After praising Chief Minister Narendra Modi for developmental work in Gujarat, social activist Anna Hazare today did a U-turn saying he was dismayed at the levels of corruption in the state.

Hazare, who had faced criticism for praising Modi, observed that corruption was rampant in Gujarat and wryly said it has not even spared the state of Mahatma Gandhi.
The anti-graft crusader also said liquor flows more freely than milk in Gandhi's Gujarat where a prohibition law is in force.
"After coming here, I have realised that there are so many corruption cases here. So much corruption in Gandhiji's state," he said and urged Modi to quickly appoint a Lokayukta in Gujarat.
Hazare, a member of the Jan Lok Pal Bill drafting team, made these remarks during a public hearing by various civil society groups held at Gujarat Vidyapeeth here.
"Firstly bring Lokayukta here to empower the people and secondly give power to the Gram Sabhas," he said.

A law empowering gram sabhas is required in taking decisions regarding village land.
Taking another swipe at Modi, Hazare said, "In Gandhiji's state so much alcohol. Gujarat has more alcohol than it has milk," he said. Gujarat is one of the leading milk producing states in the country.
Hazare had earlier said that state chief ministers must learn from the work done by the chief ministers of Gujarat and Bihar.
His praise of Modi had fuelled a controversy and also came up for criticism from his own followers like social activist Medha Patkar. Hazare later sought to "clarify" that he was opposed to communalism.
Swami Agnivesh, another member of the Jan Lok Pal Bill drafting team, said the public hearing has exposed the false claims of Gujarat government over development.
Source: PTI

Rahul Gandhi, the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Indian prime ministers spent years positioning himself to seize what is almost seen as his birthright and take charge of country.

The golden boy of Indian politics - DC

The golden boy of Indian politics may be losing some of his sheen.

