News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • BJP leaders pass the buck to states to save ‘Brand Modi’ from pandemic fury

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: With “Brand Modi” in the line of fire over devastating trails of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, BJP has seemingly resorted to the strategy to pass the buck to the states, much against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks in a video conference with CMs to work as a team and avoid politics.

    The “pass the buck” strategy, feels a section of the BJP leaders, is contradictory in the face of devastations unleashed by the pandemic in the party-ruled states.

    In line with the BJP’s perception management strategy, Union ministers have begun articulating with details of instances when the Centre had cautioned the state governments against the looming threats of the pandemic.

    Others, including Anurag Thakur, Rajyavardhan Rathore, M J Akbar, Sambit Patra and social media influencers from the ranks of the BJP, have been on an overdrive to find faults with the states in Covid-19 management.

    Some of them latched on to the statement of municipal commissioner of Mumbai Iqbal Singh Chahal to drum up “speedy response” of the Centre to “Oxygen SOS”.

    But discomfort in the ranks of the BJP leaders continues to grow, with a section of them noting that the party has embarked on a “self-defeating strategy to blame the states” while citing the instances of Karnataka, Bihar, UP, MP, Gujarat and Haryana.

    “The Opposition-ruled states may have ignored the warnings of the Centre. But why was the Centre not able to take the BJP-ruled states on board with the strategy to avert the second wave of the Covid-19. This attempt to save Brand Modi by blaming the Opposition-ruled states will not find sympathy with the people,” said a senior BJP functionary.

    While the PM continues to hold video conferences to link up with stakeholders to find ways to deal with the ferocity of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, his ministerial colleagues are seen missing in action.

    “Last year during the first wave, the Union Minister for Home Affairs, Amit Shah led from the front in New Delhi, visiting several hospitals and boosting immediate helth infrastructure. Now, there’s hardly anyone seen in action barring the Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal, who coordinated the transport of oxygen on train. The judiciary appears to have taken the lead in responding to the emergency situations. Group of Ministers (GoMs) could have been tasked to deal with the specific demands and requirements of the states,” said another senior BJP functionary, who did not wish to be identified.

  • All 77 BJP MLAs in West Bengal to have central security cover

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: All the newly elected 77 BJP MLAs in West Bengal are being provided security cover by central paramilitary forces in view of potential threats to them, official sources said on Monday.

    They said the Members of the Legislative Assembly will be secured by armed commandos of the CISF and the CRPF.

    The Union Home Ministry has approved the cover after taking into cognisance a report prepared by central security agencies and the inputs of a high-level fact finding team of officers that was sent to the state by the ministry in the wake of post-poll violence in the state, including that against the workers of the BJP, they said.

    Sixty-one MLAs out of the 77 will be covered under the lowest ‘X’ category and the commandos will be drawn from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), as per fresh orders of the MHA, they said.

    The rest are either enjoying the central security cover or will be covered under the next higher category of ‘Y’.

    Fifty-year-old Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari is already a ‘Z’ category protectee of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), they said.

    “These persons face potential threat in the wake of post polls scenario in the state and hence they need to be secured,” a senior officer said.

    A number of other candidates, including some turncoats, who contested the assembly polls from the BJP ticket will also continue to have the central security cover for some more time, they said.

    The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged as the main opposition party in the state, winning 77 seats in the 294-member house in the recently concluded polls where the TMC led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee formed the government.

    While there can be 3-4 armed commandos under the ‘X’ category, the configuration increases to 6-7 under the ‘Y’ cover and the ‘Z’ category brings in about 6-9 commandos for the protectee.

    Both the CISF and the CRPF have specialised VIP security units in their establishment and they collectively provide security to over 140 personalities, ranging from central ministers, MPs and senior bureaucrats.

  • ‘Aim to make Assam one among top five states’: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma

    By PTI
    GUWAHATI: New Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Monday said controlling the “alarming” COVID-19 situation in the state is his first priority and his aim will be to make the state one of the top five in the ccountry in the next five years.

    Sarma, who was addressing the press after being sworn in, appealed to all insurgent groups of Assam, specially ULFA (I) to lay down arms and join the mainstream to sort out their issues and establish lasting peace in the state.

    He said the first cabinet meeting of the second BJP government in the state will be held on Tuesday to discuss the prevailing situation vis a vis the COVID-19 pandemic and decide on measures to contain it.

    Sarma, who is also the convenor of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance, said his other objectives will be to fulfill all poll promises like providing one lakh jobs every year, waiving off microfinance loans and to make the state free from the perennial floods.

