Two TDP ministers to resign from Union cabinet: CM Chandrababu Naidu

NEW DELHI: Within hours of finance minister Arun Jatiley saying no to special status for Andhra Pradesh TDP president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday announced that two TDP ministers - Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Y S Chowdhary - will quit the Narendra Modi cabinet tomorrow. Andhra Pradesh special status: We will take right decision at right time says Chandrababu NaiduAndhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday indicated that the Telugu Desam would take a right decision at the right time amid speculation that the party may pull out of the Narendra Modi government. The decision was taken at a meeting called by CM Chandrababu Naidu with party lawmakers late this evening. I tried speaking to the Prime Minister as a courtesy to inform about our decision to quit but he did not come on line. I don t know what mistake have I done Naidu said. The CM said that the Centre-state relations have been neglected by the Centre. Centre may create problems for us but state interests prime to us he said. This is the http://www.bestadsontv.com/profile/289722/Ahmed-Khan first step. We will go ahead with other actions later the Andhra CM added. Andhra Pradesh special status: TDP likely to snap ties with BJP two ministers may quit Modi cabinetTDP president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is likely to set the separation process in motion beginning with the resignation of two TDP ministers Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Y S Chowdhary from the Narendra Modi cabinet. Finance minister Arun Jaitley s statement was the last straw. They are apparently predetermined Naidu said justifying the decision to ask TDP ministers to quit the Union Cabinet. Earlier in the day finance minister Arun Jaitley stepped in to pacify the sulking partner saying the Centre is committed to giving Andhra Pradesh financial assistance equivalent to a special category state. We are committed to giving monetary equivalent to special status to Andhra Pradesh he said. Jaitley said he agreed with the assessment that Andhra Pradesh was financially suffering after Telengana was carved out of the state and his government will honour each and every commitment made by the Centre at the time of bifurcation. Read this story in Marathi
09:47 (IST) Andhra Pradesh would have been granted special status if UPA was in power: Karnataka Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao If UPA had been in power #SpecialStatusForAP was a given. Sad to see the state suffer due to indifference of the Modi Govt.We stand by the people of Andhra in their fight for justice. https://t.co/gcBhysymZE Dinesh Gundu Rao (@dineshgrao) March 6 2018
Amaravati: BJP President Amit Shah on Friday spoke to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu over phone hours after his Telugu Desam Party decided to intensify its fight over the Centre not honouring the commitments made to the state.Mr Shah rang up the TDP chief and invited him for talks over the commitments made at the time of bifurcation of the state. Mr Naidu conveyed to the BJP chief that he will send a delegation led by the central minister Sujana Chowdary.According to TDP sources Mr Naidu made it clear that there will be no compromise on the commitments made in Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014. He conveyed to Mr Shah that the TDP s fight is not against the BJP but for the justice to the state.The BJP President called up Naidu a couple of hours hours after TDP Parliamentary Party meeting chaired by Naidu decided to step up the fight over the raw deal meted out to the state in Union Budget 2018-19. The TDP a partner in BJP-led NDA government at the Centre had stalled proceedings in Parliament during the first leg of the budget session and it is gearing up to continue the protest in the second leg beginning next week.TDP MP Galla Jayadev told reporters after the meeting that if the Finance Bill is not amended to make allocations to the state to fulfil the commitments the party will oppose it.Mr Jayadev said since the Centre had promised to extend all assistance under the special package the TDP had agreed for the same but as nothing has been done so far they were pressing for their original demand of special category status. The MP said the party decided to take the issue to the national level by writing letters to all the parties their floor leaders and MPs. If necessary we will go to the court said the Lok Sabha member.Meanwhile Andhra Pradesh State Planning Commission Vice-Chairman Kutumba Rao who along with TDP MP Rammohan Naidu met Amit Shah in Delhi on Thursday said the talks were disappointing.He said instead of mooting a formula as assured by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Amit Shah asked them to present their formula. Kutumba Rao the state had already made its demands clear and hence the Centre should respond to them instead of asking it to present a formula. CommentsClose X The TDP has been demanding that the Centre make financial allocations to the state to fulfil the commitments made to Andhra Pradesh at the time of its bifurcation in 2014 to carve out Telangana state.Stating that residuary state of Andhra Pradesh suffered huge loss due to the division the TDP is urging the Centre to handhold the state till it comes up at par with other southern states.
