News Analysis India

Tag: Nadda

  • BJP playing in caste politics, defending Nirav, Lalit Modi: Cong slams Nadda for criticising Rahul

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday refuted BJP chief J P Nadda’s allegation that Rahul Gandhi compared OBC communities to thieves and accused the ruling party of defending the likes of fugitives Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, and indulging in “caste politics”.

    Amid a political fight between the BJP and Congress following Gandhi’s conviction in a defamation case over the “Modi surname” remarks, Nadda alleged that “lies, personal slander and negative politics is integral” to his politics.

    “By comparing OBC communities to thieves, Rahul Gandhi has shown a pathetic and casteist mindset. However, his latest tirade is not surprising. For the last many years, he has always reduced levels of political discourse,” Nadda said.

    Hitting back, Kharge, in a tweet in Hindi, said, “Modi government cannot escape from JPC! Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, and Mehul Choksi fled with the money of PNB and the public. OBCs did not do so, then how were they insulted?” “SBI/LIC suffered losses due to your ‘best friend’!” he said slamming the government.

    “‘Ek toh chori mein sahyog phir jatigat rajneeti ka prayog’ (First providing help in stealing then applying caste politics),” Kharge said and termed it “shameful”.

    Later, interacting with reporters, the Congress president said his party is seeking answers as to who ran away with people’s money, while the BJP is trying to distract from the main issue.

    “They are talking of insult to backward classes. The Congress has always stood with and fought for the backward classes, scheduled castes and minorities. These people who believe in Manu, talk of backward classes,” Kharge said.

    Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also lashed out at Nadda, saying he was distorting facts and indulging in “politics of defamation”.

    “By doing he is defending Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi. This truth had to come out and now it has come out. Thank you Nadda ji for your honesty. Now please show some honesty on Adani too,” Ramesh said in a tweet in Hindi.

    He also hit out at Union Minister Bhupender Yadav who attacked the Congress for raising questions on the Gujarat court convicting Rahul Gandhi in the criminal defamation case.

    “Bhupendra Yadav should spend more time implementing environment and forest laws without fear or favour. Instead, he is busy defending Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi. These two have stolen thousands of crores of public money and are fugitives running from justice in India,” Ramesh said in a tweet in Hindi.

    Gandhi was on Thursday sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his “why all thieves have Modi surname” remarks.

    The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate H H Varma, which held 52-year-old Gandhi guilty under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500, also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court.

    Gandhi can escape immediate disqualification as a member of parliament if the appellate court suspends the conviction as well as the two-year jail term.

    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday refuted BJP chief J P Nadda’s allegation that Rahul Gandhi compared OBC communities to thieves and accused the ruling party of defending the likes of fugitives Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, and indulging in “caste politics”.

    Amid a political fight between the BJP and Congress following Gandhi’s conviction in a defamation case over the “Modi surname” remarks, Nadda alleged that “lies, personal slander and negative politics is integral” to his politics.

    “By comparing OBC communities to thieves, Rahul Gandhi has shown a pathetic and casteist mindset. However, his latest tirade is not surprising. For the last many years, he has always reduced levels of political discourse,” Nadda said.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Hitting back, Kharge, in a tweet in Hindi, said, “Modi government cannot escape from JPC! Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, and Mehul Choksi fled with the money of PNB and the public. OBCs did not do so, then how were they insulted?” “SBI/LIC suffered losses due to your ‘best friend’!” he said slamming the government.

    “‘Ek toh chori mein sahyog phir jatigat rajneeti ka prayog’ (First providing help in stealing then applying caste politics),” Kharge said and termed it “shameful”.

    Later, interacting with reporters, the Congress president said his party is seeking answers as to who ran away with people’s money, while the BJP is trying to distract from the main issue.

    “They are talking of insult to backward classes. The Congress has always stood with and fought for the backward classes, scheduled castes and minorities. These people who believe in Manu, talk of backward classes,” Kharge said.

    Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also lashed out at Nadda, saying he was distorting facts and indulging in “politics of defamation”.

