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India shining campaign a hoax: Chidambaram
BJP feels the heat in nine seats Thackeray makes jibes at allies, foes Reaching out to voters on bikes Setting up kutcha dams Channi’s priority Mathura, April10 If you want to experience spiritual bliss, do not come to the land of Lord Krishna. The place is swarming with pandas. They will not let you get started on a journey that needs no external guide. Villagers threaten to boycott poll Sex workers, kids denied ID-cards In graphic: Lok Sabha polls 2004: West Bengal 1999 outcome
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Ram Naik banks on track record Five-time Member of Parliament and Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik is banking on his impressive track record to see him through in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
At meeting after meeting across his sprawling constituency stretching from Goregaon in Mumbai’s suburbs to Palghar beyond Mumbai’s suburban railway network, Naik is at pains to remind people of the improvements in Mumbai’s railway network and the numerous water supply projects undertaken by him. “I am good at working for the people though I would be a flop as a movie star,” Naik repeatedly remind his listeners of his non-glamorous persona. Pamphlets and booklets put out by Naik’s Bharatiya Janata Party remind people about his role in improving rail connectivity between Borivli and Virar on the Western Railway suburban network, Mumbai’s fastest growing neighborhoods. The BJP hammers home the point that Naik pursued the $ 945 million project first through the Maharashtra legislature and later through the Lok Sabha. The project, which is proceeding on schedule, is likely to be complete by the year-end. As Petroleum Minister, Ram Naik got Mahanagar Gas to extend its gas pipeline project to the northern-most point of Greater Mumbai. The project was originally to cover only Mumbai City. Under Naik’s benign gaze, Indian Oil spent more than Rs 4 crore to lay a pipeline across the Manori creek to bring drinking water to 15,000 in Mumbai’s only neighbourhood which lacked piped drinking water for more than a century. To Naik’s credit, he retained the loyalty of the substantial Christian and Muslim communities in his constituency even after the Mumbai riots of 1992-93. So it surprised none when Naik, in remission from a tryst with blood cancer, bagged a record 5,17,941 votes while his nearest rival Chandrakant Gosalia of the Congress had to rest content with just 3,63,805 votes. Naik’s victory in the 2004 elections was a foregone conclusion till the Congress pulled out a joker from its pack — actor Govinda. Now the veteran politician is drawing from the world of glamour as well. A CD prepared by the BJP has Amitabh Bachchan endorsing Naik in a scene from the movie, ‘Shahenshah.’ “If you want to get work done, go to Ram Naik,” Bachchan’s line is part of campaign material, BJP sources say.
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Glamour is Govinda’s ticket to ride With Ram Naik riding a popularity wave despite the muck raked from the petrol pump scam, the Congress party needed a knight in shining armour. It got one clad in white shoes instead!
Senior Congress party leaders led by Maharashtra’s Minister of State for Home Kripashankar Singh honed in on Govinda after a feverish brainstorming session. That Govinda was a local boy from Virar, literally the boondocks of Mumbai, who hit big time helped. Local Congressmen also pitched for the actor since he kept turning up for important events like the Ganesh festival where he usually dances till late into the night. Vasai-Virar MLA Hitendra Thakur and his notorious Bhai Thakur, a TADA detenue, are also backing Govinda, a major plus factor for the Congress. “Govinda has major support among the North Indian community members who have moved into the area in a big way,” says Maharashtra’s Minister of State for Home Kripashankar Singh. And Govinda is pressing the right buttons. The tabelas of Goregaon and Jogeshwari, Ram Naik’s old stomping grounds, are receiving major attention from the actor. “Kya petrol ka bhaav kam ho gaya? Ram Naik ke din beet gaye,” says Umashankar Mishra who owns a herd of buffaloes at Dahisar in the suburbs. The Congress is hoping that the North Indian community estimated at around 3 lakh turn up in large numbers to vote for Govinda. Govind Ahuja, to give his official name, kicked off his campaign telling people that Ram Naik’s image was so much hype. To prove his point, Govinda stood in a queue to buy a ticket to his old home in Virar. “It still brings tears to my eyes when I remember my mother struggling to board the train at Andheri station to Virar,” Govinda told reporters who flocked to cover his trip. Convinced that the middle classes would never vote for him, Govinda and his minders are concentrating on the North Indian migrants and the slum dwellers who form the bulk of Mumbai North’s 23 million voters. The actor speaks a line or two from his films and dwells long on local issues in Hindi and Marathi, much to the delight of his audience.
