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Newsnotes
Bangalore:
Dissenting Note
The first round of the unseemly personality clash
between the mayor and the city corporation commissioner
ended suddenly last week, with the mayor, Padmavathy
Gowda, putting in her papers. But the second round may
prove more dramatic, with many Janata Dal (JD)
legislators backing Padmavathy, and Chief Minister J.H.
Patel appearing to be on Commissioner A. Ravindra's side.
The mayor, who has another three months to go, has
been rubbing Ravindra the wrong way ever since he took
over in July. The last straw came on August 30 when the
corporators decided, without Ravindra's approval, to
invite former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda -- the
mayor's political guru -- to lay the foundation stone for
the yet-to-be-approved podium block of the Sri Krishna
Rajendra Market. Then things happened fast. While a
miffed Ravindra wrote to the chief secretary the next
day, Deve Gowda excused himself by flying off to Delhi.
And when Patel asked Padmavathy to cancel the ceremony,
she sent in her resignation letter.
Though the commissioner is vested with more powers
than the mayor, the JD legislators have put their weight
behind Padmavathy. In a memorandum to Patel, they have
asked for Ravindra to be replaced by a more pliable ias
officer. It remains to be seen whether Patel would take
any hasty decision, which might give his current rival
Deve Gowda the upper hand.
Bhopal:
Funds and Tears
It was literally a tearful function organised by the
state BJP. The 75th birthday of "Bhishma
Pitamah" Kushabhau Thakre saw senior leaders Vijaya
Raje Scindia, Sunder Lal Patwa and Kailash Joshi choke
with emotion while speaking about the person who had
built the Jan Sangh and BJP in the state from scratch.
But what surprised observers was the announcement that Rs
5 crore would be collected during Thakre's birth
anniversary to be utilised for the welfare of the weaker
sections. A similar announcement during the Rajmata's
75th birthday four years ago had left workers confused as
the amount collected was never gifted to her. It was
later revealed that the state units had been told to
utilise the amount for the November 1993 assembly
elections. Given its dubious reputation as far as fund
collection goes, the Madhya Pradesh BJP is keeping its
fingers crossed. After all, it was here that the
treasurer was never handed over the accounts by the
previous incumbent and a subsequent inquiry into
fund-raising had yielded unaccounted cash running into
several lakhs of rupees.
Calcutta:
Dark Parallels
The Left Front in West Bengal is following the
textbook of aggressive politics realising that mere
verbal attacks on the BJP -- the party it loves to hate
-- simply won't do. A textbook -- "Outline of
Political Science" -- prescribed for the
intermediate level and authored by West Bengal Higher
Education Minister Satyasadhan Chakraborty and a
professor, Nirmal Kanti Ghosh -- has the saffron party
seething. One of the chapters describes the bjp as a
"communal party" and draws dark parallels with
Nazi Germany: "Just the way Hitler stoked ultra
-nationalism, the bjp is also out to create havoc."
State BJP leader Tapan Sikdar is threatening legal
action. "We will file for defamation." As the
furore over the issue continues, the higher secondary
board maintains a defensive posture. "If someone
complains, we will re-evaluate the book," says a
senior official of the board. But the question remains:
how was the book prescribed in the first place?
Calcutta:
Pointing Fingers
It's like the pot calling the kettle black. Caught
napping by the embarrassing disclosure that he was among
the beneficiaries of questionable land allotments at Salt
Lake by the Jyoti Basu Government, state Congress chief
Somen Mitra shows no signs of remorse. Instead, he has
gone and attacked bete noire Mamata Banerjee for
allegedly occupying land owned by the Calcutta Port
Trust. Mitra's cronies have even demanded a high-level
probe against Mamata. What Mitra fails to realise is that
even if Mamata was in the wrong, it doesn't absolve him
of currying favours with a government which he, on the
face of it, opposes tooth and nail. "I have been a
legislator for long. If I don't get a plot, who
would?" asks an enraged Mitra. Talk of moral
bankruptcy.
Chandigarh:
Living in Paradise
It may have been Bhajan Lal's idea of living up to his
promise of making Panchkula another Paris. But the Punjab
and Haryana High Court was clearly not amused with the
Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). It had turned
a blind eye to the former Haryana chief minister building
a palatial house two months ago in the town, violating
zoning laws. Last week, the court observed: "The
(violations) have been overlooked by the huda as if the
building was raised by Aladdin's chirag (magic
lamp)."
Bhajan had made news in the early '90s by building a
huge house in Hissar. His new venture is no less imposing
-- market rate Rs 2 crore and straddling two plots of
1,000 sq yards each. "I'm willing to pay whatever
fine is imposed," says Bhajan, arguing that huda had
not presented the true picture to the court. Chief
Minister Bansi Lal, who has no love lost for Bhajan, has
refused to intervene. Instead, he has asked HUDA to look
into how the house was allowed to be built this way in
the first place.
Chandigarh:
Friendly Approach
In Punjab, the image of the police has always been
poor. The image was recently reinforced by an incident in
which the Bhatinda police forced a mother and son to
strip. But this is only one side of the battle-hardened
force. At least that's what the law enforcers in the
state want to prove. Two weeks ago, the Hoshiarpur police
launched "mobile police stations" which,
according to district police chief Rohit Chaudhary,
"will provide police services to citizens at their
doorstep". From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the five mobile
police stations register complaints, besides dealing with
passport enquiries, servant verifications and so on.
