The Congress Working Committee was held in Delhi on 11 January under the presidentship of Sonia Gandhi, in which CWC passed a resolution to work towards withdrawing the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 as it was deemed discriminatory and divisive.CWC asserted that while the NPR in itself appeared to be a benign exercise, it was in effect a disguised NRC.CWC indicated that Congress-ruled states Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab may not participate in the nationwide exercise for NPR and NRC, and that the Congress party governments in these states could bring assembly resolution against the NPR exercise. The Congress also expressed hope that Maharashtra and Jharkhand, states in which they are the part of the government, will also boycott the NPR exercise. West Bengal and Kerala have already decided to stop NPR. Together, this means that at least 40% of the Indian population is against NPR. Significantly, the CWC passed a separate resolution for suppression of voice of youth and students of India and also criticised the police excesses and the use of brute force in many towns of Uttar Pradesh and in universities like Jamia Millia Islamia and JNU. CWC declared that it had no faith either in the UP state government or the LG of Delhi to bring the culprits to justice.CWC demanded that a comprehensive high-powered commission should be constituted to enquire into the incident connected with the anti-CAA protests and justice to be delivered the affected peoples.
NOW M M JOSHI TRAINS GUNS AT JNU VC M JAGADESH KUMAR
After a long time, the former Union HRD minister and renowned professor of Allahabad University, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, could not stop himself from speaking on the issue of protesting students and universities as sites of protest. Joshi has demanded the removal of Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Professor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, for not coming up with a reasonable and working solution to the fee hike row and mishandling the attack on JNU students. Joshi claimed that the HRD ministry had twice advised the JNU VC to implement certain reasonable and working formulae for resolving the issue of enhanced fees in JNU. The VC was also advised to reach out to the teachers and students, but to no avail. Joshi expressed his shock that the VC was adamant in not implementing the government proposal and said that a person with that kind of an attitude should not be the vice-chancellor of any university.
MAMATA’S MAKES HINDU REFUGEE OUTREACH FOR ANTI-CAA PITCH
If the BJP has a strategy, so does TMC. The West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who is holding anti-CAA rallies each and every day, is making sure her gatherings are attended by those who were either Partition or 1971 Bangladesh war Hindu refugees from the other side of the border. Indeed some of them are those that Mamata Banerjee helped settle in India in her early years of political activism, with the support of the then Union minister Buta Singh. This is her way of combating BJP’s campaign targeted at Bengali Hindus who fled the atrocities, first in East Pakistan, and then, Bangladesh.
POLITICAL STORM PLAYS OUT OVER DEEPIKA PADUKONE’S CHHAPAAK
Recently, the release of Chhapaak, Deepika Padukone starrer and Meghna Gulzar-directed movie with a strong social message on the heinous crime that’s acid attack, had become the eye of a political storm in the country. This was especially so in north India, with Delhi awaiting the assembly elections. It is in this context that the BJP’s decision to boycott the film, after Padukone’s iconic solidarity visit to the battle site JNU, to stand beside the dissenting students, especially the injured JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh. As a counter measure, upon the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s directive, the party had organised a screening of Chhapaak for its workers on 10 January, and for this, a cinema hall in Lucknow was booked. Meanwhile, Delhi State Congress President Subhash Chopra declared that the boycott of Chhapaak film by the BJP not only shows that BJP is against women’s safety, but also betrayed the mentality that the BJP did not believe in giving power and respect to women. On the other hand, Congress-ruled states, including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and even Puducherry, have declared tax free screening for Chhapaak. Clearly, the film which is earning good reviews, and its lead actress-cum-producer have rattled many in the ruling regime.
CM KHATTAR WANTS TO RUN HARYANA WITHOUT DUSHYANT CHAUTALA
The Chief Minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar, is facing a tumultuous second term, despite having completed his first stint relatively peacefully. This time around, the differences with his home minister, Anil Vij, look unresolved still. To add fuel to the fire, and now his ally, Dushyant Chautala’s party JJP, is speaking against the alliance. JJP MLA Ram Kumar Gautam from Narnaund has resigned from the vice president-ship of the party, and attacked JJP president Dushyant Chautala for not including him in the state Cabinet, as decided before the alliance with the BJP took shape immediately after the poll results were announced. Captain Abhimanyu has used his veto against Ram Kumar Gautam for not including him in the ministry, since Gautam defeated Captain Abhimanyu in the last assembly elections. The chief minister’s office has refused to induct Ram Kumar Gautam into his Cabinet. On the other hand, the uncle of Dushyant Chautala, Ranjeet Singh, who has won independently, has been saying that BJP should leave the JJP and should make the government with the help of 7 independent MLAs, resulting in the rumour that BJP was deserting the alliance with JJP. According to political observers, Ram Kumar Gautam is now in touch with Bhupinder Singh Hooda, while BJP is trying to woo 7 JJP MLAs and break them away from their party towards the BJP. Sources say CM Khattar wants to run the government without Dushyant Chautala and Ranjeet Singh is helping the BJP in this. (IPA)
Ruling Party’s Divisive Politics Impacting Universities 