Exclusive: Race To Rashtrapathi Bhavan

2019 Calculations May Decide BJP’s Choices For President, Vice President. The unexpected is widely expected. The Modi government likes to surprise, keeping its cards close to its chest until it has to play them. We will know the name of the BJP's nominee for the post of President of India on 23 June and it may be none of the names in speculation until 22 June.

Now, Maoists Eyeing Children

By Rajeshwari Naidu

While the Maoists have let loose a wave of terror in the tribal villages as part of the ongoing People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) week celebrations, villagers are a worried lot as the ‘Red Army’ is forcing them to ‘surrender’ a child — either boy or girl — to join the revolutionary party.

Though increasing use of “child soldiers” has been reported from Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand, it is for the first time that the disturbing fact has come to light on Andhra-Orissa Border (AOB). Sources told HNN that Maoists are forcibly recruiting tribal children in the age group of 10 to 18 years.

But, there is a catch. Analysts feel the police could use this to their advantage to win over the tribals and turn them against the Maoists. “It’s a double-edged sword as the police are capable of throwing a spanner in the Maoists’ game plan,” an expert averred.

Sources said Maoists are specifically targeting the youth in Pappuluru, Kappatotti, Naguluru, Tarigetta, Chintagunnal, Kuntawada, Sanyasiguda, Nimmalapadu, Doraguda, Gassiguda and Allurukota villages close to G K Veedhi mandal.

With a view to filling up the ‘vacant slots’ in the military platoons, area committees and dalams because of depleting cadre strength, the Maoist party Malkangiri division resorted to this latest recruitment drive, sources said.

Maoists were threatening the villagers to send at least 10 children from each panchayat to join their ranks, sources said. “If the parents ignore their call, Maoist dalams swoop on the village in the night and take away the youth,” an insider said.

When an armed platoon entered Kappatotti village late on Friday night, many teenagers ran away. “If we refuse to join the party, the rebels will beat our parents,” a boy, who fled the village, told HNN. Nearly 100 children fled to the neighbouring villages of Sileru, Koraput, Jaipore and Viskhapatnam.

The Maoists give training to the children to collect information on cops, police stations, handle sophist i c at e d weapons and plant mines. “The young recruits are also engaged to deliver messages and procure food,” a police official said.

Stating that 90 per cent of the members of the cultural wings of the Maoist party are aged below 16 years, a senior cop said the Maoists use children in their propaganda war against the government. “Once the children become full-time members, the central leadership drafts them to move with the women’s wing or the dalams,” he said.

While the deployment of child soldiers is rampant in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, it surfaced in Sambalpur in Orissa a few years ago. “The police produced a teenager in Anantapur in 2005-06, who claimed to have run away from the clutches of the Maoists,” a former official recalled.

From identity to economics: How the BJP is changing Indian politics

After tactically using caste arithmetic, the party has also consciously tried to undermine social justice as casteism and secularism as appeasement.

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly election results are not a one-time anomaly. They are repeat of the 2014 Lok Sabha results. In fact, the Bharatiya Janata Party has improved on its performance in 2014. Because the party seems set to stay in Indian politics for a long innings, it is important to reflect on what its politics means and what it is doing or going to do once in power in such an overwhelming manner.

While the BJP has cynically employed the use of religious identity, it has also consciously sought to downplay identity politics or social justice on the basis of caste or community in the last decade, particularly in the last few years. This is clear from the way the party brought a non-Jat politician to lead Haryana and encouraged a counter-mobilisation against the Jat hegemony. It also appointed a non-tribal chief minister Jharkhand and has persisted with one in Chhatisgarh. The party does not even seem to mind a Gujarati hegemony.

Where the party excels at is to package and present itself as rising above caste and community, decrying social justice as casteism, and secularism as appeasement, as Vandita Mishra points out in the Indian Express, after having carefully and “astutely picking a large number of its candidates from the large scatter of non-Yadav OBC [Other Backward Classes] castes, for instance, to add them to its traditional upper caste Brahmin-Thakur mix”, even while making a pronounced bid for backward caste support.

In fact, the success of the party’s political vision is evident from the fact that what appeared earlier as impossible seems to be the new normal now. For example, in a state like Jharkhand, the party brought in fundamental change by amending the land tenancy laws so as to serve the corporate capital and yet there was hardly any effective resistance to the move.

Most of the BJP’s important leaders also happen to be well-honed cadres of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The party seems to have made an effort to ensure that such candidates are given crucial postings, with a view to a more disciplined and ideologically committed leadership for the governments – at the Centre and in the states.

In other words, the BJP has sought to downplay one of the traditional basis of politics – that of social identities – because it hampers growth and expansion of capital.