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India shining campaign a hoax: Chidambaram Chennai, April 10 Addressing a press conference here Mr Chidamabaram, who is the Congress-DMK supported nominee from the Sivganga Lok Sabha constituency in south Tamil Nadu, said the BJP had failed to uplift the poor and the lower middle classes of the country which comprise 675 million people. Reacting to the Bofors controversy, he said, “It is old wine in an old bottle. There is nothing new in it. The report of the Swedish investigator which appeared in an English newspaper is the same thing written by a journalist in 1989.” “I think Mr Arun Jaitley is trying to relive his Sherlock Holmes days of 1989 when he went scouting all over Europe to investigate the Bofors gun purchase and returned empty-handed,” he added. Citing detailed statistics on the economy of the country, Mr Chidambaram explained that the BJP was neglecting the rural population of India and its policies were for the benefit of the urban rich. He observed that investments in the country had stagnated and the BJ-led NDA government had no plan to stimulate investments. The last five years of the BJP rule only witnessed “policy flip-flops” in vital sectors like telecom, power and disinvestment, he added. Mr Chidambaram, who heads his own political outfit, the Congress Jananayaga Peravai, and is yet to merge with the Congress, said, “The BJP leadership has no economic statesman like former Union Finance Minister Manmohan Singh and lacked the ability to think ahead.” “The Congress can find better captains to manage the economy than the BJP. The BJP does not know what to do with a $ 110 billion foreign exchange reserve nor does it know how to manage a low interest rate economy,” he said.
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BJP feels the heat in nine seats Jaipur, April 10 The party has identified at least nine of the 25 parliamentary constituencies where it could face a tough fight from the main opposition party, the Congress. Besides, it could face a vote bank shift as a result of parties like the INLD and the BSP also staking claims in the region. The INLD and the BSP showed their influence in the Jat and Gujjar dominated constituencies during the assembly elections. As a result, senior leaders of the party have been having a series of meetings with the local leaders. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has also been calling the local leaders for discussions. Saying that it would not be an easy fight, every effort is being made during the canvassing to reach out to the people. She herself has also been working endlessly, addressing rallies almost all over the state. Her attention is also to ensure the involvement of the lowest level worker so that the party does not suffer due to poor turnout on the day of the polling. With the weather conditions becoming harsh, the onus of bringing out the voters on the day of the polling, when there would be intense heat conditions, would rest with the party workers. The party leadership has been seeking information from not only the elected legislators but also from the defeated candidates in the Assembly elections about caste combinations in their region having a bearing on the polling pattern. The party leadership has also been looking at other aspects like the local problems of water and electricity to ensure the party’s control over the constituencies. Local leaders, some of whom have attended meetings held by the Chief Minister, disclosed that the constituencies which have been identified as difficult are Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Dausa, Tonk, Sawaimadhopur, Pali, Jhalore and Nagaur. Alwar and Udaipur have also been kept in this category although the former is being looked upon as a constituency hit more by infighting and rebels. The Rajasthan BJP has also been working out with the legislators and the local leaders the schedule for the possible visit of the Central leaders. An opinion was sought regarding which leaders would be more acceptable by the people. Most local workers said the leaders should be invited keeping mind the caste combination prevailing in their areas. After this first round of stock-taking, the party feels that the conditions for it are good and it could do very well. Although there is still no
anti-incumbency factor in the state as the local government is just four months old, the effort is on to ensure an uninterrupted supply of water and electricity in these crucial days of summer. Meanwhile, the party is facing an uncomfortable situation with regard to its candidate from Alwar, Baba Chand Nath. Not only is he an outsider having been brought in from the neighbouring Haryana for the constituency, there is also a case of alleged murder and alleged conspiracy to murder pending against him in Rewari. There is a discernible rebellion in the local BJP over this. Party workers are up in arms as the BJP had dropped sitting MP from Alwar Jaswant Yadav due to reports against him of an alleged rape. However, the local police is still to register a case against him.