By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Updated: March 2 2018 5:07 pm Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran/File) Related News TDP walks out of Govt: Why fallout poses a challenge to BJP s numbers count for 2019Andhra denied special category status: TDP walks out of Govt puts NDA on notice ahead of 2019Upset over denial of special status for Andhra Chandrababu Naidu pulls out TDP ministers from Modi cabinetAndhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday reiterated his demand for a special category status underlining that the state will only be financially stable if all assurances given in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014 were fulfilled and implemented. Even after 4 years of bifurcation AP is suffering. Congress faced the wrath of people as they did injustice now people are thinking if BJP will follow the same course. We accepted special assistance as the Centre said there are problems with Special Category Status Naidu was quoted as saying by ANI. He was addressing the TDP Parliamentary Board meeting. The Centre is giving Special Category Status to other states. How? In such a case we too need SCS. YSRCP is speaking of SCS but leaving rest 18 points. SCS alone is not enough all points in the act must be implemented. Only then AP will be financially stable he said while maintaining that the state was given a raw deal and it is encountering problems. In September last year Naidu had accepted the special package announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. For the first time Naidu however directly raised the special status issue last week saying that the special category status is the state s right and that they will continue to fight for it. He further said that in the last three-and-a-half years Andhra Pradesh achieved a lot of growth but it would have done much better had all the promises made in Parliament were fulfilled. ALSO READ | Broken promise funds crunch: Why Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu is angry The ruling TDP has been forced to take a tough stand on the special category status issue after the Opposition YSRCP has stepped up its campaign. Since the Union Budget was presented leaders of the TDP and BJP have been trading accusations over central assistance with the former alleging that Andhra Pradesh had been ignored. CM had also threatened to bring a no-confidence motion against the Centre in Parliament to demand justice albeit as a last resort . For all the latest India News download Indian Express App IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd More Related News TDP-BJP alliance on last legs? Chandrababu Naidu may ask two Union ministers to resign tomorrow TDP threatens to part ways Centre says yes to funds no to special category status Tags: Chandrababu Naidu Nitie VerlekarMar 3 2018 at 1:42 amNo state in India should get special category status. Everyone needs to work hard to come up on their own. Funds given by central govt should be used for welfare of the society not to fill up the politicians pockets. Kashmir s special status should be revoked too. India is a country which needs to teach the world that diversity is a strength. May God give better understanding of humanity to everyone soon.(1)(1) ReplySekhar AMar 3 2018 at 2:52 amU .. First understand on what basis AP is divided.First let s transfer RBI stock exchanges to south so that half of bombay will be empty.(1)(0) Reply Raman KayMar 2 2018 at 11:37 pmOK we will give him special category! You are in the category of dumb and a moron. There nailed it!(1)(1) ReplySekhar AMar 3 2018 at 2:57 am...dont post u r comments with out understanding on what circumustances AP got bifurcated.(0)(0) Reply Sriram KalpathiMar 2 2018 at 10:54 pmThe CM of Andhra is nowhere when compared with the CM of Telangana. The people will drop him if he does not bring results.(0)(1) ReplyVenkat PokkunuriMar 3 2018 at 12:54 amI am from Andhra telangana -HYD is nothing HYD was developed by Andhra people and our CM only. coming to your point telangana CM is just above average CBN is excellent. Telangana CM stands no where in the kind of admin skills leadership qualities and discpline that CBN does have he is a visinory. also TRS MLAS MPS and ministers are dammm corrupt and thugs. they are eating alll prjojects money. also telangana is backward in educaton and in every thing. telangana lands are far lless fetrtile in comparision with andhra lands. also we have vast sea cost which TN doesnt have. dont write nonsense.(3)(8) ReplySekhar AMar 3 2018 at 3:01 amKcr is good for nothing.(0)(0) Reply Venkat PokkunuriMar 2 2018 at 9:55 pmHe is a very good CM but acting alot for no valid reason Andhra is a rich and very progressive state with very fertile lands rivers vast sea coast above alll people are intelligent hard working and highly educated and in many good positions all over country and also overseas. no point in trying to politicise this issue too much and start fighting with center. continous discussions are the only way forward.he knew that there is no way he can win Modi.PM damm care about any blackmailings or abuses he wont get even an appointent if he behaves like this. better he cuts his ego a bit.Modi and Amith shah are not kids to be threatened. he is feeling insecure because of YRCP might have pac with BJP in coming elections and he might loose.(5)(6) ReplyNNAMEMar 3 2018 at 2:50 amDo you call chaotic expansion development?(0)(0) Reply
The erstwhile Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government did not do justice to Andhra Pradesh while bifurcating the state in 2014 but the current central government is not even fulfilling the promises made by the Congress Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu told CR Sukumar in an interview. Naidu whose Telugu Desam Party is part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance said the Centre should accord Andhra Pradesh special category status and attendant benefits as it is doing in the case of some other states. Edited excerpts: You came to power amid a lot of hopes and expectations of people of Andhra Pradesh. How do you assess your progress? The state bifurcation was not done scientifically. Andhra Pradesh is left without a capital city educational and healthcare institutions industries and income resources. It was not just injustice but Andhra people were also insulted. People punished the Congress for that. With all my experience as chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh for nine years and as Opposition leader for 10 years I have started the journey of rebuilding the state. There were promises made under the bifurcation Act by the then United Progressive Alliance government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the poll campaign at Tirupati and other places in 2014 gave hope on many issues including support for a world-class capital city for Andhra. Congress did injustice and we hoped BJP as our alliance partner would do justice. I have visited New Delhi 29 times in the past three and a half years asking that promises made under bifurcation Act and assurances made in Parliament be fulfilled. What is the progress in fulfilling these promises? They didn t give special category status. The nominal industrial incentives that they gave to Andhra and Telangana are unattractive. The division of institutions and assets under Schedule IX and X has not been completed yet. The deficit finance is not given. Why is the Centre not acceding to Andhra Pradesh s requests? I am unable to understand. They should answer. I supported them in all their major reform initiatives in the spirit of cooperative federalism. I supported initiatives like demonetisation and GST (goods and services tax). I was even the convenor for digital economy and submitted recommendations. I am not seeking any favours. Whatever was promised under the AP State Reorganisation Act are the legitimate rights of people of Andhra. People of Andhra were not happy even with those promises made under the bifurcation Act in 2014 and assurances by the Congress and punished it. The current government is not implementing even those promises. What are the options that you are now considering? I will continue to fight for the legitimate rights of people of Andhra. Secondly I may have to take political decisions also accordingly. I will have to arouse people of Andhra to work hard further. Otherwise we will suffer badly. The two leading national parties at the Centre Congress and BJP shouldn t have handled the issues of states like this. They should have been more responsible and sensitive in the interest of the nation. BJP may be thinking that they will not lose anything in Andhra. Elections are held every five years and parties in the government keep changing. You cannot discriminate against districts or states that didn t vote for you. We should think in terms of national interest. Why did you make a U-turn on the special category status by accepting a special package? There was no U-turn. It was a mistake committed by the government of India. They told me that they are not giving special category status to any state. They offered to give us special assistance similar to special category status. Now they are extending the special category status to some states. We are asking them to extend it to us also and not to discriminate. What they are doing is not correct. Why should people of Andhra be deprived of special category status? Give us also the benefits and the status of special category. What is your appeal to BJP now? As a politician who has seen ups and downs of various political parties in this country over the past four decades I appeal to both the BJP and Congress not to offend the sentiments of people of Andhra and deprive them in the interest of the nation. I am appealing to both of them to correct themselves and their mistakes.
HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu will address a mega public meeting at Khammam next month. The party chief has decided to dedicate at least one or two days in a week to review the party activities in Telangana mainly to strengthen the party and restore the past glory to the party in Telangana. Naidu assured the party leaders during his two day meetings with Telangana TDP leaders held on February 28 and March 1. TDP in Telangana lost its sheen for quite some time especially after many party leaders and MLAs left the party and joined either Telangana Rashtra Samithi or Congress. Naidu also didn t tour Telangana for the past two years especially after the cash for vote scam. In the recent past TDP has taken up programmes such as Palle Palle Ku Telugu Desam and even taken up agitational programmes on various issues. But they could not stop migration of cadre from TDP to other political parties. Now with the Lok Sabha elections due either by the end of this year or in the first quarter of 2019 the Telangana TDP boss has decided to strengthen the party and revive its glory. Chandrababu Naidu who is camping in Hyderabad for the past two days held meeting with the party politburo and central committee on Thursday. He directed the party leaders to strengthen the party from the grass root level. Naidu on Wednesday addressed the party general body and dismissed reports that his party will be merged either with the TRS or any other party in Telangana. He made these remarks in the wake of TDP leader Mothkupalli Narsimhulu making such a suggestion. Interestingly Narsimhulu did not come to the party leaders meet. Our party president has directed us to continue the party programme palle palleku TDP to reach out to people in all the villages till March 29. He also asked us to fill up party district presidents in Sanga Reddy Nizamabad Karimnagar Sircilla and Peddapally districts which are lying vacant for the past few months Telangana TDP president L Ramana told TOI. Since the party still has cadre in almost all the Assembly constituencies in Telangana both local and state party leaders will frequently interact with them Ramana said.
Written by Sreenivas Janyala | Updated: February 23 2018 9:31 am The TDP says hopes raised by Chandrababu Naidu s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi were dashed by the Budget announcements. (Express Archive) Related News TDP vs Modi Sarkar LIVE UPDATES: Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu asks two Union ministers to resign todayBSF man s pay cut: PM Modi steps in order withdrawnTDP walks out of Govt: Why fallout poses a challenge to BJP s numbers count for 2019Leaders of the TDP and BJP have been trading accusations over central assistance since the Union Budget was presented with the former alleging that Andhra Pradesh had been ignored. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu this week threatened to bring a no-confidence motion against the Centre in Parliament to demand justice albeit as a last resort . Naidu repeated his grievance that the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 and the promises made by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have not been implemented . He referred to Special Category Status as Andhra s right and said that the BJP was not budging only because it has a total majority in Parliament. What has put the TDP s ties with the BJP under strain? State s revenue deficit According to officials AP faced a revenue deficit of Rs 16 000 crore in 2014-15 Rs 4 598 crore in 2016-17 and almost a similar amount in 2017-18. In 2018-19 the deficit is estimated to be Rs 416 crore. The deficit arose after the state s bifurcation in 2014 and AP wants the Centre to compensate for its losses. The TDP recalls that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured Rajya Sabha on February 20 2014 that any resource gap that the successor state of AP might face would be made good in the Union Budget for 2014-15. However the Finance Ministry said AP had included Rs 10 000 crore it gave as farm loan waivers in its revenue deficit calculation. The Centre finally agreed to give Rs 7 500 crore as compensation but has so far paid only about Rs 4 000 crore. Also even as negotiations on the rest of the amount are under way the Centre has now said it owes only Rs 138.39 crore officials in the state said. The Polavaram project The TDP argues that since Polavaram has been declared a national project the Centre should bear its entire cost including the cost of land acquisition and rehabilitation which comes to around Rs 33 000 crore. According to TDP MP K Rammohan Naidu about Rs 7 500 crore have been spent on the project of which the Centre gave Rs 4 500 crore. He said the state had borrowed Rs 3 000 crore and was paying an interest of Rs 300 crore every year. The Centre had lost interest in the project alleged Rammohan Naidu who was part of a delegation that met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. BJP MP K Hari Babu said the Centre has so far released Rs 4 662.28 crore for Polavaram. Construction of Amaravati Andhra says it needs hand-holding for a few years as it builds a capital from scratch. The Centre has so far given Rs 2 500 crore including Rs 500 crore to the Guntur and Vijayawada Municipal Corporations to lay out drainage systems. The remaining amount is meant for building the secretariat Assembly Raj Bhavan and High Court. AP has built a temporary secretariat at Velagapudi and has approved designs for permanent buildings in Amaravati. Naidu wants the Centre to allocate funds for the entire capital region which is estimated to cost Rs 33 000 crore. Visakhapatnam railway zone TDP leaders say establishing a new railway zone would bring a lot of investment and jobs to the region. They say this had been promised in the AP Reorganisation Act but the Centre is dragging its feet because of Odisha s opposition. Bhubaneswar fears its importance as the East Coast Railway headquarters may be diminished if a new zone is created Rammohan Naidu said. Building central institutions The AP Reorganisation Act 2014 assured that 19 institutions and projects like IIT IIM etc. would be established in AP. While work on more than a dozen institutions is ongoing AP says progress is slow and funds are coming in a trickle. For