BJP managed to convince people we are a Muslim party: Sonia Gandhi

By: Express News Service | Mumbai | Updated: March 10 2018 7:30 am In my party the great majority is Hindu. Yes there are Muslims too. So I fail to understand this branding us as a Muslim party said Sonia Gandhi in Mumbai. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi Friday said the BJP had managed to convince people that the Congress was a Muslim party and indicated that Congress president Rahul Gandhi s visits to temples was an attempt to shed that perception. The BJP has managed to I don t say brainwash because that is a rude word but it has managed to convince people to persuade people that the Congress party is a Muslim party. In my party the great majority is Hindu. Yes there are Muslims too. So I fail to understand this branding us as a Muslim party she said at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai. She also said the Congress had been pushed into a corner and so felt the need to draw attention rather than keeping quiet to Rahul s frequent temple visits before the Gujarat assembly elections in December 2017. Then his visits had sparked a debate on whether the Congress party was resorting to soft Hindutva . Gandhi said that as a family they have always visited temples but never made it a spectacle https://984032.site123.me/. We have always been to temples. When I used to travel with Rajiv wherever we went we would visit at least one major important temple. We never made a show of it. It was quite a natural thing. Rahul has gone to temples before she said. Asked if Rahul s temple visits were aimed at not letting the BJP monopolise the Hindutva movement she said There is a bit of that because we have been pushed into a corner. Perhaps rather than going to a temple quietly may be a little more public focus on that. In her address Gandhi a Member of Parliament from Rae Bareli also took on the Narendra Modi-led NDA government. She said India s liberal and open democracy was giving way under the ruling establishment s dangerous design and the country s social DNA was being re-engineered. Political opponents are being targeted through the misuse of investigative agencies. The judiciary is in turmoil civil society is being silenced universities and students are being straight-jacketed. Much of the media is being coerced away from its proper watchdog role which is surely to expose misgovernance scams and frauds said Gandhi. The noise of politics is the music of democracy. Yet that very noise is now being muzzled. The pretext is to make India a 10 trillion economy. Yes we need to move fast. But fast F-A-S-T cannot stand for first act second think she said. Acronymitis can be very contagious . Gandhi also said the acche din slogan of the BJP would go the same way as the party s India shining campaign in 2004 which brought the Congress to power. She also asked opposition parties to think of the larger picture join hands and put aside local differences to fight against the BJP . She also said she would contest the Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh again if her party asked her and did not rule out daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra s entry into politics. It is up to her I don t see it now. But one never knows in the future. I don t know really she said. Responding to the Prime Minister s constant criticism of the Congress party s rule for decades she asked if India was really a giant black hole before May 2014 and marched to progress only after the BJP came to power at the Centre. Anil Baluni the national head of the BJP s media wing said the country was defamed internationally under the UPA. The country has seen Sonia Gandhi in different forms. As the most powerful figure when UPA was in government the country went through depression. As the party president she presided over the party s decline to 44 seats and its decimation across states. And as an opposition leader she is practising the politics of fear and deception. She has taken both the country and her own party down he said. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App Tags: Sonia Gandhi VVikramMar 10 2018 at 7:51 amIE gives space and importance to all biased and anti Modi anti Hindu people and ideas.(2)(0) Reply Narendra M. ApteMar 10 2018 at 7:46 am1. The Congress cannot be part of anti-BJP front in the present scenario. 2. Smt. Sonia Gandhi is not ready to find reasons why the Congress is perceived rightly or wrongly as a pro-Muslim party. 3. It is a fact that Congress succumbed to pressures of leaders of Muslim communities and instead of telling them to reform the Muslim Personal Law and move with the times it supported Muslim leaders in their efforts to deny basic rights to Muslim women in name of religion. Here let us not forget that enactment by Rajiv Gandhi led Congress govt of Muslim Women (Right to Protection on Divorce) Act 1986 which curtailed the right of a Muslim woman for maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was blow to poor Muslims. But the Congress is not ready to accept such b ers. 4. Rahul Gandhi s visits to temples do not mean anything for many citizens: they just underscore fact that the Congress is helpless and is somehow trying to woo voters. Would it succeed- no one knows.(2)(0) Reply SswaMar 10 2018 at 7:36 amSonia Madam Please read Khaled Ahmed article on Alauddin portrayal in today s The Indian Express.(4)(1) Reply Shashichandra DesaiMar 10 2018 at 7:31 amSoniaji your puppet PM Manmohansngh declared that the minorities have first right over India s resources!Is not this statement anti cons utional and favouring MUSLIMS and Christians.Why blame BJP?(11)(2) Reply Yogesh BhardwajMar 10 2018 at 7:31 amFor a party for whom Uniform Civil Code is communal. One which hiccups and coughs over Ram Madir at his birthplace and could not reconcile two communities over it. Shah Bano Maut ka Saudagar Kashmiri Pandit Riot Bill Aurangzeb and Babar roads RTE Act and so on. The list to your anti-Hindu sins is endless.(12)(2) Reply Load More Comments
