Latest news with #ChandrashekharAzad
Time of India
29-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Chandrashekhar Azad questions govt on Op Sindoor: ‘Why did we stop at the ceasefire?' - The Economic Times Video
Azad Samaj Party's Chandrashekhar Azad praised the Army's Op Sindoor response but questioned India's ceasefire with Pakistan, asking why India didn't reclaim PoK. AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi objected to the Asia Cup India-Pak match, invoking victims of the Pahalgam attack and demanding accountability in Parliament.
Time of India
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Cultural events show Azad's grit, courage
1 2 3 4 Lucknow: The city celebrated the 119th birth anniversary of freedom fighter Chandrashekhar Azad with a series of cultural events and tributes across various venues on Wednesday. The UP culture department staged a folk dance drama, 'Hamare Azad', at the International Buddhist Research Centre. The performance featured patriotic songs penned by Ram Prasad Bismil, including the 'Hame Jaan Aur Dil Se Pyara Watan'. Through folk dance, the drama portrayed pivotal moments from Azad's life, including the formation of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Organisation in 1928 and his unwavering pledge against British rule. At the State Museum, young students learnt about Azad's contribution to the freedom struggle. Assistant director Minakshi Khemka showed the Azad's 'Asthi Kalash' (urn containing ashes) to the students which is kept at the museum. "The urn was given by Azad's family," said museum director Shrishti Dhaon. Meanwhile, Bhatkhande Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya organized a poets' meet where verses celebrating Azad's courage, valour, and martyrdom were recited, adding a literary dimension to the day's commemorative events.
India Today
14-07-2025
- Politics
- India Today
How Chandrashekhar Azad is out to break new ground with Muslim outreach
At a time when Muslim political representation in Uttar Pradesh is at its lowest in decades and even frontline Opposition parties are seen as shifting focus from the traditional Muslim vote-bank, Chandrashekhar Azad's Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) has launched a direct outreach to the community in Lucknow, aiming to consolidate speaking at a Muslim dialogue conclave in the city, said the Indian Constitution grants equal rights to all yet religious minorities face the prospect of those rights being taken away. Calling on Muslims to back his party in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, he accused other Opposition forces of exploiting Muslim sentiment while failing to defend their said the ASP has launched Muslim dialogues around the state and would distribute assembly and panchayat poll tickets based on the population shares of communities. In the forthcoming days, the party plans similar conferences with Dalits and accused the BJP government in the state of selectively targeting Muslims. 'For about a month, the Kanwar Yatra is allowed to take over the roads, and the government makes elaborate arrangements for it. That is fine. But if Muslims step out to offer a brief namaz, the police arrive with lathis. The BJP government has adopted a discriminatory policy towards Muslims,' he charged. Azad alleged that shops owned by Muslims along the Kanwar Yatra routes were being forced to shut down even if they weren't not selling non-vegetarian food; barber shops and tea stalls run by Muslims had also been closed. He claimed Muslims were being denied educational rights, with institutions demolished and government schools merged, while other Opposition parties remained accused the BJP-led central government of targeting Muslims through the amendments to the waqf laws. He urged Muslims to unite behind the ASP and added that their empowerment would be part of his party's manifesto for the 2027 state its Muslim outreach, the ASP, so far largely seen as a party of Dalits and backward castes, is trying to break into a new territory even as critics see the major Opposition parties—Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress—as desisting from openly backing the community, which accounts for about 19 per cent of the state's population, for calculated electoral ruling BJP has not fielded Muslim candidates in recent elections, signalling a clear pivot to a Hindu-majority vote base. The SP, once built around the Muslim-Yadav coalition, has shifted focus to the broader PDA (Pichada, Dalit, Alpasankhyak) BSP has similarly moved away from a strong Muslim outreach, instead trying to shore up its traditional Dalit and backward caste base, especially after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Even the Congress, caught in alliance compulsions and vote-balancing, fielded far fewer Muslim candidates in 2024. What emerges is a pattern across the political Uttar Pradesh, the representation of Muslims in the 403-member legislative assembly now stands at just 31 MLAs. This is a steep fall from 2012, when 69 Muslim candidates were elected, giving the community its highest-ever and nearly proportional share at 17.1 per cent since Independence. The number dropped sharply to 24 in 2017, rose modestly to 34 in 2022—largely on the back of the SP, which won 31 seats. But it has slipped again after the disqualification of Mau MLA Abbas Ansari and the bypoll defeats in Rampur and Kundarki, both previously held by Muslim legislators of the Pradesh's political discourse has long been shaped by Hindutva, with governance seen as framed around majoritarian identity. No Opposition party can afford to ignore this shift. Many observers note that even the word 'Muslim' has come to carry a political cost, and some leaders starting to use the word 'minorities' this backdrop, the ASP's attempt to carve out its own space by pairing Dalit assertion with Muslim outreach, and aiming to expand from its current foothold in western Uttar Pradesh (where Chandrashekhar Azad, the MP from Nagina, remains its lone elected representative) to central and eastern Uttar Pradesh, is a bold move to challenge Opposition parties as well as the BJP's to India Today Magazine- Ends
