News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Gujarat minister suggests vaccination as precondition for free Central grains; draws flak

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: Gujarat minister and BJP leader Yogesh Patel on Monday stirred controversy by suggesting that free food grains under the Central scheme be allotted only to the COVID-19 vaccinated people.

    Hitting back, opposition Congress said the BJP government in Gujarat had no right to bring in such a rule as the Centre had not made coronavirus vaccination compulsory to avail of any benefits under public welfare schemes.

    Speaking to reporters in Vadodara, Patel said he will make a representation to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and the new district collector of Vadodara about introducing a “new scheme”, apparently to increase vaccination percentage.

    “I will make a representation to the new district collector and also to the CM that let’s bring in a new scheme. The Centre recently announced to distribute free food grains till Diwali. I suggest that free food grains be given only to those people who have received the (COVID-19) jabs,” the Manjalpur MLA who is Minister of State for the Narmada and Urban Housing department said.

    Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the government will distribute free food grains to around 80 crore needy people till Diwali this year as part of relief to the poor amid the second wave of coronavirus.

    Meanwhile, senior Congress leader from Vadodara Ami Ravat has termed the minister’s suggestion “absurd”.

    “This is an absurd suggestion. When the Centre itself has not made vaccination compulsory for availing of benefits then why a Gujarat minister is suggesting so? While the BJP at the Centre claims that they will give free grain to the poor, local BJP leaders are coming up with ideas to see that the poor do not get it.”

    said Ravat, Leader of Opposition in the Vadodara Municipal Corporation.

  • Madhya Pradesh: 14 cops suspended for lapse in Jyotiraditya Scindia’s security

    By PTI
    GWALIOR: Authorities in Madhya Pradesh on Monday suspended 14 police personnel of two districts for lapse in the security of BJP Rajya Sabha MP Jyotiraditya Scindia during his visit to the state, a senior official said.

    The lapse in Scindia’s security occurred on Sunday night when he was on his way to Gwalior after arriving from Delhi.

    Gwalior Superintendent of Police Amit Sanghi told PTI that 14 police personnel – nine of Morena and five of Gwalior district – have been suspended for negligence in handling Scindia’s security.

    Sanghi said the former Union minister was to be escorted by the Morena Police on the Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan border and later this task was to be done by their Gwalior counterparts.

    However, the Morena police escorted another vehicle which was similar to the one in which Scindia was travelling, the SP said.

    The Rajya Sabha MP entered Gwalior un-escorted as information about his movement was not shared by the Morena police with their Gwalior counterparts, he said.

    Following this lapse, action has been taken against the cops from two districts, Sanghi said.

  • ‘Beginning of saffron party’s end’: BJP leader from north Bengal, seven others join Trinamool

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: In yet another jolt to the BJP, the party’s Alipurduar district president, Ganga Prasad Sharma, joined the TMC on Monday, as senior leader of the state’s ruling party Mukul Roy, who also switched sides two weeks ago, claimed that this was the “beginning of the saffron party’s end” in the state.

    Seven other BJP leaders from the region, too, followed in Sharma’s footsteps and joined the Mamata Banerjee camp.

    Roy, addressing a press meet here, said the BJP’s rise in the state began with the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when it managed to bag several seats in north Bengal, and its downfall, too, will start from the region.

    “This is just a glimpse of what lies ahead. The BJP’s fall in the state is imminent,” Roy, who was the saffron partys national vice president until recently, underlined.

    Asked what he might have to say about BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari’s insistence that he quit as an MLA, having won the Krishnanagar Uttar assembly seat on a saffron camp ticket, Roy said, “He should first find out what his father (Sisir Adhikari) was up to.”

    Roy was referring to the TMC’s demand for disqualification of Kanthi MP Sisir Adhikari, who crossed over to the BJP, much like his son, ahead of the polls.

    Sharma, on his part, alleged that the BJP has ignored the sentiments of grassroots workers while choosing candidates for the assembly polls, “inducting people at its own will and flying them to Delhi”.

    “We felt neglected but still gave our best to the organisation and ensured that five saffron camp candidates from Alipurduar district get to win the assembly elections. Now, however, I intend to work for people under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee,” he stated.