Singapore: Congress president Rahul Gandhi today called on Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and discussed wide range of topics related to India-Singapore ties.Mr Gandhi is on a three-day trip to Singapore as part of the Congress party s efforts to connect with the Indian community abroad. I had a cordial meeting with the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong earlier today Mr Gandhi said in a tweet. Our discussions covered a wide range of topics concerning our countries the tweet said.Mr Gandhi met Prime Minister Lee along with Congress leader Milind Deora and telecom entrepreneur Sam Pitroda. Pleased to have met Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong this morning along with Sam Pitroda and Milind Deora Mr Gandhi posted on Facebook with some photographs. Always a pleasure to see @leehsienloong Singapore s Prime Minister. First met him in New Delhi in 2005 during the launch of the India-Singapore Parliamentary Forum which @VivianBala & I founded & co-chaired Mr Deora tweeted.Mr Gandhi also met Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam.Yesterday he began the Singapore leg of his visit with an address to Indian entrepreneurs. He also made a formal address at the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy National University of Singapore.Mr Gandhi 47 also met MP Lim Wee Kiak senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee MP Joan Pereira MP Vikram Nair and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.He also visited the iconic INA memorial in Singapore and paid homage to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who unveiled in 1945 the monument that commemorates the Unknown Warrior of the Indian National Army. CommentsSingapore has some 500 000 people of Indian-origin in a multi-ethnic population of over 5.3 million.The Congress president will be travelling to Malaysia where he will meet Prime Minister Najib Razak and members of the Indian community.
NEW DELHI: Congress President Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to meet French President Emmanuel Macron during his four-day India visit. According to sources the meeting is slated for Sunday after Gandhi returns from his two-nation visit to Thailand and Singapore that is part of his overseas Indians outreach plan. The Congress which has launched a tirade against the government over the Rafale deal that Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck during his visit to France in April 2015 however said that the issue would not be raised during the meeting. The Congress party will not discuss India s defence deal with the head of state of a foreign country. This is our internal matter and this discussion the government has to do with France and not the Congress. We are demanding answers from our government and not from the French government Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said. Alluding to the Rafale deal he said that when one goes to buy something the buyer has to ensure whether the product is good or not as the seller will obviously say his product is good. The buyer has to decide looking at his pocket Surjewala said. The government has to ensure that its money is not wasted and gets the best deal in the least money. There should be no loss to the state exchequer. It is not the responsibility of Mr Macron but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Defence minister on which they have failed he alleged. The Congress has been attacking the government on the Rafale deal and demanding answers from it over the price of the aircraft. The Congress on Friday alleged that the government has caused a loss of Rs 12 612 crore to the state exchequer by buying the aircraft from Dassault Aviation the French manufacturer of Rafale fighter jets. The party alleged that the company sold each jet to India at Rs 351 crore more than those sold to Qatar and Egypt 11 months ago. The government has refused to divulge details of the purchase price of Rafale jets due to the secrecy clause in the agreement signed with the French government. Surjewala said if a President or Prime Minister of any country come to India He is our guest and there are no differences between the government and the opposition . The heads of state formally meet the opposition leaders as they had been meeting Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley in the past he said. Gandhi who is the leader of the principal opposition party in the country has been meeting visiting heads of state and government after he took over as party chief. Gandhi recently met visiting Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen and Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau. He was in Italy during Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang s visit who met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to meet French president Emmanuel Macron during the four-day visit of the foreign dignitary that begins later on Friday. Though the meeting does not figure in the Ministry of External Affairs detailed itinerary for Macron s visit Rahul s office confirmed that a meeting is scheduled for Sunday. Political circles in the capital are speculating whether the controversial Rafale fighter aircraft deal will figure in their discussions and whether Macron will seek to clear the Congress president s misgivings about it. File image of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. PTI The Congress has been attacking the Narendra Modi government over its decision to scrap the UPA-negotiated deal for 126 Dassault-built Rafale fighter jets and instead buy just 36 of them in fly-away condition. The party which has raised the matter in Parliament as well as outside has alleged that the Modi government is buying the aircraft at a highly inflated price compared to the one negotiated by the UPA. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman refused to reveal the price of the 36-aircraft deal citing a secrecy clause in the agreement signed with the French government. Since his elevation as President of the largest opposition party in Parliament Rahul has been meeting visiting heads of state and government. Since December he has met Cambodian prime minister Samdech Hun Sen and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. He was away in Italy during the visit of Vietnam president Tran Dai Quang who met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh. He however did not meet Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and the King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein during their visits.
