The Congress party has decided to play caste politics again in Uttar Pradesh to revive its tumbling political fortunes. Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader in the state Jitin Prasada has claimed that atrocities on the Brahmin community have increased under the Yogi Adityanath government and will use the ‘Brahmin Chetna Samvad’ to connect with the Brahmin community.
“There has been an attempt to sideline the community, and make it feel humiliated and insecure. The community is being made to struggle for justice and is facing step-motherly treatment. It”s being deprived of its rights and the need of the hour is to unite and fight for its identity,” Jitin Prasada claimed.
The senior Congress leader claimed that it is time for the Brahmin community to forego their differences and unite to regain their ‘lost glory’. The ‘brahmin Chetna Samvad’ will be used to discuss various issues pertaining to the community and find acceptable solutions to their problems. The Samvad will be conducted through social media in every district.
It is pertinent to note here that users on social media have said that the Congress party is using WhatsApp groups to paint the Yogi Government as ‘anti-brahmin’. In current circumstances, it is planning to use the case of Vikas Dubey, whose men had recently killed 8 men of the UP Police, to target the Yogi government.
Just received this message from my relative. Don't fall for it. Vikas Dubey is a hardened criminal. He had murdered another Brahmin BJP leader 'Santosh Shukla'. Don't let the dirty game of Congress succeed. Lets hope he is brought to justice. pic.twitter.com/Iza5MNxOY4
— Vikas Sankrityayan (@MODIfiedVikas) July 3, 2020
Reportedly, the Congress party is planning to use any punishment meted out to Vikas Dubey for his crimes and portray it as punishment handed out to ‘Brahmin Vikas Dubey’. It is, of course, known widely that Vikas Dubey is a criminal of the highest order and murdered BJP leader Santosh Shukla as well, who happened to be a Brahmin too.
However, there does not appear to be any depths to which the Congress party will not sink to. Such tactics have been used by the Congress government in the past. one of the most prominent examples of it is during Assembly Elections in Rajasthan.
In Rajasthan, the Congress party used the death of Anandpal Singh in an encounter to woo the Rajput community. The slain gangster’s daughter, Yogita Singh, was deployed by the Congress party to play the sympathy card in its bid to secure the votes of the Rajput community. Yogita Singh, while addressing a program under the chairmanship of District President Keshar Singh, Ravana Rajput, in Sujangarh Ravana Rajput Sabha building on Sunday, blamed the BJP government for the death of her father.
The said program was attended by various Congress leaders, including Congress nominee Bhawarlal Meghwal. In Uttar Pradesh, ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections, it was widely speculated that the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party had not formed an alliance with the Congress party in order to split the Upper Caste vote in the state. However, that did not work as the BJP managed to secure over 60 out of the 80 seats in the state.
It is also to be remembered that poll strategist Prashant Kishore had advised the Congress party to project either Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi or a Brahmin as the Chief Ministerial candidate in Assembly Elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. Consequently, senior leader Sheila Dixit had been declared the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate. That was before the Congress party decided to dump the strategy and went ahead with an alliance with the Samajwadi Party.
The Congress party had also toyed with the prospect of wooing the Dalit votebank in the state. In this regard, they had made overtures to the Bhim Army in order to strengthen their position in the state. however, considering that the tactic did not work, it appears that they have reverted to making efforts to woo the Brahmin community in Uttar Pradesh.
The Assam local authorities have sealed three villages after thousands of people, flouting social distancing norms, gathered to be a part of the last rights of Islamic preacher Moulana Khairul Islam Mufti in Assam’s Nagaon district on Thursday. According to conservative estimates by the local district administration officials, at least 10,000 people had attended the funeral. Two police cases have also been filed in this regard.
From the videos and pictures of the funeral, which went viral on social media, it was clear that apart from not maintaining social distancing there were many attendees who were also without masks. The fear of the spread of the novel coronavirus has now prompted the authorities to impose a lockdown in the adjoining three villages.
Image shared on Twitter shows that apart from flouting social distancing norms many attendees not even wearing masks
It is pertinent to note here, that the Health Ministry has in its Covid-19 guidelines, clearly specified that at the time of this pandemic, a maximum of 20 people can only participate in the funeral or last rites of a deceased. However, flagrantly defying these guidelines the followers of Islamic preacher Moulana Khairul Islam Mufti flocked at the funeral.
Moulana Khairul Islam Mufti passed away on Thursday due to old-age ailments. His funeral was held at Juria Dagaon playground in Assam’s Nagaon district. The 87-year-old Islamic preacher served as the vice-president of the All India Jamiat Ulema and is regarded as “Aamir-e-Shariat” for Northeast India.
The Islamic preacher was MLA Aminul Islam’s father
The incident came to light after Assam MLA Aminul Islam uploaded pictures of the gathering on a social media platform. Khairul Islam was the father of Aminul Islam, the controversial MLA from Dhing constituency representing the Islamist political outfit AIUDF (All India United Democratic Front) founded by perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal.
