In the final lap of his campaign blitz in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a sharp attack against Congress President Rahul Gandhi, saying a “dynast” aspiring to be the Prime Minister was sheer “arrogance”.

Addressing back-to-back rallies at different places in the southern state, which votes on Saturday to elect a new government, Modi said Congress leaders were arranging big meetings and conspiring to remove him.

Taking a swipe at Gandhi, Modi said he was day-dreaming of becoming the Prime Minister in 2019.

“There is a leader of Congress who thinks only about one thing throughout the day – how to be the Prime Minister. Such is the arrogance of the ‘naamdhaar’. This naamdhaar (dynast) doesn’t care about others who are standing in the queue.

“He came like a bully, marched his way ahead when there were others waiting with so many years of experience. How can someone just declare himself the Prime Minister? This is simply nothing but sheer arrogance.”

He said Gandhi with an “inflated ego despite losing 25-30 elections in the last four years” didn’t even bother about the leaders who have been waiting for 40 years and about other allies in the UPA.

“The Congress has lost in almost all the states in the last four years. But the ego of the ‘naamdhaar’ is still bloated. He says he will become the Prime Minister in 2019. Isn’t this his ego?”

During an interaction with prominent citizens in Bengaluru on Tuesday, the Congress President had replied in the affirmative when he was asked if he was ready to be India’s Prime Minister if the Congress emerges as the largest party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress hit back at Modi asking him if he thought he was the only one who had the right to be Prime Minister.

“Is Narendra Modi the only one with the right to be the Prime Minister?” Congress spokesman Anand Sharma asked.

Modi also accused the Congress, which has been in power in Karnataka for the last five years, of not doing justice with the aspirations of the people of the state and instead bringing six evils — “Congress culture, communalism, casteism, crime, corruption and contract system” — to the country.

He said Congress leaders were out on bail in a Rs 5,000 crore scam and had “absolutely no respect for many of our prominent institutions like the Election Commission, CBI, Army, Enforcement Director or Vice President’s office.

“The Congress has been on a spree to disrespect and belittle these great institutions,” Modi said, adding that they were were now questioning the judiciary and even calling for impeachment of the Chief Justice of India.

The Prime Minister also attacked his predecessor Manmohan Singh, who on Monday criticized the BJP government for its “disastrous policies” and “economic mismanagement”, leaving the country with crises that were avoidable.

“When Manmohan Singh had his government in the Centre, the remote control was at 10, Janpath (official residence of former Congress President Sonia Gandhi),” he said.

Under his rule, Modi said, it were the people who held the remote control.

The Prime Minister said he would continue to follow the orders of the “high command” — the countrymen, the citizens.

on Wednesday sought a report from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the twin political murders that took place in and around the state’s Kannur district.

On Monday late night, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) member K. Babu, 47, was slashed with swords by suspected Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists in Mahe, a three sq km area which is part of Puducherry, but comes within the state, and borders Kannur.

Less than an hour later, Shanoj, 36, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist, was attacked with knives in Kannur and died in a hospital. Police said CPI-M workers could be behind the attack.

According to informed sources, Sathasivam has asked Vijayan to include the action taken report, also, as there were reports of violence breaking out in certain parts of Mahe on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Kerala police chief Loknath Behra and his Puducherry counterpart Sunil Kumar Gautam met in Thalassery, near Kannur, to discuss the case as investigating the murder in Mahe is the responsibility of Puducherry police.

“We had a meeting with the Kerala police chief and the probe has begun, with our team doing it,” Gautham told the media.

Behra said: “We had a discussion on the incident and we have decided to cooperate to probe the case. We are sure that very soon the accused will be arrested.”

Kannur district, which is the home district of Vijayan, has always been a sensitive area politically and has seen 13 political murders after he assumed office in 2016.

Out of these, in eight cases, CPI-M workers have been named as accused while in four, it is those of the BJP-RSS. In one case, workers of the Social Democratic Party of India are the accused.

The second-largest constituent of the ruling Left Democratic Alliance – the Communist Party of India on Wednesday expressed concern on what is happening.