Rahul Gandhi, the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Indian prime ministers has spent years positioning himself to seize what is almost seen as his birthright and take charge of the country.
But a series of electoral setbacks, an embarrassing Wikileaks revelation and his accusation, without proof, that police killed and raped protesting farmers in an opposition-led state has left some questioning whether Gandhi has the skill, experience or discipline to lead India.
A newspaper editorial titled ‘Rahul in Blunderland,’ depicted Gandhi as a political amateur stumbling from gaffe to gaffe, while party leaders follow behind him trying to repair the damage.
Political opponents have begun calling him ‘the former future prime minister.’ A stalwart of his Congress party called for his sister, Priyanka, to jump back into politics to help rescue the family's legacy.
"He's been under immense pressure," said Aarthi Ramachandran, who is writing a book on Gandhi.
"There has been a sense that the Rahul Gandhi brand of politics is not going anywhere."
Gandhi, who bears no relation to peace icon Mohandas K. Gandhi, grew up as the fawned-over heir to India's version of the British monarchy or America's Kennedy dynasty.
The family patriarch was Jawaharlal Nehru, a hero of the struggle for independence from British rule who became India's first prime minister.
Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, later took power, followed by her son Rajiv. Both were killed in political assassinations. Rajiv's Italian-born widow, Sonia, then took over the Congress party, becoming India's most powerful politician and setting the stage for her son to eventually take up the family mantle.
When Congress won the 2004 election, she gave the prime minister's post to Manmohan Singh, a respected economist of limited political ambitions. He steered the country to record growth, but since his 2009 re-election, Singh has been seen as more of a regent, running the country while Rahul Gandhi gained the experience and stature to assume command.
Earlier this month, Gandhi shook off most of his security detail, hopped on the back of a motorcycle and rode out to join a farmers' protest over land rights in the opposition-ruled state of Uttar Pradesh, which has an election next year.
The maneuver cast him as a man of the people and brought national attention to the protests against the state's chief minister, a political rival. He even managed to get himself briefly arrested, a rite of passage for Indian political leaders.
But upon his return to Delhi, Gandhi accused state police of a rampage of rape and killing in the farmers' village and claimed there was a 70-foot (20-meter) pile of ash there with dead bodies inside. State authorities denied it and forensic tests on the ash turned up only melted plastic and burnt cow dung.
Gandhi said he was simply repeating what villagers had told him. His critics said he had transformed a political coup into an embarrassment.
During last year's elections in the state of Bihar, Congress, at Gandhi's behest, eschewed its usual pre-election coalition with a regional ally and decided to run on its own. Despite Gandhi's tireless campaigning, the party won a humiliating four seats out of 234.
In election results in a series of other states announced this month, many of the young candidates he hand-picked to bring new blood to the party were defeated.
Then there was the furor over the Wikileaks cable released last December, which revealed that Gandhi told U.S. Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer in 2009 that Hindu extremism could pose a greater threat to India than Islamic militants, including the Pakistan-based group blamed for the deadly 2008 siege in Mumbai. The Hindu nationalist opposition battered him as out of touch, and commentators slammed him as politically naive.
"Rahul Gandhi is yet to prove his intellectual ability to grasp issues and go deep into them," said Arun Sharma, a 75-year-old playwright in the northeast city of Gauhati.
Rashid Kidwai, who is writing a book about the Gandhi family, said Rahul Gandhi would be better able to weather these hiccups if he had more achievements to his name.
As it is, the presumed prime minister-in-waiting has never held a Cabinet post, almost never gives interviews and rarely addresses the more controversial issues facing India, such as how to resolve violence in Kashmir or tackle the corruption scandals roiling the Congress-led government.
"He is a well-meaning person, but it's not enough to become prime minister of India," Kidwai said. "He must have a social policy, he must have an economic policy."
That hasn't prevented the youthful-looking, 40-year-old bachelor from becoming a subject of fascination in India. When he stopped wearing glasses last year, gossip pages tried to guess whether he went for contacts or surgery. In his flowing white kurta shirt and hip dusting of 5 o'clock shadow, he tries to reach out to India's young, rising middle class, while simultaneously casting himself as the defender of its hundreds of millions of downtrodden.
"He talks to the poor, he meets poor people. He considers the problems of the poor. He is like a leader should be," said Usha Sharma, a 56-year-old woman who runs a small tea shop by the banks of the putrid Yamuna River in New Delhi.
During a visit to Mumbai, Gandhi was cheered when he left behind his motorcade and jumped aboard a train security guards in tow alongside the masses of daily commuters.
When the government rejected a mining project that had inflamed residents along a remote mountain, he flew out to the area the next day, seized credit for the government decision, and promised the jubilant villagers he would continue to be their soldier in Delhi.
Sakaldeo Rai, a 61-year-old man in the city of Patna, questioned Gandhi's sincerity, accusing him of ‘shedding crocodile's tears’ for India's poor.
In the city of Lucknow, teacher Shashi Kumar dismissed Gandhi's concern as simple politricking, but Ramesh Gupta, who sells tea on the roadside, broke in to defend him. "At least Rahul is trying to reach out to people. He is listening to people's woes. How many current politicians do that?"

New Delhi: Emotions ran high as the father-daughter duo of M Karunanidhi and Kanimozhi met at the most unusual place -- jail number 6 in Tihar -- for nearly an hour on Monday. The 87-year-old DMK patriarch could not control his emotions when he saw his daughter for the first time since she was jailed for her involvement in the 2G scam. Karunanidhi hugged his daughter and cried like a baby while Kanimozhi struggled to hold back her tears.
Karunanidhi, who arrived in a black Mercedes around 5.45pm, hoodwinked the waiting media at gate number three by entering the jail through the administrative block, which houses top jail officials. Kanimozhi reached the premises in a caged jail van. It is learnt that the DMK chief assured his daughter that he would leave no stone unturned to get her out of jail.
"He said he will get the best legal minds to ensure her release," sources said. Karunanidhi was accompanied by Kanimozhi's husband G Aravinthan, her mother Rajathi Ammal and DMK parliamentary party chief TR Balu.
DMK sources said Karunanidhi kept cursing himself for pushing his daughter into becoming a shareholder in Kalaignar TV. Tihar jail spokesperson Sunil Gupta said: "Since Kanimozhi arrived in jail a bit late due to the traffic jam on the way from court, the meeting time was extended." The DMK chief also met former telecom minister A Raja and Kalaignar TV chief Sharad Kumar in jail. Union home minister P Chidambaram met Karunanidhi after he returned to his hotel.
Earlier in the day, Union minister MK Alagiri's wife Kanthi met Kanimozhi in the trial court and broke down. They then went to the gallery where Rajathi was sitting with grandson Aditya.
Meanwhile, the Congress Party is feeling the discomfiture as it watches ally DMK and its leader Karunanidhi coping with the emotional stress and strain of seeing his daughter and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi sent to prison in the 2G spectrum allocation case charged with being a co-conspirator.
A Congress leader admitted that Karunanidhi was 'traumatised' over his daughter's imprisonment, but the fact that he sent party representative T.R.Baalu to attend the UPA second anniversary dinner on Sunday evening said that at the political level there was no change in relations. "They will learn to deal with the new equilibrium between the two parties," he said.
"If he (Karunanidhi) meets Sonia, it would be interpreted as if he was seeking Sonia's help to save his daughter. If he does not meet her, then it would be said that they have fallen out over the issue. DMK would prefer the former situation," a DMK leader said on condition of anonymity.

