News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • NHRC team attacked in Bengal’s Jadavpur during visit to probe post-poll violence

    By ANI
    JADAVPUR: A team of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team was allegedly attacked in West Bengal’s Jadavpur on Tuesday when it arrived to investigate alleged incidents of post-poll violence in the state.

    According to Atif Rasheed, a member of the NHRC investigation team, the team was attacked by goons.

    “During the probe, it has been found that more than 40 houses have been destroyed here. We are being attacked by goons,” said Rasheed.

    Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha MP, Swapan Dasgupta today wrote to Rajiv Jain, Member, NHRC stating, “I write to bring to your notice complete breakdown of law and order, wherein citizens of Tarakeshwar were subjected to continuous post-poll atrocities for no reason apart from their political preferences”

    On Sunday, NHRC invited complainants to meet and address their grievances to NHRC committee members either in person or via mail, or telephonically regarding the alleged post-poll violence in West Bengal.

    A press note issued by the NHRC on Sunday stated that as per the direction of the West Bengal High Court, a Committee has been constituted by the NHRC Chairperson to look into the various cases, complaints, allegations of violations of human rights, particularly in the post-poll period in West Bengal.

    It stated that the Committee, headed by Rajiv Jain, Member, NHRC and other members of the Committee and several teams of NHRC has been touring various places of West Bengal and enquiring into the veracity of these complaints/allegations.

    Earlier, on June 21, the NHRC chairperson Justice (Retired) Arun Mishra has constituted a committee headed by former Intelligence Bureau chief Rajiv Jain to enquire into the complaints of post-poll violence in West Bengal.

    The inquiry was ordered in accordance with the orders of the High Court of Calcutta, NHRC officials said. As per the orders of the High Court, the NHRC Committee shall examine all cases of post-poll violence in West Bengal, complaints about which have already been received in the National Human Rights Commission or which may be received.

    A four-member team deputed by the Ministry of Home Affairs has also visited the post-poll violence-affected areas after several incidents of violence have been reported at various places after the declaration of the Assembly poll results on May 2. 

  • Opposition in Assam in quarantine during COVID-19 pandemic: BJP president JP Nadda

    By PTI
    GUWAHATI: The opposition parties in Assam were in quarantine with some in the ICU during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, BJP president JP Nadda said on Tuesday. The opposition parties emerge only during elections as “political tourists” but after that, they are nowhere to be seen, Nadda claimed while addressing a meeting of the state BJP executive virtually.

    “All the (opposition) parties were in quarantine with some having reached the ICU. It was the BJP members who reached out to those in distress,” he said. Nadda urged the party’s newly-appointed state unit president Bhabesh Kalita and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to take up vaccination of all eligible people in the state on a “mission mode”.

    He asked Kalita to ensure that all party workers are engaged in vaccination awareness drives throughout the state to remove any hesitancy, if it still exists. Nadda thanked the people of Assam for defeating the “forces of communalism and corruption” and putting their faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development agenda.

  • Chirag Paswan meets senior BJP leader in Ahmedabad; he says on private visit in city

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Chirag Paswan, locked in a bitter feud to retain the reins of the Bihar-based party, visited Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Monday.

    When asked by reporters outside the airport in the night whether he had come to Ahmedabad to meet a senior BJP leader as the speculation is, Chirag evaded a direct reply saying he was on a “personal” visit to the city.

    Chirag, son of late Union minister and LJP founder Ramvilas Paswan, was removed recently as the party chief by a faction of the LJP headed by his uncle and Hajipur MP Pashupati Kumar Paras, prompting Chirag’s loyalists to respond by stripping five rebel parliamentarians of the LJP’s primary membership.

    The party, which has six MPs but no MLAs, plunged into a crisis after the five lawmakers, including Chirag’s cousin, rebelled against his leadership and chose Paras as the new leader of the parliamentary party.

    ALSO READ | Chirag Paswan can take forward father’s legacy only by joining fight against Golwalkar thoughts: Tejashwi Yadav

    Notably, Chirag said on Tuesday that he had expected the BJP to help sort things during the tussle between him and his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras to retain control of the outfit.

    “Their silence definitely hurts. My father Ram Vilas Paswan and I stood by BJP like a rock, but they’re not there when I expected them in such difficult times,” Chirag Paswan had told PTI.

