Archives for July 2021

Kolkata: The growing discord in the BJP’s Bengal unit came to the fore on Wednesday as Lok Sabha MP Saumitra Khan stepped down from the post of the party’s state youth wing chief and took to Facebook to launch a blistering attack on Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, claiming that he tries to take credit for all saffron camp achievements.

Khan did not cite any reason but his announcement on Facebook coincided with the report that some BJP MPs from Bengal might be made union ministers of state.

The Bishnupur MP, however, asserted that he wouldn’t quit the saffron party.

“From today, due to personal reasons, I am relieving myself of the responsibility of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) state unit. I was in BJP, I am in BJP, and will continue to be a part of it,” Khan, who had crossed over to the saffron camp in 2018 from the TMC, said on Facebook.

Iterating that he has full faith in Narendra Modi and the central leadership, he, however, trained guns on Adhikari and said that “one particular leader was making frequent trips to Delhi and claiming credit for every success of the party”.

“This leader of opposition in the state should look in the mirror. He is misleading the leaders of New Delhi. He considers himself the tallest leader of the party in Bengal,” Khan said in a video that he posted on the networking site.

He claimed leaders of just one or two districts are running the entire organisation in the state.

In a dig at state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, the disgruntled leader further said, “He understands only half of what happens. He cannot comprehend all of it.”

Sharing responsibility for the party’s defeat in assembly polls, Khan said, “It is time for me to step down. I have never hankered for any post.”

Alleging that “many politicians with dubious credentials had been inducted into the BJP before assembly polls”, Khan said, “Some of them were nominated and they failed to win the elections.”

He further said that “it appears only some people made sacrifices for the party and the rest had no contribution”.

Adhikari, on his part, refused to respond to Khan’s allegations.

“I will not comment. I will not take it seriously. He is my younger brother. I will go and have lunch at his residence in Delhi. I had campaigned for Saumitra Khan in Kotulpur in 2011. I wish him every success in his career,” he maintained.

The leader of opposition also said that he doesn’t attach much importance to Facebook videos.

Asked if any disciplinary action would be taken against Khan, he said, “I shouldn’t talk on organisational matters. It will be decided by state president Dilip Ghosh.”

Reacting to Khan’s comments, TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said the rivalry between the old and the new leaders of the saffron camp is now out in the open.

“Suvendu had enjoyed power in TMC before joining the BJP. Now he is cornering other leaders in the saffron party.

Old and loyal members are bound to get upset,” Ghosh said.

Khan’s estranged wife and TMC leader Sujata Mondal said he had warned the MP against joining the BJP long ago.

“He should understand that a party like the BJP will back elements like Adhikari. I had realised this long back,” she added.

New Delhi: Seven more women members, including Meenakashi Lekhi, Shobha Karandlaje and Anupriya Singh Patel, joined the council of ministers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, taking the overall female strength to 11 which is one of the highest.

As many as 15 new cabinet ministers and 28 ministers of state were sworn in, taking the strength of the council of ministers to 78.

The seven women who took oath as ministers of state were Shobha Karandlaje, Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Lekhi, Annpurna Devi, Pratima Bhoumik, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar and Apna Dal’s Anupriya Singh Patel.

Among them, three are first-time MPs while Patel is making a comeback to the council of ministers as she was the Union Minister of State for Health under Prime Minister Modi earlier.

Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani (both Cabinet ministers), Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Renuka Singh Saruta are already part of the Union council of ministers.

Debashree Chaudhuri, Minister of State for Women and Child Development, resigned this morning.

There were nine women in the first Modi government from 2014-19, including six in the cabinet.

Karandlaje, 54, is a Lok Sabha member from Udupi Chikmagalur in Karnataka and is serving her second term in the Lower House.

She has previously served as a cabinet minister in the Karnataka government, holding a range of portfolios like Food and Civil Supplies, Power, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj System.

Jardosh, 60, is a Lok Sabha member from Surat in Gujarat. She is serving her third term as an MP.

She has also been a Corporator of Surat Municipal Corporation and a member of the Gujarat Social Welfare Board.

Lekhi, 54, is a Lok Sabha member from New Delhi and is serving her second term as an MP. She is a Supreme Court lawyer and social worker.

