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Tag: Mallikarjun Kharge

  • No compromise on issues affecting common man, says new Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge

    By PTI
    THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposing the government just for the sake of doing so was not his style of functioning, new leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said, but made it clear there would be no compromise on issues affecting the common man.

    “We are not opposing the government just for the sake of opposition. We oppose the government’s wrong policies affecting the common man,” he told PTI to a query on how he would function as Leader of the Opposition.

    Kharge, who became LoP this week following the retirement of Ghulam Nabi Azad, flagged the ongoing farmers stir demanding repeal of the three farm laws enacted by Parliament last year, “flouting all procedures” and demanded that they be withdrawn.

    He suggested that the government come up with fresh proposals after withdrawing these controversial laws and refer them to a parliamentary standing committee for scrutiny.

    The senior Congress leader visited Kerala on Friday to address a public meeting organised in Kollam as the Congress-led UDF’s ‘Aiswarya Kerala Yatra’, led by senior party leader Ramesh Chennithala arrived in Kollam.

    The yatra is being organised to reach out to people ahead of the assembly polls likely to be held in April-May.

    Kharge, a hardcore Gandhi family loyalist, said his party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had asked him to “highlight the issues of the poor people” on the floor of the House.

    “We raise the issues (in Parliament) not to become famous. We take up the issues affecting the poor. Somebody should talk”, the senior Congress leader said.

    The 78-year-old veteran leader, with over 50 years’ experience in politics, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP to listen to the voices of agitating farmers and address their grievances.

    “The farmers have been agitating against the new farm laws for past few months and demanding that they be withdrawn as it abolishes the MSP and the Mandi system We are all supporting their demand. The government has failed to satisfy the farmers, the major stakeholders, while bringing in these laws and should withdraw them,” he said.

    Kharge came down on the Centre on the issue, alleging that the government was using all its machinery to divide the farmers by terming them as ‘Khalistanis’ and ‘Pakistanis’.

    The LoP alleged that the incidents at the Red Fort on January 26 was a planned conspiracy by the government was one such move to cause divisions among the farmers and was done to ‘hide its failures’.

    He also flayed the government over the increasing fuel prices, saying they were doing “a great injustice” to the people.

    “Petrol prices are at an all time high, while international crude oil prices have touched a record low. By hiking prices day by day, the central government is doing a great injustice to the people of this country”, he said.

    Kharge also urged Kerala’s ruling CPI(M)-led LDF government to reduce state taxes on petrol and diesel to ease the burden on the people.

  • Mallikarjun Kharge supersedes Anand Sharma to become LoP in Rajya Sabha

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Bypassing Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma, Gandhi loyalist and veteran party leader Mallikarjun Kharge is set to replace Ghulam Nabi Azad as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha. A dalit leader, Kharge is a nine-time MLA in Karnataka and two-time Lok Sabha MP. He was leader of the party during the last Lok Sabha and had lost in the elections in 2019. He was brought in to Rajya Sabha last year with aim to replace Azad, who is retiring. The party has informed the Rajya Sabha secretariat about Kharge’s appointment as LoP.

    Kharge was picked over Azad, who did not get another term in Rajya Sabha, and Sharma, who was hopeful of the elevation in the upper house, by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi after they wrote to her seeking organisational elections over leadership issues. According to party sources, Sharma, whose Rajya Sabha term ends soon, and Azad are unlikely to be brought back to the upper house. “Kharge is a veteran leader and was top choice of the high command.

    However, recent developments in Rajya Sabha during the Motion of Thanks discussion further dented chances of Sharma being named as LoP. “The party’s stand in the upper house was different from the agreed position during the parliamentary strategy meeting before the start of the Budget session and this didn’t go well with the top leadership,” said a leader. With Kharge, the party has brought in a Gandhi loyalist who will toe the party line and avoid such embarrassing situations.