Aminul Islam arrested for spreading lies and communalising coronavirus
For the uninitiated, Aminul Islam is the MLA from Assam who was arrested on April 7 and charged with an attempt to communalise the government’s efforts to tackle the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) MLA, while addressing the people of Assam through a video clip, had claimed that nobody from Nizamuddin Markaz had tested positive for coronavirus. Aminul Islam had also said that the isolation wards for coronavirus are like detention centres and it is a government conspiracy to kill a certain section of people.
Meanwhile, an NGO named Legal Rights Protection Forum has taken to Twitter to inform that n the wake of the incident the NGO had written to Hon’ble Governor of Assam seeking necessary strict action against Aminul Islam, MLA of Dhing constituency.
Wrote to Hon’ble Governor of Assam seeking necessary strict action against Mr. Aminul Islam, MLA of Dhing constituency for putting lives of 1000s of people in danger by forcing them to break COVID19 norms during funeral rituals. Islam had earlier spoken ill about Ahom community. pic.twitter.com/6ob2lRJ5Xj
— Legal Rights Protection Forum (@lawinforce) July 6, 2020
The NGO has accused the MLA of putting lives of 1000s of people in danger by forcing them to break COVID-19 norms during funeral rituals fo his father.
Meanwhile, 735 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Assam on Monday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 11,736.
An astonishing report published in the Sunday Times claimed that the virus samples sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2013 bore a stark resemblance with the novel coronavirus. The report claimed that scientists in 2013 had sent frozen samples of the virus which was almost identical to the Coronavirus to the Wuhan lab after six men who had been clearing out the bat faeces in a former copper-mine in southwest China contracted severe pneumonia.
Three of the six men died of their ailment, most likely due to the coronavirus transmitted from a bat, the report said, quoting a medical practitioner whose supervisor was deputed to the emergency department that treated the men.
The concerned mine in Yunnan province was later on studied by Shi Zhengli, a specialist authority on SARS-like coronaviruses of bat origins at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Shi, who has earned the sobriquet of “batwoman” for her dangerous expeditions in bat caves, described coronavirus in February 2020 as “almost certainly” the virus that was found in the abandoned mines in Yunnan that claimed the lives of 3 men in 2013. She said that the virus was 96.2 per cent similar to the coronavirus sample named RaTG13 obtained in Yunnan in 2013.
However, scientists having views at odds with China’s “Batwoman” claimed that the samples may represent decades worth of evolutionary distance. The Sunday Times also sent a list of questions to the Wuhan Lab but they did not elicit any response from the Institute.
A couple of months ago, the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology dismissed the rumours that the coronavirus emerged from the Wuhan Lab saying that there was no live copy of the RaTG13 virus in the laboratory, making it impossible to leak from it. So far, there has been no compelling evidence to tie the source of the pandemic to Wuhan Institute of Virology, however, it is widely believed and backed by reports that the deadly contagion first surfaced in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, possibly from the wet markets operational in the city where live wildlife was on sale.
As coronavirus outbreak gains stronghold in the South Indian state of Telangana, at least 10 senior doctors from government hospitals and 70 nurses from private hospitals have tendered their resignations fearing their safety over poor protective gear.
The resident doctors disappointed with the poor state-of-affairs at the hospital and the impending threat of contracting the infection, have decided to take a temporary sabbatical from their profession until the pandemic subsides. The doctors are from Osmania Medical College(OMC) and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial(MGM) hospital Warangal and other hospitals.
The resignation comes amidst reports of more than 300 medical professional in the state being affected by the virus. The healthcare professionals have cited substandard protective gear and fear of contracting COVID-19 as reasons behind quitting their jobs.
It has been reported that while some doctors assigned from OMC to Chest Hospital never reported for their duty, others served for one or two months before offering their resignation.
An overwhelming number of the doctors and nurses have put down their papers citing safety concerns and crumbling healthcare infrastructure as coronavirus caseloads increase in Telangana. The poor quality of personal protective equipment to the frontline workers in Telangana and consequently a large number of them having contracted the virus has forced many others to take an interim leave from their jobs.
Many doctors and nurses are dejected to for being of no help to the ailing patients. “The problem is not just that there was a threat of infection and we didn’t get proper personal protection equipment (PPE) kits, it seemed like a waste of effort. Even if a patient was dying in front of me, I could do nothing at all,” said one of the senior resident doctor who had resigned from the OMC.
Despite racked with the guilt of having to resign in the midst of a raging coronavirus crisis, the doctors claimed that their presence or absence hardly mattered. “We didn’t have staff, we didn’t have the infrastructure, we didn’t have proper PPE kits or any other provision required. It seemed like a futile effort,” the resident doctor said.
