All eyes are on the Congress parliamentary strategy group meeting called by party president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday evening, with insiders watching if Rahul Gandhi will agree to lead Congress in Lok Sabha and shed his reluctance to assume leadership position and fill the vacuum at the top. It is hotly speculated that Congress will go into the monsoon session of Parliament starting next week with a new leader in place of Andhir Ranjan Chowdury. While Punjab MPs Manish Tewari and Ravneet Bittu, as also shashi tharoor, gaurav gagoi insiders say talk of changes started with the expectation that Rahul may finally take the Lok Sabha position. Insiders say that it is for the Gandhi scion to decide if he wants to assume the leadership, that many view as needed to instil a sense of normalcy after Rahul's resignation as Congress president following the defeat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. If Rahul continues to stay away from the LS leadership, then Congress will have to decided on whether to replace Chowdhury. If so, a likely possibility would be the political adjustment of Punjab leaders in view of coming assembly elections. Prominent Sunni Islamic seminary in Uttar Pradesh's Deoband town Darul Uloom has issued a statement on Tuesday criticising the state government's draft population control bill, which it claimed will hurt the interest of every section of the society. Vice chancellor of the seminary, Abul Qasim Nomani, said, "This policy is against every section of society. What kind of policy denies basic facilities to families that have more than two children? It is against human rights. According to the draft, anyone who has more than two children will not be able to contest local body polls, will not get promotion in government jobs and will not receive any government subsidy. Asked if the seminary will appeal to the government to reconsider the decision, spokesperson Ashraf Usmani said, "Who are we to make an appeal? But we can say this is not right. Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan said: "Why is religion being dragged into it.
