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Friday,
February 21, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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BJP govt a
failure: Jogi MODI FACTOR Wooing
voters with songs Poster war
hots up FACTORS AT PLAY ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL Final
touches to preparations |
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A snow-covered road in
Shimla on Wednesday.
— PTI photo Shah
Nehar canal breached
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BJP govt a failure: Jogi Shimla, February 20 Addressing a press conference here he said the Congress was a party with old traditions and its Chief Ministers were selected by the high command after eliciting the views of the elected MLAs. Considering the capability of the candidate to deliver goods and the general view of the people about the person whom they wanted to see as Chief Minister. Accusing the NDA Government at the Centre and the Dhumal Government in Himachal of failure on various fronts, Mr Jogi said that forces mobilised and kept at the border for eight to 10 months while not a shot was fired and the declaration of Prime Minister to have a “decisive war” (aar or paar) turned out to be mere rhetoric”. Accusing the BJP Government in the state of non-performance, he said that unemployment had touched the 11-lakh mark while the debts of state had crossed Rs 15,000 crore. He claimed that there was an overwhelming response among the voters for the Congress which was poised to sweep the polls in HP. HAMIRPUR: Congress spokesman Satyavrata Chaturvedi on Thursday ridiculed the statement of Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi that the Congress was responsible for spreading terrorism by releasing hardcore militants from jail in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the Jammu and Kashmir Government had released 24 militants from jail — six after getting concurrence from the Centre and 18 as per orders of various courts. Mr Chaturvedi alleged that the spurt in terrorist activities was the result of the lacklustre policies and poor handling of the situation by the Central Government. He asked BJP leaders to clarify that if the Congress was behind terrorism, why had Union Foreign Minister gone to Kabul along with dreaded militants in a plane. DHARAMSALA: Lt-Gen (retd) M.M. Lakhera, chairman of the AICC ex-servicemen cell, on Thursday accused the Vajpayee government of compromising on national security, which has not only weakened the nation, but also increased terrorist activities in the country. He said the Kargil war, in which hundreds of brave youths laid down their lives, was due to the intelligence failure of the government for which on one but the Defence Minister and the Prime Minister could be held responsible. |
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MODI FACTOR SHIMLA: With the Hindu agenda taking a back seat during electioneering in the peaceful hill state, Mr Narendra
Modi, the hero of the BJP’s spectacular victory in Gujarat, failed to make his presence felt on the poll scene as a champion of the aggressive “Hindutva” during his rain -disrupted tour. It was not the same flamboyant Modi who, with his aggressive posturing and unabashed minority bashing virtually single-handedly humbled the secular forces in the electoral arena in Gujarat. The cool climes of the hill state seemed to have had a sobering effect on him and he even refused to be drawn into a debate over Hindutva and instead talked of cultural nationalism, which had a much-wider connotation. Mr Modi was being projected as the mascot of “Hindutva” ever since he led the party to a landslide victory in Gujarat. Initially, the party planned to replicate the Gujarat experiment by unleashing the Hindutva forces with Mr Modi as the spearhead of the campaign. However, the ground realities of the state, which has been a model of communal peace and harmony, forced it to change its strategy. Moreover, there were sharp differences in the party on the issue. The Shanta loyalists, who forced the high command to remove Mr Modi as the person in charge the state, were not very keen on having him as the star campaigner. In fact, Mr Shanta Kumar indirectly expressed his disapproval by publicaly asserting that there was no room for aggressive Hindutva in the hill state where the Hindus comprised 98 per cent of the population. The party high command, which was keen on projecting a united image of the party during campaigning, revised its strategy and decided to utilise the services of Mr Modi as one of the star campaigners. Inclement weather also took its toll and Mr Modi had to spend half of his three-day stay indoors. Hindutva was not high on his agenda as evident from the content and tenor of his speeches. In fact, he tried to downplay the issue by stating that the BJP had been pursuing the ideology of cultural nationalism in the past and would continue to do so. He spent most his time in the state in exposing the Punjab ministers who were allegedly involved in a sex scandal in Gujarat. He also pointed an accusing finger at Captain Amarinder Singh, the Punjab Chief Minister, who stayed in a room booked in someone else’s name during his visit to Gujarat in connection with the recent Assembly poll in that state. Aware of the fact that serving in the armed forces was a tradition in the hill state Mr Modi effectively used the issue of terrorism to whip the Congress and arouse the patriotic sentiments of the people by referring to the Kargil conflict in which soldiers of the state played a vital role. He attacked the Congress for adopting a soft policy on terrorism and cited the example of how the
