Anand,PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday warned Bharatiya Janata Party workers against the Congress’s “silent” campaigning in Gujarat and said the ruling BJP will have to slightly modify its poll strategy to counter what he termed “conspiracy” of the opposition party.

Modi, on a three-day visit to his home state, said the Congress has this time appears to have changed its strategy in Gujarat, where Assembly polls are due in the next few months.

“I need to warn you because it appears to me that this time the Congress has adopted a new strategy. I have not probed, but that is what appears to me at first glance,” he said, addressing a BJP rally at Vallabh Vidyanagar in Anand district.

He said in previous Assembly elections, the Congress used to make a lot of noise and boast about “finishing” the BJP, which is ruling the state for more than two decades.

“But we did not fall (got defeated) in 20 years, so they have done something new, which is why we need to remain alert,” said Modi, who previously served as Chief Minister of Gujarat for 13 years.

The Prime Minister said the Congress, once a dominant political force in Gujarat, is not saying anything openly, but working “silently” by going to villages and adopting its old “manipulative” tricks.

“Therefore, don’t be confused because they are not appearing in the press, nor conducting any press conference or making speeches. Beware… the Congress is trying to infiltrate with a new strategy. It does not speak, but is reaching out to villages, holding meetings,” Modi said.

He said BJP workers needed to remain alert and counter this new strategy of the main Opposition party.

“Do not assess them on the basis of the fact that they have not conducted public meetings, press conferences, or made statements…There is a need for you to remain alert for the coming elections,” the Prime Minister said.

The BJP’s star campaigner maintained the country’s oldest political party is still leaving no chance “to insult Gujarat”.

“It has adopted a new strategy, to spread poison in villages, telling people by interpreting things differently,” he said at the rally on the second day of his visit to Gujarat.

He asked BJP cadres to reach out to voters and do door to door canvassing for the upcoming polls.

“We will have to understand this well and add a few new aspects to our strategy. I am sure BJP workers under the leadership of CR Paatil (Gujarat unit president) will tackle any crisis. We have to defeat the Congress’s conspiracy by going door to door (of voters),” Modi said. PTI

 Lucknow: In an akhada (a traditional wrestling ground) of Etawah’s Rajpur village in the early 1960s, a youngster from Saifai took on a well-known wrestler, Saryuddin Tripathi, and tamed him in a bout that lasted half an hour.

Years passed, the youngster, Mulayam Singh Yadav, rose to become the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh but his passion for wrestling remained undiminished. An apocryphal story goes that when a young bahubali (strong man) neta arrived at ‘Pancham Tal’ — the CM’s office on the fifth floor of Annexe Bhawan —  in the summer of 1990, Mulayam, then 50, folded his dhoti and wrestled down his rival.

“Netaji [Mulayam] was well-known for his ‘charkha daav’. It was said that if Mulayam used his move on someone in politics, his opponent would have to submit,” BJP MLC Narendra Bhati, who was previously with the Samajwadi Party (SP), told ThePrint reminiscing the exploits of three-time Uttar Pradesh chief minister who died Monday at a private hospital in Gurugram.

The political ‘daav-pech’  (strategies) of the wily Yadav could catch both his adversaries and friends off guard. Chandra Shekhar, the late former prime minister who once shared cordial ties with Mulayam, had a taste of it firsthand. 

The Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP) chief’s plans were first foiled when he attempted to send his supporter Mohan Singh to the Rajya Sabha in 1992 but Mulayam ensured his younger brother Ram Gopal Yadav entered the Upper House of Parliament. It was followed by an astute move. The one-time school master parted ways with Chandra Shekhar and announced the formation of the Samajwadi Party in September 1992. 

Journey to becoming Lohiaite

Born on 22 November 1939 at Saifai village in Etawah district, Mulayam did his schooling in his village school and graduated from K.K. College. He became an assistant teacher at Jain Inter College, Karhal in 1963. 

In his book ‘Mulayam Singh Yadav Aur Samajwad’, author Deshbandhu Vashisht writes that during the agitation launched by (Ram Manohar) Lohia against the UP government’s decision to hike the irrigation rates of water supplied to farmers, 14-year-old Mulayam courted arrest and was lodged in Etawah jail in 1954.

It was in his college days that Mulayam came under the influence of Socialist Party giants Ram Manohar Lohia and Raj Narain. 

An effective orator, Mulayam was elected as the president of the students’ union of his college and honed skills under his political mentor Nathu Singh and socialist leader Arjun Singh Bhadauria, who introduced him to Lohia.

