Round The States
New Delhi, 13 June 2007
As Governments
Change...
VENDETTA POLITICS
TO THE FORE
By Insaf
Witch hunt seems to have become the flavour of the
season. Politics of vendetta is being
pursued increasingly by erstwhile Opposition parties voted to power in the
States in recent elections. UP and Punjab provide glaring examples of two major
States where Governments have recently been replaced by the rival parties---the
BSP in Lucknow and the Akali Dal-BJP in Chandigarh. Soon after assuming charge as Chief Ministers, Mayawati in U.P.
and Parkash Singh Badal in Punjab publicly
declared that they would not practise any vendetta against the Chief Ministers
and other leaders of the outgoing Governments. Nevertheless,
contrary to the established norms of administration, both have allowed partisan
interests to influence their outlook and undermine the continuity of governance
even on the development front. The new Governments are undoubtedly entitled to take
corrective measures required without fuss
in public interest. But all norms have been thrown to the winds.
Mayawati has announced her Government’s decision to review
almost all major actions taken by the outgoing Mulayam Singh Government,
especially those relating to the projects of Anil Ambani and Subrato Roy, both
close friends of Mulayam Singh and his close associate
Amar Singh. Such decisions, together with mass
transfers of 154 senior officers, has not only affected the smooth continuity
of governance, but also created chaotic conditions in the administration. Similar situations have also arisen under
Badal’s Government in Punjab. Enquiries have
been ordered in several causes of corruption. This includes the Ludhiana City
Centre scam, in which the former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and four of his
advisers are allegedly involved. The State Government has also shunted out
seven Special Public Prosecutors (SPP) appointed by the erstwhile Congress Government to probe high-profile corruption cases
involving Badal and his family.
* * * *
Task Before Goa CM Kamat
Goa’s new Chief Minister Digambar Kamat
has reason not to celebrate. The State’s Chief Ministership has become a crown
of thorns, given the Goa’s political history
of defections and unstable governments. The Congress
he leads in the Assembly has only 16
MLAs in the 40-member House. He has managed to cobble up a majority with the
support of the NCP, a Congress ally,
and the MGP, which have three and two
MLAs respectively, and two Independents. Importantly, Kamat defected from the BJP
to the Congress only two years ago.
Yet, he outsmarted two senior Congress
leaders, Pratapsinh Rane and the PCC Chief Ravi Naik, both of whom were in the
run for the Chief Ministership. The former has been the State’s CM seven times
and the latter thrice. Kamat has already faced his first difficulty in finalizing
his Ministry and distributing portfolios. In fact, the exercise was still on at
the time of writing.
* * * *
Modi Has The Last
Laugh
Political activity in Gujarat
is fast warming up, ahead of the Assembly
elections by the year-end. Chief Minister Narendra Modi is facing a challenge
both from within his BJP and the Opposition Congress.
Sonia Gandhi has visited the State twice and the loyalists of his bete noire
and former BJP Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel are bracing up for show of
strength within the party. However, Modi
seems to be having the last laugh in regard to the threat from within. A massive rally was sought to be mounted against Modi at
Surat on Monday.
But he nipped it in the bud successfully.
Even Keshubhai stayed away from the rally attended by not more than one lakh
locals against expectation of more than five lakh. In contrast, Modi’s
influence and development-oriented governance was reflected at a rally in
Ahmedabad, a day earlier. Held to mark his emerging as the longest serving
Chief Minister, it was attended by more than seven lakh people.
* * * *
Raje’s Hat-Trick
Against Gurjjars
Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje has scored a
hat-trick, striking thrice against the Gurjjars in the State who have been agitating
aggressively for Scheduled Tribes
status. First, she managed to get them to call off their violent stir which had
spread to adjoining States and the Union Capital. She offered them a Committee
to look into their demand and got their leaders to accept it. Second, she has
managed to get the Gurjjar satraps to split over the agreement to withdraw the
agitation. Simultaneously, she has got the State police to move against Gurjjar
activists led by Col. Bainsla (Retd), for creating violence and destroying
public property during the agitation. Third, she has got the State BJP to
suspend three of its Gurjjar MLAs and hold two Ministers responsible for helping
wage what the Government has described as “open caste war” between the Gurjjars
and Meenas of the State.
* * * *
Generals Join Hands
In Uttarakhand
The BJP and its Chief Minister in Uttarakhand B.C. Khanduri
have managed to be one-up on the Congress
Party. Khanduri has got a senior Congress
leader and former Minister, Lt.-Gen TPS Rawat (Retd) to resign his Assembly seat from Dhumakot and offer it to him to enable
him to enter the Assembly through
this constituency before September 8. The deal is essentially
a quid pro quo. Presently, Khanduri represents Pauri constituency in the Lok
Sabha. Rawat has now been offered the Pauri seat. Interestingly, Khanduri had
defeated Rawat in the 2004 election for the Lok Sabha by over 50,000 votes from
Pauri. Now that the two rivals, one a retired
two-star General and the other a retired three-star General from the same IMA course,
have joined hands, the BJP is assured a majority on its own in the 70-member Assembly. At present, the party has 35 MLAs.
* * * *
AIADMK Agitates
Against CM
The AIADMK cadres violently hit the streets across Tamil Nadu last week, protesting against Chief
Minister Karunanidhi for allegedly making derogatory remarks against their supremo
Jayalalitha. Thousands of party workers, including a large number of women,
blocked roads in different places and burnt the CM’s effigies. Over 12,000
persons, including 1117 women, were detained across
the State. One of the DMK activists died in jail reportedly of a heart attack.
Alleging negligence of the prison authorities, the cadres demonstrated in
Chennai again, resulting in more arrests. The State Government later ordered release of all AIADMK workers, except
for 28 people arrested on charges of attempt to murder. Jayalalitha has,
however, warned the DMK Government that her party cadres would not remain
silent spectators to derogatory comments against their leader.
* * * *
Chhattisgarh’s
“Salwa Judum” Challenged
The Chhattisgarh Government’s initiative to constitute
“Salwa Judum” (self-defence groups) to combat the growing Naxalite menace in
the State has run into difficulty. A public interest litigation (PIL) has been
filed in the Supreme Court against the group by two individuals. The Court has issued a notice to the Government after hearing the
petitioners about the killings and atrocities committed by the Salwa Judum in
the guise of countering the Naxal movement. These local activists have been
conducting frequent raids on villages and “suspected” Naxalite sympathizers are
allegedly being beaten up and brutally killed. Their houses are torched and
livestock stolen. These armed activists are also said to have been frequently
involved in illegal checking of vehicles and levying of taxes.
* * * *
Meghalaya To Clean
Up PDS
The Meghalaya Government has worked out a nine-point
programme to tackle the menace of increasing “diversion” of commodities meant
for the Public Distribution System (PDS). This follows a survey that showed
about 80 per cent of commodities meant for the below poverty line (BPL)
families were diverted in 2004-05. The State will now use Government agencies
to distribute the PDS material. This is expected to eliminate malpractices by
private fair price shops. Moreover, ration cards will hereafter be distributed by
the Block Officers, to end misuse. Wholesale dealers in the State are also
proposed to be reduced from 756 to around 400. Those indulging in malpractices
will lose their dealership. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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