Cannot rely on Modi wave for Maharashtra polls: Shiv Sena

MUMBAI, Aug 26: After being checkmated by the RJD-JD(U)-Congress alliance in the Bihar bypoll, BJP ally Shiv Sena on Tuesday said that the 'Mahayuti' needs pull up its socks and refrain from gloating over the "Modi wave" to fight the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections.

"We have to accept that the RJD-JD(U)-Congress combine won six seats while the BJP could win only four. People have shown that there is a difference between Lok Sabha and state assembly elections. This difference should be taken very seriously," the Sena said in an edit in its party mouthpiece 'Saamana'."

"Seeing the bypoll results, it seems clear that the BJP-Shiv Sena led 'Mahayuti' has to pull up its socks and get to work for the upcoming elections in Maharashtra," it said.

Warning against completely relying on the Modi wave, Sena said that state elections cannot be won on mere talk.

"People want a change of power in Maharashtra. But we cannot win elections by only talking about winning. (Narendra) Modi has been given a strong mandate to head the country. But the factors that come into play during state elections are different," the Sena said.

The edit added that the BJP should "learn a lesson" from the results of the bypolls and "introspect" on what went wrong.

Three months after its spectacular showing in Lok Sabha polls, the BJP on Monday received a jolt in the assembly byelections, suffering a 4-6 defeat at the hands of the RJD-JD(U)-Congress alliance in Bihar and yielding two strongholds to Congress in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

In Punjab, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and Congress won one seat each. Out of the 18 seats in four states for which bypolls were held on August 21, Congress and its allies won 10 while seven went to BJP and one to its ally SAD.

Bihar bypolls a proper lesson for secular forces: CPM

NEW DELHI, Aug 26: Left parties on Tuesday said the unity between JD(U) and RJD in the Bihar assembly bypolls had paid off in keeping BJP out and stressed that secular forces should draw proper lessons from this.

"These bye-elections have political significance as far as Bihar is concerned. The unity among some major non-BJP secular parties has paid off as they could pool their votes and resources. I think the understanding was correct as far as their getting together (in Bihar) was concerned," CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said here.

He observed that the Left can cooperate with secular forces wherever possible, but there were political issues regarding Congress and its policies.

"As far as the political aspect of how non-BJP forces can be raised, as far as we are concerned, there are other aspects as well. Wherever possible, we have to cooperate with secular parties but we also have political issues regarding the Congress," Karat said.

On Congress, he said, "Our party line is to fight BJP primarily because it is in power now. But we are opposed to the policies of the Congress too."

CPI national secretary D Raja earlier said the victory of anti-BJP forces in the assembly bypolls showed "growing disenchantment" among the people with BJP and its policies and the secular forces must draw lessons on how to fight the ruling coalition at the Centre.

"The results show that the people are not prepared to accept the RSS and corporate-driven policies of the BJP government. It shows a fast-growing disillusionment among them," he said.

Observing that the trend of last month's bye-elections in Uttarakhand in which all the three seats went to Congress was continuing, Raja said, "The secular forces must draw proper lessons that BJP has to be fought, not only on the secular plank, but on its economic policies also."

Karat had last week said that CPM was committed to form a broad platform to fight against the "anti-people policies and communal designs" of the Narendra Modi government.

Addressing a gathering in Kannur in Kerala, he had said like in Bihar where CPM, CPI and CPI(ML) had jointly contested the bypolls. He said efforts towards forming such a platform would be on in Jharkhand too where such an alliance would be formed to contest the assembly elections.

Nitish-Lalu's grand alliance trumps BJP in Bihar bypolls

NEW DELHI, Aug 25: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced losses on Monday in two out of the four states where by-elections were held recently for 18 assembly constituencies.

This was the first major electoral challenge for political forces, especially the BJP, after the formation of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre following the April-May general elections, in which the saffron party secured a landslide win.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and ruling Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar's decision to join hands and fight together against a resurgent BJP seemed to have a positive impact on the much-talked-about grand alliance in Bihar.

