AAP has not sought Lamba's resignation: Sisodia
New Delhi, Dec 22: Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia Saturday rejected party MLA Alka Lamba's claim that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had "demanded" her resignation for not supporting a resolution in the assembly on revoking late PM Rajiv Gandhi's Bharat Ratna.
"Neither any resignation has been sought (from Lamba) and nor is anyone resigning," Sisodia, the deputy chief minister of Delhi, told reporters at a press conference here.
Separately, Lamba told PTI, "I am not resigning."
The Delhi Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in which it was demanded that the Bharat Ratna awarded to Gandhi be withdrawn, but the AAP swiftly distanced itself from the reference to the Congress leader.
The matter became a major crisis within the AAP with Lamba alleging on Friday that she was "put under pressure" to support the resolution, which she resisted and boycotted.
She claimed she spoke to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Kejriwal who, she said, asked her to resign as MLA. "I am ready to do so," she had said.
Sisodia told reporters, "The aim of the original resolution, moved by MLA Jarnail Singh, was only to help the victims of 1984 riots get justice. No resolution mentioning late PM Rajiv Gandhi was passed in the Assembly as being reported in the media."
He clarified that the lines about Gandhi were not part of the original resolution placed before the House.
It was a handwritten amendment proposed by a member and it cannot be passed in such a manner, he added.
Asked if the party will take any action against Bharti, Sisodia said it will talk to him on the matter.
AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj, who narrated the entire sequence of events in the Assembly, clarified that any amendment to a resolution can become a part of the original only after it has been separately voted on by the House, which did not happen in this case.
"There was no mention of Rajiv Gandhi in the original resolution. It was an individual handwritten proposal by MLA Somnath Bharti," he said.
Jarnail Singh, while moving the resolution in the Assembly, had mentioned Gandhi's name while reading the text and demanded that the Congress leader's Bharat Ratna be withdrawn for "justifying the anti-Sikh riots".
Later, he had said though the reference to Gandhi in the resolution was not there in the written copies, it was made orally and passed by the House by voice vote.
The resolution called for speedy trial of cases and termed anti-Sikh riots as genocide.
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Rajnath to top commanders: Outmaneuver adversaries with strategic surprise
Jaipur/New Delhi (PTI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday directed the top military commanders of the three services to integrate an "element of surprise" into modern warfare to outmaneuver India's adversaries and bolster strategic posture.
In his address at the joint commanders conference in Jaipur, Singh also described the Operation Sindoor as a testament to the "swift, precise, and joint response" of the Indian armed forces to safeguard national interests and called upon the military to remain ready to deal with any security challenges.
In their two-day deliberations, the commanders carried out a comprehensive review of the combat preparedness of the military in the wake of the evolving regional security situation.
Operation Sindoor was a demonstration of India's growing capabilities and a symbol of the nation's collective resolve and new military ethos, Singh said, a day after the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor.
He also unveiled a 'Joint Doctrine for Integrated Communication Architecture' that is aimed at strengthening doctrinal clarity, interoperability and integrated communications across the armed forces in future multidomain operations.
The joint commanders' conference, themed 'Military Capability in New Domains', brought together the top leadership of the defence ministry and the three services to deliberate on emerging security challenges and future readiness.
Comprehensive deliberations were held on future warfare, multidomain operations, technological transformation and joint capability development.
The conference witnessed extensive discussions on cognitive warfare, cyber resilience against evolving quantum and AI-enabled threats, military capability development in emerging domains, indigenous innovation and AI-enabled warfighting concepts.
It was attended by Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh and Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh among others.
In his remarks, Singh asked the commanders to remain "future-ready" by learning from the operation as well as the current global security landscape.
He underscored the need to strengthen capabilities in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, data analytics and secure communication networks to stay prepared in the rapidly evolving geopolitical security scenario. He emphasised that future conflicts will increasingly be shaped by hybrid threats, information dominance and operations conducted simultaneously across cyber, space, electromagnetic and cognitive domains, according to an official readout.
Highlighting the transformative impact of emerging technologies, Singh stressed on the importance of ensuring integrated national preparedness across all spectrums of conflict, it said.
Singh's remarks at the conference came a day after the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor.
The defence minister appreciated the progress achieved in enhancing jointness, integration and technological adoption across the three services, the readout noted.
Singh said that jointness constitutes a pivotal dimension within the transformative changes sweeping across the global defence sector.
"Future wars will not be won solely through weaponry, but through innovative thinking and enhanced synergy," he said.
The defence minister exhorted the commanders to cultivate the "element of surprise" to remain unpredictable to the nation's adversaries and secure a strategic edge in any given situation.
He, however, urged them to remain vigilant of the element of surprise of the enemy and always stay two steps ahead.
Singh also reiterated the Narendra Modi government's commitment to enhancing the capabilities of the defence forces through state-of-the-art weapons and platforms. He added that special focus is being laid on research in niche domains.
During the conference, he released a documentary film on Operation Sindoor.
The film reaffirms the nation's and defence forces' commitment to operational preparedness and decisive national response capabilities.
Demonstrations of advanced systems and platforms developed for intelligence fusion, operational planning and information management were also showcased during the conference reflecting growing integration of cutting-edge technologies into joint operational structures, according to the defence ministry.
The discussions will contribute significantly towards shaping India's future military transformation and integrated operational preparedness, it said.
