Maximum boasts, minimum achievements: Congress slams Home Minister Amit Shah
The Congress on Tuesday (June 10, 2025) said it was "bizarre" of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to claim that peace had been established in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, alleging that his assertion was meant to divert attention from his own "colossal failures."
The Opposition party also said that never has India had a Union Home Minister whose tenure has been one of "maximum boasts, minimum achievements." In a post in Hindi on X, Mr. Shah had on Monday (June 9, 2025) said that the 11 years of the Narendra Modi government was a "golden period" of resolve, endeavour and dedication towards public service.
"Naxalism is on its last legs, peace has been established in Jammu-Kashmir and the Northeast, India now responds to terrorist attacks by entering the homes of terrorists. This shows the changing picture of India under the Modi government," he said.
Amit Shah's speech in Madurai abominable, divisive and misleading: DMK leader A. Raja
Responding to the remarks, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh on X said Mr. Shah's claim was "bizarre" since Manipur continues to burn and Pahalgam attackers were still at large. "They are meant to divert attention from his own colossal failures," he said.
"The terrorists responsible for the brutal April 22, 2025 terror attack in Pahalgam have still NOT been brought to justice. According to some reports that have not been denied, these very terrorists were also involved in the December 2023 terror attacks in Poonch and the October 2024 terror attacks in Gagangir and Gulmarg," Mr. Ramesh said.
'Manipur continues to burn. The much-delayed President's Rule has been a miserable failure. Law and order is in a perilous condition,' he claimed. Mr. Ramesh said the frustration, agony, and anger of the people of the State at the condition of their daily lives and livelihoods is unmistakable,' Mr. Ramesh said.
BJP-AIADMK alliance will unseat DMK in 2026: Amit Shah
"The Union Home Minister has failed miserably in bringing the Pahalgam terrorists to justice. He has failed monumentally in bringing about normalcy in Manipur," the Congress general secretary said. With fresh violence rocking parts of Manipur, the Congress has targeted PM Modi and Mr. Shah, accusing the two of mishandling the situation in the northeastern State.
"Never has India had a Union Home Minister whose tenure has been one of Maximum Boasts, Minimum Achievements unless what he has been able to do for his son can count for that," Mr. Ramesh said.
In his remarks on Monday (June 9, 2025), Mr. Shah said that during the "11 years of seva", the speed and scale of the country's development have been changed by 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
27 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Daily Briefing: The European turn
Good morning, Chai, snacks and political bonhomie flowed on Tuesday evening as members of the multiparty delegations, back from their world tour, gathered to discuss their visits with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. No member, regardless of political affiliation, was left behind as Modi went from table to table, engaging and gathering feedback from leaders of different teams. Sources told The Indian Express that the PM listened intently when senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor spoke at length about his experience. Seven such delegations were tasked with bringing India's fight against terrorism to the global stage after Operation Sindoor. There was a unanimous consensus on the success of these visits. My colleagues Deeptiman Tiwary and Jatin Anand have more details. On that note, let's get to today's edition. The 90-day pause period on the US's sweeping reciprocal tariffs is set to end in less than a month. India is in the process of brokering a trade deal with the Trump administration to buy concessions. Both sides have discussed tariffs on their respective goods of interest. On Tuesday, US negotiators concluded a nearly week-long visit in New Delhi, wrapping up another round of talks. Update: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, on an official visit to Belgium and France, told French daily Le Figaro that India hoped to reach an agreement before July 9, when the tariff suspension ends. He added that India saw the US as 'acting in line with its immediate self-interest', and that he 'would do the same with them'. Opportunity: As America turns inwards and becomes unpredictable, India may do well to capitalise on its ties with the European Union. Contributing editor C Raja Mohan underscores the importance of an EU-India alliance in enhancing the prospects of a multipolar world amid growing bipolar domination by the US and China. During his time in Brussels, Jaishankar asserted that even though India and the EU may not always share identical perspectives, there was an opportunity to forge deeper