Written by Liz Mathew | New Delhi | Updated: March 17 2018 5:45 pm Congress President Rahul Gandhi Sonia Gandhi and other leaders at the 82nd Plenary session of the Indian National Congress in New Delhi on Saturday. (Source: Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal) The main opposition Congress on Saturday joined the chorus of those seeking re-introduction of paper ballots in the elections in order to ensure the credibility of the electoral process. There are apprehensions among the political parties and the people over the misuse of EVMs to manipulate the outcome contrary to the popular verdict the party said in its political resolution moved by senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge. To ensure the credibility of the electoral process the Election Commission should revert to the old practice of paper ballot as major democracies have done said the resolution moved at the three day Congress plenary session being held in the national capital. Congress President Rahul Gandhi Sonia Gandhi and other leaders at the 82nd Plenary session of the Indian National Congress in New Delhi on Saturday. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal) READ | Rahul Gandhi at Congress plenary session: Nation is divided only our party can unite it In the backdrop of different groups expressing their concerns over the EVMs the resolution which is being discussed and is expected to be adopted by evening said the poll panel has the constitutional mandate to ensure free and fair elections. Both the voting and counting process must remain transparent to retain people s faith in the integrity of the electoral system. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP aggressively pushing the idea of One Nation One Election the political resolution of the Congress rejected it. The BJP s move for simultaneous elections is misplaced. It is incompatible with the constitution and is also impractical. It will have serious implications which must be thoroughly enquired into and a national consensus built the resolution said. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd Tags: Rahul Gandhi Sonia Gandhi
By: IANS | New Delhi | Updated: March 17 2018 4:54 pm Congress leaders at party s plenary session in New Delhi (Express Photo/Tashi Tobgyal) Related News Congress Plenary Session: Projecting younger face Congress takes a step closer to alliancesCongress to adopt pragmatic approach for cooperation with like-minded partiesRahul Gandhi at Congress plenary session: Nation is divided only our party can unite itThe Congress on Saturday expressed its willingness to ally with all like-minded parties with a pragmatic approach to defeat the Narendra Modi government in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The political resolution adopted at the party s plenary here talked of evolving a common workable programme to defeat the Bharatiya Janta Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the next general elections. The Congress spelled out its stance amid renewed efforts for opposition unity following the BJP s defeat in crucial Uttar Pradesh and Bihar Lok Sabha by-elections. Congress will adopt a pragmatic approach for cooperation with all like-minded parties and evolve a common workable programme to defeat the BJP-RSS in the 2019 elections the resolution said. The Bahujan Samaj Party had supported arch-rival Samajwadi Party candidates in Uttar Pradesh s Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats. The SP-BSP front trounced the BJP in a shocking outcome amidst suggestions that opposition parties should put up joint candidates against the BJP-led NDA in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The resolution however remained silent on the leadership of the grouping of like-minded parties but emphasised on the role of a resurgent Congress in winning back the idea of India. The 84th Plenary of the Congress gives a clarion call to its rank and file to rise to the occasion to defend the foundational values of our republic and constitutional democracy. A resurgent Congress alone shall win back the idea of India as envisioned by the founding fathers of our nation. The Congress had stitched an alliance to oust the first National Democratic Alliance government-led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004. The resolution said all sections have been betrayed by the BJP-led government and core constitutional values were under attack. Under the BJP regime the people of India farmers khet mazdoors workers in the unorganised sector self-employed manual labourers Dalits minorities traders unemployed youth and the poor have been betrayed. Today our core constitutional values are under attack. Our freedoms are in jeopardy. Our Institutions are under stress and their independence compromised. Our Republic must be protected at all costs it said. The resolution said the Congress was prepared to make whatever sacrifices required to defend the ethos of the Constitution. We will purge the polity of the aberrations witnessed during the BJP regime which has failed to honour its commitments to the people of India. It said the Congress was proud of its illustrious history legacy and remains the party that truly represents India multi-cultural multilingual and multi-religious. Congress Party is committed to serve people of India at a time when the country stands at a crossroad as it faces the threat posed by authoritarian divisive and disruptive forces it said. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App More Related News Rahul Gandhi s Twitter profile gets a makeover Congress plenary session LIVE UPDATES: We are exposing fraud corruption by PM Modi and his colleagues says Sonia Gandhi Tags: Congress
