News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Rajasthan civic polls: Congress gets chairperson posts to 48 urban local bodies, BJP secures 37

    By PTI
    JAIPUR: The Congress has formed its board in 48 urban local bodies in Rajasthan while the BJP got 37 among the 90 that went to the polls for which results were declared on Sunday.

    The chairperson to three urban local bodies were elected unopposed while the election was held for the remaining 87 bodies on Sunday.

    Apart from the major political parties, three independent candidates — one from Rashtriya Loktantrik Party and NCP — managed to get their candidate elected as chairperson to the urban local bodies.

    Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra congratulated party workers for the victory.

    “The result of the 90 urban local body elections in the state have shown good results. Out of a total of 90, Congress has won 50 seats with support of two independent candidates and the BJP, which was on 60 seats last time has been reduced to only 37.

    Many congratulations and thanks to all the Congress workers for this magnificent victory,” Dotasra said in a tweet.

    BJP state president Satish Poonia said the party has achieved good results and people will clear all doubts in the upcoming assembly bypolls.

    “Congress, which claimed to form its boards in more than 50 bodies has been restricted to fewer seats. The people has once again taught the Gehlot government a lesson after the Panchayati Raj elections.

    “The people will clear the Congress party’s doubt in the upcoming assembly by-elections Congratulations and best wishes to the newly elected body chairpersons,” Poonia said in a statement.

  • Didi gets annoyed with ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogan, says PM Modi in Bengal

    By ANI
    PURBA MEDINIPUR: Asserting that some conspirators are trying to tarnish India’s image associated with tea and yoga, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked whether West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has spoken anything about these conspirators.

    “There are some conspirators who are trying to destroy India’s image associated with tea and yoga–that was made famous by innumerable Indians across the world. There is a conspiracy to discredit and destroy the hard work of tea workers. Yoga, the legacy of India which was promoted by great men such as Maharishi Aurobindo and Vivekananda selflessly, is being attacked now,” Prime Minister Modi said at a public meeting in Haldia area of Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal.

    “Has Didi spoken anything about these conspirators? The country will answer such conspiracies with full might. In Bengal, if you ask didi (Mamata Banerjee) about your rights, then she gets frustrated. She even gets annoyed if slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai are raised. But she does not get angry at people who speak against the country,” he said.

    ALSO READ | Some forces seated abroad conspiring against India, not sparing even Indian tea: PM Modi

    PM Modi said the politics in the state is responsible for the current state of West Bengal as there has not been developmental politics in the state which thwarted its growth.

    “All industries and infrastructure in Bengal today need transformation and modernisation. How many factories have been opened in the last 10 years? What happened to the steel plant? The region got opportunities and there was no competition. I want to put a question to the people of West Bengal: Your state was developed even during British rule. The state of infrastructure was stronger compared to the rest of the nation. Bengal has always shown the way to the nation. Why then, Bengal lost its pace of development?” he said.

    Lashing out at the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, PM Modi said, “In the first year of Mamata Government, it became clear that what West Bengal had got was not ‘parivartan’ but the revival of the left and that too with interest. The revival of the left meant the revival of corruption, crime, violence, and attacks on democracy.”

    Commenting upon the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), PM Modi said, “TMC has criminalised politics, institutionalised corruption and politicised administration and police. Bengal wants to ask TMC why are they admitting people in their party who shot at poor people and farmers in Nandigram?”

    TMC is responsible for misgovernance, violence, corruption and attacks on beliefs, he said. People of Bengal are watching and soon Bengal is going to show the Ram Card to the TMC, he added.

    PM Modi said in Bengali language that he “feels blessed to be able to visit the holy land of Midnapore.”

  • Trinamool slams BJP over issue of allocation of funds for rail projects in Bengal

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The TMC on Sunday lashed out at the BJP over its assertion that it has allocated the highest-ever funds for railway works in West Bengal, and claimed the state has been deprived of funds for years and multiple rail projects shelved.

    The allocation of Rs 6,636 crore to poll-bound West Bengal is the highest-ever funds earmarked for the state in the history of Indian Railways, minister Piyush Goyal had said soon after the Union Budget was announced, blaming successive state governments for the delay in rail projects in the state.

    Taking to Twitter, TMC MP and national spokesperson Derek O’Brien said, “In election season, BJP’s tourist gang are touting ‘record Railway allocation’ for Bengal. The truth is, multiple rail projects have been shelved in Bengal and funding choked all these years.”

    Posting two documents, O’Brien has highlighted “How Bengal has been deprived of Railways funds for years.”

