In a surprise decision, the BJP on December 12 selected first-time MLA from Jaipur district’s Sanganer seat, Bhajan Lal Sharma, as the next Chief Minister of Rajasthan, ending days of speculation after the party’s victory in the recent State Assembly election. Sharma’s name was announced at a meeting of the BJP legislature party here in the presence of central observer and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who was herself considered to be in the reckoning for the top post, proposed Sharma’s name, which was seconded by Sawai Madhopur MLA Kirodi Lal Meena and a few other senior leaders. Two other central observers, Rajya Sabha Member Saroj Pandey and BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde, were also in attendance.
Hailing from Nadbai in Bharatpur district, Sharma, 56, was fielded as the BJP candidate from Sanganer, where he defeated Congress’s Pushpendra Bhardwaj with a margin of 48,081 votes. He was also looking after the party’s organisational matters in his capacity as the State unit’s general secretary.
The new BJP government in the State will have two Deputy Chief Ministers — Vidyadhar Nagar (Jaipur) MLA Diya Kumari and Dudu MLA Prem Chand Bairwa. The party has meticulously chosen a caste combination representing diversity in State leadership, with a higher caste Brahmin Chief Minister, and the Deputy Chief Ministers — Kumari belonging to Rajput community and Bairwa coming from the Scheduled Caste background.
Singh announced that Ajmer North MLA Vasudev Devnani, who was the Education Minister in the previous Vasundhara Raje government, would be the new Assembly Speaker.
The Chief Minister-designate, accompanied by his two deputies, went to the Raj Bhavan in the evening and met Governor Kalraj Mishra to stake claim to form the new government. A Raj Bhavan spokesperson said the Governor had received a letter from the BJP delegation informing him of Sharma’s election as the legislature party’s leader along with a list of 115 MLAs.
Mishra invited Sharma to take oath as the Chief Minister. The swearing-in ceremony is likely to be held on December 15.
Sharma said in a brief interaction with the presspersons after the legislature party meeting that the BJP MLAs would meet the expectations that the people had with the ruling party. “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we will ensure an all-round development of Rajasthan,” he said.
Senior Congress leader and outgoing Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said he expected that Sharma, while working as the Chief Minister, would maintain the pace of development and fulfil the goal of making Rajasthan the leading State of the country.
Three bills on criminal laws withdrawn; Home Minister Amit Shah introduces new draft legislations
Union Home Minister Amit Shah withdrew the three criminal codes that seek to repeal and replace the British-era laws and introduced three new Bills in their place in Lok Sabha on December 12 to incorporate the changes recommended by a parliamentary committee.
Shah said the new bills propose changes to only five sections but the primary legislation remains the same as introduced in the Lok Sabha in August.
“Grammatical and language errors have been corrected. The bills were examined at length by the standing committee and it was necessary to include the suggestions. There are no major changes. Had we continued with the old bills, several official amendments would have had to be made, so we decided to introduce new bills instead. Adequate time, 48 hours, has been given to members to study the bills...we do not want to pass such an important legislation in a hurry,” Shah said.
The Minister stated that the bill will be taken up for discussion on December 14 with Speaker Om Birla adding that 12-hours will be dedicated for discussion. Under the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita (BNSS) Bill, 2023 that would replace the Indian Penal Code of 1860, the definition of a terrorist act has been further expanded to include “economic security” and “damage or destruction of any property in India or in a foreign country used or intended to be used for the defence of India.”
The Bill retains death penalty as punishment. The parliamentary committee in its report tabled on November 10 said that it received several representations to abolish death penalty but had left the decision to the government. Damage to the monetary stability of India by way of production or smuggling or circulation of counterfeit Indian paper currency, coin or of any other material has also been added as a terrorist offence.
The Bill in its earlier form that was introduced in the Parliament on August 11 had for the first time defined terrorism in the general law though a specific legislation -- the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 already exists. The proposed bill now adds the caveat that an officer not below the rank of Superintendent of Police shall decide whether to register the case under this Sanhita or under the UAPA.
In cases of rape, printing or publishing of any matter relating to court proceedings without permission has been made a punishable offence with two years imprisonment. The judgements of High Court and Supreme Court are exempted. The earlier bill had made publishing the names of rape victims a punishable offence.
The BNSS replaces mental illness with “unsound mind. The minimum sentence of seven years imprisonment for mob-lynching has been dropped and replaced with imprisonment for life while the maximum punishment remains death.
