BJP Poised For Big Win In Tamil Nadu

Point One

AIADMK and DMK which faced corruption charges. AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa was convicted by a court in a disproportionate asset case and leaders from DMK, including party chief M Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi have been charged in the 2G spectrum case.


Point Two

Congress party has almost disappeared from the Tamil Nadu scenario, it all began in 60s. 

Point Three


If BJP can go from 8 to 36 per cent in Haryana, why not go from 7 per cent in Lok Sabha elections to 36 per in Tamil Nadu

Point Four

This slogan could do wonders - "Kodi Urupinar Serpom, Tamilagathil Modi Aatchi Amaipom, (Let us enroll one crore members and usher in the rule of Modi in Tamil Nadu)




PTI Reports

Seeking to cash in on the "graft taint" on the two big parties of Tamil Nadu — ruling AIADMK and opposition DMK — the BJP on Wednesday set an ambitious target of winning 122 plus seats in the 2016 assembly elections and "capture power" in the state.

Although such a goal may seem unrealistic in the Tamil Nadu context where both the Dravidian parties, AIADMK and DMK, have been holding sway for decades, the BJP is apparently buoyed after its recent success in Haryana and Maharashtra.

BJP leaders at a party meet here asked "why it should not be possible" if it could happen in "Haryana and Maharashtra".

READ ALSO: Chautala's bail drama could hold message for Jayalalithaa 

Enrolling one crore members from the present 10 lakh, strengthening party units at the grassroots level like the booth unit were among the strategies deliberated as part of the "goal 2016". The meet fixed "122 plus" seats as its target out of the total 234 in the state Assembly.

The general council meeting of the Tamil Nadu BJP was held here on Wednesday in which senior leaders, including ministers of state Pon Radhakrishnan and Rajiv Pratap Rudy participated.

The leaders while addressing partymen lashed out at the ruling AIADMK and DMK which faced corruption charges.

AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa was convicted by a court in a disproportionate asset case and leaders from DMK, including party chief M Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi have been charged in the 2G spectrum case.


Jayalalithaa sits in her vehicle as she leaves the Bangalore Central Jail after securing bail in Bangalore on October 18, 2014. (Getty Images)

Rudy, who was appointed in-charge of party affairs in Tamil Nadu before his induction into the Union Cabinet, said BJP was poised for big wins in states, including Bihar, Jharkhand and Delhi, where elections are due soon.

Citing the Haryana example, he asked, "Why it should not work for Tamil Nadu...people thought it was impossible in Maharashtra and Haryana too."

"If we can go from 8 to 36 per cent in Haryana, why cannot we go from 6-7 per cent (in Lok Sabha elections) to 36 per in Tamil Nadu...I think it is achievable," he said.

Building the party at the booth level and "motivating and connecting" with voters were important to achieve the goal, he stressed.

"We must capture power in Tamil Nadu," Pon Radhakrishnan said and urged cadres to work with that vision in mind.

Though the saffron party managed to sew up a grand alliance with local outfits like MDMK, DMDK and PMK in the Lok Sabha polls, it failed to carve out electoral space in the state and managed to win only the Kanyakumari constituency, represented by Radhakrishnan.

Senior leader L Ganesan exhorted partymen to strive towards strengthening the party at grassroots level.

Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan coined a slogan, "Kodi Urupinar Serpom, Tamilagathil Modi Aatchi Amaipom, (Let us enroll one crore members and usher in the rule of Modi in Tamil Nadu)."

She strongly criticized the ruling AIADMK and its chief Jayalalithaa on the assets case, her conviction and jailing.

READ ALSO: Jayalalithaa, three others sentenced to four years imprisonment, sent to jail

Both AIADMK and DMK were "graft-tainted" and only BJP stood a chance to bring in the "rule of Kamaraj", she said.

By seeking to appropriate iconic Congress leader and freedom fighter Kamaraj, she hit out at Congress as well, saying, "Whatever little support it has about 4 per cent (vote share)..it would be shared by (Tamil Nadu Congress chief) Elangovan and (former Union minister) Vasan."

Senior leader P Muralidhar Rao said Tamil Nadu politics was going through a transitional phase.

While AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa was convicted and jailed in an assets case, DMK is beset with "family politics" and facing "existential challenge".

Congress party has almost disappeared from the Tamil Nadu scenario. "A great vacuum is building up and there is a void," he said and added that the space would filled by the saffron party.

The Erosion of Congress Over The Years

The New Indian Express writes:

The picture of Congress erosion:

• In Tamil Nadu, the last Congressman who took oath as chief minister was M Bhaktavatsalam. That was October 1963. It lost power in Tamil Nadu in 1966 and has not discovered the route to popularity ever since.