The 2014 Lok Sabha results and now the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election results have shown how the BJP has created an anti-local, anti-caste, anti-region political ambience by ensuring that a combination of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah become acceptable to people across regions.

The Manifesto of the party for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections began by saying:

“The Party has begun the implementation of aims of social and economic justice through good governance (sushashan) under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi”.

Beyond this point the Manifesto talked in an idiom of class and professions, laying down how the party’s perspective on and vision of development has to reach the youth, poor, business community, women and others.

The party simply does not use the concept of social justice the way other political formations do.

Economic argument
It is in this sense that one can see how the BJP seeks to build a political agenda beyond the social identities. It tries to reach out to all of them through some economic argument or the other.

The party seems to know and understand that gradually it has to be a politics of class, which will allow it to expand because its historical legacy of being a brahmanical political force alienated it for quite some time from the Muslims and Dalits.

In the last three years or so, the party has amply shown how well religion and other social and cultural affiliations can only be used to ensure a very clearly defined rule of corporate capital. However, these affiliations along with that of nation, and other such are only instruments for mobilisation, if at all.

The violence in campuses could be seen as an example of how the party uses the instrument of lumpenism to ensure that voices of dissent can be suppressed by use of collective force.

Social justice is not a term often invoked by the Indian State after 2014. And yet the BJP cannot completely do away with the decades-long practices of positive discrimination in policy making because the move might invite strong counter mobilisation against it. Which is what explains the party’s conscious decision of going slow on its earlier discourse and policy programmes based on social identities. But the so-called slips of tongue on quotas and reservation and demonisation of Dalit activists is a clear indication of what many of the party’s leaders think on these questions.

In days to come, the BJP would rather focus on policy areas that would more proactively bring Dalits and tribals within the fold of the market. The policy decisions of the BJP are aimed at breaking the consensus on the need of taking affirmative action to remove social inequalities among groups.

Social reengineering
The BJP seeks to transform everybody into an individual, concerned only about their own self, while ironically seeking votes from them or expressing outrage in the name of Hinduism. The collective, as noted above, continues to be invoked when needed but only as a mere source of mobilisation to move towards a fragmented/individuated situation.

This thinking, while destroying their social and cultural allegiances, would transform each citizen into somebody who would cease to be concerned about the marginalised, oppressed or discriminated groups and communities. This would also lead to weakening of any opposition to whatever the state would do – from handing over the economy to corporate capital to making education institutions into skilling centres among other things.

​The BJP campaigns in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections mocked the gains that the Other Backward Classes and Dalit political mobilisations have made in these states. The party has routinely sought to underplay that there was any significant historic element of caste based discrimination. In Haryana, for instance, the party has come down heavily on unionisation of workers in the industrial belts of the state.

It has thus sought to delegitimise all movements that claim to represent social or economic justice. Which is why there is hardly any large scale resistance even when, for instance, the Haryana government unabashedly celebrates its foundation year using the symbol of a conch with a chariot embedded in it among other things. The party has thus got away by introducing overtly religious motifs in a secular country. Nor is there any public anger when workers are

The BJP represents a new moment in Indian politics. It understands and knows how to manipulate the social and cultural milieu much better than any other force towards making India fully compatible to the workings of corporate capital and seeking to break down the consensus on community and caste-based concepts of social justice.

If the political forces fail to understand this they would find it difficult to counter the BJP’s winning streak, even in 2019.

Maoists Release Poll Manifesto, Demand New Constitution

By Newscop | INNLIVE

TOP STORY The outlawed CPI (Maoist) has for the first time released a ‘short-term vision’ document or ‘poll manifesto’ urging people to shun the ‘pseudo-democratic system’ and demanded a revamp of the Constitution of India.

In a first, CPI (Maoist) has released an ‘election manifesto’, a copy of which is in possession of this correspondent, asking the people of the country to choose between the ‘pseudo-democratic system’ prevailing in the country and ‘real democracy’ promised by the banned outfit.

Although the outfit has given a call to boycott the 16th General Elections across the country, the manifesto says, “Exercise your franchise if you support the pseudo-democratic system.”

The Original Urdu Language Dying A Slow Death In India

By Hamid Ansari (Guest Writer)

Urdu, despite its spread across many States, finds itself to be in a condition of homelessness. It is to be noted that most of the 22 languages now listed in the Eighth Schedule find territorial expression in a ‘home State’. A notable exception to this is Urdu which despite its spread across many States finds itself to be in a condition of homelessness, with all its attendant consequences. Sindhi is in a similar position except for the fact that the total number of Sindhi speakers is 2.57 million. 

