Author: LokMarg

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday came down heavily on the Narendra Modi-led Central government and said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are dividing the country and a sense of fear has engulfed the minds of people about ” their future, inflation and unemployment and that’s turning them towards hate.”

“Hatred is rising in India. Fear of inflation and unemployment is increasing in India, and due to this hatred is rising. BJP and RSS dividing the country and creating fear in the country. Who gets the benefit of this fear? Is it poor, farmer, or small traders who are getting any benefit from the Narendra Modi government? Only two industrialists in the country benefitting from this fear and hatred,” said Congress MP.
He further said that the Modi government’s policies are benefitting only two big industrialists.

“BJP giving all the benefits to two people. Now see Narendra Modi did demonetisation. Did it help the poor? The three farm laws that were withdrawn later by the govt were not for farmers but it was for those two industrialists only. But the farmers came on the road and showed their power to Narendra Modi and when PM Modi saw this, he had to take back the three farm laws,” he said.

The Congress leader further said that the Modi government broke the backbone of small and medium enterprises.

“In one way, you are being affected by unemployment and secondly, you are hit by the price rise. Narendra Modi asks what has Congress done in seventy years. I will say this, that in seventy years, Congress has not shown such price rise to the country and when the Opposition wants to raise the issue in Parliament then Narendra Modi’s government doesn’t allow it. Whether it is farmers’ issue or China,” he added.

Making the attack more aggressive, the Congress MP said, “The media is also of these two industrialists, the whole of media is under those two businessmen. People know whose TV it is and whom they are working for. TV and papers are of these two industrialists. Narendra Modi ji works for those two industrialists and those two industrialists work for Narendra Modi ji.”

He further said, “Narendra Modi could not be the Prime Minister without the support of the media and two industrialists.”

Speaking on the misuse of Central probe agencies, Rahul Gandhi said that he is not afraid of Enforcement Directorate (ED) and their questioning.

“The ED asked me to sit for 55 hours but I am not afraid of your ED. Whether it is 55 hours or five months or five years,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi said, “PM Modi ji’s ideology says that country should be divided and the profits from it should be shared among a few industrialists.”

“Congress gave India the historical MGNREGA, but Narendra Modi’s government said in the Parliament that it’s an insult to the poor. Today, if there would not have been MGNREGA, there would have been fires in the country. Our party took 27 crore people out of poverty but the BJP government has pushed 23 crore people into poverty in just ten years. Narendra Modi is taking the country backwards. This will help Pakistan and China and not India. The more there will be hatred and fear, the more the country would weaken,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress’ ideology can bring the country on the path of progress.

“I want to ask you whether price rise and hatred strengthen the country. Narendra Modi and BJP are weakening the country. Congress party unites the country. We erase hatred and when hatred is erased, the country moves faster. Congress ideology can bring the country on the path of progress,” he said.

He also said that all Opposition parties will come together and defeat the BJP and RSS.

“We want to talk on China attack, unemployment, price rise, but BJP stopped our party. The institutions, whether it is the media, the judiciary, or the Election Commission, are all under pressure. So the only way that is left is to go to people. And that is why Congress will start the Bharat Jodo Yatra. This is a fight of ideology and all the Opposition parties will come together to defeat BJP and RSS,” Rahul Gandhi told to people while addressing a massive rally.

Congress is holding a mega rally ‘Mehangai Par Halla Bol’ today against inflation in the country, unemployment and Goods and Services Tax hike at Ramlila Maidan in the national capital. (ANI)

The national executive council meeting of Janata Dal-United (JDU) was held at the party office in Patna on Sunday.

National President of the party Rajiv Ranjan Singh chaired the meeting.

“The meeting of the National Council of Janata Dal-United was held under the chairmanship of the National President of the party, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Babu, in the Karpuri auditorium located in the Bihar State JDU office,” the party official said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with a string of the party leaders participated in the meeting.

National President of the party’s parliamentary board Upendra Kushwaha, state presidents of various states, national office bearers, national council members, MPs, ministers of the Bihar Government and MLAs were present.

