Tag: JP Nadda

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Nadda says Congress in deep depression after first two phases

The BJP president said that they are confident of achieving their target of crossing 400 seats…reports Asian Lite News

The Congress party is in “deep depression” after witnessing trends of overwhelming support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the first two phases of the Lok Sabha elections, said party’s national president JP Nadda on Tuesday, adding that Opposition has thus decided to mislead people and practice politics that divides society.

“People are supporting PM Modi and have decided that under him, the country will move forward. We (BJP) got this indication from the first two phases of the election. This has rattled the Opposition. Hence, they are moving forward with their strategy of misleading people. They are now in deep depression and practising politics that divides society,” Nadda said speaking to ANI on Tuesday at Shivamogga.

On his party’s prospects in the ongoing polls, the BJP president said that they are confident of achieving their target of crossing 400 seats.

“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the National Democratic Alliance are going ahead with a comfortable majority, crossing 400 seats. This is clear because people have confidence in the way PM Modi has led the country,” Nadda said.

Hitting out at the Congress for allegedly stating in their manifesto that they will be redistributing wealth to minorities when they come to power at the Centre, Nadda said that the party is going against the founder of the Constitution, who categorically mentioned that reservations should not be given on religious grounds.

“Their manifesto speaks of their hidden agenda – of what they did in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Bhimrao Ambedkar had said that the Constitution cannot provide for reservations on religious grounds,” Nadda said.

The senior BJP leader pointed out that while the Congress tried to bring about reservations for minorities in Andhra Pradesh but could not be successful, in Karnataka they took away reservations meant for OBCs and gave them to Muslims.

“In Andhra Pradesh, they tried this four times and tried to take away reservations for SC, ST and OBCs. In Karnataka, they took away reservations meant for OBCs and gave them to Muslims. In Andhra Pradesh, they could not be successful because of court restrictions but their intention was clear,” Nadda said.

The BJP chief also mentioned that the Congress does not think about the welfare of Muslims but only wants to practice appeasement politics.

“For Congress, minorities means Muslim minorities. They do not think of their welfare. With separatist attitudes and divisive forces, they are practising appeasement politics,” Nadda said.

Shivamogga is going to the polls on May 7. BJP’s BY Raghavendra, son of former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, has been pitted against Congress’ Geetha Shivarajkumar. (ANI)

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Nadda urges party workers to work hard for LS polls

Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda on Saturday urged party workers to strive hard in the Lok Sabha polls to take the party beyond the 370-seat mark and expressed confidence that the Modi government will return to power scoring a hat-trick and creating a record.

Addressing the party’s National Convention here, Nadda spoke of the BJP’s commitment to construction of grand Ram temple in Ayodhya and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had led the rituals at the Pran Pratishtha event on January 22 in Ayodhya.

Talking of BJP victories in assembly polls, Nadda said that there is an evident atmosphere of enthusiasm in the party rank and file but said there is a need to work hard to achieve the party’s winning goals for the Lok Sabha polls expected to be held in April-May this year.

“We all here are happy and full of enthusiasm but with this we have to stay alert and work with full force to cross 370 (seats) and more than 400 for NDA. We have to cross 370 and for that, we have to work with full strength at every booth. Workers of BJP work very hard, I have full faith in you that you will fully immerse yourself, and BJP, under the leadership of Modiji, will score a hat-trick in the third term and will move forward by breaking record,” Nadda said.

PM Modi, in his speeches, has talked about the BJP having a target of winning over 370 seats on its own and over 400 seats with its NDA allies in Lok Sabha polls. The BJP-led government had scrapped Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and party leaders have talked about it in their speeches. The BJP got an absolute majority in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and returned to power with a bigger maority in 2019.

Nadda said PM Modi’s leadership is transforming India in an unparalleled way.

“In every front, be it health, infrastructure, education or employment, PM Modi’s leadership is fulfilling the dreams of every Indian. PM Modi’s leadership is truly transforming India in an unparalleled way. Today, over 80 crore beneficiaries are getting free food grains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. Also, the last ten years under the Modi government have pulled around 25 crore people out of poverty, and given these people new wings to fly,” Nadda said.

“Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, over 4 crore people who earlier had temporary residences have now been reaping the benefits of permanent homes. The Ayushman Bharat Yojana is a scheme that has been annually providing financial aid to 55 crore people, while making arrangements for them to also be able to tackle serious diseases. If this has been made possible, it is because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I would also like to bring to your knowledge that the Ayushman Bharat Scheme has become the world’s largest health coverage programme,” he added.

He talked about steps taken towards women’s empowerment by the Modi government.

“More than 12 crore “izzat ghar” (toilets in rural households) have been built under the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan. We are not unaware of the fact that our mothers and sisters used to have issues regarding defecation. They used to set out every day in public areas. Today, the Modi government has not only empowered them but also provided them with a sense of dignity by providing over 12 crore rural toilets in their households,” Nadda said.

“Our mothers and sisters used to go out into the forests to bring wood and then they used to work with smoke and cinders to burn the wood and prepare food. We have seen those days too but now, under the Ujala Yojana, our sisters and mothers have been empowered by receiving gas connections. Under the Saubhagya Yojana, over 2 crore homes have been electrified and under the Jal Jeevan mission, over 11 crore homes have been receiving water services with the focus on the mission of ‘Har ghar jal har ghar nal,” said Nadda.

The party’s national president also highlighted Lal Krishna Advani’s contribution to the BJP.

“Lal Krishna Advani made an important contribution to building a huge party by spending his entire life. Apart from this, the wisdom with which he lived a long political and public life is an example for all of us. We also remember the service he provided to the country as the Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India. I thank the Prime Minister for awarding ‘Bharat Ratna’ to such a senior leader,” said Nadda.

The BJP chief said India’s stature has risen in the international arena in the Modi government.

“A tale of successful G20 Presidency, a history of making 2023 the ‘International Year of Millets’, a journey from Mangalyaan to Chandrayaan-3, each such stellar achievement became a reality during the last ten years only. Bharat, under PM Modi Ji’s leadership, is shining bright not only on the earth but also in the sky,” he said.

He talked about the party’s success in recent assembly polls including the party raising its vote share in Telangana.

The BJP is holding a two-day convention here as part of preparations for Lok Sabha polls. (ANI)

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Modi meets Nadda, senior BJP leaders

BJP National President JP Nadda with Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Sources said that the meeting was called to discuss cabinet expansion, Covid control measures and the strategy for the Assembly polls…reports Asian Lite News

A crucial BJP meeting involving senior party leaders chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi took place at the latter’s residence here on Monday.

Sources said that the meeting was called to discuss cabinet expansion, Covid control measures and the strategy for the Assembly polls scheduled in a few states next year.

The Prime Minister held the meeting with Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and BJP chief J.P. Nadda.

According to sources, works of the Council of Ministers were likely to be reviewed in the meeting.

This was the fourth meeting between Prime Minister Modi and BJP chief Nadda in the last fortnight.

On Monday, JP Nadda has directed all party state unit chiefs to hold state executive council meetings virtually from June 21 to June 30 to discuss various matters, including the upcoming Assembly polls.

He wrote a letter, addressed to all party unit chiefs, containing a set of instructions for them.

Nadda ordered them to undertake discussions on the opening and closing sessions, condolence motion, discussions on the upcoming Assembly elections, discussion on the “Sewa Hi Sangathan” campaign and other activities.

He also issued direction to hold the meetings of the district executive councils from July 1 to July 15.

Along with this, he ordered all the national general secretaries to return to their respective states before July 31.

According to Nadda’s letter, on June 18, a virtual session will be organised on the topic “Nation combating the crisis under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”, which will be conducted by the party’s national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, Dilip Saikia and National vice president Annapurna Devi. (IANS/ANI)

ALSO READ: BJP must help PM Modi in showing democracy in action

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BJP must help PM Modi in showing democracy in action

BJP national chief JP Nadda

J.P. Nadda needs to ensure that members of his party do not proceed to the police station but reach out for a conversation with individuals with whose views they disagree, writes Prof. Madhav Nalapat

Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao initiated the “Look East” policy in 1991, which anticipated the quantum increases in trade that occurred afterwards. Not just for India but for the world, the Indo-Pacific became the focal point of global growth, overtaking the Atlantic. Despite, or perhaps because of his skill in navigating India away from the Brezhnevite economic policies of the past, those who most destructively targeted Rao were from his own party, who functioned in the cool shade of approval of Sonia Gandhi, who soon grew to dislike the Prime Minister for reasons that must await an accurate biography of the lady who occupied the centre-stage of Indian politics for nearly two decades without holding any position within the Government of India.

