Round The States
New Delhi, 6 January 2018
Maha Dalit Protests
CASTE POLITICS TAKES TOLL
By Insaf
Alarm bells start to sound
louder in the aftermath of the Dalit protests in Maharashtra. The violence that
was unleashed in the State early this week has brought politics of caste and
religion into sharper focus and the din political parties create in the blame
game. For starters, the clash between dalit groups and supporters of right-wing
Hindu organisations in Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune, which triggered
violence, must be viewed as another manifestation of the growing anger amongst
the underprivileged. Add to this, the bandh called by ‘Bharip Bahujan
Mahasangh’, a day later was effective and brought Mumbai to a standstill. While
the BJP government may eventually have restored some semblance of order, its actions
smack of partiality, which we are seeing in other States too. On the one hand,
it fails to take firm action against Hindu leaders of Shivraj Pratishthan and Hindu
Ekta Aghadi for inciting the violence in the village, and on the other, its police
in Pune books Dalit leader and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and student leader
Umar Khalid for making “provocative” speeches and its counterpart in Mumbai refuse
permission for a programme to be attended by the two, and rounds up a 100-odd
students and activists. This selective action could further ignite resentment,
particularly among the younger generation. Time to go beyond vote bank
politics, both at the State and Central level.
* * * * * *
Bengal-Assam
Tussle
West Bengal is
gearing up for a battle with Assam, which may just backfire. Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee has trained her guns at the Sonowal government after the first
draft of National Register of Citizens (NCR) was released in Assam, accusing it
of ‘conspiring to drive out Bengalis from the State.’ Her MPs too lodged a protest
in Delhi. On Thursday last, the TMC group protested in Parliament premises and
in the Lok Sabha repeating her concern and demanding “Bengali-speaking people
living there for generations must be allowed to stay on.” Union Home Minister
Rajnath Singh sought to dispel fears saying NRC work was being supervised by
the Supreme Court and no one should feel concerned as those who have been left
out can approach a tribunal. However, this may not douse the fire. Assam
government has hit back saying Mamata’s remarks were not only provocative, but
insulting to people of the State. The State police has registered an FIR
against Mamata following a complaint by a lawyer in Guwahati saying her speech
attempts ‘to promote enmity between different groups on ground of language.’ Who
will have the last laugh?l
* * * * * *
Delhi
RS Choice
The Aam Aadmi Party’s
choice of the three Rajya Sabha members has raised many an eyebrow. They hardly
meet the criteria of sending “eminent persons’ as set out by party supremo
Arvind Kejriwal. The three, Sanjay Singh is member of the party’s Political Affairs
Committee, a trusted lieutenant of Kejriwal and is the ‘Sankat Mochan’(who resolves conflicts), N D Gupta, a CA, (in the backdrop that AAP is engulfed in IT
notices over fund raising through “dubious means”) and Sushil Gupta, a
crorepati businessman, former Congress member, who joined AAP only a month ago!
Will this trigger a revolt in the party, is the big question? For one, founder
member Kumar Vishwas was keenly eyeing the seat and is sulking. While coming
weeks need to be watched, the fact that 18 eminent personalities from different
fields, including Raghuram Rajan, Justice (Retd) TS Thakur and Kailash
Satyarthi, are said to have declines when approached by AAP top brass, speaks
volumes of the reputation the party enjoys in the capital city. Will the three,
who are set to win, perform well to change perception?
* * * * * *
Odisha
Coop Scam
The BJD government in
Odisha must be embarrassed pink. An internal audit of its Cooperation
Department reveals Rs 300 crore scam by its own agencies including Central
Cooperative Bank, Odisha State Cooperative Bank, Odisha State Cooperative
Marketing Federation, Odisha Coop Housing Corporation, Urban Bank, Inclusive
Credit Society, and Odisha Cotton Growers. Worse, the financial embezzlement by
the employees, around 22,081, went undetected for over 17 years --1999-2017!
Having finally woken up, the Government surprisingly has not initiated criminal
proceedings against the employees, and instead chosen to “recover the
misappropriated funds and attach errant employees’ properties if they fail to
return the money.” Will it recover the amount or will the entire exercise be
just a ‘camouflage’ as the Opposition terms it. Time will tell.
* * * * * *
Chhattisgarh
Maoist Data
The anti-Maoist wing
of the Chhattisgarh government has both good and bad news to offer. Data released
on Tuesday last shows a decline in suspected Maoists killed (76 in 2017 as
against 135 in 2016) and surrenders of rebels (365 in 2017 and 1214 in 2016) but
an increase in number of security personnel killed (39 in 2016 and 59 in 2017) While
the latter is particularly disturbing, officials say it’s mainly due to two big
ambushes, which claimed 27 lives, but the numbers aren’t really high in
relation to active exchange of fire. Further, there has been a rise in the
number of rebels arrested, from 977 in 2016 to 1,017 in 2017. Encouragingly, it
has had a record of ‘big cadres’ i.e. Maoists with a reward of over Rs 1 lakh
getting neutralised (killed, arrested or surrendered), as the total amount disbursed
was Rs 4.8 crore last year! Plus, last year saw the State police getting far
less flak for alleged human rights excesses as against 2016, where it came in
for severe criticism for numerous fake encounters and surrenders and harassment
of journalists and activists. Guess, its strategy to concentrate on quality
operations rather than on numbers is paying off.
* * * * * *
Kumbh
In Cinemas
It is now the turn of
Kumbh mela to hit cinema screens. All
theatres in Uttar Pradesh have been asked by the Yogi Adityanath government to
display the Kumbh logo visual just after the National Anthem is played. While
the Kumbh is scheduled for January 2019, it is Yogi’s top priority. The
government has already made it mandatory to carry the logo, showing a group of
sadhus taking a dip at the holy Sangam in Allahabad in the backdrop of temples
and a Swastik symbol with a catch line, ‘Sarvasidhipradh
Kumbh’, (Kumbh is the provider of all accomplishments), in all publicity
material, including advertisements and hoardings. The idea of the visual in
theatres took shape as government feels it’s important for the younger
generation to understand and value the importance of Kumbh, which the UNESCO
has declared as an ‘intangible cultural heritage’. It’s now only a question of
how soon the visual logo will be made available to the theatres. Time is the
essence.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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