CPI State Secretary Kanam Rajendran said that even though several all party meetings have taken place, the situation again turns bad after a while.

“In the past four months, four political murders have taken place.. this is a cause of concern and the state government should act,” he said.

A Karnataka political analyst, Sandeep Shastri, has perhaps hit the nail on the head with his pithy observation that while Modi is relying on the BJP’s “pan-India nationalism (sic!)” to determine the outcome of the coming state assembly elections in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah has “strategically attempted to steer the issue away by privileging the local”. That, I believe, is the fundamental reason why it looks as if the Congress will triumph. The two “local issues” are both related to water: the Mahadayi in north-western Karnataka (Bombay Karnataka) and the Cauvery (Kaveri) in the southern reaches of the state.

The BJP is caught on a cleft stick on the Mahadayi (known as the Mandovi in Goa). Nearly four decades ago, the Karnataka government sought an answer to the severe drinking water and irrigation problems of the drought-ridden and perennially thirsty districts of of Belgavi (Belgaum), Vijaypura (Bijapur), Gadag, Haveri, Bagalkot and Dharwad, in addition to the twin cities of Hubbali (Hubli)-Dharwad, by proposing to link two tributaries of the Mahadayi river, Kalasa and Banduri, to divert some 7.56 tmc from the Mahadayi to the Malaprabha river. Ironically, it was the Vajpayee government at the centre that cleared the project in 2002.

The Goa government protested that this would cause “huge ecological imbalance” in Goa and damage the “fragile eco-system of the Western Ghats”. In consequence, the Mahadayi dispute was referred in 2010 to an inter-state Water Disputes Tribunal headed by Justice JN Panchal. The Tribunal is in the process of winding up oral arguments before going on to finalize its recommendations.
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PM Narendra Modi and state BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa at a farmers’ rally in Davanagere, Karnataka

Instead of letting matters take their quasi-judicial course, Amit Shah started playing political games to strengthen the electoral standing of his party in the forthcoming elections in which the outcome in the state as a whole is going to be substantially determined by who wins the argument over the Mahadayi. Typically, Shah worked out a jumla. After convoking a tripartite meeting between Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, Karnataka BJP leader and former Chief minister BS Yeddyurappa (of Bellary mining scandal infamy), and Shah himself, Parrikar was persuaded to write a letter to Yeddyurappa on December 20, 2017, saying “Goa will not oppose giving water to Karnataka for drinking water needs”.

Like Gogia Pasha producing a rabbit from a hat (“Gillie! Gillie!), Yeddyurappa revealed the letter with a flourish next day. However, only Yeddyurappa was left impressed with his act. Questions immediately started to flow. What, after all, was Parrikar offering in terms of tmc? Why was the settlement being offered only “if the BJP were voted to power”, as stated by Modi in his public addresses in the state. Why not now, especially as the BJP is in office both in Goa and at the centre?

Karnataka’s Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah rubbished the offer as a “violation of federal structure protocol” for why had Parrikar written to an opposition BJP party leader instead of officially to him, as one Chief Minister to another? Siddaramaiah pointedly said he was more than willing to visit Goa to discuss the issue “if invited”, adding that he would meet not only his counterpart but “Goa Congress leaders” too. Equally pointedly, the Goa Chief Minister has not had the courtesy to extend the invitation. He obviously does not have the political will to bail out the BJP in Karnataka by fleshing out the vague wording of his letter to Yeddyurappa. His aim – as was Amit Shah’s and Modi’s – was just to deceive the voters of north-west Karnataka by putting out words without meaning, the special political dirty trick of the Modi-Shah dispensation.
The people of Bombay Karnataka were not deceived. Indeed, they received unsolicited support for their skepticism from a BJP ally, Rakhi Prabhudesai Naik, spokesperson of the Goa Shiv Sena, who demanded, “We have to know who has given the authority to (Amit) Shah, who is from Gujarat, to decide about our water?” She emphasized what the people of Bombay Karnataka knew instantly and instinctively, that “Shah is merely bluffing the people of Karnataka”.