This was the time when Lohia’s Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP) was running campaigns against English language along with abolition of casteism and hiked prices, Vashisht writes.

Mulayam made his electoral debut from Jaswantnagar on an SSP ticket in 1967 and became an MLA from the seat “gifted to him by Nathu Singh”, senior journalist Sunita Aron wrote in her book, ‘Akhilesh Yadav: Winds of Change’.

As he became engrossed in politics, Mulayam resigned from Jain Inter College in 1984. 

Mass leader with tight grip on cadre

“Under the patronage of Lohia, Raj Narain and later Charan Singh whose outfits fought against the Congress, he grew as a politician and was the one behind the rout of Congress in Uttar Pradesh,” Kunwar Rewati Raman Singh, a founding member of SP, told ThePrint.

In 1977, Mulayam became a cabinet minister in UP for the first time when the Janata Party replicated its stupendous show of the Lok Sabha election earlier that year.  

“With the death of Charan Singh [in 1987] resulting in a power tussle over inheritance of  Lok Dal and his son Ajit Singh claiming his father’s legacy, the Lok Dal was split and two outfits were formed: Ajit-led Lok Dal (A) and Hemwati Bahuguna led-Lok Dal (B),” reads the book, ‘Mulayam Singh: A Political Biography’, by authors Ram Singh and Anshuman Yadav.

The real force behind the Lok Dal (B) was Mulayam, the book notes, adding that Mulayam merged the Lok Dal (B) with the Janata Dal in 1989 and went on to become the Uttar Pradesh CM for the first time that year.

But Mulayam’s politics was pragmatic, said Sukhram Singh Yadav, the son of socialist leader and Samajwadi Party founding member Harmohan Singh Yadav.

Sukhram told ThePrint that Mulayam’s work at grassroot-level helped him to retain power amid a clutch of disunited non-Congress parties during the 1980s and 1990s.

Narrating an incident, Sukhram said former PM V.P. Singh refrained from mentioning his name during his speech at Kanpur at a campaign for local body polls in the late 1980s. “…Netaji stopped him thrice and forced him to take my name. That was the respect and regard he had for his workers.” 

A similar anecdote was narrated by socialist leader Sunilam, who once had 66 cases lodged against him and farmers in the aftermath of the 1998 Multai police firing in Madhya Pradesh.

“Netaji would always think about his workers. Usually, leaders of his stature don’t care for party workers. When I was facing criminal cases in connection with the [firing] incident, Netaji told me that he was worried and tried to speak to lawyers. He told me that he felt I would be convicted and helped me with legal support to get bail,” he told ThePrint.

Missed PM post by a whisker

Sukhram lamented that the “only thing” that Mulayam fell short of was the Prime Minister’s chair due to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad.

Elaborating the turn of events, Rewati Raman said when the then Congress president Sitaram Kesri pulled down the Deve Gowda government in 1997, CPM stalwart Harkishan Singh Surjeet dropped his choice of Mulayam and instead propped up I.K. Gujral after Lalu came out against the SP chief.

“Surjeet had finalised Netaji’s name for the PM candidate in Delhi but it was RJD’s Lalu who opposed it. Mulayam would have been the PM but for Lalu,” he said.

In 2014, Mulayam taunted Lalu when he mentioned that his dream of becoming the PM remained unfulfilled “because of people who later became his relative”. The occasion, although, a happy one  — the marriage of Lalu’s youngest daughter Raj Lakshmi to Mulayam’s grandnephew Tej Pratap.

Thrice he became the chief minister (1989–91, 1993–95, and 2003–07), but Mulayam failed to complete terms like most of his predecessors .  His art of making friends across party lines helped Mulayam achieve the feat despite the unpredictability of UP politics which was then directly influenced by Delhi.

“Netaji had the knack of making good relations with politicians, irrespective of party lines. Even if someone was a political adversary, he would maintain friendships and never turned down a request,” Bhati said.

Mulayam sacrificed a Rajya Sabha seat on the request of V. P. Singh in 1996, he recalled. 

“SP was in a position to send three members to the Rajya Sabha. However, it was a call from an ailing V.P. Singh that changed this [result]. Singh and Mulayam were adversaries for long. However, Singh who was suffering with cancer told Mulayam that it might be his last request and asked him to help send his friend Wasim Ahmad to the Rajya Sabha. Although the nomination papers were ready, Mulayam told his aides that Singh’s request needed to be fulfilled,” the BJP MLC said.

His pragmatism and shrewdness came to the fore again when Mulayam, who grew on anti-Congressism, helped the UPA government to win the 2008 trust vote after the Left Front withdrew support over the India-US civilian nuclear agreement.  

