Tag: RahulGandhi

Modi’s Third-Term Budget Mirrors Congress Manifesto, Highlights Youth Jobs, MSMEs, and Alliance Priorities

Staff ReporterIndia 0

The Narendra Modi government’s first Budget after returning to power for a third consecutive term reflects the new political landscape following the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP’s reliance on coalition partners due to the lack of a majority and the realization that unemployment and rural distress likely contributed to the party’s Lok Sabha tally dropping from 303 to 240 influenced the Budget.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi highlighted this in his response to the Budget, noting its resemblance to the Congress’s Lok Sabha election manifesto. Gandhi tweeted, “Kursi Bachao Budget. Appease Allies: Hollow promises to them at the cost of other states. Appease Cronies: Benefits to AA with no relief for the common Indian. Copy and Paste: Congress manifesto and previous budgets.”

A significant focus of the Budget was on jobs and youth. In contrast to the interim budget before the elections, where “employment” was mentioned seven times and “job” once, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech mentioned “job” and “employment” a total of 42 times, including three “Employment Linked Incentive” schemes and internship opportunities for one crore youths over five years. The Opposition sees this as a political win, given their emphasis on unemployment during the elections.

Sitharaman also prioritized MSMEs, referencing them 21 times in her speech, which the Congress quickly noted as another key issue during the elections. Another focal point was farmers, though the Budget offered little for them apart from promises of “109 new high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of 32 crops” and initiation of “1 crore farmers” into natural farming.

The Modi government’s Budget also showcased its alliance loyalties. For Andhra Pradesh, there was a section on the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, with promises of financial support for the development of Amaravati, a project favored by BJP ally TDP. Bihar received proposals for financial and industrial support to sustain the political fortunes of the BJP’s other major partner, JD(U).

Reacting to the Budget, the Congress claimed the Modi government borrowed ideas from its Lok Sabha poll manifesto, starting with the scheme to provide internship opportunities to youth. The Congress manifesto had promised a “right to apprenticeship programme,” which Rahul Gandhi had referred to as the “Pehlinaukripakki (guaranteed first job)” scheme. The Congress’s plan included a one-year apprenticeship with a private or public sector company for diploma holders or college graduates under 25, ensuring earnings of up to Rs 1 lakh a year.

Congress communications head Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “The Finance Minister has taken a leaf out of the INC’s Nyay Patra 2024, with its internship program clearly modeled on the INC’s proposed Apprenticeship Program… However, in their trademark style, the scheme has been designed to grab headlines, with arbitrary targets (1 crore internships) rather than a programmatic guarantee… like the Indian National Congress had envisioned.”

Another Congress promise was to create a new employment-linked incentive (ELI) Scheme for corporates, aiming to reform the production-linked incentives (PLI) scheme to target sectors that can create thousands of jobs. The Congress’s manifesto included introducing an ELI Scheme for corporates to win tax credits for additional hiring against regular, quality jobs. The Budget’s announcement of three employment-linked schemes, including one where the government will provide one month’s wage to new workforce entrants, was similar to this.

Additionally, the Budget’s promise to set up working women hostels to promote their workforce participation echoed the Congress manifesto. The Congress had proposed doubling the number of working women hostels in partnership with state governments. The Congress also claimed credit for the Budget proposing the abolition of angel tax for all investor classes, a measure they had pledged to eliminate in their manifesto.

The Congress saw the announcement of a critical mineral mission as a reflection of its promise to launch a strategic mining program for rare earths and critical minerals, aimed at increasing mining’s share of GDP to 5% and creating 1.5 crore jobs. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, at a post-Budget press conference, identified unemployment as “the biggest challenge facing the country” and called the government’s response “too little.” Accusing the BJP of yielding to allies TDP and JD(U), he said, “Mr Modi is saving the life of his government.”

Chidambaram remarked on the “parallels” between the manifesto and the Budget, expressing regret that more Congress ideas weren’t adopted. Surprisingly, the Budget was largely silent on poll-bound Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jharkhand, despite the importance of these upcoming Assembly elections.

BJP leaders from Maharashtra and Haryana expressed disappointment over the Budget’s lack of focus on their states. A BJP leader feared the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) might use this to target the party, making hopes of wooing Uddhav Thackeray from the MVA seem unlikely.

Two alliance leaders described the Budget as “disappointing” and “embarrassing,” though officially, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena and LJP first-time MP Shambavi Choudhary praised the Budget. Choudhary noted that the government had “heard the voices of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh on special category status.”

