Chennai: CR Kesavan, great-grandson of India’s first Indian Governor-General, C Rajagopalachari, resigned from the Congress party on Thursday.
He said that he has not seen any vestiges of the values that made him work for the party with dedication for over two decades.
In a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Kesavan shared his resignation letter on Twitter and said that he can no longer concur with “what the party symbolizes, stands for nor seeks to propagate”.
“I have not seen any vestiges of the values that made me work for the Party with dedication for over two decades. I can no longer in good conscience say that I concur with what the Party presently symbolizes, stands for nor seeks to propagate.’
This is why I had recently declined an organizational responsibility at the National Level and also refrained from participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” he said.
Kesavan said that it is time for him to take a new path, however, added that he has not spoken to anybody so far and does not know “what will unfold next”.
“It is time for me to chart a new path and therefore I resign from the Primary Membership of the Congress Party with immediate effect. I have also submitted to the appropriate authority my resignation as a Trustee of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee Charitable Trust.
There will be speculation of me going to another Party but to set the record straight, I have not spoken to anybody and honestly do not know what will unfold next,” he said.
The former Congress leader also thanked Sonia Gandhi for responsibilities and said that he has forged cherished friendships in the party that will remain.
“I will endeavour in good faith to resolutely serve our country through a political platform. It will be one where I can continue to steadfastly uphold the integrity and ideals of public life, instilled and defended by the founding fathers & mothers of our great nation and my great-grandfather C Rajagopalachari. Jai Hind!,” Kesavan said.
Speaking to ANI, he said, “Any Opposition political party should have a well-defined narrative and message for the people. They should ideally take up people-centric issues.
But unfortunately, over a period of time, I felt that the attitude and approach has hardly even been concrete, cogent, coherent or even consistent. Many-a-time, it has been very reactionary, cynical and unfortunate.”
“I have been a member of the Congress party for last 22 years, but unfortunately over a period of time, I feel in INC, the attitude and approach were neither constructive nor concrete. The values which I worked for, had changed,” he added.
Refusing to comment further on Congress, he said,”I don’t think I should comment about Congress once I’ve left the party. I am not comfortable with the way the politics was done in the Congress party and the right thing is to leave the party and that’s what I did today”.
His resignation comes within a month of the resignation by AK Antony’s son, Anil Antony who parted ways from the party after criticising the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Congress leader Pawan Khera was arrested at the Delhi airport on Thursday after being deplaned from a trip to Chattisgarh’s Around 50 members of Congress staged a protest on the tarmac, refusing to allow the aeroplane to take off.
Pawan Khera, a prominent Congress spokesperson, was compelled to board another flight. He was traveling to Raipur with a large group of Congress leaders for an All India Congress Committee conference (AICC).
He was apprehended at the airport by Assam Police, who arrived with an FIR, or First Information Report. He will be presented in a Delhi court and will be taken to Assam on transit remand, ANI reported.
#WATCH | “We will see (in which case they are taking me). It’s a long battle and I’m ready to fight,” says Congress leader Pawan Khera as Delhi Police takes him after he was deboarded from an aircraft at Delhi airport pic.twitter.com/cKXeo6kSb4
During a recent news conference, Khera misspelled Prime Minister Modi’s name when calling for a joint parliamentary investigation into the Adani-Hindenburg row.
“If Narasimha Rao could form a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee), if Atal Bihari Vajpayee could form a JPC, then what problem does Narendra Gautam Das…sorry Damodardas…Modi have?” he said, appearing to fumble upon the middle name with a colleague sitting beside him.
The BJP has demanded Khera’s arrest on charges of insulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After a BJP representative submitted a police complaint, an FIR was lodged.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on February 20 called the remarks ‘pathetic’.
“Make no mistake- pathetic remarks by courtier Pawan Khera on PM’s father have blessings of the top levels of Congress, which is full of entitlement and disdain against a person of humble origins being PM. India will not forget or forgive these horrible remarks of Congressmen,” Himanta had tweeted.
Make no mistake- pathetic remarks by courtier Pawan Khera on PM’s father have blessings of the top levels of Congress, which is full of entitlement and disdain against a person of humble origins being PM. India will not forget or forgive these horrible remarks of Congressmen.
IndiGo Airline in a statement said: “A passenger was deplaned by the police at the Delhi airport from Raipur-bound flight 6E 204. Some other passengers have also decided to deboard on their own accord. We are following the advice of the concerned authorities. The flight is delayed as of now and we regret the inconvenience caused to other passengers.”
