Infrastructure plus Hindutva push: Karnataka BJP follows the UP way

The Indian Express | 3 weeks ago | 20-06-2022 | 05:40 pm

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day tour of Karnataka beginning Monday is the first since the BJP carried out a change of guard in the state last July by replacing veteran leader B S Yediyurappa with Basavaraj Bommai. The two-day tour is seen as a sign of the BJP pushing its development agenda to the foreground of public attention in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly elections, implementing a strategy that worked for it in Uttar Pradesh.Modi is set to inaugurate infrastructure projects and dedicate some existing projects to the nation before participating in a World Yoga Day event in Mysuru on Tuesday.“The BJP strategy ahead of polls in all states is to highlight development projects through the Prime Minister in the final lap before the polls. The PM’s visit to unveil several projects in Karnataka is part of the strategy ahead of the state polls,” said a source in the BJP.The highlight of the infrastructure push is a Bengaluru suburban rail project, valued at Rs 15,767 crore, that has existed on paper for over 30 years. PM Modi will lay the foundation stone for the project, which aims to provide mass transit connectivity to the suburbs of Bengaluru and the city’s satellite towns.The PM will also lay the foundation stone for two railway projects and dedicate to the nation four railway projects that are up and running, including the 100 per cent electrification of the Konkan Railway at a cost of Rs 1,287 crore. He will also lay the foundation stone of five highway linkage projects around Bengaluru with a total length of 186 km and an estimated cost of Rs 7,231 crore.Modi arrived around 11.55 am at the Yelahanka Indian Air Force airbase and travelled to the Indian Institute of Science by helicopter to inaugurate a Brain Cell Research Centre established at a cost of Rs 450 cr by Infosys Ltd co-founder and former CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan and lay the foundation stone for an 850-bed research hospital that is being funded by the tech firm MindTree.The PM was also scheduled to dedicate to the nation 150 Industrial Training Institutes that have received technological upgrades at a cost of Rs 4,736 crore, and will also inaugurate the Babasaheb Dr B R Ambedkar School of Economics University (BASE), which was originally conceived and developed by the previous Congress-led state government.“A double-engine government is definitely beneficial. Many projects have smooth sailing if the doors of Delhi are open. Policies are framed in Delhi, it is the international gateway. Only a double-engine government can help states achieve international standards in infrastructure,” Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said ahead of the PM’s visit. The state had benefited from PM Modi’s vision for development, he added.The BJP’s strategy is the same as what worked for it in Uttar Pradesh, where the development agenda, alongside a Hindutva push, subsumed caste identities and patronage politics to help the party overcome anti-incumbency in the elections earlier this year.Bommai said earlier this year that the big takeaway for Karnataka from the poll verdict in four states, including UP, was that “caste-based politics has been defeated by politics based on principles” and that people had accepted Hindutva politics in a big way.“We have the strength of Modi ji’s reputation with us. We have the strength of our programs and the strength of our organisation. If we work together and move ahead we can set the narrative and the agenda. We can come to power on our own strength in 2023. I am fully confident,” Bommai said earlier this year while felicitating BJP leaders from Karnataka who were deployed for election work in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Goa.Despite the inauguration of many centrally funded projects on Monday by the PM, the Karnataka government is lagging behind schedule in the implementation of several projects in Bengaluru. “There are many more projects yet to be executed. Most of these projects are pending because of pulls and pressures of vested interests, lack of political will, and administrational drawbacks. Strict monitoring is required as timely execution of these projects is a must for the party to gain the electoral support of citizens,” said a BJP leader.

