ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 30 August 2007

Terror Strikes Again

HYDERABAD RENEWED TARGET

By Insaf

Terror revisited cyber city Hyderabad gift wrapped in a black school bag on Saturday last.  Two explosions, barely minutes and five km of each other, left 35 people dead and nearly 60 injured. The bombs ripped through the famous amusement park Lumbini and a popular chaat joint in the old city. This attack comes just three months after blasts in the city’s Mecca Masjid in May in which 10 persons were killed and 40 injured. According to police officials the explosives used in the twin blasts were similar to the one used by terrorists in the Masjid blast. Fingers are being pointed to the involvement of the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami. Preliminary police investigations have revealed that the blasts might have been caused by improvised explosive devices loaded with RDX.

Meanwhile, the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, who visited Hyderabad after the blasts, has welcomed the Opposition suggestion for a federal crime agency. He was replying to an NDA-backed adjournment motion on the Government’s failure to contain terrorism in the Lok Sabha. Further, such an agency would be set up only in the event of a Centre-States consensus and with the full concurrence of Parliament. However, he ruled-out re-enactment of a POTA type law, strongly demanded by the leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani, on the ground that it had failed to prevent Parliament from being attacked. Importantly, the Hyderabad blasts have once again brought to the fore the lacunae in handling terror. India has many agencies, but little intelligence. Clearly, New Delhi has to work harder and rise above partisan political considerations to win its war against mounting terror.

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Violence Grips Agra & Gohana

If terror stalked Hyderabad, the spector of communal and caste conflict came back to haunt the Hindi heartland --- Agra in Uttar Pradesh and Gohana in Sonepat, Haryana. Both bore the brunt of mob fury, leaving one dead and 50 injured in Agra and a Dalit youth killed and scores injured in Gohana. Trouble started in Agra, home of India’s most famous monument of love, the Taj Mahal, when four Muslim youths on their way to participate in the Shab-e-Baraat procession, were crushed by a truck. Blinded by fury, the Muslim community pelted stones, burnt 17 trucks, several police vans and looted shops owned by the Hindus. Leading to pitched battles between the Hindus and the Muslims --- and clamping of prohibitory orders in the city and curfew in six sensitive districts. Schools and colleges were shut for three days.

In Gohana, the killing of a Dalit youth has revived traditional hostilities between the Jats and the Dalits. The Dalit perceived this as a revenge killing of a Jat boy two years ago. The Dalit retaliation was followed by a day-long spectacle of the two communities fighting each other. The Dalits, now seething with vengeance, have accused the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government of doing nothing to protect them. The present clash and tension between the Valmikis and Jats in Haryana is part of the regional make-up. The Dalits have clashed with the “dominant oppressor class” across the region --- recently in the Fatehgarh Sahib district where the rape of Dalit girls by Jat landlords snowballed in to a major political issue. Clearly, the Dalit protest spells trouble for the Congress and its Chief Minister, Hooda.

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JD-BJP Stand-Off In Karnataka

If the Centre is plagued by the acrimony between the Congress and the Left, Karnataka is weighed down by the widening rift between the ruling coalition partners in Karnataka --- the Janata Dal (Secular) and the BJP. The friction came to the fore when the Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy cancelled a crucial coordination committee meeting with the BJP on Saturday last. That too for the second time in a row. Interestingly, the meeting had been called to iron out the differences between the partners following the BJP’s boycott of a Cabinet meeting chaired by Kumaraswamy earlier in the week. The BJP is upset over what it calls “step-motherly treatment” being meted out to the Party. What is more it suspects that the JD(S) is having second thoughts about handing over power to it on 3 October.

Importantly, the cancellation of the crucial meet is viewed by the BJP as an indication of the JD(S)’s change of mind in regard to the power sharing deal between the two parties in January 2006. “Our leaders were ready for the meeting but the JD(S) was reluctant. They seem to be afraid of facing us,” stated BJP President D.V. Sadananda Gowda. Notwithstanding, Kumaraswamy’s explanation that he was forced to cancel the meeting on account of an “official tour” and his promises to hold the cancelled meet next week. More. The BJP’s litany of complaints include: marginalisation of its ministers by Kumaraswamy and appointment by the Chief Minister of a member to the State Public Service Commission, a post that belonged to the BJP’s quota. Equally objectionable for the BJP is the JD(S) assertion that its image had got dented by its alignment with the saffron party.

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Madhya Pradesh Scores A First

Madhya Pradesh has scored a first in an otherwise minor expansion of its State Cabinet. For the first time, a victim of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Harendrajit Singh ‘Babbu’, was sworn-in as a Minister in the country. (His father was burnt alive by a mob in his village a day after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead) He was among the six new faces, three of them in the Cabinet rank and three Ministers of State, inducted into the Council of Ministers. Two Ministers of State were also promoted to the Cabinet rank. Another surprise was the re-induction by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan of his bete noire, suspended MLA and Uma Bharti loyalist, Dr. Shejwar. Needless to say, with this induction Chauhan can now breathe easy. He has another ace up his sleeve: three more ministerial vacancies to fill within the Constitutional quota.

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New Threat In J&K

If terror came to Hyderabad gift-wrapped, a new ‘trigger’ threat looms large over Jammu and Kashmir. Militants there are changing their tactics and now using mobile phone-triggered devices to set off explosives. All it takes to set off this Improvised Explosive Device (IED) is to dial the number or set the phone on alarm mode. This kills two birds with one stone: minimum risk for the militant group and the device is cheap to assemble. The J&K stumbled on this latest device when they discovered the IED packed with five kg deadly explosives, a detonator and mobile phone in Rajouri district last week. So far five blasts have been detected from different regions this summer. Even as the State Government is contemplating ways to combat this new threat, the people at large are worried. Will it deprive them the use of their cell phones, permitted only since August 2003?

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Nitish’s Bihar Sets Trend

Bihar under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has done what has been long needed in free India: set a trend for office-wear for the Government Babus and enforce it. No flashy or casual clothes any more, according to the dress code issued by the Chief Secretary to IAS officers and other civil servants. All have been asked to dress in sober colours—men in dhoti-kurta or in shirts and trousers and women in saris or salwar kameez. For ceremonial occasions, a sherwani or bandgala is to be allowed.  No other exceptions are to be tolerated. The order follows Patna High Court’s decision to fine two officers for appearing before it in gaudy and non-formal clothes. While senior babus maintain there is nothing new about the code, first prescribed in 1954, it remains to be seen whether they will fall in line or continue to be trendy and fashionable!---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)