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Time of India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Shah visit to set BJP's narrative for 2026 polls
Guwahati: Union home minister Amit Shah will visit Assam on Aug 29 to formally launch BJP's political narrative for the upcoming assembly elections, due early next year. The party is eyeing a third straight term amid a shifting regional political landscape. Adding weight to Shah's ideological kick-off to poll campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Assam 10 days later, on Sept 8, with a development-heavy itinerary, criss-crossing districts. Shah's visit includes the inauguration of the newly constructed Raj Bhavan in Guwahati, followed by a keynote speech at the Panchayat Pratinidhi Sammelan. "The speech by Amit Shah ji to the panchayat representatives will be an important one ahead of the elections. The process of political narrative building will definitely start from that day," chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said after attending a preparatory meeting at the BJP's state headquarters here for the two high-profile visits. Later that evening, Shah will attend the birth centenary celebration of Golap Borbora, Assam's first non-Congress CM — symbolically reinforcing the BJP's anti-Congress legacy. Modi will begin his tour in Golaghat district, where he will dedicate the country's first bio-ethanol refinery in Numaligarh — a Rs 4,000 crore project — to the nation. He will then travel to Mangaldai to lay foundation stones for three major infrastructure projects: the Guwahati Ring Road, a bridge over the Brahmaputra between Narengi and Kuruwa, and the Mangaldai Medical College and Hospital. Later, Modi will inaugurate the birth centenary celebration of Bharat Ratna Bhupen Hazarika at a programme in Guwahati, as his tribute to the music legend seen as part of BJP's effort to connect with Assamese identity and cultural pride. This narrative-building exercise is not just about speeches — it's a coordinated strategy involving symbolic gestures, development showcases, grassroots mobilisation, and targeted messaging to consolidate support ahead of the 2026 polls. While most events are officially govt functions, the BJP is mobilising its full organisational machinery to ensure the success of both high-profile visits, which are expected to energise the party's grassroots and set the tone for the upcoming elections. "All BJP MPs, MLAs, and district leaderships are meeting here to ensure that the visits are successful," Sarma said. The two high-profile visits are expected to reinforce the BJP's governance and ideological narrative. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Raksha Bandhan wishes , messages and quotes !
Indian Express
04-08-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Congress and the OBCs
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi last month admitted that the Congress had 'fallen short' in its relationship with Other Backward Classes (OBCs), which allowed the BJP to build political support among these communities. 'I do feel that when it came to OBCs, the Congress party's understanding of their issues, the challenges they were facing and the type of actions that the party should have and could have taken, we fell short,' Rahul said at a gathering of his party's MPs and Telangana leadership on July 24. 'We opened the space for the BJP because we were not responsive to the aspirations, to the desires of the OBCs,' he said. Rahul was not wrong. Congress has indeed missed several opportunities to reach out to these castes. It has also failed to claim credit for policy changes with regard to OBCs that were, in fact, initiated by Congress governments. Here's a short history. Inaction on Kalelkar report The clamour for greater political representation for the backward classes, as well as demands for reservation for these communities on the lines of the quotas in government jobs for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), began soon after Independence. In 1953, the government of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru set up the first Backward Classes Commission under Rajya Sabha member Dattatreya Balkrishna Kalelkar, popularly known as 'Kaka' Kalelkar. The Kalelkar Commission report, submitted to the government on March 30, 1955, formulated criteria for identifying socially and educationally backward classes, and made several recommendations for their uplift. These included a caste census in 1961 that was to be advanced to 1957, treating all women as a class as 'backward', and reserving 70% seats in technical and professional institutions for qualified students from backward classes. The recommendations