From Dhartiputra to ‘Mulla Mulayam’

Thanks to his anti-English tirade that led to Hindi becoming the language for official communication in administration and in courts besides his work for the backward communities and peasants, Mulayam earned the tag of ‘Dhartiputra’ in the 1990s.

Arguably, the most significant event in Mulayam’s nearly five decades of political career took place on October 30, 1990 when the then UP chief minister ordered police to fire at karsevaks who were marching towards the Babri Masjid. “Let them try and enter Ayodhya. We will teach them the meaning of law,” he had remarked.

Political observers said that this decision catapulted Mulayam as the ‘sole saviour’ of the Muslims.  

“He earned the tag of Mulla Mulayam back then, but he protected the Constitution. He was a follower of the Constitution. Even today, youngsters in UP villages are familiar with the phrase — ‘Jiska jalwa kayam, uska naam Mulayam’ (He whose popularity remains undiminished is called Mulayam). Netaji could make possible what was deemed impossible,” Rewati Raman said.

Prof. Nadeem Rezavi of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) described Mulayam as “a typical politician who projected himself as the benefactor of Muslims”. “This is what politicians do for their interests. The outreach to Muslims was limited to Muslim faces in the party rather than any concrete step,” the professor of medieval history told ThePrint.

But it did not stop the Samajwadi Party from becoming the first choice of Muslims from 1990s onwards courtesy his famous Muslim-Yadav formula. 

Controversial but indispensable 

Mulayam had his share of controversies. In 2014, the country was shocked with his remark when opposing capital punishment for rape. His statement — “Ladke hain, galti ho jati hai (Boys make mistakes)” — opened the floodgates for his rivals to  attack the SP as a party harbouring hooligans and goondas.

His contemporaries prefer to remember Mulayam for his foresight as seen in the veteran politician claiming way back in 2010 and 2017 that China was preparing to attack India and that New Delhi was not prepared to face aggression. The SP chief had served as defence minister from 1996 to 1998 in the United Front government.

“He raised the issue of China several times in Parliament. Look at what has happened in Galwan and Arunachal. Whatever Netaji said had a meaning,” said Rewati Raman.

Mirza Asmer Beg, a professor of political science at AMU, told ThePrint that Mulayam’s controversies stemmed from the fact that as a speaker, he would connect with the masses. “As a grassroot politician, Mulayam may have sounded as if [he was] making off the cuff remarks at times, but all remarks of the grassroot politician are not enough to judge him,” he said.

Hailing the SP patriarch and his achievements, political analyst Ramesh Dixit called the departed leader as a “man of his words”.   

“Mulayam Singh Yadav doesn’t fit into any of the traditional parameters of a typical Indian politician like modern education, refinement of personality, robust or princely family background but yet, he has been a deciding factor in UP politics since late 1970s,” the former professor of political science at Lucknow University told ThePrint.

“He fought against stalwarts like Congress’ N. D. Tiwari, BSP’s Kanshiram and several others from BJP. This was because of only two things: his immense involvement and engagement with people and undiminished determination. By the time a politician would wake up and demand his tea, Netaji would have met 1,000 people from across UP. He is a symbol of unity of peasant castes and known for being ‘zubaan ka pakka’ (a man of his words),” Dixit said.

(Edited by Tony Rai)

 Matli (Uttarakhand) [India],  (ANI): Seven bodies were brought to Matli Helipad on Saturday from Draupadi ka Danda mountain peak in Uttarakhand, where an avalanche hit a team of mountaineers on the October 4 morning.

The bodies were recovered on Friday as the death toll rose to 26. The search and rescue operation is in progress for the remaining three mountaineers.

“Seven dead bodies were brought from the advanced base camp to Matli helipad after they were recovered from the spot of the incident. We will try to recover more bodies as per the weather,” said Abhishek Ruhela, District Magistrate, Uttarkashi.

According to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), as many as 29 persons including two instructors and 27 trainees went missing when the avalanche hit Draupadi ka Danda mountain peak in Uttarakhand.

“Search and Rescue operation is in progress at the disaster site. Helibome operation is ON. Evacuation of dead bodies by helicopter will be done depending on the weather conditions. Search and rescue in progress for remaining three trainees,” the NIM said in a statement.

Personnel from various teams of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), the Air Force, the Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and the High Altitude War School in Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir have been deployed in the rescue operations.

The rescue operation is being hampered due to bad weather conditions.

Sub Divisional Magistrate, Bhatwadi, Chatar Singh said that four more bodies of the trainee mountaineers were brought on Friday morning, which have been taken for post-mortem.

