News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • BJP forced to change Uttarakhand CM twice due to curse of priests: Temple body

    By PTI
    UTTARKASHI: The BJP had to replace its chief minister in Uttarakhand twice due to a “curse” of priests as it failed to dissolve the Devasthanam Board, said the Gangotri Mandir Samiti on Tuesday.

    The joint secretary of the temple body, Rajesh Semwal, said the BJP won’t be able to return to power in the state next year if it did not dissolve the board.

    Constituted during the chief ministership of Trivendra Singh Rawat, the Devasthanam Board is mandated to run affairs of 51 temples in Uttarakhand.

    The priests of the Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines are on a relay fast for several weeks, demanding dissolution of the board, which they see as an encroachment upon their rights.

    “The BJP had to give three chief ministers in four-and-a half-years due to the curse of priests.

    If the party does not learn from the experience and its new chief minister does not dissolve the Devasthanam Board soon, the curse of priests will not let the party form government in 2022,” Semwal told reporters here.

    Earlier, soon after taking over, former chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat had announced during the Kumbh Mela that the temples will be removed from the board’s control and the decision to create the panel will also be reconsidered.

    But Rawat had to step down last week before he could keep his word.

    He was replaced by Pushkar Singh Dhami.

    PTI CORR ALM RDK RDK 07061904 NNNN

  • Bihar CM Nitish Kumar doesn’t rule out JDU joining union government, ducks queries on formula

    By PTI
    PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday did not rule out the possibility of his JDU joining the Narendra Modi government during its likely expansion but insisted it was the party’s national president who will take a call on the number of berths acceptable to it.

    Talking to reporters here, Kumar said expansion of the Union council of ministers was a prerogative of the prime minister and that he “did not have much information” about what was being offered to his party.

    “I relinquished the party’s national president’s post a few months ago. Current president RCP Singh has been authorised to take a call in the matter. Only he can share the details,” the chief minister, the party’s de facto leader, said with a smile playing on his lips.

    When pointed out that he had disapproved of the BJP’s offer of “token representation” for allies in the government after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Kumar quipped, “I was then the national president of the party, a post which I no longer hold.”

    Responding to a query as to whether his party was likely to stick to its previous stand of not joining the Union council of ministers, the JDU leader said, “I do not think at any point of time it has been said that our party will never join the Union Cabinet.”

    He deflected questions about speculation in the media that the JD(U), which has become the largest ally of the BJP after Shiv Sena’s exit from NDA, was bargaining for three to four berths. “These are things you should be asking RCP Singh,” he said.

    Incidentally, Singh, a former IAS officer, has risen to the top postion in the party within a decade of taking the political plunge, and is seen as a frontrunner for a Cabinet berth. The chief minister also said he was all set to revive his public interaction programme ‘Janata Ke Darbar Mein Mukhyamantri’ from next week.

    “Of course, there will be some constraints in view of the corona pandemic. Citizens who appear on any given day with their grievances will be extended all facilities, including transport,” Kumar said.

  • Jyotiraditya Scindia arrives in Delhi amid speculations of him getting cabinet berth

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI/ INDORE: Amid speculations of him getting a ministerial berth at the Centre, BJP MP Jyotiraditya Scindia reached Delhi on Tuesday evening. “I was on a visit to Ujjain. After completing my visit here, I am going to Delhi,” Scindia told reporters here at the Indore airport today.

    The much-anticipated Union Cabinet reshuffle is expected to take place on July 8, said sources on Tuesday.

    The buzz that was going on for quite some time intensified after a series of meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President JP Nadda in the national capital.

    In March 2020, Scindia joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, after ending his 18-years-old association with the Congress party. Scindia’s resignation from the party triggered the resignation of 22 MLAs who are his loyalists and later led to the collapse of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh.

    Articulate and charismatic, Scindia was Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology in the UPA-I government. He was the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry in the UPA-II government between 2009 and 2012. Scindia was Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Power between 2012 and 2014.

    He was a strong critic of the Narendra Modi government in its first term and articulated his concerns in the Lok Sabha.

    Belonging to a political family, Scindia was first elected to Lok Sabha from Guna in 2002 after his father Madhavrao Scindia died in an aeroplane crash. Madhavrao Scindia was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1971 at the age of 26 and went on to win nine consecutive elections from the Gwalior and Guna constituencies.

    Jyotirdaditya Scindia suffered a shock defeat from Guna parliamentary seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

  • West Bengal Assembly passes resolution for creation of legislative council

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution supporting an Ad-hoc committee report that favoured the creation of a legislative council, amid opposition by the BJP.

    The resolution – ‘Consideration of report of the ad hoc committee to examine the recommendation for creation of a Legislative council’ — was moved by state parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee under Rule 169 of the Procedures of Conduct of Business of the House.

    Voting was duly held, with 196 of the 265 members present in the House supporting the creation of the council and 69 opposing it. The BJP legislative party, while opposing the resolution, said the TMC wants to pursue “backdoor politics” to help party leaders get elected as lawmakers despite having lost the assembly polls.

