Latest news with #TarunChugh
Time of India
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
‘Glorifying rioters': BJP, NC face off over Martyrs' Day tribute; Jallianwala Bagh comparison sparks row
Tarun Chugh, Omar Abdullah NEW DELHI: The BJP on Sunday accused Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah of glorifying rioters and rewriting history after he compared the July 13, 1931, killings in Srinagar to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Every year, July 13 is observed by many in J&K as Martyrs' Day to remember the 22 people shot dead by the Dogra army outside Srinagar's central jail. However, the day was removed from the list of public holidays by the Lieutenant Governor-led administration in 2020 after the region's reorganisation in 2019. In a post on X, Abdullah had said, '13th July massacre is our Jallianwala Bagh. The people who laid down their lives did so against the British. What a shame that true heroes who fought British rule are today projected as villains only because they were Muslims.' The BJP criticised the comparison sharply with BJP national general secretary and J&K in-charge Tarun Chugh saying, 'That was colonial brutality against unarmed civilians. July 13 was a communal mob trying to destroy order. Don't twist facts.' Chugh also claimed that the event was being used to whitewash violence and blamed Abdullah for ignoring the 1990 forced exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. He accused the National Conference of glorifying Abdul Qadeer, calling him a British agent who incited the mob in 1931. 'This is not martyrdom. This is political fraud,' Chugh said. He added that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, the BJP would continue to tell history as it happene and would work towards the justice and return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits. J&K deputy chief minister Surinder Choudhary responded by accusing the BJP of using communal politics. 'They are misleading the public. Talking against Kashmir gives them political benefit in Jammu,' he said. The political tension came after several leaders claimed they were placed under house arrest on Saturday to prevent them from visiting the graves of the 1931 victims. The Srinagar administration had officially denied permission to political groups to gather at the Naqshband Sahib Martyrs' Graveyard. Abdullah called the move 'blatantly undemocratic' and said that locking elected representatives in their homes and sealing graveyards was an attack on democracy. 'We will not forget their sacrifices,' he said. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said the mistrust between Delhi and Kashmiris will truly end only when India accepted Kashmiri "martyrs" as their own.
Hans India
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Temples should be included in Sacrilege Bill in Punjab: BJP
BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh on Sunday demanded that Hindu temples and idols should also be included in the proposed Sacrilege Bill, for which a special Punjab Assembly session has been called on July 10 and 11. Chugh regretted that the Bill is being brought by the Bhagwant Mann government even after more than three years of its promise made in the election manifesto. 'But better late than never,' he said and demanded that the Bill must also include 'Pran Pratishthit' Hindu temples in Punjab. Chugh said that lately there have been a number of incidents in which Hindu temples were targeted. The BJP, he said, holds Guru Granth Sahib in the highest esteem, so the party welcomes the Bill, but at the same time Hindu idols should also be accorded respect. Meanwhile, Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan has called the Legislative Assembly, which was adjourned sine die on May 5, to meet at 11 am on July 10 under the second proviso to Rule 16 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha (Punjab Legislative Assembly). A government spokesperson said the law against sacrilege would prevent a repeat of such incidents in the future. 'For a long time, there has been a demand for making a law against sacrilege in Punjab. The Mann government will fulfil the demand of the people,' said the spokesperson. The incident of sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib that caught nationwide attention took place in Behbal Kalan village of Faridkot district in 2015, and the subsequent police firing on protesters that claimed two lives was raked up by the Congress against the SAD-BJP combine government in the 2017 Assembly polls. Even in 2022 polls, in which the current state government came at the helm, the incidents continued to rock the state's political sphere as successive governments are under fire for failing to deliver justice in the cases. In the run-up to the last assembly polls, Justice Ranjit Singh (retd), who headed the commission into the alleged incidents of sacrilege and the subsequent police firing, placed then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch, and then DGP Sumedh Singh Saini in the dock. He castigated the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda, whose chief and self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is currently serving a 20-year jail sentence for raping two of his disciples and a life term for a journalist's killing, for the incident of sacrilege.
