{"id":235665,"date":"2024-02-27T00:14:47","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T18:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=235665"},"modified":"2024-02-27T00:14:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T18:44:47","slug":"wb-row-gets-murkier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2024\/02\/27\/wb-row-gets-murkier\/","title":{"rendered":"Wb row gets murkier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of ‘Honour’ & Politics<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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

\n

Sandeshkhali in West Bengal\u2019s North 24 Parganas district is becoming a political hot potato. It\u2019s not just the \u2018honour\u2019 of the village women but also of the Sikh community in the State. Tempers are far from being pacified. On the one hand, fresh protests broke out on Friday last in the village as locals set fire to properties belonging to TMC leaders Shahjahan Sheikh and his brother Siraj for grabbing their land and sexually assaulting their women and on the other the Sikh community staged demonstration in front of BJP office in\u00a0Kolkata on Wednesday last, expressing solidarity with an IPS officer who has alleged its party leader Suvendu Adhikari\u00a0labelled him as a \u2018Khalistani\u2019, as he was deputed to prevent him from visiting Sandeshkhali. Similar protests were held by the Sikhs in few districts, and Congress, AAP and TMC promptly grabbed the opportunity and slammed BJP for \u2018divisive politics.\u2019 While Adhikari denied the allegations, TMC launched a digital protest with theme \u201cI Am A Sikh, I Wear Turban, & I Am Not Khalistani,\u201d and demanded an explanation from Prime Minister Modi. Guess it will get a response on his visit scheduled for 6 March. Will tables be turned?<\/p>\n

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\u2018Dictator\u2019 Raids<\/p>\n

It\u2019s happened \u2013 outspoken and a critic of Modi government, former J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik has come under CBI\u2019s radar. Vendetta or it is own goal, is the big question? On Thursday last, raids were conducted at his premises and 29 other locations, all connected to alleged corruption in Rs 2,200-crore Kiru Hydropower project in Jammu. Recall, he had claimed being offered Rs 300-crore bribe for clearing two files, including this project, when he was Governor from August 23, 2018-October 30, 2019. As premises linked to him in Delhi\u2019s Dwarka, R K Puram, Asian Games Village and in Gurugram and Baghpat were being searched, he posted on X: \u201cI have been ill for last 3-4 days and am admitted to hospital. Despite this, my house is being raided by the dictator through government agencies. My driver and my assistant are also being raided and harassed unnecessarily. I am a farmer\u2019s son, I will not be afraid of these raids. I am with the farmers.\u2019 But CBI said raids covered premises of all involved in the April 2022 case, prompting him to accuse it of \u2018harassing the whistle-blower himself\u2019! Critic may be more appropriate given record of his statements: Pulwama terror attack could have been averted if Centre had not turned down his request for aircraft to move CRPF personnel; farmers can\u2019t be humiliated; if Modi comes back in 2024 it\u2019s the death of democracy and he must be stopped, etc. Nothing short of inviting wrath?<\/p>\n

Concern Over Farmers\u2019 Stir<\/p>\n

Home Ministry is tightening the screws on the Punjab government, with the farmers threatening to put their protest into top gear, with some breaks, following the death of a farmer at Khanouri border on Wednesday last, amid excessive police action. Agencies report 14,000-odd people have been allowed to gather at Shambhu barrier, with nearly 1,200 tractor-trolleys, 300 cars, 10 mini-buses and other small vehicles. Similarly, Punjab has allowed a gathering of around 4,500 people with close to 500 tractor-trolleys at the Dhabi-Gujran barrier. However, \u2018law and order situation is deteriorating\u2019 claims North block and has asked AAP government to take action to \u2018curb disruptive activities\u2019. Task impossible, as Centre itself has failed to make headway with the farmers\u2019 demands so far. Plans are afoot now by farmers\u2019 organisations to launch nationwide protests; demanded Rs 1 crore compensation for farmer\u2019s family; called for \u2018tractor\u00a0pradarshan\u2019 (demonstration) on Monday across the country; organise a mahapanchayat at Delhi\u2019s Ramlila Maidan on 14 March, etc. A stitch in time saves nine, is the idiom the Centre could do well with.<\/p>\n

