News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • 2024 Lok Sabha polls: UP BJP MPs entrusted with 100 weak booths each for fortifying them to accomplish Mission 75

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: With an intent to accomplish ‘Mission 75’ in 2024 General elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party  (BJP)  has drawn a strategy to entrust its UP MPs – both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha– with the responsibility of strengthening 100 booths each.

    As per the party sources, each MP has been directed to reach out to the beneficiaries of the central and state welfare schemes in their respective constituencies. They would have to be in constant touch and dialogue with the beneficiaries.

    Moreover, a campaign would be launched to extend the benefit of the schemes to those families which remained deprived of it.

    The ‘Vijay Mantra’ was imparted to party MPs at a workshop in Lucknow on late Friday night.

    The workshop was presided over by BJP state chief and state Jal Shakti minister Swatantra Dev Singh and the main speaker on the occasion was Baijayant Panda, the party’s vice-president and in-charge of BJP’s booth strengthening campaign. Panda claimed that the party had registered victory on 1.25 lakh of total of 1.63 lakh booths in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in UP.

    As per the sources, the party has divided the booths into three categories—A, B and C – as per the results of 2019. While addressing the MPs, Panda said that each parliamentary constituency had an average of 4-5 Assembly segments so each MP would focus on 25 weak booths of each of the assembly segments falling in his/her constituency by staying there.

    In the first phase of the booths fortifying campaign, which is set to take off from July 18, each MP would be expected to visit and stay at 100 weak booths to hold dialogue with the electorate in order to find out the prevailing issues and ensure their redressal, said the sources.

    The MPs were also asked to concentrate on those 16 of the 80 parliamentary seats which the BJP and its allies had lost in 2019. BJP and allies had won 64 of the 80 seats. The SP and BSP were tied in a grand alliance and had won five and 10 seats respectively. The Congress could win just Rea Bareli.

    The sources claimed that the BJP has been chalking out a different strategy to win the seats held by the BSP and also the constituencies won by the SP.

    “After winning Amethi in 2019, we will now try to wrest Rea Bareli from Congress,” said Dr Chandra Mohan, a senior BJP leader.

    However, some of the party MPs including Varun Gandhi, MP from Pilibhit and his mother Maneka Gandhi, MP from Sultanpur, were conspicuous by their absence in the Friday workshop.  

    Some more MPs, including Smriti Z Irani, Sanjeev Balyan, Pankaj Chaudhury, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and Vijay Sonkar, could not attend the workshop.

    Meanwhile, the participation of  Sanghmitra Maurya, daughter of Swami Prasad Muarya, who had left the BJP ahead of 2022 assembly elections, was the talk of the town.

  • After BJP leader Aparna Yadav, now Bhopal MP Pragya Thakur receives threat call from ‘Iqbal Kaskar’s man’

    By Express News Service

    BHOPAL: First-time BJP MP from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat and 2008 Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur has received a death threat over the phone from a man posing as the aide of India’s most wanted fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar.

    The WhatsApp call to the BJP MP was made from the same phone number which was used for a similar death threat to ex-UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger daughter-in-law and UP BJP leader Aparna Yadav on Wednesday.

    The caller posing as Iqbal Kaskar’s man told Thakur through a WhatsApp call that she would be killed for targeting Muslims and spreading venom against the minority community.

    A 2.05 minutes video showing the first-time lawmaker talking to the caller has gone viral over social media. A case has subsequently been registered on the BJP MP’s complaint u/s 506 and 507 IPC against the unidentified caller at Bhopal’s TT Nagar police station on Saturday morning.

    Thakur received the WhatsApp call at around 1 am on Saturday, a short while after she had returned home from the BJP office in Bhopal.

    In the viral video, the caller is heard telling Thakur that she would be assassinated soon for spewing venom against the Muslims, on which she asks the caller “do the Muslims sprinkle nectar. What did I utter that pained you?”

    When she asked the caller, who is Iqbal Kaskar, the caller responded that she would come to know about it when she will be killed.

    The death threat WhatsApp call happened just a few days after Thakur defended and suspended BJP national spokesperson Nupur Sharma for the latter’s controversial remarks about Prophet Muhammad.

