Raipur, (IANS) State Congress President Bhupesh Baghel was on Sunday named the new Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh and he vowed in no time to cancel within 10 days bank loans taken by farmers — a campaign promise that led to the BJP’s rout in Assembly elections.

Shortly after the 58-year-old Baghel was elected the Congress Legislature Party leader by party MLAs, the Congress leader announced that he would take oath as the third Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh on Monday at 4.30 p.m. at the Science College Ground here.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress observer for Chhattisgarh, told the media that Baghel was elected unanimously by the MLAs but only he would take oath on Monday. The names of Ministers would be declared later “after detailed discussions with all stake-holders”. 

“I am committed to waiving farmers’ bank loans within 10 days,” said Baghel, a post-graduate from Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University here and a father of four.

He added that the Congress government will unravel the conspiracy that led to the killing by Maoists of top Congress leaders in the Jheeram Valley in Bastar in May 2013 including the then state Congress chief Nandkumar Patel, the veteran V.C. Shukla and Mahendra Karma.

In his first tweet as Chief Minister elect, Baghel expressed his gratitude towards Congress President Rahul Gandhi and said Gandhi had given him the responsibility of building “a new Chhattisgarh”.

“I can assure the great people of Chhattisgarh that the new Congress government would live up to their expectations and wishes.”

The Congress said on Twitter: “We wish him the best as he forms a government of equality, transparency and integrity starting off with farm loan waiver for farmers as we promised.”

Baghel is a powerful leader of the OBC community which makes up 52 per cent of the state’s 2.55 crore population.

The five-time MLA was elected from Patan in Durg district. He was Revenue Minister in Ajit Jogi’s first government in Chhattisgarh that was voted out in 2003.

Baghel was also in the centre-stage of the ousted BJP government’s attacks and was recently jailed for some days in Raipur after he was charge-sheeted by the CBI for his alleged role in the circulation of a sleaze CD against a powerful BJP Minister in Chhattisgarh.

He launched his political career in early 1980s from Durg district under the guidance of the late Chandulal Chandrakar. He joined the Youth Congress in 1985 and was elected to the undivided Madhya Pradesh Assembly for the first time in 1993.

Hailing from a farmer’s family, Baghel is credited with leading the party from the front in the fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and scripting the crushing defeat of the 15-year-old regime of Raman Singh. The Congress won 68 of 90 seats.

And although there were other contenders too for the Chief Minister’s post, Baghel was far ahead of them unlike in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where there was intense tussle as to who would get to helm the states. 

Ashok Gehlot is Rajasthan’s Chief Minister designate and Madhya Pradesh has Kamal Nath in the top post. They too will take oath on Monday.

With Sunday’s development, all three states in the Hindi heartland where the BJP lost power to the Congress now have Chief Ministers.

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Chennai, (IANS) The Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and former President of the Congress party Sonia Gandhi on Sunday unveiled the bronze statue of late DMK President M. Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu.

Sonia Gandhi was received by DMK President M.K. Stalin at the party headquarters.

She unveiled former Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s statute installed at the DMK headquarters Anna Arivalayam here in the presence of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N. Chandrababu Naidu, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, leaders of DMK and several other parties, movie actors and industrialists.

Actor-turned-politician Rajnikanth also participated in the function.

Later in the evening Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Stalin, Chief Ministers Naidu, Vijayan, Narayanasamy and others will be addressing a public rally here.

Jaipur, (IANS) Congress leader Ashok Gehlot was sworn in on Monday as the 12th Chief Minister of Rajasthan, while the party’s state president Sachin Pilot took oath as his deputy at a ceremony here.

It is Gehlot’s third innings as Chief Minister.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Nationalist Congress Party’s chief Sharad Pawar were some of those who attended the ceremony in Albert Hall.

Former Chief Minister of Rajasthan and BJP leader Vasundhara Raje was also present at the event.

 Eschew loan waivers that divert resources from much needed investment in India, says a report prepared by 13 noted economists, including former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, which was released here on Friday.

Releasing the report titled “An Economic Strategy for India”, Rajan said that farm loan waivers should not form part of election promises and that he has written to the Election Commission to put a bar on such a practice, which inhibits investment in the farm sector, as well as putting pressure on the finances of the concerned states. 

“I have said forever, even written a letter to the Election Commissioner saying they should be taken off the table. I mean, certainly there is reason to think about farm distress. But, the question of whether the flows to farmers is best affected by waiving loans, after all, there is only a subset of farmers who get those loans,” he said. 

“It’s no surprise to you that there is fair amount of agricultural distress which we have seen being highlighted by farmers, and also political parties are responding with variety of measures such as loan waivers.

“So, it often goes to the best connected rather than those most poorly off. Second, it obviously creates enormous problems for the fiscal of the state once those waivers are done. And I think, unfortunately, it inhibits investment down the line,” he said. 

“We need to create the environment in which they (farmers) can be a vibrant force and I would say more resources are definitely needed. Whether loan waivers are the best? I think it’s highly questionable,” he added. 

Rajan, who is currently teaching in the US, also said an all-party agreement to eschew farm loan waivers would be in the interest of the nation. 

The report, which outlines the challenges facing the economy, says that the country’s economic history is full of instances which demonstrate that protecting macroeconomic stability is essential for strong and sustainable growth.

