Heena Sharma Blog

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the government must be transparent about its actions in fighting Covid-19 by cooperating with states and making them partners in decision-making. He also suggested that the government needs to inject Rs 7500 in the bank accounts of the poor Indians, to address the migrant crisis. Don't keep coronavirus fight to PMO only, inject Rs 7500 in bank accounts of the poor: Rahul Addressing a press conference through video conference, he said, "the lockdown is not an on/off switch and it is a transition which requires the cooperation of all - Centre, states, district magistrates and the people of India."   Read More

Hitting out at the Congress party, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that wilful defaulters were beneficiaries of 'phone banking' under the UPA regime and the Modi government was chasing them to recover the dues. She was responding to the opposition's allegations of loan waivers worth Rs 68,607 crore in the form of write-offs of top 50 wilful defaulters during the first half of the financial year ended March 2020. The Finance Minister, through a series of tweets on Tuesday, said that the Congress has attempted to mislead people, and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi should introspect why his party fails to play a constructive role in cleaning up the system. Read More

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take the strictest action against the alleged profiteering in coronavirus rapid test kits procurement. "Even when the entire country is fighting COVID-19, some people do not miss out on making unfair profits. Shame, disgust at this corrupt mentality. We demand from the Prime Minister that strictest action should be taken on these profiteers soon," Gandhi tweeted in Hindi. He said that the country will "never forgive" those making an unfair profit by selling testing kits. Read More

The Narendra Modi-led government has not released any money to Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA), India’s only central government-owned pilot training institute, since 2015-16. The institute was established in 1985 by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at Fursatganj in the Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh. Currently held by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Smriti Irani, the Amethi constituency was represented in Parliament by Rajiv Gandhi from 1981 until his death in 1991. Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi represented it from 1999 to 2004, and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi from 2004 to 2019. Rahul Gandhi has also served as a member of the IGRUA governing council in the past. IGRUA’s financial statements show that the last grant (Rs 5 crore) it received from the government was in 2014-15. According to Budget documents, the government made token provisions for the institutions but never released the money. For instance, in 2017-18, it made a nomina...

Likening the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) with demonetisation, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said these exercises are "tax" on the poor, who will suffer the same way they did after the note ban in November 2016. He was talking to reporters at the airport here after attending the inaugural function of the National Tribal Dance Festival. "Whether NPR or NRC, it is a tax on poor people of the country. You understand demonestisation. It was a tax on poor people. Go to banks and give your money but do not withdraw money from your account. Entire money went to the pocket of 15-20 rich people. This (NPR or NRC) is the same thing," he said. He was responding to a query on the Centre's claim that the NPR has no link with NRC. "Poor people will have to go to officers and show their documents and give bribe. They will have to give bribe if there is a slight mistake in their names. Crores of rup...

Terming demonetisation as a " terror attack ", Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said those behind the "vicious" assault have yet to be brought to justice. His attack on the government came on the third anniversary of demonetisation. On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to the nation that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes would cease to be a legal tender. "It's 3 yrs since the Demonetisation terror attack that devastated the Indian economy, taking many lives, wiping out lakhs of small businesses & leaving millions of Indians unemployed," Gandhi said in a tweet. Those behind this "vicious attack" have yet to be brought to justice, the former Congress president said, using the hashtag 'DeMonetisation Disaster'. Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also hit out at Prime Minister Modi for the demonetisation move, describing him as "today's Tughlaq". Read More

Rajasthan Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot may be appointed party president, said a report in the Navbharart Times. The Hindi daily says that the grand old party has made forced to do this after the current President, Rahul Gandhi remained adamant on resigning after the party's poor showing in general elections. Gehlot has been asked to be prepared to take up the role, the report said. This comes in the wake of Rahul Gandhi's refusal to withdraw his resignation from the post of Congress party chief. Various party leaders have exhorted him to continue as party president but he has been firm on resigning, the report said. If Ashok Gehlot becomes the new party chief, Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot may become the CM of the state, it added. Ashok Gehlot met the Congress President on his birthday yesterday at the party headquarter and urged him to remain the party chief in the interests of his country and people. Mr Gehlot said, ...

