Archives for August 2018

Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) patron Sharad Yadav on Monday urged the Election Commission to clarify doubts regarding electronic voting machines (EVM) and demanded that elections should be held on ballot paper.

“There are doubts over the EVMs in the minds of the people. And despite the Supreme Court order of May 2017, the Commission has not fulfilled its promise over VVPATs,” Yadav told the media here.

He said people might not take part in elections fearing that EVMs were faulty. “Which is very dangerous. The elections should be held through ballot paper.”

Yadav pointed out that many developed countries were using paper ballot.

Attacking the Modi government over unemployment, Yadav said that the government claims were different from the reality.

“In 2011-12, the growth rate of the country was 4 per cent and 3.3 per cent in 2013-14. This went down to less than half per cent in 2015-16.”

Yadav added: “About 550 jobs are cut every day and there are about 12 crore unemployed youth in the country.”

The crop insurance scheme, he said, had mainly benefitted insurance companies, not farmers. He said the insurance companies earned about Rs 9,929 crore from the scheme.

The former central minister alleged that the government was trying to intrude into people’s private lives.

“They used the social media before the 2014 elections. Now as they are being exposed, they are threatening the social media companies.

“In the name of fake news, they want to put restrictions on WhatsApp.”

(Ians)

The RSS on Monday was critical of Congress President Rahul Gandhi for drawing comparisons of it with the Islamic State (IS) and the Muslim Brotherhood and plans to invite him for a three-day lecture series here next month to enlighten people about the organisation.

The sangh parivar fountainhead, which is holding a lecture series on “Future of Bharat: An RSS Perspective” between September 17 and 19, said it will invite all the political parties, including the Congress, to enlighten them about its vision and also to clarify the misconceptions about it.

Addressing a press conference, Arun Kumar, the Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) said that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will address and interact with a select audience comprising prominent citizens during the three-day event.

Responding to a volley of questions regarding Rahul Gandhi’s continuous attacks on RSS, including the recent comparison with the Muslim Brotherhood and the IS, Kumar said that Congress President’s remarks were due to his lack of knowledge.

“If Rahul Gandhi is clear about how the IS, the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic terrorism is haunting the entire world, he would have never drawn such comparisons,” Kumar said.

Questioning Rahul Gandhi’s understanding of India, he said that one cannot understand the RSS until he understands the country.

“Sometimes we feel and even he accepts that he is trying to understand the country. One who has not understood India can never understand the RSS. To understand the RSS one needs to first understand India at least,” he said.

The RSS functionary said that unless Rahul Gandhi understands “Sarva Dharma Sambhava (all Dharmas are equal to or harmonious with each other), We the people and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family)”, he will not be able to understand the RSS.

“Because of lack of knowledge, he is drawing such comparisons (with IS and Muslim Brotherhood),” Kumar told reporters.

Asked about the invitees to the event, he said that top people from the fields of social, cultural organisations, media, columnists and even legal fraternity besides foreign ambassadors and high commissioners, will be invited to the event to get to know and understand the RSS perspective on various issues of national importance.

Asked whether the political parties opposed to the idea of the RSS would be invited to the event, Kumar said: “We will contact all the political parties. All means all.”

To a specific question about inviting Rahul Gandhi, he said, “It is our prerogative whom to invite. We will try to touch all the strata of the society.”

An RSS functionary, however, said that as President of the Congress party, Gandhi will also be an invitee.

Responding to Congress charges that the BJP and the RSS believed in divisive politics, Kumar said that political parties speak a lot for vote bank politics but it is the people of the country who decide.

“I don’t need to comment on it. People will decide,” he said.

Speaking at an event organised by Indian Journalists’ Association in London, Rahul Gandhi had once again compared the RSS with the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist organisation. Earlier he had compared the RSS with the IS.

According to Rahul Gandhi, Muslim Brotherhood was banned after the assassination of Anwar Sadat (the then Egyptian president) in 1981, while the RSS was banned after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination (in 1948).

“So, there are tremendous similarities. And the most interesting one, women are not allowed in either of these organisations. So, they are similar,” Gandhi said.

Describing the purpose behind organising the event, Kumar clarified that it has been organised due to growing eagerness about the RSS amongst larger sections of the society including the intellectuals and the youth and also to clarify about the questions which are being raised about it.

“India is moving ahead towards regaining its special and unique position in the world among the galaxy of nations. At the same time the RSS is realizing that there is a growing eagerness amongst larger sections of the society including the intellectuals and the youth to know and understand the RSS perspective on various issues of national importance. This lecture series has been organised in this context where Bhagawatji will present the RSS’ view on various contemporary issues of national importance,” he said.

To a question pertaining to Rahul Gandhi’s claim that Congress was not involved in the 1984 riots, Kumar said it would not hold water because late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, himself had said: “Jab bada ped girta hai to dharti hilti hai (when a big tree falls, the earth shakes)”.

(IANS)

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s appeal to people to contribute a month’s salary in the wake of the flood disaster has elicited a good response.

Governor P. Sathasivam said on Monday that the appeal was reasonable.

“As the first citizen of the state, I have decided to do it and will hand over the cheque to the Chief Secretary,” said Sathasivam, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

He had contributed Rs 1 lakh earlier to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund. On Monday, he handed over a cheque for Rs 250,000 as the balance amount towards his contribution of one month’s salary.

Vijayan’s appeal, made through Asianet TV channel, on Sunday has gone viral on the social media.

He has suggested that those interested in contributing a month’s salary can do it over a period of 10 months.

Advocate General C.P. Sudhakara Prasad said: “I had already handed over Rs 1 lakh when the CM made his call asking everyone to contribute. Now, heeding to his call to hand over a month’s salary, I will do it when I get my next month’s salary.”

Kerala Police chief Loknath Behra told the media that he would pay his one month’s salary in one instalment.

“I have got numerous calls from my colleagues who too have promised to contribute one month’s salary. Kerala will bounce back very quickly,” said Behra.

Senior Congress legislator and former Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said he had also decided to hand over his one month’s salary too.

“But the state government should ensure that they stop all extravagance,” he said.

Mohammed Hanish, a senior bureaucrat who heads the Kochi Metro, also promised to donate a month’s salary. Many other officials and Ministers have also made the pledge.

The social media has welcomed Vijayan’s call.

Ever since monsoon rains began lashing Kerala on May 29, a total of 417 people have died. The flood fury this month has caused unprecedented destruction and forced more than one million people to take shelter in relief camps.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to “change the nature and character” of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in Delhi, asking his government to respect “history and heritage”.

Jawaharlal Nehru belongs “not just to the Congress” but to the “entire nation,” Singh said in a letter to Modi two weeks ago. Singh wrote the letter after reports that the government planned a museum for all prime ministers in the Teen Murti complex, where NMML is located.

Singh said during the six-year tenure of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who passed away on August 16, “there was absolutely no attempt made to change the nature and character of the NMML and the Teen Murti complex in any way. But sadly, that seems to be part of the agenda of the Government of India now.”

Singh said that “no amount of revisionism” can “obliterate” Nehru’s role and his contributions. “As Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji himself said in his moving speech to Parliament when Panditji passed away: ‘Such a resident may never grace Teen Murti again. That vibrant personality, that attitude of taking even the opposition along, that refined gentlemanliness, that greatness we may not again see in the near future. In spite of a difference of opinion we have nothing but respect for his great ideals, his integrity, his love for the country and his indomitable courage’.”

“Let us respect this sentiment and keep Teen Murti as a memorial to our first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru and leave the Teen Murti complex undisturbed as it is. This way we will be respecting both history and heritage,” said Singh.

“Jawaharlal Nehru belongs not just to the Congress but to the entire nation. It is in this spirit that I have written to you.”