instance the estimated cost of setting up an IIT in Tirupati is Rs 3 150 crore but the Centre has so far released only Rs 56.49 crore. Special Category/Package The Centre says the assurance of special status clashes with the recommendations of the Fourteenth Finance Commission which came subsequently. Following the acceptance of the recommendations the class of Special Category States has ceased to exist. However the Centre has agreed to give special assistance to AP for five years which would make up for the additional central share the state might have received during these years 2015-16 to 2019-20 as envisaged by Singh s 2014 statement. This will be in the form of Union funding for externally aided projects that have been signed and disbursed during these years. AP is demanding that special assistance funding should be in the 90:10 ratio (Centre:state) for both EAPs and centrally-sponsored schemes which adds up to about Rs 20 010 crore of central assistance. Because the state government may not be able to spend this amount on EAPs in the stipulated five years AP is demanding that the Centre allow it to use the money to clear outstanding loans. It is seeking permission to borrow from internal lenders like NABARD HUDCO and other commercial banks and to use the gap to pay interest commitments to the Government of India NABARD and EAPs. For all the latest Explained News download Indian Express App More Related News Andhra denied special category status: TDP walks out of Govt puts NDA on notice ahead of 2019 Upset over denial of special status for Andhra Chandrababu Naidu pulls out TDP ministers from Modi cabinet Tags: Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu Narendra Modi TDP-BJP alliance DDr. Codadu PratapFeb 23 2018 at 11:49 pmThe latest move by the Rayalaseema BJP MLAs demanding an Assembly session High Court Bench and immediate release of 20 000 crores for irrigation projects foreshadows an imminent threat by that party to re-ignite the separate Rayalaseema issue. Such a move at this juncture cannot but be seen as a veiled threat by the BJP to further bifurcate the state a la Sonia if Chandrababu Naidu does not fall in line. This is at once an admission by the BJP that it chose very consciously not to fulfil its statutory obligations towards Andhra Pradesh as well as of despicable coercive politics it practices.(3)(1) ReplyS KMar 6 2018 at 12:24 pmSeparate Rayalaseema is a non-starter as it will always be a deficit state.(0)(0) Reply emittrap@hotmail.comFeb 23 2018 at 11:17 amChandrababu Naidu is a corrupt CM. When farmers are committing suicide in large numbers he is spending billions on establishing the capital city. He is a stooge of the US. Deep investigations need to be carried out in all his dealings.(2)(11) ReplyS KMar 6 2018 at 12:26 pmYou make absolutely no sense as you don t understand basic economics.(0)(0) Reply SSatavahanaFeb 23 2018 at 9:25 amNaidu made a mistake in trusting Modi and Jaitley. He should walk away from NDA and preserve Andhra people s self respect. Remember what NT Rama Rao did. Kamal Haasan is right - southern states should work together and preserve their cultural iden y.(19)(6) ReplynagarFeb 23 2018 at 11:08 amIn a few decades all the Southern states will become Hindi Speaking . What Cultural Ident-ity you are talking about? All the Southern Languages are derived from Sanskrit. It was Chandrababu Naidu who betrayed NTR by usurping power(2)(19) ReplyHhuman beingFeb 23 2018 at 7:38 pmhe must have betrayed an individual ntr - that does not mean he has betrayed the state people. he is an efficient CM with lot of trust from the people of andhra and also with lot of jealousy from the people at the centre. to save the southerners the ignominy of 2nd class citizenry it is important to have a seperate federation with checks and balances and kamal haasan is right in this respect.(12)(2)S KMar 6 2018 at 12:31 pmSouthern languages may be rooted in Sanskrit just like Hindi but unlike Hindi Southern languages are not influenced by the Islamic invaders. If you think Hindi movies will wipe out Southern languages you are an ignorant fool. Life doesn t reflect movies its movies that reflect life. There are more Telugu movies produced than all of Hindi movies over the last 30 years and that is just one Southern language.(0)(0) IIndian AbroadFeb 23 2018 at 8:56 amAll states are equal. There cannot be a special status to any state including J K.(3)(11) ReplySSatavahanaFeb 23 2018 at 9:18 amSo you must be against BIMARU states getting a lot of money from the central government. For example for every 17 paise that UP contributes it receives 2 rupees in return. Take any South Indian state - they receive less than what they contribute.(14)(4) ReplyTechnicalFeb 23 2018 at 11:13 amBIMARU?? - In reality the Southern states are the https://olioboard.com/users/kkmaketrip BIMARU states. There are no farmers suicides in Bihar MP Rajasthan or UP. Almost all the farmers suicides are confined to the Southern states of Kerala Karnataka Andhras Maharashtra.(4)(5)
AMARAVATI: Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu told the party leaders to counter Jaganmohan Reddy s criticism and fight for the welfare of people in the state. The chief minister wanted his party to become aggressive while resorting to counter verbal attacks on Jagan. He also suggested them to expose opportunistic politics of the YSR Congress leader and ensure that people reject him. However he reminded the party legislators of the impending budget session in the Assembly which is slated to start from March 5. As for the impending Rajya Sabha elections scheduled for March 23 the chief minister wanted the MLAs to be available for the polling. Though he did not give any names for the Rajya Sabha elections he had a brief discussion on whether to field three candidates or limit to the two seats leaving the third one to Jagan. Addressing a meeting of the party coordination committee ahead of the Assembly budget session Rajya Sabha elections and the fight for the bifurcation benefits Chandrababu Naidu told them to be cautious. Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu congratulated Chandrababu Naidu for his successful political career that has helped the party and the state as well. Naidu said to have spent 40 years in serving people.