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Daily Briefing: Shiv Sena extends support to presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu; SIT to probe cases against Mohammad Zubair

The Indian Express | 10 hours ago | 13-07-2022 | 11:40 am

The Indian Express

10 hours ago | 13-07-2022 | 11:40 am

Good morning, In a fresh setback for Yashwant Sinha’s already-faltering presidential bid, the Shiv Sena has extended its support to the NDA’s presidential candidate, Droupadi Murmu. Shiv Sena chief and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray made the announcement after a meeting with party MPs, where several leaders “requested” him to support Murmu and open the door to a possible reconciliation with the BJP and the breakaway Shinde faction.Why this matters: The Opposition, including the Congress and NCP — the Sena’s MVA allies — has fielded Yashwant Sinha for the July 18 presidential polls. Uddhav’s decision comes just weeks after the MVA government led by him was pulled down by the BJP and Shiv Sena rebel leader Eknath Shinde. What went wrong: It was never meant to be an extremely tight race — the Opposition had, in fact, framed the contest as a fight between two ideologies — but the campaign has unravelled faster than expected. Further, Sinha’s candidature has split the Opposition. The BSP, JD(S) and Akali Dal announced support to Murmu; ties between allies Congress and the JMM in Jharkhand are strained as the latter, which heads the government, is set to be leaning towards backing the NDA nominee.In the latest instalment of the Indian Express’ Uber Files investigation, we take a look at how the ride-hailing app signed a spree of MoUs with the Centre and many state governments a year after the rape of a 25-year-old passenger by an Uber driver. But most of these proposals remain on paper. What we found: According to records, the company’s public policy head Jordan Condo wanted Uber to “establish public-private partnerships with the government and have influence within the government invested in the success of our business”. Apart from approaching the Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment; Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; Electronics and Information Technology, and Labour and Employment, among others, in the Centre, it also knocked on government doors in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Haryana. But all these MoUs either failed to take off or stalled after launch.India’s factory output, measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), came in at a 12-month high of 19.6 per cent in May, compared with a 6.7 per cent growth reported in April, partly on account of the base effect, data from the National Statistical Office showed. An Assistant Sub-Inspector was killed and two policemen injured as militants attacked a checkpoint at Lalbazar in Srinagar, amid multi-layered security cover put in place for the ongoing Amarnath Yatra. The Uttar Pradesh government formed a two-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe six cases lodged against Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair. Of the six cases, two cases are lodged in Hathras district while one case each is registered in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Ghaziabad and Muzaffarnagar.The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has removed some crucial data from its Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) website which include a list of NGOs whose licences have been cancelled, and the annual returns of NGOs. The MHA did not offer any official comment on this move, but officials said it was done because the data was considered “unnecessary” for public viewing.On July 5, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel launched Vande Gujarat Vikas Yatra, a two-week publicity blitzkrieg on two decades of the BJP government. Though the BJP first came to power in the state in 1995, with Keshubhai Patel as CM, the latest campaign is on the period between 2002 — when Narendra Modi took over as chief minister – and 2022. While the programme focuses squarely on the work done under the leadership of Narendra Modi as chief minister from 2001 to 2014, it makes no mention of Modi’s predecessor Keshubhai or the other two CMs of the party – Modi’s successor Anandiben Patel and Vijay Rupani.In our opinion section today, Shreenath A Khimka writes on what the Thackeray-Shinde feud means for Maharashtra: “In this grand game of political chess, Thackeray’s stalemate is likely to persist. Shinde’s Sena may turn the tables by petitioning the new Speaker to disqualify the Thackeray group. However, the real battle for the Sena’s legacy will be fought before the Election Commission.”India’s favourable demographic dividend is at an inflection point of sorts, with the population share of the youth starting to taper off even as the share of the elderly is expected to steadily surge during 2021-2036. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which experienced a rise in proportion of youth population to total population till 2021, are expected to see a decline from hereon, according to the ‘Youth in India 2022’ report released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.A former college champion in track and field, a winner at multiple national and Asian masters athletics championships, CPI (M) leader MJ Jacob bagged bronze in two hurdles — 200m and 80m — in World Masters Athletics Championship 2022 that ended in Tampere, Finland, on July 10. Jacob won medals in the 80-plus category.🤫 Delhi Confidential: When Priyanka Gandhi landed in Mumbai airport amid the political crisis in Maharashtra, the party was quick to clarify that she was only transitioning through the city on her way to Maldives to be with her daughter, who is completing an instructor level diving course there. The party was, however, silent on Tuesday when it became known that Rahul Gandhi has left for abroad again on a brief personal visit.🎧 In today’s episode of the ‘3 Things’ podcast, we look at the political crisis faced by Congress in Goa, UN population report, and RSS on Islamic radicalization.Until next time,Rahel Philipose and Srishti Kapoor

