Rahul Gandhi to visit Assam on Friday for paying tribute to singer Zubeen Garg
Guwahati (PTI): Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, is scheduled to arrive here on Friday to pay tribute to singer Zubeen Garg, who died in Singapore last month.
Gandhi will visit Garg's resting place at Sonapur, on the outskirts of Guwahati, to offer his respects to him, a Congress leader said.
He will also visit the singer's residence to convey his condolences to the bereaved family members, he said.
Garg, 52, died in Singapore while swimming in the sea on September 19. He was cremated with state honours on September 23 near Guwahati. The Assam government formed an SIT that is investigating the circumstances that led to his death.
Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Gaurav Gogoi had visited the site on Thursday to review the arrangements for Gandhi's visit.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had on Thursday said that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's visit to pay tribute to cultural icon Zubeen Garg was after 28 days of his death, but it is still ''better late than never''.
''We had expected a senior Congress leader like Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi or someone else to be present at the singer's cremation," the chief minister had said at a press conference here.
Sarma said as Gandhi is coming to pay his tribute to the singer, ''we welcome his visit to the state''.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Women's quota bill would have ensured defeat of democracy, Constitution: Aaditya Thackeray
Mumbai (PTI): Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday said that the passage of the women's quota bill would have ensured a "total defeat of democracy", alleging that the legislation, linked with a delimitation exercise, was a political tool designed to reduce the voice of states.
Thackeray, in a post on X, claimed that the Bill would have amended the Constitution for the political means of the ruling regime to increase seats, reduce the voice of many states and enable the gerrymandering of constituencies to ensure unfair victories.
"The very amendment that would have ensured the total defeat of democracy and the Constitution in India stands rejected by the unity of the Opposition MPs," he wrote.
The legislation should have been called "Delimitation to ensure unfair victory Bill", the former minister said, adding that there was a genuine need to enable 33 per cent reservation for women in the current number of seats.
"Now, it is up to the government to ensure that it is implemented in the 543 seats of the Lok Sabha for the 2029 elections and all elections across India, if that is the real intent of the government," he wrote.
A Constitution Amendment Bill to implement reservation for women in legislatures in 2029 and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats was defeated on Friday in the Lower House.
While 298 members voted in support of the Bill, 230 MPs voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the Bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority.
According to the Constitution Amendment Bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