    Primary investigations into the matter by Bhopal police revealed that the death threat call was made to Thakur from the same number which was used for a death threat to another BJP leader and ex-UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav three days back, Bhopal police sources told The New Indian Express.

    Three days back, a caller had through a WhatsApp call threatened to kill Aparna Yadav within 72 hours.

    The common phone number from which death threats were made to Aparna Yadav and Pragya Thakur within three days was being operated from Dubai, sources privy to the ongoing investigations confided.Further investigations are underway.

  • Agnipath: AAP MP writes to Defence Minister, seeks immediate rollback of scheme

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Saturday urged Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to “immediately” roll back the Agnipath scheme and resume the regular process of recruitment for defence services for the current year, saying the new recruitment plan has “justifiably” caused “great anguish” among the potential recruits across the country.

    In a letter to the Defence Minister, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader listed a host of deficiencies in the Agnipath scheme and said it negates “regimental honour” and “erodes the quality of our troops”.

    “Unity and coordination amongst troops is what drives our armed forces towards excellence, and with a shorter duration spent with their peers, we are sacrificing the spirit of the forces,” he said.

    It is the ethos of the regiment that keep jawans united and determined, he said, adding, “Any recruitment scheme must respect the regimental honour and ethos built into the system which has been bringing laurels to the country.

    ” Chadha said the Union government, while formulating the Agnipath scheme, “failed” to comprehend that a jawan supports not only himself but his family as well.

    “Only individuals with courage and peace of mind can serve the armed forces. A jawan that is busy contemplating career moves or wondering how his family will survive after his tenure of four years is over, will find it harder to serve our country,” he said.

    An “ill-motivated soldier” is certainly an avoidable proposition, he added.

    The AAP MP said the new recruitment scheme has “overlooked” the issues of inadequate skilling.

    “The Agnipath scheme allows for Agniveers to undergo a crash course in training of six months. An abnormally short period of training will have adverse consequences on the quality of service discharged,” he contended.

    He said the scheme allows for greenhorns to face the nation’s greatest security challenges.

    “Resultantly, we will be saddled without sufficient leadership and experience amongst the troops,” he added.

    ALSO READ | Agnipath: All you need to know about Army recruitment scheme that has India on the boil

    Chadha said the Union government’s financial obligations towards the defence pension bill should not be offset by sacrificing the job security of the jawans.

    “We cannot shy away from our collective responsibility to give those who protect our borders a life of dignity. It is the least we can do for our jawans. This cannot be our solution to budgetary woes,” he said, adding, “Lives cannot be put at stake to balance the budget.”

    Noting that the scheme has been brought in without first implementing it as a pilot, the AAP MP said such “experiments” should not be imposed “en masse”.

    “Pilot schemes, preferably outside of the armed forces, would have provided an opportunity to deliberate before deciding,” he argued.

    A consultative exercise could have followed thereafter to avoid “national embarrassment” and despair amongst the youth, he added.

    AAP MP said the Union government should start with “an immediate” rollback, and a resumption of the regular recruitment process for the current year, taking note of the points that he has raised.

    “With all humility at my command, I implore you to roll back the Agnipath scheme, to stop this ‘trial by fire’ of the youth of the country,” Chadha said in his letter to the Defence Minister.

    The rollback of the scheme should give the Union government “sufficient time” to rethink and consult the aspirants “who are affected the most by this sudden decision”, he said.

    “We are experiencing a great deficit in new recruits, and shortcuts that put our jawans at risk cannot be the solution. We cannot make the opportunity to serve the country in the armed forces a secondary option for anyone,” the AAP leader added.

  • ‘UP government working in autocratic manner’: Azam Khan hits out at CM Yogi

    By PTI

    BAREILLY/AZAMGARH: Alleging Uttar Pradesh government was working in an autocratic manner, senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Saturday said he and his family members were even accused of stealing goats.

    While addressing a public meeting organized in Nasirpur on Saturday in support of SP candidate Dharmendra Yadav in the Azamgarh parliamentary constituency by-election, Khan expressed his pain and attacked the BJP government.

    He alleged things were made difficult for him in the jail so as to force him to commit suicide or kneel before the government but he did not do so.

    Azam Khan, was released from Sitapur Jail in May on getting interim bail from the Supreme Court.

    Earlier, before reaching Azamgarh, in a conversation with reporters at Bareilly airport he hit out at the Yogi Adityanath government.

