{"id":139869,"date":"2020-10-17T02:18:22","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T20:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=139869"},"modified":"2020-10-17T02:18:22","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T20:48:22","slug":"maha-impropriety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2020\/10\/17\/maha-impropriety\/","title":{"rendered":"Maha impropriety"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Secular’ Row <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\nBy Insaf<\/strong><\/p>\n

The word \u2018secular\u2019 has led to a storm in Maharashtra. New Delhi is being asked to sack Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, as he has \u2018undermined the dignity of the high constitutional office. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took grave umbrage to Raj Bhavan writing to him officially early this week inquiring about immediate reopening of places of worship and asking whether he was \u2018receiving any divine premonition to keep postponing the reopening of the places of worship time and again or have you suddenly turned \u2018secular\u2019… Uddhav replied tersely: \u201cDo you mean that opening up religious places is Hindutva, and not opening them means being secular? Secularism is a crucial base of the oath you took as Governor. Do you not believe it?\u201d Hard hitting indeed! Deserving can we say, as its quite obvious, Koshyari was following a political agenda given that the BJP has been holding protests seeking opening of places of worship. But the government is not yielding till SOPs are in place.
\nThe SS, Congress, NCP and CPM, CPI among others have jumped on the opportunity provided by the Raj Bhavan. They have minced no words, warned him such as : once you take Governor\u2019s oath, you are no longer a member of the party… you must abide by the Constitution and by mocking \u2018secularism\u2019, one of Constitution\u2019s fundamental principles, you have committed constitutional proprietary…etc. Sounds familiar? Recall the Governor had installed the BJP-led government last year in the wee hours of the morning, which couldn\u2019t survive and was accused of being \u201cGovernor of BJP\u201d. But it wasn\u2019t happening the first time in this regime, there are other cases, remember Manipur, Goa etc. However, let\u2019s not forget that the days of the Congress government were no different. \u201cPliant Governors\u201d were alleged to be very much around then too. Therefore, be it the UPA or the NDA regime, sadly Raj Bhavans have and are increasingly getting embroiled in controversies. And we can\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t say\u2014 so be it!<\/p>\n

Action In J&K
\nFreedom at last spurs activity in J&K. Just 48 hours before the next hearing in Supreme Court where PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti\u2019s 14-month-long detention was being challenged, the J&K government blinked and released her on Tuesday last. Within next 48 hours, of her, last mainstream political leader, to be set free, the Valley leaders chose not to waste any more time. They, \u2018signatories of the Gupkar Declaration\u2019 promptly held their first meeting on Thursday last, and set up a new alliance to battle for restoration of J&K\u2019s constitutional status since August 5 last year. The \u2018People\u2019s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration\u2019, includes the NC, PDP, CPM, PC, JKPM and ANC among others and favours initiation of dialogue between all stakeholders for resolution of J&K issue. In fact, NC leaders Farooq Adbullah and son Omar had called on Mehbooba to cement her support. So far they are on the same page, as she had on return set the tone in her audio message to the people \u201c…we will have to take back what New Delhi snatched from us illegally, undemocratically and unconstitutionally…we will have to continue our struggle for resolution of Kashmir issue…\u201d It\u2019s obvious the two arch rivals realise their political survival is at stake. They need to ensure the Alliance works. The catch word being \u2018stay united\u2019, which administration knows is the weak spot. With no power goals in sight, can the leaders change things for the better? Time will tell.
\nKerala Political Switch
\nThe grand old party suffers a setback in God\u2019s own country. A faction of Kerala Congress (M) led by Rajya Sabha Member Jose K Mani quit the Congress-led United Democratic Front and switched to ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front. The timing doesn\u2019t bore well either, just before the polls \u2014local civic body this year and Assembly in 2021. While an elated Chief Minister Vijayan saw the move as the fall of the UDF, Opposition Congress felt betrayed but claimed it will make no difference. While only time will tell whose right, the switchover appears to be a fallout of \u2018power struggle\u2019 within the Kerala Congress (M) itself. Jose felt senior party leader and MLA Joseph and the UDF had betrayed him by getting his nominee for Pala bypoll constituency, held by his father late KM Mani for five decades, defeated. He was unwilling to take any more \u2018insults from Congress\u2019 quarters and its attempts to \u2018politically annihilate the Kerala Congress (M)\u201d. Haven\u2019t we heard something similar before? Same story elsewhere too, when will Congress learn?<\/p>\n

Goan Tourism Vision
\nNo more haphazard tourism, says the Goa government. On Wednesday last, it approved much-awaited Tourism Policy 2020, envisioning to becoming the \u201cmost preferred destination around the year for high-spending tourists\u201d in 2024. It\u2019s a 25-year long-term plan, with a new Tourism Board \u2018to be backbone for all decisions\u2019\u2014 planning, development and marketing; strengthen tourism assets, expand job opportunities and tourism infrastructure \u2018from the footfall heavy beach belts to eco-tourism initiatives in the hinterland.\u2019 This so after realising that 89% of all tourist arrivals, largely domestic, are spread between October-December, \u201cputting immense stress on Goa\u2019s ecology, infrastructure and tourism assets\u201d. The plan is to do away with past models where many government bodies took independent decisions \u201cwithout any holistic, long term vision\u201d, and even misused tourism budgets reportedly towards beautifying constituencies! The big question is whether it will meet infrastructure creation timelines, involve private participation and go beyond coastal belts? It\u2019s not enough to have a vision, action and not words should speak.<\/p>\n

Rain God Fury
\nThe rain god\u2019s fury in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and western parts of Maharashtra across Solapur, Sangli and Pune is witnessed by way of torrential rains and flash floods. Worse, capital city of the southern States, Hyderabad goes through what is pretty familiar such times across the country\u2014 knee jerk reaction. The flash floods reported in 125 plus areas in and around Hyderabad, led to several parts plunging into darkness, eater flowing into homes, flooding of low-lying areas, severe damages of wall collapses and deaths, forcing the administration to declare a two-day holiday for government offices and private institutions. Reportedly, most areas submerged in the city\u2019s south zone are said to be Muslim-dominated localities, where homes have come up on water bodies or nullahs (drains) that were filled up and encroached upon. With streets becoming rivers, entire housing societies went under 10-15 ft of rainwater. And, as known disaster management teams come into play, relief camps spring up, Chief Ministers demand immediate funds from Centre for relief work, et al. Will we ever learn? \u2014\u2014 INFA<\/p>\n

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‘Secular’ Row By Insaf The word \u2018secular\u2019 has led to a storm in Maharashtra. New Delhi is being asked to sack Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, as he has \u2018undermined the dignity of the high constitutional office. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took grave umbrage to Raj Bhavan writing to him officially early this week inquiring about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-139869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}