BSP may come on board for 2019 Lok Sabha election: Rahul
New Delhi, Oct 5 : Congress President Rahul Gandhi Friday said BSP chief Mayawati's decision not to have an alliance with his party in Madhya Pradesh will not impact its poll prospects in the state even as he suggested that the BSP may come on board for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati announced early this week that her party would not forge an alliance with the Congress "at any cost" for the upcoming assembly polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, dealing a blow to the opposition's efforts to stitch a united front against the ruling BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
"The alliance in the state and the alliance in the centre are different and I think Mayawatiji has sort of indicated that...I don't see the BSP alliance impacting us much in Madhya Pradesh. It would have been a good thing to have them, but I think we will win the election in Madhya Pradesh, in Chhattisgarh. I think, in the national election, the parties will come together, particularly in Uttar Pradesh," he said at the HT Leadership Summit.
Asked if he does not rule out having an alliance with BSP in Lok Sabha polls, he said, "That is an indication we have."
He said the two parties were in conversation with each other on an alliance in Madhya Pradesh and claimed he was "more flexible" than the state Congress leaders on seat-sharing but the BSP decided to go its own way.
Announcing her decision to go it alone in the state polls, Mayawati had said that even though the Congress chief and his mother Sonia Gandhi appeared to be in favour of an alliance, there were other "senior leaders" who worked to foil any possibility of an understanding.
Mayawati alleged the Congress had not mended itself and like the BJP "betrayed" her party.
Gandhi also said that he would become prime minister if the allies want him, but the first step is for all parties to get together and defeat the ruling BJP.
It's a two-stage process and a decision on who will be prime minister comes second, Gandhi said.
"We have had discussions with allies and what we decided is that this is a two stage process -- one is to get together and defeat BJP and stage two is, once the election is over then we will decide what happens," the Congress president explained.
Probed further about the possibility of him becoming prime minister, Gandhi said, "If they (allies) want me, sure...I will."
Taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and its ideological fountainhead RSS, Gandhi said a single, suffocating ideology is being imposed upon 1.3 billion Indians.
"There is an ideological war taking place and the people who define the BJP ideology are the RSS. The ideological centre that is fighting the BJP can only be the Congress," he said.
"I am ready to take criticisms and questions. Why can't the prime minister do the same. India desperately needs healing and listening and all sections want it," he said.
He also attacked the government on various fronts, including demonetisation, foreign policy, mounting non-performing assets of banks, and governance.
The Congress chief, answered questions on a range of issues, including his temple visits and noted that "it not just irritated the BJP, but infuriated them".
Gandhi said he has been going to temples, gurudwaras and mosques for years, but the issue of his visits to temples has suddenly been publicised.
"I guess, this type of thing, it irritates the BJP, they feel that only they can go to temples. I don't know, may be they don't like it.
"I don't see why I can't go to a gurudwara, a church on a mosque. If somebody invites me to something they believe in, me not going there is actually insulting. I, as a political leader, if I'm invited by someone, I need to reach out and I need to stand with those people, but for some reasons it irritates the BJP. It actually infuriates them, because they have a sense of monopoly," he said.
Gandhi said the BJP and the RSS want to have monopoly on everything they deal with and want to have monopoly on institutions, on who goes to temples, that being their nature.
"But, that is not India's nature. India's nature is 1.3 billion imaginations and you really can't suppress them...So, re-imagining India to me is allowing those 1.3 billion imaginations to thrive.
"Re-imagining in India for the BJP and the RSS is to shut down that imagination of 1.3 billion people and impose one big imagination on top. I mean, it's ineffective, it's boring. I can give you a list of adjectives," he said.
Gandhi said after his criticism by BJP/RSS, he has developed a thick skin and is not disturbed by it. "My response is to listen."
"Leadership is an evolution. It is something which is constantly changing and you learn. At least in my evolution, I am going much more into listening to people and trying to understand them," Gandhi said.
He added that while he does not see India in silos, he believes every Indian is a stakeholder. He also said that the Congress does not need cadres like the RSS, whose aim is to capture India's institutions. The Congress does not want to do that, he added.
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Umar Khalid seeks review of SC verdict denying him bail, prays for open-court hearing
New Delhi, Apr 13 (PTI): Student activist Umar Khalid has moved the Supreme Court seeking a review of a verdict that denied him bail while observing that there were reasonable grounds to believe the allegations levelled against him in connection with the conspiracy behind the 2020 Delhi riots.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria was requested by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared in the court for Khalid, to list the review petition in open court.
Sibal said the matter is coming up for consideration before the judges in chambers on April 16 and they have filed an application for an open-court hearing.
Justice Kumar said, "We will look into the papers. If required, we will call it."
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According to the Supreme Court's rules, review petitions are considered by judges who delivered a judgment or passed an order in chambers to remedy an apparent error or a resultant grave injustice that has been the consequence of a decision of the apex court. Parties seeking a review can request judges for an open-court hearing to rectify the grave injustice caused due to the decision under review.
On January 5, Besides Khalid, the top court had refused bail to Sharjeel Imam but granted it to five others, saying all the accused do not stand on the same footing.
Khalid and Imam, who have been incarcerated since 2020, can file fresh bail pleas after the examination of protected witnesses or after a year from the day the order was passed, the court had said, as it rejected their contention of a delay in the trial.
There was a prima-facie case against Khalid and Imam under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the top court had said, noting that prosecution material suggests that they were involved in the "planning, mobilisation and strategic direction" of the riots.
While the two will remain in jail, activists Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohammad Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad were given bail by the court, which had imposed 11 conditions and said any misuse of liberty would lead to cancellation of bail.
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The court had noted that the guarantee of liberty enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution is of foundational importance, but at the same time, the security of a community, the integrity of a trial process and the preservation of public order are equally legitimate constitutional concerns.
Khalid and Imam stand on qualitatively-different footing as compared to the other accused, the court had said.
The prosecution had prima facie disclosed "a central and formative role" and "involvement in the level of planning, mobilisation and strategic direction extending beyond episodic and localised acts", the bench had said.
The February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi broke out during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), leaving 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.
The Delhi Police had arrested a total of 18 people in the conspiracy case. Of them, 11 have got bail so far.
The apex court's January order had said a delay in the trial does not operate as a "trump card" that automatically displaces statutory safeguards.
"All the appellants do not stand on equal footing as regards culpability. The hierarchy of participation emerging from the prosecution's case requires the court to examine each application individually," it had said, adding that the roles attributed to them were different.
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"This court is satisfied that the prosecution material disclosed a prima-facie allegation against the appellants, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam.... This stage of proceedings does not justify their enlargement on bail," the apex court had said.
It had cited section 43D(5) of the UAPA, which requires the court to deny bail if, on a perusal of a case diary or a chargesheet, it finds that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against such a person is prima-facie true.
Imam was arrested on January 28, 2020, for speeches made during anti-CAA protests. He was later arrested in the larger conspiracy case in August 2020.
Khalid was arrested on September 13, 2020, on charges of delivering provocative speeches on February 24 and 25 when Donald Trump, in his first term as the president of the United States, had visited India.
Strongly opposing the bail pleas, the Delhi Police had then contended that the riots were not spontaneous but an orchestrated, pre-planned and well-designed attack on India's sovereignty.
All seven accused were booked under the stringent anti-terror UAPA and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the "masterminds" of the riots.
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