CPI(M) MP John Brittas criticized the Budget for failing to address the concerns of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar effectively, remarking, “All of a sudden, eastern corridors have been redrawn to stretch them to Andhra Pradesh since power in Delhi runs through there.”

Rahul Gandhi – The Man of the Moment

Staff ReporterIndia 0

On July 1, 2024, Rahul Gandhi, participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, made an astounding maiden speech as the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the House of the People (Lok Sabha) of Indian Parliament – the first day by a recognised LOP in a decade.

Rahul Gandhi was interrupted by Narendra Modi twice, Amit Shah four times, and four other top Ministers – Rajnath Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Bhupender Yadav and Shivraj Chavan – and other members of the treasury, citing rules and trying to prevent Rahul Gandhi from making his speech on one pretext or the other, and Amit Shah even seeking protection from the Speaker against Gandhi’s relentless attack on the government. They were rattled by his speech. He remained undeterred. The treasury benches did not expect him to make such a fiery speech that lasted more than 100 minutes and take the ruling party to task. After the House was adjourned, the Home Minister and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister met the Speakers and pressurised them to expunge certain remarks of Rahul Gandhi from the record. Some 14 portions from his speech were expunged arbitrarily, in gross violation of the norms of Parliamentary democracy. It insults the LOP, who represents the entire Opposition in the House. Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to the Speaker protesting against this selective expunging. What he said is nothing unparliamentary or objectionable. The treasury benches simply wanted to delete the inconvenient facts from the Lok Sabha record.

The letter reads: “While the Chair derives powers to expunge certain remarks from the proceedings of the House, but the expulsion is only those kinds of words, the nature of which has been specified in Rule 380 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha. I am, however, shocked to note the manner in which considerable portions of my speech have been simply taken off from the proceedings under the garb of expunction. I am constrained to state that the portions expunged do not come under the ambit of Rule 380. What I sought to convey in the House is ground reality, the factual position. Every member of the House who personifies the collective voice of the people whom he or she represents has the freedom of speech as enshrined in Article 105(1) of the Constitution of India. It is every member’s right to raise people’s concerns on the floor of the House. It is that right and in exercise of obligations to the people of the country that I was exercising yesterday. Taking off from records, my considerable remarks go against the very tenets of parliamentary democracy. I request that the remarks expunged from the proceedings be restored.”

Speaking to the Media the next day, Rahul Gandhi said: “In Modiji’s world, truth can be expunged. But in reality, the truth can’t be expunged. I said what I had to say, that is the truth. They can expunge as much as they want. Truth is truth.” In reacting to the attack on the Congress office in Ahmedabad by the BJP workers, following his speech, he said: “The cowardly and violent attack on the Gujarat Congress office further reinforces my point about the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. BJP people who spread violence and hatred do not understand the basic principles of Hinduism.” The July 3 editorial in The Free Press Journal reads: “The essence of his address was to highlight the ethos of India, Bharat, which is fundamentally rooted in peace and non-violence… He invoked the symbolism of the open palm, a gesture widely recognised among religious leaders and icons, to emphasise the nation’s core values. Gandhi portrayed the Indian people as inherently fearless, unwilling to bow before dictators.” He resonated with many who have felt marginalised over the past five years, during a period marked by division rather than unity and recrimination rather than reconciliation. As someone who has endured political adversity and suffered ridicule and campaign of calumny for so long, his indignation was palpable, reflecting the sentiments of the people he represents.

The next day, July 2, Narendra Modi mounted a scathing attack on Congress, particularly on Rahul Gandhi, in his speech, which lasted more than two hours amid non-stop sloganeering by the Opposition. Instead of answering the issues raised by Rahul Gandhi, he spent most of his time attacking Congress, from Pandit Nehru to Rahul Gandhi, by distorting the truth and telling lies to the nation. Modi chose to personalise his attack on Rahul Gandhi, calling him ‘childish’ and ‘juvenile’ and ‘infantile’ and the Congress a ‘parasite’, demonstrating his mental bankruptcy, disrespecting the self and the high office that he holds. If Rahul Gandhi’s remarks could be expunged based on ground reality, why can Modi’s cheap and coarse words go on record? How could Modi say anything, use derogatory language, ridicule and insult the LOP, and get away with impunity? Modi was no match for Gandhi’s intellectual prowess; he came as an arrogant, poorly read, uninformed and insincere leader.