Sahim Salim in New Delhi

In the recently-concluded state elections, a new alarming trend has come to the fore. In Assam and Kerala , it looks like the Muslim community's votes have polarised towards religious outfits.

The All India  United Democratic Front in Assam and The Muslim League in Kerala secured good number of votes, leaving analysts to conclude that the Muslim electorate voted towards Muslim-oriented outfits.

In this interview with rediff.com, member-secretary of the Rajinder Sachar Committee on the status of Muslims, Abusaleh Shariff explains the trend, its reasons and ways to reverse it.

In the recently concluded elections, Muslims seem to have voted along community lines in two states. Can you elaborate on this developement?

A. Well, it has been happening for a long time in Kerala. The Muslim League has been in existence since independence, so it has a historical legacy. Some political parties may not like the fact that it has the word 'Muslim' in it, but it is a recognised political party.

On the outset, I want to state that I am happy with the fact that the Muslims have awakened. I reiterate, awakened. I am aware through election results analysts that the share of Muslim electorate has been diminishing over the history of elections in India.

This means that Muslims were going out of the mainstream political system. This was not a good sign for the Muslims and the democracy because Muslims are the largest minority.

In these state elections, the emergence of the Muslim electorate is a good sign. I want more and more Muslims to come out in large numbers to exercise their democratic rights. That they are being polarised is another story.

Can this development be categorised as a trend?

Yes, it could be. I will tell you why. Mamta Bannerjee won in West Bengal  and she was wholeheartedly supported by the Muslims in the state. Now if Mamta's policies do not include Muslims in it, then another Muslim oriented party can spring up there, which will then polarise on the Muslim vote-bank in the state.

In a secular and heterogeneous democracy such as ours, what is the meaning of such a development?

My democratic vision for this secular country is that Muslims should not be polarised in such a manner. They should be included and they should participate in mainstream politics.

I don't want a separate school, a separate minority development corporation etc. These are all notional; they don't produce any welfare products; it is just a waste of money. The government sustains these kind of institutions because of pressure. They only feed a handful of influential people. 

What do you think are the reasons for Muslims to vote in favor of religious parties in Kerala and Assam?

When the mainstream political parties do not ask the Muslim community to be a part of the mainstream political system, then they don't get to exercise their identity. After all, being a Muslim is an identity.

In spite of the Sachar Committee report that came out five years ago, neither the state nor the central governments have taken it seriously. They have not addressed the problem of exclusion of Muslims in public spaces.

That is the reason why there is relatively more polarisation towards Muslim-oriented parties. Muslims think that through these parties, politically at least, they can make a claim in lieu of capacity to influence policies.

When I was in the Sachar Committee, what I noticed was that in most of the public spaces created by the system, Muslims were not getting their share. Every chapter in the committee report says that they are not a part of these spaces as much as they should be. So what is the solution for that?

They created special purpose vehicles for Muslims, which I am not for. I want a share for the Muslims in the mainstream institutions, which has declined over a period of time. The mainstream political parties should make spaces for them within the party. It will be easier for political decision making.

Do you think that the so-called religious political parties will truly represent Muslims' demands in mainstream politics?

Look, this is not a religious-oriented civil society. They are political parties and will have to participate in the nation building. But the point is that India constitutes of 1.3 billion people, out of which 1 billion are Hindus.

