Round The States
New Delhi, 18 September 2008
India On Edge
TIME TO ACT AGAINST
TERROR
By Insaf
Have the serial blast in the Union Capital given the much-needed
jolt to the ‘soft’ Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government? Notwithstanding the Prime
Minister’s confession that “there were vast gaps in intelligence’ the spate of
blasts across the country has by and large left the intelligence agencies none
the wiser. And if one goes by Home Minister Shivraj Patil sartorial dress
sense, not at all. True the Centre is now finally thinking of a POTA 2, with
two minor changes as suggested by the Moily Adminstrative Reform Commission.
However, the moot point is: who will reign in the coalition allies like Lalu’s
RJD, Mulayam’s Samajwadi and Paswan’s LJP who all are serenading the lifting of
the ban on SIMI. Remember their bee-line to Azamgarh, the hometown of
terror-mastermind Basher.
In fact, experts aver the Centre’s wishy-washy approach has
to make way for a pro-active hit. Wherein, the agencies take the fight into the
bastions of the terror brigade. Or else the terrorists will continue to have a
free run and hold the country to ransom. Towards that end we had the Union
Cabinet debating last Wednesday how to strengthen the Unlawful Activities Act
“in line with the global consensus on the fight against terrorism”. Some
suggestions such as strengthening the police force, setting up of special fast
track courts for terror-related trials, installing CCTVs in markets et al were
made. Along with a wee-bit of criticism of the National Security Adviser M K
Narayanan and Patil. Global standards did you say? Clearly, if the Centre truly
wants to fight terror then it has to act tough. For starters, Afzal Guru should
be done away with. Is anyone listening?
* * * *
Kashmiriyat Hit Militants
Patient enquiries interestingly show that Jammu &
Kashmir’s former Governor, Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha (Retd) is more sinned against
than sinning in the tragic violence and trouble that erupted over the Amarnath
Yatra in the State. Bare facts speak for themselves. The Amarnath Shrine Board
was set up in 2000 during Farooq Abdullah’s Chief Ministership on the basis of
the recommendations of a Judicial Commission that inquired into the death of 250
pilgrims in the avalanche of 1996. Lt. Gen Sinha, as the State’s Governor, took
over as its Chairman in 2002. The Board tried to set up state-of-the art
toilets and pre-fabricated huts along the route. But PDP’s Mufti Sayeed as
Chief Minister strongly opposed the move. The citizens, thereupon, took the
matter to Court, which decided in favour of the Shrine Board. Thereafter, 2,000
toilets and pre-fabricated huts were set up. The Board asked for land in 2005
and in May 2008 the Governor got “a pleasant surprise” from the Government
informing that “land would be transferred to the Shrine Board.” The proposal
was approved unanimously by the State Cabinet.
What seems to have greatly upset the militants and
secessionists, eventually leading to violence, was the Governor’s decision as
the Chairman of the Shrine Board to promote “Kashmiriyat”,
a tradition of religious tolerance and brotherhood. The Governor made it a
practice to visit the dargah of
Sheikhul Alam, the patron saint of Kashmir at
Charare-e-Sharif after inaugurating the Amarnath pilgrimage. What is more, the
Shrine Board organized a festival of Sufi music every year. It also set up a
Centre for Kashmiriyat at the Kashmir University, which was deeply resented by
the separatists who stood for hardline Islam. What appears to have finally got
the militants goat was the Board’s decision to invite the famous Pakistani band
Junoon to play Sufi music in Srinagar this year. They
tried their best to scuttle the band’s visit. But failed. Next, they even gave
a call for a strike on the day Junoon
was to perform. This too did not work as some 10,000 people, turned up for the
concert. What appears to have driven the militants mad was the announcement by Junoon’s leader that their concert was a
“musical jihad for peace!”
* * * *
Conversion Fire
Engulfs Karnataka
The communal fire, yet to die out in Orissa has now swept
Karnataka’s coastal Mangalore, Udupi, and Chikmagalur, with Bajrang Dal
activists targeting churches, prayer halls and Catholic-run schools. The
activists, defying prohibitory orders, claim their protests are not against
Christians but conversions. Specially, by the Bangalore-based Protestant sect,
“New Life,” which is busy converting Hindus to Christianity. So far 16 churches
and prayer halls have been attacked. The Dal has called for a bandh in Mangalore on Monday, perhaps
emboldened by the BJP’s Yeddyurappa Government ordering a probe into the flow
of foreign funds to some organizations reportedly being used for “conversion of
Hindus into Christians.” Meanwhile, his counterpart in Orissa, Naveen Patnaik
is thinking of reviewing the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, which prohibits
conversion from one religion to another by use of force, allurement, inducement
or by fraudulent means.
* * * *
TN Frees 1400
Convicts
Tamil Nadu does take the cake in political one-upmanship. On
Monday last a whopping number of 1,405 life convicts were released from
different prisons in the State. Not because of their good behaviour, but
because the Chief Minister M Karunanidhi decided that this was the best way to
commemorate the birth anniversary of DMK founder C N
Annadurai. From one prison alone, 117 life convicts, including 6
women were set free. Instead of serving the 14-year life term, many convicts
who had done only 5 to 7 years were allowed to walk free from jails. Not only
that. The State Government gave cash and utility machines to those released to
help start life afresh. The DGP (Prisons) word of advice: “Never show up again,
even to visit acquaintances”.
* * * *
Famine in Manipur
Villages
Flowering of bamboo in Mizoram is playing havoc with
bordering Manipur. About 265 villages in this North-east State
are reeling under famine. Around 1,600 acres of standing crop have been damaged
and over one lakh people affected. The cause: the flowering of a particular
bamboo “Melocan na Baciferra” (known as Mautam or bamboo of death in Mizoram).
This species flowers only once in 40-50 years, but when it does, it spells
disaster. The consumption of these flowers increases the fertility of rats,
which then invade fields and eat up the standing crop. While Mizoram has
valiantly been tackling this, villages in Manipur have been reduced to
starvation. Worse, their misery has been compounded by incessant rain and
landslides. Though the Centre has sanctioned over Rs 16 crore for relief,
little has reached the famine-stricken. Clearly, the State better pull-up its
socks and not forget that it was the 1960 famine that sparked insurgency in
Mizoram. Wherein the NGO Mizo National Famine Front, working for the victims,
in 1964 transformed itself into the Mizo National Front and demanded Independence.
* * * *
Women Power in
Uttarakhand
The “other half” doesn’t want to lag behind their political
husbands in Uttarakhand. This is the ‘fair’ total of the recently held
Panchayat elections in the State. Many political heavy-weights wives contested
the poll, and took advantage of the 50% reservation of seats for women at all
the three levels. The winners included the wife of the State Sports Minister,
Congress Leader of Opposition, former Congress Minister, BJP MLA and the
Samajwadi’s National General Secretary. In fact, the latter’s wife outshone her
husband --- who had failed to win even a single election in the past 20
years! The State saw 62 women emerge
victorious as Gram Pradhans, 7 won
Zilla Parishad seats and 65 were elected to the Block Development Council. If
this trend continues, the wives indeed qualify as the “better halves!” ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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