The Evening Wrap: Hemant Soren wins confidence motion in Jharkhand Assembly

The Chief Minister Hemant Soren-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in Jharkhand on Monday won the trust vote in the 81-member State Assembly, with 48 members voting in support of ruling coalition. The opposition staged a walk-out. It was for the first time that a ruling coalition government in Jharkhand had moved a confidence motion to prove majority in the House. With MSoren winning the trust vote, the political stalemate prevailing in Jharkhand appears to have drawn to a close. During the debate over the confidence motion, the Chief Minister slammed the BJP, saying, “It [the BJP] only does power politics and does politics of Hindu-Muslim but, I’m also son of Shibu Soren and I’ll not be cowed down.” “The BJP is a party of businessmen and they were trying to buy our MLAs, threatened the ruling party legislators, but could not succeed,” he added. “In the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, the BJP will be wiped out as the people of the country will give them a befitting reply,” Soren added. The opposition BJP and All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) walked out from the House during the voting but participated in the debate over the confidence motion. “There have been incidents of rape, murder and loot in the State but the ruling party MLAs were busy in boat riding and enjoying luxurious life in a resort. They have brought the confidence motion out of fear and nothing else,” charged BJP MLA Neelkanth Singh Munda. “It is to escape from the grave charges made against him that Chief Minister Hemant Soren had brought in the confidence motion in the House,” AJSU president Sudesh Mahto told media persons outside the State Assembly. On Sunday evening, over 31 UPA MLAs, who were staying at a resort in Raipur in Chhattisgarh on August 30, returned to Ranchi to vote in favour of the confidence motion. They were lodged at the Ranchi Circuit House and brought to the State Assembly on Monday in a bus. Amid fear of alleged poaching by the BJP, UPA MLAs had on August 27 gone together to the Latratu dam guest house in Khunti district, but returned to Ranchi in the evening. The suspense over Soren’s disqualification from membership of the State Assembly and his government’s alleged fall in connection with ‘office of profit’ charges made against him by the BJP, was started on February 10 this year, when former CM and senior State BJP leader Raghuvar Das had complained to the Governor Ramesh Bais in an office of profit case. On the next day, August 11, the BJP demanded Soren’s membership be disqualified for securing the lease of a stone mine in his name while being the State’s Minister for Mines. The Governor later forwarded the BJP’s complaint to the Election Commission of India (ECI) for action. On August 25, BJP MP from Godda, Nishikant Dubey, told journalists that the ECI had sent notice to Hemant Soren in the office of profit case to the Governor, and his membership would be disqualified from the State Assembly. This triggered a situation of political uncertainty and suspense over the Soren-led UPA government in the State, and the ruling alliance’s MLAs later met the Governor to submit a memorandum seeking to clear the air on the issue. The Governor, said UPA MLAs, had assured them he would clear the prevailing suspense in two days but left for Delhi instead. On August 30, over 31 UPA MLAs took a chartered flight to stay at a resort in Raipur in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh. However, they returned on September 4 to participate in the confidence motion proposed by Soren in the House on September 5. The Opposition created pandemonium in the House and trooped into the Well while protesting the ruling government’s confidence motion. It participated in debate over the issue, but walked out from voting. The Speaker, Rabindra Nath Mahto, later announced that 48 members had voted for the ruling UPA government. The Speaker subsequently adjourned the House sine die. Supreme Court asks whether the right to wear hijab can be exercised in a school with a dress code The Supreme Court on Monday asked whether a student can exercise her private religious right to wear a hijab in a school which adheres to a dress code. “You may have a right to wear a hijab, but can you wear that right to school?” a Bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia formulated the substantial question of law on a batch of petitions filed by students from Karnataka who were prohibited entry into their classrooms for wearing hijab. They have challenged a Karnataka High Court decision that wearing a hijab is not an essential practice of Islam. “The practice may be essential or it may not be essential. The question here is whether in a government institution, you can insist on carrying on your religious practice… because the Preamble to the Constitution states we are a secular country,” Justice Gupta observed orally. Senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, for one of the students, said the students did not defy the dress code. They just wanted to wear a hijab in addition to their uniform. “Yes, there is a dress code. But can’t I wear a hijab in addition to the dress code? There are a large number of women, in India and elsewhere, who choose to wear hijab. It is a matter of considerable importance to them… Does the dress code yield to them or do they yield to the dress code?” Dhawan asked. He said the restriction on hijab extend to