Meanwhile, five Janata Dal (United) MLAs, who merged with the ruling party BJP, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of party President JP Nadda in Delhi today.

“When we parted ways from NDA, all our six Manipur MLAs came and met us. They assured us that they were with JDU. We need to think about what is going on. They are breaking away the MLAs from the parties, is it constitutional?,” said CM Nitish Kumar.

“Opposition will unify for 2024 elections,” Kumar further added.

This was the first meeting of the party’s National Council since CM Nitish Kumar broke his alliance with the BJP and joined hands with Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and other parties to form a ‘mahagathbandhan’ government in Bihar.

In 2020, the BJP-JD(U) fought election in an alliance and went on to form the government with Nitish Kumar being given the Chief Minister’s post.

In less than two years’ time, Nitish Kumar flipped his choices and in a surprise move went on to stitch an alliance with RJD and Congress to form a ‘Grand Alliance’ government in Bihar. (ANI)

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi led initiative towards rescuing students of her country who were stuck in eastern Europe following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In a free-wheeling television interaction with ANI, Prime Minister Hasina, who is set to visit India on Monday, also lavished praise on the Modi government’s gesture of providing Covid-19 vaccines to neighbouring countries under its Vaccine Maitri programme when the pandemic was fast-spreading.
The Bangladesh prime minister emphasized on closer cooperation between the two neighbours. There can be differences but these should be addressed through dialogue, she said adding that in a number of areas, India and Bangladesh had precisely done that.

She, however, marked out two areas for special praise where the Indian government’s support helped Bangladeshi citizens. One of these was the evacuation of Bangladesh students, who like many Indians, were stuck in Ukraine and its neighbouring countries after the outbreak of the conflict.

“I really would like to express my thanks to Prime Minister that during this war between Russia and Ukraine, many of our students were just stuck and they came to Poland to shelter. But when you evacuate your students, Indian students, they also brought our students back home. So it is really… You have shown a clearly friendly gesture. I thank Prime Minister for this initiative,” Hasina said.

She was responding to a question about remarks often made especially by western observers that there was a lack of cooperation among SAARC nations. To another question about the Indian government’s Vaccine Maitri programme, Hasina said it was a very “prudent” initiative taken by Prime Minister Modi.

“I really thank Prime Minister Modi for this initiative, and that way he… you know, contributed vaccines to not only Bangladesh, also some south Asian countries, and it’s really very very helpful. And it’s a really prudent initiative he has taken, and beside that we bought vaccines with our own money, and also many other countries also contributed,” Hasina said.

Hasina also gave details about her country’s vaccination programme. Bangladesh has administered Covid-19 vaccines to 90 per cent of its population. “Usually, you know, people from our country, especially the village level, even in some towns also, I found many people very much reluctant to take vaccine. They don’t want to take the… you know… the pinch of needle or ‘sui nai lena hai’ so… but we have to pursue them. We told them that this is nothing but it will save your life. So that way we engaged everybody, so that they make people… so it was really very good initiative, this Vaccine Maitri itself… very good initiative. I really support,” she said.

Hasina referred to India as a “tested” friend and said that country had stood by Bangladesh in its hour of need, first in 1971 and then at later times also.

“We always remember their contribution during our 1971 war. And beside that even 1975, when we lost all my family members. So, the then Prime Minister, she gave us shelter in India. Besides that, you see, these two countries, we are neighbours, close neighbours and I always give importance and priority to friendship with our neighbouring countries,” she said.

The relationship between the two countries should be for the betterment of their citizens, she said.

Hasina said even during the Covid-19 period, Indian leadership had shown their positive intentions as both, the then President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bangladesh as it celebrated its Independence Day.

“I really thank Prime Minister Modi and also your honourable president. Both of them visited Bangladesh when we were celebrating our father of the nation birth centenary and also our independence, 50 years of our Independence Day, and our friendship with India. India recognised Bangladesh early on, so that bonding, I think that is our main priority. That their visit at such a time, even that time there was a Covid-19 pandemic but beside that both of them honoured us, honoured our people,” she said. (ANI)

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Sunday offered prayers at Bagnath Temple, Bageshwar.

