1. The Congress is currently riven with infighting, even as it remains unclear whether Rahul Gandhi will step down. 2. But it has been two weeks since then, and the Congress is still unsure where it stands.3. Do Rahul Gandhi and Congress understand why they received a drubbing – and what to do next?

OPINION : 15/06/2019 : 1826. 

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1. The Congress is currently riven with infighting, even as it remains unclear whether Rahul Gandhi will step down. 

2.But it has been two weeks since then, and the Congress is still unsure where it stands.

3. Do  Rahul Gandhi and Congress understand why they received a drubbing – and what to do next?

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Ref : Chaos In Congress : Friday, June 14th 2019 : Rohan Venkataramakrishnan : Scroll.

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On the face of it, you cannot call this the worst situation the Congress has ever faced in post-Independence India. It has more seats in Parliament than in 2014, managed to stave off the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka last year despite winning fewer seats and even won back three North Indian states from the saffron party.

Yet this certainly feels like an extremely precarious moment for the party. After 2014, there was still the hope that Rahul Gandhi’s ascendance as party president might lead to a resurgence. The victories in assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh last year only seemed to reaffirm this belief.

But the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections should end any idea that the Nehru-Gandhi scion is the Congress’ answer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The results suggest that the Congress can compete at the state-level, but that Indian voters do not believe Gandhi can be trusted with the reins of power – at least not when he is up against Modi.

Does the Congress understand this?

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Rahul Gandhi appeared to have read the signal in the days immediately after the loss, reportedly saying at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee that he wanted to resign as head of the party. The organisation is said to have unanimously rejected this demand, though reports at the time said that Gandhi was adamant about stepping down and even asked why the president had to be from the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Reports of infighting :

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In various states, it is now facing the spectre of infighting, even as questions remain about what is happening at the top.

The Karnataka government, being run by an alliance of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), looks to be on extremely shaky territory, with both parties unclear how long the coalition will last.

The Congress-led Rajasthan government is facing open calls for mutiny, with many claiming that the Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot should step down in favour of Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot. The two have always butted heads, but supporters of Pilot got a boost after Gandhi berated Gehlot for spending more time campaigning for his son than in the rest of the state.

The Congress-led Punjab government one of the few states where the party actually did well in both state and Lok Sabha elections, is also seeing some infighting with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh attempting to consolidate his position and pull away power from minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.

In Maharashtra, the Congress and its alliance partner the Nationalist Congress Party fear a large number of defections over to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance, which would endanger any hopes of blunting the latter’s momentum ahead of state elections later this year.

In Haryana, former Congress chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has all but demanded the removal of the state Congress president Ashok Tanwar, in a bid to assume the driver’s seat ahead of state elections later this year.

In Jammu and Kashmir, where assembly elections are expected later this year, many in the Congress have complained about the state leadership as well as the decision to ally with the National Conference.

And in Telangana, the Congress has nearly disappeared from the state assembly, with 12 of 18 legislators joining Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samiti.
None of this is aided by indecision at the top, where it is still unclear whether Rahul Gandhi is going to continue as party president.

Fork in the road :

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The general demand from the senior leadership, which after all was handpicked by Rahul Gandhi, is for him to continue in power. Some have suggested that he at least stick around to conduct an overhaul of the party, which the Congress Working Committee authorised him to do, while giving it time to look for a replacement.

If Rahul Gandhi is adamant on stepping down, some have suggested that his mother Sonia Gandhi should return to be the president, but that the party should have two working presidents who can carry out the job of identifying fresh leadership and reorganising the institution. There has also been talk of reviving a “parliamentary board”, which has not been in place since the early 1990s, that would make decisions if Rahul Gandhi is not in charge.

Missing from all this is a genuine evaluation of where the party went wrong. Some state units have indeed been preparing reports on the Congress debacle. But without clarity about who will actually be looking at these reports, it remains to be seen what level of actual introspection the party will allow itself.

Rahul’s dilemma :

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Either way, some sort of decision seems likely over the next week. The first session of the new Parliament begins on June 17, by which time the Congress will need to decide who will be its leader in the Lok Sabha.

Even if Rahul Gandhi has concluded, as seems apparent, that voters do not trust him in a one-on-one contest against Modi, he will face another dilemma: though the next national contest is not for another five years, the Congress needs to get its act together in time to face assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and possibly Jammu and Kashmir later this year.

If he does indeed step down now, will he unleash even more infighting that could endanger any chances of a spirited fight in those states? If he doesn’t, on the pretext that he needs to steady the ship, will he even get another opportunity to leave?

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NOTE : 1. Women beneficiaries outnumber men in PM Modi’s scheme for unorganised workers : Krishnanand Tripathi : June 13, 2019 :Media Reports

*PM Modi interacting with beneficiaries of PM-SYM scheme in Vastral, Gujarat on March 5, 2019.

PM SYM, PM Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana, Scheme, Form, Beneficiaries, News :

PM Shram Yogi Maandhan Scheme: Women workers in unorganised sector have taken lead in subscribing to PM Modi's favourite social security scheme for unorganised workers.

