Archives for February 2020

Dr Khan was arrested by the UP Special Task Force from Mumbai on January 29 in connection with a speech he had delivered during an anti-CAA protest at Aligarh Muslim University.

ALIGARH: Resident doctors at the AMU’s Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital on Sunday demanded that the charges slapped against Dr Kafeel Khan under the National Security Act be withdrawn.

Dr Khan was arrested by the UP Special Task Force from Mumbai on January 29 in connection with a speech he had delivered during an anti-CAA protest at Aligarh Muslim University on December 12.

The Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) held a protest march on the hospital campus against the slapping of the NSA against the Gorakhpur doctor after he was granted bail in connection with the alleged hate speech.

RDA president Dr Hamza Malik said the move was a “blatant attempt to crush dissent and a violation of the Constitution of india”.

He said by targeting the doctor, the UP government had done a great disservice to the entire medical community.

The AMU Students’ Coordination Committee also described the decision to charge Dr Kafeel under the NSA a “direct assault” on a member of the medical fraternity who is “known for his upright behaviour and a champion of free speech”.

Committee spokesperson and former AMU Students’ Union president Faizul Hasan said by charging Dr Kafeel under the NSA even after he got bail was “a direct violation of a Supreme Court ruling on such issues”.

Hasan said Dr Kafeel’s fate should serve as an eye-opener for the rest of the country regarding the democratic rights in Uttar Pradesh.

The doctor was earlier arrested for his alleged role in the death of over 60 children within a week at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in August 2017.

Short supply of oxygen at the children’s ward was blamed at that time for the deaths.

About two years later, a state government probe cleared Khan of all major charges, prompting him to seek an apology from the Yogi Adityanath government.

As Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal began his third term on Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party will rue another missed opportunity at holding the reins of power in the national capital.

As Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal began his third term on Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party will rue another missed opportunity at holding the reins of power in the national capital. The saffron party last ruled the national capital in 1998, which seems aeons ago. The late and affable Sushma Swaraj was the last BJP Chief Minister of Delhi more than 22 years back. Since then the saffron party has struggled to stay relevant in Delhi, although it has done well at the municipality level, having captured power in all the three civic bodies. 

The best chance to return to power in Delhi was in 2013, when the Congress, after being in office for three consecutive terms, was hobbled by growing anti-incumbency. But the BJP blew it, thanks to infighting and factionalism in the party. When the elections were held again in 2015, Narendra Modi was already the Prime Minister and at the peak of his popularity. In theory, the BJP should have capitalized on the immense nation-wide goodwill prevailing for Modi and come to power but that was not to be. Instead, it got blown away by the Kejriwal wave and managed a mere three seats, the rest going to the still fledgling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). 

This time around the odds were stacked against the BJP. With no chief ministerial face to project nor armed with strong local issues to woo the voters, it was an uphill task from the very beginning. Given this reality, the party should have begun preparations long back. But that was not the case. It was instead the AAP that took the lead in getting into election mode. 

After getting drubbed by the saffron party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when it not only drew a blank but trailed even the Congress in vote share, the AAP systematically went about putting its house in order. 
It highlighted the good work the AAP government had done in the fields of education and health. That was followed by a series of populist measures that reaped huge goodwill among a cross section of people. 
In contrast, the BJP had no local issues to highlight to Delhiites. During a visit to a prominent BJP leader’s official residence in Lutyens’ Delhi about six months ago, this author found a massive hoarding that lauded Modi for scrapping Article 370 in the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state. 

Even favour seekers, hangers-on and party cadres were quick to note that national issues such as Kashmir would carry no weight with the electorate in the assembly elections. “The goodwill generated by Article 370 will wear out by the time the Assembly elections are held,” said one. At another BJP leader’s house, an old timer in Delhi politics, this author only encountered complaints against the party leadership. The two visits to gauge what is going on in the saffron camp only reinforced the view that the BJP was a house divided, rudderless and lacking direction. 

Many analysts have said that the BJP lacked a local face. Yes it did. But if that was the only reason for its defeat then the AAP should also not have been accepted by Delhiites in such an overwhelming manner. 

After all, strictly speaking Kejriwal is also not from Delhi, having been born in Hisar in Haryana. Nor is Manish Sisodia, Amanatullah Khan or Atishi. Delhi’s demographic profile has changed dramatically over the years. It is no longer a city dominated by Punjabis and traders who fled Pakistan after Partition in 1947. Today Delhi is home to people from the south, north, central and even northeast India. Its people speak not only Punjabi and Hindi but also Tamil, English and Kashmiri. 

Given this reality a Union minister calling Kejriwal an outsider in the midst of the campaigning only underlined how cut off the BJP was from the ground situation. What the BJP lacked was a credible face, not a local face. None of its leaders can match Kejriwal’s reputation in honesty and sincerity. It’s time they groomed one, the earlier the better.

