Top News: Rahul Gandhi gets the power, shocking details in Alwar lynching, Venkaiah Naidu on Surajya
Also, what led to the collapse of two buildings in Noida and the need for more patient shelters in India.
Cows seized from Rakbar at a gaushala in Alwar. (Express Photo)
In the latest reaffirmation of his power, Rahul Gandhi has been told by the Congress party to pick its future allies. Also, new details have emerged in the recent Alwar lynching case and Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu writes on the cause he believes the youth of the nation should dedicate themselves to.
Rahul Gandhi has the power
After winning the battle for headlines in Friday’s debate in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi on Sunday was cemented as the face of the Congress party in the upcoming national polls. At a meeting of the recently tweaked Congress Working Committee, the party authorised Rahul to decide all alliances and its future path. With every top leader present, Rahul affirmed his leadership of the party and called on the party to get ready for battle. The Congress leader has also warned leaders from straying too far from the party’s official stand on issues, presumably to ensure that the party doesn’t give Modi and the BJP anything to attack it with.
Alwar lynching: Now the spotlight is on the police
In the third such incident in the same district of Rajasthan, an unarmed man in the presence of cows was said to have been lynched over the suspicion of being a cattle smuggler. Now it has been found that police took almost two-and-a-half hours to get the victim to a hospital. In that time the police took time out to ensure the victim was cleaned, got the cows to safety, and even stopped for a cup for tea. By the time the man reached a public health facility, he was dead.
Central government industries were to buy more from Dalit-owned industries, they haven’t
The Modi government wanted central government industries to get 4 per cent of their requirements from Dalit-owned enterprises, but it hasn’t worked over the last six years. Central government industries bought just 0.46 per cent of their requirement from SC/ST enterprises in 2017-18, which in fact is a fall from 0.5 per cent in 2012-13.
Behind the Noida buildings collapse: unchecked development
The shocking collapse of two buildings in Noida last week only reiterates the risks of unchecked urban development in India. An investigation by The Indian Express into the collapse of two buildings in Shahberi village reveals that the buildings that were constructed as low-cost housing projects had major lapses that were never revealed due to oversight and lack of regulation.
Why just hiking MSP isn’t enough, the importance of Surajya and what cancer patients need: The think pieces
The government’s latest move to win over farmers is to raise minimum support prices for crops. But as Ashok Gulati and Tirtha Chatterjee write in their column, this causes multiple problems. For one, it restricts the autonomy of various bodies that are supposed to recommend agricultural prices, the cost of the scheme and the high coordination between the Centre and states.
July 23 is a special day because it marks the birth anniversary of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Chandra Shekhar Azad, and Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu thinks it is also a day for the youth of the nation to commit itself to the cause of Surajya. Naidu writes that India can become one of the world’s top economies “if we collectively display the will to eradicate poverty, illiteracy, urban-rural divide, ensure top priority to agriculture, education, health and industry and empower the vulnerable sections”.
There are hundreds of patients stranded outside most tertiary care cancer hospitals in India and, according to Dr Shah Alam Khan, it only highlights the need for patient shelters across the country. He writes that whether it’s AIIMS in Delhi or Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, there’s a lack of amenities for cancer patients, who undergo treatment of extended periods and are often driven to abject poverty.
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