• In West Bengal, there has been no Congress CM since April 1977, since Siddhartha Shankar Ray.

• In Uttar Pradesh, there has been no Congress chief minister since December 1989, since N D Tiwari.

• Bihar has seen no Congress chief minister since March 1990, since Jagannath Mishra.

• Take Gujarat. No Congressman has occupied the post of CM since Madhavsinh Solanki in 1989.

• In Tripura, a Congressman was last sworn in as chief minister in February 1992. The Congress has been out of power since April 1993.

• In Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the Congress has been kept out of power by the BJP since 2003.

• In Odisha, Naveen Patnaik has rendered the Congress irrelevant since 2000. In 2014, the party scored 0/21 in the Lok Sabha polls and 16/147 in the Assembly polls.

The crux lies in an eroding leadership and corroding core, the idea of what the Congress is about. In power, the Congress does not stand up for what it claims to represent. Out of power, it can’t articulate what it stands for. The Congress is wracked by an absence of ideas and a void in its leadership. The singular Gandhi —the Mahatma—has been appropriated, and the plural—the Gandhi family name —has been rendered ineffective by a reluctant heir.

Politics cannot be conducted on blue-tooth connections sans ownership. To appreciate the value of leadership and ideas, one has to only look at the BJP before and after 2013. Narendra Modi took the remnants of the BJP in 2013 and converted it into a winning unit. He took ownership, redefined the core with his ideas and passionately engaged with the party and the people. The 2004 and 2009 victory afforded the Congress and its leadership an opportunity for renaissance. It was squandered when the leadership opted for the CEO-model, where power was shielded from responsibility, and authority was divorced from accountability.

Power may or may not be poison, but in politics the quest for power cannot be a part-time occupation. The dictum ‘shape up or ship out’ holds true in politics too. Congress needs new ideas and leadership. If survival is the imperative, the choice is binary: either the leadership finds new ideas or the Congress gets the idea and finds a new leadership.

There is, of course, always the Gandhian option of dissolving into oblivion.

BJP Pushes Marxists to The Walls In Kerala

Balbir Punj writes





The good news from Kerala is that the political wind in the state, which has for decades alternated the Marxist-led front LDF and the Congress-led UDF in government, is now in the process of choosing a new path. An HT report from Thiruvananthapuram read: “A bandh called by Sangh Parivar outfits on Tuesday in protest against the hacking of an RSS leader crippled normal life in Kerala.”

The intensity of the protest reflects the depth of sympathy of Keralites to the victim and his party in the changing political pattern there.

E Manoj of the RSS was hacked to death in the Malabar region where the Marxists have been running riot and the RSS-BJP was the only force resisting the communist diktat.

The pattern of the killing carried in every respect the signature of the Marxists. They don’t shoot their political opponents. They hit them hard and then hack them part by part using sharp local sickles or butcher knives. They do it in daylight and often in public places. The barbarism is meant to convey a message—crossing the Marxist line is inviting such medieval “punishment”. The Marxist ideology, like the Islamist one, authorises its followers to be prosecutor, judge and executor rolled into one. As in the badlands of Syria-Iraq or Nigeria, here too they would make a public show of their barbarism.

In fact, the Marxists followed the same procedure when they waylaid and cut to pieces one of their own, T P Chandrashekharan, two years ago after the man had left the CPM and floated a rival political outfit. Several leaders of the Marxist party have been convicted for the murder lately.

That was not the only murder that the Marxists committed in the state. We are not talking of the murders of RSS workers and leaders. The Marxists had put their own dissenters’ neck on the block. In the wake of “TP’s” hacking, another Marxist leader, one Mani, boasted that the party had drawn up a list and one by one the people in the list would be eliminated.

The boast led to his being booked for promoting hatred but interestingly, the party did not distance itself from the claim of one of its leaders even after the intellectuals of Kerala expressed horror at such boasting.
For several decades now, the RSS-BJP had emerged as the only force that came forward to stop the Marxists from imposing their diktat on the hapless people. The political rivals of CPM technically is the Congress party. But the party leaders sought safety in avoiding direct confrontation with the Marxists.

In the last 20 years, the Marxist party was getting cosy with the jihadi elements of Malabar. In the 2009 general elections, Marxist boss Pinarayi Vijayan publicly allied with the Islamic extremist party, PDP, and its leader Abdul Nasser Madani, an accused in the jihadi conspiracy to target L K Advani in 1999 by planting bombs in Coimbatore on the path the BJP leader would take to address a public meeting.
It was a case of brothers in arms using violence to seize power, embracing each other. The Marxists’ rout in that election was later attributed to the public disgust at the alliance.