Modis projects that tilted the northeast states towards BJP

NEW DELHI: The stellar performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent state elections in Tripura Nagaland and Meghalaya is a landmark for a party which had little traction in the region except in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The party never had any significant connect with the masses and was seen as an outsider. What changed the situation? BJP president Amit Shah in his first press conference after the results credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi s Act East policy for the upsurge in fortunes. Modi s Act East policy included a big push for road and railway infrastructure and various steps to boost the regional economy. While most of the infrastructural projects are at various stages of completion Modi s northeast agenda created a rhetoric of inclusiveness that helped bring the masses closer to the BJP. Below are a few important initiatives by the Modi government that may have made the BJP acceptable to the northeast voters: The railways push Before a metre-gauge line started in 2008 Tripura didn t have any railway link with https://kkmyntra.tumblr.com/ the rest of the country. The Modi government converted it into broad gauge. All over the region the government has converted 900 km of tracks to broad gauge. It also launched a Rajdhani Express and the Tripura Sundari Express between Agartala and Delhi. In 2016 then railways minister Suresh Prabhu laid the foundation stone for the Rs 2 315 crore 88-km Dhansiri-Kohima railway track connecting Kohima to the national railway network. The government also began railway projects to connect Imphal Aizawl and Shillong. It has introduced more than two dozen new trains in the region. It also signed a deal with Bangladesh to develop a rail link between Tripura and Chittagong which would speed up flow of products especially grains to the region. Roads and highways Modi has branded his policy to build infrastructure in northeast as Transformation by Transportation . Lack of connectivity has been a major roadblock in the economic progress on the region. Modi s promise of connectivity resonates with the masses. More than 3 800 km of national highways with an investment of Rs. 32 000 crore have been sanctioned in the region in the past three years while nearly 1 200 km of roads have been constructed according to the government. In a public announcement in December last year Modi said the centre would invest another Rs. 60 000 crore under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in the northeast and Rs. 30 000 crore under the Bharatmala project over three years. Modi also dedicated to the nation a 271-km two-lane national highway connecting Tura in western Meghalaya to the state capital Shillong last year. Air connectivity The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has allocated Rs 3 400 crore for the upgradation of airports in the North East region. According to the government projects worth Rs 934 crore have already been completed while the rest would be over in the next two or three years. The aviation projects in the northeast include re-carpeting of the runway at Silchar and Lilabari airport and an aviation manpower training institute; development of Rupsi airport; a new integrated airport and an engineering workshop at Agartala; expansion and revamp of existing terminal building and runway at Dimapur; installation of an instrument landing system (ILS) at the Shillong airport; and operationalisation and development of the Tura airport. Other projects and policies Last year Modi dedicated the 60-MW Tuirial hydropower power project which made Mizoram the third power-surplus state in the northeast to Sikkim and Tripura. The project is expected to produce 251 million units of electricity annually. Announced in 1998 by the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government it was the first major central government project to be successfully commissioned in Mizoram. Recently the government decided to fully fund various Central projects being implemented in the northeast instead of the previous practice of sharing 90 per cent of the cost. The Modi government has also made the 1360-km long India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway which is to be completed in 2020 a centerpiece of its Act East policy. Opening the northeast to the ASEAN countries the highway will boost the regional economy. In Budget 2018-19 the government re-classified bamboo from tree to grass which would enable easier cultivation for commercial purposes. Bamboo is central to the rural economy of the northeast. Its classification as tree meant various restrictions on its produce transport and sale.
Hours after a BJP office in Tamil Nadu was attacked party National Secretary H. Raja on Wednesday expressed regret for his Facebook post that said statues of rationalist movement founder E.V.Ramasamy or Periyar would be razed to the ground in the state. Early on Wednesday a petrol bomb was hurled at a BJP office around 500 km from here in Coimbatore by unidentified persons. Later in a fresh Facebook post on Wednesday Raja expressed his heartfelt regret for his Tuesday s post which he claimed was a message posted by his social media administrator without his permission and hence he had removed it. Raja expressed regret if his post had hurt anybody s feelings. According to him damaging the statues of Ramasamy is not agreeable. The message that was posted and later removed said: Who is Lenin? What is the connection between him (Lenin) and India? What connection between communism and India? Lenin s statue was broken down in Tripura. Today it is Lenin s statue in Tripura and tomorrow it will be the statue of caste fanatic E.V.Ramasamy. Late on Tuesday two persons were arrested in Thirupattur in Vellore district for vandalising Ramasamy s statue. The attackers at the BJP s office in Coimbatore had come in a three wheeler and had thrown the petrol bomb inside the office. Police are investigating the case.