Goa: Day after skipping meet with Wasnik, ex-CM Kamat says he was not invited

The Indian Express | 16 hours ago | 13-07-2022 | 05:40 am

The Indian Express

16 hours ago | 13-07-2022 | 05:40 am

A day after the crisis in the Goa Congress seemed to have been averted, the party may still have a lot of damage control to do. Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, the only MLA who did not meet AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik on Monday, said that he was not called even as he was expecting an invite.On Sunday, AICC Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao had accused both Kamat and Lobo of conspiring with BJP to engineer the defection of at least eight of 11 Congress MLAs to BJP. A day later, Lobo was back at the Congress House to meet Wasnik and Rao, but Kamat was absent.Cut up about being divested of his responsibilities, Kamat said he was the only MLA from the previous Assembly who was left in the Congress before the 2022 polls. “If I had to go (to BJP) I could have gone before the election,” he said.“I led the party from the front. And this is the reward they are giving me by filing some disqualification petition for anti-party activities. What anti-party activities? I am unable to understand. Whatever it is, I will face it. Disqualification is something which will be taken care of by my lawyers. But the party should find out the people doing all this. Do they want the party to progress or they want it to go from bad to worse?” he said.He said, he was not aware of who was receiving offers from the BJP. “There may be some people who might be happy if I go out of the Congress. I have no such intention…my hard work for the party for so many years has no value…You feel sad,” he said.Meanwhile, more trouble seemed to be brewing for Congress legislator Micheal Lobo and his wife Delilah Lobo. Town and Country Planning minister Vishwajit Rane, who had promised to expose the “illegalities perpetrated in the the areas of Calangute, Parra, Arpora-Nagoa and Vasco-da-Gama”, tabled a report in the Assembly on Tuesday.Over the last few months, he exchanged barbs with Lobo, and properties co-owned by Lobo were issued notices by the TCP and the FDA. Lobo is the MLA from Calangute. Rane had earlier alleged that he (Lobo) had misused his position as then chairman of the North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA) and illegally changed land use in the Outline Development Plans.On Tuesday, Rane said properties in these areas have been reverted to their original status. “Goa has to be protected for posterity…I have deliberately not mentioned anybody’s name today. You will come to know in a jiffy what has happened, who was chairman (of the NGPDA),” said Rane.A committee under the Chief Secretary and two IAS officers will fix responsibility in the case which deals with “mass-scale destruction of Goa”, said Rane.Lobo, however, said he had no problem if any land was reverted to its earlier land use. He said only the land use status of one plot had been changed for building a hospitality management institute for which permission was taken from the panchayat concerned.