Devi, 51, is a first-time Lok Sabha MP from Kodarma in Jharkhand. She has also been a four-time MLA from Jharkhand and Bihar and has served as a cabinet minister in the Jharkhand government.

She also served as Minister of State for Mines and Geology in the Bihar government at the young age of 30.

Bhoumik, 52, is a first-time Lok Sabha MP for Tripura West in Tripura. She comes from a humble background, and practices farming.

Pawar, 42, is also a first-time Lok Sabha member for Dindori in Maharashtra. She served as a member of Nashik Zila Parishad and worked for eradicating malnutrition and providing clean drinking water. Before joining politics, she was a medical practitioner.

Patel, 40, is a two-time Lok Sabha member from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh.

As many as 43 ministers took oath in a major cabinet expansion-cum-reshuffle exercise on Wednesday evening. These included, BJP’s Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ajay Bhatt, Bhupender Yadav, Shantanu Thakur and Kapil Patil, and LJP’s Pashupati Paras.

New Delhi: Effecting a big reset, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday brought in Sarbananda Sonowal, Narayan Rane and Jyotiraditya Scindia as Cabinet ministers while dropping as many as 12 ministers including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar.

As many as 15 Cabinet ministers, including some new faces, were sworn-in at the swearing in ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan. While 13 members took oath in Hindi, two took in English.

Rane, 69, a Rajya Sabha MP and a former Maharashtra chief minister, was the first to take oath.

After Rane, Sonowal, former Assam chief minister, took oath in English. The 58-year-old leader has earlier served as Union Minister of State (Independent charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; and Sports and Youth Affairs under Prime Minister Modi.

Congress-turned-BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, also took oath as a Cabinet minister. The 50-year-old leader has been Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and Union Minister of State for Commerce & Communications in the earlier UPA government.

Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh Virendra Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha Ashwini Vaishnaw, Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar and JD(U) leader R C P Singh, Lok Sabha MP from Bihar’s Hajipur Pashupati Kumar Paras, were also sworn-in as Cabinet ministers.

Kiren Rijiju, R K Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya, Parshottam Rupala, G Kishan Reddy and Anurag Thakur were elevated to the Cabinet level.

Bhupendra Yadav, who has been serving in the BJP organisation as a general secretary, was also sworn-in as a Cabinet minister.

Earlier, four senior Union ministers — Prasad, Javadekar, Vardhan, Pokhriyal — were among 12 ministers who resigned on Wednesday ahead of the cabinet reshuffle.

Besides these four, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar, Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Debasree Chaudhuri, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria and Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo also resigned.

Prasad and Javadekar had also been the face of Cabinet briefings, announcing key Cabinet decisions on several occasions in the past few years.

This is the first reshuffle in the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019.

With this reset, Modi has brought in young faces and has also given representation to various social groups and regions in the reshuffle.

New Delhi: Four senior Union ministers, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Harsh Vardhan, Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank”, were among 12 ministers who resigned on Wednesday ahead of the cabinet reshuffle in the evening.

Besides these four, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar, Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Debasree Chaudhuri, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria and Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo also resigned.

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot had resigned after he was made Governor of Karnataka on Tuesday.

President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted the resignations of 12 Union ministers, a Rashtrapati Bhavan Spokesperson said.

In all, six Cabinet Ministers, one Minister of State (Independent Charge) and five Ministers of State have resigned.

Law and IT minister Prasad’s resignation comes amid a row between micro-blogging platform Twitter and the government over various issues, including compliance with the new IT rules.

The resignations come after Prasad and I&B minister Javadekar announced sweeping regulations for social media firms like Facebook and Twitter, OTT players as well as digital media.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, whose handling of the COVID-19 crisis had drawn flak from the opposition parties, resigned from the Union Council of Ministers, official sources said.

Vardhan, a doctor himself, had been in charge of the health ministry as well as the science and technology ministry as the COVID pandemic broke and then India worked to develop vaccines.

However, his various comments in the middle of the crisis were slammed by many as insensitive and ignorant of the ground reality, even as he strongly defended the government’s handling of the situation.

Vardhan had also hit out at the Opposition for its criticism of the government on the handling of the pandemic, often accusing former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi of politicising the pandemic crisis.