    Rejecting Suvendu Adhikari’s assertion that Sharma changed sides as he was denied a saffron party ticket in the assembly polls, Sharma said, “Let me ask him why he chose to join the BJP ahead of the polls? Also, I wish to know why he was made the leader of opposition in the Assembly and not Manoj Tigga, who is a senior and loyal member of the camp.”

    Coming down heavily on local MP John Barla, who has recently sought a separate union territory comprising north Bengal districts, the BJP turncoat pointed out that the parliamentarian, instead of doing something constructive for the region, is “fanning the flames of division”.

    TMC deputy leader in the Upper House, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who was also present at the press conference, said the people of the state will distance themselves from the BJP even further due its demands of “separatism”.

    Echoing him, education minister and senior TMC leader Bratya Basu noted that the saffron camp, on one hand, is observing ‘Poschimbongo divas’ (West Bengal Day), and on the other, its MP is seeking a bifurcation of the state, with no regard for its integrity.

    Talking about Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s visit to north Bengal, the TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP said, “He is free to go anywhere he wishes to. but he should have taken the state government in confidence.”

    Dhankhar has embarked on a week-long visit to north Bengal earlier in the day amid the controversy that has erupted in the region in the wake of Barla’s demand.

    Slamming state BJP president Dilip Ghosh over his claim that Bengal is becoming a “safe haven of terrorist outfits due to inaction of the state government”, the TMC MP said, “There are central agencies to keep a check on terrorist activities. If we were to believe him, the obvious question would be what are these agencies doing.”

    “Are the agencies only there to harass and arrest student activists and the ones who raise their voice against the policies of the BJP government?” the MP added.

  • IUML hits out at proposed two-child norm of Assam govt

    By PTI
    GUWAHATI: The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) on Sunday condemned the Assam government’s proposed population policy and termed it “anti-secular and unconstitutional”.

    The party also hit out at Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for advocating a two-child norm for availing benefits under specific state government schemes and exempting certain communities from it.

    “This policy of Assam is not only discriminatory but anti-secular and unconstitutional,” IUML National President K M Kader Mohideen said in a statement.

    He further said that all secular and democratic forces of the country should unite against this policy and force the Assam government to withdraw this “anti-national, unconstitutional policy of discrimination and destruction”.

    “The chief minister seems to take pleasure in dividing the people and ruining the family life,” Mohideen said, adding that Sarma was behaving “as the dictator in the Hitlerian fashion”.

    ALSO READ: Assam to soon implement its population policy in government schemes

    The former MP also took exception to the exemption offered to scheduled castes and tribes and tea tribe people in the proposed policy.

    “He (Sarma) has announced that families with more than two children, mostly Muslims, will have no right to get any government job nor will they receive any benefits from the government’s welfare schemes nor will they be permitted to contest in the local body elections.

    “But people belonging to scheduled castes and tribes and tea tribes are given exemption to have four to five children,” he added.

    Sarma had recently said the state government is mooting a population policy, which will enable only families with not more than two children to avail benefits under certain state government schemes.

    Assam currently has a two-child norm, along with requirements of minimum educational qualifications and functional sanitary toilets, for contesting in gaon panchayat polls as per an amendment in 2018 to the Assam Panchayat Act, 1994.

  • 80 crore people needing free ration is another painful example of development under Modi govt: Rahul Gandhi

    In another tweet, he attacked the government for the high taxes it has imposed on petrol and diesel.

  • BJP’s north Bengal leader Ganga Prasad Sharma set to join TMC

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: In a major setback for the BJP in north Bengal, where it fared well in the assembly polls held earlier in the year, the president of the party’s Alipurduar district unit, Ganga Prasad Sharma, on Sunday said he will shortly be joining the TMC.

    Sharma told reporters he was “finding it hard to put up with the policies” of the saffron party, and working for people have become increasingly difficult for him under such circumstances.

    “I did everything to ensure that the BJP wins the polls, and the party did bag five seats. But some of us are feeling suffocated in the party now, which is expanding in size without establishing links with grassroots workers,” he told reporters before leaving for Kolkata.

    Sharma also said the recent demand by “our local MP for a union territory status for north Bengal” has further prompted him to take the decision.

    ALSO READ: West Bengal govt moves Calcutta HC seeking recall of order on NHRC probe in post-poll violence

    Several top-level BJP leaders will also follow suit, he claimed, refusing to take names.