Coronavirus in Telangana
With the pandemic slowly surging across the country, Telangana, has been one of the worst affected states in the southern part of the country. The total number of coronavirus caseloads in Telangana have swelled to 22,300 with the fatalities reaching 288 in the state.
A study by Professor Shamika Ravi has revealed that Telangana is a combination of exponential rise in daily new cases and very poor testing which is as low as 19 confirmed cases per 100 tests. Earlier today we had reported how a female doctor, who contracted coronavirus while treating other patients, had to shell out over Rs 1 lakh for 1-day treatment at a private hospital. In a video that had gone viral, she could be heard stating that the hospital kept her hostage and the nurses misbehaved with her.
In a shocking incident, a journalist named Tarun Sisodia from the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, tried to end his life by jumping off the fourth floor of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, where he was admitted after being diagnosed with coronavirus. According to reports, the journalist, who also suffered from cancer was admitted in the ICU after he sustained serious injuries with multiple fractures due to the fall. Tarun was also suffering from depression. However, he later succumbed to his injuries.
The journalist was sacked from work but was later re-instated
Tarun Sisodia’s colleagues confirmed that the 35-year-old journalist was suffering from stress and mental duress. Tarun, who was a resident of Bhajanpura, Delhi had reportedly been asked to resign two months earlier, but later Dainik Bhaskar had revoked his termination, said his friends.
Tarun Sisodia was undergoing treatment for depression
Tarun used to often speak about his depression to his office colleagues and sought help. As per reports, Tarun had not been attending work and was at home for some time. He had been staying back in the house and undergoing treatment for depression. The journalist, who had reportedly been diagnosed with a brain tumour had recently been tested positive for coronavirus too.
Presumably, the health-related tensions and the stress at work collectively forced the journalist to take such a drastic step.
Sisodia was married and was a father of two little girls. His friends have stated that recently, he had also complained about the lack of proper treatment facilities and carelessness of doctors in AIIMS. He had sought help from his friends in the past claiming that he may be in danger.
Tarun Sisodia had raised concerns on the rising number of coronavirus deaths in Delhi and govt’s apathy
It is pertinent to note here that Tarun Sisodia had in June tweeted about the rising coronavirus cases in Delhi and how the Arvind Kejriwal government were lying on the deaths in the city. Apparently, he was worried about the rising numbers of death due to the pandemic in Delhi.
दिल्ली सरकार कह रही है कि अब तक 982 मौत कोरोना से हुई हैं, जबकि 1500 से ज्यादा डेडबॉडी का अंतिम संस्कार श्मशान और कब्रिस्तानों में हो चुका है। अभी भी सरकार मौत पर झूठ ही बोल रही है। @KapilMishra_IND#COVID__19pic.twitter.com/mmWBuTZdNL
Delhi has been one of the worst affected cities with coronavirus in the country with the total number of cases almost touching 1 lakh. It has recorded more than 3000 deaths due to the pandemic so far.
On Thursday, the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions wrote a letter to the Chief Secretary of Kerala and recommended that the status of ‘IAS’ to not be conferred to sub-collector of Thalassery, Asif K Yusuf for reportedly producing a fake caste certificate in his UPSC exam.
Reportedly, the wrongdoing on the part of Asif was established in a detailed inquiry by the Ernakulam District Collector S Suhas. The latter had submitted his report on the same in November last year. As per the report, Asif had forged his caste certificate to claim benefits of the reservation during UPSC exams meant for people belonging to the non-creamy layer of Other Backward Caste (OBC).
Income tax records revealed that the parents of Asif had a gross income of ₹21,80,963 (2012-2013), ₹23,05,100 (2013-2014) and ₹28,71,375 (2014-2015). As per official guidelines, children of parents with gross annual income above or equal to ₹6 lacs for three years are illegible for reservation benefits guaranteed for the non-creamy layer of OBCs.
As such, the Centre had recommended the cancellation of caste and income certificate of Asif, besides calling for disciplinary action against him and the Kanayannur Tahsildhar for providing the fake caste certificate.
How Asif exploited the system?
Reportedly, Asif had secured a rank of 215 in the Union Civil Services Examination (UPSC) in 2015. Although Asif was eligible for the post of IPS (Indian Police Service), he could secure a seat for Indian Administrative Service (IAS) using the fake caste certificate. As per the report, in 2015, the top 96 candidates, out of a total of 1,078 candidates, were allocated IAS seats whereas the succeeding General category rank holders were allocated IPS seats.
The non-creamy layer does not advantage a candidate during the selection process but helps one to secure a better seat allocation (which otherwise would have required a higher rank). As of now, Asif has not been conferred the status of the IAS officer.
The Finance Ministry through Press Information Bureau recently issued a clarification, putting paid to the rumours and speculations that gained strength after an article in the Business Standard said that the government is mulling over the merger of the Central Board of Direct Taxes and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. The PIB rubbished the report as “baseless and unverified”.
