Under Modi pressure? Poll panel may wait for "auspicious" Labh Pancham, Oct 25, to announce Gujarat polls

Chief election commissioner AK Joti

By Our Representative
Senior Gujarat government officials are learnt to have been told by their counterparts in Delhi that, “in all likelihood”, the Election Commission of India (ECI) would announce state assembly polls on or after the auspicious Labh Pacham, October 25, which is the fifth day of the new Gujarati New Year.
The Gujarati New Year is on October 20, a day after Diwali. On Labh Pancham, Gujarati Hindu middle class entrepreneurs reopen shops, closed on the Diwali day after, praying for Goddess Laxmi, or Goddess of Wealth. While many middle class families go holidaying for about a week, the more traditional ones keep all lights on at night and doors and windows open for considerable time to “allow” the Goddess to enter in their house.
Talking with Counterview on condition of anonymity, a senior official, who claims to be in direct touch with ECI, has said it is “quite possible” for the poll dates to be announced after the “auspicious date.” Announcement of polls bring in force the model code of conduct, forcing the ruling party not to declare new sops to the people.
However, a Counteview message to Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti, asking him specific question whether this was true, went without a reply, though his juniors said, requesting not to be named, that there would be “no announcement” at least before October 18.
Two days ago, while the ECI announced November 8 as the date for Himachal Pradesh assembly polls, it did not announce any date for Gujarat, leading to many eyebrows being raised across India. One who has had excellent rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Joti was Gujarat cadre IAS bureaucrat and retired as state chief secretary in January 2013, when Modi was Gujarat chief minister.
Not only the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Left, but even former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi said the decision not to announce Gujarat polls along with that of Himachal Pradesh has “:justifiably raised the hackles of the people”, as the terms of the two state Assemblies almost coincide.
“If the government does announce new populist schemes and freebies, it would cause the EC a huge embarrassment. It would be accused of giving the government of Gujarat the few extra days before invoking the model code of conduct”, Quraishi insists in his opinion piece.
While Gujarat Assembly’s term ends on January 22, 2018, and of Himachal Pradesh it ends on January 7. ECI, meanwhile, also announced that the counting date for both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh polls would be on December 18.
Justifying his decision not to announce Gujarat polls, Joti reportedly said that the election timetable should ideally not exceed 46 days, adding, any announcement for more than that would “obstructed governance.”
A major reason given by the ECI for not announcing Gujarat polls, said Joti, is the Gujarat government “seeking” more time before the election announcement, as the model code of conduct would “disrupt” flood relief in Gujarat.
Meanwhile, what Quraishi said is already proving to correct. The Gujarat government is already starting to open purse-strings, says a report. The BJP-ruled Vadodara Municipal Corporation has finalized a mega event for Sunday, where Chief Minister Vijay Rupani is expected to inaugurate development works worth Rs 780 crore.
Earlier on Friday, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation concluded its ninth “Shahri Garib Kalyan Mela” in Ahmedabad, where of a total 4103 beneficiaries, 3,262 were distributed kits including cheques, funds and bonds under the “Manav Garima Yojana”.
The kits included sewing machines, utensils, tri-cycles, dairy products, street-vending carts and other household items. 1,087 people were given kits, as also cheques ranging from Rs 2,000 as Vidyalakshmi bonds to Rs 50,000, for intercaste marriage were distributed.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh are in South Gujarat to address a public meetings as part of the Gaurav Yatra, which would be concluded on Sunday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi off Gandhinagar.
Knowledgeable circles say, senior state officials, including those from the police, have been given the target of bringing “at least 10 lakh people” as a show of strength for Modi’s rally.

Comments

Girl child education: 20 major states 'score' better than Gujarat, says GoI report

By Rajiv Shah
A Government of India report, released last month, has suggested that “model” Gujarat has failed to make any progress vis-à-vis other states in ensuring that girls continue to remain enrolled after they leave primary schools. The report finds that, in the age group 14-17, Gujarat’s 71% girls are enrolled at the secondary and higher secondary level, which is worse than 20 out of 22 major states for which data have been made available.

