Round The States
New Delhi, 5 August 2010
Valley On Precipice
TRAGIC TRAVAILS OF KASHMIR
By Insaf
The tragic travails of Kashmir
continue, constraining Union Home Minister Chidambaram and Huriyat Chief,
Geelani, to appeal for peace. The Valley is on the edge of the precipice once
again after a brief lull in the vicious killing-protest-killing cycle. Violent
protests rocked most cities and towns with angry curfew-defying mobs raising
anti-India slogans, fighting pitched battles with the security forces and
setting ablaze Police stations and other Government offices leaving over 28
people dead in the last six days. A worried Centre summoned embattled Chief
Minister Omar Abdullah and handed out a demarche: pull up your socks, dominate
and end the blood-bath. The beleaguered CM on his part presented a long list of
demands, political package, revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act,
more troops, talks with separatist et al. Notwithstanding, these have nothing
to do with the ongoing violence.
Adding to the turmoil the protestors blocked highways,
including the arterial road from Jammu
threatening fuel, food and medicine shortages. Not only that. The Kashmiri
youth disagreed with New Delhi and Srinagar’s assessment
that the violence is sponsored by the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Said a youth, “If our protests were Lashkar-sponsored,
don't you think we would be using sophisticated weapons against the forces? And
it would be easy for us to murder the troops.” For starters the Chief Minister
has to revamp his administration. Changes in the top civilian and police
officers could signal that the Government was responding to the anger on the
street. Undoubtedly, it is going to take more than a stern iron hand to
annihilate the separatists-choreographed fundamentalist Intifada and begin taking baby steps afresh on the long slow
journey to peace and normalcy. Will
Omar be able to deliver?
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Kerala A Muslim State?
Marxist Chief Minister, V.S. Achutanandan’s sharp
denunciation last week of the extremist Popular Front of India and its sinister
plan to make Kerala a Muslim majority State has yielded a welcome backlash. The
leaders of the Muslim League and other frontline Muslim organizations met in
Kottakul in the State’s Muslim-majority district of Malappuram and decided to
isolate extremist Islamic outfits like the Popular Front of India and the
Jamait-e-Islami. They also decided to launch active campaigns against
“religious extremism”. The meeting held that the activities of such
organizations, which they claimed were a minority among the Muslims of the
State had brought “blame and shame” to the entire community. Remember, the PFI
activists alleged to have recently chopped off the right hand of Prof T.J.
Joseph for “insulting” the Prophet. They are also accused of having disbursed
funds and provided training and weapons to the youth to eliminate opponents and
make Kerala a Muslim
State!
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Water Woes Of The
South
Come monsoon and the States up the ante on mutual disputes.
Specially, the Southern satraps who
are busy eyeballing each other over river water and dams: Kerala v/s Tamil
Nadu, Tamil Nadu v/s Karnataka, Karnataka v/s Andhra Pradesh and Andhra v/s
Maharashtra. While Kerala and Tamil Nadu fight over the height and safety of
the century-old Mullaperiyar dam on their border and Tamil Nadu and Karnataka squabble
about the pattern of water sharing from the Cauvery river, Karnataka and Andhra
disagree on the height of the Alamati dam over the Krishna river and Maharashtra
and Andhra Pradesh quarrel over the Babhli dam on the Godavari river.
Sadly, inter-State talks over interlinking of the rivers
continue to meander incessantly with no end to the disputes. Tribunals have
failed to redress grievances and announce its awards. And, where awards have
been given, they are contested. Cauvery Tribunal Award is a case in point.
Undoubtedly, political expediency is the root cause of the problem. Parties
take conflicting positions for political reasons. Clearly, the time has come
for the Centre to play a constructive role and the State politicians to take
quick rationale decisions. Instead of harping on issues like riparian rights,
the States should work out an ideal water-sharing formula, aided by New Delhi.
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Belgaum Fracas In Lok Sabha
If water is causing ‘de-silting’ of Southern ties, it’s land
which is the bedrock of continuing bad blood between Maharashtra
and Karnataka. Both are battling it out over Karnataka’s Belgaum district. The five-decades-old boundary
row suddenly erupted in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday as MPs caught in the
intra-State linguistic currents forced an adjournment of the House. All over the
Central Government's affidavit in the Supreme Court last month, that the disputed
district could not be made a part of Maharashtra
merely because a majority of the population there spoke Marathi. Given the
potential political damage to Congress-NCP ties, Maharashtra Chief Minister
Ashok Chavan has reiterated his demand for Union Territory
status for about 800 Marathi-speaking villages of the district. Only, to earn a
sharp rebuke from the BJP-ruled Karnataka.
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Landslide Win For
TRS
The demand for the creation of a separate state of Telangana
bounced back to political centre-stage post the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti’s
(TRS) landslide victory in the Assembly by-polls last week. Billed as a
referendum on Telangana’s statehood demand raised by TRS’s chief, Chandrashekhar
Rao, the Party won 11 of the 12 seats. For the ruling Congress, it was a triple
blow. Not only was it mauled in the minority-dominated constituencies but rubbing
salt on its wounds, its State President was defeated by arch rival BJP
candidate. Also, it could embolden the late CM Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Jaganmohan
to intensify his rebellion. Rued a senior leader to Insaf, “The Centre can no
longer ignore the surge in Telangana sentiment. We need to take an immediate
call on both issues.”
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Mamata’s CPM Woes
The battle for West Bengal’s
Raj gaddi has reached ludicrous proportions. From cockroaches in food,
down removing fishplates from rail tracks to train sabotages, Trinamool Mamata
Banerjee’s litany of allegations against bête noir CPM has it all. But her
latest, “CPM has formed suicide squads to kill me,” takes the cake in
farcicality. "CPM ministers and leaders are keeping a watch on my
movements. They are inquiring about my movements. Is it fair politics? They
cannot fight us politically. They are cowards," she asserted. Cowardice
apart, all’s ‘fair’ in love and war. With the devil taking the hindmost! In
Mamata’s lingo: CPM. ---IFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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