Portfolio allocation causes displeasure among some Ministers in Karnataka
Bengaluru: The allocation of portfolios to seven new Ministers and the reshuffle of departments of some others on Thursday by Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa have not gone down well with a section of his cabinet colleagues as they are upset over the ministries allocated to them.
Yediyurappa, however, sought to brush it aside, saying some kind of displeasure was normal whenever portfolios were changed and he has convinced them.
Senior Minister J C Madhuswamy skipped an event of the Chief Minister in his home district Tumakuru, apparently upset over being divested of three key departments, while M T B Nagaraj openly said he does not want the Excise portfolio given to him.
A week after expanding his cabinet, Yediyurappa on Thursday allocated portfolios to the seven new inductees and also effected a reshuffle of the departments of some ministers.
The chief minister relieved Madhuswamy of Law, Parliamentary Affairs, Legislation and Minor Irrigation portfolios and allocated Medical Education, Kannada and Culture departments.
A few Congress-JD(S) rebels-turned BJP ministers including Nagaraj, K Gopalaiah, K C Narayana Gowda, met at Health Minister K Sudhakar's residence and said they will call on the Chief Minister to discuss portfolios allocated to them.
Yediyurappa said all the Ministers were at ease and there was no resentment.
"I have called them (upset Ministers) and spoken to them, everyone is satisfied...I have spoken to everyone personally," he said, cabinet expansion or portfolio allocation was not an easy job as everyone cannot be satisfied.
"Within the limitations, I have shared the responsibilities, let them work, after some days if they still find issues, let's consider changing then," he added.
The Chief Minister is said to have deputed Home minister Basavaraj Bommai and Revenue Minister R Ashok to convince the Ministers.
Ashoka said he has spoken to Gopalaiah and Nagaraj and things will be resolved soon, adding he and Bommai will talk to all of them once again.
"We are all with the Chief Minister and every one has trust in him," he told reporters.
Madhuswamy rejected reports that he was planning to resign, but said he had requested the Chief Minister not to change Minor Irrigation portfolio which was with him.
The Minister said he was not upset with all changes as the Chief Minister had the prerogative to allocate work.
Openly expressing his displeasure, Nagaraj said there was nothing for him to do in the Excise department and he has informed the Chief Minister that he doesn't want it.
Nagaraj said he was a Housing Minister in the previous JDS-Congress coalition government where there were programmes providing houses to poor and developing slums.
"I resigned from the post and came out, I'm now given the Excise portfolio.(in this government). What is there to do in the excise department?" he asked.
Nagaraj said he wanted some portfolio where he "can work for the public and poor and bring a good name" to the party and the government.
Gopalaiah, divested of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affairs Department and made incharge of Horticulture and Sugar, said he will meet the Chief Minister and discuss about the change in portfolio.
"I had planned several things in the department...
everyone knows how I have been performing," he said. Gopalaiah added that he along with Nagaraj, Sudhakar, Narayana Gowda will meet Yediyurappa and the party president.
"This has happened to four or five of us, we had met at Sudhakar's residence. We will sit with the Chief Minister and ask what is our fault."
While Sudhakar holds the Health department, he was relieved of Medical Education portfolio.
Narayana Gowda has been given Youth Empowerment, Sports, Haj and Wakf Departments in place of Municipal Administration, Horticulture and Sericulture.
Ending a long wait, Yediyurappa had expanded his 17- month old cabinet on January 13, inducting seven ministers, but the exercise led to resentment with several aspirants expressing reservations over not being included in the ministry.
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SC seeks Centre, Assam's reply on fresh plea challenging CAA rules
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday sought replies of the Centre and the Assam government on a plea challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, meant to operationalise and regulate the process of grant of Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants who came from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala took note of the submissions of a lawyer representing petitioner Hiren Gohain, a Guwahati resident, and issued notices to the state government and the union ministries of Home Affairs and External Affairs.
The top court also ordered that the fresh plea be tagged with those pending on the issue.
The lates plea on the hugely contentious issue said, “The uncontrolled influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to Assam has caused huge demographic changes in Assam. The indigenous people, who were once the majority, have now become a minority in their own land.”
Recently, the bench, while refusing to stay the operation of the CAA Rules, asked the Centre to respond to the applications seeking a stay on their implementation till the apex court has disposed of the pleas challenging the validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
Gohain, in his plea, said the CAA Rules, 2024 are “ultra-vires to the Constitution” as they are “palpably discriminatory, manifestly arbitrary, illegal and against the basic structure of the Constitution”.
“It is stated that the impugned Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 violates the petitioners’ fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14 (right to equality), 15 (right against discrimination on basis of religion, race, caste etc), 19 (freedom of speech and expression), 21 (right to life and personal liberty) etc of the Constitution,” it said.
Gohain said he has filed the plea in his personal as well as in representative capacity of a majority of the indigenous people living in Assam and seeks enforcement of their fundamental rights.
Raising the issue of “uncontrolled" influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to Assam, the plea said it was not a communal issue.
“Neither it is a Hindu-Muslim or indigenous people v/s Bengali immigrant’s issue. Rather it is an issue of foreign infiltrators, be it Hindus or Muslims, who are inundating the land that for centuries has belonged to the indigenous people of Assam. In other words, it is an issue between Indians and non-Indians/ foreigners and one of grave importance for the entire nation,” it said.
“It is stated that according to the 2011 census the population of Assam was about 3.21 crores out of which only 1.34 crore people are indigenous Assamese. This figure includes the Assamese Muslims and indigenous people of the different tribes like Bodo, Missing, Rabha, Karbi etc.
Additionally, there are about 48 lakh people that comprise the tea tribes, it said.
"The sum total of the aforesaid two figures comes to about 1.82 crores. A major part of the remaining population of Assam essentially comprises Bengali speaking Hindus and Muslims and a minor part comprises Hindi/other language speaking people who have migrated from the other states of India,” the petition said.
With the unveiling of the rules on March 11, days ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, the Modi government kicked off the process of granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants - Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians - from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
The rules came into force with immediate effect, according to a gazette notification.
The massively polarising CAA had sparked protests in various parts of the country in late 2019 and early 2020 over its alleged discriminatory provisions.