The civil war within the Congress Party between those who favoured Rao and the others who thought Sonia should replace him ensured the defeat of the party in the 1996 Lok Sabha polls and the rise to the front rank of the BJP. It must be said about Atal Bihari Vajpayee that he never forgot the debt owed to Sonia for helping to ensure the end of the years of Congress Party Lok Sabha majorities, and was unfailingly kind to her. The “Look East” policy gained some traction, but sniping from an unsympathetic President Clinton and the reality of the size of the Indian economy being puny at the time stood in the way of any diplomatic or commercial breakthrough with Southeast Asia. Soon after he came to power as the head of the first government to have a BJP majority in the Lok Sabha in 2014, Narendra Modi conceptualised and carried into effect the “Act East” policy. At the same time, relations with the Middle East and the US were also made a priority.

“Act East” is an idea that was overdue. India and Indonesia, for example, are natural partners, and the MEA needs to take the initiative in getting the Quad to expand to Quad Plus, with the addition of Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. This will not be possible at first, but security agreements similar to those entered into between Washington and Delhi could be worked out individually with the three as a prelude to their coming on board in a Quad Plus. While the Quad will remain limited to four, the “Plus” would in time include France, Germany and the UK as well, thereby putting in place an alliance designed not to provoke a war but to prevent adventurous and expansionist powers from launching a conflict against any smaller country in the neighbourhood.

While the US will remain by far the bigger economy for a long period, India is unlikely to be replaced from its perch as the world’s most populous democracy. Universal suffrage was followed from the start, including the essentiality of equal rights to women. There have been significant transitions from a government to the other, and all have taken place peacefully, including in 1977, when a 2-year hiatus in democracy ended with the declaration of Lok Sabha polls. The result was less a reflection of the economic performance of the government headed by Indira Gandhi than it was a reaction to the denial of freedoms.

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The people of India are proud of democracy and loyal to its concepts. Hence such judgments of the Supreme Court as the striking down of Victorian-era laws on lifestyles or diluting the draconian nature of the Information Technology Act that from its inception during the Vajpayee period began the period of reversal of the spectacular global growth of the industry in the period when everyday laws (which themselves are more than sufficient in numbers) and not special legislation was applied to the IT sector. To take another example, if the draconian legislation passed by the UPA after the Nirbhaya horror (where a perpetrator escaped a severe sentence on a technicality in a manner that would not have been possible in the US or many other countries) has worked in curbing such barbarism against women, the same is not evident. Such crimes remain, as does alcoholism in states that have enforced Prohibition in the belief that liquor or even dietary preferences can be altered through legislation speedily passed rather than through the slower but organic process of conscientisation.

The time will soon come when there will be more vegetarians in the US than in India, and not because of laws regulating diet either. Prime Minister Modi acted not a moment too soon in decriminalising some of what is legally criminal in India that is regarded as a civil dispute in other mature democracies. The late Ram Jethmalani as Law Minister sought to carry such a process forward, but soon afterwards, lost his portfolio in a reshuffle. It is time to complete the work that Ram initiated.

There has been enormous unflattering coverage of India in global media. It is understandable that media in the PRC trash the situation in the country, as the Chinese Communist Party seeks to show that democracy does not work, especially in a country of 1.4 billion people. What is unfortunate is that the mainstream press in democratic countries that are potential and existing allies of India are sometimes even more harsh in their assessments than even Chinese media. At their most charitable, the subtext of what they say in their columns is that India may look like a democracy, but does not act as a democracy.

That a friend for decades, Vinod Dua, had to go to the Supreme Court to get relief from the incomprehensible charge that he is guilty of “sedition” is what drives misperceptions causing the demonization of a democracy that is an essential partner in the battle against the global alliance between Extremism and Authoritarianism. The BJP has a capable and affable President in J.P. Nadda, and he needs to ensure that members of his party do not proceed to the police station but reach out for a conversation with individuals with whose views they disagree. A battle of opinions, of ideas, is normal and indeed central in a democracy. The rise of Narendra Modi from CM to PM was not stopped or even slowed down but was made certain by the barrage of ugly personal attacks made on him during each of his 13 years in the job. There is a lesson in this for the BJP.

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