    Chirag recently announced to undertake “Aashirvad Yatra” from Hajipur in Bihar from July 5 marking the birth anniversary of his father.

  • Fadnavis must cooperate with Maharashtra CM on OBC quota, says Sena MP Sanjay Raut

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Monday said BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis should cooperate with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to resolve the issue of OBC quota in local bodies in Maharashtra.

    The Supreme Court had recently truck down such quota after observing that the seats earmarked for various communities must not exceed 50 per cent of the total strength of the local body.

    The BJP has been accusing the MVA government of not presenting empirical data in the apex court to show that such quota was needed in local bodies.

    Fadnavis had recently said he could get the OBC quota reinstated if he was given the reins of power in the state for four months, adding that he would quit politics if he failed to do so.

    Speaking on Fadnavis’ statement, Raut said the BJP must stop the former CM from taking such a decision as there was a a paucity of good leaders in the country and the latter’s quitting would be unfair to Maharashtra.

    “His colleagues must persuade him against taking such a decision. The state government is looking into the OBC quota issue and Fadnavis should cooperate with the chief minister in finding a solution. We will not let Fadnavis take political sanyas,” Raut said.

  • Despite multiple defections, no disqualification recorded in Bengal Assembly in past decade

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Once a reviled practice in West Bengal, the “Aaya Ram Gaya Ram” culture has made deep inroads into the state as several MLAs, in the past decade, were seen frequently crossing the floor, with none facing any action under the anti-defection law.

    Speaker Biman Banerjee agreed that there was no instance of MLA disqualification in the last ten years on the ground of defection, but did not elaborate further.

    “It is true that the Assembly has not recorded any case of disqualification since 2011 for switching camps. But I would not get into details,” the three-time speaker told PTI.

    The latest flashpoint is the defection of veteran leader Mukul Roy, who won the March-April Assembly polls on a BJP ticket but switched over to the TMC earlier this month.

    The saffron party, on its part, has filed a plea before the Speaker seeking Roy’s disqualification, only to receive flak from the ruling TMC, which said that MPs Sisir Adhikari and Sunil Mondal, who had joined the BJP ahead of assembly polls, should first quit the membership of Lok Sabha.

    Since the ascendance of the TMC in Bengal, switching parties, a practice looked down upon prior to 2010, has almost become commonplace, according to political pundits.

    Over four dozen legislators from the Congress, Left Front and the TMC switched sides in the 15th and 16th Legislative Assembly — between 2011 and 2021, they said.

    In the 16th Assembly alone, around 24 of the 44 Congress MLAs and eight of the 32 Left MLAs had crossed over to either the TMC or the BJP.

    However, only 12 disqualification pleas were filed by the Congress and one by the CPI (M).

    In many cases, parties have refrained from filing disqualification pleas for “fear of losing the main opposition party status in the assembly”.

    Former Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan told PTI that the anti-defection law “has turned into a joke” under the BJP rule at the Centre and the TMC in the state.

    “Sadly, no action was taken by the speaker in the disqualification cases that we filed over the years. We stopped doing that after a while as it would have harmed our party’s strength in the House. We could have lost the opposition party status,” Mannan said.

    Giving an example, former Left Front Legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty said Left MLA Dipali Biswas, who had switched over to the TMC just after the 2016 assembly polls only to dump the party for the saffron camp last year, continued as a member of the House, despite 26 hearings on her disqualification case.

    “When no action was taken against her, we understood that the speaker wasn’t willing to initiate any. We stopped filing such application. End of the day, it is a matter of political will,” he said.

    The Anti-Defection Law, 1985, states that a member of a House belonging to any political party shall be disqualified if he or she has voluntarily given up the membership of a political party, votes or abstains from voting in the House contrary to any direction issued by the party he represents, and if a representative of a certain political party joins another outfit after the election.

    As per the Law, the speaker’s decision is final but there, however, is no time limit for him to arrive at any decision.

    A party can move court, but only after the speaker has announced his decision.

    “The speaker not being bound by any timeframe is the loophole that the BJP and the TMC have exploited. There is a need to relook at the law after 36 years,” Mannan said.

    However, the ruling TMC blamed the opposition Congress and the CPI(M) for not having done their homework properly before moving the disqualification pleas.

