New Delhi Apr 26 PTI Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the unemployment issue alleging over 45 crore people have lost hope of getting a job due to his masterstrokesHe claimed that Modi is the first such prime minister in 75 years to do soNew Indias new slogan -- har ghar berozegaari ghar ghar berozegaari there is unemployment in every householdIn 75 years Modi is the first such prime minister whose masterstrokes have led to over 45 crore people losing the hope of getting a job the former Congress chief tweeted in HindiHe also cited a news report that claimed 21 crore jobs were lost in the last five years and 45 crore people have stopped searching for a job PTI SKC NSD NSD

Chandigarh Apr 24 PTI The Congress on Sunday hit out at the BJP-led Haryana government saying the decision to ban the sale of wheat residue which is used as cattle fodder outside the state is a dictatorial decision The BJP-JJP government is bent on punishing farmers for its failures Every day the government is harassing farmers by taking anti-farmer decisions said state Congress president Kumari Selja Banning the sale of tudi wheat residue outside the state was a dictatorial decision This decision should be withdrawn immediately she said in a statement here She said the government had issued orders that it will be ensured that no farmer sell his wheat residue outside the state and if anyone disobeys the order legal action will be taken against him The dictatorial decision of the government is not tolerable she added Selja said due to early arrival of summer and heatwave conditions prevailing over past few weeks the wheat production had decreased this time Farmers first suffered a lot due to rain and hailstorm earlier and now due to the sudden increase in temperature in March and April their crop yield had decreased she said But the government did not provide any relief to them Now if farmer was selling the wheat residue so that he could get some income in that too he is facing hurdles Instead of giving relief to farmers the government is harassing them by taking such decisions she said In a separate statement former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda also criticised the move Hooda said tractor-trailers of farmers are being stopped forcibly by the government officials everywhere and added the farmer should have the freedom to sell his cattle fodder anywhere The BJP-JJP government which talks about one country-one market is now objecting to selling fodder to others The government should take back this dictatorial decision taken against the farmers otherwise the opposition will oppose it at every level said Hooda Hooda said farmers have already suffered huge losses in the wheat season due to unseasonal rains and early arrival of summer The entire crop of the farmer was ruined in some places and some farmers are compensating for their loss by selling fodder in such a situation but the government is also snatching this right from the farmers he said On the other hand the government is neither lifting wheat in the mandis nor is the coalition government paying farmers on time for the crop procured Hooda who is the Leader of Opposition alleged PTI SUN VSD RDK RDK

New Delhi Apr 23 PTI The Congress on Saturday slammed the Union government over the inflation issue and asked what it was doing to bring down the prices of essential commodities which were grinding the households of common peopleFormer Congress president Rahul Gandhi said while the rate of inflation was 695 per cent the interest rate of fixed deposits in banks was only 5 per centForget depositing Rs 15 lakh to your bank accounts PM Modis masterstrokes have demolished your hard-earned savings he said on TwitterCongress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said that whenever the party raised the issue of rising prices the debate got centred around petrol diesel and LPG but the reality was that Consumer Price Inflation Index has seen a higher percentage rise than petrolShe claimed that 235 out of 299 things on that list that included that includes poultry fish milk ghee basic flour Atta edible oil pulses onion brinjal and many other vegetables have seen a higher percentage price rise than petrol in the last eight yearsShrinate also claimed that the cost of getting treatment in a hospital has gone up 71 per cent while medicines eating out tuition fees and house rents have all seen a steep price rise than even fuel pricesWe have two questions to raise before the government What is the governments strategy to rein in inflation This price rise has come at a time when 84 per cent of people have seen their incomes erode and 15 crore of the poorest households have seen their incomes half due to this government she saidWe demand that the government cuts the prices of diesel petrol and LPG sharply which will have a cascading effect on most of these things It is high time that instead of distracting and shifting the blame the government must present a white paper on high prices and the economy Shrinate said PTI SKC NSD NSD NSD

New Delhi Apr 20 PTI Congress leader Shashi Tharoor known for throwing in rarely-used often difficult-to-pronounce English words into Twitter lexicon on Wednesday posted another head-scratcher -- quockerwodgerThe man of many words helpfully shared the meaning too A quockerwodger was a type of wooden puppet In politics a quockerwodger was a politician acting on the instructions of an influential third party rather than properly representing their constituents he said A useful addition to our political vocabulary Tharoor added about the word he informed dates back to 1860 This is not the first time the author-politician-wordsmith has sent Twitterati scurrying for their dictionaries to confirm whether such a word indeed exists Last year Tharoor took a dig at the BJP with the word allodoxaphobia which he explained was an irrational fear of opinions Before that the Congress MP engaged in a friendly banter with TRS working president KT Rama Rao over COVID-19 medicine names and threw in the obscure floccinaucinihilipilificationOxford dictionary describes floccinaucinihilipilification as the action or habit of estimating something as worthlessIn the past he has stumped people with words such as farrago and troglodyte While farrago means a confused mixture a troglodyte means a person regarded as being deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned PTI ASK ASK MIN MIN

