Round The States

New Delhi, 29 August 2013

‘Vote Security Bill’

STATES’ POUND THE CENTRE

By Insaf

The Congress-led UPA may be upbeat with the passage of the “game changing” Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha, but it had to hear an earful from the States. Members from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Punjab were particularly vocal about how the Government was running roughshod over them. States should have been consulted before the Government sought to have the “vote security bill” passed was a common refrain. The justification being that the Bill would put additional burden on the States. Worse, there was no clarity about how it be implemented and who would be the beneficiaries. Additionally, many members raised the moot point that farmers would be badly hurt as there was no guarantee that all their produce would be bought by the Government and there was a lurking fear that many of them would opt out. Punjab was most concerned about the fact that there was no provision for food grain storage and how would the Centre propose to deal with it. Importantly, many members even took the opportunity to cite cases of their Government’s successful schemes of providing subsidized food grains to the people. Why didn’t New Delhi take a cue from us, they sought to know. Guess, 2014 would give an answer: Whether the Bill was an election gimmick or whether there was genuine concern for the country’s poor?

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Gujarat’s Change Of Heart

Gujarat has had a change of heart. Instead of being cussed against repairing religious places, mostly mosques, damaged in the 2002 riots, Chief Minister Narendra Modi has offered to do the needful. On Tuesday last, the State gave an assurance to the Supreme Court that it would shortly come up with a scheme to pay for the repair of the mosques as sought by the Islamic Relief Committee-Gujarat. The case goes back to 2003 when the IRCG petitioned the Gujarat HC pleading it direct the Government to repair 535-odd religious places, mostly mosques and Muslim shrines on grounds that the State was ‘custodian of life and property’ and had failed to in its duty. The HC did not accept Modi government’s argument that a ‘secular State’ was not liable for financing repair work of religious places and ordered the Government compensate for the riot-related damages. An adamant Modi went in for an appeal. But after 10 long years, the State Government has finally accepted its responsibility. The change of heart, however, is no pleasant surprise. With prime ministerial ambition being the driving force, Modi has little option but to woo the Muslim vote bank for big battle 2014.

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Rajasthan Waits for Asaram 

All eyes would be on Rajasthan. The State is gearing up for the high-profile case of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, mired in controversy. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met Home Minister Shinde in Delhi and assured that the State police would not come under any pressure while conducting its probe into the alleged sexual assault of a minor. This apart, the Jodhpur police, who has issued summons to Asaram is talking tough. It has warned that if he doesn’t show up, it would send teams to arrest him. This in the background that the 72-year-old ‘godman’ has sought extension for appearance on grounds that he already has pre-decided religious fixtures lined up till September 19! Additionally, Asaram has accused the Congress leadership of defaming him in a bid to embarrass the BJP, as he has got some support from leaders, including Uma Bharti and Prabhat Jha who have termed the charges as a “political conspiracy”. While he has offered to give Rs 5 lakhs to anyone who can prove the allegations against him, he must also prepare himself to prove his accusation against the Congress. The case is undoubtedly worth a close watch. 

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Terror Groups In States

The Centre’s war against terrorism is sadly not showing any encouraging signs. The recent statistics from States given out by the Union Home Ministry to Parliament are indeed worrying. Apparently, the Government has identified “65 terror groups” as being active in the country. Worse, of these 34 are in Manipur alone, followed by five in Jammu & Kashmir and three in Punjab. Terrorist groups such as HuJI, Hizb, LeT and Al-Badr are learnt to be active in the hinterland, particularly in Maharashtra, UP, Gujarat, Kerala, Rajasthan, Delhi, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The Centre has for convenience broadly categorised the activities of these groups into four slots: N-E States, J&K, Left-wing extremism affected States and hinterland of the country. But what should be of further concern is that these are said to be funded and supported by their parent outfits based abroad, particularly in Pakistan. Other than how it proposes to tackle this aspect, the Centre must take the States into confidence to build strategy to weed out these groups. Sooner the better, as statistics it should agree would be of little use.     

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Intolerant UP

Uttar Pradesh is reeking of intolerance. Both officials and citizens should be prepared to pay a heavy price if they fail to toe the ruling Samjawadi Party’s diktat, is a clear but unfortunate message. On Tuesday last, the District Magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar, was suddenly transferred without being given any charge. The case has made news as the DM had given a clean chit to Durga Shakti Nagpal, the SDM, whose suspension is now famous. While the Government attributes its action to violence erupting in the district during a demolition drive on Tuesday, the timing (a month since Nagpal’s suspension) suggests another motive—of paying a price for embarrassing the Government. As if taking a cue from the ruling class, two sons of an MLA bulldozed a doctor’s house under construction in Rae Bareli reportedly after he refused to pay them protection money, read Rs 20 lakhs. Worse, the police refused to file and FIR, but did so only after the doctors Association there threatened to go on strike. Will young Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav put his house in order or allow the voters’ repentance of voting out the BSP grow day-by day?  

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Arunachal Rape Shock

After Delhi and Mumbai gang rape cases, Arunachal Pradesh has hit the headlines. In a shocking revelation, a teacher-cum-warden had been allegedly raping and molesting 14 minor girls, aged between 4 and 13, over the past three years. The horrific violations came to light after some students took the courage and filed a police complaint. They reported that the accused would lure the girls to his room, molest them and later threaten them with dire consequences if they complained to their parents or school authorities. Though the teacher has been arrested, the school principal should not be spared. It is learnt that though the students had complained to him, he simply suppressed the issue. In all fairness, he too must be tried. There can be no two opinions. ----INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)