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Thackeray makes jibes at allies, foes Nobody has been spared Thackeray’s rapier thrusts. Neither the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi nor Sharad Pawar, her colleague-turned-foe-turned ally, have escaped the cartoonist-turned-political cult leader’s sarcasm. Even Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who insists he is the man of the political moment is coming in for some barbs from his ally in Maharashtra. “I am 78 and waiting to turn 80. That’s the age to become Prime Minister. You have to be able to cough and hold a stick,” Thackeray said at one rally. If the BJP leaders are uncomfortable, they have gotten used to such jibes from the Shiv Sena supremo in the past several years. If the stilleto was reserved for an ally, the bludgeon was unveiled for the enemies. “Of 100 crore people in India, the Congress has not found a single man to lead them, a woman is in the chair. The Congress is a set-up of ‘hijras’. It has no strength,” Thackeray said at another rally. He even called Pawar a “useless Maratha” and declared that Shivaji would have thrown him down from the ramparts of a fort as punishment. These statements came at a rally in Raigad, capital of Maratha king and Shiv Sena’s emblem, Shivaji Maharaj. A literal below-the-belt punch was reserved for Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. “The Chief Minister is busy with his wife’s campaign and has time for nothing else. That’s good, otherwise he’d be looking at other women,” Thackeray said. Shinde’s wife is contesting from Solapur, the CM’s old seat. The more serious side of Thackeray shows him expounding aggressive Hindutva which even the BJP is trying to tone down during this election. Addressing a rally at Akola on Friday night, Thackeray reminded its partner that “the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance had come together on the point of ‘Hindutva’ and not for contesting elections.” He further warned the major national party against diluting the principles of Hindutva in its pursuit of allies.
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Reaching out to voters on bikes Jagdalpur (Bastar), April 10 The Congress, which was surprised by the BJP’s silent propaganda exercise in the assembly elections, is following similar tactics. But its organisational weakness and infighting are coming in the way of an effective campaign. Though the Congress is not bereft of issues due to failure of the new BJP government in the state to effectively implement the huge sops promised in the party’s Assembly poll manifesto, the Congress has yet not been able to put its act together. The Congress does not face the anti-incumbency factor and polarisation against former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi in urban centres of the Bastar parliamentary seat is now missing. Despite their calls for poll boycott, the locals here say that Naxalites were seen to be sympathetic to the BJP in the previous elections. “However, they seem to be veering towards the Congress now in view of the BJP’s inclination to impose POTA on areas where violent incidents have occurred,” says Rajender Lakhma, a resident of Jagdalpur. The Congress candidate from Bastar, Mahendra Karma, who is also Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, says the BJP government’s failure to
deliver on its promises is his main poll issue. “The BJP government has not begun implementing its promise to give a cow to a tribal family. It is putting new conditions on its promises to provide unemployment allowance and waive loans of farmers,” he says. The campaign of Mr Karma, who nurtures ambitions of being the tallest tribal leader of the Congress, is being hampered by the apparent lack of interest being shown by two other Congress MLAs in Bastar. The MLAs from Bijapur and Konta are seen to be followers of Mr Jogi who has not remained in the best of terms with Mr Karma, apparently due to their clashing claims to tribal legacy in the party. The BJP campaign in Bastar is more organised with activists of RSS contributing to its poll effort. The six party MLAs in the Bastar parliamentary seat are extolling the virtues of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (who is affectionately called “Dokra elder main”) by the tribesmen. Though BJP candidate Bali Ram Kashyap, a member of the outgoing Lok Sabha, is facing the anti-incumbency factor, the BJP cadres are working hard with an aim to create a record by winning all the 11 Lok Sabha seats for the party.
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Setting up kutcha dams Channi’s priority Mr Channi represents the Saini community that forms a powerful base and had won the seat during the 1999 poll. His poll plank is need-based development rather than “biased” development that results in the wastage of public money. “I have already been implementing it during my tenure as an MP. All funds released by me from the MPLAD scheme were based on the scrutiny of the charter of demands or resolutions of panchayats,” he said. His priority would be to set up kutcha dams on all choes. It would not only save money, but would also lead to the conservation of water. “In my constituency where 106 have been mooted 30 are costly check dams, each costing about Rs 80 lakh. With the help of a new technique, the kutcha dam would cost about Rs 6.5 lakh. My plan is to set up 50-60 such dams in the area. The dams would also raise the water level in the area and small farmers would be able to install pump sets for irrigation,” he said. His other plans include upgradation of education and health-care and ensuring the involvement of NRIs in development. “In Kharaudi village, we have successfully experimented it. It is one of the most developed villages of the state now. My plan is to involve more and more NRIs for development on the same pattern. Upgrading government schools in the rural areas is also my priority,” he added.
