Let a new, better leadership take over: Shatrughan Sinha to PM Modi
Patna, Mar 14: With his exit from the BJP appearing imminent, disgruntled leader Shatrughan Sinha on Thursday launched a stinging attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying it was high time that "a new, better leadership" took over.
The Patna Sahib MP, who is expected to announce his next political destination, predictably in the opposition 'Mahagathbandhan' next week, came out with a flurry of tweets flaying Modi for not having held a single press conference in his five-year-long tenure and urged him to "come out with all your black, white and grey shades".
"Now that dates have been announced, Sir, ab toh kum se kum ek press conference kar dijiye. A free and fair session, not choreographed, researched or rehearsed and without the press known for Raag Darbari and Sarkari mindset. You shall go down in history as the only PM in a democratic world who has not had a single Q and A session during his tenure," Sinha tweeted.
"Don't you think it is high time and the right time, before the government changes, that a new, better leadership takes over. And you should come out with all your black, white and grey sides," he said in another tweet.
The actor-turned-politician also attacked the PM for having "announced 150 projects in UP, Benares and other parts of the country in the last week/month of your term".
"Technically speaking it may not be against the code of conduct, but certainly it seems to be too little and too late jumlas. Still, wishing you all the best in spite of your looking London and talking Tokyo attitude and your shoot and scoot behavior. Jai Hindi," Sinha said in his final tweet.
Having been with the BJP since the 1990s, Sinha had served as a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and is serving his second consecutive term as MP from Patna Sahib.
He has been sore over being sidelined in the party, which he has repeatedly described as "one man army and two-man show", a reference to Modi and his confidant Amit Shah-BJP president.
Having shared the stage with opposition leaders of all hues, Sinha insists that "location will be the same, situation may be different" implying that he will seek re-election from Patna Sahib albeit as candidate of a different party.
Sinha, who is likely to be fielded by the Congress or the RJD, has indicated that the same would be announced by March 22.
The BJP is yet to announce its candidate for Patna Sahib.
Negotiations are on with its ally, the JD(U), as the party headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is reportedly keen on contesting at least one of the two seats in Patna district. In 2014, the BJP's Ram Kripal Yadav had won Pataliputra defeating JD(U)'s Ranjan Yadav.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
