Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu has appointed his close associate and Jalandhar Cantt. MLA Pargat Singh as PPCC general secretary, organisation. The move comes after Sidhu appointed Lok Sabha member Dr. Amar Singh, retired IPS officer Mohammad Mustafa, Dr Pyare Lal Garg and Malwinder Singh Mali as his advisers to seek their wise counsel on party affairs. While Mustafa declined the offer, Mali landed in a controversy over his social media against Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh. While Navjot Singh Sidhu has come under attack from the Opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for allegedly changing his stance on illicit liquor and sand mafia, his decision to appoint Malwinder Singh Mali as his advisor has also backfired. In his recent posts on Facebook, Malwinder Singh Mali said: “Kashmir belongs to Kashmiris. Going against the tenets of the UNO resolutions, India and Pakistan have illegally usurped the Kashmir territory. If Kashmir was a part of India then what was the need to have Articles 370 and 35-A. What was the special agreement with King Hari Singh? Tell people what were the terms of the agreement.” Opposition leaders have asked PCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu to clarify his stand on Mali’s controversial remarks on Kashmir. Bikram Majithia said, “Rahul Gandhi should tell people whether he was with Mali and if not, what action he will take against Navjot Sidhu.” While state AAP in-charge and MLA Jarnail Singh termed the remarks unfortunate. Mali stood by his statement and said: “How can Articles 370 and 35A be repealed when the matter is still pending in the Supreme Court?” Sidhu, in a tweet, said he has appointed senior journalist Jagtar Sidhu and Surinder Dalla as his media advisers.
LEADERS DEFEND SIBAL’S BIRTHDAY BASH-CUM-OPPOSITION HUDDLE
Rajya Sabha MP and Congress leader Kapil Sibal hosted a birthday party which generated a lot of political noise. Some conspiracy theorists went so far as to suggest that Sibal hosted the dinner on the day Rahul Gandhi was in Srinagar away from Delhi. Naturally, mature leaders laughed off the controversy. Senior leaders of different parties went because it was the birthday party of a top lawyer who has fought everybody’s case, and not just of a politician who could play a significant role in opposition unity. Senior SP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Prof Ram Gopal Yadav said, “We went to Sibal’s birthday party not to a political event. Reports published in media was incorrect.” Meanwhile, the opposition leaders are clear in their minds that politics will be conducted by the mainstream Congress, not a rebel group of the Congress and there was no question of being part of a design to isolate the Nehru-Gandhi family.
OPPOSITION PLACES PEOPLE’S DEMANDS BEFORE YOGI GOVERNMENT
With the UP assembly elections due next year, the opposition parties are putting pressure on the BJP government to fulfill the demands of the people in the state. In this context, the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, on Wednesday, staged a walkout from the Uttar Pradesh state Assembly in Lucknow in protest against the state government’s refusal to address the issue of rising prices and unemployment. Demanding a full debate on the issue, leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary said that prices of all essential edible and non-edible items had increased in the past few years. Congress legislature party leader Aradhana Mishra said that the biggest tragedy was the shocking increase in cremation rates during the second wave of the pandemic. The Speaker rejected the demand for a debate saying that several points raised by the opposition were beyond the preview of the state Assembly. Meanwhile, the Yogi Adityanath government tabled a supplementary Budget of Rs 7301.5 crore.
NITISH UPSET WITH RCP SINGH AS JD(U) IN-FIGHTING INTENSIFIES
A poster fight is going on within Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). It is between the new national president of the party and Lok Sabha member, Rajiv Ranjan Singh, also known as Lalan Singh, and the Union steel minister, RCP Singh, a Rajya Sabha member who was recently removed from the post of national president. The two groups keep putting up rival posters and pulling them down if one leader or another is missing from the picture. There was even a showdown on 16 August, the day Union minister returned to Patna from Delhi after losing his party chair. Meanwhile, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is upset with RCP Singh due to negotiation of the deal with the BJP. Singh did not even inform the CM that he was going to the PM’s tea party before the expansion. It took Kumar over a week to say RCP had become Union minister with his consent.
UTTARAKHAND CONGRESS SPEAKS UP AGAINST 2018 LAND LAW
The Uttarakhand assembly elections is due in 2022. The Congress and BJP are fighting with each other over a key issue that has emerged over the course of last year — the purchase of agricultural land in Uttarakhand by outsiders. The Congress state leaders have said that its manifesto will include a promise to scrap a controversial 2018 law introduced by the erstwhile Trivendra Singh Rawat government that lifted restrictions on non-domiciles looking to purchase local agricultural land for industrial purchases. Meanwhile, BJP is speaking in different voices on the issue. On the one hand, Trivendra Singh Rawat continues to defend the decision, saying it is meant to bolster investment in the hill state. On the other, the BJP state leaders claimed that Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s government will hammer out a recourse to silence the opposition on the land law issue. Meanwhile, the Congress is trying hard to keep the issue on public agenda as it directly relates to local sentiments and emotions. (IPA)
Secondary Market For Corporate Loans Is Not Helping Economy 