News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Ideology of appeasement responsible for communal riots: BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: A day after Jahangirpuri violence in in the national capital, the BJP on Sunday said the “ideology of appeasement” pursued over the last 70 years is responsible for the communal riots across the country.

    Taking on opposition leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, over their joint statement expressing deep concern over the recent incidents of hate speech and communal violence, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said this “selective politics” of opposition is harmful for the country.

    Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Patra said the clashes in the north-west Delhi locality are under investigation and all should wait for the outcome.

    “But, at the same time, we would like to say that a joint statement was issued by Sonia Gandhi along with other opposition leaders yesterday. This selective politics of some opposition leaders is not appropriate for the country, it is harmful for the country,” he said.

    “Sonia Gandhi in this letter talked about the ideology…today, question arises which ideology leads to such riots in the country. There is only one ideology from the last seventy years, and its name is ideology of appeasement,” Patra said, adding “this policy and politics of appeasement” is very unfortunate.

    Clashes had erupted between Hindus and Muslims during a religious procession in Jahangirpuri on Saturday, leaving nine people, including eight police personnel and a civilian, injured.

    Stones were hurled by the warring groups and some vehicles were set on fire.

    Additional police contingents were rushed to the troubled neighbourhood and other communally sensitive areas after the clashes.

    Patra, who was accompanied by the BJP’s Delhi unit chief Aadesh Gupta, alleged chief minister Arvind Kejriwal does nothing and only creates a buzz over action against corruption.

    “An atmosphere was created in Delhi as if Arvind Kejriwal ji was trying to fight a big fight against corruption. You will be surprised to know that the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) officers said that there is no record of all the calls received on 1031, the anti-corruption helpline,” Patra said, adding the helpline was closed down and not a single person was found guilty.

    Gupta levelled a slew of corruption allegations against the AAP government and its minister Satyendra Jain, and claimed the ruling party in Delhi is indulging in corruption in the Jal Board, Delhi Transport Corporation and others departments.

    “Jain is a milch cow and therefore Kejriwal is keeping him close,” Gupta alleged.

  • Cong is dead horse, only Arvind Kejriwal can challenge BJP at national level: AAP

    Raghav Chadha said the Congress neither has a future nor can it give a future to Indians. “Anything multiplied to zero is zero,” he said.

  • Five of family found dead at home in UP, SP says state has ‘drowned in crime’ under BJP 2.0

    By PTI

    PRAYAGRAJ/LUCKNOW: Five members of a family, including three children, were found dead at their home in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district, police said on Saturday.

    The incident took place in Khagalpur village under Nawabganj police station area on Friday night, they said.

    Prayagraj Superintendent of Police Abhishek Agarwal said Rahul (42), his wife Priti (38) and their daughters Mahi (15), Pihu (13) and Kuhu (11) were found dead at their home.

    A forensic team and a dog squad are at the spot for investigation. Rahul was found hanging from the roof, the other deceased had injuries from a sharp object on their neck.

    Senior Superintendent of Police (Prayagraj) Ajay Kumar said, “The body of the house owner, Rahul, was found hanging from the ceiling with a saree and it had no injury marks. Three chairs were stacked where his body was found, indicating that he committed suicide.

    “The bodies of Rahul’s wife and three daughters bore injury marks inflicted by a sharp-edged weapon, which suggests murder. Both these angles are being probed.” The post mortem report of Rahul’s body that came on Saturday evening confirmed that he had committed suicide by hanging himself from the roof with a saree, said senior police officials.

    The police received information about the incident around 7.30 am. Seven teams have been formed to probe the case, the SSP said.

    According to Rahul’s sister and brother-in-law, he was embroiled in a dispute with his in-laws for a while, the police said.

    Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav attacked the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government over the incident, saying the state has “drowned in crime”.

    “Under the rule of BJP government 2.0, UP has drowned in crime. Today’s crime list,” he tweeted in Hindi along with a screenshot of a news channel.

    Replying to Yadav, a senior police official said a preliminary probe indicates that the head of the family killed the others before committing suicide.

    “A preliminary probe indicates that the house owner killed his family before committing suicide due to a family dispute, ” Additional Director General, Prayagraj zone, Prem Prakash tweeted in Hindi.

