Union MoS Nityanand Rai demands apology from Kharge for calling Bihar a
New Delhi [India], June 26 (ANI): Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai has demanded an apology from Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge for referring to Bihar as a 'small' state, calling the remark 'extremely unfortunate' and 'insulting.'
'The Congress President should immediately apologize to the 13 crore people of Bihar,' Rai said in a statement.
Rai termed Kharge's remarks as 'extremely unfortunate' and 'insulting', saying, 'It is extremely unfortunate and insulting that Congress National President and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge referred to Bihar as a 'small' state. This is a highly objectionable remark made by him for people of Bihar.'
MoS Rai further said that the 13 crore people of Bihar cannot tolerate the statement of the INC President at all. In fact, Mallikarjun Kharge has not only insulted peoole of Bihar but has also attempted to attack its glorious tradition, culture and public sentiment, which is the real character of the Congress Party.
Former Bihar BJP President and MP from Ujiyarpur reminded the Congress President, 'Bihar is the land of democracy, land of Chanakya, land of heroes, the land of knowledge...Congress President should know that the land of Bihar is the birthplace of Mahavir and also the 'karmabhoomi'of Gautam Buddha.'
Rai further added that Bihar is the land of 'Jannayak' Jayaprakash Narayan, who led against the imposition of the Emergency and brought the whole country together against the Emergency.
'The entire Bihar knows that the vision of the Congress party has never been to develop Bihar but the Congress party should know that this is the same Bihar where Karpoori Thakur worked to strengthen social justice. These days Rahul Gandhi keeps talking about social justice while touring the country and abroad but people of Bihar are not weak. People of Bihar know very well that how to give a reply and just wait for the time,' Rai stated.
The Union MoS also raised questions the silence of Rahul Gandhi LoP Lok Sabha saying that Rahul Gandhi come to Bihar during the election season but his party busy to insulting the people of Bihar from Delhi. (ANI)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Minister Ponnam accuses BJP of discriminating against BCs
Transport and BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar has slammed the BJP, accusing the party of continuing its discriminatory approach towards Backward Classes (BCs) by not allowing a BC leader from filing the nomination for the post of the party State unit president. He alleged that the BJP had once again exposed its 'anti-BC stance' by sidelining BC leaders in internal party affairs. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Mr. Prabhakar questioned the BJP leadership's commitment to social justice, pointing out that the party, despite having three BC MPs and several senior BC leaders, had failed to appoint a BC as its State president. The Minister said that in the past, the BJP had made promises to make a BC leader the Chief Minister, but it had failed to honour those commitments. 'They did not even consider appointing a BC as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly,' he said. He contrasted this with the Congress's measures, stating that social justice is achievable only through the Congress. He said the party had appointed a BC leader as the PCC president. Highlighting the Congress-led initiatives in Telangana, Mr. Prabhakar said the government was moving forward with a caste census and had brought in legislation to ensure 42% reservation for BCs in political, educational, and employment sectors. Referring to the leadership change in the State BJP ahead of the last Assembly elections, he said the party had removed BC leader Bandi Sanjay and replaced him with G. Kishan Reddy, further reflecting its disregard for backward classes.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
How Emergency Brewed in Bihar
Sinhasan Khali Karo Ki Janata Aati Hai! When Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan roared with these lines of legendary Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' from the stage of Delhi's iconic Ram Leela Maidan, the janata (public) of the country rose with their echo. It however unnerved Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was facing salvos of public anger. Out of despair, she imposed what historians now recall as the dark chapter in Indian history – the Emergency, declared on June 25, 1975. Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan addressing a rally just before the Emergency was declared at Ramlila Ground in New Delhi. (HT Photo.) It was a paradox that Dinkar, who was revered and exalted to Rashtrakavi (national poet) status by Indira's father, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, for his poetry of rebellion, turned out to be a weapon in the hands of Indira's bete noire. JP was a political honcho who was moulded in the grind of Bihar. Dinkar was a bard of Bihar. So, the embers of political pirouette in the leadership of JP had to be most glowing in Bihar. The state in fact soon turned into the epicentre of anti-Congress and anti-Indira temblor. JP evolved into a principal of all those clamouring 'Total Revolution' – total change of system. Patna university would be its seminary, its students its knights and Bihar its hothouse. And Dinkar's poetry will be its song. Till it was lifted in 1977, many acts of the Emergency unfolded in Bihar. Early build-up in Bihar It was on June 5, 1974 that JP gave a call for 'Total Revolution' against the 'corrupt Congress regime, price rise and other forms of misgovernance from Patna's historic Gandhi Maidan, and gradually his movement became pan-India, seeking resignation of Indira Gandhi. Indira was enduring but as the Allahabad high Court annulled her election from Rae Bareli, she went draconian. And the country was introduced to the Emergency. Actually it was an incident in Bihar that is believed