Archives for May 2018

The Chandigarh International Airport was closed for all air traffic on Saturday until May 31 to carry out runway expansion and repairs, officials said here.

“No civil and military flights will operate from Chandigarh from May 12 to May 31,” a Chandigarh International Airport Ltd (Chial) spokesman said.

The 20-day closure would affect over 100,000 passengers, especially during the summer vacation season.

This is the second phase of runway repair. It involves improvements and extension of runway ends from the existing 9,000 to 10,400 feet.

The first phase was carried out from February 12 to 26.

The expansion would enable operation of wide-bodied aircraft that will help air carriers to connect Chandigarh with destinations in Europe, the US and Australia.

The airport is a frontier base for the Indian Air Force (IAF) which has a transport unit based here catering to the forward areas in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly the Ladakh region.

During the closure, the IAF has relocated all its aircraft to other bases in north India.

The Chandigarh base was established in 1961 as a major air logistics node of Indian troops deployed in Jammu and Kashmir.

It is home to fighter squadrons deployed for the air defence of the Punjab sector. With time, the base grew in size and operated heavy and medium lift air mobility aircraft like the AN-12, AN-32, IL-76, Mi-26 and C-17 Globe Master, a Defence Ministry spokesman said.

The Chandigarh airport handles nearly 30 commercial flights daily, including those to Dubai, Sharjah and Bangkok. The city is linked to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Srinagar, Jaipur and a few other cities in the domestic circuit.

Irrespective of the outcome of the Karnataka elections and notwithstanding Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s desire to retire after the polls, a feature of the contest in the southern state is his emergence as a major state-level leader.

As a result, the battle is being perceived as being mainly between Siddaramaiah and Narendra Modi if only because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief ministerial candidate, B.S. Yeddyurappa, has been almost completely overshadowed by the Prime Minister’s intensive campaign since May 1.

In contrast, Siddaramaiah has kept pace with Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s electioneering with both public appearances and a regular recourse to tweets which are characterised by humour as well as biting sarcasm.

For the Congress, this rise of a regional leader marks a return to the immediate post-1947 period when the party had a number of top-ranking local leaders despite the presence of towering personalities at the Centre like Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and others.

The co-existence of influential leaders at both the Centre and in the states gave way in Indira Gandhi’s time to a concentration of power in Delhi with the regional leaders reduced to being mere supplicants rather than representing considerable authority as, for instance, B.C. Roy once did in West Bengal or Pratap Singh Kairon in Punjab or Govind Ballabh Pant in Uttar Pradesh or Morarji Desai in Bombay.

The reason for the marginalisation of the regional leaders was largely ascribed to Indira Gandhi’s disinclination to allow any charismatic local Congressman to acquire a sizable base in his home province and become a rival centre of power.

The diminution of the stature of local leaders was accompanied by the increasing dominance of the party’s first family, which reached its highest point during the Emergency when Indira was deemed synonymous with India by the Congress president, D.K. Barooah.

Arguably, this pattern of politics with only one focal point has begun to change in the Congress. The first sign of this transformation was in Punjab last year where Amrinder Singh emerged as the No.1 figure both before and after the party’s electoral success. That he did so despite having once made disparaging remarks about Rahul Gandhi showed how the “high command” had matured since Indira Gandhi’s time or had come to terms with its own diminishing status.

Now, the battle in Karnataka has given an opportunity to Siddaramaiah to acquire a stature similar to Amrinder Singh’s. Moreover, there is no tension this time between Delhi and Bengaluru as in Punjab earlier when there was even speculation about Amrinder Singh leaving the Congress.

It will be futile to deny that the increasing visibility of the state-level leaders is related to the dimming of the dynasty’s aura. At the same time, the BJP’s ascendency has apparently made the Congress realise that the earlier style of politics with a concentration of power at the Centre will not work.

Just as the Congress is trying to change the perception of being a “Muslim party”, to use Sonia Gandhi’s words, it is also becoming accustomed to the idea of giving a free hand to the local satraps. The leeway given to Amrinder Singh was the first step and now it is Siddaramaiah’s turn to operate as he pleases.