Dhami is participating in the inauguration of the roadways depot and the foundation stone laying ceremony of various development works in the Bageshwar district.

Earlier on Saturday, Dhami expressed gratitude to Assembly Speaker Ritu Bhushan Khanduri for constituting a committee to probe the alleged irregularities in the recruitment in Vidhan Sabha Secretariat and said that the wrong appointments should be cancelled.

Speaking to ANI, Dhami said, “I’d like to thank Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker for constituting a committee to investigate the irregularities in the UKSSSC paper leak case. We assure the youth of justice. No one will be spared.”

“Those who have laboured hard won’t be let down. As far as the Assembly is concerned, the Speaker has constituted the committee. We had urged her to constitute a committee and all the complaints of irregularities in the recruitment should be investigated, and cancel the irregular recruitments,” further stated. (ANI)

The Rohingya migrants are a “big burden” on Bangladesh and the country is reaching out to the international community to ensure they return to their homeland, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said adding that she feels India could play a major role in resolving the issue.

In an interaction with ANI, Hasina confessed that the presence of lakhs of Rohingyas in Bangladesh had created challenges for her regime.
“Well you know… for us it’s a big burden. India is a vast country; you can accommodate but you don’t have much. But in our country… we have 1.1 million Rohingya. So well… we are consulting with the international community and also our neighbouring countries, they should also take some steps so that they can go back home,” Hasina said.

The Bangladesh prime minister said that her government had tried to take care of the displaced community keeping the humanitarian aspect in mind.

“This Rohingya, yes… on humanitarian ground we give them shelter and providing everything but during this COVID, we vaccinated all the Rohingya community. But how long they will stay here? So in the camp they are staying. Our environment hazard is there. Then some people engage in drug trafficking or some arms conflict, women trafficking. Day by day it is increasing. So as quick as they return home it is good for our country and also for Myanmar. So we have been trying our best to pursue them, we’re discussing with them and also the international community, like ASEAN or UNO, then other countries,” Hasina said.

The Bangladesh prime minister said that her country had offered shelter to the Rohingya when they were facing many troubles. “But now they should go back to their country. But India as a neighbour country, they can play a big role on it, I feel that,” Hasina added.

Prime Minister Hasina is set to begin her four-day visit to India from Monday.

During the interview, Hasina was also asked about her country’s cooperation with India on river water sharing especially with regard to Teesta river. Hasina said that while there were challenges, they were not anything which could not be resolved mutually.

“It is very sad that, we are in a… you know… downstream. So water is coming from India, so India should show more broadness. Because both the countries will be beneficiaries. So sometimes our people suffered a lot because of this need of water. Especially Teesta, we could not go for harvest and so many problems take place. So I think it should be solved but, yes we found that the Prime Minister is very… you know… eager to solve this problem, but the problem is in your country. So… we hope that it should, you know… it should be solved,” Hasina said.

She added that the two countries shared the water of the river Ganges. “Only Ganges water we share. The water, we signed the treaty. But we have another 54 rivers. Yes… So it’s a long standing problem, so it should be solved,” she said. (ANI)

UK PM contender Liz Truss on Saturday (local time) promised to address energy bill problems right away if elected.

“If elected, I plan within the first week of my new administration to set out our immediate action on energy bills and energy supply… We need to take difficult decisions to ensure we are not in this position every autumn and winter. Sticking plasters and kicking the can down the road will not do. I am ready to take the tough decisions to rebuild our economy,” Truss said in a Saturday article for a UK-based media outlet, reported Sputnik.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who is widely expected to take over from Boris Johnson as the next British prime minister, says fixing the UK energy market is her first priority.

A source close to the Foreign Secretary told the publication that Truss would embark on a “two-track approach,” which would include immediate financial support for British households and ways to resolve the energy market problems exposed by the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the Ukraine crisis, Sputnik reported.