Days after the Bharatiya Janata Party won assembly elections in Tripura the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Tripura accused it of unleashing concerted violence against its workers and vandalising its offices. In a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday the CPI(M) alleged that 514 of its workers had been injured with more than 1 500 homes attacked purportedly by BJP supporters. In addition it claimed 350 of its offices had been ransacked or captured by the newly elected party. This is not just an attack on our party said CPI(M) leader Jitendra Chaudhury. This is an attack on our Constitution our fundamental rights. Chaudhury who is one of the two Lok Sabha members from Tripura claimed the party s workers were being attacked in broad daylight by lethal weapons and petrol bombs . He alleged the attackers had the tacit support of the BJP s senior leaders. There are being instigated this is an organised attack he said. The parliamentarian said that the jubilant reactions of top BJP leaders to the destruction of a statue of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov or Lenin by alleged BJP supporters in a town called Belonia in the state s southern district was testament to the saffron party s endorsement of violence. Ram Madhav the party s national general secretary justified the vandalism in a tweet he alleged. They are sowing the seeds of hatred in Tripura. In a tweet that has since been deleted Madhav had written: People taking down Lenin s statue not in Russia; it is in Tripura. Chalo Paltai . Chalo Paltai Let s change was the war cry of the BJP s election campaign in Tripura.On Tuesday Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called the governor of Tripura Tathagata Roy and asked him to ensure peace till the new government took charge. On Monday Roy had expressed support for the razing of the Lenin statue.What one democratically elected government can do another democratically elected government can undo. And vice versa https://t.co/Og8S1wjrJs Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) March 5 2018 We reject these charges The Bharatiya Janata Party s spokesperson in the state Mrinal Kanti Deb however rejected the charges against its leaders and workers. He alleged it was a conspiracy by the CPI(M) to disturb the law and order of the state. People have changed their colours overnight he said. A lot of Left workers after our victory started identifying themselves as the BJP workers. They are the ones involved in the few sporadic violent activities that may have taken place. But once our government takes charge all of them will be sent to jail. Several people in the state said that violence was quite widespread. In every village there has been violence said a rubber planter from Santirbazar in South Tripura. This is really disappointing because this is not what I had voted the BJP for. I hope the party s senior leaders take action. They can t just say they are not our workers. Said an Agartala-based businessman: Yes there has been violence but it only natural. There were a lot of pent-up emotions among people. The Left after all had been in power for 25 years. Post-poll violence regular farePolitical observers point out that post-poll violence in Tripura is not a new occurrence. It happened in 2013 in 2008 in 2003 so there s nothing really new said an Agartala-based political analyst. But it does seem that there has been a quick turnover this time a lot of low-level Left leaders seem to have changed loyalties. Miscreants understand which side to be on and as newcomers you have to prove your worth that s how it works everywhere. Tapas Dey a veteran Congress leader and former legislator said the CPI(M) had only itself to blame. Post-poll violence is a legacy that the Left had left behind claimed Dey. They are doing this hue and cry this time because they are facing the heat. But the truth is they have created this culture. Electoral violence is common in Tripura. In the run-up to the state elections both the CPI(M) and the BJP lost several of their workers in violent clashes that would routinely break out between the two parties. Government officials however said that violence was beginning to taper off beginning Monday evening. Things are under control said a senior state government official. There are prohibitory orders in some places but that s only a preventive measure. A top official of the district administration of Sepahijala one of the two districts where Section 144 was imposed on Sunday said there had been sporadic clashes. He claimed many of these clashes were personal that had been given political colour . Both parties are involved he said on Tuesday evening. This happens after election results in Tripura and we expect things to be completely normal by tomorrow.
On 6 March just days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in the Tripura state Assembly elections a mob of saffron party workers bulldozed a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Belonia. The celebratory act was undertaken with much fervor to mark the right-wing party s decisive victory over the 25 years-long left-wing government in the state led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). BJP workers shout victory slogans during Vijay rally to celebrate their party s success in North East Assembly elections outside state party headquarter in Kolkata on Sunday. PTI Within India s postcolonial polity the dismantling of the statue in Belonia was a public spectacle unlike any other. Not that statues of political leaders haven t been vandalised in the past but such festive destructions in the wake of a sweeping election victory have been rare. Not many mainstream political parties have dared to ride majority public mandates to swiftly vandalise statues. It is not hard to comprehend the motivation behind Lenin s Tripura fall: the BJP s foot soldiers rode the victory wave to do what they ve probably been wanting to do since the very idea of re-capturing Tripura from the communists took shape in the party s high command i.e. raze CPM s legacy to the ground and start afresh. A standard part of this design is to erase public memory of Tripura s Communist past and statues are a convenient place to start. What more Lenin s controversial (and somewhat disturbing) political legacy makes him the perfect game meat. In an objective sense the Belonia destruction represents an all-too-familiar project of political iconoclasm. History is replete with ample instances of legacy destructions across the board: from Bamiyan to Kiev. These were often done in contravention of the law straddling the broader framework of resistance politics. After all in a democracy erecting a certain statue is as legitimate or illegitimate as bringing it down. Toppling statues kicking police barricades: no big deal in the restive milieu of democratic struggles. As American journalist and current dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Steve Coll wrote last year in an article on New Delhi s attempts to reconcile with colonial stone relics: One difference between democracies and dictatorships is that the constructing and revising of public spaces is not a propaganda opportunity for the ruler but a realm of democratic discourse influenced by popular opinion and competitive electoral politics. But history cannot be a veneer on political disruptions when it comes to partisan offensives. It is imperative to call out the Belonia act for what it was: violent. It is also important to note what the BJP did and did not do. The BJP did destroy the statue. The BJP did not relocate it out of public view when it had the option of doing so. Thus Lenin s nth fall in a far-flung corner of India had a peculiar tenor to it. The statue was bulldozed not in active resistance like in the cases of American Confederate statues being brought down to protest against Trump s racism but as an aggressive mark of all-encompassing victory. BJP did not need to bring Lenin down - they had already won the popular mandate. In that sense Belonia 2018 mirrors Baghdad 2003 where US forces brought down Saddam Hussein s statue simply to mark a wildly successful invasion and usher in a new era. The parallel drawn here isn t really between Lenin and Saddam (that s for the jury to decide) but between the aggressor s warlike pathologies. The critical difference here though is that while Baghdad 2003 happened in the thick of a full-blown military invasion Belonia 2003 unraveled in the immediate aftermath of a free fair and peaceful election. Herein lies the menacing quality of Lenin s Tripura fall. By exploiting a decisive public mandate to bulldoze a statue the BJP has only made a complete mockery of the very ethos of electoral democracy. Its leaders would do well to note that poll victories in a democracy are not free passes to take unilateral action especially when that action directly impacts a publicly-owned space. Any belief otherwise is taking the electorate for granted. If the BJP does actually believe that the Tripura victory carries a de facto public tender to destroy statues then it might want to wash the murk off its eyes. Communism did not come to the state just the other day: it was the political status quo for 25 long years a large part of which saw socio-economic stability and peace. To tinker with this entrenched legacy in a particularly dramatic fashion would be to push the fresh election mandate over the edge. The BJP should also remember that the quest to erase history is a futile one and more often than not an endeavour at self-destruction. A better template for revisionist politics something that the saffronites seem to be doping on at the moment is to permit problematic relics to remain as they are and contextualise them within democratic values of debate and dissent. On this the Director of the Smithsonian s National Museum of African American History and Culture Lonnie G. Bunch III offers a blunt take: I am loath to erase history. For me it s less about whether they statues come down or not and more about what the debate is stimulating. Fact remains that the BJP s bulldozing of Lenin s statue will go down as the party s reckless attempt to violently insert itself into Tripura s rich history. Not unlike the destruction of the Babri Masjid by Karsevaks in 1992 the Belonia bulldozing will also go down as a patent marker of right-wing exclusionist politics in this country which banks upon total homogenisation of political belief systems to ensure its own survival. The author is researcher and coordinator South East Asia Research Programme at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies.
