My Opinion

In the Lok Sabha on Friday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in a clear articulation of Modi government’ Kashmir policy, blamed former PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s policies for the rise of separatism in the Valley over the last seven decades. He said, if Sardar Patel had his way, Kashmir problem would have been solved long ago.

Unlike Home Ministers in the past, who used to obfuscate on the Kashmir issue and avoid controversial remarks, Amit Shah clearly said in Parliament that Article 370 was not ‘permanent’ and it was a ‘temporary’ provision. ‘Even Sheikh Abdullah had concurred with the temporary nature of this provision’, he added.

Shah said, till last year, any separatist leader in the Valley, who gave anti-India statements, were provided security. The government has now withdrawn security from all separatist leaders who speak out against India, he added.

For the first time, the Home Minister of India has unambiguously said in Parliament that Article 370 is not sacrosanct. This has given rise to speculations about fresh delimitation in Jammu & Kashmir that had been put on hold by the Assembly, and the Centre’s stand on Article 35A issue, which is presently before the Supreme Court.

Clearly Amit Shah’s stance on Kashmir will force the separatist leaders to think afresh. This is also a timely warning to those who give protection and support to terrorists in the Valley.

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The House Committee of Lok Sabha has directed several senior Congress leaders including Jyotiraditya Scindia and Mallikarjun Kharge to vacate their government bungalows since they have lost the LS elections. Normally, leaders who lose elections to Parliament are supposed to vacate their bungalows, but over the years there has been a trend among several leaders, including former ministers, refusing to vacate their bungalows citing various reasons.

The difference that has been noted this time during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure is that leaders who lose elections have been made to vacate their bungalows.

I can cite one or two examples from the past. When former Deputy Prime Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram died, his bungalow on Krishna Menon Marg was allotted to his daughter Meira Kumar, who was an MP. Later, when Meira Kumar became the Lok Sabha Speaker she was allotted a separate bungalow, but she continued to occupy her father’s bungalow, by converting it into a memorial. The government bungalow is yet to be vacated.

The bungalows in which former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi stayed, were converted into their memorials after their death.

When former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee died, his family vacated the government bungalow within four weeks and shifted to their house in Gurugram. After former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh’s death, his son Ajit Singh stayed in that bungalow for several years, but when he lost the LS elections, police had to be called in to forcibly evict him from the bungalow.

There are many such examples, but the most recent example that I want to cite is that of former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Jaitley is still a senior MP of Rajya Sabha, and he had requested the Prime Minister to relieve him from his ministerial responsibility due to health reasons. If Jaitley had wanted, he could have stayed in his official bungalow as a senior MP, but soon after he ceased to become a minister, he quietly vacated the bungalow and shifted to his own house in Delhi’s Kailash Colony.

This is an example which former ministers and ex-MPs should emulate.

Already there is a severe housing crunch for a large number of MPs who have elected for the first time in Lok Sabha. Many of them are presently staying in state government guest houses or in hotels, since they are yet to be allotted official accommodation.

On the other hand, there are many MPs and ministers who have lost the elections, but they are yet to vacate their bungalows and flats. The Modi government is strictly implementing the housing policy for MPs on the recommendations of the House Committee.

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On Friday, June 21, when the world was celebrating International Day of Yoga, thousands of people in India and abroad performed yoga exercises. In Ranchi, the celebration was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Rahul Gandhi, who has announced his intention to resign as Congress President after the recent electoral defeat, posted pictures of Army Dog Unit canines performing yoga with their handlers, and wrote ‘New India’ in the caption. Soon, the social media was flooded with indignant reactions with people questioning why Rahul chose to mock this ancient Indian practice of yoga.

BJP President Amit Shah on Twitter questioned this sense of ‘negativity’ and said Rahul has “mocked yoga and insulted our forces (yet again)”. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, “when somebody insults our armed forces again and again, I can only pray to God to give some sense to such people.”

Congress leaders, clearly embarrassed over the tweet, declined to react. They are still in the dark about Rahul’s present position in the party hierarchy. Several days ago, Rahul had announced his intention to resign and he had clearly said on Thursday that he would not select anybody as his successor.

Senior party leaders expected Sonia Gandhi to persuade her son to retain the post, and there are now reports that the Congress Working Committee will be meeting in two weeks to decide about the party president. With the situation still fluid, Congress leaders on Friday avoided reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s tweet on yoga.

There is not an iota of doubt that the tweet posted by Rahul Gandhi with pictures of trained Army dogs performing yoga amounts to mockery of this ancient practice.