were, however, not unanimous, and three of the members were opposed to the acceptance of caste as a criterion for social backwardness and reservation in government jobs. Kalelkar himself wrote a long letter to President Rajendra Prasad expressing his disagreement on a number of issues. The report was tabled before both houses of Parliament but never discussed. Nehru's government did not implement it. First quota for OBCs Meanwhile, OBCs in the Hindi heartland had already begun to move towards the socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia. Until Lohia's untimely demise in 1967, his anti-Congress politics was powered by these communities. By the 1970s, OBC politics had gained significant momentum to pressure state governments to take decisions regarding OBC reservation. For instance, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna in October 1975 appointed the Most Backward Classes Commission under the chairmanship of Chhedi Lal Sathi. This first push for an OBC quota in UP came under a Congress government. And it was another Congress government, of Chief Minister N D Tiwari, that the state cabinet announced a 15% quota in government jobs for OBCs in UP, in April 1977. Within a week of this decision, however, Tiwari's government was dismissed by the Janata Party government of Prime Minister Morarji Desai that had routed the Congress in the Hindi heartland in the post-Emergency elections of March 1977. As a result, it was the Janata government in UP, led by Ram Naresh Yadav, which ultimately implemented the OBC quota — and also took the credit for it. The Mandal challenge In 1978, Prime Minister Desai constituted a new commission for the OBCs. The Second OBC Commission, headed by former Bihar Chief Minister B P Mandal, submitted its report to the government on December 31, 1980. By this time, the Congress under Indira Gandhi was back in power. Over the next nine years, however, neither Indira nor her son and successor Rajiv Gandhi implemented the Mandal Commission report, which recommended a 27% quota for OBCs in central government jobs and public universities. It was only in 1990, that the government of Prime Minister V P Singh announced its intention to implement the report, unleashing a wave of OBC assertion and fundamentally altering the politics of North India — to the Congress' detriment. In his 2006 biography of V P Singh, Manzil Se Zyada Safar, Ram Bahadur Rai quoted the former PM as having said: 'Congress leaders were obsessed with power equations. They were least concerned with the social equations and changes taking place… and thus unable to read the Mandal phenomenon.' The BJP, at that time still considered a largely Brahmin-Bania party, however, was far more flexible. For instance, it projected OBC leaders such as Kalyan Singh, a Lodh Rajput, in UP, to counter Mulayam. As Mulayam's support base outside the Samajwadi Party's Yadav-Muslim core started to fragment, Kalyan rallied smaller OBC communities behind the BJP, eventually forging a non-Yadav OBC vote bank. The BJP would eventually revamp its leadership at every level to accommodate OBCs politically. This was crucial from the late 1990s onwards, as the Panchayat Raj Act and reservation of seats in every level of three-tier rural and urban panchayats, provided an avenue for many OBC leaders to emerge from the grassroots. This was even as Congress' organisation continued to erode, and struggled to truly accommodate OBC politics. In UPA years In 2006, Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh pushed through 27% reservation for OBCs in admissions to central educational institutions, which had been pending since the implementation of the Mandal report. This was one of the biggest decisions in favour of OBCs, and a defining moment in OBC politics — but hardly any political gains accrued to the Congress. In 2010, the UPA-2 government tried to move for a caste census. Then Law Minister Veerappa Moily wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about collecting caste/ community data in Census 2011. But Home Minister P Chidambaram opposed the decision in Lok Sabha. Singh's government ultimately decided to conduct a full Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) instead. The SECC data was published in 2016 but remains unavailable today. The Narendra Modi government has said it is 'not reliable'. This means that seven decades after the Kalelkar Commission recommended a caste census, there is still no precise estimate of India's OBC population. Rahul Gandhi's push for a caste census in recent years is an acceptance of the many missed opportunities during decades of Congress rule in the past, and a realignment of the party's politics with a view of taking on the BJP.
