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States To Centre:TALK LESS, WORK MORE, by Insaf, 15 April 2010 Print E-mail

Round The States 

New Delhi, 15 April 2010

States To Centre

TALK LESS, WORKMORE

By Insaf

 Naxalism and the Dantewada disaster continue to dominate thethinking across the country, not only in the Maoists-infested Statesbut elsewhere too. The States now count upon the Centre to be less bossy and bemore cooperative and understanding. Bihar’sChief Minister Nitish Kumar reflected their thinking as he pithily commented thatUnion 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 HomeMinistry, Intelligence and other various wings. These Chief Ministers areagreed that the decision of Chidambaram’s resignation should be regarded as a closedchapter but the rest of the matter calls for honest introspection.  

More so as Chidambaram has also come in for a scathingattack from within his own Party. Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh andCongress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, recently in an article slammed theHome Minister for adopting "a narrow sectarian view”. According to Singh, Naxalismcould not be treated as a “law and order” problem and that there was “need fora 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 inwhich 76 CRPF personnel were butchered and the measures required to deal withthe growing Maoist threat, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described asthe biggest internal threat to the country.  

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UP Turf War Hots Up

Uttar Pradesh appears to be fast moving towards totalwarfare between the Congress and BSP supremo and Chief Minister Mayawati. The Congress’young General Secretary Rahul Gandhi flagged off his party’s “chetna yatras” fromAmbedkarnagar on Wednesday last. In all there will be 10 yatras spread out over103 days and each will last 90 days! Indeed, the most ambitious exercise undertakenby the party to regain power in the country’s largest State. Though the launch coincidedwith the Congress’ 125th year celebrations, its timing—the birthanniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar and the place assume significance. Not only isit a direct challenge to Mayawati but is also being seen as a kick off forRahul’s campaign for the UP elections in 2012. The yatras, said Rahul promise“politics of youth, politics of empowerment, politics of development,” whichthe BSP government has failed to provide. While it’s anyone’s guess howMayawati will tackle the challenge, for starters her party ensured that Rahuldid 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 thestage!   

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Revival Of TN UpperHouse

The DMK government in Tamil Nadu is finally going to fulfillits promise made in the late 80s. It is all set to revive the LegislativeCouncil, 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 ofthe Council passed by 155 votes against 61 in the Legislative Assembly. TheCouncil had its roots in the Madras Legislative Council of the pre-Independencedays when it was a presidency. It functioned as an Upper House for decades andeven had Congress’ C Rajagopalachari and DMK’s CN Annadurai as members, whenthey were sworn in as CMs. The decision to abolish the Council was taken by MGRand ratified by the Assembly on 14 May 1986 after he failed to send a partysympathizer, film and TV artiste, A B Shanthi as its member. Though the DMKmade various attempts to revive the Council, it failed to secure the requisitemajority. Now that Karunanidhi has fulfilled his promise of reviving theCouncil, he must be serious about its composition and ensure it is trulyrepresentative of the Elders. It should not be a House to distribute patronageor to bring in daughters, son-in-laws, nieces, et al.

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Khap PanchayatsUltimatum 

The khap panchayats of four States are all set to take onthe Centre and the law courts. Its members have threatened a protest march to Delhi if the HinduMarriage Act was not amended to ban the same gotra (sub-caste) marriages. OnTuesday last, a Maha Khap Panchayat,claiming representation of 36 khap panchayats spread across Haryana and partsof Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhiwas 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 formarrying in the same gotra. Additionally, it decided to challenge the verdictin the High court. This apart, the panchayats resolved to make it compulsoryfor parents of youth getting married, as well as the sarpanch to be witness toweddings and demanded a Lok Adalat status for themselves. A 51-member committeesaid it would soon announce the date for its protest to Delhi. Many may have reason to agree with thekhap panchayats as the Parsi community is slowly but surely disappearing.Nothing can save it but marrying outside the gotra.   

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On Warpath

The Gurjars in Rajasthan are on the warpath again. They havedecided to step up pressure on the Ashok Gehlot Congress government to fulfilltheir long-pending demand of five per cent reservation in State jobs. On Mondaylast, the Gurjars led by Kirorisingh Bainsala and his Gurjar Aarakshan Samitiembarked on their plan to lay a siege on the State capital, Jaipur. Forstarters they organized a mahapadav(sit in) in Hinduan, Karauli district, about 150 km from Jaipur. The stepwas taken as the first round of talks with Gehlot before starting the agitationhad ended in a stalemate. The Samiti is now hell-bent on “cutting off allaccess to the capital.” However, the government is trying to calm tempers downand has assured the Samiti that it would hold off five per cent of thegovernment recruitment, till the High Court stay on the law granting Gurjarsreservation was vacated. The question is will it suffice, as the previousBJP-government was unable to keep its word.

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Deaths OnRise

Custodial deaths are on a disturbing rise. The number ofdeaths has increased by 41.66 per cent since the UPA government came to powerin 2004. This includes 70.72 per cent increase in deaths in prison custody and12.69 per cent increase in deaths in police custody. The State which heads thelist is the country’s financial capital, Maharashtra with the highest number ofcustodial deaths—246 in 2009 followed by Uttar Pradesh (165), Gujarat (139), West Bengal (112) and Andhra Pradesh. These startlingrevelations were released in a report “Torture in India 2010” by the AsianCentre for Human rights (ACHR) released on Tuesday last.  Importantly, the report notes that if anAmerican journalist Joel Elliot could be tortured by the Delhi police in October 2009, “what wouldhappen to the aam aadmi?” Will the Centreand State governments please pay heed? ---INFA

 (Copyright,India News & Feature Alliance)

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