To muddy the waters further, the BJP’s Goa Irrigation Minister, Vinod Palyekar, arrived uninvited to the Kalasa-Banduri area in mid-January this year and uttered what is delicately called an “abusive word” to describe the people of Karnataka. Inevitably, a huge row erupted, with Vatal Nagaraj, a leader of Kannada Okkuta, the umbrella organization of protesting Karnataka groupings, asking to know “what authority” does the Goa minister have “to visit the state to inspect works. Was he asked to do so by the (Mahadayi) tribunal? Or the centre? Or was he invited by the state government?” The Karnataka Irrigation Minister, MB Patil, in effect answered those questions when he weighed in with the acute observation that it was none other than “Parrikar (who) has orchestrated this move”. The BJP tried to minimize the damage caused by “condemning the comments made by the minister” – but stopped short of suspending the man from primary membership of the party (as has happened to someone else we all know!)

The only sane suggestion has come from Rahul Gandhi who, at a public meeting in Hubli on February 26, suggested that the Prime Minister should take the initiative to “bring all the three chief ministers (of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra) together and find a solution to the Mahadayi issue. Don’t make excuses. It’s a drinking water problem, please solve this soon”. This sane, statesmanlike approach has no takers in Lok Kalyan Marg or Deendayal Upadhyaya Marg because the BJP is not interested in solving people’s problems; all they seek is to outwit the common man by offering the sky while digging up the communal grave.

BJP president Amit Shah at an election rally in Karnataka

At the other end of the state, from Talacauvery in south-west Mysuru to Billigundulu in the south-east where the Cauvery enters Tamil Nadu, the dispute has gone on without resolution since 1974 when the previous 50-year Mysore-Madras agreement, negotiated under British auspices, came to an end. In 1990, at Tamil Nadu’s instance, the issue was referred to the Cauvery Waters Disputes Tribunal. It took the tribunal a staggering 16 years to give its final award – an award that was rejected by Karnataka, leading to Tamil Nadu appealing to the Supreme Court under Article 132 of the Constitution. After further years of cogitation, the three-member Supreme Court bench, headed by the Chief Justice, thought it had rendered a Judgement of Solomon to bring the dispute to closure when it reduced Tamil Nadu’s share by 14.6 tmcf and added that to Karnataka’s share while seeking to comfort Tamil Nadu with thought that they (the SC) had declared inter-state rivers to be “national assets” and insisted on the Centre setting up the Cauvery Management Board “within six weeks”.

What was the Judgment of Solomon? When wise King Solomon was confronted with two women claiming to have given birth to the same child, Solomon ordered that the child be sliced in half. One woman agreed, the other tearfully dissented, at which Solomon concluded that the woman in tears who dissented was the true mother because no real mother would agree to her child being sliced in two. In this case, however, both the claimants rejected the slicing of the child Cauvery in the shares ordered by the court. Tamil Nadu refused to see its share reduced and Karnataka says it deserves not 14 tmcf more of Cauvery waters as granted by the SC but 40 tmcf more!

Meanwhile, the centre, in the looming shape of Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari, refuses to be rushed by the Supreme Court’s orders that the Cauvery Management Board and its Water Regulation Committee be set up within six weeks. Although leading farmers’ representatives – S Ranganathan and PR Pandian in Tamil Nadu and the Cauvery Hitaraksha Samiti President G Madegowda in Karnataka – have both welcomed the Supreme Court decision and asked that the uncertainty be ended with each state getting on with what it has received, no political party in either state is willing to accept the Supreme Court’s orders as final and irreversible.

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There was a statewide bandh in Karnataka in January (this year) over the Mahadayi river water sharing dispute

This, of course, suits the Congress fine in Karnataka as the status quo remains, while the BJP is left carrying the can with regard to protecting itself from the censure of the Supreme Court for having failed to carry out its orders to establish the “institutional mechanism” for implementing the court’s directions “within six weeks”.

Thus, on both counts – Mahadayi and Cauvery – Siddaramaiah emerges on top of the political ladder. The BJP can’t win Karnataka, unless it starts stoking communal fires. And that too might backfire on them.

