Dr Manmohan Singh’s last rites will be performed today around 11:45 am on Saturday. The Centre has declared a seven-day state mourning throughout the country as a mark of respect to Dr Singh. During this period, the national flag will be flown half-mast across India.

The Congress has also declared that all official programs of the party, including the Foundation Day celebration will be cancelled for the next seven days and will resume on January 3.

A row has erupted between the Centre and Congress over the allotment of space for Dr Singh’s memorial. The Congress condemned the allocation of the Nigambodh Ghat for the final rituals instead of a location where a memorial could be built in his honour.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about exploring the possibility of building a memorial for Dr Singh at the same site where the last rites would be held. “Apropos our telephonic conversation this morning, wherein I made a request to hold Dr Manmohan Singh’s last rites, which will take place tomorrow i.e. 28th December 2024, at his final resting place that would be a sacrosanct venue for a memorial of the great son of India. This is in keeping with such tradition of having memorials of statesmen and former prime ministers at the very place of their funerals,” Mr Kharge wrote in a letter on Friday.

However, BJP spokesperson CR Kesavan hit back at Congress, calling the party’s behaviour “ironic”. “It is indeed ironic that a Congress President is writing to PM Narendra Modi ji about traditions and the funeral place becoming the sacrosanct venue for a memorial. One should remind Kharge ji how the Congress-led UPA government never built a memorial in Delhi for former PM Narasimha Rao ji, who passed away in 2004,” he said.

The Centre also clarified that it will allocate a space for Dr Singh’s memorial – which was also conveyed to Mr Kharge and Dr Singh’s family. However, it said that in the meantime, cremation and other formalities can take place because a “trust has to be formed and space has to be allocated”.

Sharmistha Mukherjee, the daughter of former President late Pranab Mukherjee, criticised Mr Kharge over the party’s demand for a separate memorial for the former Prime Minister. In a statement on X, she claimed that when her father and the former Indian President died in August 2020, the Congress leadership did not even bother to convene a condolence meeting by the Congress Working Committee (CWC). According to her, a senior leader of the Congress told her that memorials are not held for Indian Presidents. 

Manmohan Singh died of age-related medical complications at the age of 92 on Thursday night. He had been in poor health for the last few months. Known as the ‘architect of India’s economic reforms’, Dr Singh was the PM for two terms in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government from 2004 to 2014.

Born in 1932, Dr Singh studied at the University of Cambridge in the UK where he earned a First Class Honours degree in Economics in 1957. He also had a degree in Economics from Nuffield College at Oxford University. Dr Singh became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1991 and was the Leader of the Opposition between 1998 and 2004. He was awarded India’s second-highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1987.

Many world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim, have expressed condolences over the death of Dr Singh.

New Delhi:

Amid the Congress-BJP war over guarantees and the comments by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said the opposition party promises the Moon, but can’t deliver.

Speaking exclusively to NDTV, Mr Puri drew a distinction between what he called the ‘freebie’ model of the opposition and the ‘labharthi‘ (beneficiary) model of the BJP, which drives development. The minister also spoke about the alleged Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam in Karnataka and the derogatory remark made by a Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP against former BJP leader Shaina NC, who has now joined the Shiv Sena faction led by the party’s ally, Eknath Shinde. 

On the statements by Mr Kharge and PM Modi over the Congress president reportedly pulling up Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar for his comments hinting at a review of one of the party’s guarantees in the state, Mr Puri said, “A governance model which is successful, which delivers economic growth and welfare to the people is a governance model. Any other model, which bases itself on freebies, or on empty promises not grounded in reality, is not a governance model.”

Attacking Mr Kharge over the use of terms like ‘betrayal’ and ‘jumla‘ for the BJP government’s guarantees, the minister said the Congress leader must have been excited when he got the post of party president, but is now discovering the downsides. 

