Category: Politics

The Wire Wrap | Delhi Stampede, Vikatan Cartoon, New CEC Appointed

The Wire’s Jahnavi Sen is joined by Jomy Thomas, bureau chief at Malayala Manorama, and Seema Chishti, editor of The Wire, to talk about the official response and attempts to obfuscate the casualties.

On Saturday night, there was a stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station as massive crowds gathered on the platforms to board trains going towards Prayagaraj, where the Maha Kumbh Mela is ongoing. At least 18 people were killed in the chaos. This tragic event took place two weeks after there was a stampede at the Kumbh itself, where at least 30 people died.

The Wire’s Jahnavi Sen is joined by Jomy Thomas, bureau chief at Malayala Manorama, and Seema Chishti, editor of The Wire, to talk about the official response and attempts to obfuscate the casualties. They also discuss the Vikatan website becoming inaccessible after Bharatiya Janata Party members criticised a cartoon depicting Modi, the way Indians are being deported from the US, the Ranveer Allahbadia controversy and the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar as the chief election commissioner despite Rahul Gandhi’s dissent note on the process.

In New India, Mourning the Dead Is a Crime Against the Living

Even as people die in preventable tragedies, the government wants us to focus on the ‘positive’ – that so many people are alive.

At least 18 people were killed in a stampede at a railway station in the country’s capital due to government negligence.

But we Indians seem to have forgotten how to write prose. As British historian Ralph Fox once said, prose is the art of calling things by their true names. Humanity invented language to reveal the truth, but over time, it has been used as a veil to obscure it. In India, for the past decade, language has been wielded not to tell the truth but to hide it.

Rumours are branded as truth and truth is defamed as rumour. For instance, the spokesperson of the Indian railways initially dismissed the stampede as a rumour and the country’s largest news agency broadcast this falsehood. But they were not alone in this deception. A shopkeeper claimed that all arrangements were perfect, the platform was empty and the stampede occurred only because people began pushing each other. It seems that we no longer wish to confront unpleasant truths.

The government attempted to explain the tragedy by attributing it to a “sudden rush”. But no one questioned whether this crowd had truly gathered out of nowhere. Was this not a disaster waiting to happen? Was it so difficult to foresee, given the unusual surge in ticket sales, that the platforms would be crowded beyond capacity? Why were general-class tickets issued without regard for the platform’s limits? Why was the correlation between the number of trains and ticket sales ignored? Why could the government, which digs up roads and hammers nails into them to block farmers from entering Delhi, not prevent a crowd from gathering on a railway platform?

On the day of the stampede, my colleague was on his way to attend a seminar in Varanasi. When he reached New Delhi station via the metro, he encountered a massive crowd. The metro’s exit doors relented under pressure. People shouted, “Ganga Maiya ki Jai” and began pushing each other in a frenzy. Terrified, my friend canceled his trip and returned home. If an ordinary citizen could sense disaster, why did the police and other agencies fail to anticipate it?

This crowd did not gather spontaneously. For months, the prime minister, several chief ministers and various governments have been urging Hindus to attend the Kumbh Mela. Large posters and hoardings inviting people to the Kumbh have adorned the walls of government buildings. Volunteers have been encouraging Hindus not to miss this “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to earn spiritual merit. Prominent figures have been posting pictures of themselves bathing in the “holy” waters of the Ganga, reinforcing the idea that one’s “Hinduness” is proven by attending the Kumbh. Reports of roads leading to Allahabad being choked for days should have alerted authorities to the unprecedented traffic. Why were no arrangements made to manage it?

After attempts to dismiss the tragedy failed, its severity was downplayed as “some chaos” that was “under control.” The railway minister also attempted to obscure the truth with misleading statements. Eventually, they admitted to the stampede and the resulting deaths. But now the blame is being shifted to the public’s impatience: How could it possibly handle such an “unruly crowd”?

A lesson ignored

This is not the first time such negligence has occurred. Five years ago, during the initial days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the prime minister abruptly announced a lockdown without preparing for its consequences. Factories closed, construction halted and eateries shut down. Daily wage workers and labourers suddenly lost their livelihoods. The government made no provisions to sustain them during this period. What were they expected to do?

The morning after the announcement, workers from Delhi and other metros began walking back to their villages. At the time, the government claimed it was not responsible for transporting them. The workers were labeled “irresponsible” and accused of potentially spreading the virus. A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP even said, “Why are migrants leaving Delhi? For want of money or food? No. Just irresponsible. There is no money or jobs waiting for them back home. It’s to utilise their forced ‘chutti’ to catch up with their families or errands back home. The gravity of the situation hasn’t dawned on them.”

While lakhs of people walked thousands of kms, the government remained a silent spectator.

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court urging the government to provide relief to the workers. The government lied under oath, claiming no workers were on the roads. While the nation watched thousands of workers trudging home on television, the court saw only what the government wanted it to see.

The government displayed similar incompetence during demonetisation. Images of endless queues outside banks were met with mockery from government supporters, who asked why people couldn’t endure a few hours in line when soldiers stand guard on borders for weeks.

