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Round The States
President’s Rule In Karnataka
JD(S) GORY TALE OF BETRAYAL
By Insaf
New Delhi, October 14, 2007
The curtain finally rung down on Wednesday on a gory
political potboiler of betrayal and back stabbing in Karnataka
which would put a Bollywood film to shame. With the BJP
formally withdrawing support to the 20-month long Government
of JD(S) Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, President’s Rule was
imposed on the State and the Assembly kept in suspended
animation. Governor Rameshwar Thakur favoured dissolution of
the Assembly and fresh elections to avoid ugly horse-trading
and underhand deals between the parties. Many at the Centre
agreed with him in their anxiety to block all possibilities of
the BJP and the JD(S) again coming together and forming a
Government. But they ran into a major hurdle: the Supreme
Court’s landmark judgment in the Bommai case. This left only
one course open to the Union Government: impose President’s
rule and keep the Assembly in suspended animation.
The Supreme Court’s judgment limits the President’s power
initially to imposing Central rule and keeping the Assembly in
suspended animation. The President can consider dissolution of
the Assembly only after both the Houses of Parliament have
ratified Central rule in the State. Perhaps it is as well that
the Assembly is in animated suspension in view of the
uncertainty over Parliament’s next session because of the UPA-Left
logjam over the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. This leaves scope for
two alternatives since politics is the art of making
impossible possible. At one stage, the Congress was receptive
to JD(S) feelers favouring a Government headed by Union
Minister of State for Planning, M.V. Rajasekharan, a Lingayat,
like BJP’s CM-designate Yediyurappa. But Maharashtra Governor
S.M. Krishna, a Vokaligga, scuttled the proposal. Secondly,
the JD(S) and BJP could still decide to bury the hatchet and
rule the State.
* * * * *
Himachal Greatly Surprised
Himachal Pradesh has been taken totally by surprise by the
Election Commission’s announcement of the dates for the
Assembly poll on November 14 for the snow-bound constituencies
and December 19 for the rest of the State. In fact, the first
response to the announcement was one of panic as the State was
expecting the election in February since the term of the
68-member Assembly ends only on March 9 next. The Government’s
biggest worry now is that its plans to announce a slew of
pre-election sops --- jobs and development works in the
districts --- have gone awry. The State Government had planned
to announce these sops after October 15 following the Chief
Minister, Virbhadra Singh’s return from Washington. However,
the CM is not unduly bothered. He is confident of winning once
more on the strength of his Government’s performance over the
past five years!
* * * * *
Ajmer Sharif Blast
The bomb blast in the dargah of the Sufi saint, Khwaja
Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer, a shrine in Rajasthan venerated
alike by Muslims, Hindus and Christians on Thursday has once
again pushed the Centre and the State Governments into the
dock. Mercifully, the blast was low-intensity and causalities
were limited to 2 killed and 17 injured when some 5000
devotees were present. But the incident could have been
prevented if only both the Central and State Intelligence and
the Police had been truly alert. Only last week, Union Home
Minister Shivraj Patil had warned once again that terror
groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, based in Pakistan, would
strike religious institutions to provoke communal conflict. In
fact, he even issued a red corner alert to the States at a
two-day conference of Director Generals and IGs of Police New
Delhi. Sadly, however, in all such exercises continue to end
in rhetoric and still more rhetoric. Time for some solid
action.
* * * * *
Assam I-Cards For Muslims
What the Centre can do, Assam can do one better when it comes
to minority appeasement. The State Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi,
in a first of sorts, has decided to issue identity cards to
daily wage labourers belonging to the minority community.
Ostensibly, to stop their “harassment” in the name of
identifying illegal Bangladeshi migrants. “The Government
cannot allow this,” he thundered at an Iftar party in Guwahati.
In addition, the Muslims have also been promised a slew of
welfare schemes. All with an eye on reaping the political
harvest in the forthcoming Panchayat polls. However, the
Congress is worried that a major chunk of Muslims,
particularly those of erstwhile East Pakistan origin, might
yet vote for the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) headed
by Badruddin Ajmal. Interestingly, ensuing criticism of the
CM’s announcement has got Gogoi to promise something long
overdue: an I-card for every citizen. But the question is
when?
* * * * *
National Tears Over Onion
Failure of the onion crop in Maharashtra and Karnataka has led
to copious tears all over the country. So severe is the
shortage that the States which account for 30 per cent of the
country’s 66 lakh tonne annual crop of onion, are also feeling
the heat. Retail prices are now as high as Rs.30 per kg and
continue to rise. Adding to the consumer woes, at many places
farmers are hoarding onions expecting more prices for their
produce. While Government officials blame traders for
hoarding, the traders hold the unseasonal rain guilty. Either
way for Indian households, barring the National Capital Region
of Delhi, the writing is on the wall: pay more for onions in
the next couple of months. Delhi’s Chief Minister, Sheila
Dikshit, has arranged to provide the common man with onion at
Rs.22 per kg from Government-managed counters!
* * * * *
J&K On The Boil Again
Jammu and Kashmir is on the boil again. Juma’t al’vida, last
Friday of the holy month of Ramzan, which fell yesterday, saw
a two-member fidayeen squad attack the headquarters Battalion
of the CRPF in Srinagar, leaving three police personnel
injured on the eve of the 72-hour unilateral cease-fire
declared by the Pakistan-based United Jihad Council. Earlier
on Wednesday, nine terrorists, two Army majors and a jawan
were killed in a fierce battle in the Tanmarg area in
Baramulla district. Incredibly enough, the cross-fire between
the Rashtriya Rifles and the militants lasted three days,
prompting the new Army Chief, Gen Deepak Kapoor to disagree
with his predecessor and rule out any “troop cut till the
State returns to normalcy.” The outgoing Army Chief, Gen. J.J.
Singh had asserted on his last day that the situation in J&K
was “fast moving towards normalcy.”
Not unexpectedly, the PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti, latched
on to the two statements and attacked the two Army Chiefs for
giving confusing signals to the troubled State. However, the
PDP, which has been vociferous in demanding troop withdrawal,
today finds itself caught on the wrong foot, thanks to its
Tanmarg MLA, Ghulam Hassan Mir and former Housing Minister.
Shockingly, Mir offered prayers at the graves of the nine
militants killed in Tanmarg. Queried about his “betrayal”, he
explained to a national daily: “I offered fateha in the
capacity of being a Muslim. I don’t think there is anything
wrong in this.” Yet the message that has gone out from this
PDP leader, who was once in the running for the Deputy Chief
Minister’s job under Ghulam Nabi Azad, has caused great
embarrassment to his party. It confirms once more the PDP’s
close links with the militant groups.
* * * * *
Yamuna Satyagraha
Save the Yamuna campaign in New Delhi is growing. Ignored by
the Government, the activists of the “Yamuna Satyagraha” have
decided to spread to 11 places across the Capital. Their
demand of exempting the river’s floodplains from construction
work has fallen on deaf ears, despite their campaigning for
the past 60 days. The sit-in, near the riverbed site where the
Commonwealth Games Village is to be constructed, will now
extend to places including the Supreme Court, India Gate and
Raj Ghat. It may be recalled that the Yamuna Satyagraha
started in 2000 in protest against construction of the
Akshardham complex on the riverbed. It made no impact on the
authorities. Now in its seventh year, the campaign is trying
to urge journalists, sportsmen, artists and students to join
in. Time will tell. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
E-Mail :
newseditor@sarkaritel.com
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