    In the document, the Rajya Sabha MP has highlighted how over one dozen rail factories across Bengal, initiated by Mamata Banerjee when she was the Minister of Railways, have received only a token financial allocation this year.

    “The new rail coach manufacturing unit at Kanchrapara had been allocated Rs 74 lakh in the last budget. This year the allocation is just Rs 1,000. (One thousand rupees, not a typo!),” he said.

    He further said in Budget 2020 the Centre shelved 20 new connectivity ventures and 10 upgradation projects launched by Banerjee as Minister of Railways, especially in rural Bengal.

    “In Budget 2019 the Sealdah Coach Repair Factory – One thousand rupees Rail Museum in Bolpur – One thousand rupees! Coach Washing Workshop in Howrah – One thousand rupees!The list goes on,” he said.

    Accusing the BJP of only focussing on states in election year, he said that from 2016-17 to 2020-21, no new lines in Railways were announced in South-Eastern Railways, let alone Bengal.

    In 2020-21, four new projects were announced for SER but all of them went to Odisha and not Bengal.

    Banerjee had inaugurated the East-West metro corridor as the Rail Minister.

    “The BJP government has allocated funds very slowly for it since 2014. Kolkata Metro received an outlay of Rs 850 crore for 2019-20 which came down to Rs 750 crore in 2020-21. Come election year and this outlay is Rs 1330 crore, ” he said.

    O’Brien also alleged that BJP states benefitted at the expense of the rest of India, citing two examples of the the bullet train project and the broad gauge like in Surendranagar in Rajkot.

    He also highlighted how in Budget 2020-21, Rs 980 crore was sanctioned for the National Railway University in Gujarat.

    The Railway minister has said that there is no shortage of funds for the state and blamed the political dispensations for the delay in execution of works.

    West Bengal has 53 ongoing projects including new lines, gauge conversion, doubling projects costing Rs 48,275 crore for 4,463 km.

    “The allocation for West Bengal is the highest-ever in the history of Indian Railways. It is 2.5 times the average amount allocated between Budget 2009-2014 and 26 per cent more than last year,” he had said while addressing a press briefing recently.

    “Projects there remain incomplete or are delayed because the state governments – first it was the Left front government and now the TMC– have been unable to provide land to us. Projects which are 45 year old are pending in the state. I appeal to Mamata didi to expedite the process and give us land,” he had said.

    Goyal said that due to non-availability of land, as many as 34 projects in the state have received only token allotment in the budget 2021-22.

  • ‘Negative powers’ attempting to create misconceptions over farm laws will fail: Jitendra Singh

    By PTI
    JAMMU: Asserting that the “negative powers” attempting to create misconceptions over the new agri laws would fail, Union minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said the Centre is working with an open heart to address the ongoing farmers’ agitation.

    He, however, insisted that the new laws are “pro-farmer” and can never result in losses to them.

    “The government is working with an open heart to address this issue (farmers agitation). All the laws which have been enacted are pro-farmer and even the earlier governments were discussing implementing such types of laws in the country,” the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office told reporters at the BJP headquarters here.

    He said several Opposition leaders had spoken in Parliament in support of such types of laws earlier.

    “Now they are raising concerns on such things which are not part of these laws. Nobody can say that these laws can result in losses to the farmers,” Singh said.

    Responding to a question about many international personalities like pop star Rihanna speaking about the farmers’ agitation, he said, “Nobody can say these laws can result in losses to the farmers.”

    “Government is prepared to address the misgiving and misconceptions and this is the directive from the Prime Minister. I have full faith that the misunderstanding of the farmers will be addressed and the attempts to create misconceptions by negative powers will fail,” he said.

    Asked whether IAS officer Shah Faesal has a genuine change of heart or some type of backdoor talks are going on with him since he had started showering praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the recent times despite being vocal in his criticism of abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories in August 2019, Singh said, “There is no issue discussing such a thing. The important thing is that there is heart transformation.”

    Singh congratulated the people of Jammu and Kashmir for getting back 4G mobile internet service after 18 months and said “media and students suffered because of lack of this facility”.

    Praising the Union budget for focusing on key sectors like health which was given a grant of over Rs two lakh crore by 137 per cent enhancement and infrastructure development like highways and railways, he said at a time when Modi’s New India will illuminate at the global level, Jammu and Kashmir has also been in the focus to ensure that it will shine alongside other parts of the country as well.

    “The new industrial policy worth over Rs 28,000 crore for Jammu and Kashmir has already been announced. There will be equitable development of both the regions,” he said, adding some projects gained momentum in Jammu like AIIMS whose director has also been finalised and announcement is being made shortly.

