Rahul asks, BJP answers: Saffron party submits report card for 22-year Gujarat reign

The oath-taking ceremonies for new corporators in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday were marked by chaos and disruptions as the newly-elected Meerut mayor did not stand up while Vande Mataram was being recited and a Aligargh corporator took oath in Urdu.Meerut and Aligarh are the only two out of 16 municipal corporations that were won by the Bahujan Samaj Party in the civic body elections in Uttar Pradesh in November. The rest were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party.MeerutCorporators of the Bharatiya Janata Party protested when Meerut Mayor Sunita Verma of the Bahujan Samaj Party was seen sitting while Vande Mataram was being sung during the ceremony ANI reported. Verma said the issue was unnecessary and alleged that people started shouting Vande Mataram just to create trouble .She said the BJP workers raised slogans of Jai Shri Ram Jai Modi and Jai Yogi even though it was not a political platform. BSP leaders retaliated by raising Jai Bheem slogans Verma said according to The Indian Express. No one is stopping them from raising Vande Mataram but they cannot force others to do it and that also in an abrupt manner she said. Vande Mataram is recited neither in Parliament nor in Assembly...I will try to resolve the issue before the first session so that the focus would be on development. Vikas ki baat kijiye mera dhyaan mat bhatkaiye: Meerut BSP Mayor Sunita Verma on question why she did not stand up when Vande Matram was being recited pic.twitter.com/S07IeOtbxK ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 12 2017 AligarhIn Aligarh a scuffle broke out between the BJP and BSP workers when Musharaff Husain a BSP corporator took oath in Urdu. Local BJP MLA Sanjeev Raja alleged that Husain was trying to create communal tension and that his act was against the Constitution. He also filed a police complaint against him.Aligarh District Magistrate Hrishikesh Bhaskar Yashod said a recording of the ceremony would be investigated. No religious slogans were raised he told ANI.Husain said he respects Hindi but took oath in Urdu as he was more comfortable in it The Times of India reported.Some people objected & raised slogans during ceremony. We received information that a Councillor tried taking oath in Urdu. We ll probe recording of the ceremony & take action if we find this to be true. No religious slogans were raised: Hrishikesh Bhaskar Yashod Aligarh DM pic.twitter.com/WCgIWYFv5A ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 13 2017 On Prime Minister Narendra Modi s website www.narendramodi.in the headline for one of the stories on December 12 gleamed PM Modi becomes first passenger of India s first ever seaplane! The article on the website referred to the prime minister s seaplane ride from Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad to Dharoi dam in Mehsana on Tuesday as part of his campaign ahead of the second phase of polling in the Gujarat elections. The headline was later altered. The claim that this was the first ever seaplane ride in India was reiterated from the official Bharatiya Janata Party Twitter account and by BJP leaders and functionaries. Numerous television channels and publications played it up heralding it as a bold and unique move that would revolutionise transportation by augmenting waterways travel within the country. So is this the first seaplane service to be envisioned in India? Alt News conducted a fact check and this is what we found. The first-ever commercial seaplane service was launched in India in 2010. Jal Hans a service which was jointly operated by Pawan Hans the public sector helicopter service provider and the administration of the Andaman & Nicobar islands was inaugurated in December that year. Praful Patel who was minister for civil aviation at the time confirmed this in a recent tweet. The Jal Hans service has now been stalled.India s first seaplane named Jal Hans was first launched in 2010 during my tenure as Civil Aviation Minister which greatly facilitated connectivity & tourism in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.#seaplane pic.twitter.com/ZQYtpfa82k Praful Patel (@praful_patel) December 9 2017 Another governmental initiative to launch seaplane service in India was by Kerala in June 2013 when a seaplane service promoted by Kerala Tourism Infrastructure Ltd was announced to connect the state s waterways. The project however failed to commence owing to protests by the local fishing communities. Oomen Chandy Kerala chief minister at that time had tweeted about this.