Archives for 2021

New Delhi: The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on Tuesday expressed “shock and disbelief” at the recent report of a group of ministers (GoM) suggesting steps to “neutralise” the negative narrative against the government.

It said the GoM report illustrates government’s “increasingly draconian attitude” against any critique and inquiry by the press.

“The Editors Guild of India expresses shock and disbelief at the manner in which a group of ministers (GoM) has prepared a report with an embedded toolkit to control the narrative about the government in the media.

“This GoM, comprising five cabinet and four ministers of state, had been constituted by the government in mid-2020, without any provocation and at a time when various press freedom and democracy indices show a rapid slide,” the EGI said in a statement.

It said that the report, which was prepared at the end of 2020 and has recently emerged in the media, “further illustrates the government’s increasingly draconian attitude against any critique and inquiry by the press.”

The suggestions from the GoM report hint at increased surveillance and targeting of writers and journalists who depart from the government’s narrative, the editors’ body said.

It also said, “One of the more disturbing instances is the suggestion by a Union Minister that refers to developing a strategy to neutralise the people who are writing against the government without facts and set false narratives/spread fake news.”

The EGI said that in the absence of any clarity on what will constitute fake news and the process to be followed, such observations smack of an intention to simply muzzle any criticism of the government.

Since the report was made public, some of those who have been named in the report have denied any involvement in its drafting, it said.

It added that the preparation of the GoM report and its debilitating import on media freedom and journalists is a major concern for EGI, which demands that the government, which is supposed to safeguard constitutional values of freedom of expression should make it clear that it is committed to the plurality of views in the media.

The report of the Group of Ministers has suggestions of tracking 50 negative and 50 positive influencers on social media and neutralise people who are writing against the government without facts to spread fake news .

The GoM comprising nine ministers — Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Smriti Irani, S Jaishankar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Hardeep Singh Puri, Babul Supriyo, Anurag Thakur and Kiren Rijiju — had held six meetings between June 14 and July 19 2020 before putting together the 97-page report.

New Delhi: Farmer unions on Wednesday called for a Bharat bandh on March 26, when their protest at Delhi’s borders against the Centre’s three new farm laws completes four months.

Farmer leader Buta Singh Burjgill said farmers along with trade unions will protest the hike in fuel prices and privatisation of railways on March 15.

“We will observe a complete Bharat bandh on March 26, when our protest against the three farm laws completes four months. The peaceful bandh will remain effective from morning till evening,” he told reporters at the Singhu border.

On March 19, the farmers will observe “Mandi Bachao-Kheti Bachao” day, he said.

The farmer unions have also decided to celebrate Shaheedi divas’ of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, Burjgill added.

Farmers leaders also said that copies of the new farm laws will be burnt during Holika Dahan’ on March 28.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at the Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — for over four months, demanding the repeal of farm laws and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.

The protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the MSP system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporations.

However, the government has maintained that the new laws will bring better opportunities to farmers and introduce new technologies in agriculture.

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DEHRADUN:  With the BJP springing a surprise by asking Lok Sabha member Tirath Singh Rawat to take over the new Uttarakhand chief minister, he has the onerous task of cleaning up the mess created by his predecessor Trivendra Singh Rawat, despite having little legroom and the Assembly elections less that a year away.

On the flip side, Tirath knows Uttarakhand’s politics inside-out as he did a stint as the state unit chief of the party and is credited with its 2014 Lok Sabha performance.

Known as a simple and down-to-earth leader, Rawat takes over the reins of power in Uttarakhand at a time when the ruling BJP is preparing for the state Assembly polls due early next year.

His principal challenge will be to ensure the party another term in office.

He also has a clean image and is considered close to the top leadership of the party, including Union home minister Amit Shah. 

However, since the last budget of the state government has already been passed, there is not much in terms of policy he can do to redeem the situation before Assembly polls in 2022, political experts said.

What’s doable though is to pacify the dissenters, reverse some of Trivendra’s unpopular decisions such as the Char Dham Shrine Board and the formation of the Gairsain commissionary, tighten the bureaucracy and run a fair and efficient government.

“I am a small party worker from a village. I had never imagined that I will be a given an opportunity like this by the party. I hope that with everyone’s cooperation and blessings, I will fulfil the expectations from me,” he said.

Since Tirath alone was administered the oath of office on Wednesday, the first challenge is to pick a balanced council of ministers.

There was discontent within the party over giving major berths to Congress defectors in the outgoing ministry.

At least 10 new faces are expected to be inducted into the new ministry.

“He has to act on four fronts cabinet composition, budget and finances, Covid vaccination drive, and deal with the unpopular decisions of his predecessor in less than an year,” said Rahul Shekhawat, a Dehradun-based analyst.

