Hyderabad: Tension prevailed in Bhupalapally town of Telangana on Tuesday night after BRS supporters hurled eggs and tomatoes at state Congress chief A. Revanth Reddy when he was addressing a public meeting.
Revanth Reddy, who was addressing the meeting as part of his ongoing “Haath Se Haath Jodo Yatra”, continued his speech, blaming ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) for the attack.
Telangana Congress Chief Revanth Reddy was attacked with Eggs & Tomatoes during a rally 😂😂😂
Later, supporters of both parties pelted stones on each other. A policeman sustained head injuries in the clash.
Trouble began when BRS supporters raised slogans against Revanth Reddy when he was addressing the public meeting. They tried to surge towards the dais. Police acted swiftly to lock up the protestors in the premises of a nearby cinema theatre.
However, BRS men hurled eggs and tomatoes towards the Congress’ Telangana unit President.
Security personnel formed a ring around Revanth Reddy and tried to shield him by holding a piece of cloth. Some Congress workers retaliated by pelting stones and bottles on BRS men in the theatre. The stone pelting by both sides continued for about 10 minutes. Window panes of the theatre were damaged in the attack. A sub-inspector of police was injured in stone pelting.
Normalcy restored after the public meeting was over and Revanth Reddy left the venue.
Raipur: Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said the party president should make another program like the Bharat Jodo Yatra, and that he and the workers were ready to do the ‘tapasya (penance)’.
He said this while addressing the 85th plenary session of the Congress in Raipur.
Following this, the party is now considering a yatra from Arunachal Pradesh’s Pasighat to Porbandar in Gujarat, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthplace.
Party General Secretary Jairam Ramesh, said another yatra is now under consideration.
He said the contours of the yatra have to be prepared and could coincide with the General Elections.
Rahul said, “Bharat Jodo Yatra invoked the true emotion of patriotism. It’s not done by him alone but by the Congress workers.
“You saw that we did ‘tapasya’ for four months and how energized the party workers got, tapasya should not stop,” Rahul Gandhi said.
“We instilled a love for the Tricolour in the youth of Kashmir through Bharat Jodo Yatra. BJP had taken it away,” he added further.
“Fifty-two years have passed, and I still don’t have a home, but when I reached Kashmir, it felt like home. The yatra was to make the people of all castes and age groups feel at home,” Gandhi added.
Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Friday that the people have faith and belief in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it has a strong leadership.
Speaking after flagging off the BJP Pragati Rath Yatra here on Friday, he said 130 raths (chariots) will tour all over the state to highlight the achievements of both the state and the Central governments.
This information will be disseminated to the women, poor, and the school-children. The BJP can alone build Nava Bharath through Nava Karnataka, he said, adding “once the vehicles of hope complete one round, there will be a BJP tsunami in Karnataka”.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi said determination is the key to success and the work done by the government would be taken to the doorsteps of people. The raths will visit every village in the state to take the achievements of the governments,” the Karnataka Chief Minister said.
He said after the BJP came to power, it ended the travails faced by the people caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The government renovated 75 schools in Bengaluru, developed tanks, started Namma Clinics in all wards, granted Rs 6,000 crore for the development of Bengaluru, got grants from the Union government for the sub-urban rail, got released money for the Smart City project. The Lok Sabha members from Karnataka have played an important role in bringing the funds from the Centre,” he said.
The Chief Minister said schemes such as Vidya Nidhi for the children of farmers, agriculture labourers, fishermen and weavers, Swanidhi, Swami Vivekananda Self-Employment, free buses for students and unorganised working men, and monthly financial assistance of Rs 1,000 per agricultural labourer have been implemented by the incumbent government.
JAMMU: In its 12th High Level Committee (HLC) meeting of Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) attended by the senior officers in Civil and Security establishment Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta on Friday impressed upon all the line departments including the Shrine Board to prepare well ahead of commencement of yatra for its successful conduct this year, an official handout reads.
