

    Shah said India was working to soon develop an indigenous counter-drone technology, which is being carried out by technical organisations like the DRDO and some other agencies.

    His comments came in the backdrop of the first-ever drone attack on the IAF station in Jammu last month where two unmanned aerial vehicles dropped bombs injuring two airmen and damaging a portion of a building inside.

    He added that the security establishment of the country is preparing a long-drawn project to thwart artificial intelligence and robotic technology enabled attacks from across the borders.

    Shah gave out figures to showcase how the Modi government worked to enhance and fortify border security.

    He said while only 3,600 km of border roads were made between 2008-14, the period between 2014-20 (Modi being the PM) it has seen a jump of 3.5 times with 4,764 km of these roads being constructed.

    The budget for this job was enhanced from Rs 23,000 crore to 44,000 crore, a total of 14,450 metres of bridges were made during 2014-20 as compared to 7,270 metres made during 2008-14, he said.

    While one border tunnel for transportation was made earlier, six tunnels have been made by the Modi government in the last one year while 19 such structures are in the pipeline, Shah said.

    Similarly, a total of 170 km of border roads were resurfaced during 2008-14 and it was enhanced to 380 km after the Modi government came to power.

    The cutting and formatting of roads along the China border has now been enhanced to 470 km per year as compared to the earlier 230 km per year.

    Shah said the government has sanctioned 32 more border roads measuring about 683 km for the Sino-India frontier.

    “The prime minister believes that till border infrastructure is upgraded and strengthened the security forces will not be able to do their job properly.”

    “The PM has said that if border infrastructure is not proper the local population will continue to migrate from these areas and this will make our borders unsafe,” he said.

    The home minister stressed that forces like the BSF should take steps to ensure that border population is provided all basic amenities and that they do not migrate to other area because of these issues.

    The officers of these forces should execute “out of routine” thinking and plan so that we are two steps ahead of the adversary, he said.

    He asked them to maintain “regular touch” with their troops, resolve their problems and also take feedback from them.

    BSF DG Rakesh Asthana said during the event that the force has made 61 drone sightings and unearthed 4 tunnels along the western front in the last one year.

    The about 2.65 lakh personnel strong BSF guards over 6,300 km of Indian fronts with Pakistan and Bangladesh on the east.

    Ministers of state for home Nityanand Rai, Ajay Kumar Mishra, home secretary Ajay Bhalla, Intelligence Bureau director Arvind Kumar and RAW chief Samant Goel attended the event.

  • All gaps in Indian borders will be plugged by end of 2021: Amit Shah 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah Saturday asserted that unfenced gaps along India’s over 7,500-km-long land border will be sealed by the end of this year, thus covering areas that lead to infiltration and smuggling of arms and narcotics.

    He also asserted that India’s security policy was either “influenced or was overlapping” with the foreign policy and it was only after Narendra Modi became prime minister that the country got an independent security strategy.

    Shah also gave away gallantry medals to the serving personnel and to the family members of those who were killed in the line of duty from the country’s largest frontier force.

    “I assure that there will be no gap in our fencing from 2022,” he said.

    Shah said about three per cent of the unfenced area leaves a “big gap” and makes the border vulnerable for infiltration of terrorists and other border crimes like smuggling of arms, ammunition and narcotics among others.

    The Modi government has been plugging these gaps after resolving administrative obstacles and even by talking to neighbouring countries, he said.

    “I believe that (ensuring) border security is (ensuring) national security,” Shah said adding they are developing a “new model” of the border fence that cannot be cut or broken.

    He also spoke about the security policy of the Modi government.

    “I used to think if there is a security policy of this country or not? Till Narendra Modi became the prime minister we did not have any independent security policy,” Shah said.

    “It was either influenced by foreign policy or it was overlapping with the foreign policy,” he said.

    After Modi became prime minister, the country got an independent security policy.

    “Our idea is to have peaceful relations with all but if someone disturbs our borders, if someone challenges our sovereignty, the priority of our security policy is that such an attempt will be replied in the same language,” Shah said.

    He said this security policy was a “big achievement” as the country wanted such a good plan.

    “I believe without this (security policy) neither the country can progress nor democracy can prosper,” the home minister said “Modiji (PM) has done this big job.