The pusillanimity of the Congress in facing up to this combine of Islamist secessionism and Marxist violence was exposed before the people of Kerala when instead of opposing Madani, it competed with the Marxists in making a hero out of him through open sympathy for his person and fending off all attempts of national security establishment to nab him and his partymen.

Several incidents in Kerala where the jihadists were accused of murder and violence, procuring arms and conspiring against the state like the massacre at Marad, saw the Marxists and the Congress closing their eyes at the growth of the jihadi underground.

For the local Congress, the appeasement of minorities was part of its national policy and the Muslim vote bank, especially in Malabar, was needed to balance the Marxist grass roots in the region. The electoral alliance between the Congress and the Muslim League was decades old.

Malabar, with its Muslim population, was the only place in India where the political Islam that demanded the country’s Partition survived after Independence and had strong links with Pakistan through many families that had its members in both countries. Much water has flowed down the Pampa river since then. The major Hindu organisations like the SNDP and the NSS have publicly expressed concern over the growing clout of the Muslim League, the continued rise of jihadi outfits and the threat to Hindus in many incidents of “love jihad”.

The Christian parties, like the two factions of the Kerala Congress, are also watching with concern the rise of the League and its economic as well as political clout from the large number of Muslim workers in the Gulf and the money earned they are sending to the state.

The rise of the Sangh Parivar’s support base isn’t confined to caste Hindus. Many sections of Christians are also gravitating towards it. Cardinal Cleemis, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, has openly praised prime minister Narendra Modi. An influential Dalit outfit, Kerala Pulayar Maha Sabha has invited Modi to address the 151st birth anniversary celebrations of their legendary leader Ayyankali during Onam.

This organisation was for long with the Congress. Its shift in support to the BJP must have disturbed the Congress. Obviously, the Congress claim of being the saviour of SCs (the elevation of K R Narayanan as the president of India, the rise of K J Balakrishnan as the CJI, for instance) is now dented. Early this year, the SNDP invited Modi before the general election to address their meeting and visit the retreat of social reformer Narayana Guru at Varkala.

So, the events leading to the Marxist murder of RSS leader Manoj clearly indicate that a good section of the people in Kerala is getting tired of the two fronts and considering other options. The Marxists have sought to send a warning message to the people through the murder. And the Congress has a vested interest in not pushing the Marxists to the wall by unleashing the police against the CPM’s practised violence.

The Centre has to read the signs in this context as the state could expect both the Marxists and jihadi outfits to plan more strikes to scare the people against the shift of allegiance to the BJP and to claw into the state in the wave of Islamist movements in the Gulf and Pakistan.

A train journey and two names to remember

Leena Sarma writes

It was the summer of 1990. As Indian Railway (Traffic) Service probationers, my friend and I travelled by train from Lucknow to Delhi. Two MPs were also travelling in the same bogie. That was fine, but the behaviour of some 12 people who were travelling with them without reservation was terrifying. They forced us to vacate our reserved berths and sit on the luggage, and passed obscene and abusive comments. We cowered in fright and squirmed with rage. It was a harrowing night in the company of an unruly battalion; we were on edge, on the thin line between honour and dishonour. All other passengers seemed to have vanished, along with the Travelling Ticket Examiner.

We reached Delhi the next morning without being physically harmed by the goons, though we were emotionally wrecked. My friend was so traumatised she decided to skip the next phase of training in Ahmedabad and stayed back in Delhi. I decided to carry on since another batchmate was joining me. (She is Utpalparna Hazarika, now Executive Director, Railway Board.) We boarded an overnight train to Gujarat’s capital, this time without reservations as there wasn’t enough time to arrange for them. We had been wait-listed.

We met the TTE of the first class bogie, and told him how we had to get to Ahmedabad. The train was heavily booked, but he politely led us to a coupe to sit as he tried to help us. I looked at the two potential co-travellers, two politicians, as could be discerned from their white khadi attire, and panicked. “They’re decent people, regular travellers on this route, nothing to worry,” the TTE assured us. One of them was in his mid-forties with a normal, affectionate face, and the other in his late-thirties with a warm but somewhat impervious expression. They readily made space for us by almost squeezing themselves to one corner.

They introduced themselves: two BJP leaders from Gujarat. The names were told but quickly forgotten as names of co-passengers were inconsequential at that moment. We also introduced ourselves, two Railway service probationers from Assam. The conversation turned to different topics, particularly in the areas of History and the Polity. My friend, a post-graduate in History from Delhi University and very intelligent, took part. I too chipped in. The discussion veered around to the formation of the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League.