Written by Harsh Mander | Updated: March 17 2018 5:30 pm In her 19 years of leadership of the Congress Sonia Gandhi never faltered in her secular convictions (File) Muslims are today s castaways political orphans with no home for virtually every political party. This despite India being home to a tenth of the world s Muslims around 180 million people making it the largest Muslim country after Indonesia and Pakistan. There has never been a harder time to be a Muslim in India not since the stormy months that followed India s Partition. It was only the blood of the Mahatma spilled 70 years earlier which then stilled the feverish communal hate that had engulfed the land. But today the large majority of Indian Muslims feel even more profoundly alone and abandoned. Open expressions of hatred and bigotry against Muslims have become the new normal from schools to universities workplaces to living rooms internet to political rallies. Even worse they re forced to live with the everyday fear of hate violence. Muslim parents caution their children don t respond with salamalaikum when we phone you in a train; don t wear a beard or skullcap or hijab; even if someone abuses you don t fight back. Public lynching carries the unassailable social message that Muslims are second class citizens: Video-taped by the lynch mobs and triumphantly circulated police typically responds by arresting the victims instead of the attackers. But what creates even greater despair is the growing sense that Muslims in Indian politics have been rendered politically irrelevant. Worse many consider that they are now politically untouchable. The BJP has become the first ruling party since Independence without a single Muslim MP in the Lok Sabha. In the 2017 UP and Gujarat elections it didn t field a single Muslim candidate. It brandishes its political ambitions to build a massive social alliance of all Hindu castes Adivasis and even in Northeast India Christians all ranged against the country s Muslims. But now it is not just the BJP that shuns Muslims. Most political parties are accepting the premise that the majority Hindu vote will sour if a party is seen to be close to Muslims. In her 19 years of leadership of the Congress Sonia Gandhi never faltered in her secular convictions. But when even she declared recently that the Congress suffered because the BJP persuaded people that it was a Muslim party many Muslims felt their expulsion to the political wilderness was complete. Over the past months I have been urged to join a series of meetings called by Muslim leaders and youth. The mood is always sombre submerged in despair. In these meetings speakers lament the political consensus across the spectrum that Muslims are a political liability. Political parties are unwilling to field Muslim candidates to speak of issues of violence and discrimination that afflict large Muslim populations even to openly seek Muslim votes. In one of these meetings a prominent Dalit leader said By all means come in large numbers to our rallies. But don t come with your skullcaps and burkas. The advice that many speakers offer in the gatherings is for Muslims to voluntarily withdraw from politics. In one meeting a well-regarded former Congress MP circulated a note: Shedding pretensions of development the BJP is still able to survive on their hate for minorities which they market way too well . The Opposition he adds has also realised that minorities are fast becoming a burden and slipping into political oblivion . Minorities have become a taboo for the big parties which seek to dissociate with any step that can come across as minority appeasement . This shows us what is in store in the future . It is for Hindus to decide now he believes whether they want India to become a Hindu Rashtra or remain secular . But for this Indian Muslims owe this to our secular Hindu counterparts to step down from the political arena altogether and let the battle be between issues that affect all Indians as individuals because we must understand that our very presence in the electoral fray leads to communal polarisation . I hear this same troubling counsel of despair repeated in every gathering. That Muslims must stay away from politics some say for a generation. Become invisible. Don t seek political office. Don t campaign. Just keep a low profile. At best vote quietly on election-day. To liberal Hindu friends they say: To protect us abandon us. It appears at least for the present that the BJP has succeeded in a toxic majoritarian reordering of the rules of India s political game. Muslims are not just irrelevant they are the political bogeyman whose visible support will frighten away all other voters. The BJP needs only to float the rumour that the Congress will make a Muslim leader the chief minister in Gujarat to stir panic and a scramble in Congress ranks to assure voters this is a falsehood. It is not as though large states in India have not had Muslim chief ministers and there is no reason why they should not continue to occupy this seat if they so deserve. Indeed India should one day have a Dalit Muslim or Adivasi Prime Minister. Why should this be inconceivable? Why should it frighten non-Muslims? Londoners have elected a very popular and personable Muslim mayor of Pakistani origin. The time has come for us to combat the anguish which envelops our Muslim sisters and brothers. The idea that standing with or for or behind Muslims will repel other Indians derives from the conviction that the popular Indian common sense is today majoritarian. That Hindus of every caste class gender and region other religious and ethnic minorities and Adivasis all are compelled by a common hatred of Muslims. I spend a lot of time in my work with ordinary people across India and know that this is simply not true. The poisons released by the RSS into the veins of Indian social life are powerful addictive and heady. But India is not cannot be divided into Muslim people on the one side and all others on the other. Love friendships work shared cultures shared dreams shared fears all bind people together in ways that manufactured hate has not shattered. But if liberal political parties also surrender to this majoritarian common sense it carries the danger of ultimately becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead political parties and ordinary citizens must affirm stoutly that Muslims are equal citizens in every way integral to India s imagination its creation and its future. They need no one s permission to choose their leaders campaign for those they support and indeed to lead. To push them into the shadows of our political society would not just diminish them. It would diminish each of us irredeemably. Mander is a human rights worker and writer For all the latest Opinion News download Indian Express App More From Harsh Mander A crime of hate a journey of love In the wake of Afrazul s murder revisiting the fear that lingers for those who like him travelled far away from their homes to provide for It s not about one Ram temple The campaign to demolish the Babri Masjid had a sub-text: Muslims should know their place that of second-class citizens... Through a caravan darkly In its journey to the sites of lynchings across states the Karwan-e-Mohabbat found a stark waning of compassion and solidarity..