    I do not want to give examples as it is well known,” he said adding the policy was made operational on the ground by his government.

    Shah said India was working to soon develop an indigenous counter-drone technology, which is being carried out by technical organisations like the DRDO and some other agencies.

    His comments came in the backdrop of the first-ever drone attack on the IAF station in Jammu last month where two unmanned aerial vehicles dropped bombs injuring two airmen and damaging a portion of a building inside.

    He added that the security establishment of the country is preparing a long-drawn project to thwart artificial intelligence and robotic technology enabled attacks from across the borders.

    Shah gave out figures to showcase how the Modi government worked to enhance and fortify border security.

    He said while only 3,600 km of border roads were made between 2008-14, the period between 2014-20 (Modi being the PM) it has seen a jump of 3.5 times with 4,764 km of these roads being constructed.

    The budget for this job was enhanced from Rs 23,000 crore to 44,000 crore, a total of 14,450 metres of bridges were made during 2014-20 as compared to 7,270 metres made during 2008-14, he said.

    While one border tunnel for transportation was made earlier, six tunnels have been made by the Modi government in the last one year while 19 such structures are in the pipeline, Shah said.

    Similarly, a total of 170 km of border roads were resurfaced during 2008-14 and it was enhanced to 380 km after the Modi government came to power.

    The cutting and formatting of roads along the China border has now been enhanced to 470 km per year as compared to the earlier 230 km per year.

    Shah said the government has sanctioned 32 more border roads measuring about 683 km for the Sino-India frontier.

    “The prime minister believes that till border infrastructure is upgraded and strengthened the security forces will not be able to do their job properly.”

    “The PM has said that if border infrastructure is not proper the local population will continue to migrate from these areas and this will make our borders unsafe,” he said.

    The home minister stressed that forces like the BSF should take steps to ensure that border population is provided all basic amenities and that they do not migrate to other area because of these issues.

    The officers of these forces should execute “out of routine” thinking and plan so that we are two steps ahead of the adversary, he said.

    He asked them to maintain “regular touch” with their troops, resolve their problems and also take feedback from them.

    BSF DG Rakesh Asthana said during the event that the force has made 61 drone sightings and unearthed 4 tunnels along the western front in the last one year.

    The about 2.65 lakh personnel strong BSF guards over 6,300 km of Indian fronts with Pakistan and Bangladesh on the east.

    Ministers of state for home Nityanand Rai, Ajay Kumar Mishra, home secretary Ajay Bhalla, Intelligence Bureau director Arvind Kumar and RAW chief Samant Goel attended the event.

  • BJP huddles before Monsoon session as Opposition set to corner Modi government in Parliament

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Top BJP leaders and Union ministers, including party president J P Nadda, Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, held a meeting to discuss matters related to the upcoming Monsoon session of Parliament and frame the party’s strategy to counter the opposition, sources said.

    The meeting was held at Union Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence, they said.

    The Monsoon session of Parliament, which is scheduled to start from July 19, will be the first session after the second wave of COVID-19, which was far more worse than the first.

    The opposition is expected to rake up this issue and launch a scathing attack on the government.

    Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhupender Yadav and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and ministers of state Arjun Ram Meghwal and V Muraleedharan, among others, were present in the meeting.

    Besides them, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi also attended the meet.

    The BJP leaders held wide ranging discussions on the party’s floor strategy for the upcoming session and also to ensure the passage of important bills and financial business including Supplementary Demands for Grants, the sources said.

    With the opposition being exuberant after the BJP’s defeat in the assembly election in West Bengal and planning to raise issues related to the second wave of COVID-19, the BJP wants to further fine tune its strategy so that it can effectively counter the opposition while at the same convincingly put forward its case, they said.

    The meeting lasted for more than an hour at Singh’s residence who also chairs the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs and is deputy leader of the BJP in Lok Sabha.

    Around 17 bills are listed for introduction in Lok Sabha, including and five bills for consideration and passage, and a similar number of bills are expected to be introduced in Rajya Sabha as well.

  • Matter of concern to see big crowds without masks in hill stations, markets: PM Modi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said it is a matter of concern that big crowds are thronging hill stations and market areas without masks and social distancing.

    During an interaction with chief ministers of eight North-Eastern states through video conferencing, the prime minister also said the vaccination drive needs to be continuously ramped up to combat the third wave of the pandemic.

