While Soren is accused in three murder cases, his son Hemant has six criminal cases pending against him. Worse, the JMM's coalition partners are no different- Insaf
Criminality continues to flourish brazenly in India's much-touted democracy. Jharkhand offers the latest case in point. Thirty one of the 44 MLAs in the five-party coalition government have criminal cases against them. Leading the group is third time Chief Minister 'Guruji' Shibu Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), whose 17 of the 18 MLAs have criminal cases against them. A close look at the election affidavits filed shows that while Soren is accused in three murder cases, his son Hemant has six criminal cases pending against him. Worse, the JMM's coalition partners are no different. Eight of the 18 BJP MLAs, four of the five All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), one of the two JD (U) and the lone Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch legislator all are facing criminal cases, according to the NGO, National Election Watch.
Even the Opposition benches in the 81-member Assembly have no legs to stand on. Eleven of the 14 Congress MLAs, eight Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (P) MLAs and four RJD MLAs have criminal cases against them. So much for the Election Commission's efforts to cleanse the country's electoral system.
Add to this, the shameless opportunism displayed by the political parties to grab power. Soren is being supported by rivals BJP and the JD(U). The
JMM has claimed support of 44 MLAs-18 of the BJP, two of JD (U), five of the AJSU and one of JJM in the 81-member Assembly. Recall, the BJP had charged the UPA of retaining tainted ministers especially with respect to Soren. And, the latter had described the BJP as "communal" umpteen times.
Some BJP members had in fact opted for sitting in the opposition, but ideology was thrown to the winds. On Wednesday last, Soren took the oath of CM, and the BJP and AJSU got themselves a post each of Deputy Chief Minister. The coalition partners express confidence that the government will last a full five-year term. Let us see!
J&K Report "A Farce"
Justice (retd.) S Saghir Ahmed's report on Centre-State relations recommending greater autonomy for Jammu & Kashmir has turned out to be "a farce". BJP's senior leader, Arun Jaitley has left little scope for any doubt on the basis of bare facts. To start with, the report submitted last week to the J&K CM Omar Abdullah, was finalised "without any consultations" being held for nearly 28 months! It was in March 2006 that the Prime Minister had set up a working group on the Centre's relationship with J&K after an all-party Round Table Conference. But this group did not meet even once after its two-day session in September 2007 ended in a deadlock with the main political parties sticking to their respective ideas of the State's constitutional future. "Who did Ahmed speak to or which inputs had he relied upon before presenting the report?" questions Jaitley, who was a member of the working group.
Justice Ahmed's recommendation for a referendum on Article 370 has too been questioned on the ground: "There is no case for it. Indeed, no one was calling for it at present." The report wants the Centre to reconsider the National Conference's proposal on autonomy for J&K to the pre-1953 position. (It was rejected by New Delhi in 2000). It also recommends that it should be left to the people of J&K to decide how long Article 370, which guarantees special status to the State, should continue in its present form, when to make it permanent or abrogate. Jaitley has debunked the formulations as "hazy and wooly-headed", asserting that the former Judge should have avoided meddling with political issues for which he was not trained. What is more, there was no clear reference to explain what sort of autonomy formula he had in mind. He merely said: "It's a 60-year-old matter and should be settled once for all on the basis of some other formula as the PM may deem fit."
INFA
| 
Sunday, August 01, 2010
