Archives for 2019

Nasheman News :Continuing with the trend of trusting the old guard, the Congress on Thursday appointed former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as the new President of Delhi Congress.

The 80-year-old and three-time Delhi Chief Minister, succeeded Ajay Maken, who quit as the Delhi Congress president on January 4 citing health reasons. 

“Congress President Rahul Gandhi has appointed Sheila Dikshit as the new Delhi Congress president,” party leader P.C. Chacko told the media here. 

The Congress also announced the appointments of Rajesh Lilothia, Devender Yadav and Haroon Yusuf as Delhi unit’s Working Presidents.

The longest serving Chief Minister of Delhi, from 1998 to 2013, Dikshit said she was honoured at being given the responsibility. 

While asserting the Congress’ revival in Delhi, where currently it has no representation in the Assembly, Dikshit remained evasive about the probability of the party forging an alliance particularity with Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Lok Sabha polls. 

“We will talk after it happens,” she said when asked about such an alliance. 

“I have no opinion about the alliance just now. And I do not want to share anything right now to anybody. Let me first understand the situation right from the top to down and then only I can say anything,” she added. 

Former AAP leader and journalist Ashutosh recently claimed that the AAP and Congress are likely to fight the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, saying that AAP supremo and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was desirous of such an alliance. 

“Kejriwal wants an alliance with Congress. He has been pushing for it for the past one year. Some other parties have also worked as communication channels for AAP and Congress,” Ashotosh had written for satyahindi.com, a news portal he co-founded.

Earlier Dikshit too had said that she will “not question” if the party leadership decided to align with the AAP. 

Congratulating Dikshit, Maken in a tweet exuded confidence of the party playing a “role of a strong opposition” to the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi. 

The Congress which came to power in the Hindi heartland, preferred party veteran Kamal Nath over Jyotiraditya Scindia as the new Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and the 67-year old Ashok Gehlot as the new Chief Minister of Rajasthan while making the youthful Sachin Pilot as the deputy Chief Minister. 

The security cover of Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has been upgraded to Z-Plus and a bullet-proof Land Cruiser has been given to him by the state government.

The Amarinder Singh government has also written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to provide him Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) security cover in wake of threats issued to him by Right-wing groups.

Sources said the number of security personnel provided to the Congress leader has been doubled from present 12.

Punjab’s Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Justice) Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi has written to Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba saying Sidhu has developed a very acrimonious relationship with the Shiromani Akali Dal over his criticism of their alleged anti-people policies and support to mafia and criminal elements. He has also earned the wrath of the drug and mining mafia and criminals, especially in the Majha region, due to his high-pitched campaign against them, it states.

In July last year, Dera Sacha Sauda followers had threatened Sidhu for his comments against Dera chief.

“The threat perception is only likely to escalate further in view of his strident and continuous criticism of policies of the opposition parties as well as that of activities of Right-wing groups,” the letter stated.

In view of such, the state government recommended that Sidhu be provided CAPF security cover, preferably by the CISF. His threat perception has increased significantly after his visit to Pakistan to attend the swearing-in-ceremony of Imran Khan, where he hugged the Pakistan Army Chief,” the letter stated.

The Hindu Yuva Vahini, a Uttar Pradesh-based Right-wing group, has announced a bounty of `1 crore on Sidhu’s head for allegedly abusing Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday wondered why the Centre was not initiating a dialogue with the separatists in Jammu and Kashmir if Army chief General Bipin Rawat could bat for holding talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“We bat for talks with taliban, autonomy for Tibet & Tamil areas of Sri Lanka yet we are unwilling to look at engagement or political initiatives in J&K. Why is our policy all about “do as we say, don’t do as we do”? Engagement for Taliban, Operation All-Out for Kashmir,” Abdullah tweeted.

Earlier in the day, Rawat said there should be talks with the Taliban to bring peace in Afghanistan, but asserted that the engagement must be without any preconditions. He was speaking at the Raisina Dialogue — India’s flagship conference on geopolitics — in Delhi.

“If the Army Chief can advocate for talks with (the) Taliban then why different standards when it comes to our own people?” Mehbooba asked in a tweet.

The Peoples Democratic Party president said the Centre should accept the offer of talks by Pakistan and also start a dialogue process with the Hurriyat Conference to end the cycle of violence in the state.

“Accept peace offer from Pakistan, initiate dialogue with (the) Hurriyat and other stakeholders put an end to the vicious cycle of violence in J&K,” she added.

PTI

Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy cleared four more names for board appointments. He had on Sunday cleared a list of 14 persons to be appointed as chairpersons to boards and corporations as per a list given by the Congress. According to reports, several members of the Congress party were not content with the appointments, and several showed resentment over the CM’s choices. Following this, on Wednesday, the chief minister appointed four Congress legislators for posts which had yet to be filled.

Easing tensions to some extent, Kumaraswamy’s new appointees are reportedly thought to pacify Congress members who are upset with the coalition head’s previous decisions.

NA Haris, MLA of Shantinagar, has been appointed the chairman of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), ST Somashekar, MLA from Yeshwanthpur, has been made the chairman of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). The other two appointed members are SN Subba Reddy, Bagepalli MLA, as chairman of Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation, and Abbaya Prasad, the Hubballi-Dharwad West MLA as the head of the Dr Babu Jagjivan Ram Leather Industries Development Corporation.

It has also been reported that the CM has yet to decide on an appointee for the position of chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, though the Congress wanted the title to go to Chikaballapur MLA K Sudhakar. Along with him, Doddaballapur MLA Venkataramanaiah, too was not allocated a post.

“The party high command has cleared my name and it is now up to the Congress to give me the post,” Sudhakar told media.

Earlier on Sunday, the Chief Minister had cleared 14 names out of a list of 19 total, given by the Congress, who would now hold cabinet-rank positions in the coalition government.

Nasheman News : Days after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) extended support to Kannada actor Prakash Raj for deciding to contest the Lok Sabha election as an independent candidate, he met AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal here on Thursday.

At the meeting held at Kejriwal’s residence, the two discussed a number of issues.

“Met Kejriwal, thanked him and AAP for the support in my political journey. Discussed and requested to share various ways to address issues which his team has commendably done,” tweeted the actor, who has been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.

Prakash Raj has been meeting politicians since he announced his decision to contest from Bengaluru.

The AAP extended support to the multi-lingual actor last week.