Besides being an officially recognised language, Urdu also has an official language status for some specified purposes (whose details vary and condition the impact substantively) in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. According to the Census of India 2001, there were a total of 51.5 million Urdu speakers in the country, amounting to 5.01 per cent of population and constituting the sixth largest language group.

Indian Society: An Interesting Interplay of Religion With Culture!

Alain de Botton, one of the best known intellectuals of Britain, suggests that in modern world, culture should have upper hand overreligion. Ultimately, he prescribes that the former should replace the latter in the longer run of the evolution of post-modern society.

It’s fascinating to see how far Alain’s ideas can go in an oriental society like India.Recently, I visited my native district, Deoghar, situated in Jharkhand to celebrate Durga-puja. What surprised me was not the scale with which the festivity was celebrated there, but with the degree of strictness that people still follow the religious rituals. Hardly one can identify any change in the methodology of worship over these years. Even, the animal sacrificeswithin the premise of goddess’ temple still happen uninterrupted. It made me think how strongly religion governs culture in our society. In other words, I saw Alain de Botton’s thesis failing in that small district of Jharkhand.

Unofficial: Salwa Judum Naxals ‘Working’ With Police

By Mithilesh Mishra / Ranchi

In a move that is sure to rake up unwelcome memories of Salwa Judum,  a breakaway group from the Naxals is helping the state establish control over areas of Jharkhand. The Triteeya Sammelan Prastuti Committee (TSPC), also remains banned officially by the government, but with a young squad, the youngest of which is 14 and the oldest is 30, the group claims to have greater public acceptance than the Naxals.

The group which lives in forest camps, and follows the same ideology as the Maoists, with the exception that the TSPC doesn’t believe in targeting government officials and local politicians, a move that has reportedly earned them a tacit understanding with the state police.

INDIA GENERAL ELECTIONS 2009 NOTIFICATION ANNOUNCED

By Kajol Singh

Lok Sabha polls will be held in five phases from April 16 to May 13, the Election Commission announced on Monday.

The five phased polls will be held in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh while Bihar will have four-phased elections, Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami told a press conference in New Delhi.

Maharashtra and West Bengal will witness three phased polls while Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Punjab will have elections in two phases.

Remaining 15 states and seven union territories will have one-day polling.

The counting of votes will take place on May 16 and the 15th Lok Sabha will be constituted by June two.

In the first phase, 124 constituencies will go to polls on April 16. 141 constituencies will witness balloting in the second phase on April 23, 107 seats in third phase on April 30, 85 seats in fourth phase on May 7 and 86 constituencies in the last phase on May 13.

Elections to Assemblies in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.

Photo electoral rolls will be used for the first time in 522 out of the 543 constituencies, Gopalaswami said.

499 constituencies have been redrawn in the delimitation exercise.

Delimitation could not be undertaken in Andhra, Assam, Jharkhand, Manipur and Nagaland, Gopalaswami said.

At least 71.4 crore will be the number of eligible voters, an increase of 4.3 crore over the 2004 figure of 67.1

The Commission will be using around 11 lakh electronic voting machines for the exercise to be held in eight lakh polling stations.

Around 40 lakh civil staff and 21 lakh security personnel will be deployed for the smooth conduct of elections, Gopalaswami said.

The dates were finalised taking into account aspects like school board examinations, local holidays, festivals and harvest, said Gopalaswami, who was flanked by Election Commissioners Naveen Chawla, whose removal he had sought for alleged "misconduct", and MY Qureishi.

On government's advice, President Pratibha Patil rejected the CEC's recommendation paving the way for Chawla to become the next head of the poll panel. Gopalaswami retires on April 20.

The poll schedule was worked out after series of meetings with political parties, Chief Secretaries and Director Generals of Police and Railway Board officials starting from February three, the CEC said.

A Magic Wand For Hungry Stomachs

By Sayantan Bera

NIKODAM TUTI owns a smallfarm in a village amid lush green forests, barely 50km from Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand. His one-acre land feeds five stomachs. Until two years ago, Tuti, who belongs to a tribe named Munda, grew rice, finger millets and pulses on the nonirrigated patches, yielding barely enough to feed his family for four months. He worked half the year as a construction labourer in Mumbai to make ends meet — purchasing food grains, meeting medical emergencies and affording private schooling for his two children.

Life was a continuous struggle. Crop failure or sudden illness would mean going hungry for days. But thanks to a simple process of rice cultivation introduced by an NGO in his village, Dulli, Tuti’s half acre of paddy now yields 16 quintals of rice opposed to less than three quintals earlier. In 2007, for the first time, he even managed to sell enough to repay debts.

“I now want to lease land and buy bullocks to plough my fields,” Tuti says, full of hope. His is a lesson worth emulating for India’s paddy farmers, 70 percent of whom have no access to either irrigation or mechanised inputs.

