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Round
The States
New
Delhi, 30 April, 2016
Severe Heat Wave
States BECOME INNOVATIVE
By Insaf
The severe heat wave sweeping
across the country has created an unprecedented situation. Already, over 4204
people have died between January-March. Complicating the rising temperatures,
Union Capital Delhi with its highly polluted air not only has people gasping
for breath, worse; over 972 fires have broken out in the city. Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan and seven other States
are busy battling an acute water crisis leading to harsh drought with over 116
farmers committing suicides in the last three months. In Nitish Kumar’s Bihar the killer heat has made the State take recourse to
desperate initiatives including banning cooking and religious functions
involving fire between 9 am to 6 pm. Topped by over 66 people and 1200 animals
having perished in the heat wave. In Chhattisgarh, Telengana, Odisha and Andhra
Pradesh where temperatures range between 42 to 49 degrees schools have been
shut down and people told to remain indoors. In Gujarat
supply of water for irrigation has been stopped from dams even as over thousand
villages have been declared water deficient. The situation has come to such a
pathetic pass that there is no water for even the dead as rivers have dried up.
If this is the state in April people are looking skywards beseeching the
weather Gods to give some respite next month.
* * * *
Freebies
Galore In Tamil Nadu
In political poll season
freebies to woo voters is a given. But a Tamil Nadu candidate has taken gifting
to a new high by offering students extra marks for votes. In a WhatsApp message
the contestant who owns an engineering college has promised his students additional
marks in their internal exams if his pupils vote for him in the forthcoming
State polls. Needless to say this has made the task of the Election Commission
very difficult as the State is notorious for using innovative methods for
wooing the electorate. This is not all. To circumvent the eagle eyes of poll
officials, many others in the poll fray are handing out green and red tokens as
gift vouchers which can be encashed at select stores in their constituencies. Not
a few have taken recourse to dolling out “marked” currency notes ranging from
Rs.1000 to Rs.2000 which enables the voter to purchase goods. Some contenders have struck a novelle scheme
by giving cash to pawn broker shops in their constituency where people have
mortgaged jewellery or properties so that they can retrieve the same. So far, the
vigilant Election Commission with the help of Income Tax officials has been
able to nab Rs 50 crores, items like nose studs, anklets, wall clocks and many
other goodies. True this is the highest amount netted from any State so far, but
it is only the tip of the freebies iceberg!
* * * *
Janhit’s Ghar Wapasi
It took ten-long years for
Kuldip Bishnoi, Chief of the Haryana Janhit Congress to realise that he
belonged to the Congress. The grounds for his return and merger were
predictable: to keep the “communal forces” read BJP at bay. It’s another matter
that Janhit had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the Modi-led
Hindutva brigade. Recall, his late father and former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal formed
the HJC after the Congress picked his detractor Jat leader Hooda as Chief
Minister in 2005. Papering over the decade-long differences, Bishnoi justified
his return by reiterating the Congress was in “his blood” notwithstanding divergence
within the family. The Congress hopes the HJC leader’s Ghar Wapasi will help consolidate the non-Jat vote in the
caste-driven State. Bishnoi whose Party was reduced to a mere two seats in last
year’s Assembly polls, is keeping fingers crossed that like his late father he
too will occupy the Chief Ministerial gaddi
in the near future.
* * * *
Maharashtra’s Dance Bars
The Supreme Court has rapped Maharashtra for its cussedness to prohibit dance bars in
the State, asserting that it was better for women to work with dignity as
dancers rather than beg on the streets. To circumvent the Court’s order the BJP
Fadnavis Government unanimously passed the Dance Bars Regulation Bill with
stringent provisions like disallowing dance bars within a one kilometer radius
of an educational institute, recording a dancer’s performance and no liquor to
be served. Predictably, the judges again smacked the State for its prohibitive
mindset asking for “recording”, instead it ordered the Government to conduct surprise
checks on bars to ensure no hanky-panky. Pertinently, dance bars have had a
very chequered history. They were shut down by the then NCP-Congress Government
in March 2005, the Bombay High Court struck this down in August. Consequently,
the State appealed the Supreme Court which ordered reopening of dance bars last
month. It remains to be seen how long music and dance will play out in Mumbai’s
famous bars!
* * * *
Dynasty Rules The Roost In Kerala
Indian politics is all about
family ‘heir’looms and the Congress is pass master in the dynastic game. Any
wonder that Kerala is following in the footsteps of its Northern brethren lead
by Party President Sonia Gandhi in the progeny come first. Indeed, surprising
as this is happening in the most literate State in the country. A cursory
glance at the candidates in the forthcoming Assembly elections showcases over 16
seats where sons and daughters of prominent State leaders are in the fray, five
from the Congress-led UDF Government, IUML’s ex-Chief Minister’s son, heir of a former Minister
and chairman of Kerala Congress (B) and sons of Socialist Janatha Democratic
Party and Kerala Congress-J ex-Food Minister. What the ruling UDF can do, the
Opposition LDF can do better. It too is supporting the candidature of one of
its leader’s protégée. Dynasty Zindabad!
---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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