India Gazette
04-07-2025
- Health
- India Gazette
Congress insulting scientists who developed indigenous COVID vaccines: Union Minister Pralhad Joshi
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 4 (ANI): Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Friday accused the Congress party of 'insulting India's scientific achievements' by questioning the efficacy of indigenous COVID-19 vaccines, demanding an apology from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Joshi condemned Congress leaders for 'baselessly doubting the vaccines that saved crores of lives.' 'They oppose Modi politically but are now undermining the very scientists who protected India and the world during the pandemic,' Joshi said. 'This is an insult to our nation's achievements,' he added. Joshi challenged Siddaramaiah to clarify whether the state government links COVID-19 vaccines to recent heart attack cases. 'The CM must apologise to scientists and the public for this irresponsible narrative,' he said. Highlighting India's vaccine milestones, he noted: 'Congress ruled for 60 years but didn't develop a single indigenous vaccine. Under Modi, we produced 240 crore doses, vaccinated 120 crore Indians, and supplied vaccines to 150 countries.' Joshi also targeted the Siddaramaiah-led government over infighting, citing MLAs who allegedly exposed 'corruption and zero development.' 'An anti-Congress wave is brewing within their party,' he said, referencing MLAs B.R. Patil and Basavaraj Rayareddy's corruption allegations. Responding to Karnataka's demand for central aid, Joshi stated: 'We'll fund development, not corruption. Let them submit a proper plan.' (ANI)
Hindustan Times
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
How Emergency Brewed in Bihar
Sinhasan Khali Karo Ki Janata Aati Hai! When Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan roared with these lines of legendary Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' from the stage of Delhi's iconic Ram Leela Maidan, the janata (public) of the country rose with their echo. It however unnerved Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was facing salvos of public anger. Out of despair, she imposed what historians now recall as the dark chapter in Indian history – the Emergency, declared on June 25, 1975. Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan addressing a rally just before the Emergency was declared at Ramlila Ground in New Delhi. (HT Photo.) It was a paradox that Dinkar, who was revered and exalted to Rashtrakavi (national poet) status by Indira's father, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, for his poetry of rebellion, turned out to be a weapon in the hands of Indira's bete noire. JP was a political honcho who was moulded in the grind of Bihar. Dinkar was a bard of Bihar. So, the embers of political pirouette in the leadership of JP had to be most glowing in Bihar. The state in fact soon turned into the epicentre of anti-Congress and anti-Indira temblor. JP evolved into a principal of all those clamouring 'Total Revolution' – total change of system. Patna university would be its seminary, its students its knights and Bihar its hothouse. And Dinkar's poetry will be its song. Till it was lifted in 1977, many acts of the Emergency unfolded in Bihar. Early build-up in Bihar It was on June 5, 1974 that JP gave a call for 'Total Revolution' against the 'corrupt Congress regime, price rise and other forms of misgovernance from Patna's historic Gandhi Maidan, and gradually his movement became pan-India, seeking resignation of Indira Gandhi. Indira was enduring but as the Allahabad high Court annulled her election from Rae Bareli, she went draconian. And the country was introduced to the Emergency. Actually it was an incident in Bihar that is believed to have seeded the idea of Emergency in Indira's mind. It was the assassination of then Union minister Lalit Narayan Mishra that took place in a blast in Samastipur in January 1974. Once the Emergency was in place, the state turned into a battle ground and both the Indira machinery and the Opposition leaders tested each other's guts. In Bihar, the main action was in Patna, the State Capital, where the proclamation of Emergency suddenly put the onus of compliance of everything on the administration. Vijay Shankar Dubey, a 1966 batch IAS officer and then district magistrate of Patna, recalls a chain of events that unveils how events shaped the history of that pivotal time. He says the roots of the emergency had been laid long before Indira Gandhi made the big announcement. He lists a number of factors, including the poor financial condition of the country after the 1971 war, rising prices, shortage and black marketing of essential commodities like sugar and kerosene and the students' agitations in various parts of the country. He says that as soon as students mobilised all over, a large-scale arson and violence broke out. In Patna alone, 13 lives were lost in police firing. In order to rein in chaos and streamline the agitation, JP took over the leadership in his hands. 