Hindustan Times
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
ASP chief Azad seeks Muslims' support for 2027 assembly polls
Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) chief Chandrashekhar Azad on Saturday called upon the Muslim community to support his party in the 2027 UP assembly polls. 'Other opposition parties are playing with the sentiments of Muslims and have cheated them whereas the ASP is fighting for their rights,' he claimed. Chandrashekhar Azad said his Azad Samaj Party was fighting for Muslims' rights. (HT file) Speaking at a Muslim dialogue conference organised at the KGMU convention centre here, Azad said, 'The state government has a problem with Muslims and not with the trouble faced by the common people during the Kanwar Yatra.' 'The devotees move on roads across the state during the month-long Kanwar Yatra. For the administration, it is no problem but when Muslims move on the road to offer namaz during Eid, a police force is deployed to stop them. The BJP government has adopted discriminatory policy toward the Muslims,' Azad alleged. 'The shops belonging to Muslim community are being closed on the Kanwar Yatra route. Muslims are not selling non-vegetarian food, yet they are forced to close their establishments. Even the barber and tea shops belonging to Muslims have been closed. It's against the Constitution,' he further alleged. 'The Muslims are being deprived of their education rights. Their institutions are being demolished and government schools are being merged. The other opposition parties are mere spectators to the atrocities on the Muslims whereas the ASP cadre has hit the streets to fight for their rights,' the Nagina MP claimed. 'The BJP-led NDA government has brought the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 to harass Muslims. Religious freedom is being denied to the Muslim community. The ASP will fight for their rights. The issues of Muslim empowerment and rights will be in the ASP's poll manifesto,' he claimed. 'The Muslim dialogue conference has been started by the ASP across the state to launch the fight for their rights. In the 2027 assembly election, the ASP will distribute tickets on the population formula- 'jiski jitni sankhya bhari uski utni hissedari'. In the upcoming panchayat election, the ASP will distribute tickets on the same formula,' Azad said. 'The ASP will organise Dalit and OBC dialogue conferences in various districts to mobilise their support for the 2027 assembly election. The party has decided to go solo in the assembly election and work on the Dlait-OBC-Muslim formula to unseat the BJP,' he said. 'The BJP is promoting negative politics in Uttar Pradesh as well as in the country. The Muslim community should mobilise its resources to ensure the victory of ASP in the assembly election. The Etawah incident clearly shows that OBCs are being suppressed in the state. Along with Yadav, atrocities are being committed against Lodhi, Kurmi and Sahu communities,' he alleged.
Time of India
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Azad faces death threat amid controversies, FIR filed
Meerut: Chandrashekhar Azad, MP from Nagina and national president of the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), recently received a death threat via the party's social media helpline, warning that Azad would be killed within ten days. An FIR was registered at Nagina police station under BNS section 351(4) (criminal intimidation through anonymous communication) against an unknown individual, and a police investigation has been launched. Parvez Pashi, district convenor of the party's Muslim Bhaichara Committee and the complainant in the case, said on Wednesday, "On June 29, our helpline received a threatening message to eliminate Azad within 10 days. Since then, his life has been under constant threat." Confirming the case, SP Bijnor Abhishek Jha said, "We have filed the FIR and investigation has begun." The threat comes amid two major controversies involving Azad. A PhD scholar from Indore has accused him of emotional and sexual exploitation during a four-year relationship, alleging that he used her politically and abandoned her before the elections. She has since launched a platform to support women who claim to have been misled by public figures. Secondly, violent clashes broke out in Prayagraj after police stopped Azad from meeting Dalit families of rape victims. His supporters allegedly clashed with the police, pelting stones and torching several vehicles. Over 65 people were arrested, many of whom now face charges under the National Security Act (NSA) and Gangster Act. This is not the first time Azad was threatened. In June 2023, he narrowly escaped an attack when shots were fired at his vehicle and a bullet grazed his stomach. Days earlier, a social media post had warned that he would be targeted in broad daylight by Thakurs of Amethi. After the attack, another post on the same page claimed Azad had been shot in the waist and warned that "next time he may not survive", while also threatening protests if any innocent Rajput was implicated in the incident. In connection with the 2023 attack, UP police arrested four suspects from Shahzadpur, Haryana. Three of the accused -- Prashant Singh, Vikas and Lavish -- were from UP, while the fourth, Vikas Gondar, was from Haryana.
