Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "strangling" democracy and said it seems the country is being run not by a government but by a "criminal gang". Gandhi's attack on the government came a day before the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance's (INDIA) public meeting at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan which the Congress has termed 'Loktantra Bachao Rally'. In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi said, "Narendra Modi wants to strangle democracy and take away the option from the people to choose a government of their choice." "On one hand, the BJP, which is doing 'chande ka dhanda', is running an 'extortion government' in the country, while on the other hand, by freezing the accounts of the main opposition party, putting chief ministers in jail and suppressing every independent voice, it is not allowing opposition to contest the polls in a fair manner," Gandhi said. "Whoever is not with BJP - jail him. Whoever donates to BJP - bail him out. With th
A large number of Congress leaders and workers carried out a sit-in protest on Saturday in Kerala's capital over the Income Tax notices issued to the party, and alleged that the ruling BJP is trying to "choke" it financially ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The protest was organised in front of the Income Tax Department office here by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC). Inaugurating the sit-in protest, KPCC acting President M M Hassan launched a scathing attack against the BJP government at the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The objective of the BJP is to choke the Congress party financially and keep it completely out of election-related activities," he alleged. Besides the Congress, several other opposition political parties had also been served with the I-T notices by the BJP government, he pointed out. At the same time, the BJP has amassed crores of rupees via electoral bonds and is not even ready to disclose the actual amount before the Supreme Court, the lea
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the BJP-led Centre on Saturday over its proposal to borrow more than Rs 14 lakh crore, asking why is the government "drowning the people in debt" when instead of relief being provided to them, the "burden of unemployment, inflation and economic crisis" is increasing. In her budget speech last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to borrow Rs 14.13 lakh crore by issuing dated securities to meet a revenue shortfall in the next financial year starting April 1. In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi said: "The finance ministry stated that the government is going to borrow more than Rs 14 lakh crore in the current financial year. Why?" In the 67 years since independence till 2014, the country's total debt was Rs 55 lakh crore, the Congress general secretary said while pointing out that in the last 10 years, the Narendra Modi government increased it to Rs 205 lakh crore. The Modi government has borrowed about Rs 150 lakh crore in the
Rajasthan Congress will hold protests at all district headquarters of the state on Saturday against the fresh notices issued to it by the Income Tax Department and the freezing of the party's bank accounts. General Secretary and spokesperson of Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee Swarnim Chaturvedi said the BJP-led central government is continuously attacking democracy and democratic systems in the country. Public demonstrations will be organised by the district Congress committees at all the district headquarters of Rajasthan on Saturday, he said. All senior leaders, office bearers, and workers of the Congress will participate, he added. As part of a well-planned conspiracy of the central government, the bank accounts of the Congress party were frozen and now undemocratic action is being taken against it by the Income Tax Department which has asked it to pay Rs 1,823.08 crore, he said. This is being done so that the Congress is not able to participate with strength in the genera
Top INDIA bloc leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav among others will attend a 'maharally' to be held by the AAP at the Ramlila Maidan on March 31, senior party leader Gopal Rai said on Friday. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has received the permission of the authorities concerned to hold the rally for an attendance of more than 20,000 people. It is being held in the backdrop of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest, he said. The call on whether Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal will address the 'Maharally' will be taken later, Rai said. Other prominent political leaders and members of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) like TMC's Derek O'Brien, DMK's Tiruchi Siva, NC's Farooq Abdullah and Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren of JMM will also attend the rally, he said. Kalpana Soren, the wife of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, who is currently in jail,
The Congress will reserve 50 per cent of government jobs for women if it is voted to power, former party chief Rahul Gandhi said on Friday, asserting that powerful women will change the destiny of India. Gandhi asked why even today only one in three women is employed and why is there only one woman in 10 government jobs. "Isn't the population of women in India 50%? Is the presence of women in higher secondary and higher education not 50%? If so, then why is their share in the system so less?" the former Congress chief said. "Congress wants - 'Aadhi Abaadi Poora Haq', we understand that women's potential will be fully utilized only when women have equal contribution in the government running the country," he said in a post in Hindi on X. Therefore, the Congress has decided that half the recruitment in all new government jobs should be reserved for women, he said. "We are also in favour of immediate implementation of women's reservation in Parliament and in assemblies," Gandhi ...