New DelhiApr 20 PTI Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday attacked the government over the use of bulldozers in violence-hit areas of Delhi and Madhya Pradesh and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to switch off bulldozers of hate and switch on power plantsHe also raised the issue of coal shortage in the country and shared a news report that claims that India stares at outages as coal stocks at power plants hit a lowEight years of big talk has resulted in India having only 8 days of coal stocks he said on TwitterModi ji stagflation is looming Power cuts will crush small industries leading to more job lossesSwitch off the bulldozers of hate and switch on the power plants he also saidGandhis reference was to the use of bulldozers in the anti-encroachment drive in Delhis violence-hit Jahangirpuri and in Madhya Pradesh against people who the BJP alleges have indulged in riotingIndia is left only with 8 days of coal stocks The fire burning on the streets because of BJPs hateful politics will not light up homes the Congress also said on its official Twitter handle The Congress said on Twitter that not only houses are being demolished by bulldozers our Constitution is being demolished Riding on the bulldozer of hate the ruling BJP is totally disturbed These people have fallen to this low level only to divert the attention of the people from the issues of inflation and unemployment That is why it is necessary to raise voice against this hatred the party said PTI SKC DV DV

New DelhiApr 20 PTI Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday attacked the government over the use of bulldozers in violence-hit areas of Delhi and Madhya Pradesh and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to switch off bulldozers of hate and switch on power plantsHe also raised the issue of coal shortage in the country and shared a news report that claims that India stares at outages as coal stocks at power plants hit a lowEight years of big talk has resulted in India having only 8 days of coal stocks he said on TwitterModi ji stagflation is looming Power cuts will crush small industries leading to more job lossesSwitch off the bulldozers of hate and switch on the power plants he also saidGandhis reference was to the use of bulldozers in the anti-encroachment drive in Delhis violence-hit Jahangirpuri and in Madhya Pradesh against people who the BJP alleges have indulged in riotingIndia is left only with 8 days of coal stocks The fire burning on the streets because of BJPs hateful politics will not light up homes the Congress also said on its official Twitter handle PTI SKC DV DV

Chandigarh Apr 19 PTI Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday asked Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to disclose names of those who offered bribe after AAP came to power in the state days after the ruling partys national convener made the claim Kejriwal on Saturday in Delhi had said after the formation of the AAP government in Punjab several big mafia who were looting Punjab started approaching him Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and party MLAs seeking favours by offering bribe Reacting to the claim Bajwa who is the Leader of the Opposition in the state told Kejriwal that without naming them and taking firm action he is letting them escape justice Remember you are now in power in Punjab not in the Opposition said Bajwa Arvind Kejriwal ji these are serious allegations Name the people who offered you bribe and take strict action Bajwa said in a Punjabi tweet on Monday while tagging a video clip of Kejriwal in this regard State Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring too had raised the issue on Monday Warring in a Hindi tweet had said while taking and giving bribe is an offence offering it to a chief minister is a serious crime He said not making public the names of the mafia who offered bribe tantamount to giving them silent support Kejriwal had said last week said All big mafia who were looting Punjab started approaching me Mann our ministers MLAs party functionaries asking what is the system in your party who has to be approached with bribe We told all of them to work honestly otherwise they will be put in jail And everything fell in their place See within a month your electricity became free We saved every penny for this Kejriwal had said PTI SUN VSD RDK

New Delhi Mar 31 PTI The Congress on Thursday extended its special membership drive by 15 days It will now conclude on April 15The membership drive was to end on March 31 according to the schedule for the partys internal electionsCongress President has approved the proposal of the AICC general secretaries and in-charges for extension of the Special Membership Drive for 15 days All India Congress Committee AICC general secretary organisation K C Venugopal said in a tweetThe drive will now close on the 15th of April 2022 without affecting the schedule of Organisational Elections approved by the CWC he also saidSources said the party has already made over 125 crore new members during the membership drive PTI SKC RC

