At key Opposition huddle, Abhishek Banerjee denounces BJP's 'E-square' formula
Posted by Jairam Ramesh on X
'BJP is using E-square — ECI and ED. BJP is using the Election Commission to target voters and the ED to target Opposition leaders,' Abhishek Banerjee was quoted as saying by a source present at the meeting. After Bihar, he also expressed concern over similar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bengal ahead of next year's assembly elections, calling it a backdoor entry for the NRC.ABHISHEK BANERJEE TALKS TOUGH ON PAHALGAMSpeaking firmly on the Pahalgam terror attack, Abhishek Banerjee asked fellow Opposition leaders, 'Was it not an intelligence failure? In a recent interview, Jammu and Kashmir's Lieutenant Governor admitted to an intelligence failure. Then why was the Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief given an extension?'The Trinamool MP further questioned how internal security lapses occurred if Pegasus was being used to spy on Opposition MPs during elections.Congress's Pramod Tiwari echoed concerns regarding the Pahalgam attack, stating, 'Most leaders expressed concern that the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack have not yet been brought to justice by the government.' He further called for accountability, saying, 'We want Parliament to function properly and the government to respond to the issues raised by Opposition parties."The meeting was attended by 24 parties and top Opposition leaders, including Sharad Pawar, Hemant Soren, Tejashwi Yadav, Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sanjay Raut and Omar Abdullah among others, were present.- EndsMust Watch
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Indian Express
15 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Twice axed from the CPM Politburo, V S Achuthanandan marched to the beat of his own drum
With a deeply ingrained habit of taking principled stands and sticking to his guns, V S Achuthanandan remained a rebel throughout his political life, twice getting removed from the CPI(M) Politburo for going against the party line. Achuthanandan died here on Monday at the age of 101. For VS, as the former Kerala Chief Minister was popularly known, the first major defiance of party line came as early as 1962 during the India-China war that divided the Indian Communists. VS was among the Communists jailed in the Thiruvananthapuram Central Prison. His plan to donate blood as well as money earned from the sale of rations from jail to Indian soldiers did not have the party's consent and was construed as helping the government. The party found Achuthanandan's approach anti-Communist, and he was demoted from the central committee to the district secretariat, where he spent a year. In 1988, when the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government led by E K Nayanar explored establishing a nuclear power plant in Kasaragod, the pro-Left Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad stood against the move. VS, despite being the party's state secretary, stood with the Parishad, inviting party censure. Two years later, when CPI(M activists abducted two party councillors of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, the then party general secretary, E M S Namboodiripad, asked Achuthanandan to settle the issue. But for five days, Achuthanandan, then the state secretary, did not move. After consulting Nayanar, the CM, a judicial probe was ordered. Following this, the CPI(M)'s central leadership summoned the entire state secretariat to Delhi, where Achuthanandan was censured. In the last two decades of his active political life, VS faced the party's ire mainly due to intra-party feuds in which he found himself at the opposite end of the leadership. After the CPI(M) state conference in 1998, he was censured for orchestrating the removal of rivals, mainly CITU leaders, from the state committee. For several years, one of his bitter rivals in the party was Pinarayi Vijayan, the current CM. The intense factionalism got so bad in 2007 that the CPI(M) removed VS, the CM at the time, from the Politburo in what is one of the rarest punishments in the party. The leadership also suspended Vijayan. Six months later, both were reinstated, but rebelliousness continued to be irresistible for VS, then in his eighties. In 2009, when the SNC Lavalin corruption scandal hit the CPI(M), VS questioned the party's stand that the case against then state secretary Vijayan was fabricated and politically motivated, and wanted his younger colleague to step down. This again put him on a collision course with the party leadership, and VS was again removed from the Politburo. A member of the party's supreme body since 1980, the veteran leader never managed to get back to it after that. This, however, did not stop Achuthanandan's run-ins with the CPI(M) leadership. In 2012, the party publicly censured him for criticising it following the murder of rebel T P Chandrasekharan by a CPI(M)-backed gang. VS, the Opposition leader at the time, had alleged that the party was involved in the conspiracy behind the murder in May 2012. In October that year, the Central Committee publicly censured VS for attempting to visit Koodankulam to express solidarity with the anti-nuclear plant agitators. The next censure came in 2013 on the eve of his 90th birthday, again for raking up the SNC Lavalin case. In a TV interview, the former CM criticised the party's stand on the issue and for favouring Vijayan. The last time the party cracked the whip on Achuthanandan was in 2017, two years before he retired from active life following a stroke. At the time, the Central Committee pulled him up for repeated violations of party discipline and organisational principles. On several occasions, Achuthanandan's rebellious nature eclipsed the party at crucial moments. When a bypoll to the Neyyattinkara Assembly seat was held on June 1, 2012, VS left the party red-faced by visiting Chandrasekharan's wife. In February 2015, when the party's state conference was in progress in Alappuzha, Achuthanadan walked out in protest against an attack from rival delegates and the party secretariat passing a resolution against him for an anti-party stand.
India.com
15 minutes ago
- India.com
Pakistan still crying days after Operation Sindoor, fired 840 missiles at India but failed to..., Pakistani weapons exposed due to...
New Delhi: India broke the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan during Operation Sindoor and the action of the Indian forces was so precise and strong that it would be difficult for the terrorists hiding in Pakistan to carry out organized terror attacks. The action of the Indian Armed Forces in response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22 once again proved India's edge over Pakistan. What was India's plan? During the military confrontation between India and Pakistan, the Indian Air Force not only wreaked havoc on the terrorist structures present in Pakistan and PoK, but it also targeted Pakistan's military bases. India targeted 11 airbases of Pakistan, including the very important Rahim Yar Khan and Sargodha airbase located near Pakistan's nuclear bases. Pakistan fired hundreds of drones and missiles over India during this confrontation, but all proved useless in front of the Indian air defense system. What happened to Pakistani missiles? According to an HT report, after the action of Indian forces on terrorist structures, Pakistan fired at least 840 missiles on India in response but not even a single missile could hit Indian installations. Most were shot down in the air, while some fell in open fields. There are also reports of some Pakistani missiles failing. Pakistan was completely helpless against India At the same time, Pakistan's air defense system HQ-9 acquired from China proved to be completely unsuccessful in stopping India's missiles. The Indian Scalp, Rampage or Crystal Maze missiles fired at the Lashkar-e-Taiba headquarters in Muridke and Jaish-e-Mohammed headquarters in Bahawalpur hit their targets accurately and destroyed them. The destruction of these terror structures is clearly visible in satellite images. Pakistan's air defense proved completely helpless as Indian drones targeted them in Lahore. Such was the extent of damage on the Pakistani side that their Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said that Pakistan did not deploy its air defense system deliberately, otherwise India could have come to know about its location.
Time of India
15 minutes ago
- Time of India
'Bengal Won't Bow Down': Mamata Banerjee Declares War on BJP in Fiery Speech at Martyrs' Day Rally
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