In Amethi, Rahul Gandhi faces protests from angry villagers

Amethi: Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency Amethi, faced protests from unhappy residents for the second day in a row today. While he faced angry college girls yesterday, villagers protesting against lack of roads confronted him today.

Villagers from Chachkapur gathered outside Rahul Gandhi's guest house this morning and shouted slogans, asking him to leave Amethi. This forced the young MP to invite them for talks.

Yesterday, on the first day of his visit, girls from Rajkiya Balika Inter College blocked the road which Mr Gandhi was to take on his way to inaugurate a bank branch. The students were reportedly upset over lack of basic amenities in their college.

Mr Gandhi's cavalcade was diverted to another route after local intelligence unit alerted the Special Protection Group (SPG) about the protests. The students later raised slogans and condemned the MP for not meeting them.

Mr Gandhi is in Amethi to attend a District Monitoring and Vigilance Committee meeting at the collectorate, party sources said. He is expected to meet party workers, distribute tricycles in Salon area and take part in a closed door workers' meet in Jamo area before leaving for Delhi, sources added.

In the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls held earlier this year, the Congress lost eight out of the 10 Assembly seats in the twin Lok Sabha constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli despite Rahul Gandhi campaigning extensively in the state. While Mr Gandhi is an MP from Amethi, his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi is an MP from Rae Bareli. The Congress has had a stronghold in both these constituencies since decades.

(With inputs from Agencies)
 

Rahul Gandhi 'decoded' in a book

New Delhi: Does Rahul Gandhi have an overarching political and economic vision asked panelists at a book release function here Wednesday while debating the strategy and thinking of the Congress leader.

Some panelists suggested that the Congress general secretary should take a bigger political role upfront to guide his party for the 2014 electoral challenge.

Senior journalist M.D. Nalapat, who released the book "Decoding Rahul Gandhi" by Aarthi Ramachandran, set the tone of a freewheeling discussion by posing questions about the possibility of Rahul Gandhi being able to outshine his father Rajiv Gandhi because of the "very low expectations" of him.


Hartosh Singh Bal, political editor, Open magazine, said Rahul Gandhi was by nature a fairly decent man but was not willing to step ahead. Bal said the Congress would shape around the role Rahul Gandhi takes but "he does not want to take a role upfront".

"He may be forced in 2014," Bal said, and added that Rahul Gandhi should either step back completely or step forward.

He said Rahul Gandhi had wasted too much time being in charge of the Youth Congress and the National Students' Union of India.

Columnist Santosh Desai said the charisma of the Gandhi dynasty was no longer sufficient and vote catching abilities of a single person were unlikely to deliver results.

Referring to Rahul Gandhi's work in the Youth Congress, Desai said that the young leader had the idea of seeing politics as a management consultant and converting everything into projects.

"He is trying to impose a new kind of framework. It is a tall order," Desai said.

Ramachadran, who has worked with dailies, said her book was an attempt to critically look at the person who could be the country's prime minister.

"He does not want to put much of himself out. The book is neutral, set out to examine what he adds up to," Ramachadran said.

The author said Rahul Gandhi had "a large economic point of view" which was "left of centre" and could be placed between that of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

She said that Rahul Gandhi's politics had conveyed a sense of opportunism as issues like the land acquisition bill taken up by him before the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls appear to have been left for another election.

She said the Congress leader had the right intentions but managed to come across as a process-driven individual.

"He had in him a desire to strike out and do differently but pressure to deliver (forced him) to go back to (paths of) Sonia Gandhi, Indira Gandhi. He is very uncomfortable with that," she said.

Ramachadran said despite criticism of Rahul Gandhi not being upto the task, he was not a political figure who could be wished away.

Answering queries, she said it will be a rough ride if Rahul Gandhi became prime minister and added that people had not seen him engage with allies.

The 280-book has been published by Tranquebar Press.

Air Force turns down Rahul Gandhi's request

Kokrajhar (Assam): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was today forced to change his travel plans as the Indian Air Force (IAF) did not oblige to his request for flying him from Kokrajhar to Guwahati, citing bad weather.

Mr Gandhi was on a day's trip to Assam to meet victims of ethnic violence in relief camps and held discussions with Bodoland Territorial Council leaders on the prevailing situation in the state.

While travelling back to Guwahati with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, he was denied permission by the IAF officials to take off due to the bad weather, sources said.

An IAF spokesperson in New Delhi confirmed that Mr Gandhi had wanted to fly to Guwahati urgently for a meeting there but due to bad weather prevailing en route and at the destination, the permission was not given.

During the visit, Mr Gandhi met relief camp inmates and also held discussions with leaders from the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) as well as representatives of other civil organisations in the district regarding the prevailing situation along with relief and rehabilitation being provided to the affected people.

He was accompanied by Assam Pradesh Congress Committee President Bhubaneswar Kalita. 

From: NDTV

Rahul Gandhi's mission for land bill takes an about-turn

New Delhi: After meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over a year ago, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi promised a radical change in India's land acquisition law, addressing the concerns of farmers with regard to adequate compensation for land acquired from them. But senior party colleague and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, who has piloted the bill, has now done a complete U-turn.

The Ministry of Rural Development, in its cabinet note, says that the new Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill, 2012 will only be applicable for new projects. This will, thus, bring to naught Mr Gandhi's much-publicised padyatra that he undertook last year for the cause of the farmers of Uttar Pradesh since old laws for remuneration will apply in those cases.

Mr Ramesh has also made a crucial change in the land bill, making it mandatory only for 80% of the landholders to give their consent and not affected families.  The latest draft also says that the amount of fertile land that can be acquired from the farmers has been left to the state government. The acreage for applicability of the land bill will also be decided by the states. Some of these amendments to the bill are likely to be strongly opposed by allies of the Congress.

The bill met with stiff resistance from several ministers the last time it was discussed in the cabinet but the urgency of introducing the contentious bill, coupled with not thwarting Mr Gandhi's mission ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh elections, was uppermost in everyone's minds. But the tables have since turned and with industry expressing reservations about the new draft of the bill, it could be a long road ahead.  

From NDTV