    The Rampur MLA also attacked the BJP-led central government over the ‘Agnipath’ scheme saying it is quite evident as how beneficial it is for the youth who are agitating over it.

    “Dictatorship will be better than the present situation prevailing in the state. The state government is working in an autocratic manner,” the SP leader who recently got released from jail following the Supreme Court order told newspersons at the Bareilly airport here.

    “Allegations like having stolen hen and goat, robbing a liquor shop were levelled against me and my family. In such a situation, you yourself can understand the level of the government’s functioning,” Khan, who had been in Sitapur Jail for 27 months, said.

    On the way to Varanasi, the SP leader said,”the treatment given to my city, my district and my loved ones, I can bet no government in the world would have treated any political leader so badly.

    No government would have fallen so low to lodge cases such as robbing liquor shops and theft of Rs 16 thousand rupees from my college,” he said.

    To a question on the ‘Agnipath’ scheme, he said “All know as to who will benefit from the Agnipath scheme. Everyone knows the whole country is burning.”

    “It is clear from the circumstances what interest of youth the ‘Agnipath’ scheme will serve,” he added.

    The Centre on Saturday announced several incentives including reserving 10 per cent vacancies in its paramilitary and the defence ministry for Agnipath retirees and said it will look into any grievance about the new military recruitment scheme “with an open mind”, even as violent protests raged on in many states and opposition parties stepped up pressure for a rollback.

    Unveiling the scheme on Tuesday, the government said youths between the ages of 17-and-a-half and 21 years would be inducted for a four-year tenure while 25 per cent of the recruits will be retained for regular service.

    The upper age limit was raised to 23 years on Thursday.

    The new scheme for the recruitment of soldiers in the Army, Navy and Air Force was projected by the government as a major overhaul of the decades-old selection process to enhance the youthful profile of the three services.

  • Prophet remarks row: Jaishankar says sensitivities were impacted

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Days after several nations expressed outrage over controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad by the BJP’s two now-removed functionaries, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said sensibilities and the sensitivities of people were impacted which the countries articulated but they did appreciate that this was not the position of the government.

    He asserted that what was said was not the position of the BJP and the party had made it “very clear in very strong terms”, and took action.

    “The countries not just in the Gulf, I would say even in southeast Asia some countries, who had concerns do appreciate that this was not the position of the government,” Jaishankar said when asked about the controversy at a townhall organised by CNN-News18.

    “They (the countries that expressed concern) deal with us they know what we are about. They know that these are not our views,” he said.

    Once the party clarified its position, our expectation is that the people will understand that, Jaishankar said.

    “There will be people who will fish in troubled waters. International relations is a very competitive game which is not played by Queensberry rules. There will be people who will try to get most if it,” the external affairs minister said without naming any country.

    “We need to engage, we need to put across our point of view and we are doing it. Even in the last few days, you can see people do understand that what is the true picture in India,” he asserted.

    Asked about why India should be lectured by countries that are not a patch on it in democratic terms, the minister said he does not look at the whole issue in that manner.

    “I am also a little sensitive to being lectured. But I would not take this issue as a lecture. I think this was an issue where the sensibilities and the sensitivities of people were impacted. So they were articulating that,” Jaishankar said.

    He said it has to be made very clear what we stand for and the party had done that.

    Several Muslim-majority nations had expressed outrage and condemnation over the controversial remarks on the Prophet.

    The BJP had suspended its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled its Delhi media head Naveen Kumar Jindal after their controversial remarks.

  • Privilege motion moved against Suvendu Adhikari for ‘disrespectful’ remarks against Bengal Speaker

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A privilege motion was on Friday moved against Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari for his “disrespectful” remarks against West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee, a day the Nandigram legislator’s suspension in the House was revoked.

    Banerjee on Thursday withdrew the suspension order he had issued against seven BJP MLAs, including Adhikari.

    TMC MLA Partha Bhowmick moved the motion against Adhikari, after the BJP legislator, while airing his views on MLA Mukul Roy’s disqualification case, apparently made a disparaging remark against the speaker.

    Earlier this month, Banerjee had rejected a plea by Adhikari to disqualify Roy, saying that he did not find merit in the argument of the petitioner.

