{"id":78054,"date":"2019-09-07T02:33:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T21:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=78054"},"modified":"2019-09-07T02:33:53","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T21:03:53","slug":"vendetta-politics-echos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2019\/09\/07\/vendetta-politics-echos\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Vendetta politics’ echos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nKarnataka Catch<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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

Karnataka Congress, till recently in power, is seething with anger. \u2018Political vendetta\u2019 by brute BJP simply doesn\u2019t seem to abate. The latest arrest by the ED is of its former minister and trouble shooter D K Shivakumar over alleged money laundering. Expectedly, the Congress needs to rally behind him. Not only because in the recent political crisis of losing the coalition government in the State did Shivakumar try to woo coalition dissidents and bring them back into the party fold, but the targeting comes on the heels of the ED\u2019s arrest of its tall national leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram. The protest in Karnataka by way of a bandh call did manage some success. Protestors went on a rampage in the leader\u2019s Kanakapura constituency and few other parts of the State \u2013staging dharnas, pelting stones, damaging several buses, blocking movement on Bengaluru\u2013Mysuru highway leading to its closure etc. Schools and colleges were shut down on Wednesday last across Ramanagara district, as a precautionary step. The common refrain in the southern State and 10 Janpath being New Delhi was using government agencies to target Opposition leaders. The oft-heard charge of \u2018vendetta politics\u201d reverberates again. Will it get louder with more \u201crevengeful\u201d arrests? Time, no days will tell.<\/p>\n

Hope-less Kashmir
\nThe word \u2018normalcy\u2019 continues to dodge Kashmir. And thus three different groups of panchayat members, representatives of J&K fruit growers and those displaced from PoK met Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday last to share their concerns. Given the nagging uncertainty, North Block did best what it does \u2013 give number of assurances. These included, restoration of mobile and internet connectivity in another 15-20 days; every panch\/sarpanch (village head) vulnerable to terrorists\u2019 threats to get police security and Rs 2 lakh insurance coverage each; their honorarium in the Valley to be raised; nobody\u2019s land would be taken away; government land to be used for setting up industries, hospitals, educational institutions; recruitment for various government jobs to start at the earliest with at least five jobs to go to youths from each village on basis of merit; those relocated from PoK to be considered for inclusion in scheme under which displaced families registered in J&K are given financial assistance, etc. A long list alright, but with a month gone by and the Valley remaining under siege, both sides would do well to remember the idiom: if wishes were horses then beggars would ride!
\nAssam\u2019s NRC Conundrum
\nAssam\u2019s NRC Coordinator has ended up with more than what he bargained for. Not only is Prateek Hajela on the firing line of the BJP and Congress for keeping out many Bengali Hindus, but he now has to deal with two FIRs lodged against him. The final list leaves a whopping over 19 lakh people, which is around 6% of the State\u2019s entire population, and come to think of it, twice of Nagaland\u2019s population! While the left-out need to appeal before the foreigners\u2019 tribunals, the ruling BJP plans to knock again on Supreme Court\u2019s door for re-verification process in two districts on a pilot basis to address the blunder. Till then, the Coordinator needs to deal with the FIRs accusing him of \u201cdeliberately\u201d excluding indigenous people. One has been filed Asom Garia-Maria Yuba Chhatra Parishad and the other by a member of the All India Legal Aid Foundation. They charge the process of being \u201cfull of anomalies\u201d such as three members of a family in and two out or one son in and another out despite using the same legacy data, or armed forces personnel excluded, etc. Unmistakably absurd! Relief, how and when is the big question.<\/p>\n

Arunachal Bridge Bogey?
\nRuling BJP in Arunachal Pradesh should have South Block fretting. Its MP and State party President Tapir Gao insists Chinese soldiers had built a \u201cwooden bridge nearly 75 km inside Indian territory\u201d. The Army rubbishes it with \u201cno such incursion.\u201d Gao\u2019s claim is based on a local villager, who had sighted the bridge when he went to the woods to fish\/hunt and sent him a video. As the area\u2019s representative, Gao says he can\u2019t hide it and even spells out the location of the bridge. Incursion, he adds is a regular phenomenon\u201d and \u2018PLA troops had entered in other areas, too!\u201d On the other hand, Army explains: the area referred to is called \u201cFish Tail\u201d; there is a differing perception of LoC alignment, as in many other areas; patrolling is from either side; civilian hunters\/herb collectors also frequent there during summer months; there is no permanent presence of either Chinese soldiers or civilians there and surveillance is maintained by our troops. The MP counters insisting there are no nearby villages and local villagers know who has built bridges. Whom to believe and will South Block step in to bridge the gap?<\/p>\n

Rajasthan HRC Bizarre Order
\nThe Rajasthan Human Rights Commission needs to get real. It advices governments to prohibit women from opting for live-in relationships! Reason: such women need protection through a law as they could be treated as \u201cconcubines\u201d. The two-member bench order on Wednesday last, said governments\u2019 duty is to protect women from \u201charms of live-in relationship,\u201d as \u201ckeeping a woman as a concubine is against her dignity because this word is tantamount to character assassination.\u201d Plus, \u201clife as a concubine is not right to life and such a woman cannot protect her fundamental rights.\u201d It suggested awareness campaigns against such relationships, and even spelt out specifics for a law for cohabiting: \u201celigibility of partners; how such relationships will be known to people at-large; procedure of registration; and how these relationships can be ended after a mandatory counseling,\u201d It forgets, last year the Supreme Court approved adult couples\u2019 right to live-in and such relationships were recognised by Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Will State Chief Secretary (Home) adhere to the order? It would be best to bury it under files or consider the dustbin.<\/p>\n

Not Fine, Sir
\nTraffic police is having a field day across the country. With the new Motor Vehicles Act in place since September 1, hefty challans (fines) are being imposed, raising questions about the justification of the penalty. A few examples: A scooty driver fined Rs 16,000 in Haryana\u2019s Kaithal district for having \u2018no documents\u2019 and his scooty impounded; a two-wheeler in Gurugram fined Rs 23,000 for \u2018not wearing a helmet and no Registration Certificate\u2019, an auto-rickshaw driver in Bhubaneswar fined Rs 47,500 for different violations\u2014driving under influence of liquor, had no valid driving licence, registration certification, permit, pollution under control certificate and insurance. How would they pay up such hefty fines? The Odiya auto driver provides an answer: \u201cI can\u2019t pay such huge penalty, let them seize my vehicle (bought for Rs 25,000 a week ago) or send me to jail.\u201d A re-think is critical as there is bound to be over-crowding \u2014 of impounded vehicles, in courts and even jails. It can\u2019t be fine, even if it is to instill road discipline. Union Transport Minister Gadkari must see the signal. \u2014 INFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karnataka Catch By Insaf Karnataka Congress, till recently in power, is seething with anger. \u2018Political vendetta\u2019 by brute BJP simply doesn\u2019t seem to abate. The latest arrest by the ED is of its former minister and trouble shooter D K Shivakumar over alleged money laundering. Expectedly, the Congress needs to rally behind him. Not only […]<\/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-78054","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\/78054","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=78054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}