NCP workers observe 'traitors' day' to mark 1st anniversary of Shiv Sena rebellion, stage protest
Mumbai (PTI): The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders and workers observed "gaddar din" (traitor's day) on Tuesday in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra to mark the first anniversary of the rebellion by Shiv Sena legislators, including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Led by NCP working president and Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule, the party workers in Mumbai shouted slogans and carried symbolic "khoke" (cartons) to claim the rebel legislators took money to come to power in the state.
The rebellion in June last year led by Eknath Shinde culminated in the collapse of the then Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, comprising the Sena, NCP and Congress.
On June 30, 2022, Shinde became the chief minister along with Devendra Fadnavis of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as deputy CM.
On Tuesday, the NCP workers along with Sule gathered at their party office in south Mumbai to stage a protest.
Sule and others shouted slogans like "Pannas (50) Khoke, Ekdum Ok", to allege that the rebel legislators had taken Rs 50 crore each as bribe.
In neighbouring Thane, which is also the home town of CM Shinde, NCP leader and former minister Jitendra Awhad led a similar protest.
The NCP workers piled up several cartons with "Pannas Khoke, Ekdum Ok" stickers on them at a spot and later burnt them as a mark of protest.
In Nagpur, the NCP workers staged a demonstration at the Variety Square in Nagpur and shouted slogans like "Khoke sarkar murdabad, gaddar aamdar murdabad" against legislators of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
Notably, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has written to the United Nations, urging it to declare June 20 as "World Traitors Day" to mark the "desertion" of his party chief Uddhav Thackeray by 40 Shiv Sena MLAs, including Shinde.
Maharashtra NCP president Jayant Patil last week asked the party cadres to protest against the rebel Shiv Sena legislators.
"NCP workers should organise protests in the nook and corner of the state by displaying symbolic 'khoke' (boxes of money) based on which the Eknath Shinde government has come to power," he said on Saturday.
Patil appealed to NCP workers to tell people that the temporary happiness of the Shinde camp, which was recognised by the Election Commission as real Shiv Sena, is on the wane and their days in government are numbered.
The Sharad Pawar-led party had earlier organised public meetings explaining the Supreme Court verdict on the political crisis in Maharashtra and how speaker Rahul Narvekar is duty-bound to disqualify 16 rebel MLAs.
The Supreme Court last month ruled that then Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was not justified in calling upon then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to prove a majority in the Assembly on June 30, 2022. A constitutional bench had also observed that it cannot restore the Thackeray government as he resigned without facing a floor test.
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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.