According to statement, Dr Mehta urged all the departments including PDD, Jal Shakti, RDD, H&UDD, BRO, Telecommunication and others to complete the necessary tendering and other contract related processes in the month of April itself. He directed the BRO to clear the snow from roads on both the axis of Chandanwadi and Baltal before end of April so that other departments are able to carryout their activities smoothly.
The Chief Secretary stressed on marking the disaster prone areas on both the routes and ensure that the utilities are not established in such areas. He directed that necessary assistance may be taken from NDRF in this regard so that they could certify that no utility has been erected in such zones, reads the statement.
He asked the concerned Deputy Commissioners to facilitate all the service providers so that the facilities created at each location are appropriate and sufficient for both the devotees and facilitators. He advised them to work in coordination with each other and use the work window very efficiently so that every facility is ready by mid June in any case.
He asked the civil administration about the arrangements made last year by them at each of the camp location and enroute up to the holy cave. He told them to repeat the same exercise with necessary improvements, wherever required. He asked them to implement the Supreme Court directions passed in this regard in letter and spirit and give more focus on stabilization of slopes in vulnerable stretches, construction of foot bridges along the yatra track, repairing of safety railings and removal of slips and installation of signages for the safety and ease of pilgrims.
Dr Mehta stated that the DPRs of the works to be taken in hand for successful conduct of the yatra should be given timely Administrative Approval. Besides, their technical vetting should also be carried on priority to identify the works that are more significant in terms of safety and security of yatris. He directed for completing the building at Ramban before start of yatra this year.
He enjoined upon all the Departments like Health, FCS&CA, RDD, H&UDD, DMRRR, Information, IT and others to carryout their routine works as per the past practice enhancing the capacity wherever required. He termed their contribution very crucial for conduct of the yatra and beckoned them to work with a sense of purpose and urgency.
The Chief Secretary further directed them to ensure that the installation of lights, water tanks, toilets, generators, PSPs, Public Address System, communication towers are fully functional at each camp location before the commencement of yatra.
He stressed on creating health facilities with appropriate bed capacity at each location with the allied facilities like Oxygen supply, X-ray, ECG and others as per the actual requirement. He laid emphasis on taking proper sanitation measures at all camp and langar sites without any fail with putting good number of volunteers and personnel at work.
He also asked for the trial running of all the helipads on both the routes well before time. He asked the Divisional and District administration to take every measure for risk mitigation deemed fit after visiting the tracks themselves.
The Divisional administrations ensured him that full proof arrangements would be made everywhere. They further gave out that power supply, water, health facilities, installation of toilets/baths, telephone, ration, fire fighting equipment, firewood, shelter sheds, helipads, mobile connectivity, langar, tents and SDRF/NDRF personnel deployment would be done at each spot identified for the purpose. They informed the meeting that every facility required for the event would be created as per the standard practice besides taking all the measures as per the directions given in this meeting.
Hyderabad: The SC Cell of the Congress party today held Haath Se Haath Jodo Yatra in Khairatabad assembly constituency of the State capital. The padayatra was held under the leadership of the SC cell chairman Ramesh. The Yatra was launched after paying floral tributes to Rajiv Gandhi statue at Somajiguda crossroads.
The padayatra later reached Punjagutta circle . Party leaders paid floral tributes at BR Ambedkar and YSR statues at Punjagutta crossroads. Later, the padayatra reached Khairatabad assembly constituency and paid floral tributes at the statue of of the former party leader PJR. The padayatra was held till the Gandhi Bhavan. Khairatabad DCC president Rohin Reddy and Congress party constituency incharge Naresh took part in the padayatra as chief guests.
Speaking on the occasion, Rohin Reddy said they visited every house in the constituency as part of the Yatra and explained to the residents about the message of the Bharat Jodo padayatra of the party leader and MP Rahul Gandhi besides explaining them about the failures of the ruling BRS party. He said they told the people the need for return of the Congress party to power in Telangana. (NSS)
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had a close shave on Monday when an unidentified man hurled a plastic chair at him in Aurangabad during his Samadhan Yatra.
