The BJP on Wednesday accused the Congress and the TMC of “murdering democracy” by devising a strategy to disrupt Rajya Sabha proceedings to prevent Home Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP President Amit Shah from speaking on the NRC issue.

Accusing the two opposition parties of evading a debate over the National Register of Citizens issue in Assam, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) also asked the Congress to clarify its stand on the matter.

“Today Shahji and Rajnathji were not allowed to speak in the Rajya Sabha. This was a planned strategy by the opposition. The Congress and the TMC don’t want to let the house run,” BJP leader Prakash Javadekar told the media here.

“The Congress and the TMC have murdered democracy,” he alleged, adding that in the Rajya Sabha, its Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu had asked Shah to complete his speech that remained incomplete due to disruptions in the house on Tuesday.

He said that about 20 members spoke on Tuesday. “But when the BJP and the government wanted to speak the Congress and the TMC created a ruckus and we condemn it,” he said.

“Even Chairman Naidu said that he sees a conspiracy in the agitation by opposition members and their attempt to stall the proceedings,” Javadekar said.

“What do the Congress and TMC fear? Why are they running away from discussion? Why dont they want to listen to replies? Whom do they want to save?”

Earlier, BJP President was scheduled to continue his incomplete speech in the Rajya Sabha but prevented due to ruckus created by the opposition members over the NRC.

Slamming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Javadekar said: “We know what Banerjee wants. She is opposing the NRC; she is in favour of the infiltrators.”

Earlier in the day, TMC member Sukhendu Shekhar Roy raised a point of order and said that as per the rules of conduct of the upper house, a member cannot speak twice on the same issue if he fails to complete his speech in the first instance.

But his point of order was rejected by the Chairman, who said he had given Shah permission to complete his speech and asked the BJP chief to continue.

As the TMC members continued with the protest and did not let Rajnath Singh speak, Naidu adjourned the house for the day.

The Indian Army, the Navy and Air Force are facing a shortage of more than 9,000 officers, the government said on Wednesday.

The Indian Army alone is short of 7,298 officers, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

He said the Army has an authorised strength of 49,933 officers but as on January 1, 2018 it had only 42,635.

The Indian Army is considered the second largest army in the world with 1.4 million officers and others, according to the World Atlas 2018 report.

The Indian Navy has a sanctioned strength of 11,352 officers but has only 9,746 – a shortage of 1,606, according to data as on July 1, 2018.

Similarly, the Air Force’s authorised strength of officers is 12,584 but it has only 12,392 and is short of 192.

The minister said recruitment in the Armed Forces was a continuous process and the government was taking a number of measures to reduce the shortages.

“These include sustained image projection, participation in career fairs and exhibitions and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career.”

The government, he said, had as well taken various steps to make Armed Forces’ jobs attractive including improvement in promotion prospects.

“To attract youth including the rural youth to join the Armed Forces various steps are taken such as giving wide publicity to recruitment in the Armed Forces through advertisement in print and audio-visual media.

“Recruitment of Personnel Below Officers Ranks (PBORs) in the Army is carried out through open rally system being conducted regularly throughout the country. Efforts are made to cover the entire country including remote and tribal areas.”

In the Navy, the minister said, regular recruitment drives are also undertaken for recruitment of sailors.

Recruitment of Airmen in the Air Force is done on all India basis through scheduled selection tests as recruitment rallies are also conducted in different parts of the country including tribal areas.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday wondered if the situation in Jammu and Kashmir had deteriorated so badly that the government was afraid of allowing foreign correspondents to report freely from the state.

Annie Gowen, the India bureau chief of Washington Post, tweeted on Tuesday that she was in Kashmir for a friend’s wedding.

But she said she was not reporting because the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs had not granted the special permit now required for foreign correspondents. She said she applied for it on June 22. “Unacceptable delay.”

The National Conference leader took exception to the denial of permission to Gowen.

“Has the situation in Kashmir deteriorated to such an extent that we are now afraid to let foreign correspondents report freely from Kashmir? Another crowning achievement of BJP’s Kashmir policy ably assisted by its partner in crime the PDP.”

In the early 1990s too, foreign journalists had to seek permission from the Home Ministry to report from Jammu and Kashmir.

BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa today sought to know what contribution H D Deve Gowda had made as the country’s Prime Minister.

Yeddyurappa made the remarks while addressing Lingayat seers who staged a demonstration at Belagavi against alleged injustice meted out to North Karnataka. The seers demanded an overall development of North Karnataka but did not support bifurcation of the state.

“Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda has asked what contribution (former chief ministers) Nijalingappa, S R Bommai and Veerendra Patil have made for North Karnataka. While giving such statements, he should think of what he had contributed as the prime minister of India. We should avoid making accusations and counter-accusations,” Yeddyurappa said.

A large number of Lingayat seers, including Shivalingeshwara Swamiji of Nidasoshi Math, Chandrashekhar Shivacharya Swamiji of Hukkeri and Naganur Rudrakshi Math pontiff Siddharam Swamiji, took part in the protest.

Yeddyurappa, however, did not support dividing Karnataka and said whatever shortcomings were there could be set right. He blamed chief minister H D Kumaraswamy for giving room to the demand for statehood for North Karnataka.

