The meeting went a step further. It criticized the High Command for not taking action on the Sachar Committee recommendations and pointedly asked whether the Muslims could expect its implementation in lieu of their support. Bluntly, a quid pro quo. The deliberations also brought out the embarrassment caused to the GPCC President, Bharatsinh Solanki, by the meeting and its brazenly communal demands. At one stage Solanki was even involved in a public spat with Vice President Momin. Termed as a "brainstorming" session, the meet raised the "basic question" whether supporting the Congress in poll after poll had done any good for the community. Clearly, the Congress has a problem on its hands, thanks to its shortsighted appeasement policy and vote bank politics.

Kerala DC shows the Way

The IAS cadre in Kerala is making big waves. Principalled official investigation by District Collector Raju Narayanaswamy has cost the Kerala Public Works Minister, TU Karuvila, his job. Known for his uprightness and taking on the political establishment, the young IAS officer stopped a contractor from blocking off a public road to a poor neighbourhood of Scheduled Castes and grab the land for himself. Even though the contractor was none other than his father-in-law, it did not stop Narayanaswamy from invoking the Criminal Procedure Code, calling in the police and demolishing the wall. This, of course, is not the first for this young bureaucrat, a topper of 91 batch and one who had turned down an MIT scholarship for the civil service. He had earlier forced an influential liquor baron to cough up Rs. 11 crore as taxes to the Government, stopped a minister from turning a hospital into a private medical college among other actions. If only others could follow suit.

Farmers upset over wheat heist

Forget the Opposition calling it a "shameless loot," farmers across the country are up in arms against the Union Government's "wheat heist." Namely, the Agriculture Ministry's decision to import 7.9 lakh tones of wheat by paying 150 per cent more ($390 per tonne) over the price ($263) it had negotiated and cancelled in June last. Shockingly, the import price of Rs 16,000 per tonne is about 88 per cent more than the minimum support price of Rs 8,500 per tonne paid to the farmers during the current Rabi season. Not only that, agriculturists also question the need to import wheat in the face of comfortable domestic supply. Wheat production is up by about 8 per cent and procurement by 20 lakh tonnes. "It is a betrayal", allege the farmers. The Government has surely landed itself in an inedible wheat broth!

Uttarakhand to erase corruption?

The BJP Government in Uttarakhand is all set to launch Operation Clean-up to rid the State of corruption. Buoyed by his impressive victory in the Dhumakot Assembly poll, Chief Minister BC Khanduri is mulling over launching a crackdown on members of the previous Congress regime and the State babus. On the anvil are exposes on around 56 corrupt deals during his predecessor ND Tiwari's reign. These include irregularities in the allotment of industrial land plots by the State Industrial Corporation of Uttarakhand. Khanduri has promised to make the findings of the enquiry committee report public. Notwithstanding Khanduri's reputation for uprightness and a no-nonsense approach, the State Congress leaders are crying foul against this "politics of vendetta". All eyes are on Khanduri.

Insaf