|
Round The States
New Delhi, 10 June 2010
PM Visit To J&K
DEVELOPMENT &
HUMAN RIGHTS
By Insaf
Jammu and Kashmir’s young Chief Minister, Omar
Abdullah couldn’t have asked for more. Not only did he manage to get his
troubled State a slew of sops amounting to over Rs 1,000 crore from the Centre,
but also bagged the credit of being “the most impressive CM”. The bonanza came
his way during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s two-day visit to Srinagar visit on Monday
last to review the security situation and inspect development projects. Noting
that “things have improved considerably and fund utilisation is better,” Singh,
however, felt that much more remained to be done. He, therefore, ordered
restoration of cuts amounting to Rs. 400 crore to the State plan outlay for
2009-10, announced the Centre’s decision to dispense with the cut-back of Rs.
691 crore in this year’s reconstruction plan and offered financial support in
the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. All this as
young Abdullah had presented “a well-reasoned out case for developmental needs
of the State.”
On the political front, Singh sought to reach out to the
moderate faction of the Hurriyat by making a fresh offer of talks with the
groups which shunned violence. The process of talks could be extended, he said,
adding that the recommendations of the three Round-Table Conferences held so
far with participation from many in civil society and other political groups,
were already being implemented “in a step-wise manner.” Singh, who visited the
State amidst a bandh call by the hardline separatists and fake encounters
dominating the headlines, sought to
assure the people that his Government’s policy was “to protect human rights
even when dealing with terrorism.” The security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, he asserted had been
strictly instructed to respect the rights of the civilians and that his
Government would “act to remove any deficiency in the implementation of these
instructions.” Will these assurances get the moderates to the negotiating table
again? Any body’s guess.
* * * *
Mamata Routs Left
Front
Trinamool Congress chief and Union Railway Minister Mamata
Banerjee is all set to rule Kolkata. Riding the winds of political change, the
TMC won the 141-ward city municipal corporation polls, inflicting a crushing
blow on the ruling Left Front in the overall civic elections in West Bengal last week. The polls have been viewed as a
semi-final before next June’s Assembly polls,
if not held earlier as Didi has been consistently demanding. Of the 141 wards, the TMC won 95, the Left
Front 29 and the Congress 10. With a two-thirds majority victory under her
sleeve, Mamata will not need the support of the Congress, its poll partner at
the Centre to rule Kolkata. As for the Left Front, it has suffered a rout
considering that it was in power in 75 wards in 2005. As for the overall battle
for Bengal, of the 81 municipal seats, the
Left Front managed to win only 18, the Congress 7 as against TMC’s score of 33.
While the Congress accepted its failure to perform up to the expectations, the
Left Front is mulling over whether the civic poll marks the beginning of its
end in the State’s power politics. It has ruled the State since 1977.
With the TMC demolishing the Left and humbling the Congress
in the municipal elections, it would be worth watching how much weight Mamata
can continue to pull off at the Centre. After all, both the parties decided to
run on their own following differences over seat allocations. Of interest,
meanwhile, is the CPM’s assessment of its rout. It has come to the conclusion
that many aspects of its agricultural and industrial policies caused resentment
among the people. The big question is: can it make amends before the Assembly
elections in June next year? In fact, one of the Left Front constituents, the All India Forward Bloc,
fears that the Assembly polls could be advanced to November if the Election
Commission so wanted. The situation, it aptly assesses, now confronts the Left
Front with its biggest challenge as the State appears set to face more
turbulent times. Will Mamata eventually move into the Writers’ Building? The
odds clearly favour her as of today.
* * * *
Outrage In Bhopal
Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, exploded in grave
outrage this past week. The ghost of the Bhopal gas tragedy had resurfaced
after 25 long years, adding to the bitterness and anger of the surviving
victims. On Monday a trial court finally convicted seven former officials of
the Union Carbide. Shockingly, however, they were held guilty only for criminal
negligence, which is punishable with a maximum jail of two years. Recall that
tonnes of lethal gas had leaked from the Carbide’s pesticide plant on the night
of Dec 2-3, 1984, killing around 25,000 people instantly and later. The world’s
worst industrial disaster has been made to look like “a traffic accident,” is how a survivor aptly
described the verdict. While the court also imposed a fine of Rs 1,00,000, the
victims said the shameful verdict was adding great insult to injury. “It seems
as if the culprits were laughing at us and making us realise that how helpless
we are.” The sentiment was in a way endorsed by Union Law Minister Veerappa
Moily a day later when he admitted that the time has come to “revisit the process
of judiciary, whole process of investigation, whole process of laws.” Indeed,
he asserted that the verdict was a ‘case of justice not being delayed but being
buried”!
* * * *
Mulayam’s Downward
Spiral
Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party continues to spiral downward
in Uttar Pradesh. It was relegated to the fourth position in an Assembly
bypoll, indicating that the party is fast losing its status of a natural
alternative to the BSP in what had appeared a bipolar State till recently. The
outcome of the Domariyaganj Assembly bypoll is not significant as the ruling
BSP manages to win bypolls in UP. But the bypoll, which was necessitated by the
death of BSP’s Muslim legislator and was contested by his widow, does hold
portents. It saw the winning BSP followed by BJP. The SP and Congress finished
at the bottom, even behind Peace Party, a predominantly Muslim outfit. The
bypoll results, seen in conjunction with earlier contests, confirm two trends:
the BSP is ahead of all the challengers and the SP is sliding fast with doubts
if it can claim to be the second pole of the State’s politics. The Congress for
its part, continues to do badly, despite Rahul Gandhi’s brave talk of making
UP’s next Assembly poll in 2012 as the mother of all battles. It has lost Domariaganj
even when the sitting MP, Jagdambika Pal is a Congressman. What is worse, it
lost earlier bypolls at Jhansi and Kushinagar from where it has ministers in
the Central government.
* * * *
Punjab Offers
Solution
Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal claims to have a
solution for the farmers’ financial problems. He has suggested a one-time
waiver of all agricultural loans, on the grounds that all the figures quoted on
the resilience of national economy were dependent on the performance of the
farm sector. “Therefore, the Centre should treat farm loan waiver as an
investment in pushing India into the top performing economies of the world.” At
a meeting of a “Working Group on Agriculture”, he argued on Tuesday last in
Chandigarh that the farmers debts had assumed the proportions of a grave human
tragedy and the States had not benefitted much from the debt waiver scheme
offered by the Centre. However, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda,
who chaired the meeting, had another solution to offer. He felt there was a
dire need of a second green revolution to meet the additional demand of
foodgrains. This, he said, could only be achieved “through a dynamic approach,
focused strategy and application of new tools of science and technology in
agriculture.” Suggestions from the other members of the working group,
including West Bengal and Bihar, are eagerly awaited. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
|
Archives 