INDIA Ties-UP<\/p>\n

Uttar Pradesh and Delhi offer hope to INDIA bloc with seat-sharing for Lok Sabha polls between Congress and SP and AAP respectively appears to be working out. In Lucknow, the grand old party and SP announced on Wednesday last a tie-up in UP and Madhya Pradesh, with the latter leaving 17 of the 80 seats and getting a solitary seat Khajuraho respectively. Interestingly, Congress will contest in high profile constituencies of Raebareli, Amethi, and Varanasi and SP and allies shall fight rest of 63 seats. More good news followed. Congress and AAP agreed that former will contest 3 of the seven seats in Delhi. With all 7 seats with BJP in Delhi, the going is not easy, particularly for AAP. It has fresh accusations against the saffron party now. On Friday it claimed BJP was scared of the alliance, had asked it not to have one, and shall soon get the ED to arrest Kejriwal, following its 7th summons in the liquor case. The allegations don\u2019t cut much ice as it has agreed to share seats in Chandigarh, Goa, Gujarat, and Haryana with Congress, but will go solo in Punjab. Guess, have the cake and eat it too!<\/p>\n

Justice For Chandigarh<\/p>\n

Three cheers to Supreme Court. The \u2018rigged\u2019 Chandigarh mayor poll has been set aside. On Tuesday last, not only did it instal declared defeated AAP-Congress nominee Kuldeep Kumar to the seat, hurriedly taken by BJP nominee Manoj Sonkar, but found returning officer Anil Masih \u2018guilty of a serious misdemeanour\u2019. It directed a show cause notice be issued to him under Section 340 of CrPC 1973 (offence affecting administration of justice), as \u201cPertinently, this is not an ordinary case of alleged malpractice by candidates in an election, but electoral misconduct by presiding officer himself.\u201d Underlining \u2018a free and fair electoral process is imperative for maintaining people\u2019s trust in representative democracy,\u2019 it said, \u201cThe ballots hadn\u2019t been defaced when presiding officer put his mark at the bottom\u2026each of the eight ballot papers, which were invalidated by Masih, the votes were duly cast in favour of Kumar\u2026\u201d, thereby upholding Kumar\u2019s plea. Though Sonkar resigned 48 hours before the order, it didn\u2019t stop the court to invoke Article 142 (empowering it to pass any decree or order necessary for doing complete justice in matters pending before it) given the \u201cbrazen nature of the malpractice, visible on camera, had made the situation all the more extraordinary…\u2019 BJP must see it as a warning, lest it goes pink again!<\/p>\n

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No Balm for Manipur<\/p>\n

Too little, too late, is best way to describe Manipur High Court\u2019s action on Wednesday last. It ordered the deletion of a paragraph from a March 2023 order that had asked Biren Singh government to consider including the Meitei community in the ST list within 4 weeks, which recall triggered the ethnic unrest and set the State on fire claiming hundreds of lives and displacing thousands. The single bench justified removal of the paragraph during a review petition saying it conflicted with Supreme Court\u2019s constitution bench position. In effect, it accepted the thumb rule that courts shouldn\u2019t overstep their jurisdiction in determining such categorisations. Recall, the top court when petitioned last May against that order had criticised it as \u2018obnoxious\u2019 as the High Court was \u2018absolutely wrong\u2019. However, it had refrained from staying the order as petitions challenging the order were pending with the larger division bench and invited tribal participation, particularly from the Kukis. Nearly a year since, the State is far from returning to normalcy. The ethnic divide between Kuki and Meitei people is complete.\u00a0 Manipur is divided almost in two parts. It will take a lot more to bridge the gap. \u2014 INFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of ‘Honour’ & Politics By Insaf Sandeshkhali in West Bengal\u2019s North 24 Parganas district is becoming a political hot potato. It\u2019s not just the \u2018honour\u2019 of the village women but also of the Sikh community in the State. Tempers are far from being pacified. On the one hand, fresh protests broke out on Friday last […]<\/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-235665","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\/235665","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=235665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}