STRANGULATION OF DEMOCRACY” SAYS CONGRESS AFTER RaGa’S DISQUALIFICATION AS MP

30 MPs DETAINED DURING OPPN’S ‘DEMOCRACY IN DANGER’ PROTEST

New Delhi: Over 30 opposition MPs, including those from the Congress, were detained on Friday as they took out a protest march from Parliament House, alleging that democracy is in “danger” and demanding a JPC probe into the Adani issue. Prominent leaders, including K C Venugopal, Adhir Chowdhury, K Suresh, Manickam Tagore, Imran Pratapgarhi and Mohammed Javed, were stopped by the police and detained at Vijay Chowk here for violating prohibitory orders, the opposition said.

“Over 30 MPs from opposition parties had to be detained for violation of Section 144 (prohibitory orders),” a senior Delhi Police officer said. The Delhi Police said those detained have been taken to a nearby police station.

RAHUL DEFAMED PARLIAMENT AND JUDICIARY: YADAV

Yechury Says Bjp Using Defamation To Target Oppn

New Delhi (ANI): The Congress on Friday came down heavily at Centre over disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as MP, calling it a “strangulation of democracy” while exuding confidence that the disqualification will be revoked through a stay on his conviction by a higher court.

The party alleged that Rahul's disqualification is part of a “pattern” to stop him from speaking out against the Central govt and also an attempt to divert public attention from real issues. Gandhi was disqualified as a member of the Lower House earlier on Friday.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in the national capital, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi and senior leader Jairam Ramesh lashed out at the Centre over the disqualification of the former national party president.

“The issue before us is political, more than it is legal. It is a political issue because it signifies the systematic, re- petitive emasculation of democratic institutions by the ruling party. It signifies the strangulation of democracy itself. We know that defamation is an exception to free speech, but over the last several years, we have had repeated examples of unthinkable assaults on freedom of speech, more importantly, freedom after speech.

We all know that Rahul Gandhi has been speaking fearlessly inside and outside Parliament,” Singhvi said.

Senior Congress leaders slam Rahul’s disqualification order

New Delhi (ANI): After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification of Lok Sabha Member of Parliament (MP), party leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday took a dig at the order and said that he was stunned by the “rapidity” of the action and termed it as “politics with the gloves off”.

New Delhi: Union Minister Bhupender Yadav on Friday alleged that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had defamed India on foreign soil and insulted the country’s judicial system and the OBC community. The union minister targeted the Congress leader over his conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case by a Surat court in connection with his “Modi surname” remarks case.

New Delhi: After Rahul Gandhi’s disqualified, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury in a tweet, said: “It’s condemnable that the BJP is now using the criminal defamation route to target opposition leaders and disqualify them as done with @RahulGandhi now. This comes on top of the gross misuse of ED/CBI against the opposition.”

BJP PRESIDENT NADDA SLAMS RAHUL GANDHI OVER HIS REMARKS ON MODI

New Delhi: BJP chief JP Nadda on Friday attacked Rahul Gandhi over his “Modis are thieves” remark and alleged that by comparing OBC communities to thieves, Gandhi has shown a “pathetic and casteist mindset”.

In a series of tweets, Nadda criticized Gandhi for his earlier remarks like “Chowkidar Chor Hai” and allegations of the Rafale scam. He further tweeted, “By comparing OBC communities to thieves, Rahul Gandhi has shown a pathetic and casteist mindset. However, his latest tirade is not surprising.”

OPPOSITION’S VOICE CAN’T BE SUPPRESSED: AAP

PROBES BY ED, CBI: 14 OPPN PARTIES IN SC FOR GUIDELINES

RaGa TO KHARGE

IF I TOUCH YOU, THEY SAY I’M WIPING MY NOSE ON YOUR BACK:

New Delhi: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi hit out at the media on Friday while helping party chief Mallikarjun Kharge walk down the stairs and said that “If I touch you, they say I’m wiping my nose on your back.” “If I touch you now, they say I’m wiping my nose on your back. Utter nonsense. Have you seen that?

That I am helping you over there, they’re saying that I’m wiping my nose on you,” Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was seen saying as he helped party chief Mallikarjun Kharge down the stairs. Rahul Gandhi and Kharge were coming out after attending the meeting of Congress MPs at the party office in the Parliament premises. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was also seen with Rahul Gandhi.

