The Congress may eventually have its candidate win the presidential poll, but they would have never thought that there will be this much amount of trouble over the election, that too, for a post mandated by the constitution to be mostly ceremonial. The only times when the President takes an independent decision ‘without the advice of the council of ministers‘ is when he / she has to select a new Prime Minister. However, there are constraints even in this; the decision has to be based on the number of each party and its backers; and the Supreme Court is well on its way to curtail discretionary powers exercised in a unfair way.
For this post, the Congress played months of politics; first trying to get the Uttar Pradesh mandate delayed such that the election do not give powers to a party inmical to the Congress, then months of consulting its various supporters. The Left as usual gave the Congress a hard time, selecting the main trouble shooter for the Congress as worthy of support (which the Congress refused), refusing other candidates such as Karan Singh and Shivraj Patil (maybe we could have got a more effective Home Minister then), and Shinde was declared ‘no’ by Mayawati.
Read the rest of this entry »
I read this news in the morning, and it seemed incredible. The Punjab Government of the Akali Party and BJP has given permission for the prosecution of the head of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
On Wednesday, the Punjab government, acting on a court directive, gave the formal go-ahead for the arrest and prosecution of the Dera Chief, who had invited the ire of the Sikh community for allegedly attiring like Guru Gobind Singh. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal gave his Government’s firm commitment to maintain law and order in the wake of Wednesday night’s developments.
This was extremely strange. For those who have forgotten as to what criminal activity was committed by the leader of the sect, here is the answer. He had committed the sin of dressing like the 10th and last guru of the Guru Gobind Singh and distributing ‘amrit’ (nectar) like the Guru used to do.
Read the rest of this entry »
It just cannot get more brazen than this. Mayawati, a chief minister is from humble upbringin, and not known to have a rich uncle who died and left her a fortune in her will. So consider her ‘declared‘ wealth - she has a total holding of Rs. 52.5 crore. This is an incredible amount of money, and I am sure that Mayawati is not a big player in the stock market or a property builder, so how would she make that amount of money ?
In a word, corruption of the greatest order. Read some of these details:
Read the rest of this entry »
This is how it is in our country. Depending on who is in power, the question is answered about whether a person is a criminal or not. This is not good for our country, and for a sense of right and wrong. If a person is criminal, then that is something to be decided by the legal system, and not by the politicians. And as I write this, I would laught at this last statement if it was not so terrible.
A person who is the local terror in his region, who has a pond having human skeletons in it, who would think nothing about killing anybody who got in his way, was a minister in the Mulayam Singh cabinet, and there was not the furore that should have happened. Is the situation in our country so bad that if a person is from a certain caste, his caste members will forgive him anything, and any prosecution is seen as a caste related move? If that is the case, it is a tendency that will destroy this great country.
Read the rest of this entry »
To a large extent, we are somewhat immune now to what our policemen do, but it is only when things affect us personally do we realize how bad things can be, and how our law is not meant for our benefit. And the law in this case means the whole judicial system, not just the police force.
As an example, just refer to this report in the Times of India:
Walk into a police station in any part of Uttar Pradesh and you will be greeted by apprehended vehicles parked all over. These are in various stages of rusting and decay. A closer look would reveal that various parts of these two-wheelers and four-wheelers are missing. And there are tell-tale signs that these were removed after the vehicles were brought to the police station. The cops sell off these parts to make a fast buck.
Read the rest of this entry »