Mountaineers from the NIM participating in a training course were trapped in a glacier crevice on Tuesday morning after an avalanche hit the peak. The team was returning after summiting.

About 41 trainees and instructors of the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering were hit by an avalanche. The institute said that the Advanced Mountaineering Course commenced on September 14 at NIM Uttarkashi.

The course moved to the mountain on September 23 with 41 people- 34 trainees and seven instructors and one nursing assistant. The group arrived at the Base Camp on September 25.

As per the training programme, the course went on for high altitude training from October 2-October 4.

After summiting the 5670 metre altitude Mt Draupadi ka Danda II the team was on its way back when the avalanche struck at around 8:45 am above camp 1 in which 34 trainees and 7 instructors got caught, according to a release by the NIM on October 4. (ANI)

New Delhi,(PTI) BJP leaders on Monday paid rich tributes to veteran socialist leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, praising his grassroots connect and describing his demise as an end of an era.
Home Minister Amit Shah noted that the Samajwadi Party founder remained active in politics for decades with his unique political skills and said he will always be remembered for his connect with the ground.
 "His death is the end of an era in Indian politics," Shah said and also highlighted Yadav's struggle for the restoration of democracy during the Emergency.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said Yadav was a grassroots leader who played a key role in the politics of Uttar Pardesh for decades.

 New Delhi,  (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday condoled Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s demise, and said he was widely admired as a humble and grounded leader who was sensitive to people’s problems.

The 82-year-old Yadav passed away in Medanta hospital in Gurugram.

“Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav Ji was a remarkable personality. He was widely admired as a humble and grounded leader who was sensitive to people’s problems,” Modi said.

He served people diligently and devoted his life towards popularising ideals of Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia, the prime minister said.

“Mulayam Singh Yadav Ji distinguished himself in UP and national politics. He was a key soldier for democracy during the Emergency,” the prime minister said in a series of tweets.

As defence minister, Yadav worked for a stronger India and his parliamentary interventions were insightful, Modi said.

Yadav emphasised on furthering national interest, the prime minister added.

“I had many interactions with Mulayam Singh Yadav Ji when we served as Chief Ministers of our respective states. The close association continued and I always looked forward to hearing his views,” Modi said.

“His demise pains me. Condolences to his family and lakhs of supporters. Om Shanti,” he said. PTI

In a major drug bust, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has seized 200 kg of Afghan heroin from an Iranian fishing vessel off the Kochi coast. Six Iran nationals were arrested and they were brought to Kochi along with the boat, said an official release.

 Search efforts for the three missing mountaineers were hamstrung by heavy snowfall on Friday over the avalanche-hit site near the ‘Draupadi ka Danda’ peak.

A team of Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) was coming down on Tuesday after summitting the Draupadi Ka Danda peak in Uttarkashi when an avalache struck the region. The team comprised of 34 trainee mountaineers from NIM and seven trainers. Twenty-six bodies have since been recovered and three are still missing.

 

Four out of twenty six bodies retrieved so far have already been handed over to their families. Efforts are on to bring down the rest.

With weather conditions obstructing the search efforts, relatives who have come to Uttarkashi from different parts of the country are getting impatient.

Aerial rescue operations can be resumed only after the weather improves, District Disaster Management Officer Devendra Patwal said. 

Ten more bodies of mountaineers missing since the avalanche in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi earlier this week were found on Friday, taking the death toll to 26. 

Ten deaths were confirmed on Tuesday and eight of the trapped mountaineers were rescued, according to NIM. Since then, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the Indian Army, and the Indian Air Force are engaged in search and rescue operations. 

Two Cheetah helicopters took off from the Indian Army helipad in Harsil to join the search operations, said officials.

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju hit out at the AAP and its leadership saying he does not understand why Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and ''his gang'' hate Hindu and Hindutva so much.

The minister's remarks came after a video clip purportedly showing Delhi Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam at an event where hundreds took a pledge to convert to Buddhism while denouncing Hindu deities went viral.

In a series of tweets posted late on Friday night and on Saturday morning, Rijiju said, ''I really don't understand the reason as to why Arvind Kejriwal and his gang hate Hindu and Hindutva so much.'' ''I can understand about Rahul Gandhi but Arvind Kejriwal....,'' the BJP MP from Arunachal Pradesh said.

Every Indian should follow the mantra of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas', he added.

After the video of Gautam attending the event went viral, the BJP sought the minister's resignation, saying his comments highlight the hate the AAP has for Hindus.

Gautam responded by saying he was a ''deeply religious person and would not even dream of insulting any deity through any action or word of mine''. He also accused the BJP of spreading rumours and propaganda.

