Month: December 2020

Hours after Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli recommended the dissolution of Parliament on Sunday, the country’s President Bidhya Devi Bhandari ratified the proposal and announced dates for the elections to be held next year.

“Nepal President ratifies the proposal of parliament dissolution presented forward by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli,” President Office said in a press release.

Upon the recommendation of the council of ministers, President Bhandari also announced the date of the national polls to be held in two phases on April 30 and May 10 in 2021.

This comes after Prime Minister Oli had summoned an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers after a series of meetings with the party’s leadership and ministers on Saturday.

Oli was under pressure to withdraw an ordinance related to the Constitutional Council Act that he had issued on Tuesday and got endorsed by President Bidya Devi Bhandari.

The Nepal PM has been facing pressure from the rival factions of the NCP led by former prime ministers Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Nepal.

Earlier today, Prachanda reached PM residence to get first-hand knowledge on the issue. However, PM remained reserved and didn’t say anything except that “he will take a firm action today”.

Prime Minister Oli convened the cabinet meeting at 9:45 AM and made the decision in less than an hour.

The latest step of the Oli-led administration comes amid a rising rift inside the ruling party and the house adjourned for the longest period of time in Nepal’s history. Since the Constitution does not have a provision for the House dissolution, the move is likely to be challenged in the court.

Subsequently, the cabinet has forwarded the proposal of dissolution of the Parliament to the President for consideration. Usually, the President is consulted in advance on these issues by the Prime Minister.

Accordingly, the President should approve the dissolution of the parliament.

This will lead to strong opposition from the Prachanda and Madhav Nepal camp and they are likely to protest and even file a writ in the Supreme court challenging this position taken by Prime Minister Oli.

Reacting swiftly after the confirmation of the decision, Narayankaji Shrestha, Spokesperson of the ruling Nepal Communist Party reacted calling it undemocratic.

“I got to know about the recommendation just now. The decision has been made in haste as all the ministers weren’t present in the cabinet meeting this morning. This is against the democratic norms and would take the nation backward, this can’t be implemented,” Narayankaji Shrestha, Spokesperson for the ruling Nepal Communist Party told ANI. (ANI)

In the concluding leg of his two-day tour of West Bengal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) ‘Ma, Mati aur Manush’ slogan is non-existent now and it is limited to being a family party today.

“Mamata Banerjee started with ‘Ma, Mati aur Manush’ slogan. But this slogan is not to be seen anywhere today because of appeasement policy and dictatorship. TMC is limited to being a family party today,” Shah said at a press conference here.

“Instead of being concerned about the 10 crore people of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee is concerned about making her nephew (Abhishek Banerjee) the chief minister of West Bengal,” he added.

The Union Home Minister further stated that there are three dangerous trends that have been set in West Bengal– complete politicisation of administration, complete criminalisation of politics and institutionalisation of corruption.

Shah further said: “I want to make an earnest request to the people of West Bengal to join forces with BJP’s ‘Aar noi anyay’ (no more injustice) campaign and support Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

“It is BJP’s commitment to give a good administration to the people of West Bengal and it will not back down at any time,” he added.

Shah, while speaking on the farm sector in West Bengal, said, “The money due to the farmers of West Bengal given by the central government should be given to them by the state government.”

“According to the 2016-17 figures published by NABARD, in terms of the monthly average income of farmers, West Bengal is at the 24th position amongst the 29 states,” he added.

He further said: “West Bengal is the most well-endowed state in the country in terms of its freshwater sources. But irrigation is limited to 55 per cent of the area. It can be further increased.”

Shah attacked the TMC government for not passing on the benefits of the Ayushman Bharat Yojana to the common people in West Bengal.

“In the health sector under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, a Rs 5 lakh cover is provided to every poor person in the country. But in West Bengal, this facility has been barred. Is this the way to advocate a federal structure of the constitution?” he said.

