News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Samyukt Kisan Morcha will ask farmers in poll-bound states to defeat BJP: Outfit leaders

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Farmer unions have announced a five-hour blockade of the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway on March 6, marking the 100th day of protests against the new farm laws on Delhi borders.

    They have also decided to support trade unions’ protest against “privatisation” on March 15. The decision was taken after a general body meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) held at Singhu border on Tuesday. 

    Darshan Pal, a senior member of the Morcha, announced that the farmers will also free the toll plazas on March 6.

    The other decisions include hoisting black flags on houses and government offices to signify support to the movement.

    “We urge protesters to wear black bands that day,” said Pal.

    Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said SKM teams will visit poll-bound states, including West Bengal and Kerala, to appeal to farmers to defeat the BJP.

    “We will not seek votes for any party. We will appeal to the people to vote for those candidates who can defeat the BJP,” he said.

    Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav said those in power do not understand the language of justice, Constitution…they only understand the language of power, elections and votes.

    Revealing the protest calendar, Pal said the Morcha would mark March 8 as Mahila Kisan Diwas.

    “All SKM protest sites across the country will witness greater participation of women. We invite women’s organisations and others marking International Women’s Day to show their support to the protesting farmers and highlight the contribution of women farmers,’’ he added.

    On March 15, central trade unions are marking the day as “anti-privatisation” day. The Morcha will support them and mark the day as “anti-corporatisation” day in solidarity with the trade unions, said Pal.

    “We’ll also launch ‘MSP Dilao Abhiyan’ across the country (beginning from Gulbarga in Karnataka on March 5). As part of the campaign, the reality of price recovery of farmers in different markets will be showed to point out to the government about the shallowness of its MSP promises.  The campaign will be initiated in Karnataka, Andhra and Telangana. We invite farmers from across the country to join the campaign,” he said. 

  • With familiar script of Ram, cow, and ‘love jihad’, Yogi starts Bengal campaign

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW:  BJP’s star campaigner, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, descended on poll-bound West Bengal on Tuesday with a rich embellishment to his ideological themes such as Ram temple, cow slaughter and ‘love jihad’ and warned the Mamata Banerjee government that it would ignore them at the cost of its ouster. 

    Yogi’s ‘how dare you’ speech at Malda took a swipe at his Bengal counterpart, who had felt “offended” with the chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

    “I’d like to remind Mamata Didi that there was a government in UP which had ordered firing on Lord Ram devotees in Ayodhya. You can see the condition of that government now. Now it’s the TMC government’s turn,” he said.

    Further harping on the theme of religious sentiments, Yogi said Durga Puja got “prohibited” in Bengal and cow slaughter was done during Eid.

    Incidents of cow smuggling were going on with impunity while “the state government remains silent”.

    He promised that cow smuggling will be stopped within a day if the BJP is voted to power in the state.

    On ‘love jihad’, he said the state government must learn from UP which has made a law outlawing ‘forcible marriages’ that resulted in religious conversion.

    “Appeasement politics for the sake of vote bank has endangered the security of not only West Bengal but also of the country.

    The TMC has a problem with refugees getting citizenship but has no issue with illegal immigrants coming to the state,” Adityanath said at a rally in the minority-dominated Gazole area of Malda district, which borders Bangladesh.

    “Through fraud and deceit, incidents of ‘Love Jihad’ are taking place in Bengal. Women of the state are not safe. We have made a law against ‘Love Jihad’ in UP. But in Bengal, where the state government is indulging in politics of appeasement, neither are there attempts to curb cattle smuggling nor dangerous incidents of ‘Love Jihad’,” he said.

    “In the same way, the state government has been unable to stop cow smuggling and political violence,” he said.

    Yogi accused the Mamata government of blocking the central schemes and assured the people that they would celebrate ‘Deepotsav of nationalism’ on May 2, when the Assembly poll results are declared. He is likely to address at least a dozen rallies in Bengal. 

    His comments drew sharp reactions from the TMC, which said that West Bengal doesn’t need sermons on law and order from Yogi Adityanath as his state has recorded the highest number of incidents of crime against women.