    Terming the incident “extremely sad,” Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in Lucknow said the truth behind the incident will be known once the probe is completed.

    “The incident is being probed seriously and expeditiously. The reason behind it will be known (after the investigation). The guilty will not be spared,” he said.

    Asked about the Opposition’s criticism over the incident, Maurya said, “At a time when the police are probing the incident and trying to catch the culprits, people should wait. The guilty will not be able to escape, even if any opposition leader tries to save them.”

    In another incident in the Sorawa village of the district, a woman was hit on her head by her husband in a family brawl resulting in her death.

    Sorawa police station in-charge Sudhir Kumar said following a quarrel on Friday night, Sorawa resident Malak Chaudhary hit his wife on her head with a blunt object leading to her death.

    In yet another incident, the body of Rambabu of Bari village of the district was found the previous night.

    The victim had moved out of the home following a telephone call and later his body with deep injuries on his head was found.

    The injuries indicated an attack by an iron rod. The body was found at some distance from his home in the village.

  • Jahangirpuri clashes a ‘conspiracy’; probe role of illegal immigrants: Delhi BJP

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Delhi BJP leaders on Saturday called the clashes during a Hanuman Jayanti procession in northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri a “conspiracy” and demanded a probe into the role of “illlegal immigrants” in the incident.

    Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta and party MP Manoj Tiwari said the “attack” on the procession was “not a spontaneous incident, but a conspiracy”.

    Clashes broke out between two communities during the procession in Jahangirpuri on Saturday, leaving several police personnel injured.

    Police said there was stone-pelting and some vehicles were also torched in the violence that occurred at around 6 pm. Additional police forces have been rushed to the region and other communally sensitive areas.

    Former AAP minister and BJP leader Kapil Mishra said the stone pelting on the procession was a “terrorist attack” and demanded immediate expulsion of illigal immigrants from the country.

    The Delhi BJP president said he will meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and urge him to order a probe into the violence. He also questioned how the settlement of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis living illegally in Delhi were provided water and electricity connections.

    “I want to ask (Chief Minister) Arvind Kejriwal why is he providing water and electricity to Rohingyas and Bangladeshis living illegally in the city,” he said in a video message.

    No immediate response was available from the ruling AAP government in Delhi on Gupta’s allegations.

    The BJP leader also appealed to Delhiites to maintain peace and added that a party delegation will visit the area. The guilty must be punished, he added.

    North East Delhi BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, who had earlier raised the issue of illegal immigrants living in the city, said those protecting such settlers were a “bigger” threat.

    “Illegal migrants are big threat and need to be investigated as they are spoiling the harmony of our nation. People who are protecting and helping them settle here are a bigger threat!,” he tweeted after the incident.

    Meanwhile, Kapil Mishra, who was accused by the opposition for inciting violence in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone on Ram Navami, said papers of all illegal immigrants should be checked and they should be immediately expelled.

    “The attack on Hanuman Jayanti procession was not a ‘Sanyog’ (spontaneous) but a ‘Prayog’ (experiment). It was a terrorist attack. The settlements of Bangladeshi trespassers was now involved in attacks,” he said.

    Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor also demanded a probe into the incident.

    Officials said overall security has been stepped up in all the remaining 14 police districts of the national capital and technical surveillance has also been mounted to ensure no untoward incident takes place.

    Communal clashes had broken out in Northeast Delhi on February 24, 2020 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control, leaving at least 53 people dead and around 700 injured.

  • AAP appeals for BJP’s boycott, calls it party of ‘goons’

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The AAP on Saturday gave a call to “boycott” the BJP calling it a party of “goons and uneducated”, responding apparently to the felicitation of eight men who vandalised property around the Delhi CM’s residence by the BJP.

    Delhi unit chief Adesh Gupta had on Thursday felicitated the eight BYJM members who had been arrested for vandalising the space outside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence during a protest on March 30.

    While newly elected Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha and AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj held back-to-back press conferences separately to slam the BJP over the issue, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia led the charge holding a third press conference.

    Taking to twitter later, Kejriwal joined his party colleagues in their attack and said the saffron party doesn’t open “good schools” because it needs “goons” to advance its politics.

