Page 24 - Indian National Congress

Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day amid Opposition protests

In a back and forth, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju also hit out at the Opposition, alleging that it is instead Congress which has done conspiracy against B R Ambedkar, questioning their respect

Explained: 'One Nation One Election initiative', key reforms and challenges

The 'One Nation, One Election' is a bold initiative that promises cost savings and administrative efficiency but also raises concerns about its impact on federalism, representation, and practicality

Election Commission meets representatives of Delhi's political parties

The Election Commission held a meeting with representatives of political parties at Palika Kendra in central Delhi on Wednesday morning. BJP MP from New Delhi Bansuri Swaraj, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chaddha and party leader Jasmin Shah attended the meeting. An election commission official said the meeting lasted for around half an hour and covered several topics. Sources earlier said the Election Commission will review on Wednesday the preparedness of its poll machinery in Delhi, where assembly elections are due early next year. The term of the 70-member Delhi Legislative Assembly ends on February 23 next year and polls are to be held before that.

Not just public, allies also abandoned Cong: Scindia on opposition to EVMs

Scindia also said that the government under PM Modi was committed to the progress of the nation and believed in 100 percent saturation of all schemes

LS proceedings adjourned till 2 pm amid uproar over Shah's Ambedkar remarks

Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 pm on Wednesday as Congress members sought an apology from Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks which they claimed were an insult to B R Ambedkar. As soon as the House met for the day, Congress members trooped into the Well displaying posters of Ambedkar and sought an apology from Shah for his remarks during a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal countered the Congress, saying the party has always insulted Ambedkar and ensured his defeat in Lok Sabha elections. The minister also claimed that the Congress has now been forced to take the name of Ambedkar though the party does not respect him. Speaker Om Birla asked the members to allow the Question Hour to continue but as the din continued, the proceedings went on for less than two minutes before being adjourned till 2 pm.

Rahul Gandhi hits out at govt over trade deficit touching all-time high

Slamming the Modi government, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said prioritising crony businesses over play-fair ones leads to weakened manufacturing sector, depreciating currency, record high trade deficits, high interest rates, falling consumption and soaring inflation. Tagging a media report which said that trade deficit and imports are at an all-time high, Gandhi hit out at the government. "What happens when a government prioritises crony businesses over play-fair businesses?" Gandhi said. "Result: Weakened manufacturing sector, depreciating currency, record high trade deficits, high interest rates, falling consumption and soaring inflation," he said in a post on X. After recording double-digit growth in October, India's exports in November contracted by 4.85 per cent year-on-year to USD 32.11 billion, while the trade deficit widened to an all-time high of USD 37.84 billion due to record surge in gold imports. According to the commerce ministry d

Complete ban on any kind of demonstration around Vidhan Sabha: UP police

Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel have been deployed outside the Congress office in Lucknow

Believers of Manusmriti will have problem with Ambedkar: Rahul slams Shah

Amit Shah, earlier, lashed out at the Congress party and said that it had become a 'fashion' for the party to take Ambedkar's name

Amit Shah accuses Congress of treating Constitution as 'private fiefdom'

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday attacked the Congress for bringing various amendments to the Constitution, saying the opposition party considered it as the "private fiefdom" of one family and amended it to remain in power. Replying to a discussion on the "Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India", Shah also accused the Congress of being anti-reservation and said it never worked for the benefit of the backward classes. The minister also chided the Congress for "finding faults" in EVMs after losing elections. At the outset, he noted that the Constitution strengthened the roots of democracy and the transfer of power happens without shedding even a drop of blood. Shah listed many amendments made to the Constitution by the Congress, claiming the party did so for its own benefit. Even before the first elections in the country, Jawaharlal Nehru effected the first Constitutional amendment to curtail the freedom of expression, he claimed. "The Congress considered

Democracy should be India's religion, Constitution its holy book: Cong MP

Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain on Tuesday said India is a multi-religious society but the country's religion should only be democracy and holy book, the Constitution. He also said the subject of minority rights is germane to every country that calls itself a civilised nation, but going by the prevailing atmosphere in the country, India is soon turning into a "minority hating nation". He was participating in the discussion on the "Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India" in the Rajya Sabha. "This government has gone to the extent of making communal division into a state policy, thereby betraying the vision of the Constitution's framers and the inclusive nation that they aspired to build," the Congress MP said. Alleging that a dangerous politics of polarisation is on in the country, he claimed that an atmosphere of fear and hate is being created and "minorities today feel their state is like that of Jews during the Nazi rule in Germany". He further said Article 25

Willing to resign, high command will take call: Maharashtra Cong chief

Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Tuesday said that he has expressed his willingness to resign from the post, and now the party high command will decide on it. Talking to reporters on Vidhan Bhavan premises, Patole said the Congress's group leader in the state legislature will be chosen today. Following the party's worst-ever defeat in the assembly elections in Maharashtra, party sources had earlier claimed that the senior Congress leader had requested the central leadership to relieve him of the responsibility of the organisational post. Patole, however, had clarified last week that he had not tendered resignation and rumours were being spread. Patole said the Congress's Maharashtra in-charge will arrive in the city on Tuesday evening, and the party's group leader in the state legislature will be elected. He said discussions about the state chief's post would also take place. Queried whether he has tendered his resignation from the state chief's post, Patole said, "I have

Cong opposes 'One Nation, One Election' bill on concerns over federalism

The bill, which aims to implement the 'One Nation, One Election' proposal, is scheduled to be introduced by Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal today

Vijay Vasanth moves adjournment motion to discuss 'unemployment crisis'

Vasanth cited the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report and said there has been no substantial improvement in employment between July 2023 and June 2024