Nitish Kumar reached the Barun block to inaugurate the panchayat building, and attend a programme there, when a chair fell in front of him.
Following the incident, security personnel surrounded the Chief Minister and took him away after the event. The local police started the investigation to identify that person responsible for hurling the clair on CM Nitish Kumar.
Earlier in the day, Nitish Kumar visited Rohtas district as well and reviewed the government projects. He also met viral girl Saloni in Rohtas and appreciated her effort of creating awareness against liquor consumption.
Saloni sang a song in Bhojpuri on the consequences of drinking liquor consumption for the Chief Minister. She came into the limelight when she sang the song in her school last year.
Liquor has been banned in Bihar since April 2016 but is still available illicitly and a large number of people have lost their lives by drinking spurious or poisonous liquor. One such incident recently occurred in Chapra district when more than 100 persons died in January this year.
Thiruvananthapuram: Hailing Rahul Gandhi’s determination, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal on Saturday said during the initial days of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, there was a delicate situation in which the former Congress chief faced severe knee problems that forced him to think about whether he should be replaced by someone else.
Venugopal, a close confidante of Rahul, said the predicament had even forced Priyanka Gandhi to tell him that her brother might be giving up the nationwide foot march due to the severe pain and hand over the baton of the yatra to senior Congress leaders.
“His knee pain had aggravated when the yatra entered Kerala on the third day of its commencement from Kanyakumari. One night, he called me to tell (me) about the severity of his knee pain and suggested to carry out the campaign by replacing him with any another leader,” the senior Congress leader said during a function organised at KPCC headquarters here in the evening to honour the Bharat Jodo yatris from Kerala.
Narrating the sequence of events that he had faced when the yatra that began from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7, 2022 entered Kerala, Venugopal said a yatra without Rahul Gandhi was unimaginable for the Congress workers and leaders.
“Then came Priyanka Gandhi’s call to inform about the severity of knee pain Rahul suffers. She even thought of suggesting to hand over the campaign to other senior leaders,” the AICC general secretary said, adding those were anxious moments wherein he stood with folded hands, praying for divine intervention.
Finally, a physiotherapist suggested by Rahul Gandhi joined his medical team and treated him. “With God’s grace, his pain was cured,” Venugopal told the gathering at the function also attended by senior party leaders including A K Antony.
The yatra led by Rahul Gandhi had entered Kerala on September 10 and it traversed through the state for 19 days.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra had ended on January 30 in an opposition show of strength with leaders of several parties joining Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as he capped his ambitious 145-day journey that covered some 4,000 kilometres from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
Bengaluru: While the grand old party is facing a crisis like situation in all other states, the Congress is closer to the seat of power in Karnataka, according to political analysts.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi has boosted the party’s prospects in the assembly elections scheduled to be held in less than two months.
Rahul Gandhi covered 511 km by walking for 21 days during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka in three stages. The yatra evoked a huge response from the public when it entered the state. It passed through seven Lok Sabha and 20 assembly constituencies.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi came down to Karnataka during the yatra and walked along with her son Rahul in the Mandya district of the state. The yatra has reminded the people of the Congress party’s contributions to the state especially the implementation of the Land Reforms Act.
Karnataka is one among the few states where land reforms were implemented in the true spirit and lakhs of beneficiaries are loyal followers of the party. The act gave the land to the tiller, making them landowners.
More importantly, the Yatra successfully projected the candidatures of Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress president D.K. Shivakumar for the post of chief minister if the Congress is voted to power.
Rahul Gandhi clearly stated that the party MLAs will elect their leader and to a great extent put an end to the rivalry between the two leaders.
Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah have been effectively questioning and launching attacks on the state as well as central BJP leaders. Siddaramaiah is vehemently opposing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Hindutva, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Shivakumar has ridiculed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). He had charged that the CBI and the ED are existent only for the opposition parties. He said that he would give a piece of his mind to the CBI to look after other important work rather than targeting him and his family.
