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Round The States
Mounting Islamic Terrorism
STATES ASKED TO STEP UP VIGIL
By Insaf
New Delhi, December 01, 2007
All the States have been alerted to step up
vigil following the serial bomb blasts in Varanasi, Faizabad
and Gorakhpur. The Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, told
Insaf that a nation-wide alert had been sounded to apprehend
the culprits. Refusing to apportion blame on the State
Government, Patil said that the Centre would extend all help
to the UP Administration in tracking down the culprits. Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, too, will confer with all the Chief
Ministers before long. Causing concern is the new breed of
Islamic terrorism that has reared its deadly head in the last
few months. In fact, UP seems to have become a fertile
‘bombing’ ground for the terrorists. Clearly, the terrorists
have misused the Centre’s policy of doling out largesse to the
Muslims. Instead, of using it to educate and uplift the
minority community, it is being used to largely encourage
Muslim fundamentalism.
Meanwhile, two terrorist organizations, 'Indian Mujahideen'
and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen have claimed responsibility for
the UP blasts which left 13 dead. What has added a frightening
dimension is the fact that this new breed of Islamic
terrorists is tech-savvy. The threat of the impending disaster
was sent via an e-mail to a private TV channel just a few
minutes before the blasts occured. It claimed that "'Islamic
raids" would be conducted against lawyers, who had thrashed
terrorists and refused to take up their cases. More. The
intelligence agencies have unearthed a Jaish-e-Mohammad plot
to kidnap Rahul Gandhi and get dreaded terrorists, including
Mohammad Afzal convicted in the attack on Parliament, released
in exchange. Clearly, the call of a new jihad should make the
Centre take a fresh hard look at its “appeasement” policy ---
as also on the need for a stringent POTA-type law to deal with
the threat.
* * * *
Hundred New Faces In Gujarat Poll
Gujarat’s Chief Minister, Modi is leaving no stone unturned to
return to power the third time around. The “messiah of
Hindutva” has got a push-up with the former BJP maverick
leader and ex-Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharati
throwing her weight behind her erstwhile colleague. For the
sake of Hindutva, Bharti has directed Bharatiya Janshakti
candidates to withdraw and extend support to the BJP in the
Assembly elections. However, she is still non-committal about
her return to the parent party. The BJP is going all out to
win through “carpet bombing” of the State, with 80 leaders
simultaneously addressing rallies all over. Significantly,
Modi, has calculatedly chosen to field 100 new faces in the
poll. More than 50 sitting MLAs, including Ministers, have
been dropped to overcome the anti-incumbency factor. It
remains to be seen whether the Hindutva promise of Ram and
Roti and a hark back to Godhra will emerge victorious.
Notwithstanding, the satta bazaar surprisingly showing Modi
slipping from being the top favourite.
* * * *
Nitish Completes Two Years
Bihar’s Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, has much to pat himself
for on the completion of two years in office. His tenure so
far has given much-needed impetus to development and to
delivering speedy justice. Leading to a marked improvement in
the overall environment of the State. Not only has the crime
graph gone down but, more importantly, communal harmony has
been maintained. The State is in the throes of construction
activity with new roads being built and battered ones
repaired. The power situation too has improved substantially.
Interestingly, the CM has announced a slew of incentives for
the girl child as a reward for the peoples’ support. Ranging
from a payment of Rs 2,000/- for a girl born in a BPL family
to Rs.5,000/- for the marriage of a girl in a family earning
less than Rs.60,000 per annum. Expectedly Rabri Devi has
denounced Nitish’s “tall claims” as an eye wash. But few take
her seriously. Even veteran Congressmen are discreetly
applauding Nitish!
* * * *
Mayawati’s Impressive Maharashtra Debut
UP’s Chief Minister, Mayawati, is fast earning the title of an
“unstoppable whirlwind” now that she is beginning to spread
her wings to the other States. The Dalit icon is all set to
try and repeat her social engineering of Brahmin-Dalit module
in the forthcoming Assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal
Pradesh. After wooing voters in Gujarat and addressing large
meetings in Ludhiana and Jammu, the BSP supremo held an
impressive rally of some two lakh people in Mumbai last week,
taking her opponents, the ruling Congress-NCP and the BJP
greatly by surprise. In Himachal, she has placed a helicopter
and huge sums of money at the disposal of her party’s state
unit which is contesting all the 80 Assembly seats. Mayawati
is determinedly using the ensuing State polls as a testing
ground for her ultimate bid for India’s Prime Ministerial
crown in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. She is confident of bagging
at least 60 seats out of a total of 80 in UP. This, she
believes, would give her a head start over her rivals.
* * * *
Adivasi Violence Rocks Assam
If ULFA and various militant outfits spelt bad news for
volatile Assam, a new Adivasi brew is turning out to be almost
as deadly. A new outfit, the All Adivasi Students Association
of Assam (AASAA) held Guwahati to ransom by organizing a
36-hour Assam bandh from Monday in protest against last week’s
unprecedented violent attack on Adivasi protestors by the
locals, which left one dead and about 240 injured. Demanding
their right to be given scheduled tribe status, they accused
the State Government for the violence. Meanwhile, the State
Government has termed the stripping of an Adivasi woman as an
“isolated incident committed by some miscreants.” At pains to
dispel misgivings among the tribals, Dispur has tossed the
complicated ST status issue in a State brimming with tribals
in the Centre’s court. New Delhi alone is empowered under the
Constitution to decide in such matters.
* * * *
Jamir’s Miraculous Escape
God’s grace and Mrs. Jamir’s prayers to the Almighty
miraculously saved S.C. Jamir, Goa’s Governor, from a fourth
attempt on his life since 1993. On his way to Dimapur from his
village in Mokokchung, the former Nagaland Chief Minister’s 20
vehicle convoy was attacked with automatic weapons and
mortars. Recall, the NSCN-IM in September last had declared
Jamir “anti-people and anti-national” and even issued a fatwa
barring him from returning to Nagaland. But Jamir and his
spouse, both true Nagas, refused to be cowed down. “God was
great”, as he put it. “Three of the four bombs planted among
the road failed to explode and so also two mortars fired at
our car.” Clearly, the militants have not only violated the
ceasefire in the State, as agreed to between the Centre and
the NSCN-IM, but continue to do so with impunity. Time for New
Delhi to take serious note, what with the Assembly poll due in
February.
* * * *
Sanskrit Compulsory In Madhya Pradesh
The BJP Government in Madhya Pradesh is going all out to
popularize Sanskrit, ‘the mother of all languages’. From the
next academic year, the State Government plans to make
Sanskrit compulsory for tiny tots seeking admission to Class I
in the schools. The premise? Teaching Sanskrit would enable
the State to revive Indian culture which, it believes, is
getting corrupted due to English and the Western culture.
Moreover, if English could be made compulsory in a non-English
speaking state, there was no reason why Sanskrit should be
discriminated against. Interestingly, there are 769 Sanskrit
schools and colleges in the state in which as many as 25,000
uttar madhyamik (equivalent to higher secondary) students pass
out every year. That is not all. The state administration is
also set to create history by establishing a Sanskrit
University in Ujjain.---INFA
(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)
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