to have seeded the idea of Emergency in Indira's mind. It was the assassination of then Union minister Lalit Narayan Mishra that took place in a blast in Samastipur in January 1974. Once the Emergency was in place, the state turned into a battle ground and both the Indira machinery and the Opposition leaders tested each other's guts. In Bihar, the main action was in Patna, the State Capital, where the proclamation of Emergency suddenly put the onus of compliance of everything on the administration. Vijay Shankar Dubey, a 1966 batch IAS officer and then district magistrate of Patna, recalls a chain of events that unveils how events shaped the history of that pivotal time. He says the roots of the emergency had been laid long before Indira Gandhi made the big announcement. He lists a number of factors, including the poor financial condition of the country after the 1971 war, rising prices, shortage and black marketing of essential commodities like sugar and kerosene and the students' agitations in various parts of the country. He says that as soon as students mobilised all over, a large-scale arson and violence broke out. In Patna alone, 13 lives were lost in police firing. In order to rein in chaos and streamline the agitation, JP took over the leadership in his hands. 'It was March 18, 1974 when the. Then Patna University Students' Union (PUSU), comprising the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadav as president, Sushil Kumar Modi as general secretary and many others, announced to gherao the Bihar Assembly during the session, seeking resignation of CM Abdul Ghafoor and his cabinet over price rise and corruption. It led to stone pelting and violence. Many important buildings were set on fire, including the Searchlight and Pradeep newspaper office on Buddha Marg, which now houses Hindustan Times and Hindustan, Kotwali police station, Assembly secretary's house, Circuit House, education minister's residence, fire station, etc. Had I not ordered firing, things would have spiralled out of control and the entire city would have burnt,' he recalls. Students' agitation Dubey's tenure as DM of Patna was from March 1974 to June 1977. He was witness to all – from student agitation, large-scale arrests, imposition of myriad kinds of restrictions, suspension of fundamental rights and all other 'excesses' that define the Emergency era. He recollected that JP was in Patna those days after having witnessed another students' movement in Gujarat,and saw in it an opportunity to take it forward under his leadership in a different way. 'On April 2, 1974, he led a silent procession from Kadamkuan in Patna with barely around 500-600 persons -- all with hands and mouth cuffed, against police action, price rise and for seeking resignation of CM and his cabinet, etc. but swelled into 50,000 plus by the time it reached the then Bailey Road. It further boosted JP's confidence that the people were desperate for change. CM Ghafoor was, however, not ready to resign nor did Indira Gandhi want an elected government to go under pressure,' he reminisces. However, he said that April 2, 1974 onwards, agitation in Bihar became a routine affair and spread across the state. 'Be it rendition of poems, speeches on the roadside, pamphlet distribution or dharna, something or the other was always on, with youth and students always at the top of JP's scheme of things. JP appealed to the people to send postcards and inland letters voicing their opinions on the government and with widely guessed 50-lakh of them loaded on a truck marched towards the Raj Bhawan on June 5, 1974 to submit it and later hundreds of thousands people gathered at the Gandhi Maidan, where he gave the call for Total Revolution and shifted his target from Bihar government to Central government for systemic change to end corruption, political and administrative reforms, right to recall and eradication of the caste system. As the long procession moved, there was firing at the tail end at a point on Bailey Road allegedly by activists of an organisation called Indira Brigade, but it was soon controlled and the accused were arrested,' he says. On November 4, 1974, JP again took the agitation route, under which the activists were to gherao Assembly and force ministers and MLAs to resign, though the administration did not allow the procession to swell by dispersing them through use of 'mild force', Dubey says, adding that he contemplates writing a book reflecting the exact turn of events during his eventful tenure as Patna DM when the country witnessed the biggest political churning. 'The procession was stopped near Revenue Building with barricades. There was also lathicharge there, in which it was alleged that JP was also hit and a picture went viral, but it was wrong. I still have two medical reports – one from JP's family doctor – indicating that he was not injured in lathicharge, though some other leaders did receive some blows. When some people later asked JP if he was hit that day, the socialist leader said that the question was not about being hit, but the larger question was why there was lathicharge. I will elaborate this in my upcoming book why there was lathicharge that day,' Dubey says, adding that after November 4, 1974, JP shifted his focus entirely on Delhi to seek the ouster of Indira Gandhi, as the discontent had spread across the country by then. Roar from Delhi and Sudden Enforcement 'I was around 35 kms away from Patna camping in Masaurhi in connection with some land settlement issue for the landless. Those days, the only means of communication was landline phone or wireless system available to senior officials. As the Emergency was imposed at midnight, I had no idea immediately. Next morning, my then PA sent a messenger to inform me about it so that I could immediately return. I reached the next morning to understand that emergency had been imposed under Article 352 and the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971 and the British era Defence of India Rules had been invoked, which gave powers to the