Congress 'promises' cancellation of Adani power project: Jharkhand elections

Counterview Desk
Pointing out that people's issues take a backseat in Jharkhand's 2019 assembly elections, the state's civil rights organization, the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha, a coalition of activists and people’s organisations, has said that political parties have largely ignored in their electoral manifestos the need to implement the fifth schedule of the Constitution in a predominantly tribal district.

Gujarat refusal to observe Maulana Azad's birthday as Education Day 'discriminatory'

By Our Representative
The Gujarat government decision not to celebrate the National Education Day on !monday has gone controversial. Civil society organizations have particularly wondered whether the state government is shying away from the occasion, especially against the backdrop of "deteriorating" level of education in Gujarat.

Hindutva founders 'borrowed' Nazi, fascist idea of one flag, one leader, one ideology

By Shamsul Islam*
With the unleashing of the reign of terror by the RSS/BJP rulers against working-class, peasant organizations, women organizations, student movements, intellectuals, writers, poets and progressive social/political activists, India also witnessed a series of resistance programmes organized by the pro-people cultural organizations in different parts of the country. My address in some of these programmes is reproduced here...
*** Before sharing my views on the tasks of artists-writers-intellectuals in the times of fascism, let me briefly define fascism and how it is different from totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is political concept, a dictatorship of an individual, family or group which prohibits opposition in any form, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is also described as authoritarianism.
Whereas fascism, while retaining all these repressive characteristics, also believes in god-ordained superiority of race, cultur…

Ex-World Bank chief economist doubts spurt in India's ease of doing business rank

By Rajiv Shah
This is in continuation of my previous blog where I had quoted from a commentary which top economist Prof Kaushik Basu had written in the New York Times (NYT) a little less than a month ago, on November 6, to be exact. He recalled this article through a tweet on November 29, soon after it was made known that India's growth rate had slumped (officially!) to 4.5%.

With RSS around, does India need foreign enemy to undo its democratic-secular fabric?

By Shamsul Islam*
Many well-meaning liberal and secular political analysts are highly perturbed by sectarian policy decisions of RSS/BJP rulers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially after starting his second inning. They are vocal in red-flagging lynching incidents, policies of the Modi government on Kashmir, the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the demand for 'Bharat Ratna' to Savarkar who submitted 6-7 mercy petitions to the British masters (getting remission of 40 years out of 50 years' sentence), and the murder of constitutional norms in Goa, Karnataka and now in Maharashtra.

Post-Balakot, danger that events might spiral out of control is 'greater, not less'

By Tapan Bose*
The fear of war in South Asia is increasing. Tensions are escalating between India and Pakistan after the Indian defence minister's announcement in August this year that India may revoke its current commitment to only use nuclear weapons in retaliation for a nuclear attack, known as ‘no first use’. According to some experts who are watching the situation the risk of a conflict between the two countries has never been greater since they both tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

Rushdie, Pamuk, 260 writers tell Modi: Aatish episode casts chill on public discourse

Counterview Desk
As many as 260 writers, journalists, artists, academics and activists across the world, including Salman Rushdie, British Indian novelist, Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in literature, and Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet and novelist, have called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the decision to strip British Indian writer Aatish Taseer of his overseas Indian citizenship.

Savarkar in Ahmedabad "declared support" to two-nation theory in 1937, followed by Jinnah three years later

By Our Representative
One of the top freedom fighters whom BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi revere the most, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, was also a great supporter of the two nation theory for India, one for Hindus another for Muslims, claims a new expose on the man who is also known to be the original proponent of the concept of Hindutva.

Worrying signs in BJP: Modi, Shah begin 'cold-shouldering' Gujarat CM, party chief

By RK Misra*
The political developments in neighbouring Maharashtra where a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government assumed office has had a trickle down effect in Gujarat with both the ruling BJP and the Congress opposition going into revamp mode.

Counterview

Search This Blog