Round
The States
New Delhi, 18 May
2019
West Bengal & EC
OFFSETTING THE BULLY
By Insaf
2019 elections must
be the biggest challenge Nirvachan Sadan has had to face, what with West Bengal
unrelenting. The polls in Mamata land have been marred by violence between the
TMC and BJP supporters, from the very beginning. However, Tuesday turned out to
be the last straw with BJP President Amit Shah’s roadside show in the State’s
capital Kolkata, vandalised. Enough was enough. And thus, in an unprecedented
move, it cut short the campaigning by one day for the last round of voting for
nine seats in the State, inviting Mamata’s wrath. She accused the EC of being
“unfair, unethical and politically biased.” Worse, the decision gave the
Opposition a stick to beat the EC yet again and accusing it of ‘submitting to
the ruling party.’ The question raised, not just by Mamata but her Opposition
comrades, is why the poll panel waited 24 hours to impose the campaign
restrictions, because it gave PM Modi time to finish his two rallies before the
campaign ban kicked in?
Be that as it may, there
is no denying the fact that the past six rounds of voting have seen violence
and intimidation, more by the TMC cadres than rivals BJP. The EC’s decision on
Wednesday last came after marathon meetings, wherein senior poll officers and
observers are said to have indicted Didi’s handling of the democratic process.
“There is distinct resistance and non-cooperation from district administration
and district police when it comes to providing level playing field to all
candidates for campaigning and in providing a fearless threat-free environment
to the voters,” noted the EC. So not only did it cut short the campaign till
Thursday instead of Friday, but also removed two top Bengal officers--additional
DGP in-charge of CID and Principal Home Secretary. Good enough reason. But Mamata
and team are not convinced. In one voice, they question the “neutrality,
impartiality, and fairness of the EC”. More so, as they claim the EC hasn’t even
bothered to issue a notice to Shah for the violence that erupted during his
roadshow, which the TMC claims of having video evidence. The blame game is
never ending. It is bound to go beyond May 23 and outlive this poll season.
* * * * * * *
Progressive
Kerala
Be progressive, is a
firm message from Kerala to Muslim organisation across the country. The Muslim
Educational Society (MES) has said a big no to IUML’s demand to withdraw its
circular banning hijaab (face-covering
veils) on its campuses. The Muslim league claims hijaab to be ‘part of religion’ and it’s the ‘religious scholars
duty to take a decision on it’. But MES disagrees. It’s “not a religious
custom. Some elements are planning to impose certain customs, which aren’t part
of religion”, it says and further argues there is a “growing ‘Arabisation’ in
the community” which must be checked. “Arabs wear dress according to their
climate. Nobody can impose such a dress code here,” insists MES, which runs 150
institutions and educates over 100,000 students. Additionally, the Kerala High
Court recently too stated it had nothing to do with religion or belief and left
it to school management’s discretion to decide the uniform. Apparently, not
just the fact that MES found only six cover their faces of 40,000 Muslim students,
but the LDF, of which IUML is a constituent, has noted “women never cover their
face when performing Haj pilgrimage.” Time to take the community ahead, not
backward indeed!
* * * * * * *
Odisha
Seeks Centre Help
Odisha has put the
burden on the Centre to help it overcome the Fani devastation. On Wednesday
last, it gave its assessment to Union Home Ministry saying it suffered damages
to its properties worth Rs 11,942 crore. However, this was ‘just preliminary
assessment’ and a final memorandum would be given by month-end after it
undertakes a village-to-village survey. So far the damages accounted for are:
Rs 1,159.8 crore by Energy department with over 1.56 lakh electric poles blown
away or bent by high winds and over 2 lakh-km-long electric lines damaged plus
Rs 537 crore by the forest department. But there is more to come, as losses to
private properties like hotels, business establishments and lakhs of houses are
yet to be ascertained. For one, the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha
claims the industry in Puri and Bhubaneswar suffered a loss of Rs 500 crore as
scores of sea-side hotels had massive damages-- glass-panelled doors, windows
were shattered and rooms were filled with sand. Worse, some 6,500 schools have
been completely or partially damaged by the cyclone. The entire exercise will
therefore be completed only after the new government is in place. Whoever it
may turn out to be, will Naveen Patnaik be able to extract his pound of
flesh?
* * * * * * *
Rajasthan
& History
Governments change
and so do history books. And Congress government in Rajasthan follows suit. It has
revised school textbooks and removed references on demonetisation among others from
the current academic session. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to BJP though,
for when Ashok Gehlot took over, two review committees of educationists were
set up to peruse changes made by previous BJP regime. Recall, in 2017,
Vasundhara Raje had introduced portion on demonetisation in Class 12 political
science book, terming Modi’s decision as “historic” and an “operation to clean
black money.” None of this, says the Education Minister now, as not only was
demonetisation a ‘most unsuccessful experiment’, but Modi’s three objectives --
it would end terrorism, corruption and bring back black money weren’t achieved.
Instead the public was forced to stand in queues and it put a burden of over Rs
10,000 crore on the country.” There is no full stop though. The Ministry shall review
portions in textbooks which “glorify” Veer Savarkar, musch to chagrin of BJP
which feels Congress is ignoring “patriots who have been associated with
Hindutva”. The big question is: whether new generations will learn history per
se or a distorted version by those holding a particular political ideology? The
answer is not difficult to guess.
* * * * * * *
Punjabi
Passing Buck
The classic saying of
the left hand not knowing what the right is doing, (read bureaucratic functioning),
gets a Punjabi flavour. The case is of Chandigarh International Airport, caught
amid authorities passing the buck, as noted by Punjab & Haryana High Court.
On Monday last, it warned Punjab government, Zirakpur Municipal Council and
Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), it could record the
government machinery “has totally failed because it is totally incompetent.” It
was hearing a PIL, seeking directions for appropriate infrastructure, such as
lighting system, construction of drainage system and removal of unauthorised
construction etc for the airport. It emerged that Zirakpur MC and GMADA were
not on the same page and took refuge in the work falling in the others jurisdiction. “You are wings of the same
government. Don’t say it’s not my concern. Things cannot function like this,”
the Bench said, perturbed that the drainage system, to be completed within
three months as assured in February, was in limbo. The State, it observed “is
the biggest hurdle. Now the problem is being created by the State and its
instrumentalities. What is this habit of throwing ball in other’s court...”
Before the next hearing, Amarinder Singh government better get its act
together, else be prepared for “contempt proceedings for non-compliance or its
officials getting fired.” Not much of a choice. ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
New Delhi
16 May 2019
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