In a press release, the PIB said that the news regarding the merger of CBDT and CBIC is “factually incorrect” as the government has no proposal to merge the two boards created under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963.
“It has been published without due verification of facts from the competent authorities of Ministry of Finance and only creates a policy distraction when the Ministry is amidst the implementation of a large number of taxpayers’ friendly reforms like the transition from a manual assessment based on territorial jurisdiction to a completely randomized electronic faceless assessment, electronic verification or transactions and faceless appeals,” the statement said.
The PIB said that the merger was one of the suggestions made by the Tax Administrative Reforms Commission (TARC). However, the communique from the government said that after scrutinising in detail the report of TARC, the centre did not accept its recommendations. The same was conveyed in the parliament in 2018 before the Committee on Government Assurances. The statement further added that the website of the Department of Revenue shows that the recommendations proposed by the TARC were not accepted by the government.
Criticising the Business Standard article as “misleading”, the statement said that the piece was published in the newspaper without no due diligence or examination of official records available in the public domain or checking the latest status with relevant competent authorities in the Ministry of Finance.
“It not only reflects poorly on the quality of journalism but also shows a complete disregard for due diligence. If such an unverified story is given a front-page lead story position, it should be a concern for all news-reading public. This news item is completely rejected as baseless and unverified,” read the scathing remarks made by the PIB in its statement busting the misleading report published by Business Standard.
Business Standard article claims merger of CBDT and CBIC was on the anvil
The clarification was issued by the Press Information Bureau after a leading newspaper–Business Standard published an article on 5th July claiming that the central government is contemplating merging CBDT and CBIC. The article titled “Govt’s cost-cutting drive: Proposal to merge CBDT, CBIC back on the table” argued that as a part of the central government’s measures to trim down costs amid increasing revenue losses, the proposal to merge the direct and indirect tax boards, along with a large scale downsizing at all cadre levels is on the cards.
“Reducing entrants to the IRS, both for Customs and I-T, is being considered. Generally, the government informs the Union Public Service Commission every year how many it needs. Sources say this year the recruitment to the IRS has been reduced to half of that of last year. However, the number of IRS vacancies will be known after the results of the civil services examination come out. In 2019, 60 I-T officers had been recruited, against 65 in 2018 and 169 in 2017,” the article read regarding the marked reduction in the hiring for the IRS services.
The Business Standard article attributed the government’s retrenchment drive to the raging coronavirus crisis which has resulted in a cratering economy and widened the fiscal deficit. The move could include freezing of hiring for the Indian Revenue Services(IRS), changes in retirement rules, merging job categories, transferring revenue officers to other departments, and cutting down the allowances of employees, said the article.
“Both the tax boards, in agreement with the finance ministry, are working on cost-cutting measures. Certain proposals have been discussed, such as a unified structure, which would help in creating synergies with a reduced workforce,” the article published in the Business Standard said as quoting a person privy to the development.
It further added that the CBDT had recently issued directives to its departments to drive down key expenditures or imminent expenditures, including those on legal matters, write-off losses, repair and maintenance costs, and rewards to informants, which the article said would not be authorised.
John Kay once said that ‘the people who own the country ought to govern it’. In India, for the longest time, it was the Congress party that owned the country, not the people. The election of Narendra Damodardas Modi bought a tectonic shift in not just the political scene of the country, but also how the people saw themselves. From being treated as chattel, to be used and abused as the first family saw fit, to an empowered majority that chooses to write its own fate.
The defeat of Congress was a jolt that the ecosystem did not expect. When one rules a country for decades, one does not expect for their ‘right’ to be snatched away by the very subjects they assumed to have systematically oppressed for so many years. They genuinely believed that they had perhaps rewired the Indian populace.
They altered history, they fed the people selective information for decades by ensuring that only their minstrels have the right to public books that are taught to children in schools, they launched Soviet style propaganda to demonise the majority population, the Hindus, they got into secret deals with enemies that the people had no idea about and stole trillions from the people because they assumed that the scared ‘praja’ had no agency left to speak up.
When the Congress fell, much of what was fed to the Lutyens intellectual hitmen for hire, their ecosystem, crumbled. The hands that fed them no longer wielded the power that made it possible for them to be fed. They assumed that the Congress would never be dethroned and their gravy train would never stop. They never expected one Narendra Damodardas Modi to shake the very foundation of the political system of the country and expose the rot that was covered up with the collective Omertà.
After 6 years of defending the Congress and blaming the people for not selecting their Knights in shining armour, the ecosystem has now lost its patience, it would seem. At least momentarily. But even in their ire, the dishonesty is rather staggering.
The Wire published an article where they demanded that the ‘Gandhis must vacate the Congress space’. Interestingly, while the headline read Gandhis, the article was focused on the acute shortcomings of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
At the very outset, it was evident that the author’s rant did not stem from genuine introspection of what is wrong with the Congress model of governance, but rather, intense hate for PM Modi that is making him lash out at Rahul and Priyanka – much like a jilter lover.