ALSO READ TDP-BJP coalition: Andhra CM says I never break mitra dharma Special status: Andhra CM questions BJP s silence Andhra CM warns BJP to not play with Telugu people BJP Congress responsible for injustice with Andhra: TDP AP CM congratulates BJP for winning Gujarat Himachal polls span.p-content div id = div-gpt line-height:0;font-size:0 The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members in Andhra Pradesh have announced their resignation from state cabinet moments after Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu asked Telugu Desam Party (TDP) ministers to resign from the Union Cabinet.Soon after Naidu s press conference BJP MLA Akula Satyanarayana spoke to media and announced that the two BJP ministers in the state cabinet namely Kamineni Srinivas and Paidikondala Manikyala Rao will resign on Thursday morning. He said both Srinivas and Manikyala Rao would not attend the cabinet meeting to be held on Thursday morning.Meanwhile BJP leader Krishna Sagar Rao on Wednesday called Naidu s announcement a political opportunism . BJP believes what has happened tonight is a classic case of political opportunism and a case of compulsive politics Rao told ANI.He also called Naidu s statement that the central government was not standing up to support Andhra Pradesh a blatant lie .Earlier on Wednesday night Naidu directed two Telugu Desam Party ministers to resign from Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led cabinet amid the growing strain in ties between his party and the Bharatiya Janata Party over alleged neglect of the state in the Union Budget.Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y. S. Chowdary are the two ministers who have been asked to resign from their respective offices. This is our right. The Centre is not fulfilling the promises it made said Naidu who has been urging the Centre to give special category status to Andhra Pradesh.Naidu s reaction came after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said no to chief minister s demand earlier in the day.(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NEW DELHI: An easing of tensions between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) seemed evident after a cordial meeting of the regional party s leaders with finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday evening after some heated moments in Parliament during the day. The meeting lowered temperatures after the government seemed ready to make a statement in Parliament detailing financial assistance provided to Andhra Pradesh. TDP has alleged that the Centre has failed to deliver on fiscal commitments following the creation of Telangana. There has been some exasperation in BJP ranks over TDP s disruption of Parliament over injustice to Andhra Pradesh since the first half of the Budget session. TDP has not been satisfied with the Centre s statement that it will find ways to support financial demands raised by the state. Sources said the Centre could give details of assistance provided for the construction of a new capital at Amravati and the Polavaram project to Parliament if the need arose a move that could bring the confrontation with TDP to a head in the midst of fresh efforts to form a third front . The political churn follows the BJP s success in recent state polls in the north-east. TDP leaders are insisting that assistance amounting to around Rs 16 000 crore is due to the state and only a part of this has been delivered. They say this a reduced figure arrived at after the Modi government assumed office. BJP leaders however argue that earlier assistance provided was used to fund welfare schemes and the Centre could not underwrite the bill. Sources at the Centre said that nearly Rs 12 000 crore had been already released to Andhra Pradesh and the former only needed to provide around Rs 1 500 crore that was committed earlier. The Centre said the state government had little to show by way of progress on the ground. Even on the issue of a new state capital in Amravati the state government s response was ambivalent. While ruling out special category state status citing recommendations from several panels sources said the Centre had proposed that it could provide funding through externally-aided assistance. Though this was communicated to the Chandrababu Naidu government almost a month ago the state government was yet to come back with a list of projects. Similarly the request for additional support from Nabard was not accepted as it would impact the fiscal calculations but an option of providing funds through a special purpose vehicle has been suggested where the financial institution could chip in. Again the Andhra government was yet to come back with proposals.