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The Congress is likely to announce the names of its candidates for Ranchi, Lohardaga, Khunti and Hazaribag Lok Sabha seats on Wednesday, a senior party leader said. The names are likely to be announced after the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting in New Delhi. "The names of the candidates for Ranchi, Lohardaga, Khunti and Hazaribag Lok Sabha seats are likely to be announced today. We are going to participate in the meeting in Delhi, and the final list is likely to be issued after the CEC meeting and the screening committee meeting this evening," Congress legislature party leader Alamgir Alam told PTI before leaving for Delhi. He said a final decision on seat sharing among the INDIA bloc allies is also likely to be taken during the day, and accordingly the names of candidates will be announced. Leaders of the INDIA bloc said that a seat-sharing agreement has been finalised for all the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. As per the agreement, the Congress would .
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K Surendran was named in the BJP's fifth list of candidates and faces a tough task to challenge the Left-Congress dominance in Kerala
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday claimed the BJP was spreading a false narrative against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi while targeting him over his "shakti" remark. In his weekly column "rokhthok" in the party mouthpiece Saamana, Raut said during his Mumbai rally, Gandhi had said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is just a mask and the opposition has to fight the "shakti" behind it. "Gandhi meant 'dhan shakti' (money power) against which the opposition has to fight. PM Modi immediately said this was an attack on Hindutva and women power. People who consider themselves as the avatar of Lord Vishnu were shocked by Gandhi's 'shakti' attack and started spreading a false narrative against him. There is also a shakti behind this false propaganda machinery," the Rajya Sabha claimed. "The BJP has become a mental illness patient," he alleged. Raut also wondered why a hospital whose income is generated from patients should purchase electoral bonds. "The Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital .
Senior TMC leader and MP Shatrughan Sinha has dubbed opposition bloc INDIA as "filtered coffee" which is gaining momentum ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and emphasised the importance of not discounting the Congress, citing its track record of comebacks in politics. Lauding Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for conducting "krantikari (revolutionary) yatras" across the country, the Asansol MP, however, asserted that TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would be a "game-changer" after the results are announced. In an interview with PTI, the actor-turned-politician termed the electoral bond as a "major scam and extortion racket" of the BJP and said the "seven-phase elections are a boon for the opposition parties to expose the saffron camp's extortion and blackmail racket in the form of electoral bonds." "The BJP will be defeated in this election. If the NDA has the support of the CBI, ED, and Income Tax, INDIA has the support of the masses. Many think that INDIA doesn't .
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A special court here on Friday postponed the hearing on a defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to April 2 due a strike by lawyers. The defamation complaint against Gandhi was filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra for his alleged objectionable remarks against Home Minister Amit Shah. The plaintiff's advocate, Santosh Pandey, said the hearing in the case was scheduled for Friday, but it was deferred to April 2 as lawyers abstained from court proceedings due to a strike over their various demands. The case was filed in August 2018. Last December, the court issued a warrant against Gandhi. Subsequently, Gandhi halted his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Amethi on February 20 last and reached the court and was granted bail.
The Delhi High Court will pronounce its order on Friday on the Congress party challenging the reassessment proceedings against it by the Income Tax Department. A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav is scheduled to pass its verdict at 2:15 PM. The high court had reserved its order on March 20 on the pleas filed by the political party against the tax reassessment proceedings initiated against it by the authorities for three successive years, that is, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17. The party has contested the reassessment proceedings, claiming they were barred by limitation. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing the Congress party, had submitted that tax reassessment proceedings are barred by limitation and the I-T department could have gone back to a maximum of six assessment years. The I-T department, however, asserted there was no violation of any statutory provision by the tax authority and that as per the material recovered, the "escaped" incom