'It was March 18, 1974 when the. Then Patna University Students' Union (PUSU), comprising the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadav as president, Sushil Kumar Modi as general secretary and many others, announced to gherao the Bihar Assembly during the session, seeking resignation of CM Abdul Ghafoor and his cabinet over price rise and corruption. It led to stone pelting and violence. Many important buildings were set on fire, including the Searchlight and Pradeep newspaper office on Buddha Marg, which now houses Hindustan Times and Hindustan, Kotwali police station, Assembly secretary's house, Circuit House, education minister's residence, fire station, etc. Had I not ordered firing, things would have spiralled out of control and the entire city would have burnt,' he recalls. Students' agitation Dubey's tenure as DM of Patna was from March 1974 to June 1977. He was witness to all – from student agitation, large-scale arrests, imposition of myriad kinds of restrictions, suspension of fundamental rights and all other 'excesses' that define the Emergency era. He recollected that JP was in Patna those days after having witnessed another students' movement in Gujarat,and saw in it an opportunity to take it forward under his leadership in a different way. 'On April 2, 1974, he led a silent procession from Kadamkuan in Patna with barely around 500-600 persons -- all with hands and mouth cuffed, against police action, price rise and for seeking resignation of CM and his cabinet, etc. but swelled into 50,000 plus by the time it reached the then Bailey Road. It further boosted JP's confidence that the people were desperate for change. CM Ghafoor was, however, not ready to resign nor did Indira Gandhi want an elected government to go under pressure,' he reminisces. However, he said that April 2, 1974 onwards, agitation in Bihar became a routine affair and spread across the state. 'Be it rendition of poems, speeches on the roadside, pamphlet distribution or dharna, something or the other was always on, with youth and students always at the top of JP's scheme of things. JP appealed to the people to send postcards and inland letters voicing their opinions on the government and with widely guessed 50-lakh of them loaded on a truck marched towards the Raj Bhawan on June 5, 1974 to submit it and later hundreds of thousands people gathered at the Gandhi Maidan, where he gave the call for Total Revolution and shifted his target from Bihar government to Central government for systemic change to end corruption, political and administrative reforms, right to recall and eradication of the caste system. As the long procession moved, there was firing at the tail end at a point on Bailey Road allegedly by activists of an organisation called Indira Brigade, but it was soon controlled and the accused were arrested,' he says. On November 4, 1974, JP again took the agitation route, under which the activists were to gherao Assembly and force ministers and MLAs to resign, though the administration did not allow the procession to swell by dispersing them through use of 'mild force', Dubey says, adding that he contemplates writing a book reflecting the exact turn of events during his eventful tenure as Patna DM when the country witnessed the biggest political churning. 'The procession was stopped near Revenue Building with barricades. There was also lathicharge there, in which it was alleged that JP was also hit and a picture went viral, but it was wrong. I still have two medical reports – one from JP's family doctor – indicating that he was not injured in lathicharge, though some other leaders did receive some blows. When some people later asked JP if he was hit that day, the socialist leader said that the question was not about being hit, but the larger question was why there was lathicharge. I will elaborate this in my upcoming book why there was lathicharge that day,' Dubey says, adding that after November 4, 1974, JP shifted his focus entirely on Delhi to seek the ouster of Indira Gandhi, as the discontent had spread across the country by then. Roar from Delhi and Sudden Enforcement 'I was around 35 kms away from Patna camping in Masaurhi in connection with some land settlement issue for the landless. Those days, the only means of communication was landline phone or wireless system available to senior officials. As the Emergency was imposed at midnight, I had no idea immediately. Next morning, my then PA sent a messenger to inform me about it so that I could immediately return. I reached the next morning to understand that emergency had been imposed under Article 352 and the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971 and the British era Defence of India Rules had been invoked, which gave powers to the administration to detain any person/persons for up to two years without FIR or trial if there was convincing evidence against them about indulgence in unlawful activities, participating in agitation or violence,' he said. The Allahabad High Court's June 12, 1975 verdict setting aside the election of Indira Gandhi as MP, even though she was given 15 days time to move the Supreme Court, gave further fillip to the movement against her and when the Apex Court also upheld the order on June 24, 1974, refusing to interfere with the HC order, JP pressed the peddle to seek her resignation, as she would have remained the PM for six months even without being a member of either House. On June 25, 1975 in his historic speech at Delhi's Ramleela Maidan, he exhorted the police and government officials not to obey illegal and immoral orders, which became another trigger for Indira Gandhi, who was already grappling with the surcharged atmosphere. And from Ram Leela Maidan, JP roared with Dinkar's 'Sinhasan Khali Karo…' The throne shook. But it was not vacated until 1977 when janata voted out its occupant.