This is quite surprising. It seems Rahul is opposing PM Narendra Modi only for the sake of opposing. It was Modi who had been striving for the last five years across the world to popularize yoga, and Rahul has chosen to mock this. When Modi launched Swachhata Abhiyan to provide toilets in all villages of the country, Rahul had chosen to mock him.

At one point of time, Rahul claimed that Modi ‘feared’ him and the Prime Minister would be unable to stand before him for ten minutes.

I thought that there would be a change in Rahul’s behaviour after the electoral reverses, and that he would realize the reasons why his party lost. But I find there has been no such change. He chose to prevent his mother Sonia Gandhi from thumping the desk when the President was delivering his speech to the new Parliament. Instead of listening to the speech, Rahul was seen busy with his cell phone. And now, he has mocked yoga.

There is a popular adage that defeat is the biggest teacher in life and there is no greater lesson than defeat. It now seems Rahul is yet to learn from his defeat.

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India TV on Thursday night telecast on its ‘Aaj Ki Baat‘ show the news about how a four-day-old infant, born prematurely, died on the stairs of a government hospital in Bareilly, UP, hours after she was shunted between two wings of the same hospital, because doctors at neither of the wings were ready to admit her.

For more than three hours, the family of the infant ran between the men’s and women’s wings of the same hospital, and the infant died in transit. Yogendra Pal, a farmer had brought the infant to the hospital for immediate treatment after she became ill and had breathing trouble.

The parents first went to the OPD of the men’s wing. The paediatrician Dr S S Chauhan examined her and referred the infant to the women’s wing, some 500 metres away, which has a Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU). The doctor at SNCU refused to admit the infant and wrote on the hospital slip “Bed is not available, kindly admit in your side (sic)”.

When the father returned to the OPD of men’s wing, Dr Chauhan again directed him to go to the women’s wing.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered the immediate suspension of the Chief Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr K S Gupta and ordered departmental proceedings against the CMS of the women’s wing Dr Alka Sharma for negligence in duty.

The suspended CMS Dr Gupta said, Dr Chauhan should have admitted the infant in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) where two out of four infant radiant warmer cots were available. Dr Alka Sharma however said there were six infants in the NICU, where only four infant radiant warmer cots were already occupied.

India TV showed the video of the doctors quarreling among themselves even as the parents were holding the body of the dead infant.

The basic issue is not about an ailing infant’s death, it signifies the ‘death’ of our sick health care system. The saddest part is that though we have hospitals, doctors, medicines and equipment, the basic need called sensitivity is sorely missing. When sensitivity is dead, there seems to be no difference between a living human being and a dead body. It was not the body of an infant that came out of the hospital in Bareilly, it was the lifeless body of our ailing health care system that came out of this sordid episode.

I appreciate the immediate action taken by the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in suspending the CMS and ordering departmental proceedings against the other, but this is not a permanent solution. The Chief Minister must now take serious steps to arrest the malady that prevails in our health care system. Otherwise we will continue to watch such sordid happenings, and our children will continue to die, whether in Bareilly or in Muzaffarpur (Bihar).

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I am surprised that the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome has been occurring in Muzaffarpur and adjoining districts of Bihar for the last 20-25 years, and the state administration and medical fraternity did nothing except taking cosmetic steps to deal with the situation on an annual basis.

Our reporters say, kids have been dying almost every year during summer due to AES and the local administration used to wait for the onset of monsoon rains, when the spread of the disease subsides. This was being taken as the normal every year till TV news channels played up this story this year on a wider scale. The attention of the entire nation was riveted on Muzaffarpur, even as kids suffering from AES were falling to their tragic death like nine pins.

Doctors in Bihar still say they neither know for sure why this disease occurs nor how to prevent and/or treat the patients. Watching kids die of a disease that is not being prevented makes one sad even 72 years after Independence.

India TV reporters found out that the hospitals in Muzaffarpur lacked sufficient number of beds, doctors and nurses, and the tiny tots suffering from disease were being forced to sleep on mattresses spread on the floor. This is not the case of Muzaffarpur alone. It is only a telling example of the overall level of health care services in Bihar.

Just imagine, a hospital that has witnessed the death of more than 100 kids had no thermometers or ORS devices. Cleanliness inside the hospital was in a pathetic condition and a sure invitation to death.

The Chief Minister of Bihar visited the Muzaffarpur hospital on Tuesday only because TV news channels have been playing up the story for the last 2-3 days. The announcements that were made after the CM’s visit were laughable.

It was announced that the hospital would be upgraded with 2,500 beds and number of children wards will be increased. A dharmashala will be opened near the hospital so that relatives and attendants of patients can stay.

