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Round
The States
New Delhi, 17 August 2006
Office Of Profit
Controversy
PRESIDENT ASSENTS:
QUID PRO QUO
By Insaf
All the State Capitals and top leaders of various political
parties at the Centre, especially the Congress-led
UPA, heaved a sigh of relief on Friday evening when President Abdul Kalam
finally gave his assent to the
controversial Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill,
commonly known as the Office of Profit Bill.
The signing of the Bill by the President 18 days after it was sent back
to him was, in fact, on the basis of a quid pro quo following Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh’s three meetings with him. A compromise formula to resolve the
stalemate that was clearly leading to a confrontation between the Government
and the President was neatly worked out by the Law Minister, Hansraj
Bhardwaj. A joint Parliamentary
Committee, comprising ten MPs from the Lok Sabha and five from the Rajya Sabha,
was thereupon constituted to placate the President by precisely addressing
the concerns raised by him in May last when he sent the Bill back to Parliament
for its re-consideration.
The suspense caused by the inordinate delay in the
Presidential assent for the Bill
sent to him in its original form was almost killing for 45 MPs, all of them
belonging to the UPA, since the Election Commission
had started proceedings for their disqualification. In fact, some of them, especially the CPM
leaders, even sought from the Commission
long adjournments of their cases in the hope that the President would
eventually be persuaded to sign the Bill.
The Commission agreed to
extend the hearing by 30 days. Simultaneously, it clarified that no further
extension would be allowed and those who were found holding an Office of Profit
in defiance of Article 102(i)(a) of the Constitution would be disqualified, if
the new law did not come into force before August 31. The MPs can now relax and continue holding
their additional offices under new Act. However,
trouble could still erupt if the Act comes to be challenged in the Supreme
Court in view of its glaring anomalies.
* * * *
Thick Security
Blanket On I-Day
India celebrated its 59th
Independence Day anniversary on Tuesday under unprecedented security. The
tension was all the greater following on advisory from Washington and our own intelligence reports
that major terror strikes had been planned on vital installations. This prompted a thick security blanket in Delhi and the State
Capitals. More than 10,000 police
personnel were deployed in the Union Capital. Delhi’s Red Fort looked like a “war
zone”. The army took control of
important installations across the
country. However, despite the terror havoc, no major untoward incident was
reported. The people too braved the threat.
For the first time in 17 years of militancy in J&K, more than 20,000
people participated in the peaceful I-Day celebrations at Srinagar.
* * * *
Goodwill Gesture To
ULFA
The Union Government has given an Independence Day gift to
the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
A “goodwill gesture” of temporarily suspending the revived military
operations against the militant Group was offered by New Delhi on the I-Day eve in an effort to
put the peace talks back on the rails. The Centre has been keen for some time to
negotiate peace with the ULFA. But its repeated attempts have failed because of
the Group’s insistence on the release of top leaders and inclusion of their
demand for sovereignty in the agenda.
Outrightly rejecting the latter demand, the Centre was willing to release
the leaders if the Group announced a “genuine” ceasefire. With the ULFA cadres
continuing their violent activities, the Army was once again asked to tackle the
situation. The action has been
temporarily stopped. The ball is now in ULFA’s court.
Army On Fake
Currency Trail
The Indian Army has been given a new role in Assam
and West Bengal. It has been asked to ferret out fake
currency, following intelligence reports that Pakistan Inter-Service
Intelligence (ISI) was pumping counterfeit currency into India. The smuggling was found to have been done
from across the Bangladesh border through the wilderness of Sundarbans in West Bengal to the remote areas
of Dhubri and Goalpara in Assam. In fact, intelligence agencies have revealed
that a new route has been found through the Barak
Valley and Karimganj in Assam,
Kailasan and Dharampur in Tripura and some bordering villages in West Bengal. Some
ULFA cadres are also found to be dealing in counterfeit currency in Assam. Most of the smuggling of fake currency is
being done through the riverine areas. Some fake currency is also reaching
Jharkhand.
* * * *
TRS Steps Up
Statehood Demand
The Congress-led
UPA is having problems with its regional allies in the South. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has
stepped up its demand for a separate State once more. The party Chief and Union Labour Minister K.
Chandrasekhar Rao has put the Congress
and the UPA on a ten-day notice for a clear cut assurance
on the formation of the State by August 25. Rao has announced that if this did
not happen he would resign from the Union Cabinet and that the TRS would
withdraw its support from the UPA. The TRS has five MPs in the Lok Sabha and 26
MLAs in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
He has claimed that all political parties, except the Left Front, support the
creation of the new State. But one fact
remains. The TRS has failed to enthuse the masses,
as reflected in the recent local elections.
* * * *
Dravidian Pressure On OBC Quota
The ruling DMK and its Dravidian ally PMK have stepped up
pressure on the Centre for a legislation
on OBC quotas in Central educational institutions, which would provide for a
rollout of the new reservation regime in one go. Led by the DMK and PMK
Ministers in the Union Cabinet, T.R. Baalu and Ambumani Ramadoss respectively, a large delegation of the MPs and
some MLAs of the two parties called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week
to press the quota demand. They
strongly emphasized their opposition to a staggered quota rollout. The aggressive posture of the DMK and its allies in Tamil
Nadu shows that the OBC reservations is an important political issue in the State politics. Their clout in the UPA is significant, as
demonstrated by their successful opposition
to the Centre’s disinvestment plan for Neyveli Lignite Corporation which had to
be put on hold.
* * * *
Karnataka CM’s
Protest
Karnataka Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy has hit out at
the Centre for what he describes as its discrimination in flood relief. He is upset about the Union Government’s
failure to even respond to the State’s repeated demand of Rs. 600 crore for
flood relief. An all-party delegation,
led by the Chief Minister himself, met the Prime Minister in New Delhi on August 8 and sought Central assistance for the purpose. What has irked the Karnataka Government is
that the Centre’s response was immediate in the case of Maharashtra
and Andhra Pradesh, the two flood-hit States being ruled by the Congress. An assistance of Rs.600 crore and 400 crore for Andhra
Pradesh and Maharashtra was quickly despatched.
The same was required to be done for other flood-hit States, irrespective of
who ruled them.
* * *
Buddhadev Woos
Unorganised Labour
After land reforms, one of the major achievements of the CPM-led
Left Front Government in West Bengal, Chief
Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee has embarked on another ambitious project:
establishment of block level labour offices in rural areas across the State. These offices are intended to look
after the interests of unorganized labour in the rural areas. According to the
2001 Census, there are about 1.40 crore labourers working in unorganized
sector, like sweet-making and Bidi making. Most of them do not get adequate
wages and other benefits. The new
offices, to be set up in all the 341 Blocks, will function under the district
and sub-division offices in the State. Not only that. The State Government has
also programmed to modernize all the Labour Department offices in the State to
ensure proper implementation of labour laws in the State. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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