System of Rice Intensification (SRI) — the technology that has brought him the miraculous turnaround — was developed in 1983 in Madagascar. Initially, agricultural scientists shrugged off the practice saying it sounded “too good to be true”. For long, it was hard to make farmers understand that they could double their yield using one tenth the seeds and half the water in this technique. But slowly, that is changing.

The SRI is based on the principle that the rice plant doesn’t necessarily need to be submerged in water to grow. Traditionally, a nursery bed is first prepared, the seeds are sown, and the saplings are allowed to grow for 25 days, after which they are transplanted into the main field in bunches of six to seven, scattered six inches apart. But in SRI, 8-12-day-old saplings are transplanted — individually — and spaced 10 inches apart.

Young saplings adjust easily to the soil while the distance between them allows for more nutrition, unlike the traditional system which has them competing for nutrition. Less water and more spacing between plants create an ‘aerobic condition’ that promote better plant growth. SRI uses less seeds and chemical inputs, which promotes soil biotic activities in and around plant roots, making them more resistant to pests. A liberal application of compost, and weeding with a rotating hoe that aerates the soil, improve productivity with yields of eight tons per hectare — about double the present world average and thrice the Indian average.

While a kg of rice produced traditionally consumes anywhere between 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water, implementing SRI halves the requirement. Earlier considered unworkable without irrigation, SRI is now seeing results even in areas with highly sporadic rainfall and no irrigation. Recently, it was also researched that SRI can be extrapolated for sugarcane, millet and wheat. For most of India, this should be a magic wand.

In India, rice is the main agricultural crop. As much as 23 percent of the country’s total cropped area falls under rice cultivation. Therefore, at the macro level, the potential of SRI or adopting some of its ‘process’ features is immense.

“The first advantage of SRI is that a household of five to six is assured of food security round the year from less than an acre of land,” according to D Narendranath, the Program Director of PRADAN, the NGO that has been promoting SRI in eight states of eastern and central India. He says components of the technology have worked well in areas with rains but little or no access to irrigation. This, he says, is significant because as much as 44 percent of India’s rice growing areas remains non-irrigated.

PRACTICED SUCCESSFULLY in 34 countries, the potential of SRI is getting global. In India, its outreach has been steadily gaining foothold. North India has seen SRI implemented in parts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab. In south and central India, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have adopted it quickly. In most areas farmers have been introduced to SRI primarily through NGO initiatives. Unfortunately, apart from in Bihar and Tripura, the participation of the state governments and departments of agriculture in promoting SRI has been negligible. A common reaction has been to dismiss it has a highly labour intensive and cumbersome process of cultivation. Yet, in comparison with India, the whole of Southeast Asia, as also China, has been aggressive in practicing SRI.

The District Agricultural Officer of Ranchi, Hemangini Kumar, is all praise for the new technology that her office demonstrated among 100 farmers in 2008 through the National Food Security Mission (NFSM), the Rs 4,800-crore Central scheme that aims to increase production of rice, wheat and pulses to bridge the country’s shortfall in basic foodgrain. “Extension to more farmers will take time as there is a staff shortage,” she says. “But this is the only cost-effective way to increase yields for small and marginal farmers.”

In a paper published in the Economic and Political Weekly [February 2009], noted development economists, Jean Dréze and Angus Deaton, estimate that 79.8 percent of India’s rural population does not get the prescribed norm of 2,400 calories per person per day. The statistics from the India State Hunger Index 2008, released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), shows that not a single Indian state is even ‘low’ or ‘moderate’ on the index score; most states have a serious hunger problem.

Since rice is India’s principal food crop, augmenting production can, therefore, go a long way to ensure year-round food security for rural households. Increasing the area under rice cultivation and achieving higher yields with improved methods like SRI is one way this can be accomplished.

AP's 'Big Three' unlikely to talk on Telangana

By M H Ahssan

With Y S Rajasekhara Reddy announcing on the floor of the Assembly that he would set up a committee of legislators to take a firm view on the creation of a new state, hopes have been aroused in some pro-Telangana quarters. But analysts say that these hopes are misplaced because none of the big three in the fray for elections in Andhra Pradesh — Rajasekhara Reddy, C h a n d r ab abu Naidu and Chiranjeevi — is really interested in creating a new state, their utterances notwithstanding.

The analysts point out that these netas are making promises to consider creation of a new state knowing fully well that they will not be taken to task anytime in the future for reneging on their promises. This complacency is born out of the belief that the people of Telangana are not charged enough to extract their pound of flesh in the form of a new state. Analysts point out that the situation is akin to a group of employees asking for a salary hike out of turn — if they are not ready to quit their jobs if they don’t get a hike, they are unlikely to get a hike. But they might expect to get a raise if they take the extreme step of resigning.