Unfortunately, despite the cultural divides amongst the Hindus, the Bharatiya Janata Party  has put a seed of divide between Hindus and Muslims. This kind of polarisation is a result of what the BJP did 20 years ago. Although the BJP is trying to mellow down, the Muslim community is reacting.

See, through these religious parties, what the Muslim communities hope to achieve is representation in the mainstream. But unfortunately, in that case, what happens is that these demands will be made in a religious oriented manner, which is not healthy in a democratic setup.

Do you think these religious parties are just banking on religious votes, rather than in reality having a religious agenda?

I am not sure of that. But I think that we Muslims, being from the minority, have a strong desire to protect our identity. I don't call that a Muslim agenda, but rather an agenda to protect our identity. We need a place in nation building too.

Mainstream secular political parties have tried to woo Muslim votes in both states. Does this mean that the current policies and approaches adopted by these parties have failed?

What you have to understand is that the mainstream political parties have worked very hard to win their elections. Whether you like it or not, democracy is about numbers.

I am aware of the compulsion of mainstream parties to bring winning candidates. But my point is that they should use other institutions like delimitation commission.

For example in West Bengal, there will be 100 constituencies where Muslims might have a winning edge. Identity politics also works in secular parties, but these constituencies will also have Hindus, so in a secular party, even if the candidate is a Muslim, you will get Hindu votes as well.

The elected representative is going to be the leader of the Hindus and Muslims in the area. That is where inclusion comes. A Muslim getting elected should not be seen as a Muslim leader, but rather a leader.

Dr Manmohan Singh  is seen as a leader and not a Sikh leader. Similarly, Muslims standing up to represent a constituency should not be labeled a religious leader. 

This development, in itself, is alarming. How can we reverse such a development keeping the secular idea of the state in mind?

I won't call it alarming. But yes, voting based on identity and community is bad. Mainstream is the answer. Negotiation and partnership should be included.

Do you know why Muslim vote was polarised in Assam? The Congress leaders did not even allow Muslims to come near them for partnership. In Kerala, Muslim League fractions came together, so Muslim vote got consolidated.

My argument is not against the Muslims or Muslim parties. I ask of the government to change policies. They should open up public spaces for Muslims. It is because they have not, that Muslim polarisation is taking place.

What do you think are the key issues that Muslims want represented, which are not being focused on by secularist political parties?

Political empowerment. In 2006, Sachar Committee brought the fact that Muslims are not participating as much as they should in public spaces. The Sachar Committee told the government that more political representation is needed atleast at the grass-root level.

Don't make them members of Parliament and members of legislative assembly. Make them part of the Panchayat and Municipality atleast.

We need these small changes because these are the ways that we interpret what matters. In Sachar Committee report, it is highlighted that in Muslim concentrated areas, schools are less.

So where do they go, other that Madrassas? When we talk of welfare of Muslims, they talk of Madrassa reforms. Why Madrassa reforms, I ask, why not schools?

By Praful Bidwai

The Congress's 3-to-2 score in the five states might appear respectable, but must be seen in perspective. Its Assam win came entirely because of local leaders. The corruption issue hit the Congress in Tamil Nadu and Kerala . And it lost the people's pulse in Puducherry, says Praful Bidwai.

The electorate in five Indian states has delivered a verdict which appears mixed on the surface, but is unambiguous in its central message. That three-fold message is that the people will ruthlessly punish corrupt politicians who sabotage democratic institutions even when they may take some populist welfare measures. People are equally unsparing towards those who profess progressive ideas, but practise the opposite. And they reward those who deliver public services and practise harmony, not divisiveness.

Political parties can ignore this at their own peril. West Bengal  and Tamil Nadu witnessed a 'wave' election. They are likely to play a disproportionately large role in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The West Bengal debacle holds a historic lesson for India's  parliamentary Left, comprising the Communist Party of India-Marxist, CPI, Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party. They cannot practise their conventional politics and hope to survive. They must radically rethink their ideological premises, programmatic perspectives, political mobilisation strategies, and organisational practices. Or, they will go into the dustbin of history.