    “If someone commits hooliganism in America, he goes to jail. In India, he goes to that party (BJP). If someone harasses a girl in Europe, he goes to jail. In India, he goes to their party,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

    “They will never make good schools. They need lakhs of illiterate people, unemployed people, goons, and vandals for their politics,” he added.

    The charge came a day after the AAP’s Kalkaji MLA Atishi called the BJP a party of “hooligans and rapists” in a scathing attack.

    Holding a press conference, she had also listed names of several BJP leaders, including four union ministers, alleging that they were facing serious criminal charges.

    The eight Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) activists felicitated at the party office here were recently released on bail.

    “By felicitating them, the BJP has exposed itself as how it is a party of goons and vandals. It has sent out a message that such persons will be rewarded and honoured like heroes,” Sisodia told reporters.

    “For the BJP, it’s not the freedom fighters or the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country are heroes, but those who attack people, who are goons,” he added.

    Sisodia too cited names of the BJP leaders facing serious criminal charges including rape and murder.

    Unlike BJP which is a party of “goons, loafers” and those facing serious criminal charges, the AAP is the party of those who are educated, honest, and patriots, he said, and appealed to the people to boycott the saffron party.

    “Boycott such a party,” he said in his appeal to people, asking, “what kind of country do you want – a country where goons and loafers get protection from the Central government or do you want an honest government?” Chadha also gave a call for “public boycott” of the BJP, saying that the people of the country need to decide whether they want to see their country going on the path of progress and development with “Kejriwal school of politics”, or going down with the BJP’s politics of hooliganism.

    At his press conference, Bharadwaj said that the BJP’s politics of hooliganism has vitiated the atmosphere of the country. “BJP needs an army of people who can perpetrate riots, violence – BJP is there to protect rapists, goons, and hooligans. You have to decide who will run this country now, goons or patriots because the time is running out,” Bharadwaj said.

  • Video of youth’s thrashing: Two nabbed, hunt on to arrest others including local BJP man, say UP Police

    By PTI

    SHAHJAHANPUR: Two persons have been arrested and hunt is on to nab four others, including a local BJP member, after a video of a youth being thrashed by them surfaced on social media, police said here on Saturday.

    Additional Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar said a video in which a youth is seen being thrashed with a stick has come to “our notice”.

    “The victim Rajiv Bhardwaj is a resident of the Shahjahanpur city area. A case has been registered on his complaint against six persons including Kapil and Prateek Tiwari at Sadar Bazar police station,” Kumar said.

    Prateek Tiwari is a member of the local BJP unit in Shahjahanpur.

    Two accused Shantanu and Sonu Gupta have been arrested and hunt is on to nab the remaining accused who are absconding, the officer said.

    The incident happened on Wednesday and the video went viral on Friday, police said.

    Hitting out at the ruling BJP over the incident, Samajwadi Party has demanded strict action against the accused.

    “BJP goons committing atrocities with stick of power in their hands depict the picture of BJP government’s jungle raj…,” a tweet from the official Twitter handle of the SP reads.

  • BJP party of hooligans, rapists: AAP MLA Atishi

    The BJP condemned the Kalkaji MLA's remarks and said she is talking “nonsense” only to “impress her boss Kejriwal”.

  • BJP fact finding team meets rape victim’s family, criticises WB government 

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A BJP fact-finding team Friday met the family members of the minor girl in Hanshkhali in Nadia district, who died after being allegedly gang-raped earlier in the month, and slammed the state administration for failing to ensure the safety and security of women in the state.

    The team members spoke to the family members and the locals, party sources said. They will submit their report to BJP national president J P Nadda, who formed the fact-finding committee earlier this week.

    The team comprised of the party’s vice-president Rekha Verma, national president of BJP Mahila Morcha Vanathi Srinivasan, party leader Khushbu Sundar and West Bengal MLA Sreerupa Mitra Choudhury, the sources said.

    “Atrocities against women in West Bengal are beyond words. A minor girl was brutally raped and murdered. This proves the administration has failed to ensure the safety and security of women. This is a shameful incident,” Verma told reporters after meeting the family members.

    Echoing her, Mitra Chowdhury said the team spoke to the mother of the victim and criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for making “irresponsible statements” on it.