    It sought to differentiate between the turncoats who joined the ruling party and the ones that switched over to the saffron camp.

    “Their disqualification pleas may not have yielded any result as they had failed to prove their cases. Also, you can’t blame us if an elected member wants to join us to be a part of the developmental process started by the TMC government,” Kunal Ghosh, the state general secretary of the Mamata Banerjee-led party, pointed out.

    “Those who have switched over to the BJP just ahead of the assembly polls in exchange of something and the ones who have joined our camp over the years can’t be clubbed in one bracket. If the BJP is so serious about the law, they should first take action against Sisir Adhikari and Sunil Mondal,” he maintained.

    State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh blamed the TMC for “normalising” defections.

    “Since 2011, the TMC has engineered defections of several MLAs by using both money and muscle power. Was that in accordance with the law? The TMC should answer this,” he said.

    The first instance of defection can be traced back to 1952 when four Forward Bloc MLAs joined the Congress after the earliest assembly elections in the state.

    They resigned from their posts, leading to by-elections.

    However, what drew national attention was former chief minister Prafulla Chandra Ghoshs decision to walk out of Bangla Congress and the CPI(M)-led United Front government along with 17 MLAs, in 1967.

    Ghosh and other legislators subsequently joined the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF), leading to the collapse of the United Front government.

    In the years that followed, however, no major camp change took place till 1998, when a section of Congress leaders led by Mamata Banerjee formed the Trinamool Congress.

    Between 1998 and 2001, several Congress MLAs who had joined TMC obeyed the grand old party’s whip inside the Assembly to avoid getting disqualified under the anti- defection law but functioned as a TMC leader outside.

    After 2011, however, the state witnessed massive defections as many Congress, and Left legislators made a beeline for the TMC.

    The trend changed following the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the BJP, having registered a stupendous performance in Lok Sabha polls, became an attractive destination for the elected representatives of the TMC.

    A senior TMC leader said the party would henceforth desist from pursuing the ‘Aaya Ram Gaya Ram’ culture, coined after Haryana legislator Gaya Lal changed his party thrice within a fortnight in 1967, and, instead, adopt a “pick and choose” policy.

    Underlining that defection has become a “fashion” in Indian politics, retired Supreme Court judge Ashok Kumar Ganguly, when approached, said that it can only be corrected by strengthening the law.

    “The law needs to be revisited, as the realities of Indian politics have undergone a sea change since 1985.

    There should be a fixed timeframe for the speaker to decide on disqualification pleas,” he told PTI.

    Echoing him, political analyst Suman Bhattacharya wondered whether the BJP, which is at the Centre, would initiate any process to amend this law as it has “highly benefited” from the culture in states where the party did not bag absolute majority.

    Political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty is of the view that both the TMC and the BJP are to be equally blamed for making a mockery of the law.

    He further said that that the saffron party is tasting its own medicine in Bengal as many politicians it had inducted ahead of the assembly elections now want to be a part of the winning team.

  • Gujarat 2022 Assembly poll fight will be between BJP and AAP: Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia

    By PTI
    SURAT: The 2022 Gujarat Assembly polls will be a straight contest between the ruling BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Sunday.

    In Surat to welcome businessman Mahesh Savani into the AAP fold, Sisodia said the BJP was in power for over two decades in the state but had failed to bring about any change, whereas his party has emerged from the people, stood by them and was synonymous with “good governance”.

    “The trust and faith of the people in AAP is growing. The 2022 Gujarat Assembly polls will be between the party that has been ruling without bringing about any change and the party that has emerged from the people,” Sisodia said.

    He claimed people like Savani joining his party was a sign that the business community as well as common citizens wanted change in Gujarat.

    Savani, who belongs to the politically influential Patidar community, is known for organising mass marriages for orphaned women and also runs hostels for HIV positive girls.

  • Complete lawlessness in Tripura, BJP government a failure, says former CM Manik Sarkar

    By PTI
    AGARTALA: Former chief minister Manik Sarkar hit out at the BJP-led Tripura government on Sunday, alleging that it has failed to maintain law and order in the state.

    Addressing a press conference, the leader of opposition in the state assembly alleged that the police were turning a blind eye to incidents of violence and were reduced to “puppets” with strings in the hands of “BJP-sheltered goons”.