The scheme appears to be working. In the first
fortnight, 104 firs, 925 complaints and 900-odd passport
and servant verifications were handled. "It has made
a difference," says a lecturer whose passport
verification was done in a day. So far so good. But can
such a scheme alone do anything for the battered image of
the Punjab Police? P.C. Dogra, DG, Punjab Police, is
hopeful: "It's a new lesson in public-oriented
policing." Maybe.
Delhi:
Hello, Goodbye
'Humble farmer' he may be, but H.D. Deve Gowda
certainly doesn't wear humility on his sleeve. The man
who had tearfully begged V.P. Singh to take over as prime
minister last year, refuses to even acknowledge the
presence of his erstwhile mentor these days. So, while
every senior jd leader called on Singh after his return
from London, Deve Gowda was conspicuous by his absence.
Deve Gowda apparently is not only miffed with the
Congress-uf "conspiracy" to elevate I.K.
Gujral, he even suspects that Singh's idea of an umbrella
alliance including the Congress, is aimed at scuttling
his chances of a comeback. More recently, when he ran
into a group of senior leaders, including Singh, who were
at former prime minister Chandra Shekhar's residence to
condole the death of his wife Dwija Devi, Deve Gowda did
a quick namaste to no one in particular and sulked in a
corner.
Delhi:
Simple Favourite
That Arjun Singh remains a favourite among Muslims was
evident at a function organised in memory of Urdu poet
Firaq Gorakhpuri recently. Though Uttar Pradesh Governor
Romesh Bhandari was the chief guest and speakers included
composer Naushad and poet-lyricists Majrooh Sultanpuri
and Ali Sardar Jaffri, it was Singh who stole the show
with his short and simple speech on the poet who had
taught him at Allahabad University. There was a
tragi-comic aspect to the entire function though. After
Bhandari gave away Firaq Samman awards to almost every
second person in the auditorium, the organisers promptly
gave the governor the same award. The sad bit was that
Urdu has taken such a battering in independent India that
only Muslims remember Raghupati Sahai Firaq, the last of
the Urdu greats, who died 15 years ago.
Indore:
Palace Intrigue
The recovery of some royal jewels from an antique
dealer in Mumbai last week has given a new twist to the
ongoing tussle over inheritance between the heirs of the
former rulers of Holkar. Even as a team of the Indore
police began interrogation of the three men arrested for
the theft, one of the claimants to the property, Anil
Kak, a former principal of Indore's Daly College, accused
Holkar scion and film actor Vijayendra Ghatge of
engineeering it. Kak claims that Ghatge colluded with
D.M. Kulkarni, a commissioner appointed by the high court
to settle the dispute. The police, however, is not buying
the story. "This is typical palace intrigue,"
says Indore police chief D.S. Sengar. It seems that only
a CBI inquiry, which the state Government wants, can get
to the bottom of the case.
Mumbai:
Juggler Joshi
When the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance came to power in 1995,
one of its first targets was the politically powerful
sugar belt in western Maharashtra. In fact, Deputy Chief
Minister Gopinath Munde had then declared that the sugar
barons and their cooperatives -- which for long have sent
Congressmen to the Assembly and Parliament -- would be
exposed soon. However, the declaration has remained just
that. Thanks to Manohar "Machiavelli" Joshi who
has ensured that the cooperatives portfolio is always
with his man. In the last reshuffle, when Suresh Dada
Jain, a known Pawar-baiter, was to be given charge of
cooperatives, Joshi stepped in just in time. Realising
that between them Jain and Munde would tear the
Congress-belt apart, Joshi suggested to Bal Thackeray
that Jain be put in charge of the jinxed Slum Development
Project (SDP), the Sena supremo's pet project. The
result: Thackeray was happy, Jain was prevented from
growing in stature, the sugar-belt Congressmen were
"safe" and last, but not least, as SDP minister
Jain would report to Joshi who holds the urban
development portfolio. A four-in-one shot even Sharad
Pawar would have been proud of.
Mumbai: Dry Ammunition
The beleaguered Congress in Maharashtra has lost yet
another weapon in its fight against the Shiv Sena-BJP
Government. Last week, the CBI filed the charge-sheet in
the sensational Ramesh Kini case, 13 months after the
Mumbai resident mysteriously died in a Pune theatre. The
charge-sheet did not name Raj Thackeray, youth leader and
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's nephew, who was alleged
to have harassed the Kini family to vacate his friend's
flat. Sheila, Kini's widow, accused Raj of the murder.
Circumstantial evidence pointed to Raj's complicity. And
the Congress -- ever willing to pick up an issue --
seized the case and made it into a campaign of sorts
against the Thackeray family and the Government. After
the Mumbai Police attempted to "cover up" Raj's
role, Sheila took the case to the cbi. Now, the CBI too
has left out references to the younger Thackeray on the
grounds that there is no evidence to prove his
involvement. Sheila says the charge-sheet is a letdown.
But for Chhagan Bhujbal, Congress leader who made the
case his whipping stick against the Sena, the
charge-sheet has taken the wind out of his campaign. He
will have to find hardcore issues now to shame the
Government.
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