Seen and heard: Congress backs Manmohan

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had his party solidly behind him when Parliament debated a controversial India-Pakistan joint statement that seeks to de-link talks with terrorism.

Senior Congress leaders and MPs spiritedly defended the statement. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna insisted that the government would not ease pressure on Pakistan but it cannot avoid talks.

"We can't erase Pakistan. It's going to exist. War is no solution," said Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha on Thursday during the second day of debate on the Prime Minister's foreign visits, including his trip to Egypt where he met Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

Foreign Minister S M Krishna told Parliament that India had nothing to hide on Balochistan, which is mentioned in the statement.

This strong backing of the Prime Minister came moments after Sonia Gandhi at a crucial party meeting batted for him.

Singh had strongly defended the need for talks with Pakistan, saying that this is what even Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Atal Behari Vajpayee had advocated during his tenure as Prime Minister.

Sonia supported the initiative with Pakistan but with a word of caution. "We support the resumption of the dialogue process with Pakistan, but only after it has demonstrated its seriousness to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice," she said at a Congress parliamentary party meeting.

“No one should be in any doubt on our party's position vis-a-vis Pakistan. It remains unchanged.”

Sonia has often spoken for a bonding between the party and Government but it was disconnect over the joint statement that made her support to the Prime Minister conditional.

There was no mention of Balochistan and joint statement in her speech, reflecting the party's discomfort with these issues.

It is this discomfort in the Congress that gives the Opposition a chance to attack the Prime Minister.

BJP leader L K Advani said the Government had failed to explain the Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement.

"There was no satisfactory response. There is no point in this discussion," said Advani and walked out of the Lok Sabha with BJP MPs.

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Educate people on RTI, Rahul tells Youth Congress

Sushanta Talukdar
Guwahati: Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched the aam aadmi ka sipahi programme for Assam and other north-eastern States. The programme is aimed at training members of the Youth Congress and the National Students’ Union of India on educating people about the Right To Information Act and various flagship programmes of the Congress-led UPA government.
The Amethi MP, who was on a day’s visit to Assam, urged over 6,000 Youth Congress and NSUI members, who were selected a am aadmi ka sipahi at a training programme at the Sarusajai Stadium here, to educate rural masses about the RTI Act, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and other programmes so that the empowered masses could ensure that money pumped in by the Central government to the region reached them.
Addressing a meeting at the Rajiv Bhavan (the PCC headquarters) Mr. Gandhi spoke about the efforts to democratise the Youth Congress and listed the success achieved in Punjab and Uttarakhand. Sophisticated methods like introduction of photo identity cards were used to weed out bogus members from the organisation and about 3.5 lakh members were enrolled and elections were held to elect leaders at the block, district and State levels. Similar efforts were made in Uttarakhand, which, he said, yielded good results in strengthening the organisation.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi suggested that the democratisation efforts initiated by Mr. Gandhi be adopted in Assam for strengthening the Congress in the State. But, Mr. Gandhi clarified that his jurisdiction was limited to the Youth Congress and the NSUI.
Later, Mr. Gandhi interacted with students at the Don Bosco Institute at Kharghuli here.

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Rahul Gandhi meets Cong workers in Guwahati

Guwahati (PTI): The AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi arrived on a daylong visit to Guwahati on Saturday to meet party workers here.

Upon his arrival at the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Mr. Gandhi drove to the venue of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) and addressed a gathering of students from across the state.

He then addressed another meeting of party workers at the APCC headquarters Rajiv Bhavan.

The media was, however, not allowed into the venue of the NSUI meeting, while only the electronic media was permitted to cover the Rajiv Bhavan meeting.

An APCC spokesman said the Special Protection Group (SPG) personnel accompanying Rahul did not allow journalists to cover the NSUI meeting, while the print media was left out in the party workers meeting due to "constraint of space in Rajiv Bhavan".

Mr. Gandhi was also scheduled to attend a Youth Congress meeting later in the day at the Sarusajai National Games Stadium venue, the sources added.

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Rahul Gandhi takes potshots at Mayawati

(File photo)

AMETHI:  Already in the midst of a bitter row between BSP and Congress, Rahul Gandhi today took potshots at the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh saying there is place for statues and elephants in the state but not development and spoke of the need for Congress to come to power there.On a thanksgiving visit to his constituency, the first after the Lok Sabha poll victory, he avoided any comments on the raging row over his party's state unit chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's comments on the chief minister."There is place for statues and elephants (BSP symbol) but there should also be space for development and electricity," Gandhi said, in an apparent reference to the controversy over erection of memorials for Kanshi Ram and statues of Mayawati in different parts of the state, spending huge sums of public money.

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Rahul set to launch aam sipahi' programme in Assam

GUWAHATI: When the Congress-led UPA government was voted to power in 2004, it promised the aam aadmi' benefits of transparency and accountability in governance. The Centre then came up with the Rozgaar Guarantee Act (NREGA) and Right to Information Act.

And when UPA was re-elected to power in 2009, much credit went to Rahul Gandhi, who helped Congress to consolidate its position in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab among other states through his aam aadmi ka sipahi' (AAKS) programme.

Now, the AICC general secretary is all set to launch the state level convention of aam aadmi ka sipahi' (AAKS) here on July 18.

The idea is to train local youngsters in different ways of communicating at the grassroots and popularizing the UPA's flagship programme NREGA and use of RTI. Accompanying him will be a Microsoft team ready to train people in e-governance and computer literacy.

The report card on implementation of the NREGA is below par and funds are largely unutilized. State chief co-ordinator of AAKS Jayanta Malla Baruah said the programme will help them stand up for their rights.

"People have to learn to stand against misuse of public funds by the bureaucracy and politicians. They must raise their voice against the guilty, even if it happens to be the ruling party. We are working as a socio-political organization," Baruah said.

On a broader perspective, Rahul will show how lack of development in the state leads to unemployment and, in many cases, forces a number of youths to join rebel groups. Baruah said Gandhi will also hold discussions with youth groups, including NSUI, on how to develop the state and stop youths from doing anti-social activities.

About 800 people are expected to turn up for the three-day programme. Officials from the State Institute of Rural Development and National Institute of Rural Development will host the programme and talk about the NREGA. Simultaneously, the team from Microsoft will elaborately talk about e-governance and computer education.

"After the training, these people will go back to their respective blocks and districts and train the masses. They will help people get a job card, know the daily wage offered, how to get the money and lots more about the NREGA," Assam Pradesh Youth Congress spokesman Prabir Kalita said.

"On the first day 6,500 youths from the state and about 500 other representatives from other states besides chief ministers from the region," he added.

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Congress welcomes Zardari’s admission on terrorism

New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) India’s ruling Congress party Thursday welcomed Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s admission that terrorism was “created and nurtured” by Islamabad “as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives”.
The party demanded the terror camps in that country should be destroyed with the same honesty.
“The Pakistan president has admitted with honesty that the extremists were created and nurtured as a short-term policy. The same honesty should be shown in dismantling the terror camps in the country,” Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmad told reporters.
During an interactive session with former bureaucrats in Islamabad on Tuesday night, Zardari said: “Let us be truthful to ourselves and make a candid admission of the realities… Militancy and extremism emerged on the national scene and challenged the state not because the civil bureaucracy was weakened and demoralised, but because they were deliberately created and nurtured as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives.”
“The terrorists of today were the heroes of yesteryear until 9/11 (terrorist attack on America) brought things into a new light,” Zardari added.

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