Presidential poll fight against misuse of central agencies: Yashwant Sinha

The Indian Express | 26 minutes 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.

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

The Indian Express | 6 hours ago | 12-07-2022 | 05:40 am

The Indian Express

6 hours 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.

Congress averts split for now as MLA Micheal Lobo meets Mukul Wasnik

The Indian Express | 8 hours ago | 12-07-2022 | 03:40 am

The Indian Express

8 hours ago | 12-07-2022 | 03:40 am

Nearly 24 hours after he was labelled a “traitor” and “backstabber” by his party, Congress MLA Micheal Lobo was back at the Congress House in Panaji on Monday for a discussion with AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, who was despatched from Delhi in the face of a split in the state unit. Wasnik later said, “It was a very good discussion”.Party’s in-charge for Goa Dinesh Gundu Rao had accused Lobo and former CM Digambar Kamat of hatching a conspiracy with the BJP to make at least eight of 11 Congress MLAs defect to the BJP.The future of Lobo and Kamat in the party seems to be hanging in the balance as the Congress party filed a petition before the Assembly Speaker seeking their disqualification.Lobo, his wife Delilah Lobo, and MLAs Kedar Naik and Rajesh Faldessai, who skipped the press conference called on Sunday, met Wasnik, Rao and Goa Congress president Amit Patkar.Rao laughed when asked if Lobo was still a “traitor”. “Congress is a large-hearted party but certain things still have to be resolved. I can’t say everything. Whatever we have done, we have done,” he told The Indian Express.While Kamat stayed away from the meeting of the legislature party, Lobo, who left the Congress House at nearly 11pm on Monday, said that the party had no ground to seek his disqualification but it would be the Speaker’s decision ultimately. “Not attending a press conference cannot be the grounds for disqualification. I told them that they are making a mockery of their own party,” said Lobo.“I have told him we have been elected from the Congress and our term is of five years. I have made my stand very clear. We are not going anywhere. No matter who the leader is or who is trying to engineer defections, we are strongly with the party,” Lobo said.The storm may have blown over but the fissures in the Goa Congress were apparent on Monday. Lobo also conceded that there cannot be smoke without a fire. “There was smoke. I will not deny that but whoever was engineering it was engineering it for everyone. They were told that Micheal has to be kept out,” he said.“We held a meeting with our members of the legislature party today. It was a very good discussion. The Assembly session is on…we discussed how the Congress can play an active role in the House,” Wasnik said after the meeting, skirting questions about the party’s move to seek Lobo’s disqualification.Lobo and Kamat both attended the first of the Monsoon Session of the Assembly on Monday and took their places in the Opposition benches.