New Delhi Mar 25 PTI Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu told the Supreme Court on Friday that the plea seeking enlargement of scope of notice in the matter relating to review of the sentence awarded to him in a 1988 road rage case is abuse of processThough the apex court had in May 2018 held Sidhu guilty of the offence of voluntarily causing hurt to a 65-year-old man in the case it spared him of a jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 1000A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and S K Kaul had earlier asked Sidhu to file his response on the application which has said that his conviction in the case should not have been merely for the lesser offence of voluntarily causing hurtIt is an extraordinary case in the negative sense which does not merit your lordships entertainment because it has potential to be subversive of the basic foundations of criminal justice and therefore an abuse of process senior advocate A M Singhvi appearing for Sidhu told the bench during the argumentsHe referred to the May 2018 judgement of the apex court which had said the medical evidence was absolutely uncertain regarding the cause of death of Gurnam Singh The apex court which heard the submissions advanced by the advocates appearing for the petitioners and Sidhu reserved its verdict Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra appearing for the petitioners also referred to the apex court judgement of 2018 in the matter and said the post mortem report of the victim says about the injury sustained by the victim He referred to two earlier verdicts of the apex court and said the matter needs reconsideration I am not asking for re-appreciation of evidence I am going by the admitted facts in your lordships judgement Luthra said At the fag end of the hearing Singhvi said the petitioners are seeking review of a review by filing the application seeking enlargement of notice in the matter The timing was before the elections Now there are no elections I dont know why this was suddenly activated he said To this the bench said It has nothing to do with the elections The bench observed that notice was issued to Sidhu but he did not enter appearance for over three years In September 2018 the apex court had agreed to examine a review petition filed by the family members of the deceased and had issued notice restricted to the quantum of sentence In a reply filed to the application seeking enlargement of scope of notice Sidhu had said the apex court after a careful perusal of the contents of the review petitions has restricted its scope to quantum of sentence It is well settled that whenever this court issues notice confining to sentence arguments will be heard only to that effect unless some extraordinary circumstancematerial is shown to the Court It is respectfully submitted that the contents of the present applications reiterate only overruled arguments and do not show any extraordinary material calling for interference on all aspects from this court the reply said Sidhu had said the petitioners have moved the applications after a lapse of about three-and-a-half-year from the issuance of limited notice on September 11 2018 and this unaccounted delay without any cogent explanation raises doubts on the bona fides of the applicationsThe reply had said the apex court had perused the entire evidence on record including medical evidence to conclude that cause of death of Gurnam Singh could not be ascertained Sidhu had said as there was no evidence whatsoever that the death was caused by the single blow by the answering respondent even assuming the incident did take place this court rightly concluded that the same would fall under section 323 IPC Section 323 punishment for voluntarily causing hurt of the Indian Penal Code entails a maximum jail term of up to one year or with a fine which may extend to Rs 1000 or both The apex court had on May 15 2018 set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order convicting Sidhu of culpable homicide and awarding him a three-year jail term in the case but had held him guilty of causing hurt to a senior citizen The top court had also acquitted Sidhus aide Rupinder Singh Sandhu of all charges saying there was no trustworthy evidence regarding his presence along with Sidhu at the time of the offence in December 1988 Later in September 2018 the apex court had agreed to examine a review petition filed by the family members of the deceased The apex courts May 2018 verdict had come on the appeal filed by Sidhu and Sandhu challenging the high courts 2006 judgment convicting them According to the prosecution Sidhu and Sandhu were in a Gypsy parked in the middle of a road near the Sheranwala Gate Crossing in Patiala on December 27 1988 when the victim and two others were on their way to the bank to withdraw money When they reached the crossing it was alleged Gurnam Singh driving a Maruti car found the Gypsy in the middle of the road and asked the occupants Sidhu and Sandhu to remove it This led to heated exchanges Sidhu was acquitted of murder charges by the trial court in September 1999 However the high court had reversed the verdict and held Sidhu and Sandhu guilty under section 304 II culpable homicide not amounting to murder of the IPC in December 2006 It had sentenced them to three years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on them PTI ABA SA

New Delhi Mar 23 PTI Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday urged the Centre to restart the mid-day meal scheme in schools which was discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemicMaking a Zero Hour mention she also asked the government to make available hot cooked food to children under three years pregnant women and lactating mothers Gandhi said children the future of the country had suffered the most during the pandemic as schools were among the first institutions to be shut down and the last to reopenWhen schools were shut down the mid-day meals scheme was also discontinued It was because of the National Food Security Act and directions from the Supreme Court that people were given dry rations But for children dry ration is no substitute for cooked and nutritious meals she saidGandhi said it was true that children and their families had to face difficult times during the unprecedented pandemicBut now as children return to school they need to be given better nutrition Mid-day meals will also help bring those children back to school who had dropped out during the pandemic she saidGandhi noted that according to the National Family Health Survey NFHS 2019-21 the percentage of malnourished and underweight children under five years of age has increased in comparison with 2015-16This is worrisome and the government should make every effort to prevent this she assertedThis is Gandhis second Zero Hour mention within a week PTI SKU SRY