Archives for 2019

Bengaluru, May 28 : In its efforts to save the one-year-old JD(S)-Congress coalition government, which is facing severe crisis following setback it eceived in the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka AICC president Rahul Gandhi has decided to depute a Central party team to assist the State Congress leaders to hammer out the solutions.
According to KPCC sources, the former Union minister and the leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Gulam Nabi Azad and the Party in-charge for Karnataka K C Venugopal, are arriving on Tuesday and join the Congress leaders, in working out strategies to stave off any threat to the stability of the Coalition government.
The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had registered a stellar performance in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections bagging as many as 25 seats out of the total number of 28, is making all efforts to wean away the dissident Congress and the JD(S) MLAs to its side and topple the Alliance government.
Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief minister Dr G Parameshwara and former Chief minister Siddaramaiah held series of meetings earlier in their bid to save the coalition government, and are in constant touch with the dissident Congress MLAs, and pursuing them not to desert the party and save the government.
According to party sources, the state Congress leaders, have reportedly offered them to give them a berth in the state cabinet, by filling about three vacancies as well as accommodating more of them during the cabinet reshuffle.
Former Chief minister Siddaramaiah had confirmed that there will be all possibilities of filling of vacancies as well as reshuffling of the cabinet, paving way to include more number of disgruntled MLAs, to the Council of ministers.
The much needed cabinet reshuffle is expected to take place in the first week of June in which several ministers would opt out from the cabinet to make way to others, the sources said.
It may be recalled that in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly the Opposition BJP has a strength of 105 members, is making all efforts to reach the number that makes the majority, and topple the JD(S)-Congress coalition government, which is enjoying the strength of 119 members including two Independents and a BSP member.

After landslide victory India’s PM reaches out to Muslims, who fear they will continue to be target of Hindu hardliners.

New Delhi, India – Days after returning to power with a resounding mandate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck a conciliatory tone by saying his party needed to win the trust of Muslims – the country’s largest minority. 

Modi led his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a landslide win on the back of a divisive campaign that ostensibly targeted Muslims. 

The Indian prime minister said that the opposition parties “deceived minorities” by not addressing their basic needs such as healthcare and education. 

“Due to vote bank politics, minorities were crushed, boxed into a corner, subjected to imaginary fears, and exploited during the elections,” he said addressing the newly elected parliamentarians. 

But Asaduddin Owaisi, one of India’s most prominent Muslim leaders, was not impressed by Modi’s apparent minority outreach. 

“Just hours after the results were declared, Muslims were publicly attacked in many places by those celebrating Modi’s victory,” Owasi, the president of the All India Majlis-e-ittadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party, told Al Jazeera.

Since the BJP won the election last week, at least five incidences of hates crimes have been recorded.

In Madhya Pradesh state, three Muslims, including a woman, were badly beaten by a mob on the suspicion of carrying beef.

On Sunday, a Muslim man was attacked in Gurugram, a suburb of Delhi. He was stripped of his prayer cap and made to shout slogans in praise of Hindu gods.

Stop lynchings

Owaisi told local media that if Modi cared about Muslims, then he should stop cow vigilantes from lynching Muslims.

In the past five years of Modi’s rule, 44 people have been lynched, most of them Muslims, by cow vigilantes, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

The BJP stoked fear among Hindus of potential Muslim threat, with campaigning raising divisive issues such as construction of a temple in place of a demolished mosque, and change in citizenship law to bar Muslims.

Author and senior journalist Saeed Naqvi said that religious polarisation was the main key to the BJP’s success.

“Such polarisation was last seen during the partition of India and Pakistan,” Naqvi told Al Jazeera, referring to the 1947 division of the Indian subcontinent to form the Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu majority India. 

Naqvi, the author of “Being the Other: The Muslim in India”, said the partition marked the beginning of the “Hindu project, which has now come of age”.READ MORE

Q&A: ‘India is heading towards a full ethnic democracy’

“With the election verdict, the majority Hindus have given vent to their unfulfilled aspiration for a Hindu India. This process is only going to intensify in the coming decades.” 

