NRC not a political issue for us: Ram Madhav
New Delhi, Aug 7 : The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is not a political issue for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and it should not be blamed for a process that was started by the Congress in 1951, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav said on Tuesday.
"We only saw the interest of state and the nation. In this, we don't see any political advantage. In the register ... names of 40 lakh people aren't there. These people are not intruders or foreigners... People did not take the NRC system seriously.
"... Why is BJP being blamed when the NRC process was started by Congress in 1951 in Assam?" Madhav said at a debate show on News18 TV channel.
He said the people whose names are not in the list will be given a second chance and number of foreign tribunals will be increased.
On the impending general election, he said that the BJP is confident of winning "all six Northeast states" benefiting from "anti-Congress feeling".
"We are confident that we will form government in the all the Northeast states... We have also benefited from the anti-Congress feeling in the region. We would like to capture more and more seats in these states," he said.
The withdrawing of support from the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir, Madhav said, was caused because former Chief Minister of the state Mehbooba Mufti did not follow BJP's direction.
"If all the parties in J&K can come to an agreement, the elections can be held today. If all parties are ready, we will dissolve Vidhan Sabha. But Congress isn't ready at this moment. Congress does not wants to form a government in the state," he said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
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.