All the gods in the world fall short before men: Cong ‘loyalty’ pledge up in air

The Indian Express | 1 day ago | 12-07-2022 | 05:40 pm

The Indian Express

1 day ago | 12-07-2022 | 05:40 pm

More than two years after 10 of its 15 MLAs walked over to the BJP and “merged” the two legislature parties, the Goa Congress in the run-up to the Assembly elections earlier this year assured voters that defection like the one in July 2019 would not be repeated.On January 22, the Congress took 36 of its election candidates to the Mahalaxmi temple in Panaji and the Holy Cross Shrine in Bambolim, while the 34 men in the group also went to the Hamza Shah Dargah in Betim, to pledge that if elected they would remain in the party through the term and not defect.But almost six months down the line, the Congress again found itself in the middle of a defection storm. On Sunday, senior MLAs Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo were accused of conspiring with the BJP to engineer the defection of at least eight of the 11 Congress MLAs. The Opposition party on Monday filed disqualification petitions against the two senior leaders even as they claimed to still be with the party. Later in the night, the crisis seemed to have blown over for the moment as Lobo met All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Mukul Wasnik.Both Lobo and Kamat were part of the group that took the loyalty pledge back in January. “At the feet of Goddess Mahalaxmi, all 36 of us pledge that we will remain loyal to the Congress party that has given us tickets. We pledge that the elected candidates will remain with the party in all circumstances …,” the candidates said at the temple.Following a similar pledge at the Bambolim Cross, the 34 men in the group offered a chaadar at the dargah. The pledge was widely publicised by the Congress to assure voters that this time its MLAs could be trusted not to switch sides. At the time, Kamat said, “We are very serious about this and will not allow any party to poach our MLAs. We are god-fearing people. We have full faith in the Almighty. Hence, today we have taken a pledge that we will not defect.”The Congress candidates made the same declaration in an affidavit signed in the presence of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on February 4. The party’s ally Goa Forward Party also signed a declaration of loyalty. All this drew derision from the BJP, which asked how the Congress expected voters to trust its candidates if it did not trust them.The following week, at an event in Margao, Gandhi responded, saying, “That (pledge) function was a demonstration of intent. It does not mean we do not trust our candidates. It is a demonstration that, we feel, we have a group of candidates who have integrity and who are going to work to form a government.”He also defended the party’s stance to shut its doors to the MLAs who defected in 2019, even those comfortably placed to win their seats. “The people of Goa said they don’t want defectors and we accepted that with all our heart … the decision about defectors is not wrong. It is 100 per cent right,” Gandhi told the audience in Margao.But, with fear of divine retribution failing to prevent another attempt at a mass defection of its MLAs to the ruling party, the Congress despatched Mukul Wasnik to Goa. The senior Congress leader, accompanied by Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao and state unit president Amit Patkar, met Lobo, his wife Delilah, and MLAs Kedar Naik and Rajesh Faldessai on Monday night. Except for Kamat, all other Congress MLAs met Wasnik — first for a meeting of the legislature party, and then for one-on-one discussions.After the meetings, Lobo, who had been labelled a “traitor” just the day before by the party, reiterated that he was still in the Congress while Patkar said the Calangute MLA and Kamat had changed their stance because they failed to get eight MLAs to their side in order to dodge the anti-defection law. Eight of the Congress’s 11 MLAs in the Assembly are newcomers while both Lobo and Kamat have a history with the BJP.The Congress may have averted a disaster for the time being, but in a season of heavy downpours in Goa the dark clouds of defection never seem too far away for the party.

Presidential poll fight against misuse of central agencies: Yashwant Sinha

The Indian Express | 1 day ago | 12-07-2022 | 11:40 am

The Indian Express

1 day ago | 12-07-2022 | 11:40 am

Opposition’s candidate Yashwant Sinha on Monday said the July 18 presidential poll is a fight against the “misuse” of central agencies by the Union government.Sinha said if he becomes the president, the misuse of central agencies will be stopped.He also alleged that the BJP and the government led by it at the Centre are “deliberately” creating an atmosphere of hate in the country.Sinha attacked the Centre over its economic policies, declining growth and the fall in rupee exchange rate.However, he said India will not see a situation like Sri Lanka.Sinha said the elections are being held in unusual circumstances.“All know what is the condition of the country. An atmosphere of hate is being created and pushed deliberately by the BJP and the Government of India,” he told reporters.“This is also a fight against those agencies which are being misused by the Centre. I do not know what will happen to me after the elections,” he said.Saying that the country saw a “silent president” in the past five years, Sinha asserted that the misuse of central agencies will be stopped if he is elected the president.He will call the prime minister and ask him to speak on the issues which are raised by the Rajasthan CM, Sinha said referring to the demand of Ashok Gehlot that that the PM should address the nation on the current situation of tension, hate and violence in the country.Responding to a question about the Sri Lanka economic crisis and India, Sinha said the crisis like it will not be seen in India. “I can say that India will not become Sri Lanka,” he said.He also attacked the BJP over political developments in Maharashtra and now in Goa and said such development took place before the presidential election so that the number of opposition votes does not increase.He said politics based on consensus, which was there in the era of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has now ended. Now, there is politics on conflict, he said.After the press conference, Sinha met MLAs of the Congress and others supporting him.