#Seaplane arrives in #KeralaSeabird Seaplane to Link Destinations in Kerala Lakshadweep - The New Indian Express http://t.co/gTk9Mgww3q Oommen Chandy (@Oommen_Chandy) October 12 2015 The attempt to launch seaplane services in India was not limited to the government. Private players had announced seaplane services in 2011- 12. Seabird Seaplane Pvt Ltd was incorporated in 2012 and had announced services in Kerala and Lakshadweep. Another service provider Mehair started services in 2011 in the Andaman & Nicobar islands and later expanded to Maharashtra and Goa. These private service providers however ceased operations due to commercial non-viability and issues over governmental permissions. India s one of the Gorgeous actress blogs about her seaplane journey to Havelock.. @GulPanag pic.twitter.com/r2cS7eX7fo MEHAIR SEAPLANE (@MaritimeEnergy1) December 1 2013 There is a concerted effort to revive commercial seaplane travel in India despite the initial hiccup. Recently on December 9 Spicejet conducted sea trials at Mumbai s Girgaum Chowpatty where Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Ashok Gajapati Raju were present. Spicejet aims to procure 100 amphibian aircrafts in a bid to boost regional connectivity by exploring the transportation potential of waterways. The same aircraft that was used by Gadkari was deployed for Prime Minister Narendra Modi s ride from Ahmedabad to Mehsana as can be confirmed by the registration number N181KQ. When Alt News checked the flight path of the aircraft it was discovered that the plane had arrived at Mumbai from Karachi Pakistan on December 3. In the last 90 days the Quest Kodiak single engine aircraft had travelled across the globe from Greece to Saudi Arabia to New Zealand. India has roughly 14 500 km of navigable waterways. Introducing seaplane travel is a right step in the direction of diversifying India s transportation system. Prime Minister Modi s seaplane ride with an eye on the Gujarat elections however was touted as the first ever in the country by his website and repeated by news outlets when that was clearly not the case nor was Modi the first Indian to travel in a seaplane. This narrative was initially played up and then quietly retracted on Modi s website. Many in the media did not bother to fact-check this information. Though the prime minister s website has changed the title media houses have not issued a clarification. This article first appeared on Alt News. ALSO READ BJP dismisses survey showing close contest in Gujarat; Congress delighted Story in numbers: Vote share of parties with longest-serving CMs Gujarat election 2017: Vikas out religion in; what s making BJP nervous? Gujarat Assembly elections 2017: Congress tries hard to pick up the pieces Gujarat polls: PM Modi changing agenda after getting exposed says Rahul span.p-content div id =div-gpt line-height: 0px; font-size: 0px; Veteran politician and Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar who hit the streets on his 77th birthday on Tuesday to lead a rally said the ruling BJP should feel ashamed of itself for hurling allegations of Pakistani links against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Addressing a massive rally on after leading a massive Jan Aakrosh Halla Bol procession jointly with Congress and other parties against the BJP-Shiv Sena government he said: Manmohan Singh s credential are impeccable and it was very wrong to accuse him of seeking Pakistan s help to win the ongoing assembly elections in Gujarat. Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has taken power it has destroyed the country it is indulging in extremely dirty politics and it has invoked Pakistan merely to cling to power. It is a very sad development Pawar said. The Modi government has completed more than three years in power but the farmers issues remained unresolved and their problems are being ignored compelling them to commit suicide he added. Pawar - who led a political procession after 37 years said when Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was informed of Tuesday s procession he responded that he would show them their place when they came to him . The CM has threatened us. He has complete authority to govern the state but if he threatens to throw us in jail the farmers of the state are powerful enough to uproot you from power Pawar warned. He pointed out that the agitation was intended to awaken the sleeping government to the misery of the farmers who have been denied justice on various counts including the Minimum Support Price for farm produce implementation of the farm loans waiver scheme announced in June and other related issues. Meanwile the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government hit back at the opposition with the Anti-Corruption Bureau lodging FIRs in four different cases pertaining to the alleged scams worth Rs 72 000 crore in the state irrigation department which could implicate several senior NCP leaders including former Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and ex-minister Sunil Tatkare. The procession signaling a realignment of the political opposion was led by an ailing Pawar - who recently underwent a toe surgery but he appeared fit cheerful and in full form. Joined by an estimated 200 000 farmers and party activists from entire Vidarbha region of eastern Maharasthra the procession started from Dhanwate National College grounds and slowly wended its way to the Maharashtra Legislature which has currently assembled here for the Winter Session in the state s second capital. It culminated there into a rally which was addressed by Pawar several senior NCP leaders Praful Patel Tatkare Leader of Opposition in Council Dhanjay Munde Congress s former Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad state Congress President Ashok Chavan Leader of Opposition in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and others