The ruling BJP, which is trying to manage the anti-incumbency factor and return to power is making an all out effort in the state. The seriousness could be seen in Modi and Amit Shah’s repeated visits to the state.
The special mention of Karnataka during the presentation of the budget, budgetary allocation for the Upper Bhadra Project, approval for Detailed Project Report of the Kalasa-Banduri Project to utilize the waters of Mahadayi river, Modi and Amit Shah underlining the importance of the double engine government of the BJP for the development of the state are all part of the strategy to counter the Congress party.
The Congress has declared that an internal survey conducted by the party has given them a comfortable majority in the state in the upcoming elections. It maintains that competition between Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah for the post of CM has helped the party to grow stronger in the state.
The BJP which is claiming that it would fight the elections under a collective leadership and seek votes in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not been able to project a CM candidate so far. The Congress is clearly projecting Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar as its probable CM candidates.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had ridiculed the Bharat Jodo Yatra as another attempt to relaunch a failed missile called Rahul Gandhi.
Lavanya Ballal, national social media coordinator from Karnataka, stated that the Yatra has been successful in waking up the nation to the hate narrative they are being fed. It was a timely reminder that our great nation was built on the foundation of peace. “We have a choice to treat fellow citizens with hate or build the nation with peace and love,” she said.
The Yatra was a very positive movement, it showed the citizens that the BJP government has been lying and cheating. “We didn’t design the yatra for election purposes so we have not looked into its impact on the state election,” she maintained.
KJeddah: The images of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi leading scores of people, donning a white T-shirt, hugging supporters, and chit-chatting with residents of the places he walked through during his 134-day Bharat Jodo Yatra across the country, overtook social media of users in India.
However, an enthusiastic youth Congress worker landed in trouble for holding a placard to support Bharat Jodo Yatra in Saudi Arabia.
Raza Kadri, a 26-year-old resident of Niwari district, near Jhansi in Madhya Pradesh, who is an active supporter of the Congress was detained for displaying a placard supporting the Bharat Jodo Yatra with the Holy Kaaba in the background.
The action two days after he posted the photograph with the placard in Makkah. According to sources, security forces traced him to his hotel where he was staying along with other pilgrims of Madhya Pradesh and detained him.
Displaying any type of flag or placard is unlawful action in Saudi Arabia including at Islamic holy sites.
Unaware of the rules, social media and photo-click-savvy Indians sometimes land in serious legal trouble in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.
The Indian Consulate repeatedly caution their compatriots not to display any type of flag inside the Haram area and also, not pick items that are found on the ground.
The Indian diplomats have been urging Indians to comply with the local rules in this regard as there is an increase in cases of picking up unattended materials and displaying any flag or placard.
There is an increase of many folds of Umrah pilgrims from India most of who are unaware of local norms.
It was interesting to see Rahul Gandhi publicly snubbing his senior party colleague and former Chief Minister, Digvijaya Singh, over the latter’s remarks about the surgical strike. Rahul called Digvijaya’s remarks ridiculous. He, thus, conveyed he was very much the leader of his party.
Rahul Gandhi never impressed me before. Nor did he impress several of his own party colleagues who clamoured for a leadership change in Congress. And hardly ever did he add to the electoral fortunes of his party. But now I guess Rahul has reinvented himself.
While in Jammu and Kashmir on the last leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY), he came across as a confident and mature politician. However, I have my doubts as to whether his BJY was a success in the Valley.
No doubt quite a few thousand people came out, but I have seen and reported far too bigger crowds turning up for any local leader. Observers say that many of those who joined the yatra did so out of hatred for the BJP.
Tall claims of the Congress and its allies apart, ordinary Kashmiris were least excited about the yatra. They have bad memories of the Congress and have not forgotten that it was this party that diluted the erstwhile state’s special status before it was altogether removed by the BJP government. People also recall that it was the Congress government that hanged Afzal Guru out of turn for electoral gains. Rahul carried this baggage and failed to strike a chord with ordinary Kashmiris until his last day in Srinagar.