In Tamil Nadu too, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam  suffered a crushing, humiliating defeat. Seventeen DMK ministers lost elections. The party was reduced to a pitiable 23 seats, less than the newly-formed, film-star Vijaykanth-led Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's 32. The AIADMK-led front gained 12 percentage-points in vote-share and won an 86 percent assembly majority.

In Kerala, the Left Democratic Front lost narrowly to the Congress-led United Democratic Front. The tiny difference of 1.68 lakh in aggregate votes between the two suggests there was no strong anti-incumbency. The LDF staged an impressive rally during the campaign's last stage because of the popular appeal of outgoing chief minister V S Achuthanandan.

The LDF could have won had the CPI-M  not hesitated giving a ticket to its sitting chief minister, and then refused to project him as its prospective CM. The result is a slap in the face of CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, who prevailed upon party general secretary Prakash Karat  to deny Achutanandan his due.

The Congress doesn't have too much to cheer about. It performed disastrously in Tamil Nadu, winning only five seats in the 234-strong assembly, just half the CPI-M's tally. It bagged 42 seats in West Bengal by piggybacking the Trinamool Congress  (184 seats). And it won only 38 of the UDF's 72 seats in Kerala, at a lower strike-rate than its allies'.

It's only in Assam that the Congress did well. Its vote-share improved from 31 percent to 39 and its seats tally from 53 to 78 in the 126-member assembly. This is largely attributable to responsive governance under Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's  two terms, his action against corruption, a considerable improvement in public services, especially healthcare, and his persistent efforts to reconcile differences between ethnic groups and bring secessionist organisations like the United Liberation Front of Asom into the mainstream.

Gogoi's Assam registered an impressive improvement in education and urban services like road maintenance and street-lighting. Over 58 lakh schoolchildren were brought under the purview of mid-day meals. Some 92,000 students were given free computers/laptops on getting high marks in school-leaving examinations. About 1.35 lakh Class 9 and 10 girls were given bicycles. Over 1.5 lakh employees of non-government schools were given Rs 2,000-3,500 in monthly support.

Every Assamese I have recently spoken to testifies to a sea-change in the quality of state healthcare facilities. Rat-infested, ill-equipped, under-staffed and patient-unfriendly dumps that passed off for hospitals became clean, hygienic, efficient and welcoming of patients. Much of the credit for this goes to Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. He was also responsible for the Congress's electoral strategy and candidate selection in many constituencies. All the candidates he chose won.

To return to the elections' most important outcome, the tectonic shift in West Bengal became possible because the Left Front got delusional and failed to notice its growing isolation from the people, especially workers, poor peasants and tenant farmers, caused by its shamelessly elitist, blindly neo-liberal policies.

The front achieved a good deal in its early period in power -- land reform through tenant registration, political decentralisation through what once was India's best panchayati raj system, wage increases, and promotion of communal harmony and a degree of gender equality.

But soon, cadres of the Left, in particular, the CPI-M, 80 percent of whom joined it after it took office, got entrenched in the new power structures and used them to narrow ends. The leadership lost direction and drifted towards conservative policies which neglected the people's basic needs.

West Bengal became a laggard in education, healthcare and job generation. It stands 32nd among 35 states and Union territories in educational achievement. Its school drop-out rate, at 75 percent-plus (all-India average, 60 percent), is the 7th highest in India and higher than in Bihar. The number of hospital beds in rural Bengal is only 3.8 per one lakh people, against a national average of 17.5.

West Bengal has the lowest performance under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act -- 14 days of work annually against the national average of 42. The share of manufacturing in its state GDP has fallen from 19 percent in the mid-1970s to 7.4 percent -- lower than in neighbouring Orissa (13.6 percent) and way below Gujarat's 30 percent.

On top of this terrible record came the Front's 2006 decision to promote industrialisation-at-any-cost through forcible land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram . These involved sweetheart deals, with the state subsidising 30 percent-plus of the investment.

This brought the Left into an ugly confrontation with its core-base. It fired upon unarmed people but couldn't break their resistance. Singur and Nandigram became symbols of a progressive current gone haywire, become too arrogant to comprehend the people's growing hostility to the Front. Mamata Banerjee  understood this and expressed solidarity with people's struggles. She ran an energetic campaign for parivartan (change).

