Round The States

New Delhi, 7 March 2007

U.P. Poll & Supreme Court

PROBE AGAINST MULAYAM ILL-TIMED

By Insaf

Samajwadi Party supremo and Chief Minister of U.P., Mulayam Singh is facing problem after problem prior to the Assembly poll next month.  The Sonia Congress is his main trouble-creator. The latest is the Supreme Court direction of March 1 on a PIL by allegedly a Congress sympathizer for a CBI enquiry into his and his family’s assets reportedly disproportionate to their known sources of income. Constitutional experts have described the directive on March 1 as singularly ill-timed, if not faulty, since election to the Assembly had already been announced on February 21. Fali Nariman, a senior Advocate of the Supreme Court recalls a contempt petition against Narasimha Rao, then Prime Minister, in the Babri Masjid case. The matter came up before a double-bench, headed by Justice Bharucha when elections were round the corner. The bench preferred adjournment beyond elections, so that the Court was not drawn into any political controversy.

Meanwhile, encouraged by its remarkable electoral victories in Punjab and Uttarakhand, the BJP has decided to field almost all its front-ranking leaders to campaign in the seven-phase Assembly poll in U.P., starting April 7. Former Party Chief Venkaiah Naidu has been made incharge of election management. Naidu’s selection is expected to prevent “parallel power centres” that have been the bane of the party in recent years. An old warhorse who can get every one to work, Naidu is hopeful of wining upto 300 of the 403 Assembly seats through electoral understanding with the NDA partners, especially the Janata Dal (U) of Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar and the Kurmi-dominated Apna Dal of Sonelal Patel. Both these parties have pre-dominantly OBC constituencies. The BJP is also hoping that the upper castes would also support it, despite desparate efforts of the Congress to win them back.

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Crown Of Thorns For Khanduri

Uttarakhand’s new Chief Minister, Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri seems to have won a crown of thorns, if the post-poll developments are any indication. A retired Major-General of the Corps of Engineers, he has been chosen because of the great administrative and organizational capabilities he showed as a Union Minister in the NDA Government.  But he has a challenging task ahead. With the BJP’s 34 MLAs in the 70-member Assembly, he cobbled up his majority with the support of two Independents, both Congress rebels, and the three-member Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD). But more difficult for him is to bring Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, a Thakur, on board. The former CM was a strong contender for the chair a second time and refused to accept Deputy CMship or Speakership obviously under protest. Thakurs have a sizeable strength. Khanduri is a Brahmin.

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Badal For Good Governance

After finishing the task of Ministry-making in one go with all Cabinet-rank 17 Ministers (12 from his SAD and 5 from the BJP), Parkash Singh Badal has set the tone for his governance: Clean administration and “back to the people approach”. Badal’s first major engagement on taking over the reins of the State for the fourth time was to address a meeting of all the Secretaries and financial Commissioners to emphasize the need for what he described as “positive and constructive approach to governance” with no place for “personal” agenda. Badal has also given high priority to reviving the State Legislative Council to rope in talented people as law makers, people who have excelled in various fields but shied away from contesting elections because of the rough and tumble of electoral politics.

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Sonia’s Good Chit To Hooda

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda could not have asked for more.  At the Navyug rally at Sirsa on the occasion of the second anniversary of his Congress Government on March 2, it was none less than the party Chief, Sonia Gandhi, who gave him a good chit, declaring him “successful with distinction”. Indeed Haryana today is reaching new milestones on almost every developmental front like industry, agriculture, education, health, roads etc, thanks to the far-sighted policies of the Hooda Government.  Reputed industrial establishments and multinational companies are increasingly investing in industrial zones of the State. Expressways and flyover are being constructed fast; also technology parks and industrial townships are coming up. In the last two years, the Hooda Government has increased employment generation more than three times.

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Naxals Kill Jharkhand MP

The killings of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP Sunil Mahato and three others in broad daylight prove once more that the writ of the Government does not run in a vast area of Jharkhand where the Naxalites are in control. It was the worst attack in the recent past. The killers entered a crowded football ground in a vehicle, got down at the place where the MP had come to inaugurate a match, shot him and his aides, set ablaze his car and escaped. Hundreds of people remained mute spectators. Obviously, there was no mystery about the attack. Mahato was known to be actively working to control the Naxals’ violent activities that included looting of trains and snatching of weapons from the policemen. The Naxalite menace has now become a major national problem with at least 76 districts in 18 States in their grip.

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Shaky Coalition In J&K

The ruling Congress-PDP alliance is increasingly becoming shaky with the latter strongly demanding reduction of troops in the Valley and withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from the State. The situation came to such a pass last week that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to intervene to diffuse the crisis in the coalition Government when the PDP, the main ally in the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Government, took an extreme position on the vital security-related issue. While both the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister have stated that the troops reduction could be contemplated only if terrorist activities ended in the troubled State, former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has renewed the plea for troops reduction, stating “why use a hammer to kill a fly”.

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Cauvery Issue Reaches Boiling Point

The prolonged Cauvery waters dispute mainly between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has reached a boiling point. The controversy has taken a political turn at the Centre, with the UPA Government finding it difficult to notify the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal which has hiked Tamil Nadu’s share from 206 tmc ft in its interim order of 1991 to 419 tmc ft, leaving 270 tmc ft to Karnataka. The latter is upset and tense about it, because the State where the river originates is required to release to Tamil Nadu an additional 192 tmc ft annually. Former Prime Minister Deve Gowda led an all-party delegation to New Delhi and wants the issue discussed in Parliament.  Speaker Somnath Chatterjee met MPs from both the States on Tuesday to find a common meeting ground. But the discussions between the two sides turned so heated that the Speaker decided to shelve the issue for the time being.

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Kerala: Cop Crime State

The police seems to be usurping the criminals’ territory in Kerala. A report recently compiled by the State police, first of its kind in the country, has revealed that as many as 850 personnel in the force are presently facing criminal charges. The personnel from the rank of Constable to DSP stand accused to crimes like rape, murder, house-breaking, immoral trafficking and atrocities against women. The figure of crime by the men in uniform relates to the period between 2000 and 2006. The State police’s own report has also revealed that as many as 14 of the accused are from the intelligence wing of the force and most of them are facing forgery charges. Incredibly, seven of them are from the Crime Branch. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)