Khera stated that he was initially informed that there was a problem with his luggage. “I was told that there was a problem with my luggage, despite the fact that I just had hand luggage. They said you couldn’t fly. The DCP (Deputy Commissioner of Police) will thereafter meet with you. I’ve been anticipating this moment for quite some time. There is no indication of law and order “He stated.
The grand old party reacted very strongly to the development. Party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate called it ‘dictatorship’.
“Assam Police is arresting Pawan Kheda ji and taking him away. What crime has he committed that he has been arrested? If this is not dictatorship then what is?” she said.
पवन खेड़ा जी को असम पुलिस गिरफ्तार करके ले जा रही है।
उन्होंने कौन सा ऐसा जुर्म किया है कि उन्हें गिरफ्तार किया गया?
“Modi government is acting like a bunch of goons by deplaning Pawan Khera from the Delhi-Raipur flight and preventing him from joining the AICC Plenary. Using a flimsy FIR to restrict his movement and silence him is a shameful, unacceptable act. The entire party stands with Pawan ji,” Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal tweeted KC Venugopal.
Modi govt is acting like a bunch of goons by deplaning @Pawankhera ji from the Delhi-Raipur flight and preventing him from joining the AICC Plenary.
Using a flimsy FIR to restrict his movement & silence him is a shameful, unacceptable act. The entire party stands with Pawan ji. pic.twitter.com/mKVeuRGnfR
Hyderabad: The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) on Wednesday approached the State Human Rights Commission seeking immediate directions to the government for taking action against dog menace.
Following the gruesome incident of a pack of stray dogs attacking and killing a four-year-old boy in Amberpet on February 19, the Congress leaders demanded stringent action against Telangana government, the state’s Minister for Municipal Administration, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner and GHMC Mayor alleging human rights violations and sought immediate directions to the state administration to take measures.
In a complaint filed with the Telangana State Human Rights Commission (TSHRC), the TPCC leaders said stray dogs were attacking people in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, especially children and elderly, and mentioned the incident of the four-year-old boy, who was mauled to death by street dogs.
The incident sent shock waves after a video of it went viral on Tuesday.
The TPCC leaders accused the Telangana government representatives of responding in a most irresponsible manner by allegedly making statements disregarding the human rights of citizens of Hyderabad.
“Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao claimed that dog population must be artificially controlled, which ridicules his own incompetency and inefficiency. It is the minister himself who is responsible for the control of dog menace in the state,” they said.
The Congress leaders further said GHMC Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi blamed the dogs that were hungry for attacking the citizens. It is the job of the mayor to safeguard the lives of citizens and to control dog menace, they said and also urged financial assistance to be provided to the family of the deceased boy.
TPCC President and party MP A Revanth Reddy also attacked the BRS government over the incident and alleged that Rama Rao miserably failed in discharging his duties as a Municipal Administration minister.
“A four-year-old boy has been mauled to death by stray dogs in Hyderabad. You say sorry to the boy’s family while the Mayor maintains that the stray dogs (which attacked the dogs) were hungry. This is the most inhuman government. How could the minister justify about portraying Hyderabad as a global city when these kind of incidents are occurring,” Reddy said.
In another incident of street dogs attacking children reported from the city, a four-year-old boy playing outside his house in Chaitanyapuri on Wednesday was bitten by stray dogs, following which he suffered bleeding injuries, according to his mother.
The boy’s mother told media that four-five dogs chased three children and attacked her son resulting in scratches and bleeding injuries to him and he was taken to hospital for treatment.
She said her neighbours were feeding the stray dogs despite objections. “Earlier also, stray dogs attacked the locals and complaints were made to municipal authorities then and they caught the dogs. But the neighbours, who were feeding them got these dogs released and they are attacking the children,” the woman claimed.
Steil’s interest, shared by others on the committee, in using the panel to highlight both state laws that they support and make recommendations, though GOP lawmakers stressed they wouldn’t be requirements, is likely to spark partisan tension; particularly in an era of frequent, politically motivated challenges to election security.
“Twenty years ago, the committee was relatively unknown, because it didn’t cover topics that the broader public was interested in. I think that shifted dramatically,” Steil said in an interview about his plans for the committee.
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) — who McCarthy pitched on joining the Administration panel — acknowledged he wasn’t “aware too much” of what it did before but has come to view it as “one of the most important and unknown committees in Congress” because of its lanes of jurisdiction.