PDP-Congress Government was releasing terrorists. He also spoke at length on the role of the Congress leaders in the Gujarat elections and said they would be handed out the same treatment in Himachal Pradesh. Whatever impact his speeches may have on the electorate, one thing is sure that he was not here as the mascot of
Hindutva. This was not surprising as both the BJP and the Congress have been avoiding Hindutva as a poll plank, limiting the appeal of Mr Modi as a campaigner. |
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Modi skips Kangra Shahpur (Kangra), February 20 Under the changed programme, Mr Modi was scheduled to canvass in the Jogindernagar segment falling in Mandi district. Interestingly, the BJP has this time given the ticket to former Congress leader Gulab Singh from Jogindernagar, whose daughter is married to the Chief Minister’s son. Even though security agencies kept waiting for Mr Modi’s arrival at Baijnath, as they had been intimated by the party circles, the Gujarat Chief Minister did not turn up. Similarly, uncertainty over his programme in Chamba district continued as the media in charge and senior BJP leaders were clueless about Mr Modi’s exact programme. Though a majority of the contestants in Kangra are Shanta loyalists but even those owing allegiance to Mr Dhumal were reluctant to have Mr Modi in their area. “Since the fact remains that even today Mr Shanta Kumar and Mr Modi do not see eye to eye, we would rather not incur the annoyance of the union minister as his blessings are crucial for the victory of any candidate in Kangra district,” admitted a candidate. The stature of Mr Modi in the party is second only to the Prime Minister but it appears that loyalists of Mr Shanta Kumar have still not forgiven him for what they term as injustice with them. |
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Wooing voters with songs MANDI: “Dear voters. We are tunefully yours...” This seems to be the message all major candidates from the Mandi (Sadar) constituency are sending out in a bid to woo voters. All of them, including Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) leader Mr Sukh Ram, who is seeking re-election from here, Congress candidate and former MLA D.D. Thakur and BJP nominee Rani Kiran Kumari, who belongs the erstwhile princely family of Mandi, have brought out audio cassettes eulogising their services to the community and the state and criticising their rivals. However, it is the audio cassette brought out by the HVC which has proven to be a run away hit. “We had originally produced only 2,000 cassettes for distribution among our poll agents’’, says Mr Deepak Sharma, who is also the media manager for Mr Sukh Ram. ‘’But have run out of them in no time. We have had to order for another 7,000 audio cassettes but we have still not been able to meet the demand. Although they are meant for free distribution, many of the cassettes are being sold clandestinely in the market’’. There have been occasions when women folk have trekked from their villages to attend Mr Sukh Ram’s poll rallies just to secure a free copy of the HVC’s audio cassette. Sung in pahari and Hindi languages, the cassettes contain songs set to Himachali folk tunes, reiterating people’s resolve to vote for the HVC and singing praises of Mr Sukh Ram. All lyrics have been written by Mr Sharma himself. One of the songs “Neeru chali ghoomdi….” has proven to be very popular. So has another “Assan liyani hivsa, bole barfan di dhaar…” Telephone is the poll symbol of the HVC. Therefore, the sound of a ringing telephone has been liberally used in the cassette. ‘’As a matter of fact, we are using the sound of a ringing telephone as our signature tune because Mr Sukh Ram is the person who, as the Union Minister for Communications, was responsible for ushering in the telecom revolution in the country,’’ says Mr Sharma. ‘’ A ringing telephone symbolises Mr Sukh Ram.” The BJP, too, has been playing an audio cassette highlighting the achievements of the Dhumal government during its five-year rule in Himachal Pradesh. However, till the beginning of this week, the cassette being used by the BJP was the one which was officially produced by the state’s Public Relations Department to list the achievements of the state government. It has been withdrawn following protests from other parties and replaced with another similar cassette sung by another singer in which all credit for development in Himachal Pradesh has been given to the BJP. |
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Poster war hots up BILASPUR: A massive flag and poster war by keeping its last Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao out has been launched by the Congress to counter the BJP as the electioneering enters decisive phase in the hill state here. While Congress posters portray the Nehru-Gandhi family as national leaders, the BJP has Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani and in some both Prime Minister and Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. One of these posters has a catchy slogan and reads: “Himachal se ye hamara prem hai atal, har shetra mein pragati hui, mehnat hui safal” (Our love with Himachal is unbreakable, there has been development in every area and our hard work has proved successful). In yet another BJP poster are pictures of both Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal and Mr Shanta Kumar and it reads: ‘unified leadership’. Thousands of Congress posters have appeared everywhere carrying pictures of Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhia, Rajiv Gandhi along with an appeal by AICC President Sonia Gandhi. ‘Kaam kiya hai, kaam karenge, jhuthe vaade nahin karenge’ (we have done work, will keep on doing and will not make any false promises) reads this poster. Interestingly, with the exception of Lal Bahadur Shastri, other Congress leaders, including those who have held the office of the Prime Minister, find no mention in the poster. The second Congress poster carries pictures of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Advise of the Election