The alliance of the two former chief ministers - of which the Congress too became a part - won six of the 10 seats in the state where the bypolls were held on August 21.

The result came as a morale booster for the two leaders after their parties were hit in the Lok Sabha poll by a tidal wave in favour of the BJP campaign leader (now the Prime Minister), Narendra Modi, who promised to usher in 'achche din (good days)'.

"The alliance will be taken forward (into the Bihar assembly poll next year). The people have rejected the BJP's divisive politics. Our inclusive agenda is on course," said Nitish in Patna.

Lalu had earlier described the alliance as an experiment to "revive the Mandal politics of the 1990s", an allusion to a unity of the other backward classes to take on the "kamandal" (communal) politics of the BJP.

The RJD chief had also given the logic that the votes polled in the recent Lok Sabha election by the RJD (20.1%) and the JD(U) (15.8%) together exceeded the BJP's (29.4%) vote share.

Even though the BJP could win just four seats in the by-election as against the six it won in 2010 in alliance with the JD(U), the outcome left just enough on its table to keep up its hopes for the 2015 state polls.

"We will review, make amends on way to making an all out effort to win the final round," said BJP's Sushil Modi.

Another BJP leader who did not want to be named said, "This is not bad considering NaMo factor was not in play and it was BJP versus united others, unlike the LS poll when RJD and JD(U) were rivals."

While the BJP won in Narkatiaganj, Hajipur, Mohania and Banka, the RJD secured victories in three seats - in Mohiuddinnagar, Rajnagar and Chapra.

The ruling JD(U) won two seats in Parbatta and Jale. The Congress wrested the Bhagalpur seat from the BJP. By winning two of the three seats in Karnataka, the state Congress led by chief minister Siddaramaiah proved the state government had not lost its popularity.

In the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had, however, won just nine of the 28 parliamentary constituencies.

The ruling party dealt a big blow to the Reddy brothers by wresting the Bellary Rural seat by a comprehensive margin of 33,104 votes.

Congress' NY Gopalakrishna secured 83,906 votes against the 50,802 secured by Obalesh, a confidante of B Sriramulu, who vacated the Bellary Rural seat after being elected as an MP on a BJP ticket from the Bellary parliamentary constituency.

"We were expecting to win but not by this margin," said an elated Siddaramaiah. "The people of Bellary voted for the Reddy brothers in recent years because they were afraid of them."

In Chikkodi (Belgaum district), Congress parliamentarian Prakash Hukkeri's son, Ganesh Hukkeri, won by a margin of 31,820 votes.

BJP strongman BS Yeddyurappa's son, BY Raghavendra, bagged the Shikaripura seat, which his father vacated following his win in the general elections.

But the Congress believes that it scored a moral victory by limiting his winning margin to just 6,517 votes.

BJP workers conceded that the result was a setback given Yeddyurappa has represented this constituency six times and won the recent parliamentary elections by a huge 3.62 lakh votes.

Reacting to the results, an exuberant Siddaramaiah said, "This proves that the so-called Modi wave was temporary. Modi's achche din are over."

In Punjab, the Patiala (Urban) constituency was won by Perneet Kaur, wife of former chief minister Amarinder Singh, who had vacated the seat after winning the Lok Sabha election from Amritsar.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had made a stunning debut in the state in the Lok Sabha polls winning four out of 13 seats in Punjab, lost its deposit in Patiala (Urban).

The Talwandi Sabo seat was bagged by the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, whose candidate Jeet Mohinder Sidhu had deserted the Congress and quit as an MLA.

Preneet, a three-time MP, was defeated by AAP's Dharamvira Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls.

In Madhya Pradesh, the ruling BJP won two constituencies (Aagar and Vijayraghavgarh), while the Congress secured a win in the remaining seat (Bahoriband).

In a nail-biting contest in Bahoriband, Congress' Sourabh Singh defeated BJP's Pranav Pandey by 7,977 votes.