And Administration has a more bipartisan history than the highly visible Judiciary and Oversight Committees, perhaps due to its relatively low-profile status that tends to attract less bombastic members to its ranks. When it comes to matters such as Blanton’s reported on-the-job misconduct, that increased freedom to work across the aisle may well spell more results in divided government.
Other higher-profile priorities of Steil’s, however, are going to test the panel’s bipartisan aura.
Two tension points in particular threaten to rip at committee camaraderie: how Republicans approach an investigation into Capitol security during the Jan. 6 attack and a renewed GOP desire to flex oversight sway over D.C. Steil and other Republicans are eyeing reviving legislation that would impose new voting rules on the district. The House has already passed legislation aimed at overturning a D.C. bill allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections.
Both areas are likely to touch a nerve with Democrats, though 42 of them sided with Republicans to oppose the action by the D.C. council.
Some of the committee’s work will remain bipartisan. Blanton’s ouster, for example, has renewed conversations about giving Congress the ability to fire the architect of the Capitol, who is currently a presidential appointee.
New York Rep. Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a brief interview that he, Steil and their aides have already had a “good series of conversations” about working together broadly. Morelle also wants to talk specifically with the Wisconsin Republican about empowering lawmakers to oust the Capitol’s top manager in the future.
The cross-aisle possibilities don’t end there. Lawmakers’ ability to own and trade stocks, where the committee has partial jurisdiction, has created unlikely cross-aisle bedfellows and GOP leadership interest in the past.
And there’s interest on both sides of the committee in reforming the three-member Capitol Police Board — comprised of the House sergeant at arms, the Senate sergeant at arms and the architect of the Capitol — which makes critical campus security decisions. Its structure faced new scrutiny in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack by a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters, with two of its three officials resigning in the aftermath.
“I think it’s just a construct that may have worked twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years ago. I don’t think it works today,” Morelle said.
Where panel Republicans go first is still under discussion. The conference deemed the Administration Committee the new hub for the now-defunct Jan. 6 select committee’s documents, a potential treasure trove for Republicans who are eager to turn the investigative spotlight back on Democrats. A GOP committee aide confirmed to POLITICO that in doing so they also requested “the same access” to Capitol security footage that the previous panel had, which the Capitol Police granted.
McCarthy asked the select committee last year to preserve its findings. And in an apparent deal that has sparked fierce pushback from Democrats, the California Republican granted Tucker Carlson access to thousands of hours of Capitol security footage from Jan. 6, 2021. The parameters of the agreement haven’t been made public. Meanwhile, Morelle and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chaired the Jan. 6 committee, are expected to brief Democrats on the implications of the arrangement Wednesday.
Focusing on the Jan. 6 committee’s work could be an odd fit for Steil, who isn’t known as a partisan bomb thrower. GOP lawmakers and aides say that identity makes Steil valuable on a panel that, should tempers boil over, could threaten to bog down basic operations of the House.
Steil’s vote to certify Biden’s Electoral College win also puts him in the minority of House Republicans as well as committee chairs. Thirteen of the 22 Republicans wielding committee gavels supported an objection to at least one state’s results, based on a POLITICO review.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) — looked at by the Democratic-run select committee because of a Capitol complex tour he gave on Jan. 5, 2021 — said in an interview that conversations are already underway about investigating security decisions during the next day’s riot.
“I think that is something that we do need to work on,” Loudermilk said.
The Jan. 6 select committee had looked into security as part of its investigation and pointed out certain failures in its much-anticipated final report. But much of the panel’s focus was on the actions of Trump and those close to him before, during and after the attack.
For now, Republicans are holding back on pledges to dig back into the work of the select committee itself. Steil said there would be a “role” for the Administration Committee but that he hadn’t “reached any conclusions as to exactly what that process will look like.”
Meanwhile, Morelle vowed Democrats would “strongly oppose any efforts to go back and create a revisionist version of history.” And even GOP Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), asked about revisiting either the work of the Jan. 6 committee or security during the attack, noted that there had been several investigations already and advised her party to not “continue to labor on that issue” and instead focus on staff and member security.
But a broader review of the Capitol Police is in the committee’s plans, and could be a foothold for folding in security decisions on Jan. 6. Members of the committee, in interviews, said they wanted to specifically look at the department’s culture, funding and training as well as to review member security amid increasing violent threats.