“Don’t make promises on which you can’t deliver. If you use words like review, it means you are not able to deliver. That is the hard truth. The Congress makes outlandish claims – it promises the Moon, and is not able to deliver, and then it gets caught. If you want to think in terms of imposing a tax on the construction of toilets in Himachal Pradesh, you are in trouble,” Mr Puri sneered. 

‘Writing On The Wall’

Taking a jibe at the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, the minister said that after the loss in Haryana, the Congress is seeing the writing on the wall for the upcoming Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly elections and is realising that its “khata-khat, phata-phat” model is failing. 

“So far as prices are concerned, after all the bluff, petrol and diesel are still Rs 10 more expensive in Congress-ruled states than they are in BJP-ruled states. There is a fundamental difference between the freebie models of the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party and the ‘labharthis‘ (beneficiaries) of a scheme like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and the Ujjwala Yojana,” Mr Puri said. 

“In Punjab, the AAP promised 300 units of free electricity and families have two or three connections and rich people are misusing the scheme. Our model is that you come and get a solar panel from us at a reasonable cost. We will subsidise it a little, then you produce electricity. You can use 300 units for your consumption and the rest can be used for a charging station at your place or put back into the grid and earn some money. There’s a fundamental difference between giving somebody free fish to eat and teaching somebody how to fish so that he or she becomes a productive member of society,” he asserted. 

The minister said he had responded to all seven points made by the president of the Congress, which is “becoming a junior partner (in alliances) everywhere”. 

To a question on Mr Kharge claiming that ‘Modi’s guarantees’, which have been a key plank of the BJP, have become a “cruel joke” on Indians, Mr Puri said the joke is what the Congress is doing. 

“Modi’s guarantee carries weight. Modi’s guarantee carries credibility. Whatever the party has said in all its election manifestos since 2014, it has delivered on each one of them. An additional 4 crore houses are going to be built… on petrol prices, diesel prices, in all the PM’s guarantees, the welfare of the consumer is written in. In their model, they took an oil bond loan of Rs 1.41 lakh crore and we are having to pay back Rs 3.2 lakh crore. Mallikarjun Kharge, the honourable president of the Congress party, is being delusional,” he claimed. 

Corruption

In a scathing attack on the Congress over corruption, Mr Puri brought up the alleged MUDA scam, in which Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife was given prime plots of land. 

On Mr Siddaramaiah’s claim that the BJP left Karnataka plagued with “40% commission corruption” and his government had inherited poor fiscal health from the previous BJP regime in the state, the minister asked, “Did he also inherit the MUDA scheme? His wife got about 15 plots, did he also inherit that? They were in the opposition, if there was any act of omission or commission by the BJP, they could have questioned it then.”

“They (Congress) have been tainted by corruption for an extended period of time and when they have to answer questions, they start blaming each other. Now whether it is faultlines between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar or both of them versus Mr Kharge, I don’t know. The Congress has to sort out this mess,” he said. 

Derogatory Remark

On the remark made by Arvind Sawant, an MP from the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena, against Shaina NC, who is a candidate for the Mumbadevi Assembly constituency from the Eknath Shinde-led Sena, Mr Puri praised his former party colleague for making her voice heard. 

“This kind of vocabulary is not acceptable anywhere. You don’t refer to an opposition candidate, a woman, in those terms. Using a word like that is objectifying a candidate… I would like to reach out to my friends like Priyanka Chaturvedi (an MP from Mr Sawant’s party) or others whom I know quite well… they should stand up and condemn this comment. I think Shaina NC did very well in questioning it. Somebody told me that he has apologised, but I think this needs to be pursued to its logical conclusion. And I’m sure that my sisters and daughters and our mothers in Maharashtra will give an absolutely befitting reply to this kind of misogyny,” he said. 

New Delhi:

The Opposition INDIA bloc won 10 of the 13 seats that went to polls across seven states, backing up their strong show in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP, which returned for a record third term at the Centre last month, managed to claim only two seats.

