Yechury re-elected CPI-M General Secretary
Hyderabad, April 22: The CPI-M on Sunday unanimously re-elected Sitaram Yechury as its General Secretary for another three years and he pledged to take steps to oust the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Yechury's re-election took place on the last day of the party's 22nd Congress here, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar announced.
Sarkar said Yechury, 65, was elected by a 95-member new Central Committee, which also elected a 17-member new Politburo.
"Yechury's election was unanimous. There was no contest," Sarkar told IANS.
Yechury, who has been a member of the CPI-M since 1974 when he joined its student wing, was first elected the CPI-M General Secretary in 2015.
Born in Chennai, Yechury was educated in Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, a city where he has spent most of his life.
Re-elected to the top post a year ahead of the general elections, Yechury said the CPI-M's first goal was to oust the BJP-RSS Modi government.
In his address to the party delegates from across the country, he assured them that he would try to fulfil the immense responsibility of this office to the best of his capability.
The five-day conclave saw the groups led by Yechury and former General Secretary Prakash Karat agreeing to amendments in the draft political resolution.
The resolution, while ruling out a political alliance with the Congress party, made it clear that it was ready for an understanding with that party. It reiterated that its first and foremost goal was to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The CPI-M, the largest party of the Left, has faced electoral reverses in West Bengal and more recently in Tripura. It is now in power in only Kerala.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismisses defence minister in surprise announcement
Jerusalem, Nov 5: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday dismissed his popular defence minister, Yoav Gallant, in a surprise announcement that came as the country is embroiled in wars on multiple fronts across the region.
Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly been at odds over the war in Gaza. But Netanyahu had avoided firing his rival. Netanyahu cited “significant gaps” and a “crisis of trust” between the men in his Tuesday evening announcement.
“In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust is required between the prime minister and defence minister,” Netanyahu said. “Unfortunately, although in the first months of the campaign there was such trust and there was very fruitful work, during the last months this trust cracked between me and the defence minister.”
In the early days of the war, Israel's leadership presented a unified front as it responded to Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack. But as the war dragged on and spread to Lebanon, key policy differences have emerged. While Netanyahu has called for continued military pressure on Hamas, Gallant had taken a more pragmatic approach, saying that military force has created the necessary conditions for a diplomatic deal that could bring home hostages held by the Hamas group.
Gallant, a former general who has gained public respect with a gruff, no-nonsense personality, said in a statement: “The security of the state of Israel always was, and will always remain, my life's mission."
Gallant has worn a simple, black buttoned shirt throughout the war in a sign of sorrow over the October 7 attack and developed a strong relationship with his US counterpart, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.
A previous attempt by Netanyahu to fire Gallant in March 2023 sparked widespread street protests against Netanyahu. He also flirted with the idea of dismissing Gallant over the summer but held off until Tuesday's announcement.
Gallant will be replaced by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, a Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister who was a junior officer in the military. Gideon Saar, a former Netanyahu rival who recently rejoined the government, will take the foreign affairs post.
Netanyahu has a long history of neutralising his rivals. In his statement, he claimed he had made “many attempts” to bridge the gaps with Gallant.
“But they kept getting wider. They also came to the knowledge of the public in an unacceptable way, and worse than that, they came to the knowledge of the enemy - our enemies enjoyed it and derived a lot of benefit from it,” he said.