private institutions also. “I have seen in this court judges wearing tilak on their foreheads and insignia of Vaishnavism… I have seen in court too the portrait of a judge wearing a pagdi…” Dhawan argued. “Wearing a pagdi was usual in royal States…” Justice Gupta said. “A uniform must be uniform,” Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said. “But can’t the uniform be worn in a manner consistent with an individual’s choice of her belief and morality… Can a government put students to the pain of banning them from their classrooms, which is like capital punishment for students, just because they are extra clad,” senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, also for the students, argued. Hegde said students could wear hijabs of a colour consistent with their uniforms. “Can you deny them education on the ground that they are overdressed? he asked. Dhawan said the questions before the court were basically two: one, given a dress code, is there a right to superimpose on that a religious right as well, and how can both be reconciled? Two, if a student wears a scarf, can she wear it to school and even to her classroom? “What this court will rule will have an effect across the world. The hijab is an issue covering a large number of countries and civilisations. The decision of the Indian Supreme Court will be one of momentous importance,” Dhawan said. Lawyers for the petitioners suggested referring the petitions to a Constitution Bench. Additional Solicitor General K.M. Natraj said the issue was “simple” and concerned “discipline”. “How is discipline violated if a girl child wears a hijab?” Justice Dhulia asked. The Advocate General for Karnataka said the State had left it to the individual institutions to decide their dress codes. It had merely said the students should adhere to the respective dress codes of their institutions. He said the college development committees in government colleges, which are composed of government officials and representatives of parents, teachers and students, etc., decide the dress code. “A Muslim girl pursuing her education wearing a hijab/headscarf offends no right of any person and militates against no State interest… Petitioner does not wear the hijab as a form of any political symbolism or to intimidate, heckle or belittle her fellow classmates or any other person,” Fathima Bushra, one of the student petitioners, has contended. She said the restrictions were “bound to have an impact on the rights of Muslim women across the country”. Students have argued in their petitions that they had approached the Karnataka High Court, expecting it to protect their fundamental rights and quash a State government order directing college development committees to prescribe uniforms for them. She termed the State government’s order as a “ridiculing attack” on Muslim students wearing hijab under the “guise of attaining secularity and equality on the basis of uniform”. She said the State cannot prescribe uniforms for students. It is for educational institutions to do so. Moreover, the law does not provide for the formation of “college development committees”. Further, Karnataka Educational Institutions Rules of 1995 do not make it mandatory for a school or institution to prescribe a uniform. In their case, no uniform had been prescribed by their respective institutions. The court adjourned the case to Wednesday at 2 p.m. Liz Truss to take over as U.K.’s next Prime Minister Liz Truss was announced the leader of the governing Conservative Party and Britain’s next Prime Minister on September 5, taking power at a time when the country faces a cost of living crisis, industrial unrest and a recession. The Prime Minister-in-waiting Truss will deliver a plan to lower taxes and boost economic growth, she said after winning the Conservative Party contest. “I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply,” Truss said in a speech following the result. The 47-year-old senior Cabinet minister was widely expected to clinch the ballot of an estimated 1,60,000 online and postal votes cast by Tory members, ending Sunak’s historic run as the first member of Parliament of Indian heritage to compete for the top job at 10 Downing Street. She is the third female Prime Minister in Britain, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. The result was formally announced by the returning officer of the leadership contest and chair of the Conservative Party’s powerful 1922 Committee of backbench MPs, Sir Graham Brady, at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre near Downing Street. He said Truss won 81,326 votes compared to Sunak’s share of 60,399 votes. Sunak, in his first comments after the results were announced, said the party must now unite behind winner Truss. “It’s right we now unite behind the new PM, Liz Truss, as she steers the country through difficult times,” Sunak said on Twitter. After weeks of an often bad-tempered and divisive party leadership contest that pitted Truss against Sunak, a former finance minister, the announcement triggered the beginning of a handover from Johnson. Johnson was forced to announce his resignation in July after months of scandal and he will travel to Scotland to meet Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday to officially tender his resignation. Truss will follow him and be asked to form a government. Long the front-runner in the race to replace Johnson, Truss became the Conservatives’ fourth prime minister since a 2015 election. Over that period the country has