Sonia Gandhi, 73, expresses desire to step down, asks colleagues to find a new Cong chief

News Network
August 23, 2020

sonia.JPG

New Delhi, Aug 23: Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, 73, is learnt to have asked her colleagues to find new party chief and expressed her desire to step down in a letter in the wake of many senior leaders questioning the party’s top brass.

Though the contents of Ms. Gandhi’s letter have not officially been made public, the move has prompted several other seniors leaders like Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and former Union Minister Salman Khurshid to come out in support of the Gandhis ahead of the crucial meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Monday.

The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue while more State units are supposed to back the Gandhis.

“Currently no other leader in the Congress can give the party a strong leadership,” the Punjab Chief Minister said in a statement on Sunday, adding, “any move to divide or destabilise the party would give advantage to the dictatorial forces.”

Ms. Gandhi’s letter is a response to a letter from a group of senior leaders including Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Lok Sabha member Manish Tewari Tewari, former union minister Veerappa Moily, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda among others.

In their letter, written about two weeks ago, the group questioned the Congress party’s style of functioning and suggested sweeping reforms.

Multiple sources told this reporter that nearly 300 party functionaries across different State units have endorsed the contents of the letter ,which are likely to be made public depending on the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday.

The group has called for a “full time and effective leadership who are active in the field, a mechanism for collective leadership and elections to the CWC”.

The letter was leaked to a prominent newspaper after the party announced the dates for the CWC meeting as Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had denied the existence of such a letter earlier.

The group is also said to be opposed to attempts being made hand back the reins to former party chief Rahul Gandhi and would rather push for decision making through a Parliamentary Board.

Other leaders, supporting the Gandhis, however, lashed out at the group claiming that “personal interests more than concern from the party” prompted the letter.

“Mr Azad is finishing his Rajya Sabha term early next year and is concerned about his political future. Similarly, the Lok Sabha MPs are upset at being passed over for the party leader's post and so on,” said a leader loyal to the Gandhis.

Some of the points raised in the letter have also been publicly articulated by leaders like Mr. Tewari and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor.

On August 2, in an interview to The Hindu, when Mr. Tewari was asked what could revive the party, he had said, “A full time president, elected by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in terms of Article 18(h) of the [party’s] constitution.”

“The options are: (a) Rahul Gandhi could withdraw his resignation. (b) If he is reluctant for whatever reasons then Ms. Sonia Gandhi should be persuaded to continue notwithstanding her known disinclination for the job. (c) If the two are non-sequitor then elections should be held to the presidency,” he added.

“The elected positions in the CWC should be filled through elections, the Congress Parliamentary Board should be revived, AICC sessions like in the past should be held bi-annually and the process of internal elections should be externally supervised like the IYC. However most importantly ideological and strategic clarity is imperative going forward,” Mr Tewari had said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
November 29,2024

masjidsambal.jpg

New DelhiI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Sambhal Shahi Jama Masjid committee to approach the Allahabad High Court and told the district court not to act until then upon a survey ordered on a claim of the mosque having built on a pre-existing temple.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar directed Uttar Pradesh to maintain peace and harmony in the area, where four protesters were killed during the heavy stone pelting. The court also ordered the survey report of the advocate commissioner's report should be kept in sealed cover.

"We don't want anything to happen in the meanwhile...Let them (Shahi Jama Masjid committee) exercise appropriate remedies. We will keep this pending," the bench said.

Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, appearing for plaintiff Hari Shankar Jain and others submitted the next date of hearing has been fixed for January 8 before the civil judge (senior division).

Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the petitioner committee, contended the order is capable of great public mischief. He said as of 10 such suits are pending across the country where the survey is sought to be conducted.

"We hope and trust the trial court will not take any proceedings...We have not expressed any opinion on merits," the bench said, fixing the matter for consideration in the week commencing on January 6.

In case any revision application is filed, it should be heard within three days before the High Court, the bench ordered.

At the outset, the bench said it had some reservations with the order passed by the Civil Judge (senior division) on November 19.

The court told the Uttar Pradesh government represented by Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj that the district administration has to remain neutral and maintain peace in the area.

The court directed the plaintiff not to file any papers.

It also ordered the advocate commissioner's report should be kept in a sealed cover.

The petitioner committee questioned the validity of the survey ordered within a short period, triggering violence in the area and leading to the death of four protestors.

The plea filed by the Committee of Management, Shahi Jama Masjid, Sambhal claimed "the hot haste" in which the survey was allowed and conducted all within a day and suddenly another survey was conducted after a couple of days with a notice of barely six hours that had given rise to widespread communal tensions and threatened the secular and democratic fabric of the nation.

The survey was ordered by a civil judge (senior division) on a suit filed by advocate Hari Shankar Jain and others.

According to the plaintiffs, Shahi Jama Masjid at Chandausi was built by Mughal emperor Babar in 1526 after demolishing the Shri Harihar temple.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
November 18,2024

resort.jpg

Mangaluru: The Ullal police have arrested Manohar, the owner of Vazco Beach Resort, and its manager Bharath in connection with the drowning of three college girls from Mysuru at the resort’s swimming pool on November 17.

City Commissioner of Police Anupam Agrawal confirmed the arrests, stating that a case has been registered under Section 106 of BNS. The bodies of the victims, all in their twenties, have been handed over to their parents. The women had arrived at the resort for a weekend getaway on November 16.

Following the tragic incident, the resort was sealed by officials led by Mangaluru Assistant Commissioner Harshavardhan. The trade license of the resort, issued on June 13, 2024, has been suspended, and the tourism department has temporarily revoked the resort's registration. These actions prohibit the resort from engaging in any tourism-related activities until further notice.

Someshwara TMC Chief Officer stated that the suspension was due to the resort's failure to implement adequate safety measures, which resulted in the loss of three lives. Further investigations are underway.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.