'Politics is a very expensive hobby': Kangana Ranaut talks about her expenses as an MP
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Indian Express
4 minutes ago
- Indian Express
‘They don't respect us': Kangana Ranaut opens up about MPs' ‘struggles', claims panchayats and MLAs have bigger budgets
Be it for the right or wrong reasons, it's doubtful whether contemporary Bollywood has anyone who can make headlines quite like Kangana Ranaut. Even her Instagram stories often grab significant attention, let alone her interviews. After her much-delayed visit to her flood-hit parliamentary constituency of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh drew widespread criticism, Kangana's unfiltered admission that she isn't enjoying her first stint as an MP raised further eyebrows. She even described politics as a 'very expensive hobby'. What drew the most criticism, however, was a comment she made during her visit to Mandi, where she stated that she does not have any official Cabinet to provide disaster relief. Recently, the actor-turned-politician went a step further, claiming that even panchayats and Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) have larger budgets than Members of Parliament (MPs). She also alleged that nobody respects parliamentarians. 'A lot of MPs end up feeling very frustrated, and we talk to each other (about such matters). It's not like others have some privileges; you just struggle with a lot. You (the MPs) are the connecting link between the state and the Centre. So, you are basically nowhere. We are like twilight,' she claimed during a chat with Times Now, emphasising that parliamentarians are often left 'floundering' in the middle. 'When you go to your state, you don't have a single place where you're grounded or connected, or where you're running a project. And when you go to the Centre, you're always waiting in queues outside ministers' offices. A lot of MPs also complain that even a panchayat or an MLA has a lot more budget than an MP. They don't respect us,' she alleged. Highlighting the establishment of District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committees (DISHAs) as a welcome development, she added, 'The job (of an MP) demands a lot of communication. DISHA is a huge step. If we did not have the privilege or power to ask the deputy commissioner or those who clearly work under the state government, it (the position of a parliamentarian) would be a redundant place to be in. It (DISHA) was, I think, created because of this frustration: 'What's our place and work? What are we supposed to do and where?' Also, MLAs are very territorial, and ministers are preoccupied with a lot of businesses. Meanwhile, you (MPs) are in the middle, floundering.'
Indian Express
9 minutes ago
- Indian Express
CPM too opposed changes to Preamble during Emergency, now blaming RSS: Sangh-linked magazine
After RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale's recent remarks questioning the inclusion of the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Constitution's Preamble sparked a row, RSS-affiliated magazine Organiser has carried a cover story on the topic. Its focus: CPI(M)'s opposition to the Emergency-era 42nd Amendment that led to the addition of the words to the Preamble. The magazine has also published a sharply worded editorial accusing the Congress and the Left of distorting the legacy of the Emergency and turning the RSS into a political scapegoat. While critics, particularly from the Left and the Congress, labelled Hosabale's remarks an ideological attack on the Constitution, Organiser's cover story by Ganesh Radhakrishnan in its latest issue sought to highlight what it called the CPI(M)'s 'original position' on the matter, one that it claimed closely mirrored the RSS's stand. Citing a 1976 pamphlet the CPI(M) published during the Emergency, the article said the party had explicitly criticised the addition of 'socialist' and 'secular', viewing them as a political manoeuvre by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to centralise power. The pamphlet, later republished in Malayalam by Chintha Publishers in 2005, warned that the amendment was part of a broader strategy to turn the Constitution into an instrument of one-party rule under Gandhi. The CPI(M)'s alternative proposal of 26 amendments at the time made no mention of 'socialist' or 'secular' either, the Organiser article claimed. According to the article, in a preface to the republished volume, senior CPI(M) leader P Govinda Pillai had opposed the amendments tooth and nail. 'Indira Gandhi wanted to portray that the declaration of Emergency and the constitutional amendments were not an expression of fascist tendencies, but rather, an effort to defeat fascist forces and implement democracy and socialism … These changes were not based on democratic consensus but on political expediency,' Pillai is quoted as saying. The article said Hosabale's recent statements had 'not deviated from its original position even today'. 'The onus now falls upon the CPM to clarify whether its stance has changed,' Radhakrishnan wrote. It also quoted CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby's remarks following Hosabale's statement to make its point. 'RSS's demand to remove socialism and secularism from the Constitution's Preamble is a direct assault on India's core values. RSS always pushed Manusmriti over our Constitution,' Baby said. Building on this, Organiser editor Prafulla Ketkar, in his editorial, accused the Congress and Left of historical revisionism. 'This year marks the fifty years of the dark days of the Emergency… Instead of recognising the personal dictatorial ambitions of Ms Indira Gandhi as the root cause of the Emergency, an attempt is being made to divert the blame to a selfless leader like JP (Jayaprakash Narayan) and a nationalist organisation like RSS,' Ketkar wrote. 'When RSS Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale spoke about how 'secularism' and 'socialism' were inserted into the Constitution during the Emergency, he was exposing this hypocrisy. Dr Ambedkar was unmistakable when he called out Communists as the enemies of the Constitution while dedicating the final draft to the nation in 1949. Various outfits with allegiance to communism have openly called the Constitution 'bourgeoisie', and most of them vowed to overthrow it someday,' he added. Ketkar accused the Congress of repeatedly trying to undermine constitutional democracy, citing Nehru's First Amendment and the UPA's proposed Communal Violence Bill, and dismissed the CPI(M)'s claims of ideological consistency. While the CPI(M) has yet to officially respond to the Organiser article, the party has maintained in the past that it opposed the Emergency and the way the constitutional changes were carried out, but supports the substantive values of socialism and secularism. The Congress has also repeatedly defended the incorporation of these principles as essential to India's democratic and plural ethos. In his address at a recent event in Delhi at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre, Hosabale said: 'During the Emergency, two words, 'secular' and 'socialist', were added to the Constitution, which were not part of the original Preamble. There was no Parliament, no rights, no judiciary functioning, and yet these words were added. That is why this matter must be discussed.'
