Rahul in US, Sonia in India take fresh aim at Modi govt
TWOPRONGED Cong president pushes for women’s quota, VP slams divisive politics
NEWDELHI/WASHINGTON: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi continued his attack on the government from US soil, raising the issue of growing intolerance in India on Thursday, even as party president Sonia Gandhi sought to corner the ruling alliance over the women’s reservation bill.
Sonia’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday seeking the passage of the contentious bill—which hasn’t seen the light of the day due to demands for sub-quota for SCS/ STS, OBCS and minorities — is seen as intended to pre-empt any attempt by the National Democratic Alliance to claim credit for the move. It could, however, also ensnare the BJP into a factious debate at a time when the party is aggressively wooing other backward classes and Dalits.
“I am writing to request you to take advantage of your majority in the Lok Sabha to now get the Women’s Reservation Bill passed in the Lower House as well,” the Congress president wrote to PM Modi, promising him her party’s support for the move.
Hours later, in the early hours of Thursday (IST), Rahul Gandhi made a veiled attack on the NDA government, saying that India’s reputation as a country of peace and harmony is in danger abroad because of divisive forces at work back home.
“The divisive politics was ruining India’s reputation abroad and NRIS in the tradition of the great NRIS before them, should stand up to those dividing India now,” the Congress leader told a gathering of around 2,000 people at the Times Square in New York at the end of his twoweek tour of the United States.
He said non-resident Indians had always played a crucial role in India’s progress. Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Abdul Kalam Azad, Sardar Patel and B R Ambedkar were all nonresident Indians, he said, who brought to India their learnings and transformed the country. SRINAGAR: The Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir government are ready to hold dialogue with every stakeholder, including separatists, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said on Thursday.
During a visit to J&K, Madhav told reporters that from the outset, the government had been stating that its door was open for all the stakeholders in the state.
“They are welcome to have a dialogue with the state government as well as the Centre. We are open to dialogue,” he said.
The BJP is an ally in the People’s Democratic Party (Pdp)-led government in the state.
Madhav said questions should be asked to those who did not want to take part in the dialogue.
His statement comes less than a week after the separatist leadership — Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik— announced that they never opposed a “sincere, meaningful and result-oriented dialogue” among the “three parties” to the Kashmir dispute.
They had said the dialogue should fulfill the “will and aspirations of the people of Kashmir”.