He had also replied to former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and accused the Congress of spreading vaccine hesitancy.

Pokhriyal, who tested positive for COVID-19 on April 21, was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here in June again after developing post-COVID complications.

He has resigned from his post citing health reasons, sources said. The former Uttarakhand chief minister had taken charge as the HRD Minister in May 2019.

Dhotre, who represents the Akola Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, was made the MoS for Education, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology in May 2019.

Chaudhuri submitted her resignation in the morning, one of her close aides said. She was elected to the Lok Sabha from West Bengal’s Raiganj constituency in the 2019 general elections.

Asked whether he has resigned from the post of Labour Minister, Gangwar answered in the affirmative. “Yes, I have resigned.

His resignation comes weeks after Gangwar had complained to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath about the situation in his Bareilly constituency, saying officials don’t take calls and government health centres send back patients for ”referrals” from the district hospital.

This will be the first reshuffle in the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019.

Modi is expected to bring in young faces and give representation to various social groups and regions in the reshuffle, sources said after ministerial probables met the Prime Minister at his residence.

Those who met Modi included the BJP’s Narayan Rane, Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ajay Bhatt, Bhupender Yadav, Shobha Karandlaje, Sunita Duggal, Meenakshi Lekhi, Bharati Pawar, Shantanu Thakur and Kapil Patil, the JD-U’s R C P Singh, the LJP’s Pashupati Paras and the Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel.

Some ministers of state, including G Kishan Reddy, Parshottam Rupala and Anurag Thakur, were also there, and they may be elevated, the sources said.

New Delhi: Petrol price on Wednesday crossed the Rs 100-a-litre mark in Delhi after fuel prices were hiked again on the back of firming international oil rates.

Petrol price was increased by 35 paise per litre, while diesel rates were increased by 17 paise a litre, according to a price notification from state-owned fuel retailers.

In Delhi, the price of petrol soared to Rs 100.21 per litre and diesel rates rose to Rs 89.53 a litre.

The national capital is the last of the metro cities to see petrol rising above the Rs 100-a-litre mark. Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune already have prices above that mark.

Kolkata also saw petrol prices climbing over Rs 100 per litre on Wednesday. The fuel now costs Rs 100.23 a litre in the city.

Brent crude oil had surged to USD 78 per barrel as OPEC+ proposal for a monthly output hike of 400,000 barrels per day from next month has been put on hold and lifting of US sanctions on Iran’s exports no longer appears imminent.

OPEC+ led by Saudi Arabia linking output hike to extending OPEC+ deal up to December 2022, without any revision in production baselines demanded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has led to a stalemate.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates global oil demand to recover to a pre-COVID level of 100.6 million barrels per day only in the fourth quarter of the 2022 calendar year, while OPEC+ proposal is to unwind production cuts fully by September 2022.

The rally in international oil prices has reflected in rising retail prices in India, which is 85 per cent dependent on imports to meet its oil needs.

Fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as value-added tax (VAT) and freight charges.

In Mumbai, petrol is priced at Rs 106.25 a litre and it costs Rs 101.06 in Chennai.

As much as 55 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol in Delhi is made up of taxes (Rs 32.90 a litre excise duty collected by the central government and Rs 22.80 VAT levied by the state government).

Half of the diesel price is made up of taxes (Rs 31.80 central excise and Rs 13.04 state VAT).

Petrol has crossed the Rs 100-a-litre mark in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Punjab, Ladakh, Sikkim and Pondicherry.

Diesel, the most used fuel in the country, is above that level in some places in Rajasthan, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.

The hike on Wednesday is the 36th increase in the price of petrol since May 4, when state-owned oil firms ended an 18-day hiatus in rate revision they observed during assembly elections in states like West Bengal.

In 36 hikes, the price of petrol has risen by Rs 9.81 per litre. During this period, diesel rates have soared by Rs 8.80 a litre in 34 instances of price increase.

SHIMLA: Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Virbhadra Singh died here in the wee hours of Thursday due to post COVID-19 complications. He was 87.

The veteran, popularly called ‘Raja Sahib’ belonged to the erstwhile Bushair royal family and was the sitting MLA from Arki in Solan district of the hill state. After three months of fighting with COVID-19, he passed away at 3.40 AM at Shimla’s Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) hospital.