These analysts believe that so long as the people of Telangana do not come out on the streets agitating, braving police bullets and jail, the chances of their getting Telangana are remote. “Don’t get me wrong. Nobody in Telangana is opposed to Telangana. Everybody would welcome the formation of a new state, but to most it does not matter if a new state is created or not,” a Congress politician says. The most desirous are the students and middle class professionals like lawyers, bank and government officials who see more job opportunities and activities in a new state.

TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao begs to differ from the logic of braving bullets and going to jail before a new state can be created. “Were Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh created after prolonged agitations?” he asks. He is right. For that matter even a separate nation of Pakistan was not carved after an intense movement. But in the case of Pakistan and even Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, the creators (UK & NDA governments respectively) had an interest in doing so, for various reasons.

“The big three perceive that in the Andhra region they would be punished for creating Telangana, whereas in Telangana they would not be so for not creating a state,” concedes a top Congressman. “This was essentially the line that Rajasekhara Reddy successfully sold to Sonia Madam,” he adds. The only circumstance in which Telangana could be created — without the denizens of the region doing anything for it — is if the BJP-led NDA coalition would come to power in New Delhi after the general elections. This is because the BJP has virtually no presence in any part of Andhra Pradesh, including Telangana. So for them, there can be no negative fallout as a result of the creation of the new state. On the other hand, they can create a base for themselves in the newly formed Telangana and thus extend their southern influence.

INDIA GENERAL ELECTIONS 2009 NOTIFICATION ANNOUNCED

By Kajol Singh

Lok Sabha polls will be held in five phases from April 16 to May 13, the Election Commission announced on Monday.

The five phased polls will be held in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh while Bihar will have four-phased elections, Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami told a press conference in New Delhi.

Maharashtra and West Bengal will witness three phased polls while Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Punjab will have elections in two phases.

Remaining 15 states and seven union territories will have one-day polling.

The counting of votes will take place on May 16 and the 15th Lok Sabha will be constituted by June two.

In the first phase, 124 constituencies will go to polls on April 16. 141 constituencies will witness balloting in the second phase on April 23, 107 seats in third phase on April 30, 85 seats in fourth phase on May 7 and 86 constituencies in the last phase on May 13.

Elections to Assemblies in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.

Photo electoral rolls will be used for the first time in 522 out of the 543 constituencies, Gopalaswami said.

499 constituencies have been redrawn in the delimitation exercise.

Delimitation could not be undertaken in Andhra, Assam, Jharkhand, Manipur and Nagaland, Gopalaswami said.

At least 71.4 crore will be the number of eligible voters, an increase of 4.3 crore over the 2004 figure of 67.1

The Commission will be using around 11 lakh electronic voting machines for the exercise to be held in eight lakh polling stations.

Around 40 lakh civil staff and 21 lakh security personnel will be deployed for the smooth conduct of elections, Gopalaswami said.

The dates were finalised taking into account aspects like school board examinations, local holidays, festivals and harvest, said Gopalaswami, who was flanked by Election Commissioners Naveen Chawla, whose removal he had sought for alleged "misconduct", and MY Qureishi.

On government's advice, President Pratibha Patil rejected the CEC's recommendation paving the way for Chawla to become the next head of the poll panel. Gopalaswami retires on April 20.

The poll schedule was worked out after series of meetings with political parties, Chief Secretaries and Director Generals of Police and Railway Board officials starting from February three, the CEC said.

Smaller States Will Address Governance Problems: Guha On Telengana

Advocates for separate states in India are often dismissed as nation breakers who are looking to partition the country for political gains. But have we been ignoring the aspect of state formation which allows for better administration of people who may not be receiving sufficient representation politically?
 
In a highly readable editorial in the Hindu, writer-historian Ramchandra Guha points out that the demand for formation of a separate state of Andhra Pradesh made as far back as 1914, only to be opposed; it was made again in 1952 by veteran Congressman Potti Sriramulu, rejected initially and then quickly formed once he died.
 
The historian points out that much like the debate against Telangana presently, the Madras presidency has strongly opposed the formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1914 and Nehru in 1952 arguing that the partition of the existing states could only hamper the progress of the new state.
 
However, arguing in favour of the formation of Telangana and other smaller states, Guha writes: After 65 testing years of independence, there need no longer be any fear about the unity of India. The country is not about to Balkanise, nor is it about to become a dictatorship. The real problems in India today have to do with the quality of governance. Smaller states may be one way to address this problem.
 
