Congress — صفحه 2 از 2 — ✅ خرید وی پی ان ❇ ip ثایت vPn آی پی اختصاصی ◐

جولای 21, 2022

Sonia Gandhi set to appear for ED questioning; Congress says govt considers Oppn as enemies

Several Opposition parties issued a joint statement accusing the Narendra Modi government of carrying out ‘a relentless campaign of vendetta’ against its political opponents and critics ‘through the mischievous misuse of investigative agencies’.

AICC workers gather in support of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, before her appearance in front of the ED in New Delhi on Thursday. (Express Photo: Amit Mehra)After Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi is set to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in connection with a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper. The Congress, meanwhile, hit out at the government saying it considers Opposition parties as enemies.

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Several Opposition parties too rallied behind the Congress and issued a joint statement accusing the Narendra Modi government of having “unleashed a relentless campaign of vendetta against its political opponents and critics through the mischievous misuse of investigative agencies”.

Interestingly, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which joined a meeting of Opposition parties called by the Congress at Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge’s Parliament chamber to coordinate the floor strategy, was a signatory to the joint statement.
“Prominent leaders of a number of political parties have been deliberately targeted and subjected to harassment in an unprecedented manner. We condemn this and resolve to continue and intensify our collective fight against the anti-people, anti-farmers and anti-Constitution policies of the Modi sarkar that is destroying the social fabric of our society,” the statement said.
The signatories include the leaders of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Communist Party of India (Marxist), TRS, Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Indian Union Muslim League, National Conference and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Interestingly, the Opposition parties were largely silent when Rahul was called for questioning last month.
Senior Congress leaders, including Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, were at 24, Akbar Road headquarters in solidarity with Gandhi. Addressing a press conference, Gehlot accused the BJP-led government of viewing every Opposition party as its enemy.
“There are no enemies in politics. But they consider the Opposition as enemies. Recently in Hyderabad, Modi spoke about regional parties…he talked about dynasties. They were talking about Congress-mukt Bharat earlier. Now their mantra is Opposition-mukt Bharat so that there is dictatorship in India. The country is moving forward in that direction,” he said.

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جولای 18, 2022

‘Gabbar Singh strikes again’: Rahul Gandhi hits out at GST rate hikes

Calling it “breathtakingly irresponsible”, the move has also been slammed by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. (Photo: Express Archives)Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Monday took a swipe at the Narendra Modi-led government over the revision in GST rates announced by the Centre in order to increase revenues, accusing it of destroying the world’s fastest growing economy.

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Sharing on Twitter a list of items that are due to be costlier because of the hike in rates, the Congress MP, while referring to the tax as “Gabbar Singh Tax”, wrote: “HIGH taxes, NO jobs. BJP’s masterclass on how to destroy what was once one of the world’s fastest growing economies.”

This comes after the GST council headed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman decided to bring packed foods like milk, curd and paneer, unpacked ones like rice and wheat when packed and bank fee for issuing cheques under the five per cent slab and hotels charging Rs 1,000 or less per day for stay under 12 per cent bracket.
Calling it “breathtakingly irresponsible”, the move has also been slammed by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. “This GST rate hike is breathtakingly irresponsible at a time of mounting economic difficulties for most Indians. The Aam Aadmi will bear the brunt of the burden even as inflation eats into his earnings. Does this government believe it can get away with anything?” he asked.

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ژوئن 17, 2022

Behind Agnipath scheme protest: Temporary stint, no pension or health benefit

Hours after protests erupted in several parts of the country against the short-term Agnipath scheme for the armed forces, officials sought to allay concerns and circulated a Myth vs Fact document to underline that the new scheme will not only bring in new capabilities but will also open up avenues in the private sector, and help the young men become entrepreneurs with the aid of a financial package.
For those protesting on the streets or watching from the sidelines, the primary concerns and insecurity have to do with the temporary nature of the new scheme — service is only for four years; pension has been removed; and there is no lifelong healthcare benefit for the soldier and his family.

