Round  The States

New Delhi, 15 February, 2013

Afzal Guru Hanging

J&K-CENTRE ONE-UPMANSHIP

By Insaf

Jammu & Kashmir has put New Delhi in a piquant situation. Following the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, its young Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his National Conference, an alliance partner both in the State and the UPA government has been of little help to contain the simmering anger in the Valley. In fact, his criticism of the Centre’s action as “selective hanging”, of expressing displeasure over not allowing Guru to meet his family before the execution, and backing the demand for the return of his body, has only made matters worse. The BJP, which had been demanding Guru’s execution and welcomed the action, has been provided unwarranted ammunition. It has been quick to object to Omar’s statements and questioned his sympathy towards Guru. Charging him with promoting separatism, the BJP has sought to know whether the Congress agreed with its coalition partner! A piqued Congress has rejected Omar’s accusations and justified capital punishment on grounds that as per the courts Guru’s case fell in the rarest of rare category. In all this political one-upmanship, will the parties consider restrain and let the Valley, under curfew, return to normalcy? Or will they be party to destroying the fragile peace?  

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Karnataka Lokayukta

Controversies never seize to exist in Karnataka. In the midst of uncertainty looming large over its continuation, the Jagadish Shettar BJP government seems to have invited fresh trouble. On Thursday last, Governor H R Bhardwaj appointed former Karnataka Chief Justice Y Bhaskar Rao as the Lokayukta, a post lying vacant for over a year and a half. Ironically, Bhaskar takes over the post of anti-corruption ombudsman despite allegations of corruption against him, similar to the ones faced by his predecessor Shivraj Patil. Recall, the latter had to resign in September 2011 following charges of illegal land allotment. In the present case, Bhaskar, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, is alleged to have got a plot allotted by the Judicial Department Employees House Building Cooperative through ‘legal violations’. While Rao has refused to comment on the charges, the Governor is happy that the Shettar government took the initiative of finding “a suitable candidate”. Hope his assessment is right and that a beleaguered BJP Government hasn’t bitten more than it can chew?     

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Gujarat BJP Upbeat

Gujarat has more good news for Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. On Tuesday last, the results of the civic elections called for jubilation at the State party headquarters in Gandhinagar. Of the 76 municipalities, the BJP won 47 and its main rival the Congress a handful of nine. Interestingly, Independents which have quite often played crucial role in the numbers game in State Assemblies did well in this election, with them emerging as a majority block in nine municipalities. Of the 1,905 seats across all municipalities, the BJP won 1,142, the Congress 442 and independents 290—of which 54 claimed the Gujarat Parivartan Party of Keshubhai Patel were its candidates. Further, the NCP seems to have made minor inroads into the neighbouring State by bagging 16 seats, followed by the BSP winning 13 and the SP a mere two. Modi obviously is upbeat as other than reiterating his hold over the State, the BJP continues to maul the Congress. Months after Assembly poll victory, the party has managed further eroded the Congress’ local by snatching 10 municipalities from it. Guess another feather in Gujarat leader’s cap to eye New Delhi?

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Tripura Polls

Three cheers to Tripura and its people. The one-day Assembly poll on Thursday last was peaceful with a voter turnout close to 92 per cent voters, like in 2008. In all, 249 candidates were in the fray for the 60-member Assembly with the dominant partner in the Left Front government, the CPM contesting 55 seats, the RSP and CPI two each and the Forward Bloc one. The Congress has contested 48 seats, its alliance partner, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) 11 and National Conference of Tripura one. The Left Front under the leadership of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar is hopeful for a record fifth term. Recall in 2008 it had a thumping victory wherein it bagged 49 seats, with Congress alliance barely managing to win 11. While both parties await the verdict eagerly, the two have failed miserably in their promise to empower women. Despite an increase in women voters, the number of women candidates’ has dropped by over half. Five years ago there were 31 candidates whereas today the number is down to 14—a mere 5 per cent of the total candidates. Guess, Tripura reiterates the political mood in the country of allowing the Women Reservation Bill to lie in limbo.  

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SP’s Maha Bad Luck

The Maha Kumbh mela has sadly not turned out to be all that auspicious for Samajwadi Party’s Uttar Pradesh Government. The stampede at Allahabad junction, in which 36 persons died, has unfortunately washed away the excellent work done by the mela administration to manage unprecedented crowds, as witnessed by Insaf. Worse, the incident was used by the Opposition to score brownie points with the members of the BSP and the RLD disrupting the first day of the Budget session of the Assembly and demanding a judicial inquiry into the stampede. The Governor sadly was forced to cut short the formalities. However, if the parties had their facts right, they should have trained their guns at the Railway authorities, which were clearly not prepared for the 1.5 lakh crowd at the station on that most auspicious day of the mela --“Mauni Amavasya”. Insaf learnt that a last minute announcement of change in a train’s platform triggered panic and the scramble led to the stampede on the foot over-bridge. An upset mela administration simply cannot fathom why the rail authorities didn’t delay the train so that it arrived on its original track? Had that been obvious step been considered, the SP’s mega planning of the Kumbh mela, which is drawing crores of pilgrims would have gone incident-free. Instead of getting brickbats it would have got the due kudos.   

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Andhra Home to Foreign Cos?

Andhra Pradesh can look forward to foreign firms eyeing it for their operations. According to a recent survey conducted by a global leader in property services, capital city of Hyderabad is the world's second most affordable office market after Surabaya in Indonesia. Chennai and Pune follow suit in fifth and sixth position respectively, among the 126 business districts surveyed across 49 countries. As against this New Delhi (Connaught Place) ranks the fifth most expensive office market in the world. However, for the two tier cities like Hyderabad, there is further good news. The survey suggests that with an improvement in global and domestic economies, office space absorption, which had taken a dip last year, will improve and that rentals in all probability shall appreciate across the country. Well, Hyderabad should keep its fingers crossed for good fortune and pray that the Telangana stir does not play spoilsport. ---INFA 

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)