    Claiming that the raising of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan is not allowed in West Bengal, Adityanath said that the people of the state will give a befitting reply to the TMC government for “playing with their religious sentiments”.

    “Jai Shri Ram slogan is not allowed in West Bengal, but people won’t allow this to continue. Just see what happened to those who opposed the Ram temple. The people of India don’t take any other name other than Ram. Those who are Ram ‘drohi’ (traitors) do not have a place here,” he said.

    Adityanath asked the TMC government why it is opposed to ‘Ram bhakts’ but has a “nexus with forces that bring anarchy in the state”.

    Claiming that West Bengal, which had once led the nation, is now facing a lawless situation, Adityanath said the state needs a “double engine BJP government” to regain its lost glory.

    Several senior TMC leaders were quick to respond to the allegations and said West Bengal did not need sermons from him and rather he should look at the dismal track record of his state.

    They also raised the issue of a 50-year-old man who was allegedly shot dead in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district by an accused out on bail in a case of molestation lodged in 2018 against the victim’s daughter.

    “Yet ANOTHER Hathras! The count of dreadful incidents being reported from the @BJP4India-ruled UP is unending! The people of UP are suffering as the state of law and order is in shackles, yet @myogiadityanathis in Bengal?? #BJPHataoBetiBachao,” TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said on social media.

    “In a poll-bound state, Mr @myogiadityanath comes & spreads misinformation to fool people.

    While @BJP4Bengal leaders were spreading Fake News, the family members of the lady informed that she was already suffering from a medical condition resulting in the swelling,” she said in a series of tweets.

    Elections to the 294-member assembly will be held in eight phases from March 27 to April 29.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Bengal polls 2021: Rebel TMC MLA Jitendra Tiwari joins BJP

    By PTI
    HOOGHLY: Amid an ongoing exodus from the ruling Trinamool Congress ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections, two-time party MLA from Pandabeswar in Paschim Barddhaman district and former Asansol mayor, Jitendra Tiwari joined the BJP on Tuesday.

    Reacting to the development, the TMC said it is a “good riddance”.

    Tiwari, who had rebelled against the TMC leadership but had mellowed down after the BJP declined to induct him into the party in December last year, joined the saffron camp in the presence of party state chief Dilip Ghosh at a programme in Sreerampur in Hooghly district.

    “I have joined the BJP as I want to work for the development of the state. In TMC, it was no longer possible to work for the party,” he said after joining the saffron party.

    Welcoming Tiwari into the party, Ghosh said senior TMC leaders joining the BJP reflect that the days of the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal are numbered.

    “Earlier, we hardly had any presence in West Bengal. But now, we have grown by leaps and bounds,” he said.

    Union minister and Asansol MP Babul Supriyo, who had opposed Tiwari’s entry into the party in December last year, said he couldn’t oppose if someone is willing to work under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    “Yes, it is true that we had fought hard in Asansol. When Jitendra was the TMC district chief, our main fight was against him in Asansol. But now, if he is willing to join our party, I can’t oppose it. We will work together,” he told reporters.

    Supriyo and several other BJP leaders including state general secretary Sayantan Basu and state Mahila Morcha chief Agnimitra Paul had earlier openly opposed Tiwari’s possible induction into the party.

    Basu and Paul were issued show-cause notices by the party for openly speaking on the issue.

    Tiwari had resigned from the post of the chairman of the Board of Administrators of the Asansol Municipal Corporation and the TMC district chief in December last year.

    He had also held a meeting with Suvendu Adhikari, just two days ahead of the former state minister’s switch to the saffron party in December.

    But the BJP leadership had to shelve the plans of inducting Tiwari into the party after Supriyo and the local BJP leadership openly opposed it.

    Tiwari had then made a U-turn, apologised to the TMC leadership, and returned to the party fold.

    Although the TMC took him back, it clipped his wings and never gave him any important assignments.

    “It’s good riddance that he (Tiwari) has left. But let me say one thing: Those who have switched over will regret their decision after the elections,” TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said.