    “Incidents of lynching and deaths in police and judicial custody are occurring in different places across the state. CPI(M) offices are often vandalized and party activists are attacked by the BJP-sheltered goons. The law and order has completely collapsed in the state,” Sarkar claimed. The senior CPI(M) leader said that the party has raised the matter with the chief minister, director-general of police and the governor but no action was taken to stop the violence.

    “It is complete lawlessness here,” he alleged.

    As many as 200 incidents of attack happened after the chief minister’s assurance in the third week of March, Sarkar said, adding that 70-75 attacks happened after the governor’s assurance on May 12.

    “It is the government’s responsibility to take action against the persons involved in such incidents.

    Besides, the state government needs to raise public awareness so that nobody takes the law into their hands but it is silent,” he said.

    “If the rule of law is not restored in the state, we have no alternative to organising people’s movement,” he said.

  • Congress should be fulcrum of any national coalition against NDA: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Congress is a national party with a pan-India presence and it is quite natural that it should be the fulcrum of any national coalition against the BJP-led NDA, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said on Sunday.

    In an interview with PTI, he also said that the Congress is in a direct fight with the BJP on more than 200 Lok Sabha seats and should focus on them while allowing regional parties to be in the driver’s seat in the other constituencies.

    Asked about the meeting of Opposition leaders and several civil society members at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Shared Pawar’s house here last week, the RJD leader said he was not aware what transpired in the meeting.

    However, the former Bihar deputy chief minister asserted that definitely all like-minded parties should come together with a common minimum programme to defeat “this most oppressive, divisive, authoritarian and fascist government”.

    “Our leader Lalu (Yadav) Ji had forewarned in the run up to 2014 election- ‘Ye chunaw tay karega ki desh tootega ya bachega (this election will decide whether the country will remain or be divided)’, and I think most of the parties and citizens of our country have realised this today like never before,” Yadav said.

    On the Congress not having a presence at the meeting and whether the grand old party should be part of a national alliance to take on the BJP, he said the Congress is a national party with a pan-India presence and quite naturally it “should be the fulcrum of any national coalition against the BJP-led NDA”.

    The Congress is in direct fight with BJP on more than 200 seats, not the regional parties, Yadav said.

    “From past experiences, I think the Congress must focus on those seats wherein it is in direct fight with the BJP and on remaining seats with an open heart and mind it should let regional parties be in the driving seat in their respective strongholds to root out the BJP,” he argued.

    His remarks assume significance as they come just days after Pawar said the Congress will need to be taken along if any alternative alliance is to be formed.

    Significantly, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday had also said that work is on to bring all opposition parties together at the national level, and this alliance will be incomplete without the Congress.

    He had said that the Congress will play an important role in the alliance that aims to provide a strong alternative to the present dispensation.

    NCP chief Pawar on Friday had claimed that formation of any national alliance was not the topic of discussion at the meeting of eight opposition parties hosted by him, but also said that if any such coalition emerges, its leadership will have to be “collective”.

    He had told reporters that the aim of the meeting at his Delhi residence last Tuesday was to discuss how they can support the ongoing farmers’ agitation.

    Speculation was rife that the agenda of the meeting, where no Congress leader was present, was to discuss a possible alliance which could be an alternative to the BJP.

    Asked what would be the form of any future alliance against the BJP and what would be the Congress’s place in it, Pawar had said, “There was no discussion on this, however, in my view the Congress will be needed to be taken along if any alternative alliance is to be formed.”

  • Another BJP leader criticises COVID handling in Uttar Pradesh

    By PTI
    BALLIA: Criticising the handling of the COVID-19 crisis in Uttar Pradesh, a ruling party leader has claimed that at least 10 people died in every village during the second wave as no lessons were learnt from the first one.

    State BJP working committee member Ram Iqbal Singh, who made the remarks on Saturday, is the latest among the party’s leaders who have questioned the management of the coronavirus infection in the state.

    Speaking to reporters here, Singh rued that the Health Department did not learn any lesson from the first wave of COVID-19 which led to a large number of deaths due to the disease in the second wave.

    “At least 10 people died from every village in the state during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic,” he alleged.

    The BJP leader also demanded that Rs 10 lakh be given to the kin of those who succumbed to the infection.