    The virtual meeting was attended by chief ministers of Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, as also by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, among others.

    Modi urged people not to compromise on COVID protocols to prevent a third wave of coronavirus.

    “It is true that tourism and business have been greatly affected due to Corona. But today I will say with great emphasis that it is not right to have huge crowds in hill stations, markets without masks,” Modi said.

    “We all need to work together to stop the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

    ALSO READ | PM Modi says farm sector needs post-harvest revolution; govt impetus on scientific ecosystem

    Emphasizing the need to keep an eye on every variant of the coronavirus, he said experts are constantly studying how troubling the virus could be after mutations, but in such a dynamic situation, prevention and treatment are very important.

    “We have to move forward by improving the infrastructure related to testing and treatment. For this, recently the cabinet has also approved a new package of Rs 23,000 crore. Every state in the North East can take help from this package to strengthen its health infrastructure,” Modi said.

    The prime minister said the COVID-19 situation was worrisome in some districts of North-East and urged the chief ministers to stay alert and act fast to check the further spread of the virus.

    The PM said stricter steps were needed at the micro-level to check the virus spread and called for greater emphasis on micro-containment zones.

    “We need to continue accelerating our vaccination drive,” he added.

    While most parts of the country have seen a steady decline in the COVID0-19 numbers, the northeast region has been a cause of concern with the number of cases either rising or not falling in line with the nationwide trend, experts have noted.

  • All is not well in MVA? Congress wants to go solo in BMC polls, Sena praises Amit Shah

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Congress leaders on Monday reiterated their demand to contest the Mumbai civic elections, due early next year, independently.

    The Congress is part of the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra along with the NCP.

    AICC general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra HK Patil on Monday held talks with former ministers, ex-chief ministers, and leaders who contested the 2019 Assembly polls on the Congress ticket to discuss the preparations for the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) controlled by the Shiv Sena.

    A senior Congress leader said the party leaders who had contested the last Lok Sabha elections didn’t turn up at the meeting.

    “Patil heard the views of leaders who said the Congress should contest alone as it is a local boy election and workers need to be accommodated. He urged the Mumbai unit and all leaders to work unitedly and ensure that the party wins maximum seats,” the leader said.

    He said Patil held discussions with office-bearers on how to strengthen the Congress in the Konkan region, from Palghar to Sindhudurg, the home turf of BJP MP and Union minister Narayan Rane.

    Elections to ten municipal corporations including Mumbai, 27 Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samities in their areas are due early next year.

    In the 2017 BMC elections, the BJP had made giant strides by giving a tough fight to the Sena which scraped through to retain the civic body.

    The Shiv Sena on Monday welcomed the Centre’s decision to create the cooperation ministry saying Home Minister Amit Shah, who has been given the additional charge of the new portfolio, will do a “good job” as he had been part of the cooperative movement in Gujarat.

    An editorial in the party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ also said that there is not much difference in the field of politics and the cooperative sector, and that “everything happens as per convenience”.

    Notably, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who is the architect of the Sena-headed Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, on Sunday said the Centre cannot interfere in the state’s cooperative sector.

    “If Amit Shah has decided to develop and expand the cooperative sector then there is no need to be disturbed. Attempts are being made to create fear among people that Shah will dig out old cases of leaders of the Congress and NCP and launch inquiries and will form a government in Maharashtra through ‘cooperation’. However, saying so is like defaming Shah,” the editorial said.

    The Sena said Shah will do a good job as he had worked as an “activist in the cooperative movement in Gujarat before joining politics”.

    “There is not much difference in the field of politics and the cooperative sector in terms of qualities like good and bad, true and false, moral and immoral. Everything happens as per convenience. Finally, everyone is the same in politics,” it said.

    The Central government recently carved out a new ministry for cooperation, which earlier was a small department in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

    Amit Shah on Saturday said the government is determined to make cooperatives and all cooperative institutions more empowered.

  • With cooperation ministry, BJP aims to gain foothold in rural India

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI/LUCKNOW/CHANDIGARH/PATNA/KOLKATA: Whether the opposition parties’ allegations that the setting up of a cooperation ministry, headed by home minister Amit Shah, is an attempt to undermine federalism is well founded or not is debatable, but it could give a leg-up to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attempts to make inroads in cooperative sectors where it is not very strong.