    “My aim will be to make Assam one of the top five Indian states in the next five years. We want to take development to newer heights and bring peace among all castes, creeds and communities. We will start working from tomorrow to fulfill this aim,” he asserted.

    ALSO READ | Himanta Biswa Sarma: Man of the Match of the Assam elections

    On the “alarming” COVID-19 situation in the Assam, he said unless the pandemic is controlled in the state, the cases due to it will not go down in the rest of the north east states.

    “The COVID-19 situation in Assam is alarming and my first job will be to control it. Our daily cases have crossed 5,000 mark. In our cabinet meeting tomorrow, we will discuss it from all perspectives. We will take measures to contain the cases. The new government will take every possible measure to contain the spread (of coronavirus),” Sarma said.

    Sarma took oath on Monday after he was unanimously elected the leader of BJP Legislature Party and the NDA Legislature Party on Sunday, ending the week-long speculations about who would lead the only non-Congress government to return to power for the second successive term in Assam.

    On ending insurgency in the state, he said “I request Paresh Barua (the commander-in-chief of the banned ULFA(I)) to abjure armed struggle and join talks to solve the problems.

    Kidnappings and killings complicate problems, not solve them.

    I hope we will be able to bring back the underground insurgents to the mainstream in the next five years,” he added.

    The outfit has been repsonsible for many killings and kidnappings, the latest being that of three ONGC employees from the pubblic sector company’s Lakwa oil rig in Sivasagar district along the Assam-Nagaland border in April this year.

    Following this security forces had ramped up its counter- insurgency operations and killed a top ULFA(I) commander and arrested one of his aides.

    Asked to comment on the contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC), the new chief minister said his government wants reverification of 20 per cent names in the border districts of Assam, and 10 per cent in the rest of the districts.

    “If very negligible error is found, then we can go with the existing NRC.

    But if huge anomalies are found in reverification, then I hope the court will take note of this and do the needful with a new perspective,” he said without elaborating.

    Sarma said that the government will also try to solve the controversies surrounding the definition of indigenous people in respect to NRC and citizenship issues by talking to all segments of the society in the next five years.

    On BJP’s promise of bringing in a law against ‘love jehad’, he said “Each promise made is meant to be implemented. Every promise is solemn for us. We will do everything possible to fulfill them.”

    He said his predecessor Sarbananda Sonowal led the state in the path of peace and development during the last five years and the new government will take forward the same with “renewed pace”.

    Asked about giving ST status to six tribes as promised by BJP in 2016, Sarma said “We will see to it that there is no impact on the existing communities.

    We will discuss this with all stakeholders and proceed accordingly.”

    About the state’s financial condition, Sarma, who was the finance minister of the Sarbananda Sonowal cabinet, said that there is Rs 7,000 crore in the treasury and all developmental works will continue in the coming period.

    “We have one of the best fiscal situations. I want to tell everyone that there is absolutely no cause of concern on the financial condition of Assam,” Sarma said.

    The Assam government will ensure protection of women and punish those harming their dignity.

  • Difficulties arose for Mamata, BJP made Suvendu Adhikari the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly

    Suvendu Adhikari has been elected Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, while former Legislature Party leader Manoj Tigga has been elected Deputy Leader. Suvendu Adhikari defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram seat by 1,956 votes in the assembly elections. The announcement was made on Monday in the presence of central observer Ravi Shankar Prasad, general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and state BJP president Dilip Ghosh.

    In a meeting held at the BJP office on Monday, BJP National Vice President Mukul Roy proposed the name of Suvendu Adhikari. 22 MLAs supported his name. Later Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Suvendu Adhikari is not only the leader of the legislative party, but will also be the leader of the opposition in the assembly. Its constitutional process will be completed.

    TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has suffered another major setback after her defeat in Nandigram seat in West Bengal. His demand for a second count of votes has been rejected after a close fight with his former colleague Suvendu Adhikari. The Election Commission has said that the decision of the Returning Officer is final and can be challenged only in the High Court. Meanwhile, the officer staying in Nandigram has been provided security. The Election Commission has also dismissed allegations of disturbances in the counting of votes by Mamata Banerjee. The Commission has stated that there was a Micro Observer at all counting tables and they have not given any indication of any disturbance in their reports. After all rounds, the RO entered the number of votes all candidates had received and was displayed on the display board, which the counting agents could easily see. No one had expressed any doubt during the entire counting process and the entire process went on without any hindrance. After every round, a copy of the result was being given to all the agents.

