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Round The States
New Delhi, 11 February, 2017
TN
Turmoil
KISSA KURSI KA
By Insaf
All eyes are on Tamil Nadu. The
bitter political battle in the AIADMK for the hot kursi is suspense-ridden. With both care taker Chief Minister O
Paneerselvam and General Secretary Sasikala staking claim to head the
Government, the ball is clearly now in Governor Vidyasagar Rao’s court. Drama
continues to unfold, with even the possibility of President Rule being imposed
in the State not being ruled out. This after silence from Raj Bhavan after both
the leaders met him separately on Thursday last. While Sasikala went to him with
a list of 130 MLAs supporting her, OPS didn’t disclose the numbers with him but
was confident “good thing will happen, dharma will win.” It is however,
reported he submitted a memorandum seeking more time to prove his majority, as
MLAs were switching sides. After all he had triggered the drama by first
supporting Sasikala, then doing a U-turn, claiming he was ‘forced to resign’
from the post to pave way for her, and was now willing to withdraw his
resignation if people so desired. Can he do so? Will Governor Rao soon ask for
a floor test or take his time seeking advice, from the Centre too? Or may even
decide to wait for the Supreme Court verdict on Sasikala’s disproportionate
asset case? Nagging questions alright, but one thing is certain: political
drama of proving their strength has already weakened the AIADMK.
* * * *
Bengal Bending
Rules
The TMC-ruled West
Bengal suffers another setback. Its Advocate General Jayanta Mitra
and his deputy Lakshmi Gupta have resigned. In what can be construed as an
indictment of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s functioning, Jayanta told a TV
channel: “There are things and situations when I have advised that doing a
certain thing may not be legal, but then I was asked to work around it. I am
not someone who is in favour of bending the law. Such differences were
happening more than often and had started accumulating between us, and hence I
decided to quit respectfully.” Incidentally, Mitra is the third AG appointed by
TMC who has resigned since the party came to power in 2011. The first, Anindya
Mitra quit after a-year-and-a-half, followed by Bimal Kumar Chattopadhyay,
whose tenure lasted a little over two years. Further, Jayanta was not always
kept in the loop on key legal matters. The latest being Maintenance of Public
Order (Amendment) Bill, 2017, proposed to make vandals pay for any damage to
public and private property. The Opposition is up in arms and claims its ‘draconian.’
Had Didi consulted the AG, perhaps
the ongoing Assembly session may have been spared the ruckus. But then she
wouldn’t be maverick Mamata.
* * * *
Haryana
& Its Jats
Haryana is tense and edgy. The
demand for Jat reservation has raised its ugly head again. Chief Minister
Khattar is hoping that the five-member panel formed under Chief Secretary would
find a way out to the perennial problem, which has obvious political overtones.
Apart from reservation in education and government jobs, the demands of the
Jats, under the All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, include release of
youths from jails who were arrested in last year’s agitation, withdrawal of
cases and government jobs for the kin of those killed and injured in the stir.
Recall, 30-odd persons lost their lives and property worth crores was burnt and
damaged in last February violent and ugly protests. So far, the recent
protests, into the 2nd week have been peaceful but the
administration can’t be complacent. The State has been put on ‘maximum alert’
with paramilitary forces deployed in sensitive areas across around 19
districts. However, there is need for more. The committee would need to burn
the midnight oil, as the Jats propose to observe February 19 as ‘Balidan Divas’ (Sacrifice Day) in
memory of those killed last year. Tempers could run high and with some khap
panchayats and students lending support to the stir, Khattar may have too much
on his plate to handle.
Assam’s Educated Jobless Youth
Assam could put Modi’s ‘Skill India’
initiative to test. Shockingly, over 15 lakh educated youth are unemployed in
this north eastern State. But the number is bound to be higher as the figure of
15,23,531 is the one registered by the Government. While the BJP-ruled State
may use this politically to flog the previous Congress government’s
incompetence and misrule, it must see it as a big challenge. Both the Centre
and State must keep in mind that the unrest in Kashmir
has a lot to do with its unemployed educated youth, among other burning issues.
So does the Government have a plan? Yes, says its Industry minister. For
starters the Government proposes to provide skill development training to 1.5
lakh youth to make them employable in 2017-18. Further, it proposes to “talk to
all the new industries coming to the State and ask for their manpower
requirements.” Accordingly, it will provide the manpower and the industries
would take skilled youths. The big question is how many new industries will be
eyeing the State? It is no secret that industrial development has been
inhibited by the political isolation of the State.
* * * *
UP Tops
Communal Violence
Poll-bound Uttar Pradesh lives up to
its notorious law and order reputation. While on the one hand Home Ministry is
relieved that cases of communal violence across the country registered a fall
last year (703 against 751 in 2015), UP sadly has played spoilsport. The SP-ruled State fails to improve its conduct and
had 162 cases of communal violence last year, as against 155 cases in 2015.
Worse, these add up to a quarter of all cases put together! Another Opposition State, Karnataka fared poorly with 101
cases of communal violence. But BJP-ruled States provided no consolation
either. Both Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh
reported 68 and 57 cases of communal violence respectively, but the numbers
were down. On the other hand, TMC-ruled West Bengal
saw an increase from 27 cases in 2015 to 32 in 2016. But some States and Union Territories
including Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram,
Sikkim, Puducherry and Chandigarh offered good
news—not a single case of communal violence was reported. While law and order
is State governments responsibility, the Centre is prodding them to follow its
set of communal harmony guidelines. In the hope that 2017 has a further drop in
the “notoriety chart”.
* * * *
Airports
Sans Personalities
Cities may soon take over
personalities, if the Centre decides to ruffle feathers in various States and
political camps. Apparently, the Civil Aviation Ministry is said to be toying
with the idea of renaming existing airports along with future greenfield airports after cities and not
personalities. These would include major airports such as Indira
Gandhi International
Airport in Delhi,
Rajiv Gandhi
International Airport
in Hyderabad, Chhatrapati
Shivaji International
Airport in Mumbai and Kempegowda International Airport
in Bengaluru. While the Ministry’s reasoning is this would avoid ‘inconvenience
caused to passengers and foreign tourists who may not be familiar with Indian
personalities,’ Congress governments particularly and non-BJP parties smell a
rat. Is it part of Modi’s plan of Congress-mukt Bharat, and erasing memories?
By clubbing all airports it shields itself against charge of vendetta. However,
it will be interesting how New Delhi deals with
Haryana’s demand for changing the upcoming Shaheed
Bhagat Singh
International Airport,
Chandigarh to Dr Mangal Sein International
Airport, Chandigarh
– after former Dy CM of Haryana (1977-79) and a pracharak of RSS! Doing away
with personalities is tricky indeed.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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