Ironically, Tirath was denied a ticket in the 2017 state elections, said party insiders.

Two years later, he contested the Lok Sabha polls from Pauri Garhwal and trounced Manish Khanduri of the Congress by over 3 lakh votes.

Born in Siron village of Pauri district, he was a full-time worker of the RSS from 1983-88 and then rose to become the state vice-president of BJP’s Yuva Morcha of the erstwhile Uttar Pradesh.

Though Rawat has held important organisational positions both in the state and at the Centre, he is a first-time MP.

Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, whose report to the central leadership of the party set in motion the process of leadership change in the hill state, said, “With the kind of challenges facing Uttarakhand, it has got a good leader.”

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank”, who was also being considered a contender for the post, said Rawat was a good choice.

“Tirath Singh Rawat is indeed a good choice. Now the BJP is sure to win the 2022 Assembly polls in Uttarakhand,” he told reporters after coming out of the state party office.

Rawat was the state’s first education minister, a part of the interim government when Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh.

He went on to become the state BJP president from 2013 to 2015 and is now a national secretary.

In the 2017 assembly polls, the BJP nomination for Chaubattakhal went to heavyweight Satpal Maharaj, overlooking Rawat’s claim to the seat he had won in 2012.

But the party made up to him.

Rawat was soon made a national secretary and given the ticket to contest from Pauri Garhwal Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 general elections.

In that poll battle, he was pitted against BJP veteran and former chief minister Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri’s son Manish Khanduri, who was the Congress nominee.

The senior Khanduri appeared to maintain distance as both his son and Rawat, who was considered his own protégé, tried to dig into his support base.

Rawat, who had described himself as the true heir to Khanduri’s political legacy, won by 3,02,669 votes, one of the biggest margins in the state.

Tirath Singh Rawat’s wife Rashmi, a professor of psychology, vouches for his “simplicity”.

“He is simple and unassuming despite having occupied several organisational positions, and a long political experience. These are his virtues,” she told reporters after Rawat was elected leader of the state legislature party.

“He is a serious man and does not speak much,” she said.

The Trinamool Congress chief has slight fever and been shifted to a special ward at the hospital’s VVIP Woodburn Block soon after the MRI at the Bangur Institute of Neurosciences.

KOLKATA: Preliminary medical tests conducted on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee late on Wednesday night detected severe bone injuries in her left ankle and foot, and injuries in right shoulder, forearm and neck, a senior doctor of the state-run SSKM hospital said.

Doctors at the hospital decided to closely monitor Banerjee, who has been complaining of chest pain and breathlessness since the alleged attack at Nandigram in Purba Medinipore district earlier in the evening, for the next 48 hours, he said.

The Trinamool Congress chief has slight fever and has been shifted to aspecial ward at the hospital’s VVIP Woodburn Block soon after the MRI at the Bangur Institute of Neurosciences, he added.

“We will keep her under observation for the next 48 hours. There will be more tests needed to be done, and after evaluating her condition we will decide on our next course of treatment,” a doctor, part of the team treating Banerjee, told PTI.

Doctors conducted x-ray on the chief minister as soon as she was taken there from Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district on Wednesday night.

She is undergoing treatment at the 12.5 special cabin of Woodburn Block of the SSKM hospital.

The state government has constituted a team of five senior doctors to treat Banerjee.

The team consists of one cardiologist, an endocrinologist, a general surgery doctor, an orthopedist and a medicine doctor.

Banerjee sustained injuries on her left leg and waist as she fell on the ground after she was allegedly pushed by unknown miscreants while campaigning for assembly elections in Nandigram.

Earlier, Banerjee had filed her nomination to contest the ensuing assembly elections from Nandigram seat.

Meanwhile, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar visited Mamata and sought a report from the administration on the incident.

Dhankhar spoke to Banerjee over the phone shortly after the incident and later visited her at the state-run SSKM Hospital in Kolkata, where she was admitted.

A highly-placed source told PTI that the governor was in the chief minister’s cabin for around half an hour and she briefed Dhankhar about the incident.

Senior Trinamool Congress leaders Abhishek Banerjee, Firhad Hakim and Derek O’Brien were outside the cabin during the one-on-one discussion, the source said.

“Sought an update from Director, Security and Chief Secretary in matter. Health Secretary and Director of Hospital urged to take all caution,” Dhankhar tweeted.

Banerjee has alleged that no local police personnel were near her when four-five men deliberately pushed her causing the injury.

Dhankhar, who has been at loggerheads with the West Bengal government over several issues, was greeted with “go back” slogans by Trinamool Congress supporters when he entered the hospital.

He faced a similar situation when he left the hospital after more than half an hour, by which time the number of TMC supporters had multiplied at the premises.

Banerjee submitted her nomination papers for Nandigram earlier in the day.