A study by India Today also reveals that economically, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana wouldn’t collapse if they are set up and in fact the GDP growth in both regions is almost equal. As Firspost pointed out earlier, the status of Hyderabad may be a stumbling block but the formation of a new state might not be as violent as opponents to it may suggest.
 
Guha’s argument in favour of forming smaller states has perhaps been borne out by the formation of Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh from bigger states which has allowed better administration of areas that were hitherto ignored by a big brother state government.
 
None of the states’ economies floundered despite naysayers and while Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand may continue to battle insurgency movements in the form of Naxalism, it was something the states inherited from the parent states. If anything the partitions have helped the states create separate policy based on local realities and even in implementation of central government schemes like the PDS, Chhattisgarh is help up as an example where the system can work in favour of the poor.
 
The states haven’t sparked off separatist movements nor have they hurt the national fabric of the country. If anything they have allowed people living in those states to have a political voice that is more audible and isn’t lost in the din of a bigger state.
 
Advocates for new states, like a separate Gorkhaland and Vidarbha, are bound to be enthused by the formation of a Telangana and it will only bolster their argument, possibly making their voices louder. Is it time to start listening to them rather than dismissing them outright? Or is it wrong to dismiss the linguistic formation of states as an “oh so 50′s attitude” too quickly?

Hyderabad Blasts: Terror Hunt Spreads To Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, No Clues Yet

The investigation into the Hyderabad blasts on Thursday have spread to three other States – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkand – and a dragnet has been spread for three suspects.

Forensic investigation of the blast site suggests that the explosions were set off by improvised explosive devices that used ammonium nitrate, urea, petrol and shrapnel. In the method of planning and the modus operandi, investigators see parallels with the August 2012 blasts in Pune.

Our Correspondent reports that investigators are following up on a raid on a lodge in Hyderabad on 18 January, from where a suspect managed to escape. The suspect had been staying in the lodge under an assumed name and had slipped the net barely a few hours before the place was raided.

The names of three other suspects – belonging to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand – have emerged; they are  being looked at closely as potential leads by the Nation Investigation Agency and the local police.

Given the similarities with the Pune blasts, investigators are working with other State police forces on active leads. A team of the Delhi Police special cell is now in Hyderabad with details of an alleged Indian Mujahideen operative Syed Maqbool, who had told interrogators after his arrest in October last year that in 2012, he had reconnaitred the Dilsukhnagar area, where the  blasts occured on Thursday.

Maqbool’s interrogation report is now an important source of information for the investigators. Investigators say Maqbool’s interrogation report and similarities with previous blasts suggest that the Indian Mujahideen may have a hand in the twin blasts in Hyderabad but it is too early to conclude as the probe is not over yet.

On Friday, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy stepped up to take responsibility for the blasts. Referring to the alert issued by the Union Home Ministry recently with regard to a possible terror attack, the Chief Minister said that the intelligence information had been sent on 16 February  to all the states. He further asserted that whenever such alerts come from the Central government, the police took cognisance of it and acted on it. Reddy told HNN  that in his estimation,  terrorists were working to disturb  peace in Hyderabad and the rest of Andhra Pradesh.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, accused the government of being soft on terror and demanded that confidence-building measures with Pakistan must be suspended. Speaking at a press conference in Hyderabad, party president Rajnath Singh said the central government was to blame for the blasts as it had failed in providing specific details to the state government.

Opinion: With Telangana – Divide and Rule Policy Adopted?

By Sri Sri Ravishankar (Guest Writer)

India is a phenomenon – the largest democracy on Earth, with a plethora of cultural, religious and linguistic diversity. It is simply a miracle that It still exists united, unlike the former Yugoslavian and Soviet countries. 

Though our forefathers had wisely divided the nation on linguistic basis for ease of administration and communication, the huge population and distances have forced many states to be further divided. One such crisis in the current scenario is Telangana. The situation of Telangana is very peculiar unlike Uttarakhand. 

'Jharkhand Kids Pierced With Hot Rods For Treatment'

By Akhilesh Soren | Ranchi

Children are bearing the brunt of a tribal ritual in Jharkhand, where hot iron rods are placed on their bodies to cure them of a stomach ache for life. In the state's Jamshedpur District, parents were seen pushing and struggling to convince their wailing children to undertake the bizarre ritual known as 'Chidi Daag'. 

Residents said the ritual is usually performed by an experienced person. Points around the navel are being marked with oil and then touched with the hot iron rod. It is believed that this ritual would cure the children of ailments.

