BJP resolution lauds agri laws, Covid fight
NEW DELHI : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday passed a political resolution hailing the passage of the new agriculture laws, which it said are aimed at improving the lot of farmers and increasing their income even as the Opposition has rallied around an agitation demanding the legislation’s repeal.
The resolution, passed at the end of a daylong national office bearers’ meeting addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also praised the Union government’s response to the Covid pandemic, its economic management amid a global slump and efforts at ensuring the passage of new farm and labour laws.
The resolution also made a pointed reference to the IndiaChina standoff along the LAC and said, “India will not let any expansionist strategy succeed on its borders. Under the leadership of PM Modi, India has proved this at every given opportunity.”
Earlier, addressing the national officer bearers and state unit presidents, Modi said the party’s mission and organisation were not only aimed at securing power but at ensuring development for all.
National general secretary Bhupendra Yadav told the media, “He (the PM) said there is a positive mood in the country, so work should be undertaken
keeping in mind the mantra of nation first.”
The party commended the government’s Covid-19 response, and in the resolution said while the world was “speculating over how India with its vast population and limited health care infrastructure” would face the challenge, it can be “said with pride that India not only defeated Covid under the able, sensitive, committed and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, but also infused in all its citizens the confidence to build an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.”
While the Opposition had questioned the nationwide lockdown announced on March 24 and accused the government of announcing it without any preparation, the resolution referred to the government’s call as a “decision that will be remembered in history as the prime example of the sensitivity of a welfare government committed to public good.”
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump will be making his first postpresidential appearance at a conservative gathering in Florida next weekend.
Ian Walters, spokesman for the American Conservative Union, confirmed that Trump will be speaking at the group’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference on February 28. Trump is expected to use the speech to talk about the future of the Republican Party and the conservative moment, as well as to criticise President Joe Biden’s efforts to undo his immigration policies.
Biden’s AG pick vows to prosecute Capitol rioters
Merrick Garland, President Biden’s nominee for attorney general, is pledging he’ll take the lead in prosecuting participants in the mob that attacked the US Capitol on January 6.
“If confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 - a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government,” Garland said in an opening statement prepared for his confirmation hearing on Monday before the Senate judiciary committee.
Garland also signalled he’ll make decisions independently from Biden.
“The president nominates the attorney general to be the lawyer - not for any individual, but for the people of the United States,” he said in the brief prepared testimony of less than three pages.
Former president Trump openly pressed his attorneys general, Jeff Sessions and William Barr, to protect him and his associates from prosecution and also to go after his political enemies.
Biden has said he’ll let his attorney general make the tough calls on sensitive matters including pending investigations of his son, Hunter Biden, and inquiries involving Trump.