Congress' new strategy: TV debates are important, topics less so

The Congress may not have a slogan or tagline yet for the national elections, but its version of 'Mad Men' has begun work on how the party will be marketed for the national election.
 
The new Communications Department, created two weeks ago, is clear that it will not respond to attempts from the main Opposition party, the BJP, to brand the election as a choice between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi.
 
Instead, a meeting on Wednesday concluded that Congress spokespersons who appear on nightly television debates will steer the conversation away from personalities and towards landmark  reforms like its current attempt to legally entitle nearly 70% of the country to subsidized food.

Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury said the media is reading between lines that it is scripting. "It was never like thisanyway. We have no issues about who is compared to who. We have no insecurities or doubts. You are the ones who always hype it up anyway," she said.
 
Till earlier this month, the Congress had a "media cell." It was rechristened the "Communications Department" and Ajay Maken, a senior leader from Delhi and former Union minister, was chosen as its head. The new ensemble of spokespersons includes Priyanka Chaturvedi, columnist, blogger and district general secretary, Mumbai Youth Congress, and Rajeev Gowda, a professor from the prestigious business school, IIM-Bangalore.

Facebook and Twitter, to which the BJP was a relatively early adapter, can expect TLC  from the Congress. Press conferences will be streamed live on the party's website.
 
A research team will furnish facts and figures for television debates to spokespersons. The party has reportedly decided that it will now assign representatives to prime-time debates irrespective of the topic being discussed, a rationale loosely summed up as "better to have some say than no say." 
 
Sources in the Congress say that the party was impressed, even if reluctantly, by how BJP president Rajnath Singh held daily briefings with his spokespersons during the recent crisis triggered by LK Advani's hi-def resistance to the promotion of Narendra Modi as the campaign chief
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Kedarnath cremation delayed as turf war erupts

New Delhi: The mass cremation of Uttarakhand flash floods victims is likely to be delayed with central forces refusing to assist the state government in performing the same. 

Reports said the state government had asked the central forces involved in rescue operations to assist in carrying out the last rites, especially at now-inaccessible-by-road Kedarnath and Gaurigaon, where over 800 bodies are stacked. 

With connectivity still being an issue in the Kedarnath axis, the state administration had asked the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to assist in the cremation of bodies of victims. 

The ITBP has rejected the request, saying it was not part of their mandate to dispose of the bodies. 

The issue also came up for discussion at Tuesday’s National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) meeting presided over by the Cabinet Secretary, a leading daily reported on Wednesday. 

"They have been asking us to cremate the dead also. We have refused and have asked them to get home guards and sanitation staff for the mass cremation. Our boys are not going to cremate the dead," an unnamed ITBP official was quoted as saying. 

Another official said their mandate was to rescue the stranded people, not cremating the dead. The local administration should do it, the official added. 

Meanwhile, former union home secretary VK Duggal, who is the nodal officer supervising the rescue operations from the Centre’s side, is reported to have given a standard operating procedure to the state government on the disposal of the bodies. 

Centre hints early nod for Bangalore Metro's second phase

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday assured Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that the Central government would expedite work for Bangalore Metro's second phase, an official statement said. 

The assurance was given when Siddaramaiah called on Chidambaram, a Karnataka government release said. Siddaramaiah is in New Delhi to finalize the state's plan size ahead of the budget he presents on July 12. 

He would be meeting the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Alhuwalia on Wednesday. The second phase of Bangalore Metro will cover a distance of over 70 km and is estimated to cost over Rs 26,000 crore. The project is expected to be completed by 2018.

The release said Chidambaram also agreed to consider the state's request to have the central office of the Women's Development Bank in Mysore, located around 130 km from Bangalore. 

Siddaramaiah told Chidambaram that the state government was ready to provide land and other facilities needed for such an office, the release said.

Remembering darkest phase of Indian democracy when ‘Emergency’ was declared

It was on June 26 , 1975 when the independent India woke up, it realized that the free country was reduced to a tin-pot dictatorship as the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, acting upon the advice of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, had declared a state of emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution of India.

The emergency period continued for 21-long-months and is considered as the darkest phase of Indian democracy by the political thinkers and critics. The emergency, which is apparently termed as a blot on the political history of free India, brought democracy to a grinding halt and all the fundamental rights, civil liberties and legal remedies guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of India were suspended by the Indira Gandhi government.

Prime Minister Gandhi defended her sudden decision to recommend for emergency citing threats to India’s internal and national security from neighbouring countries, economic crisis and political unrest.  However, her clarification failed to impress the critics and observers and she faced immense criticism from every corner.