More than a million people were killed during the partition and 17 million people were displaced in one of the worst tragedies of modern times.

Kashmir and Assam

Parvez Imroz from India-administered Kashmir and Aman Wadud from Assam, both human rights lawyers, fear that Muslims in their states will be the first to bear the brunt of the BJP’s Hindu supremacist agenda.

The BJP adopted national security as one of their main poll planks after a suicide attack in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian security forces in February.

In Assam, the BJP based its campaign on the promise that it will rid the state of undocumented Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, while promising to keep the Hindu immigrants in contravention of India’s secular constitution.

BJP president Amit Shah had referred to Bangladeshi immigrants as “termites” and “infiltrators” during the poll campaign, a statement that a BJP spokesperson defended in an Al Jazeera programme.

Muslims form one-third of Assam population but their citizenship has always been suspected. A Supreme Court monitored body published a draft list of citizens last year, leaving out nearly four million people.

Wadud feels the election mandate will further embolden the BJP to execute its vision of an Assam free of Bengali Muslims.

“Of the four million people left out of NRC, we can expect Muslims to be arbitrarily left out of the final list and stripped of all basic entitlements such as healthcare, education and voting rights,” he said.

“Now, there’s nothing stopping the BJP.

Narendra Modi: The making of a majoritarian leader

For Imroz, Modi’s victory has raised fears among Kashmiris that the BJP will abolish articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution, which provide special safeguards to the disputed region administered by India.

Kashmir has witnessed an armed rebellion since late 1980s during which more than 60,000 civilians have been killed. India has stationed nearly half a million forces to fight the rebels, who either want independence or merger of Muslim-majority region with Pakistan.

‘Working class hero’

He warned that repealing those safeguards will trigger a massive uprising in Kashmir and “radicalise” even those sections of Kashmiris, who have so far stayed clear of politics.

“Going by past record, we can expect the resistance to be met with more brutal military repression,” said Imroz.

“India under Modi has been adopting methods used by Israel in Palestine. There’s also growing proximity between the two nations. The question in Kashmir is: will India follow Israel’s footsteps in ignoring international opinion?”

Professor Sumeet Mhaskar of Jindal School of Government and Public Policy sought to downplay the influence of Hindutva (Hindu supremacy) on people’s minds.

Don’t back politics that divides: Indian scientists urge voters

“It is incorrect to say people have suddenly turned right and sanctioned the purge of Muslims. There is an element of that, but this is not a purely ideological mandate,” he said.

Mhaskar, an expert on unorganised labour and anti-caste politics, said the lower castes, who form the bulk of the unorganised workforce, voted overwhelmingly in favour of the BJP. The party, he said, has been extremely successful in projecting Modi as a working class hero.

The BJP campaign played up Modi’s identity as a leader from the backward castes (OBC), an ordinary tea-seller and watchman. This, Mhaskar said, was a powerful tug on the emotions of the lower caste voters, who form the biggest chunk of the Indian electorate.

Mhaskar said that the BJP captured the imagination of lowered castes, who were traditionally on the fringes of Hindu society, by promoting the vision of a new Hindu nation, united against Muslims, in which even an OBC and former tea seller can become the prime minister.

“This vision of political Hindusim, which is known as Hindutva, is very different from ritual or religious Hinduism in which one’s profession is decided at birth by divine decree,” he said.