A Congress win in Karnataka in April-May will wipe out memories of the reverses it has suffered in the North-East, and set the stage for overturning BJP governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, as also allow the Congress to retain Mizoram which also goes to the polls in November (although few remember). No wonder Modi is wondering whether to call the general elections in November along with the states going to the polls then in the hope that another Modi Wave might reverse the anti-incumbency wave in these three key BJP-ruled states. On the other hand, Modi would be haunted by the thought of what happened to Vajpayee when he called early elections in 2004. While Modi impales himself on the horns of his dilemma, we’ll all know soon enough which way the pendulum finally swings

The Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar has urged students to come forward and become part of the nationwide Swachhta Mission by participating in “Swachh Bharat Summer Internship- 100 Hours of Swachhata” campaign.

:Swachh Bharat Summer Internship – 100 Hours of Swachhata” – was launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in association with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to engage youth across the country for sanitation related work and village level development.

The program from 1st May to 31st July is aimed to develop the skill and orientation of youth for sanitation related work, bring youth across the country to make a significant contribution to the swachhta revolution and integrate youth in the community service in rural areas in the run up to the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Javadekar has said that Swachh Bharat Programme, launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has now become a people’s movement in the country. In a tweet/video message, Javadekar said that Prime Minister launched Swachh Bharat campaign three years ago and now it has caught the imagination of the public and large numbers of people are participating in it.

The HRD Minister said that now it is turn of the youth to participate in Swachh Bharat Summer Internship by visiting villages for 10 to 15 days during the summer vacation for making clean and dirt free ambiance. He said that this is the self-education and people’s education process to ensure the large scale participation of the people.

Students enrolled in Colleges and Universities may apply in “Swachh Bharat Summer Internship” through the enrolment form. Candidates may participate individually or in teams also. The location and team size may be decided in consultation with Nodal Officers.

After enrollment for the internship through the website, candidates will be accepted as valid only once approved by the Nodal Officer at the Parent Institution. Candidates are to devote at least 100 hours conducting Swachhata-related activities in rural areas selected by them and approved by the parent institution. The last date of registration is 15th May.

An Internship Report to be submitted by the candidate on the online portal in the prescribed format within 15 days of completion of fieldwork. The online report submitted by the candidate shall be reviewed and approved by the Nodal Officer for the purpose of certification and rewards.

All participants will be given a Swachh Bharat Internship Certificate on completion of their internship and its approval by the parent institution. 2 curriculum credits will be given to interns whose internship reports are found eligible to get credits by parent institution. The Best 3 interns/ teams will be recognized at college, university, state and national levels.

The winners will be awarded by Shields / cups and special certificates at College Level:

In addition to certificates, Cash Awards will be given along with appropriate certificates as per the following:

University Level: Rs 30,000, Rs 20,000, Rs 10,000 along with appropriate certificates. State Level: Rs 50,000, Rs 30,000, Rs 20,000 along with appropriate certificates.

National Level: Rs 2 lakh, 1 lakh, Rs 50,000 along with appropriate certificates.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

The Chief Information Commission has directed the Air India to disclose complete records related to bills raised for the foreign visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, underlining that since the expenditure is from the public exchequer it cannot be withheld under the “cloak” of commercial confidence and fiduciary capacity.

The commission rejected the arguments of Air India’s central public information officer (CPIO) that the information relates to commercial confidence and is held by the public sector undertaking in a fiduciary capacity, making it exempt from disclosure.

“Moreover, by no stretch of the imagination, it can be acceptable that the information regarding dates, duration and places of the visit by the PM in his official capacity are exempted u/s sections 8 or 9 of the RTI Act (the exemption clauses),” Information Commissioner Amitava Bhattacharyya ruled.

He said each individual bill, as well as the dates of receipt of amounts, should be disclosed as the same involved “expenditure out of public exchequer”.

Bhattacharyya noted that Air India’s denial to part with the sought for information without citing any exemption clause under the RTI Act is “not acceptable” as a “justifiable denial of information” sought by RTI applicant Lokesh Batra.

“CPIO (Air India) on one hand claimed that the sought for information is related to a matter of commercial confidence and on the other hand he stated that the information sought for is maintained by Air India in a fiduciary capacity,” he observed.

