Bathinda to host all-india traders' conference
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
Mandal state president Amit Kapoor emphasised safeguarding the interests of traders, resolving their issues, and ensuring active representation in every town and city of the state.
He stressed that in the coming months, the membership drive would be intensified to connect as many traders as possible, thereby reinforcing unity. He said that Bathinda will soon host an All India Traders' Conference, which will see participation from trade leaders from across the country.
He clarified that the purpose of this conference will not merely be to discuss traders' problems. He also said that the conference will be a joint initiative of the Punjab Pradesh Vyapar Mandal and the Federation of All India Vyapar Mandal.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India.com
2 days ago
- India.com
The Dalit Leader Who Chose Pakistan, Became Law Minister, Then Returned To India: Jogendra Nath Mandals Story
With India marking its 79th Independence Day, the tale of Jogendra Nath Mandal, the eminent Dalit leader who opted for Pakistan over India during Partition, presents a heart-wrenching and lesser-known page from the history of the subcontinent. Disillusioned with India's social order and initially attracted by the promises of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Mandal became the first Law Minister of Pakistan. But his expectations were thwarted as religiosity did a rapid turnaround, eventually forcing him back to India. A Dalit Leader's Journey To Pakistan Born into a farmer's family belonging to the Namasudra community (a Dalit group) from Barisal, British India, Jogendra Nath Mandal overcame odds to seek education, eventually graduating with a law degree in 1934. Far from practicing law, he spent his life fighting against injustice and striving for the betterment of Dalits. Mandal's political life started with Barisal municipal elections, where he worked relentlessly to enhance the lives of marginalized people. During the 1937 provincial election, he defeated the Congress district committee president and secured the Bakarganj North-East assembly seat as an independent candidate. Under the initial influence of Subhas Chandra Bose, Mandal was eventually drawn towards the Muslim League when Bose quit Congress. Mandal was also highly impressed by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Mandal was pivotal in making Ambedkar win the 1946 Constituent Assembly polls from Bengal when Ambedkar lost from Bombay. Mandal was a member of the Constituent Assembly himself and played a significant role in formulating the Indian Constitution through his deliberations and suggestions to Ambedkar. Influenced By Jinnah, Warned By Ambedkar In the 1946 riots, Jogendra Nath Mandal went through East Bengal, advising Dalits not to retaliate against Muslims but to consider both groups as victims of oppression by Hindu upper castes. It was then that he sided with the Muslim League and became a close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Although he was not the first to favor India's partition, he eventually became convinced that the condition of Dalits would never change in an upper-caste dominated Hindu-majority country and Pakistan could provide a better alternative. In October 1946, Jinnah selected Mandal as one of the five representatives of the Muslim League in the interim Indian government. When Mandal opted to immigrate to Pakistan after Jinnah's assurances, he was cautioned by his peer and India's leading Dalit leader, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. However, influenced by Jinnah, Mandal opted for Pakistan. Pakistan's First Law Minister And Later Disillusionment On Partition, Jogendra Nath Mandal shifted to Pakistan and became its Constituent Assembly member and temporary chairman. Jinnah assigned him the responsibility of chairing the first session of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. By a stroke of fate, while Dr. Ambedkar was made India's first Law Minister, Jogendra Nath Mandal was made Pakistan's first Law Minister and Labour Minister. Yet, Mandal's dreams started to fall apart soon after Jinnah's demise in September 1948. He saw firsthand the worst kind of discrimination inflicted upon Dalits and was shook to the core by the growing violence against Hindus in Pakistan. His political stock declined sharply after Jinnah's death. Even though he made sincere appeals to Pakistan's first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, regarding the issues faced by Hindus and Dalits, his appeals came to naught. Mandal had dreamed about Pakistan being a country where Dalit emancipation could bloom, but the open discrimination against Hindu minorities crushed all his dreams. Religious extremists started oppressing Hindus, and Mandal felt more and more alone in Pakistani politics. The Painful Return To India A chain of events following the death of Jinnah disillusioned Mandal, who felt that there was no one remaining in the government that would ensure promises to minorities were kept. He witnessed the emergence of people who were bent on putting religion into the state. Things became so tough for Mandal in Pakistan that he was forced to escape. In 1950, Pakistan enacted the controversial 'Objectives Resolution,' which was favored by nearly all Muslim members of the Constituent Assembly (with the exception of Mian Iftikharuddin) but opposed by nearly all minority members. Even one of the minority members had the following to say: If Jinnah were alive, this resolution would never have been passed." Mandal stayed in Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan's cabinet until 1950, even grumbling all along about atrocities committed on Dalits in East Pakistan. Jogendra Nath Mandal eventually put in his resignation on October 8, 1950. In his letter of resignation, he showed deep despair regarding the future of the minorities and listed the reasons why he had lost faith. He mentioned hundreds of Dalit killings in Bengal by the army, police, and Muslim League activists, which hurt him deeply and totally severed his attachment to Pakistan. Upon resigning from the Pakistani government, Mandal's re-entry into India, or more precisely West Bengal, caused a political commotion. He migrated to India in 1950. Ironically, in India too he was suspicious of his own kind because of his Pakistani background. Though he had been a close confidant of Dr. Ambedkar, India's leading Dalit leader prior to Partition, Mandal now had no political backing. He spent his later years in a highly backward section of Calcutta until his death in 1968. Mandal tried to revive his political life by repairing his Congress connections, running elections in North Calcutta in 1952 and 1957, a Dalit reserved constituency, but lost both times. He died in 1968 from a heart attack while he was crossing a river by a boat. The reason for his death is still uncertain since no post-mortem was carried out. ALSO READ | 79th Independence Day 2025: PM Modi Highlights India's Journey, Constitution's Guiding Light | WATCH
