Rahul Gandhi writes to Karnataka CM to save injured baby elephant
Mysuru (PTI): "Anguished" by the plight of an injured baby elephant in the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve near here, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday urged Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to help the animal, saying it is in need of urgent medical care.
Rahul and Sonia Gandhi had on Tuesday visited the reserve where he saw the baby elephant.
In his letter to Bommai, Gandhi said he and the Congress president briefly visited Nagarhole Tiger Reserve where they happened to come across the painful sight of the injured baby elephant, with its mother.
The little calf has a severely injured tail and trunk, and is fighting for its life, he said.
"I understand and appreciate that there is a view that nature must be allowed to take its own course. However, in the case of endangered and iconic species, exceptions are often made depending on the severity of the situation. The aforementioned calf is undoubtedly in need of urgent medical care," he said in his letter.
"Therefore, I wanted to cross political boundaries and appeal to your sense of compassion to intervene and save the little elephant.
"I am confident that it will survive if given proper treatment. I hope you will extend timely assistance to save the iconic little elephant," Gandhi told the chief minister.
The former Congress chief earlier tweeted a picture of the baby elephant with the mother.
"A mother's love. I felt so sad to see this beautiful elephant with her injured little baby fighting for its life," he said on Twitter.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also tweeted Gandhi's letter to Bommai.
"On the day of rest for Bharat Jodo Yatra Rahul Gandhi visited the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve and was anguished by what he saw. Here is his letter of concern on India's national heritage animal, just sent to CM of Karnataka," Ramesh said.
A mother’s love.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 5, 2022
I felt so sad to see this beautiful elephant with her injured little baby fighting for its life. pic.twitter.com/65yMB37fCD
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Let's debate in LS to close chapter on 'complaints, insults' against Nehru: Priyanka to PM
New Delhi (PTI): Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raking up Jawaharlal Nehru's "mistakes", Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday called for a debate in the Lok Sabha on the "insults" and "complaints" against the country's first prime minister to "close the chapter" on it once and for all.
"And after that, let us discuss today's issues like unemployment, inflation, women's issues....," she said, participating in a discussion in the Lok Sabha on 150 years of national song Vande Mataram.
The Congress general secretary also said though Modi gives good speeches, he has a shortcoming -- he is weak on facts.
Launching a strong defence of Nehru, who was repeatedly criticised by treasury-bench members during the debate, Priyanka Gandhi said Modi has been the prime minister for about 12 years now and Nehru had spent about those many years in jail for the country's independence.
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"Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru lived for this country and breathed his last while serving the nation. Our prime minister has been in this House for about 12 years, I have only been here for 12 months, yet I have a small piece of advice. There was an election recently and he released a list of how many insults the opposition parties and their leaders had hurled at him, and in that list, he had compiled perhaps 90-99 such insults," Priyanka Gandhi said.
"So I want to give him a small piece of advice: whatever complaints you have against Nehruji, whatever mistakes you think he made, whatever abuses you want to hurl, whatever insults you want to inflict, make a list of all of those ... 999 insults, 9,999 insults, make a list, and then we will fix a time. Just like we debated Vande Mataram for 10 hours today, we will ask the speaker, we will fix a time -- 10 hours, 20 hours, 40 hours, however many hours it takes for your complaints to be fully addressed -- so that you are satisfied," she said.
Priyanka Gandhi asserted that people have sent them to Parliament to discuss and solve their problems.
"As they say in English, once and for all, let us close the chapter. Let us close it. The country will hear what the complaints are -- what did Indiraji do, what did Rajivji do, what is parivarvaad (dynastic politics), what mistakes did Nehruji make. Listen to this and then it is over. After that, unemployment, inflation, women's issues -- discuss those," she said.
The Congress leader alleged that the debate on Vande Mataram is being held merely to distract attention because "this government wants to hide the reality of the current situation in this country".
"How troubled and distressed the youth of this country are today.... Paper leaks keep happening, there is unemployment, inflation has gone up so much -- why are we not discussing these in the House?" she questioned.
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"Why are we not discussing the manipulation that is happening with reservations? There will be talk about women, big announcements will be made, but why are no concrete steps being taken here to improve their situation?" she asked.
"If you have the courage, talk about why there is unemployment, why exam papers are leaked," Priyanka Gandhi said.