In Punjab, AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat scored a decisive victory in the Jalandhar West constituency, with a margin exceeding 23,000 votes. Meanwhile, in West Bengal, the TMC showcased its dominance by capturing all four seats contested.

Himachal Pradesh witnessed a notable debut as Kamlesh Thakur, wife of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, secured victory in the Dehra constituency. The Congress further strengthened its position by claiming the Nalagarh seat, while the BJP managed to secure a win in Hamirpur.

Chief Minister Sukhu, after the win said that people of Himachal Pradesh have given a befitting reply to those hatching “conspiracies to topple the government”.

“People of Himachal gave us 40 seats in 2022. People have given a befitting reply to the kind of poaching that happened in state politics in the past,” Mr Sukhu said.

“This also gave the message that the people of the state are aware and awake and that such poaching will not work. Three independent MLAs had no reason to resign. They could have simply allied with the BJP, but even they learned their lesson,” he added.

In Tamil Nadu, the DMK’s Anniyur Siva won the Vikravandi assembly seat by a significant margin of nearly 60,000 votes. The Congress won both seats in Uttarakhand, while the BJP’s Kamslesh Pratap Shahi won the Amarwar seat in Madhya Pradesh.

Independent candidate Shankar Singh won the Rupauli assembly bypoll in Bihar’s Purnea, defeating JDU’s Kaladhar Prasad Mandal by a margin of 8,246 votes.

These bypolls were the first since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which saw the BJP winning 240 seats – 32 short of the majority. The NDA, however, managed to cross the halfway mark of 272 with a total tally of 293 seats. The Congress-led INDIA bloc clinched 232 seats.

New Delhi:

Slamming Congress and the Gandhi family over amending the Constitution during their tenure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that till the time he is alive, he won’t allow anyone to play with the basic fundamentals of the Constitution.

Prime Minister Modi said that four members of the Gandhi family- former Prime Ministers Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi fiddled with the Constitution for their own political goals.

When asked in an interview with India Today on the Opposition claims that the Constitution will be rewritten if BJP is voted to power, Prime Minister Modi said, “The question that should be asked- who was the first to play with the Constitution? Pandit Nehru did. He brought the first amendment which was meant to restrict freedom of speech. His daughter (Indira Gandhi) then overturned the court verdict by bringing an amendment. Then her son (Rajiv Gandhi) came and overturned Shah Bano’s verdict. He changed the Constitution.”

“He brought a law to restrict media. The opposition was strong, and the media was also growing strong. they said they will not allow the imposition of another emergency. this scared him and he had to withdraw,” he added.

He further slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for tearing apart a copy of the ordinance which was passed by the Union Cabinet in 2013. The ordinance was later withdrawn by Manmohan Singh led government.

“Then his son (Rahul Gandhi) came, a remote control government was being run at that time, they had a PM of their choice. A Cabinet formed as per the Constitution took a decision, a Shehzada came and publically tore apart the cabinet decision. Later Cabinet also overturned its decision,” he said.

PM Modi further assured that reservations based on religion will not be allowed under his tenure.

“Four members of the same family destroyed the Constitution at different times. Until Modi is alive, I will not allow any change in the basic fundamentals of the Constitution. I won’t allow reservation based on religion, you already partitioned a country on the basis of religion,” he said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that if the Bharatiya Janata Party wins the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and tries to change the Constitution, then the whole nation will be set on fire.

“If the BJP wins these match-fixed elections, and changes the Constitution, the whole country will be on fire. Remember this,” Gandhi said at an election rally in Delhi.

Former Union Minister and BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde said that his party needs a total of 400 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls if any changes are to be made in the Constitution.

Hegde called for re-writing of the Constitution stating that Congress earlier made changes to the Constitution to oppress the Hindu society and to undo that “act” his party needs a two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha as well as in states.

“They (Congress) have changed the Constitution and brought laws to oppress the entire Hindu society. If all this is to be changed, it will not happen with this minority vote. Both sides need a two-thirds majority. This time PM Modi has said that we should win more than 400 seats. Why 400? We have a majority in the Lok Sabha, but not in the Rajya Sabha. We need 400 seats to make any changes in the Constitution,” the BJP MP said on Saturday.

