Rahul Gandhi’s rise in ranks will come 'automatically': Kharge

Agencies
September 9, 2018

New Delhi, Sept 9: Amid efforts to unite non-BJP forces in the run-up to the 2019 parliamentary election, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said Sunday that party president Rahul Gandhi would find "automatic" acceptance in the opposition ranks sooner than later.

In an exclusive interview to PTI, the Congress veteran said the people of India were looking up to Gandhi to dislodge the BJP and his acceptance among the opposition leaders would ultimately materialise, today or tomorrow.

To drive his point home, Kharge, a former union minister, asked which opposition leader, save Gandhi, had pan-India acceptance -- from Puducherry to Jammu and Kashmir?

"When Rahul Gandhi is working, everyone is praising his work. Acceptability is there. Because of this, there will be automatic acceptance (of Rahul Gandhi's leadership) today or tomorrow," Kharge said, when asked if the Gandhi family scion will find acceptability among the larger opposition camp.

Asked who will lead the opposition in the 2019 parliamentary election, he said it would be decided after the election but the primary purpose now was to unite everyone to oust the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from power.

Referring to Gandhi's assertion that the 2019 Lok Sabha election would be an ideological fight to dislodge the BJP first, Kharge said, "We want to take the lead in dislodging the BJP. Our leader Rahul Gandhi is naturally leading this fight. We want everyone's support in this. We want everyone's cooperation. Everyone is coming together. Everything will get sorted before the election."

The veteran Congressman also said people's support for Gandhi would translate into his larger political support among opposition ranks as well.

"In this fight we want to dislodge the BJP from power for which we are all uniting. The truth also is that the people of India are looking at Rahul Gandhi, so this (his acceptability) will ultimately materialise," Kharge said to another specific question on whether senior opposition leaders such as Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Bahujan Samaj Party's Mayawati and Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar will accept a relatively young Gandhi the way they accepted former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi, 48, took over the mantle of the Congress party from his mother Sonia Gandhi in December last year.

"Our leader has acceptability and wherever he goes today people assemble and listen to him. Which other leader has such acceptability from Puducherry to Jammu and Kashmir? You tell me. Which leader has such acceptability from West Bengal to Gujarat? Tell me one name," Kharge asked.

He said he did not want to "blame them (the opposition)".

"We don't want to blame them. We want to fight together first to dislodge the BJP from power as it is implementing wrong policies, destroying the Constitution, damaging institutions, autonomous institutions. We want to take the lead in dislodging the BJP. Our leader Rahul Gandhi is naturally leading this fight," he said.

He said Gandhi was seeking everyone's support for the task.

The Congress leader noted that all opposition parties were working together and are united in the fight against the BJP.

"They have all understood and have united. The Congress also has alliances in place with some parties such as RJD, NCP, Left parties, and more parties will come together once the election nears," he said.

He also said despite emerging as the single-largest party, the Congress gave away the post of chief minister in Karnataka in "national interest".

The comments come only two days after Trinamool Congress leader Chandan Mitra said the prime ministerial candidate after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will "surely be a regional leader because regional leaders are established in their domains" and that the "game has changed now".

Mitra was speaking at a panel discussion at the launch of a book by Congress leader Kapil Sibal.

Kharge also lashed out at the BJP and Prime Minister Modi, saying he is an "autocrat" and wants to bring in his own ideology and constitution, replacing the country's secular, democratic fabric.

He said Modi is "finishing democracy" in the country as he leaves no scope for consultation or consensus and does not listen to others' views, which Rahul Gandhi does and is thus emerging forward.

Kharge said under Modi rule, democracy and its values have no place and instead of uniting the society and the country, he is out to divide it on religious and class factors.

"We want all parties to join hands, people are also getting together and Rahul Gandhi is going to all states, as he speaks the truth, unlike Modiji, who gave false promises and never spoke the truth to people," he said.

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News Network
March 2,2020

Tezpur (Assam), Mar 2: Seven boys, who had appeared for their class 10 board examinations, were apprehended on Sunday for allegedly raping and killing a 12-year-old girl in Assam's Biswanath district, police said.

The girl was hanged from a tree after the crime.

The incident happened on Friday in Chakla village under the jurisdiction of Gohpur police station, they said.

A senior police officer told PTI that the culprits, all of them High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examinees, were on the run, but were nabbed by a police team.

The accused after the examination had called the victim to a house on the pretext of organising a party and raped her, the officer said.

