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Hurriyat ‘Split’:J&K NC IN A CONUNDRUM?, By Insaf, 10 January, 2014 Print E-mail

Round The States

New Delhi, 10 January 2014

Hurriyat ‘Split’

J&K NC IN A CONUNDRUM?

By Insaf

 

The idiom running with the hare and hunting with the hound couldn’t be more apt for Jammu and Kashmir’s ruling National Conference. Like New Delhi, the party should be rejoicing the latest ‘split’ in the Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq after three of its leaders accused the chairman of turning the amalgam in to a “personal fiefdom”. The break follows Farooq writing to its PoK chapter not to entertain the three--chief of Democratic Freedom Party Shabir Shah, Nayeem Khan of National Front and Azam Inquilabi of Mahaz-e-Azadi. Sadly, the NC appears to be concerned over the spilt, notwithstanding the fact that its government is beleaguered every other day with the Hurriyat groups calling strikes and leading protests. Much to the chagrin of the Centre, NC’s additional general secretary Mustafa Kamal, who is also the uncle of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, is reported to have described the split as “the creation of Indian agencies and their attempts to weaken the on-going movement in Kashmir". Worse, he has urged the groups to unite for the sake of the people. Whose side is the NC on, is a question doing the rounds. The Hurriyat Conference was formed in the 90s to fight for the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. Since then the State has come a long way. Normalcy is bouncing back. Why is then the NC unhappy?  

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Big Break For Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh has reason to be hopeful in its fight against Left-wing extremism. On Wednesday last, top CPI (Maoist) leader and spokesperson of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, Gumudavelli Venkatakrishna Prasad alias ‘Gudsa Usendi’, surrendered along with his wife before the Anti Maoist Special Intelligence Branch, in Andhra Pradesh. Usendi is said to be the mastermind behind May last’s horrific Darbha Ghati massacre in which top Congress leaders were killed and many others in Chhattisgarh. While he has cited “health reasons” for putting down arms, the Centre sees it as the realisation of the futility of armed struggle and is keeping fingers crossed that more leaders follow and join the mainstream, given that along with the States, it assures treating them well as per the surrender and rehabilitation policy. However, the policy is not same everywhere, as Usendi’s case shows. He chose to surrender in AP rather than Chhattisgarh. The reason being the former offers better incentives and allows those who surrender to walk away with the cash reward announced on their heads. Perhaps, other than heaving a sigh of relief, Chhattisgarh may do well to take a re-look at its surrender policy, so that it too can take credit. 

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TN Poll Scene

Tamil Nadu is witnessing the turf war in the DMK family hotting up, in the midst of the party working out new poll alliances. Patriarch M Karunanidhi keen on a partnership with the DMDK, has adopted a no-nonsense approach to clinch the deal. Under fire is elder son M K Alagiri who tried to muddy the waters by saying the DMDK was ‘irrelevant’. Karunanidhi promptly warned him that anyone found violating party discipline would be expelled from primary membership. However, there’s more to it than meets the eye. While forming an alliance is important, it looks that Karunanidhi wants to sideline Alagiri completely and firm up his decision of passing on the baton to younger son M K Stalin. Apparently, the latest reprimand was the second in less than a week. The party recently disbanded the Madurai unit having Alagiri’s supporters and replaced it with Stalin’s. In the meantime, the Congress is closely watching the developments. Senior party leader and Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad called on the DMK chief in Chennai as a ‘courtesy call’. But it may not be so simple. With the DMK looking for new alliances, the Congress is keeping hope of weaning back its old ally. Will the turf war help?    

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Maharashtra NCP-Cong Hiccups

Maharashtra politics continues to be mired in intrigues. Will the NCP pull out of the alliance with the Congress as threatened, or is it just crying wolf? With an eye on 2014 Elections, the two partners lately look uneasy. On Wednesday last, Deputy CM and NCP leader Ajit Pawar is learnt to have gone hammer and tongs against Chief Minister Prithiviraj Chavan, for complacency in decision-making. With approvals hanging fire on various projects including irrigation, water, housing and electricity, Pawar threatened that his party would pull out, give outside support and that the Congress can ‘govern the State on its own’! This did the trick. For starters both leaders sat and approved cost escalation in 147 irrigation projects worth Rs 623 crore and decided to review the others. This latest hammering, interestingly comes a day after another NC leader and Union Minister Praful Patel was quoted as saying that Chief, Sharad Pawar is the most capable PM candidate and the UPA and not Congress will decide on it. Guess, there will be public posturing for sometime till the two make their own poll calculations. However, with AAP announcing it would contest all 48 Lok Sabha seats in the State, negotiations between the two partners look clearly tough.

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Rajasthan For Innovation

Rajasthan is in the race for new ideas. The BJP Government of Vasundhra Raje is contemplating bringing in a new legislation, “Good Governance Act”. This will not replace the previous Congress regime’s Right to Hearing Act and the Guaranteed Delivery of Public Services Act completely, but shall incorporate some of their provisions for prompt redressal of people’s grievances. Raje has thus asked her administration to be ‘innovative’ and has decided to set up a task force to study various laws, administrative orders of other States before putting down its initiative on paper. Trashing the previous Government’s grievances redressal system as ‘poor’, Raje has stressed on transparency, accountability and effectiveness. Words used by most governments? Yes, and Raje knows that too. So her government has embarked on setting up State-level redressal committees in addition to those at the district and sub-division level. The catch being that the performance of district committees will be judged on the basis of the number of grievances heard at the State level. For starters, it is good thinking. 

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MP U-Turn On Liquor Policy!

Madhya Pradesh Government’s U-turn on its liquor policy has raised many an eyebrow. While Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s reasoning is that he “couldn’t sleep at night” as his ‘earlier decision wasn’t right’, the Congress accuses him of “repaying the liquor mafia” for helping his party’s campaign. What is the truth? No guesses, as facts shall speak. On Wednesday last, the Cabinet decided to roll back its earlier decision (taken on Monday) of allowing Indian-Made Foreign Liquor to be sold at local thekas, country liquor shops. Licenses would have been given in settlements having over 5,000 people, and which didn’t have IMFL vends in a 10-km radius. The hope was thus to check spurious and illegal sale of IMFL as well as earn big revenue from fresh licenses. But it had a rethink. The Government realised it was ‘committed to eradicate alcoholism’ and not allow new outlets. The dilemma, however, persists— spurious liquor causes death and legalised sale of IMFL in the countryside may reduce the cases. Which decision was right, will be known soon. Hic! ---INFA

 

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

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