Before the Delhi railway stampede, there was a stampede at the Kumbh Mela. The exact death toll remains unknown, just as the true number of Covid-19 deaths. The government and its supporters grow uneasy at the mention of death, accusing critics of spreading negativity. They insist we focus on the “positive” – that so many people are still alive. Those who have survived this government’s policies and politics should be grateful – not to their stars but to the government.

Whatever the government says, it is disheartening to see society accept this as its fate. One must say that this is predominantly a Hindu society. Has a significant population of Hindus convinced themselves that after centuries, “Hindu Raj” has returned to India? Are we to ignore trivial matters like human lives in pursuit of a grander objective – the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra? Hindus seem to have surrendered their rights as citizens, reducing themselves to subjects at the mercy of their rulers.

Perhaps we should prepare for a new law: mourning the dead will be deemed a crime against the living.

Supreme Court Stays Lokpal Order Saying High Court Judges Are Under its Ambit

The Lokpal, headed by former Supreme Court Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, in two separate orders dated January 2025 had held that it can investigate corruption allegations against judges of the high courts.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court in a suo motu proceeding has stayed the Lokpal order which held that it can entertain complaints against high court judges under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013.

The Lokpal, headed by former Supreme Court Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, in two separate orders dated January 2025 had held that it can investigate corruption allegations against judges of the high courts.

In an order dated January 8, a full bench of the Lokpal headed by Justice Kanwilkar while dismissing a complaint against former Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud held that judges of the Supreme Court cannot be brought under the jurisdiction of the Lokpal as the apex court was not constituted under an Act of parliament but under Article 134 of the constitution.

As reported by The Wire, the Lokpal in the same order also held that judges of other courts, including the high courts, are under the ambit of the anti-corruption watchdog.

In a separate order dated January 27, the Lokpal while dealing with a complaint against a high court judge, without entering into the merits of the complaint, ruled:

“We make it amply clear that by this order we have decided a singular issue finally – as to whether the Judges of the High Court established by an Act of Parliament come within the ambit of Section 14 of the Act of 2013, in the affirmative. No more and no less. In that, we have not looked into or examined the merits of the allegations at all.”

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices B.R. Gavai, Surya Kant and A.S. Oka took cognisance of the Lokpal’s orders on Wednesday (January 19) and heard the matter on Thursday (February 20).

This report, first published at 11 pm on February 19, was updated with the news of the order a day later, at 11 am on February 20. 

Manipur Governor to Operate From Secretariat Thrice a Week: Report

The announcement has raised quite a few eyebrows because under the established practice, Governors operate from the Raj Bhawan.

New Delhi: Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla has decided to operate from the state secretariat in Imphal thrice a week, with the announcement raising quite a few eyebrows because under the established practice, Governors operate from the Raj Bhawan.

“Office of the minister of education will be used by the governor. Another ministerial office will be used by his advisers. Several offices in the old and new secretariat are closed,” said a senior government official, reported The Economic Times.

Manipur is presently under President’s Rule since the resignation of Chief Minister N. Biren Singh.

Bhalla, who is a former Union Home Secretary, was appointed as the new Manipur governor in December last year.

The ethnic conflict in Manipur between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities, which began in May 2023, has led to the displacement of hundreds of families, the destruction of homes, and a growing humanitarian crisis. Reports of targeted killings, arson, and sporadic gunfire became more frequent, further deepening the communal divide.

At least 258 deaths have also been reported across Manipur since the conflict began. The protracted violence has also led to widespread economic disruptions, with blockades and transport restrictions affecting the supply of essential goods, worsening the humanitarian impact.

Freebie Charge Is an Assault on Social Welfare and Rights of Citizens

The word ‘freebies’ reflects the class privilege of those using the term, including members of the judiciary, industrialists, business executives, journalists or people occupying high positions who deride social welfare schemes even as they themselves receive all kinds of benefits.

During a hearing on civil writ petitions pertaining to provision of adequate shelter facilities to homeless persons in urban areas, Supreme Court Justice B.R. Gavai chose to criticise the practice of freebies for harming the national work ethic.

He reportedly said: “Unfortunately, because of these freebies, which come on the anvil of the elections…some Ladki Bahin and some other scheme, people are not willing to work…Because of the freebies in Maharashtra, which were just announced prior to the elections, the agriculturalists are not getting labourers. When everybody is getting free rations at home, why would they want to work?”

Justice Gavai described homeless people as “parasites” and their demands for decent shelters, rations, and health as freebies on the assumption that they are unwilling to work. He cites no evidence for this claim. Nor does he seek to find whether the jobs being offered provide decent wages and even then people prefer not to work. His criticism also does not cite any evidence to show that cash transfers prevent people from working since they can just sit at home, do nothing and collect their freebie. These comments are based on anecdotal and personal experience. Contrary to this, economists have found no systematic evidence that cash transfer programmes reduce the propensity to work or the overall number of hours worked for by either men or women.

