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Political Notes

	January 24, 2005

Assembly election scene

Constituents of the United Progressive Alliance, UPA, who are in power at the Centre, are fighting each other in all the three States having Assembly elections, Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana. In Jharkhand, in the first phase of the elections, the RJD is fighting 21 of the total 24 seats, the JMM 18 seats, the Congress 11 seats and the Left parties 7 seats. Even the seat-sharing agreement between the Congress and the JMM does not appear to be working. As per the agreement the JMM was to fight 7 seats and the Congress 9 in the first phase of the elections in Jharkhand. Lalu Prasad Yadav had earlier announced that RJD candidates will not be fielded in seats where the Congress and the JMM have sitting MLAs. But his promise appears to have been broken.

In Bihar, the RJD has left about 25 seats for the Congress but the national party is fighting over 80 seats, with its candidates standing against the RJD. Lalu Prasad Yadav says that he doesn’t mind it because the Congress presence will only cut into the upper caste vote bank of the BJP. Ram Bilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party says that it has an alliance with the Congress and has put up 120-odd candidates in seats where the Congress is not in the fray but the Congress does not appear to be too keen to publicise their so called alliance.

Observers say, the results of the elections will depend upon the extent to which Lalu Prasad is able to hold on to his Yadav-Muslim vote bank. With a large number of candidates belonging to the various parties and also rebels in the fray, the results may be decided by close margins.



The BJP has sent two of its general secretaries Arun Jaitely and Pramod Mahajan to campaign in Bihar. Uma Bharti, who was supposed to be one of the main campaigners of the party in Bihar is not to be seen, as she has been admitted to hospital after feeling chest pain. The BJP’s Bihari babu film star-politician, Shatrughan Sinha, initially supposed to lead the party campaign in Bihar, is staying put in Mumbai. He is reported to be upset over the BJP’s move to cancel his yatra or journey and its failure to project him as its star campaigner. He said, “I have heard that I have been appointed chief of the election campaign committee. But there is nothing official about it.” Asked about the campaign which he was supposed to lead Shatrughan Sinha said “What to do, where to go, how to start, I have no idea as yet.”



Observers say that the Assembly election results will not lead to any change in numbers in the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Parliament. But the chemistry of dependence at the Centre could change. If the Congress is able to regain power in Haryana, on its own, and in Jharkhand, in alliance with the JMM, it can strengthen the party’s position vis-ŕ-vis other constituents of the UPA.



India-Canada to work for Tsunami warning system

India and Canada have agreed to work towards the development of a Tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean. The announcement was made in New Delhi after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Paul Martin last week. Martin was accompanied by Canadian National Science Adviser Arthur Carty and renowned Tsunami expert Tad Murthi, a Canadian of Indian origin, who had developed the Tsunami Warning System for the Pacific.

In a related development, the Union Cabinet has approved a Rs. 2,731 crores relief and rehabilitation package for the victims of the Tsunami in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Pondicherry. A package for Andaman and Nicobar Islands, one of the worst hit areas, is to be announced later.



Summons to L.K. Advani in Babri demolition case

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has reissued notices to seven persons including former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi in the Babri Masjid demolition case on a revision petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The matter has been listed for hearing on February 25. The CBI had filed the revision petition challenging the decision of the Special Judge on Ayodhya matters terminating the prosecution proceedings against 21 persons including L.K. Advani.



Taj corridor case: Mulayam criticizes CBI’s decision

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has criticized the CBI’s

decision to drop the Taj corridor case against BSP chief Mayawati. Speaking in Behracih, he said the people know who are behind the CBI’s decision to drop the case against Mayawati. At the same venue, UP Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohammed Azam Khan alleged that the case is being dropped ahead of the Assembly elections in three states at the behest of the Centre.



No memorial for Narasimha Rao in Delhi The Urban Development Ministry has turned down the plea of the family members of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao for converting 9, Motilal Nehru Marg, the house in New Delhi where Rao spent his last years and wrote his memoirs, into a memorial for the late leader. Quoting a directive issued by former Urban Development Minister Jagmohan, the Government said that converting Rao’s residence into a memorial is “out of the question”. Rao’s family has been asked to move out of the building by March 31. Jagmohan’s directive provided that no more Lutyen’s bungalows should be converted into memorials. That move was approved by the previous NDA government in 2002 and Urban Development Ministry officials say, there is no proposal to change the Cabinet decision.



No more petrol pumps for MPs: SC

Two-judge committee of the Supreme Court has recommended that members of

Parliament should not be allotted petrol pumps or dealerships of petroleum products. The committee was set up to look into petrol pump allotments made by the NDA government three years ago. In its report the committee suggested that MPs should give up their membership of Parliament before taking up the dealerships. The committee argued that MPs are not able to fulfil the mandatory condition of giving full time to the venture as they have to attend parliament as well as meetings of parliamentary committees resulting in long absence from the place of allotment of the retail outlet. They do not fulfil the condition of “full time working dealer”, the report said.



Left critical of Doordarshan for pro-BJP bias

The Left parties have asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to take immediate steps to ensure that public telecaster Doordarshan projects the Government and UPA-Left line in the right perspective. At the UPA-Left meeting held on January 19, the Left leaders were of the view that Doordarshan is continuing to cater to the Sangh Parivar in the name of “mis-guided neutrality and liberalism”. They were critical of the Information and Broadcasting establishment for its failure to bring Doordarshan to the post-NDA realities. The issue was raised by CPI chief A.B. Bardhan who launched a frontal attack on the editorial policy of DD which he reportedly said was “giving less space to the Government and the UPA-Left views while making it a point to ensure that the leading Sangh Parivar spin doctors continue to figure in the studios to run down government decisions”. The Leftists once again targeted Prasar Bharati CEO K.S. Sarma who already figures in the hit-list of People’s Democracy. He and his comrades were particularly angry about the presence of an editor of an RSS mouthpiece in DD to “talk at great length about the Banerjee committee report on the Godhra incident”. They said when already many private TV news channels are around, “it is important that the DD functions as a forum to project the government and ruling front’s views in the right perspective”. The Left leaders found support in Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister Chidambaram who reportedly agreed with their complaints and felt some action had to be taken to put DD on the “right track”.



Congress for image change in Uttar Pradesh

A two-day youth training camp organized by the Uttar Pradesh Congress in Chittrakoot has given a call for change of the party image in the State. Leaders addressing the gathering of party workers called for change in the style of functioning of the party in Uttar Pradesh and projection of Rahul Gandhi as the new hope of the organization. Rahul Gandhi was the chief guest at the camp. Inaugurating the meeting, AICC general secretary Satyavrat Chaturvedi said the situation in Uttar Pradesh is dismal and disappointing and the State has been in the grip of political turmoil and chaos for 15 years and requires a change without any further loss of time. In his address, Rahul Gandhi defended economic reforms saying that the youth will benefit from globalisation. Observers say that Rahul Gandhi, after initial hesitation, is preparing to take on the mantle of the leader of young India. They say the Chittrakoot camp heralds the blossoming of Rahul Gandhi into a leader with mass acceptability.