Jharkhand students' protest and clashes with police and Kiren Rijiju's timely bravado that Home Minister Amit Shah would reply in Lok Sabha on July 20 Delhi mayhem have actually trapped Rahul Gandhi.
At the Business Advisory Committee meeting on Monday, Aug 10; the Paliamentary Affairs Minister Rijiju played a smart googly and said Shah would make the statement.
The Congress members attending the meeting were left shell-shocked. Later in the day, Rahul unwittingly exposed himself when he said the opposition members were not interested in what Shah's "opinion". He once again changed the goal post and now said PM Narendra Modi has to tender apology for July 20 police actions against protesters in Delhi.
Meanwhile, the ruling side still kept themselves busy trying to increase numbers.
Speculation is on that that the Sharad Pawar-led NCP(SP) could join the BJP-led NDA.
A delegation of eight Lok Sabha MPs led by party leader Supriya Sule met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and raised several demands, including a special package for drought-hit Marathwada.
It is not clear whether the demand was for Pawar himself; it wanted highest civilian award Bharat Ratna for social reformers.
The delegtaion also pushed for reforms to crop insurance schemes.
NCP-SP Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule (Pawar's daughter) said that since Parliament’s proceedings were not running smoothly, it was necessary to bring pending issues concerning the public directly to the Prime Minister’s notice.
In his entire career, what has guided Sharad Pawar's career has been his political interests. And yet again; he is all set to take up an important step with long term impact on Maharashtra politics.
“In the beginning of the meeting, PM Modi praised the political journey and work ethic of Sharad Pawar. The prime minister was amazed and said that the enthusiasm within Sharad Pawar serves as an excellent role model for everyone in politics,” a source said.
The government still remains well short of the 360 votes in Lok Sabha required to pass a constitutional amendment Bill based on the current effective strength of the House. However, BJP sources say the numbers have been managed but the government wants serious debate on the pending Women's quota and Delimitation Bills.
The feelers send to Akhilesh Yadav also seem to have yielded results as Kiren Rijiju claimed that differences have surfaced between Samajwadi Party and the Congress as well.
The SP leaders are not in favour of 'changing goal posts' from time to time. A Samajwadi Party insider says at the press conference on Monday, AICC president Malikarju Kharge was visibly embrassed when Rahul Gandhi changed his stance and maintained Amit Shah's statement in Lok Sabha would have little meaning.
"Question was that home minister Shah has to make it clear who authorised the shooting of our children in Delhi. He is the home minister; pellet guns were fired," Gandhi said, adding he must come clean whether he gave the firing orders or not.
If Shah ordered it, he is culpable, and if he did not know, he is incompetent, Gandhi said, adding that either way Shah "should go".
Indirectly and it seems still premature, Union Minister Giriraj Singh has stepped up attack on Rahul Gandhi and released a controversial snap.
In another development, the BJP-led dispensation in Delhi has made it clear that the non-BJP state governments ma face ED actions soon vis-a-vis student protest and question papers leak.
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has launched an investigation into alleged irregularities in the conduct of multiple recruitment examinations in Jharkhand particularly the JSSC-CGL examination.
Former JPSC chairman L Khiangte has been arrested by the state CID amid protests over an alleged paper leak. He faced questioning over the empanelment of blacklisted company TDPL for the 14th Civil Services Examination.
ends
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