“I have already told him (Kumaraswamy) that you are the chief minister of 224 assembly constituencies and not of a limited number of districts,” the BJP state chief said.

He said the government should release more funds to the region understanding the grievances of the people of North Karnataka. Yeddyurappa said the chief minister should have come to meet the seers, apologized for his statements and rectify the “injustice meted out to North Karnataka.”

Meanwhile, Congress MLA from Yamakanmardi, Satish Jarkiholi, too backed the agitation and demanded that the government address the region’s grievances.

Veteran Congress leader, political stalwart Kagodu Thimmappa, announced his retirement from active politics in order to spend more time with family on Tuesday.

The 85-year-old leader made it clear that he does not plan to contest elections stating that he was content with the work he has done so far and would involve himself in social work henceforth.

Thimmappa’s political debut began with the Socialist party. In 1980 he joined the Congress party was a member of both Fifth Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council and later served as Minister for Food and Forest in Sri Gundu Rao Ministry and then became the Minister of Public Works during the same year. He held the Social Welfare portfolio in SM Krishna government and the Revenue portfolio in the Siddaramaiah government. He had also served as the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.

He was elected to the Assembly five times from Sagar constituency in Shivamogga district. He, however, lost in the 2018 Assembly election against BJP candidate Hartal Halappa by a margin of more than 8,000 votes

The Rajya Sabha was on Wednesday adjourned till 12 noon minutes after it met for the day over BJP chief Amit Shah’s remarks made in the House on Tuesday regarding the Assam NRC.

As soon as the House met, Congress members stood up to register their protest against Shah’s remarks.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma asked Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu to expunge Shah’s comments wherein he said “you did not have the courage, but we have it to implement the NRC”.

Naidu said that he would look into it and would expunge any remarks that were found uncalled for.

He then said that since Shah could not complete his speech on Tuesday, he should be given a chance to resume his speech on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam.

The opposition members objected to it. Amid the noise, Naidu adjourned the House till 12 noon.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday sought to dismiss talk of her being a Prime Ministerial candidate, saying her priority was the ousting of the BJP government at the Centre for which the opposition should come together.

“I am nobody. I am a very simple worker. Let me just continue as a commoner. I want that this government must go, this BJP government. They are doing maximum political vendetta and atrocities with the people. So we want that everybody should be united. Let us work together, don’t think of Prime Ministerial candidate. Think of the country,” she told the media in Parliament House.

Banerjee, who has upped the ante on the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, said that 40 lakh people whose names were missing from the list were the family members of this country. “They belong to various states. They are our family members. They should not tell people to go out.”

Asked about BJP President Amit Shah’s statement that he would be going to West Bengal to address a rally on August 11, she said: “Let him go. Let him go all the 365 days. Bengal is for everybody. Bengal welcomes everybody. It is their party problem.”

In reply to a question on Shah’s comment about infiltrators and her remarks about a bloodbath, the Trinamool Congress chief said: “What I am saying is that what the BJP is doing will create a bloodbath. They are playing with fire.”

Asked about her meetings with various political parties including BJP leader L.K. Advani, she said: “I have been a Member of Parliament for seven times. I have maintained best of relations with all. And it is a kind of courtesy meeting.”

The Maharashtra government has approved over Rs 7,000 crore to complete the drinking water projects in scarcity-hit areas, state minister Babanrao Lonikar said.

The government is committed to providing water to all villages that are perennially dry, the water supply and sanitation minister said in a release issued last night. Under the National Rural Drinking Water Scheme, the government has approved a proposal of Rs 7,952 crore for completing 6,624 water projects in 10,583 villages, he said.

The jumbo proposal is aimed at the completion of works in Konkan, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati, Nagpur and Pune divisions. Nearly 6,500 projects have already been completed in the last four years by spending Rs 5,500 crore, Lonikar said.

During the last four years, the main emphasis was to complete the pending projects, he said. The water supply department ensured that funds were properly utilized and action was taken against district bodies misusing the money, he added.

Notably, the Marathwada region of Maharashtra is a perennially drought-hit area. The region received only 86 percent of its average rainfall last year, a senior revenue official had earlier said.

DMK leader M.K. Stalin on Wednesday said he was shocked to learn about the reported death of 21 party cadres in shock and grief following the hospitalization of party leader M. Karunanidhi.

In a statement, Stalin urged the party members not to resort to activities that will lead to their death.

Karunanidhi’s son expressed his condolences to the families of the dead DMK members.

Citing the statement of Kauvery Hospital where the 94-year old veteran politician is admitted, Stalin said their leader’s health was normalizing.

On July 31, the hospital said Karunanidhi will have to be remain warded for an extended period owing to age-related health issues including altered liver function.

Karunanidhi, who was Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister for five times and who has never lost an election in the 13 times he has contested, was admitted to the Kauvery Hospital on July 28 following a drop in blood pressure.

“He was resuscitated and stabilized in the ICU (intensive care unit) and managed by a team of doctors and nurses,” the statement said.

“There was a setback on his clinical condition on July 29 due to difficulty in breathing. He responded well to medical management and his vital signs are gradually normalized,” it said.

According to the hospital, Karunanidhi continues to maintain his vital signs with active medical support.