SINGAPORE: Congress President Rahul Gandhi who is on a three-day foreign trip that will also take him to Malaysia on Thursday said here that India was facing very serious dangers of polarising society and accused the ruling BJP of being less concerned about peace and tranquility . Gandhi met Indian-origin CEOs of companies in Singapore to discuss the situation of jobs investments and economy in India. He said Congress saw the society as a system that has to be kept in balance asserting that he would work for ushering in a new Congress after taking over the reigns of the party from his mother Sonia in December. We see society as a system that has to be kept in balance. The BJP on the other hand is less concerned about peace and tranquility. We see very serious dangers of polarising society and risks arising from them he said. Apparently referring to the alleged 2G spectrum scam in which the BJP had consistently targeted the previous UPA government Gandhi said the system was destabilised between 2012 and 2014. A Delhi court in December last year acquitted all those accused of corruption and money laundering charges in the 2G spectrum allocation cases. The allegations were partly blamed for the Congress losing the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Gandhi on a March 8-10 visit to Singapore and Malaysia as part of his outreach to the Indian diaspora said the Congress had a clean slate and a new opportunity now. We faced a storm in 2012. Between 2012 and 2014 the system was destabilised and we saw the consequences. We have a clean slate now and a new opportunity. We will present you with a new Congress party that envisions the values you were born with he said. The Congress leader said India was seeing the biggest migration of rural people. We have challenges. Broadly our view is we want a peaceful transition a transition that carries everybody together. Gandhi discussed a range of issues including jobs investments and the prevalent economic conditions with the Indian-origin CEOs of companies in Singapore. He also met the CEO of Teamsek Ho Ching and its board and discussed a plethora of issues including quantum computing robotics Chinese manufacturing and big data. Gandhi paid homage to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and interacted with the people at the Singapore Indian Association. Established in 1923 the foundation stone of the association s clubhouse was laid by India s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1950. Gandhi met members of the Kamala Club at the Singapore Indian Association. Created as an amalgamation of Lotus Club and Ladies Union on the suggestion of Nehru Kamala Club works on issues of women s rights and empowerment. Over the next three days I look forward to meeting the Indian community business leaders and members of the Indian Overseas Congress in Singapore and Malaysia. Also on my schedule are meetings with the Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong and the Malaysian PM Najib Razak Gandhi said in a tweet.
NEW DELHI: Asserting that talks are the only way to resolve the issue of Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Rahul Gandhi today held the BJP-led government at Centre responsible for the current turmoil in the state. Rahul Gandhi visits Netaji memorial in SingaporeThe 47-year-old Gandhi is on a three-day trip to Singapore and Malaysia during which he will meet Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak besides interacting with the Indian community and business leaders. You engage with people you bring people in you work with people and you trust people. It works. I have seen it for myself Rahul said while addressing the students of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in the National University of Singapore. You engage with people you bring people in you work with people you trust people. It works. I have seen it for m https://t.co/lAZuNfHUTG ANI (@ANI) 1520505873000 The Congress leader attacked the government for its lack of policy and bad political decision on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir have resulted in the current crisis in Jammu and Kashmir which has seen a dramatic increase in terror-related incidents and ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the last couple of years. Our Kashmir policy under Dr. Manmohan Singh was about building bridges with people. When UPA came to power in 2004 we were handed a J&K that was burning. We made a plan and worked on it for nine years. In 2014 when I went to J&K I felt like crying. I saw what a bad political decision can do to years and years of policy-making he said. The Congress president who is on a three-day visit to Singapore and Malaysia from March 8 to 10 also reflected on India-China ties and asserted on the need to have a peaceful and co-operative relations with its eastern neighbour. India has to have a peaceful and co-operative relationship with China Rahul said. The Congress president stated that he is working for ushering in a new Congress since he took over the reins of the party from his mother Sonia in December last year. We see society as a system that has to be kept in balance. The BJP on the other hand is less concerned about peace and tranquillity. We see very serious dangers of polarising society and risks arising from them he said. During his address Rahul targeted the BJP government of promoting an atmosphere of intimidation in India where there is politics of dividing people and using their anger to win elections. There is a particular type of politics that s not only happening in India but in a number of places - of dividing people of using (their) anger to win elections and that s what is happening in India he said. If