On Saturday, over 10 MLAs in Bengal apart from former minister Suvendu Adhikari joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of Amit Shah. An MP and a former MP also joined the BJP.

Shah’s much-anticipated visit to the state began on Saturday.

West Bengal is scheduled to go for assembly polls in mid-2021. The dates have not been announced yet. (ANI)

By Archana Prasad

Senior Congress leader Harish Rawat on Sunday asserted that there is no rift between the old and young leaders in the party and “respecting” the views of the “dissenting” leaders, the process to elect their next president has been started.

Talking to ANI on the sidelines of a meeting between Congress leaders and interim president Sonia Gandhi, Rawat said two solutions came out in yesterday’s meeting. “There were rumours that senior leaders are dissenters and are being called G23. This is just a media creation. The leadership has cleared that they are part of our family, and whatever they have said is within our internal democracy and we respect that.”

“According to their suggestions, few committees have been formed and the process to elect the next party president has been started. There is no old versus young,” Rawat said.

Congress General Secretary Rawat added that there was a rumor that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his close associates were not giving respect to the suggestions by the senior leaders.

“Rahul Gandhi is not against the senior party leaders and has respect for them. Rahul Gandhi respects them for not just their experience but because they had worked with his father Rajiv,” he said.

Rawat said that the current meeting is not the first. “We have been meeting virtually. There have been meetings among the state and central leadership.”

“This time Sonia Gandhi said she wanted to meet all the leaders personally. All the leaders were there and everyone openly put their points in front of Sonia Gandhi. There is one conclusion. The country needs the Congress, and we need to strengthen ourselves and our responsibility under the leadership of Gandhis,” Rawat said.

This was the first meeting when Sonia met the party leaders face-to-face since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the dissenters, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor, Prithviraj Chavan and Manish Tewari attended the meeting. (ANI)

By Sahil Pandey

Three biker groups from Punjab and Haryana arrived at Singhu border on Sunday to express their solidarity with the farmers who have been protesting against the three recently enacted farm laws for the last 25 days.

“The purpose is to do sewa (service),” Gurpreet Singh, a member of Ludhiana bikers’ group Punjab Enfield Generation, said.

Gurpreet, also a skating coach in Ludhiana, highlighted that it is his duty to help the farmers. “Our farmers have been protesting here for more than two weeks and we are trying to support them. It is our duty to help our farmers. We have come here with medicines and blankets.”

Pal Singh, who hails from Karnal and is one of the core members of Ludhiana-based Muchchad Gang, said that people should come out in large numbers to support the farmers.

“People should come out in large numbers to support the farmers because the nation depends upon two kinds of people — farmers and soldiers,” he said.

Karnal resident Sandeep of Low Beam Riders group questioned Bollywood for not showing support to the protesting farmers so far. “We want the farm laws to be repealed.”

He added that if farmers stop growing food, how would people get food.

“We would be alive only if farmers are there. Without the farmers, we don’t have a future,” Ramandeep, a member of the Muchchad Gang, said.

Even after several rounds of talks with the government, farmers have been protesting in and around the national capital since November 26 against the three farm laws — the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. (ANI)

With the European Parliament (EP) passing a resolution on forced labour and the condition of the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), China’s plans to have investment agreements with the European Union (EU) member states seem to be now under threat.

“Labour rights in China is a hot potato, particularly given the parliament’s recent urgent resolution on Xinjiang. If there are no proper commitments on International Labour Organisation, then it will be extremely difficult,” South China Morning Post quoted a source with knowledge of the thinking of both the EU Parliament and the European Commission, which conduct negotiations with China, as saying.

The EP on December 18 passed a resolution on forced labour and the condition of the Uyghurs in the XUAR while calling on the EU to proactively work towards an independent UN inquiry on China with a view to ensuring accountability for the crimes committed.

“The situation in Xinjiang, where more than 10 million Muslim Uyghurs and Kazakhs live, has rapidly deteriorated, particularly since the launch of the Chinese Government’s ‘Strike Hard against Violent Terrorism’ campaign in 2014”, said an EP resolution.