been buffeted from crisis to crisis, and now faces what is forecast to be a long recession triggered by sky-rocketing inflation which hit 10.1% in July. Below are key quotes from her victory speech: “I campaigned as a conservative and I will govern as a conservative. My friends, we need to show that we will deliver over the next two years.” “I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long term issues we have on energy supply.” “I also want to thank our outgoing leader, my friend, Boris Johnson. Boris, you got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin. You are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle.” Nitish Kumar meets Rahul Gandhi in Delhi Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi and the two leaders are learnt to have discussed the current political situation in the country and ways to ensure Opposition unity. This is the first meeting between the two leaders since Kumar walked out of the NDA in Bihar and formed a Mahagathbandhan government with the RJD, Congress and outside support of the Left. Kumar arrived in the national capital on Monday and is likely to meet several Opposition leaders including the NCP’s Sarad Pawar, the AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and JDS supremo H.D. Kumaraswamy during his visit. He is also likely to meet Samajwadi Party chief Akhileash Yadav and leaders from the Left parties. Kumar is making attempts to bring all Opposition parties together as a united force against the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Amid rumblings over election procedure, Jairam Ramesh says Congress is united The party is united and leaders are allowed to express their views openly as there is no dictatorship in the Congress, the party’s communication head Jairam Ramesh said on September 5, 2022. His remarks came amid the BJP’s digs, and former party stalwart Ghulam Nabi Azad’s comment that the party needs to focus on “Congress jodo“ (unite Congress) instead of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. “Those who are disgruntled in the Congress, they keep giving statements. But I think the party is united today. Yesterday, the rally was very successful and every worker is committed, there is excitement, energy, and our sole aim is to undertake the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” Ramesh told reporters. “The Congress is a big family and there are people of different views. We are a democratic party, people air their views openly — some write letters, some tweet, some give an interview — and this shows democracy. There is no dictatorship in our party, we don’t silence anyone,” he added. Ramesh said that efforts are made to reach out to party leaders, “but some people leave despite that and hurl abuses”. “I don’t want to say anything about them, I have already spoken about them,” Ramesh said in a reference to Azad, adding, “But to say that ‘Congress jodo’ should be our priority, that is wrong. For us, the priority is to unite the country.” In the past few weeks, the party’s leadership has been at the receiving end from some of the members of G-23 or the ginger group that has been pushing for internal reforms for the past two years and had written a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. While Azad quit the party after blaming Rahul Gandhi for its decline, some of his other G-23 colleagues, like Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari, have been pushing for a transparent presidential polls by demanding that the list of electors be made public. So, when the absence of Sharma and Tewari from the “Mehangai Par Halla Bol” anti-inflation rally on Sunday was being questioned, the Lok Sabha member, who is out the country, put out a tweet. “A memory Jog. It was I (@ManishTewari) who opened the Price Rise debate in the Lok Sabha on 1st of August 2022,” Tewari tweeted. Though Tewari did not elaborate on his cryptic tweet, it’s being interpreted as a counter to the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, who credited Gandhi for the price rise debate in Parliament. In Brief Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday arrived in India on a four-day state visit to meet the country’s top leadership to further cement the multifaceted relationship and ink at least seven bilateral agreements in areas like water management, railway and science and technology. “This is a state visit and she (Hasina) is going to Delhi at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi,” Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr A. K. Abdul Momen told a media briefing on Sunday. The government has decided to rename the historic Rajpath in the national capital as ‘Kartavya Path’, sources said on September 5, 2022. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has convened a special meeting on September 7 and the proposal will be placed before the council. NDMC has convened a special meeting on September 7 with the objective of renaming Rajpath and Central Vista lawns as Kartavyapath,” sources said. “The entire road and area from the Netaji statue at India Gate to the Rashtrapati Bhavan will be known as Kartavya Path,” they added. Rajpath was known as Kingsway during British Rule. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 05 SEPTEMBER 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Hemant Soren wins confidence motion in Jharkhand Assembly, BJP walks out The C[hief Minister Hemant Soren-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in Jharkhand]( on Monday won the trust vote in the 81-member State Assembly, with 48 members voting in support of ruling coalition. The opposition staged a walk-out. It was for the first time that a ruling coalition government in Jharkhand had moved a confidence motion to prove majority in the House. With MSoren winning the trust vote, the political stalemate prevailing in Jharkhand appears to have drawn to a close. During the debate over the confidence motion, the Chief Minister slammed the BJP, saying, “It [the BJP] only does power politics and does politics of Hindu-Muslim but, I’m also son of Shibu Soren and I’ll not be cowed down.” [Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren escorts United Progressive Alliance (UPA) MLAs from Jharkhand Assembly to Government Circuit House in a special bus after winning the floor test at the Assembly, in Ranchi, on September 5, 2022.] “The BJP is a party of businessmen and they were trying to buy our MLAs, threatened the ruling party legislators, but could not succeed,” he added. “In the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, the BJP will be wiped out as the people of the country will give them a befitting reply,” Soren added. The opposition BJP and All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) walked out from the House during the voting but participated in the debate over the confidence motion. “There have been incidents of rape, murder and loot in the State but the ruling party MLAs were busy in boat riding and enjoying luxurious life in a resort. They have brought the confidence motion out of fear and nothing else,” charged BJP MLA Neelkanth Singh Munda. “It is to escape from the grave charges made against him that Chief Minister Hemant Soren had brought in the confidence motion in the House,” AJSU president Sudesh Mahto told media persons outside the State Assembly. On Sunday evening, over 31 UPA MLAs, who were staying at a resort in Raipur in Chhattisgarh on August 30, returned to Ranchi to vote in favour of the confidence motion. They were lodged at the Ranchi Circuit House and brought to the State Assembly on Monday in a bus. Amid fear of alleged poaching by the BJP, UPA MLAs had on August 27 gone together to the Latratu dam guest house in Khunti district, but returned to Ranchi in the evening. The suspense over Soren’s disqualification from membership of the State Assembly and his government’s alleged fall in connection with ‘office of profit’ charges made against him by the BJP, was started on February 10 this year, when former CM and senior State BJP leader Raghuvar Das had complained to the Governor Ramesh Bais in an office of profit case. On the next day, August 11, the BJP demanded Soren’s membership be disqualified for securing the lease of a stone mine in his name while being the State’s Minister for Mines. The Governor later forwarded the BJP’s complaint to the Election Commission of India (ECI) for action. On August 25, BJP MP from Godda, Nishikant Dubey, told journalists that the ECI had sent notice to Hemant Soren in the office of profit case to the Governor, and his membership would be disqualified from the State Assembly. This triggered a situation of political uncertainty and suspense over the Soren-led UPA government in the State, and the ruling alliance’s MLAs later met the Governor to submit a memorandum seeking to clear the air on the issue. The Governor, said UPA MLAs, had assured them he would clear the prevailing suspense in two days but left for Delhi instead. On August 30, over 31 UPA MLAs took a chartered flight to stay at a resort in Raipur in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh. However, they returned on September 4 to participate in the confidence motion proposed by Soren in the House on September 5. The Opposition created pandemonium in the House and trooped into the Well while protesting the ruling government’s confidence motion. It participated in debate over the issue, but walked out from voting. The Speaker, Rabindra Nath Mahto, later announced that 48 members had voted for the ruling UPA government. The Speaker subsequently adjourned the House sine die. Supreme Court asks whether the right to wear hijab can be exercised in a school with a dress code The [Supreme Court on Monday asked whether a student can exercise her private religious right to wear a hijab]( in a school which adheres to a dress code. “You may have a right to wear a hijab, but can you wear that right to school?” a Bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia formulated the substantial question of law on a batch of petitions filed by students from Karnataka who were prohibited entry into their classrooms for wearing hijab. They have challenged a K[arnataka High Court decision that wearing a hijab]( is not an essential practice of Islam. “The practice may be essential or it may not be essential. The question here is whether in a government institution, you can insist on carrying on your religious practice… because the Preamble to the Constitution states we are a secular country,” Justice Gupta observed orally. Senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, for one of the students, said the students did not defy the dress code. They just wanted to wear a hijab in addition to their uniform. “Yes, there is a dress code. But can’t I wear a hijab in addition to the dress code? There are a large number of women, in India and elsewhere, who choose to wear hijab. It is a matter of considerable importance to them… Does the dress code yield to them or do they yield to the dress code?” Dhawan