Rahul Gandhi is not the problem, he is as incompetent as his predecessors, it is the weakening of the ecosystem that is pinching the left
After spending 6 years trying to orchestrate the “coming of age of Rahul Gandhi”, there are sections within the Left ecosystem that are visibly frustrated with him. They are frustrated because Congress not only lost to PM Modi and the BJP In 2014 and 2019, but despite all their antics, there seems to be no way that the Congress can come back to power in 2024. To be fair, that is not Rahul Gandhi’s fault alone. In 2014 when Congress lost to PM Modi, it was not him who was the president of the Congress party, but Sonia Gandhi. Right now as well, it is Sonia who is the president.
Rahul’s incompetence has been known. However, it is the same ecosystem that orchestrated or at least attempted to orchestrate a charade of his brilliance for years and continue to do so. So what is changing? Obviously they knew that Rahul Gandhi was a dud and yet, they pinned their hopes on him for 6 long years.
Essentially, the ecosystem has no problem with the exemplary incompetence of the Congress party or the family leaders. What they do have a problem with is that now, that incompetence is being exposed and challenged. What bothers them is now that exemplary and historic incompetence is for all to see, and that one leader brought about a revolution that dethroned them rather promptly. What bothers them is that because they have been dethroned, the ecosystem does not know who else can sustain them, financially or otherwise.
If Congress still had the resources and the power to sustain the ecosystem, Rahul Gandhi would have still been the Prince Charming who would rescue them. With the ecosystem losing its edge and its unbridled power, that seems to have changed or at least, is showing signs of changing.
The Wire article on Rahul Gandhi, its main contentions and why it is important to talk about it
The Wire article is written by Harish Khare. While his bio introduces himself as just a journalist, there is more to this than meets the eye. He served as the Media Adviser to the Indian Prime Minister’s Office from June 2009 to January 2012 and post that, has worked as Resident Editor and chief of bureau with The Hindu in New Delhi, India.
Being the person who was close to Manmohan Singh and obviously, close to Super PM Sonia Gandhi, that he is the one lashing out at Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi in a publication like The Wire that has served as Rahul Gandhi and Congress’ attack dog, is of significance and must be analysed threadbare.
Essentially, the author in The Wire article makes the following assertions:
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, whom he calls the ‘bhai-behn-cartel (BBC)’, has foisted a fratricidal internal war in Congress by blaming the ‘senior leaders’. The author further says, “the longer the brother-and-sister duo continue to scuffle within, the much-needed process of democratic recovery and regrouping gets postponed further and further”.
The main reason for the outburst published in The Wire seems to be the order for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to vacate the government bungalow allotted to them, which they were not entitled to. While blaming Rahul and Priyanka of being reckless and entitled, the author cites an example where he essentially says that the mighty Gandhis have got their priorities all wrong and conflates the concepts of giving to the party as opposed to giving back to the nation they are meant to serve.
The third contention of the author seems to be that the brother-sister duo doesn’t seem to put in an effort to understand why millions and million prefer PM Modi over Gandhi’s Congress. “In particular, the Congress has to unsentimentally comprehend why Modi is able to run away with the deshbhakti ball and (to use American football terminology) get to score a touch-down at his choosing while the Gandhis prove very poor defensive linebackers. Nor has the bhai-behn cartel offered the country any moral reason to shift its allegiance and affection away from Narendra Modi”, the article on The Wire states.
The Wire says, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have ‘convinced themselves that the ‘old guard’ are a stumbling block in their righteous struggle against Modi’.
His other contention seems to be that Rahul Gandhi refuses to be the Party President and then, on the other hand, refuses to let the reigns go to some non-dynast member either.
The raging hypocrisy and sheer inanity of the assertions are rather stupefying. Let’s examine these assertions one by one.
Internal feuds: The making of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra?
The author, who happens to be a veteran journalist no less, makes it sound as if the internal feuds in Congress are the fresh making of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The truth is, that the Congress party has never really been a united house. There are thousands of incidents, from the time of Nehru to Indira Gandhi and even Sonia Gandhi where internal feuds were really the norm.
K Natwar Singh had himself written an article where he had categorically narrated how Sonia Gandhi did not want him to be the External Affairs Minister because she was being pressured from several quarters, including the Americans. Thereafter, she had accused Natwar of being involved in defence deals rather out of the blue while in a meeting with the Afghanistan President.
It is no secret how Sonia Gandhi hounded and humiliated Maneka Gandhi after the death of Sanjay Gandhi. To a point where she was not allowed to eat at the same table and evidently, this was done because Sonia Gandhi did not want Maneka to get a share of the property. This is not an assertion from thin air but a tale narrated by Maneka Gandhi herself.