“Every time macro stability has been traded off to boost growth, the economy has been pushed towards a crisis, the consequences of which have undermined the very growth that was the initial policy focus,” it says. 

Rajan said although India has had 7 per cent growth, the economy is not clearly creating enough jobs, citing the example of how 25 million people had applied for 90,000 railway jobs. 

“So many applicants… 250 per job and these are not priced jobs. These are actually low level jobs. So, it does suggest enormous demand for jobs,” he said. 

He pointed out that growth is not benefiting all sectors and all people, while inequality is increasing. 

“We should ask the question that is this growth path viable and clearly more needs to be done on macro stability, on fiscal deficit, there are proposals in the paper that how we can do that,” the former central bank Governor said. 

He said there had been no improvement in the fiscal deficit of the Centre and the states in the last five years. 

“In terms of public sectors borrowing, it is still as big as it was and that is source of concern especially as states budgets are going out of balance. We see trade deficit is large even after taking out the effect of borrowing,” he said. 

“We absolutely need to enhance growth beyond 7 per cent… with a lot of back and forth on what the true growth numbers are, whatever they are, they are not enough,” he said, making a reference to the recent controversy regarding the back series GDP data released by the government. 

IANS

The Mizo National Front (MNF) government led by Chief Minister Zoramthanga on Saturday assumed office in Mizoram, ending the Congress’ 10-year rule in the state.

Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan administered the oath of office and secrecy to Zoramthanga and his 11 Council of Ministers at a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan here.

Zoramthanga, 74, took office as the Chief Minister for the third time. Earlier he headed the state from 1998-2003 and 2003-2008.

Outgoing Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leader and former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, leaders of various political parties and senior civil and security officials were present in the ceremony.

“The Chief Minister would distribute the portfolios among the ministers soon after a cabinet meeting,” an official of the Chief Minister’s secretariat told the media.

The MNF in the November 28 Assembly polls secured 26 seats, five more than an absolute majority in the 40-member Assembly, ousting the Congress from power in its last bastion in northeast India.

The MNF had got only five seats in the 2013 Assembly polls, while the Congress had won 34. This time, the Congress got only five seats.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the first time made its entry into the Mizoram Assembly, winning the lone Tuichawng seat.

State Congress chief and outgoing Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla lost in both Champhai South and Serchhip constituencies. 

Zoramthanga won the Aizawl East-I seat for the fifth term.

The MNF is a constituent of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA). 

However, both the BJP and MNF fielded candidates separately in 40 and 39 seats, respectively.

IANS

N A top Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of instigating violence in Kerala.

State CPI-M Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, while speaking to the media in Delhi, lashed out at Modi for interacting with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cadres in the state via a video call on Friday.

“Through supporting shutdowns, Modi is instigating violence and that’s what he did. All this is being done to unsettle the state government here,” he said.

Modi interacted with his party cadres when the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party was observing a statewide shutdown after a 50-year-old man set himself on fire at a BJP protest venue on Thursday and later succumbed to his injuries.

The BJP state unit has been protesting ever since the Kerala government has been trying to implement the Supreme Court order of opening the Sabarimala temple to women of all ages.

“The BJP in Kerala is trying to enter the Guinness with the record of holding shutdowns for anything and everything. Shutdown protests are called only in extreme cases,” added Balakrishnan, who is in Delhi to attend the central committee meeting of CPI-M. 

The petitioner submitted that the statement by Rahul Gandhi had hurt Amit Shah’s sentiment and tarnished the image of the party.

Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha leader filed the petition against Rahul Gandhi.
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A local court on Wednesday issued summons to Congress president Rahul Gandhi for allegedly making a controversial statement against his BJP counterpart Amit Shah.

Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate Ajay Kumar Gudia, who had reserved the order after hearing a petition in this regard on November 28, directed that summons be issued against Mr Gandhi.

In his petition, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) leader Naveen Jha alleged that Mr Gandhi had made the statement against Mr Shah on March 18 during the national convention of the Congress.

The BJYM is the youth wing of the BJP.

The petitioner submitted that the statement had hurt his sentiment and tarnished the image of the party.

Earlier this year, the same SDJM’s court had rejected the petition of Naveen Jha, an executive member of Jha

He appealed before the court of Judicial Commissioner Navneet Kumar against the rejection order. Ajay Kumar set aside the SDJM’s order and directed the lower court to hear the petition again.

An IndiGo flight from Mumbai to Lucknow via Delhi was grounded after a woman passenger alerted the Mumbai Airport authorities of an alleged bomb threat on Saturday,

official sources said.The passenger, identified as Uma Narayan Kannadasan, 41, who was travelling to New Delhi on a GoAir flight G8-329, approached an IndiGo check-in counter and informed officials that there was a bomb on the airline’s flight 6E 3612, an airport source said.She also provided photos of some people claiming they were behind planting the bomb and could be “a threat to the nation”.The CISF immediately escorted her to the Airport Police Station and she was subjected to sustained questioning in the matter.

Meanwhile, the airport authorities declared the bomb threat as “specific” and a detailed search of all passengers was carried out.However, the IndiGo claimed in a statement later that the woman passenger “was found to be in a mentally unsound state”.Nevertheless, the airline said it had reported the matter to the authorities and implemented the normal security protocol and the flight departed after an hour’s delay,