Archives for June 2021

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held deliberations with Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda amid speculation about a reshuffle in the Union cabinet, an exercise Modi has not undertaken since forming the government for a second time in May 2019.

There is also a growing buzz about the Cabinet expansion in Uttar Pradesh after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met the BJP top brass during his two-day visit to the national capital.

Sources, however, added that Modi has been meeting Union ministers in different batches of late, and Nadda has also been present there.

The deliberations among the top BJP leaders at the prime minister’s residence came a day after Shah also met party allies from Uttar Pradesh, including Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel who was a minister in the first Modi government but was not inducted in the next.

There has been no official word from the party on these deliberations.

The BJP has of late engaged in the review of its organisation and government works in different states.

Nadda had also held a meeting with the party general secretaries where, besides the relief work carried out by the saffron organisation during the COVID-19 pandemic, its performance in the recent assembly polls were reviewed.

With the party now gearing up for the next round of assembly polls in five states early next year, including in all important Uttar Pradesh, it is expected to take various measures to bolster its social equation.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday termed as “arbitrary and discriminatory” the fixing of June 16 for conducting INI CET 2021 and directed All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to hold the post graduate medical entrance test after one month.

A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and M R Shah disposed of a plea filed by doctors seeking admission to PG medical and challenging the notification of fixing June 16 as date of INI CET 2021.

Having regard to the circumstances pleaded, the fixing of the INI CET on June 16, 2021 is arbitrary and discriminatory, more so since other important examinations including Joint Entrance Examinations, Board Examinations have been postponed.

“The impugned notice is, therefore, set aside. The INI CET is directed to be postponed by at least a month from June 16, 2021, the bench said.

It said that the AIIMS shall fix a convenient date for the INI CET at least one month after June 16, 2021.

Senior advocate Arvind Datar and advocate Tanvi Dubey, appearing for the doctors, Indian Medical Association and Medical Student Network (Chhattisgarh Chapter), said the decision to hold examination is unfair and arbitrary as it was conveyed to the candidates merely 19 days in advance.

Datar said that notice dated May 27, 2021 fixing date of examination as June 16 suffers from the vice of irregularity and arbitrariness as it is even against the spirit of the statement issued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi wherein NEET-PG exam was postponed for 4 months in a bid to provide adequate human resources for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said that the statement issued by the Press Information Bureau said that NEET-PG will not be held before August 31, 2021 and the students will also be given at least one-month after the announcement of the exam before it is conducted.

Doctors were required to do 100 days of COVID duty and they will be given certificates and priority in government jobs, Datar said, adding that most of the doctors have left to faraway places to do the COVID duty.

He said, It would be extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible for many candidates for the INI CET to reach their examination centres from their places of duty. Many of the doctors are exposed to and are running the risk of contracting COVID-19 and they may have to isolate and/or quarantine themselves. Even otherwise, holding the INICET on June 16 will result in spread of the virus and increase in COVID-19 cases.

Advocate Dushyant Parashar, appearing for AIIMS, opposed the submission of Datar and said the examination is held twice a year and if anyone has problem then they can appear in the examination to be held in November.

He said that a prospectus for the examination was released on March 1 for the July 2021 session and the test is to be conducted in 139 cities of 32 states/UT of the country.

The current outgoing batch of about 1000 Junior Doctors will exit by the end of July from all participating Institutes. If the timely replacement has not been provided, it will adversely and severely affect the working of attached hospital and patient care, Parashar said.

He said the country is facing unprecedented circumstances and it is necessary to keep the medical workforce in ready state for upcoming eventualities.

Any stay on examination will cause a setback in patient care with a shortfall of 1000 medical professionals and complete loss of a session to the brightest medical students , he submitted.

Parashar contended that in the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, the decision was taken with regard to NEET-PG and not for INI CET.

He referred to the decisions of the top court during the first wave of COVID-19 last year in which several competitive examinations were allowed to be held.

The bench told Parashar that last year the situation was different compared to this year.

Parashar further said that the NEET-PG examination was for about 1.7 lakh candidates and NEET UG was for 16 lakhs candidates whereas INI CET schedule for June 16 is only for 72,138 candidates.

He said that the INI CET that was scheduled in May was postponed as the COVID cases were on the rise and there was too much risk involved in holding the examination.

As now the COVID cases have dropped sharply and there is ease on things…the decision was taken to conduct the examination in the interest of candidates, citizen of the country to fill the requirement of medical workforce in all concerned Institutes, he said.

Parashar said that postponing the examination will disturb the whole schedule of other examinations including internal examination and may be a possibility that AIIMS may not get any slot and complete session will be lost with a shortfall of around 1000 junior doctors across Institutes.

The Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET) is a Post Graduate entrance test for courses like MD/MS/M.Ch (6yrs)/DM (6yrs)/MDS.

