Can Manmohan do a Rao, derail Rahul Gandhi's PM bid by 5 yrs?

Skeleton is finally gaining muscle. The July 5 Bharat Bandh tactically called by NDA and Left in a way that about 17 Opposition parties took part and brought the country to a grinding halt. Price rise often rejected as am election issue just appears to have infused life into dead Opposition, with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh helping them revive through his "economic-bureaucratic" policies directly hitting the middle class where it hurts the most. The UPA has a mandate till 2014. Four more years to go for political churning to take place.

The reign of former Prime Minister Narsimha Rao had taken the Congress out of power for about eight years, with the NDA ruling for about six years. Though it will be a little premature to take a call on the outcome of 2014 elections, the young scion of the Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi, who already turned 40, might have to wait a little longer to occupy the coveted post if the Opposition continues gaining muscles with fodder supplied by Mr Manmohan Singh.

There will be no Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh to repeat the resounding victory of the Congress in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. The Congress has lost Rajshekhara Reddy in AP. Kerala and TN are known for a revolving door mandate. People in Delhi are beating their chest for having voted the Congress. UP results in 2009 are all turning out to be a fluke, with the Dumariyaganj Assembly byelection result where the Congress came fifth though the party had bagged the Lok Sabha seat just a year back has already sent consternation in Rahul Gandhi camp. The emergence of the Peace Party in UP on the support of the Muslim constituency is only helping the BJP to limp back to life. With major states out of the kitty of the Congress, Mr Gandhi might have to just work a little extra for the revival of the party apparatus in Bihar, West Bengal and UP where it is not even among the top two contenders.

Former BJP leader and ex-UP chief minister Kalyan Singh after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections had given a long postmortem of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Basically, he had two contentions. First, price rise is not an elections issue. This is now proving to be wrong, as a large section of population, including those who earn quite handsome salary, are being hit where it hurts the most. Also, the euphoria of the sixth pay commission bonanza has long subsided. His second contention was that it was suicidal on the part of BJP's L. K. Advani to have personally attacked Mr Manmohan Singh, who is revered by the middle class for probity and knowledge. Having spent six years in the office, the people could just now be losing faith in the "knowledge and leadership" of Mr Singh, which has only made the life difficult of many. People in India take a long time to discard their loved ones but when they do it gives a feeling of a bolt from the blue, as was the case with Mr Vajpayee.

Though there are four more years for Mr Singh for course correction, he, however, has unflinching faith in his medicine, that he would go on in the same way if Mrs Sonia Gandhi does not decide to install her son Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister in 2012 after the UP Assembly elections.

Afzal's fate: Criminal subversion of rule of law

Though the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was ordered to be hanged in 2006, he continues to live another day thanks to criminal subversion of the rule of law. He may live another two years or more or even get some reprieve given the kind of spineless political leadership that we are blessed with. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that the law of the land will take its course not only invited scorn but a kind of distrust that the citizens are bound to have such loose talks come out from the highest in the echelon.

The law of the land had awarded death to Afzal. The parliament attack had almost brought India and Pakistan to war, with their respective armies staring at each other on the border, though the Big Brother (the US) played the referee in the hard ball game of politics.

In 2006 Afzal Guru filed mercy petition plea, apparently on the ground that he had an ailing mother and was the sole bread earner for the family. The mercy petition plea file was diverted to the Congress led Delhi government and the chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, did what she was asked to do by her bosses in the party, that to let the file gather dust in her home department. Then after four years, the file moved only to land up at the desk of the Lt. Governor Tejendra Khanna who is now "studying the document closely".

The home ministry had sent the file to examine the merits of the clemency plea, that is whether the claims made by the convict were true or not. However, Mrs Dikshit shocked the media by stating that one of her former chief secretary had noted that there would be law and order problem in Delhi if Afzal was executed. Such a comment by that bureaucrat, who would qualify to be an idiot of the highest degree, has been rewarded by Mrs Dikshit after his retirement by appointing him the special advisor for the Commonwealth Games. His new job is to just write letters to private companies carrying out various construction works in the capital for the Games, which is nothing but a loot of the taxpayers' money.

Why was the Delhi government studying the genuineness of the Supreme Court verdict awarding Afzal the death punishment is baffling. It was not the mandate. It just had to go into the merits of the mercy petition. Now, Mr Khanna is studying the 75-page verdict of the Supreme Court. Is he qualified enough to examine the verdict of the Supreme Court. Does he have the mandate to review the verdict of the highest judiciary in the country?

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Obdulla has been making statements as if the principle of management schools of LIFO (Last In First Out) of FIFI (First in First Out) applies on the 30 convicts who are on death rows and are awaiting disposal of their respective mercy petition pleas. He should rise above from making such stupid statements.

Lastly, the President of India, which is a rubber stamp position for all the practical purposes, can be a little active in disposing off the files at her table or rather should prod the home ministry to clear the files concerning her at the earliest. She being the Constitutional head must ensure that the rule of law is not subverted for petty gains of spineless and brainless politicians.

No takers for truth in Mahatma's land

Call them three musketeers who dared to speak to tell the truth and in return got unprecedented backlash in the country of Mahatma Gandhi who stood for nothing but the truth. The men in question are Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Union minister for environment Jairam Ramesh and the BJP chief Nitin Gadkari. They all stated what were accepted to be truth in the public domain but faced unbridled attack to the extent that they were all called names. 

