Expect leaders, workers to toe party line in public interactions: Congress
New Delhi, July 22 : In a clear warning to some of its "loose cannons", the Congress on Sunday stressed that it expected its leaders and workers to "toe the party line" on larger political issues in their public interactions.
In the meeting of the newly formed Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet, party President Rahul Gandhi and AICC General Secretary Ashok Gehlot both emphasised in their respective addresses that party leaders and workers should observe discipline.
"The Congress President clearly said, he gave a friendly advice, and he hopes that all leaders of Congress party in view of the larger goal, that is, 2019 elections, will maintain discipline in both their language and conduct," Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said while briefing the media after the meet.
"There is full freedom of expression but as far party line (on various issues) is concerned, the Congress leadership will expect from its leaders and workers that they maintain the dignity of the language as well as that of conduct," he added.
Surjewala said that Gehlot, in his address, underlined that first this discipline would be expected from the leaders and then from the workers.
In the past, certain comments by some Congress party leaders have cost the party dearly with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quickly encashing on the same, such as the BJP starting its "chai pe charcha" (discussion over tea) campaign in 2014 Lok Sabha elections after Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "chaiwallah" (tea vendor).
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Death toll from Israeli strikes in northeast Lebanon rises from 8 to 24, Lebanese news agency says
Deir al-Balah, Nov 1: Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 24 people in northeastern Lebanon, the country's news agency said, raising the death toll from eight there.
It was the latest deadly toll in the area since the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah escalated last month.
Israel's military has said that its operation in Lebanon is targeting Hezbollah's military infrastructure.
Lebanon's state National news Agency reported four airstrikes in different villages across country's northeast, saying rescuers were still searching for survivors in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, from the rubble of a targeted house.
Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region in Baalbek-Hermel region, said that 60,000 people have already fled their homes in the area due to Israeli bombardment.