To think that a monthly cash transfer of Rs. 2000-3000 is enough to make the poor lazy defies logic and reason. He also singled out the policy of free rations as a reason for labourers not going to work. But the free ration given to an individual is just 5 kgs for the entire month and that too primarily cereals. This is less than the average individual cereal consumption in India estimated to be 9 kg a month. If labourers are indeed not going to work, this is not because of free rations, they are just not getting decent wages for agricultural work. The latest Economic Survey points to stagnating or decreased rural wages.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has found that there is a stark lack of decent employment opportunities in India. Cash transfers have been offered because severe unemployment afflicts the capitalist world, including India. Employment generation is a big concern of the Indian economy. It is not that people don’t want to work, if that was the case, lakhs of people wouldn’t be queuing up to apply for the small number of public sector jobs advertised now and then by the government. For example, for a total of about 1.4 lakh vacancies for various categories of staff in Indian Railways, more than 2.40 crore candidates had applied in 2020. Railways screened 22.5 lakh applicants to recruit 18,799 assistant loco pilots in 2024. Air India recruitment drive for airport loaders led to a stampede-like situation as a massive crowd of job seekers thronged the Mumbai airport in July 2024.

Similarly, huge numbers of workers are registered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGS). As of October 2023, approximately 13.2 crore active workers were registered under this scheme, while the total number of registered workers is much higher. This shows that people are not reluctant about seeking productive labour or agricultural jobs when they become available. Yet, the budget for MGNREGS has not been increased, leading to pending wages and suppression of work. This scheme was allocated Rs 86,000 crore in the 2025-26 Union Budget. This is the same amount as the 2024-25 budget allocation.

Many of the so-called freebies are a constitutional requirement for social and economic justice in a country that is ranked among the most unequal countries in the world. The World Inequality Database shows that economic inequality in India was higher than the colonial period, and termed it as a Billionaire Raj. However, the ruling party has repeatedly dismissed the concerns of growing economic disparity by giving a corrosively communal colour to wealth redistribution as witnessed in during the toxic election campaign for the Lok Sabha elections last year. India has not even been able to ensure that all its people receive basic food and nutrition, healthcare, housing, educational access, etc. In most other countries, universal access to reasonable quality goods and services that constitute basic needs is seen as the responsibility of the state, these are not viewed as freebies. We need to ensure basic needs for all citizens by shifting to a system of constitutionally guaranteed economic rights which can be financed by wealth and inheritance taxes.

More importantly, if the political process compels parties to respond to basic needs, this must be welcomed, especially in the case of women related schemes. Political parties may manipulate a right as a benefit for electoral considerations. But to accuse women of not being willing to work because of modest cash transfers or welfare schemes is doing injustice to women’s work. It is also factually incorrect as a large majority of women are already working, doing unpaid work in the domestic sphere and also often unpaid work in family enterprises, including in agricultural operations. According to a State Bank of India (SBI) survey of 2023-24, if the extent of women’s unpaid work is monetised, it would amount to a mammoth 22 lakh crore rupees a year, which would be around seven per cent of the GDP that year. Thus it is not that women are not working, but that they are working without any remuneration.

The word freebies reflects the class privilege of those using the term, including members of the judiciary, industrialists, business executives, journalists or people occupying high positions who deride social welfare schemes as freebies even as they themselves receive all kinds of benefits.

The government recently announced a slew of extra retirement benefits for Chief Justices of India and Supreme Court judges (not to be confused with freebies). Similarly, tax cuts given to the corporate sector are not to be confused with freebies. Even as many welfare schemes are seen as wasteful, there is predictable silence over the billions of rupees worth of bad loans, owed to the public sector banks, being written off the banks’ balance sheets.

There can’t be a better example of freebies than the write-offs of non-performing assets (NPAs) of large corporate loans in the last few years paid for by Indian taxpayers.

The main reason for cash transfer is simply this: the Indian economy under the current regime is not generating enough jobs. It is attempting to acquire political power without producing large employment opportunities, thus having to offer cash transfers to the people. But these transfers are inadequate compensation for the scarcity of employment and minimum wages. If transfers are to be stopped then the government must provide decent jobs to people in lieu of transfers. The failure to do so has made a vast majority of Indians pessimistic about joblessness in the country, according to the Mood of the Nation Survey of February 2025 conducted by India Today and C-Voter. Most of those surveyed felt that the unemployment situation in the country was very serious or somewhat serious. In this dismal situation, the aforesaid remarks by the highest court on social welfare schemes, constitute a political and ideological assault on the rights of the working people and the welfare state envisioned in the Constitution.

Zoya Hasan is Professor Emerita, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Indrajit Gupta, India’s Longest-Serving MP and First Communist Home Minister

Gupta earned the moniker ‘father of the house’, both for the length of his tenure and for his ability to broker resolutions.

This article is part of a series by The Wire titled ‘The Early Parliamentarians’, exploring the lives and work of post-independence MPs who have largely been forgotten. The series looks at the institutions they helped create, the enduring ideas they left behind and the contributions they made to nation building.

A long 37 years in parliament earned Indrajit Gupta the moniker “father of the house”. February 20 marks the 24th death anniversary of communist leader and veteran parliamentarian. He was elected to the Lok Sabha 11 times, making him independent India’s longest serving parliamentarian.

Gupta received the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 1992 and was the first communist home minister of India. But in many ways he was surprisingly shy – as a young man, he was in love with a woman named Suraiya but could not quite get himself to propose. He finally married Suraiya when he was 62; he had to wait 40 years until her first marriage with photographer Ahmed Ali (father of socialite Nafisa Ali) was legally dissolved.