    The biotech park is ready in Kathua and so the first phase of the Ring road project.

    “There was some issue which delayed work in Kashmir but there was no discrimination,” he said.

    Singh said the northeast has emerged as an example of development model and similar focus is on Jammu & Kashmir which will have express road highway, Rs 3500 crore Delhi-Katra corridor, and a rail link connecting Jammu and Kashmir within next two years besides metro train in Srinagar and Jammu.

  • Centre should accept protesting farmers’ demands: Sisodia

    The AAP leader also alleged that the ruling BJP has brought these laws for the benefit of some corporates by ignoring the interests of farmers.

  • Congress can’t become number one party in near future: BJP leader Narayan Rane

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: BJP leader Narayan Rane on Saturday took a dig at the Congress saying that it cannot become number one party in the state and at the national level in the near future.

    His statement comes a day after the Congress’s newly- appointed Maharashtra unit chief Nana Patole said that bringing the party back on top in the state was his priority.

    Talking to reporters at Kankavli in coastal Sindhudurg district, Rane who was in the Congress before joining the BJP, said Patole did not tell how much time it would take for him to make his party number one again.

    “That is not possible in the near future. It is only the BJP which will be the numero uno party at the national and state level,” Rane said.

    He also hit out at Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, accusing him of taking the state backwards in terms of economy and infrastructure development.

    “I pray Home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Sindhudurg tomorrow is a good omen to pave the way for the fall of the MVA government,” he said.

    Rane accused Thackeray of giving up the Hindutva agendain order to become the chief minister.

    Speaking about next year’s civic polls in Mumbai, Rane said the next city mayor will be of the BJP.

    “Gujarati community in Mumbai will stand by Modi and Shah. We have done PhD in engineering defections,” he said.

    “BJP is capable of taking on the Shiv Sena,” he said.

    Rane said the new farm laws were in interest of farmers and wondered why they were protesting.

    He accused the Congress and “outsiders” of fanning the protests.

    Shah will be in Sindhudurg district on Sunday, where he is scheduled to inaugurate Rane’s medical college and hospital.

    Rane, who was Maharashtra chief minister during the Shiv Sena-led government in the early 1990s, is currently a RajyaSabha MP from the BJP.

  • Mamata govt deprived farmers benefit of PM Kisan Scheme to ‘satisfy her ego’: JP Nadda

    Nadda reaffirmed the BJP and the Narendra Modi government #39;s commitment to the welfare of the farming community.

  • Rejected politicians, bogus Bharat bashing brigade defaming India: Union Minister Naqvi

    By PTI
    KANPUR: Senior BJP leader and Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday said “rejected politicians” and the “bogus Bharat bashing brigade” are involved in a criminal conspiracy to defame the country.

    Speaking to reporters here, Naqvi said, “Such criminal syndicate of misinformation and Bharat bashing has always been defeated by the commitment of the people of India.” “Such people created a ruckus on the so-called intolerance in the country, raised questions on surgical strike on Pakistan, created confusion over CAA, and opposed steps taken for the well-being of people during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Naqvi said.

    Now, the ‘gumrahi’ (misleading) gang has hijacked the farmers’ agitation and doing politics over it, he said, adding that some people in the country still have “feudal arrogance”.

    In a statement, Naqvi said the people of the country, while rejecting all criminal conspiracies and political hypocrisies of some vested interests, have expressed trust in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    People gave a massive mandate to the BJP-led NDA in 2014 and again in 2019.

    The masses have supported the policies of the prime minister by giving “tremendous support” to the BJP in assembly, panchayat and local bodies elections in different states and union territories, he said.

    “On one hand, the Bharat bashing brigade raised false and fake propaganda of so-called insecurity among minorities, on the other hand PM Modi worked tirelessly to make all sections of society including minorities an equal partner of mainstream development,” he said.

    “Prime Minister Modi’s commitment to ‘sabka sath, sabka vikas’ has always exposed these characters.

    The entire world is admiring Modi’s commitment towards inclusive development,” he added.

    Naqvi said, “When our security forces destroyed terrorist camps by conducting a surgical strike, then some people outside the country and leaders of the grand old party, demanded proof.

    It was an amazing ‘jugalbandi’.”

    The Union minister said the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 provides citizenship to persecuted minorities from three countries, but some people deliberately created confusion by linking the Act with the citizenship of Muslims of India.

    These people with narrow political self-interests tried to “hide the mountain of truth with bushes of lies”, he said.

    Naqvi said the Union Budget 2021-22 is a gazette of the glorious journey of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and will ensure development with dignity of all sections of the society.

    The budget fulfils the expectations and aspirations of all sections — poor, farmers, youth, senior citizens, women, labourers, and small traders, he said.

    It will bring revolutionary reforms in the country’s health infrastructure, MSMEs, and education and research sectors which will help generate ample employment opportunities.

    Naqvi also discussed the budget with different sections including intellectuals, businessmen, traders, and entrepreneurs, the statement said.

  • Had existing farm laws been beneficial, many farmers would not have died by suicide: BJP leader

    Kamal Soi said he had difference of opinions with the agitating farmers but he went to the Singhu border in December and distributed 500 jackets and other items to them on humanitarian grounds.

  • JP Nadda set to launch BJP’s ‘Rath Yatra’ in poll-bound West Bengal, confusion prevails over nod

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: BJP president JP Nadda is set to launch the party’s ‘Rath Yatra’ in West Bengal on Saturday to mobilise public support ahead of the assembly elections but confusion prevails over grant of permission for the march during which party leaders intend to crisscross the state.

    Nadda is scheduled to kick off the ‘Parivartan Yatra’ from Nabadwip, the birthplace of 15th century saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Nadia district. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also likely to inaugurate two of the five proposed yatras later this month.

    However, confusion prevailed till Friday evening over its prospects as Nadia district administration is yet to accord permission for the Rath Yatra. Although the BJP claimed it has received permission, the district police insisted it is for a public meeting and not the Rath Yatra.

    “We have provided no objection for the public rally of JP Nadda. But no permission has been given for the so-called Rath Yatra as the matter is sub-judice,” a senior police official said.

    Earlier this week, the West Bengal BJP had sought permission from the state government for the month-long event. BJP state vice-president Pratap Banerjee, in a letter to Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay, said the party intended to launch five rallies at different places beginning February 6.

    ALSO READ| BJP indulging in malicious propaganda over ‘rath yatra’ clearance in Bengal: TMC

    Several top BJP leaders are scheduled to arrive in West Bengal during the month-long campaign to start from Nabadwip on Saturday. The party proposed to launch similar yatras from Coochbehar, Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas, Jhargram and Tarapith in Birbhum between February 6 and 11.

    The state government asked the BJP to seek permission from the local district administrations. “We have got permission from Nadia district. The administration is permitting us according to the jurisdiction of police stations. The police have taken all the details regarding the route and rallies,” Banerjee claimed.

    BJP state president Dilip Ghosh accused the state administration and the ruling TMC of dilly-dallying the matter. “The Rath Yatra will be a game-changer in West Bengal politics. It will kick off a wave of support in favour of the BJP and act as the final nail in the TMC government’s coffin. The TMC has been trying to delay the permission just like it did the last time,” Ghosh said.

    The Trinamool Congress, meanwhile, accused the BJP of indulging in “malicious propaganda” by claiming denial of permission to hold the campaign.

    “GoWB has not denied permission to any Yatra, as claimed by @BJP4Bengal.They are indulging in malicious propaganda with neither substance nor truth. BJP must show material evidence of GoWB denying permission to their Yatra. This is BJP’s attempt to claim victimhood,” the TMC tweeted.

    A BJP functionary had sought permission from Chief Secy, whose office directed them to local authorities. Meanwhile, a PIL was also filed regarding the same in the High Court & the matter is now sub judice.We thereby clarify that AITC has nothing to do with this issue. (2/2)
    — All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) February 5, 2021

    State minister Bratya Basu said it would have been improper for the state government to accord permission for the events from a “single point”. The BJP was therefore asked to obtain permission for district administrations concerned. “A PIL was also filed regarding the same in the High Court & the matter is now sub judice. We thereby clarify that AITC has nothing to do with this issue,” the TMC said.

    A PIL was filed before the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday, praying for its intervention to prevent the BJP’s planned ‘rath yatra’ across the state, claiming that it would impact the COVID-19 situation and law and order in the state.

    Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “Rath Yatra symbolises hatred and fear”. “Rath Yatras since the 1990s by the BJP have led to communal tensions. It is a symbol of hatred. In Bengal also they want to destroy the communal harmony,” he said.

    Terming the allegations as baseless, BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the TMC is afraid of allowing the saffron party from carrying out its political programmes. In 2018, the BJP had planned Rath Yatras across the state but the programme had to be called off as the state government declined permission.

    After having a limited presence in the politically polarised state for decades, the BJP has emerged as the main rival of the ruling Trinamool Congress ever since it won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in the 2019 general elections. Elections to the 294-member state assembly are due in April-May this year.