All these announcements have just no meaning. The reality is that doctors, bureaucrats and politicians are waiting for rains to come so that the occurence of this disease will naturally cease. They can then heave a sigh of relief, and the Indian public may forget as time passes.

But I want to promise our viewers that India TV will not make them forget about this Acute Encephalitis Syndrome. We shall continue to remind the Bihar government about its responsibility so that the same thing is not repeated during summer next year.

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The BJP Central Parliamentary Board on Monday decided to appoint former Union Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda as the party working president. Praising Nadda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described him as “a diigent party karyakarta, who has risen through the ranks due to his hard work and organisational skills”.

Elevation of Nadda as the party working president was almost a foregone conclusion, when he was kept out of the Union Cabinet. There is no doubt that Amit Shah has been the most successful president in the party’s history. It was under Shah’s leadership that the BJP formed governments in states which it never dreamed of. Normally, when a government is formed at the Centre, the entire focus shifts from the party to matters of governance.

Amit Shah played a pro-active role, and he strengthened the party machinery right up to the booth level. The party achieved a record number of membership, and during the recent Lok Sabha elections, it was the party machinery which worked overtime in communicating the achievements of Modi’s government to the electorate.

After taking over as Union Home Minister, Amit Shah may not be able to devote much time to the party. The BJP leadership has, therefore, decided to entrust the responsibility of party to its new working president, J. P. Nadda.

Nadda will be made party president after the organisational elections are held later this year. Five years ago, when Amit Shah became party president, Nadda’s name had figured. When Modi was party in-charge of Himachal Pradesh, he knew Nadda and his style of working and a personal rapport had developed between the two.

Any new party president of the BJP will have a big target to achieve. The target will be to scale the big heights achieved by Amit Shah in his role as party president. And this is certainly a tall order.

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It is with a sense of pride that we in India TV telecasted on Friday night in ‘Aaj Ki Baat’ the story of a team of IAF Garud Commandos attending the wedding of a martyred Corporal’s sister in Badladih village, Rohtas district, Bihar.

Corporal Jyoti Prakash Nirala was martyred in an encounter with terrorists in Kashmir way back in 2017. He was posthumously awarded the highest honour ever given to an IAF jawan, Ashok Chakra, by the President at the Republic Day parade last year. Recently, the martyr’s friends and fellow jawans decided to lend a hand to his sister’s wedding in Bihar.

Nirala’s family is poor, and the jawans of IAF pitched in with whatever donations they could collect. They attended the wedding and performed the martyred brother’s duties, by putting their palms on the floor, for the bride to walk over. This scene brought tears to the eyes of those present at the wedding.

On the day of wedding, Nirala’s sister Shashikala had nearly 100 brothers as a team of Indian Air Force Garuda commandos visited the village. Each commando contributed Rs 500 each and nearly Rs 5 lakhs was collected for the wedding. Jyoti Prakash’s father Tej Narayan Singh expressed his gratitude to our vailant IAF commandos.

On 18th November, 2017, Jyoti Prakash along with Garud commandos was involved in a fierce encounter with terrorists in Bandipora. He gunned down two terrorists, and in return, he received a hail of fire from terrorists. He gave the supreme sacrifice in the service of the nation.

IAF commandos offering their palms on the ground for a martyr’s sister to walk on at her wedding is surely a big tribute to the memory of a slain Corporal. All of us should be proud of our valiant jawans for this emotional show of solidarity.

On our part, we as patriotic Indians, should always be ready to offer respect in public to all our jawans, who are working day and night in the service of our nation. Jai Hind!

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When Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, the two world leaders spoke to our PM with deference and respect.

Modi had told me in an interview during Lok Sabha polls last month that when the people of a country elect a leader with resounding majority, the world eyes the leader with a feeling of admiration and respect. The world always respects leaders of strong governments. This was clearly evident in Bishkek on Thursday.

Prime Minister Modi has opened his new innings by stressing on personal relationships with world leaders. He always comes up with new and out-of-the-box ideas. He invents slogans and cares for personal relationships. So much so, that world leaders have often copied his slogans.

In 2014, the slogan was ‘Ab Ki Baar, Modi Sarkar’. When Donald Trump ran for the office of President, the slogan ‘Ab Ki Baar, Trump Sarkar’ was used. The then British PM David Cameron too tweaked this slogan for himself during the parliamentary elections to garner votes from people of Indian origin in the UK.

In the recent LS elections, the slogan was ‘Modi Hai Toh Mumkin Hai’. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned this slogan while addressing an India Ideas Summit of the US-India Business Council on Wednesday.