Further, who doesn’t remember how PV Narsimha Rao was treated? With his dead body being torn apart by dogs? Or who doesn’t remember how Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi tore up ordinances signed by Manmohan Singh as the PM, publicly during a press conference? Who has not heard of the feuds between Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi? Or how Congress leaders have been treated like dirt by every member of the Nehru-Gandhi clan? Or who doesn’t remember how Nehru actually became the prime minister and who was sidelined?
In such a scenario, blaming Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for being the first to create internal feud is ridiculous. Congress has never been sans internal feuds and there is a good reason for it – for anyone dynasty to hold power within the party, internal feuds are a necessary evil that keeps even half-capable people at check.
In fact, this article in The Wire itself seems to be the product of the internal feud between the Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra clan and the Sonia Gandhi faction. That can be evidenced from the fact that all the blame in this article, even for their stand during Galwan stand-off has been shifted to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi has not even been mentioned once.
The only thing that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi can be faulted for, perhaps, is that their lack of intelligence is why they are not being able to control the narrative even for their own party, despite several pens for hire willing to build their image up. The problem here is the urge to market a bad product. Not that it has never been done before.
Giving to the party confused with giving to the nation
While the author rues that Rahul Gandhi has been unable to understand why millions and millions of people support PM Modi and not Gandhi’s Congress, the author tragically writes an entire paragraph that makes no sense at all except to say that the current generations seems to have lost their street credo. Even more tragically, the rant seems to confuse giving to the political party with giving to the nation, for the nation’s benefit.
Excerpt from The Wire article
In this paragraph, the author says that Motilal Nehru gave his palatial bungalow to Mahatma Gandhi’s Congress and thus, firmly lodged itself in the national imagination. On the other hand, the current Congress uses tasteless language to defend itself after Priyanka being dislodged from her illegal government accommodation.
The author really has no right to blame Rahul Gandhi or even Priyanka Gandhi Vadra because he seems to belong to the exact, degenerated mindset that the Gandhi family, including Rahul and Priyanka belong to. The author here conflates giving a bungalow to the party as a great service to the nation. That is not much different from the entitlement that every scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family feels.
A service to the party, is a service to the nation per them. A service to the Gandhi family is an ode to the over 1 billion people of India. A victory for the Gandhis is a victory of the people of India. This is exactly what Rahul believes but he is not the first. Evert leader of Congress has exactly the same mindset. And thus, for the author to blame Rahul and Priyanka for being exactly like their parents or grandparents seems a little harsh.
The tantrum – Why does Modi manage to run with the ‘deshbhakti’ plank
Well, maybe because he genuinely is one? The issue with Congress has always been tweaking its core ideology per the political winds that might shape elections. During the Indira Gandhi regime, they wanted to protect cows. During the Sonia Gandhi regime, they wanted to bring in the Communal Violence Bill that would reduce every Hindu into a perpetrator, facts be damned, and shield every Muslim as victim, facts be damned, during a communal riot. During the Rahul Gandhi reign, they allied with Islamists and Naxals. Not that it was new. Sonia Gandhi too shared the political bed with Islamists and Naxals, heck, Sonia Gandhi even accepted money from China and Soros linked foundations during her regime.
Prime Minister Modi manages to run with the ‘deshbhakti’ plank because the BJP, in face of loss or victory has remained rather steadfast in their political ideology and vision for the nation. Congress on the other hand are like political mistresses who change their ideology much like one would change clothes.
However, to blame Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi for their intellectual or ideological debauchery is rather unfair. It is akin to blaming them for running a family business just how their father or mother or grandparents ran it. And that is what Congress is, really. A family business.
The issue here is that the ecosystem does not seem to have the strength to question Sonia Gandhi or even the Congress party for its history that has often compromised national security. What they care about is lashing out at Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka because that is easier to do compared to looking inwards.
Old guard not a stumbling block, new guard is? So says The Wire
The Wire says, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have ‘convinced themselves that the ‘old guard’ are a stumbling block in their righteous struggle against Modi’. This, per the author is a massive error in judgement.
While at this point, this would seem like a planted article by the Sonia gang to subjugate the Rahul gang, the dishonestly emanating from this piece is still staggering. Currently, it is Sonia Gandhi who is the President of the Party. When Congress lost to Narendra Modi in 2014, it was Sonia Gandhi. Interestingly, the article does not mention Sonia Gandhi even once, other than in the featured image of the article.
Rahul Gandhi is completely useless. So is Priyanka Gandhi. However, the old guard has no halo around their heads either. In 2014, it was the old guard along with rants from the new guard that cost Congress its power. Today, during the China stand-off, the party is headed by Sonia Gandhi, though the party is equally enamoured with Rahul Gandhi. Neither of them managed to form one sentence that actually made sense if even translated into a sentiment that favoured the interests of the nation.
Painting Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi as imbeciles and the old guard as Knights is unfair. Both the factions are equally mentally decelerated, it would seem.