As an opposition stalwart and the leader of the Communist Party of India, Gupta’s speeches in the Lok Sabha were marked by force, with moderation and criticism within reason, which earned him the admiration of even his political opponents.

As home minister during the United Front Government (1996-98), he was blunt about the government’s failures and raised many eyebrows among the treasury benches with his frank observations. When he was home minister and the BJP was the main opposition party, his favourite sentence when meeting the more vocal opposition members after a stormy day was, “If I were in the opposition I wouldn’t have done what you did.” His stature as the oldest member raised him to the position of pro-tem speaker in 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999.

It is noteworthy that Gupta became the first communist to hold the powerful post of Union home minister in 1996. This was a dramatic reversal of roles, as the home ministry had banned the Communist Party thrice since independence, leading to many of its members, including Gupta, being jailed or forced underground for long periods.

According to CPI(M) veteran parliamentarian late Rupchand Pal:

“Whenever the House was in disorder of some sort, whatever the dimension of the disorder, every section of the House looked to “the Father” sitting in the corner of the front bench facing the Chair… Ultimately, the baritone voice in quality English “the Father” spoke out. And the House found a solution. The House was again in order, following a brief discussion in the Hon’ble Speaker’s Chamber and, of course, in the presence of the ‘Father’. It was a long innings spanning decades for “the Father” in Parliament, starting from 1960 and continuing till his death.”

Born on March 18, 1919 to a family of distinguished civil servants, Gupta chose to serve the nation rather than opt for the civil services as a career. After his schooling in Shimla, he graduated from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, in 1937 and then left for a higher education in England where he joined the King’s College and Cambridge University. Attracted to the communist movement during his student days in Britain, he returned to India in October 1940 after obtaining a degree in economics.

The Early Parliamentarians logo

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty

Gupta was a member of the enlightened Brahmo Samaj and related to B.C. Roy, one of West Bengal’s most charismatic chief ministers. So, on returning to India and becoming a trade union leader in Bengal’s jute mills, he had to undergo a “declassification”.

As a committed activist of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Gupta went underground for one and a half years in 1948-50 and suffered imprisonment in 1953 and 1959 and then again in 1969. But these hardships did not deter him in any way; on the contrary, he remained devoted to the party, involving himself with the grassroots workers and the trade union movement. In the years that followed, he represented and articulated the voice of the Communist Party in the parliament.

According to his old buddy and former chief minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu:

“Indrajit Gupta was a few years younger than me. I met him in England after 1936 when he was a student in Cambridge. Those were stirring times with reaction and fascism on the march. The political ferment attracted particularly the student community, including the Indians in a big way. We organised the Indian Student’s Federation and Majlis’s in London, Cambridge and Oxford and participated in political debates and propagated the cause of freedom for India and helped Shri Krishna Menon’s India League in its propaganda work. Some of us, including Indrajit Gupta and myself, joined the Communist Party as whole-timers in 1940. I remember how to avoid arrest we stayed together in the underground dens for quite some time. After the split in the party Indrajit remained in the CPI and I joined the CPI(M). Both of us were working in the Trade Union Movement. Like a true communist he engaged himself in parliamentary and extra parliamentary activities. Even when the party split, we did not put up a candidate against him and helped him to win.”

In 1964, when the party split over the China issue, Gupta was among the 35 members of the National Council who swore allegiance to the parent organisation led by S.A. Dange. In fact, he drafted the main resolution of the Dange loyalists. He hated Dange’s pro-Congress policy, especially after the Emergency, but never challenged it outside the party forum.

Gupta was elected to the Lok Sabha in a by-election from West Bengal in 1960 and remained a member until his death except for the period 1977-1979. The CPI was defeated in the 1977 general election for supporting Indira Gandhi’s emergency rule.

In 1968, Gupta was elected the secretary of the National Council of the CPI. He was then elected deputy general secretary of the party in 1988. Finally, he was made general secretary of the CPI in 1990. He held the office for six years until 1996.

An active trade unionist, he had earlier been general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress. He was vice-president of the World Federation of Trade Unions and was elected its president in 1998. Though born in a well-to-do family, with a number of family members having served as civil servants both before and after freedom, Gupta found himself drawn towards fighting for the downtrodden and exploited masses. He chose to identify himself with the working class.

The issues that affected the lives of ordinary citizens always found an echo in Gupta’s speeches, both in parliament and outside. He spoke passionately for workers’ rights, minimum wages, trade union rights, etc. He repeatedly brought up the plight of jute mill workers, tobacco plantation workers and agricultural labourers in the Lok Sabha. The rise in prices of essential commodities too was a recurring theme for him. The drought situation, food scarcity, ineffectiveness of the public distribution system, the crisis in the educational system, infrastructural inadequacy in the health sector, the difficulties faced by paramilitary forces, etc. were subjects close to his heart.

Gupta was a vocal champion of the cause of gender equality and was at the forefront to demand action to have specific and concrete schemes and legislative and administrative measures for the empowerment of women. He spoke with passion and sensitivity when issues concerning women came up before parliament. When the Lok Sabha was considering a resolution on measures to put an end to economic and social injustice to women, he advocated the reservation of 15% seats for women in Parliament, as far back as in 1975. At the same time, he had also consistently called for a struggle against the centuries’ old irrational prejudices which belonged to an obsolete, feudal society and stressed on a campaign for removing adult illiteracy among women, mainly in the rural areas. In his 37 years as a Lok Sabha member, he stood for principles and deep commitment to values.