And now, the paradox. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan tries to copy Modi’s ideas and schemes for his country, but while implementing, he has become the butt of jokes on TV channels. The situation has come to a point where the government in Pakistan has asked news channels not to crack jokes about their prime minister.

I have been noticing that since the time Imran Khan became PM, he has been trying to copy ideas and schemes from Modi. Because of this, he is often compared with Modi on Pakistani TV channels. Imran Khan stands nowhere in comparison with Modi as far as administrative experience and political acumen are concerned.

Modi cut government expenditure and banned red and blue beacons for ministers and politicians, and Imran Khan followed suit. Soon after taking over as PM, Imran Khan publicly auctioned the fleet of expensive cars used by former PM Nawaz Sharif. He even auctioned a number of buffaloes kept at the PM’s residence.

Walking in the footsteps of Modi’s Swachhata movement, Imran Khan took out a broom to keep the streets clean. Modi appealed to Indians to forego LPG subsidy and use less fuel. Imran Khan had a novel idea. He asked people to use donkeys for transport in order to save fuel.

After citing these examples, I need not elaborate why the Pakistani media is having a field day cracking jokes about their Prime Minister, and the government had to crack the whip.

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The Union Cabinet, in its first meeting after the formation of Narendra Modi 2.0 government, on Wednesday decided to bring the Triple Talaq Bill in order to replace the ordinance that is in force. This bill will replace Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Second Ordinance and if passed by both Houses, will pave the way to place curbs on the practice of talaq-e-biddat, or instant triple talaq.

The bill was passed by Lok Sabha last year, but it could not be passed in Rajya Sabha because of opposition from Congress and other parties. The bill lapsed with the dissolution of 16th Lok Sabha. The new bill will be introduced again in the forthcoming session of Parliament.

“Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas” has been the pivot of the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Centre said in a statement. This is part of the massive outreach towards Muslim community initiated by the Prime Minister, through upgradation of madrasas, scholarships for Muslim students and implementation of welfare schemes among the Muslims.

The Triple Talaq Bill will ensure gender equality and gender justice to Muslim women and will also help in protecting the rights of married Muslim women. The bill declares the practice of talaq-e-biddat as void and illegal. It provides for three years imprisonment and fine. It also provides for payment of subsistence allowance to married Muslim women and dependent children.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has earned the respect of millions of Muslim women by taking the initiative in putting curbs on triple talaq, which was literally a sword hanging over their heads. The Supreme Court had struck down the instant triple talaq practice as unconstitutional.

Modi has now started taking serious steps for his outreach among the Muslims, and it is in tune with this aim that the Triple Talaq Bill will be introduced again in the 17th Lok Sabha.

The outreach among Muslims is politically meant to break the age-old stranglehold of self-appointed political leaders claiming to espouse the cause of Muslims by creating loyal vote banks. This perception has been debunked in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, in which Muslims voters, too, voted for the BJP in large numbers, because they have benefited from social welfare scheme like Ujjwala, Ujala, Mudra and Swachh Bharat.

After a search operation in inclement weather for eight days, an IAF helicopter spotted part of the wreckage of the missing AN-32 transport plane carrying 13 air force personnel, including six officers, in a dense hilly forest at a height of 12,000 feet in Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday.

The transport plane had taken off from Jorhat on June 3 and then went missing on the radar. Scores of aircraft were involved in the search operations, and the IAF chief Air Chief Marshal B. S. Dhanoa himself went to Jorhat to coordinate the operations.

Mountaineering teams of IAF, army and civilians have been formed and they will be airdropped, if required, in search of survivors. The nearest ground search team will take at least three days to reach the site of crash. The place is 16 km north of Lipo, a small village with nearly 120 inhabitants.

Searching the 24-metre long AN-32 aircraft with a wing span of 29 metres in a densely forested area of 1,000 sq km was like hunting for a needle inside a haystack. Because of low clouds and rains, IAF teams had a tough time in carrying out the search.

I will now turn to some nasty remarks made by trolls and others in the social media during the search operation. Congress and some other opposition leaders too joined the fray and questioned the government’s ability.

On Tuesday, the chief minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel said, if the number of those killed in IAF Balakot air strike could be revealed, then why did the government fail to locate the missing plane. He also raised questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking about armed forces and patriotism during the recently concluded elections. Has nationalism evaporated with elections, the chief minister asked.

The opposition has the right to question the Prime Minister, but it must not raise questions about the capability of our armed forces that includes the army, air force and the navy. Politicians and trolls must stay away from making loose comments about our armed forces, particularly when an air mishap has taken place. We should not demoralize our forces.

