{"id":27034,"date":"2018-04-28T01:28:46","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T19:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=27034"},"modified":"2018-04-28T01:28:46","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T19:58:46","slug":"two-states-renew-hope-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2018\/04\/28\/two-states-renew-hope-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Two states renew hope, peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nAFSPA Withdrawn<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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

\nHolding peace is rewarding. The Centre has rightly acknowledged it in two north eastern States. Early this week, Union Home Ministry revoked the \u2018draconian\u2019 Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) from Meghalaya and in Arunachal Pradesh reduced its applicability to half\u2014eight police stations instead of 16. Recall, the Act was withdrawn from Tripura in 2015 and is not in operation in Mizoram. Indeed, the recent decision gives hope as well as throws a challenge to the others\u2014Nagaland, most of Assam and Manipur\u2014 that they need to work harder to convince the Centre as peace continues to usher in so that the Act, which provides total immunity to security forces from prosecution, becomes pass\u00e9. If there is a will, there is a way. Precisely, Delhi cannot remain adamant and simply dismiss human rights groups demand that the Act be abrogated. Even the Supreme Court has noted that the legal protection offered by ASFPA cannot be absolute. Further, its extension puts a big question mark on the competence of the State government and security forces to offer safety to its people. Jammu and Kashmir is a point in case. The Centre must look beyond. It cannot view everything as black and white.
\nKarnataka Hotting Up
\nKarnataka\u2019s political temperature is heating up faster than the summer season. With polling just about two weeks from now, and filing of nominations ending on Tuesday last, electioneering has gone into top gear. While the murky infighting within the parties for getting a party ticket by the \u2018tainted\u2019 is more or less over, the tu-tu-mein-mein between the ruling Congress and waiting in the wings, BJP is expected to hit the lowest so far. The comparatively sober JD-S, which has put up more or less similar number of candidates for the 224-member Assembly, may well turn out to be \u201ckingmaker\u2019. So say poll surveys. In all 3,374 candidates have filed nominations: 250 (Cong), 282 (BJP), 231 (JD-S), large chunk of independents, 1,673 and 938 (regional parties\/fringe outfits). Predicting a \u201cphoto-finish\u2019 between the Congress and BJP, with each expected to get a little less than a 100 seats each, (short of the 112 mark), the surveys suggest it will be the Deve Gowda team which would call the shots at the end with its \u201840-odd\u2019 seats. However, all eyes would be on how BJP mascot Modi\u2019s five mega rallies from May 1 pan out. Will he again manage to upset the applecart yet again?
\nBengal\u2019s Novel Idea
\nThe Calcutta High Court has set a novel precedence. With the ruling Trinamool Congress cadres running a muck, preventing prospective candidates from filing nominations for the panchayat polls, the HC sees WhatsApp helping it to do justice. On Tuesday last, it directed the State Election Commission to accept nominations of nine panchayat poll candidates from Bhangar, who had sent their papers to the Block Development Officer through WhatsApp. To ensure there was no fresh stay on the poll process, it warned the SEC from rejecting their papers. This, after the SEC had said the papers would be rejected as these were not properly filed and the fees too hadn\u2019t been paid. The HC would not hear none of this. In fact, a day earlier, it had warned the SEC if nominations weren\u2019t allowed to be filed by \u201carmed hooligans\u2019 then it would invite \u2018contempt of court.\u2019 Predictably, the SEC has put the valid stamp on these nominations. How the candidates fare is anybody\u2019s guess, but one can say that WhatsApp has made a mark in more than the conventional way.
\nTripura Teething Hitch
\nTripura is giving the BJP teething problems. Its ally, the Indigenous People\u2019s Front of Tripura (IPFT), is unwilling to be a sleeping partner. On Wednesday last, it threatened to launch a \u2018democratic movement\u2019 unless its demands are not met. One, \u201cinter-ministerial modality committee\u201d must be set up within the next three months to study the socio-economic and cultural issues of the indigenous people. Two, it must get another Cabinet berth. Obviously, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb cannot treat it as junior partner, but an equal, even if its numbers are less. The Front has 8 MLAs as against BJP\u2019s 36. IPFT Vice President Debbarma refreshed its partner\u2019s memory saying the Home Ministry had on 8 January announced to set up the committee after its delegation met Modi and Rajnath Singh. No word till now! Further, given the provision of a 12-member Cabinet, it wants one of the three vacancies to be filled by its member, as the BJP has seven and it only two. How soon will the BJP act is the big question. It will do well to remember the adage \u2018a stitch in time saves nine!\u2019
\nRajasthan \u2018Joke\u2019 on Farmers
\nIt\u2019s a cruel joke being played in Rajasthan. Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria\u2019s statement on farmers\u2019 suicide should add fuel to fire. At a media conference on Wednesday last, he claimed \u201cas per records, no farmer had committed suicide in the State due to debt between 2009 and 2017\u201d, and \u2018only three peasants\u2019 killed themselves in 2015 during BJP-rule. He was responding to Congress\u2019 accusation that 91 farmers had committed suicide because of their debts during Vasundhara Raje\u2019s rule. Kataria\u2019s explanation is also novel. All deaths cannot be linked to debt-related suicides and this can only be established through \u2018suicide note and after police investigation. A pathetic argument, to say the least. Worse, he sought to indulge in the usual one-upmanship: BJP had done a lot better than the Congress when it came to farmers\u2019 welfare and asked the rivals to prove their record. The State, which is seen by Niti Ayog as one keeping the nation backward, among others, must desist from such statements as it only adds insult to injury to the country\u2019s farmers.
\nPunjab Sets Standards
\nUneducated, don\u2019t dream of being a minister, at least in Punjab. Well, this is a clear message Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has given to his team of MLAs in Punjab. While inducting nine new ministers, he ensured that they met the criteria, i.e. they must have studied up to 10th class. A bare minimum. Obviously, the Chief wants to send the strong message that his campaign of \u201cPadho Punjab, Padhao Punjab\u2019 (Read Punjab, Teach Punjab) is not a mere slogan, as most campaigns turn out to be. But there is heart burn amongst aspirants as some have studied up to Class 8 or Class 9 but are not matriculates. If a minister is Class 12 drop out it doesn\u2019t disqualify him, rather it turns out to be a plus point here. All eyes will, however, be how these ministers perform. More importantly, it may be worth a watch to see if the trend makes some MLAs go back to school. \u2014INFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFSPA Withdrawn By Insaf Holding peace is rewarding. The Centre has rightly acknowledged it in two north eastern States. Early this week, Union Home Ministry revoked the \u2018draconian\u2019 Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) from Meghalaya and in Arunachal Pradesh reduced its applicability to half\u2014eight police stations instead of 16. Recall, the Act was withdrawn […]<\/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-27034","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\/27034","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=27034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}