News Analysis India

Tag: Modi Government

  • Modi government mishandled economy, alleges Rahul Gandhi

    By PTI

    KANNUR: Accusing the Centre of mishandling the country’s economy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the nation was at a “critical crossroad” and the Congress, as a major opposition party, has a moral duty to fight the forces that threaten the very idea of India.

    “Modi Government has clearly mishandled the economy. And, what this country has built over the last 70 years, is being given away to select few friends of Modi-ji”, Gandhi said, joining a function organised virtually on the occasion of inauguration of the District Congress Committee office in this north Kerala district.

    He said the Congress was not against privatisation but its privatisation plan had a logic.

    “We didn’t privatise strategic industries: for example, Railways which is the backbone of India. Congress party must oppose this fire sale of our crown jewels at every level,” Gandhi said, slamming the Centre’s Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that included unlocking value by involving private companies across infrastructure sectors from passenger trains and railway stations to airports, roads and stadiums.

    Attacking the Centre over rising prices of fuel, Gandhi said the government has come up with a new concept of GDP, wherein a rise in GDP means a rise in prices of Gas, Diesel and Petrol.

    “While international prices for crude and gas has gone down since 2014, there has been huge increase in prices in GDP in last 7 years. Rs 23 lakh crore has been earned by increasing prices of GDP in the last seven years. Where has this money gone?” he asked.

    The Congress leader alleged that while farmers, labourers, small traders and informal sector, MSMEs, contract workers, salaried class and honest industrialists are being demonetised, four-five friends of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are being monetised.

    “We have to fight these forces,” he said at the function attended by AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, KPCC president K Sudhakaran and Leader of opposition in the State Assembly V D Satheesan.

    Senior leaders Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala also joined Gandhi in the virtual function.

  • Parliament being made ‘irrelevant’ by Narendra Modi govt, presiding officers complicit: Jairam Ramesh

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday alleged that Parliament was being made “irrelevant” by the Modi government and the presiding officers were complicit.

    Explaining further, Ramesh said one of the reasons for the opposition getting agitated was that only 12 per cent bills were sent to select committees for scrutiny under the current government and 27 per cent were sent in the previous Modi dispensation.

    “Why’s the opposition agitated? One of the reasons: Only 12% of bills in Modi-II have gone through any parliamentary committee scrutiny.

    This was 27% in Modi-I, 71% in UPA-II and 60% in UPA-I,” he said on Twitter.

    “Parliament is being made irrelevant by Modi government and the presiding officers are complicit,” he said.

  • Had to fall at bureaucrats’ feet 50 years ago, but licence raj came down under Modi govt: Poonawalla

    Licence raj culture has diminished, which has resulted in quick launch of the coronavirus vaccine, Serum Institute of India chairman Cyrus Poonawalla said.

  • BSP will support Centre if it takes concrete steps for holding OBC census: Mayawati

    Her remarks come close on the heels of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday seeking an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the tricky issue of caste-based census.

  • Pegasus row: Mamata says Modi govt wants to establish ‘surveillance state’, calls for Opposition unity

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Latching on to the Pegasus snooping row, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday accused the Modi government of trying to establish a “surveillance state”.

    She also asked the Supreme Court to take cognizance of snooping scandal that purportedly targeted politicians, activists, journalists and even judges using the Pegasus spyware, and asked Opposition parties to come together to defeat the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

    “BJP wants to convert a democratic country into a surveillance state rather than a welfare state,” she said addressing the Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata online.

    The TMC observes Martyrs’ Day on July 21 every year to commemorate the killing of 13 people in police firing on a rally of Youth Congress workers against the then Left Front government in 1993 when Banerjee was in the Congress.

    ALSO READ | Shashi Tharoor-headed Parliamentary panel to question Centre on Pegasus phone tapping row on July 28

    The TMC supremo also accused the Centre of spending the money collected through tax on fuel and other commodities for spying using a “dangerous software” instead of funding welfare schemes.

    “I know my phone is being tapped. All opposition leaders know that our phones are being tapped. I can’t speak to NCP leader Sharad Pawarji or other opposition leaders or chief ministers because we are being snooped and spied on by the Centre. But snooping on us won’t save them in 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” Banerjee told the rally.

    Slamming the BJP-led NDA government for its “monumental failure” in handling the second wave of the COVID crisis, the TMC supremo termed the saffron party a “highly loaded virus party” which needs to be defeated at any cost.

    ALSO READ | Kamal Nath demands probe into Pegasus snooping case by Supreme Court judge 

    Banerjee thanked leaders of the Congress, NCP, SP, Shiv Sena and several other parties for joining her rally virtually from New Delhi.

    She said all those opposed to the BJP and its “authoritarian regime” should defeat it.

    “BJP has taken the country to darkness, we all have to come forward to take it to new light,” the Bengal leader said.

    “Khela Hobe” (will play), she declared, renewing the battle cry she made during the state assembly elections, adding the fight will continue till BJP is ousted from power.

