Anti-incumbency factor & South

THE anti-incumbency factor is a great common denominator which affects and reflects on the election results. One may attribute its emergence to the spectacle wherein the common man sees men with lowered standards of morality in public life. Generally it is this spectacle which gives the incumbents an image of being non-performers and hence the anti-incumbency factor.

Such a trend of anti-incumbency has been recorded in the three South Indian states of Andhra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, over the past two decades with a 100 per cent accuracy. Right now these three states are being run by anti-Congress governments. Two have been there for the past five years and the other one for three years. Notably, the BJP has made the same mistake in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu which the Congress nearly made in Haryana. It will become very difficult for them to bear the anti-incumbency burden of the Naidu, Karunanidhi and Patel governments. If this possibility becomes an eventuality then algebra will certainly outshine arithmetic in politics.

In this three dimensional world of politics, we will have to look at alliances like that of the BJP and the TDP with an algebraic eye. It will have to be seen whether 32 per cent of TDP’s votes and 18 per cent of the BJP’s add up to a 50 per cent combined vote, since Mr Naidu’s vote bank — both of the minorities and backwards — is diametrically opposed to the BJP’s. Mr Naidu, please do not sail in two boats, you may meet with an accident.

There is a view that Ms Jayalalitha’s opportunism and betrayals are going to cost her dearly. But we must not forget that it was the same Tamil Nadu electorate which ignored her corruption charges in 1998 and gave her the mandate, chiefly to show resentment against the incumbent Karunanidhi government.

In Karnataka, the BJP has hitched Janata Dal (U) to its bandwagon. The JD(U) is a new formation which consists of the Lok Shakti, the Samata Party and a bigger chunk of the erstwhile JD. In Karnataka’s context, the relevant components of the JD(U) are the Lok Shakti and the JD, whose main players are Mr Hegde and Mr J.H. Patel.

Arithmetically, psephologists term this as a new troika with their integrated percentage being 50 per cent plus. I consider Mr Hegde’s group as a sensible addition to the BJP’s kitty. But a tired J.H. Patel can prove to be an algebraical nightmare for the BJP. It may be noteworthy that a disenchanted and revengeful Deve Gowda with the support of Deputy Chief Minister Sidaramaiah (who happens to be a Dalit) will not miss any opportunity to discredit Mr Hegde and Mr Patel.

Given these ground realities, which confirm to applied politics, I do not see how the BJP and its allies are better placed than the Congress in these southern states.

Himmat Singh Shergill
Chandigarh

Engg admissions

There have been lots of irregularities and confusion during the process of admission to various engineering colleges in Punjab based on the CET merit. First, instead of centralised counselling for various colleges different institutions held separate counselling on different dates.

Although admissions were made on the common CET merit, institutions like the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala; GNDU, Amritsar; Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar; and Punjabi University, Patiala, held separate counselling. This caused a lot of inconvenience to the students, who were made to submit separate applications and pay the initial application fee at all the institutions.

In the case of medical colleges, admissions are made on the basis of the PMT merit under a central counselling system. After first counselling, many seats in the reserved category remained vacant. The PTU, Jalandhar, in a notification invited applications from the candidates who could not get admission during the earlier counselling because of lower CET ranks. The students already admitted and wanting to appear for second counselling so as to have the stream and institution of their choice had been debarred from availing of this opportunity. This is unfair and amounts to injustice to brilliant students with a higher merit. The university must reconsider its decision. All the vacant seats after the first counselling should be offered to the students according to their CET ranks and the condition of disallowing the change of institution to the already admitted students should be withdrawn.

Jasbir Singh
Ludhiana

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Violence in universities

I am a regular reader of The Tribune which gives me information about my country and my City Beautiful. I was shocked to hear that a student was shot dead in his hostel at Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar. That student could have been saved if the authorities had taken appropriate action.

I don’t know why these people do not understand their duties. They too are guardians of their students. Parents send their children to universities expecting those guardians to take care of their beloved ones and give them the right direction. But their behaviour is not proper. Some lose their life and others destroy their life behind bars, burning into professional killers.

Neetu
New Jersey (USA)