Gupta had to his credit two publications, ‘Capital and Labour in the Jute Industry’ and ‘For self-reliance in national defence’. His grassroots experience, incisive intellect and brilliant oratory skills helped him reach out to all sections of people, who found him accessible despite his high standing in public life. In fact, even as the Union home minister, he preferred to live in his two-room flat in the Western Court in New Delhi rather than shift to a spacious bungalow that was his legitimate due.

Gupta died of cancer in Kolkata on February 20, 2001 at the age of 82. Even after his death, leaders from across party lines paid tribute and remembered him fondly.

On his death, then President K.R. Narayanan paid homage to this outstanding parliamentarian by saying:

“A brilliant and veteran parliamentarian and a true leader of the people, Shri Indrajit Gupta remained at the vanguard of the Communist movement in our country and fought for the rights and freedoms of the people, especially the underprivileged, till the very end of his life. He enriched parliamentary proceedings and debates with his passionate espousal of public cause, his eloquent oratory and subtle and penetrating wit. In his long and eventful public life, marked by disarming Gandhian simplicity, democratic outlook and deep commitment to values, uncompromising integrity and honesty, Shri Gupta earned the affection and respect of all people who came into contact with him, cutting across the political parties and ideologies.”

According to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Gupta was a “towering personality” whose “life was like an open book”.

On December 5, 2006, a statue of Gupta was unveiled in the Parliament House by then Vice-President of India Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

Qurban Ali is a trilingual journalist who has covered some of modern India’s major political, social and economic developments. He has a keen interest in India’s freedom struggle and is now documenting the history of the socialist movement in the country.

Rekha Gupta Chosen to Lead Delhi Government, Becoming the Only Woman Among BJP’s 14 CMs

The Modi government will likely look to amplify her appointment as its signal to women, who are generally being seen as an emerging voter constituency.

New Delhi: After 11 days of suspense, the BJP on Wednesday (February 19) announced first-time MLA Rekha Gupta as its pick to steer the Delhi government.

The 50-year old legislator upstaged her senior colleagues and prominent names in the BJP’s Delhi unit such as Parvesh Verma, Ashish Sood, Virendra Sachdeva, Vijender Gupta and Satish Upadhyay.

After the BJP’s Sushma Swaraj, the Congress’s Sheila Dikshit and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Atishi, Gupta will be Delhi’s fourth woman chief minister.

Late on Wednesday Gupta called on Delhi’s lieutenant governor V.K. Saxena and staked claim to form the government. Saxena accepted her claim and invited her to form the government.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), with which Gupta has been associated since the beginning of her political career, is said to have impacted the BJP’s choice for chief minister.

Gupta had contested from north-west Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh constituency unsuccessfully in 2015 and 2020. However, she defeated her AAP rival Bandana Kumari by over 29,500 votes in the election held on February 5. More recently, she was defeated by the AAP’s Shelly Oberoi in the 2023 Delhi mayoral elections.

Her appointment makes her the only woman among the BJP’s 14 chief ministers across India. The Modi government would likely look to amplify her appointment as its signal to women, who are generally being seen as an emerging voter constituency.

Additionally, her appointment is in line with the Modi government’s unstated policy of rewarding ground-level workers in top posts despite their negligible legislative and administrative experiences, as was seen in states like Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha recently.

In a statement on X, Gupta pledged to “work with full honesty, integrity and dedication for the welfare, empowerment and overall development of every citizen of Delhi”.

“I am fully committed to this important opportunity to take Delhi to new heights,” she added in her post made in Hindi.

The BJP’s Delhi legislature party met on Wednesday evening to choose a chief minister a full 11 days after the saffron party defeated the AAP in the assembly election, having won 48 seats in a house of 70. This was the saffron party’s first win in Delhi in 26 years.

Earlier in the day, the BJP appointed Patna Sahib MP Ravi Shankar Prasad and former Union minister O.P. Dhankar as observers for the legislature party meeting.

The saffron party previously had a government in Delhi only for a single term between 1993 and 1998, when assembly elections in the half-state first took place. That term saw the BJP change its chief minister thrice, with Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma and finally Sushma Swaraj assuming the post.

Gupta’s challenge will be to first implement the multiple welfare promises that the BJP had made during the campaign. Some of its prominent promises include a monthly allowance of Rs 2,500 to poor women, implementing the Ayushman Bharat medical insurance scheme in Delhi, ramping up road and other infrastructure, cleaning the river Yamuna and controlling the hazardous levels of air pollution in the state.

After staking claim to form the government, Gupta said that all the promises made by the BJP in the election campaign will be fulfilled in a “time bound manner”.

“There is only one priority: the commitments we have made to Delhi, the dream Prime Minister Modi has for Delhi, fulfilling it is my first and foremost priority,” she said to PTI.