ties. This came after the First Strategic Dialogue between Jaishankar and EU High Representative Kaja Kallas. Progress: India and the EU made significant progress in their trade talks, a week after the former announced a trade deal with the UK in May. A status report released by the EU revealed that five of the 23 chapters covered in the bilateral talks have been wrapped up. India's deal with the UK is significant amid these negotiations, given that London and Brussels are competitors in several product categories such as spirits, medical equipment and cars. When the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was consecrated, it put a long-standing, divisive issue in the country to bed. However, emboldened by the Supreme Court's verdict, many such claims for temples in different places have cropped up. In an interview with The Indian Express, Nripendra Misra, the Ayodhya Ram temple's officer-architect-in-chief, advocates for 'limits' on correcting historical wrongs. He says, 'We cannot seek justice for the past. It has to be forgotten.' New heights: On May 9, Lieutenant Commander Yashaswi Solankee became the first woman officer to be appointed as an Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the President of India. She spoke to The Indian Express about how she has prepared to take on the role. Water wars: India's Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan restricted hydroelectric projects in the Indus river basin from including any significant water storage capacity. Now that the treaty is in abeyance, the government plans to increase the storage capacity for hydro projects, which are still in the initial stages. Sonam's story: Growing up in the narrow bylanes of Indore's Kushwah Nagar, Sonam Raghuvanshi dreamed of an MBA degree, expanding her father's plywood business, and breaking out of the regimented life set by her family. Today, she stands accused of conspiring to murder her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi. My colleague Anand Mohan J profiles the 'sanskari bahu'- turned-murder accused. Space travel: The highly anticipated launch of the Axiom-4 mission, which will carry Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station (ISS), has been delayed again due to a technical snag. The crew was set to lift off this evening. SpaceX has yet to announce the next launch date. But what does it take to get the astronauts to the ISS, and what will their journey look like? We explain. Also read: The story of Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to go to space Artificial intelligence (AI) 'reasoning' may not be all it's cracked up to be. The AI industry may be grossly overstating its models' capabilities. Folks at Apple put models like OpenAI o3-mini, DeepSeek-R1 and Claude-3.7-Sonnet (thinking) to test. They found that these models are prone to 'overthinking' and 'fail to find correct solutions' beyond a certain complexity threshold. Their findings have been published in a new research paper outlining these inefficiencies and scalability limitations. 🎧 Before you go, don't forget to tune in to the latest '3 Things' podcast episode. Today's lineup: India awaits census, Ahmedabad's 'vanished lakes', and an impeachment motion against a High Court judge. That's all for today, folks! Until tomorrow, Sonal Gupta Sonal Gupta is a senior sub-editor on the news desk. She writes feature stories and explainers on a wide range of topics from art and culture to international affairs. She also curates the Morning Expresso, a daily briefing of top stories of the day, which won gold in the 'best newsletter' category at the WAN-IFRA South Asian Digital Media Awards 2023. She also edits our newly-launched pop culture section, Fresh Take. ... Read More
Hindustan Times
27 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Chandigarh: NDA govt has done unprecedented work for welfare of poor: Anurag Thakur
Hamirpur MP and former Union minister Anurag Thakur on Tuesday hailed BJP-led NDA government's achievements as it completed 11 years in power, while opposition parties lambasted the BJP for what they called 'failed promises' and 'misrule'. Addressing a press conference here, Thakur, accompanied by Chandigarh BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra, mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla, and state vice president Kailash Chand Jain, credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for India's historic progress. Thakur said, 'Our borders are secure, and India has emerged as a rising global power. The mantra of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas' has brought the country into the mainstream of development.' He highlighted that under Operation Sindoor, the Indian Army destroyed 9 terrorist camps and 11 airbases on Pakistani soil, showcasing India's strength to the world. 'In the past 11 years, the NDA government has done unprecedented work for the welfare of the poor and the common people. Schemes like PM Ujjwala Yojana, Jan Dhan, and Ayushman Bharat have transformed lives across the country,' Thakur said. 'Today marks the beginning of a people's movement connecting 140 crore Indians with the vision of a developed India by 2047,' he added. Chandigarh BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra outlined plans for door-to-door campaigns to mobilise public participation in this mission. Opposition slams BJP for 'misrule' Chandigarh Congress president HS Lucky termed the 11 years as a 'decade of betrayal' and said that the dreams sold in 2014 have turned into daily struggles for ordinary Indians. 'People trusted the promise of 'Achhe Din'. But instead of jobs, growth, and unity, the nation has endured record unemployment, rising prices, social unrest, and broken institutions. The government failed on every front, including jobs and economy, inflation, farmer crisis, institutional erosion, foreign failures and many more. Most of his promises remained unfulfilled including ₹15 lakh in every account, 2 crore jobs per year, smart cities, and the bullet train,' he said. Chandigarh Aam Aadmi Party president Vijaypal Singh said, 'The BJP's attempt to celebrate its 11-year rule as 'service, good governance, and welfare of the poor' is a grand scam based purely on false statistics, hollow slogans, and media propaganda. If there had been real development in the country, the BJP wouldn't need to beat the drum of its achievements so loudly. This is like a hollow house.'
News18
37 minutes ago
- News18
Is Caste Census Push Siddaramaiah Sarkar's Smokescreen For Chinnaswamy Stampede?
Last Updated: Political analysts said by focusing on caste census, the government was trying to deflect attention from charges of corruption and mishandling that led to the stampede Is the Karnataka government using the caste census re-enumeration as a distraction from the Chinnaswamy Stadium stampede that left 11 dead and over 50 injured? As the Siddaramaiah government tries to steer public attention towards caste data and social justice, the timing is impossible to ignore. The Chinnaswamy stampede has dented the Congress government's credibility and administrative image. Whether this renewed push for caste enumeration is an effort to ensure inclusivity or a tactical deflection from a governance failure is a question political voices in Karnataka are now asking aloud. Just days after firefighting public outrage over the mishandling of the IPL celebration event, the Siddaramaiah government has shifted focus to a long-pending issue—the caste census report, which will now be discussed at the cabinet meeting scheduled for June 12. Both chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy CM DK Shivakumar rushed to Delhi to brief the Congress high command on two fronts—damage control over the Bengaluru tragedy and a way forward on the contentious caste census data. What emerged from the Delhi meeting was a sudden push for re-enumeration, effectively revisiting the caste survey first commissioned in 2015 during Siddaramaiah's first tenure. While the Congress insists this move is to address complaints of exclusion and underrepresentation in the earlier survey, senior officials who have worked closely with the project question the timing and motive. 'This is clearly deflection tactics. The caste survey has been delayed and dragged long enough. From the time it was conducted, to when it was tabled, and now back under discussion. The fact that Congress leaders in Delhi have asked for a reassessment shows they're shifting focus away from the Chinnaswamy mishap," said a senior official in the know of the developments. Confusion reigns even among those involved in the survey. Some officials say the Congress has accepted the 2015 report 'in principle", while simultaneously planning a re-survey. 'Why spend another Rs 200–250 crore of public money?" one official asked. At the Delhi meeting, attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, the leadership agreed to go ahead with a re-enumeration exercise within a timeframe of 60–90 days. AICC general secretary KC Venugopal told the media that the process would be fast-tracked and that the party was keen to ensure all sections felt included. Former Backward Classes Commission chairman CS Dwarakanath questioned how the census will be conducted, given that now it is in the submission stage where it has to be debated in the cabinet. 'It is a marathon exercise that requires over one lakh people to be involved," he said. 'Rs 167 crore was spent on the caste survey, and if it needs to be conducted again, then it would require more funds and also needs to be done scientifically—including an ethnographic study, collection of empirical data, and gathering of secondary sources of information. All this has to be done in a scientific manner, but would it be possible to do all this in a timeframe of 60–90 days?" he questioned. A senior official connected with the caste census report offered a more nuanced view. 