We will stage comeback: Sonia

NEW DELHI, Aug 20: Congress President Sonia Gandhi today asserted that her party will stage a comeback as she attacked BJP, saying it had woven "false dreams" and people got caught in the "trap".

She targetted the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of copying the schemes and programmes of the UPA dispensation and taking credit for the same.

Addressing a convention of 'Mahila Congress' here, Sonia along with Rahul Gandhi sought to reach out to women by promising a larger electoral role for them at all levels and making a strong pitch for reservation for them in Parliament and state Assemblies.

They told the convention organised on the occasion of 70th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that women members of the Congress should become a "tsunami" and contribute actively in the battle between ideologies.

"We had done so much. Still some people laid a trap and people got caught in it. Our work, our achievements got ignored and those showing false dreams marched ahead," she said, targeting BJP as she looked back at the Lok Sabha polls.

To buttress her point about performance of the previous Congress-led government, she listed a number of measures initiated for women empowerment and other reforms.

Targeting the Modi dispensation, Sonia said, "those who have come in government today are showing an altogether different picture to the nation in accordance with their habit. They are implementing as their own schemes and plans, which were luanched by Congress."

At the same time, the Congress chief expressed confidence about staging a comeback. "May be the path of our struggle is a bit longer and we may have to work a little more. But if all of us work hard and do it together, the day is not far when Congress will regain its peak."

This was the first such party convention since the Lok Sabha polls in which Congress only got 44 seats.

Narendra Modi speaks extempore and strikes a chord

NEW DELHI, Aug 16: Narendra Modi on Friday, delivering his first Independence Day speech as India's Prime Minister, made a significant departure from tradition. He chose to address the nation without the help of a teleprompter or a written speech and spoke extempore for close to 60 minutes without faltering even once. In over three decades, since Indira Gandhi's death, no Prime Minister has taken the risk of speaking from the ramparts of Lal Qila without a script.

Even one of the finest orators of Indian politics, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, read out written speeches on Independence Day during his tenure as PM. Before him, only country's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi had made extempore speeches on independence Day. Modi on Friday chose to just carry some notes and improvised on them in his quintessential style exhibiting a freedom and establishing a connect that most PMs in the recent past have failed to achieve.

As noted academic Pushpesh Pant, who is reported to have written speeches for Rajiv Gandhi, puts it: "To a generation that has watched a tired Vajpayee taking excruciatingly long pauses and a Manmohan Singh whose hand could not even rise above his shoulders while saying Jai Hind, Modi's speech looks magical. Modi used his hands effectively, projected his voice appropriately (as if speaking from the heart) and carefully wore a turban with saffron and green to go with a white kurta."

Not surprisingly, social media lapped it up calling the speech "refreshing" even as political observers found it a break from the "elitist" nature of past speeches. But why would a first-time PM, who calls himself an outsider and has been in the chair for barely three months, risk slip ups and faux pas through an extempore when not just the nation but even world leaders were listening to him?

Media advisor to former PM Manmohan Singh, Sanjaya Baru says, "Independence Day is the only day when the Prime Minister speaks to the nation. The tradition itself began as an informal exercise in 1947 when Jawaharlal Nehru delivered an emotional speech extempore. In that sense Modi has only taken the ritual back to its origin."

The comparison with Nehru is significant. Atul Mishra, assistant professor at Central University of Gujarat says, "Nation is an emotional construct whose idea needs to be communicated through political speech. Prime Minister Modi seems to have learnt this from Nehru, even though their ideas of India are different. And few after Nehru have had the capacity and confidence to articulate an idea of India until Modi came around."

Ironically, however, Modi on Friday announced the scrapping of the one institution that Nehru built-the Planning Commission. "In a way it's a signal of the end of the Nehruvian era and beginning of a new one," says Baru.

