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Round The
States
New Delhi, 12 June 2015
Delhi
Arrest
WHAT ABOUT
UNION MINISTERS?
By Insaf
The Delhi Vs Centre big fight is getting murkier.
While the Lt Governor Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are slugging it
out showing the rule book to each other on bureaucrats’ appointments, the
arrest of Delhi Law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar may open a can of worms
elsewhere. Even as Tomar has been booked and jailed for fake degrees by the
Delhi police and put in his papers, the BJP at the Centre may have won this war
but the battle continues. The AAP now is gunning for other political parties
and may well up the ante against Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani, as also two
other Union Ministers Nihal Chand Meghwal and RS Katheria. Irani is embroiled
in a controversy over her educational qualification, wherein she has given
conflicting affidavits of her graduate degrees. While in 2004, she stated she
had obtained BA, from Delhi University, in another affidavit in 2014 she
submitted she had completed Part I of BCom! Likewise, Katheria is charged with
falsely claiming to have had work experience of three years in an Etawah
college, also in UP, when he applied for the post of reader in an Agra college
in 1999. Meghwal is alleged to be involved in a rape case in Rajasthan. The
Congress too has jumped into the fray and wants the police to show the same
alacrity in these cases as it has done in Tomar’s case. While Kejriwal claims
high moral ground by asking his minister to quit promptly, the Centre is
sitting pretty. Will the tainted canvass become bigger or remain confined to
Delhi? It remains to be seen who will blink first.
* * * *
Cong States
Assail Modi
Is it an all-out war between the nine Congress-ruled
States and the Centre? While the former scream ‘discrimination’, the latter
rubbishes it as ‘false allegations’. The rumblings in the nine States were
voiced by Chief Ministers at a meeting in Delhi called by the party High
Command. The bottomline being that the much-touted “cooperative federalism” of
Modi was a farce. The States were being short changed. Clear pointers being:
North-east CMs waiting since a month for a meeting with Prime Minister Modi,
losing their special status, cuts in social sector affecting their schemes, no
money being transferred as claimed per 14th Finance Commission, et
al. But the States—Manipur, Assam, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Kerala, have resolved “our people
will not suffer...we will find funds from the States kitty for social sector”
and threatened not to allow the Goods and Services Tax Bill and the land
acquisition Bill unless changed. The tirade prompted BJP and Finance Minister
Jaitley to hit back. It accused the Congress of doing its ‘best to disrupt the
constitutional framework of federalism.’ Armed with figures, States, they said
were getting Rs 1.4 lakh crore more this year! Much more shall follow. The
people will judge who is more convincing.
* * * *
Political
Alignment In Bihar
Mission impossible has been achieved in Bihar, much
to the chagrin of the BJP. After dithering for a while, the RJD-JD(U) have not
only decided to tie the know but Lalu Yadav has agreed to Nitish Kumar being
the chief ministerial candidate for the ensuing Assembly polls. Both the
Congress and the Samajwadi Party played a major role in getting the anti-BJP
grouping finally in place. However, another major hurdle i.e. of seat-sharing
has to be overcome as the division and distribution would be critical, given
the fact that there is no such ‘anti-BJP’ vote bank barring perhaps of the
Muslim vote. On its part, while the BJP with Ram Vilas Paswan in tow and now
Jitan Ram Manjhi may publicly seek to play down the alliance, winning Bihar is
very crucial for it. With the Modi magic miserably failing in Delhi, Amit Shah
can ill-afford a consecutive loss. Not only will Nitish and team play the
social justice and secularism cards, it will also showcase “good governance”,
which
Round The
States ...2
incidentally is the BJP’s mantra. As of now, the BJP
doesn’t have much to offer, not even a Chief Ministerial candidate. The run-up
to the big battle is going to be engrossing for sure.
* * * *
State Watch
On Yoga
The Government has been burning the midnight oil to
ensure the International Yoga Day is observed at a grand scale, in the country
and abroad. While it is at ease with the response from the global community
(192 countries to participate), on the home front there is reason for stress.
The Day has got embroiled in a controversy with Muslim organisations objecting,
fearing it is Modi’s way of imposing the Hindu agenda. However, Foreign
Minister Sushma Swaraj has been quick to assert that yoga is not linked to
religion and participation was ‘voluntary and not binding’. In its role, the
AYUSH Ministry has written to all States to celebrate the Day by organising
events at the district and panchayat level. It is confident that there will be
activities in the 650 districts, as one NGO for each district has been invited
for preparatory yoga training. Additionally, all Ministers and BJP MPs are
directed to help organise and mark their attendance at their place of choice.
Of course, other than a State watch, all eyes would be on Rajpath on June 21,
which will host the largest class of yoga to enter the Guinness World Record.
Nothing is being left to chance.
* * * *
Better Rail
Stations
Railway stations in towns and villages across the
country may well get a make-over. This, provided the NRIs come to the aid of
Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu, who with officials has a plan for small stations,
which normally get overshadowed. Rail Bhavan seeks to tap the NRIs, to take up
station development works in their native villages and towns and upgrade its
passenger amenities. Importantly, it has decided to tap the Indian community
abroad. Embassies in US, Canada and Australia, where the number is sizeable,
are being approached to reach out to the NRIs willing to adopt stations and
take credit, which is normally the case.
At the same time, the Railways plan to tap the Corporates, NGOs and even
private individuals and has its guidelines in place. And, while it awaits the
green signal from Cabinet, it is hoping that similar plans pick up speed. It
has got the nod for allowing MPs to use their land development funds for
upgrading stations in their constituencies. It’s keeping its fingers crossed
that the people’s representatives are on track. ----INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
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