    Elections to the 294-member state assembly will be held in eight phases from March 27 to April 29.

  • BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari likely to step down as Chairperson of Jute Corporation of India

    By ANI
    KOLKATA: Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari is likely to step down as Chairperson of Jute Corporation of India.

    Speaking to ANI over a phone call on Tuesday, the BJP leader said, “I have to contest in West Bengal elections. To prioritise this position, I might resign as Chairperson of Jute Corporation of India. Also, I cannot work having two government positions at a time.”

    Adhikari, former West Bengal Minister, had joined the BJP in December 2020. Later, in January 2021, he was appointed as the Chairperson of the Jute Corporation of India.

    The Jute Corporation of India Limited (JCI) was set up in 1971 as an official agency by the Government of India with the aim to provide minimum support price (MSP) to the jute cultivators and also work as a helping hand in the raw jute sector.

    ALSO READ: BJP will stop ‘Love Jihad’, cow smuggling in Bengal if voted to power, says Yogi at Malda rally

    At present, he is actively campaigning in West Bengal for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

    A total of 824 Assembly constituencies shall be going for polls in four states — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam — and the Union Territory of Puducherry, said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora on Friday.

    The polling in these states will start from March 27 and end on April 29.

    West Bengal will witness eight-phased Assembly polls beginning March 27.

    The tenure of the 16th Legislative Assembly of West Bengal will end on May 30 this year. A total of 7,34,07,832 voters will choose their representative for the 17th Legislative Assembly of West Bengal.

    On January 20, Adhikari said although he does not know who from his party would contest from the Nandigram seat, he would make sure that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee loses the poll there by 50,000 votes.

  • Commotion at BJP ‘Parivartan Yatra’ in Hooghly after Trinamool stops saffron party’s rally

    By PTI
    UTTARPARA: BJP’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ rally on Tuesday witnessed commotion when it was passing by a Trinamool Congress (TMC) party office at Uttarpara in Hooghly district.

    Activists of the TMC blocked G T Road as the rally neared its office leading to arguments between the workers of the ruling party and the BJP, police said.

    A timely intervention by the police prevented the situation from turning worse and the rally with BJP members chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ resumed its journey.

    TMC leader Tapas Roy said, the BJP was instigating trouble to disturb the prevailing peaceful environment in the state.

    “In the name of movement they are trying to foment trouble but we will not be swayed by any provocation,” he said.

    BJP leader Prabir Ghosal said the attempt by the TMC to create disturbance did not succeed as the stand-off lasted for a few minutes with the timely intervention by the police.

    TMC sources alleged that the BJP had installed a loudspeaker in front of the TMC party office and raised provocative slogans against the party and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee which incensed their activists.

    However, the saffron party denied the allegation as “baseless”.

    BJP chief J P Nadda had flagged off the party’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ in poll-bound West Bengal in early February.

  • ‘Prashant Kishor has left Mamata to join Amarinder’: BJP takes dig at poll strategist

    Kishor is working as a key strategist for the ruling TMC in West Bengal, with the state set to witness an eight-phase Assembly election starting March 27.

  • Farmers’ stir: Fadnavis raises issue of celebs tweets in Maharashtra Assembly, Deshmukh counters

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday trained guns at the Maharashtra government,suggesting it was trying to probe icons like Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar over their pro-India tweets issued after some foreign celebrities talked about farmers’ protest near Delhi.

    Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh promptly refuted the charge in the state Assembly, saying the state government has ordered a probe into tweets by the BJP’s IT cell and not by cricketer Tendulkar and legendary singer Mangeshkar.

    On February 8, Deshmukh said the state intelligence department will conduct a probe into allegations that some celebrities were pressurised recently to issue tweets in connection with the ongoing farmers’ protest.

    Deshmukh had made the remarks on an online platform after the Congress, a ruling coalition partner in Maharashtra, sought an investigation into the BJP’s alleged connection with tweets of some celebrities and whether the saffron party “arm-twisted” them.