Commission and directions of the Department of Pollution and Environment notwithstanding, tonnes of recycled polythene sheets are being put to use here by almost all major political parties, including the Congress and the BJP, as the authorities continue to turn blind eye to this. A large-scale defacing of government property with posters, banners and wall writings everywhere, can be witnessed here. This visible publicity onslaught notwithstanding, the voter continues to maintain his silence. “The BJP government has done a lot of development work. But still the voter is silent. So you can judge for yourself the mood of the voter”, remarked a shopkeeper at Kandrour. All a cross-section of people interviewed by this correspondent on the 100-km strench between Swarghat and Hamirpur, could say was that ‘fight would be tough and close’ and that ‘voter is silent and would not reveal his mind. ‘Flags, posters and wall paintings do not win votes,’ remarked another voter when his attention was diverted to the huge overhead arches made of party flags and walls covered with posters and wall paintings. It is a ritual and they are doing it to raise a false projection of their strength, remarked a school teacher suggesting that the district administration must initiate action against parties which have defaced government school property. |
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FACTORS
AT PLAY Dharamsala, February 20 With the caste being the biggest deciding factor during the elections, all political parties keep it in mind while selecting their candidates. It is the OBCs and the Rajputs, followed by the Dalits and the Brahmins, have the maximum number of votes. The OBCs and the Rajputs constitute more than 50 per cent of the total electorate of Kangra district. While the Assembly segments of Nagrota, Kangra, Jwalamukhi, Guler and Jwali have a sizeable OBC population, there is a good amount of concentration of Gaddi voters in Dharamsala, Baijnath and Palampur segments. Another factor, which both the BJP as well as the Congress have used to the hilt against each other during successive elections, is the sensitive issue of regional discrimination. Even though the leaders of both political parties have been claiming of having never discriminated against the newly merged areas which became part of Himachal Pradesh under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1996, the fact remains that both have indulged in it. Interestingly, the issue of regional discrimination has this time around assumed a different tinge as the old Himachal versus new Himachal card in its new avatar is being put across as Kangra versus Hamirpur. “The most interesting part, however, is that it is not the Congress alone which is accusing the ruling party of having discriminated against Kangra but the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal’s own ministers and party men accuse him of ignoring the biggest district of the state, as he gave preference to his home district of Hamirpur,” reiterated one of the Shanta loyalist, who is still a minister in the Dhumal cabinet. While enlisting the development works undertaken in Kangra during the Virbhadra regime, the Congress leaders try to impress upon the public that they have had to suffer because of the Shanta-Dhumal rivalry. Infact, many of the Shanta loyalists, who had openly accused the Chief Minister of discriminating against Kangra, are finding it difficult to find an answer to these allegations of the Congress. The issue of the aborted delimitation process initiated by the government has become a headache for many BJP candidates as they do not know how to counter it. At one stage the entire Shanta camp, including a number of ministers up in arms against this move, knocked the doors of the party higher-ups to compel Mr Dhumal to drop the idea, at least for the time being. “Instead of being based on statistics and genuine reasons, the whole process was politically motivated to marginalise Mr Shanta Kumar, as it was Kangra which was being hit most by the delimitation process,” alleges a BJP leader. It may be recalled that during the proposed delimitation process Sulah, the home constituency of Mr Shanta Kumar, was to be
deleted, reducing the number of Assembly segments in the district to 15. Moreover, Baijnath, the segment represented by the district BJP chief and Shanta loyalist, Mr Dulo Ram, was to be reserved for the Scheduled Caste. Besides, there were many BJP leaders who were being adversely affected by this move. With the ruling party initiating the delimitation process, even those opposed to it are trying to defend themselves against the Congress onslaught. While issues like corruption hold good in Kangra like in any other part of the state, the fate of candidates from Baijnath, Dharamsala, Nagrota and Nurpur will make it clear whether the caste is still a dominant factor. |