Opposition slams govt over slow growth, high inflation, job crisis

Opposition members on Monday flagged the low economic growth rate of 5.4 per cent in the second quarter of current fiscal and sought to know from the Finance Minister what steps the government is taking to boost growth, control inflation and create jobs. Participating in the debate on Supplementary Demands for Grants in the Lok Sabha, TMC member Sougata Ray said the government is caught in "pincer movement" of whether to push growth or control inflation and the economy is not in a "fair shape". "There is a typical crisis in the economy. The crisis is our growth projection for Q2 slipped to 5.4 per cent. This is very damaging to the economy and there is a sharp slowdown in the manufacturing sector," Ray said. He also alleged that former RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had to leave the Reserve Bank because he did not heed to the demand of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to cut interest rate. Instead, Das decided to focus on containing inflation. "There was a dispute between the Fina

Crucial event for humanity under Indira's leadership: Cong on Vijay Diwas

The Congress on Monday paid tributes to the armed forces on Vijay Diwas, with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge saying it was a momentous occasion for humanity under the decisive leadership of then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Vijay Diwas marks the surrender of Pakistani forces to the Indian Army in 1971. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said, "On the glorious occasion of Vijay Diwas, I salute the valour, dedication and resolve of our armed forces." The nation will always remember the indomitable courage and supreme sacrifice of all the heroes of the 1971 war who liberated Bangladesh from injustice while protecting India's sovereignty, he said. Kharge said, "On this day in 1971, the geography of the world changed when our valiant Indian military force defeated Pakistan and liberated Bangladesh." "It was a momentous occasion for humanity under the able, farsighted and decisive leadership of Smt. Indira Gandhi," he said in a post in Hindi on X. "We pay our tributes to the indomitab

MP Assembly's winter session begins Monday; Cong to protest farmers' woes

The Winter Session of the Madhya Pradesh assembly will begin on Monday, with the opposition Congress announcing that it would hold protests to highlight farmers' plight and crimes against women in the state. State Congress chief Jitu Patwari said they will also gherao the state assembly in Bhopal at 11 am on Monday. The five-day session is scheduled till December 20, said State Assembly Principal Secretary AP Singh on Sunday. He said the state assembly secretariat has received the information about 1,766 questions, including 888 starred questions from MLAs, 178 calling attention motions and one adjournment motion. This is the fourth session of the current assembly, he said. Earlier on Saturday, Speaker Narendra Singh Tomar inspected the arrangements for the session at the legislature premises in Bhopal. Congress said it would raise fertiliser shortage, increasing crimes against women, unemployment and farmers' issues during the Winter Session. Assembly Leader of Opposition Umang

Mayawati asks parties to back ONOE bills; slams SP, Cong on reservation

BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday attacked the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, saying they should not speak on reservations as they colluded in opposing legislation giving quota in promotions to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) when the Congress-led UPA was in power. Addressing a press conference, she also backed the Centre's bills on 'one nation- one election', stressing it will reduce expenses and ensure public welfare works continue uninterrupted. She urged other parties to also support the measure. Mayawati demanded that reservations for SC, ST and OBC be included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution to prevent any tampering. Central and state laws listed in the Ninth Schedule are exempt from judicial review. During the discussion on the Constitution in Lok Sabha, the ruling side and the opposition, especially the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, to woo Dalit and OBC voters, have said a lot of "baseless" things about reservation issue in which there is "not eve

PM Modi invokes Nehru to distract attention from his own 'failures': Cong

The Congress on Sunday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, charging that defamation of Jawaharlal Nehru and minimum democratic governance was his model. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister Modi has an "obsession" with Nehru as he invokes him to distract the nation's attention from his own failures and current challenges on which he maintains a complete silence. The Congress attack on the prime minister came a day after he attacked the party during the debate on the 'Glorious 75 year journey of India's Constitution'. "It was the famous French philosopher Voltaire who had first said that if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.For our self-anointed divinity - if Nehru had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent him," Ramesh said. The Congress leader asked what would the prime minister do without Nehru, for whom he has a pathological obsession? "Nehru is necessary to distract the nation's attention from His own failures.

PM Modi exposed Cong's violating of Constitution for years: BJP leaders

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday "exposed" the Congress by presenting "facts" on how the party tore apart the Constitution and hurt its soul just for the sake of power, BJP MPs, including Union ministers, said after his speech in the Lok Sabha. Responding to a two-day debate in the Lower House on the 'Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India', Modi launched a searing attack on the Nehru-Gandhi family and alleged that its generations assaulted the Constitution, leaving its spirit in a "bloodied state." Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan in a post on X said Modi in his address mainly spoke on the sanctity and importance of the Constitution as well as its basic elements. The PM also presented before the people of the country "facts" how the Congress, which claims to be the protector of the Constitution, tore apart the Constitution for the sake of power and hurt its soul, he added. "The Constitution of India is the religion of our government, a holy book for us

Those who speak truth are threatened with impeachment: Yogi Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday hit out at the Opposition for initiating impeachment notices against Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and Allahabad High Court's Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav, saying "whoever speaks the truth" is threatened in this way. Speaking at the World Hindu Economic Forum 2024, he also accused the Congress of practicing double standards. "Whoever speaks the truth, these people will pressurise him with impeachment (motions), and still they talk about the Constitution. Look at their double standards. "An Allahabad High Court judge said there should be a Uniform Civil Code, and the world over the feelings of the majority community are respected," the UP chief minister said. What was a person's crime if he voices these opinions, he asked. "Shouldn't there be a Uniform Civil Code in the country? The world over, the system runs as per what the majority community says and India is saying the discrimination between majority and minority .