Besides, what Congress and its playthings probably don’t understand is that the Congress is not newly incompetent now. They were always incompetent. They remained in power because earlier, there was no leader with the brute courage of conviction like that of PM Modi. All it took, was one leader to shake their entire foundation. And if the foundation, build over decades, can be shaken in one election, then it is certainly a foundation that ought to be demolished with dynamite.
Interestingly, while whining about the incompetence of Rahul Gandhi, the author also rues that Rahul is unwilling to accept responsibility of becoming the President of the Party. After an entire article of bashing the poor man who is simply following his DNA, the author wonders why he does not want to become the President.
Perhaps the author would do well to remember that in this regard too, he is only following his mamma. Sonia Gandhi refused to become the Prime Minister when she could, however, ensured that she was the ‘Super PM’ while Manmohan Singh rightly got the heat for his incompetence. Rahul Gandhi is exactly the same. He would want to ruin the nation from the shadows while someone else, who is merely a puppet, takes the fall for it.
This critique of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is unfair. Unfair not because it is wrong, per se. But because everything that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are doing wrong, has always been wrong with the Congress. Vested interests have been too scared to call it out because it was always the Congress that fed them.
The reason these voices are becoming sparsely audible today is not because the Congress has deteriorated, it is because the ecosystem is biting the very hands that fed them, because the hands no longer wield the power anymore to sustain a massively expensive and parasitic ecosystem. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are imbeciles. They are selfish and clueless and wildly anti-India since their personal interests reign supreme. But, so was every other Congress leader. So was every other scion of the Nehru-Gandhi clan.
It is not the incompetence of the Congress party or its latest fools that angers the ecosystem, it is the fact that the people have seen through the facade finally and the gravy train has stopped.
Kuwait has proposed a new bill on 4th July to limit the number of foreign nationals in the country. The bill will be submitted to the Assembly in the next two weeks. According to the Kuwait Times, Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem said that Kuwait’s main problem is its population structure. 70% of the total population are expats.
As per reports, Kuwait has around 3.35 million expats and a staggering 1.3 million are either illiterate or can barely read and write. Kuwait does not need them. He added that 100,000 of these people are workers who are illiterate.
The interior minister of Kuwait has said that visa trading is another problem the country is facing. It is a brutal practice and involves human trafficking that must be stopped. In the proposed bill, the number of Indians should be reduced to 15% of the total population. The legal and legislative committee of the National Assembly has said that the draft expat quota bill is constitutional. Sheikh Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah, Prime Minister of Kuwait had last month proposed to bring the number of expats to 30 percent of the population. The reduction is supposed to be done in phases.
Officials have stated that they constantly face complaints of visa trading and human trafficking.
Around 14 lakh Indians are reportedly living in Kuwait (For details click here: PDF). If the bill becomes a law, around eight lakh, Indians have to return home. The bill also calls for reducing the number of Egyptians in the country that makes to 10% of Kuwait’s total population. As per 2008 estimates, 80% of all Indians living in the Gulf are from Kerala. If Kuwait’s new law comes into force, it is expected that Keralites will be the most impacted.
A slump in oil prices among reasons of new proposed law
In 2018, India received close to $4.8 billion from Kuwait in remittances. At present, the citizens of Kuwait have turned into minority and the administration is trying to reverse it. Kuwait is largely dependent on the workforce from different countries. In the background of Covid-19, there has been a slump in the oil prices across the world that is believed to be one of the reasons for such a step.
The Indian embassy is closely following the developments and no official statement has been released by the Ministry of External affairs so far. India and Kuwait have pleasant diplomatic and trade relationships. There are more than a million expats from India living in Kuwait. Out of these, around 80 percent are from southern states of India, the majority being from Kerala. MEA has mentioned it multiple times in its statement that Indians are present in all segments of society in Kuwait and are largely considered disciplined, hardworking, and law-abiding.
The Congress party, of late, has been protesting against what it calls the ‘privatisation’ of Indian Railways. Recently, the Indian Youth Congress held a symbolic ‘shirtless’ protest against the same.
“Since the present BJP led NDA government came to power in 2014, many government PSUs and otherwise government-held assets have moved towards privatization. The anti-poor government at the Centre has also consistently moved towards privatization of Indian Railways, which will gradually lead to the railway becoming unaffordable for the common man,” the IYC said in a press release.
Ostensibly, the protests are regarding the decision of the Indian Railways to permit private entities to operate 109 trains on its rail network. Senior Congress leader and leader of the party in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhary claimed that it was adding “salt to the injury of common people”. “It is easy to privatize the 109 pairs of trains but for whose interest?” he asked.
For its part, the Railways said, “The objective of this initiative is to introduce modern technology rolling stock with reduced maintenance, reduced transit time, boost job creation, provide enhanced safety, provide world-class travel experience to passengers.” The 109 origin-destination routes have been formed into 12 clusters across the Indian Railway network. Each train shall have a minimum of 16 coaches, it said.
