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Rahul attacks government on real estate bill, calls it pro-builders

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Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Firing yet another salvo at Narendra Modi government, Rahul Gandhi today claimed it had diluted provisions of Real Estate Regulatory Authority Bill making the legislation pro-builders from being pro-buyers.

After meeting several NCR flat buyers today, the Congress Vice President, who has been attacking the Centre over land bill issue and the plight of farmers, said that he had learnt that it is not just farmers and tribals but also the middle class people that are “suppressed” on matters related to land.

Assuring homebuyers that he would stand by them, Gandhi said that it was due to lack of transparency, the buyers were left in a quandary.

“They are told that you will get the flat on a particular day but for years they don’t get the flat. They are told the super duper area of the flat would be so much but what is delivered is different,” he said.

He said that someone was promised that the flat will have a good view, but a few months after the flat was delivered, another building came up and the view was blocked.

He said the government was trying to destroy the Bill which Congress led UPA had brought to regulate the real estate sector.

“Main dilution is that there was clear transparency. The carpet area that you sign is what would be given. They have diluted and from pro-buyer, made it pro-builder,” he said.

Attacking the government, he said, “What it is doing against farmers and tribals, it is also doing against the middle class”.

“I have assured them that the way I stand with farmers and tribals I stand with them also,” he told reporters.

(Agencies)

Rahul Gandhi begins sanvad padyatra; meets Maharashtra farmers

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rahul-padyatra

Amravati: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi Thursday began a 15-km day-long padyatra in Amravati district in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, during which he is meeting the families of farmers who committed suicide.

Rahul, who reached Nagpur last night, left this morning for village Gunji to begin the foot march dubbed as ‘sanvad padyatra’.

On the way to Gunji, people were seen lined up on roads at Kondhali and Talegaon villages to greet the Congress leader.

Rahul stopped at Talegaon for some time, before proceeding to Gunji.

Rahul spoke to the people who greeted him and sought to know their problems and the issues affecting them.

He will be visiting five villages between Gunji to Ramgaon and will meet the farmers who have suffered crop losses due to unseasonal rain. He is accompanied by MPCC president Ashok Chavan and senior state Congress leaders.

Maharashtra is one of the states that experienced severe agrarian crisis and Amravati division in Vidarbha region has witnessed many suicide cases of farmers this year.

Ahead of his visit, a farmer, Gajanan Sheshrao Khongal, allegedly committed suicide by jumping into a well in Morshi tehsil of the district on Tuesday.

(PTI)

Words from the lunatic fringe: Rahul Gandhi ate beef, visited temple and caused earthquake, says Sakshi Maharaj

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Sakshi Maharaj

New Delhi: Well-known for his controversial remarks, BJP leader Sakshi Maharaj has made heads turn again by stating that Rahul Gandhi’s ‘impure’ visit to Kedarnath has led to the disastrous earthquake in Nepal.

Sakshi Maharaj stated that Rahul Gandhi ate beef and visited Kedarnath without ‘purifying’ himself and hence, the earthquake took place, according to a report published in The Times Of India.

Reacting to Sakshi Maharaj’s insensitive remark, Congress spokesperson Sushmita Dev has asked the Modi government to take immediate action against their party member.

The Nepal quake has claimed nearly 4300 lives till date, as per reports. The stranded people in Nepal, filled with grief and fear, are spending nights out on streets.

Relief and rescue operations are on and countries across the globe are stepping forward to their bit for the quake victims.

(Agencies)

Government handing over internet to corporates: Rahul Gandhi

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Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the NDA government of trying to hand over the internet to “some corporates”, as he raised the issue of net neutrality in Lok Sabha.

“Every youth should have a right to the net… But the government is trying to hand over the the internet to some corporates,” Gandhi said, raising the issue during zero hour.

He had also served notice to suspend question hour to discuss the issue, but Speaker Sumitra Mahajan did not admit this.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad refuted Gandhi’s charge.

“Our government is not under pressure of any corporate…,” he said.

(PTI)

Concern for farmers as land bill being changed: Rahul Gandhi

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Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: It is a matter of concern for farmers that the land bill is being changed, said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi while addressing his first rally on Sunday after a leave of absence of nearly two months.

Gandhi spoke about the Land Acquisition Act 2013, brought in by the UPA government, and charged the NDA government of working in the interests of the rich.

“Land Acquisition Act 2013 is being changed …it’s also cause of concern for you,” he said, adding that the rest of industry came only after farming which laid the foundation of the country.

Speaking at the well-attended Kissan Khet Majdoor rally at Ramlila Maidan here, he said that the central government was anti-farmer and anti-poor as it can’t see “the efforts they made to establish the country”.

Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was on a three-nation tour, made comments saying that he was clearing the mess of the last 50 years in the country.

“I feel sad to hear this as prime minister can’t see the efforts of the poor and the farmers who actually laid the foundation of the country,” he said.

Gandhi said that the poor and the farmers were feeling afraid under the present regime as they don’t know what’s going to happen to them next.

He also talked about how the UPA government worked for the poor and the farmers of the country.