In the ensuing rout, the CPI-M's seat-tally fell below even the Congress's. Twenty six of the front's 34 ministers lost, including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya  and his topmost colleagues. The front was wiped out from Kolkata , Howrah, East Midnapur and Darjeeling. In North Bengal, with a high concentration of Muslims, it won only 20 percent of seats, compared to 80 percent in 2006. And in the Adivasi districts of West Midnapur, Purulia and Bankura, where the Left had won 86 percent of seats, it won only about one-third.

This defeat is of the same quality as the Congress's rout in 1977. Karat tried to underplay this by arguing that the Left won 11 lakh more votes than in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. That's no consolation. This wasn't 'recovery' or 'course correction', but the result of intensive cadre mobilisation.

The Left's leadership now faces its final test. Can it learn from the defeat and bounce back? Some observers have pronounced the death of Communism in India. This is wrong. Communism and Marxism will survive not just as ideologies but even in tangible organisational forms.

The question is if the organised Left parties will retain their importance. They can, only if they relate to life-and-blood people's struggles on livelihood issues and advocate anti-capitalist policies. In West Bengal, these must effectively counter Trinamool's thrust under a right-wing corporate-lobbyist finance minister and Banerjee's unpredictable moves.

The prospect for that other great loser, the DMK, is more dismal. DMK president M Karunanidhi , 87, concentrated all power within his family, destroying what was once a solid cadre-based party and severing it from its moorings in the Dravidian self-respect movement. His relatives built media and industrial empires with his largesse. The 2G scam, and Sun TV [ Get Quote ] and Kalaignar TV are only a few examples of this politics-as-enterprise. After his departure, it's difficult to see how the DMK, bereft of ideology and vision, can survive.

The BJP and Asom Gana Parishad also performed badly in the elections. The AGP was wiped out from 21 of Assam's 27 districts, its seat-tally plummeting from 25 to 10. The BJP was reduced to just five seats. It didn't win even one percent of the 828 seats contested in the five states. This undermines its claim to be emerging as a national party.

The Congress's 3-to-2 score in the five states might appear respectable, but must be seen in perspective. Its Assam win came entirely because of local leaders. The corruption issue hit the Congress in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. And it lost the people's pulse in Puducherry.

Even more important, the results are a slap in the face of the 'Rahul brigade'. Rahul Gandhi  had identified Tamil Nadu, with a claimed 1.3 million Youth Congress membership, as a key state. But all nine Youth Congress nominees lost, including the state president and secretary. In Kerala, with almost half-a-million Youth Congress members, only three of Gandhi's 17 handpicked candidates won.

The family 'charisma' isn't working. The Congress must go back to basics if it is to recover in the south, especially in view of the mounting Jaganmohan Reddy  challenge in Andhra.

He's back in the limelight, but this time for controversial clearances and candidly revealing that he has been "forced to compromise", a shift that industry has hailed as the "middle path".

From being a green crusader to a "helpless" minister, as some activists now call him, the tide began turning early this year with his ministry giving conditional nods to South Korean major Posco's $12 billion integrated steel project in Orissa Jan 31.

According to ministry officials, the order to clear Posco - the largest foreign investment project in the country - came following pressure from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

While industry has welcomed the move, the 57-year-old minister, who brought India to the forefront of international climate change talks, has been criticised by the greens for "buckling under pressure".



"We have to say that he is violating statutory conditions on dictation from above. It is shocking and shameful and is an open comment on the crony nature of current governance in India," said Medha Patkar of the Narmda Bachao Andolan (NBA).

Calling him helpless, Shankar Gopalakrishnan of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of tribal and forest dwellers' organisations, said: "There is no legal institution and no effort is being made to address the problem on the ground."

"There is a lot of image politics and symbolic action, but nothing has changed as far as the underlying procedure is concerned," Gopalakrishnan told IANS.

On Wednesday, nearly 30 graduating students of the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai boycotted their annual convocation ceremony where the minister was the chief guest to protest against him over proposed nuclear power projects in various parts of the country.



The image of the maverick minister suffered another blow May 6 when he cleared the 400 MW Maheshwar hydroelectric power project on the Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh despite non-compliance of conditions given at the time of green clearance.

Ramesh said he had no choice but to agree to lifting the order in view of the decisions taken at various meetings convened by the PMO.