asked. He said the restriction on hijab extend to private institutions also. “I have seen in this court judges wearing tilak on their foreheads and insignia of Vaishnavism… I have seen in court too the portrait of a judge wearing a pagdi…” Dhawan argued. “Wearing a pagdi was usual in royal States…” Justice Gupta said. “A uniform must be uniform,” Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said. “But can’t the uniform be worn in a manner consistent with an individual’s choice of her belief and morality… Can a government put students to the pain of banning them from their classrooms, which is like capital punishment for students, just because they are extra clad,” senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, also for the students, argued. Hegde said students could wear hijabs of a colour consistent with their uniforms. “Can you deny them education on the ground that they are overdressed? he asked. Dhawan said the questions before the court were basically two: one, given a dress code, is there a right to superimpose on that a religious right as well, and how can both be reconciled? Two, if a student wears a scarf, can she wear it to school and even to her classroom? “What this court will rule will have an effect across the world. The hijab is an issue covering a large number of countries and civilisations. The decision of the Indian Supreme Court will be one of momentous importance,” Dhawan said. Lawyers for the petitioners suggested referring the petitions to a Constitution Bench. Additional Solicitor General K.M. Natraj said the issue was “simple” and concerned “discipline”. “How is discipline violated if a girl child wears a hijab?” Justice Dhulia asked. The Advocate General for Karnataka said the State had left it to the individual institutions to decide their dress codes. It had merely said the students should adhere to the respective dress codes of their institutions. He said the college development committees in government colleges, which are composed of government officials and representatives of parents, teachers and students, etc., decide the dress code. “A Muslim girl pursuing her education wearing a hijab/headscarf offends no right of any person and militates against no State interest… Petitioner does not wear the hijab as a form of any political symbolism or to intimidate, heckle or belittle her fellow classmates or any other person,” Fathima Bushra, one of the student petitioners, has contended. She said the restrictions were “bound to have an impact on the rights of Muslim women across the country”. Students have argued in their petitions that they had approached the Karnataka High Court, expecting it to protect their fundamental rights and quash a State government order directing college development committees to prescribe uniforms for them. She termed the State government’s order as a “ridiculing attack” on Muslim students wearing hijab under the “guise of attaining secularity and equality on the basis of uniform”. She said the State cannot prescribe uniforms for students. It is for educational institutions to do so. Moreover, the law does not provide for the formation of “college development committees”. Further, Karnataka Educational Institutions Rules of 1995 do not make it mandatory for a school or institution to prescribe a uniform. In their case, no uniform had been prescribed by their respective institutions. The court adjourned the case to Wednesday at 2 p.m. Liz Truss to take over as U.K.’s next Prime Minister [Liz Truss was announced the leader of the governing Conservative Party and Britain’s next Prime Minister]( on September 5, taking power at a time when the country faces a cost of living crisis, industrial unrest and a recession. The [Prime Minister-in-waiting Truss will deliver a plan]( to lower taxes and boost economic growth, she said after winning the Conservative Party contest. “I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply,” Truss said in a speech following the result. [Liz Truss, left, and Rishi Sunak arrive for the announcement of the result of the Conservative Party leadership contest at the Queen Elizabeth II centre in London, on September 5, 2022.] The 47-year-old senior Cabinet minister was widely expected to clinch the ballot of an estimated 1,60,000 online and postal votes cast by Tory members, ending Sunak’s historic run as the first member of Parliament of Indian heritage to compete for the top job at 10 Downing Street. She is the third female Prime Minister in Britain, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. The result was formally announced by the returning officer of the leadership contest and chair of the Conservative Party’s powerful 1922 Committee of backbench MPs, Sir Graham Brady, at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre near Downing Street. He said Truss won 81,326 votes compared to Sunak’s share of 60,399 votes. Sunak, in his first comments after the results were announced, said the party must now unite behind winner Truss. “It’s right we now unite behind the new PM, Liz Truss, as she steers the country through difficult times,” Sunak said on Twitter. After weeks of an often bad-tempered and divisive party leadership contest that pitted Truss against Sunak, a former finance minister, the announcement triggered the beginning of a handover from Johnson. Johnson was forced to announce his resignation in July after months of scandal and he will travel to Scotland to meet Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday to officially