Apparently granting extraordinary powers to herself after suspending the civil liberties and legal remedies, Gandhi launched a massive crackdown against the opposition parties and landed several big leaders into the jail. The political bigwigs who were sent behind the bars for protesting against the government included Jayaprakash Narayan, Raj Narain, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Jivatram Kripalani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, MK Stalin, M Karunanidhi and others.

Organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Jamaat-e-Islami along with some political parties were banned.

The period of emergency was also the black days for Indian Media. The freedom of press was suspended and media agencies like Doordarshan were apparently being used by the government for propaganda.

21 months later in March 1977 when the emergency was revoked and people got back their genuine powers granted by the Constitution, the countrymen voted out Indira Gandhi and the Congress government in the elections. This was for the first time when India saw a non-Congress government at the Centre.

Uttarakhand Flood: Sonia Gandhi to flag off relief material on Monday

Pushing the party machinery into the relief work for Uttarakhand flood victims, Congress President Sonia Gandhi will flag off relief materail from AICC headquaraters here on Monday while two senior leaders will be sent to oversee relief work in Dehradun tomorrow.

"Party treasurer Motilal Vora and AICC general secretary and incharge of Congress President's Office Ambika Soni are visting Congress Control Room in Uttarakhand to oversee relief operations and coordinate with PCC sending relief materials," party's Communication Department in-charge Ajay Maken said.

Vora said that he and Soni will leave for Dehradun tomorrow morning to oversee distribution of relief material that reach there from PCCs.

In a press release, Maken said both the leaders are going to further coordinate relief work and related logistics there.

The party set up a PCC control room at Dehradun to accelerate the relief work. AICC Secretary Sanjay Kapoor and the party's wing Seva Dal's chief Mahendra Joshi have already been sent to Dehradun to monitor the work.

Giving a blow-by-blow account of the rescue operations and relief work being carried out in Uttarakhand, the AICC release said 73,000 stranded pilgrims have been evacuated from Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Tehri and Pithoragarh. 2,000 people from Ghangria reached the camps and 500 were evacuated from Garunchatti in Kedarnath today.

Maken said that in addition to the Air Force, state government has also deployed helicopters that evacuated 400 people.

Martyr Lance Naik Hemraj's wife duped of Rs 10 lakh, accused surrenders

A man has been sent to judicial custody by an Agra court after he surrendered on charges of duping the wife of martyr Lance Naik Hemraj, who was beheaded by Pakistani soldiers earlier this year.

In April, the widow of Hemraj, Dharmvati was duped of Rs 10 lakh by the accused Harendra Singh, who had claimed that he was an army officer and sent by the Army Headquarters.

The accused convinced Dharmvati that it would be beneficial for her if she invests Rs 10 lakh in some scheme suggested by him. When she agreed to withdraw the amount from bank he went with Dharmvati and her family members to Kosi Kalan based bank from where he fled with the money, SSP R K S Rathore said.

"Rs three lakh cash, a car purchased from the cheated money, uniform of a soldier has been recovered from his possession," Rathore said.

According to the police, Singh has duped over a dozen families including Rs 3.5 lakh from a family in Allahabad, Rs 1.10 lakh from a martyr's family in Aligarh, Rs 50,000 from another family in Aligarh, Rs One lakh from Agra, Rs 60,000 from a family in Mahua, Rajasthan.

"To avoid arrest he has been living in Noida for sometime. Finding pressure of arrest from SWAT team as well as Kosi Kalan police, he surrendered in a court in Agra," Rathore said.

"The accused was taken on remand from the court for two day. During course of interrogation, he confessed to have committed aforesaid crime," he added.

A reward of Rs 10,000 has been declared for the SWAT team and police team of Kosi Kalan police station by DIG Agra.

Akhilesh Yadav directs officials to make UP 'mandis' world class

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today directed officials to chart out a project to improve facilities at state's 'mandis' and make them world class.

Akhilesh, who is also the chairman of Mandi Parishad, asked the officials to identify the areas which needed to be improved for making "radical changes" in the 'mandis' (a whole sale market where farmers sell their vegetables, food grains and other products).

The chief minister asked for setting up modern 'apna bazars' at 31 places, where, besides the availability of agricultural inputs, arrangements for folk culture, recreation and hand loom products should also be made for the benefit of farmers and their families.

The chief minister said that if required Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for running these 'apna bazars' should be considered.

Akhilesh, who was presiding over a meeting of Uttar Pradesh Rajya Krishi Utpadan Mandi Parishad, asked for equipping the 'mandis' with solid waste management, rain water harvesting and solar energy besides planting trees in the open land of mandis.

For those growing betel leaves in Bundelkhand area of the state, he directed for providing free transport facility to help them get better remunerative price for their product.

The chief minister said that it has been decided that under the Mandi Parishad run personal accident assistance scheme, an assistance of Rs 50,000 in the event of death.