Round The States
New Delhi, 16 September 2010
All-Party
Meet On J&K
CENTRE
FUMBLES YET AGAIN
By Insaf
A big question mark hangs over the future of Kashmir
once again. Sadly, the Centre continues to fumble on how to restore normalcy in
the volatile State. Pertinently, after five-hours of the all-party
brain-storming meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday
last, the only decision which emerged was to send an all-party delegation to
the State this Sunday! Its mandate: “open invitation” to anyone interested to
come and talk. Clearly, the Centre seems to be caught betrween a rock and a
hard place. On the one hand, the Prime Minister has made plain “the trust and
governance deficit” and put Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on a veiled notice. On
the other hand, Omar now boasts of Congress General Secretary’s continued backing..
A day after the meeting, Rahul asserted in Kolkata: “Omar needs time and support.”
Notwithstanding, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the
PM initiating dialogue with their erstwhile coalition partner and NC’s bete
noire Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP. Raising speculation of reviving an old power alignment
in the State. The party meeting failed miserably on arriving at a political
consensus on the contentious issue and demand of the NC seeking witdrwal of the
Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Many leaders went all out to back the Air
Force Chief P.V. Naik’s view that the security forces “deserved legal
protection they could get to operate in Kashmir”. With all this confusion at
the Centre, the Hurriyat hardliner Ali Shah Geelani seems to be having the last
laugh on New Delhi’s dithering and failure to take bold decisions. He and his
followers seem determined to continue their stir for azaadi!
* * * *
Communal Frenzy
In W Bengal
Extremist communal frenzy in West Bengal’s Deganga
market town, about 50 km from Kolkata’s Dum Dum airport, has sadly gone
unnoticed. Ten days ago, the town in North 24 Parganas district witnessed looting,
burning and ransacking of Hindu shops and houses by the Muslim goons, allegedly
led by the local Trinamool MP, Haji Nurul Islam. This happened because the
locals resisted the mob’s bid to take over their land traditionally used for
community Durga puja. Shockingly, the Hindus, once a majority, are now a
hopeless minority of just about 30 per cent of the population thanks to the glaring
shift in the town’s demographic profile because of unrestrained illegal
immigration from Bangladesh. The infiltrators armed with ration cards, voter
IDs and other evidence of citizenship rule the roost. While some semblance of
order was finally restored with the Army being called in, Deganga is yet
another case of vote bank politics playing havoc with the nation’s secular
credentials.
* * * *
Talibanisation Of Kerala?
Sinister and brazen fundamentalism shamelessly
continues to go unchecked in Kerala. All the stake holders, including the Left
Democratic Front Government, remain silent spectators to the agony of college
lecturer TJ Jospeh, whose hand was chopped off by the extremist Islamic outfit,
the Popular Front of India (PFI) in July last for allegedly insulting the
Prophet. Adding insult to injury, the college dismissed Joseph and suggested he
could be reinstated if he apologised to the Muslim community! The Kothamangalam
diocese of the Syro-Malabar church on Sunday last too defended his dismissal
from the college saying he hasn’t apologized for his mistake. Worse, the Achuthanandan
government has been dithering over a probe, obviously eyeing its Muslim vote
bank. However, the grave point that is being missed is that this communal
appeasement may well lead to the Talibanisation of Kerala, God’s own country.
* * * *
Apex Ultimatum To States
Places of worship have no business
to be on public land in a civilized society. Having said this a year ago, the
Supreme Court on Tuesday last threatened to summon respective State Chief
Secretaries if they failed to comply with the directions to remove or relocate
places of worship built on public land. As per the affidavits filed by various
States, Tamil Nadu tops the list of defaulters with 77,450 such structures, followed
by Rajasthan 58,253, Madhya Pradesh 51,824, Uttar Pradesh 45,000, Maharashtra
17, 385, Gujarat 15,000 and Delhi
only 52. As against this, Arunachal
Pradesh, Sikkim,
Nagaland and Mizoram have no illegal structures. In September 2009 that the SC
had ordered against unauthorised religious structures on roads, pavements or
other public places as these were an inconvenience to the people. With States
dilly-dallying on its direction, the apex court has now given two weeks to the
States to file their response or else face the music.
* * * *
Chhattisgrah Shows The Way
Tiny Chhattisgarh has reason to be
proud. Its “food-for-poor” scheme is being viewed by the Centre as a role model
for the States for the implementation of the Food Security Act. The BJP-ruled State has achieved the highest growth
rate at 11.49 per cent this year among the States. Its Chief Minister Raman
Singh has for the past year had a ready formula for on ground delivery to the
disadvantaged groups: Warehouses, godowns shops must be set up at the State
level; the Public Distribution System has to move from the private to
cooperative sector and self-help groups and elected panchayats need to be
trusted. This apart, he feels that the glaring leakages in the system could be
plugged with the help of Unique ID card which would ensure 90 per cent
coverage. Once in place, the biometrics would rule out duplication and enable online
tracking of the PDS consumption. Interestingly, Singh’s food security model was
not given more than a year to last. But now the Planning Commission wants to
replicate it across the nation!
* * * *
Jat Trouble In Haryana
The reservation bug has now stung
the Haryana Government. The Jat community in the State is demanding reservation
in Government jobs and educational institutions. With a protestor killed in
police firing on Monday last, the Jats went on a rampage in Hisar, Rohtak,
Jind, Bhiwani, Sirsa and Fatehabad targeting government and private property the
following day, forcing the Government to keep the Army on standby. Fortunately,
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda managed to quell tempers by announcing a
Rs 10 lakh compensation to the family of the deceased and assured the All India
Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti that he had favourably forwarded its demand made
in April last to the Centre. Though the Samiti has decided to end its protest “for the time
being” it has warned of carrying forward the fight for reservation. It has threatened to disrupt the
Commonwealth Games if the Centre fails to announce a quota for the Jats by
October 3. ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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