Last week, UK energy regulator Ofgem announced an 80 per cent increase in the energy price cap to 3,549 pounds (USD 4,194) per year starting October 1 due to rising global energy prices.

Since its last revision in April, the energy price cap had stood at 1,971 pounds.

Ofgem CEO Jonathan Brearley has warned that energy prices are likely to continue to rise, and has called on the country’s future prime minister to take new measures to tackle the problem.

Outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will soon be replaced as voting by Tory members for their choice between Indian-origin former Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss which started early August closed Friday evening.

This comes as Sunak, 42, and Truss, 47, have gone head-to-head in over a dozen debates over the past month to win over the votes of an estimated 160,000 Tory electorate.

The online and postal voting closed on Friday evening, the deadline for Tory members to register their votes. “Voting is now closed. Thank you to all my colleagues, the campaign team and, of course, all the members who came out to meet me and lend your support,” wrote Rishi Sunak.

During their hustings, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had explained their long-term visions for Britain. Both contenders went through bouts of 12 nationwide events with the first bout in Leeds, Northern England. All eyes are now on the results as members voted to elect a new leader. The result will be announced on September 5.

Truss indicated that she will strongly push back against “identity politics of the left” as she has envisioned the legislation for single-sex spaces such as domestic violence shelters whereas Sunak backtracked by putting forward the idea of cutting VAT to revive the country’s economic situation.

Moreover, Truss has promised to introduce a moratorium on the green levy and reverse the National Insurance increase, responding to which Sunak said that direct financial assistance is the best way out to support people with low incomes rather than tax cuts.

On Brexit, both the Tory leadership candidates vowed to reset the relationship between European Union (EU) and the UK and said that the next leader will continue to create opportunities to re-establish the ties.

“The EU and UK are “at loggerheads” over the Northern Ireland Protocol but with a new prime minister we have a chance to reset that relationship,” Sunak had said earlier in one of the face-offs with Truss.

Speaking to the Tory members on the economy, the former chancellor had said that he will reform the National Health Service (NHS) to prevent constantly throwing more money at it whereas Liz Truss underlined the need for a fiscal event to deal with the cost of living crisis and said that her first priority would be reducing taxes.

“My first priority is reducing taxes because what I don’t believe is taking money in taxes and giving it back to people in benefits”, she said, adding that country’s growth is the need of the hour. Notably, corporation tax, policing and ethics were the key highlights in the Conservative party hustings in Birmingham.

Truss has been leading in surveys of Tory members after vowing immediate tax cuts as Britain confronts a slump in living standards. The former chancellor, Rishi Sunak and British Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss traded blows at each other over economic policy, and foreign relations in the first-ever TV debate on July 25.

The candidates reportedly clashed over Britain’s future ties with China after cutting ties with Russia.

The second Tory leadership debate between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, however, got cancelled after presenter Kate McCann fainted and collapsed live on air.

In July, Sunak and UK foreign secretary Liz Truss emerged as the final two candidates in the country’s leadership race of the ruling Conservative party. International Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt was knocked out in the final round of ballot among Conservative lawmakers. Sunak won 137 votes and Truss 113.

The contest to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister is now in the hands of Conservative Party members, who will select the winner on September 5 via mail-in ballot. Both candidates have made pledges on tax cuts as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite.

However, Sunak dismissed as “fairytales” his rivals’ promises of immediate tax cuts, arguing that inflation must be brought under control first. Truss, on the other hand, promised to start cutting taxes from day one.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are vying to replace Boris Johnson as UK’s next Prime Minister. The Tory Leadership Race was triggered after Johnson was forced to step down on July 7 amid an avalanche of resignations of government officials, who protested against his scandal-plagued leadership.

Johnson will continue to serve as caretaker prime minister until a new Tory leader succeeds him. (ANI)

A team of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Saturday, taking suo moto cognisance, visited the Pandu area of Jharkhand’s Palamu where nearly 50 Dalit families were allegedly driven out forcibly by the Muslim community.