Many analysts have said that the BJP lacked a local face. Yes it did. But if that was the only reason for its defeat then the AAP should also not have been accepted by Delhiites in such an overwhelming manner. After all, strictly speaking Kejriwal is also not from Delhi, having been born in Hisar in Haryana. 

These special guests to the swearing-in function, to be held at the sprawling Ramlila Maidan, have been labelled as ‘Delhi Ke Nirmata’ (makers of Delhi).

NEW DELHI:  Vijay Kumar, a beneficiary of the Delhi government’s Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana and Lajwanti, a safai karamchari (sanitation worker), would be among the 45 guests, picked from a diverse spectrum of the society, at the swearing-in of Chief Minister-designate Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet on Sunday.

While Kumar won himself a coveted ticket to IIT-Delhi, drawing the benefits of free tuition under the state scheme, Lajwanti has been labouring away diligently over the last nine years.

These special guests to the swearing-in function, to be held at the sprawling Ramlila Maidan, have been labelled as ‘Delhi Ke Nirmata’ (makers of Delhi).

They include school teachers, students, Anganwadi workers, social activists, wives of slain service personnel and firefighters, PWD engineers, pharmacists, auto-rickshaw drivers, sanitation workers, farmers, bus conductors and drivers, marshals deployed on buses, athletes, beneficiaries of the state’s scholarship schemes, architects and agents of the government’s doorstep delivery service.

“This is a win for all residents who dream of a better Delhi. The chief minister has decided to invite people representing diverse sections of the society and different occupations. They will be our main guests,” Manish Sisodia, AAP MLA from Patparganj, said.

“This government has accorded me a lot of respect. I consider it an honour and privilege to represent the army of bus marshals. We strive every day to ensure security of women riding our public buses. This is government is serious about women’s safety,” said Arun Kumar, a DTC bus marshal who made headlines after saving a six-year-old girl from being kidnapped in the Dhaula Kuan area. He will take one of the chairs reserved for guests at the February 16 event.

The two new chiefs of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh and Kerala come with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad pedigree and are in late 40s. 

NEW DELHI:  In a bid to win back the support base among the upper castes in Madhya Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Nadda on Saturday appointed the Khajurao Lok Sabha MP Vishnu Dutt Sharma as the state unit chief.

The BJP chief also appointed K Surendran as the Kerala unit chief.

The two new chiefs of the BJP in MP and Kerala come with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) pedigree and are in late 40s. 

Former BJP chief Amit Shah had appointed Jabalpur MP Rakesh Singh as the state unit chief of Madhya Pradesh a few months before the state Assembly elections.

Though Singh along with the former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan hailed from the OBC background, Shah has gone away with aggressive bid to win over the backward castes.

However, the gamble didn’t pay the electoral dividends. The upper castes had backed the Congress, allowing the party to wrest power in the state.

With Sharma as the Brahmin face, the BJP is hoping to win back the electorally influential caste.

Besides, Nadda in his choices for MP and Kerala has shown that he would be backing younger generation to take over the leadership role in states, with the party bracing up for expansion of support base, particularly the youth.

Surendran had made a name for himself with the party led agitation against the Left government on Sabarimala issue.

Coming from the ABVP background, Surendran is the BJP’s long-term investment to build a strong base in the state where the saffron outfit wants to win support base on a long term, capitalising on the groundwork done by the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS).  

The BJP chief is also likely to appoint a new chief in Delhi, who could be entrusted with the task to rebuild the party.

Kohima: Teachers and students of Nagaland University on Wednesday staged anti-CAA demonstration at its four campuses in Kohima, Dimapur and Zunheboto districts of the state.
The protest against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was jointly spearheaded by Nagaland University Teachers Association (NUTA), Research Scholars Forum and Nagaland University Students Union (NUSU).
Addressing the gathering at the Meriema Campus of the University in the state capital, NUTA Central Executive Council president, Prof Rosemary Dzuvichu alleged that teachers and students of JNU, Jamia Millia Islamia were attacked when they staged protests against NRC, CAA and NPR.
“Police who are supposed to be the state force and protect the citizens have attacked the students,” she said.
Our concern is also for the Naga citizens on Register of Indigenous Inhabitant of Nagaland (RIIN) that the word “indigenous” had already become controversial to the people of Nagaland, she said.
“If we are going to have a registry for the indigenous people, what are the modalities and norms that are going to be followed? she asked.
“We cannot rewrite history and I think it is very wrong to neglect the Muslim population,” she said.
NUTA Meriema campus president Prof B V Rao, Professor D Kuolie, Prof G T Thong and vice-president of NUSU, Chinge also addressed the gathering and extended solidarity with those opposing the CAA and NRC.