New Delhi: Already in the soup for not being the potent opposition party in the Centre, India’s grand old party Indian National Congress is once again landed itself into a crisis that can well be touted as the signs of dissent from its youth party cadre.
Over three weeks after the polling for Indian Youth Congress in Karnataka were held, the party is yet to announce the results of the election, moving a directionless wind of dissent in the party’s youth quarters. Party workers and leaders have expressed their dissatisfaction over the delays in results which were to be declared on January 20, but the party has only postponed the announcement of results ever since.
The entire election process was spread over seven long months that kept the party’s youth busy in the election preps without letting them do any productive party work during the course. The grand old party has always pitched itself as the one that introduced IT to the country but is struggling internally to announce the results of its own youth wings results even after three weeks from the polling dates.
One of the major points of arguments in the party circles regarding the issue is also the use of an electronic voting system that was used for the election, while the party at large has been critical about the EVMs during national and state elections.
Some party workers who wished not to be named told Vartha Bharati, that the party cadre and especially those who have contested the election and are aspiring posts in the IYC also believe the use of ballot paper voting system could’ve been better as it provides transparency over the results as against to the rumors that have indicated post-election manipulation of results in EVMs and electronic voting systems.
The party’s election results’ authenticity received a major setback when the party withdrew block-level results, two days after announcing it. It has raised questions over the authenticity of the results. The party however has to answer as to why the results were withdrawn in the first place. Were there errors in the election results?
Users across social media platforms also questioned if the move to withdraw the already declared results was in accordance with the dissatisfaction of leaders of the party who were unhappy with the outcome of the election.
Efforts to get a comment from IYC National President Srinivas BV in this regard were unsuccessful. The story will be updated as and when we get an official statement from Srinivas.
Amidst all this, the Congress is leaving itself high and dry without any external interference, with people now questioning that if the party cannot be transparent, just, and accountable to its own youth cadre, how will it deal with the expectations, hopes, and trust of the people of the country if they win the General or State elections in the future.
The rumors flying thick and fast make it look like it’s a conspiracy to hurt the KPCC president DK Shivakumar who is leading the party in the next elections. He needs a strong youth leader by his side to face the elections. This internal groupism by some vested interests within the party will only end up damaging the party.
With the BJP simplifying its membership and election process, Congress with its outdated and questionable tactics is only widening the gap between itself and the grassroots level workers. A person can join BJP by merely giving a missed call on a number, while the Congress has an astringent and complicated process in place for anybody who wills to join them. The complicated process has so far only kept the youngsters from joining the party against a simplified process of merely having to dial a number.
The onus is now on the INC to come to its own rescue before it’s too late to come back from where it is sliding to. It will not be too far away when the party’s election process, authenticity, and the party itself at large will become a laughing stock.
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Sriharikota, (Andhra Pradesh): Two spacecraft that would aid ISRO in demonstrating space docking, a critical technology for future space missions got separated successfully and were placed into the desired orbit late on Monday, ISRO said.
"PSLV C60 mission accomplished as of SpaDeX spacecraft is considered," said Mission director M Jayakumar.
ISRO chief S Somanath said the rocket has placed the satellites in the right orbit of 475 km circular orbit, after over 15 minutes of flight.
"So, as far as we are concerned, the rocket has placed the spacecraft in the right orbit and the Spadex satellites have moved one behind the other, and over the period of time, it will pick up further distance, travel about 20 km away and then the rendezvous and docking process will start. And we hope that the docking process can happen in another one week and the nominal time is going to be approximately January 7," he said in his address from the Mission Control Center.
And in this mission the very important part is POEM-4 (which was currently on) with 24 payloads from startups, industries, academic institutions and also from ISRO centres, he said. These are scheduled to be fired late on Monday night.
Dubbed as a prelude to ISRO setting up its own Space Station by 2035, the PSLV-C60 mission would also make India join an elite club in achieving this feat which is expected to take place in the coming days.
The 44.5 metre tall rocket carried two spacecraft -- Spacecraft A and B, each weighing 220kg which would help in space docking, satellite servicing and interplanetary missions.
After the culmination of the 25 hour countdown which commenced on Sunday, the rocket lifted-off at 10 pm from the First Launch Pad at this spaceport, emanating thick orange coloured fumes and thunderous sound in the island, located about 135 km east of Chennai.
According to ISRO scientists, the two spacecraft-Spacecraft A (SDX01) or the 'Chaser' and Spacecraft B (SDX02) or the 'Target' would be merged together later at an altitude of about 470 km after travelling at the same speed and distance.
By mastering the docking technologies, ISRO is set to enhance its operational flexibility and also expand its mission horizons.
This technology is essential for some of India's space ambitions like Indian on Moon, getting samples from the Moon (Chandrayaan-4 mission), building and operation of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station.
"In-space docking technology is essential when multiple rocket launches are required to achieve common mission objectives. Through this mission, India is marching towards becoming the fourth country in the world to have space docking technology," ISRO said.
The others to achieve this technological feat are China, Russia and the US.
While the Spacecraft has reached the desired orbit, in the coming days, scientists would take measures to merge the two by reducing the distance between them, ultimately leading to the docking of the spacecraft.
The launch of PSLV-C60 would be the last mission undertaken by the ISRO in 2024. Incidentally, the space agency began 2024 with the successful launch of PSLV-C58/XPOSAT mission on January 1.
Monday's PSLV rocket also becomes the first vehicle to be integrated upto the fourth stage at the PSLV Integration Facility (PIF) that has been established at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here.