"I am totally against regularising illegality. Unfortunately, many times I am forced to regularise. There are some occasions when I have not compromised. On some occasions, I had to compromise," he added.

However, some environmentalists are not ready to buy that argument.

"I think it is the collective responsibility of the council of ministers of which Jairam Ramesh is a part and he can't put everything on the PMO. He is trying to behave like he is the only good guy and the rest are bad," said an environmentalist on condition of anonymity.



Chander Bhushan of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) told IANS: "The problem is we don't have an institutional mechanism to address such problems. I don't understand why the PMO has to intervene in all major projects and why we can't set a mechanism which will simplify the problem."

Ramesh did stop Vedanta's bauxite mining project in Orissa last year.

Bhushan said Ramesh has brought some energy to the ministry which had been almost dead for the past 10 years. But there hasn't been any significant change in the procedure used to accord green clearance to projects, he said.

Industry has of course welcomed the recent clearances by Ramesh's ministry.

"We welcome the decisions to clear prominent infrastructure projects like Posco, Jindal Steel Plant. The ministry has, of course, taken the decision by balancing the growth aspect and environment imperatives," Seema Arora, head of environment desk, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), told IANS.



"It is a forward move as the government is looking at the middle path so that we don't compromise on growth," she said.

Data collected under the Right to Information Act by environment lawyer Ritwick Dutta shows that during Ramesh's tenure, projects were actually getting cleared much faster and fewer projects were rejected compared to his predecessor A. Raja.

Environmental clearance for just six projects was rejected during August 2009-July 2010, compared to 14 projects rejected during 2006-07 to 2007-08. All in all, 769 projects were received and 535 were approved. The rest are pending.

"Ramesh has stopped only some high-profile projects like Lavasa, Posco, Vedanta and Adarsh... what about the rest which have been cleared and can do more damage to environment?" Bhushan asked.

Source: IANS

Imphal, May 16 : The return of the Congress government in Assam for the third consecutive term has prompted the Manipur PCC to predict the coming of more Congress governments in the Northeast.

“People take development into stock when they go to the polling booths. It is the victory of the people of Assam. Assam voted for the Congress because of its development programmes under the UPA government that put the state on the path of progress,” PCC president Gaikhangam said, congratulating Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi.

Gaikhangam said the Assam results indicated that more Congress governments were in the offing.

“Who knows, Tripura may face a fate similar to that of West Bengal where the Left Front government has been dethroned after three decades. The people of Bengal have awakened and realised the misdeeds of the Left Front. It is better late than never,” Gaikhangam said.

He said the results of Assam, Bengal and Tamil Nadu made it very clear that the people would vote out any party that did not perform.

“Any party that works for the people will remain in power. And the Congress is the only party that carries the will of the people,” he said.

The Manipur Congress has reason to be happy with the Assam results.

As in Assam, the Congress-led Okram Ibobi Singh government will be completing a second term and hoping to retain power for the third time after the next state Assembly election, likely to be held in February next year.

NEW DELHI: The BJP has nothing to cheer about the outcome of the five Assembly elections. The only consolation for the party is the victory of its nominees in the by-election to the three Assembly segments in Karnataka and the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency in Chhattisgarh.

The biggest disappointment for the party is in Assam where it had hoped to improve on its tally of 10 seats in the last Assembly poll. The party's strength in the State is down to four and the BJP attributed it to ‘disunity' in the Opposition ranks.

The Central Parliamentary Board (CPB) of the party, presided over by Nitin Gadkari and attended among others by senior party leader L.K. Advani, characterised the results as ‘State-specific.'

Conceding the poor performance of the party in Assam, the CPB regretted that lack of Opposition unity proved advantageous to the Congress. It maintained that the outcome in Tamil Nadu was on account of “corruption and nepotism” indulged in by the DMK-led combine.

On West Bengal, the party said that it reflected the disillusionment of the people over lack of development under the Communist rule. “The West Bengal results show that the global decline of Marxist ideology has arrived in India,” the CPB said.

At a news conference here, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said that there were many ‘stray indications' in the outcome of the elections that should be a cause of concern to the Congress.

