UPA

BJP ally Chirag slams plan; Cong accuses Centre of 'snatching reservations'

Government sources on Saturday cited a 2013 reply in Parliament by a Congress-led UPA government minister to emphasise that no concept of "national disaster" exists under the rules of the central government. The clarification came amid a demand, including from Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, that the landslide tragedy in Kerala's Wayanad be declared a national disaster. The then minister of state for home and Congress MP from Kerala Mullappally Ramachandran had told the Lok Sabha in 2013 in a reply to a question that "there is no provision to declare a natural disaster as a national disaster", the sources noted. The reply stated that the government of India adjudges a calamity of severe nature on case-to-case basis, taking into account its intensity and magnitude, level of relief assistance, capacity of the state government to tackle the problem, and alternatives and flexibility available within the plan to provide succour and relief etc. The priority is immedia

Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday said the previous UPA government had refused to provide 50 per cent profit on cost to farmers in the minimum support price for crops, as based on the formula suggested by the M S Swaminathan Commission. During the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Congress MP Deepender Hooda asked a supplementary question related to the farmers' protests of 2020-21 and said around 750 farmers lost their lives during the agitation. He asked if the government is considering providing jobs to the next of kin of those who lost their lives during the year-long protests at Delhi's borders against three contentious farm laws of the Centre that have since been repealed. Chouhan said the question was not related to the main question, which was on issues faced by farmers. "The government is totally committed to farmers' welfare," he said. The agriculture minister alleged that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had refused to ...

Calling the ten years of UPA tenure India's lost decade because of bad policies and corruption, Sitharaman said growth in GDP does not happen automatically and requires a lot of effort

The first phase will see voting in 102 out of 534 Lok Sabha seats, across 17 states and four Union Territories

The rural employment scheme's nature and the objective had come in for strong criticism and plans were afoot to change its characteristics, according to civil society activists

Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Wednesday that earlier people used to question why the CBI and the ED did not act against powerful people, while those powerful and corrupt are now asking why the agencies are acting against them. Modi's apparent swipe at opposition leaders at News18 group's summit came amid their allegations that his government had been using probe agencies to target them. He cited massive hauls of cash from leaders belonging to parties like the Congress and the Trinamool Congress and said his government's tough action against corruption has rattled them into abusing him. These abuses will not make any difference, he said, asserting that he gets blessings of the poor who have been receiving all the benefits meant for them, unlike in the past when a huge chunk of welfare money used to be siphoned off. The government before 2014 was resorting to lies to defend its "scams" but the situation has reversed now as his dispensation is taking tough action against th

Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani has dared Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to have a debate on the "difference" between the 10 years of UPA rule and the Narendra Modi government

The BJP on Friday described the UPA's 10 years as the "lost decade of corruption and cronyism" and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "politics of performance" has made India the world's fastest-growing economy. The UPA government left behind a "devastated" economy and Prime Minister Modi "rebuilt" it in five years, senior BJP leader and Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said at a press conference at the party headquarters here. Prime Minister Modi's two consecutive terms have seen "tremendous structural changes" in the country, he said. "The most defining changes have been Prime Minister Narendra Modi's politics of performance, his ability to transform and execute it at an unprecedented scale and depth, solve problems that remained unsolved for decades and change the narrative about India," he said. The country's economy is a very good and shining example of how Prime Minister Modi's politics of performance has transformed India over the last 10 years and taken it from the ...

India will become a developed nation much before 2047 through initiatives of the government and contributions from all quarters, including the industry, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said here on Tuesday. Addressing the Viksit Bharat @ 2047 conclave organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Thakur said India moved from being counted among the fragile five economies in the world to the top five due to the bold policies and decisions taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The senior BJP leader said the prime minister was empowered to make tough decisions because of the clear mandate he received in the elections. "If you look back at 2014, we were among the fragile five economies of the world. There were corruption cases. There were many other issues faced by a lot of people where the delivery was a big challenge. From a lost decade to 'techade', how this journey has been from the time of UPA to the time of UPI, I think

He said the share of women in new appointments in Rojgar Melas had gone up to 18-20 per cent compared to the 7-8 per cent share in the appointments made by the previous government

India must build on improved macroeconomic stability

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he is confident the BJP will cross the 370 seats-mark in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, and even the opposition leaders in Parliament are saying the ruling coalition will get more than 400 seats. Addressing a public meeting of tribal community members in Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua district, PM Modi said the Congress was anti-tribal and thought of villages, farmers and the poor only during elections. He also said he had got overwhelming love from the people as he visited temples associated with Lord Ram in the south of the country. Aware of their imminent defeat, the Congress and its allies are resorting to last ditch-tactics, the PM said, adding that "loot and divide is the motto of the Congress. "The Congress when it is in power indulges in loot, while out of power engineers divisions (in society) based on language, region and caste," he said here. The Congress has drowned in its own sins and the more it will make efforts to come up the fur

She said the NDA government has the power and vision, which was lacking during the UPA's term

Three reasons why 2024 is not like 2004

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said national security was compromised, environmental clearances delayed and leadership failed during the previous Congress-led UPA government. Replying to a debate in Lok Sabha on the White Paper on India's economy and its impact on the lives of people, Sitharaman said the UPA government indulged in "glaring mismanagement" of the defence sector and its highlight was the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland scam. "Critical shortage of ammunition & defence equipment was the main feature of 2014 when we inherited the economy. Bullet proof jackets were not available for our soldiers. Night vision goggles were not available," Sitharaman said. She said 'Jayanti Tax' during the UPA tenure delayed environment clearances for projects up to a year. The average time to clear projects increased to 316 days from 86 days between 2011 and 2014. She said 10 years of dedicated efforts of the Modi government have put the economy back on rails. "We correcte

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday lambasted the previous Congress-led UPA government for its mismanagement of the economy saying the party put "family first" and left the country in "dire straits" in 2014, but it is now lecturing the Modi government on handling the economy. Initiating the debate on the 'White Paper on Indian economy and its impact on the lives of people of India' in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said the Modi government put "nation-first", and took the economy from 'fragile five' to 'top five'. India is now on the way to become the third largest global economy, she said. Amid constant bickering by the Congress members, Sitharaman said the White Paper is for record of posterity and the youth should know what efforts Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put in to restore India's past glory. "Ten years of one government with some crisis and 10 years of a different government with a different crisis. The comparison shown in this 'White Paper' clearly says how if th

A subtext running through the white paper is that a "coalition of 26 parties" couldn't take crucial decisions, such as rolling out the goods and services tax (GST) regime

The white paper, tabled in Parliament on Thursday, compared the UPA government's two consecutive terms, starting 2004, vis-a-vis the NDA's tenure, beginning 2014

"Worse, even that high percentage of bad debts was an underestimate," the paper said