Watching the Modi wave sweep most of India in Lok Sabha election on Thursday, social media users were convinced counting day is the real season finale of " Game of Thrones ". As the ruling party, led by current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is on its way to a landslide victory for a second consecutive time, Twitter users weighed in on the comeback of BJP from a prism of their favourite show, which ended its eight season run last Sunday on a divisive note. One of the social media users borrowed the introductory style of rulers in the show for Modi as the one true leader in Westerosi jargon. "All hail His Grace, Narendra of the House Modi, First of his Name, Ruler of Bharatiyas, Lord of the North, South (partly), East, West and North East, Protector of the Realm, Breaker of Chains, Harbinger of Vikas, Scourge of traitors and Baap of all seculars #ModiAaRahaHai," one tweeted. Drogon may have melted the The Iron Throne to liquid metal in the series finale b...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday slammed Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his "why are all Modis thieves" barb, adding using derogatory language has become synonymous with the " naamdar " (dynast). Addressing a rally here, Modi said it has become a fashion for the "naamdar" to speak in derogatory terms. "Is this the language to speak? We have to throw out such people. Abusive language is the norm. The Sahu community here would have been called Modi in Gujarat. Are they all thieves," Modi said. Targeting the Congress, Modi said naxal influence in the area where BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi was killed by them, had been considerably reduced. "Why did this happen now," he said, referring to the naxal attack which claimed Mandavi's life. Mandavi and four security personnel were killed last Tuesday when their convoy was attacked by naxals in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district. Modi claimed that the Congress was "ha...

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday took to Twitter to make public the negotiations for a pre-poll alliance for Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha seats between his party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which triggered a war of tweets between supporters of the two parties. “ An alliance between the Congress and AAP in Delhi would mean the rout of the BJP. The Congress is willing to give up four Delhi seats to the AAP to ensure this. But, Mr. (Arvind) Kejriwal has done yet another U turn! Our doors are still open, but the clock is running out,” Gandhi tweeted, with the hashtag that said the ball was in AAP’s court. Kejriwal, chief of AAP and Delhi chief minister, retorted wondering which “U turn” the Congress was referring to when negotiations were still on. “Your tweet proves that an alliance (in Delhi) is not your wish but for public consumption. I am saddened that you are indulging in such public recriminations. Today, the country needs to be saved from (Narendra) Modi and (Amit...

BSP supremo Mayawati Wednesday termed the Congress manifesto as a "showoff" and an "illusion" and said there was no credibility of the promises made by the party due to its past. Congress and BJP are no different when it comes to non-fulfilment of promises, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said in a tweet. Congress President Rahul Gandhi Tuesday released his party's manifesto for Lok Sabha polls, making jobs creation, addressing farm distress, bringing a single moderate rate of GST and giving Rs 72,000 per annum to poor families as key focus if the party comes to power. Claiming the BJP was afraid of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, Mayawati said, "They (BJP) are so afraid that instead of talking of issues, they indulge in unnecessary casteist statements on top leader of (alliance). Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

Some, including the NITI Aayog chief, have slammed the Congress party of fiscal imprudence in proposing minimum income guarantee, or NYAY , of Rs 6,000 per month to 20 per cent poorest households. The estimated Rs 3.6 trillion payout looks prohibitive. However, a closer inspection of the proposed scheme and current political dynamics make it eminently workable. To begin with, Congress does not intend to implement it as soon as it comes to power, that is if it does, on May 23, 2019. Experts in the party, which include Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram, who were helped by its data analytics chief Praveen Chakravarty in putting together the scheme, have proposed a new committee that would be constituted to steer the implementation of the scheme. It is likely that former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian could head such a committee. Subramanian, as Chakravarty has acknowledged in his interviews, is closely involved in helping Congress with the details of the scheme. In the...

There is a genuine sense of loss and sorrow at the passing of Manohar Parrikar , and not just among political classes. An extremely unassuming and dedicated man, he fought valiantly the pancreatic cancer that was devouring him and bore his immense suffering stoically, much the same way as Steve Jobs did. He continued to serve till the end. It takes the 'genius' of Rahul Gandhi to interpret this as a sign of Mr Parrikar blackmailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi because he, Parrikar, apparently had secret Rafale files showing Mr Modi's culpability. I was among a very small number of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, class of 1965, to have met and interacted with Mr Parrikar. I met him at Vadodara airport in December 2012. He was standing behind me in the line for security clearance. He could have easily skipped that as he was the chief minister of Goa then. As is now well-known, he never did that. My friend Karan Grover, the noted architect, who was Mr Parrik...