Hans India
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
EC works fine in victory but turns evil during poll loss: Tarun Chugh taunts Opposition
New Delhi: BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh on Friday took potshots at the Opposition, claiming that they praise the Election Commission when they emerge victorious in polls but resort to blamegame spree in face of any electoral losses. His remarks follow an INDIA Bloc delegation's meeting with the ECI on July 2 to protest the recently announced 'Special Intensive Revision' (SIR) of Bihar's electoral rolls—a meeting many Opposition leaders described as 'disappointing' and 'unfriendly.' Speaking to IANS, Tarun Chugh said, 'After their defeat, INDIA Bloc leaders make wild allegations without any facts. When they win in Telangana, Himachal, and Karnataka, then EVMs are fine and the ECI is good. But as soon as people reject them across the country—including in Maharashtra and Haryana—they suddenly claim the elections are rigged and the EVMs faulty. This is sheer double standards and exposes their double character.' Chugh further reacted to AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal's charge, where he attacked both the BJP and Congress during a party membership drive in Ahmedabad, describing their relationship as a 'husband-wife' alliance. Hitting back, Chugh said, 'Kejriwal should first explain his own backroom deals. He once called Congress the most corrupt party and claimed to have 'two sacks of evidence' against them and Sheila Dikshit. But the mouth of that sack has never opened. Instead, he formed an unholy government with them in Delhi. How many Lok Sabha elections has AAP fought in alliance with Congress? The people have given them a fitting reply for that alliance.' Chugh further condemned Opposition leaders for repeatedly making controversial remarks about the Kanwar Yatra. 'It is one of Sanatan Dharma's most sacred and challenging pilgrimages, undertaken with strict fasting rituals during the holy month of Sawan,' he said. 'Yet the INDIA bloc tries to politicise it for vote-bank gains. I urge them to stop this cheap politics. The insults hurled at Kanwariyas—devotees of Lord Shiva undertaking this spiritual journey—are nothing but an attack on Sanatan traditions. Sadly, opposing Sanatan has become a fashionable trend in the Congress and INDIA bloc alliance,' he concluded.
Hindustan Times
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
‘Fear of crushing defeat in upcoming polls': BJP slams INDIA bloc over Bihar electoral roll revision
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National General Secretary Tarun Chugh on Thursday termed the meeting of a delegation of the INDIA bloc leaders with the Election Commission of India over the Bihar voter list overhaul as an "insult" to democracy and India's institutions. The 'Jan Vishwas Yatras' will be flagged off by veteran BJP leaders – including the state's chief minister Yogi Adityanath and several Union ministers. (File Photo / Representational Image) The BJP leader also claimed that the INDI alliance is in "deep shock" due to the "fear of defeat" in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. "The INDI Alliance is in deep shock due to the fear of their crushing defeat in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. The leaders of the INDI Alliance aim to discredit the Election Commission, a world-renowned, independent, and impartial institution" "Actually, they know they are going to lose, so now they want to blame the Election Commission... This is an insult to democracy and the institutions of India...", Chugh told ANI. A day earlier, delegation of INDIA bloc leaders from 11 political parties met with the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the national capital to register their opposition to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls currently underway in Bihar, calling it the "worst attack on the basic structure of the Constitution." Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, part of the delegation that met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, questioned the timing of the SIR exercise, noting that it is being carried out only months before the upcoming Assembly elections. "Firstly, the last revision was in 2003. For 22 years, more than four of five Bihar elections have happened. Were all those elections faulty?... Secondly the Special Intensive Revision which was held in 2003, was held one year before the Lok Sabha Elections, two years before the Assembly election. Today you are having in July, a maximum period of one or two months for an electoral revision exercise of the second most largest electoral populated state in India, want to have it in one and a half to two months," the Congress leader told reporters after the meeting. Representatives of the Communist Party of India, CPI (Marxist-Leninist), Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and other parties were present. The ECI has claimed that the SIR is only meant to verify voters and to identify any 'ineligible voters' ahead of the Assembly elections which are expected to be held later this year in Bihar. However, multiple political parties part of the Opposition, including Congress and Bihar's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), have raised objections to the exercise, claiming that it will be used to deny people their constitutional rights. The Bihar Legislative Assembly elections are expected to be held later this year, however no official date has been announced by the ECI as of yet.
India Gazette
02-07-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
Kejriwal-driven AAP govt has imposed undeclared Emergency in Punjab: BJP's Tarun Chugh
Chandigarh [India], July 2 (ANI): BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh came down heavily on the Bhagwant Mann-led government in Punjab for 'unleashing a new era of Emergency' in Punjab, in which the Opposition's voice is being 'muzzled'. Reacting strongly to the detention of former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and other senior Akali leaders in Mohali today, Chugh said in a statement that 'draconian' laws were being enforced in Punjab at the behest of AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal and all democratic rights of the Opposition to stage dharnas or protests were being blatantly violated by the AAP government. Chugh alleged that even peaceful protests are not being allowed in the state, which indicates the oppressive nature of the Kejriwal-driven Punjab government. He said that AAP leaders have not only made open threats in the Vidhan Sabha in the past, but are now detaining those who protest peacefully in a democratic manner -- a dangerous sign of the party's authoritarian drift. He further alleged that AAP leaders have started threatening Opposition leaders, including Bikram Majithia, with remarks like 'Dekh Lenge', which reflects the party's growing intolerance and political vindictiveness. He alleged Kejriwal has become another version of 'autocratic Indira Gandhi', having turned Punjab into a jail where all democratic rights are being denied. Chugh said instead of acting against various mafias operating in the state, the Bhagwant Mann government is targeting the Opposition to hide its failures on all fronts. Earlier in the day, Punjab Police detained several Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) supporters staging a protest against the arrest of senior party leader Bikram Singh Majithia. The protest took place near the Mohali court, where Majithia is scheduled to be produced following the completion of his Vigilance Bureau remand. As security was tightened around the court complex, SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal claimed that he himself was stopped and detained by police while en route to a gurdwara in Mohali. The incident prompted strong criticism from the former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab. (ANI)