The senior one was an enthusiastic participant. The younger one mostly remained quiet, but his body language conveyed his total mental involvement in what was being discussed, though he hardly contributed. Then I mentioned Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s death, why it was still considered a mystery by many. He suddenly asked: “How do you know about Syama Prasad Mookerjee?” I had to tell him that when my father was a post-graduate student in Calcutta University, as its Vice-Chancellor he had arranged a scholarship for the young man from Assam. My father often reminisced about that and regretted his untimely death [in June 1953 at the age of 51].

The younger man then almost looked away and spoke in a hushed tone almost to himself: “It’s good they know so many things ...”

Suddenly the senior man proposed: “Why don’t you join our party in Gujarat?” We both laughed it off, saying we were not from Gujarat. The younger man then forcefully interjected: “So what? We don’t have any problem on that. We welcome talent in our State.” I could see a sudden spark in his calm demeanour.

The food arrived, four vegetarian thalis. We ate in silence. When the pantry-car manager came to take the payment, the younger man paid for all of us. I muttered a feeble ‘thank you’, but he almost dismissed that as something utterly trivial. I observed at that moment that he had a different kind of glow in his eyes, which one could hardly miss. He rarely spoke, mostly listened.

The TTE then came and informed us the train was packed and he couldn’t arrange berths for us. Both men immediately stood up and said: “It’s okay, we’ll manage.” They swiftly spread a cloth on the floor and went to sleep, while we occupied the berths.

What a contrast! The previous night we had felt very insecure travelling with a bunch of politicians, and here we were travelling with two politicians in a coupe, with no fear.

The next morning, when the train neared Ahmedabad, both of them asked us about our lodging arrangements in the city. The senior one told us that in case of any problem, the doors of his house were open for us. There was some kind of genuine concern in the voice or the facial contours of the otherwise apparently inscrutable younger one, and he told us: “I’m like a nomad, I don’t have a proper home to invite you but you can accept his offer of safe shelter in this new place.”

We thanked them for that invitation and assured them that accommodation was not going to be a problem for us.

Before the train came to a stop, I pulled out my diary and asked them for their names again. I didn’t want to forget the names of two large-hearted fellow passengers who almost forced me to revise my opinion about politicians in general. I scribbled down the names quickly as the train was about to stop:Shankersinh Vaghela and Narendra Modi.

I wrote on this episode in an Assamese newspaper in 1995. It was a tribute to two unknown politicians from Gujarat for giving up their comfort ungrudgingly for the sake of two bens from Assam. When I wrote that, I didn’t have the faintest idea that these two people were going to become so prominent, or that I would hear more about them later. When Mr. Vaghela became Chief Minister of Gujarat in 1996, I was glad. When Mr. Modi took office as Chief Minister in 2001, I felt elated. (A few months later, another Assamese daily reproduced my 1995 piece.) And now, he is the Prime Minister of India.

Every time I see him on TV, I remember that warm meal, that gentle courtesy, caring and sense of security that we got that night far from home in a train, and bow my head.

(The author is General Manager of the Centre for Railway Information System, Indian Railways, New Delhi. leenasarma@rediffmail.com)

Dispelling myths surrounding RSS

RAKESH SINHA WRITES

After BJP’s ascendency to power, the question “what will RSS do next?” is in the air. The mindset behind such a question is not difficult to trace. In political discourse, RSS unfortunately continues to be viewed less through facts and the truth and often through the prism of preconceived imagery, notion and outright wishful thought process. The preconceived image of the Sangh is that it engages in backseat driving as far as politics is concerned, engendering a ‘remote control’ theory.

Presumptions apart, RSS’ relation to politics is ever dynamic and changing, not static. Had that been the case, RSS wouldn’t have become an independent powerful force. Founded in 1925, when many organisations rose and fell, RSS continued to thrive and expand. Unfortunately, its critics view it solely through the lens of power politics, ignoring its progressive work among Dalits, Adivasis, workers and students. Intervention in politics does not alter its fundamental character. India’s political history has seen individuals who hitherto having quit the political arena were forced to make intervention for a greater purpose, Jayaprakash Narayan and Vinoba Bhave being prime examples. Similarly, in the pre-Independence era, the lines between Arya Samaj and Punjab Congress had become blurred—Lala Lajpat Rai personifying this near-amalgam.