In The Courtyard

MERE MEMBERSHIP OF UNLAWFUL ORGANIZATION IS UAPA OFFENCE, RULES SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday overruled its 2011 judgments in Arup Bhuyan vs State of Assam, Indra Das vs State of Assam and State of Kerala vs Raneef which held that mere membership of a banned association is not sufficient to constitute an offence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 or the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, unless it is accompanied with some overt violent. A bench comprising Justices MR Shah, CT Ravikumar and Sanjay Karol also upheld Section 10(a) (i) of the UAPA which makes membership of an association, which has been declared to be unlawful, to be an offence.

DELHI HC SEEKS CHILD RIGHTS BODY’S RESPONSE ON PIL AGAINST RAHUL GANDHI

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday sought a response from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on a plea filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in connection with his tweet revealing the identity of the relatives of a minor who was raped and murdered in 2021. The Bench of Justice Satish Chander Sharma and Justice Sachin Datta on Friday listed the matter for July 27, after issuing notice to the NCPCR. Earlier NCPCR counsel submitted that it wants to support and joint hand with the petitioner in the matter.

COURT RESERVES ORDER ON BAIL PLEA OF SISODIA

Tharoor tweeted, “I am stunned by this action and by its rapidity, within 24 hours of the court verdict and while an appeal was known to be in process. This is politics with the gloves off and it bodes ill for our democracy.”

Meanwhile, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge told ANI, “They (BJP) tried all ways to disqualify him. They don’t want to keep those who are speaking the truth but we will con- tinue to speak the truth. We’ll continue to demand JPC, If needed we’ll go to jail to save democracy.”

While Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “We will fight this battle both legally and politically. We will not be intimidated or silenced. Instead of a JPC into the PM-linked Adani Maha Mega Scam, Rahul Gandhi stands disqualified. Indian Democracy Om Shanti.”

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday called Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha a dictatorial move and asserted that the BJP will not be able to suppress the voice of the opposition. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after he was convicted by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case for his alleged remark, “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?”

New Delhi: 14 Opposition parties have filed petitions in the Supreme Court seeking guidelines for arrest, remand, and bail of persons in matters being probed by various agencies including the CBI and ED. They have sought from the court certain prospectively applicable guidelines governing the arrest, remand, and bail of persons in cases (which may or may not be punishable with imprisonment for above 7 years) not involving serious bodily harm (excluding homicide, rape, terrorism, etc).

Is Opposition’s ‘squabble’ part of a strategy or is it a real fight?

Sharat K Verma

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday said it will pronounce its order on former Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s bail plea on March 31 in the excise policy case lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Special Judge M K Nagpal reserved his order on the Aam Aadmi Party leader’s plea seeking regular bail in the case after the CBI handed over a short note regarding its contention in the case.

The former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation last month.

New Delhi: In response to a question of Pradyut Bordoloi, Congress Lok Sabha MP from Assam, Centre on Friday said there is no provision to increase number of Assembly or Parliamentary constituencies in Assam. The MP asked for the details and reasons for the decision taken by Assam Govt to merge four districts just before the delimitation order. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju stated the delimitation exercise in the State shall be done as per the procedure laid down in section 8A of the Representation of People Act.

New Delhi: Are the Opposition parties fighting with each other under some strategy or is their fight genuine?

This is a million dollar question. Leaders of different parties are giving different answers to this question in informal conversations.

An informed leader working on the strategy of Opposition unity says that by the time elections come, all the parties will unite. He says that there is no use in creating unity now, on the contrary, this could lead to a loss. If the Opposition unity is formed now and it is decided that the Opposition will fight the elections together with the Congress, then there will be a stampede among the leaders and workers of all the parties and conflict will increase at the ground level. That’s why the parties are doing different politics right now.

Opposition parties are also thinking that if there is a message of unity from now on, BJP will be on alert and its preparations will be done accordingly. Secondly, if the Opposition unity is seen forming then the BJP and the Central government will try to break that unity in one way or the other.

Many parties of Opposition are also worried that if they show more closeness to the Congress, then the Central agencies will be after them. However, it is the belief of the Opposition that if they all appear to be fighting among themselves, the BJP would be careless.