Pant, however, feels Modi is just too good a speaker to read a written speech. "Many may not agree, but he is a better orator than Vajpayee, who was too old and too tired when he became PM. Vajpayee's speeches had more poetry than substance. Modi talks work. He has the confidence of a massive mandate that he has won on his own strength. He has absolute clarity of thought and knows what he is saying and what he can achieve. It's this confidence that made him remove the bulletproof sheet between him and the people," says Pant.

That Modi is a clever orator is not lost on anyone. Social scientist Shiv Vishwanathan said, "Modi has a rhetoric of orality. He evokes ancestors. He has these short effective slogans. And he manages to pull it off. It's not an extempore. He has rehearsed it but he improvises around a basic text. So he doesn't go wrong and remains effective and scores. He is a man easy with speech and loves the masses."

Pant goes deeper into Modi's dexterity with speech and demeanors on Friday. He says, "Look how subtly he has appropriated Indira's 'Garibi Hatao' and Lal Bahadur Shastri's 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan'. At the same time he has also attempted to wash communal sins by making conciliatory approaches."

Rahul Gandhi not to blame for Congress's Lok Sabha poll rout: Antony

NEW DELHI, Aug 16: Congress leader A K Antony has absolved Rahul Gandhi of any responsibility for the party's debacle in Lok Sabha elections.

The investigation into the reasons for the defeat, conducted by a committee headed by Antony, has instead blamed organizational weakness and the "manipulation of media coverage by Narendra Modi".

Asked if Rahul had been apportioned the blame for the defeat, Antony told reporters, "This is all speculation. Nothing. Absolutely wrong. Those who are spreading these kinds of rumours want to weaken the party... such things are being spread by mischievous people who want to weaken the party."

The remark indicates that Rahul is in the clear. "The reasons for Congress defeat were something else," Antony said, adding that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul campaigned across the country.

The all-clear from the probe panel contrasts with the criticism that the Gandhi scion has been facing since Congress crashed to its worst-ever defeat, with partymen questioning his leadership skills and his ideas.

Rahul was the face of the Congress's 2014 campaign which was marked by his experiments like "primaries" - to choose candidates by voting by a section of workers. His hand in the selection of candidates was also final, with a core committee picked by him doing the job.

The Congress chief and Rahul, who came to the party's Akbar Road headquarters for flag hoisting, did not take questions.

Refusing to divulge details of his report, Antony said, "We are confident, just as we did in 1977, we will overcome this difficult phase as well. Congress will overcome this. We will be able to regain the loss, strengthen our party, strengthen our mass base again. We will revive under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul."

The Antony panel spoke to party leaders from states and arrived at its conclusions on their feedback.

Interestingly, the report talks about the alleged "manipulation of media coverage by BJP and the lacunae in the Congress campaign vis-a-vis the Modi blitzkrieg".

Senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said media was "one of the contributory factors" for the defeat as its entire focus was one person.

Amit Shah announces new BJP team

NEW DELHI, Aug 16: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Saturday announced his new team which includes B.S. Yeddyurappa, J.P. Nadda and Ram Madhav. Jagat Prakash Nadda, who was one of the contenders for the party president's post, has been made general secretary from Himachal Pradesh.

B.S. Yeddyurappa, former Karnataka chief minister who had been out of the party for a while before he came back into the fold, is one of the vice presidents. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Purusottam Rupala, Prabhat Jha and Kiran Maheswari are in the list of vice presidents.

Ram Madhav, who joined the BJP recently from the RSS, has been made general secretary for Andhra Pradesh. Rajeev Pratap Ruddy has been made the general secretary from Bihar, Murlidhar Rao from Telangana and women's wing leader Saroj Pandey is the general secretary from Chhattisgarh. Ramlal continues to hold the key post of organisation secretary.

Women integral part of india's success story

NEW DELHI, Aug 14: Devi is the female goddess, venerated in India by the majority Hinducommunity as the source of primordial power, the symbol of piety andpurity.