“It’s a country of farmers and labourers,” he said.

(IANS)

Rahul Gandhi returns from sabbatical

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The return of Rahul Gandhi comes ahead of the party’s planned farmers’ rally on the contentious Land Bill issue which he is likely to address. Photo: Sandeep Saxena, The Hindu

The return of Rahul Gandhi comes ahead of the party’s planned farmers’ rally on the contentious Land Bill issue which he is likely to address. Photo: Sandeep Saxena, The Hindu

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Thursday returned from his 56-day “unexplained” sabbatical that had raised a lot of questions over his leadership of the party at a time when Congress has been battered in elections repeatedly.

The Congress vice president arrived here at 11.15 am on a Thai Airways plane from Bangkok. The plane, which was scheduled to land at 10.35 am, was delayed by 40 minutes, sources said.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka reached the 12, Tughlaq Road residence of Rahul.

A day before the Budget session began on February 23, party sources had said that Mr. Gandhi had gone on leave.

The party had then said that he “requested Congress president Sonia Gandhi for some time to reflect on recent events and future course of the party“.

Ever since the announcement of his temporary break from political life, there has been speculation that he was unhappy for not getting a free hand to run the party, a contention which the party has officially denied.

Rahul’s leave had come amid talk of an AICC session, where he was expected to be elevated as Congress president.

During his absence, several party leaders came out in the open pitching for Sonia Gandhi to continue as president and raised questions over his leadership.

Congress leaders had announced that Rahul would be back by April 19 as he would be addressing a farmers’ rally on land bill issue at the Ramlila maidan here on that day.

The rally is being held on the eve of the second phase of the Budget session of Parliament. Rahul had skipped the first phase which saw the Congress taking on the government over the land bill issue as he went on the sabbatical shortly before it commenced.

Congress has been performing badly at the hustings, starting with the Lok Sabha elections last year. It was followed by a string of electoral reverses in Assembly elections including in Delhi recently.

Sources also said that plans are underway to organise an interaction of Rahul Gandhi with a delegation of farmers on April 17 two days before he will address the Kisan-Khet Mazdoor rally of the party.

(PTI)

Sheila Dikshit questions Rahul Gandhi’s leadership

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Sheila Dikshit. Photo: IE

Sheila Dikshit. Photo: IE

New Delhi: Yet another Congress stalwart Tuesday voiced reservation over Rahul Gandhi’s elevation as party president, with former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit saying there was “scepticism” over his leadership qualities and pitched for continuance of Sonia Gandhi at the helm.

The 77—year—old veteran said under Sonia Gandhi there was a “comfort feeling” and that the party could rely on the incumbent president’s “overpowering and very successful” leadership for its revival.

“I will not be able to give any idea what will happen or what will not happen. He (Rahul) could succeed. There is another point we must understand that the overpowering and very successful leadership of Mrs Sonia Gandhi is there. So there is a comfort feeling with her,” Dikshit told PTI in an interview.

Dikshit said Rahul’s leadership qualities have not been fully tested yet and it would be good for the party if Sonia continues to lead it.

“I am yet to meet anybody who has any critical remarks to make about the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. I can say it with absolute confidence. Whereas (in case of) Rahul, of course, there is a question mark, there is scepticism because you have not seen him perform as yet,” Dikshit said.

Dikshit’s comments have come at a time when Congress appears divided on whether to anoint Rahul as president replacing his mother Sonia. Senior party leaders Amarinder Singh and Dikshit’s son Sandeep had come out strongly against Rahul’s elevation.

Dikshit’s son Sandeep had earlier this month said that Sonia was the “leader” for “99 per cent of partymen” and she was needed at the helm now more than ever. Singh had said Sonia should “retain” Congress presidentship and a generational change cannot be done “with a knife“.

(PTI)

Congress announces organisational poll schedule; Rahul may be anointed as party chief

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Rahul-Gandhi

New Delhi: Amid talks that Rahul Gandhi will be anointed as the party chief, AICC Thursday announced a new schedule for organisational elections in which the next Congress President will be elected by September 30.

A highlight of the new schedule is that for the first time, party polls will be held in two phases, first phase covering 18 states and Union territories and the second phase almost equal number of states and Union territories.

Interestingly, the party elections will be over by July 31 in 18 states including Gujarat, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and a host of states in North-east in the first phase.

The second phase will cover Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Telangana.

The Congress chief will be elected by September 30. Sonia Gandhi has created a record of having the longest tenure at the helm of the oldest political party when she completed 17 years as Congress President on March 14.

She took the top party post amid a complete collapse in 1998 replacing the late Sitaram Kesri at a time when the party had faced a crisis with the BJP in the ascendence.

The organisational polls are being held at a time when the Congress has faced its worst debacle in the Lok Sabha polls in May 2014 after being at the top for a decade since coming to power in 2004. It could manage just 44 seats in the last Lok Sabha elections.

Organisational elections are being held when the talk is growing in the party that sooner rather than later Sonia Gandhi will pass the mantle to her son Rahul Gandhi, who was made the Congress Vice President in January 2013 at the Jaipur Chintan Shivir.