There is also the fear that many of them may no longer be eligible — there has been no recruitment since 2020, and to become an Agniveer an aspirant has to be between age 17.5 and 21. Late Thursday night, the government granted a one-time waiver on the upper age limit by raising it to 23 years for 2022.
Until now, a soldier had job security for approximately 17 years, and thereafter the comfort of pension and access to subsidised healthcare for himself and his family. In case a soldier died in action, the benefits continued for his family.Best of Express PremiumPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
The Agnipath scheme will end these benefits. One of the core but unsaid aims of the scheme is to cut down on the soaring salary and pension bill of the armed forces. For this year, the government has allocated over Rs 2.5 lakh crore under these two heads alone, out of the Rs 5.25 lakh crore defence budget.
The Agniveers, as the soldiers will be called under the four-year Agnipath scheme, will be paid for the tenure, and will get a lumpsum amount of Rs 11.7 lakh at the end of the service, which will be tax free. There is no concept of pension or lifelong health benefits.
In case an Agniveer dies while in service, the family will get Rs 1 crore including insurance, ex-gratia and balance salary. But it will be a one-time payout.

These benefits will, however, continue for those who become part of the armed forces after the four-year period. As the scheme envisages, all Agniveers will finish their four-year tenure and then there will be fresh recruitment of 25 per cent of the same pool. They will continue in the services for 15 more years, and will get pension and the health benefits existing today.
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The rest though will be free to pursue other careers, with several departments and governments announcing that they will get preference, educational credits, skill certificates, to help them rehabilitate in other fields.
Official sources said the theory that Agniveers will be “insecure” is a myth. Those wishing to be entrepreneurs, the sources said, will get a financial package and bank loans and those wishing to study further “will be given 12 class equivalent certificate and bridging course for further studies”.
For job-seekers, the government has already said they will get priority in the Central Armed Police Forces. Some BJP-ruled states have also assured priority in police recruitment. Additionally, the government has said “several avenues are also being opened for them in other sectors”.

There is also concern about how the new recruitment path will align with the previous system based on the Recruitable Male Population (RMP) system for the Army, which is the proportion of the male population, which meets the Qualitative Recruitments laid down for recruitment, and is about 10 per cent of the total male population of a state, based on the census.

Sources within the defence services said the modalities of how this will happen are still being worked out. But the sources suggested that the population of the armed forces will represent the population of the country.
Government sources claimed that in the coming years “recruitment of Agniveers will be around triple of the current recruitment in armed forces.” But on Tuesday, the day of the announcement of the scheme, the government said the intake this year will be 46,000, and will go up to 50,000 to 60,000 annually over the years.

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می 29, 2022

Who is Sidhu Moose Wala?

“I am not going anywhere. I will live here and I will die here”: This is a line that Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, who liked being known as Sidhu Moose Wala, would repeat at every rally and every roadside meeting while campaigning for the Punjab Assembly elections held in February this year.
Moosewala, 27, was the only child of his parents. He was shot dead near Mansa, a day after his security was withdrawn.
Sidhu Moose Wala was shot at least 10 times while he was in his car.
Sidhu Moose Wala: Self-made pop sensation
Moose Wala was a self-made pop sensation. He could be petulant and temperamental and had frequent run-ins with the law. Among several cases, he was booked under the Arms Act for firing an AK-47 rifle at a shooting range during the lockdown. He was also booked for promoting violence and gun culture with his song “Sanju”.