After start in ABVP, Gupta worked her way up BJP rank and file

Gupta, who is currently serving as one of the unit secretaries and vice president of the party’s women’s wing, was born in 1974 in Jind, Haryana to a family belonging to the Bania community, which has been the mainstay of the BJP in Delhi for many decades.

Her father was a State Bank of India employee who moved to Delhi when she was only two years old.

She joined the RSS’s student’s wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, as a Delhi University student.

Rekha Gupta (left) as a Delhi University student leader. Photo: X/@LambaAlka.

Following her electoral success as secretary of the Daulat Ram College’s student union, she was also elected as president of the Delhi University Students’ Union in 1995.

Gupta also acquired a law degree from Delhi University and worked her way up the BJP rank and file.

Her foray into mainstream electoral politics began in 2007 when she first became a municipal councillor in North Pitampura. Meanwhile, she also served in the Delhi BJP’s women’s wing as general secretary, following which she was brought into the party’s national women’s wing.

She served as mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation when re-elected as a municipal councillor in 2012, before it and two other corporations in the city were unified as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

In 2015, when she first contested the Delhi assembly polls, the AAP’s Bandana Kumari defeated her by nearly 11,000 votes. Then in 2020, the margin of her defeat to Kumari came down to around 3,400 votes.

How Fact-Checkers and Internet Sleuths Proved USAID’s Long History With Modi Government

AltNews cofounder Mohammed Zubair and one Aditya Ojha have dug up a series of public posts and releases by those in the Narendra Modi government, and its agencies and bodies, that go on to show that it worked pretty closely with USAID.

New Delhi: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has raised questions over “foreign influence” and “deep state” ever since the newly constituted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the US, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, announced that the US would cancel the allocation of $21 million to improve voter turnout in India.

Because DOGE did not mention in its post on X which Indian body used to receive the funds, BJP’s ‘IT cell’ chief Amit Malviya and former minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar were among those who claimed that the money paved the way for the US to tamper with India’s electoral process.

BJP commentators drew attention to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in 2012 between the Election Commission and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, which was a partner of the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening to point fingers at Congress, which was in power at the Union government till 2014.

Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister Sanjeev Sanyal said, “Would love to find out who received the US$21mn spent to improve ‘voter turnout in India'”, adding that “USAID is the biggest scam in human history.”

USAID or the United States Agency for International Development was set up by John F. Kennedy as an independent agency of the US government to administer civilian foreign aid and development assistance globally.

However, fact-checkers like Mohammed Zubair (co-founder of AltNews) and one Aditya Ojha who posts on X under the handle @thispodcastguy have dug up a series of public posts by those in the Narendra Modi government, and its agencies and bodies, that go on to show that it worked pretty closely with USAID.

Zubair posted a tweet by the national broadcaster All India Radio, announcing a new partnership under the SAMRIDH initiative between USAID and NITI Aayog, the thinktank established by the Modi government. “It will improve access to affordable and quality healthcare for vulnerable populations in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and rural and tribal regions,” the AIR tweet said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the chairman of the NITI Aayog.

NITI Aayog head Amitabh Kant was quoted as having said that this model of “blended financing” has the potential to redefine development finance.

“Deep State Sir…. oh wait…,” wrote Zubair, referring to yet another 2022 tweet, this time by now Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Fadnavis said he was part of talks on collaborations “between USAID and MASHAV (Israeli Development Agency) in the development areas of agriculture, water, waste-water management in the state of Maharashtra.”

Zubair also pointed to a Reliance Foundation announcement of a joint effort with USAID to bridge the digital divide. “Over 3 lakh women and girls across 17 states in India are benefiting with support of 10 implementing partners of this initiative,” the Reliance Foundation said in its 2022 tweet.

One of Zubair’s most shared posts on the topic has been the screenshot of former BJP minister Smriti Irani speaking of the fact that she was the USAID ambassador in 2011.

Meanwhile, Aditya Ojha pointed out that Irani was a bit of a regular at USAID events even now and as recently as January 21.


Ojha pointed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own 2021 speech on his “dream” of seeing a tuberculosis-free India by 2025 (a deadline India will miss). As Ojha highlighted, the official release of the event noted that “representatives of Development Partners like BMGF and USAID were also present at the event.”

Ojha also unearthed a tweet by ANI from 2014, when Modi visited then US president Barack Obama in US and the USAID chief was one of the special invitees.

Ojha also dug up an official government press release from June 2023 recording an MoU signed between India and USAID. The meeting was chaired by Modi. The government portal says:

“The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today was apprised of signing of Memorandum of Understanding between India and United States for International Development/India (USAID/India) on June 14, 2023 for supporting Indian Railways to achieve Mission Net Zero Carbon Emission by 2030.”

It also notes: “Earlier, USAID/India had also worked with IR focused on deployment of rooftop solar across railway platforms.”

Ojha, who said he had “hundreds” of posts bookmarked also posted how the external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s son Dhruv recorded USAID assistance among steps announced by US government to assist India on COVID-19.

A video clip shared by journalist Umashankar Singh, of a former White House press secretary announcing USAID dispatches to India during COVID “at the request of the government of India” has been shared multiple times. The flights sent to India included oxygen, N-95 masks and tests. “These are all components that the Indian government has expressed a vital need for,” she is heard saying.