The INI-CET PG Course Examination is being conducted by AIIMS, New Delhi for admission in medical PG Courses at Institute of National Importance (INI) which include eight AIIMS across the country, PGIMER-Chandigarh, JIPMER-Puducherry and NIHMANS-Bangalore.

The INI CET 2021 was initially scheduled to be held on May 8 but was rescheduled to June 16 due to the COVID pandemic.

Mumbai,: The Shiv Sena on Friday described as ”hilarious the BJP’s celebration over the induction of Uttar Pradesh leader Jitin Prasada into the party fold, but also said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will have to create a strong team in his party.

In a shot in the arm for the BJP, Prasada, a Congress leader joined the saffron party on Wednesday, months ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year. The 47-year former Union minister comes from a well-known Brahmin family of UP.

In an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana’, the Shiv Sena said Prasada, a young leader, was of no use to the Congress and will remain so to the BJP.

“Jitin Prasada, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin pilot were young leaders and there were high expectations from them. There is already a vacuum in the Congress after the death of Ahmed Patel and Rajeev Satav. It is not good that young leaders are going the BJP way,” the Sena said.

“Prasada, who had faced defeat in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, has finally joined the BJP. Prasada’s family members were Congress loyalists. He was a minister in former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet. However, he kept losing Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has now started celebrating his induction into the party fold. The caste politics of Uttar Pradesh is behind it. Eye on UP’s Brahmin vote bank is being said to be behind Prasada’s induction into the BJP,” it said.

“But if Prasada had a hold over the Brahmin votes, why these votes weren’t transferred to the Congress?” it asked.

The Sena said that BJP’s traditional upper caste vote must be drifting away from the party.

“Till now, the BJP did not require any arithmetic or face in UP. Narendra Modi was everything. Ram mandir or Hindutva were the issues to win votes. But now, the situation is so bad that it wants support of Prasada, it said sarcastically.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party said the important issue is why are the Congress leaders jumping ship.

Talking about the defection of Jyotiraditya Scindia to the BJP and the rebellion of Sachin Pilot, the Sena said that in Punjab, too, there is a rebellion in the Congress.

It, however, said that rebellion and factionalism is not restricted to the Congress alone.

“Despite being in position to win Kerala and Assam, the Congress couldn’t do so. It lost Puducherry. But there is no discussion on what the Congress should do next and how it should resurrect itself . Except in Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka, the Congress is fighting for its survival everywhere else. This political imbalance is harmful to the democracy,” it said.

The Congress has done a lot of work in the pre-Indepedence era and even after that. The Congress has a contribution in building the nation. Even today, the Nehru-Gandhi’ identity of the country cannot be obliterated The Congress has a strong hold at the grass root level, it said.

“Congress president Sonia Gandhi has ably carried out her responsibility in the party. Now, Rahul Gandhi has to create a strong team, which will be the answer to the challenge before the party,” the Sena added.

Kolkata: In a blow to the saffron brigade, senior BJP leader Mukul Roy along with son Subranshu rejoined the TMC on Friday, with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other leaders of the state’s ruling party welcoming him back to the fold.

Roy, who held the position of the national vice president in the saffron party, said he was “happy to see all known faces again”.

Addressing a press meet, Banerjee said Roy was threatened in the BJP, and that, in turn, affected his health.

“Mukul’s return proves that the BJP does not let anyone in peace and puts undue pressure on everyone,” the chief minister said.

Both Banerjee and Roy claimed that there never had any differences.

Asked if her party would be taking back other turncoats, too, Banerjee clarified that the ones who left the TMC to join the BJP just ahead of the April-May assembly elections will not be taken back.

Roy, once the second-in-command of the TMC, was removed from the post of the party’s national general secretary in February, 2015.

He had joined the BJP in November, 2017.

Speculation had been rife about Roy’s possible homecoming after Banerjee’s nephew and TMC MP Abhishek recently visited his wife at a city hospital.

New Delhi: Attacking the Centre, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday said a lot could have been done, including procuring vaccines for all, with the money collected in taxes on petrol and diesel during the COVID-19 pandemic, but nothing was done.

Congress leaders and party workers on Friday held symbolic protests at petrol pumps in several parts of the city, demanding a complete rollback of fuel price hike.

In a tweet, Priyanka Gandhi said, “During the pandemic, Modi government collected taxes on petrol-diesel: Rs 2.74 lakh crore.”

“What all could have been done with this money: Vaccines for the whole country (Rs 67,000 crore)+ oxygen plants in 718 districts+ AIIMS hospital in 29 states + Rs 6,000 as help to 25 crore poor people. But nothing was done,” the Congress general secretary tweeted in Hindi using the hashtag ‘BJPLootingIndia’.