Analysis: The Inside Story Of Sonia’s 'Spin Doctoring Tasks'

By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad

If ever proof were needed that Sonia Gandhi’s relationship with her government is about plausible deniability on the unpopular things associated with the latter,  you can do this check. Just put “Sonia unhappy” on Google and you will have an entire list of things she is said to be unhappy about: about corruption, about efforts to defang the RTI Act, about the poor implementation of MGNREGA, about governors who act in a partisan manner to help her party.

Even the recent exits of Pawan Bansal and Ashwani Kumar from the railway ministry and law ministry respectively came after unconfirmed reports talked about “Sonia’s unhappiness” with their conduct (over alleged corruption in railway jobs and attempts to doctor the CBI report on Coalgate respectively).

A Shocking Video Reveals How Pregnant Women Are Forcefully Vaccinated In An Open Field In Ranchi

Recently, a shocking video shows the brutality of health officials in Jharkhand state how the open vaccination were given to pregnant women. In Pundag village of Ranchi district, the absence of an Anganwadi Centre in the village means that pregnant women are forced to undergo check-ups and are vaccinated in an open field. “We aren’t comfortable undergoing check-ups in the open. We have to put up curtains to make ourselves comfortable or travel too far,” says a woman who delivered a baby recently.

Telangana: Inevitable And Desirable

The HNN has argued editorially that a just and sustainable solution to the Telangana issue can be found within an undivided Andhra Pradesh. 

In the winter of 1953, the Fazal Ali Commission was set up to reorganise the States of the Indian Republic. Its recommendation to go about creating States on linguistic lines, indirectly paved the way for the creation of Andhra Pradesh. Andhra was formed from the northern districts of the erstwhile Madras state and the southern districts of the erstwhile Hyderabad state — though the committee itself did not advocate such a merger and was against it.

Fifty-six winters later, the very concept of the creation of States based on linguistic lines has become passé. We need to look for fresh parameters for the creation of States, and that has to be based on holistic development on economic and social lines for better administration and management. This fact has been proven with the creation of Chhattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand from Bihar and Uttaranchal from Uttar Pradesh.

Two issues that seem to be at the centre of the contention between the two regions of Andhra Pradesh is the future of Hyderabad and the repercussions in terms of the sharing of river waters from the completed and planned irrigation projects after the division of the State. Any entity, political or otherwise, that is able to find pragmatic solutions to this conundrum would not only earn the respect of the people of the State but also help set a precedent in the matter of contentious State divisions in the future.

Economics of small States
The case for small States can be argued with two parameters of macroeconomic statistics from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The first parameter is the percentage increase in Gross Domestic Product for States between 1999-2000, when the smaller States were created, and 2007-2008. India’s overall GDP increased by 75 per cent during this time period. During the same period, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttaranchal recorded more than 100 per cent, 150 per cent and 180 per cent increase respectively. These rates were much above the rate at which national GDP increased. This clearly indicates that the recent creation of smaller States was a step in the right direction.

Experts have often argued that the creation of smaller States has been at the expense of the States they were created from. For all its lack of governance, Uttar Pradesh grew by more than 21 per cent of the national average during this time period.

The second parameter, the percentage contribution of States to national GDP, helps negate the myth of smaller States growing at the expense of the States they are created from. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh each contributed the same amount to national GDP. While the contributions of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh increased by 0.01 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively, Uttar Pradesh’s contribution to national GDP increased by 1.2 per cent during the same time period. This is more than Chhattisgarh’s percentage increase in the contribution of 0.64 per cent to national GDP, the highest increase among the three newly created smaller States.

Capital politics
Hyderabad is an integral part of Telangana and a Telangana State without Hyderabad as the capital is inconceivable. However, the militant rhetoric of some political parties has made people of other areas feel unwelcome, creating an air of mistrust among the Telugu-speaking people of various regions. This is not only constitutionally illegal but also extremely foolish as it affects the image of Brand Hyderabad. Everybody who has come to Hyderabad in search of a better quality of life must be protected. Rhetorical slogans such as Telangana waalon jaago, Andhra waalon bhago gives the impression of an exclusionist movement that forces people of the non-Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh out of Hyderabad rather than a movement where the people of Telangana want greater autonomy for their region. 

Significantly, when Maharashtra and Gujarat were created from the then Bombay state on the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission, there was fear about Mumbai losing its importance as a financial nerve-centre as a lot of investment in Mumbai had been made by Gujarati business people. The creation of two separate States did not halt Mumbai’s rapid development. In fact, it additionally paved the way for the development of Ahmedabad and Surat as alternative financial centres. Hyderabad can emulate the same model. As in the past 400 years, the city can continue to welcome people with open arms rather than close its gates to fresh talent and creative ideas.