After the visit, the commission pointed out the non-cooperation from the State Government and the non-serious approach of the Director general of police and the chief secretary.
Earlier, the top officials including SDPO Surjit Kumar and Sadar SDO Rajesh Shah had listened to the complaint of the victims’ families and assured them to take action against the culprits.

“We found during our visit that administration is not serious towards safeguarding this community. It seems there is some setting at the administration level, because without this such things (throwing out the families) can not happen,” said Arun Haldar, vice chairperson, Nation Commission for Schedule Castes.

Haldar said that the chief secretary and DGP did not turn up despite the letter being written to them to attend “compulsorily”.

“The Commission came from Delhi. We had written to the chief secretary and DGP to attend us compulsorily. We contacted them many times but they did not turn up. This shows how they are taking the commission,” he said.

The vice chairperson informed that the commission will “soon send them formal notice” and summon the chief secretary and DGP on the matter. (ANI)

Within a few years from now India will be among the top four economies globally and by 2047 it will become the second largest economy in the world, Commerce Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said on Saturday.

Talking to ANI, Subramanyam said that the vision laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the year 2047 when India celebrates 100 years of its Independence, the country will be in the top two economies of the world.

“By 2047 one cannot imagine where our economy will be as the country is changing very fast. There was a time when India had a share of 25 per cent of the world economy. The way India is growing, we will regain the same position,” he said.

Talking about the export numbers, Commerce Secretary said India’s exports grew by 17 per cent year-on-year in the first five months of the current financial year.

India’s merchandise export in April-August 2022-23 was $192.59 billion with an increase of 17.1 per cent over $164.44 billion in April-August 2021-22.

The export of non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery in April-August 2022-23 was $135.49 billion, an increase of 8.4 per cent over the cumulative value of non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports of $124.99 billion in April-July 2021-22.

India has achieved merchandise export of $33.0 billion in August 2022, almost at similar levels of $33.38 billion in August 2021. Amongst the major products, exports of electronic goods (50.68 per cent), rice (42.32 per cent), organic and inorganic chemicals (13.35 per cent) registered impressive growth during August 2022.

Subrahmanyam said that India’s exports of services have surged. Services exports of $94.757 billion in the first four months of the current financial year is 26.78 per cent higher when compared with $74.740 billion recorded in the corresponding period of the last year.

Services trade balance of $35.814 billion for the period April-July 2022 has shown a healthy growth of 7.62 per cent compared to the corresponding services trade balance of $33.279 billion for the period April-July 2022.

Talking about the Free Trade Agreement (FTA with the United Kingdom), the secretary said, “Our FTA’s are on track.”

He said India-UK free trade deal is expected to be signed by Diwali. “I am hopeful that India-Canada FTA will be concluded by December and FTA with European Union expecting by June-July next year,” he added. (ANI)

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is not new to the popular traction of followers on micro-blogging sites with 21.5 million people as his followers on Twitter.

Yogi Adityanath has been one of the most active politicians on social media for the past many years. The popularity of Yogi Adityanath is not restricted to Uttar Pradesh and people from all over the country follow him on social media platforms.

Yogi’s popularity continues to soar on social media with as many as 21.5 million followers on Twitter while his most prominent opponent, Rahul Gandhi, lags behind at 20.4 million.

Yogi joined Twitter in September 2015. Since then, he has been active on social media and often engages with people on the platforms.

Yogi uses all the platforms of social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Koo to connect with people and provide the latest information related to decisions taken by the Government in the public interest to them.

CM Yogi’s messages have a massive reach among the audience because most of them are in the public interest. He uses social media platforms to disseminate information regarding various schemes of the government.

He has also used the platform extensively to inform people about the steps the government is taking to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease.

Yogi Adityanath remains a topic of discussion on all platforms of digital media. Google Trends shows that between December, 2021, and April, 2022, Yogi Adityanath was more searched on Google compared to Rahul Gandhi.

The news of Yogi Adityanath has also been the most searched during the assembly elections. (ANI)