Hindustan Times
How Maya would have handled Kunda?
What’s going on in the country? A cop gets killed in Kunda, cops bash up a woman in Punjab even as a tiny girl gets raped in Delhi. The law and order situation has nose-dived and some states, including Uttar Pradesh, are notoriously in the lead.
That reminds me of the old saying: “What you sow is what you reap.” It was not without reason that the media had, on the day of the oath-taking ceremony, criticised the induction of Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya in the Akhilesh cabinet. He was already facing two CBI probes and will be facing one more now. But Raja Bhaiya is not known for fearing jail terms and facing CBI investigations.
A highly-obliged Mulayam, whom Raja Bhaiya had helped form the government in 2003, ignored his blood-curdling track-record while appointing him minister in his son’s maiden cabinet. That his terror transcends Kunda boundaries was quite palpable in the Vidhan Sabha with even the Opposition refraining from making direct attacks on him.
But then it’s not Raja Bhaiya alone. Many others of his ilk have been rewarded with ministerial berths for bringing the Samajwadi Party to power. The fact is winning the elections and running the government are like two ends of a see-saw, which rarely balances on the central fulcrum. The casualty, as always is governance and the image of the government.
Mayawati who ruled the state five years since 2012 somehow established herself as an administrator. From her style of functioning as CM I have been thinking as to what would have she done that Akhilesh failed to do.
He has taken Raja’s resignation, he has ordered a CBI probe and he has also met the bereaved family members with cheques of Rs. 50 lakh as against their demand for a crore with a commitment to fulfil their eight-point charter of demands. Still there are many who feel Maya would have acted firmly.
Perhaps yes. One she would have sacked the minister instead of accepting his resignation. Second she would have got him arrested before handing over the investigations to the CBI.
But she would not have visited Deoria to meet the family members as Akhilesh did despite the security concerns of the administration. As we are told many BSP workers had penetrated into the crowds and raised the tempers in a narrow lane where the family lived in Deoria. Mobs rarely act on reasoning.
She would not have thought of dividing the compensation amount between the parents and wife of the slain cop. A senior officer told me this was done to ensure that the cop’s old parents also got some compensation. In the officer’s words, ‘ Often parents are left with family album while others move on in their lives.’
I really don’t know if the dispute should be over handling of the incident or expunging criminals from the political system. Raja symbolized Goonda Raj, he may or may not go to jail but if there can be a lasting solution, then it is checking the entry of criminals into the political system and for this all political parties will have to come on board and accept the recommendation of the Election Commission.
(6 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
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Sujata Anandan Reply:
December 22nd, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Hi Kushagraha,
Lovely to catch up with you again. Of course, I remember we met at Surat and had an interesting conversation.
Vir is right when he says riots always consolidate vote banks. Gujarat was no different/ The difference was not just that Modi has done a hat trick but that the government was involved in the riots and given this year’s results it worries me that the Hindutva vs secular votebank in Gujarat could have stratified — 60 per cent to Modi, 40 to Congress. For I have never known another election where each side made neither any gains nor any losses in five years. Usuawlly does not happen at least in Indian democracy. This would mean that Modi would keep winning with those 60 pc and the deprived would be increasingly marginalised. That is extremely worrying. alos because if the situation continues as it does we could have another vlood bath, this time engineered by Modi ’s opponents and that is not godd for democracy either.
But when I travelled through Gujarat I was suprised by how many voices are raised against Modi — which we cannot get a sense of from our drawing room sitting before tv sets, and something will have to give somewhere. Lets hope it wilkl be expressed peacefully through the ballot and not the bullet. I am not disappointed. I think the process has begun given Modi got two seats less despite having everything the Congress did nt have. The next elections should be interesting.
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Kushagra Bhatnagar Reply:
December 23rd, 2012 at 11:34 am
I agree with you. It appears two neat blocks of voters exist
in Gujarat and currently the numbers in block favouring Modi outnumbers its counterpart’s. Its potentially a
dangerous situation for as you rightly pointed is prone to manipulation by the other side with violent results.
But do you reckon parties who claim to be secular would actually go about engineering violence?
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