BJP reckons Keshubhai’s reign as ‘kushaasan’: Cong’s Kagathara

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

The Indian Express

11 hours ago | 12-07-2022 | 12:40 am

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rode to power in Gujarat for the first time on Keshubhai Patel’s shoulders, is today reckoning Patel’s reign as years of “kushaasan” (misrule) and is ignoring him and insulting Saurashtra to glorify a few individuals during the ongoing Vande Gujarat campaign of the state government, said Congress Working President Lalit Kagathara Monday.“Today, the Gujarat government is celebrating 20 years of sushaasan (good governance)… The BJP has been in power in Gujarat for the past 27 years… but why (only) 20 years of the sushaasan? Was it kusaashan during the initial seven years?” Kagathara said while addressing his maiden press conference in Rajkot after being appointed as a working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) last week. The two-week-long Vande Gujarat Vikas Yatra campaign was launched by the state government on July 5 to showcase the development works in the state since 2002. Modi had served as Gujarat CM from 2001 to 2014 before he became Prime Minister.The Congress leader charged that the BJP indeed treats Keshubhai Patel’s reign as kushaasan. “Who was at the helm during the initial seven years? It was no one else but Saurashtra’s panota putra (darling son) Keshubhai Savdasbhai Patel. But BJP treats his reign as kushaasan.”While the Congress firmly believes that it has been “kushaasan” during the BJP’s reign in Gujarat for the past 27 years, the saffron party is insulting Saurashtra by not acknowledging Keshubhai’s contributions, Kagathara said. “It was during Keshubhai’s reign that Porbandar (was freed from the grip of gangsters) and Latif (the underworld don of Ahmedabad) was arrested. Dams were constructed in Saurashtra and yet, if the BJP reckons it as kushaasan, it is an insult to the entire Saurashtra,” he said.Keshubhai, a Patidar leader who hailed from Rajkot in Saurashtra, had rallied his numerically strong community behind the BJP to capture power for the first time in 1998. He had two stints as the chief minister of Gujarat—from March 1995 to October 1995, and March 1998 to October 2001. He was succeeded by Narendra Modi in 2001 after the BJP asked him to resign.But Kagathra, himself a Patidar and a Congress MLA from Tankara Assembly seat in Morbi, alleged the BJP has abandoned principles and started worshiping individuals. “These people have abandoned principles and instead taken up vyaktipuja (worshiping individuals). They have reduced themselves to a sale-purchase firm which, like the Dhundhiya rakshas (a devil in mythology), sees only power and runs after it like a hungry wolf,” said the Congress leader citing defections in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Goa.He added that the development works in Gujarat have happened in ‘natural course’ and the BJP had little claim over credit for it. He also said that by the time BJP returned to power in 2014, Congress had nurtured the country in its youth. “They ask as to what did the Congress do during its reign. As a matter of fact, the Congress raised the country into a strapping 25-year-old young man by the time the BJP came to power. It is for the BJP to decide whether to make this 25-year-old a druggist or lead him on to the right path,” he said.The Congress leader also urged the BJP government to slide the depreciation of rupee, vis-à-vis the US dollar, and provide jobs to youth; else India will soon descend into a crisis like Sri Lanka. He also demanded incentives to industries for exports and irrigation water and good crop prices to farmers. “A free-falling rupee is stymying Indian industries while inflating our imports bill. If the government doesn’t provide export incentives, industries will suffer,” he said. 

Newsmaker | Digambar Kamat, the sulking Goa veteran now at the centre of Cong ‘rebellion’

The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 11-07-2022 | 05:40 pm

The Indian Express

18 hours ago | 11-07-2022 | 05:40 pm

In April, soon after the elections, the Congress made 68-year-old Digambar Kamat, the most senior of its 11 in MLAs a permanent member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s top decision making body.However, Kamat wasn’t happy. Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the previous Assembly, he was divested of responsibilities in the state as part of the Congress’s bid to promote its Gen Next leaders – while 38-year-old Amit Patkar was made president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), Micheal Lobo, a BJP leader who joined the party just ahead of the Assembly election, was made leader of the legislature party.Kamat, the veteran who had been at the forefront of the Congress’s activities in Goa, has taken a backseat since then, describing himself as “retired hurt”.Ahead of the elections in February, Kamat was the only MLA the Congress had with it from among the 17 who were elected in the 2017 Assembly elections – while 10 MLAs defected to the BJP in 2019, veteran Pratap Singh Rane backed out ahead of the election, one joined the BJP and the other the TMC, and one MLA contested as an Independent.As party veteran and as someone who had stayed with the party when its fortunes hit rock-bottom, Kamat was seen the frontrunner for the CM post had Congress formed the government. Kamat had served as chief minister of Goa from 2007 to 2012, the last Congress government in the state.While Kamat was not named chief ministerial candidate, he had kept his hopes alive as AICC Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao had said, “Everyone knows who will be the Chief Minister if the Congress forms the government.”Kamat has been elected from his fortress of Margao seven times, during which he has oscillated between the Congress and the BJP. While his journey began in the Congress, Kamat joined the BJP in 1994 and won two elections as the party’s candidate from the party. In 2005, he joined the Congress once again. In 2007, with opinion divided on whether to choose Ravi Naik or Pratapsingh Rane as CM, the party finally named Kamat as a ‘compromise’. Kamat had joined the Congress two years before he was made CM for his second stint and was reportedly instrumental in bringing down the Manohar Parrikar-led BJP government in 2005.Before becoming CM in June 2007, Kamat served as the state’s minister for power, urban development, mines and art and culture.His chief ministership was, however, chequered. Kamat was accused in a case of bribery under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Along with then PWD minister Churchill Alemao, Kamat was also booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Alemao was PWD minister from 2007 to 2012 when officials of the US-based company Louis Berger allegedly paid bribes to win a consultancy bid for water augmentation and a sewerage pipeline project in Goa under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The case under the PMLA is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate and a court has framed charges against both Kamat and Alemao.Kamat, who served as mining minister of the state for 10 years, was in 2012 indicted by a judicial commission for reportedly allowing illegal mining in the state.Before he made his debut as MLA in 1995, Kamat had served as a councillor of the Margao Municipal Council from 1985 to 1990. Kamat, who has interests in real estate, described himself as an ‘agriculturist’ in his election affidavit and declared moveable assets worth Rs 6.87 crore and immovable assets worth Rs 3.21 crore. He holds a BSc degree from Mumbai University.

