Happy birthday Rahul Gandhi

It is 44th birthday of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today. At this juncture when he has been putting all his sincere efforts to strengthen the party, let us wish him all the success.

Sonia Gandhi visits Raebareli to thank people for her Lok Sabha win

Congress President Sonia Gandhi paid a one-day-visit to her parliamentary constituency Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh for the first time after winning the Lok Sabha elections from there. During her visit she expressed her gratitude to the people for ensuring her victory and also held meeting with party workers.

Sonia Gandhi: I will lead from the front to restore glory of Congress

Raebareli: Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in her first visit to her parliament constituency Raebareli after the recently held Lok Sabha polls, said that she would lead from the front to restore the party’s “Aan, Baan, Shaan (glory)”.

At an “aabhar samaroh” and dinner organised for workers, the Congress president said she was “saddened” by the party’s loss but had “mulled over the reasons for the past month”. “It was not that the Congress government did not work in the past 10 years but we failed to make our work to check inflation and corruption reach people. The Opposition kept telling lies and our talks left behind,” she said,

Praising workers for their hard work, she said they should not be disappointed with the loss of seats. “We should not be disappointed as we might have got less seats but 10.75 crore voters have voted for us. The vote share is important and seats are not everything.” The Congress president urged workers to “go house to house and win back the confidence of public” while underlining that the “road ahead is not easy”.

Targeting BJP, Sonia Gandhi said the time has now come for them to fulfill their promises. “As an opposition it is our responsibility to keep an eye on their promises as it is easier to make promises than fulfill them.” Party workers unanimously praised her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, demanding that she be given charge of the organisation at the national level to revive the party.

Priyanka Gandhi writes to SPG urges to withdraw airport privileges

NEW DELHI: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of congress President Sonia Gandhi and sister of party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, has urged the central government to withdraw her family's security exemptions at airports, a day after reports that the government may take her husband Robert Vadra off the no-frisk protocol that he enjoys as part of the Gandhi family.

In a letter to the chief of Special Protection Group, Priyanka Gandhi said, "Since the government is now reportedly considering the removal of his (Vadra) name, I would like to inform you that I do not feel it will be correct for my children and me to avail of the facility of exemption of these checks while entering or exiting the airport when we are all travelling together."

The issue pertains to Vadra being exempt from frisking because of his association with the Gandhi family which is a SPG protectee. However, the privilege is only when he is travelling with the family and has to undergo normal checks when he travels alone. PriyankaGandhi's letter suggests that she has sought withdrawal of exemption when the family is travelling together. "It is only right for us to go through the normal channel at the airport and be frisked etc... as you will appreciate that it makes no sense for a family travelling together to fall under different categories of exemption," she said. In a bid to underline that the exemption to her husband was not part of any privilege the family had sought but imposed on them on security grounds, Priyanka Gandhi said, "His inclusion on that list came about at the instance of your predecessors in the SPG/Delhi Police and not upon any request by either of us who were informed after the fact. It was done ostensibly to facilitate the coordination of the two separate agencies at the airport when we travelled together."

The stress appears designed to quell the BJP's campaign to make an example of the Gandhi family's son-in-law as a privileged individual under the Congress government. Vadra has been a key part of BJP's attack on Congress, with Narendra Modi raking up the alleged irregular land allotments by Congress-ruled states to him as a sign of corruption in the first family. While stressing that the privilege to Vadra was imposed by police, Priyanka said it had become a source of constant embarrassment for her husband who had repeatedly asked her to get it withdrawn. "I had verbally conveyed this to the previous director and the AIG, SPG in charge of my security detail on a number of occasions but no action was ever taken on it," she said.

She also requested the SPG chief that her security detail at airports be discreet and unobtrusive. "Request you to ensure that when we are entering or exiting boarding gates, there is no disturbance to passengers... Request security detail to behave in a manner that is discreet and strictly unobtrusive," the letter said.

Rahul Gandhi: Necessary steps be taken for women safety and security

New Delhi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today called for taking all necessary steps to improve law and order to ensure safety and security of women in the wake of repeated incidents of rape coming to light across the country.

He also called for changing the people’s mindset, which, he said, is a “major challenge” and needs to be addressed urgently. “We must take all necessary steps to improve law and order to ensure safety and security for women. But changing mindset is a major challenge and one that we must address urgently. There can be no development, no prosperity and no progress if such barbarism is allowed to continue,” he said in a statement.

