Round The States

New Delhi, 30 May 2013

Chhattisgarh Naxals Bloodbath

BLAME GAME ERUPTS, WHAT NEXT?

By Insaf

It’s political slugfest time following the dastardly killing of Congress’s top leaders in Chhattisgarh’s tribal-dominated Darbha region by Naxalalites on Saturday 25 May. The Party has squarely blamed the BJP’s Raman Singh State Government for providing lackadaisical security which killed its State President Nand Kumar Patel, his son and Salwa Judam founder Mahendra Karma among 27 others and critically injured 30 others including former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister VC Shukla. The Congress convoy was enroute to a meeting as part of it Parivartan Rally. The Party has also questioned the shifting of a CRPF camp from Darbha just seven days prior to the attack as the Intelligence Bureau had informed the State Government about a likely major offensive in the region. The BJP hit back by accusing its rival of trying to encash on the situation in the Assembly elections in November and talked of Congress leaders allegedly involvement.  

Undeniably, this worst-ever Maoist strike is the first time that the Red brigade has targeted the political class instead of policeman and local public representatives. Recall, the last major attack was in 2010 when 76 security personnel were murdered in Dantewada. An angry Centre has made plain its plan to hit back with a vengeance. Towards that end it has deployed many battalions of para-military forces to flush out the Red brigade. Simultaneously, the NIA is investigating the assault while the State Government has constituted a judicial commission to probe it. Sadly, however the Union Cabinet is sending mixed signals. Two senior Ministers want a continuation of the “soft approach of talks tempered with development” while not a few feel a hard line followed in Andhra’s annihilation of the Naxals should be pursued. Either which way, both the Centre and State have to seize the moment and take the Maoist bull by the horns. They can no longer be allowed to play ducks and drakes with human life. What gives? 

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UPA Pats Orissa

Believe it or not Odisha rule by BJD has earned a pat on its back from the Congress-led UPA Government for its State’s public-private partnership in the health sector, despite not ranking high in health indicators. Keeping political differences aside, the Centre asserted that the State model was worth emulating during a first ever workshop of state health secretaries on National Urban Health Mission (NUHM). It cited Odisha’s PPP guidelines for urban slum health projects and for urban health centres in seven cities drawn up by the NUHM. This comes of the heels of the Union Urban Development Ministry lauding Gujarat for its land-use policy. Both Naveen Patnaik and Narendra Modi are rubbing their eyes in this belief at the Congress accolades.

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Mamta Bans Rallies

West Bengal’s stormy petrel Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has done the unthinkable, banned holding meetings and rallies in Capital Kolkata’s ‘heart’ on the fallacious grounds of the police lacking "adequate infrastructure" to control such programmes, and also not inconvenience citizens. Undeniably, sparking strong protests from her rivals. Nine out of eleven parties called for a meeting by Kolkata Police Commissioner have vehemently opposed this decision with the CPM accusing it of strangulating democracy. It seems maverick Mamata was prompted by two incidents, one the death of a Student Federation of India activist under controversial circumstances during its rally held in the Capital recently. Two, the assault by Socialist Unity Centre of India member’s on the Police last week. It remains to be seen if Mamata’s decision will hold?

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Kerala Controversy Over Modi

Controversy could well be the middle name of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi wherein he has once again engineered a storm during a recent visit to God’s Own Country Kerala. This time via an article ‘What if Modi visits Shivagiri’ in a local daily by an IAS officer who is also Kerala’s Veterinary University Vice-Chancellor. This has landed the official in trouble with the State Government initiating steps to remove him. Simply because, the official has questioned the protests by Parties against Modi's visit to Shivagiri Mutt in Varkala. Namely, that if Modi could not be welcomed, it should also be remembered that the Shivagiri Mutt did not hold it against Rajiv, Sonia or Prime Ministers for the rioting following Indira Gandhi’s assassination at New Delhi in 1984.  Further, he criticized Congress Vice President for refusing to visit the Mutt, adding, “Selective boycott of Modi reveals double standards”. An upset State Congress leadership once again underscores the dictum ‘more loyal than the King’! 

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Haryana-Delhi Water Spat

It is now Congress-ruled States of Haryana and Delhi which are squabbling over water. The former has categorically turned down Delhi’s demand for more water. In fact Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has even opposed referring the contentious issue on Munak canal, funded by Delhi, to a ministerial group. Haryana which was supplying water to Wazirabad pond through a canal faced problems as it was old and there was a lot of leakage. Delhi thus stepped in and built the new one in the hope of course that it would get its share of water. However, on Tuesday last Hooda played spoilsport at a meeting called by the Centre. He has claimed that he is supplying more than the share of the water agreed for Delhi and that the latter has to plug the “unauthorised cut” it has made in the Munak canal. In all this spat, the worst hit are going to be Dwarka residents, who are facing water shortage. Worse, its drinking water. Given that the two States are both Congress-ruled, fingers are being crossed that the two arrive at an amicable settlement. Sooner the better.    

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Fight Sex Crimes? Ban Mannequins

Trust the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to come out with an out of the blue nouvelle idea of fighting sex crime: it wants lingerie mannequins banned. On the grounds that the display of bikini-clad figurines outside shops selling seductive nightwear could “pollute minds and wrong acts by men in today’s generation” leading to rapes in the country.  Not only this. It pre-supposes that women would feel awkward in front of the scantly two-piece clad mannequins. It cites the provisions of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, which states “indecent representation of women means the depiction in any manner of the figure of a women; her form of body or any part thereof in such way as two have the effect of being indecent or derogatory to, or degenerating women, or is likely to deprave, corrupt or injure public morals. It remains to be seen how statues can result in less sex crimes? ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)