There are instances which unravel both the nature and purpose of RSS intervention in politics. The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS had many commonalities, but the latter never surrendered the nuance of its autonomy. It prevailed upon its supporter Babasaheb Ghatate to withdraw from the electoral fray in 1945, as weakening Congress at that juncture in our history was not in national interest. This irked Mahasabha leader Dr B S Moonje who wrote in his diary, “I don’t know why RSS plays such farce.” The same Moonje was obliged to the Sangh for its support in the 1934 election and protecting Madan Mohan Malviya who went to Nagpur for his campaign. No astrologer can predict whether those who are well disposed towards RSS will necessarily feel the same next day. Socialists embraced RSS in 1977 but became its arch enemy in 1979 as the Sangh refused to become Trojan horse of fulfilling their ambitions.

Sardar Patel, who found a lot of merits in RSS activities during the partition days, was displeased when his suggestion to merge the Sangh with Congress for “nation building” had little effect on its leader, Golwalkar. Politics has never been its bellwether. There was a revealing debate on RSS in the Central Assembly on February 11, 1947. Home Minister Sardar Patel informed the house that no state government suggested a ban on RSS nor any of them accused of being a potential threat to communal harmony.

RSS has had to expend much energy in fighting a state-sponsored campaign of calumny against it from 1948, and has yet stood firm, something its detractors cannot countenance. There are many instances of its commitment to social change and national renewal. In 1950, Nehru’s food secretary wrote to him that food campaign in the country needed RSS involvement. Despite his anti-Sangh paranoia, Nehru solicited Golwalkar’s support for the campaign. The unjustified ban and repression by Nehru’s regime after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination could not deter it from playing a constructive role. And to it alone goes the credit for the success of the 1977-79 adult education programme.

Economic inequity, population and environment too agitate RSS no less, while providing it newer opportunities to enunciate positive alternate initiatives and policies. A purely political existence would have stalled its journey, which is not the case. The formation or exit of governments is important in its civilisational mission, though not the final issue. The present atmosphere is an indicative of shift of the Sangh’s emphasis from the forces of resistance to those of transformation.  

Nostradamus predicts Cong sinking into oblivion

Francois Gautier writes

This are extracts of an article I wrote three years ago for my Ferengi’s column of the Indian Express. Was it prophetic ? It seems so, at a time when the BJP is turning the guns of its armed forces against its own people, the Hindus. One cannot think of a greater betrayal. What power does to people….

Michel de Nostre-Dame, better known as Nostradamus (1503-1566), was a famous French astrologer whose predictions - which included the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, or the premature death of the previous Pope - have proved infallibly accurate.

Last month, unpublished manuscripts of Nostrodamus have been discovered (and authentified) in an old trunk in the French city of Lyon. Curiously, there are two full pages, which deal at length with India, particularly with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the just concluded elections. We are giving here the first words in Latin, the language which he used, along with a rough translation in English

.
"Politicus Bharatus Janatus Indicus veni grandus est vingtus unus centurus - Congressus oublium est …" The Bharatiya Janata Party will come to dominate India in the beginning of the 21st century, as the Congress, will slowly sink into oblivion. "Malheureusus, duo annum millenium trahisonus idealum est Congressus ressemblum, fautum adoptus est. Electionirium Blanca Madamus attaquum"... Unfortunately, to achieve power, the BJP may gradually forsake most of its idealism and it will not address the real burning changes which India needs to adopt so as to become again a Great Power”.

And Nostradamus goes on to enumerate these changes : "Congressus independantum Blancum copium est; necessarus changum indianus cumum facus est"… As the Congress had heavily borrowed from the White Man (British ?) at Independence, it will become necessary to "Indianize" the nation so that it may manifest again its true unique soul. "Panchayatum villagum empruntus. Sanskritus introdum est. Historicum ecritum manus, daemonus est. Yogum, respirationnus introdum est…" Give back the power to the villages in the form of Panchayat. Reintroduce Sanskrit as the national language. Rewrite Indian History, which had mostly been devised by White Masters. Revive ancient traditional systems such as pranayama, yoga, and incorporate them in the education system and everyday life. Change the Constitution so that democracy may not be perverted as it will be

"Malheureusus, secularus montrarus Congressus devenium est, corptionus introdus cancerus est..." Unhappily again, goes on to say Nostradamus, the BJP in its eagerness to prove itself secular (secularus is originally a Latin word), will tend to become like the Congress : corruption, bureaucracy, the VIP plague, the madness of subsidies and the hunger for power, may eat its inner core as a cancer…

And this is Nostradamus’ scoop - if we may say : "Politicus Bharatus Janatus interminum dividus duum et novus politicus formus"… After some time, the Bharatiya Janata Party may split into two. Sincere idealists will form a parallel party which will have as its political platform many of the ideals which the BJP had forsaken. "Indianus pretus reformus est, Grandus nationus manum"… India by that time will be ready for the Big Change and the new party will sweep away the polls and implement these reforms. "Sanskritus savantuus nationalum languus, decentralisum governmentus, aryanus theorum mortuum est, dharmum hinduus devenum. Christianum, Islamus influencum"… Scholars will sit down to modernize and simplify Sanskrit; government will be decentralised; India will strive to form of a federation of SAARC countries; the theory of the Aryan invasion will be proved false and it will be shown that Indian civilisation is at least ten thousand years old and has influenced all great ancient civilisations and religions such as Christianity and even Islam.