Think about the effect such remarks in social media may have made on the minds of the grieving families of IAF personnel, waiting every minute for news about their near and dear ones. Think about the effect such remarks may have caused in the minds of our valiant IAF men toiling hard to locate their missing brethren. At least, on issues like mishaps, we should have some amount of sensitivity.

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Violent clashes between BJP and Trinamool Congress supporters have been taking place in West Bengal with frightening regularity both during and after the Lok Sabha elections. After the killing of three BJP and one TMC supporters in a bloody clash in Basirhat, there have been more such clashes in other districts. Last night in Mathabhanga, Coochbehar, motorbikes of BJP supporters were set on fire after a local TMC leader was attacked.

West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi met Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Monday to apprise him about the current situation. There have been demands from BJP circles to impose Central rule in the state, but the Centre is unwilling to allow Mamata Banerjee to gain any political advantage.

In Aaj Ki Baat show on Monday night, we telecasted detailed stories of how villages and localities, where voters gave their votes to Modi, are being targeted by TMC activists. The ruling party in the state is out to teach a lesson and strike terror in the minds of those voters who have leanings towards the BJP. This is being done in view of the assembly elections that will take place in 2022.

Clearly, Mamata Banerjee has learnt this political style from the Left Front, whose supporters used to target TMC activists during the Left rule. Mamata Banerjee had then demanded Central rule, but when the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee refused to oblige, she resigned from the NDA government. Five years later, the people of Bengal themselves voted the Left out of power and handed over the baton to Mamata’s party.

In a cruel irony of fate, the same Mamata Banerjee is now using the violent methods against the BJP, after the latter won 18 Lok Sabha seats last month. Naturally, the TMC supremo is fearing the same fate that had befallen the Left Front. Mamata and her party men may try their utmost to muzzle the voice of the people, but it is the people who are the ultimate arbiters.

Mamata Banerjee should know that silence of the majority does not mean weakness. It will be a terrible political blunder. As far as imposing President’s Rule is concerned, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is never going to do this. Modi is an astute politician and he will never give Mamata a handle to beat the Centre with.

Moreover, the opposition parties in India, who have been badly defeated at the hustings, will get a fresh breath if President’s Rule is imposed in Bengal. This can provide an opportunity to the opposition parties to unite. Modi is not going to oblige by giving any such chance either to Mamata or to the opposition parties.

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The brutal and inhuman murder of a two and a half year old girl in Aligarh, UP, has caused tremendous outrage across India. Top politicians and Bollywood celebrities have also condemned this ghastly killing and have demanded deterrent punishment for the perpetrators of this heinous crime.

The girl went missing from Tappal near Aligarh on May 31 and two days later, her mutilated body was found in a garbage dump in Aligarh. Two persons, Zahid and Aslam, have been arrested, and after there was widespread outrage on social media, five policemen have been suspended and a Special Investigation Team has been formed to probe the murder. Till now, the post mortem report has not indicated any sign of sexual assault, but the horrendous manner in which this act was perpetrated is highly deplorable.

I do not have words to express my feeling over this cruel murder. How could the accused murder and mutilate the body of a toddler in this manner? They do not deserve to be called human beings, and they must have no right to live in society. The case must be taken up by a fast track court and they should be convicted and given the death sentence at the earliest.

In 2012, there was nationwide outrage over the manner in which a young woman (Nirbhaya) was sexually assaulted inside a bus, her private parts were mutilated and she was thrown out on the road. She battled for life and ultimately died.

Thousands of people came out on the roads of Delhi to express their anger. Law on sexual assault was completely changed and deterrent punishment was prescribed, but it is sad to note that the convicts in Nirbhaya case are still alive in Delhi’s Tihar Jail and they have not been executed.

This week, Nirbhaya’s parents pleaded before the Delhi High Court that the the process of executing the death sentence be speeded up, because the convicts have been trying to gain time through mercy petitions to avoid the gallows. This must not happen in the case of the toddler’s murder in Aligarh.

I want to raise one more issue. On social media, several individuals have circulated inflammatory messages comparing the Aligarh murder with the heinous rape and murder of a girl in Kathua near Jammu. Attempts have been made to give a communal angle to this incident.

Rape and murder are acts that are perpetrated by criminals, who have nothing to do with religion. The murderers and rapists must get exemplary punishment, but those who are circulating messages on social media by using the victim’s picture and naming the perpetrators are equally guilty of inciting people and causing social disharmony.

The government must identify such people and action must be taken against them. Inciting people in the name of religion and injecting communal poison in a civil society is a crime.

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