Aljazeera

Bengaluru, May 28 : In an attempt to win the confidence of the dissident Congress MLAs, Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy met them individually and pursued them not to fell prey to the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s game plan to topple the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in the state.
Chief minister met the Congress MLA form Belagavi district Mahesh Kaujalagi, a close associate of the dissident Cognress MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi, and closeted with him for an hour on Tuesday.
According to official sources, Chief minister, while appealing the Congress MLA, not to take a step that may threaten the stability of the coalition government, also assured him to take care of the development of his Bailahongal Assembly constituency.
Chief minister had also met another Congress MLA, V Muniyappa, who is representing the Shidlaghatta and discussed about the political situation after the Lok Sabha poll. Among others, Chief minister had also agreed to release sufficient funds to the MLAs’ constituency which is reeling under severe bout of drought conditions.
Kumaraswamy also met Umesh Kumatalli, another dissident Congress MLA, on Monday and pursued him not to make anything to rock the coalition boat.
The Chief minister, who held the meeting with the Dissident Congress MLAs, had also met the independent MLA from Mulbagal in Kolar district, Nagesh, who is nursing ambition to get a berth in the state cabinet.
Later speaking to newsmen, Nagesh informed that he had staked claim to a berth in the state cabinet and conveyed not to take any post of Boards and Corporations.
Meanwhile, another Congress MLA, Dr Ajay Singh, had also claimed a berth in the state cabinet.
Speaking to newsmen after meeting party leaders, had said that “It seems that the dissident Congress MLAs, are getting more focus to induct into the cabinet, however I have appealed to consider the names of Party Loyalists to the coveted posts”.

Actor-turned-politician, superstar Rajinikanth on Tuesday heaped praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that “India needs a charismatic leader” like him. “Modi is a charismatic leader who has single-handedly ensured victory. After Vajpayee, I see Modi as the other stalwart leader in India. 

On reports that Nitin Gadkari said the actor will join the BJP, he said, “I agreed with Nitin Gadkari on the inter-linking the Godavari-Krishna-Kaveri rivers to solve the water problem here.” He also said that he believes the first and foremost expectation from the NDA government for Tamil Nadu is access to clean drinking water.

“There was a pro-Modi wave in the country, barring Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In Tamil Nadu, there was no Modi wave. Anyone who swims against the tide will sink. NDA has to take Tamil Nadu seriously. They have come forward with very good projects, especially the linking of rivers,” the superstar said.

He also congratulated his fellow colleague from the Tamil film industry, Kamal Haasan, and congratulated him for securing 4% vote share in his first parliamentary elections.

On Congress, the Thalaiva of filmdom said that it is difficult to handle the grand old party.

“It is very difficult to handle the Congress party. It is an age-old party. As a youngster, it is very difficult to handle the senior-most people in Congress. As per my observation, the senior leaders are not cooperative, they haven’t worked hard… However, Rahul Gandhi should not resign, he has to stand firm and lead the party. Opposition should be strong. Our ruling party is strong and I expect the same from the Opposition as well. 

Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan were among the first invitees for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in at Rashtrapati Bhavan on May 30.

Agencies

Bengaluru, May 28 : Opposition leader in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly B S Yeddyurappa, who is also BJP State President, today underlined that “there is no need to be anxious over Cauvery River Authority, Order to the State government to release 9 tmc ft of water from river Cauvery to Tamil Nadu”.
Reacting to the Tribunal direction, Yeddyurappa told newsmen here on Tuesday that “there is no immediate need to release water from KRS as the tribunal is very clear that the water has to be released only when there is increase in the inflow of water in the south west monsoon, expected next month.”
“If the water inflow into the KRS does not increase then there is no need to release. Hence there is no immediate threat to the State,” he added.
At present the inflow into KRS is only 137 cusecs and it is expected to increase once the South West Monsoon sets in.
Newly elected Congress MP D K Suresh, brother of Minister D K Shivakumar, said that “the Tribunal has taken one sided decision since there is no water for drinking purpose and when such is the situation how can it be possible
to release when the State is facing severe drought condition.”
Former MP and Cauvery Hitha Rakishana Vedike leader G T Madegowda, who is spearheading the agitation, strongly condemning the Tribunal direction warned the State government against releasing water to Tamil Nadu and threatened to launch Statewide agitation.
Members of Farmers Association have decided to stage agitation in Mandya against the Tribunal direction.