And finally : "Aurobindus Ghosus realisum est, Indianum Agus ancientus mortum non est".. And the prophecy of Sri Aurobindo will be fulfilled : "India of the ages is not dead nor has She spoken Her last creative word. And that which She must seek now to awake, is not an anglicised oriental people, docile pupil of the West and doomed to repeat the cycle of the Occident's success and failure, but still the ancient immemorial Shakti recovering Her deepest self, lifting Her head higher towards the supreme source of light and strength and turning to discover the complete meaning and vaster form of Her Dharma".

Toll protest: villagers will get concession, CM

       
Bangalore, May 8 (PTI) Amid persistent protests against
the toll hike on the National Highway leading to international
airport, Chief Minister Siddaramaih today said there will be
concession on toll for villagers within the proximity of the
highway.
        "Toll will be collected at concession rate from villagers
in about 40 km radius, that is Rs 220 per month for any number
of trips they commute," he told reporters here.
     Villagers within a five kilometre radius need not pay any
toll, he said.
        Siddaramaih said service road should be made available for
the sake of local villagers next to tolled road, adding that
he is in touch with Union Minister for Road Transport and
Highways Oscar Fernandes over the toll issue.
     Meanwhile, Karnataka State Lorry Owner's and Agent's
association has called for agitation tomorrow, demanding
rollback of toll hike. They are likely to be joined by taxi
drivers and several pro-Kannada organisations.
        Private taxi drivers and transporters are up in arms
against the nearly four-fold hike on the 22-km stretch of the
elevated road to the Kempegowda International airport but the
increase has been justified by NHAI citing the relevant
provisions under the National Highway Fee (Determination of
Rates and Collection) Rules.
        The toll for a return journey by car or other such
vehicles has been increased from Rs 30 to Rs 115 with effect
from Saturday last. The concessionaire of the public-private
partnership project has been allowed to hike the toll in
accordance with provisions of the agreement with NHAI.
        Both BJP and JDS have protested against the toll hike.
PTI KSU 

BJP accused of politicising youth's killing by ANF

B D Narayankar reports

Bangalore, Apr 26 (PTI) Karnataka Home Minister K J George today accused the BJP of politicising the killing of a youth by Anti-Naxal Force, mistaking him for a Maoist at a checkpost near Sringeri in Chikmagalur district last week.

"The BJP, from day one after we assumed office, has been saying that the law and order situation in the state has collapsed. They are politicising the issue and I needn't respond to their remarks in the killing of the youth by ANF personnel," he told reporters here.

Karnataka BJP General Secretary C T Ravi had alleged that the Congress was indulging in vote-bank politics by portraying the victim, Kabeer, as innocent.

ANF personnel allegedly shot dead Kabeer at Tanikodu check-post on Sringeri-Karkala Road on April 19. According to police, the ANF personnel mistook him for a Maoist.

Asked whether there were any cases against Kabeer earlier for illegally transporting cattle, George said, "It has not come to my notice of the youth having been booked for illegal transportation of cattle. I cannot say anything much on it as I am awaiting CID and Magisterial inquiry into his death."

On BJP's demand that the murder case filed against the ANF personnel who had shot dead Kabeer be withdrawn, George said, "The case was not filed at my behest, but the investigating agency has done so as per existing law."

To a question, George also said he has asked the police officials, including City Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar, to submit a report on cases involving private travel operators cheating Haj and Umrah pilgrims by not providing proper facilities.

Rahul Gandhi is lying to nation on Modi-Adani factor

The Pioneer Writes

By now it must be clear to the Congress that its persistent attack on Mr Narendra Modi over his so-called magnanimity to industrialist Gautam Adani has failed. 

Bharatiya Janata Party spokespersons have pointed out on more than one occasion that the allegation of Mr Modi gifting away land to the Adani Group is false; the land transfer being alluded to happened during Mr Shankersinh Vaghela's regime which was supported by the Congress. Mr Vaghela is today a prominent leader of the Congress. 

Moreover, the other, equally ridiculous charge that Mr Modi gave away the land at one rupee per acre (or hectare, nobody even in the Congress seems to be certain) has not been backed by evidence. Yet, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has made the accusation a pet theme in his election speeches. 