The assistance USAID provided India was more than $100 million, she says.

Punjab Man Meant to Be on Deportation Flight ‘Hospitalised’, Family Has No Official Word

Navdeep Singh’s family have spent Rs 50 lakhs over two failed ‘dunki’ attempts.

Jalandhar: Navdeep Singh was to return on a US military flight on February 15. His family from the Chak Ghubaya Taranwala village of Ferozepur district in Punjab arrived at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport well ahead of time.

This was the second deportation aircraft that reached India from the US. In it, undocumented Indians were shackled over the course of an over 60-hour journey. A total of 332 Indians have been deported in three US military flights.

But Navdeep was not on the plane. His family was worried.

“We have no idea about our son’s return, as there is no information about further US deportation flights yet. There is nobody whom we can approach for clarity,” said Navdeep’s father Kashmir Singh. Kashmir has heard from two other deported men – Saurav from Ferozepur district and Gursewak from Rajpura in Patiala – that Navdeep was not on the plane because of his ill health. He was suffering from fever, cough and dizziness and was taken to a hospital, they told Kashmir. There has been no official word yet.

Navdeep had entered the US on January 27, 2025. This was his second illegal or dunki attempt. He travelled from Malaysia to Guatemala to reach the US. In July 2024, he had attempted to enter the US from Mexico, but by November, he had returned to India after failing.

After promises by his agent, Navdeep made the January attempt but was arrested and taken to the Tijuana camp on the US-Mexico border  and made to wait for deportation.

Navdeep’s father Kashmir, who works as a confectioner in the village, told The Wire that he has sold his one-acre agricultural land and his two buffaloes, and mortgaged his house to send his son to the US. One of his cousins is already there.

The agent told Kashmir that his son will reach the US legally via flights. The exercise will take Rs 42 lakh, he said. Later, the agent asked for Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.

“I had no money to pay further but the agent kept demanding more and I ended up selling everything. I also borrowed some money from my relatives,” Kashmir said.

Also read: The Tortuous Routes Some Indians Are Taking to Get to Foreign Shores

When Navdeep first left for the US in July 2024, Kashmir paid Rs 30 lakh to the agent. When he had to return home in November 2024, the agent sought Rs 15 lakh for Navdeep’s second trip, this time from Malaysia. He also asked for Rs 5 lakh to pay Navdeep’s guarantor in the US.

“When the agent sent my son for a second US dunki, Donald Trump (then the presidential candidate) was repeatedly saying that he will act strictly against illegal immigrants. I told the agent that I do not want to send my son to the US. However, he kept telling me that there was nothing to worry about and that he had also arranged a guarantor to bring my son out of jail in the US. At one point during his dunki, I had to pay around Rs 4,400 every second day for my son’s food as the donkers did not give him anything to eat. I ended up spending Rs 3 lakh more,” he said.

Kashmir said that it would have been better had his son completed his graduation instead of going to the US. “He had just taken admission in BA first year at Guru Nanak College, Ferozepur, when he came across this agent and decided to go to the US. The problem is that there are no jobs and good salaries here. Above all, drug menace was a huge problem in Punjab. We thought that sending him to the US would bring an end to our woes,” Kashmir said.

Navdeep’s paternal uncle Jagir Singh also said that before boarding the US military plane, all the deportees were medically examined. “That is when they took my nephew back for treatment. We do not know when he will come back. Navdeep’s family, particularly his mother, is not in a good condition. She has been crying endlessly for her son. We are waiting for some information about the next deportation flight,” he said.

Also read: Three Things About India that Shackled Indians Returning Home Tell Us

US deportee lodges FIR against farmer union leader for duping him of Rs 45 lakh

Meanwhile, Jaswinder Singh from Pandori Arian village of the Moga district who was deported from the US has lodged an FIR against a Punjab-based farmer union leader for duping him of Rs 45 lakh in the name of sending him to the US via a dunki route. Jaswinder entered the US on January 27, 2025 and reached Amritsar on February 15, 2025.

The farmer union leader, he alleged, promised him a US visa but instead sent him with a Schengen visa to Prague. Jaswinder returned home in the second flight which landed in Amritsar on the night of February 15, 2025.

The FIR has been lodged against BKU Totewal state president Sukhwinder Singh Gill alias Sukh Gill, his mother Pritam Kaur and relatives Talwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh under sections 143, 318 (4), 61 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 24 of The Emigration Act.

Sukhwinder Singh Gill is also a member of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of farmers’ union which led the farmers’ protest against the now-repealed farm laws in 2020 and 2021.

According to the FIR, Sukhwinder was running an immigration agency – Fateh Immigration – at Dharamkot in Moga district. Jaswinder stated that when he consulted Sukhwinder about his plans to move abroad, he advised Jaswinder go legally – on flights. The FIR also mentioned that Sukhwinder even promised a three-year work permit to Jaswinder in the US and demanded Rs 45 lakh for the same.

In November 2024, Gill took Jaswinder, who has studied till Class 10 to an office at a shopping mall in Chandigarh. Sukhwinder allegedly told him that it was the ‘US Embassy Office’ and sought Rs 14,000 in fees for some initial documentation.

