Round The States

New Delhi, 25 March 2009

Turmoil In Meghalaya & Orissa

GOVERNORS’ ROLE RAISES CONTROVERSY

By Insaf

Developments in Meghalaya and Orissa have triggered a new controversy in regard to the role of the Governor. Not only are the politicians trying to slam Meghalaya Governor R S Mooshahary through the Supreme Court, but he has come under fire from Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. The State was put under President’s rule on Thursday last. The Governor had dismissed the NCP-UDP led Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) Government after it lost the trust vote, following disqualification of five MLAs by Speaker Lanong in the 61-member Assembly. The former Education Minister and MPA legislator, and also editor of an English daily, Manas Chaudhuri has said they had petitioned the Supreme Court against the dismissal. Besides, the Alliance had also petitioned the President to recall Mooshahary for “conspiring with the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance to overthrow the MPA government.”

Importantly, Speaker Somnath has condemned not only Lanong for disqualifying the MLAs but also the Governor for “interfering” in the Speaker’s job. He has criticised Mooshahary for passing orders to take photographs inside the Assembly and calling for CCTV footage. Meanwhile, in Orissa Governor M C Bhandare has also come under fire from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the Lok Sabha Speaker for recommending President’s rule on the ground that the “voice vote” on the basis of which the government had lost the trust vote had “no legality”. According to Bhandare, Patnaik had failed to prove his majority on March 11 in the vote of no-confidence, after the BJP had pulled out of the Government. In his report to the President, he has insisted that the “use of voice vote made the trust vote inconclusive.” Only a headcount or voting by the MLAs, he asserts, could prove if the Government enjoyed the support of the majority.”  Further moves on both counts are awaited with interest.

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Brahmin, Muslims Focussed In UP

In Uttar Pradesh, Brahmin and Muslim vote bank politics is crassly out in the open. Both the BSP and the BJP are giving more than 25 per cent representation to the upper castes out of a total of 80 candidates, wherein the Brahmins only constitute nine per cent of the state’s population. The BSP has so far given 20 tickets to Brahmins, to retain its Dalit-Brahmin combination which enabled it to win a majority in the Assembly poll. This apart, with BSP supremo Mayawati eyeing the Prime Minister’s post, the party realizes it cannot do so on the strength of Dalit votes alone. On its part, the BJP is keen to reclaim the Brahmins’ support, which was its traditional vote base and has so far allotted 15 seats from among 61 announced so far. Meanwhile, Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party is hoping to hold on to its Muslim support base by using ‘Munnabhai’ Sanjay Dutt to campaign in the Hindi heartland. He has already proved to be a major crowd puller amongst this community, notwithstanding whether or not the Supreme Court allows him to contest from the coveted Lucknow seat.

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Cong-NCP Tie-up In Maharashtra

The uncertainty over NCP and Congress continuing their poll alliance in Maharashtra is finally over. On Monday last the two sealed the pact to contest the Lok Sabha poll together once again, after much dilly-dallying by the NCP chief Sharad Pawar. The Congress will contest 26 seats and the NCP 22 seats as against its original demand of 26. While the seat-sharing hurdle is out of the way, the two parties have yet to remove differences over some constituencies.  Pawar has also decided to give the Baramati seat, held by him for 25 years, to his daughter Supriya Sule, his sole heir, and instead stand for the Lok Sabha from Madha constituency in Solapur district. This perhaps is to keep his prime ministerial ambition open as the Maratha had earlier stated that he had enough of electoral politics and would instead seek election only to the Rajya Sabha, wherein Supriya is a sitting MP.

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Corrupt babus’ (officers) days are numbered in notorious Bihar. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is getting poised to cleanse his administration, armed with the new Bihar Special Court Bill 2009. For the first time, a Bill allows the State Government to confiscate the property of errant babus even if the case is sub-judice. Importantly, the law does away with a crucial privilege enjoyed by the IAS and IPS officers so far. Investigating agencies no longer require the permission of the Centre or the Home ministry to prosecute officers accused of corruption. Orissa is the only other State which has this in place. To do one better, Nitish plans to set up a special fast track court so that such cases do not linger on forever. In January, the Chief Minister had embarked on a ‘Vikas Yatra’ in rural Bihar and offered his people rewards for getting corrupt officers arrested. Will this work? Or, as cynics say, will it turn out to be only an election gimmick?  

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J&K Slipping Back ?

Hopes of normalcy returning to Jammu & Kashmir have been belied this past week. A fierce gun battle between militants and the security forces in Kupwara district has so far claimed 25 lives—17 militants and eight Army personnel, including a Major. The slain militants, in the five-day-long gun battle, were all foreigners. Arms, ammunition and communication equipment have been recovered from them. In all 17 rifles, four under barrel grenade launchers, 13 AK magazines, 207 rounds of AK ammunition, two global positioning systems and two radio sets have been seized. Clearly, the Central government’s pressure on Pakistan is not working post Mumbai. The Kupwara incident is the first major infiltration attempt this year from the PoK-end and the bloodiest clash between the Army and the terrorists in the State. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is all keen to set things right in the State after a resounding people’s participation in the recent Assembly elections, has a tough task ahead.  

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Toilet Revolution In Haryana

“No toilet, no bride” is a slogan that is changing women’s lives in rural Haryana. It has liberated them from defecating in the open and given them a right to privacy.  The threat of Na Byahun beti us ghar mein, jismein na ho sauchalaya (won’t marry my daughter into a household which has no toilet.) has given impetus to the ‘toilet campaign’ embarked on by Women and Child Development Department in the State. Its director, Neeraja Shekhar says four years hence as many as 1.41 million toilets would have been built across Haryana. According to the Union Development Ministry, figures over 665 million Indians still defecate in the open. A few years ago Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh made it mandatory for panchayat representatives to have toilets at homes. West Bengal, Maharashtra and Bihar followed suit. In fact, Chhattisgarh has decreed that representatives install toilets in their homes or face disqualification.  Well, with women’s involvement in the campaign the Millennium development goal of eradicating the practice of defecating in the open may well be achieved.---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)