But his heart beat for his village Moosa. “That is why I chose to be known not by my name but by that of my village,” he would tell people as he went from village to village to seek votes. He got the Congress ticket from Mansa, where he was pitted against the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Vijay Singla.Best of Express PremiumPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
Surprisingly, he ran a very different campaign shorn of any tall promises. Instead, he made a clean environment his poll plank. “We need to clean up the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and our political system,” he would say.
People gather at Mansa Civil Hospital where Sidhu Moose Wala was taken to after being shot.
Speaking at a gathering at Khiwa Khurd village about why he joined politics, he had said: “When I was 23, I chose a profession (music) to transform the life of my parents. At 27, I have fame and money to give to my parents, but I can’t buy the air… Rich or poor we breathe the same air.”
Cancer was another cause which Moose Wala worked for. He used to organise an annual free cancer camp in his village. “We are a small village of 2,800 people but every year, at least six to eight people get diagnosed with cancer. It’s all because of the toxins in our soil and air,” he said.
He also fancied himself as a farmer and had invested in land using his handsome earnings from music. He had his life figured out — he would win the elections, play the messiah of Mansa, and continue to roll out chartbusters.
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His songs which he wrote and composed himself — he made it to the Top 5 in the UK charts last year — frequently got him into trouble both with the police and the clergy. Things came to such a pass that once his mother Charan Kaur asked him to take a vow that he would only sing hymns from gurbani.
Sidhu Moose Wala’s mother mother Charan Kaur.
If there is one person that he was scared of, it was his mother. He had gone from house to house to seek votes for her in the 2018 Panchayat elections. Needless to say, she won.
Later, he would crow about how he he had not distributed any money or promises. “They voted for us because they knew we were honest.”
He tried to do that in his maiden election as well. His events never had any lavish pomp and grandeur, ending with simple pakoras at the end.
Many sniggered are his naïveté as he dug his heels in and said he would not fritter away his hard-earned money on any kind of freebies. He fought the elective against the advise of his mother. And seeing the response — he drew more children than adults — he would often wonder if his mother was right.
When defeated by Vijay Singla, he raged against the voters, calling them anti-national. But that was Moosewala. More recently, when Singla was sacked, he addressed a press conference. It turned out to be his last. He lived and died. Just a few kilometres from his beloved village.

می 17, 2022

Walk the Chintan | The Indian Express

The three-day Chintan Shivir of the Congress in Udaipur didn’t offer any surprises. It plotted a path to give a youthful makeover to the party and promises have been made that tickets will be restricted to one person in a family, with exceptions, of course, that help most existing families. These proposed structural changes in the organisation are necessary for the Congress, which has been in a free fall since the 2014 general election. Successive electoral defeats have turned many leaders restive. The emergence of the G-23, an informal group of dissidents, has put the spotlight on the leadership record of the Gandhi family. The Udaipur conclave, an admission of the crisis in the party, saw the invited crowd of senior leaders, parliamentarians and legislators deliberating on organisational and policy issues, but decidedly steering clear of questions concerning leadership. A clear takeaway from the conclave is that the Gandhis continue to exercise total control over the party. The G-23 fell silent.
Rahul Gandhi spoke at length in Udaipur and admitted that the party has lost its connect with the masses. This plain truth, self-evident to most people, has manifested repeatedly in the party’s inability to win elections but seems to have eluded the Gandhis all this while. Rahul Gandhi blamed a poor communication strategy for the disconnect and promised a revamp. However, the loss of touch with the masses may not necessarily be the outcome of strategy. The problem also lies with the message and the messenger. Despite being out of office at the Centre for over eight years, the Congress is yet to reinvent itself as a party of the Opposition. Its politics has been more reactive than a proactive one of setting the agenda or building its own narrative. The incapacity to articulate in a coherent manner what the party stands for is curious since there is no dearth of articulate leaders in that party. While the party’s message is incoherent and often contradictory, the messenger has been a failure in amplifying it or bringing clarity to the message. Rahul Gandhi, the party face for some years, will need to shoulder more than a little blame for this. The party has now announced two campaigns — a Bharat Jodo Yatra and Rozgar Do Yatra — to rebuild its ties with the people. The institutional arrangements proposed – a Social Justice Advisory Council to update the party chief on issues pertinent to the backward classes and disadvantaged social groups, a Public Insight Committee to conduct surveys on various issues and generate feedback from the public, a National Training Institute for ideological training, and an Election Management Committee — will be tested on the ground.
However, at a time when elections have also become about leaders and their image as much as their message, a party’s prospects will be shaped more by the commitment and vision of its leadership than bullet points from its committees. Ideological clarity would help, but a leadership that can work 24X7 and remain accessible is necessary to inspire workers and revive the Congress. The Udaipur conclave kicked this crucial can down the party’s bumpy, lonely road.