The Hindu
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Revisiting Emergency through images
It has been 50 years since the Emergency was imposed on June 25, 1975. It lasted all of 21 months, coming to an end on March 21, 1977. Its impact, however, has lasted longer. The Emergency era remains fresh in the minds of the public, with politicians and academics invested in the constitution and polity of the nation. 'The long 1970s were the hinge on which the contemporary history of India turned, transforming the young postcolonial country into today's India,' author Srinath Raghavan said in a recent interview with The Hindu. His book Indira Gandhi and the Years That Transformed India is only one of many recent works aiming to demystify these years and what transpired. Only recently, Coomi Kapoor's The Emergency: A Personal History received an uncertain Bollywood treatment in the form of Kangana Ranaut's similarly titled film, which received a lukewarm response. As several narratives exist — political, academic, imaginative — there exist some undeniable facts and turning points during this era. We take a look at some images published by The Hindu, which sought to capture the zeitgeist — before, during and after the Emergency era. Also read: Revisiting a dark chapter: 50th anniversary of Emergency declaration ARCHITECTS OF THE EMERGENCY: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi with President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, when she called on him on August 21, 1974. Mrs. Ahmed is at left. On her cabinet's advice, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed proclaimed Emergency under Article 352 citing 'internal disturbances'. Photo: The Hindu Archives THE MARCH THAT SHOOK MRS. GANDHI: Socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan is seen seated outside the locked gate of the Patna Secretariat while leading the anti-corruption movement in Bihar in October 1974. As JP began touring more states, he also united several anti-Congress parties and the protests against Indira Gandhi government grew, which was seen as a prime reason for her recommending the Emergency. Photo: The Hindu Archives JP's MOVEMENT: JP leading a 'march to Parliament' in Delhi in March 1975. His movement brought an end to the Congress rule at the Centre for the first time in 1977. Different political parties came together under the banner of his Janata Party to provide the country its first non-Congress government. Photo: The Hindu Archives GUJARAT REVOLT: Morarji Desai (centre) sat on an indefinite fast to press for early election in Gujarat. Elections were held in June and for the first time and the only time, Gujarat threw a hung Assembly verdict. Two weeks later, Emergency was imposed. RAILWAYS STRIKE: This image, which later became a symbol of the state of Emergency, was taken when trade union leader George Fernandes was arrested during the all India railway strike in May 1974. Fernandes led the agitation demanding pay revision and eight-hour work shifts for railway workers. Despite his arrest, about 70% of railway workers stayed off from work, bringing the country's largest PSU to a standstill. A LEGAL BATTLE LOST: Indira Gandhi lost the legal battle in the Allahabad High Court in a petition filed by Raj Narain (in picture), challenging her election in 1971 from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. The conviction meant she ceases to be an MP. EMERGENCY IMPOSED: The first page of The Hindu dated June 26, 1975, reports President proclaiming Emergency, on its front page. WHEN A CM PROTESTED: Karunanidhi, then the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, distributes handmade pamphlets to public near Anna Statue in Mount Road to protest press censorship during Emergency. On July 12, 1975, he addressed a mass meeting on the Marina Beach in Madras, declaring there was neither an internal nor external threat to India and called upon the vast concourse to take a pledge to defend their freedoms. His government was subsequently dismissed. This image was taken from a photo display at Kalaignar Karuvoolam. Photo: M. Vedhan THE STORY OF THE UNSEEN: When JP was addressing a meeting in Vijayawada against the Emergency in 1975, three three youngsters - Yalamanchali Sivaji, Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad and Kambhampati Hari Babu - can be seen. All of them became MPs subsequently. Sitting in the audience, but missed in the click is a young man who was among several people arrested for opposing the Emergency. It was M. Venkaiah Naidu, who went on to be the Vice-president of India. This picture was shared with The Hindu by Dr. Sivaji. Photo: Special Arrangement DMK FACES THE WRATH: Young DMK leaders M.K. Stalin, Arcot Veerasamy, Murasoli Maran were among those detained in MISA. C. Chittibab, former Mayor of Madras, died in custody while trying to protect Stalin. Photo shows the cell at the erstwhile Madras Central Prison where Chief Minister M.K. Stalin was detained under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act during the Emergency. THE GOVERNMENT NARRATIVE: In this image shared by the Press Information Bureau, some of the members of the Indian community in London, called on Indira Gandhi, in New Delhi on September 15, 1975. They had participated in the massive demonstration in support of Emergency measures and against the distortions by the British press and BBC. Photo: Special Arrangement THE JANATA GOVERNMENT: Morarji Desai (left) talking to L.K. Advani (right) while Jayaprakash Narayan watching them, in New Delhi on January 22, 1977. This photograph wouldn't have been possible prior the Emergency given their political views. But the anti-Congress leaders joined hands to form the Janata government, handing out Congress its first defeat at the Centre. Moraji Desai became the Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the I&B Minister, while JP chose to stay away from electoral politics. Photo: The Hindu Archives ENDING EMERGENCY: Indira Gandhi called for fresh elections in March 1977 and released all political prisoners. The picture shows Ms. Gandhi meeting leaders of the Opposition parties in New Delhi on January 28, 1977. NEW LEADERS RISE: The Emergency gave birth to a new wave of politicians, Chandra Shekhar being a prominent face. He and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who were ministers in the Janata Government, eventually became prime ministers.