It added, “Uyghurs and other primarily Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have been subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, egregious restrictions on religious practice and culture, and a digitalised surveillance system so pervasive that every aspect of daily life is monitored — through facial recognition cameras, mobile phone scans, the large-scale illegal collection, aggregation and processing of personal data”.

The resolution said there has been a general strengthening of the Chinese regime and a toughening of the treatment of minorities, in particular of Uyghurs, Tibetans and Mongolians, with the aim of assimilating them through the imposition of the Chinese majority lifestyle and communist ideology.

According to credible reports, more than one million people, are, or have been, detained in what are being called ‘political re-education’ centres, in the largest mass incarceration of an ethnic minority population in the world today.

The internment camp system in the XUAR is expanding, with more than 380 suspected detention facilities having been newly built or expanded since 2017, and at least 61 detention sites newly constructed or expanded between July 2019 and July 2020.

The EP observed that the Chinese authorities are systematically subjecting Uyghur women of childbearing age to forced abortions, intrauterine injections and sterilisation, with 80 per cent of all new intrauterine device (IUD) placements in China in 2018 performed in the Uyghur region, despite the fact that it makes up only 1.8 percent of China’s population; whereas such measures to prevent births within the Uyghur population could meet the criteria for belonging to the worst crimes against humanity. (ANI)

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Sunday recommended the dissolution of the Parliament at an emergency meeting of the Cabinet on Sunday morning.

The Prime Minister had summoned an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers on Sunday morning after a series of meetings with party’s top leadership and ministers on Saturday.

“Amid rising intra-party rift, an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers decided to recommend to the President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, to dissolve the parliament”, a chairing Minister confirmed ANI.

“In the cabinet meeting it was decided to recommend the President to dissolve the Parliament,” said Barshaman Pun, energy minister in PM Oli’s cabinet.

“The recommendation has been sent to the President,” Pun said.

Oli was under pressure to withdraw an ordinance related to the Constitutional Council Act that he had issued on Tuesday and got endorsed by President Bidya Devi Bhandari the same day.

Oli has been facing pressure from the rival factions of the NCP led by former prime ministers Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Nepal.

Prachanda reached PM residence to get first-hand knowledge on the issue. However, PM remained reserved and didn’t say anything except that “he will take a firm action today”.

Prime Minister Oli convened the cabinet meeting at 9:45 AM and made the decision in less than an hour.

The latest step of the Oli-led administration comes amid a rising rift inside the ruling party and the house adjourned for the longest period of time in Nepal’s history.

Since the Constitution does not have a provision for the House dissolution, the move is likely to be challenged in the court.

Subsequently, the cabinet has forwarded the proposal of dissolution of the Parliament to the President for consideration. Usually, the President is consulted in advance on these issues by the Prime Minister. Accordingly, the President should approve the dissolution of the parliament.

This will lead to strong opposition from the Prachanda and Madhav Nepal camp and they are likely to protest and even file a writ in the Supreme court challenging this position taken by Prime Minister Oli.

Reacting swiftly after the confirmation of the decision, Narayankaji Shrestha, Spokesperson of the ruling Nepal Communist Party reacted calling it undemocratic.

“I got to know about the recommendation just now. The decision has been made in haste as all the ministers weren’t present in the cabinet meeting this morning. This is against the democratic norms and would take the nation backward, this can’t be implemented,” Narayankaji Shrestha, Spokesperson for the ruling Nepal Communist Party told ANI. (ANI)

In order to bolster its defensive capabilities, Taiwan is building a submarine fleet to mitigate Chinese nefarious designs to invade the island or install a naval blockade.

The construction of eight new state-of-art submarines kicked off last month at the southern port city of Kaohsiung with expected sea trials in 2025, reported CNN.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen called it a “historic milestone” which “demonstrates Taiwan’s strong will to the world” at a ceremony marking the beginning of the programme.