Additionally, while Republicans are likely to avoid any attempt at relitigating Trump’s 2020 loss when they get around to ballot security, the GOP priority is still likely to highlight partisan divisions even without stepping directly into the presidential election. Democrats view many new state-level voting laws implemented after the 2020 cycle as attempted ballot restrictions, particularly among minority communities. Morelle said the panel’s Democrats wanted to highlight expanding access to the ballot box.
And Republicans’ consideration of legislation to enforce new voting rules in D.C., including prohibiting same-day voter registration, has sparked backlash from the capital city’s House delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who warned it was a preview of the “wide-ranging home-rule attacks” a GOP-controlled House would launch.
And while Steil might be rhetorically low-key, he won’t back down from a fight.
“Washington, D.C. is a federally administered city. And so I think that that’s an appropriate place for Congress to be engaged,” Steil said.
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#Jan #election #security #scandal #Congress #sleepiest #committee #heats
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
**EDS: TO GO WITH STORY, IMAGE VIA @DrSJaishankar** Male: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar speaks during the ground-breaking ceremony of Hanimaadhoo International Airport Development Project, in Maldives, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (PTI Photo)(PTI01_19_2023_000014B)
New Delhi: Congress on Wednesday termed External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar a “failed” foreign minister and alleged that despite being the longest serving Diplomat in China, he has failed on every front.
Addressing a press conference here, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, “On issue of Chinese incursions, there is silence from the EAM and has he advised the Prime Minister to say that no one has intruded Indian territory when 2,000 sq kilometre of the Indian territory has been intruded by China.”
India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar’s churlish, petulant, arrogant remarks aimed at Rahul Gandhi don’t just undermine India’s foreign policy but also demean the valour of our armed forces
Will be addressing the press shortly AICC @INCIndia
The Congress leader alleged that China is building roads, railway networks and bridges in the occupied territory.
The Indian trade is increasing with China and in a way India is funding the Chinese PLA, “Due to the silence of the PM in every meeting, PLA says they have not invaded any land,” she added.
Shrinate criticised EAM Jaishankar’s statement that India being a smaller economy can’t go and fight bigger economy and termed it “blasphemous”.
Accusing the Foreign Minister of failing India foreign policy, she said there is no US Ambassador to India despite Biden almost crossing his half the term as President.
The Congress spokesperson said that when the government is saying that there is international conspiracy against India, “what is Mr Jaishankar and his department doing.”
McClellan is the vice chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and a former gubernatorial candidate. She spent more than 10 years in Virginia’s House of Delegates and succeeded McEachin in the state Senate when he was elected to Congress in 2016.
Following her primary win in December, McClellan said the lack of a Black woman in Virginia’s congressional delegation was due in part to “an imagination gap that only saw certain types of people as members of Congress. Part of it is that Black women tended to get involved in politics later in life. But it’s past time that we have one.”
The district spans 15 cities and counties, but the largest chunk of voters is in Richmond — a city with a predominantly Black population. It’s a deep-blue seat that McClellan was favored to win following the action-packed firehouse primary in December, which the state Democratic Party scrambled to organize as four candidates jockeyed for the seat over the course of a week.
Alexsis Rodgers, chair of the 4th Congressional District Democratic Committee, said she felt that momentum continued after the primary despite it being an off-year special election. “Democrats are just really fired up,” she said.
“It could be a decade or more before an opportunity to run happens, and, even in times when there are more competitive races in swing districts, a lot of times Black women or women of color are considered less viable or less likely to win,” Rodgers continued. “It’s a barrier that we’re going to continue to have to chip away at, and I think that means helping organizations understand that they have to invest in Black women candidates early, not just wait to see if they can make it to the primary.”
During the primary, McClellan received an outpouring of support from local and national Democratic politicians and groups. Throughout the primary and the general election, she raised over $900,000. McClellan has campaigned on the work she’s done in the state legislature regarding voting rights, abortion access and environmental protections.
Her win will bring the House to its full complement of 435 members — for at least a few months, anyway. Earlier Tuesday, Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) announced that he will be leaving Congress on June 1 to head the Rhode Island Foundation. A special election will be set once his resignation takes effect.
McClellan has shrugged off the slog of joining the minority in the House: “I spent 14 years in the minority party in the Virginia Legislature and still was able to get over 300 bills passed,” she said in an interview after her primary win. “I think it’s a natural progression of the work that I have been doing already.”