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ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL SAMIRPUR (Kangra): Projecting himself to be the “messiah” of OBCs, who had been penalised by the party for resigning from the Dhumal Cabinet on the issue of denial of 27 per cent reservation to the backward classes, former Agriculture Minister Vidya Sagar, has jumped into the fray as an Independent candidate from the Kangra Assembly segment. As he campaigns in the villages, he equates himself with former Irrigation and Public Health Minister, Ramesh Dhawala, who after being denied the party ticket, had won as an Independent from Jwalamukhi. “You all know that similar injustice had been meted out to Ramesh Dhawala in 1998, but after winning the elections, he was the most sought after, as the balancing power lay in his hands,” he explains while addressing a gathering of about 150 people, in the compound of a temple in Samipur village near Tiara. Still baffled over the decision of the BJP high command to deny him the ticket, Mr Vidya Sagar thought he had played a master stroke by resigning from the Cabinet just before the elections, to ensure the support of the OBCs. “My only fault was that I tried to raise the issue of 27 per cent reservation for my people, but when I failed to get the demand fulfilled, my conscience did not allow me to continue as a minister,” he implores. He does not forget to highlight the factionalism within the BJP when he adds that another reason why he had to suffer was because neither is he a Shanta man nor a Dhumal loyalist. With not too many party cadres siding with him, he tries to reason out by saying that like Ramesh Dhawala, he will go back to the party fold as he still had respect for Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. “I have lost respect for Shantaji and Dhumalji as instead of giving the ticket on the winnability factor, they simply fought for their own loyalists,” he says. At every meeting he says that since he is contesting as an Independent candidate and not on any other party's ticket, voting for him will not amount to disloyalty towards the BJP. He tells the voters to press the electronic voting machine button on his election symbol, a book. Even though he enlists various development works like roads, bridges, mahila mandals and hand pumps installed by him, a village woman dares to ask the former minister to accompany her to the village, which had been ignored. Pacifying her, he hurriedly leaves for the next village, without wasting time to have a cup of tea. At the next meeting, he again makes an emotional appeal, especially to his OBC brethren. “If Mr Shanta Kumar can be called a Brahmin leader and Mr Dhumal a Rajput leader, then nobody should be jealous if today I am being called an OBC leader,” he remarks while trying to glorify his resignation. Mr Vidya Sagar, who rose to the rank of Cabinet Minister, starting his political career in 1982, after resigning from the Industries Department has represented the Kangra seat four times. A one-time employees leader, who has been to jail during these agitations, is confident that his people will not let him down. |
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Final touches to preparations Hamirpur, February 20 Teams of the special protection group and the Himachal Pradesh police have reached the town to supervise the operations. The security teams are finding it difficult to give green light for tomorrow’s rally. |
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1275 polling stations Dharamsala, February 20 |
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BJP weakened India’s case: CPM
Malicious propaganda |
Fresh snowfall SHIMLA: Fresh snowfall on Thursday plummeted temperatures below freezing point at several places in Himachal Pradesh, cut off Kinnaur and Spiti valley from the rest of the state and hit normal life forcing people to remain indoors. However, the high velocity winds that had been sweeping the lower and mid-hills for the past two days subsided bringing some respite to the residents from the cold. Shimla and adjoining resorts of Kufri, Fagu and Wildflower Hall reeled under a severe cold wave as minimum temperature dropped three degrees below freezing point following fresh snowfall. Water supply was hit as it froze in the pipes and vehicular traffic was disrupted due to slippery roads. Traffic on the 320-km long Hindustan-Tibet road remained suspended for the third day due to
heavy snow. Shimla-Jubbal-Rohru and Shimla-Chopal roads were also blocked but traffic on Chamba-Pathankot highway resumed. Kinnaur district and Spiti valley were cut off from rest of the state. Tribal valleys of Lahaul and Pangi were cut off two weeks back following intemittent snowfall. Tourist resorts of Narkanda, and Naldehra in Shimla district and the key tourist place of Manali in Kulu district also experienced heavy snowfall last night. Shimla and its adjoining areas received mild snowfall last night, intensifying cold wave in the capital town. The temperature dipped to 0.7°C in the town, Bhuntar recorded 4.0°C and Sundernagar 4.1°C. The Hindustan-Tibet National Highway which was blocked due to snow beyond Dhalli yesterday opened up to Theog today. However, vehicular traffic for Rampur continued to be diverted via Basantpur and for Rohru via Nahan. |
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Shah Nehar
canal breached Nurpur, February 20 According to the information, the Jagir-Rey link road remained blocked for a few hours due to water logging which later was cleared by project workers. Mr R.K. Sharma, Executive Engineer of the project, Sansarpur Terrace, said the canal developed a breach near the Peer Nala area. Meanwhile, the floods in the Chakki rivulat caused damage to a bridge under construction on the Makorjamman-Chakki road. |
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Shimla,
February 20