The schedule which was finalised by the Central Election Authority of the party headed by senior leader Mullappally Ramachandran was released by AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi.

Under the new schedule, enrolment of members has been extended from March 31 to May 15 after which the District Congress Committees will publish the preliminary list of members by May 25.

In the states which will have party polls in the first phase, publication of final list of members as also the final list of eligible contestents will be done by July 5 after disposing of appeals at all levels.

Election of President and Executive of the Primary Committees will be completed between July 10 to 15.

In stage-II, the elections to the President, Vice President, Treasurer and Executive of the Block Congress Committees and election of six members of the DCC and one member of the Pradesh Congress Committee by the Block Congress Committees will be completed between 16 to 20 July.

It will be followed by election of President, Vice President, Treasurer and Executive Committee of the District Congress Committee will be held between July 20 and 25.

(PTI)

Modi government may spy on officials, parties, media: Congress

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congress

Ranchi: Congress today demanded a probe into the alleged snooping on party vice-president Rahul Gandhi as it claimed that the next targets could be persons from the bureaucracy, political parties and media.

“We demand a judicial commission or a Parliamentary committee to probe the surveillance on Rahul Gandhi as it is aimed at suppressing democracy,” AICC spokesman Ajay Kumar said at a press conference here.

Next, he claimed, the snooping could be on government officials, political parties and media.

Even former Delhi police commissioners Ved Marwah and B K Gupta denied that any such procedures had been there, Kumar said.

On the controversy surrounding absence of Gandhi Jayanti from the list of holidays in Goa, Kumar refused to accept Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar’s logic that dropping of October 2 from the list could be an act of mischief or a typing mistake.

“The BJP has a habit to set off balloons to see public reaction. It denies the action if the reaction is strong and it goes ahead with its action if everything is quiet,” alleged Kumar, a former IPS officer.

Slamming the Narendra Modi government on the amendment to Land Acquisition Act, he said, “The BJP government is for only one per cent of the population, protecting the super rich. It is not bothered about farmers and the poor.”

If the bill was passed, he claimed, even houses in cities would go in the name of creating infrastructure.

(Agencies)

No snooping on Rahul, it is 'transparent profiling': Jaitley

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Rahul-Gandhi

New Delhi: Government today countered the Congress charges of snooping on Rahul Gandhi saying it was making a “mountain out of what is not even a molehill” as information collection was part of a transparent security profiling used on 526 VIPs, including Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Ministers.

Responding to charges of snooping and spying on political opponents by Opposition Congress and SP in Rajya Sabha, Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said the police has been collecting such information since 1987 on VIPs operating out of Lutyens Delhi through a profoma form as part of security profiling.

The proforma, which was revised in 1999, has been used to profile former prime ministers H D Dewa Gowda, I K Gujral, Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The same was also used to profile Congress President Sonia Gandhi in October 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, the Finance Minister said.

Pranab Mukherjee, before becoming the President, was profiled in 2001, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2012, while senior BJP leaders L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj, Ahmed Patel of Congress, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury and Sharad Yadav of JD-U were also profiled, he said.

“526 persons have been profiled using the present form,” he said, adding this was part of “transparent, security profiling and not associated with any kind of snooping or sypying.”

“It is not that it has been started in the last 8 months,” he said and proposed to sit with Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad to go through the 526 forms filled during the previous UPA rule.

On the proforma seeking information on shoe size, colour of eyes and other such information, Jaitley said former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was identified by his shoes after his assassination.

Security needs and profiling should be left to security experts and “we should not attempt to become one”, he said, adding “the issue raised is making mountain of what is not even a molehill.”

Jaitley said the practice of security profiling started in 1987 under Congress rule.

Maintaining that he had given a notice under Rule 267 to suspend business so as to take up the issue, Azad said in his 35 year career, including as a top security protectee, he had not seen such a proforma for security profiling.

Rahul Gandhi, he said, has been a SPG protectee right since his father Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister and it was beyond comprehension why Delhi Police was only now collecting such information like his shoe size, colour of hair, habits, his associates, friends and aides.

After an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Special Branch of Delhi Police visited Rahul Gandhi’s 12 Tughlaq Lane Residence on March 2, two senior officers had again visited his place on March 14 to gather information on his aides, Azad said.

Charging the government with snooping and spying on political opponents, he said the government was “resorting to threats, coersion and pressure to quell political dissent”.

“If you raise voice, the Central Government can use any measure,” he said demanding that Home Minister Rajnath Singh should come to the House and explain.

Last year there were reports of NDA government minister’s telephone being tapped, he said, adding since BJP assumed power in May 2014, religious and political freedom have been curbed. “The Delhi Police action is against privacy and against democracy,” Azad said.

K C Tyagi (JD-U) said the security profiling has “never been heard of” and demanded a discussion on invasion of privacy as well as corporate and political espionage.

Naresh Agarwal (SP) alleged that one lakh telephones were being tapped everyday without requisite permission and warned that the privacy of individuals should not be challenged.

(PTI)

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