    “By doing he is defending Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi. This truth had to come out and now it has come out. Thank you Nadda ji for your honesty. Now please show some honesty on Adani too,” Ramesh said in a tweet in Hindi.

    He also hit out at Union Minister Bhupender Yadav who attacked the Congress for raising questions on the Gujarat court convicting Rahul Gandhi in the criminal defamation case.

    “Bhupendra Yadav should spend more time implementing environment and forest laws without fear or favour. Instead, he is busy defending Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi. These two have stolen thousands of crores of public money and are fugitives running from justice in India,” Ramesh said in a tweet in Hindi.

    Gandhi was on Thursday sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his “why all thieves have Modi surname” remarks.

    The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate H H Varma, which held 52-year-old Gandhi guilty under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500, also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court.

    Gandhi can escape immediate disqualification as a member of parliament if the appellate court suspends the conviction as well as the two-year jail term.

  • Gujarat polls: BJP manifesto promises implementation of Uniform Civil Code in state

    By PTI

    GANDHINAGAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released its manifesto for next month’s Gujarat Assembly elections, in which it promised to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state if the party retained power.

    In the manifesto, which was released here by BJP president J P Nadda, the party also promised free education to girls from KG to PG (kindergarten to post-graduation).

    It also assured that the amount of medical insurance coverage under the Ayushman Bharat scheme would be doubled from Rs five lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

    GANDHINAGAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released its manifesto for next month’s Gujarat Assembly elections, in which it promised to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state if the party retained power.

    In the manifesto, which was released here by BJP president J P Nadda, the party also promised free education to girls from KG to PG (kindergarten to post-graduation).

    It also assured that the amount of medical insurance coverage under the Ayushman Bharat scheme would be doubled from Rs five lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

  • Strengthening BJP in Rajasthan, ensuring last-mile delivery of Modi govt priority: Nadda tells party functionaries 

    By PTI

    JAIPUR: BJP president J P Nadda on Friday laid down the party’s agenda for the future at its office-bearers meeting, saying it will broadly focus on strengthening the organisation and ensure last-mile delivery of the Centre’s schemes.

    Addressing the inaugural session of the meeting here, Nadda also hit out at the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan, saying it has “defamed this land of bravehearts with its misgovernance”.

    “The BJP will play the role of a constructive opposition in the state and will ensure that the lotus blossoms in the next assembly elections,” Nadda said.

    Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nadda said his leadership was taking the BJP upwards and all party workers were committed to move on the path shown by him.

    “We are grateful that at the time of Covid, when every other political party went into isolation and leaders were seen only on Twitter, PM Modi gave us the mantra of ‘Sewa hi Sangathan’. As a result, BJP workers were among the people to lend a helping hand help during the pandemic,” Nadda said.

    The senior leader said the meeting will comprise four sessions broadly focusing on two aspects — strengthening the organisation and last mile of delivery the central government’s welfare schemes.

    He underlined that the party had to become a “good device” for the welfare of the citizens.

    Deliberations on strengthening the party, especially in weaker polling booths, and visits to Lok Sabha constituencies where these booths are located, are among the issues that will be taken up during the meeting, he said.

    The one-day BJP office-bearers meet, including its state unit heads, in-charges, co-in-charges, morcha heads and organisational general secretaries, is being held in Jaipur and at least 100 functionaries of the party are in attendance.

  • No leader has done the kind of work PM Modi has done for Sikhs: Nadda

    Nadda also credited Modi with ensuring that copies of Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib reached India from Afghanistan.

  • Nadda to kick off first leg of UP poll campaign

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  BJP chief J P Nadda on Monday will kick off the first leg of the party’s campaign for Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls early next year by launching the regional booth-level activities. With the BJP working out the strategy to work at the pollbooth-levels with the involvements of the top state leaders of the saffron party. 

    Nadda will hold strategy meetings for the Kanpur and Gorakhpur regions during his two-day-long stay in the poll bound state. BJP national media head Anil Baluni said that Nadda will also inaugurate party offices in seven districts of the state through virtual mode during his stay in the politically important state.

