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Round The
States
New Delhi, 22 July 2017
One Flag, One Nation
KARNATAKA GIVES A DAMN
By Insaf
Karnataka has created
a flutter, gearing for a face-off with New Delhi. Congress government of Siddaramaiah
sprung a surprise on Tuesday last, saying there will be a State flag! A panel
has been set up to submit a report on its ‘designing and legal standing’. The
issue of having a flag says law minister is a “grey area” as none of the Acts
have a mention, barring of course the national flag. However, the Centre is
firm “We are one nation, one flag. Legally there is no provision either for
providing or prohibiting a separate flag for any State.” Interestingly, the
southern State has a flag, which Delhi notes, represents “people and not
government”. But it is mired in a court case, with even the previous BJP
government against a separate flag as it was against ‘unity and integrity of
the country”. But Siddaramaiah is insistent and says State flag would be hoisted
always below the Tricolour and asks whether “the BJP people don’t want a flag
for Karnataka.” The question unwittingly lets the cat out of the bag. The State
is to go to polls next April, and perhaps this is how Chief Minister hopes he
may be able to stop the BJP’s victory bandwagon from rolling on. Playing to the
Kannada sentiment!
* * * * * *
States
Divide Sharper
Notwithstanding the
Presidential poll was a foregone conclusion, Ram Nath Kovind’s resounding
victory should have the Congress-led ‘united’ Opposition re-assess its support
base and reach out to the fence sitters. Indeed, it would need to introspect
and do a lot more, if it seeks to remain relevant. For the battle between the
non-NDA ruled States and those ruled by it, has become all the more sharper. On
the one hand, the Congress-ruled States of Punjab and Karnataka and TMC-ruled
West Bengal got candidate Meira Kumar to get more votes than Kovind, the
NDA-ruled States including Gujarat, Goa, Jharkhand, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh
got him to beat her convincingly. Additionally, there seems to have been
cross-voting in some States, including Uttar Pradesh, wherein the SP was
divided. But while this would not cause much worry, efforts would need to be
made to reach out to leaders of TRS, JD(U), BJD and AIADMK, before 2019, if it
needs to put up a credible challenge to the BJP. Sooner the better!
* * * * * *
TN
Shameful Irony
Tamil Nadu portrays irony
and shame, to say the least. The people’s representatives have given themselves
a near double raise in salaries and allowances and couldn’t give a damn to the
demands of the debt-ridden farmers’ agitating for over a month for waiver of
loans and drought relief funds! On Wednesday last, the Palaniswami government announced
the hike. This should see MLAs getting Rs
1.05 lakh per month instead of Rs 55,000, inclusive all allowances; a raise in Constituency
Development Scheme to Rs 2.50 crore instead of Rs 2 crore. Of course, the Chief
Minister, Ministers, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Leader of Opposition and
Government Chief Whip too have a finger in the financial pie. Then there is a
raise in pension (Rs 20,000 from Rs 12,000) for ex-MLAs and members of defunct Legislative
Council and the Assembly watch and Ward staff too. Journalists and kin of late
MLAs have too been given a pension raise. The timing makes one cringe. The southern
State is going through the worst droughts in 140 years, and 19 farmers are
reported to have committed suicide in past 10 months. Worse, while Assembly Speaker
said he was happy to see happiness on MLAs faces, what about the anguish writ
large on the farmers?
* * * * * *
Fury
In Himachal
Fury is raging in
Shimla. The police’ mishandling of the rape-murder case of a Class 10th
girl and the death of one of the accused in the lock up has forced the people
to come out on the streets. On Wednesday last, Himachal’s capital witnessed a
shutdown of shops, offices and schools and worse, a mob of 2000-odd people
burnt vehicles and set the police station afire, where the main suspect is said
to have killed one (a Nepalese labourer) of the five men held for the gruesome
crime. With tempers rising, the State High Court has stepped in and directed the
CBI to handle the case and three senior police officers transferred. The
Opposition had a successful bandh on Thursday last and demanded that the Vid
Bhadra Singh government be sacked. The politics of it all, unfortunately would
only add to the misery of the girl’s family. It claims those arrested are “not
the real culprits” as they were told the accused belonged to “high-profile
families and were on the run.” Will it get justice and calm eventually prevail?
* * * * * *
States,
Not Centre’s Responsibility
Curbing cow vigilantism
is your headache not ours, is a terse message from the Centre to the States/UTs.
The Home Ministry has issued an advisory to respective governments asking them
to mandatorily register FIRs in all untoward incidents happening in the name of
cow protection. The argument being that State governments primarily have the responsibility
to maintain law and order, protect life and property and check incidents of
attacks on Muslims, Dalits, cattle traders, beef eaters, and dairy farmers.
Obviously, the Modi government is concerned over getting the flak that
incidents are not only rising but tarnishing its image and the ‘gau rakshaks’ playing merry hell. Will
the States now follow the Ministry and ensure compulsory filing of an FIR for
cognisable offences irrespective of territorial jurisdiction, and that a copy
is made available? Or will they seek to score brownie points and pass on the
buck to the Centre. Sadly, this may turn out to be one hell of a
merry-go-round, this monsoon Parliament session.
* * * * * *
BJP’s
Kerala Embarrassment
The BJP in Kerala is
embarrassed pink. While Party president Amit Shah has been burning the midnight
oil to make inroads into the Left bastion, his State unit has got entangled in
a corruption case, forcing the State unit chief to order an internal probe. Much
to its chagrin, the convenor of the party’s cooperative cell has admitted to
having taken a bribe of Rs 5.60 crore from a private medical college in lieu of
MCI’s recognition. Many faces saw red when the media reported that the convenor
paid this money to a Delhi-based middleman through a hawala dealer in the State
and the Chairman of S R Educational and Charitable Trust, Varkala had lodged a
formal complaint with the BJP in mid-May. He had alleged that Rs 17 crore was
initially demanded and worse the amount given was not passed on to the MCI officials.
In its report, the BJP notes the corruption charges as “very serious and cannot
be allowed under the party regime at the Centre”. What action is finally taken
and whether the money is returned, is worth a watch. Till then it may try to
turn around the situation to its advantage. After all wasn’t it upholding
Modi’s dictum of “Naa khaunga aur na
khane doonga” (won’t take bribe, nor allow it)! ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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