Rahul Gandhi said it was “deeply disturbing” to hear about “gruesome” incidents where women are made a target of such “extreme violence”. Referring to the brutal rape and murder of two young girls in Badaun in UP and the recent rape of a minor girl in Jhalawar in Rajasthan, he said an alleged rape, which had taken place in his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi yesterday, “is unacceptable”.

“I am extremely saddened to learn of an alleged rape in Amethi. The matter is under investigation. We are closely monitoring the situation and following up with the district administration to ensure that all the facts come to light and justice is meted out quickly,” he said.

Sonia Gandhi expresses shock, Rahul Gandhi keeping tab on situation on Himachal mishap

New Delhi: As search continues in Himachal Pradesh for the missing engineering students, who drowned in the Beas River in Mandi district last evening, Congress said that his party vice-president Rahul Gandhi was keeping a tab on the situation.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi too expressed deep anguish and shock over the tragedy in Himachal Pradesh in which 24 students were washed away in river Beas.

"In this moment of grief, my heart goes out to the parents and my prayers are with the families," Gandhi said in a message. Gandhi has been in constant touch with the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who has been monitoring relief, rescue and search operations.

She has expressed the hope that if the tragedy occurred due to negligence of any govt/private agency, the guilty should be brought to book at the earliest.

Maken, who is the AICC Communication Department in-charge, said Rahul Gandhi has also asked Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh during a telephonic conversation to ensure speedy relief and rescue. “RahulG keeping tab on situation in HP.  Spoke to CM Himachal to ensure speedy relief and rescue,” Maken wrote on his Twitter account.

Maken said that Rahul Gandhi does not want any guilty to be spared and urged the Chief Minister to ensure systems to avoid recurrence of any such accident. “RahulG said that guilty if any should not be spared. Asked CM to ensure systems to avoid recurrence,” Maken wrote. Meanwhile, the rescue workers recovered bodies of five students from Himachal Pradesh’s Beas River near Thalot on Manali-Kiratpur Highway, while the fate of 19 others, who were washed away on Sunday evening, is still not known, an official said. The toll in Sunday's accident has risen to five, Additional Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Rai said on Monday.

Rai said one of the bodies was recovered from Pandoh dam, whose floodgates were closed after the mishap. The dam is some 15 km downstream from the accident spot. The chances of survival of other students were bleak, officials added.

Rahul Gandhi takes oath as Lok Sabha member

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi takes oath as Lok Sabha Member of 16th Lok Sabha. He is the Member of Parliament from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi takes oath as Lok Sabha member

Congress President Sonia Gandhi takes oath as Lok Sabha Member of 16th Lok Sabha. She is the Member of Parliament from Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh: Rahul Gandhi meets family of Badaun gangrape victims

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi visited Badaun in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday and met the family members of the two gangrape victims. The incident has evoked an outrage and two constables were today sacked and another accused arrested as the UP government promised to set up a fast track court to punish the culprits. The action came three days after the girls were gangraped and their bodies were found hanging from a tree.The two girls, who were cousins and aged 14 and 15, went missing from their house on the night of May 27 and their bodies were found hanging from a tree in the village in Ushait area the next morning. The incident had triggered protests in the area with villagers alleging police apathy, following which an FIR was registered against seven persons.

Sonia Gandhi speaking at a seminar "Renewing India's Commitment to Jawaharlal Nehru's Vision"

New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi said on Tuesday that any deviation from the Nehruvian vision would be disastrous for a country with such diversity and deprivation as India. She was speaking at a seminar on "Renewing India's Commitment to Jawaharlal Nehru's Vision", to mark the 50th death anniversary of the first Prime Minister. Sonia Gandhi argued that the policy of inclusive development, transparency and secularism that the UPA government had pursued in the past 10 years was only an updated version of Nehru's idea of India. "The four pillars of Nehruvianism: democratic institution-building, staunch secularism, socialist economics and a foreign policy of non-alignment — all of them were integral to a vision of Indianness that is fundamentally challenged by some in the prevailing political climate today, but which remain at the core of our party's beliefs," Sonia Gandhi told the seminar. Without taking any names, the Congress President said: "It is fashionable today to decry Nehruvian socialism as a corrupt and inefficient system that had condemned India to many years of modest growth levels."

Rahul Gandhi speaking at a seminar "Renewing India's Commitment to Jawaharlal Nehru's Vision"

New Delhi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is speaking at a seminar on "Renewing India's Commitment to Jawaharlal Nehru's Vision", to mark the 50th death anniversary of the first Prime Minister. Nation remembered Pt Nehru on Tuesday with President, Prime minister, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi paid floral tribute to the legendary leader.