During his yatra, he made a commitment to restore Jammu and Kashmir’s “statehood and democracy”. But he never said he would undo the bifurcation of the state into two union territories. Likewise, though he quite often reiterated that Art 370 of the Indian constitution was abrogated in a wrongful manner, yet he did not make any promise that his party would undo this wrong and restore Jammu and Kashmir’s internal autonomy.
At every press conference in Jammu and Kashmir, Rahul avoided a direct answer to the oft-repeated question about Article 370. Every time, he said his position was the same as taken by the Congress working committee in its resolution in August 2019. That resolution, indeed, says the manner in which Article 370 was revoked was unconstitutional. But it does not go beyond that. The BJP always had abrogation of Article 370 in its election manifesto. There is no hint that Congress would make the restoration of this Article part of its own manifesto.
Displaying characteristics of a shrewd politician, Rahul was very tactful in avoiding straight answers to quite a few other questions. For instance, he was reminded that his great grandfather and first prime minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru, had while unfurling the tricolour at the same Lal Chowk in Srinagar more than 70 years ago, made some promises to the people of Kashmir. He was asked whether it pained him to realise that the promises had not been kept. He did not touch upon what Nehru had said or done; he said he would not look to the past and would, instead, look to the future.
At the conclusion of the 134-day-long Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed a news conference in Srinagar on January 29, 2023. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur
But while Rahul may have offered nothing substantial to the people of Kashmir, he showed empathy with them, which was widely noticed. Addressing a public rally at Sheri Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar, he said that the people of Kashmir have suffered deep pain – the pain of losing their loved ones. He said he understood this pain because he himself had lost his father and before that his grandmother.
For the first time, an Indian leader acknowledged that the ordinary people of Kashmir had long been in pain. This a far cry from the Kashmir Files which even Pandit leaders like Sanjay Tikoo of the Kashmir Sangharsh Samiti say has demonised Muslims of Kashmir by misrepresentation of facts. The BJP govt promoted the film and celebrated it.
Rahul did not pour out his heart for any particular section of the people in Kashmir. He empathised with all. He also empathised with the families of Indian military and paramilitary soldiers who have lost their lives or faced risk to their lives.
His speech was received well by many in Kashmir. Its video is being forwarded on WhatsApp. A lady who watched it on TV, said “tears welled up in my eyes when Rahul spoke about his father.” Rahul recalled how he had been informed about his father’s and before that his grandmother’s assassination by phone. He said many Kashmiri families have received similar phone calls (about the killing of their loved ones). “These phone calls should stop. That is the goal of my yatra“, he said.
But despite appreciating his speech, Kashmiris have not pinned their hopes on Rahul or his party. As I said, he did not promise anything except the restoration of statehood and that too without clarifying whether Ladakh would be made part of the state again. Pertinent to mention, it was the Congress party that encouraged the agitation in Leh for union territory status way back in the late 1980s. That agitation was characterized by a social boycott of the Muslim minorities there.
Rahul said quite often that his BJY was the first and small step towards setting things right in India. He, however, did not say how he proposed to fight the politics of hate which has taken deep roots across India. And I wonder whether he has realised that the Congress party is much to blame for affording space to the BJP and its right-wing politics. After all, Congress compromised its own ideology on so many occasions and demolished democratic institutions besides failing to govern well.
Tailpiece
It was interesting to see Rahul Gandhi publicly snubbing his senior party colleague and former Chief Minister, Digvijaya Singh, over the latter’s remarks about the surgical strike. Rahul called Digvijaya’s remarks ridiculous. He, thus, conveyed he was very much the leader of his party.
(The author is a freelance journalist; formerly North India Correspondent of the BBC, he also worked with the Times of India. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Kashmir Life.)
