Multi to Single April 5, 2015 S
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Established 1946 Price : Rupees Five Vol. 70 No. 10 Multi to single April 5, 2015 S. Viswam Improving police command The promise and prospect of the know the contours of its ideological Kuldip Nayar consolidation of six different parties predilections. We do know, however, into a single political entity, to begin that each of the merging parties has Land Acquisition Ordinance with at least in Parliament, has been a political history, that its leaders are Prem Singh looming large for almost six months. all political stalwarts in their own There has been much talk but little rights, that each of them has sometime Making judicial appointments action on the ground. At last, we are or the other in the recent past held Rajindar Sachar assured that the official act of uniting chief ministerial offices and that six parties, all off-springs of the each of them can still be expected Lokayat joins original Janata Party of 1977, is about to play major political roles in their Socialist Party (India) to be enacted. The time has apparently respective spheres of influence. come for a new political grouping to Can State Budgets make up? be a new addition to national politics, However, it has been reported Bharat Dogra with a left-of-centre ideology, and that the formal announcement of the with a respectful if not substantial merger is to be made this week-end. Relevance of numbers in Parliament—15 in the That means that a new party expects Ramamanohar Lohia today Lok Sabha and 30 in the Rajya Sabha. to function as a single political entity K. S. Chalam A new party means a new voice, in the second half of the budget a new representation, and a new session of parliament commencing Dynamics of intellectual input into the national on April 20 and that the formal Southeast Asian Security political discourse. Considering the announcement of the merger will Jayabrata Sarkar background of the six parties that are introduce into the national electoral merging into one, the development politics a new player, especially in UP is indeed worthy of a full-throated and Bihar, and that national politics is hail of “three cheers” and also high bound to be enriched and enlivened Editor : expectations. by the emergence of a new player. G. G. Parikh Managing Editor : Guddi The parties involved in the merger The six parties are not new to the are: the Janata Dal (United), the merger game. Each of them at one D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Samajwadi time or the other has been involved Naushir Bharucha Marg, Party, the Indian National Lok Dal, in mergers and splits. The merger- Mumbai - 400 007. the Janata Dal (Secular), and the split disease is common to all parties Samajwadi Janata Party. We do not yet in our country. The six parties now Email : [email protected] know what the merged party intends planning merger were all socialist to call itself by, and we do not yet parties once, and in turn they have 2 JANATA, April 5, 2015 also aligned themselves in turn Between the lines with the Congress and the BJP, the original face of the left and the right- ultra right in the political spectrum. Improving police command Yet another common link binding them these days is that each of them has had the mortification of having Kuldip Nayar been humbled by the BJP in the Lok Sabha poll. In both UP and Bihar It is a travesty of justice. The By letting off the accused, without where all the six barring the JD court has let off all the 16 policemen, ordering a fresh probe or taking the (Secular) have a sizable base, the six belonging to the Provincial Armed police to task, the court may have parties paid a heavy price. Constabulary (PAC) of Uttar Pradesh done anything but serving the ends on the ground of lack of evidence. of justice. The case is yet another The nitty-gritty of merger was It was dark and it was difficult to example to testify that the police speedily worked out, possibly determine who from among the do not go whole hog in pursuing an because the merging parties are all policemen fired at whom, says the inquiry when it comes to its own in a hurry. Elections are due soon court. Apparently, no real hard work force’s involvement. If even after in JD (U)-ruled Bihar this year and was done to conduct the inquiry and 28 years of investigation, the police in 2017 in UP where the SP is in fix responsibility. Yet how were the have failed to produce before the control. It is a question of face and 16 accused separated from the rest, court admissible evidence it is time prestige for the two parties to do in the first instance? Some criteria to reassess the effectiveness of well in the assembly polls since they would have been adopted to reach police. The cover up is obvious. I were decimated in the 2014 Lok the verdict. wish the court had commented on Sabha polls. Indeed, the socialists that. In fact, the happening reminded represented by Mulayam Singh, Lalu one of the Jalianwala Bagh tragedies. Prasad and Sharad Yadav (JDU chief) Granted the law and order At that time, the British officers regard the coming assembly polls as is a state’s responsibility under blocked the only route of exit and the Constitution, but the central a trial of strength against the BJP killed nearly 1,000 demonstrators government is equally responsible and the saffron parivar. Indeed, the demanding independence. At for peace in the country. It was merger is getting off to a flying start Hashimpura too, the five lanes where incumbent upon New Delhi to have because the six parties are driven Muslims lived had no rear exit, so appointed an inquiry committee by the wish to avenge their defeats. there was no escape route. from its side so that the witnesses, The flag symbol, manifesto and all who are telling the media their other issues stand sorted out, and The army was also searching plight, can be asked to testify before the designated chairman Mulayam every house. Muslim men, old, it. The larger question that the Singh has only to announce the young and children were coming Hashimpura episode has posed is launch of the event. onto the road with their hands raised. the lack of recourse when the police Women were on the rooftops, crying, drag their feet and when the accusing The task is cut out for the new begging the PAC to let go of their finger is directed at the force itself. group. Its first test will be in Bihar. men. One top Army official has If it makes a good showing in Bihar, rightly demanded an inquiry. The overall control of the Union the morale of the constituents will True, the court had to let off all Home Ministry has not worked rise and further gains can be within the accused. The killings cannot, effectively. State chief ministers do reach. Now that the Congress has however, be wished away. Naturally, not care about its behests even if the virtually vacated the opposition the people are generally appalled same party is ruling in the state as well space, it is for the merged Janata over the acquittal of the accused as at the centre. Reforms proposed Party to fill it. The new party is PAC personnel. The families of by the Dharamveer Commission some 39 years ago are accumulating bound to be a welcome addition to those killed feel let down because, dust in the states which were asked to the forces fighting the saffron wave if only the perpetrators had been implement them. The Commission’s in the country. The merged party will punished, they would have got some be an asset in this regard. sort of justice. (Continued on Page 11) JANATA, April 5, 2015 3 Land Acquisition Ordinance: Government-Corporate nexus against people and democracy Prem Singh The Land Acquisition, and defence production projects; MNREGA, Land Acquisition Act, Rehabilitation and Resettlement industrial corridors projects; Food Security Act and the like. Act 2013 (LARR Act 2013) was rural infrastructure projects; Manmohan Singh was an economist enacted in the parliament after infrastructure/social infrastructure prime minister who followed the incorporating suggestions from the projects, mostly fall under the classicist approach towards neo- BJP and with its due support. Sumitra Public Private Partnership; and liberal reforms whereas Narendra Mahajan, presently the speaker of housing projects for the poor -will Modi is taking blind leaps. BJP’s the Lok Sabha, then had headed the not require either prior consent or propaganda against Manmohan Parliamentary Committee, which Social Impact Assessment. It is a Singh as a weak prime minister okayed the law. The LARR Act 2013 matter of speculation if any areas is misleading; but it proved to which came into effect from January are left out of these five! For these be an effective campaign in the 2014 empowers land-owners, for five areas, even fertile multi-crop general election. As the progenitor the first time, with the right to fair cultivable land can be acquired and facilitator of neo-liberalism in compensation for acquired land straightaway. India, Manmohan Singh will be along with consent right. As per remembered as the strongest prime the Act the provisions to pay fair The government decided to minister ever. He removed India’s compensation to the farmers and bring in this amendment to the economic policy and its goal from seek their prior consent were to LARR Act 2013 after the winter the axis of the Constitution and be implemented over and above session was over.