Uttranchal

The big day of results for the elections in many states – tomorrow is the D day (March 6, 2012)

Without any doubt, the year 2011 was probably the worst year for the Congress led Government. The ongoing investigations into the 2G scam, the CommonWealth Games preparation, and many others kept on showcasing that levels of corruption were incredibly high. Some amount of acclaim by Baba Ramdev in his quest against black money, and then the initial high levels of support for the anti-corruption campaign by Anna Hazare (coupled with the fumbling efforts by the Government to respond to the campaigns and the high level of arrogance seen from the Government side) pushed the Government to the back-foot. And then the Government saw its own ally leading the quest against an effort by the Government to push for some reform, namely the effort to bring in 100% FDI in retail, which was defeated by a campaign by Mamta Banerjee.
The year 2012 is likely to be another interesting year for the Congress, with some decisions by the Supreme Court on 2G already pushing the Government on the backfoot. And there is the elections for the Presidency, which is seen as an important symbolic step, but where the Government has a wafer-thin majority. And this is another reason where the forthcoming elections results are so important. These are the elections in the states of Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Goa and Punjab. In many of these states, the Congress fancies its chances, especially in the states of Punjab, Goa, Manipur, and Uttaranchal.
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2 sides to a story about police atrocities in Uttar Pradesh

There have been a lot of confusion regarding the alleged shooting of a dacoit by the Uttar Pradesh police in cold blood. Apparently when cornered, the police shot him even when he was being shot in cold blood. Now, this sort of action is something that a lot of people will be able to believe, after all, the police know that he is guilty, what is the point of bringing him in front of a court when there are chances that he might get off. Even a lot of movies, many of them top-grossing, propagate the same concept of police having the discretion of killing criminals in encounters. Refer this TOI article:

The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered an inquiry into the footage aired by a TV news channel purportedly showing an alleged fake encounter in which the police shot dead a criminal even though he was about to surrender.
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