Valson Thampu, theologian and retired Principal of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, has beautifully analysed Rahul Gandhi’s speech in his YouTube videos. He calls him ‘the man of the moment for the destiny of India’ that history has thrown up. He decodes Rahul Gandhi’s ‘volcanic speech’ and describing it as ‘the most unforgettable matchless powerful historical speech’. No one actually expected an atomic bomb like this. The treasury benches were taken aback. Rahul demolished the Modi magic. He says Rahul made ‘a memorable historical speech’. The contrast between Rahul and Modi: Rahul confines himself largely to themes, patterns, and principles, as well as the issues relating to the ideology of the Sangh Parivar and how Hinduism is abused and misused. It is ideas vs personal attacks. Ideas must be countered by ideas and ideology by ideology. To Modi, it has become his second nature to attack personally, leading to the vilification of Rahul Gandhi. Sooner or later, the people of India are bound to see through it. It is utterly infantile. Modi gets fixated and obsessed with Rahul Gandhi, which makes him unwilling to adapt to the changing reality. This is not a sign of maturity. It is a self-seeking pursuit to perpetuate power.

Modi is carrying the coalition government in the same bulldozing style, as if nothing has happened. What is worrisome is that despite reduced numbers and an unequivocal message from the people, he is in no mood to concede even an inch to the Opposition. Unless and until he changes his style of functioning, he will invite more trouble from a resurgent Opposition and find it difficult to run the government. He has not understood Rahul Gandhi’s power of truth.

Rahul Gandhi Asserts United Opposition Will Defeat BJP In 2024 Elections

Staff ReporterUSA 0

Amid growing concerns over the state of Indian democracy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed journalists at the National Press Club in Washington. Gandhi emphasized that India’s democracy is a global public good, and its collapse would have severe ramifications for the rest of the world. He noted that it is the responsibility of Indians to safeguard their democracy but added that the international community should also play a role in preventing its collapse. During the one-hour-long interaction, he addressed various issues ranging from India’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war, the BJP’s politics of hate, and the effort to build a united opposition before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Gandhi asserted that a united opposition would defeat the BJP on its own. He also expressed confidence that the BJP would be decimated in the next three or four Assembly elections. When asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming state visit to the United States, Gandhi declined to prejudge the matter, but emphasized the importance of the relationship between the two countries.

With regards to the Congress’s stance on India’s relationship with Russia, Gandhi made it clear that his party’s position would be very similar to the BJP. He reiterated that it was his party’s responsibility to fight the battle for democracy in India and to prevent a slide into authoritarianism. “Indian democracy is a global public good,” he said, “because India is large enough that a collapse in democracy in India will affect…will have an impact on the world.”

On countering the BJP’s propaganda going into the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, Gandhi admitted that his party had been struggling before but insisted that the Bharat Jodo Yatra had completely changed the narrative. He claimed that the BJP had done everything to stop the yatra from succeeding but that he resonated with the people, even those from the BJP, adding that he had received positive comments from a BJP spokesperson.

Addressing his recent disqualification as an MP, Gandhi claimed that it came days after he criticized the Adani Group. However, he reiterated that it was a “gift” to serve the people and that the Congress was committed to fighting the battle for democracy in India.

The interaction between Gandhi and the journalists led to sparring between Congress and BJP, with the ruling party accusing Gandhi of calling M.A. Jinnah’s Muslim League a secular party. However, the Congress hit back by accusing the BJP of peddling fake news and clarifying that their leader’s comment was about the Indian Union Muslim League, their ally in Kerala.

At a dinner meet hosted by Indian-American businessman Frank Islam, Gandhi expressed his confidence that the next three or four elections that the Congress would fight directly with the BJP would see the ruling party decimated. He noted that while the BJP has the instruments of noise, the majority of the Indian population does not support them.

Gandhi’s remarks underline the importance of Indian democracy not only for Indians but for the rest of the world. He emphasizes the need to fight the battle for democracy, prevent a slide into authoritarianism, and build a united opposition to defeat the BJP in future elections. Despite the BJP’s propaganda, Gandhi claims confidence in the Congress’s ability to resonate with the people and ultimately triumph at the ballot box.

Rahul Gandhi Praises Indian Diaspora For Holding Up Tricolor In America

Staff ReporterUSA 0

Former president of the Indian National Congress, Rahul Gandhi, during his address to the Indian diaspora at an event in California, the first stop of his U.S. visit, lauded the Indian diaspora for being ambassadors of the country and urged Indian students in United States to return to the country.

The United States and India need to work towards a vision, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said during a conversation themed on ‘The New Global Equilibrium’ hosted by the Center on Democracy, Development & the Rule of Law, Stanford University at CEMEX Auditorium on May 31.