Hans India
2 days ago
- Hans India
Har Ghar Tiranga: Flags Distributed to Farmers Ahead of Independence Day
Gadwal: In a spirited celebration ahead of India's 79th Independence Day, the BJP Aiza Mandal, under the leadership of Mandal President Gopalakrishna, organized a special program to distribute national flags to farmers in Bingidoddi village. The event was attended by former Jogulamba Gadwal District BJP President S. Ramachandra Reddy, Aiza Town President Kampati Bhagat Reddy, and several local leaders. Speaking on the occasion, Ramachandra Reddy said, 'The Tricolour is a symbol of India's pride, freedom, sacrifice, and unity. As part of the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign, our aim is to ensure that every household in the district hoists the national flag on Independence Day. Distributing flags to farmers directly in their fields is our way of reaching the grassroots and spreading patriotism.' The program focused on fostering national unity, promoting the value of the Tricolour, and encouraging participation of youth, women, farmers, and workers in the Independence Day celebrations. Local leaders Narasimhulu, Thimmareddy, Venkatesh, and Nagaraju, along with BJP workers and a large gathering of youth, participated in the event, expressing enthusiasm and patriotic fervor
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Indian Express
How Congress brings Ambedkar and Sardar Patel on the same table
In the Congress party's recent national legal conclave on 'Constitutional Challenges — Perspectives and Pathways', photos of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and B R Ambedkar were prominently displayed. Notably, this is the first time that the pictures of these four — pillars of our freedom struggle and our modern nation-building — were displayed in the Congress office that too in a public meeting. Except for Ambedkar, the rest of them are from the Congress party itself. However, Patel was slowly sidelined after Nehru took over the party. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were always considered the guiding lights of the Congress. This was evident in the naming of the institutions — libraries, universities, airports, railway stations, and memorials — during Congress rule. The party made this mistake because it did not want to recognise the caste background of leaders like Ambedkar and Patel, and how their caste identities were shaping the electorate. Soon, the BJP appropriated Sardar Patel, which reached its peak when PM Modi built the tallest statue of Patel in Gujarat. Ambedkar was first revered by Dalits, and he then slowly emerged as a social justice icon. His image is now used to mobilise voters. However, until Rahul Gandhi, Congress didn't realise that Patel and Ambedkar were not given their dues. The BJP helped Congress re-examine its nationalist roots and paved the way for research on these icons who have been relevant across caste and class lines. Rahul Gandhi's realisation during Yatras Gandhi's mass contact during his Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur to Mumbai seems to have changed his understanding about Ambedkar and Patel. Ambedkar emerged as one of the tallest national icons in the post-Mandal era, much to the chagrin of Hindutva intellectuals. Arun Shourie's book Worshipping False Gods was written as a response to his ascent in the mass consciousness during this period. In the recent past, Shashi Tharoor, despite conflicting ideologies, also had to write a book on Ambedkar. Shourie's mindset could also be found in Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who in Parliament contemptuously said that it has become a fashion to say Ambedkar. Immediately after that, Gandhi turned Ambedkar into his party's icon with the slogan: Jai Bapu, Jai Bheem and Jai Samvidhan. He told Shah in no uncertain terms that Ambedkar had already joined Gandhi and Nehru in the nationalist imagination. A new Congress in the making Before 2014, PM Modi gave a call for a 'Congress Mukt Bharat'. He started appropriating Gandhi, Ambedkar, besides Patel. Modi used Patel's image both in Gujarat and outside the state. However, Patel, a Shudra/OBC, was the first rural man to connect the Congress nationalist movement with his Bardoli farmers' agitation that was organised against increased land revenue taxes. It was only after that that Gandhi entered into the farmers' struggles against the British. But Congress forgot to see the link between the farmers' movements and Patel. However, Rahul Gandhi brought Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Ambedkar together and placed them on the party's banner, along with their portraits on the walls of the new party office. His upholding of the caste census as 'societal X-Ray and protection to the Constitution' during the 2024 elections also helped him make Patel and Ambedkar party icons. The erstwhile Congress leaders thought that caste discourse and secularism were contradictory. But that is a misplaced reading of the Indian social system. This shift in the Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi made the BJP fall short of the majority mark in the last Lok Sabha elections. 'Pappu', as Gandhi was scornfully called, has suddenly become a serious contender for the PM post. While Modi turns 75 — the age that his party had set as an ideal retirement age for its leaders — Congress does not disappear from Indian politics. The Congress not only survives, but it appears to embrace a new phase after 140 years. That is a good sign. The writer is a political theorist, social activist and author. His latest book is The Shudra Rebellion
