Round The States

New Delhi, 28 January 2010

Gorkha Agitators Warned

SUPREME COURT BAILS OUT SIKKIM

By Insaf

Sikkim has finally been bailed out, thanks to a landmark ruling of the Supreme Court. The north-eastern State’s unending agony of being repeatedly cut off from the rest of the country due to the Gorkhaland agitation in neighbouring West Bengal has hopefully ended. And with it Chief Minister P K Chamling’s too of severe hardship faced by his people. On Monday last, a three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, warned political parties, both pro and anti-Gorkhaland, against blockading National Highway 31A, Sikkim’s only link to the rest of the country. It ruled: “The party blocking the National Highway will be declared unlawful and we will direct detention of their leaders.” The stern warning was aimed at the belligerent Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, spearheading the movement for a separate State, and its main opponents, Amra Bengali, Jan Jagran Manch and Jan Chetna.

While these parties will now have to think hard before taking their protest to NH 31A, the ruling could also provide much-needed relief to other States, which, like Sikkim, suffer for no fault of theirs because of mindless agitations. Recall, Chamling’s meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last fortnight urging that the National Highway be kept open at all cost, including use of force. The Court has echoed the sentiment and reminded both the Centre and the West Bengal Government “about their duty” to keep the Highway open. It has also made a note of the inexcusable fact that its earlier interim order of July 2008 to keep the highway free from agitation had been violated eight times. But this time it will have none of it. The parties have been warned to adhere to its directive or face serious consequences. 

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Tricolour Missing In Lal Chowk

Republic Day celebrations in Jammu and Kashmir were unfortunately marred when an 18-year-old tradition was done away with. The national flag was amiss at the Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of Srinagar, leaving BJP fuming at the “meek surrender by the Government before the terrorists.”  While the Omar Abdullah government had no ready explanation to offer, the Central Reserve Police Force said: “We decided to discontinue the custom and participate in the State function just a km away (Bakshi Stadium)…. We used to do it as the forces in charge before us had done. There is no order, logic or significance to it… We don’t know why it was started?” Clearly, the CRPF’s memory needs to be refreshed. The Tricolour was first hoisted at the Chowk’s clock tower by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Republic Day in 1992, at the culmination of the “Ekta Yatra”, from Kanyakumari to Srinagar, symbolizing India’s nationalistic assertion in an area where Pakistani flags fluttered. Since then the security forces were hoisting the Tricolour every Republic and Independence Day. Surely, the CRPF could not have decided on its own not to hoist the flag. Perhaps, it is part of Home Minister Chidambaram’s “quiet diplomacy” vis a vis the separatists!

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Maoists Respond To Mamata

The Maoists in West Bengal have thrown the ball back in Union Railway Minister and Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee’s court. In his response to Didi’s offer last week of mediating, the Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao, alias Kishenji on Monday last sent a four-page ‘open letter’ confirming his willingness to talk. However, with a proviso: “Talks can only be held on the ground that all the prisoners are released, combined forces withdrawn and talks with People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities start at government level.” Additionally, the Maoist leader invited Mamata or her representative for a dialogue to their jungle hideout, Jungalmahal, without police escort. The TMC chief is yet to respond, but a few reactions so far from party members suggest that this time around she would like to tread cautiously. One such notable response was: “We don’t want to be in a hurry. The problem was not created in a single day and can’t be solved so fast.”    

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Soren’s Deadline To Naxals?

Meanwhile, is Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibhu Soren going soft on the Maoists? An answer should hopefully be available in the next two weeks, at least to a worried Union Home Ministry. On Monday last, Soren gave the Maoists a fortnight to stop violence and come for talks. If they don’t then his police will intensify action against them, he has asserted. However, reports so far suggest that ever since Soren came to power, there has been a lackluster response in Jharkhand to the Centre’s anti-Maoists operations. Over the past 10 days there has been a ban on intercepting mobile phones of the Maoists. Besides, four BSF battalions (nearly 4,000 personnel) meant for anti-naxal operations were sent off to Chhattisgarh after the State Government refused to give the nod for an offensive. In addition, Soren is reported to have sent a missive to Kishenji to start peace talks. The CM, however, has rubbished such reports and said that he was not against the anti-Maoists offensive except that “before intensifying such action the government should try to bring the rebels on board.”

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Taxi Drivers On MNS Hit List

Competitive regionalism once again appears to play havoc with normal life in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra. A simple ride in a taxi could prove costly to both the driver and the passenger if the threat by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is allowed to be carried out. Taking a cue from Chief Minister’s Ashok Chavan’s controversial decision last week of granting new licenses only to those taxi drivers who knew fluent Marathi (which was later withdrawn and amended to any one of the local languages, namely Hindi and Gujarati), the MNS chief Raj Thackeray has issued a fresh diktat. It would not allow any such taxi to ply on Mumbai’s roads if the driver does not read or write or speak Marathi. The taxi drivers have been given a deadline of 40 days to get acquainted with Marathi or else they will be handed “return tickets to UP”. Meaning business, the MNS activists have started positioning themselves at traffic signals and are busy handing out 50,000-odd Marathi textbooks of Class I to cab drivers across the city! 

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500 Dead In Cold Wave

The bitter cold wave in northern India has left nearly 500 people dead so far. While Uttar Pradesh has witnessed “one of the longest spells of cold days in the past three decades,” Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana have staggered under sub-zero temperatures. According to available figures, cold and fog related accidents have claimed 450 lives in UP alone and forced authorities to shut schools till last week.  Though the Government has claimed to have disbursed Rs 10 crore for blankets and bonfires for the poor, not many have benefited. In Bihar about 40 persons have died but the Government prefers to remain mum on the figures. In Himachal the situation is different-- apple and cherry orchards have been hit hard. Despite the mercury dipping it isn’t snowing and raining this year enough threatening both the crops and flower growers. In Punjab the airports have been grappling with delays and virtually every train is leaving and arriving several hours late. People are keeping their fingers crossed that the Met Departments predictions come out right—the biting chill will remain only till this week-end. --INFA

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