ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 31 January 2008

BJP, Congress Strategies

STATES READY FOR POLLS

By Insaf

The six BJP-ruled States have begun preparations for the 10 Assembly polls and next year’s General Election. Reinvent and repackage was the sum and substance of the Party’s National Executive conclave held last week in Delhi. On the anvil was a resurgent Hindutva jazzed up with a heavy dose of development and welfare schemes. All modeled on Brand Modi, the success story scripted by the Gujarat Chief Minister in the recent Assembly polls. Along with a macho response to terrorism, a robust foreign policy and forward-looking economic programmes. It is attempting to position itself as a middle class and aam aadmi friendly Party. Both crippled by the soaring-price levels, high-cost education, sky-scraping cost of health care and high-cost housing.

Accusing the UPA of jeopardising national security by viewing it through the prism of vote-bank politics, the Saffron Sangh buttressed its concern by reeling of figures of the terrorists spreading their tentacles from J& K to the North East, UP, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and even Kerala. In fact, J&K recorded only 1,092 terrorism-related incidents and 271 deaths compared to the North-East which had 1,316 incidents and 501 deaths in 2007. Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were the two States worst hit by Left-wing extremist violence in 2007, together accounting for 68.16 per cent of the incidents and 76.42 per cent of the killings. Moreover, while admitting that there were several States where neither its coalition partners nor it had a presence it called for the need to broadbase the NDA.

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Congress Plays Dalit Card

The Congress too is not lagging behind in poll preparedness. After minority appeasement it’s the turn to reach out to the Dalits, specially in UP. The Gandhi scion and General Secretary Rahul Gandhi led the reconciliation efforts by making an unscheduled night stop, eating and sleeping in the house of a Dalit villager in Jawaharpur in his constituency, Amethi last week. The outreach effort is significant as the UP Chief Minister, BSP supremo and Dalit icon Mayawati, has emerged as a strong rival for the community’s votes in several States where the Congress is in power. In the recent Gujarat polls not a few Congress candidates lost thanks to the BSP eating into its vote share. Recall, since Independence the Muslims and the Scheduled Caste and Tribes comprising an 18 per cent vote share have been the raison d atre for the Party lording over the country for over 45 years. Will it strike rich?

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Arunachal Gets Security Makeover

Arunachal Pradesh is all set to get a security makeover. The appointment of former Army Chief J.J. Singh as the State Governor stands testimony to New Delhi’s intentions of tackling the insurgency problem and growing activities across the border by the Chinese in all seriousness. The Prime Minister too has just returned from a long overdue two-day visit to the strife-torn State. Especially against the background of increasing actions by the Chinese across the border. Reportedly, Beijing has built roads, rail link and a township along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Also, the Chinese have made plain their intention that they consider Arunachal as part of their country. Only a fortnight back, the Congress MP from the State had accused the Chinese army of destroying a Buddhist statue in the Tawang region. The Congress has mooted the idea to immediately create the North-East Indian Border Regiment with local youths to tackle insurgency in the sensitive region which has become a safe haven for anti-terrorist elements.  All fingers are crossed that the new Governor will succeed in crying a halt to both the problems.

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J&K Govt Corrupt Travails Continue

The corruption travails of the Ghulam Nabi Azad Government in Jammu & Kashmir continue. Barely had the unseemly controversy over the resignation of Education Minister and PCC chief Peerzada M Sayeed died, that the State has been rocked by another scandal. The National Conference has now demanded the scalp of two PDP ‘tainted’ Ministers Qazi Afzal and Tariq Hamid Karra, in the forest scam. With the State slated to go to polls later this year, the Chief Minister finds himself squeezed between a rock and a hard place. If Azad refuses to relent, the NC will not let the House function. If he accepts their demand, he will have to prove corruption charges against the PDP duo, something that the B R Kundal panel report on forests has not done. And if he sacks them, his Government fall. As for the NC, after hitting the Congress in the belly over Sayeed, it is now keen to see that the PDP does not survive unscathed as it has emerged as its alternative. It remains to be seen who will have the last laugh!

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Kidney Scam Shakes Up Health Ministry

If nothing else, the 100-crore kidney scandal in Gurgaon has made the Union Health Ministry sit up and rethink its organ transplant policy. Gurgaon has hit the headlines for over a week following the unearthing of the kidney racket in which about 600 poor labourers were made victims by Dr Santosh Raut alias Dr. Amit Kumar, who is on the run. The doctor largely catered mainly to the rich and foreigners, who paid Rs 18-25 lakh per kidney, whereas the donor may have got Rs 50,000. This is so because while 1.5 lakh patients need kidney transplant every year only 3,500 manage to get it. Not only has the Health Ministry been forced to re-look its Transplantation of Human Organs Act, whereby only near relatives can donate kidneys, but it has started thinking of incentives for organ donations, such as free education and health insurance. Ministry officials have made various trips overseas to study best practices in organ donations. It’s time they start acting or else another Gurgaon-like scandal can play merry hell with the lives of the poor.

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Bastar New Haven For Maoists

The Chhattisgarh government of Dr. Raman Singh can no longer sit pretty to a glaring threat of extremism. Its territory is being used as training ground for Maoists cadres, with Bastar being the new haven. According to intelligence reports, the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) is running four camps in the jungles of Bijapur and Dantewada districts and Abujhmarh forests. At any given time about 1,500-2,000 cadres from various States are being trained for carrying out attacks and handling sophisticated arms and explosives. In all 186 districts in the country are affected by Maoist violence and 39 per cent of all such incidents are reported from Chhattisgarh. The extremists, it may be recalled carried out one of the worst attacks in the State last March, killing 55 policemen in a camp. The Union Home ministry needs to push Dr Singh’s government to formulate a strategy to quell the Maoists rebellion, as done by Andhra Pradesh, lest the Maoists support base continues to grow.

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Ashes Immersed, Few Remember Bapu

It was a historic moment. But only a few hundreds in Mumbai chose to witness it. Sixty years after the Mahatma’s assassination, the last consignment of his ashes was immersed in the sea off South Mumbai on Wednesday. The journey started at Gamdevi’s Mani Bhavan with a morning prayer and the urn containing the ashes was then taken in a mini truck to Chowpatty, where the Gandhi family, led by Nilamben Parikh, great granddaughter, carried out the final ritual. Unfortunately, the meager gathering of the common man en route and at Chowpatty, which otherwise witnesses’ mammoth crowds during festivals, was a pointer to a disturbing thought that the father of the nation is forgotten. Can Munna Bhai please do something? ---INFA

 (Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)