Since Saturday a new narrative has emerged. The Bharatiya Janata Party has swept the North East decimating all opposition including the Congress and the Left. A part of the country that was once cut off from the national mainstream has now been engulfed in the saffron deluge.It is true that the BJP has made remarkable gains in the North East. From no government and few seats in 2014 when the BJP came to power at the Centre it is now part of government in six out of seven states. But a closer look at electoral maps of the North East suggests claims of a BJP wave may be overstated.In elections held in the North East a decade ago the BJP had cornered just 2.6% of the vote share. This year the same three states went to elections. In Nagaland Meghalaya and Tripura combined the BJP managed 26.47% of the vote share. A sharp increase certainly but a wave? It is not just about vote share which after all is a function of the number of seats contested but even when we consider the seats won a look at the constituency map of all seven states of the North East shows the saffron party remains a patchy though pivotal presence in the region.Patchwork verdictsThe North East is a tremendously diverse region and each of the seven states has a distinct politics. Christian majority Nagaland and Meghalaya for instance are vastly different from the border states of Tripura and Assam. Within states there may be several different regions. Take Assam home to the autonomous council areas of Bodoland the Muslim-majority districts of Goalpara and Dhubri as well as to the districts of Upper Assam once the epicentre of Assamese nationalism. To speak of sweeping the North East as a whole is a Delhi-centric fallacy.Arunachal Pradesh where the BJP came to power in 2016 was an unelected victory engineered through defections and it is alleged by the Centre wielding undue influence on the office of the governor. Elsewhere the party s rapid advance seems to be fuelled by two factors. First by smart alliances and focus on target constituencies it is able to ensure high strike rate. Where the saffron party did not have the seats it was able to cobble together strategic alliances with regional parties both before and after elections to ensure it had a place in government.The Meghalaya factorIn these elections alone the idea of a saffron wave needs to be interrogated. But first let s acknowledge that it won Tripura convincingly. In a 60-member assembly the BJP will have 35 seats enough to form government even without its ally the Indigenous People s Front of Tripura. The BJP won 35 seats with 43% of the vote share while the Left managed only 16 seats with 42.7% but that is because the BJP contested 51 seats and the Left 59. The BJP thus won 70% of the seats it contested against 29% for the CPI(M). But the Indigenous People s Front of Tripura did even better since it won 8 of the 9 seats it contested which is a strike rate of 89%.Even if the Tripura results are called a sweep for the BJP it did not exactly win the Nagaland and Meghalaya elections. In Nagaland it increased its tally from one seat in the 2013 elections to 12 this time. Its vote share increased from 1.8% in 2013 to 15.3% this year. Considering the BJP only fielded candidates in 20 seats this was a very respectable showing. But the party still has just a fifth of the assembly seats and will play second fiddle in the alliance that finally comes to power.In Meghalaya these elections were decidedly a vote against the BJP which won only two seats in spite of an energetic poll campaign. These were unreserved and largely urban constituencies clustered around the capital of Shillong. It did not make a dent in the Garo Hills where agitations around the BJP s beef politics were most intense. It did not even gain seats from the Jaintia Hills a hub of resentment against the Congress. Part of the state s coal belt these areas had been hit economically after the court s mining ban in 2014. It was felt that the Congress had not done enough to stop it while the BJP promised to reverse the ban.The BJP will come to power in Meghalaya on the strength of regional allies. The National People s Party gained an impressive 19 seats up from two in the 2013 elections and is likely to be the fulcrum around which government is formed. The BJP and the National People s Party managed to cobble together a majority with smaller parties but it remains an uneasy alliance. On Monday there were rumours of a rift in the new coalition with the Hill States People s Democratic Party reportedly objecting to a tie up with the BJP.The Meghalaya verdict reveals deep wells of tribal resentment against the BJP that have not been stirred by the so-called saffron wave.Congress waning?Meanwhile though it has virtually been wiped out off Nagaland and Tripura the Congress managed to hold its own in Meghalaya. In spite of visible anti-incumbency and a government that was perceived to be lax and corrupt it managed to emerge as the single largest party with 21 seats and a vote share of 28.5%. But the Congress ceding ground to the BJP has become a pattern in the last few years.Take Manipur where the BJP came to power last year. The Congress won 28 seats to the BJP s 21 with only a slightly lower vote share 35.1% against 36.3%. But it was the BJP which managed to persuade smaller parties to form the ruling coalition.It was different in Assam where the BJP scored its biggest win in the North East before Tripura. The Congress got 31% of the vote share after contesting 122 seats while the BJP got 29.5% and won 60 seats out of the 89 it contested. To cobble together a majority the party had already forged a rainbow coalition in the diverse state tying up with the Bodoland People s Front the Asom Gana Parishad and other smaller http://investimonials.com/users/shopozoind@gmail.com.aspx tribal parties.With the BJP forming the Union government the centre of gravity has shifted towards the party in these poor states of the North East heavily dependent on funds from Delhi. It was the same in the United Progressive Alliance years when the Congress had a presence in all state governments in the region apart from Nagaland. From being a non-entity a few years ago the saffron party has certainly become a force to reckon with in most states of the North East. The Congress is also a shrinking presence with no energy to reverse the trend. But verdicts of a saffron tide and a Congress disappearance would be premature.
ALSO READ Tripura polls: BJP pitches for Vaampanth Mukt Bharat BJP uses polarisation as tool: Cong BJP seeks its CMs views on One nation-One election idea All Shiv Sena candidates in Gujarat polls lose deposit A chilly day in UP ends in heated blanket battle span.p-content div id = div-gpt line-height:0;font-size:0 Two more people accused of hurling a petrol bomb at Bharatiya Janata Party s (BJP) office in Coimbatore arrested by the police on Wednesday. One more person had surrendered before the police earlier today.The accused named Jeeva Nanthan Gautham and Balu are workers of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam(TDPK).A petrol bomb was hurled after the statue of social reformer Periyar (EVR Ramasamy) was vandalised in Vellore just like Vladimir Lenin s statue in Tripura.BJP founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee s statue was also vandalized in Kolkata s Kalighat on Wednesday.Dr BR Ambedkar s statue was also razed by unidentified people in Meerut s Mawana on late Tuesday night.Taking serious notes of such incidents of vandalism the MHA said that any person indulging in such act must be sternly dealt with and booked under relevant provisions of law.(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)