  • India is getting support for the world in the war against Corona, BJP explains the feeling of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’

    The second wave of Coronavirus in the country has been destroyed. Everyday new cases of Corona are breaking records. On Monday, however, a large drop in new cases of corona has been reported. In the past 24 hours, there have been 3,66,161 new cases of corona in the country, while 3,754 people have lost their lives due to corona in one day. In this hour of crisis, many countries of the world have extended a helping hand towards India. Now the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has tweeted it with its official Twitter handle and termed it as ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’.

    The BJP wrote on its official Twitter handle on Monday, “Welfare of humanity is being done in the spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. India had helped countries around the world by providing essential medicines and indigenous vaccines during Kovid’s time.” Respecting this sentiment, the world is now extending a helping hand towards India.

  • Bengal polls debacle: With mere 5.47 per cent vote share, Left stares at existential crisis

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: A graffiti on a central Kolkata wall said “Long live Marxism”.

    Someone with a wry sense of humour had cut out the word ‘live’ and scrawled ‘dead’ on top.

    The results of last week’s counting of votes cast in the crucial West Bengal elections seemed to bear this out.

    Not only had the combined Left parties drawn a blank in polls to the assembly which they had run with an overwhelming majority for 34 long years, their vote share had dwindled to a mere 5.47 per cent in 2021, down from 30.1 per cent in 2011 when they lost the elections to Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s juggernaut.

    In the clash of the titans where the TMC was in a straight fight with the BJP in most constituencies, the once all-powerful Left seems to have been squeezed into oblivion.

    Even in the 2016 assembly elections, the Left parties had managed to get 25.69 per cent of the votes polled.

    “We lost because other factors like anti-incumbency were overridden by people’s anxiety to halt the BJP from capturing Bengal,” admitted Nilotpal Basu, CPI(M) Politburo member and former Rajya Sabha MP.

    Analysts said that the TMC’s win was in part powered by a gain of at least five per cent of the popular votes which normally go to the Left, as electors decided to ignore issues like corruption to exercise their franchise against the BJP.

    “In 2019, when the BJP won 18 Lok Sabha seats and bagged about 40 per cent of the votes cast, the Left and the Congress had ceded grounds to the rightist party, this time the Left votes went to the TMC,” said Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary of the CPI(ML)- Liberation party which came out with a ‘No Vote to BJP’ campaign.

    Bhattacharya, an alumnus of the Indian Statistical Institute and his team have been researching on the just- concluded elections at their office in Creek Row area.

    The sharp drop in votes polled has dismayed CPI(M) cadres, and the central leadership of the party will review the election results to analyse what went wrong and to chart out a future course of action.

    Even Jadavpur, long dubbed ‘Leningrad of the East’ which has elected a Left candidate in every election since 1967, except once, fell before the Trinamool onslaught.

    To rub in the humiliation, veteran CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty lost by a margin of nearly 40,000 votes to a little-known TMC debutante in a seat, where it was said that the Left “would win even if the party fielded a lamp post with the hammer and sickle sign on it”.

    “The Kolkata city voting patterns show that people decided to stop the BJP and they chose to gravitate towards the TMC it is a limited mandate from the Left-liberal- secular opinion against the BJP,” Basu said, adding “the ruling party should not consider this as their vote.

    As Leftist forces consolidate, it will regain this vote share”.

    However, independent analysts do not believe getting back vote shares will be a simple task for the Left parties led by the CPI(M).

    “The crisis the Left is facing is deep rooted. Its falling vote share is just an indicator of a deeper malaise,” said Rajat Roy, political analyst and member of the think tank Calcutta Research Group.

    The fall of the Left is underlined by the fact that just 17 years ago it was the third-largest party with 59 MPs of the 543-strong Lok Sabha, with 35 seats coming from West Bengal alone.

    Since then, its sway over the electorate has dwindled to a situation where it has no MPs from West Bengal in the Lok Sabha.

    CPI(M)’s vote share alone has fallen in recent years from 19.75 per cent in the 2016 assembly polls to 6.34 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when a whispering campaign “chup chap padma phoole chaap” (secretly vote for BJP) saw a section of its voters swung to the BJP as a reaction to TMCs attitude towards the Left.

    In 2021, the CPI(M) managed to garner just 4.73 per cent of votes polled as the pendulum shifted towards the TMC.

    “The once revolutionary party which rode to popularity on the back of peasants’ movements and trade union militancy has been living in a cocoon for long. Since the 1990s, instead of mass contact movements, it has depended on party apparatchiks like Laksman Seth of Haldia and Anil Basu of Hooghly to deliver votes. Their decline now defines the Left’s hold over voters,” Roy said.

