1. Home
  2. Don’t impose your sexism on me; PM had no guts to defend himself: Rahul Gandhi hits back

Don’t impose your sexism on me; PM had no guts to defend himself: Rahul Gandhi hits back

Agencies
January 13, 2019

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi has stood by his remark he made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for using Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to defend the former, saying that he would have made “a very similar comment if it had been a man”.

Addressing a press conference in Dubai, Rahul maintained that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have defended himself in the Lok Sabha over the Rafale fighter jet deal.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has helped Anil Ambani steal Rs 30,000 crore and the House of the people Lok Sabha is where he should have defended himself but he chose to send another person and that person happened to be a woman,” the Congress chief said.

"I would have made a very similar comment if it had been a man. Do not impose your sexism on me. I am very clear that the Prime Minister should have delivered that defence but he did not have the guts," Gandhi further said.

He said the Congress has not yet got the answer whether Defence Ministry officials objected to the Prime Minister "bypassing" the Rafale deal.

Nirmala Sitharaman had spoken on behalf of PM Modi and defended the Rafale deal in the Lok Sabha, countering questions raised by Congress and other opposition parties.

A huge row erupted after Rahul Gandhi while addressing a rally in Jaipur on Wednesday, said that PM Modi had got a woman to defend him in Parliament on the Rafale fighter jet deal.

"The watchman with a 56-inch chest ran away and told a woman, (Nirmala) Sitharamanji, defend me. I won't be able to defend myself, defend me. For two and a half hours, the woman could not defend him. I had asked a straight question - answer yes or no - but she couldn't answer," he had said.

His comments drew sharp criticism from the BJP with Union Minister Sushma Swaraj accusing him of marking a "new low" in Indian politics. Smriti Irani followed with a tweet with the hashtag “Misogynist Rahul”.

PM Modi also slammed Rahul and accused him of insulting "India's first woman defence minister". "For the first time, a daughter of the country has become defence minister. Our defence minister silenced all the opposition parties in parliament (on Rafale) and exposed their lies. They were so stunned that now they are insulting a woman defence minister. They are insulting India's women power," the Prime Minister said at a rally in Agra.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
July 30,2020

Kochi, Jul 30: The Kerala High Court on Thursday refused to grant the extension for the stay of a 74-year-old US citizen, Johnny Paul Pierce, who had earlier said that he felt safer to remain in India than in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The single-judge bench of Justice CS Dias, which considered the writ petition, observed that the grant or extension of visa to foreign nationals fall exclusively within the domain of the Government of India (GoI) and that judicial review in such matters is minimal.

The power of the GoI to expel foreigners is absolute and unlimited, the bench said.

"In view of the categoric declaration of law by the Supreme Court, the plea of the petitioner to permit him to stay back in India cannot be accepted, as it falls within the purview of the guidelines and the discretion of the Government of India," the order said.

"The petitioner cannot be heard that the guidelines/policies/regulations formulated by the Government of India, that an American national though has been granted a visa having validity of five years has to leave India within 180 days, is irrational or unreasonable," it added.

The High Court, which was hearing a plea to permit the US citizen to stay in India for a further period of six months, said that the petitioner does not have a case that there is an infraction of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

"The petitioner was well aware of the visa conditions when he arrived in India, and it is too late in the day for him to raise a grievance on the visa conditions," the bench said noting that the petitioner's love for India was heartening.

The High Court also directed the Foreigners Registration Officer to consider the petitioner's representation within a period of two weeks in accordance with the applicable guidelines and policies.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 31,2020

New Delhi, Jul 31: Air India has operated more than 2800 flights and flown over 3 lakh passengers worldwide till now under the Vande Bharat Mission.

"Air India under Vande Bharat Mission Operated more than 2800 flights and flown more than 3 lakh, 80 thousand passengers worldwide till now," Air India said in a tweet on Thursday.

The fifth phase of the Government of India's 'Vande Bharat' mission, aimed at evacuating Indian nationals stranded in various foreign countries owing to restrictions on air travel, will begin early next month, August 1.

"Under Vande Bharat Mission, we have already brought back more than 2.5 lakh stranded Indians from 53 commies," Air India had earlier said in a statement.

Over 7.88 lakh Indians stranded abroad due to coronavirus pandemic have returned under Vande Bharat Mission till July 22, Ministry of External Affairs had said.

The government started Vande Bharat Mission on May 7.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 2,2020

New Delhi, Mar 2: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday hit out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his comments that no one from the minority community will be affected by amended Citizenship Act and asked why then was the community excluded from the law in the first place.

Addressing a rally in Kolkata, Shah assured people of the minority community that not a single person will lose citizenship due to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

"The Home Minister says that no minority will be affected by CAA. If this is correct, they should tell the country who would be affected by CAA. If no one would be affected by CAA, as it currently is, why did the government pass the law?

"If the CAA aims to benefit all minorities (no one will be affected, says HM), then why are Muslims excluded from the list of minorities mentioned in the Act?," the former finance minister asked in a post on Twitter.

At his first public rally in Kolkata after the 2019 general elections, Shah said, "The opposition is terrorising the minorities. I assure every person from the minority community that the CAA only provides citizenship, does not take it away. It won't affect your citizenship."

"The opposition parties are spreading canards that refugees will have to show papers but this is absolutely false. You don't have to show any paper. We will not stop until all refugees are granted citizenship," Shah told the public.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.