For several months, China’s People’s Liberation Army has been increasing military pressure on the island, sending warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone and stepping up military exercises on nearby islands, moves widely interpreted as a threat to Taipei, reported CNN.

Taiwan’s planned submarines can make a big difference in thwarting Chinese expansionist design by making use of the narrow body of water separating Taiwan from mainland China.

The Taiwanese submarines are expected to be of the diesel-electric variety, running on diesel engines on the surface, but using ultra-quiet electric motors powered by long-lasting lithium-ion batteries when submerged to exert a heavy toll on the Chinese fleet.

Diesel-electric subs are easier and cheaper to build and when submerged the electric motors produce less noise than nuclear reactors. This will give them an edge over the Chinese nuclear-powered submarines as the quiet-running subs would be difficult to detect for the PLA’s anti-submarine warfare (ASW) units.

Moreover, Washington has long provided arms to the territory as part of the 40-year-old Taiwan Relations Act and recently approved several major arms sales to the island valued at some USD 10 billion in total, including dozens of F-16 fighter jets, M1A2T Abrams tanks, and portable Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, reported CNN.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has already made his intentions clear about Taiwan as he has vowed to never allow the island to become independent and has refused to rule out the use of force if necessary.

Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, despite the fact that the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades, reported CNN. (ANI)

As farmers continue to protest against the centre’s agricultural laws near Delhi borders, nurses and medical staff from Punjab on Sunday extended their support to agitation and joined the protest at Singhu border.

Some of the nurses from Punjab joined the protesters at the protest site to support the agitation and to provide them medical assistance if the need arises.

Talking to ANI Harshdeep Kaur, who is working as a nurse in Ludhiana hospital said that we are here to support and give medical aid to the farmers in this chilling weather.

“We are here to support farmers protest but we also want to serve them if they were ill. Medical treatment is the basic requirement for everyone because of the chilling weather we would like to serve farmers if they require,” said Kaur, who is working as a nurse in Ludhiana hospital.

Sharing the courage of Punjab women Sukhman Kaur, a doctor said that We are the descendent of Mata Gujri who was a courageous woman in Punjab history, we came here to support the agitating farmers. Everybody in Punjab is only demanding about the revocation of the laws.

Meanwhile, a group of tattoo artists from Punjab also set up a stall at protest site to support the farmers’ protest. Among the patterns of these tattoos were a map of Punjab, the head of a lion, pictures of farmers harvesting crops, holding farm equipment, tractor, among others. There are tattoos with slogans and motivational quotes too, such as ‘kar har maidan Fateh’ (win every battle), and ‘nishchay kar apni jeet karo’ (emerge victorious with firm resolve).

The group reached the Delhi-Haryana border on Friday morning carrying ink, tattoo machines, needles, and stencils. However, they are going back as they have exhausted their materials need for inking tattoos.

Hundreds of farmers are protesting at the borders of Delhi since November 26 against the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. (ANI)

By Kumar Gaurav

Ahead of West Bengal Assembly polls 2021, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has deployed state general secretaries (organisation) to reach up to grass-root level with an aim of attaining more than 200 seats in the forthcoming polls.

Five state General Secretary (organisation), who are considered to be the masters of micromanagement and working in the BJP from the RSS, have also been given the responsibility to work in five areas of the state.

The BJP had already politically divided Bengal into five parts – North Bengal, Rath Bang (South Western District), Nabadwip, Medinipur and Kolkata and sent reports of the ground situation to the leaders of the organisation. The party has appointed an observer, a convener at every Lok Sabha level.

National joint General Secretary (organisation) Shivprakash has been involved in the expansion of the organisation, better coordination, planning implementation in Bengal for the last two years, in terms of organisation, Sunil Deodhar is working in the areas around Howrah, Hubli, Medinipur.