you ask me what am I proud about my country...It is the idea of plurality. It s the idea that people in India can say anything they want do anything they want and they won t face any problem and that is being challenged... he said. Responding to a question from the audience Gandhi accused the BJP and the RSS of indulging in anti-minorities politics. Mahatma Gandhi died protecting minorities. We the Congress party have been protecting minority people for the last 70 years. We don t like India where people are persecuted where people are being beaten up for what they eat what they say and what they wear he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi controls the law making he controls the UP police he controls the Haryana police and he controls these things. An extremely nasty form of politics is playing out in India Gandhi said. He asserted that we will fight him and we will beat him in the election. (With inputs from agencies)
Rahul Gandhi met with the Indian community in SingaporeSingapore: Congress president Rahul Gandhi will address students at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy National University of Singapore today. Earlier in the day Rahul Gandhi met with Indian-origin CEOs of companies in Singapore and discussed jobs investments and the prevalent economic conditions.He is on a 3-day visit to Singapore and Malaysia where he will meet the Indian community business leaders and members of the Indian Overseas Congress.He is also slated to meet the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong and the Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak. Here are the highlights of Rahul Gandhi s address to students in Singapore: Mar 08 201817:17 (IST) In 2014 when I went to J&K I felt like crying. I saw what a bad political decision can to do years and years of policy-making: Rahul Gandhi in SingaporeMar 08 201817:17 (IST) We have been fighting the BJP & RSS since the beginning. An extremely nasty form of politics is currently taking root in India. We will fight this nasty form of politics and we will defeat the BJP in the next election: Rahul Gandhi in SingaporeMar 08 201817:16 (IST) We do not like an India where people are persecuted for what they eat drink wear or think: Rahul Gandhi in SingaporeMar 08 201817:16 (IST) India s success is hugely because of the Indian people but anyone who thinks that the Congress Party s policies are not part of that success needs to write a new book: Rahul Gandhi in SingaporeMar 08 201817:15 (IST) I am a person who has been taught to love even those who dislike me. I feel no animosity towards anyone who opposes me. This is what makes me different from PM Modi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi in SingaporeMar 08 201815:20 (IST) Not just in India but across the world there are some people trying to win elections by using people s anger: Rahul GandhiMar 08 201815:15 (IST) One mustn t underestimate the energy and power that is released when you take a billion people from a rural economy to an urban one: Rahul Gandhi in Singapore on the Indian economy. Mar 08 201815:14 (IST) The idea of India envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi was of an India where everyone felt at home regardless of their religion caste and language. That idea is now being challenged: Rahul Gandhi in Singapore.Mar 08 201815:09 (IST) Where we are running into trouble now is in the levels of violence that we are seeing in the country: Rahul Gandhi at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Singapore.Mar 08 201815:05 (IST) The idea of Swaraj according to Mahatma Gandhi implies decentralisation of power until the last person says Rahul Gandhi Mar 08 201815:04 (IST)Rahul Gandhi at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Singapore. When asked about the press conference conducted by 4 top judges of the Supreme Court he says People go to the judiciary for justice. For the first time four judges went to the people for justice. Mar 08 201814:14 (IST)Rahul Gandhi paying tributes to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at the Indian National Army memorial in Singapore.Mar 08 201814:13 (IST)Rahul Gandhi visited the Singapore Indian Association at Balestier Road. The foundation stone of the association s clubhouse was laid by former PM Jawaharlal Nehru. No more content Comments
NEW DELHI: Congress MPs led by party chief Rahul Gandhi today staged a protest near Mahatma Gandhi s statue in Parliament complex over the PNB fraud and demanded answers from the prime minister on the https://wallinside.com/post-63481045-freecharge-offers.html issue. The party also staged protests in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha disrupting proceedings in both the houses. Party leaders had also given adjournment motions to discuss the banking scams. The opposition party is demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi make a statement in both the houses on how the banking scams happened under his charge. They demanded that Modi break his silence and come clean on bank loot involving designer jeweller Nirav Modi . The Congress MPs raised the slogans Desh ka chowkidaar kahan gaya? So gaya so gaya (Where is the country s watchman? He is asleep) in a swipe at the prime minister who had claimed that he is the country s watchman and will not allow corruption. The MPs were seen carrying placards alleging that the government was attempting to save Nirav Modi . Members of some Left parties also joined them later. They alleged that despite complaints being given to authorities and the PMO the accused were aided in their escape . The ruling BJP has rejected the opposition s allegations claiming that the scam started when the Congress was in power.