By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Updated: March 16 2018 7:31 pm Congress MP Ripun Bora Related News Now Haryana minister Anil Vij calls for removing Adhinayak from national anthemJ-K government seeks explanation from officer for alleged disrespect to national anthem Can t stand for national anthem don t expect me to stand for you : Twitterati call soldier s statement immature Congress MP Ripun Bora on Friday moved a private member s resolution in Rajya Sabha seeking amendment of the National Anthem and replacing the word Sindh with Northeast India . In the letter he suggested The National Anthem of India Jana Gana Mana mentions Sindh which is no longer part of India; the NorthEast India which is a very important part of India finds no mention in the National Anthem the then President of India Dr. Rajendra Prasad had made a statement in the Constituent Assembly on January 24 1950 that the composition consisting of the words and music known as the Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India subject to such alterations in the words such as Government may authorise as occasion arises. Read Also: J&K: Probe against govt official for disrespecting national anthem North East is important part of India it is unfortunate that it is not part of national anthem on other hand Sindh is mentioned which is no longer part of India but part of Pakistan which is a hostile country Bora told ANI. Jana Gana Mana was composed in Bengali by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1911 when the Indian territory stretched from Balochistan in the west to Sylhet in the east. It was adopted in its Hindi version by the Constituent Assembly as the National Anthem of India on 24 January 1950. The country was however divided after India got independence in 1947 with Sindh Balochistan Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and parts of Punjab being ceded to West Pakistan; and Sylhet Dhaka and other parts of Bengal being ceded to East Pakistan which later became Bangladesh in 1971. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd More Related News Quash section 377 of IPC says former SC judge N Santosh Hegde MHA officer-led team to look into rules for playing national anthem in cinema halls Tags: national anthem
New Delhi: In a move which has sparked row in Parliament an overwhelming majority of Opposition parties have extended support to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress thus backing their no-confidence motion against the Modi government over the non-implementation of the Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh. Bhartiya Janata Party s (BJP) strongest competition Indian National Congress (INC) has also extended its support to the TDP and YSR parties and backed their decision of no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi-led government. By extending their support to the no-confidence motion the Opposition parties have ensured that the TDP and YSR Congress are not left short of the required support of a minimum of 50 MPs to get their motion admitted. The TDP has just 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha while the YSR Congress has nine. Mallikarjun Kharge Congress leader in the Lok Sabha said We have been supporting special category status for AP since the beginning. We want the people of AP to get justice. When no-confidence motion is moved you have to talk (in the House debate) about the government s failures. So we are contacting a lot of people (to mobilise support for the motion). CPM s Sitaram Yechury in support of the no-confidence motion tweeted CPM supports the no-confidence motion being brought against the BJP government. CPI(M) supports the no-confidence motion being brought against the BJP government. Its betrayal of the promise of special status for Andhra Pradesh is inexcuseable. Its all-round failure and evasion of parliamentary accountability needs to be highlighted. Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) March 16 2018 Also Read: TDP moves no-confidence motion against Modi government Tariq Anwar leader of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) said The NCP is fully backing the move. The government if it is confident of answering our questions and taking a vote must admit the motion. Odisha s Biju Janata Dal also backed the southern parties and extended its support to the no-confidence motion. Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress tweeted I welcome the TDP s decision to leave the NDA. The current situation warrants such action to save the country from disaster. I welcome the TDP s decision to leave the NDA. The current situation warrants such action to save the country from disaster Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) March 16 2018 The no-confidence motion notices were moved by TDP s Thota Narasimham and YSR Congress YV Subba Reddy. However the Speaker Sumitra Mahajan refused to take up the motion due to unrest in the House which led to the adjournment of the proceedings for the day and raised loud protests over various issues.
