Australian PM Anthony Albanese visits Sabarmati Ashram, pays tributes to Mahatma Gandhi
The Australian Prime Minister who is on an official visit to India from March 8-11, was welcomed by the Gujarat Chief Minister Patel.
Opposition presidential candidate Meira Kumar on Tuesday said she would launch her campaign from Sabarmati Ashram and her plank would be democratic values, inclusiveness, social justice and destruction of caste structure.
Ruing that the Presidential poll is being seen as a “Dalit versus Dalit” fight, the former Lok Sabha Speaker and daughter of iconic Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram, strongly felt that the caste system should be “buried deep down” in the earth.
Asked about alleged attacks on Dalits in the recent past, she said, “It is quite shameful.”
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Kumar, who was the first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha and a former Foreign Service officer and Minister in the UPA Government, is contesting against BJP’s nominee Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election next month. She said she has not decided whether or not to appeal to JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar to support her nomination.
“All MPs appreciated my style of functioning when I was Lok Sabha speaker… none alleged I was biased,” she said attempting to play down the video posted by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj of her Lok Sabha speech in 2013 in which Kumar is seemingly not extending “protection” against disruptions in the House.
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