Yet, in a country of such great tradition and culture, Indian women are in the news globally for all the wrong reasons: sexual harassment and societal subjugation. In the past decade with the information boom having touched all corners of the globe, unfiltered news about India is available to all. It has meant that the focus in the past two years has been on crimes against women in India rather than on women achievers from India.

This tinge in global focus on women in India is due to the global expectations from the world’s largest democracy. The world looks uponIndia as an emergent power and it is impossible for India to be a power in this region with half its population lagging behind.

One of India’s most powerful Prime Ministers was a woman. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ruled with an iron-fist and led an almost entirely male cabinet for decades, pulling India out of famines and war, into a Green Revolution that transformed Indian agriculture. Several years later, her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi would take over the reins of the oldest political party in the country, lead it to victory but refuse to become Prime Minister and appointed her loyal colleague Dr Manmohan Singh instead. India’s current External Affairs Minister is Sushma Swaraj who is thesecond woman to occupy that post, the first being Indira Gandhi.

We have many woman leaders in industry too. Chennai-born Indra Nooyi is the president and chief executive officer of PepsiCo, the world’s fourth-largest food and beverage company. Fortune Magazine selected her as the Most Powerful Woman in Business in 2006. Chanda Kochhar is CEO and MD of ICICI Bank, India’s largest private bank.

In sports, Sania Mirza is the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with a career high ranking 31 in singles and 24 in doubles. Mary Kom is a five-time World Amateur Boxing champion and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships and an Olympic medal. She has inspired hundreds of girls in the country to take up competitive sports. Equally inspiring is the young Saina Nehwal,who is the first Indian to win a medal in Badminton at the Olympics.

Indian women authors like Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anita Desai have won many international literary awards and global critical acclaim. Then there are women who work for society, tirelessly and many times without the limelight. Medha Patkar has worked for the socially downtrodden who get displaced due to mega development projects, Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity works ceaselessly among the poor and marginalized. Ela Bhat founded the Self Employed Women Association (SEWA) that works forempowering employment among rural women.

In the field of entertainment, the list of women achievers is unending: from the golden melodious voices of Bollywood for decades, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle, to the popular and acclaimed actresses like Shabana Azmi, Meena Kumari, Aishwarya Rai and film makers like Mira Nair and Kalpana Lajmi. Blessed with such talent, Indian films, particularly those made in Mumbai, have captivated audiences across the globe.

While the list of current women achievers is impressive, the list of Indian women who stand out in history is equally stellar. Ancient texts show thatwomen in India in the Vedic period (ca.1750–500 BCE) had access to education and enjoyed almost equal rights as men. Razia Sultan, Chand Bibi, Rani Laxmi Bai were heroic figures whose tales of bravery andcourage are narrated even today. Many women leaders played stellar rolesin the freedom movement, and other even ruled as queens in erstwhileprincely states.

The Indian Constitution guarantees equality to all women and no discrimination by the state but it is an uphill battle in practice to breakthrough the glass ceiling. In rural India, women constitute nearly 85 percent of the work force but they rarely own land. In urban India, they are present in offices and construction sites but are paid less than their male counterparts. With awareness increasing among Indian women about their rights and responsibilities, they are growing more assertive, ready to take on challenges and march in step with their male counterparts. In an India on the march, women will have to be an integral part of the country’s success story.

-- Courtesy: Ministry of External Affairs, India

Modi praises Amit Shah, calls him man of the match in 2014 Lok Sabha polls

NEW DELHI, Aug 9: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged on Saturday to fulfil expectations of the people who voted him to power in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, while stressing his government was headed in the "right direction".

Speaking at the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) national council meet at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi, Modi also justified India's tough stand at the World Trade Organization (WTO) - in order to ensure "food for the poor" - and heaped praises on new party chief Amit Shah.

In the face of opposition by the West, India had recently decided not to ratify WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement without any concrete movement in finding a permanent solution to its public food stock-holding issue for food security purposes.

Modi also launched a veiled attack on the Congress and Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) for practising vote bank politics and said the BJP never accepted the "incidents (of violence) which are taking place in the country".