    A number of prominent personalities, including Tendulkar and Mangeshkar, had rallied around the central government on social media using hashtags #IndiaTogether and #IndiaAgainstPropaganda.

    This came after tweets by American pop star Rihanna and climate activist Greta Thunberg backing farmers who are protesting near Delhi’s border points against three farm laws enacted by the Centre in September last year.

    Fadnavis said in the Maharashtra Assembly on Tuesday that Tendulkar and Mangeshkar had tweeted that “India is against propaganda” and “India stands united”.

    “Is it wrong to say in this country that ‘India stands united’? Someone gets up, complains to the home minister,” the leader of opposition in the Assembly said and asked Deshmukh to think well before entertaining such complaints.

    Deshmukh, however, dismissed Fadnavis’s charges.

    “I did not speak about probing Tendulkar or Mangeshkar. I had talked about probing the IT cell of a political party, which I am not naming,” the minister said.

    “It was probed. Names of 12 persons have come to the fore in this connection and further action is being taken against them,” he added.

    Deshmukh later said in the House that the IT cell concerned is of the BJP.

    Countering him, Fadnavis said he will feel proud if he asks anyone to tweet for the country.

    “Let’s assume for a minute that I asked them to do so (issue tweets). What offence did I commit? What offence have I committed if I asked celebrities to side with the country if there is propaganda going on against it?” the BJP leader asked.

  • People of Bihar living in West Bengal will vote for development: Manoj Tiwari

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Delhi BJP MP Manoj Tiwari on Tuesday said the people of Bihar living in West Bengal will vote for “development”, paying no attention to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who has voiced support to Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the upcoming Bengal polls.

    The Northeast Delhi MP, who hails from Bihar, said leaders from the state should stop treating its people as their vote bank in other states.

    “Tejashwi should have learnt his lesson from the Bihar polls, where people voted in favour of the BJP and the JD(U) due to their development aspirations.

    His appeal to the people from Bihar living in Bengal to support the TMC will fail as they will vote for the BJP and development,” Tiwari said.

    Seeking to forge unity among secular political parties in the West Bengal Assembly polls, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Yadav met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday and appealed to the people from Bihar domiciled in Bengal to vote for the ruling TMC.

    Yadav said the first priority of his party was to stop the BJP’s progress in West Bengal.

    He, however, ducked questions by journalists on whether the RJD will contest the election in an alliance with the TMC, saying the upcoming polls will be a fight for saving “ideals and values”.

    “Our party’s stand is to provide full support to Mamataji,” he said.

    Tiwari, a former Delhi BJP president and a popular Bhojpuri singer and actor, is likely to be one of the star campaigners for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal.

    The Assembly polls for 294 seats in the state will be held in eight phases starting March 27 and The results will be announced on May 2.

  • ‘Saddening to see Azad being castigated by Congress’: BJP extends olive branch to former MP

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The BJP Tuesday took a swipe at the Congress amid a vocal dissidence within the opposition party, saying its ideology is all about fulfilling the Gandhi family’s “ambition”, and anyone speaking against it or standing with the “rightful” agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is castigated.

    BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told a press conference that the Congress will “castigate” anyone who wants democracy in the party, wants its president to be elected, speaks in favour of politics of development or stands with Modi’s rightful agenda.

    While stating that the G23, a reference to the group of 23 Congress leaders who have pushed for an organisational overhaul in the party, is an internal matter of the opposition party, Patra said it is “saddening” to see senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and others being targeted.

    The Congress is now all about four leaders, he alleged, referring to its president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra — both party general secretaries — and Priyanka’s husband Robert Vadra.

    “Their only agenda is ‘hate Modi’. It has grown to such an extent that Congress workers are protesting on the streets against their own leaders who have praised good works of Modi,” he said, mocking Rahul Gandhi as an “empty missile”.

    Patra’s comments, in an answer to a question, came after Azad praised Modi at an event in Jammu on Saturday, saying he speaks frankly about his past as a tea-seller and does not try to hide his background from the world.