“We need a two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, and also in the states. Just the majority in Lok Sabha is not enough,” he added.

BJP distanced itself from the remarks made by Anantkumar Hegde and said that his remarks do not reflect the party’s stance.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Raipur:

A day after the Election Commission (EC) notified the dates for the Lok Sabha elections, former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel on Sunday called the now-junked electoral bond scheme the “biggest scam of the year”.

Speaking to reporters, the Congress leader said, “This is the biggest scam of the year. The BJP senses that it is losing the Lok Sabha elections and was, hence, resorting to newer tactics against the Opposition.”

However, coming out in defence of the scheme, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, SP Singh Baghel, said the Opposition was hurling unfounded allegations at the BJP over the electoral bond scheme.

“The Opposition is spreading canards against the BJP for receiving funding worth Rs 20,000 crore under the electoral bond scheme,” he said.

“TMC, which is only a regional party, received Rs 1,600 crore under the same scheme while the Congress received Rs 1,400 crore, and the BRS got Rs 1,200 crore. An election bond makes it binding on all political parties receiving funds to put all the transactional details on their books or balance sheets. However, before all of that, the parties can encash the bonds for meeting their expenses,” he added.

Hitting out at the Congress, he said, “Now the Congress is alleging that electoral bond scheme was launched to extort firms using central agencies. Under their regimes, even transfer postings or handing of contracts were listed under party fund.”

Earlier in the day, the Election Commission made public fresh data on electoral bonds, which was previously submitted to the Supreme Court in sealed covers, following a directive from the Supreme Court to make it available to the public.

“The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website,” the poll panel said in a statement.

The EC initially submitted the details in the sealed covers to the Supreme Court and was later asked to put them in the public domain.

Notably, this information pertains to transactions that occurred before April 12, 2019. The details of electoral bonds issued after this data were disclosed by the Election Commission last week.

“Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the Supreme Court’s order dated March 15, 2024, the Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same in a pen drive in a sealed cover. The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in the digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website,” the EC added.

According to the fresh details, the DMK received Rs 656.5 crore through electoral bonds, including Rs 509 crore from lottery king Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming.

The BJP encashed electoral bonds worth a combined Rs 6,986.5 crore. The highest amount received by the ruling party was in 2019-20 worth Rs 2,555 crore.

Congress encashed funds totalling Rs 1,334.35 crore through electoral bonds.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Guwahati:

The Congress believes India is a union of states where all religions, cultures, and communities must be protected, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said as he campaigned for his party in Mizoram today. Continuing his attack on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress leader raked up the Manipur issue, criticising PM Modi for not visiting the state even once since ethnic violence broke out on May 3.

The people of Mizoram don’t want the BJP, Mr Gandhi said. “What people want here is that they don’t want the BJP to enter Mizoram and so people are with us. We have a proven track record in Mizoram.”

Addressing a press conference in the capital city Aizawl, Mr Gandhi said, “Congress laid the foundation of the country and has a track record of protecting the country’s ethos. The BJP has attempted to capture the entire institutional structure of India.”

“The upcoming Mizoram election is about protecting the idea of Mizoram from the BJP-RSS entry,” Mr Gandhi said, referring to the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS). “We will defend the idea of India, protect the Constitution, and the value of the country. That’s the idea of the INDIA bloc and the alliance is ruling over 60 per cent of the country.”

The BJP and the RSS are attacking the religions and traditions of the people of the northeast, Mr Gandhi alleged.

“Different states in the northeast are being attacked by BJP and RSS. Your religion and traditions are under attack. In Mizoram, the two regional parties – MNF and ZPM – are serving as the entry points for the BJP. The MNF is already an ally of the BJP and the ZPM is not fighting the BJP and in fact, the Assam Chief Minister is also trying to do politics here through these regional parties,” he said.

