BJP slams Rahul comments on Jaishankar's meeting with Xi
BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh said Jaishankar held the meeting with Xi to express the nation's 'concern over Pakistan-sponsored Pahalgam terrorist attack'.
'We all know how Rahul Gandhi used to hold secret meetings with the China officials for breakfast or whatever in Delhi without disclosing the agenda to the people of the nation,' said Chugh.
In a post on X, Gandhi had criticised Jaishankar, saying, 'I guess the Chinese foreign minister will come and apprise Modi about recent developments in China-India ties. The EAM is now running a full blown circus aimed at destroying India's foreign policy.'
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The Hindu
5 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Over 58% Dalit voters in Bihar think unemployment is biggest poll issue: survey
More than 27.4% Dalit voters in Bihar have 'no trust' in the Election Commission of India (EC), a new survey released ahead of the Assembly Elections due in the State has found. It also shows that over 58% Scheduled Caste (SC) voters in the State thought that unemployment was the biggest issue in the upcoming polls. The survey was conducted and released by the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Associations (NACDAOR), a conglomerate of hundreds of associations across the nation. It covered a total of 18,581 SC voters from across the State and was conducted between June 10 and July 4, Ashok Bharti, Chairman of NACDAOR told The Hindu. He added that since the Election Commission started its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the rolls as the survey was underway, one question was put on the survey mid-way, for which only around 8,500 responses could be gathered. Fear of losing vote To the question 'Do you fear losing your vote in the new voter list?', over 71% of respondents said yes and 23.4% said no with a little over 5% not expressing an opinion. On the general question of whether they trusted the Election Commission to be impartial, over 27% said no, about 51% said yes, and 21% said they didn't know. The survey asked a total of 11 questions such as 'who is their favourite political leader at the national and state levels', 'how is the work of the State government under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar', and 'who do they hold most responsible for the caste enumeration that will now be conducted'. It found that while over 47.5% of the respondents said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was their favourite leader at the national level, 40.3% said Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, and about 12% said other politicians. Credit for caste census It further reported that to the question 'who do they credit for the caste census?', 33.15% respondents said Narendra Modi, 30.81% said Rahul Gandhi, and 27.57% said Bihar Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav while about 8% said the names of other politicians. Further, the survey showed that about 48% said the work of the Nitish Kumar-led government was 'bad', while about 45% said it was good. Opinion: The parameters of 'success' in Bihar's poll roll revision Mr. Bharti told The Hindu, 'A lot of people do surveys of Scheduled Castes, but hardly do many of them actually speak to us on the ground. This survey is of Dalits, by Dalits.' He explained that they went through the process of training enumerators to survey SC respondents across about 49 Assembly segments in the six regions of Bihar, namely Kosi, Mithilanchal, Seemanchal, Bhojpur, Champaran, and Magadh Pataliputra regions. Mr. Bharti said, 'We have actually surveyed people on the ground. There was higher trust in our enumerators. Unfortunately for the question on SIR, we could not cover all respondents because it came midway.' The NACDAOR conducted this survey in collaboration with political consultancy firm The Convergent Media, and this is the second survey they have put out. Mr. Bharti said the first survey they did was ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections earlier this year.
Indian Express
5 minutes ago
- Indian Express
‘Interview was on day Emergency was revoked': Jaishankar recalls his UPSC journey
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday reminisced about his entry into the civil services, saying his UPSC interview in Delhi took place on March 21, 1977 — the day the Emergency was lifted. '(1977) Election results were coming from the previous day… The sense of the defeat of the Emergency rule was coming into understanding. In a way, that is what got me through the interview,' he said in his address at an event here. Walking down memory lane, Jaishankar, then 22, said he had returned from the interview with two key takeaways — the significance of communication under pressure and that important people may be living in a 'bubble'. In his address to a gathering of the fresh batch of entrants to the civil services, the EAM termed the UPSC examination akin to an 'Agni Pariksha' (trial by fire), and said it is a 'very unique' testing system in the world to select candidates for the services. The real challenge is the interview, Jaishankar said, and cited his own UPSC interview that took place 48 years ago. 'My interview was on March 21, 1977. That was the day the Emergency was revoked. Revoked! So, I go in for an interview at Shahjahan Road… First person that morning,' recalls Jaishankar, now 70. Nearly a month ago, the Modi government marked the 50th anniversary of the imposition of the Emergency by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, with events held across the country to recall what its leaders called a 'dark chapter' in Indian democracy. The 21-month Emergency was imposed on June 25, 1975 and lifted on March 21, 1977. The Janata Party, a coalition of opposition leaders, emerged victorious in the 1977 elections, handing a defeat to Indira Gandhi, and Morarji Desai became the prime minister. Jaishankar said, in the interview, he was asked about what had happened in the 1977 elections. Citing his association with JNU as a student and his subject of political science, the EAM reminisced, 'I was lucky.' 'We had taken part in the 1977 election campaign. We had all gone there and worked for the defeat of the Emergency,' Jaishankar said. So, in response, 'I forgot I was in an interview', and at that moment, 'my communication skills somehow came together,' he added. Jaishankar, a veteran diplomat who earlier served as foreign secretary and has widely travelled, said at that time, to explain to people who were 'quite connected, sympathetic to the government, what had happened, without offending them, was actually quite a challenge'. And, the second thing he said, he learned that day, of this 'Lutyens' bubble'. 