It is suspected that the girl was raped on Friday night and then hanged from a tree in a forest near the house, the senior police officer said.

The body was found on Saturday.

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News Network
February 24,2020

New Delhi, Dec 24: The Delhi Police said that a head constable was killed during clashes over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in northeast Delhi today.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Shahdara, Amit Sharma was also injured during clashes, a senior official said. Sharma suffered injuries to his head and hand. He was hospitalised and is doing fine, the official added.

Tension escalated in northeast Delhi with protesters torching at least two houses and a fire tender in the Jaffrabad and Maujpur areas, where pro and anti-CAA groups clashed for the second consecutive day on Monday and hurled stones at each other.

Violence was also reported from the Chandbagh area in Jaffrabad.

Police fired tear gas shells and also resorted to lathicharge to disperse the protesters.

According to officials, a fire tender was damaged by the protesters after it responded to a fire call in the area.

The Delhi Metro closed entry and exit at the Jaffrabad and Maujpur-Babarpur stations as an uneasy calm prevailed in the area.

"Entry & exit of Jaffrabad and Maujpur-Babarpur are closed. Trains will not be halting at these stations," the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said in a tweet.

Entry and exit were closed at the Jaffrabad metro station for over 24 hours.

Clashes broke out on Sunday evening between pro and anti-CAA groups near Jaffrabad after a large number of people protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) blocked a road, while similar sit-ins were launched in several other parts of the national capital.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has urged lieutenant governor of Delhi and the Union home minister to restore order.

Nobody should be allowed to orchestrate violence, he said.

Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal instructed the police commissioner to maintain law and order in the national capital in the wake of violence.

"Instructed @DelhiPolice and @CPDelhi to ensure that law and order is maintained in North East Delhi. The situation is being closely monitored. I urge everyone to exercise restraint for maintenance of peace and harmony," Baijal tweeted.

Delhi minister and Babarpur MLA Gopal Rai on Monday urged the people in the area to maintain peace, saying some people were purposely trying to disturb the atmosphere.

"With folded hands, I request people in Babarpur Assembly to maintain peace. Some people are purposely trying to spoil the atmosphere. I have spoken to Delhi LG and he has assured me that more policemen will be deployed to bring the situation under control," Rai said in a tweet.

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News Network
May 27,2020

Muzaffarpur, May 27: A toddler's vain attempt to wake up his dead mother from eternal sleep on a railway platform in Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Wednesday presented the most poignant picture of the massive migrant tragedy unfolding across several states.

A video tweeted by Sanjay Yadav, an aide to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, shows the child walking unsteadily up to his mother's body, tugging at the blanket placed over her, and when failing to wake her up, covering his own head with it.

As the mother still lay still, he wobbles away from her, announcements continuing in the background about the arrival and departure of trains that would bring in tens of thousands of people in a rush to get away from hunger and hardship they face in large cities that could sustain them no more.

"This small child doesn't know that the bedsheet with which he is playing is the shroud of his mother who has gone into eternal sleep. This mother died of hunger and thirst after being on a train for four days. Who is responsible for these deaths on trains? Shouldn't the opposition ask uncomfortable questions?" tweeted Yadav.

However, police had a different story to tell.

Ramakant Upadhyay, the Dy SP of the Government Railway Police in Muzaffarpur, said the incident occurred on May 25 when the migrant woman was on way to Muzaffarpur from Ahmedabad by a Shramik Special train.

He told reporters the woman, who was accompanied by her sister and brother-in-law, had died on the Madhubani bound train.

"My sister-in-law died suddenly on the train. We did not face any problem getting food or water," the officer said, quoting the deceased's brother-in-law who he did not name.

He said on getting information, poice brought down the body and sent it for postmortem.

Citing the brother-in-law of the deceased, Upadhyay said she was aged 35 years and was undergoing treatment for "some disease" for the last one year in Ahmedabad. "She was also mentally unstable," he said.

When persistently queried about the cause of death, he said,"Only doctors can tell".

A massive exodus of migrant workers is on in several parts of the country, unprecedented in magnitude since Partition.

The humanitarian crisis still unfolding on highways and railway platforms has shone light on disturbing tales of entire families walking hundreds of kilometres with little children on foot in a seemingly endless march to escape hunger.

People have been found travelling on trucks and in the hollow of concrete mixing plants, and in many cases, dying from hunger and exhaustion before reaching their destinations.

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