BJP State General Secretary organisation from UP, Sunil Bansal working in the Kolkata zone, where the party’s national general secretary Dushyant Gautam is in charge. Gujarat’s General Secretary (organisation) Bhikubhai Dalsania has been given the job of Navdeep zone of Bengal. Where the work has been given to BJP national secretary Vinod Tawde.

Haryana Organisation General Secretary (organisation) Ravindra Raju has been given the work to look after the Radhbang area where BJP’s national secretary in charge is Vinod Sonkar. Himachal’s organisation General Secretary Pawan Rana has been stationed in the Hubli-Habra-Medinipur area with Sunil Deodhar and Harish Dwivedi in charge.

Apart from this, Bihar’s co-organisation secretary Ratnakar has also been sent to Bengal.

The BJP has started working from the booth level to make direct access to the lower level.

A composition of central office bearers, a Union Minister, an organisation general secretary, a state-level party office-bearer and a local leader has also been formed.

This work has been done at the local level, the observer has been made the state-level leader of the Bengal BJP, while Convenor has been made the local leader of district level.

So far, about 65,000 booth committees have been set up all across the State. In the next 20-25 days, about 15 to 20 booth committees will be created and till now more than 14,000 Shakti Kendra have been created in Bengal.

In the five zones of Bengal, the BJP has appointed five of its veteran leaders as central observers and is now working towards strengthening the party at the micro-level by deploying five (organisation) General Secretary to oversee its organisational functioning.

According to the sources, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has asked all its constituency in-charges (Central Ministers) to come and look after the preparation of the poll on every Saturday and Sunday. (ANI)

Ahead of West Bengal Assembly polls 2021, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has deployed state general secretaries (organisation) to reach up to grass-root level with an aim of attaining more than 200 seats in the forthcoming polls.

Five state General Secretary (organisation), who are considered to be the masters of micromanagement and working in the BJP from the RSS, have also been given the responsibility to work in five areas of the state.

The BJP had already politically divided Bengal into five parts – North Bengal, Rath Bang (South Western District), Nabadwip, Medinipur and Kolkata and sent reports of the ground situation to the leaders of the organisation. The party has appointed an observer, a convener at every Lok Sabha level.

National joint General Secretary (organisation) Shivprakash has been involved in the expansion of the organisation, better coordination, planning implementation in Bengal for the last two years, in terms of organisation, Sunil Deodhar is working in the areas around Howrah, Hubli, Medinipur.

BJP State General Secretary organisation from UP, Sunil Bansal working in the Kolkata zone, where the party’s national general secretary Dushyant Gautam is in charge. Gujarat’s General Secretary (organisation) Bhikubhai Dalsania has been given the job of Navdeep zone of Bengal. Where the work has been given to BJP national secretary Vinod Tawde.

Haryana Organisation General Secretary (organisation) Ravindra Raju has been given the work to look after the Radhbang area where BJP’s national secretary in charge is Vinod Sonkar. Himachal’s organisation General Secretary Pawan Rana has been stationed in the Hubli-Habra-Medinipur area with Sunil Deodhar and Harish Dwivedi in charge.

Apart from this, Bihar’s co-organisation secretary Ratnakar has also been sent to Bengal.

The BJP has started working from the booth level to make direct access to the lower level.

A composition of central office bearers, a Union Minister, an organisation general secretary, a state-level party office-bearer and a local leader has also been formed.

This work has been done at the local level, the observer has been made the state-level leader of the Bengal BJP, while Convenor has been made the local leader of district level.

So far, about 65,000 booth committees have been set up all across the State. In the next 20-25 days, about 15 to 20 booth committees will be created and till now more than 14,000 Shakti Kendra have been created in Bengal.

In the five zones of Bengal, the BJP has appointed five of its veteran leaders as central observers and is now working towards strengthening the party at the micro-level by deploying five (organisation) General Secretary to oversee its organisational functioning.

According to the sources, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has asked all its constituency in-charges (Central Ministers) to come and look after the preparation of the poll on every Saturday and Sunday. (ANI)