"Peace, unity and harmony are the pre-requisites for progress and there will be no compromise on this… Those who have suffered a massive defeat in the elections are still not able to desist from engaging in old vote bank politics. They are engaged in disturbing the social fabric."

His comments came against the backdrop of the Saharanpur communal violence and other similar incidents in UP. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had recently said violence in the state was "artificially and deliberately engineered".

Modi said BJP workers will have to play a crucial role to ensure communal and national unity so that the nation could move forward. "When the country makes progress, its 125 crore people make progress."

Modi also said the ruling BJP should promote social causes such as energy conservation, building toilets and education of the girl child to bring about a change.

Praising Shah, who was instrumental behind BJP's poll triumph in politically crucial UP, Modi said he was the man of the match for the saffron party team that won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"Winning the polls was a team effort… Rajnathji (home minister Rajnath Singh, who was the erstwhile BJP president) was the captain of the team and Amit Shah was the man of the match," he said.

"After completing 60 days (in office), I am confident that we will be able to fulfil people's expectations," Modi said.

"People were in a mood to support us. People have done their work, it's time for us to do ours."

Modi was elected on a platform of reviving sharply slowing economic growth and ending a string of corruption scandals which marked the Congress party's decade-long rule.

The Prime Minister, who has already visited neighbouring Nepal and Bhutan after taking oath on May 26, also said the outlook of the world towards India had changed because a strong government that secured the majority mark in Parliament was at the helm.

"Maybe, they were used to coalition governments. But now they know that this government has got a clear mandate."

Lauding his government for bringing about a dramatic change in functioning within 60 days, Modi said many of the promises made in the BJP manifesto before the elections were included in the budget and a roadmap had been prepared for the same.

Apparently attacking the Congress yet again, Modi said, "Those who have not done anything for 60 years are asking for our account of 60 days."

"We are judged by different and tough yardsticks. I don't know why it is happening. Only time will tell. But we should accept this challenge. It is good for us that we are judged by stringent yardstick. We will pass the test.

"I have myself come out of 14 years of trial," said the former Gujarat chief minister, who had to face a lot of criticism over the 2002 riots in the state.

Modi admitted that he knew little about Delhi or Parliament before winning the elections, but now he was confident. He recalled that at the start of the election campaign, he had started saying that the BJP should get 300 seats on its own.

"Some of my colleagues asked why I was talking about numbers. But I felt that people had made up their mind to vote for BJP and just wanted someone to ask for it."

Bigger role for Priyanka in Congress on the cards

NEW DELHI, Aug 7: The Congress on Thursday gave an indication about a bigger role for Priyanka Gandhi in party affairs. Speaking to newsmen, party spokesperson Shobha Oza said the party wants all three members of the Gandhi family to take leadership role.

Sonia Gandhi is Congress president, Rahul is vice-president and there has been media speculation about Priyanka Gandhi likely to take up a formal responsibility in the party as general secretary of the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.

Shobha Oza said "everybody from all over India wants that all members of Gandhi family should come in politics. We want that all three of them should take the leadership role in the party (hum chaahte hain ki tinon party ki kamaan sambhale)."

She was replying to a question about a poster coming up in Allahabad proclaiming that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would soon be joining active politics.

The remarks of Oza in the official briefing of the AICC comes a day after senior Congress leader and a Gandhi family loyalist Oscar Fernandes said that Priyanka “should have a more active role in the Congress" and that she should take up an "important responsibility".

When asked if Priyanka's entry would not be treated as a vote of no-confidence in Rahul, she said, "There is no comparison. Rahul is vice-president of the party, Sonia is president. Another member of the Gandhi family would strengthen the party."

A few months ago, a top leader had indicated that Priyanka's role would not be of replacing Rahul but supplementing him in running the party.

A banner put out in Allahabad a couple of days back read "Congress ka Moon, Priyanka is coming soon (The key face of Congress Priyanka is joining politics soon)".