'There are two parallel ideas at play. On one hand, the party has accepted the report's recommendations in principle. But since the original data is now nearly a decade old, and a caste census is ideally conducted every ten years, there's also a strong argument to refresh the numbers. Let's wait till the cabinet decision." However, the stampede incident was also discussed. Venugopal said the state government had briefed the party about the June 4 stampede at the Chinnaswamy Stadium during Royal Challengers Bengaluru's IPL victory celebration. 'We are deeply concerned about every human life. The government has already ordered a judicial probe," he said. However, both the party and Siddaramaiah himself have distanced themselves from the specifics of the tragedy, with the chief minister stating he wasn't involved in organising the event and had been informed late about the crowd surge. Meanwhile, Shivakumar said the re-survey will be done in a way that no community feels side-lined. 'Those who felt left out earlier will be given another opportunity," he said, adding that the cabinet would plan the re-enumeration process to ensure fair representation for all. The original 2015 caste survey had triggered major political friction. Once submitted formally this April, the report deepened rifts between dominant communities like the Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva-Lingayats and various OBC groups. It proposed restructuring the existing five caste categories into six and suggested scrapping creamy layer exemptions for castes in Category 1, the most backward. This didn't go down well within the Congress either, with Vokkaliga and Lingayat leaders alleging their communities were undercounted. The Congress government had also launched a parallel initiative for internal reservation among Scheduled Castes. On May 5, the state began a fresh enumeration of 101 SC sub-castes, involving over 65,000 schoolteachers and data collection camps. The process is aimed at restructuring reservation within SCs—similar to the model adopted by Congress-ruled Telangana—to ensure more equitable distribution of benefits among the most disadvantaged groups. Justice HN Nagamohan Das, who heads the internal reservation panel, flagged challenges with this door-to-door survey. Many poor households were unwilling to reveal their sub-castes or were unaware of them entirely. So far, the internal reservation survey has covered 19.55 lakh of the estimated 25.72 lakh SC households. Special camps were held between May 26 and 28 to cover more ground. The commission aims to complete the process soon and submit its report within two months. The caste census has long been a political minefield in Karnataka. The Congress has faced repeated flak over delays in tabling the report and pushing back cabinet-level discussions. Siddaramaiah had earlier said the recommendations of the Backward Classes Commission would be implemented, but his remarks were met with sharp resistance from dominant communities. Political analyst Sandeep Shastri said: 'It clearly is deflection tactics. By focusing on this, you are trying to deflect attention from the charges of corruption and the mishandling—and refusal to take political accountability—in the recent Chinnaswamy Stadium stampede." 'It also represents the multiple layers of contradictions the Congress party and its cabinet face. We have a chief minister who wants to focus on the empowerment of the non-dominant OBCs and the presence of dormant caste groups and their representatives who cannot let down their communities," he added. He also pointed out that the decision taken by the government—by letting heads roll in the police force—has long-term ramifications. 'In the process, you've done something that can be damaging in the long term by demoralising the police force, fixing accountability on them, and suspending All India Services officers. That has never happened in any state," Shastri said. He recalled how former Karnataka chief minister Bangarappa had once suspended Karnataka chief secretary Shankarnarayan for calling him 'unreliable", but such a move against the police has never happened in any state on such grounds. The move on the caste census, he said, is clearly meant to shift focus away from this political mismanagement. About the Author Rohini Swamy Rohini Swamy, Associate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for nearly two decades in the television and digital space. She covers south India for News18's digital platform. She has previously worked with More Get Latest Updates on Movies, Breaking News On India, World, Live Cricket Scores, And Stock Market Updates. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : caste census Chinnaswamy stadium DK Shivakumar ipl Royal Challengers Bangalore Siddaramaiah stampede Location : Bengaluru, India, India First Published: June 11, 2025, 09:08 IST News politics Is Caste Census Push Siddaramaiah Sarkar's Smokescreen For Chinnaswamy Stampede?