from both parties. In 1980 Pawar had led a similar procession on bicycle from Jalgaon to Nagpur to fight for farmers issues. This time it s a commemoration of that procession for the cause of farmers who are being denied justice under the present Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena at the centre and in Maharashtra state NCP spokesperson Nawabl Malik told IANS. Tuesday s procession-cum-rally was part of the ongoing agitation launched by the NCP on December 1 in different parts of the state intended to condemn and awaken the sleeping state government on its various unfulfilled promises for the people of Maharashtra. Besides the national parties the procession saw participation of activists and leaders of other smaller and regional parties like Samajwadi Party Peasants & Workers Party Republican Party of India-G and RPI-K farmers groups etc. With barely two months to go for the Assembly election Tripura is witnessing hectic political activity. While the Bharatiya Janata Party has firmly established its position as the primary challenger to the ruling Left Front over the last few years the Congress may be staging a late comeback.On a comeback trail?Last week saw around 1 000 Congress renegades led by the influential leader Mujibar Islam make their way back to the party. Most of them had joined the Trinamool Congress last year to protest against the Congress s alliance with the Left Front for the West Bengal Assembly election. Tapan Dutta who had joined the BJP in August from the Trinamool Congress also rejoined the Congress on Friday.Tapas Dey vice president of the Congress in Tripura claimed several other leaders had rejoined the party in smaller batches through the week and many political heavyweights including former lawmakers were likely to join over the next few weeks. We are in talks with many important leaders he said. And I can say with certainty some big shots will be back with us very soon. There has been talk of the Congress gaining ground since the party won the bye-election to the North Dhanicherra village committee of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council in late November. It took 197 votes against the Communist Party of India (Marxist) s 181. The BJP managed only 24 votes and lost its deposit.In the 2013 Assembly election the Congress with nine seats had emerged as the primary opposition to the CPI(M) which had won all the other 51 seats. In 2016 six of the Congress legislators defected to the Trinamool which they later left for the BJP. In effect as the Congress s strength waned the BJP s increased sharply.So are their fortunes reversing now?Too little too late?Analysts contend the Congress s latest surge may be too little too late. Dismissing the party s claim of a comeback the veteran Agartala-based journalist Manas Paul said the Congress has become a non-existent entity in the state. It is very much a two-horse race currently he said. For the first time voters in the state have an alternative to the Left and it is the BJP. As of now the two parties are almost neck and neck. Asked about the Congress predicting more last-minute defections from the saffron party BJP spokesperson Mrinal Kanti Deb said A few insignificant leaders may have gone but no state-level leader will leave the party. Some BJP officials though said ticket distribution could spark disaffection in the coming weeks. It is obvious that not all former MLAs who have joined the party recently can be given tickets said a state BJP leader who asked not to be named. That happens in every election but we will deal with that when the time comes. So far there is no decision on who will get tickets and who won t. The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Jharkhand said on Tuesday that a two-member team is conducting an inquiry into the kissing contest organised during an annual fair last week the Hindustan Times reported.Jharkhand Mukti Morcha legislator Simon Marandi said he organised the contest on Saturday to promote love and modernity and reduce divorces in the tribal community. We have begun a probe into the controversy surrounding the kissing contest on orders from the district administration Pakur Sub-divisional Magistrate Jitendra Kumar Deo told Hindustan Times. Deo said the event was a case of indecent behaviour in a public place which is a violation of the Indian Penal Code.Deo and Deputy Superintendent of Police Navnit Hembrom visited the village on Monday where the fair was organised. Deo said they will talk to the organisers and the couples who took part in the event. Earlier the BJP asked the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha to apologise to the tribal community and accused Christian leaders of the group of destroying the tribal culture. It s a serious issue and these leaders should immediately seek a public apology from respective tribal village heads BJP s senior tribal leader Hemlal Murmu told the Hindustan Times alleging that the JMM s Christian legislators were trying to destroy Santhal s rich tribal culture and customs by introducing the western culture . In Santhal traditions the girl and boy do not even shake hands he told The Indian Express. Kissing is something way too far. Santhal tradition never had such a thing. Murmu said