Newsmaker | Michael Lobo’s Congress stint so far: One leg in, one leg out

The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 11-07-2022 | 05:40 pm

The Indian Express

18 hours ago | 11-07-2022 | 05:40 pm

“You will know where I am at the right time,” Michael Lobo, 46, would frequently say in the months preceding the February Assembly elections. Soon after, he quit the BJP, in whose government he was Minister for Ports, Science and Technology, Rural Development and Waste Management, and joined the Congress, winning another term from Calangute.Months into the term of the new Assembly, Lobo’s remark then – “you will know where I am at the right time” – continues to hold true amid intense speculation over the last few days of him moving back to the BJP camp along with senior Congress leader Digambar Kamat and other Congress MLAs. The Congress had also removed Lobo from the post of leader of the legislature party in the 40-member Assembly.On Monday, however, Lobo and the others attended the Assembly proceedings and took his seat among his colleagues from the Congress. But it’s not over yet. The Congress has sought the disqualification of Kamat and Lobo as MLAs, with state unit president Amit Patkar and other leaders urging the Assembly Speaker to change seating arrangements in the House in accordance with the CLP resolution removing Lobo as CLP leader.Earlier this year, when Lobo severed his 15-year-old ties with the BJP and joined the Congress with wife Delilah and his supporters, it was seen as a shot in the arm for a crumbling Congress that had seen all but one of its MLAs leaving to join other parties or backing out of the election.Before he joined the Congress, Lobo was a minister in the previous BJP government led by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant but was often at odds with the government over statements he made in the press.A political heavyweight in Bardez, North Goa, Lobo was credited with the Congress’s win in four seats in the taluka, including Siolim, from where his wife Delilah won for the first time. Three-time MLA from the tourist hub of Calangute, Lobo, a businessman with interests in several hotels and restaurants, however, has been at the receiving end of the government’s recent check on “illegalities”.It was this that AICC’s Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao referred to at the late Sunday press conference, when he said about Lobo, “He has been working in the background with the BJP to save his own skin. Because of so many cases against him and so many problems he was facing, he has compromised himself.”Tension has been simmering between Lobo and Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister Vishwajit Rane for months. Properties co-owned by the Lobos have been issued notices by the Food and Drug Authority too. During the ongoing Assembly session, Rane had said that he would expose the “illegalities” allegedly perpetrated by Lobo during his tenure as the chairman of the North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA).When he joined the Congress in January, Lobo had said, “We have joined in the interest of Goa. The way forward for the people of Goa is only the Congress party… When I was deputy Speaker, I had taken a very strong stand. Defection has to end. You cannot switch sides. You have to resign,” he had said.Rao too had kind words for Lobo: “A very strong, powerful grass-root leader is joining the Congress party. He is connected to the common people, he works for them. He has established himself as a big leader not only in his constituency but all over the(Bardez) taluka….A big force has entered the Congress party.” On Sunday, however, Rao called Lobo a “traitor” and a “backstabber”.Clearly, six months is a long time for Lobo, the Congress and Goa.

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