    The chief will also be going to the state capital Lucknow to hold stock-taking meetings with party leaders. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi already launching several developmental projects in the state, the BJP is now stepping up its election campaign momentum in Uttar Pradesh. Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah has also visited the poll-bound state. 

    Baluni said that Nadda will preside over the organisational meetings in the state’s  capital Lucknow. The visit of the BJP national president is coming close in the heels of the top leadership of the party brainstorming the strategies for the poll-bound state in the national capital a few days ago in which the state leaders were also called in. Nadda is likely to discuss the rollout of the strategies in various zones in which the state has been divided for the electioneering purposes. 

  • BJP’s tepid show likely to put Nadda under pressure

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  The outcome of the first major nationwide bypolls after the second wave of the Covid pandemic may leave the BJP more worried than excited in the run up to key electoral battles early next year.  Even if one sets aside the BJP’s downhill journey in Bengal, the Congress sweep in Himachal Pradesh seemingly sent out a loud message that the hill states invariably votes out incumbent governments.  The BJP will also need to worry for not making any gains in Rajasthan where the saffron outfit is still struggling to address the leadership issue.   

    The party will count on the victories in Assam and Madhya Pradesh where the incumbent chief ministers Himanta Biswa Sarma and Shivraj Singh Chouhan delivered a perfect result. The BJP failed to defend two Lok Sabha constituencies, losing Dadra and Nagar Haveli to friend the Shiv Sena and Mandi to the Congress. 

    BJP chief J P Nadda is likely to come under pressure, as the party was routed in three Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha constituency. Besides anti-incumbency factor firming up, the BJP was also hit hard by the infighting within its ranks, with the state leadership failing to project a united house. 

    The BJP continues to gain in Assam from Sarma’s elevation as the chief minister by making inroads into the Congress support base. The BJP led alliance won all the five Assembly seats in the state. The pattern is also paying rich dividends to the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, with the induction of Jyotiraditya Scindia giving the party additional electoral muscle. 

    The win in Huzurabad will cheer the party leadership as Telangana is on top of the states where it wants to expand in the near future. The BJP and the RSS are working in tandem to gain from the vacuum in the Opposition space. 

    In Bengal, the party is seemingly faced with the hard lessons that such short-cuts are tough to maintain. Out of the four Assembly seats that it lost in Bengal, the BJP  had won Dinhata and Santipur just a few months ago.   

  • Opposition putting hurdles in development agenda, says BJP president Nadda

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Accusing opposition parties of trying to put hurdles in the government’s agenda of development, BJP president J P Nadda said on Monday that his party members have worked for the nation keeping in mind not only “political indicators” but also “social indicators”.

    In his address at the BJP’s national office bearers meeting, Nadda cited its welfare measures during the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the Modi government’s agenda of development and pro-poor programmes like free grains and asserted that the ruling party has worked to change the definition of politics, official sources said.

    Briefing reporters, party vice president and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh said the meeting of the office bearers will put in place the party’s agenda for the next few months, and noted that it comes against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi engaging in extensive deliberations with BJP’s organisational leaders over the last few months.

    The BJP has shown as to how party members can be relevant and helpful to the society while working for the organisation, Singh said.

    “BJP members have worked for the nation keeping in mind not only political indicators but also social indicators,” he said.

    He said the Congress has seen a dip as it has ceased to be active on grassroots issues.

    Nadda, he added, also lauded the Modi government for free distribution of grains to the poor during the pandemic and the ongoing vaccination drive, which is set to cross 100 crore doses.

  • How people with narrow mindset will lead Uttar Pradesh: BJP chief Nadda attacks Opposition

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: BJP president JP Nadda, who arrived here Saturday on a two-day visit, attacked the Opposition in Uttar Pradesh saying people with “narrow mindset” should not be elected to power.

    Nadda’s visit comes at a time Uttar Pradesh prepares itself for the next year’s assembly polls in which the ruling BJP will be pitted against the Samajwadi Party, the BSP and the Congress among other regional fronts.

    Addressing a meeting of the newly-elected chairpersons of zila panchayats and block panchayats on the first day of his visit, Nadda praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the vaccination drive.