Mr. Jaitley maintained that the UPA owed its second stint to impressive gains made in the States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. “The UDF in Kerala has managed to win by a razor-thin margin. It is a washout in Tamil Nadu and in Karnataka. Despite its best efforts, the Congress failed to retain even the one it held of the three Assembly seats for which by-elections were held.”

The BJP leader said that huge victory of rebel Congress leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy in the Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency and impressive victory of his mother in the Assembly by-election would spell serious trouble for the Congress in Andhra Pradesh.

Asked about the statement made by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee that the BJP tally failed to reach even the two-digit figure out of the more than 800 Assembly segments in the five States, Mr. Jaitley wanted to know why the same logic did not apply to the Congress in the Bihar Assembly election.

“Historically, the BJP has been weak in four out of the five States that went to the polls. We contested in these States not with the objective of government formation but to consolidate and expand our vote base,” he said.

If projected trends hold true, the Congress could become a diminished force, more dependent on allies

Liz Mathew & Ruhi Tewari

New Delhi: Barring in West Bengal, exit polls do not hold out a clear winner in the three other states—Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam—that went to polls in April and May.
If trends projected by the poll surveys hold true, then, unlike in the general election of 2009, the Congress is a diminished political force and, therefore, more dependent on its allies.
As a consequence, the party will find it difficult to effect a major image makeover of the the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), including a radical recast of the cabinet and pushing through major policy reforms. The difficult fiscal situation brought about by a surge in international commodity prices such as crude oil and a slowdown in growth required the government take some tough decisions to rein in expenditure, particularly on food and fertilizer subsidies.
The Congress-led UPA is a coalition of several regional parties, including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which pollsters predict is headed for a landslide win in West Bengal.
The more than month-long election campaign to five assemblies in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry came to an end on Tuesday, with the last phase of voting in West Bengal. Results will be declared on 13 May.
All four post-poll predictions, telecast on CNN-IBN, Star News, Asianet and News 24 channels, have unanimously predicted a landslide victory for railway minister Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, which is in alliance with the Congress in West Bengal.
However, the likely verdicts in the other states are less clear, and in the case of Tamil Nadu too close to call.
In Assam, the Congress along with potential allies such as the All India United Democratic Front, holds the edge.
In Kerala, Star News, Asianet and News 24 favour a Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) win over the Left Democratic Front (LDF), led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM). The CNN-IBN-The Week-Centre for the Study of Developing Societies poll has predicted a photo finish, with the LDF expected to get 69-77 seats and the UDF 63-71.
The big story of the election, however, could be the defeat of the Communists, who have been ruling West Bengal uninterrupted for more than three decades. The CPM, which has been facing an ideological and organizational crisis, would have to look for ways to re-invent itself if the actual results turn out to be as disappointing as predicted.
However, there are mixed predictions for Tamil Nadu, with three polls giving opposition leader J. Jayalalithaa’s All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) a distinct advantage over the ruling DMK. The Headlines Today poll telecast on Star News said the DMK and its allies would return to power with 124 of the 234 seats.
“The predictions show that the Congress is becoming increasingly dependent on its allies for coming to power in states. So, its ambition for revival in the states, be it Tamil Nadu or West Bengal, will only be a dream,” said Subrata Mukherjee, professor in the department of political science at Delhi University.
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who had inspired the Congress to a second consecutive term at the Centre by preferring a go-it-alone strategy in key states, has been working to revive the party at the ground level in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal to regain past glory.
“In West Bengal, the TMC would have won the elections even without the partnership of the Congress. Here the Congress will be the beneficiary of the alliance in West Bengal,” Mukherjee said.
Savithri Kannan, a Chennai-based political analyst, said the Congress would have to play second fiddle to either the DMK or the AIADMK for a long time in the state.
According to Mukherjee, Banerjee is unlikely to create trouble for the Congress as predicted by critics. “I think the TMC would try to consolidate its support base in West Bengal to outweigh the organizational strength of the CPM and will try to cooperate with the Union government.”
However, Kannan said that defeat for the DMK means fresh troubles for the Congress and the UPA government. “A defeat would aggravate the local Congress unit’s demand for breaking ties with the DMK, because if the DMK is losing it’s because of the corruption charges against its leaders. Congress cannot afford being part of it,” Kannan added.