    During discussion in lower house, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig at the Congress over different stands taken by it in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha over demand for separate debate on farmer agitation.  In Rajya Sabha, the party led by Azad agreed to discuss farmer agitation along with the Motion of Thanks while in Lok Sabha, the party demanded a separate discussion on farmers’ issue and the house proceedings were disrupted. “It was embarrassing that the party in Lok Sabha had to agree to joint discussion as we accepted the Centre’s proposal in Rajya Sabha,” said a Congress MP.  

  • Congress nominates Mallikarjun Kharge as next Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha

    By Express News Service
    BENGALURU: Senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge has been nominated leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha and will take over as leader of opposition in the House on Monday when veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad retires.

    It will be historic because no person has served as leader of opposition in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha until now. He served as leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha during Narendra Modi 1.0 and now during Narendra Modi 2.0 he gets to serve as leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

    It may be recalled that in the 2019 parliamentary election Kharge was defeated in his own constituency Gulbarga by Dr Umesh Jadhav who moved out from Kharge’s camp in the Congress to join theBJP. He then entered the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.

    Kharge who has been member of the legislative assembly for nine terms and member of the Lok Sabha for two terms is easily one of Congress’ tallest leaders having served as minister both in the state andCentre, PCC president, opposition leader among other positions. He is the first Dalit to be leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

    Kharge is fluent in Marathi in addition to Kannada and had served as General Secretary in charge of Maharashtra and helped in setting up the three party coalition of Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena in the state.

  • Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge dismisses govt claim of doubling farmers’ income

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said the government claims increasing the minimum support price for crops and doubling farmers’ income, but data suggests otherwise.

    Participating in the discussion on a motion thanking the President for his address to the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget Session, Kharge said the schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, mentioned in the President’s speech, was actually a “punjipati munafa yojana (a scheme for profit of capitalist)”.

    Terming the government’s claim of doubling farmers’ income a “jumla” (rhetoric), the Congress leader said the Narendra Modi dispensation never gave 50 per cent profit over cost to farmers on agricultural produce.

    “When Modi ji became Prime Minister in 2014, within a month on June 12, an order was issued to states that if any state government pays any bonus to the farmers above the MSP (minimum support price), then it would stop procurement on MSP from that particular state,” he claimed.

    Terming it a “shoshonkari aadesh” (order of exploitation), he said that after this, the state governments stopped granting a bonus to the farmers on MSP.

    Taking a jibe at the government, Kharge said, “This was done by you for the welfare of farmers”.

    “You have also conspired along with capitalist to capture farmers’ land,” he alleged.

    The government “never implemented the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission of A2+FL and C2…. If they have implemented the commission’s report, then we could say that the Modi government is working for farmers,” he added.

    The government did not add the comprehensive cost (C2) for arriving at MSP.

    A2+FL covers actual paid out cost plus imputed value of family labour in fixing MSP, while C2 covers A2 + FL + interest on the value of owned capital assets (excluding land) + rental value of owned land (net of land revenue).

    Though the Modi government always claims that the previous Congress government did not raise the MSP, but the truth is otherwise.

    “During the tenure of the Congress government, MSP of crops was increased up to 219 per cent.

    Just opposite to that under the Modi government, MSPs for main crops such as paddy and wheat have been increased by only 141 per cent,” he said.

    Citing data from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Kharge said growth on MSP on paddy (general) under the UPA I was 10.92 per cent on average and under the UPA II, it was increased 8.9 per cent, while under the NDA increase was 4.30 per cent only.

    “These are your data and are published,” he said.

    “For how long you would be lying. How long you would survive by defaming Congress by asking as what it has done in past 60-70 years,” he said, suggesting the ruling party to speak the truth on MSP.

    On the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Kharge said, “A premium of Rs 99,073 crore was collected in the name of crop insurance and farmers were given only Rs 26,012 crore.

    ” On the Kisan Samman Nidhi, he said that agricultural cost has gone up by at least Rs 15,000 per hectare whereas the government is giving only Rs 6,000 annually to farmers under the scheme.

    Kharge said that this country is witness to several farmer movements in history.

    Participating in the discussion, Shamsher Singh Manhas of the BJP said the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was neglected by previous governments.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now working towards the development of Jammu and Kashmir and is ensuring funds are available for that.