Why was Amit Shah's absence from NDA meeting not questioned: Kushwaha
Patna, June 8: RLSP chief and Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha, who had skipped the NDA meeting and dinner here on Thursday night, on Friday sought to justify his absence, saying no one was asking why BJP President Amit Shah wasn't present.
The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief is also unlikely to attend Iftar party to be hosted by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), here on Friday evening.
"Amit Shah also did not attend the NDA meeting-cum-dinner party here but nobody is asking why he failed to be there," he said, expressing surprise over why some people are giving so much importance to his absence at the event.
It was the first such event after the NDA came to power in Bihar in July 2017 after the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) broke ties with poll partners Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress to return to the BJP-led grouping.
Chief Minister and JD-U chief Nitish Kumar, Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan and senior BJP leaders were present and the RLSP chief was the only one who stayed away.
Kushwaha, who arrived here from Delhi, however claimed that there was no discontent within the NDA in the state.
"I am not unhappy or angry as speculated. NDA is united and there is no dispute," he said.
Ahead of the NDA meeting, RLSP leader Nagmani said Kushwaha should be the Chief Ministerial candidate of the NDA for the 2020 state Assembly polls, as Nitish Kumar "is not the only Chief Ministerial candidate" and Kushwaha was "also Chief Ministerial material".
His statement came amid the JD-U's bid to put up Nitish Kumar as an undisputed leader of the coalition in Bihar.
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PM Modi, RSS strengthening wall in path of SCs, STs, OBCs: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS were strengthening the wall standing in the path of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs, even as he acknowledged that the UPA took steps to weaken that wall but not to the extent it should have.
Addressing the 'Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyaan', Gandhi also referred to the function held on Constitution Day in Parliament and said that it is his guarantee, that "Modi has not read" the Constitution.
"If PM Modi would have read this book then what he does daily, he would not do it," Gandhi said, displaying a copy of the Constitution of India.
Gandhi said the country's whole system is pitted against Dalits, Adivasis and backward class people.
He said a wall obstructs the path of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs and Modi and the RSS are strengthening that wall by "adding cement to it".
"Slowly the wall (obstructing the path of SCs, STs, OBCs) is getting strengthened. Earlier, the UPA government gave MGNREGA, the land acquisition act, the right to food...those were ways to weaken that wall. Today, when I look back, I can say the UPA government did not weaken the wall to the extent it should have, it did not do it as strongly as it should have," Gandhi said.
"However, we used to make efforts to weaken that wall but they (the BJP) are strengthening that wall by adding concrete," the former Congress president said.
Gandhi said a caste survey being carried out in Telangana is a historic step and the Congress will do the same wherever it comes to power.