    He lamented that after 75 years of freedom, this district with a population of 34 lakh, has “no doctors or medicines”.

    On being reminded that during his visit to Ballia, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had expressed satisfaction with the arrangements made by the Health Department, Singh said the officials had misled the CM, and the truth was not shown.

    He also urged the BJP government to give a diesel subsidy to farmers.

    Earlier in May, BJP’s Sitapur MLA Rakesh Rathore had joined the list of ruling party lawmakers in Uttar Pradesh, expressing resentment over the alleged COVID-19 mismanagement in the state and saying that he feared a sedition charge for speaking up.

    “What standing do MLAs have? If we speak too much, treason and sedition charges will be slapped on us as well,” Rakesh Rathore had told reporters, according to a video clip.

    On May 9, Union Labour minister Santosh Gangwar had complained to the chief minister about the situation in his Bareilly constituency, saying officials don’t take calls and government health centres send back patients for ‘referrals’ from the district hospital.

    In a letter to Adityanath, he had also complained about the “big shortage” of empty oxygen cylinders and the high prices of medical equipment in Bareilly.

    A day later, BJP MLA from Jasrana in Firozabad Ramgopal Lodhi claimed that his coronavirus positive wife was not admitted to an Agra hospital for over three hours, with officials saying that beds were not available.

    In April, a ‘confidential’ letter written by UP Law Minister Brajesh Pathak surfaced on social media.

    Pathak had lashed out at his state’s health authorities, complaining that beds for coronavirus patients were falling short and ambulances took hours to arrive in the state capital.

  • Puducherry’s first NDA ministry swears in 

    By Express News Service
    PUDUCHERRY: For the first time in the history of Puducherry  BJP entered the citadels of power  with the swearing-in of ministers in the NDA  government led by N Rangasamy

    After a long wait of more than one and half month, finally, five ministers, two from BJP and three from AINRC were sworn in on Sunday.

    A Namassivayam(BJP), K Lakshminarayanan (AINRC), C Djeacoumar (AINRC) , Chandira Priyanga (AINRC) and A K Saravanan Kumar (BJP) were administered the oath of office and official secrecy by Lt Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan at a simple function held outside the gates of Raj Nivas on Sunday.

    Chief Minister N Rangasamy, Speaker Embalam R Selvam, Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar, DGP Ranveer Singh among others were present on the occasion.

    MLAs of AINRC, BJP, independent MLAs as well as opposition Congress MLA Ramesh Parambath from Mahe were present on the occasion.

    Tamilnadu BJP President L Murugan, Puducherry state BJP president V Saminathan were also present.

    The ministry is a combination of experienced and debutants as well as turncoats and loyalists.

    For Namassivayam it his fourth stint, while Lakshminararayanan becomes minister for second time and Djeacoumar becomes the minister for the third time.

    Chandira Priyanga, elected from Nedungadu (SC) constituency in Karaikal region of the Union territory and Saravanan Kumar elected from Ossudu(SC)  becomes minister for the first time .

    Namassivayam, the former PWD minister in the Congress government led by V Narayanasamy, shifted to  BJP, just before the elections. He also moved from the Villianur constituency and won the election from the Mannadipet constituency. He is likely to be the home minister in the NDA government of AINRC and BJP. Namassivayam is the number two minister.

    Lakshminarayanan, the five-time MLA and former Education, Revenue and Tourism minister (2001 -2005) also switched over to AINRC from Congress .just before the elections. An advocate, he had been the Parliamentary Secretary to CM in the previous Congress-DMK government. 

    Theni C Jayakumar, who was earlier Local Administration minister in the DMK-TMC government from 1996-1999 and again briefly for six months in the congress govt led by P Shanmugham. He had been part of AINRC since Rangasamy floated the party in 2011. 

    Chandira Priyanga becomes the second woman minister in the UT, after 41 years after  Renuka Appadurai of INC(I) who was the first woman minister in 1980 in the DMK-Congress government led by D Ramachandran.

    Chanadira  Priyanga is the daughter of M Chandirakasu, who was a minister in the earlier AINRC government of Rangasamy in 2011. Chandira Priyanga represents the outlying region of Karaikal, a Scheduled caste community and also women. She is the first scheduled caste woman to become a minister in Puducherry.