In her victory speech on Tuesday night, McClellan nodded again to her work in the state legislature — “I passed two bills today!” — and paid tribute to McEachin. “I am ready to get to work,” she said. “I have a little more work to do down the street, but I’m ready to fight for you in Congress for as long as you’ll have me.”
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#McClellan #elected #Virginias #Black #woman #Congress
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Chandigarh: Aftab Ahmed, Congress MLA from Haryana’s Nuh, on Tuesday demanded a high-level probe into alleged abduction and murder of two Muslim men from Rajasthan, even as he claimed the minorities are feeling “unsafe” in the state.
“I demand that a high-level probe be initiated into the Bhiwani incident. Negligence of policemen and other officials led to two youths losing their lives…action should be taken against erring personnel,” Ahmed said while speaking during Zero Hour in the state assembly here.
Nasir and Junaid, both residents of Ghatmeeka village in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, were allegedly abducted by cow vigilantes on February 15 and their bodies were found in a charred car in Loharu in Haryana’s Bhiwani the next day. The family members of the deceased had named five men allegedly linked to the Bajrang Dal in their complaint to the police.
The Congress MLA said the accused are “gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) or connected with them whose track record stated to be criminal. It appears that state government is protecting them”.
“The incident in Bhiwani is horrendous… In Nuh district too, heinous incidents have taken place in the past,” he said, adding that “the minorities are feeling unsafe in Haryana today”.
“At other places too in Haryana, incidents against minorities have been on the increase in recent years on which action taken is not satisfactory,” he alleged.
He said Haryana is known for its brotherhood, “but today seeds of hatred are being sown in this land. And government is failing in checking these things”.
“The Minorities Commission was disbanded in 2015. I demand that it should be re-constituted so that problems and concerns relating to minorities can be addressed,” he said.
In its FIR lodged on February 16, the Rajasthan Police named five accused — Anil, Shrikant, Rinku Saini, Lokesh Singla and Monu Manesar — on the basis of the complaint lodged by the victims’ family. Later, four more suspects’ names were added to the FIR registered at Gopalgarh police station in Bharatpur.
Chandigarh: Congress MLAs in Haryana on Tuesday marched to the Vidhan Sabha under the leadership of former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda to support the demand of government employees for restoration of old pension scheme (OPS).
The MLAs also raised issues concerning the public and highlighted the ‘failures’ of the BJP-JJP government in the state.
The party’s state unit chief Chaudhary Udaibhan specially joined the march.
“Unemployment, corruption, crime, inflation and atrocities are at their peak in the state. The government uses lathi-charge on the people raising their demands in a democratic way,” Hooda said.
“This government lathi-charged first the farmers, then the youth, then the employees and then elected representatives of the panchayats. The Congress is committed to raise its voice against such undemocratic actions of the state government, both on the streets and in the House,” he added.
Hooda said today Haryana is facing maximum unemployment in the country.
“About two lakh posts are lying vacant in government departments. Amid all scams and paper leaks, even in the isolated recruitments, people from other states are being selected instead of those from Haryana,” he said.
Citing the example of the latest recruitment of technical lecturers, Hooda said out of 157 general category candidates, about 100 from other states were selected.
“While all state governments give priority to the natives in recruitments, the BJP-JJP government in Haryana is sometimes giving preference to people from other states. In such a situation, where would the youth of Haryana go,” Hooda asked.
“We are confident in Congressman Cicilline’s abilities, intellect and accomplishments and are excited to begin working with him as our next president and CEO,” Dr. G. Alan Kurose, chair of the foundation’s board of directors, said in a statement Tuesday. “David’s skills and values fit perfectly with those of the Rhode Island Foundation — he is committed to meeting the needs of all Rhode Islanders and has been throughout his public-service career.”
Cicilline’s departure will not affect the margin of control in the House. Democrat Jennifer McLellan is expected to prevail on Tuesday in a Virginia special election to fill the deep-blue, Richmond-area House seat left vacant by the November death of Rep. Donald McEachin. Should she win, McLellan would be sworn in well before Cicilline steps down.
The long-time congressman won his seventh term in November, thumping Republican challenger Allen Waters by more than 28 percentage points. Cicilline’s announcement is Rhode Island’s second recent congressional shake-up. The Ocean State’s other long-serving congressman, Rep. Jim Langevin, retired last year, after more than two decades in Congress. Langevin was replaced by another Democrat, Rep. Seth Magaziner, after a close race between Magaziner and Republican Allan Fung in November.
Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.
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#Rhode #Island #Rep #David #Cicilline #leave #Congress
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