the BJP will continue to protest against JMM legislators and demanded that Marandi not be allowed to attend the state s Assembly session this month. It is ridiculous that such a contest with a prize money worth Rs 900 Rs 700 and Rs 500 for first second and third position will restrict growing cases of divorce and differences in Santhal tribal community he said.Marandi responded to the BJP s comments saying the party did not know the realities of the village . Do they even visit one? he asked.Marandi had won against Murmu in the bye-elections in April. By: Express News Service | Ranchi | Updated: December 12 2017 7:43 am Chief Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das. (Express photo) Top News 17 year old missing from Thane found dead in MatheranDon t hesitate to bluff voters Karnataka BJP leader tells workersInside pictures from Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma s post-wedding DJ partyAn alleged kissing competition in a local fair in Littipara Assembly constituency of Jharkhand s Pakur district on the evening of December 9 has led to a row with the state BJP criticising Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLA Simon Marandi who had attended the programme of trivialising tribal culture. Marandi said this was just to prevent married couples from seeking divorce which he claimed was some sort of trend in the Santhal community. The fair held every year was held in Talapahari village of Littipara Assembly constituency where Marandi was elected the MLA in the bypoll in April this year. One of the events in the fair was the kissing competition in which couples were asked to kiss each other in public. Around 20-odd couples participated. Speaking to The Indian Express over phone Marandi said: I don t understand what the hullabaloo is about. This fair has been held for a long time and several competitions are organised. Since it was a local affair I had to attend it. Supporting the kissing competition Marandi said: It is not about making people modern as such because tribals have their own lifestyle. But it is also true that there is a growing trend among tribals of divorcing their spouses. Men and women both leave their current spouses to marry somebody else. This leads to families breaking up. This event was intended to make love blossom between the couples. In fact the name of the fair in Santhali language literally means kiss of love (prem ka chumban). Asked about the BJP Marandi said: I don t know what they are saying. In any case do the BJP people know the realities of the village? Do they even visit one? Hemlal Murmu the state BJP vice-president and the man who unsuccessfully contested against Marandi said in a press conference that such event amounted to trivialising tribal culture. In Santhal traditions the girl and boy do not even shake hands. Kissing is something way too far. Santhal tradition never had such a thing. Also this fair is being organised in the name of Siddo Kanu (tribal icons) and the Hul revolt which they led. But at this time it is neither the birth anniversary of these brave leaders nor of the Hul revolt. This is humiliation of the female power. Murmu demanded that Marandi should not be allowed to attend the Assembly session that starts from Tuesday. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App More Top News CoA to BCCI cricket officials: Get your assistants to behave Power and insecurity Bengaluru: In the wake of BJP protests over the death of a young man Karnataka home minister R Ramalinga Reddy on Tuesday blamed the opposition party for disturbing peace in the coastal region of the southern state. The BJP s state leaders are trying to provoke violence in the coastal towns (Kumta Honnavar and Sirsi) on instructions from party President Amit Shah Reddy told reporters here following protest rallies in the region over the death of an 18-year-old youth last week.File image of Karnataka minister Ramalinga Reddy. Twitter@RLR_BTM As assembly elections in Karnataka are due in early 2018 the BJP is fomenting trouble to polarise people and play vote-bank politics. We will not allow them to succeed and deal firmly with trouble-makers Reddy said.Defying ban orders and breaking barricades about 600 Bharatiya Janata Party supporters staged protests at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district.They demanded a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the unnatural death of Paresh Mesta whose mutilated body was found floating in a lake on the outskirts of Honnavar about 490 km northwest of Bengaluru.Police caned protesters and took about 200 of them into preventive custody for violating a ban order under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code and for throwing stones at them and torching two-wheelers.On the BJP s demand for a NIA probe Reddy said the state government was waiting for the autopsy report to ascertain the cause of Mesta s death though an interim report from the Manipal hospital had ruled out foul play.Reddy referred to a video clipping of the BJP s Lok Sabha lawmaker from Mysuru Vijaya Simha in which he allegedly provoked BJP cadres to disrupt law and order. We will take action against all those including BJP leaders who have been spreading lies on the social media about Mesta