'These people were really shocked, they could not believe that this election result had happened, whereas for us, the ordinary students, we could see that there was a wave against the Emergency,' the EAM recalled of the interview experience. From that day, he said he learned how to communicate under pressure and to do it without offending people. 'How do you persuade, how do you explain. This was one carry-away. The second carry-away was that important people may be living in a bubble and not realising what is happening in the country,' the Union minister said. And, people in the field, because students like him who were part of the campaigns, and had visited places such as Muzaffarnagar, 'we had picked up a sense on the ground', but, people sitting in Delhi, with all the information from all the systems, 'somehow they missed it,' he said. In his address, he also asked what the barometer is to assess a successful democracy, saying it is not by voting record or voting percentage. 'To me, a successful democracy is when opportunity is given to the entire society; that is when democracy is working. They have the right to express themselves, but it is not a few people, on behalf of the whole society… expressing themselves,' Jaishankar said, without elaborating. He exhorted the gathering of successful UPSC candidates to remember that they are all 'entering into a service'. 'This Amrit Kaal of 25 years is your era. Your era, because you will have to work, you will have to deliver, and you will be the beneficiaries of this era, you will be the leaders of this era,' the EAM said. He urged them all to contribute to the vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047. 'I want you to think 20 years ahead… When we move towards the journey of Viksit Bharat, what will be your contribution? And, the mindset that you have to bring to realise that dream of making a developed nation,' he added. He emphasised that good governance is also related to national security. To new entrants to the civil services, he emphasised that 'representing India abroad, representing India before the world, is the greatest privilege, the greatest honour that any Indian can have'. The EAM said he had 'no doubt that by 2030, we will become number 3, economically. But, moving to number 2 and eventually up, will be a big deal, and it will be tough, and will need big, national efforts'. In the next 20 years of your service, you have to know that 'big changes' will be coming. The coming era will be of AI, drones, space and EV and green hydrogen, he asserted. The external affairs minister said in the Indo-Pacific region, 'Our capabilities should be such that whatever challenges come, India is ready to step forward and assume responsibility, we call it a first responder. How do you prepare India to be a first responder?'.
Hindustan Times
9 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Trump's ceasefire claims, Pahalgam attack among INDIA bloc's monsoon session agenda
The monsoon session of Parliament, set to begin on July 21, is expected to open under intense political heat, with the opposition INDIA bloc gearing up to confront the government on a raft of issues it claims are being mishandled or suppressed. Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju and J.P. Nadda, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, Revolutionary Socialist Party MP N.K. Premachandran and others leave after attending the all-party meeting ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament, in New Delhi.(PTI) From national security concerns to alleged electoral irregularities, the alliance plans to use the floor of the House to mount a coordinated offensive. Restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, Pahalgam terror attack, US President Donald Trump's repeated claims of brokering a 'ceasefire' between India and Pakistan, and alleged voter suppression in Bihar through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls are among the key issues that the INDIA bloc plans to raise during the session. At an online meeting held on Saturday, leaders of 24 opposition parties finalised a joint strategy to corner the government over at least eight major issues, including alleged foreign policy failures, atrocities in Gaza, the delimitation process, and the rising incidence of crimes against SCs, STs, women, and minorities. Opposition to raise Pahalgam attack, seeks PM's reply Congress MP and deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Pramod Tiwari, said the opposition would demand the prime minister's presence in Parliament and urge him to respond to the issues raised. 'Parliament is more important than travelling abroad,' Tiwari told PTI. Tiwari called the Pahalgam terror attack as 'the biggest issue that concerns 140 crore people and is linked to the honour of all.' 'All leaders have expressed concern that all the terrorists behind the attack are free and no action has been taken against them despite so many days having passed since April 22. Now, a confession has also come that it was an intelligence failure. So this will be raised,' he added. The bloc expressed deep concern over the electoral roll revision exercise in Bihar, which opposition parties allege is being misused to deprive marginalised communities of their voting rights. 'There is a threat to the voting rights of people under the 'undeclared Emergency' that is prevalent in the country,' Tiwari said, adding, 'The manner in which vote-bandi is taking place in Bihar, after note-bandi, is against democracy.' INDIA bloc to press for J&K statehood CPI general secretary D Raja on Sunday said the INDIA bloc has are a number of other issues like one nation one poll, delimitation and restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, on which the opposition would try to corner the government. CPI general secretary D Raja on Sunday told PTI Video that the INDIA bloc has a number of other issues, including 'One Nation, One Poll', delimitation, and the restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, on which the opposition will seek to corner the government during the monsoon session. The government on Sunday indicated its willingness to discuss Operation Sindoor in Parliament, even as the INDIA bloc demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi respond on the matter, as well as on US President Donald Trump's 'ceasefire' claims and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. Rajnath Singh likely to brief on Op Sindoor Citing sources, PTI reported that the prime minister is unlikely to address these issues in Parliament. However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju asserted that the government would respond appropriately during any discussion on Trump's remarks about mediating an India-Pakistan ceasefire. The session is also expected to feature a detailed statement on Operation Sindoor by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who chaired two high-level meetings on Friday evening—one with ministerial colleagues and another with top military officials.