    The saffron party also argued that the move would put pressure on state exchequer. Echoing the BJP, lone ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui also opposed the resolution.

  • Jammu & Kashmir: Leaders of political parties meet with Delimitation Commission panel

    By ANI

    SRINAGAR: Leaders of different political parties of Jammu and Kashmir arrived at the hotel in Srinagar for a meeting with members of the Delimitation Commission on Tuesday.

    The members of the Delimitation panel will be meeting political leaders, district officers or Deputy Commissioners of 20 districts of the region and other stakeholders and gather ground-level information relating to the ongoing process of delimitation in the Union Territory.

    Both Congress and BJP, along with Jammu and Kashmir’s Panthers Party had welcomed the move of the Election Commission and said they will meet the delegation and demand fair representation of all communities.

    Earlier, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said it will not meet the Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission, stating that the “outcome of the meeting which is widely believed to be pre-planned and may further hurt the interests of our people.”

    The Delimitation Commission, tasked with redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, is scheduled to visit the Union Territory from July 6 to July 9 and interact with administrative officials, political parties and public representatives there.

    The decision to visit Jammu and Kashmir was taken after the panel held a meeting at the Election Commission office in the national capital on June 30.

    Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had held a meeting with political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir on June 24. The meeting was the first high-level interaction between the Centre and political leadership mainly from Kashmir since August 5, 2019, when the Centre abrogated Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and also bifurcated the erstwhile state into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

    Days after attending an all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital, the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) has expressed its dissatisfaction over the outcome of the meeting. The first meeting of the alliance after the Delhi meeting was held late Sunday evening at the residence of National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah, who is also the chairman of the alliance.

    PAGD spokesperson MY Tarigami told ANI that there has been an “absence of any substantial confidence-building measures” such as releasing political and other prisoners from jails.

  • Will try my best to work as Madhya Pradesh governor: Former Gujarat minister Mangubhai Patel

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: BJP leader and former Gujarat minister Mangubhai Patel on Tuesday said he will try his best to fulfil his new responsibility as the governor of Madhya Pradesh. Patel (77), a native of Navsari in south Gujarat and a well-known tribal leader of the BJP, was appointed as the governor of Madhya Pradesh by President Ram Nath Kovind.

    Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel was holding the additional charge of MP since June last year, after the then MP governor Lalji Tandon took critically ill.

    Tandon died in July last year. “I will try my best to fulfil my responsibility as a governor. The BJP is a party which believes in taking along all communities. I thank President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other leaders for giving me this new responsibility,” Patel told reporters at his residence in Navsari.

    Patel, a six-term MLA, said he always believed in PM Modi’s idea of “sabka sath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas”. “I will continue to walk on the path shown by Modiji and I am ready to serve the people in my new role,” said Patel, who had served as the minister of tribal welfare, forest and environment in the Gujarat BJP government.

    Patel started his political career as a member of the Navsari municipality in 1982, and went on to win the Assembly elections from Navsari seat five times and once from Gandevi seat in 2012. He also served as the Gujarat Assembly’s deputy speaker in 2013 when Modi was the chief minister of the state.

  • 12 BJP MLAs suspended from Maharashtra Assembly for a year for ‘misbehaving’ with presiding officer

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Twelve BJP MLAs were suspended from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for one year after the state government accused them of “misbehaving” with presiding officer Bhaskar Jadhav in the Speaker’s chamber on Monday.

    The motion to suspend the MLAs was moved by state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anil Parab and passed by a voice vote.

    The 12 suspended members are- Sanjay Kute, Ashish Shelar, Abhimanyu Pawar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkhalkar, Parag Alavani, Harish Pimpale, Yogesh Sagar, Jay Kumar Rawat, Narayan Kuche, Ram Satpute and Bunty Bhangdia.

    Parab said during the period of suspension, the 12 legislators will not be allowed to enter the Legislature premises in Mumbai and Nagpur. Objecting to the decision, BJP members, led by Devendra Fadnavis, said the opposition would boycott the House proceedings.

    “This is a false allegation and an attempt to reduce the numbers of opposition benches, because we exposed the government’s falsehood on the OBC quota in local bodies,” Fadnavis said. He said the BJP members had not abused the presiding officer.

    “It was Shiv Sena MLAs who used abusive words. I brought our MLAs out of the Speaker’s chamber,” the leader of opposition said. Ashish Shelar apologised and the matter ended, the former CM said, claiming that what Jadhav said was a “one-sided” account.

    Earlier, NCP leader and minister Nawab Malik accused the BJP members of misbehaving with Bhaskar Jadhav and the state Assembly was adjourned four times over the issue.

  • BJP-Shiv Sena’s relationship is like Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao: Sanjay Raut

    By ANI
    MUMBAI: Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Monday compared his party’s equation with former coalition partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the relationship between actor Aamir Khan and wife Kiran Rao who recently announced their separation.