    Sources in the TMC said Sharma is slated to join their party in a few days.

    Reacting to Sharma’s assertion, BJP MLA and opposition leader in Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said, “Our organisation is strong in north Bengal. Ganga Prasad’s exit hardly matters.”

    “We will create another Ganga Prasad. Individuals don’t matter, BJP matters,” Adhikari added.

  • West Bengal govt moves Calcutta HC seeking recall of order on NHRC probe in post-poll violence

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has filed an application before the Calcutta High Court seeking recall of its order that directed the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to constitute a committee to examine all cases of alleged human rights violations during post-poll violence in the state.

    The application has been listed for hearing on Monday before a five-judge which passed the order two days ago after taking into accoount the PILs on post-poll violence.

    The state government prayed for grant of an opportunity to deal with a report by the member secretary of the State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) on the matter before the next date of hearing, and make submissions on the steps taken by it on such complaints of clashes and violence.

    The PILs have alleged that political attacks have led to displacement of people from their residences, physical assault, destruction of property and ransacking of offices.

    The government also prayed that the findings in the order of June 18 “against the state of West Bengal and/or its officers may be expunged”.

    It claimed that the order had been passed without giving the state an opportunity to file its response in connection with the SLSA member secretary’s report.

    The state also prayed for a stay of operations given in the order till the disposal of the PILs.

    The five-judge bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and justices I P Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Subrata Talukdar, has directed the chairperson of the NHRC to form a panel for examining all cases of alleged human rights violations during post-poll violence.

    The bench said that the committee will scrutinise the complaints the NHRC has received or could receive, and submit a comprehensive report before it about the present situation, after “may be by visiting the affected areas”.

    It further asked the committee to suggest steps that has to be taken to restore confidence in people and ensure they get to live peacefully in their houses and carry on with their occupation or business.

    “The persons prima facie responsible for crime and the officers who maintained calculated silence on the issue be pointed out,” the bench ordered, directing that the matter would be taken up for hearing again on June 30.

    The court noted that the SLSA member secretary will be a part of the committee, to be formed by the chairperson of the NHRC.

    It said that a representative from the State Human Rights Commission, West Bengal, be also associated with it.

    The bench observed that in a case where the life and property of the residents of the state are allegedly in danger on account of post-poll violence, the state cannot be allowed to proceed in the manner it likes.

    Contending that the complaints required immediate action, the bench said, “Somehow from the facts as are available on record and are sought to be projected by the petitioners, such an action is missing.”

    “It is the duty of the state to maintain law and order and inspire confidence in the residents,” it said.

    The bench observed that complaints with regard to post-poll violence received by the SLSA have been tabulated in six different categories — property vandalised, looted or damaged by miscreants, threat by miscreants as a result of which the applicant(s) are out of his/their house and requires to be reinstated, assault or sexual assault, grabbing or encroaching of property, shop/business forcefully closed by miscreants, and demand of ransom.

    A report submitted by the SLSA member secretary said 3,243 persons had reported suffering till noon of June 10.

    The official also said that complaints were referred to the superintendent of police or police stations concerned in some of the cases, but no response was received.

  • BJP observes West Bengal Day, plays Hindu card

    By PTI
    KOLKATA:  In an apparent bid to hard-sell its religious ideology, the BJP on Sunday observed ‘Poschimbongo Divas’ (West Bengal Day) here by paying tribute to party ideologue Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, as saffron camp leaders claimed that the state, without his intervention, would have become part of an Islamist country.

    The TMC, however, alleged that the saffron party was trying to “distort” history.

    Opposition leader in West Bengal Assembly and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari led a programme organised on the occasion at the party headquarters here, while saffron camp MP Swapan Dasgupta took to Twitter to mark the day with his post.

    Regretting the fact that “neither the TMC not the erstwhile ruling parties — the CPI(M) and the Congress — observed the day”, Adhikari told reporters, “Had 54 Hindu representatives not carved out Poschimbongo, Islamabad or Dhaka would have been our state capital, not Kolkata.”

    Giving alleged incidents of post-poll violence in the state a communal colour, he further said that “people have been attacked for following the Sanatan Hindu dharma”.

    “As many as 17,500 people are still homeless and 42 have been killed (due to post-poll violence),” Adhikari stated during the function at the party headquarters.

