|
Round The States
New Delhi, 15 April 2010
States To Centre
TALK LESS, WORK
MORE
By Insaf
Naxalism and the Dantewada disaster continue to dominate the
thinking across the country, not only in the Maoists-infested States
but elsewhere too. The States now count upon the Centre to be less bossy and be
more cooperative and understanding. Bihar’s
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reflected their thinking as he pithily commented that
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram needs to talk less and work more. Essentially,
the Dantewada disaster is not just the failure of Chidambaram and his
“intellectual arrogance” but is essentially a failure of the Union Home
Ministry, Intelligence and other various wings. These Chief Ministers are
agreed that the decision of Chidambaram’s resignation should be regarded as a closed
chapter but the rest of the matter calls for honest introspection.
More so as Chidambaram has also come in for a scathing
attack from within his own Party. Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and
Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, recently in an article slammed the
Home Minister for adopting "a narrow sectarian view”. According to Singh, Naxalism
could not be treated as a “law and order” problem and that there was “need for
a holistic strategy which included pro-poor policies to win over the locals.” Clearly,
the Centre needs to identify the causes of failure of the Dantewada massacre in
which 76 CRPF personnel were butchered and the measures required to deal with
the growing Maoist threat, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as
the biggest internal threat to the country.
* * * *
UP Turf War Hots Up
Uttar Pradesh appears to be fast moving towards total
warfare between the Congress and BSP supremo and Chief Minister Mayawati. The Congress’
young General Secretary Rahul Gandhi flagged off his party’s “chetna yatras” from
Ambedkarnagar on Wednesday last. In all there will be 10 yatras spread out over
103 days and each will last 90 days! Indeed, the most ambitious exercise undertaken
by the party to regain power in the country’s largest State. Though the launch coincided
with the Congress’ 125th year celebrations, its timing—the birth
anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar and the place assume significance. Not only is
it a direct challenge to Mayawati but is also being seen as a kick off for
Rahul’s campaign for the UP elections in 2012. The yatras, said Rahul promise
“politics of youth, politics of empowerment, politics of development,” which
the BSP government has failed to provide. While it’s anyone’s guess how
Mayawati will tackle the challenge, for starters her party ensured that Rahul
did not garland Ambedkar’s statue, by putting pandals all around it. Instead,
he had to garland a photo of Ambedkar along with one of Mahatama Gandhi on the
stage!
* * * *
Revival Of TN Upper
House
The DMK government in Tamil Nadu is finally going to fulfill
its promise made in the late 80s. It is all set to revive the Legislative
Council, abolished on 1 November 1986, by the then AIADMK government under MG Ramachandran.
On Monday last, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi got his resolution in favour of
the Council passed by 155 votes against 61 in the Legislative Assembly. The
Council had its roots in the Madras Legislative Council of the pre-Independence
days when it was a presidency. It functioned as an Upper House for decades and
even had Congress’ C Rajagopalachari and DMK’s CN Annadurai as members, when
they were sworn in as CMs. The decision to abolish the Council was taken by MGR
and ratified by the Assembly on 14 May 1986 after he failed to send a party
sympathizer, film and TV artiste, A B Shanthi as its member. Though the DMK
made various attempts to revive the Council, it failed to secure the requisite
majority. Now that Karunanidhi has fulfilled his promise of reviving the
Council, he must be serious about its composition and ensure it is truly
representative of the Elders. It should not be a House to distribute patronage
or to bring in daughters, son-in-laws, nieces, et al.
* * * *
Khap Panchayats
Ultimatum
The khap panchayats of four States are all set to take on
the Centre and the law courts. Its members have threatened a protest march to
Delhi if the Hindu Marriage Act was not amended to ban the same gotra
(sub-caste) marriages. On Tuesday last, a Maha
Khap Panchayat, claiming representation of 36 khap panchayats spread across
Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi was held in Kurukshetra.
It condemned the landmark judgement of a Karnal court, which had sentenced five
persons to death for the murder of a young couple for marrying in the same
gotra. Additionally, it decided to challenge the verdict in the High court.
This apart, the panchayats resolved to make it compulsory for parents of youth
getting married, as well as the sarpanch to be witness to weddings and demanded
a Lok Adalat status for themselves. A 51-member committee said it would soon
announce the date for its protest to Delhi. Many may have reason to agree with
the khap panchayats as the Parsi community is slowly but surely disappearing.
Nothing can save it but marrying outside the gotra.
* * * *
Gurjars On Warpath
The Gurjars in Rajasthan are on the warpath again. They have
decided to step up pressure on the Ashok Gehlot Congress government to fulfill
their long-pending demand of five per cent reservation in State jobs. On Monday
last, the Gurjars led by Kirorisingh Bainsala and his Gurjar Aarakshan Samiti
embarked on their plan to lay a siege on the State capital, Jaipur. For
starters they organized a mahapadav
(sit in) in Hinduan, Karauli district, about 150 km from Jaipur. The step
was taken as the first round of talks with Gehlot before starting the agitation
had ended in a stalemate. The Samiti is now hell-bent on “cutting off all
access to the capital.” However, the government is trying to calm tempers down
and has assured the Samiti that it would hold off five per cent of the
government recruitment, till the High Court stay on the law granting Gurjars
reservation was vacated. The question is will it suffice, as the previous
BJP-government was unable to keep its word.
* * * *
Custodial Deaths On
Rise
Custodial deaths are on a disturbing rise. The number of
deaths has increased by 41.66 per cent since the UPA government came to power
in 2004. This includes 70.72 per cent increase in deaths in prison custody and
12.69 per cent increase in deaths in police custody. The State which heads the
list is the country’s financial capital, Maharashtra with the highest number of
custodial deaths—246 in 2009 followed by Uttar Pradesh (165), Gujarat (139),
West Bengal (112) and Andhra Pradesh. These startling revelations were released
in a report “Torture in India 2010” by the Asian Centre for Human rights (ACHR)
released on Tuesday last. Importantly,
the report notes that if an American journalist Joel Elliot could be tortured
by the Delhi police in October 2009, “what would happen to the aam aadmi?” Will the Centre and State
governments please pay heed? ---INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature
Alliance)
|
Archives 
