BJP appoints ex Aligarh Muslim University VC Tariq Mansoor as party vice president
New Delhi, Jul 29: BJP president J P Nadda rejigged the list of the party's central office-bearers on Saturday, bringing in a Pasmanda Muslim from Uttar Pradesh as one of its vice presidents and former Telangana unit chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar as a national general secretary.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has dropped C T Ravi, a leader from Karnataka, Dilip Saikia, a Lok Sabha MP from Assam, as its general secretaries, and Vinod Sonkar, Harish Dwivedi, both Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh, and Sunil Deodhar as secretaries.
Saroj Pandey, a Rajya Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh, has been made a vice president, while Dilip Ghosh, a Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal, has been dropped.
Lata Usendi, a tribal leader from Chhattisgarh, has also been elevated to the post of vice president, underscoring the party's focus on the poll-bound state where the Congress is in power.
Radha Mohan Agrawal, a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh, is one of the two new faces on the list which have nine general secretaries, seven of whom retain their position.
The new secretaries are Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader A K Antony, and Surendra Singh Nagar and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, Rajya Sabha MP from UP and Assam respectively.
Nagar is an influential Gurjar leader from western UP while Tasa has long been the face of tea tribes in the northeastern state.
There are 13 vice presidents, nine general secretaries, including B L Santhosh as the in-charge of the organisation, and 13 secretaries on the list.
Former Union minister Radha Mohan Singh, a Lok Sabha MP from Bihar, has been dropped from the post of party vice president.
Former Uttar Pradesh BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Laxmikant Bajpai is one of the two new vice presidents.
With Mansoor being inducted as a party vice president, there are two Muslims in the position now. Kerala leader Abdulla Kutty is another member from the minority community on the list.
The appointment of former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice-chancellor Mansoor, now a BJP MLC in Uttar Pradesh, is being seen to be part of the party's overtures to Pasmanda (backward) Muslims.
Ravi's omission from the list of general secretaries, who spearhead the party's policies and agenda nationally and state-wise, unlike the vice presidents who are mostly figureheads, is being seen by some as a fallout of the BJP's big defeat in the recent assembly polls in Karnataka.
The four-term MLA had lost his seat in a close fight in the recently held assembly polls in Karnataka.
However, a party leader said not much should be read into the dropping of several office-bearers, as many of them, including Ravi, may contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and will be focussing on their likely constituencies.
The appointment of Bandi Sanjay weeks after his removal as the Telangana BJP president is a signal to the party cadres that he remains valuable to the national leadership, and that his ouster was a tactical call taken in the context of political realities in the southern state, sources said.
The party had recently appointed general secretary D Purandeswari as the president of its Andhra Pradesh unit.
There are no women now among the party's nine general secretaries, though there are five women vice presidents and four women secretaries in the list of new national office-bearers.
Former chief ministers Raman Singh, Vasundhara Raje, and Raghubar Das are among the seasoned leaders retained as vice presidents in the new list.
Arun Singh, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Dushyant Kumar Gautam, Tarun Chugh, Sunil Bansal, and Vinod Tawde also continue as general secretaries.
Nadda's tenure as BJP president was extended in January this year to allow him to be at the helm during the next Lok Sabha polls.
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Hasina's son claims Yunus govt weaponising judiciary for carrying out “political witch hunt”
Washington (PTI): Sanjeeb Wazed, son of deposed Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, has accused the Muhammad Yunus led interim government of “weaponising the judiciary” for carrying out a “political witch hunt” against the Awami League leadership.
Wazed's allegations, as a long post on X, came two days after the interim government on Monday said it has sent a diplomatic note to New Delhi seeking Hasina's extradition from India.
Hasina, 77, has been living in India since August 5 when she fled Bangladesh following a massive student-led protest that toppled her Awami League's (AL) 16-year regime.
Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has issued arrest warrants for Hasina and several former Cabinet ministers, advisers, and military and civil officials for “crimes against humanity and genocide.”
“The judges and prosecutors appointed by unelected Yunus led regime to conduct farcical trial process through International Crimes Tribunal makes it a political witch hunt that forsakes justice and marks another ongoing onslaught to persecute Awami League leadership,” Wazed said in his post on Tuesday.
An IT entrepreneur, Wazed is based in the US and has been an ICT adviser in Hasina's government.
“The kangaroo tribunal and subsequent request for extradition comes while hundreds of leaders and activists are extrajudicially killed, framing of outrageous murder charges, illegal incarceration of thousands by law enforcement and violent attacks including looting vandalism and arson going on with impunity everyday fuelled by denial of the regime,” he added.
On Monday, India confirmed receiving the 'note verbale' or diplomatic communication from the Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi but refrained from commenting on it.
Under the provisions of the India-Bangladesh extradition treaty, extradition may be refused if the offence is one of a “political character.”
Bangladesh's de facto foreign minister Touhid Hossain said Dhaka wants Hasina back to face the judicial process.
Wazed further accused that the chief prosecutor of ICT Tribunal Tajul Islam appointed by Yunus regime on December 22, despite proven records of defending war criminals, “reportedly spread deliberate disinformation campaign” against Hasina by claiming that Interpol issued red notice against her, and termed it as “a desperate bid to extradite her and hold farcical trial to serve the interest of Dr Yunus.”
“But the very prosecutor later altered his statement following media exposure of the outright lie and now officially sent a request to India for the extradition,” Hasina's son said.
“We reiterate our position that every single incident of human rights violation between July and August needs to be investigated in a free and fair manner but the Yunus led regime weaponised the judiciary, and we express no confidence in the justice system,” he alleged.
Last month, in an address to the nation on the completion of 100 days of the interim government, Yunus said Bangladesh will seek Hasina's extradition. “We must ensure justice in every killing… We will also ask India to send back fallen autocrat Sheikh Hasina,” he had said then.
Yunus, who assumed office on August 8, claimed that about 1,500 people, including students and workers, were killed while 19,931 others were wounded during the protest against the Hasina government.
India has expressed concern as there have been a spate of attacks on minorities including on the Hindu community in Bangladesh in the last few months.
In recent weeks, Hasina has accused the Yunus-led interim government of perpetrating “genocide” and failing to protect minorities, especially Hindus, since her ouster.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Dhaka two weeks back during which he conveyed to the Bangladeshi side India's concerns, especially those related to the safety and welfare of minorities.