The Print
16 minutes ago
- The Print
26/11 prosecutor, ex-foreign secretary & Kerala poll violence victim: Stories of 4 Rajya Sabha nominees
The President can nominate up to 12 members from the fields of literature, science, art and social service to the Upper House of Parliament. The nominations have been made to fill vacancies created by the retirement of earlier nominated members. New Delhi: Senior advocate Ujjwal Nikam, former foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, social worker Master and historian Meenakshi Jain were nominated by President Droupadi Murmu to the Rajya Sabha. The selection of Nikam was long due as he worked in high-profile cases such as the Gulshan Kumar murder, the Shakti Mill gang rape, the Marine Drive rape, the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, and the 26/11 terror attack. The special public prosecutor was routinely in the news during the trial of Akmal Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist arrested during the 2008 terror attack. He had later drawn condemnation after he revealed that Kasab had never demanded mutton biryani during his trial. Born in North Maharashtra's Jalgaon, he started practicing as a lawyer in 1979. His father was a judge but he shot to fame for the first time when he was appointed as special public prosecutor in the 1993 serial blasts case. Nikam's proximity with the BJP dispensation grew after the 26/11 case. The Narendra Modi government conferred the Padma Shri to him in 2016. Last year, the BJP dropped two-term sitting MP Poonam Mahajan from the high-profile Mumbai North Central seat and instead gave the poll ticket to Nikam. His electoral debut ended with a loss as Congress Varsha Gaikwad trounced him by a margin of 16,500-plus votes. PM Modi hailed the nominations made by the Rashtrapati Bhavan. 'Shri Ujjwal Nikam's devotion to the legal field and to our Constitution is exemplary. He has not only been a successful lawyer but also been at the forefront of seeking justice in important cases. During his entire legal career, he has always worked to strengthen Constitutional values and ensure common citizens are always treated with dignity,' he posted on X. A retired Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, Shringla had served as the foreign secretary between January 2020 and April 2022. He had navigated the Indian diplomatic landscape during the Covid pandemic. Shringla was recently part of India's outreach to the Islamic world after Operation Sindoor following the Pahalgam terror attack. As the Indian ambassador to the US, Shringla was credited with Modi's public event Howdy Modi in Houston and maintaining warm relationship with US President Donald Trump in his first term. He was later made the chief G20 coordinator for India's G20 Presidency in 2023 and went on to help the Modi government in organising the G20 Summit in New Delhi that year. In Shringla's biography 'Not An Accidental Rise,' author Dipmala Roka has mentioned how he managed administrative and diplomatic efforts to manage the supply chain of essentials, negotiating for the smooth supply chain of drugs and other essentials. The book further mentions that when the Modi government scrapped Article 370 of the Constitution in 2019, Shringla met 400 senators and traveled to 22 states in the US. His name had come up as a BJP candidate from Darjeeling in the last year's general elections, but the party stuck with the sitting MP Raju Bista. A former teacher and social worker of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Sadanand Master had unsuccessfully contested the 2016 and 2021 assembly poll as a BJP candidate. Currently, he is seving as the BJP state president of the Kerala unit. The Sangh veteran survived an attack by CPI(M) goons in 1994 but lost both his legs. Despite his state, he remained active in politics and the BJP presented his case to highlight the Left's brutality in Kerala. 'The BJP is making inroads in Kerala after the first Lok Sabha victory (of Suresh Gopi in Thrissur), His selection is politically important to send a message to cadres fighting against the Left rule for the last two decades,' a BJP functionary told ThePrint. Meenakshi Jain, a renowned historian of medieval and colonial India, is daughter of Times of India's former editor Girilal Jain. She is a former associate professor of History at Gargi College, Delhi University, as well as a former fellow of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, and a former member of the Governing Council of the Indian Council of Historical Research. Jain is currently a senior fellow at the Indian Council of Social Science Research. Her well-researched books such as 'Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples', 'The Battle for Rama: Case of the Temple at Ayodhya, Rama and Ayodhya', 'Parallel Pathways: Essays on Hindu–Muslim Relations' have dealt with historical issues of national importance. Jain had contributed to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks during the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Later, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance dropped her book from the syllabus. The RSS and other Hindu Right outfits cited her work in the legal fight over Ayodhya. The historian was awarded the Padma Shri in 2020. (Edited by Tony Rai) Also Read: ONOE: Ex-CJIs say bill 'may not' violate basic structure of Constitution, but question powers to EC