    The speaker, during the day, accepted the motion and referred it to the Privilege Committee, which has been asked to look into it and submit a report at the earliest.

    “The nature of the comments made by Adhikari is not only disrespectful but also an insult to the chair. That is why I had moved the Privilege Motion. I hope appropriate action would be taken against him,” Bhowmick told reporters.

    Reacting to the development, chief whip of BJP legislative party, Manoj Tigga, said this is an attempt to “stifle the voice of opposition”.

    “The politically motivated allegations are being made to stop the BJP and Suvendu Adhikari from raising the people’s issues in the Assembly,” Tigga claimed.

    Clashes had broken out in the House on March 28 between legislators of the ruling TMC and BJP, following which the speaker had suspended Adhikari, Tigga and three other MLAs.

    Earlier in March, BJP legislators Mihir Goswami and Sudip Mukhopadhyay were suspended over their conduct during governor’s address in the House.

  • ‘Further delay in CAA implementation to hurt BJP’s support base in Bengal’: Party MLA

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Exuding confidence that Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would be implemented before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP MLA Asim Sarkar on Friday said that any further delay in implementing the law would hurt the party’s support base among refugees The ruling TMC, which has been opposed to CAA, said it would never allow the “draconian law” to come into effect in the state.

    Sarkar, a BJP legislator from Matua community-dominated Haringhata, said that a section of refugees had trusted the saffron party as it promised to implement the law, and accordingly ensured its victory in 18 Lok Sabha seats of the state in 2019.

    Matuas, who make up a large chunk of the state’s Scheduled Caste population, had been migrating to West Bengal from erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) since the 1950s, primarily due to religious persecution.

    “We are hopeful that CAA will be implemented before the next Lok Sabha polls. If it is not implemented, it will hurt the party’s support base among the refugees.”

    “If anyone is serious about the cause of the refugees, it is the BJP; other parties have opposed the CAA. I won’t be able to seek votes for the party in those areas (where refugees have settled) next time if it’s not implemented,” he told reporters.

    Sarkar also said he had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, explaining the “consequences” if CAA, passed in December 2019, is not brought into force.

    The promise of implementing the controversial CAA had been a major poll plank of the BJP in the last Lok Sabha electionsand state polls.

    Downplaying Sarkar’s concerns, West Bengal BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, “It was an emotional outburst. The party will speak to him.”

    The ruling TMC, however, asserted it would never allow the BJP to implement the law.

    “We don’t believe in the divisive politics of the BJP,” state parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee said.

    CAA seeks to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities like Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who had entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

    The Centre has said that citizenship to the eligible beneficiaries of CAA will be given only after rules under the legislation are notified.

    Around 30 lakh Matuas reside in West Bengal, with the community electorally influencing at least five Lok Sabha seats and nearly 50 assembly seats in Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas districts.

  • ‘Wasn’t it PM’s promise to bring back black money?’ Rahul on jump in Indians’ funds in Swiss banks

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Opposition on Friday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks jumping to a 14-year high in 2021, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asking wasn’t it the PM’s promise to bring back every rupee of black money stashed abroad.

    Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, jumped to a 14-year high of 3.83 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 30,500 crore) in 2021 on a sharp surge in holdings via securities and similar instruments while customer deposits rose as well, annual data from Switzerland’s central bank showed on Thursday.

    Tagging a screenshot of a media report on the annual data of Switzerland’s central bank, Gandhi said in a Facebook post, “Wasn’t it the Prime Minister’s promise to bring back every Rupee of black money stashed abroad?” Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge also attacked the government over the issue, saying the deposits of Indians in Swiss Banks have more than doubled since 2014.

    “Modi Ji’s suit-boot friends are now hiding more wealth in foreign accounts than ever before,” he said on Twitter.

    On its official Twitter handle, the CPI(M) said Prime Minister Modi promised to bring back all the black money stashed in foreign banks within 100 days of coming to power in 2014 and then again within 50 days of demonetisation in 2016.

    “Now after 8 years of Modi rule, Indian funds in Swiss banks at 14-year highs at (Rs) 30600 crs,” it said.

    TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Jawahar Sircar said on Twitter, “Didn’t Modi repeatedly swear to bring back all Black Money stashed abroad?” The Aam Aadmi Party also took a dig at the Centre over the rise in funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, saying “Modi hai toh mumkin hai.”