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Land of Pandas no place to talk politics Mathura, April10 You can come only as a gullible tourist willing to be jostled and robbed by the army of pandas sharing space with stray dogs on every nook and corner of the filthiest of the filthy cities of Uttar Pradesh if not India. The Krishna Janmabhoomi temple that sits next to the Shahi Masjid in a slushy part of the city too is hardly likely to arouse feelings of spiritual contentment among the devout. At the height of the Ayodhya movement, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, though, managed to whip up passions on the issue of the Shahi Masjid, built by Aurangzeb after demolishing half of the temple, sharing prayer space with Lord Krishna’s presumed place of birth. Given half a chance, the VHP and other saffron outfits would like to keep the pot boiling over the status of the temple/mosque complex. All routes leading to the disputed structure are controlled by contingents of the armed police. You have to cross a presumably disused rail track and then navigate your way through a garbage dump to reach what should have been projected as evidence of the average Indian’s willingness to share spiritual space with other faiths and give them equal respect and reverence. As you enter the deserted masjid, you will notice a group of women huddled inside a cramped room. Maulana Abdul Wahid, who found his way to this place by traveling from West Bengal to Bareilly for receiving religious instructions, writes some verse from the Koran on lemons and plain pieces of papers. He distributes these “totkas” or “tabarookat” or “prasad” among the seekers. Their bindis and the mangalsutras confirm the assumption that the average Indian still does not accept boundaries of faith. What will become of their simple beliefs if the Shahi Masjid stops attracting worshippers and Maulana Wahid is made to pack his bag of “totkas” and leave town for want of work and following? The vision document of political parties does not talk about converting the land of Lord Krishna’s birth into a magnificent complex of spiritual harmony. The manifesto of political parties does not even promise the liberation of the widows of Vrindavan from the clutches of a sick custom. A custom that should have been abolished with the one that forced widows to end their lives on the pyres of their husbands. The widows do not have a voice. The whispers about their sexual exploitation, once in a while, find mention in the local newspapers. But for want of follow-up, nothing is done to restore to them their dignity and their honour. Believe it or not, the widows do not have a right to vote. It would be instructive to investigate whether the periodic Census exercise takes notice of their existence. The Maulana is diffident about expressing his views on political issues. He dismisses our request for a “totka” with a smile. However, a bit of prodding makes him pour his heart out. “Mayawati has promoted only members of her community. Mulayam Singh Yadav too follows the same policy. We have no expectations from the BJP. The Congress is the only party that can do something for us. But where is the Congress?”
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Villagers threaten to boycott poll
Ahmedabad, April 10 The threat to boycott elections has sent both Congress candidate Shankrsinh Vaghela and BJP candidate Liladhar Vaghela scurrying to the village. It is on the outskirts of Ahmedabad and a Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) area. They are trying to ease the situation and assuring the villagers of solving the issue. The nondescript village, that comes under Daskroi taluka where the BJP has a sitting MLA, is plagued with basic problems like bad roads, drinking water shortage and its contamination and serious
environmental hazards due to the chemical effluents from the GIDC factories. “The village has about 5,000 residents and 2,000 of them have decided not to vote because it has not changed the situation for 20 years. In fact, the conditions have just worsened,” a villager and social worker Madhusudhan Patel said. The villagers yesterday took out a protest procession and displayed banners urging the other locals to boycott the elections.
— PTI
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Sex workers, kids denied ID-cards Allahabad, April 10 Claiming this, the Bharatiya Patita Uddhar Sabha said today that it apprehended that with very little time left for the elections, the names of sex workers and their adult children may not figure in the voters list. About 23 lakh sex workers and 52 lakh children are living in 1,100 red light areas of the country, he noted in a statement here. No official of the Election Commission had so far visited any red light area to register the names of sex workers and their adult children, who were themselves afraid of approaching the officials in this regard, he added.
— UNI
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Cong expels 27 members Bangalore, April 10
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With Ram Naik riding a popularity wave despite the muck raked from the petrol pump scam, the Congress party needed a knight in shining armour.
Five-time Member of Parliament and Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik is banking on his impressive track record to see him through in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
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Mumbai, April 10
Hoshiarpur, April 10