As per the FIR, after some days, Sukhwinder told Jaswinder that his US visa had arrived and that his flight was on December 12, 2024. It was only when Jaswinder boarded his flight from Delhi and reached Prague that he got to know that he had a Schengen visa and not a US one.

At Prague, the youth was held captive at a hotel by Sukhwinder’s aides, who demanded more money from him and also made him speak to Sukhwinder through WhatsApp calls. Later, he was asked to transfer Rs 4 lakh to another person’s account, he alleged. Jaswinder also had to make two other transactions of Rs 2 lakh each.

From Prague, the complainant was sent to Spain and from Spain to El Salvador during which he again paid Rs 3.50 lakh. Finally, he was sent through the Panama jungle to enter the US. He was arrested by the US border police.

The Wire tried to contact Sukhwinder Singh Gill but his phone was switched off and as per reports, the farmer union leader was on the run.

Akharas and the Rise of Communalism at Kumbh

The Akhada Parishad initiated a campaign of communal division and animosity by prohibiting Muslims from participating in the mela.

In the poem ‘Amausa Ka Mela’ by Allahabad’s renowned poet Kailash Gautam, the essence of folk society is vividly portrayed through the various images and scenes of the Kumbh Mela. Despite the fact that saints and akharas would participate in the Kumbh earlier too, they were often overlooked by society, which is why it was primarily regarded as a folk festival. However, ever since the Haridwar Kumbh, communalism has increasingly influenced the Prayagraj Kumbh as well.

The Akhada Parishad initiated a campaign of communal division and animosity by prohibiting Muslims from participating in the mela. Furthermore, during a press conference at the fair, Akhara Parishad President Ravindra Puri called for the establishment of a Sanatan Board, asserting that this board would work to reclaim all maths and temples currently under Muslim control.

Shortly after this, Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati of Jyotish Peeth introduced a censure motion during his Dharma Sansad, targeting Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi. He began his remarks with the question, “What is your [Muslim] role in my Kumbh?” He further demanded that Gandhi issue an apology within a month or face excommunication from Hinduism. It is important to highlight that on December 14 last year, Gandhi had addressed the Hathras rape case in the Lok Sabha, saying, “That those who commit rape should roam free, while the family of the victim is imprisoned – is written in your text, in Manusmriti, not in the Constitution.”

Also read: Is 2025 Maha Kumbh Really a ‘Rare’ Event Held After 144 Years?

Previously, communal statements made during the Kumbh Mela rarely attracted media attention. However, this year, Yati Narasimhanand, who was seen alongside chief minister Yogi Adityanath at the event, garnered widespread coverage. 

Narasimhanand serves as the Mahamandaleshwar of Juna Akhara, which boasts a membership of approximately 5,30,000. He recently organized a two-day ‘Dharma-Samvad’ program on January 25-26 within the Akhara, where he made hateful remarks.

Mahant Hari Giri, the chief patron of Juna Akhara, said that the organisation is deeply pained by the ongoing assaults on Sanatan Dharma. He emphasised that Juna Akhara is gearing up for a concerted effort to defend this faith. Senior sants within the Akhara are now mobilising young sanyasis to actively participate in the protection of their religious beliefs, he said.

In a letter addressed to the prime minister, Giri called for the initiation of military operations against Bangladesh and Pakistan, with the objective of establishing a separate nation for Hindus in those regions. He also said that Hindus face threats from the Muslim community and called for each Hindu family to have four or five children.

It is also worth noting that Narasimhanand operates his own ‘Dharam Sena’ in addition to Juna Akhara, where he provides arms training in Ghaziabad. Juna Akhara is mostly a gathering of individuals with criminal backgrounds.

Also read: Chaos at Kumbh Mela: A Tale of Mismanagement and Neglect

Before the commencement of Kumbh in September 2024, Prakash Pandey, a well-known gangster affiliated with the Chhota Rajan gang, was appointed as Mahamandaleshwar of Juna Akhara. Following his expulsion during Kumbh, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Mahesh Giri accused the Akhara’s patron, Hari Giri, of bringing prostitutes and liquor to the Akhara.

On January 27, during a Shanti Seva Camp held in the fair area, several resolutions were adopted at the Dharm Sansad convened by Kathavachak Devkinandan Thakur. These included the establishment of a Sanatan Board, the abolition of the Waqf Board, and a prohibition on interfaith marriages. BJP MP Hema Malini also attended the event.

At the Dharm Sansad, Jagadguru Vidya Bhaskar raised the slogan ‘Sambhal, Mathura, Vishwanath, three will be taken together’ and urged Modi to repeal the Places of Worship Act. Saint Vallabhdas Maharaj from Ayodhya echoed the sentiment with the slogan – ‘Ramlala, we will come, and build temples everywhere.’ 

‘We are going to suffer no more. We will reclaim what is ours. Where is the land of Hindus who migrated from Pakistan? If there is no Hindu Board in Pakistan and Bangladesh, why does a Waqf Board exist in India?’ Devkinandan Thakur proclaimed.

Recently, Adityanath characterised Sanatan Dharma as a banyan tree, and Islam as a bush, in his remarks at the Kumbh on January 25.

Sushil Manav is a freelance journalist. Translated from the Hindi original – which appeared on The Wire Hindi – by Naushin Rehman.