It is important to remember here that the initiative of the Indian Railways in question is not exactly ‘privatisation’ so to speak. The correct term to use here is Public Private Partnership (PPP). The PPP Model has been used extensively in the past to fuel the growth engine of the Indian economy and usher in development. Not so long ago, the Congress itself was predisposed towards such partnerships as is evident from the conduct of the UPA Government.
It is only when they lost power that they suddenly appear to have discovered the perils of it. Like everything else, even the current issue is being embroiled in petty politics so that the Congress party could gain at least some political mileage from it. Distressed by its current political irrelevance, it is throwing everything in its arsenal at the BJP in the deluded hope that something sticks.
Favourable comments by senior Congress leaders during UPA regime
In his inaugural address at the Conference on PPP in National Highways in September, 2011, then Prime Minister Manmohan Sinmgh said, “I have often said Public Private Partnership is private profit in service of public at large”. P Chidambaram said in his budget speech in 2004, “I believe that the key to growth is investment – public and private, domestic and foreign. It is therefore my intention to considerably enhance investment in all sectors of the economy.”
In his 2005 Budget Speech, P Chidambaram said, “In agriculture, we shall enhance public and private investment in the infrastructure required to support expansion, diversification and value addition. In the industrial sector, both the public sector and the private sector will be allowed the space to grow and compete with each other. Government will play the leading role in providing and facilitating investment in public goods such as roads, railways, power, seaports and airports. In the services sector, Government will recognize the leading role played by the private sector, and provide a supportive policy environment and stable tax policies.”
In his 2005 Budget Speech as the Railways Minister of the country, Lalu Prasad Yadav said, “To ensure the commercial utilisation of surplus railway land and air space I had, during the last Parliament session, presented a Railway (Amendment) Bill, 2004 in the Rajya Sabha, for setting up of RLDA. This authority will, through public-private participation, develop surplus land adjoining railway stations and goods sheds for constructing warehouses and logistics parks. It would also generate additional resources for the development of railways.”
Lalu Prasad Yadav said in his 2006 Railway Budget Speech, Lalu Prasad Yadav said, “We will not allow resource constraints to hamper expansion of the rail network. We will encourage public-private partnership schemes for effecting significant improvements in rail services. This is the need of the hour.”
It is pertinent to mention here that Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Railway Minister during the UPA regime. Thus, quite clearly, the Congress party itself was not averse towards public-private partnerships when it was in power. It is only now that the NDA government is treading the same path that it is suddenly finding fault with it.
Opinion on Disinvestment and Privatisation of Congress party
Close aide of former Congress president Sam Pitroda said in an article in May 2018, Rajiv Gandhi “emphasised privatisation, liberalisation, free market economy, democratisation, deregulation, technology, entrepreneurship, innovations, etc, in the mid-eighties, with a commitment to expedite the process of development in India.”
Former Commerce Minister Kamal Nath had told ET in 2009 that “disinvestment of government equity while maintaining management control will only improve the efficiency of some of these public sector undertakings”.
Allegations of Scam involving PPPs during UPA regime
Lalu Prasad Yadav, his son Tejasvi Yadav and his wife, Rabrfi Devi, were accused of corruption during his tenure as Union Minister in 2006. He was accused of facilitating the lease of two hotels to a private company Sujata Hotels in return for a 2-acre plot in Patna, Bihar during his tenure as Railway Minister from 2004-09.
The Central Bureau of Investigation conducted raids at 12 locations associated with the RJD Supremo and others accused in the IRCTC hotel Lenders Case in July, 2017.
In 2018, movable assets worth Rs. 17.55 crores be;onging to R.K. Associates and Hoteliers Pvt. Ltd., Satyam caterers Pvt. Ltd. And others were attached by the Enforcement Directorate in a scam related to Rail Neer. The CBI discovered in its investigation that private caterers were mandated to supply Rail Neer water bottles to Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains.
Instead, other packaged drinking water brands were supplied in collusion with officers in the railways department causing a loss of Rs. 19.55 crores to the government exchequer between January 2013 and December 2014. Furthermore, it was revealed that the private entities had laundered Rs. 17.55 crores to their bank accounts.
Success stories of public-private partnerships in Indian Railways
Numerous contracts have been signed under the ‘Make in India’ initiative that is expected to increase average speed of goods trains in freight corridor. 19 electric locomotives and 2010 diesel locmotives have been delivered to Indian Railways under a PPP programme. The first such locomotive has already been put under operation by the Indian Railways.
One of the greatest success stories of the PPP Model, however, is the corporate trains being run by IRCTC in three routes currently. The Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas Express Train, the Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express train and the Kashmi Mahakal Express train are operated by the IRCTC. Onboard services are provided by the IRCTC in association with private partners and have been well received by the people at large.
