Round The States

New Delhi, 18 March 2010

BSP Shames Backward UP

VULGAR DISPLAY OF MONEY POWER

By Insaf

It’s a tale of two cities in Uttar Pradesh this week. One witnessed shameless and vulgar celebration of money power in politics. The other was engulfed in tragic communal riots. After lavish birthdays, giant statues and memorials over the years, the State Chief Minister and BSP supremo, Mayawati set a new bar for Dalit celebrations. On Monday last, she organized a maha rally in Lucknow to mark the party's silver jubilee and also its founder Kanshi Ram's birth anniversary. Extravaganza was put to shame. The administration is alleged to have splurged close to Rs 200 crore for the grand show targetting a record crowd of 20 lakh. And how? A temporary township “Bhim Nagari” was constructed over 60 acres with 30 waterproof pandals, 2,000 temporary toilets and 1,000 bathrooms; 200 tankers supplied water. A make shift hospital was put up with 200 doctors and 500 paramedical staff.  Some 1600 State transport and 5,000 private buses were in place. Over 1,000 quintals of flowers were used. But the piece de resistance for the staggering four lakh crowd that turned up was the mammoth garland she was presented. It was strung together with Rs 1,000 notes which could total up to Rs 5 crore!  

The rally had the Opposition parties up in arms in New Delhi. The BJP, SP and the Congress disrupted the Lok Sabha proceedings for two days, demanded a CBI inquiry into the source of the garland notes presented to the “Daulat (not Dalit) ki beti”. The currency garland, which could feed several thousand of UP’s poor, has expectedly made the Income Tax department sit up. On Tuesday, the department said that it would investigate the ownership of the Rs 1,000 notes used, the bank from which the money was sourced and whether it was from disclosed income. Accordingly, it will make a case for tax evasion. This apart, it would also look into the entire funding of the rally. But nothing affects Mayawati. Just two days after the hullabaloo, she was welcomed by her party MLAs with another cash garland worth Rs 18 lakh at a party meeting in Lucknow! Her Minister, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, even announced that the CM would from now on be welcomed only with currency notes! That is not all. The day also saw Lucknow get its eleventh statue of Mayawati, a composite structure of four 7.5-foot tall white marble figures standing back to back on a pedestal at the Bahujan Prerna Kendra!

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Bareilly Burns

Shockingly, the Lucknow celebrations took place even as Bareilly was burning. The city, home to many Hindu temples and traditionally an example of communal harmony, was engulfed in unprecedented communal riots. Curfew had to be clamped in five police areas for as long as a fortnight, causing untold misery to the residents. The violence between the Hindus and the Muslims erupted over the route of a procession to mark Barawafat or Milad-Ul-Nabi - the Prophet’s birthday - on March 2 --- after the President of the Ittehad-e-Millat Council made a rousing speech. Over 40 shops and kiosks were gutted, a dozen-odd vehicles burnt and over a score people wounded. But, this could have clearly been easily averted. The origin of the current violence dates back to 2006 when a Barawfat procession through Kohada peer locality triggered some aggressive protests from Hindus. The issue was promptly resolved after the administration allowed an alternative route. This month, though there were similar protests, the authorities simply did not react. They were too busy with the maha rally. It was criminal mismanagement from day one, which the BJP proposes to expose. It has set up a three-member fact-finding committee, which includes Maneka Gandhi, to go into the communal violence.

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Trouble For Modi?

Narendra Modi’s Gujarat is in the news. But this time for the wrong reasons. The Special Investigating team (SIT) constituted by the Supreme Court two years ago to probe 10 of the most critical cases from sites like the Gulbarga Society, post-Godhra riots in 2002, has summoned the Chief Minister on Sunday. Questioning will be on the basis of an FIR filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of Congress MP Ahsan Jafri, who has accused Modi and 62 others of complicity in the riots in which nearly 2,000 people were killed. However, the SIT, headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan, has run into a crisis. One of its members, DIG (retd) Param Singh is said to have resigned. Worse, the Special Public Prosecutor in the Gulbarga Society trial, RK Shah too has put in his papers saying he could not take the non-cooperation of the SIT and taunts from the trial judge. These developments in the SIT, which is considered the last word in investigations into the riot cases, has forced the Supreme Court to take note and stay further proceedings in the trial. The big question is: will Modi get a reprieve in all this mess? While it is unclear what evidence the SIT has, or whether any charges will stick to Modi, the summoning of Modi is a call that carries symbolic weight, if not much else yet.

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‘Healthy’ First For Assam

Assam is all set to create history. It is the first State in the country to introduce a Bill, which guarantees the right to health and well-being of its citizens. On Thursday last, the Congress government tabled the landmark Assam Public Health Bill, 2010 in the State Assembly, in response to the Centre’s appeal for legislating on health rights. The Bill makes it mandatory for all development projects to carry out a health impact assessment. Importantly, the State is not viewing health as just doctors and hospitals but everything that influences the well-being of the people. With this aim, the Bill seeks to bind the health and family welfare department to meet its basic obligations—coordinating with other departments concerned and providing people with minimum nutritionally essential food, adequate supply of safe drinking water, sanitation and access to basic housing facility. Besides, both government and private hospitals will have to provide free healthcare services and maintain appropriate treatment for the first 24 hours to any emergency patient, among other path-breaking provisions in the Bill, which will be put to vote on March 31.

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J&K Bill Against Women

Jammu and Kashmir is truly far distanced from New Delhi. Days after the Rajya Sabha passed the Women’s Reservation Bill, the J&K Assembly witnessed the tabling of a bill, which discriminates against women. On March 2, the PDP MLA, Murtaza Khan, introduced the Permanent Resident (Disqualification) Bill on March 2 and the Government accepted it at the introduction level. The Bill seeks to debar J&K women of their right to property and jobs if they marry someone outside the State. The Opposition, led by the BJP, protested and staged a walkout in the Assembly on Saturday last, asserting  that it would deprive girls of ancestral rights to own land, property and jobs if they married outside the State. They questioned the constitutional validity of the Bill and asked as to how it could even be introduced. However, the PDP insists the Bill “would save identity of the State’s women.” And, further argues that the State’s special status under Article 370 “would be undermined if women marrying non-State subjects retain their citizenship rights”. All eyes, however, are now on the ruling National Conference, headed by young Omar Abdullah and his stand. So far there is silence. Either J&K is an integral part of India or it is not!---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)