First thing first. No one in their right frame of mind expected India to win the T20 world cup. The Indian players were not only spoiled by the gruelling IPL, which lasted for one and a half months, but also faced total burn out. The IPL late night party which lasted till the dawn will not figure in the itinerary of any sports management but only in the IPL, which is nothing but crass commercial exploitation of cricket. Dhoni had remarked before he headed for the Caribbeans that he had never been to such IPL parties but the same could not have been true for others. The body language of Indian cricketer's appeared to be nothing but of a dull lot out there to party at the beaches in the Caribbeans with little regards for millions of fans' expectations. Dhoni is absolutely right and he showed the guts that he call a spade a spade and suffers no insecurity.

The cricket crazy nation paid no interest to the exploits of Indian hockey players who showed unexpected performance in the Azlan Shah trophy. No wonder why these people are the poor lots. 

The BJP president Nitin Gadkari is a raw politician and has not yet honed his skills for shrewed political talks. He talks straight. That is why the RSS has picked him for the post. He literally called the Samajwadi Party and RJD president Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav "dogs licking the heels of the Congress" to use a Hindi phrase. The political observers will not find any lack of truth in the statement. The SP and RJD leaders acn fall at the feet of the top Congress leaders any other day and both are facing serious charges for amassing assets beyond their income. However, Mr Gadkari was hauled like anything.

Lastly, Mr Ramesh has always been a politician not known to follow the established political diktats. First, he called the ceremonial robes worn at the times of taking college degrees a colonial legacy. That is true. All will agree. Then he went on to deliver the bombshell on the Chinese soil that the Indian internal security managers are a paranoid lot when it comes to deal with the issue concerning the Chinese. This is also true. Mr Ramesh also was hauled up. Mr Ramesh had earlier cut Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit to size for all her "achievements", which he called were due to judicial activism. That was true but that time has was saved as he had attacked a lesser mortal.

To cut a long story short, the Indian Psyche is far detached from tolerating a blunt truth. The exponents are banished with no loss of time. Dhoni, Gadkari and Ramesh bring freshness, which hopefully will not wither away amidst all attacks launched at them

Delhi Police (Amendment) Bill, 2010 reveals colonial mindset

If you are inebriated enough that you can not take care of yourself, you could be liable to pay a fine of Rs 1,000. If you bring a servant from your home town and you fail to submit him or her for police verification, the fine could be Rs 5,000. Delhi Police (Amendment) Bill 2010 (http://www.delhi.gov.in/), which has seen spirited opposition from leading citizen groups in the capital, who went all the way to the Union home minister, P. Chidambaram, and the home secretary, G. K. Pillai, is now open for public scrutiny on April 24, with the conference to be presided over by the chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, after the Lt. Governor Tejendra Khanna refused to do the honour, and would be attended by noted jurist, J. S Verma, police expert, Kamal Kumar, and a host of people drawn from all walks of life, including four journalists.

This legislative proposal, which will go to the Parliament, needs to be studied closely and enough voice need to be raised, as it has serious consequences for the citizens. At the outset, one can summarise this legislative proposal an attempt by the Delhi Police to garner as much power as it can in the name of improving effective policing. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and it applies very well on the Delhi Police, which is fat enough to have more than 60,000 cops on its roll.

There have been backgrounds for this legislative proposal in the form of Supreme Court directions, Nanavati Commission recommendations and reports of the Administrative Reforms Committee. Delhi Police (Amendment) Bill, 2010 does not conform to the above cited backgrounds and rather bares the mindset of the city police, which believes in just making laws for effective policing.

Against the provision of the CrPC, this bill says that no one can ask for report on arrests made by the police and also does away with the magisterial inspection of the arrests made. Further, the police commissioner or any member of the police (even a constable) can give a "verbal order, declaring riots situation, which will be notified in 24 hours". These two provisions are against the spirit of the freedom of the civic society and the concept of checks and balances and will have serious consequences.

Further, the new bill proposes to empower the police commissioner, being the head of the proposed Police Establishment Board for transfer and postings of junior officials, while for the seniors the proposal does away the concept of a three member screening committee, which includes the chief secretary, home secretary and a member from the police. While the first proposal leaves the scope of corruption in transfer and postings, which is reported to be the biggest source of money making by corrupts, the second does away with the civic society having any say in this matter.

All the earlier recommendations of excluding the non-core functions of the police have equally been ignored. Take for the instance, Delhi police has roughly 200 staff  designated for the work of issuing all kinds of licenses, which does not happen to be its core functions. Licensing in all the states is with the civic departments, which even in Delhi can be done that too with higher satisfaction for the citizens.

The preposterous proposals in this bill are regarding the fines, which have all been raised roughly by 10 to 50 times. All the fines would be in the range of Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000. A jaywalker would be liable for a fine of Rs 1,000, while the same applies for those urinating in public and much more. The question here is whether a commoner keeps Rs 1,000 in his wallet all the times. As is the image of the police, this will lead the police to indulge in taking Rs 200 in place of Rs 1,000 to relieve the man from the charges of offending the law and would just add to the rampant corruption among the men in khakhi.

Delhi Police (Amendment) Bill, 2010 needs close scrutiny and is available on http://www.delhi.gov.in/ and people can leave their comments for Mr Vishvendra, Deputy Secretary of the Home department of the Delhi government. All the public comments will be compiled and will be sent to the Union home ministry along with the draft of the bill, so that the Central government can take a reasonable decision on this proposal. It's time to be informed citizens and become a part of the decision making process.