Today in Politics: Will Modi and Xi meet? Question hangs in the air as PM goes to BRICS, Rahul in Ladakh
Source: The Indian Express | Original Published At: 2023-08-22 02:00:47 UTC
Key Points
- Modi attends BRICS Summit in Johannesburg with potential Xi Jinping meeting
- Rahul Gandhi's Ladakh visit highlights local concerns about Chinese encroachment
- Congress and BJP compete for voter support in Madhya Pradesh's Bundelkhand region
- Farmer protests in Punjab demand flood compensation and policy changes
- Political tensions over OBC reservation policies in Gujarat local bodies
AS THE Opposition seeks to keep the issue of the Chinese “presence” in the Ladakh region alive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets an opportunity to score a point as he leaves Tuesday morning for the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
It will be the first in-person summit of BRICS, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, since 2019. And, as reported by Shubhajit Roy, there is a possibility that Modi and Chinese premier Xi Jinping might meet on the sidelines of the Summit.
Leaving for South Africa to take part in the BRICS Summit being held in Johannesburg. I will also take part in the BRICS-Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue events. The Summit will give the platform to discuss issues of concern for the Global South and other areas of… — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 22, 2023
The hint that such a meeting might take place came from the Chinese Ambassador to South Africa, Shubhajit reported, noting that a Modi-Xi meeting would be their first such scheduled interaction since the border standoff started in May 2020.
Asked Monday about this at a media briefing, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra only said the schedule of the PM’s bilateral meetings is being finalised.
From Johannesburg, Modi is to travel to Greece, making him the first Indian PM to visit the country since Indira Gandhi in 1983.
On 25th August I will be visiting Greece, a nation with whom India has civilisational contacts for centuries. I look forward to talks with @PrimeministerGR Kyriakos Mitsotakis. I will also be interacting with the Indian community there. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 22, 2023
Incidentally, Rahul Gandhi is currently on a Ladakh trip, with the Congress flooding the social media with photographs of him riding a motorcycle to the hilly region, and spending time with locals. It’s the Congress leader’s first visit to the region since the abrogation of Article 370 and carving out of Ladakh as a separate Union territory.
Rahul is scheduled to visit Kargil next, as well as to participate in a meeting of the 30-member Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Kargil on August 25. Rahul told ANI that he came to Ladakh to hear “what the people have to say”, and that the people told him “China’s army has entered the area and their grazing land was taken away”.
From the dry, cold terrain of Ladakh, to the sweltering heat of the plains, where Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is set to address a public meeting in Sagar in Madhya Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region Tuesday.
हर एक लम्हे से तुम मिलो खोले अपनी बाहें हर एक पल एक नया समा देखे ये निगाहें pic.twitter.com/Ed8Z8nAsFV — Congress (@INCIndia) August 21, 2023
This comes 10 days after PM Modi laid the foundation stone of a Rs 100 crore memorial-cum-temple of Sant Ravidas, a revered figure among the Scheduled Castes, and addressed a public meeting in Sagar. Kharge incidentally was to address the Sagar meeting a day after Modi’s event on August 12, but it was postponed.
Bundelkhand has six Assembly seats reserved for SCs, of which the BJP had won five in 2018. Overall, of Bundelkhand’s 26 seats, the BJP had won 15 and the Congress 9; with the Sagar district tally being 6 for the BJP and 2 for the Congress.
But, if the Bundelkhand numbers tilted in favour of the BJP, the Congress had made huge gains among the Dalits overall in the state in 2018, as reported by Anand Mohan J. Of the total 35 SC-reserved seats in the state, the BJP had won 18 and the Congress 17.
The Congress will reinforce the message that its UPA government had announced a Rs 8,000 crore package for the backward Bundelkhand.
A familiar heat is building up in Punjab, where farmers in one corner of the state are battling floods as drought haunts those in another, as reported by Raakhi Jagga. On Monday, farmers clashed with the police in Sangrur district over the “detention” of some of their leaders before a planned demonstration by them Tuesday to seek compensation for losses caused by floods.
Some policemen and farmers were hurt in the clash. At least one farmer suffered severe injuries, reportedly after coming under a bus belonging to the protesters.
Sixteen farmer bodies, including the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, Bharti Kisan Union (Karanti kari), BKU (Ekta Azaad), Aazaad Kisan Committee, Doaba, BKU (Behramke) and the Bhoomi Bachao Mohim, plan to hold a demonstration in Chandigarh on Tuesday.
Farmer leaders are demanding Rs 50,000 crore from the Centre for the damage caused to crops due to floods in north India, including Punjab. They are also demanding Rs 50,000 per acre, Rs 5 lakh for a damaged house and Rs 10 lakh for the family of a person who died in the floods.
RJD president Lalu Prasad is on a visit to his home district of Gopalganj, and on Tuesday will be dropping in at his ancestral house and offering prayers at a local temple. This is his first visit since his kidney transplant, and the RJD leader has been batting from the front on behalf of the anti-BJP INDIA alliance.
On Monday, he said Modi’s claim that he would hoist the Tricolour at the Red Fort next year showed his “desperation”.
Lalu ducked queries, however, on who would be the INDIA “face” to pose a challenge to Modi. “All of us are united in our bid to save democracy in the country by defeating the BJP. To this end, whatever decisions are required, will be taken at an appropriate time,” he said.
With OBCs set to again be the decisive factor in next year’s Lok Sabha polls, the Congress in Gujarat has tried to trump the BJP by inviting its prominent OBC leaders to participate in a sit-in at Gandhinagar on Tuesday to highlight issues concerning the community, including reservation for them in local bodies.
Congress Legislative Party leader Amit Chavda posted an invite for the “Swabhiman Dharna (Sit-in for self-respect)” for the BJP’s OBC MLAs, MPs and ministers on social media.
This follows the Congress’s claim that the BJP is trying to end representation of OBCs in local bodies, citing the delay in making public a report submitted by a commission in April on the nature and implications of backwardness in local bodies to decide on reservation for OBCs in them.
Since the report has not been made public, elections to several local bodies have been put on hold in the state.
Earlier, 10% of the seats in local bodies such as village panchayats and municipalities were kept reserved for OBC candidates, which was put on hold following a Supreme Court order. “We demand that the report be made public and 27% seats in local self-governance bodies be reserved for OBCs,” Chavda said.
No defamation case in Gujarat is likely to be taken lightly by any Opposition political leader since Rahul Gandhi found himself convicted, and stripped of his MP status (since restored), over one such complaint. Hence, one can’t blame Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party colleague and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh for pleading a Sessions Court for expeditious hearing of their application challenging a summons issued to them in a criminal defamation case.
An order on the application is expected on Tuesday.
The two AAP leaders are facing a case filed by Gujarat University over their “sarcastic” and “derogatory” statements in connection with PM Modi’s degree.
The festering issue of the New Pension Scheme vs Old Pension Scheme will see a two-day protest from Tuesday in Assam, with state government employees demanding a return to the OPS and threatening to intensify their agitation if their prayer is not heard.
Assam has around five lakh government employees, out of which around 3.5 lakh are under the NPS. Dozens of other associations of government employees of schools and colleges, including faculty and office staff, judicial services, district administrations, trade unions, railways union, health sector and treasury among others have extended their support to the two-day agitation.
The BJP will keep a close watch, knowing the appeal of the demand for a return to the OPS, which cost it at least one state election, in Himachal Pradesh.