    Asked about the demand for a separate territory by a certain section of people in north Bengal, the leader of opposition said his party does not support any call for division of the state.

    He, however, insisted that grievances of people in the northern part of Bengal should be addressed.

    At another programme near the south gate of the Assembly, he said, “The BJP will not back any demand for bifurcation of Bengal, but why is that just a few leaders from south Kolkata are given all key ministerial responsibilities? Districts have faced neglect for years.

    ” BJP MPs John Barla and Jayanta Roy have recently raised demand for carving out a separate state comprising north Bengal districts, drawing a sharp retort from the TMC and other parties.

    The saffron camp leadership has also distanced itself from the comment.

    Dasgupta, a member of the Rajya Sabha, meanwhile, tweeted, “June 20 is West Bengal Day, the day in 1947 Bengali Hindus took the momentous decision to carve out a separate province in India to thwart the Muslim League bid to secure the whole of Bengal for Pakistan.

    There was a philosophy that shaped the decision & we must not forget it.

    ” TMC MP Sougata Roy, in response, said the BJP was trying to misinform people with its own version of history.

    “Shyama Prasad Mukherjee is not the only personality who stood for Bengal, there were many others, too, including progressive Muslims,” he added.

     

  • Talent crunch in government and party haunts BJP, course correction on way

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Concerned at the growing sense of discomfort over talent crunch in the government and the party, the BJP brass is learnt to be working overtime to address the issue.

    The course correction roadmap concurred by the leadership of both the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is likely to be mirrored in the expansion of the Modi Cabinet and the saffron outfit’s national office bearers’ team.

    At the core of the problem is the lack of a crop of leaders who can step in times of crisis to swing the public perception and rally party workers. “The government and the BJP organisation mostly reflect a team of leaders with managerial bent of minds. The rise of Modi and Amit Shah corresponded with an expanding tribe of people with least public appeal in government and party positions. The pandemic has just woken up the leadership to the challenge that was being ignored,” said a senior RSS functionary.

    While the RSS mobilised its resources to set up COVID health care infrastructure during the second wave, sources said its senior functionaries noted the absence of ministers and BJP leaders from the scenes, which only added to the negative perception about the party.

    “Not only is the government seen as PM-centric, there’s hardly anyone among BJP national office bearers, except Bhupender Yadav, who can even manage elections in states. The rumblings in the state units suggest disconnect of the national office bearers from the ground realities,” said a top BJP leader.

    That the general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh has to be sent to four states four states in recent days to work out peace among warring factions reveals the extent of the dearth of talent pool in the party. Sources said that the possibility of exchange of resource pools between the government and the BJP appears also not ruled out.

  • BJP appoints PM Modi’s confidant AK Sharma as vice president of Uttar Pradesh unit ahead of polls

    By Online Desk
    LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appointed MLC AK Sharma as vice president of the party’s state unit on Saturday.

    Further, Archana Mishra and Amit Balmiki have been appointed as the Pradesh Mantris.

    With Uttar Pradesh slated to go to polls next year, BJP has decided to strengthen the party’s organisation in the state.

    Earlier this month, BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh and the party’s Uttar Pradesh in-charge Radha Mohan Singh had held review meetings with state ministers and leaders.

    ALSO READ: MLAs feel CM Yogi Adityanath aloof, relies more on babus

    According to sources, based on the feedback from the review meetings, the ruling BJP has held deliberations on the party’s organisation in Uttar Pradesh.

    Believed to be a trusted lieutenant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, AK Sharma, the Gujarat cadre former IAS officer of 1988 batch, joined the ruling BJP in January.

    A Bhumihar by caste, Sharma is a postgraduate in political science from Allahabad University and hails from Kajha Khurd village in Muhammadabad Gohna tehsil in Mau district in eastern UP. He joined Modi as the secretary in October 2001 when the former took over as the Gujarat CM. He continued to work with him in the PMO from 2014 onward as well and took over as the MSME secretary in April 2020.

    Elections to 403 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh are due in 2022. In 2017, the BJP had registered a landslide victory polls winning over 300 seats. The Assembly polls will be the biggest litmus test of the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha constituencies, the highest amongst all states.

    (With inputs from ANI, ENS)