 

There has been no official reaction either from the AAP or the Delhi government, but sources in the party claimed the chief minister was ''extremely displeased'' with Gautam.

Infamous for witchcraft killings, Jharkhand has earned the disrepute of having the highest percentage of underage girls getting married, according to the latest demographic sample survey by the union home ministry.The percentage of girls getting married before attaining majority is as high as 5.8 in Jharkhand, according to the survey brought out by the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs.''The percentage of females who got effectively married before reaching 18 years of age is 1.9 at the national level and varies from 0.0 in Kerala to 5.8 in Jharkhand,'' the survey said.In Jharkhand, child marriages accounted for 7.3 per cent of marriages in rural areas and three per cent in urban areas, it said.The Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report contains estimates of various demographic, fertility and mortality indicators based on the data collected through one of the largest demographic surveys in the world covering about 8.4 million sample population.The survey was conducted in 2020 and the report was published late last month.Jharkhand and West Bengal are the only two states in the country where more than half of the women are married before attaining the age of 21 years.The survey said that while 54.9 per cent of girls are married in West Bengal before attaining the age of 21 years, the figure for Jharkhand is 54.6 per cent as against the national average of 29.5 per cent.Meanwhile, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 32 people were killed on allegations of practising witchcraft in Jharkhand in 2015, 27 in 2016, 19 in 2017, 18 in 2018, and 15 each in 2019 and 2020.Jharkhand was in the limelight recently after a minor girl was set ablaze for spurning the advances of a man. The main accused had allegedly poured petrol on the girl from outside the window of her room when she was sleeping and set her on fire on August 23. The teenager succumbed to her injuries four days later and the accused and the man who had supplied petrol to him were arrested.Another 14-year-old tribal girl, allegedly sexually exploited by a man on the pretext of marriage, was found hanging from a tree in Dumka on September 2. Her mother had claimed that she was raped and killed and the accused has been arrested.The two incidents are being probed by the National Commission for Women and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.A teenage girl fell victim to an acid attack and was sent to AIIMS in New Delhi by the state government for better treatment.

 NEW DELHI: With less than a month until CJI UU Lalit’s retirement and two of the five-member Supreme Court Collegium opposing a proposal to recommend four new judges, including a Supreme Court lawyer, to the top court via written note rather than a formal meeting, Chief Justice of India U U Lalit is said to have written to them again, requesting reconsideration of their position.

 

The names recommended by Lalit to the four other members are three sitting HC chief justices (Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, Patna High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Manipur High Court Chief Justice PV Sanjay Kumar) and Senior Advocate KV Viswanathan. Senior Advocate KV Vishwanathan would go on to become the CJI in August 2030 if his name is recommended by collegium and cleared by the government.

Last week, Lalit in an unprecedented move, had initiated the proposal for the appointment of SC judges by writing a letter to the fellow members in the Collegium, Justices DY Chandrachud, SK Kaul, S Abdul Nazeer and KM Joseph, requesting them to grant their consent to the names proposed by him. 

The letter which was received by the judges on Saturday, according to people aware of the development, pointed out that the names that were being proposed were deliberated upon in previous Collegium meetings. The letter was written after the Collegium meeting which was scheduled for September 30 and could not take place due to unavailability of Justice Chandrachud who held the court till 9:10 PM.

The meeting which was scheduled for September 30th was supposedly Lalit’s last collegium meeting SC went into recess for Dussehra break and will reopen on October 10 and the one month mark would prevent Lalit is set to retire on November 8, 2022 from making recommendations for judicial appointments due to the appointment process for his successor being in gear. 

On receipt of the letter, according to the sources the two collegium members, while strongly objecting to CJI’s move, had said that appointment to the high constitutional office and as judges of the highest court should never be done through circulation. According to reports, the two members objected only to the manner in which the recommendations were initiated, not to the merits of the individuals recommended. A fourth judge was said to be away and said that he would respond when he returned. 

Further, according to sources familiar with the development, SC collegium headed by CJI UU Lalit in a first had decided to start evaluating judges based on their performance before recommending their elevation to the top court. On September 26, the Collegium recommended to the Centre elevation of Bombay HC’s Chief Justice Dipankar Datta as SC judge. 

CJI Lalit, who is set to retire on November 8, has very little time on his hands. The government writes to the outgoing CJI about a month before his retirement, and the CJI, in turn, recommends the name of the most senior judge as the successor. When a new name is proposed, the incumbent CJI usually refrains from making decisions on judicial appointments and instead defers to the new CJI.