    Another senior Congress leader Anand Sharma had on Monday slammed the party’s tie-up with Indian Secular Front (ISF) led by Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui in West Bengal, saying it was against the party’s core ideology and Gandhian and Nehruvian secularism.

    Congress workers in Jammu on Tuesday set ablaze an effigy of Azad and accused him of conspiring against the party at the behest of the BJP to weaken it for “personal gains”.

    Patra also hit out at the Congress over its alliances in different states, saying they are solely aimed at maintaining the Gandhi family’s relevance.

    The Congress has tied up with a “maulana’s” party (Indian Secular Front) and the Left in West Bengal, while its fighting the Left in Kerala, he said.

    The opposition party is also working to strike an alliance with Badruddin Ajmal’s AIDUF in Assam and has joined hands with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, he noted.

    “It (the Congress) has no ideology. Its only ideology is corruption and nepotism and to come to power anyhow,” he said. Such alliances highlight the Congress’ “double speak and utmost hypocrisy”, he said.

  • Unemployment high, informal sector in shambles due to demonetisation: Manmohan Singh

    By PTI
    THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Attacking the Centre, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said unemployment is high in the country and its informal sector is in shambles following the “ill considered demonetisation decision” taken by the BJP-led government in 2016.

    He also criticised the central government for not holding regular consultations with the states.

    Inaugurating a development summit virtually organised by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies, an economic think tank aligned to the Congress ideology in poll-bound Kerala, Singh said temporary measures by the central government and the RBI to paper over the credit problem cannot blind us to the looming credit crisis ahead that could affect the small and medium sector.

    “Unemployment is high and the informal sector is in shambles, a crisis precipitated by the ill considered demonetisation decision taken in 2016”, he said at “Pratheeksha 2030.”

    The summit was organised to launch a Vision Document, a framework of ideas for development of Kerala well in advance of the state elections.

    He observed that in Kerala and many other states, public finances were in disarray with states having to resort to excessive borrowing, which creates an intolerable burden on future budgets.

    “Federalism and regular consultation with states, which was the cornerstone of India’s economic and political philosophy as enshrined in the Constitution, no longer finds favour with the present Central government,” he said.

    Singh said while Kerala’s social standards are high, there are other sectors that need strong attention in the future.

    “There are many roadblocks ahead that the state has to overcome. The global downturn of the last two or three years, aggravated by the pandemic, has made the global interface of Kerala more fragile.”

    “While the increased use of digital modes of work may keep the IT sector afloat, tourism has been hit badly and the rate at which the pandemic is galloping in Kerala poses challenges for this industry”, Singh said.

    Noting that the focus on health and education has enabled Kerala to take advantage of job opportunities elsewhere in the country and in all parts of the world, Singh said this has led to a growing stream of remittances from abroad which created a booming real estate sector and sharp growth of the services sector, led by tourism and information technology.

    The former PM also hailed the decision of the leadership of Kerala’s Congress-led UDF to incorporate “radical ideas” like “NYAY” in its Assembly election manifesto, saying the scheme outlined in the Congress manifesto of 2019 Lok Sabha polls,will provide direct benefit transfer to the poorest among us.

    He said this, together with other measures such as no- bill health care through more medical establishments and other measures to strengthen the social infrastructure will provide a framework for inclusive development, focused on the needs of the underprivileged.

    “This is the essence of Congress ideology and it is a matter of gratification that all UDF parties think alike on this.”

    According to Singh, while providing support to the poor, such schemes will also kickstart the economy as demand will be stimulated, leading to more production particularly in the small and micro sector, in agriculture and in the unorganised sector, creating more employment opportunities and bringing the economy rapidly back to normalcy after the prolonged economic slowdown at the national level.

    “In the midst of all the gloom, I see the UDF’s steadfast adherence to planned growth with a clear sense of direction and concern for the common man a beacon of hope, not only for Kerala, but for the whole country”, he said.

    “When I presented the national budget in 1991 as Finance Minister, I quoted Victor Hugo, who had said, “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”

    “I get the feeling that the unanimity and clarity displayed by the UDF on the road ahead will lead to Kerala’s ideal moment arriving this year”, he said.