  • Opposition-ruled states claimed no death due to oxygen shortage, now doing politics: BJP 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Noting that opposition-ruled states claimed in courts that there was no death due to shortage of oxygen during the second COVID-19 wave and made similar assertions in their response to the Centre, the BJP on Wednesday hit back at its rivals amid a row over the Modi government’s reply in Parliament on the matter.

    The government had told Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that no deaths due to lack of oxygen were specifically reported by states and UTs during the second COVID-19 wave, drawing sharp criticism from opposition leaders.

    Deaths of patients in hospitals due to lack of life-saving gas were reported from several states during the peak of the second wave in April-May as the demand for medical oxygen zoomed.

    BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra noted that the central government’s reply was based on the figures provided by states and UTs as health is a state subject.

    No state sent any data about patients dying due to oxygen shortage, he asserted.

    He accused opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress and Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party, of doing politics on the matter, and said the states where these parties are in power have claimed that no one died there due to lack of oxygen.

    Hitting out at Gandhi, he said, “You have acted as a Twitter troll throughout the pandemic by writing two-line lies frequently.

    It is painful that a former president of one of the largest parties has behaved so irresponsibly.”

    ALSO READ | ‘Completely false’: Delhi Health Minister hits out at Centre’s ‘no one died due to oxygen shortage’ remarks

    With the AAP also targeting the Modi government over its reply in Rajya Sabha, Patra noted that a Delhi government committee had told high court that there was no evidence to suggest that around 21 people had died due to shortage of oxygen in Jaipur Golden hospital on April 23-24 night after the hospital management reported the matter.

    The Maharashtra government also told Bombay High Court that no one died due to the oxygen shortage and Chhattisgarh Health Minister T S Singh Deo has also made similar claims, the BJP spokesperson said.

    Gandhi should speak to the chief ministers in the states where his party is in power instead of “lying” on Twitter and spreading confusion, he said.

    These opposition-ruled states had spoken about patients dying due to the oxygen crisis when the second wave was peaking as they wanted to target the Modi government but have taken a different stand in writing and their submission to courts, he said, adding that it shows they want to politicise the whole issue.

    ALSO READ | Shiv Sena hits out at Centre’s ‘no oxygen shortage deaths’ remark, Sanjay Raut wants people to move court

    It is not that the central government has tied their hands, and they should have spoken truth when they were asked to submit their response in writing, he asserted.

    To a question about the BJP-run states, Patra said people might have suffered there too but they neither levelled allegations like the opposition-ruled states nor the issue was taken to high courts there in this manner.

    Shortly after the statement in Rajya Sabha was made in a written reply by Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar on Tuesday, AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal accused the minister of having “misled” the house.

    Describing the statement as “condemnable”, Venugopal, a Rajya Sabha MP to whose question the reply was given, said he will move a privilege motion against the minister.

  • 78% of India’s total jabs administered through onsite/walk-in vaccinations despite digital push

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Despite all its ‘Digital India’ push, the Modi government has been unable to make India take the digital route for getting inoculated against Covid-19. More than three-fourth of the total vaccine doses have been administered through onsite/walk-in vaccinations, the Centre has accepted in an affidavit to Supreme Court.

    “As on 23.06.2021, out of the 32.22 crore beneficiaries registered on CoWIN, 19.12 crore (nearly 59%) beneficiaries have been registered in the on-site mode,” stated the affidavit submitted last week. “As per the data available on CoWIN as on 23.06.2021, out of the total 29.68 crore vaccine doses recorded on CoWIN, 23.12 crore doses (nearly 78%) have been administered through on-site/walk-in vaccination,” it added.

    The figures validate the Supreme Court’s concerns over the Centre’s vaccination policy that was “exclusively relying on a digital portal” until severe criticism and a plethora of complaints forced a course correction on May 23, when on-site or walk-in registration and vaccination was opened for beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group.

    The central government had launched phase-wise Covid-19 vaccination drive on January 16 this year through Co-WIN digital platform with prior registration being required for getting the jabs. In a bid to make the online registration on the Co-WIN platform easy, the government has made various changes, such as making the portal available in Hindi and 14 regional languages including Marathi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Odiya, Gurumukhi, Bengali, Assamese, Tamil and Gujarati and removing the Captcha code. But even after those changes, a majority of people have opted for non-digital mode of registration, as the data from the CoWIN platform till June 23, cited in the affidavit, reveals.

    Before the government allowed walk-in vaccination facility, the mandatory online registration was seen to haveaccentuated India’s digital divide, with rich and urban Indians having much more access to the jabs than poor and rural folks. This divide was also seen to be a leading factor — apart from vaccine hesitancy behind slow pace of immunisation before the second wave of the pandemic started wreaking havoc. Lack of internet facility and smartphones in rural areas, apart from the complexities of navigating the CoWIN portal, were said to be preventing people in smaller towns and rural areas from accessing the vaccination facility. 

