BJP picks treasurer after 6 years, former UP minister will hold post with Madhya Pradesh MP
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New Delhi: The BJP organisational reshuffle Saturday saw the party finally appoint a treasurer, a post that has been vacant since 2014, when incumbent Piyush Goyal was elevated to the Union cabinet.
The post has been assigned to former Uttar Pradesh finance minister Rajesh Agrawal, who has earlier served as treasurer of the state BJP unit. Sudhir Gupta, a member of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh, has been appointed joint treasurer.
Both Agrawal and Gupta have an RSS background, a party leader told ThePrint. Agrawal is one of at least 10 leaders from Uttar Pradesh who have found a place in the new team announced by the BJP under national president J.P. Nadda.
The post of treasurer was left vacant in the organisational appointments exercise held soon after Amit Shah took over as BJP president in 2014.
An RSS man
Agrawal, who hails from Bareilly, has been a member of the UP assembly for the last 25 years. He served as Deputy Speaker in the UP assembly from 2003 to 2007.
Until 2019, he was finance minister in the Yogi Adityanath government. He resigned from the post after turning 75, reportedly to honour “the policy of the party”.
Under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who served as BJP president until last year, leaders aged above 75 are believed to be shifted out of active politics, to an advisory role.
“He had to resign after turning 75. When he didn’t find a place in the new state BJP under Swatantra Dev Singh, he was assured that he would be given some responsibility in the organisation,” said a senior BJP leader. “He is also considered quite close to former general secretary organisation Ram Lal, and is on good terms with PM Modi too.”
A second party functionary said the post has been given to Agrawal as he has experience in the role.
“His experience as the finance minister will also help him handle the responsibility well. This is an important post as, for a party like the BJP, one has to look at accounts from the district to the state level. It requires a lot of supervision and someone has to do constant monitoring,” a third leader added.
One of the senior leaders who spoke to ThePrint said Agrawal was first “associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (the BJP’s ideological parent) and then joined the BJP”.
“He is an organisation man and has also served as general secretary of Uttar Pradesh. His past experience as treasurer in the state unit of UP will come handy,” the leader added.
The joint treasurer
Gupta is an MP, who has won Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur seat for two consecutive terms since 2014.
According to a senior BJP leader, Gupta has RSS roots as well and was also involved with the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).
“He was part of the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign. He has been connected with the RSS for long, and was elected as the Member of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh twice,” said another leader.
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Trump administration says its war in Iran has been 'terminated' before 60-day deadline
Washington (AP): The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval.
The statement furthers an argument laid out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during testimony in the Senate earlier Thursday, when he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war. Under that rationale, the administration has not yet met the requirement mandated by a 1973 law to seek formal approval from Congress for military action that extends beyond 60 days.
A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's position, said for purposes of that law, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, Feb 28 have terminated.” The official said the US military and Iran have not exchanged fire since the two-week ceasefire that began April 7.
While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the US Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran's oil tankers from getting out to sea.
Under the War Powers Resolution, the law that sought to constrain a president's military powers, President Donald Trump had until Friday to seek congressional authorisation or cease fighting. The law also allows an administration to extend that deadline by 30 days.
Democrats have pushed the administration for formal approval of the Iran war, and the 60-day mark would likely have been a turning point for a swath of Republican lawmakers who backed temporary action against Tehran but insisted on congressional input for something longer.
“That deadline is not a suggestion; it is a requirement,” said Sen Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted Thursday in favour of a measure that would end military action in Iran since Congress hadn't given its approval. She added that “further military action against Iran must have a clear mission, achievable goals, and a defined strategy for bringing the conflict to a close."
Richard Goldberg, who served as director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction for the National Security Council during Trump's first term, said he has recommended to administration officials to simply transition to a new operation, which he suggested could be called “Epic Passage,” a sequel to Operation Epic Fury.
That new mission, he said, “would inherently be a mission of self-defence focused on reopening the strait while reserving the right to offensive action in support of restoring freedom of navigation.”
“That to me solves it all,” added Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.
During testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Hegseth said it was the administration's “understanding” that the 60-day clock was on pause while the two countries were in a ceasefire.
Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel at the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program and an expert on war powers, said that interpretation would be a “sizeable extension of previous legal gamesmanship” related to the 1973 law.
“To be very, very clear and unambiguous, nothing in the text or design of the War Powers Resolution suggests that the 60-day clock can be paused or terminated,” she said.
Other presidents have argued that the military action they've taken was not intense enough or was too intermittent to qualify under the War Powers Resolution. But Trump's war in Iran would certainly not be such a case, Ebright said, adding that lawmakers need to push back against the administration on that kind of argument.
