- Tuesday, March 11, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are news in brief related to Indian politics for Saturday, August 27, 2022:
Following a meeting of the state lawmakers of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the residence of Hemant Soren, the beleaguered chief minister of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, three buses were spotted leaving the venue to an undisclosed location with UPA legislators on board, PTI reported. The agency reported that amid speculation of Soren’s disqualification over a mining-lease case, the ruling UPA is considering shifting its lawmakers to a “friendly state”. Meanwhile, Soren’s brother Basant Soren, also a lawmaker from the chief minister’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, told ABP News, “We feel we are going on picnic. There is no threat, the government is stable,” without disclosing where the buses were headed.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday claimed that the Indian government did not have to impose Goods and Services Tax on food items if the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had not spent a whopping Rs 6,300 crore on toppling governments of other parties in the country. Kejriwal’s remarks come a day after his called the BJP a “serial killer of state governments”. During his address in the Delhi Assembly, Kejriwal alleged that the BJP is using money collected through GST and hike in petrol and diesel prices to “poach” the MLAs. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor on Saturday also alleged that the people are facing the brunt of price rise with the BJP spending crores of rupees on ‘poaching’ other parties’ MLAs and bringing down their governments in states.
The Indian National Congress on Saturday slammed Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the alleged excise policy “scam” and demanded that either Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia should resign or he should be removed, Press Trust of India reported. Congress general secretary Ajay Maken also alleged that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was not removing Sisodia as the strings of the matter were attached to him. Maken challenged Kejriwal to a debate on the excise policy issue. “I challenge Kejriwal ji for a debate on this and I will tell him what the scam is,” he said. Maken also called for a thorough investigation into the “excise policy scam”.
A day after being marshalled out from the special session of the Delhi Assembly, BJP members of the assembly held a mock house on Saturday and slammed the AAP government over the alleged liquor “scam”, Press Trust of India reported. The mock assembly session was held at the Ambedkar International Centre during which BJP members wore masks to impersonate chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia and other ruling party MLAs. The eight BJP MLAs were marshalled out for the entire day over alleged video recording of the special session on Friday. During the mock session, the MLAs took turns to ask questions and slam the Kejriwal government over the alleged liquor “scam”, which they could not do in the House on Friday.
Indian home minister Amit Shah on Saturday said the Narendra Modi government took all efforts to strengthen probe agencies such as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and anti-terror laws in line with its policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism, PTI reported. The NIA will have branches in all the states by May 2024, he said. The home minister, who is also the No.2 in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, was speaking at the inauguration of the office building of the NIA’s Raipur branch in Atal Nagar area of Nava Raipur in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. “The Modi government has adopted zero tolerance policy against Left Wing Extremism, terrorism and other related crimes including fake currency and narcotics, and therefore we left no stone unturned to strengthen the NIA,” he said.
