NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi, chief of India’s ruling Congress party, and Premier Manmohan Singh will speak at a massive rally today to whip up support for the scandal-tainted government ahead of 2014 elections.
Italian-born Gandhi, India’s political grand matriarch who led Congress to back-to-back wins in 2004 and 2009, is moving into high gear as she seeks to persuade voters to elect the party for a third straight term, analysts say.
At the rally in the Indian capital, leaders will defend the government’s blitz of controversial reforms to allow wider foreign investment in the retail, insurance and aviation sectors aimed at spurring a sharply slowing economy.
“We want to tell people that these are people-friendly measures — these are for the betterment of the common man,” a senior Congress party official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
The left-leaning government is deeply wary of a voter backlash in the elections due within 18 months over the reforms that have drawn strong political opposition in the still heavily poor country of 1.2 billion people.
Also due to speak along with Gandhi and Singh at the rally in the capital New Delhi will be Sonia’s 42-year-old son Rahul Gandhi, expected to be the party’s candidate for prime minister in the polls, the party official said.
“All three of them are scheduled to give speeches,” he said.
The rally is being staged a week after 80-year-old Singh overhauled his Cabinet to give it a more youthful face with the inclusion of younger ministers to appeal to the country’s vast youth population.
Congress is struggling to restore its credibility as a force fit to govern in the face of a drumroll of corruption charges that have put it on the defensive almost since the last elections in 2009.
The Congress party official said the party is hoping Sunday’s rally would be attended by over 100,000 people.
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India’s Congress to stage massive rally
India’s Congress to stage massive rally
South Sudan orders UN personnel, civilians to leave parts of Jonglei State
JUBA: South Sudan’s military has ordered all civilians and personnel from the UN mission and all other charities to evacuate three counties in Jonglei State ahead of an operation there against opposition forces.
Clashes that the United Nations says are occurring at a scale not seen since 2017 have been convulsing South Sudan, Africa’s youngest country, for months. Some of the fiercest fighting has taken place in Jonglei, located in the country’s east on the border with Ethiopia, where the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) is seeking to halt an offensive by fighters loyal to Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO). An operation code-named “operation enduring peace” was “imminent,” the SSPDF said in a statement on Sunday. The military said all civilians living in Nyirol, Uror and Akobo counties in Jonglei were “directed to immediately evacuate for safety to government-controlled areas as soon as possible.” All personnel from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and those working for non-governmental organizations were also ordered to evacuate the three counties within 48 hours. “Our peacekeepers in Akobo remain in place, carrying out all efforts under our mandate to help de-escalate tensions and prevent conflict,” a UNMISS spokesperson told Reuters. She did not say whether UN staff also remained in the other counties. Last week SPLA-IO called on its forces to march on South Sudan’s capital Juba, signalling a major escalation. Earlier this month SPLA-IO forces seized the town of Pajut in heavy fighting in the north of Jonglei and the town’s capture was seen as putting the state capital of Bor at risk.
In a statement on Sunday UNMISS said 180,000 people in the state had already been displaced by the conflict and urged South Sudan’s leaders “to put the interests of their people first by stopping the fighting.”
Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said in a statement on Sunday it had evacuated key staff from Akobo county after “clear instruction from the relevant authorities, and in response to the deteriorating security situation in the area.”
SPLA-IO forces led by South Sudan’s vice president Riek Machar battled the military in the 2013-18 civil war, which was fought along largely ethnic lines and killed about 400,000 people.
A peace deal in 2018 quieted the conflict, although localized clashes have persisted.
Clashes that the United Nations says are occurring at a scale not seen since 2017 have been convulsing South Sudan, Africa’s youngest country, for months. Some of the fiercest fighting has taken place in Jonglei, located in the country’s east on the border with Ethiopia, where the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) is seeking to halt an offensive by fighters loyal to Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO). An operation code-named “operation enduring peace” was “imminent,” the SSPDF said in a statement on Sunday. The military said all civilians living in Nyirol, Uror and Akobo counties in Jonglei were “directed to immediately evacuate for safety to government-controlled areas as soon as possible.” All personnel from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and those working for non-governmental organizations were also ordered to evacuate the three counties within 48 hours. “Our peacekeepers in Akobo remain in place, carrying out all efforts under our mandate to help de-escalate tensions and prevent conflict,” a UNMISS spokesperson told Reuters. She did not say whether UN staff also remained in the other counties. Last week SPLA-IO called on its forces to march on South Sudan’s capital Juba, signalling a major escalation. Earlier this month SPLA-IO forces seized the town of Pajut in heavy fighting in the north of Jonglei and the town’s capture was seen as putting the state capital of Bor at risk.
In a statement on Sunday UNMISS said 180,000 people in the state had already been displaced by the conflict and urged South Sudan’s leaders “to put the interests of their people first by stopping the fighting.”
Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said in a statement on Sunday it had evacuated key staff from Akobo county after “clear instruction from the relevant authorities, and in response to the deteriorating security situation in the area.”
SPLA-IO forces led by South Sudan’s vice president Riek Machar battled the military in the 2013-18 civil war, which was fought along largely ethnic lines and killed about 400,000 people.
A peace deal in 2018 quieted the conflict, although localized clashes have persisted.
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