It is not selling — and not the least because his party itself has been accused of promoting crony capitalism through various scams such as the one that involved the awarding of 2G Spectrum licence and coal block allocations to business enterprises without following the due process of law. 

The Congress's emphasis on the ‘Adani factor' perhaps stems from its desperation to deflect the BJP's criticism of the questionable land deals that Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra has been allegedly involved in. Mr Modi has repeatedly raised the matter in his campaign to drive home the point that members of the Nehru-Gandhi family have not just mismanaged the affairs of the country but also engaged in questionable business dealings. 

If, as the Congress alleges, there has been wrongdoing in the Gujarat Government providing land to the Adani Group through dubious means, it should have probed the issue. That never happened, because some allegations sound good to be levelled but not good enough to stand scrutiny. On the other hand, there is anecdotal evidence of Mr Vadra's land deals not being entirely clean. 

The shunting of intrepid IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who initiated a probe into Mr Vadra's deals in Haryana ruled by a Congress Government, is just one indication that all is not clean. There is no point in the Congress pointing to court verdicts that did not maintain petitions against Mr Vadra, because those rulings were on legal technicalities and did not really give a clean chit.

The Congress has been left holding the wrong end of the stick after Mr Modi candidly said in an interview recently that, while he openly lobbied for the State with industrialists, Congress leaders engaged them away from public scrutiny because they had dark secrets to hide. 

The question, therefore, is not whether a politician is close to the corporate world. It's whether those engagements are for the larger good of the people or to promote self-interests. 

Allegations that Mr Modi has been close to corporate India does not end with Mr Adani. Are we to believe the silly charge that corporates have been bought over lock, stock and barrel, by the prime ministerial candidate? Obviously, the Congress and other rivals of Mr Modi are on the wrong track. They must have realised it by now. But perhaps it's too late for them to change their strategy. Or maybe they just do not have anything substantial to hurl at Mr Modi.

Govt to go ahead with formation of new taluks: Karnataka Minister

B D Narayankar reports

Bangalore, April 23 (PTI) Karnataka government has decided to go ahead with the proposal of the previous BJP regime on formation of new taluks, Revenue Minister V Srinivas Prasad said today. 

"We have not dropped the proposal made by the previousJagadish Shettar government on formation of new taluks. We will go ahead to form new taluks," he told reporters here. 

As the principal opposition, Congress had criticised the then BJP government's decision on carving out new taluks, terming it as part of the "election strategy" to woo the electorate during the May 2013 State Assembly elections. 

Government will also consider forming more new taluks apart from 43 new ones proposed by the Shettar government, Prasad said. 

"We have received several new proposals on carving out new taluks from the existing ones," he said. 

"The move is aimed at ensuring effective delivery of public services," he added. Karnataka has 220 taluks. 

Prasad however said before announcing new taluks the Siddaramaiah government wants to put in place basic facilities to taluk administration. 

Government would provide Rs 326 crore assistance to farmers for replanting horticultural crops hit by untimely rains and hailstorms early this month in the state, he said. 

"We have decided to give Rs 40,000 per hectare assistance to farmers, especially in Bagalkot and Bijapur areas, who have been hit by untimely rains and hailstorms. The amount is more than what the Maharashtra government has announced, Rs 25,000 per hectare," he said. 

Government would utilise the fund released from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to compensate farmers and others who had suffered crop and property loss, owing to hailstorm. 

The hailstorm had damaged rabi crops, including wheat, pulses, oilseeds and horticultural crops in over two lakh hectares in Yadagir, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Raichur, Koppal, Tumkur and Chitradurga districts. 

Government had submitted a memorandum to a central study team, which toured the state in March and appealed to the Centre to calculate the financial assistance on the basis of the extent of loss, Prasad said.

Modi wave sweeps the turncoats - Arnab, Pranoy and others

Gautam Mukherjee  writes

As it becomes increasingly clear that the next Government will in all probability be a BJP-led NDA regime, much of the mainstream English Press can be seen discarding its long-held, pro-Congress tilt

The latest poll from the NDTV stable has produced a clear majority, with 275 seats for the BJP-led NDA for the very first time. The BJP, by itself, is seen to be bagging 226 of them. This showing underlines the efficacy of a long and arduously run campaign by the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

The Congress and its friends laughed at his early efforts for many months before realising that he was on his way to turfing them out, that he meant every word of his dream of a Congress- Mukt Bharat. They laughed again and hurled insults when Mr Modi and party president Rajnath Singh announced Mission 272. And even harder when the duo revised it to 300 and then to 325.