    “On April 20, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modiji constituted a task force and he gave the country two vaccines (against coronavirus) in nine months,” he said.

    “It is a separate matter (that the Opposition said) we will not get vaccinated. This is a vaccine of the BJP. Now, you have been vaccinated with the BJP vaccine. This tells the mindset of the leaders. Those who have narrow mindset, how will they lead UP? This is something to think upon,” he said, without naming any leader or party.

    ALSO READ: Challenges galore before Priyanka Gandhi as she gears up to revive Congress prospects

    Just as the vaccine was being rolled out in the country in January, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav had called it the “vaccine of the BJP” and said he would not take the shot.

    “How can I trust the vaccine, which will be used for vaccination by the BJP? We cannot get vaccinated by the BJP’s vaccine,” he had said.

    Nadda also said the world sought India’s vaccines and jabs were provided to various countries under Vaccine Maitri.

    “Today, there is no shortage of vaccines, and by December, the industrialists of India will prepare 135 crore (doses of) vaccines,” Nadda said.

    BJP’s national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh, Uttar Pradesh in-charge Radha Mohan Singh, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma and state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh were present during the occasion.

  • No party gives as much space to women as BJP does: Nadda

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: BJP president J P Nadda said on Tuesday that no political party gives as much space to women to work and grow as his party does, and asserted that the Modi government has done a lot of work to empower them.

    Speaking at a programme organised by the BJP ‘mahila morcha’ to felicitate women Union ministers of the Modi government, he said the saffron party has given more space to women in its policy, programme, administration and governance than any other party.

    In the recent expansion of the Union Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inducted seven women ministers, taking their total number to 11. Nadda said Indian culture has always given primacy to women.

    He noted that socialist stalwart Ram Manohar Lohia used to express anguish at women being forced to relieve themselves in the open due to lack of toilets, and said it was the Modi government that finally launched the ‘Swachh Bharat’ programme to build bathrooms to work to make the country open defecation free.

    The government also came out with programmes to help pregnant women with medical intervention, thus reducing maternal and infant mortality, he said, adding that they are also given cash incentives.

    Fertility rate was also reduced, Nadda said, and also cited the ‘Ujjwala’ scheme, under which cooking gas connection is provided to poor households, to laud the government’s initiatives to help women.

    Modi brought in more women and also enhanced representation from all sections of society in the government, he added.

    All women ministers of the BJP, including Nirmala Sitharaman and Smriti Irani, were present at the programme.

  • Assam’s chief issue: Himanta Biswa Sarma meets BJP leaders J P Nadda, Amit Shah in Delhi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Amid speculation over the next chief minister of Assam, senior BJP leader from the state Himanta Biswa Sarma met party president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah here on Saturday.

    Both Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health Minister Himanta Sarma were on Friday called to New Delhi by the BJP central leadership, apparently to discuss the leadership issue of the next government.

    Though both leaders from Assam reached Delhi on Saturday morning it was Sarma who reached Nadda’s residence to meet him and BJP general secretary (Organisation) B L Santhosh, sources said.

    They were later joined by Amit Shah.

    It is expected that Sonawal would also reach Nadda’s residence to meet the BJP’s top brass, where a decision on the next chief minister of Assam could be taken.

    ALSO READ | Who will take over the reigns in Assam: CM Sonowal or Himanta?

    It is immediately not known whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present in the meeting, they added.

    Sonowal, who belongs to Assam’s indigenous Sonowal-Kachari tribals, and Sarma, the convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance, both are contenders for the top post of the Assam government.

    The BJP had not announced a chief ministerial candidate before the Assembly polls in Assam.

    In the 2016 Assembly polls, the BJP had projected Sonowal as its chief ministerial candidate and won, forming the first saffron party government in the northeast.

    This time, the party has been maintaining that it would decide who would be the next chief minister of Assam after the elections.

    In the results announced for the 126-member Assam assembly last Sunday, the BJP won 60 seats while its alliance partners AGP got nine seats and UPPL six.