PM-SYM: Women workers in unorganized sector have taken lead over their male counterparts in subscribing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship pension scheme Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana that is aimed at providing social security to over 10 crore workers in unorganised sector. PM Modi had launched the scheme in Vastral, Gujarat in March this year after its announcement by then finance minister Piyush Goyal in the interim budget in February. According to the latest official data, the number of women opting the scheme is more than the number of men.

While women workers account for more than 53% of the total subscriber base, men account for nearly 47%.

More than 30.5 lakh unorganised workers in the country have opted for Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana in little over three months since its launch. While the number of women subscribers was more than 16.35 lakh, the number of their male counterparts in unorganized sector was at a low of little over 14.19 lakh. Women subscriber outnumber men by 2.15 lakh subscribers.

Higher enrollment of women workers is not attributed to Aanganwadi and Asha workers as they are also allowed to register in the scheme. While Anganwadi workers account for 2.81 lakh or less than 10% of the total the biggest chunk in the scheme comes from farm labourers as they account for over 8.57 lakh or nearly 29% of the total subscribers.

India has more than 42 crore workers engaged in unorganized sector. Though nearly half of India’s gross domestic production (GDP) is attributed to these workers but they do not enjoy any kind of social security. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had envisioned this ambitious social security programme on the lines of his successful financial inclusion scheme PM Jan Dhan Yojana.

Any worker engaged in unorganised sector earning less than Rs 15,000 a month can enroll in the scheme. The government provides half of the premium amount to make it affordable for unorganised workers. Any worker entering in the scheme at the age of 29 is required to pay just Rs 100 per month to get a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 from the age of 60 years.

While launching the scheme in Vastral in Gujarat in March 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to workers in unorganized sector to enroll in the scheme in large numbers. He had said that Union government would bear the cost of enrollment and they just need to visit the nearest Common Service Centre (CSC).

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NOTE : 2. Narendra Modi at SCO Summit LIVE: Member-Nations Endorse 'Strong' Statement against Terrorism, Says MEA : June 14, 2019, : News18.

Narendra Modi at SCO Summit LIVE Updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today reiterated India's support for Afghan-led peace process and also gave a 'HEALTH' mantra to nations. Expanding the acronym, he said: "H stands for Health and medicare cooperation, E for Eco cooperation, A for Alternate connectivity via waterways, L for literature promotion, T for terrorism free society, H for humanitarian cooperation."

PM Modi is also scheduled to meet president of Kazakhstan and hold bilateral meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Meanwhile, Modi's Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan, who also arrived in Bishkek a day ago, will meet Chinese and Russian presidents. However, Khan has no meeting scheduled with PM Modi on the sidelines of the summit.

Narendra Modi at SCO Summit LIVE: Member-Nations Endorse 'Strong' Statement against Terrorism, Says MEAPM Modi at SCO Summit on Friday

Modi had also met Jinping on Thursday, where the Chinese president assured the prime minister that China "does not pose threat" to India. He also expressed Beijing's willingness to join New Delhi in pushing forward a closer development partnership between the two sides.

President Xi made the remarks during his meeting with Prime Minister Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek - their first interaction after Modi's re-election following the stunning victory of the BJP in the general elections last month.

In a statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing said that President Xi told Prime Minister Modi that India and China should deepen cooperation by properly handling differences and called for strengthening Confidence Building Measures to maintain stability at the border. "China is ready to work with India to continuously advance the closer development partnership between the two countries," Xi said.

He urged the two sides to stick to the fundamental judgement that "China and India offer to each other chances for development, and do not pose each other threats," state-run Xinhua news agency reported, citing the statement.

Xi called on the two countries to keep deepening mutual trust, focusing on cooperation, and properly handling their disputes so as to turn the bilateral relationship into a positive element for their respective development.

He pointed out that China and India are the only two emerging markets with a population of one billion in the world, both of which are at an important stage of rapid development. Working together, China and India will not only boost each other's development, but also contribute to peace, stability and prosperity of Asia and the world at large, he said.

Xi said both the countries should deepen mutual trust, focus on cooperation and properly handle differences, so as to make China-India relations a more positive asset and energy for the development of the two countries, the statement said.

On the vexed boundary issue, Xi said, "we need to make good use of the meeting of the Special Representatives on the boundary issue and other mechanisms, strengthen Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) and maintain stability at the border areas".

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are the designated Special Representatives of the boundary dispute. So far, the two countries have held 21 rounds of talks to resolve differences over the 3488-km long Line Actual Control (LAC).

"We need to expand cooperation channels, carry out cooperation in investment, production capacity and tourism, expand common interests, and jointly promote regional connectivity, including the development of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM) so as to achieve better cooperation and common development," he said.

The mention of BCIM, which is part of China's multibillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative is regarded significant as it has not yet taken off unlike the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and other corridors of the initiative.

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OPINION :

*Given his strong overall support, it is not surprising that Modi is popular across demographic groups – to both men and women, and among all age groups, educational backgrounds and income levels.

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LAST WORDS : 

*Modi’s leadership style and performance : Modi’s overall public support is higher than people’s opinions of his specific character attributes. 

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JAY HIND

JAY BHARATHAM

VANDE MATARAM

BHARAT MATA KI JAY

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