Imphal capital of Manipur is all set to host the annual session of the Indian Science Congress for the first time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally inaugurate the 105th session of the congress on 16 March. Manipur University will host the science congress. Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Indian Science Congress. PTI The focal theme for the 2018 Science Congress is Reaching the Unreached through Science and Technology . This year the focus will be on translational science for promoting affordable and sustainable innovation. During the five-day program the focus will be on various scientific disciplines and how they can connect with the society. Nobel laureates Field Medal winners in mathematics and leading scientists will be among those slated to address different sessions at the annual event. Young Scientists Awards will also be conferred during the function. A technology-based startup conclave also will be showcased inviting top innovators and entrepreneurial researchers. The highlights of the program include the children s science congress which will be inaugurated on 17 March and the Women s science congress to be held on 18 and 19 March. In addition there will be a Science Communicator s Meet on 19 March. It is expected that around 5 000 delegates from all over the country will participate in the event including students academicians members of science and engineering academies officials of all ministers promoting science and technology and representatives of national science academies of different countries. The 104th Indian Science Congress was held in Tirupati and the theme was Science & Technology for National Development . Last year Prime Minister in his inaugural speech had observed that some of these important challenges are in the key sectors of clean water & energy food environment climate security and healthcare. We equally need to keep an eye on the rise of disruptive technologies and be prepared to leverage them for growth. We need to clearly assess the challenges and opportunities for our technology readiness and competitiveness. This year as the theme suggests the congress is set to take these thoughts to the next level. The 105th science congress was scheduled to take place in Hyderabad this year in January but postponed. Osmania University which was supposed to host the event had expressed its inability to hold it. (India Science Wire) #Imphal #India Science Wire #Indian Science Congress #Manipur #Manipur University #NewsTracker #Science And Technology
By: PTI | New Delhi | Published: March 15 2018 8:31 pm The party will highlight its vision on each sphere and compare it with the current situation. (Congress Twitter) Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will present the party s vision and the way forward at its plenary session starting on Friday where the focus will be on workers instead of leaders this time. The plenary session starting with a meeting of the Steering Committee will set the tone for the party s poll strategy in the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections where it seeks to oust the BJP from power. Sources said the party will adopt four resolutions one each on the political situation the economic front and on the foreign affairs besides a separate one on agriculture unemployment and poverty alleviation. The party will highlight its vision on each sphere and compare it with the current situation. After Friday s meeting of the Steering Committee where a final shape will be given to all resolutions the plenary session will start on the morning of March 17 with an inaugural address by party chief Rahul Gandhi. At the two-day brainstorming session two resolutions including the one on political situation will be taken up and adopted on the first day while two others including the one on jobs will be taken up on the concluding day. The session will end with an address of the Congress president where he would set the tone for party s plan forward for the upcoming elections. The political resolution the sources say will also indicate the party s plans for forging coalitions with like-minded parties. The Congress is seeking to build a larger front of opposition parties to stop the BJP from coming back to power and former president Sonia Gandhi has called upon them to set aside their differences to come together for a larger national cause. This plenary session will be very different from other sessions this time as the Congress president is seeking to accord preference to workers than leaders said a leader adding that the focus would be shifted from the Congress chief to workers who will be allowed to speak up on the party s future strategy. Since the Steering Committee will cease to exist after the plenary https://www.freelancersunion.org/members/account/momid-khan/ session the new Working Committee (CWC) of the party will also be put in place soon. There was no confirmation on whether the CWC would be formed during the session or after but sources said it won t be an elected body and the party chief will select his own team. Gandhi who took over the reins of the party last December will present the Congress vision document and the political road map for the party and the document will act as a guiding light to help party workers upstage the BJP from power at the Centre in 2019 besides in some states. The session will also look into future alliances that the party foresees will be needed for defeating the BJP a Congress leader said. The plenary meet to be held at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here will be attended by senior leaders and workers starting from block presidents. The party s key focus would be on the issue of agriculture and unemployment the source said adding that the party wants to highlight the agrarian crisis in the country and joblessness among the people to help garner public support The session assumes importance as it will be the first after Gandhi s presidentship and the first to be held with a new leader in two decades. The sources said the party will also distribute literature and five books each on jobs and youth SCs and ST s the economy national security and corruption. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App Tags: Congress Party Rahul Gandhi
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