    Generally, cooperative societies are influenced by whichever party is in power in a state. For instance, in Maharashtra, the Congress and the NCP dominate them, while the BJP has been a latecomer. Gujarat has over 81,000 cooperative societies, which benefitted the Congress for decades but are now being controlled by the BJP. Assembly polls are due in the state late next year.

    The political influence of cooperative societies stems from their enormous size and spatial coverage in the rural hinterland. Maharashtra has over 2 lakh cooperative societies with a membership of 50.5 million. 

    The influence also comes from their financial clout. Take for instance the recent scam in the Punjab and Maharashtra cooperative banks, the fraud is estimated at over Rs 4,000 crore. Many feel it could be game on in cooperative societies. 

    MAHARASHTRAThe state has more than 200 cooperative sugar factories whose annual turnover is around Rs 35,000 crore while the cooperative milk federation and allied businesses’ annual turnovers are collectively more than Rs 40,000 crore.

    A political observer said the BJP has not been able to dismantle the stranglehold of the Congress-NCP in the cooperative network. “The cooperative sector is the soul of NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s politics.” He said the BJP is heavily dependent on urban voters, who could be drifting away because of the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. “If the BJP wants to come back to power then they have to find a new territory, the cooperative sector is one of them,” he added.

    Sanjeev Babar, a former CEO of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Sugar Federation, said the cooperative sector “ensures a steady flow of money to farmers and enables him to purchase seeds, start a business and pay for children’s education. Farmers get a loan at reasonable rates and their interests are protected.” 

    “The chairmen or directors of sugar factories handle large amounts of funds. So, when the Congress-NCP was in the opposition, the core rural vote remained loyal to their political leaders,” Babar said. The cooperative sector has nurtured several politicians, starting from the late chief minister Vasantdada Patil and incumbent deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.

    UTTAR PRADESHThe cooperative sector has largely been a fiefdom of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family. Its association with the sector started in 1977, when Yadav was the cooperative minister. During his three tenures as the CM, Yadav either kept the cooperative portfolio to himself or allocated it to younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav.

    But it was in September 2020 that the SP’s stranglehold on cooperatives started declining. The BJP entered the sector in a major way with its candidates sweeping the polls for the UP Cooperative Land Development Bank, responsible for agricultural credit, by winning 293 of the 312 seats unopposed.

    PUNJABThe state societies are either controlled by the ruling Congress or the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal. The BJP stands nowhere, nor does it appear that it can influence the sector. An insider said the ruling political party ensures that their supporters are members of these societies.

    An official said cooperative banks with 802 branches offer loans worth around `12,000 crore to farmers. The Punjab State Cooperative Development Federation has had politicians as its head. They include late CMs Darbara Singh, Zail Singh and Beant Singh, who was also a director of the Central Corporative Bank, Ludhiana. 

    WEST BENGALThe Left Front in its 34-year rule never gave cooperatives much importance as they already had a strong cadre base in the rural areas. But Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, after wresting power in 2011, realized that cooperatives might be a useful tool to reach out the rural electorate. In 2013, she declared cooperative societies would not be empowered to attach the property of farmers defaulting in loan repay. “The creation of the cooperation ministry seems to be the BJP’s attempt to gain a foothold in rural parts by using the cooperative financial structure as a tool,” said a TMC leader.

    MADHYA PRADESHThe cooperative sector was largely dominated by the Congress till 2003 but after the BJP’s return, its people started replacing the Congress, particularly in the credit, distribution of agricultural inputs and marketing sectors. 

    It was during senior cabinet minister Gopal Bhargava’s tenure as cooperative minister between 2013 and 2018 that not only did the sector expand, but the BJP influence grew by leaps and bounds. A few months after toppling the Kamal Nath government, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government passed the Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, to allow MPs and MLAs to become chairmen and vice-chairmen of cooperatives. 

    BIHARThere are 34 state level cooperative orgainsations in handloom, dairy, agriculture, fertilisers, seeds and fisheries and they have an annual turnover of about Rs 30,000 crore. Till 2005, the Lalu Prasad-led RJD had a strong influence on these societies. With the power shift, the JD-U, BJP and others have made inroads into them.