    Hitting back at those criticising the government, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala tweeted, “Myth vs Facts, Every year this data comes out and every year there are those who need their concepts/myths cleared. All money in Swiss bank accounts is not black money. A lot of it is parked there for legitimate business reasons.”

    The rise in aggregate funds of Indian clients with Swiss banks, from 2.55 billion Swiss francs (Rs 20,700 crore) at the end of 2020, marks the second consecutive year of increase.

    Besides, the money held in Indian customers’ savings or deposit accounts rose to a seven-year high of about Rs 4,800 crore, reversing a two-year declining trend.

    These are official figures reported by banks to the SNB and do not indicate the quantum of the much-debated alleged black money held by Indians in Switzerland.

    These figures also do not include the money that Indians, NRIs or others might have in Swiss banks in the name of third-country entities.

  • BJP rift widens as leaders scuffle at Rajasthan meet

    Express News Service

    JAIPUR:  The infighting within the Rajasthan BJP refuses to abate despite top leadership’s repeated pleas for unity. In the latest episode, the rift resurfaced on Wednesday at a state working committee meeting in Kota where many supporters of ex-CM Vasundhara Raje were not allowed inside the venue. That led to a scuffle among BJP leaders. Raje had to leave the meeting, sources said.

    The two-day meeting was supposed to chalk out a strategy for the assembly elections. Many senior leaders such as Bhavani Singh Rajawat and former party vice president Prahlad Panwar along with the former CM Vasundhara Raje were to attend it. However, except Raje, everyone else was stopped at the gate. This angered the leaders, leading to a clash. Videos of the scuffle have gone viral.

    Raje was to speak for about 25 minutes on subjects like BJP’s victory in four states, Prime Minister Modi’s announcement of employing 10 lakh youth and the Agneepath Sainik Scheme. However, Raje left much before the meeting ended.State BJP chief Satish Poonia refused to take questions from the media.

    Later, leader of the Opposition Gulabchand Kataria said, “Raje had left before the meeting was over. Why she left without addressing a session, only she can tell.” Raje apparently went to RSS office where she spoke with officials for a few hours. Sources said she had prepared her speech on the Modi government’s achievements, but she was asked to speak on a new subject.

  • BJP allies in Bihar demand withdrawal of ‘Agniapth’s scheme amid protests in state

    Express News Service

    PATNA: BJP allies in Bihar have demanded immediate withdrawal of ‘Agnipath’ or ‘Agniveer’ scheme launched by the central government for short-term recruitment of Army personnel across the country.

    Reacting to violent protest by job aspirants across the state over ‘Agnipath’ scheme, JD-U parliamentary board chairperson and former union minister Upendra Kushwaha said on Thursday that the union government should do a rethink on the scheme.

    Kushwaha further said, “The proposed changes in recruitment policy of Indian Army, Navy and Airforce should be reconsidered. The widespread protest not only in Bihar but in other parts of the country shows job aspirants’ angst against the scheme.”

    Earlier, JD-U minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav had also demanded the withdrawal of the proposed scheme. 

    “The students are protesting against ‘Agnipath’ scheme. In this case, the centre should talk to youths and their unions. The central government should also seek suggestions from people on the issue,” Yadav had said.

    HAM’s patron and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi also corroborated the statement of JD-U leaders. Manjhi said, “Agnipath scheme is very dangerous for the country. It should be withdrawn immediately. I appeal from PM Narendra Modi to withdraw the proposed scheme and restore the old policy of recruitment in the Indian Army.”

    On the other hand, RJD’s young wing has threatened to burn effigies of PM Narendra Modi and Defence minister Rajnath Singh over the ‘Agnipath’ scheme in the state on Friday. Bihar witnessed widespread protest against the scheme for the last two days.

    Meanwhile, BJP Rajya Sabha member and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi urged the Bihar government to adopt the central government’s ‘Agnipath’ policy in the recruitment process in the state. He appealed to protesting students not to indulge in damaging government property.

    He also condemned the attack on BJP MLA Aruna Devi in Nawada, on the house of another leader C N Gupta in Saran and vandalising of the offices of BJP in Nawada and Madhubani districts. 

    “The anti-socials have joined the protest. The authorities concerned should take action against them,” junior Modi asserted.