administration to detain any person/persons for up to two years without FIR or trial if there was convincing evidence against them about indulgence in unlawful activities, participating in agitation or violence,' he said. The Allahabad High Court's June 12, 1975 verdict setting aside the election of Indira Gandhi as MP, even though she was given 15 days time to move the Supreme Court, gave further fillip to the movement against her and when the Apex Court also upheld the order on June 24, 1974, refusing to interfere with the HC order, JP pressed the peddle to seek her resignation, as she would have remained the PM for six months even without being a member of either House. On June 25, 1975 in his historic speech at Delhi's Ramleela Maidan, he exhorted the police and government officials not to obey illegal and immoral orders, which became another trigger for Indira Gandhi, who was already grappling with the surcharged atmosphere. And from Ram Leela Maidan, JP roared with Dinkar's 'Sinhasan Khali Karo…' The throne shook. But it was not vacated until 1977 when janata voted out its occupant.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
India's April-May fiscal deficit at ₹13,163 crore—0.8% of annual target
New Delhi: India's fiscal deficit staged a marked improvement in the first two months of 2025-26, helped by strong growth in non-tax revenue even as the government's capital expenditure spending increased. The Union government reported fiscal deficit of ₹ 13,163 crore for April-May, amounting to 0.8% of the target for the whole of 2025-26, according to data released Monday by the Controller General of Accounts. For the same period last year, fiscal deficit was ₹ 50,615 crore. India's cumulative fiscal deficit at 0.8% of the full-year target is the lowest level since the Centre began publishing monthly fiscal data in April 1997. The government has maintained a strong commitment to fiscal consolidation, with the deficit for FY26 projected at ₹ 15.69 trillion, lower than the ₹ 16.85 trillion reported in FY25, and pegged at 4.4% of GDP. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman reiterated this target in her budget speech earlier this year, affirming the Centre's glide path to reduce fiscal deficit to 4.4% of GDP by 2025-26. The latest data appears to reflect front-loaded expenditure in early FY26, particularly a resurgence in capital spending, which had slowed during the first quarter of FY25 due to the national election. In April-May FY26, capital outlay surged to ₹ 2.21 trillion, or 19.7% of the annual target, a marked increase from ₹ 1.44 trillion in the same period a year ago. Overall expenditure rose to ₹ 7.46 trillion in the first two months of FY26, or 14.7% of the full-year target, compared to ₹ 6.23 trillion in the year-earlier period. Revenue expenditure, including interest payments, subsidies, and salaries, stood at ₹ 5.25 trillion, or 13.3% of the full-year estimate, up from ₹ 4.80 trillion. On the revenue side, net tax collections reached ₹ 3.51 trillion, accounting for 12.4% of the annual goal, while non-tax revenue jumped to ₹ 3.57 trillion, or 61.2% of the full-year estimate. Combined, total revenue receipts climbed to ₹ 7.33 trillion, covering 21% of the FY26 target, up from ₹ 5.73 trillion in April-May FY25. Fiscal deficit, or the shortfall between government spending and revenue, excluding borrowings, shows how much the government must borrow to meet its expenses. While moderate deficits can help sustain economic momentum, a sharp rise would raise concerns over inflationary pressures and rising public debt. Policymakers, therefore, face the delicate task of balancing growth-supportive spending with fiscal restraint. In July last year, Mint reported that the government was considering a shift in how it sets fiscal targets, moving from a fixed-point goal to a range of 3.7% to 4.3% beyond FY26, to provide greater flexibility in navigating economic uncertainties while maintaining long-term fiscal sustainability. While tax revenue growth lagged behind the pace projected in the Union Budget, strong gains in non-tax revenue and non-debt capital receipts more than offset the shortfall, they said. 'The revenue receipt growth in the first two months was 24.0%, more than double the growth in the FY26 budget (10.8%). This was due to strong growth of non-tax revenue, mainly due to RBI (Reserve Bank of India) dividend and non-debt creating capital receipts (asset monetization and disinvestment),' said Devendra Kumar Pant, chief economist at India Ratings and Research. Pant said that while tax revenue growth has been slower than budgeted, collections in April and May touched 13.7% of the full-year target, the highest on record for this period, largely due to a low growth target for FY26, with most tax heads except Union customs and excise falling short of their budgeted pace. He, however, warned that both domestic and global economic landscapes have changed since the beginning of FY26, with the Indian economy facing both tailwinds as well as headwinds. 'It is too early to conclude the achievability of FY26 fiscal deficit targets. While the slower tax collection growth is a concern, both non-tax collection and non-debt creating capital receipts have remained buoyant and may compensate for slippage in FY26 tax collection,' Pant added. Other fiscal aggregates, however, show mixed trends compared to the same period in FY25, economists said, with growth in personal income tax collections moderating to 6.4% during April-May FY26, down from 17% for the full year in FY25. 'We expect that the fiscal performance of the GoI (government of India) in the first two months is quite transitory and the situation would progressively move towards the budgeted growth rates of different fiscal aggregates,' said D.K. Srivastava, chief policy advisor, EY India. 'Another noticeable positive trend is that the annual budgeted capital expenditure growth of 10.1% is being frontloaded with the growth in GoI's capital expenditure in the first two months being 54.1%,' he added.