But, as the opinion polls started reflecting a BJP/NDA success, they stopped laughing long enough to pour scorn on the polls themselves. And now, the ruling Gandhis, mother, son, and daughter, in an utter state of panic, are spewing venom in a King Canute-like effort to stop the Modi wave.

This latest poll, however means, given possible additional joiners, such as the AIADMK, the TMC and the BJD in the post-poll stage — all keen on Union Government largesse — that the enhanced NDA could even garner a two-thirds majority.

And if the next Government does command such numbers, it will be much easier for the NDA to get on with the modernisation, development, and enrichment of India, as promised. Mr Modi’s own emphasis on ‘less Government and more governance’ will also be easier to implement.

What a difference this will make in this era of push-and-pull coalitions! In Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure, he had to manage some 40 allies. It is a wonder that Mr Vajpayee managed as well as he did, while still delivering a series of stellar achievements.

But now, we can expect rapid progress when the new Government is formed. The over 800 million strong electorate, in its wisdom, is justifying the faith of the founding fathers in universal franchise and democracy once again. We are to have a strong and stable Government.

Having said all this, more than a few people are a little suspicious of an NDTV commissioned poll showing such good news for the NDA. The polls, being conducted on a monthly basis for the channel, are showing ever better tallies, indeed the very best among similar polls, conducted by others alongside. But given NDTV’s widely perceived bias towards the Congress, these poll results, and the even tone and tenor in their exposition, is somewhat surprising. Could there be such a thing as objectivity dawning after all, or is this yet another kind of political compulsion?

Of course, it is possible that NDTV’s owner, economist and psephologist Prannoy Roy, who came to public notice as a poll analyst first in the Doordarshan era, may be for real.

He may not, after all, want to subvert his ‘first love’ with false and motivated figures. Why would he do that, if that is what he is up to? Would it be to lull the BJP into a sense of complacency in the slog overs of the last month of polling? Would it be to curry favour with the incoming new dispensation, given the parlous state of NDTV’s finances?

When a detractor turns into an overnight friend, spouting apparent ‘objectivity’, it is a little worrying. But then NDTV and its leading faces are not alone in the perceptible makeover in the last couple of months. It is becoming increasingly clear that Congress and its allies, or indeed the vaporous Third Front, will not be forming the next Government.

Mr Roy’s NDTV, celebrating 25 years of existence, is not alone in being financially stretched, and at least partially dependent on Government favour. But, given his poll results, Mr Roy may have to call in his top people, besides sundry others down the line, and tell them to go easy on their anti-BJP rhetoric going forward.

While the biased reportage is pervasive in the print media too, at the moment let us talk of a few of the leading television news channels where the election fever is playing out fast and furious.

A similar Congress-leaning worldview has long been evident in CNN-IBN, with both its top anchors having a tough time not trashing the BJP at every instance. And oddly, this has continued even after Mr Mukesh Ambani bought in substantially into the cash-strapped TV 18 group. Perhaps it is a habit difficult to change. Putative owner Raghav Bahl, however, continues to be civilised, avuncular and even-handed, as always. He wasn’t trained in NDTV, and this might be why he can see events without the usual jaundice.

A shift is becoming evident in the Time of India group’s Times Now too, though star anchor Arnab Goswami himself  has been maverick and courageous enough to keep his own brand equity credible over time. But this cannot be said about some of his helpers. Most, like himself, were, once again, schooled in the crucible of NDTV, then the only game in town. India Today-owned AajTak and Headlines Today, also prominently manned by ex-NDTV personnel, suffers the same malaise. And the ownership is also more or less pro-Congress. They too are now seen to be moderating their stance towards the BJP/NDA and Mr Modi.

Nothing it seems, succeeds like anticipated success. Secularism as a concept may be in for a revision, from its ‘pseudo-secular’ avatar to the level-playing field version according to the BJP/NDA.

And all talk of the post-Godhra violence being a defining frame in which to view Mr Modi, may soon fall into politically correct disuse, just as the myriad riots and deaths under Congress rule in different parts off the country, including Gujarat, never seem to dent its ‘secular’ credentials today. They are, in fact, rarely allowed on the table as points of comparison.

The Congress propagandist rant about it being a collective decision-maker, when it is actually run with an iron fist by a semi-literate first family, has had ruinous consequences for the nation. The public does not believe in it anymore, and books by former officials are nailing the lies in plain sight. There is yet another one, by the former Comptroller and Auditor-General, coming up after the election.

Conversely, the BJP’s pitch, made tirelessly by the charismatic and sincere Mr Modi, has struck a chord with the voting public. The BJP, from being  branded ‘communal’, ‘untouchable’ and ‘fascist’ by the Congress and its helpful publicists, is now on the cusp of leading the nation forward into an exciting new direction.