tender his resignation. Truss will follow him and be asked to form a government. Long the front-runner in the race to replace Johnson, Truss became the Conservatives’ fourth prime minister since a 2015 election. Over that period the country has been buffeted from crisis to crisis, and now faces what is forecast to be a long recession triggered by sky-rocketing inflation which hit 10.1% in July. Below are key quotes from her victory speech: “I campaigned as a conservative and I will govern as a conservative. My friends, we need to show that we will deliver over the next two years.” “I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long term issues we have on energy supply.” “I also want to thank our outgoing leader, my friend, Boris Johnson. Boris, you got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin. You are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle.” Nitish Kumar meets Rahul Gandhi in Delhi [Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi]( in New Delhi and the two leaders are learnt to have discussed the current political situation in the country and ways to ensure Opposition unity. This is the first meeting between the two leaders since Kumar walked out of the NDA in Bihar and formed a Mahagathbandhan government with the RJD, Congress and outside support of the Left. Kumar arrived in the national capital on Monday and is likely to meet several Opposition leaders including the NCP’s Sarad Pawar, the AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and JDS supremo H.D. Kumaraswamy during his visit. He is also likely to meet Samajwadi Party chief Akhileash Yadav and leaders from the Left parties. Kumar is making attempts to bring all Opposition parties together as a united force against the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Amid rumblings over election procedure, Jairam Ramesh says Congress is united [The party is united and leaders are allowed to express their views openly as there is no dictatorship in the Congress]( the party’s communication head Jairam Ramesh said on September 5, 2022. His remarks came amid the BJP’s digs, and former party stalwart Ghulam Nabi Azad’s comment that the party needs to focus on “Congress jodo“ (unite Congress) instead of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. “Those who are disgruntled in the Congress, they keep giving statements. But I think the party is united today. Yesterday, the rally was very successful and every worker is committed, there is excitement, energy, and our sole aim is to undertake the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” Ramesh told reporters. “The Congress is a big family and there are people of different views. We are a democratic party, people air their views openly — some write letters, some tweet, some give an interview — and this shows democracy. There is no dictatorship in our party, we don’t silence anyone,” he added. Ramesh said that efforts are made to reach out to party leaders, “but some people leave despite that and hurl abuses”. “I don’t want to say anything about them, I have already spoken about them,” Ramesh said in a reference to Azad, adding, “But to say that ‘Congress jodo’ should be our priority, that is wrong. For us, the priority is to unite the country.” In the past few weeks, the party’s leadership has been at the receiving end from some of the members of G-23 or the ginger group that has been pushing for internal reforms for the past two years and had written a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. While Azad quit the party after blaming Rahul Gandhi for its decline, some of his other G-23 colleagues, like Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari, have been pushing for a transparent presidential polls by demanding that the list of electors be made public. So, when the absence of Sharma and Tewari from the “Mehangai Par Halla Bol” anti-inflation rally on Sunday was being questioned, the Lok Sabha member, who is out the country, put out a tweet. “A memory Jog . It was I (@ManishTewari) who opened the Price Rise debate in the Lok Sabha on 1st of August 2022,” Tewari tweeted. Though Tewari did not elaborate on his cryptic tweet, it’s being interpreted as a counter to the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, who credited Gandhi for the price rise debate in Parliament. In Brief [Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday arrived in India on a four-day state]( visit to meet the country’s top leadership to further cement the multifaceted relationship and ink at least seven bilateral agreements in areas like water management, railway and science and technology. “This is a state visit and she (Hasina) is going to Delhi at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi,” Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr A. K. Abdul Momen told a media briefing on Sunday. [The government has decided to rename the historic Rajpath in the national capital as ‘Kartavya Path]( sources said on September 5, 2022. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has convened a special meeting on September 7 and the proposal will be placed before the council. NDMC has convened a special meeting on September 7 with the objective of renaming Rajpath and Central Vista lawns as Kartavyapath,” sources said. “The entire road and area from the Netaji statue at India Gate to the Rashtrapati Bhavan will be known as Kartavya Path,” they added. Rajpath was known as Kingsway during British Rule. 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