Drawing parallels with Manipur, Mr Gandhi said that the neighbouring state was attacked by the BJP through local parties.

“My Manipur visit was the first time in my career to any part of the country where I saw this kind of a situation within a state; communities are so divided that Meiteis can’t go to the Kuki areas and Kukis can’t go to places dominated by the Meiteis.”

“The politics of division and hatred has created a division and it needs to be repaired. The hatred the BJP has spread needs to be removed and that is my point on Manipur. It’s been a puzzle that why, for months, as Manipur burned, the Prime Minister didn’t visit the state. It was his primary responsibility, was it not?” he said.

Responding to the BJP’s allegations of dynastic politics, Mr Gandhi said the BJP is full of dynasties and the party’s idea is to promote big players and kill small businesses.

“If you see the BJP’s politics, their idea is to kill small businesses and help the biggest players. What does Amit Shah’s son do? What does Rajnath Singh’s son do? Look at the leaders in the BJP and what they do. You will find that the BJP is full of dynasties. So the question of dynasties has to be objective,” he said.

The Congress MP also spoke about the Israel-Gaza war, days after a statement by the party’s working committee highlighted a rift within the party. “Our resolution on Palestine-Israel is very clear. We are against violence. Anybody who kills innocent people is a criminal,” Mr Gandhi said.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, had expressed its “dismay and anguish” over the war and underlined its support of the Palestinian peoples’ right to “land (and) self-government, and to live with dignity and respect”.

Sources said the Congress’ statement highlighted divisions within the party, and that the section on the Israel-Gaza war was not well-received by all those at the CWC meeting. Sources also suggested the inclusion of that section in the statement was a major sticking point and that it was not part of the original draft.

Mizoram will vote on November 7 to elect 40 MLAs. The votes will be counted on December 3. Candidates have until October 20 to file their nominations. The candidatures will be scrutinised the next day, while the last date to withdraw a nomination is October 23.

New Delhi:
The Congress has come under attack for allegedly supporting the Hamas and the Palestine cause without referring to the attack on Israel. Over 3,000 people have been killed in the latest war between Israel and the Hamas group.

Here are 10 facts about the Congress row over the Israel-Palestine war:

Hyderabad:

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has hit back at the BJP for its continuous attack on the Opposition bloc’s new name, saying that the ‘INDIA’ name of the coalition has got under the ruling party’s skin.

Speaking to ANI on Friday, Mr Tharoor said that to apply ‘ghamand‘ (pride) to the opposition is ‘unnecessary’ and alleged that the ones who are in power are arrogant.

“…The arrogance of power has been very visible. So to apply ‘ghamand‘ to the opposition is a bit unnecessary and a bit futile because those who are arrogant are the ones who are in power. That’s what we’re seeing every day. I think that clearly, the name we have given to the alliance has got under their skin and that’s why they are reacting in this exaggerated way and even trying to privilege the name Bharat which is also both our names in the Constitution of India. So what is the problem with using either of them?” Mr Tharoor said.

At a public rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently referred to the Opposition bloc as “INDI alliance” instead of INDIA and also termed it “ghamandia” (arrogant) alliance.

On Friday, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi too called the Opposition bloc a “ghamandi” alliance.

“Only a few people are calling it INDIA. It ought to be called the INDI alliance. Since the word alliance is repeated in the name, it is INDI alliance. It is actually a ghamandi (arrogant) alliance,” the BJP leader said.

Mr Tharoor also claimed the government may advance the Lok Sabha elections.

“I think inevitably one of the key topics is going to be the current political developments in the country and the actual election prospects and certainly those who have been representing us in the India Alliance meetings, we want to brief the committee (Congress Working Committee) about what’s happening there…We hope that the elections are in the usual time which is six to nine months away. But it’s also possible that the government might advance the elections as we’ve been hearing and we need to be prepared sooner rather than later,” he said.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is holding its first meeting since its reconstitution in Hyderabad.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)