    Raut’s reaction came after former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said that BJP and Shiv Sena are “not enemies”. “We are not India-Pakistan. Look at Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao, it is like them. Our (Shiv Sena and BJP) political ways are different but the friendship will remain intact,” said Raut.

    Shiv Sena leader’s remarks came amid speculation of a rift in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state and BJP allying with Shiv Sena. However, BJP had denied the possibility of any such alliance between the two parties.

    Asked about Fadnavis’ comment, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil said, “Devendra Fadnavis has said BJP, Shiv Sena are not enemies, it’s 100 per cent true but this doesn’t mean that both will come together and form a government.”

    On Sunday, Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Fadnavis said there might be some differences between BJP and Shiv Sena but they are not enemies.

    Briefing media persons, Fadnavis said, “There are no ifs and buts in politics. Decisions are taken according to the prevailing circumstances. There might be some differences with Shiv Sena but we are not enemies. Remember that Shiv Sena fought elections with us and after the results, joined hands with Congress and NCP.”

  • Remove BJP leaders who ‘harassed’ Muslims if true to your words: Digvijaya Singh to RSS chief

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A day after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat asserted that the DNA of all Indians is the same, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Monday said if Bhagwat is true to his words, he must give directions that all those BJP leaders who “harassed” innocent Muslims be removed from their posts.

    Singh, however, added that Bhagwat will not do so, alleging that there is a difference between his words and actions.

    In his address at an event ‘Hindustan First Hindustani Best’ organised by the Muslim Rashtriya Manch in Ghaziabad on Sunday, Bhagwat also took on those indulging in lynching.

    “Cow is a holy animal, but those involved in lynching are against Hindutva,” he had said.

    Bhagwat had also said that though at times, some “false cases” of lynching have been registered against some people.

    AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi hit back at Bhagwat over his remarks, saying those criminals who carried out lynching may not know the difference between a cow and a buffalo but the names of Junaid, Akhlaq, Pehlu, Rakbar, Alimuddin were enough for them to kill.

    This hatred is the product of Hindutva and these criminals have the patronage of a government backing Hindutva, the president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) alleged.

    “Cowardice, violence and murder are an integral part of Godse’s Hindutva thinking.

    The lynching of Muslims is also the result of this thinking,” he said in a series of tweets in Hindi.

    Tagging a report on the RSS chief’s remarks that the DNA of all Indians is the same and those asking Muslims to leave the country cannot call themselves Hindus, Singh said, “Mohan Bhagwat ji, will you pass on these views to your disciples, preachers, Vishwa Hindu Parishad/Bajrang Dal workers also? Will you pass on these teachings to Modi-Shah ji and BJP chief minister also?” “Mohan Bhagwat ji, if you make it obligatory for your disciples to follow this thought, I will become your admirer,” the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said.

    Alleging that the RSS had instilled “hatred” between Hindus and Muslims, Singh said it was now not easy to remove the “seeds of hatred” sown against Muslims from “Saraswati Shishu Mandir to the intellectual training provided by the Sangh.”

    “If you are honest with the views you expressed, then issue directions to remove all those leaders in the BJP, who have harassed innocent Muslims, from their posts immediately.

    Start with (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and (UP Chief Minister) Yogi Adityanath,” the Congress leader said. Referring to Bhagwat’s remarks giving primacy to being Indian, Singh asked Bhagwat to explain this to his disciples first as they “advised me to go to Pakistan many times”.

  • Rafale deal: BJP hits back after Rahul Gandhi questions govt intent

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi put out an online poll on Sunday questioning the Centre’s alleged reluctance in conducting a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the multi-billion-dollar Rafale jets deal.

    At 10:45 am, Rahul conducted the online poll on Twitter, asking why the “Modi government is not ready for a JPC probe”. The options given by him were “Guilt conscience”, “Need to save friends”, “JPC doesn’t want a Rajya Sabha seat”, “All of the above”.

    The alleged scam in the Rs 59,000 crore deal was one of Rahul’s main poll planks going into the 2019 General elections, in which BJP returned with an even greater, historic mandate. Leading the Congress campaign, Rahul tried to question PM’s clean image in rallies with the slogan “Chowkidar chor hai”, which apparently backfired.

    Addressing the media on Sunday, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the deal was an inter-governmental one between India and France and one of the two countries had initiated a probe while the other was yet to even comment.

    “It’s been 24 hours since France has ordered a probe on matters like corruption, influence peddling, money laundering, favouritism. The whole nation, the whole world is now looking to New Delhi. Why the silence?” Khera said.

    Hitting back, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra sought to know why the UPA government did not procure the fighter planes for 10 years despite a depleted squadron strength of the IAF, “Is it because the Gandhi family did not get their desired ‘commission’?” he asked. Patra said it does not sound well when the Congress party accuses others of jeopardising national security.  It is astounding that yet again the Congress has taken the “abuse” way,  Patra said.