s death the Minister added.Following the young man s death the state BJP had alleged that Mesta was murdered by jihadists (extremists) .In Bengaluru the BJP s state unit leaders submitted a memorandum to Governor Vajubhai R Vala demanding a NIA probe. As Mesta was tortured and murdered by jihadists (extremists) we demand a NIA probe into the heinous crime against Hindu activists including Mesta said the memorandum signed among others by BJP lawmakers KS Eshwarappa and Shobha Karandlaje. The most interesting aspect of the Congress strategy for the Gujarat election mounted by Rahul Gandhi who is set to be formally anointed as the party president this week was allying with the leaders of mass movements. Whatever the outcome of this election it s a strategy that could serve the Congress well in other states. Gandhi reached out to Hardik Patel Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani young men spearheading mass movements for securing the rights and demands of their communities who had begun to fill the opposition space in Gujarat. It was a smart move. Patel the face of the Patidar agitation for reservation has been the star campaigner of Gujarat 2017. He has drawn huge crowds at his rallies often larger than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Thakor initially backed by some in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to counter the Patidar agitation by fighting for the rights of the Other Backward Classes has formally joined the Congress to contest the election. Mevani who shot into prominence by leading the Una agitation is expected to deliver the Dalit vote to the party. The Dalits traditionally voted for the Congress but many of them were saffronised in the last two elections. They are the angriest of Gujarat s restive communities though not as vocal as the Patidars or the OBCs and that could be to the Congress s advantage. Generally parties ally with political groupings big and small to get a leg-up and not with grassroots movements and NGOs. But this time the Congress whose big brother approach has annoyed smaller parties it has allied with in the past chose to let others do its work staying a step behind. The Congress has to think innovatively to co-opt the new political energies emerging in states to have a shot at revival as a dominant national force and the party could do worse than to employ the template it has fashioned for Gujarat. Here it helped that Patel Thakor and Mevani had come to occupy a sizeable opposition space over the last two years frontally taking on the BJP and ripping into the Gujarat Model of development. Still the Congress is vulnerable in Gujarat not least because its organisation has greatly weakened over the last two decades. It s hardly a match for the well-oiled election machinery on the other side referred to by some as the Amit Shah School of Election Management committed to winning every election from the panchayat to Parliament . This may explain why Patel didn t formally join the Congress; he is aware that while the Patidars are disaffected with the BJP they aren t particularly enamoured of the Congress. The party may not mind so long as the young leader delivers in 2017 what the veteran Keshubhai Patel failed to in 2012. The former chief minister had broken away from the BJP and floated Gujarat Parivartan Party but it came a cropper. Instead of taking a chunk of the BJP vote the party actually cut into the anti-BJP vote thus damaging the Congress prospects.A party dividedIn Gujarat and beyond Rahul Gandhi s woes stem from the fact that the Congress has ceased to be a cohesive disciplined party. It is more a conglomerate of individuals each pursuing their own agenda. Indeed even as Gandhi was studiously keeping from doing anything that could create Hindu-Muslim polarisation mentioning the 2002 riots for example some of the party s leaders made remarks Mani Shankar Aiyar calling Modi neech or those about Janeu or Ayodhya that played into Modi s hands. For too long the Congress has had to contend with leaders from whose utterances the party has to regularly distance itself. Gandhi took action against Aiyar this time but the damage was done and that too in a high-stakes election. That Modi would leave no stone unturned to win Gujarat was known long before he began campaigning. People in Gujarat including Congress leaders would often ask what rabbit he would pull out of his hat in the last stretch of the campaign if it didn t go as well as he planned. Modi has spoken less of development this campaign and more of the dynasty Hindu versus Muslim. He has also focused on himself personally saying the Congress wanted to eliminate him that he was the son of Gujarat and a representative of its people in Delhi that he was a chaiwalla up against the elite. Modi remains popular in Gujarat even though there s widespread disaffection against the BJP. The Congress sought to exploit the disaffection but it peaked too early and appeared to have no plan for the penultimate round of campaigning. The BJP went in at full blast and Modi captured the discourse with his emotional pitch. Whether this would be enough to trump the desire for change and the discourse of development sold by the Gandhi-Patel-Thakor-Mevani combine remains to be seen.