Round The States
New Delhi, 23 July
2022
President &
VP Polls
OPPOSITION
UNITYSTUMBLES
By Insaf
The country can
rejoice having its first tribal President Droupadi Murmu. It was a
foregone conclusion that the NDA candidate would sail through, but the 64-year-old
won by an overwhelming margin against Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha after
grabbing over 64% votes. Opposition
States such as Jharkhand, Odisha and even Kerala voted for her candidature. Now
all eyes will shift to the next big election of the Vice President. The
Opposition would need to get its act together as fissures already appear. The Trinamool
Congress has decided to abstain from voting in this poll after a meeting held on
Thursday last at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence. The NDA candidate former
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar is a clear no-go with the TMCas it says:
“when he was Governor he always tried to undermine the State. We cannot vote in
favour of him ideologically.” However, what is intriguing is that it chooses
not to support Opposition candidate Congress leader Margaret Alva. The TMC is
peeved and explains: ‘the process of how they chose the candidate was not right…they
decided the candidate without consulting senior leaders like Mamata Banerjee,
when TMC has 35 MPs. So, after taking the opinion of 85% of our MPs, we decided
to abstain.” It claims that opposition unity will not be hampered, but there
are few takers. Apparently, Didi has a bigger agenda, and it's going to
be a merry-go-round till close to 2024. It will unfold gradually, but the fear
is it may be too late. Whither opposition unity!
* * * * * *
Delhi’s Singapore Row
Nothing appears to
change in Delhi’s governance! In fact, the beginning of discord between Lt
Governor V K Saxena and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal suggests Delhi, like old
times, shall witness controversies. On Thursday last, Saxena returned Kejriwal’s
proposal to travel to Singapore for the World Cities Summit, after sitting on
it for nearly two months. His office claims the summit is of Mayors and CM
attending doesn’t “befit attendance,” plus as many agencies are involved in
smart cities project, Kejriwal’s going would “set bad precedent.” It’s “mean
politics” hits back AAPadding if Singaporeor any other government has called
Delhi government to present things, “how can anyone have a problem with it?”
Kejriwal says he’s no criminal, “there’s no legal issue. No court has
restricted me from attending the summit. When a common man travels abroad, why
not Arvind Kejriwal?” Besides, “the Delhi model of education, health is being
discussed globally… prominent leaders who attend the conference want to learn
more about it. These initiatives make our country proud. I think the Centre
should encourage and not stop a CM. This is not right.”The CM office is to knock
on Ministry of External Affairs’ door for a clearance. Will the Centre heed?
* * * * * *
Chhattisgarh Power
Struggle
All is not well in
Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh. The power struggle between Chief Minister Bhupesh
Baghel and number two TS Singh Deo is far from over, with opposition BJP
seeking to encash on it. The Assembly’s monsoon session started on a jarring
note on Wednesday last,with BJP raking up Deo’s resignation from panchayat and
rural development dept, one of four portfolios, plus moving a notice of no-confidence
motion Baghel government.It’s grounds: Deo has claimed of being side-lined and ‘a
minister has levelled allegations against the CM. As per constitutional
arrangements, the Cabinet and Executive are answerable to Legislature but the State
government has failed on this front.” Deo is apparently camping outside the Stateand
Baghel has given the portfolio to another senior minister. Expectedly, all eyes
are on how the party High Command douses the fire. For the
ghost of power-sharing agreement between them following Congress coming to
power in December 2018 re-emerges. While Baghel claimed he hadn’t agreed to
splitting the five-year CM tenure with Deo and refused to give up the chair
after first two-and-a-half years, the latter hasn’t given up hope. Is he eyeing
Assembly polls in December 2023? Like shenanigans being played out in other States,
will he too jump over the fence to the BJP camp? Time will tell.
* * * * * *
Hazy Normalcy in
J&K
A big question mark
hangs over the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley. The government on
Wednesday last, cited numerous figures in the Lok Sabha to state that Jammu and
Kashmir was limping back to normalcy since its abrogated Article 370 on 19
August 2019. These included: “A substantial decline in terrorist attacks from
417 in 2018 to 229 in 2021; 21 non-Muslim Kashmiris and outsiders were killed
by militants, but ‘no Kashmiri Pandit’ migrated out of the Valley; Till July 9,
2022, terrorists killed 128 security personnel and 118 civilians (five Kashmiri
Pandits and 16 belonged to other Hindu/Sikh communities); No pilgrim killed
during this period.” However, after targeted killings in 2021, many Kashmiri
Pandits are said to have left the Valley and fled to Jammu and some Pandits in
government service in Valley, have accused the government of forcing them to
stay on by threatening disciplinary action. Additionally, though the government
claims it’s trying to resettle migrated Kashmiri Pandits back to the Valley,
the progress is tardy. While ‘1,025 units of the 6000 transit accommodations
for Pandits under PM’s Development package have been completed and another
1,872 units are at different stages of completion’, there are no figures cited
as to how many have actually moved in. Predictably, confidence building
measures aren’t yielding results. Figures mean little, if ground reality
doesn’t support these. More needs to be done.
* * * * * *
Shiv Sena Blues
Maharashtra continues
to hit headlines with the Shiv Sena epic continuing. Uddhav Thackeray group got
another big jolt on Tuesday last following Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla
recognising 12 of the 19 Sena MPs with Rahul Shewale as floor leader. A big hit
indeed after two-third MLAs had last month joined Eknath Shinde, now Chief Minister, and
allied with BJP to uproot the MVA government. The matter is now in the Supreme
Courtto resolve the disqualification controversy. On Wednesday last, it said
some issues between the two factions need
to be referred
to a larger bench and matter would be heard on 1 August. Thackeray
group has argued: democracy is in danger if governments of any State can be
toppled despite the Constitutional bar; Speaker recognising a whip other
than the official one nominated by party is malafide; Maharashtra Governor
shouldn’t have sworn-in the new government when the apex court was seized of
matter.”Counter-argument of Shinde group being: “The moment you gather enough
strength within the party and stay within it to question the leader without
leaving the party, and say we will defeat you in the house, that is not
defection.” All eyes would be on the apex court. Will the big question as to ‘What
happens to the people’s verdict’ find an answer?---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
|