    The CPI(M), which stormed into power in 1977 following a popular upsurge against then chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray’s brutal suppression of the Naxal movement, industrial stagnation and emergency excesses, had also failed to live up to people’s expectations with its inability to create jobs, encourage industry and by lowering public education and healthcare standards.

    However, insulated from the two major political upheavals that shook India in 1990s the Mandal agitation and the Ram Mandir stir and bereft of strong opposition, Bengal remained a unique Left citadel, even as the Communism crumbled in Eastern Europe and embraced capitalism in China.

    The rise of Mamata Banerjee’s strident street-smart politics in the late 1990s and 2000s, which used people’s movements against eviction of hawkers in Kolkata, agitations against land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram, severely challenged the Left.

    “The connect with ordinary people, which was their (Leftists) hallmark snapped. CPI(M) leaders were living in a world of doctrinaire, while the lower cadres were reaping the gains of office,” Roy explained.

    By 2011, Banerjee had breached the ‘Red fortress’ and by 2021, the Left was misreading its voters’ mind, Bhattacharya claimed.

    “The traditional Left completely misread the situation in this election. They should have seen the significance of the battle for Bengal. Here, we had a party backed by RSS, a ‘fascist’ organisation, out to capture Bengal. Yet they concocted slogans that equated the BJP and the TMC, and called them ‘two sides of the same coin’. This did not convince even their own people,” he said.

    The CPI(ML)-Liberation leader felt that class concerns where the “poor saw the BJP as a rich man’s party”, gender concerns raised by comments on “love Jihad and Romeo squads” and “issues of Bengali identity” united voters against “attempts to polarise them communally”.

    The Left’s electoral alliance with the newly-floated Indian Secular Front led by a conservative Islamic cleric, known for controversial comments, too did not go down well with Leftist liberals.

    “The tie-up with Abbas Siddique simply backfired on them,” said Bhattacharya.

    The Left, analysts believe, now has to reinvent itself and go back to mass contact movements to stay relevant.

    Cadres of Leftist students’ unions, who fanned out in districts of south Bengal to campaign for CPI(M)’s new faces such as JNU Students Union president Aishe Ghosh and party’s youth wing state president Minakshi Mukherjee, are expected to lead the mobilisation needed to bring back it into reckoning.

    “Our young candidates have got relatively good vote share. They are our hope,” Basu said.

    According to collated data based on Election Commission figures, the Left had registered its best-show in south-east Bengal where it received nearly nine per cent of the popular votes.

    This is also the region where most of the young faces were fielded.

    “Let us see what lessons the Left draws from its rout. We have to step up our role,” said Bhattacharya.

    While Roy added, “the key is mass connects, no party can survive without mass movements.”

  • People also dying due to fear of COVID-19: UP minister on pandemic situation in state

    By PTI
    SHAHJAHANPUR: Uttar Pradesh Medical Education Minister Suresh Khanna on Sunday said that people who test positive for COVID-19 are spreading fear of the disease and that is also causing many deaths.

    It is everyone’s responsibility not to spread fear, he told reporters after visiting the medical college here.

    Khanna also visited the hospital’s ICU ward.

    “After testing positive for COVID-19, people are spreading fear of the disease from inside their homes to outside. Deaths are also taking place due to this fear. In such a scenario, it is our responsibility not to spread fear of COVID,” Khanna said.

    For days now, Uttar Pradesh has figured among the biggest contributors to India’s COVID-19 tally, according to Union health ministry data.

    According to an official statement, the state recorded 23,333 fresh COVID-19 cases on Sunday that pushed its tally to 15,03,490 while 296 more fatalities took the death toll to 15,464.

    On his visit to the medical college, Khanna said COVID-19 patients admitted in the hospital are satisfied with the treatment being given to them.

    He claimed that there has been a decline in the number of patients due to the government’s proactiveness.

    The number of patients has dropped to 78,000 from 3.10 lakh on April 30.

    Khanna also claimed that there is no shortage of oxygen or hospitals beds in Shahjahanpur.

    “You can bring your patients, we will admit them,” he said.

  • Once blue-eyed boy of Tarun Gogoi, Himanta Sarma gets reward for expanding BJP in Northeast

    Express News Service
    GUWAHATI:  BJP strongman Himanta Biswa Sarma who will take over as the chief minister of Assam on Monday is the architect of the BJP’s success not just in Assam, but the entire Northeast. 

    It has been a long wait for Sarma, who was once the blue-eyed boy of Tarun Gogoi, the former Congress CM of the state.

    Within the Congress, he was seen as a natural successor to Gogoi. However, the two had fallen out with each other following Gogoi’s US-educated son Gaurav’s emergence in the Assam’s political landscape.