    The Supreme Court had also censured the mandatory online registration in a judgment on May 31. Pointing out the gaping digital divide that exists in the country, the court said the target of universal immunisation cannot be achieved by relying on a portal. The marginalised sections of society “would bear the brunt of this accessibility barrier” and this could have “serious implications on the fundamental right to equality and the right to health”, the SC said.

     In its affidavit, the Centre submitted that it was aware that lack of access to digital devices or internet may pose barriers to the citizens and hence it had allowed both on-site and digital registration for all age groups. The CoWIN system is inclusive and “there is no question of any person being left out due to any digital divide”, it asserted. 

    The government further said that on-site registration was not made available only to the beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group between May 1 and May 23 to prevent overcrowding at vaccination centres in view of the need for maintaining social distancing due to a massive surge in cases during the period.

  • Congress questions Modi govt’s silence after French authorities order probe into ‘corruption’ in Rafale deal

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday questioned the silence of the government after French authorities ordered a probe into “corruption and favouritism” in the Rafale deal.

    Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera sought to know that in an inter-governmental defence deal, where there cannot be any middlemen or corruption, when the beneficiary of any “corruption” has ordered a probe, why has a country, which has lost public money, not ordered one?

    He alleged that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes a lot of noise about national security, but undermines the country’s security interests when it comes to helping its crony capitalist friends.

    “After more than 24 hours of the decision by France to investigate corruption, influence peddling, money laundering, favouritism, there is one question every responsible Indian, every concerned citizen asks. Why is the Government of India still silent?” Khera asked at a press conference.

    He said the Rafale fighter jets deal was an inter-government deal between India and France, which means that the governments of the two countries were on either side.

    Khera sought to know that now that the French Public Prosecution Services (PNF) has initiated a probe into the corruption allegations against the previous president of France, who was one of the parties to the deal, why is no enquiry being ordered on the role of the key functionaries of the Indian government? “It is downright insulting to the people of India that this government and its ministers have stayed tight-lipped about this entire scandal.

    Why is the Minister of Defence silent on accountability and scrutiny?” he asked.

    “The Indian National Congress demands that a fair Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) be constituted immediately and every aspect of the Rafale deal probed by it.

    The people of India deserve to know the truth,” Khera said.

    He said every government has always prioritised and taken pride in the country’s national security policy.

    Although the Modi government makes “loud song and dance” about national security, “it does everything under the sun to undermine India’s security interests when it comes to filling the coffers of its corporate friends”, the Congress leader alleged.

    He asked why the person who caused a loss to the Indian exchequer is not being investigated.

    Khera said it is abundantly clear that this is not a loss to France, but to India.

    “It is not France that has been cheated or robbed, rather it is every single Indian taxpayer who has been cheated and robbed off,” he said.

     

  • ‘Why is Modi govt not ready for a JPC probe?’: Rahul Gandhi attacks Centre on Rafale deal

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A day after the Congress demanded a JPC probe into the Rafale deal, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday put out an online survey asking why the Modi government was not ready for it.

    Among the choices given by Gandhi to the question were guilt conscience, saving friends, JPC does not want a Rajya Sabha seat and all the above.

    “Why is the Modi government not ready for a JPC probe? — guilt conscience, saving the friends, JPC does not want a Rajya Sabha seat and all of these are right,” he said in Hindi on Twitter, while putting out the survey.

    Gandhi has been alleging corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal for long now and had made this as a major poll plank in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which the Congress lost badly.

    A French judge has been appointed to lead a “highly sensitive” judicial probe into suspected “corruption” and “favouritism” in the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale fighter jet deal with India, French investigative website Mediapart has reported.

    The Congress has demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee(JPC) probe into the Rafale deal, alleging corruption in the purchase of the fighter jets, and said such an investigation is the only way forward to find the truth.

    The main opposition party had further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should order the investigation and come clean on the deal.

  • On the completion of 7 years of Modi government, BJP people performed Havan-Puja

    Chhaya councilor and slum cell leader Ashish Tandi performed Havan Pujan and Yajna at the ancient Bholenath temple at Police Line Raipur on the completion of 7 years of the Modi government at the center. At the same time, God wished for a Coronamukt and a prosperous united India. Pandit Rajesh Tiwari performed havan, worship, yajna while doing mantras with rituals. Senior BJP leader Sanjay Srivastava especially participated in the program. During this, Sanjay Srivastava said that Narendra Modi has been established as the most popular Prime Minister of independent India. The biggest reason for this is his public welfare schemes and his visionary thinking. He said that it is the result of foreign policy and diplomacy that today the whole world stood with India in such a big epidemic Corona. Today PM Modi has become not a national leader but an international leader. Sanjay Srivastava, Ashish Tandi, Bindiya Nag, Pinky Nihal, Shankar Bagh, Mahesh Baghel, Ricky Mohan etc. were mainly involved in Havan, Poojan, Yagya.