Round
The States
New Delhi, 18
January 2020
CAA, NPR Scrap
CALL
TO OPPOSITION STATES
By
Insaf
The war between Opposition States Versus
Centre gets hotter. The call by 20 Opposition parties asking all Chief
Ministers to oppose the National Register of Citizens is finding takers, but
not all. Punjab has followed Kerala in passing a Resolution in its Assembly on
Friday last demanding scrapping of the Citizenship Amendment Act. How many
other follow needs to be watched, but as of now the Opposition parties are sending
a strong message to the citizens across the country that they are with them on
the protests against the CAA and NRC. Importantly, the parties have sought to
hit the nail on the head by ensuring their campaign is also linked to the
economic distress, which the Modi regime is trying to hide with his CAA card.
The leaders thus urged the Chief Ministers, who have made known that they
wouldn’t implement NRC, must also consider to suspension of the NPR exercise given
it’s a prelude to NRC. While a beginning has been made, there is concern that
the unity as sought is not forthcoming. Seven major parties — TMC, AAP, Shiv
Sena, DMK, BSP, SP and TDP stayed away from this meeting, suggesting that
fissures remain in the Opposition camp. Will these be resolved? Will the
Opposition parties’ next move -- to celebrate Subhash Chandra Bose birth
anniversary on January 23 and mark Mahatma Gandhi’s
death anniversary on January 30, ensure that the flock gets together in full
strength? Time will tell.
* ` * * *
NPR On Hold In
WB
West Bengal has joined Kerala with a big No
to undertake the exercise of National Population Register. The communication
was sent to the Registrar General of India through its regional Census offices saying
it was asked to put the exercise “on hold”. The reasoning given to the District
Magistrates states: the NPR exercise “could be detrimental to public order and
so it must be put on hold for the moment.” This has put the Union Home Ministry
in a quandary as apparently there is no clarity on what the Centre can do if States
don’t cooperate. More so, as the manpower for Census conduct and NPR, is to be
drawn from State governments! So while the Centre has notified all States, the
intent to conduct Census, the ‘houselisting phase’, may not begin here as it
did in 2010 and 2015 and in fact the TMC used it to issue ration cards. Perhaps,
Didi should rethink as the new survey has features -- whether a household gets
bottled water, toilet in premises is shared or personal, is there is LPG
connection etc, which could reveal if the publicized schemes have reached the aam admi. Importantly, while the State
Government has taken its position, the citizen is in a dilemma. Can he refuse
to provide information? The clause imposing penalty for it has been replaced by
an undertaking that information provided is correct. Guess the Centre must be
more precise and not get into the haze of political one-upmanship.
* ` * * *
Chhattisgarh Challenges NIA
Chhattisgarh has taken a cue from Kerala and used its
idea to challenge the National Investigating Agency (NIA) Act in the Supreme
Court, saying it’s unconstitutional. It has done so by invoking Article 131 of
the Constitution (like Kerala) which gives the apex court ‘the exclusion of any
other court, have original jurisdiction in any dispute between the Government of India and one or
more States…” subject to provisions of the Constitution. Thus the government
has claimed that the NIA Act, in its present form, “not only takes away the State’s
power of conducting investigation through police but also confers unfettered
discretionary and arbitrary powers on the Centre.” It argues that the Act is beyond the
legislative competence of Parliament since it empowers the Centre to create an
agency for “investigation” which, notwithstanding the NIA, is carried out by
the State Police, a subject matter of the State. Of course, the Bhupesh Baghel
government does not take into account that the National Investigation Act 2008
was brought by the UPA government. Guess, at this point of turbulent times,
Opposition States would not miss out the opportunity to hit out at the
Centre.
* ` * * *
Odisha
‘Migration Season’
Odisha government is hit by the ‘migration
season.’ Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has had to finally make a note and act.
This after a survey revealed that 40,000-odd people had migrated to
neighbouring States from just 30 gram panchayats of Bolangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi
districts in “one migration season.” On Wednesday last Patnaik announced steps
including: employment under MGNREG be allowed
for 200 days in a year in the vulnerable blocks and labourers shall get Rs
286.30 instead of Rs 188 wages (per day); a corpus of Rs 500 crore be set up to
ensure timely and uninterrupted payments under the scheme and blocks and gram
panchayats be covered as ‘intensive’ under ‘Odisha Livelihoods Mission’; each family
to come under self-help groups, which will be given community investment/vulnerability
reduction funds. The focus will also be on skill development in these areas and
one eligible youth in each household, shall be covered under placement-linked
programme. Besides, eligible households are to be given ‘pucca’ houses and
all-out efforts made to stop bonded labour in the underdeveloped areas. Tall order indeed, but as the saying
goes if there is a will, there is a way. Patnaik is on test.
* ` * * *
Political
Funding of Parties
Political funding of State parties has had a
strange response. Some got donations from electoral bonds whereas others
didn’t, putting a question mark on the controversial funding instrument, as
brought out by a survey of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. It found that
during 2018-19, other than national parties Congress and BJP, the ruling TMC
(West Bengal), BJD (Odisha), JD(S) (Bihar), TRS (Telangana) and YSRCP (Andhra
Pradesh) got two-third of their funding (Rs 3696) from electoral bonds, but
anonymous donations made up 55-87% of the total donations received. However, AAP
(Delhi), AIADMK (Tamil Nadu) and opposition parties such as TDP, RJD, DMK, SAD,
CPI, CPM, NCP, BSP and SP, didn’t receive any donation via the bonds, even though
their total collection ran into crores. Whether the trend changes is worth a
watch as sale of the 13th tranche of electoral bonds started Monday last and is
till January 22. Hope more light is shed on criticism against bonds bringing
‘opacity’ in poll funding being justified as against the ‘transparent’ mode
through corporations, individuals and electoral trusts and aids the Supreme
Court where a petition challenging the scheme is pending.
* ` * * *
Rajasthan
Bickering
All is not well in Rajasthan’s powers of
corridor. The friction between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin
Pilot refuses to ebb. Apparently, both the top leaders have been making comments
against each other, though fortunately not naming the other. Recall, that
Gehlot had blamed Pilot for the rout in the Lok Sabha elections, which made the
latter question his campaigning style. There are more instances, but the latest
tragedy of 100 infants’ death at a Kota government hospital has put the bickering
in spotlight. Pilot said his government should have been more humane in
handling the crisis, referring to Gehlot’s statement that deaths do happen and
these were less than in the BJP’s regime! The infighting according to the
grapewine is impacting governance. The head of the party and that of government
can’t be walking in opposite directions as this would affect workers, which
doesn’t bode well for any party. In fact, BJP is making the best of it saying
its role is easier as there is ‘opposition’ within the government. This should
make Congress High Command and 10 Janpath sit up, if it hasn’t already. Or
better remember a stitch in time saves nine. ----INFA
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