Batra had sought to know dates, durations, places visited and the date-wise copies of bills raised by Air India to the PMO for 2016-17.

“The commission after close scrutiny of the information sought by the appellant observed that dates, duration and places of the Prime Minister’s foreign visits are disclosable as these details are widely reported in the media, both national and international, both print and electronic,” Bhattacharyya said.

He said the commission is not convinced with the CPIO’s submission of exemption under the “cloak of commercial confidence and fiduciary relationship” with the client concerned, which in this case is another wing of the same government.

In response to a separate RTI application of Batra, filed recently, seeking similar information from Air India, the national carrier had cited an instruction from the PMO to not share information related to the Prime Minister’s foreign visits.

In an e-mail, sent to an Air India official on December 26, 2016, the PMO had said, “Records pertaining to PM’s flight have certain information which may have security implications and are, hence, exempted from disclosure under clause (g) of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act, 2005.”

“As such, the Air India is advised not to disclose information relating to PM’s flight to such RTI queries,” it said.

It was not clear what had prompted the PMO’s e-mail in 2016. However, the present RTI application in which the commission has given orders to disclose was filed on September 14, 2016.

Congress leader and former union finance minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday May 9 appealed to the people of Mangaluru to vote for Congress, and said that the previous state government under BJP was the worst administration in the history of Karnataka.

Addressing a press meet here, Chidambaram said, “During BJP’s term, they changed the chief minister thrice. Their administration was the worst in the history of Karnataka. They have no achievements to boast of, so now they are attacking chief minister Siddaramaiah. My question is, why are they not campaigning based on their achievements?

“RSS and BJP are trying to impose autocratic rule in the nation. Their main aim is to convert India into Hindu nation, destroy the federal system, impose the ideology of one history, one religion, one language and one living style. It is dangerous to our Indian culture, to our hallmark of unity in diversity. So we should all stop them,” he said.

“They (BJP) are trying to enter South India through Karnataka. It is a danger signal for the diversity of South India,” he added.

Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, “The Prime Minister should maintain the dignity of his post. Every single statement regarding field marshal Cariappa and Gen Thimayya that he made was wrong. He should not do this. He should not speak whatever comes to his mind like a third-rate BJP spokesperson.”

He further said, “Petrol and diesel should be brought under GST. But the Modi government is not doing this because it wants to loot the people. Indial Oil Corporation chairman says people are panicking over hike of fuel prices, so we put a break on price hike for a short time. I want to say, why he is not saying ‘Modi ordered me put on hold the daily price hike on petroleum products for Karnataka election’? People are already in panic because of price hikes. The fuel prices should be decreased. What is the benefit in putting hike on hold for a few days?”

Urging people to vote for the Congress, he said, “I appeal to the people of Karnataka to vote for the Congress for a stable government. The entire nation is looking at Karnataka elections eagerly. Clear majority and stable government only can sustain developmental works. Last five years the GDP of Karnataka increased from Rs 6,43,292 crore to Rs 9,49,111 crore, recording an 8% growth. The per capita income has increased by 1.25% in five years of Congress rule, and the revenue surplus is 0.8% which is a record in entire India. Karnataka has the lowest unemployment rate of 2.6%. Infant morality rate has reduced, electricity has reached villages. All this have happened under the stable government led by the Congress. Development and welfare programmes go hand-in-hand under the Siddaramaiah-led government. Siddaramaiah is the first Karnataka CM to have completed full 5-year term after Devaraj Urs.”

Suresh Shetty, AICC observer, Harish Kumar, district Congress president, Jaigeer, spokesperson, and Ibrahim Kodijal were present.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has convened an All Party Meeting in Srinagar on Wednesday (May 09) to discuss political and security situation in the state.

The Chief Minister met Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhavan on Tuesday. A Raj Bhawan spokesman said the two leaders discussed issues like counter-terror operations, incidents of stone pelting and the death of a tourist in the state.

Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Tuesday reviewed the progress in the development of various sports infrastructure in the state.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the death of the tourist in stone-pelting in Kashmir is highly condemnable. Armed forces have to be firm with terrorists, she added.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw