India This Week

Slipping in Some Unusual Places; Can’t Afford Celebrations; City-bred ‘Maoists’; Puppets Who Aid the UPA’s Survival; SC Sets Punjab House in Order

Slipping in Some Unusual Places; Can’t Afford Celebrations; City-bred ‘Maoists’; Puppets Who Aid the UPA’s Survival; SC Sets Punjab House in Order

In politics, timing is crucial. But, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Nitin Gadkari just can’t seem to get his right. First, he fainted at the party’s show of strength in New Delhi: a massive rally that was supposed to shake the ruling Congress-led UPA alliance out of its slumber on rising prices. Less than a week later, Gadkari has stumbled again. In a radio interview to BBC, he gave the Congress Government at the Centre a clean-chit for the 1984 riots. This he did just two days before a former Union minister Jagdish Tytler was let off by a court in a case related to that anti-Sikh massacre. The court’s decision was an outcome of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filing a closure report in the matter.

Gadkari, who was being interviewed by BBC Radio’s Hindi Service on the party reaching out to Muslims, said that the media always tried to “corner” BJP leaders and Narendra Modi on the Gujarat riots, but never asked questions of other non-BJP chief ministers for riots that have taken place before and after 2002.  On the 1984 riots, Gadkari said: “These kind of incidents cannot be manipulated or organised. These are the unfortunate reactions of the people at large.” Prodded further by the interviewer, and asked if he believed that the 1984 riots too were an outcome of the “people’s reaction without any manipulation”, Gadkari replied, “There might have been a few people involved in it but if I say the riots were started by the Government, that wouldn’t be correct.” This is the kind of reasoning that even the Congress does not further in its defence any more, and obviously put the BJP on the backfoot.

The BJP chief’s interview sparked off a quick and elaborate clarification by the party. ‘The comparison (between 1984 and 2002 Gujarat riots) is totally unwarranted because of the nature of the action taken by those in power in these two cases,’ the BJP’s statement said. Embarrassed BJP leaders are now talking about the “complicity of law enforcement agencies that allowed the riots to happen, killing nearly 3,000 men, women and children.” The party, of course, is yet to hear from Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), one of its oldest allies, who is in the US.

On May 1 Maharashtra enters its 50th year, but the government buildings will not be lit up. Reeling under a power shortfall of 6,000 MW to 6,500 MW, the Maharashtra government has to take a hard look at lighting up the state headquarters at Mantralaya. 

Once a power surplus state, it is now trying to buy. Even without this electricity crisis, in its 50th year Maharashtra does not have much to celebrate. Area under cultivation has gone down and farmers are selling off agricultural land for a pittance. With all the major dams in the state drying up already, a large chunk of the state now receives water only once in four days.  The crime scene is not too good either. The state ranks third in instances of rape and second in domestic violence. Female foeticide is also extremely high here. It is also on the terror radar and security is at an all time high. The state’s inability to contain MNS chief Raj Thackeray and his divisive politics has seen a sharp drop in the working class population. Labour is not easily available and projects are stalled due to shortage of workers. The Shiv Sena organised a blood donation camp, and made a bid to enter the Guinness Book of World Records by collecting over 20,000 bottles of blood. The MNS is organising a Marathi food festival. The government plans a cultural extravaganza. But no one seems to be addressing the real issue of putting Maharashtra back in all-India reckoning.

Lending credence to reports of Maoists trying to create a base in urban areas, two trade union activists have been arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on charges of harbouring Maoist leaders and expanding their cadre strength. Though the police is tightlipped about the arrests, civil rights activists say the two were picked up on 25 April, and even after three days are yet to be produced in court. The two leaders, Gopal Mishra and Pradeep, are believed to have been active in the Okhla Industrial Area of Delhi. Security agencies believe that Maoists have been trying to cash in on labour unrest and recruit disgruntled labourers for their urban area drive.

Ask any opposition MP what led to the defeat of two cut motions—one moved by the BJP and the other by the Left—on demand for grants on 27 April, he or she will tell you the Government won not because of numbers, but because of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The use of the CBI for the Government’s survival has perhaps never drawn as much attention as right now.  

In the past too, there have been allegations of the Government using the CBI as a political weapon against vulnerable opposition leaders. What is new is that the role of the CBI evens that of numbers to keep a government afloat.

There could not be more cynical disregard for Indian institutions by the Government. Indeed, the turn of events relating to the disproportionate assets case in the Supreme Court against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati only gives credence to allegations that not much can be expected from the CBI anymore. On 16 April, the CBI told the SC that a case could be made out against Mayawati. A week later, on 23 April, it stated before the apex court that the representation by Mayawati for closure of the case, keeping in mind the clean chit given to her by Income Tax authorities, was being looked into. And on 27 April, Mayawati, who is locked in a do-or-die battle against the Congress in UP, voted to save the Government.

The CBI, though, is not the only institution that has come under unprecedented pressure from the ruling coalition. The Enforcement Directorate and even the Income Tax Department are made to work or cease operations more because of political exigencies than for reasons like ridding the system of corruption.

Take the IPL. It was not a secret that huge money was coming into it. And yet, EC and IT sleuths never thought it necessary to investigate the mess till the Government came into play. That is, once the IPL scam became obvious, these agencies suddenly started following the money trails that led to the IPL and out of it to various beneficiaries. Chances are they will stop midway. For, a continuation will only hurt the Government.

Nearly two years after the Punjab Assembly expelled former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for alleged corruption, the Supreme Court has dubbed the move unconstitutional. The five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan ruled that in ousting Singh, the Assembly had exceeded its jurisdiction.

The Punjab Assembly had expelled Singh after a House panel said he was guilty of causing losses to the state by exempting a private builder from paying municipal taxes for a 32-acre plot in Amritsar. 

The bench held that the Assembly should have simply instituted a criminal case in the matter and allowed the law to take its course. “We accordingly declare that the resolution passed by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on 10 September 2008, directing the expulsion of the appellant [Amarinder Singh] for the remainder of the 13th term of the Vidhan Sabha is constitutionally invalid. Hence, we direct the restoration of the appellant’s membership in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha,” the bench ruled.

“If we were to permit the legislature to exercise privileges for acting against members for their executive acts during previous terms, the courts are likely to be flooded with cases involving political rivalries. One can conceive that whenever there is a change of regime, the fresh incumbents would readily fall back on the device of legislative privileges to expel their political opponents as well as dissidents,” the apex court stated.  

The court’s decision may have come as political relief for Amarinder Singh, but in effect, it has prevented a dangerous precedent—political parties using the power of numbers in the legislature to carry out a vendetta against their opponents.

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