Congress President Rahul Gandhi will formally dispatch the gathering's survey battle in Kerala on Thursday when he will address an enormous rally of specialists at Kozhikode on March 14. Gandhi will touch base here tonight after his projects in Nagercoil and Kanyakumari in neighboring Tamil Nadu . He has no official projects in the state Wednesday and in the wake of coming to here, would load up an uncommon trip to Kochi and go through the night at a visitor house in Thrissur, KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran said. The Congress boss would go to a progression of projects on March 14, starting with the "anglers' parliament" at Triprayar in Thrissur. Afterward, he would travel to Kannur, where he would meet the group of killed Youth Congress pioneer Shuhaib at the air terminal there. He would leave for Kasargod and meet the groups of Kripesh and Sarathlal, the adolescent congress activists, who were supposedly slaughtered by the CPI(M) as of l...

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Tuesday targeted the Modi government, adding she was saddened by what was happening in the country. She was addressing her first political rally in Gujarat after assuming charge as Congress general secretary. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi were present at the rally near Adalaj village of Gandhinagar district. Priyanka said the Modi government did not fulfil its promises of providing jobs to crores of people in the country. The Congress held a rally in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state to sound its poll bugle for the crucial Lok Sabha elections. Article Source -> Business Standard

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday cited a purported “dissent note” by some officials who negotiated the Rafale deal to assert that it demolished Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim of better pricing and faster delivery of the jets, and dismissed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on the multi-billion pact as a “cover-up” that was “not worth the paper” it was written on. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) responded by demanding an apology from Rahul Gandhi, as the CAG had said in its report that the National Democratic Alliance deal was 2.86 per cent cheaper than the United Progressive Alliance one. At a press conference, the Congress chief said even though he did not agree with the CAG’s submission, it still called the bluff of Modi, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who had told Parliament that the new deal was 9-20 per cent lower. “ The fact of the matter is that the new deal that… Modi signed gets In...

Congress president Rahul Gandhi Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of acting as a middleman of Anil Ambani in the Rafale jet deal , as he cited an e-mail to claim the businessman was aware of the MoU before India and France signed it. Ambani's knowledge of a defence deal under preparation, which even the then defence minister had said he was not aware of, is in violation of the Official Secrets Act, Gandhi alleged at a press conference, and said this "puts Modi in jail". Only Modi could have told Ambani about the deal in advance, he alleged. "This is treason. He (Modi) is doing what spies do," Gandhi said. Ambani had met the French defence minister days before the signing of the deal during Modi's visit to France in 2015, Gandhi said, quoting from an e-mail written by an Airbus executive to a French official. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

Only last week I had written about Hardik Pandya being one of the hottest brand endorsement candidates among cricketers for 2019. In a blog in Campaign, I had written about how in 2018 Pandya featured in ads for Gulf Oil, Gillette, Zaggle, Sin Denim, D:FY, boAt and Oppo. He was also recently seen in an ad for Star TV alongside M S Dhoni that notched up over 6 million YouTube views in just over a week. Nothing, but nothing, could go wrong for the all-rounder who holds the record for scoring the most number of runs (26) in a single over of a Test innings for India. But now in just a week, Pandya has gone from hero to zero. Accused, trolled, crucified for being misogynistic. Shobhaa De in fact called him, “…vile, racist, sexist, immature, annoying, egotistic, narcissistic and more…”. Such venom! On Koffee with Karan on January 6, Hardik Pandya (who was on the show with K L Rahul) boasted about hooking up with multiple women and even spoke about how open he is with his parents. ...

The wait is over! The trailer of veteran actor Anupam Kher's 'The Accidental Prime Minister ' will be out on Thursday. Taking to his Twitter, the 'A Wednesday' star, who will be seen as former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the film, shared a video donning his look for the film. "Friends, you'll be happy to know that the trailer of The Accidental Prime Minister is coming to all of you tomorrow," he wrote. Based on the 2014 memoir of the same name, written by Manmohan Singh's media adviser Sanjay Baru, 'The Accidental Prime Minister' revolves around Singh's life, the economist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014 under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. It also features Arjun Mathur and Aahana Kumra as Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi, respectively. Suzanne Bernert will portray the role of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Read ...

The BJP headquarters in Delhi wore a relatively deserted look on Tuesday, even as Congress workers celebrated their party's good show in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh at its headquarters. ALSO READ: Chhattisgarh, MP polls result LIVE: BJP suffers 'humiliating' defeat in CG The Delhi Police erected barricades near the BJP headquarters at ITO in the morning as a precautionary measure to manage crowd, expecting the arrival of party workers following the results of assembly polls in five states. However, BJP workers did not turn up at party headquarters on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, even as celebrations broke out at Congress headquarters on Akbar Road. Trends showed the Congress ahead in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and locked in a tantalising, see-saw battle in Madhya Pradesh.    Read More Business Standard