oppn parties Rahul Gandhi Has A 30-Second Cure for Traders in Delhi

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  • India win Under-19 Asia Cup after dramatic last-ball victory over Pakistan. India defeated Pakistan by one wicket in the final at Al Amerat, chasing 338 after being reduced to 252 for eight. Mohit Ulva remained unbeaten on 49 off 26 balls and struck the winning boundary on the final ball. Lakshya Raichandani scored 80 and Aaryavir Sehwag made 58. It was India's record-extending ninth title in the tournament
  • India win Under-19 Asia Cup after dramatic last-ball victory over Pakistan. India defeated Pakistan by one wicket in the final at Al Amerat, chasing 338 after being reduced to 252 for eight. Mohit Ulva remained unbeaten on 49 off 26 balls and struck the winning boundary on the final ball. Lakshya Raichandani scored 80 and Aaryavir Sehwag made 58. It was India's record-extending ninth title in the tournament
  • Rahul Gandhi alleges that Prime Minister Modi is tapping his phone. During an Instagram interaction, the Leader of the Opposition claimed that evidence supporting his allegations was on his phone and challenged Modi to a one-to-one public debate. The BJP dismissed the charge as baseless
  • Centre tells Punjab Chief Minister there is a national policy on Pakistan. The Ministry of External Affairs said India has a national policy on Pakistan and expects everyone to follow it, responding to the controversy over Bhagwant Mann's invitation to visit Lahore
  • Congress-backed global summit faces visa controversy. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said 115 of 315 speakers invited to a global summit had been prevented from attending, while the MEA maintained that visa decisions are sovereign functions of the government
  • Draft voter rolls show increase in electors across nine states and Union Territories. The first post-SIR draft rolls showed increases ranging from 0.1% to 3%. Goa recorded a 3% rise, Rajasthan 2.22%, and Bihar and Tamil Nadu 1.8% each
  • Annamalai questions Tamil Nadu Chief Minister over alleged MLA-Collector controversy. Former BJP state president K Annamalai demanded an explanation from Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay over an allegation that a ruling TVK MLA had sent an inappropriate message to a woman district collector
  • Farooq Abdullah calls for India-Pakistan dialogue after fresh terror attacks. The National Conference president said the attacks in Kulgam and Kishtwar showed that security threats persisted in Jammu and Kashmir and argued that military confrontation alone could not resolve political disputes
  • Centre extends ban on Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation by five years. The Home Ministry declared the organisation an unlawful association for another five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The previous ban was due to expire on November 14
  • 10. Four killed in suspected militant attack in Manipur's Ukhrul district. Suspected militants opened fire on two vehicles in the New Heaven area along the Imphal-Ukhrul road, killing two men and two women. The attack came amid renewed violence in the state, including a recent killing in the adjoining hill districts.
  • Assam minibus-truck collision near Kaziranga kills 23. A passenger minibus collided head-on with a container truck near Rangajan in Golaghat district, killing at least 23 people, according to the later report on the incident
  • India's goods exports hit a record $50 billion in October. Merchandise exports reached an all-time monthly high of $50 billion, while the trade deficit climbed to its highest level of the year. The export performance is encouraging, but the widening gap between imports and exports warrants attention
  • Centre orders probe into Adani Green's sharply reduced Maharashtra project cost. The company reportedly revised the estimated cost of its 1,500 MW Tarali pumped-storage project from ₹5,675 crore to ₹56.75 crore, reducing the proposed wildlife conservation deposit from ₹227 crore to about ₹2.27 crore. The Environment Ministry has directed the Maharashtra forest department to investigate the revision following a complaint. The scale of the reduction makes transparent scrutiny essential
  • The Sensex declined 318.56 points (0.39%) to 81,592.45, while the Nifty 50 fell 155.05 points (0.61%) to 25,144.30 on Friday, snapping a three-session winning run
  • Vivaan Kapoor wins silver at ISSF World Championships. The Indian shooter finished second in the men's trap event in Doha, ahead of several leading international competitors, and secured a quota place for India at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics
Under-19 Asia Cup: India beat Pakistan by 1 wicket in a last-ball thriller to win the title
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Rahul Gandhi Has A 30-Second Cure for Traders in Delhi

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2026-10-26 15:31:02

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

He says he is listening. They asked him to postpone his rally. His response: ask Modi to sack the CEC.

Rahul Gandhi has offered Delhi's traders a remarkable bargain. They fear that the Congress-led INDIA bloc's November 1 rally at Ramlila Maidan will disrupt business during the festive shopping season, and the Chamber of Trade and Industry has asked him to postpone it until after November 10. Gandhi's response, posted on X on October 26, was to tell the traders to ask Narendra Modi to sack Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The protests, he promised, would stop in 30 seconds.

Thirty seconds is an ambitious deadline for anything in Indian politics, and more so for a constitutional dispute.

To be fair, Gandhi may be speaking in political shorthand. He may mean that the government should act against Kumar, not that it should dismiss him by order. But Modi cannot unilaterally remove the CEC. Under Article 324(5), Kumar can be removed only in the manner and on the grounds applicable to a Supreme Court judge: proved misbehaviour or incapacity, established through a parliamentary process and backed by special majorities in both Houses. A voluntary resignation is Kumar's decision, not the Prime Minister's.

More importantly, the traders did not ask Gandhi to settle the dispute over the Election Commission. They asked him to reschedule a rally organised by his own alliance. He can agree, refuse or offer a compromise, and none of these requires a call to the Prime Minister.

Gandhi opened his message with the words "We love you and hear you." The traders have a practical problem involving customers, traffic and festive sales. What they received in return was a political demand about the CEC.

This is familiar territory. In 2013, he publicly denounced an ordinance approved by the Manmohan Singh Cabinet as "complete nonsense" that should be torn up and thrown away. He did not literally tear the document, as the popular version of the episode suggests, but his intervention embarrassed the Prime Minister, and the government withdrew the ordinance. Gandhi may well have been right on the merits. The two episodes are not identical, but the pattern is similar: the declaration comes first, and the institutional route is worked out afterwards, if at all.

The same habit shows up now. Gandhi accuses Modi of weakening institutions and concentrating power, yet his remedy for the CEC controversy assumes the Prime Minister can deliver the outcome on demand. The Constitution, inconveniently, does not work like a customer-service counter.

There is a perfectly respectable way to answer the traders. Gandhi could explain why the rally must take place on November 1, agree to a later date, or work with the police to limit the disruption.

When people ask you to move your rally, the first question is whether you can move your rally. The dispute over the CEC can be pursued separately, through the appropriate constitutional and political channels.

Thirty seconds may be enough to deliver a punchline. It is not always enough to produce a solution.

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