BJP leaders asked police not to act against accused after landlord plaint: CM Ashok Gehlot

The Indian Express | 1 day ago | 12-07-2022 | 05:40 am

The Indian Express

1 day ago | 12-07-2022 | 05:40 am

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Monday that when the landlord of the Udaipur murder accused complained to the local police about the men, BJP leaders had allegedly called and asked them to not take any action against the accused.“Everybody knows how the main accused (in the Udaipur murder case) had connections with the BJP and at what level. Recently news came that the landlord of the rented place where they used to live…the landlord is also Muslim, he complained to the police that they were troubling him… some people used to come to his house, threaten, and also he didn’t get rent. Before the police could act, BJP leaders called the police station saying that he is our worker and don’t bother him,” Gehlot told reporters.Speaking on the sidelines of a joint press conference with opposition’s presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha, Gehlot said that the whole world knows that those accused of murdering tailor Kanhaiya Lal ‘were sitting on whose lap.’When asked by the media how the police, which comes under the Congress government in the state, can listen to the opposition BJP, Gehlot said, “Maine aapko ghatana batayi, ki phone gaye wahan pe. Zaruri nahin ki unki baat maani gayi ho. Jo khabrein aa rahi hai mere paas mein, wo maine share ki bas (I told you about the incident, that phone calls were made… It’s not necessary that what they (BJP) said was accepted. I just shared the news that I am getting).”When contacted, BJP MLA and deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore said that Gehlot should not make ‘baseless’ allegations.“If the Chief Minister has such evidence with him that the accused are associated with any leaders of the BJP, then why he is sitting quietly? He also has ATS and other security agencies at his disposal. These types of baseless statements reduce the seriousness of the matter,” said Rathore, denying that the two accused had any connection with the BJP.The two main accused in the killing of Lal — Mohammad Riyaz and Ghouse Mohammad — had also made a video of the murder and in separate videos had said that Lal was killed as he had shared a post in support of BJP’s Nupur Sharma’s comments on the Prophet.Of the duo, Riyaz lived in a rented accommodation in Udaipur.The Congress has consistently been alleging that the two accused were associated with the BJP, an allegation that has been denied by the saffron party.Presidential poll fight against misuse of central agencies: SinhaOpposition’s candidate Yashwant Sinha on Monday said the July 18 presidential poll is a fight against the central agencies that are being misused by the Union government, PTI reported.Sinha said if he becomes the president, the misuse of central agencies will be stopped.He also alleged that the BJP and the government led by it at the Centre are “deliberately” creating an atmosphere of hate in the country.Sinha attacked the Centre over its economic policies, declining growth and the fall in rupee exchange rate.However, he said India will not see a situation like Sri Lanka.Sinha said the elections are being held in unusual circumstances.He will call the prime minister and ask him to speak on the issues which are raised by the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Sinha said referring to the demand of Ashok Gehlot that the Prime Minister should address the nation on the current situation of tension, hate and violence in the country.He also attacked the BJP over political developments in Maharashtra and now in Goa and said such development took place before the presidential election so that the number of opposition votes does not increase.He said politics based on consensus, which was there in the era of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has now ended. Now, there is politics on conflict, he said.

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