Round The States

New Delhi, 11 November 2010  

Maharashtra’s New CM

CENTRE’S BID TO CLEAN UP

By Insaf

The old order has given way to the new in Maharashtra. With the Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Prithviraj Chavan, occupying the most coveted seat of Chief Minister in Mumbai ---- replacing ‘tainted’ Ashok Chavan. Needless to say his integrity, ability and loyalty to Sonia has catapulted ‘clean and non-controversial’ Prithviraj from relative obscurity as one of the Prime Minister’s backroom ‘boys’ to the Congress’ most stable stronghold. He now has the thankless task of restoring the Congress image, which has taken a severe beating over corruption allegations in the Adarsh Housing Society scam, costing his predecessor his job. Alongwith instilling professionalism and transparency in Government. Given that the Chief Minister’s office has been a revolving door with 16 occupants since 1960, most of whom have not completed the full five-year term. To strengthen Chavan’s hands, the Congress and ally NCP have put together a spanking new Government of unblemished leaders. For reasons best known to it, the NCP too replaced its Deputy CM, anointing Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit.

True, by ruthlessly axing Ashok Chavan, just two hours before Parliament reconvened for its winter session, the Congress wanted to quell the impression that corruption was not a “non-issue.” But this is easier said than done. One, the Congress ally in the State, NCP’s Maratha supremo Sharad Pawar, is not “well-disposed” towards his clan-mate, the Berkeley-educated Chief Minister, and is bound to create hurdles. Two, his lack of experience in Maharashtra politics. Chavan cut his political teeth at the Centre with three Lok Sabha and two Rajya Sabha terms. Three, after netting Ashok Chavan’s scalp, the Opposition at the Centre has every reason to target the Union Telecom Minister, DMK’s A Raja. Notwithstanding, his Congress pedigree, Prithviraj’s father was a Minister in the Nehru and Indira Cabinets and mother an Lok Sabha MP, disentangling the mess in the State would require dexterity and political agility to manage not only a fractious ally but keep the vaulting ambitions of his Party leaders under check. Clearly, uneasy lies the head that wears the crown!

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Farmers’ Nod For UP Project

The UP Chief Minister, Mayawati, has finally had her say and way. By winning over the farmers in Aligarh District, who have given their nod to her pet Tappal township project on the Yamuna Expressway. After agitating for two long months and forcing the Chief Minister to scrap the township, the farmers did a volte face by stating that they were never against it. As a reciprocal gesture, the Government has decided to extend to the farmers benefits of the revised resettlement and rehabilitation policy. This provides for payment of an annuity or a rehabilitation subsidy, land for building houses, and facilities for landowners. The 182-kilometer Expressway connecting Noida with Agra is being developed under the public-private partnership model and is yet another measure being undertaken by Mayawati as part of Operation Come-Back 2012.

Naxals Target W. Bengal Again

The Naxalites are at it again. A killing spree after a brief respite. The latest in their litany of protests is against the US President Barack Obama’s visit to India. To reinforce their angst, they killed eight persons in a span of 24 hours in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district, in Gaya, Bihar and Nabarangpur district in Orissa on a lazy Sunday last week. Those killed include three CPM supporters, two bomb disposal personnel and two villagers. This is not all. In Bihar’s Muzzaffarpur, the Maoists derailed ten wagons of a goods train and blasted a railway track. Notwithstanding Union Home Minister Chidambaram’s firm resolve to eradicate the killers’ scourge, political leaders in poll- bound Bihar and Trinamool’s Mamta in West Bengal continue to root for the Maoists.

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Assam’s Hindi Bashing

Perhaps taking a leaf out of the Maoists book, militants of the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (ndfb) have gunned down 22 people in a series of eight strikes in the last five days in Assam. Directing their guns at mostly Hindi-speaking inhabitants and Bengalis in two northern Assam districts. Ostensibly on the ground that the victims, employees of the Arunachal Pradesh Government, were mainland Indians and the Central Government’s representatives. This is not all. The NDFB has warned it would kill 20 people for every one cadre killed by the security forces. Notwithstanding the fact, that its top guns currently behind bars include its Chairman Ranjan Daimary, accused in the October 20, 2008 serial blasts that killed 92 persons. A cornered Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, will need to walk the hard talk.

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Abdullah Puts Foot In Mouth

The Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has put his foot in his mouth yet again by reiterating his earlier remark made in the State Assembly last month that Jammu and Kashmir had only acceded to and not merged with India. Maintaining that whatever he had said was factually correct he added for good measure that an elected member had to have the courage to say what he believed in. Leading to a shut down in Jammu city, called by the BJP to protest the Chief Minister’s views. Needless to say this is music to the ears of Islamabad which had left no stone unturned to proclaim Kashmir as a disputed territory. Adding to the Kashmir imbroglio and already suffering from “trust and governance deficit”, Omar’s latest diatribe is bound to further aggregate his uneasy relationship with the Centre.

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Happy Days For Eunuchs

Happy days are here for the much-maligned eunuchs. The Delhi Government is the latest entrant among the States to announce a monthly pension of Rs.1,000/- for each of them. The first to do so was Haryana in 2006, followed by Tamil Nadu which raised the bar by including welfare schemes for the trans-genders. Also, Madhya Pradesh boasts of a eunuch MLA and a Mayor. In Delhi alone, there are over two-three lakh eunuchs of which those above 45 years live in pitiable conditions sans proper nourishment and medical care. Only the ‘young’ and ‘attractive’ among the transgenders earn monies by their pesky extortions of people rejoicing at birth and marriage ceremonies. Undoubtedly the pension will add respectability to this shunned community.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)