Haryana Jat Stir
By Insaf
Utter failure of the Haryana government to rein in the rampaging Jat protestors should send warning signals to other States, bitten by the reservation bug. The complete collapse of the law and order machinery and administration is a sad reflection on Chief Minister Madan Lal Khattar’s ability to run the State. Inexperience cannot be an excuse for this failure, which saw the State burning for over five days, 19 people killed and public and private property worth thousands of crores destroyed. Worse, the NCR districts such as Rohtak, Sonepat, Panipat witnessed the worst violence and water supply in the nation’s capital Delhi was hit hard. With a helpless administration or call it deliberate inaction because of vote-bank politics, the Union Home Ministry was asked to send in the Army, but too late. It’s ironic to say the least that the BJP-led government at the Centre was seen to be busy dealing with slogan-shouting students of JNU and calling them ‘anti-national’ rather stern action against those destroying ‘national’ property in the BJP-ruled State!
Khattar and other Chief Ministers, specially of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh entangled in Jat quota demand, would do well to make a note of the Supreme Court’s recent observation while hearing a petition filed by Hardik Patel seeking sedition charges by the Gujarat government against him be dropped. It stated: Strict action must be taken against individuals or political parties (whether the BJP or Congress) that destroy public property during any of their agitations. “We cannot allow people to burn nation’s properties and hold the country to ransom in the name of agitation.” Wonder whether the State governments will act or force the apex court to step in at the risk of being accused of usurping executive powers?
Arunachal Govt
Curtains are half down in Arunachal Pradesh’s Assembly drama. So far so good for the newly-appointed Chief Minister Kalikho Pul, as he won the vote of confidence without any Opposition on Thursday last. His predecessor Nabam Tuki along with 16 Congress MLAs chose to remain absent and all 40 members present including Pul, 11 BJP MLAs, two Independents and eight Congress MLAs, believed to be Tuki loyalists, raised their hands in support and were duly counted. Recall Pul was appointed CM on February 19 amid a political storm and President’s rule. Asserting that his was a Congress government, Pul said his fight was not against Tuki but corruption and he was happy that the BJP supported on the issue. However, the battle is not yet won. The storm arising out of “a special session” of the Assembly on December 16-17 last year in which Tuki was “voted out” in absentia, reached the Supreme Court’s door and the apex court is to give its final decision. It could go either way. Many a finger would be crossed till then.
Railways Tracks States
“Saath saath” (together) is the Railways vision. It has reached out to State Governments to undertake projects with it, guess for better or worse. Announcing its ‘Partnerships’ venture while presenting the Railway Budget on Thursday last, Minister Prabhu stated 44 new ‘partnership works’ covering about 5,300 kms and valuing Rs 92,714 crore will soon get the green signal. The joint venture plan offers to open up new vistas for sharing the ownership of Railways, enhance bandwidth for project execution, strengthen cooperative federalism and enable States to jointly decide their priorities for development of backward regions. The idea has rolled out well with 17 States giving approvals in principle. Of these, 6 MOUs have been signed. This apart, Rail Bhavan is going all out to improve suburban traffic in country’s financial capital Mumbai, the metro in Kolkata, reviving the ring system in Delhi, have partnership with Gujarat, Telengana and Tamil Nadu for developing suburban sections etc. Additionally, the Minister wants tech hub Bangalore and God’s own country Kerala to have suburban rail system. All he asks of them is to “stagger office timings to reduce peak load on suburban traffic”. Will they oblige?
J&K Encounter
The recent encounter at Pampore on the outskirts of Srinagar may prove statistics wrong that the Jammu & Kashmir is witnessing fewer terrorist strikes. Moreso as come to think of it, just three terrorists were able to engage security forces in a gun battle which lasted 48 hours. Apparently, the LeT terrorists who took refuge in the four-storey Entrepreneurship Development Institute building had come prepared with lot of arms and war-like ammunition. And the Army says its main concern was to first evacuate 100-0dd civilians who were in the building. The operation thus took long but at the end it was a success and the civilians were safe. However, it lost three brave soldiers. Undeniably, the encounter signals the dire need for a strategic review by New Delhi. There can be no room for complacency.
Punjab’s Gun Culture
Punjab has a penchant for guns! In a case being heard in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking a ceiling on the number of private arms licences issued in the border State, it came to light that 4.5 lakh arm licences have been issued to civilians and worse three firearms on a single license. Plus, the State with just 2.3 per cent of India’s population can boast of nearly 20 per cent of the total private licensed weapons in the country. Another estimate is that the State police would have just 7 per cent of the total private licensed firearms. Apparently, 11 of Punjab’s 22 districts figure in the top 50 district in the country with maximum arms licences and politicians, property dealers, landlords and officers are among the proud owners. According to all-India figures, 21 lakh-odd private arms licences have been issued and Punjab figures in the third spot, with UP topping the list–11.17 lakh. Will the Court be able to pull the trigger and have the Government bring down the number of licences? Though the police want to do so, it but such moves have proven futile as political influences often prevail while granting licences.
Mercy Killing of Dogs
Dog lovers are up in arms in Chennai. In response to an RTI, the Greater Chennai Corporation has said that 2,790 dogs were how the civic body identifies euthanized over the past four years in Tamil Nadu’s capital city–in 2011-12 (768), 2012-13 (696), 2013-14 (698) and in 2014-15 (628). These were dogs suffering mortal wounds or an incurable disease is the corporation’s claim, which has been questioned by activists who ask how they identify dogs for “mercy killings.” Further, the claim of the corporation that it hands over stray dogs to three animal welfare organisations for sterilisation programme is under dispute, as the activists insist there is no transparency in either of the claims. But the civic body shows records that it spent Rs 81.16 lakh in 2013-14 and Rs 37.65 lakh in 2014-15 to sterilise 29,967 and 24,156 dogs, respectively at the rate of Rs 420 per dog. While this practice is better than the ‘catch and kill policy’ of the late 90s, wonder how dogged persistent the activists would be. —INFA