The BNSS states that “child” means any person below the age of eighteen years. The Sanhita along with two other criminal codes -- Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023 -- that sought to replace the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 respectively were introduced in the Parliament on August 11.
They will now be replaced with Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill, 2023 and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita Bill, 2023. The Bills were referred to the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs on August 18 for consideration.
Seat sharing has to be finalised at the earliest for INDIA bloc to be effective alternative in 2024: SP
The INDIA bloc has to fix the seat-sharing arrangement at the earliest and this has to be negotiated harmoniously for it to be effective in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Samajwadi Party secretary general Ram Gopal Yadav said in an interview to The Hindu, ahead of the bloc’s meeting on December 19. He maintained that irrespective of the recent Assembly election results, caste census would remain central to the Opposition campaign in 2024 and also indicated that the SP-Congress dispute over Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh stood resolved.
“There is only one priority before us, the 2024 general elections. The dominant party in a State — like the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the RJD-JD(U) combine in Bihar, should take the lead in working out the seat-sharing formula. Everyone should cooperate and harmoniously we should arrive at an acceptable formula for INDIA bloc to be an effective alternative in 2024,” Yadav said.
The Congress’s defeat in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, which together send 65 MPs to the Lok Sabha, as per political observers, reinforced the BJP’s stranglehold on the Hindi belt States. There were no permanent trends in politics, Yadav asserted, rejecting the contention.
“We have seen the era of Congress’s dominance. Could anyone back then predict the Congress’s present day condition,” he said. The BJP’s dominance, he added, was aided by the “atmosphere of fear” created by the Central investigative agencies.
“People are afraid to speak up. But they will stand up when it becomes unbearable,” Yadav remarked. The BJP’s victory had also spurred a debate on the north-south divide, which Yadav dismissed it as a farcical discourse promoted by a few for their own interests. “This is against the nation’s interest and will have a long-lasting negative impact on our country’s integrity. Those who talk about this so-called divide for political dividend are truly despicable and are clearly indulging in treason,” Yadav alleged.
In a sign that the SP and the Congress had buried the hatchet after the bitter exchange between the two sides over the latter’s refusal to concede five seats in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Yadav said the issue was in the past and it would have no bearing on the seat negotiations between the two in Uttar Pradesh.
One of the key promises made by the BJP in the run-up to elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is to facilitate pilgrimage to the upcoming Ram temple in Ayodhya which will be inaugurated on January 22. And all signs point towards it being a central campaign theme for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Despite facing erosion in its core vote bank of Yadavs who have gravitated in the last two elections towards the BJP’s Hindutva pitch, Yadav does not see any correlation between the temple inauguration and the general elections. “The BJP wants to connect the two. But they are not the only Ram bhakts and not everyone who will come to the new temple is going to be a BJP bhakt,” Yadav proclaimed. The BJP, he contended, had already drawn whatever electoral benefit it had to draw from the Ram temple issue and there was nothing more left.
For the Opposition, Yadav noted, the caste census would remain one of the key campaign points. He brushed off the BJP criticism that the Opposition was being regressive by reviving the dated caste-centric politics. “How is this dated? There are several caste groups that do not have a single person among them to occupy even the post of a peon, forget about IAS officers,” he said. This was a matter of life and death for people and a question of their dignity. “This issue will remain alive till the time 80% of the population get their share,” he asserted.
With a unanimous decision in the last three meetings of the INDIA bloc not to have a convener or a united prime ministerial face, the Opposition in 2024 will again face the question “Modi versus who?” This, according to Yadav is not a problem for the Opposition. “In democracy, when you start leaning towards the theory of indispensability, then you are headed towards dictatorship. In politics no one is irreplaceable. The BJP, in fact, is signing on their death warrant — by over reliance on Narendra Modi. When Modi will no longer be around, what would they be left with — a Zero. They are culling their own leadership.”
Amit Shah is unaware of history, Rahul says in response to the Home Minister blaming Nehru for the Kashmir issue
Hitting back at Home Minister Amit Shah for blaming the late first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, for the Kashmir “blunder”, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on December 12 said Shah did not know history as he had “the habit of rewriting it”.
On December 11, during a debate on two Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Bills, Shah had asserted that it was Nehru’s “blunder” to agree to take the Kashmir issue to the United Nations.