Praising the Indian American community Gandhi said, “We think of our country, you are all our ambassadors. When America says Indian people are extremely intelligent, Indian people are masters of IT, Indian people are respectful – all these ideas that have come, they’ve come because of you, your actions, and your behavior. So, I thank you very much for that.”

“Thank you very much for holding up the Indian flag in America, showing the American people what it means to be Indian, respecting them, respecting their culture, learning from them, and also allowing them to learn from you. You make us all proud,” he added.

Responding to a question from a UC Berkeley student, who asked Gandhi to say a few words to the youth who hesitate to go back home at a time when the India’s youth and the wrestlers were being treated in an “undignified” manner, Gandhi said, “As a young person, your country needs you. Your skills and your energy will be very useful to your country so if you feel like going back, do go back and help out.”

Elaborating on the situation in India, Gandhi told the audience that what they see on the news from India is far away from the truth. “India is not what the media shows. The media likes to show, you know, a particular narrative. It likes to promote a particular narrative. That is actually not what is going on in India. It was very clear to me in the yatra.”

The former member of parliament also spoke at length of his experience during the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the reason behind it. He stressed that India’s strength stems from its diversity and the only way to combat hate in the society is through love and affection. Gandhi also informed the gathering on his party’s stance on various political issues in India.

The session was moderated by CDDRL-affiliated scholar Dinsha Mistree. Gandhi said, “We have a population that is more than ready to work very hard. You have the technology, you have Silicon Valley. These two things need to be brought together, but it needs a vision. It needs to spark action. US and India need to work together towards this vision,” he added.

He added, “If you look at India as a manufacturing hub, it is dropping. Unemployment is rising. These are directly connected. It’s a hard thing to do. It’s much harder for the West to do it than for us. But, it needs to be done.” Gandhi is in the US on a week-long tour during which he is scheduled to meet the Indian diaspora, academics, students, entrepreneurs and think tanks. He landed in San Francisco on May 30, and was in Washington, DC and New York as well. His visit concluded on June 4.

Rahul Gandhi, India’s Key Opposition Leader Disqualified From Parliament And Sentenced To 2 Years In Prison For Defaming Modi

Ajay GhoshIndia 0

Rahul Gandhi, a key opposition leader in India has been disqualified from Parliament and was sentenced to two years in jail for making defamatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Rahul Gandhi … stands disqualified from the member of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction,” a notice issued by the parliament said on Friday, March 25th referring to India’s Lower House of Parliament.

In a tweet in Hindi following the move, Gandhi said he is “fighting for India’s voice” and that he “will pay any price for it.” Gandhi, chairman of the Indian Youth Congress – the youth wing of the Congress party was found guilty by a lower Court in India for the supposedly defamatory comments he had made relating to Modi’s surname at a 2019 rally before the last general election.

During a political rally, Gandhi had asked the crowd at the event as he criticized the prime minister’s economic policies: “Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?” He went on to name fugitive Indian diamond tycoon Nirav Modi, banned Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi and Narendra Modi.

Rahul Gandhi has been convicted under IPC Section 500. The maximum possible punishment under this section is two years. MPs, MLAs and MLCs lose their membership if they are sentenced to two years in jail or more. They cannot even contest elections for six years, as per the Representation of the People Act of 1951.

The court has granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court, Congress leader’s lawyer Babu Mangukiya said. Gandhi was present in the court when the verdict was pronounced. Rahul Gandhi, the son of Rajiv Gandhi, denied making any defamatory remarks about people with the surname “Modi” during the hearing.

The Congress leader claimed that he is a national leader who raises issues of corruption and unemployment in his speeches in the interest of the nation when the magistrate asked him if he had accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of giving Rs 30 crore to an industrialist. The scion of Gandhi asserted that he was entitled to bring up such topics at rallies.

Gandhi claimed that he never said that all Modi family members were thieves when the court asked if he had. Prior to that, Rahul Gandhi had pleaded not guilty to the charge of making the remark when he appeared in court in October 2019.

Congress officials have described the court order as politically motivated and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of targeting political opponents. Earlier on Friday, Congress members held protests in some parts of the country against Gandhi’s conviction and two-year-old jail sentence. Modi’s government has been widely accused of using the defamation law to target and silence critics.