    Sarma eventually left Congress after being upset about not being given the place that he deserved despite having won the support of a large majority of the party MLAs during the 2014-15 dissent within the party.

    The BJP did not commit the same mistake. It has rewarded him for all that he has achieved for the party.

    Born into a highly-educated family on February 1, 1969 in Jorhat, Sarma had started his political career with the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU).

    He served the Cotton College Union Society as its general secretary for three terms in 1988-89, 1989-90 and 1991-1992.

    He is a post-graduate in political science, an LLB and a PhD. Former CM Hiteswar Saikia could see the spark in Sarma and asked him to join the Congress in the first half of 1990s.

    Noting his ability as a minister and his political wisdom, observers say Sarma should have become the Assam CM long back. After falling out with Gogoi, he had joined the BJP in 2015.

    After the 2016 polls, the BJP formed a non-Congress conglomerate of political parties called North East Democratic Alliance and made him its convenor.

    He has not only contributed to the prowess of the BJP in Assam but also consolidated the party’s organisational base across the region.

    A master election strategist, who is widely known for his political acumen, he was instrumental in the BJP’s victory in Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

    Sarma had played a key role in toppling the Peoples’ Party of the Arunachal government in 2016 when 33 of its 43 MLAs, led by CM Pema Khandu, joined the BJP.

    He did not stop there. The next year, he helped the BJP form a government for the first time in Manipur. 

    The most powerful politico in the region 

    Considered by many to be the most powerful politician of the entire Northeast region, 52-year-old Sarma is equally revered by supporters for his capabilities and reviled by critics for being over-ambitious.

  • Trinamool workers help cremate BJP leader as saffron camp looks away 

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress functionaries came forward to cremate the body of a BJP leader, who died of cardiac arrest in West Bengal’s East Burdwan district, after nobody from the saffron camp responded to repeated pleas by his wife. 

    Sixty-year-old Anup Banerjee, who was the BJP’s booth president, died on Friday. His wife Reena stood guard beside his body overnight.

    Her repeated pleas to the local BJP workers to help cremate him fell on deaf ears as they suspected Banerjee died of Covid-19.

    On Saturday afternoon, a local TMC leader Budun Sheikh instructed the party workers to go and help the family. They carried Banerjee’s body and cremated it.

    “It was around 1 pm when my husband died. He had no symptoms of Covid-19. He was suffering from physical ailments and had succumbed to a massive cardiac arrest,” Reena said. 

    “I informed the BJP’s local leaders and functionaries with whom my husband worked hard in the Assembly elections. Initially, they said they will come soon. Bu no one turned up,” she said.

    “I then heard a rumour that my husband died of Covid. I couldn’t arrange a vehicle to take him to the crematorium. It was stormy night with heavy downpour. I had to spend the night with his body,’’ Reena said.

  • Uttarakhand: BJP MLA’s son gets vaccine jab ahead of official schedule for his age group

    By PTI
    DEHRADUN: A controversy has erupted in Uttarakhand over a BJP MLA’s 25-year-old son getting the anti-coronavirus vaccine jab despite the fact that inoculation of people in his age group is yet to begin in the state.

    The vaccination process for people aged 18-44 years begins officially in Uttarakhand on Monday.

    However, BJP MLA from Khanpur Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion’s son Divya Pratap Singh Champion got the jab on May 5.

    The controversy broke out when pictures of Divya Pratap Singh getting the vaccine shot went viral on social media on Saturday.

    Doon hospital staff requesting anonymity said the MLA, along with his wife and son, arrived at the medical superintendent’s residence on May 5 and allegedly pressured the doctors to administer the vaccine dose to his son.

    The Aam Aadmi Party questioned how the vaccination was administered to the MLA’s son when the drive for those aged 18 or above was yet to start.

    AAP’s state spokesperson Raju Maurya said the incident had come to light last week and his party has sent a complaint to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat through the Haridwar district magistrate and demanded an inquiry into it.

    He alleged that under the current government, separate arrangements have been made for influential and the common people.

    There are also allegations that the MLA’s son got a shot of Covaxin at a time when most people in the state are being administered Covishield vaccine.

    Covaxin is available only at a select few centres in the state.

    When contacted, Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion said his son got the vaccine shot as he is a frontline worker actively involved in stopping the spread of the virus.

    State BJP media in-charge Manveer Singh Chauhan said all, whether a minister or MLA, should follow the coronavirus guidelines issued by the Centre.

    “We have to defeat coronavirus together.”

    Champion is not new to controversies.

    He was in the news a few years ago when a video clip in which he was seen dancing to a popular Bollywood number with guns in his hands went viral.