Rahul considered Amethi his family: Raj Babbar

Agencies
June 3, 2019

Lucknow, Jun 3: UP Congress chief Raj Babbar on Monday said the poor electoral showing of the party in the state has left pain in the hearts of party president Rahul Gandhi and the people of Amethi.

In his first interview after the election results, Babbar said Gandhi considered Amethi not just as his parliamentary constituency, but his family.

The Gandhi scion lost to BJP's Smriti Irani from the constituency in the recently-held general elections.

"Rahul Gandhi ji did so much for Amethi and he considered Amethi as his family. He never viewed it as his constituency. Now, the family members have given such a verdict," the UP Congress chief told PTI.

"One thing, which I am 100 per cent sure is the fact that despite becoming an MP (from Wayanad), there will be pain in the heart of Rahul ji and also among the people of Amethi... that a person who considered Amethi as his family and gave an identity to Amethi, we did not allow a person from our family to emerge (victorious)," he said.

On whether Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was appointed Congress general secretary in charge of eastern UP ahead of the polls, could not make the desired impact for the party, the actor-turned-politician said party workers and local leaders failed to rise to the occasion.

"She (Priyanka) did her job. But, party workers, local leaders, candidates and the organisation could not accumulate the (electoral) benefits from it. Rahul ji worked so hard and Priyanka ji worked with such a high degree of enthusiasm," he said.

"We (party workers, local leaders and candidates) were unable to prove ourselves and rise to the occasion," Babbar said.

Asked about the future course of action, the 66-year-old Congress leader said Uttar Pradesh cannot be analysed in a single line.

"You have to take steps after a lot of deliberations (on various aspects) and strengthen the organisation," he remarked.

The Congress' performance in the Lok Sabha election was perhaps its worst, with the party managing to win only one out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The lone victory for the party came from Rae Bareli where UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi retained the seat in the party bastion.

Refusing to state any particular factor behind its poll drubbing, Babbar said, "First we must accept our defeat and acknowledge the victory of the winner. Having said so, I cannot sit alone and deliberate upon the possible reasons for the defeat. Everyone has to sit together.

"I believe there is no point in putting the blame (of defeat) on others, instead we should ponder as to how 52 people from our party were able to emerge victorious," he said.

The UP Congress chief said he would like to engage with the party's winning candidates and seek to know what they did among the people, their plus points and what the party did in their respective constituencies.

On tasting defeat from Fatehpur Sikri Lok Sabha seat despite opting for it (after being initially named as party candidate from Moradabad), Babbar said, "The main reason for opting Fatehpur Sikri was that people there never asked my religion, caste or community.

"They accepted me the way I was. This was an incentive for me. Apart from this, I also identify myself with that place," he said.

The Congress had changed the seat earlier allotted to Babbar from Moradabad to Fatehpur Sikri, in an apparent bid to make the contest easier for the party leader.

Babbar was elected from Agra Lok Sabha in 1999 and 2004. However, following delimitation in 2008, the Lok Sabha seat was reserved for scheduled castes.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, he lost from Fatehpur Sikri to BSP's Seema Upadhyay by a margin of 9,936 votes.

But he got re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Firozabad in a by-election held the same year.

He is currently a Rajya Sabha member.

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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.

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News Network
June 19,2020

New Delhi, Jun 19: RJD and AAP were not invited to the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday to discuss the situation at the India-China border after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a "violent face-off," leaving the parties fuming.

Top RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav criticised the government for not inviting the party to the meeting, asking on Twitter late Thursday night, "Just wish to know the criteria for inviting political parties for tomorrow's (Friday's) all-party meet on Galwan Valley. I mean the grounds of inclusion/exclusion. Because our party hasn't received any message so far."

AAP's Rajya Sabha leader Sanjay Singh joined the chorus, "there is a strange ego-driven government at the centre. AAP has a government in Delhi and is the main opposition in Punjab. We have four MPs. But on a vital subject, AAP's views are not needed? The country is waiting for what the Prime Minister will say at the meeting."

Sources said the government has set a criteria to invite only parties with five or more MPs in Parliament for the digital meet, where the Prime Minister will brief the top leaders of parties and hear their views on the way ahead. There are at least 27 parties in the Parliament, which have less than five members, while 17 have more than five members or more than five MPs.

Interestingly, RJD has five MPs in Rajya Sabha and its senior MP Manoj K Jha shared the Rajya Sabha website link on Twitter, which showed the party has five MPs. "We have not been invited and the government's bogus argument has been exposed," Jha said.

CPI leaders said General Secretary D Raja received a call from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inviting him to the meeting and with a message that the Prime Minister's Office would coordinate but there was no follow-up after that.

"Exclusion of AAP and RJD in the all-party meet on a National debate does not augment well. AAP is ruling Delhi and has its CM. Why should people of Delhi be kept out in such an important debate on National integrity and Sovereignty?" former NCP MP Majeed Memon tweeted.

During the all-party meeting on COVID-19 too, the government had not called all parties with representation in Parliament to the all-party meeting in April and had set five MPs as a benchmark to be invited.

Raja had then written a letter to Modi demanding that the government should not get into "technicalities" and discuss the issue with all parties in Parliament.

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News Network
June 16,2020

New Delhi, Jun 16: With an increase of 10,667 cases and 380 deaths in the past 24 hours, the COVID-19 count in India has reached 3,43,091 on Tuesday, according to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

It is noteworthy that today's spike in cases is lower than the 11,502 registered in the country yesterday and has also stayed below the 11 thousand mark it had been crossing for the past two days in a row.

However, there is an increase in the number of deaths due to the infection from yesterday, with 380 deaths being reported from across the country, the toll due to COVID-19 has now reached 9,900.

The COVID-19 count includes 1,53,178 active cases, while 1,80,013 patients have been cured and discharged or migrated so far.

Maharashtra with 1,10,744 cases continues to be the worst-affected state in the country with 50,567 active cases while 56,049 patients have been cured and discharged in the state so far. The toll due to COVID-19 has crossed the four thousand mark and reached 4,128 in the state.
It is followed by Tamil Nadu with 46,504 and the national capital with 42,829 confirmed cases.

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