“We believe in law, judiciary and we will fight against this as per law,” said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.  “He has been granted bail. We knew from the beginning because they kept changing judges. We believe in law, judiciary and we will fight against this as per law,” said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Rahul Gandhi found guilty in the criminal defamation case filed against him over his alleged ‘Modi surname’ remark.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot called him “courageous” and said that only he can compete with NDA government. “We keep saying our democracy is in danger as there is pressure on judiciary, ECI, ED & they’re all misused. All decisions are made under influence. Such comments are common… Rahul Gandhi is a courageous man & only he can compete with NDA govt,” said Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot.

“My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God, non-violence the means to get it,” tweeted Gandhi after being convicted in a politically motivated and influenced case, where the key Opposition Leader in India was given the maximum punishment under the law, 2 years in jail by a Surat court.

“Indian Democracy Is Under Pressure And Under Attack:” Rahul Gandhi At Cambridge

Staff ReporterIndia 0

“Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack. The institutional framework which is required for a democracy … the Parliament, free press, the judiciary, just the idea of mobilization — these are all getting constrained. We are facing an attack on the basic structure of democracy,” Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi, while accusing the Modi-led government in India of unleashing an attack on the basic structure of Indian democracy.

Gandhi was addressing students at Cambridge University last week. He alleged that the Israeli spyware Pegasus had been used to snoop on him and several other politicians. He alleged that he had been warned by intelligence officers to be “careful” while speaking on the phone as his calls were being recorded.

Rahul Gandhi noted that in the Indian Constitution, the country is described as a Union of States and that Union requires negotiation and conversation. “It is that negotiation that is under attack and threat…there is also attack on minorities and press.

“I myself had Pegasus on my phone. Large number of politicians have Pegasus on their phones. I’ve been called by Intelligence officers who say please be careful of what you say on your phone as we are recording the stuff,” the Congress leader had said, according to news agency ANI.

Gandhi said, “This is a constant pressure that we feel. I’ve got a number of criminal liable cases registered against me for the things which, under no circumstances, be criminal cases. And that’s what we are trying to defend.”

He continued, “As the Opposition, it is very difficult to communicate with people when you have this type of an assault on media and on the democratic architecture.”

Picture : IYC

Hitting back at him, India’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Sports and Youth Affairs, Anurag Singh Thakur, claimed that the Congress leader was “once again crying on an international platform”. Addressing a press conference, he said: “He knew the consequences of doing this … The matter of Pegasus has occupied a deep corner in his head and heart.”

“Today, the kind of respect that Modiji has in the entire world and the recognition that India has gained under the leadership of Modiji … If no one, Rahul Gandhi should have at least listened to Italy’s Prime Minister and its leaders,” he added.

Dispensing with the long beard and white shirt that became his trademark look during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi appeared last week looking sharp in a suit and trimmed beard ahead of his lecture at his alma mater Cambridge University.

Gandhi was set to deliver a student-only lecture at the university on “Learning to Listen in the 21st Century”. This is a part of his week-long tour in the United Kingdom, where he is also set to talk to diaspora groups.

Speaking at the India@75 event at Cambridge University’s Corpus Christi College on May 23 last year, Rahul said, “My problem with the RSS and the Prime Minister is that they are fiddling with the foundational structure of India. When you play the politics of polarisation, when you isolate and demonise 200 million people, you are doing something extremely dangerous and you are doing something that is fundamentally against the idea of India.”

He also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of creating a vision of India that is not “inclusive”. He added, “I have studied Hinduism in enough detail to tell you that there’s absolutely nothing Hindu about wanting to murder people and beat people up.”

Six years earlier, he addressed a similar event – India@70 – at University of California, Berkeley. In the speech, he said “hatred, anger and violence and the politics of polarisation had raised its ugly head in India today”, and liberal institutions were being eroded.

During his online interviews and interactions in March and April 2021 for different American universities, Rahul said the BJP and the RSS had captured India’s institutional framework. He spoke with Prof Kaushik Basu for Cornell University, Prof Ashutosh Varshney for Brown University, and US diplomat Nicholas Burns for Harvard.

“There is not a single institution that is not under attack and it is systematically done. The judiciary, the press, the bureaucracy, the Election Commission … every single institution is systematically being filled by people who have a particular ideology and belong to a certain institution … I would not say eroding, I would say strangling,” he said during one such interaction.

In his conversation with Basu, he said that even if the BJP were defeated, it would be hard to get rid of people in the “institutional structure”. Rahul told Varshney, “Even Saddam Hussain and Gaddafi used to have elections and win those, but there was no institutional framework to protect that vote.” He also said that electoral democracy can be “destroyed” in the 21st century if one can control social media and have financial dominance.  Speaking to students of IMT Business school in Dubai in January 2019, Gandhi said India’s “ethos” was built on “tolerance”.

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