After testing positive for the virus on April 12, he was shifted from Shimla to Max Hospital at Mohali
in Punjab. He recovered after a few days, and was discharged but had to be hospitalized again on April 30 after his oxygen saturation levels fell. In July, his condition deteriorated and was put on ventilator support. He had earlier twice recovered from Covid successfully.

Confirming his death, Senior Medical Superintendent, IGMC Dr Janak Raj said that doctors made all efforts to revive him.

On June 23 he celebrated his 87th birthday in a low key affair as he was in the hospital.

Singh first became a Lok Sabha MP he was 28 years. The nine-time MLA and five-time MP, Singh served as Himachal Pradesh’s chief minister for six times.

The veteran Congress leader remained chief minister of the state for six times- from April 8, 1983 to March 5, 1990, December 3, 1993 to March 23, 1998 and from March 6, 2003 to December 29, 2007 and for the sixth time from December 25, 2012 to December 26, 2017.

Singh also remained the leader of Opposition from March 1998 to March 2003.

The veteran Congress leader also served as union deputy minister, Tourism and Civil Aviation, minister of state for industries, union minister of steel and Union Minister of micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME).

He was re-elected to the 13th Vidhan Sabha in December 2017 from Arki Assembly Constituency in Solan district.

Earlier, he was elected to the state legislative assembly in October 1983 (by-election); re-elected in 1985 from Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly constituency, in 1990, 1993, 1998, 2003 & 2007 from Rohru assembly constituency and in 2012 from Shimla rural assembly constituency.

He was also elected to third Lok Sabha in 1962; re-elected to 4th Lok Sabha in 1967 from Mahasu Constituency, 5th Lok Sabha in 1971, 7th Lok Sabha in 1980 and 15th Lok Sabha (5th term) in May 2009 from Mandi Lok- Sabha Constituency.

Virbhadra was born on June 23, 1934, in the royal family of the erstwhile princely state of Rampur to late Raja Sir Padam Singh. The veteran leader was BA (Hons.), MA; educated at Bishop Cotton School, Shimla and St.Stephen’s College, Delhi.

He is survived by his wife Pratibha Singh a two-time MP from Mandi, son Vikramaditya Singh an MLA from Shimla (Rural) and two daughters.

MUMBAI: Wipro founder-chairman Azim Premji believes the Indian IT industry revenues will grow in double digits in the current financial year.

As per Nasscom, the IT industry revenues stood at USD 194 billion in FY21. The lobby group has ceased giving estimates of the topline growth a few years ago.

Companies will start reporting financial results for the first quarter from Thursday. “This financial year (FY22), I’d not be surprised if the industry grows in very decent double digits,” Premji said, noting that despite the pandemic, the industry grew 2-3 per cent and added 1.58 lakh new jobs on a net basis in FY21.

He said within weeks of the onset of the pandemic, the IT industry shifted to working from home and over 90 per cent of the staff continues to deliver on projects remotely even now.

The ‘hybrid model’, where people work partially from home or from offices, presents a huge competitive advantage, Premji said, speaking about the model which is being spoken of as the future of work.

He said the hybrid model is very inclusive, with advantages like ensuring better participation from all parts of the country and also giving women the flexibility to continue with their careers.

“We will have to work together to figure out the optimal balance and optimal approach so that we strengthen India as the skill hub of the world,” he said.

Premji said the IT industry is well-positioned to drive the next phase of India’s growth and will contribute significantly in achieving the ambition of a USD 5 trillion economy.

Manna, the TMC MLA from Singur who rose to prominence with the agitation against the Tata Nano factory in late 2000s, was accompanied by a few party workers.

KOLKATA: West Bengal’s Labour Minister Becharam Manna cycled a distance of 38 km from his home in the Hooghly district to reach the state assembly in protest as the petrol price crossed the Rs 100-mark in Kolkata.

“Steep rise in fuel prices is the latest failure of the Narendra Modi government. Petrol price crossed the century-mark in Kolkata and we are protesting against this,” he told reporters.

The BJP-led government at the Centre is squeezing the common man in every possible way, while the Trinamool Congress government in the state is trying to give succour to the masses by its social welfare projects, he claimed.