“Pandit Nehru gave his life for India; he was in jail for years. Amit Shah-ji is unaware of history. I cannot expect him to know history; he has the habit of rewriting it,” Gandhi, who is Nehru’s great-grandson, told media persons outside Parliament on December 11. “It is just a way of distracting people from real issues,” he added.
Gandhi reiterated that the “basic issue” was to conduct a caste-based census, and, “who has how much share of the country’s resources and wealth”. “This is the basic issue but they [the BJP] don’t want to discuss it and run away from it. We will take this forward and ensure that the poor get their rights,” Gandhi said.
The former Congress chief also didn’t agree with the view that the voters of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan had rejected the party’s outreach towards Other Backward Classes (OBC). He said the main issue was the share of Dalits, tribals and OBCs in the country’s system.
“No, they have not rejected. Yes, they [the BJP] have given an OBC Chief Minister [in Madhya Pradesh] but that’s not the issue. The question is, what is their [the OBCs’] share in the structure? The Prime Minister is an OBC but the government is run by 90 officers and there are only three of them,” Gandhi said.
“To distract from the main issue, they will sometimes talk about Jawaharlal Nehru, sometimes something else but the main issue is one of share and participation,” he added.
Delhi HC dismisses Omar Abdullah’s plea seeking divorce from estranged wife
The Delhi High Court on December 12, 2023 dismissed National Conference leader Omar Abdullah’s plea seeking divorce from his estranged wife, saying there was no merit in his appeal.
A bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Vikas Mahajan upheld an order of the trial court which had also refused to grant divorce to Abdullah.
The High Court said there was no merit in the appeal filed by the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister challenging the trial court’s 2016 verdict. Abdullah has sought divorce from estranged wife Payal Abdullah on grounds that he was subjected to cruelty by her.
“We find no infirmity in the view taken by the family court that the allegations of cruelty were vague and unacceptable, that the appellant failed to prove any act which could be termed as an act of cruelty, be it physical or mental, towards him,” the bench said while pronouncing the judgment.
On August 30, 2016, the trial court had dismissed Abdullah’s plea seeking divorce.
The trial court had said Abdullah could not prove his claims of “cruelty” or “desertion” which were the grounds alleged by him for grant of decree of divorce.
Sanjay Raut charged with sedition for writing ‘objectionable’ article against Prime Minister Modi
The Yavatmal police registered a case against Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, accusing him of sedition for allegedly writing an objectionable article against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the party’s mouthpiece Saamana.
The complaint was lodged by Nitin Bhutada, BJP’s Yavatmal district coordinator. He alleged that Raut, the executive editor of Saamana, wrote the objectionable article on December 10.
Based on his complaint, a case under Sections 124 (A) (sedition), 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) and 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code.
Hitting back, Raut accused the BJP of “censorship”. “The BJP had no right to say that it stood up against the Emergency because the fight was against such kind of censorship. The criticism in Saamana is political,” he said. An investigation has been launched, officials said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Danve demands SIT probe into Judge Loya’s death
Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council Ambadas Danve on December 12 demanded a probe by an SIT into the death of special CBI judge B.H. Loya if the government was initiating a similar probe into the death of Disha Salian.
Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague’s daughter.
In last year’s winter session, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) will be formed to probe Salian’s death on June 9, 2020. According to the Mumbai police, she committed suicide.
Some leaders have alleged she was murdered and sought to drag Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray into the case. BJP MLC Pravin Darekar recently said several leaders had been demanding for long that an SIT be formed in the case. Prasad Lad, another BJP MLC, had said an SIT will clear all doubts (about Salian’s case).
To a query on the SIT investigation into Disha Salian’s case, Sena (UBT) leader Danve on December 12 said this announcement was made last year as well and many investigations have been done so far. “I demand that an SIT probe also be initiated into Judge Loya’s death. If you want to do an investigation into Disha Salian’s death, you can do it, and this is all politics being done. The government should also investigate the death of Judge Loya,” Danve told reporters in the Vidhan Bhavan premises in Nagpur where the winter session of the state legislature is currently underway.
In Brief:
India has put off plans to hold the Quad Summit in January, said government sources, in an indication that U.S. President Joseph Biden has declined the invitation to visit India as chief guest at the Republic Day parade as well. The invitation to Biden had been revealed by U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, who said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited President Biden for the parade on January 26 during their meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Delhi in September. When asked whether the Quad postponement meant that the U.S. President would also miss Republic Day, officials pointed out that it would be unlikely for President Biden to travel to India twice to Delhi, twice in an election year, when he is running for re-election.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
