Round The States
New Delhi, 8 October 2022
Amit Shah In J&K
KICKING OFF POLL SEASON?
By Insaf
New Delhi is trying to ward off the
winter chill in Jammu & Kashmir. How soon, is the big question following
Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s 3-day visit to the UT. There’s a whiff about
Assembly polls being on the cards finally. The exercise, he said would be held
as soon as EC revises electoral rolls. Perhaps coming summer. At Rajouri and
Baramulla rallies his speech had all trappings of a poll campaign: “3
families---Mufti & Co., Abdullah & sons and Congress that have ruled
Kashmir for 70 years have done nothing for welfare of people”; “development is
Modi's priority. Earlier, all money sent by Centre for development was usurped
by a few, but now everything is spent on people’s welfare…I want to appeal to
you to free J&K from clutches of these 3 families and to make Modi’s hands
strong for betterment, welfare”; Trashing demand for talks with Pakistan, he
said: “Why should we? We will not talk. We will talk to people of Baramulla, of
Kashmir…” Gujjars, Bakerwals and Paharis were given bait saying they shall now get reservation
benefits, plus in past 3 years an investment of Rs 56,000 crore has come to
J&K! The icing on the cake being: “Government will wipe out terrorism from
here, we want to make J&K as the most peaceful place in the country.” The
NC and PDP have rubbished his claims and the season ahead is bound to turn
politically hot.
* * * * * * *
EC U-Turn
The Election Commission of India has
kicked up a storm. Political parties are up in arms over it ‘doing a U-turn’ and
proposing a change in Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by asking them to provide ‘authentic
information’ to voters on financial viability of their poll promisesand how it would
impact financial situation of State/Centre governments concerned. They parties
are vocal and will send their response in writing by 19 October. The Left say:
It’s “totally unwarranted. The EC’s mandate is to ensure free and fair
elections and has no authority to regulate policies/welfare measures of
political parties.” It is solely their prerogative. Congress tweets: “None of social
development schemes would have become a reality if such a bureaucratic approach
would have been in place”. DMK: “It will negate sense of competition, deny
aspirations of people and discourage innovative thinking by parties.” EC is
exceeding limits. They draw EC’s attention to its own affidavit to Supreme
Court on Freebies issue wherein it stated it can’t “regulate policy decisions
of political parties and it would be an overreach of powers.”Suspecting the
U-turn is due to “pressure being exercised by the Executive,” MP Kapil Sibal
tweets: “Maybe EC itself needs a MCC” Perhaps!
* * * * * * *
‘Mission Repeat’ In HP
The election bugle has been sounded
in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh. None other than BJP star campaigner and
Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the ball rolling on Wednesday last in Bilaspur
district, while inaugurating state-of-the-art hospital AIIMS. He appealed to
the people to change their “riwaaz” (custom) and give his party a second
term for polls scheduled next month. The reasoning: previous governments only
laid foundation stones and forgot about actual projects once polls were over! Instead,
the “double-engine sarkar has given the state new infrastructure at
every step.” BJP’s ‘Mission Repeat’ is to be led by Chief Minister Jairam
Thakur and it’s to be seen whether he will break the jinx—no incumbent party has
returned to power since 1990s. The contest has been basically between the BJP
and Congress, but this time it may turn triangular with the entry of AAP. While the Congress is going to miss Late
Virbhadra Singh, who was a strong Chief Minister, it’s hoping his wife Pratibha
Singh, State party chief, could take on the mantle as she’s gaining influence. Whether
it’s good enough, only time will tell. In meantime, it could reach out to the
EC and ask whether Modi using AIIMS inauguration or announcing government schemes
amounted to pre-poll sops? The freebies debate should be made wider.
* * * * * * *
TRS To BRS
Telangana Chief Minister K
Chandrashekar Rao is no longer mincing words. He eyes a bigger role for himself–
the national and not just State canvas. On Wednesday last, in Hyderabad he
rechristened his Telangana Rashtra Samiti, created over 2 decades ago for
carving out Telangana from Andhra Pradesh,as Bharat Rashtra Samiti. Clearly eying
2024 General elections. At party headquarters, a unanimous resolution to merge
TRS with BRS was passed—to emerge as a national force, bringing like-minded
parties together. KCR is known to bat for a non-Congress, non-BJP opposition
and seeks now that regional parties make a force to reckon with. Lately, he has
been viciously critical of Modi and BJP, which is making inroads in his
territory. Will the gamble pay off? Perhaps, its more for 2023 Assembly polls. Or
will it backfire? Efforts are nevertheless on and he has been meeting with party
leaders such as Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar, Sharad Pawar.Banners
with slogans read ‘Dear India, he is coming’, ‘KCR is on the way’ at the
meeting venue. Will the sentiment reach all the way to Delhi?
* * * * * * *
Population Policy
It’s the time of the year for RSS to
make headlines. And it did so at its annual rally held in Nagpur on
Vijayadashmi. It’s chief Mohan Bhagwat focus on two issues caught attention:
One, he called for a comprehensive population control policy which “must apply
to all without any exception”, given the “population imbalance”, which has led
to “division of countries.” He cited conversion as main reason for this
population imbalance, with addition of allurement. More reason to worry for the Muslim
community? Two, he said “50 per cent of nation’s maternal power can’t be
ignored, we need to strengthen it…until women’s equal participation in
workforce is ensured, efforts aimed at nation’s progress won’t be successful”.
Clearly, wanting to send another message, the BJP idealogue was not
male-dominated. And, to drive home the point, this time the RSS had mountaineer
and former ITBP officer Santosh Yadav was its chief guest. Predictably,
Bhagwat’s speech is being dissected. The Hindu Sangathan ethos – “of organising
Hindu society for protecting Hindu dharma, sanskriti, samaj and all-round
development of Hindu Rashtra,” is debatable.
* * * * * * *
Public Flogging
Shameful and shocking, to say the
least. In Kheda district of Gujarat, a fewmembers of the minority community
were tied to an electric pole and publicly flogged by the police for allegedly
stone-pelting during a garba dance event. The dastardly action has made the
Minority Coordination Committee, a voluntary organisation,send legal notices to
Chief Secretary and DGP on Thursday last. The TMC has fileda complaint with the
NHRC. The legal notices seek ‘appropriate and suitable departmental,
disciplinary, punitive and criminal action against the erring police officials
forthwith who have openly violated all rights of the victims by way of public
flogging’.Besides, such “open and brazen violation is not
only against Article 21, but the whole constitutional spirit of a civilised
society”. The other side claims few policeman were injured in an attack on
a garba event on Monday night by a group comprising Muslim
community members, who objected to holding of the programme near a mosque.
---INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature
Alliance)
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