It goes without saying that this new approach will do a world of good to the party. Fortunately, it has in Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia young, personable and energetic leaders in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh who are capable of delivering the goods in the assembly elections later this year.

It is the Congress’s misfortune that several prominent state leaders like Y.S. Rajshekara Reddy, Madhavrao Scindia and Rajesh Pilot died early. Otherwise, the process of a more even distribution of power between the Centre and the states might have begun earlier.

At the moment, the party is trying to evolve a balance between the younger generation and the elderly leaders if only to make the handing over of the baton a smooth affair. Nowhere is this effort more evident than in Madhya Pradesh where the party has always had more than a normal share of heavyweights.

Thus, the 71-year-old Kamal Nath, who was once close to Sanjay Gandhi, has been nominated as the party’s chief in the state while 47-year-old Scindia has become the head of the campaign committee. What this balancing act means is that the question of who will become the Chief Minister in case the Congress wins has been left open.

It is the same in Rajasthan since the former Chief Minister, 68-year-old Ashok Gehlot, has been elevated to the position of a General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of the organisation and the training of cadres while the 51-year-old Sachin Pilot remains the chief of the party’s state unit.

There is little doubt, however, that the generational shift evident in Rahul Gandhi’s ascent to the Congress president’s post is paving the way for the younger leaders to gain more prominence. But it remains to be seen whether their rise will put an end to the unequal relations as in Indira Gandhi’s time between the high command and the state units.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday encouraged the people of Karnataka, particularly youths, to come out and cast their votes in large numbers in the assembly election.

“Urging my sisters and brothers of Karnataka to vote in large numbers today. I would particularly like to call upon young voters to vote and enrich this festival of democracy with their participation,” Modi tweeted before the election began at 7 a.m.

Gandhi, in his tweet in Kannada, also urged the voters to participate in the election for the state’s 15th Legislative Assembly where the three major contesting parties are Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular).

“The voter turnout is a sign of dynamic democracy. I welcome all my young friends who are voting for the first time in Karnataka. People from Karnataka will be able to celebrate the largest festival of democracy with a great number of celebrations,” Gandhi tweeted.

A total of 15.42 lakh voters, aged 18-19, have registered to cast their ballot for the first time. Over 5.06-crore electorate, including 2.56-crore men, 2.5-crore women and over 5,000 who identify themselves as the third gender are exercising their franchise.

Voting in 222 of 224 constituencies in state will continue till 6 p.m. and the result will be declared on May 15.

Voting began on Saturday on a brisk note across Karnataka to elect its 15th Legislative Assembly for a five-year term.

“Peaceful polling is being held in 222 of the 224 constituencies, including 36 segments reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC), 15 for Scheduled Tribes (ST) under tight security,” an official told IANS here.

Denizens of Bengaluru were seen lined up outside polling booths from 6.30 a.m. to beat the rush in casting their ballots as voting began at 7 a.m.

Polling in Bengaluru’s Raja Rajeshwari (RR) Nagar segment has been postponed to May 28 following the voter ID cards case and countermanded in the city’s Jayanagar seat following the death of BJP contestant B.N. Vijaya Kumar on May 4.

In all, voting is being conducted across 26 of the 28 constituencies in the city.

During the initial hour of voting, there were reports of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) malfunctioning in some booths; power crisis in a polling station in Rajajinagar seat; voters names missing at few booths and women clad in burqa made to reveal their faces at a Belagavi polling booth — that led to a few hiccups.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Chief Ministerial face B.S. Yeddyurappa was among the first to cast his vote in Shikaripura segment in Shivamogga district of Malnad region.

The state has over 5.06-crore electorate, including 2.56-crore men, 2.5-crore women and over 5,000 who identify themselves as the third gender.

A total of 15.42 lakh voters, aged 18-19, have registered to cast their ballot for the first time.

Voting is being held in 58,008 polling stations of 30 districts across the state, with 600 of them as pink booths, manned by all-women personnel, and 28 ethnic booths.

Over 1.5 lakh personnel have been stationed across the state for the election, with paramilitary forces from 585 state and central companies at 20,826 polling booths, including 12,001 critical booths.

Voting will continue till 6 p.m. and votes will be counted on May 15.