The people of the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions feel that the benefits reaped from Hyderabad must be accessible to all those who have been equal stakeholders in the city’s development. The solution to this is not alternative models such as according Hyderabad the status of a Union Territory or making Hyderabad a joint capital for the States carved out of present-day Andhra Pradesh. These solutions are just not practical. A better approach would be to plan a special financial package for the development of a new State capital for the non-Telangana region. Pragmatism would dictate that the special package be funded through some form of cess on the city of Hyderabad for a limited period rather than running to large financial institutions for loans, as has been proposed by some political entities.

Social dynamics of water
About 70 per cent of the catchment area of the Krishna and close to 80 per cent of the catchment area of the Godavari is located in the Telangana region. Across the world, water distribution and sharing schemes between two areas is calculated on the basis of the percentage of the catchment area that lies in the region. Other factors that influence water-sharing accords is the population of a given region, the projected usage of water for industry and the domestic population, and the physical contours of the region through which the river flows.

Take the instance of the Godavari, where the areas planned for large dams in the Telangana have not been found feasible for various reasons. As the Sriramsagar project on the Godavari already exists, it is not feasible to build another large dam on the Godavari until after the Pranahitha tributary joins the Godavari. There is not enough water to be harnessed on a continuous basis for the project to be economically feasible if the dam is built before the Pranahitha joins the main river. The Inchampally project, a national project whose benefits are to be shared between the States of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, was one such large project that was proposed. Though the project was conceived a long time ago, it has run into typical issues that are usually associated with projects that have multiple States as stakeholders. 

Though Andhra Pradesh, by large, is the main beneficiary of the project, the project plan estimates more forest land being submerged in Maharashtra (47.7 per cent) than in Andhra Pradesh (29.9 per cent; all land in Telangana). An equal amount of cultivable land will be submerged in Chhattisgarh (41.8 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (42.2 per cent; all land in Telangana). And, more villages that belong to Maharashtra (100) will be submerged as compared to Andhra Pradesh (65). This has obviously made the other States reluctant to move as quickly as Andhra Pradesh on this project.

The link canal that has been planned between Inchampally and Nagarjuna Sagar that is proposed to irrigate the regions of Telangana in between also involves prohibitive costs as a result of the 107-metre lift that is required for the water to reach the Nagarjuna Sagar. The lift itself will require a separate hydro-electric power project for the project to be feasible. Commonsense and pragmatism would have ensured that a project in Kanthamapalli or Kaleswaram be pursued. Additionally, three smaller step- dams between Yellampalli and Sriramsagar must be devised with a realistic State-level river-interlinking plan. Inchampally is not an exception, but the trend in how political leaders across the aisle in Telangana have been caught up in the big-projects-to-line-my-pockets mentality at the cost of the development of the region by looking at smaller, realistic projects to execute.

The finale
The Telangana agitation is the only such movement in India that involves a capital city located in the region that is fighting for separation from the main State. This clearly reflects on the lack of governance and civic administration in this area as the benefits of having a State capital in the hinterland have not trickled down to other areas in that region.

Smaller States still need a good and vibrant administration to be recipes for success. Chhattisgarh is a fine example of how an effective administration could turn around a State in all aspects of development. The development that has happened in the Chhattisgarh region from Independence till 2000 has in fact been less than the development that has taken place from the time a new State was created in 2000 till now. The first Telangana Chief Minister would have done a great service to the infant State should he take a prescription from Chhattisgarh’s most famous Ayurvedic doctor.

Jharkhand Education Minister Thinks 'APJ Kalam' Is Dead?

By Likha Veer in Ranchi

In what has turned out to be a major embarrassment for the BJP-led Jharkhand government, the state education minister Neera Yadav was spotted paying shraddhanjali - floral tributes to former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who is well, alive and kicking.

The local vernacular daily newspaper has carried a picture of the minister at the event in a school in the state's Hazaribagh district where Yadav was the chief guest. The photograph in the newspaper that says "Education Minister offers last rites to President Kalam" shows the minister garlanding the former President and paying floral tributes to him.

THE 'SHOCKING MARKET' OF 'CHILD LABOUR' IN DELHI

By Kajol Singh / Delhi

Children from poorer states are lured to the capital and put to work in sweatshops. In a long straight row, the boys walked slowly down a narrow lane in Seelampur market, in east Delhi's maze of congested neighbourhoods. There were some 21 of them between 10 and 14 years old. Passersby stopped and stared. The boys could have been schoolchildren following their teacher's instructions. Instead, they were victims of child labour just freed through a rescue operation.

“My brother brought me to Seelampur from Nepal,” says a scared Tojib, only 10 years old. “He went back to our village. I have been working here since five or six months. I get Rs. 2,500 a month. I work from 9 am to 5 pm.” Three rescued children nod in unison.