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Round The States
New Delhi, 28 December 2006
U.P. Poll Plans
By Insaf
Uttar Pradesh and its upcoming Assembly
poll in March-April, if not earlier, are now increasingly making the headlines.
All the four major parties in the fray for power, the ruling Samajwadi Party
(SP), Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Congress-led
UPA and the BJP are actively firming up their election plans. For the first
time in 15 years, the BJP showed its united face at its National Executive and
National Council meetings at Lucknow
over the week-end. The party, led by
former Chief Minister Rajnath Singh, revived the Ayodhya issue as the centrepiece of its Hindutva agenda. He has
promised that a grand Ram temple would be built at the disputed site. The party
also put the UPA in the dock for what its leadership described as “Muslim
appeasement” and “vote-bank” politics.
Chief Minister Mulayam Singh, on his part, has reacted fast in
neutralising the BJP by indicating that his Government would issue a fresh notification for the revival of the
cases involving senior BJP leaders in the masjid demolition conspiracy.
Remember, the case was struck down by the Allahabad High Court for technical
reasons. The Congress leadership,
too, has made overdue moves for its revival in U.P. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself entered
the poll fray over the last week-end, indirectly though. He stated at an awards function of the IIM-Lucknow
that “U.P. desperately needs forward looking and modern leadership.” He also regretted
that “in recent years, UP has been held back by a leadership that only thinks
about the past.” Rahul Gandhi is under mounting pressure
to play an active role. Lalu Yadav has even proposed that Rahul be projected as
the Congress Party’s choice for the
Chief Ministership.
* * * *
BJP Supports Mamata
Demand
As the hunger strike by Mamata Banerjee against forcible
acquisition of farmland for the Tata small car project at Singur in West Bengal entered its 23rd day on Tuesday,
the BJP used the opportunity to cement its relationship with her Trinamool
Congress. The BJP organized a
meeting of the NDA leaders in New
Delhi and Rajnath Singh flew to Kolkata to enquire again
about Mamata’s health as news came that she had been put on oxygen support
after she developed breathing problem. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee has offered again to talk to Mamata and forged a consensus on the
issue which has been discussed in the Assembly
more than once. During these discussions, the Government told the Opposition that it
had tried its best to avoid fertile land for the Tata project. The CM also reiterated
his determination to go ahead with the industrialization of the State for
opening up much-needed employment opportunities. Mamata, meanwhile, appears
determined to continue her fast unto death, despite appeals from the national
leaders, including the Prime Minister.
* * * *
Towards Peace In
Nagaland
Endless
negotiations for a peace settlement in Nagaland that would put an end to South Asia’s longest running insurgency appear to be
heading towards a close. The NSCN-IM General Secretary, T. Muivah arrived in New Delhi from Amsterdam
last week and celebrated Christmas with Oscar Fernandes, who heads a
three-member Ministerial team for negotiations with the rebel Naga leaders.
Muivah will later be joined by the group’s Chairman Chishi Swu. The two would
continue the negotiations with the Central team. They have also planned to proceed to Nagaland
and stay there for a couple of weeks.
But all does not seem to be rosy for the Naga leaders. The rival NSCN
(Khaplang) group at home has threatened to “eliminate” Muivah if he returns to
Nagaland. The group will also continue to slap quit notices on the Tangkhuls, a
leading Naga tribe of Manipur to which Muivah belongs.
* * * *
Political Crisis In
Karnataka
A question mark has again gone up over the future of the JD(S)-BJP
coalition Government in Karnataka, thanks to the continuing disputes within the
former party of Deve Gowda. The problem started when the former Prime Minister
decided to join hands with the BJP to form the State Government, sacrificing
the party’s ideology of secularism to make his son Kumaraswamy the Chief
Minister. Gowda’s friend at one time and now his bete noire Siddaramaiah left
the party in protest and joined hands with the Congress
alongwith some of his supporters.
Another group in the party, led by the National Executive member
Veerendra Kumar, formed another group within the State Executive Committee,
suspended Deve Gowda from the party for six years and appointed senior leader
Surendra Mohan as its President. Gowda, in turn, suspended Kumar at another
meeting of the truncated Executive. The
continuing intra-party conflict may well cause the fall of the coalition
Government, to the advantage of the Congress.
* * * *
Rajasthan Conclave
Worries Congress
The high-voltage “conclave of good governance” by Vasundhara
Raje-led BJP Government in Rajasthan appears to have got the rival Congress party worried. The AICC General Secretary and
former Chief Minister of the State, Ashok Gehlot has described the conclave at
the end of the Raje Government’s three years in office as a “big tamasha”. He believes that the exercise, in which the
State’s bureaucracy and the Council of Ministers participated, was “futile”. He
claimed that it lacked transparency and had barred the bureaucrats from
speaking freely. Gehlot has even gone to the extent of describing the Raje
Government itself as a “farce”, which has failed to provide relief to the
farmers as also adequate water for irrigation. Gehlot has accused the
Government for misleading the public of its achievements during the last three
years, especially the setting up of the IT and Knowledge Corridors.
* * * *
Record Power Supply
In M.P.
Madhya Pradesh can look forward to uninterrupted power
availability, if the State Government’s plans for electricity generation are
any indication. Already, the
availability of electricity on December 21 was 6109 MW, highest ever in the
State. Thanks to the efforts of Chief
Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the State Government has not only ensured
proper maintenance of the State’s thermal power plants, it has also drawn up
plans to maximize hydel power generation during the Rabi season. The commissioning
of the Bansagar dam earlier this year has led to the generation of 750 million
units of power. Higher generation has also been possible
because the reservoirs on the Chambal river in the State, as also in Rajasthan,
were filled to a record level. The
Indira Sagar project has also performed better after the water level in the
reservoir was raised.
* * * *
Andhra Plan To
Control AIDS
Andhra Pradesh, which is presently worst hit by the scourge
of HIV/AIDS, is now set to become the first State in the country to pass a legislation and make it mandatory for the young
men and women to undergo HIV test before getting married. The move is intended
to make sure that there are no HIV positive babies born in the future. The issue was discussed
in the State Assembly last week,
shortly after the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, his Ministers and
other MLAs undertook the test. The
details of the proposed legislation and its implementation are being worked out
by the State Health Ministry. It is of the view that the climate is now right
to pass the legislation and ensure
that no children are born with the disease, since sex is one of the main
reasons for contracting the disease.
* * * *
Gujarat Christians Thank
Modi
Gujarat’s controversial Chief Minister
Narendra Modi, charged by his opponents for being brazenly anti-minority, has
received “thanks” from a wholly unexpected quarter: Christians in the
State. The CM took a strong stand
against the Sangh Parivar to ensure that the Christians in the State were able
to celebrate the Christmas peacefully on Monday. The CM directed the District Collectors of
Dangs and Bhavnagar
to bar the RSS and the VHP from holding the Hindu Sammelan and the guru
Gowalkar birth centenary celebrations on the same day in these two
Christian-dominated districts. Dangs has particularly a history of
Hindu-Christian clashes during Christmas. The Guru Gowalkar birth centenary
celebrations were also not allowed on the advice of the Bhavnagar District
Collector.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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