    “The chief minister who is herself a woman has been making irresponsible statements instead of ensuring that the victim’s family gets justice. Is this expected from a chief minister? The victim’s mother narrated the family’s ordeal. The kind of threat and intimidation the girl’s family members faced is unimaginable,” she said.

    The 14-year-old girl had died after being allegedly gang raped by the son of a ruling TMC panchayat leader at Hanskhali on April 4. Her family lodged the police complaint on April 10 and claimed that the girl’s body was snatched away and cremated.

    The victim’s family had also alleged they were threatened with dire consequence by the accused’s family.

    Calcutta High Court had handed over the investigation to CBI. Reacting to Verma’s comment, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh dubbed the allegations as “baseless”.

    “The women of the state are safe and secure in West Bengal under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. BJP is quick to send teams to West Bengal but never bothers to send similar teams to Uttar Pradesh, where rape cases were reported from Hathras and Unnao,” he added.

    Ghosh said the fact-finding team intended to malign the state and influence the ongoing CBI probe.

    “This fact-finding committee aims to set guidelines for the central agency on how the probe should be conducted and how to accuse the state government.

    Some incidents have taken place and they are blaming the TMC for it.

    It seems they are yet to digest their defeat in the last West Bengal assembly polls,” he said.

    West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on April 11 publicly expressed doubt over the cause of the minor girl’s death, which her family attributed to gang rape.

    She had claimed that the victim was in a relationship with the prime accused and had wondered whether she was pregnant, a comment which opposition parties strongly criticised.

    Banerjee had also wondered of she died after being slapped by someone.

    PTI PNT KK KK 04152059 NNNN

  • Congress blames Centre for coal crunch, power crisis in Maharashtra

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Friday said the power crisis in the state has been caused due to lack of coal supply by the Central government.

    Talking to reporters here, Patole claimed that though the Union coal minister has advised states to import coal, the imports will only benefit some of the BJP’s industrialist friends and will make electricity expensive.

    “The Union coal minister has advised states to import coal. However, when coal is imported, it will only benefit some of the BJP’s industrialist friends and it will make electricity more expensive and ordinary consumers will have to bear the brunt of it,” he alleged.

    The Congress leader further said that the allegations of corruption in the allocation of coal mines, which were made during the UPA regime, were later found to be false. The then PM Manmohan Singh had a vision, he was ready to empower the energy department.

    But under the Modi government, no new coal mine has been created, this is a ploy of privatisation, he claimed.

    When asked about the use of loudspeakers on mosques, Patole charged that some parties were trying to further their political interests by raising the issue of loudspeakers on mosques.

    “Why is one particular religion being targeted, when loudspeakers are being used in places of worship across all faiths? The Constitution does not teach you to hate any religion,” the former speaker said.

    Communal forces should not try to instigate one religion against another, he said, adding that efforts are being made to create a religious rift in Maharashtra and action should be taken against such people.

    Speaking about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Mumbai, Patole said the date for the same has not been fixed yet.

    During his visit to Mumbai, Gandhi will meet Congress MLAs, ministers and party office bearers. The visit will be important for coordination among the MVA constituents and implementation of the common minimum programme drafted by the parties, Patole said.

  • Amit Shah to be on 3-day visit to MP, Bihar and Puducherry from April 22-24

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be on a three-day trip to Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Puducherry between April 22 and April 24, top government sources said.

    During the visit, Shah will be in Madhya Pradesh on April 22 followed by Bihar on April 23 and Puducherry on April 24. On April 22, the Home Minister will be participating in the 48th All India Police Science Congress (AIPSC) meeting in Bhopal as the chief guest at 11 am.

    Madhya Pradesh Police in association with the Home Ministry and the Bureau of Police Research and Development is organising the event at the police headquarters in Bhopal. Police officers, academicians, researchers, judicial and scientific experts will present their papers at the meet

    The Union Home Minister will visit Bihar to pay tributes to freedom fighter Veer Kunwar Singh on April 23. Shah will also attend a program in Jagdishpur in Bihar’s Arrah district on the same day in which Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers will be present with 75 thousand flags.

    “The programme will be a non-political event. The coming generation will be informed about the sacrifice of Veer Kunwar Singh. The programme will be organised under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to celebrate the 75th year of India’s independence,” said sources.

    On April 23, the Home Minister will reach Puducherry to attend an event.