India Culture, Business, Sports and Food. Get all the buzz in India now

Polling Rate Government and Election Commission of India’s plans of conducting violence-free polls in the first phase of elections for the 39 assembly seats of Chhattisgarh state were severely hit as Maoists insurgents tried their best to scare away the voters. Only 26 percent polling has been recorded during the first phase on November 14. Incidents of violence have been reported from the Maoist-infested Dantewada district and some adjoining areas. Maoists triggered low-intensity bomb blasts and opened fire at many places to scare away the voters. Maoists had triggered two land-mine blasts and had opened fire at 15 different places. At some places they had looted Electronic Voting Machines. They also had blocked roads to thwart free movement of vehicles and voting staff. In some areas polling officials and material was transported by helicopters.

Election Boycott The polling at some places had started at 8 am while at some places it had started at 7 am. The Chhattisgarh assembly has total 90 seats and the polling for the remaining 51 seats will be held on November 20. There is a tough competition between Congress and Bhartiya Janata Party. Around 23,000 Central Reserve Police Force and 700 Border Security Force personal have been pressed into action in wake of Maoists’ call for election boycott. Prior to elections Maoists had called for the election boycott and had requested the voters to refrain from casting their votes.

Democracy Maoists project themselves as the messiahs of the poor who are fighting for the rights of landless and poor sections of the society. They hold their own courts and provide social justice to the people of remote areas where government has minimum reach. Their quick and free of cost justice has won sympathizers for them and has given them popularity in the masses. But they regularly attack government property and security personal. In recent months we have seen immense upsurge in Maoist violence. They are being considered the gravest threat to the internal security of the nation. But they are not only an internal threat but also are biggest threat to the democratic values. Though they indulge in social welfare acts but those exercises are only a method of generating public support. India is the largest and a successful democracy with ‘unity in integrity’. Maoist type of ‘system’ can not address its comprehensive problems. At the same time Maoists, who project themselves as the messiahs of poor are nothing but terrorists.

Inflation After remaining near 12 percent the Indian inflation rate has ‘suddenly’ fell sharply below 10 percent. According to some reports published in leading Indian newspapers inflation rate had fell sharply from 10.72 percent to 8.98 percent after the period of 21 weeks on November 1. It has been said that decline in the price of fuel items like naphtha, jet fuel, furnace oil and light diesel oil is the reason behind the decline in inflation rate in India. Decline in the prices of iron, undefined oil, fruit and vegetables, tea and spices have also played an important role. The inflation rate was recorded 12.42 percent for the week ended on September 9.

Reasons The sudden decline in inflation rate has given rise to many doubts. Earlier it was being expected that the inflation rate will slip down to single digit after the harvesting season. The sharp decline in the inflation rate smells some ‘foul play’. Elections have been scheduled to be held in six states in the months of November and December and Lok Sabha elections will be held early next year. It can not be denied that decline in inflation rate has brought to “bring cheer to the UPA government”. It was being expected that the price rise will be major issues during these elections. Though the prices of ‘house hold’ commodities have not declined but the inflation has suddenly come down. From the present circumstances it looks that the reasons of sudden decline in inflation rate are political instead of economic.

Face-Saving Two months ago, Congress led UPA government was under attack from the opposition because of various reasons. Its failure to adequately tackle communal violence in Orissa and Assam, serial bomb blasts in some major Indian cities, natural calamities and rising prices had brought centre government’s popularity to its lowest point. Decline in the popularity of UPA government was the major reason that all its partners had tried ‘all means’ to save it form the earlier downfall during the trust vote motion on the issue of Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. Now all the ‘burning issues’ have cooled down and only inflation was the issue that needed to be ‘dealt with’ in time. Thus by bringing down the inflation rate, without any ‘genuine decline’ in the prices of daily-use commodities, the UPA government has cleared its way to go into the elections with some ‘face’.

Transfer The DMK government transferred Chennai police commissioner, a joint commissioner and a deputy commissioner on Thursday, November 13 for their failure to respond quickly to a clash between two groups of students of Tamilnadu Dr Ambedkar Law College of the city. When students of a particular community were being mercilessly beaten up some policemen who were at the spot did not took any action and stood watching. Some TV channels had recorded whole of the incident and repeatedly telecasted it throughout whole of the day. People of the state were shocked and depressed to see the video footages

Damage-Control State government has taken this action as a damage control exercise to avoid the attacks from the opposition. The city police commissioner did not take any action and even failed to visit the crime spot. The college principal KK Sridav also have been suspended for his failure to take appropriate action during the crisis. The state government has also ordered a judicial enquiry which will be headed by a retired high court judge. Four sub-inspectors who were the mute spectator to the incident have also been transferred. Police have booked seven law students under various criminal charges. But all these damage control exercises could not control the agitation. In many city colleges students staged protests and boycotted the semester exams. 

Repetition This is another example when a state government has been ‘ashamed’ because of shocking police inaction. Some weeks ago, a nun and a priest were severely assaulted in broad day light. They had requested some police men, who were also witness to the violence, to save them but they had done nothing in response to there repeated requests. She was even persuaded not to file a complaint when she had reported the matter in the local police station. Later on that nun was raped in an adjoining building. All this had happened during the anti-Christian riots in the state of Orissa.  Time has changed very rapidly but Indian police system has not changes accordingly. Policemen (of every state) have their own grievances but no state has paid any attention. One the other hand police forces of various states need a big ‘overhaul’ so that they can be enabled to meet the modern challenges. Police men should be given some rights so that they will not have to wait orders from the ‘authorities’ to take some action. Dismissal or suspension from duty is only the ‘face saving’ exercises for the ‘respected’ state governments.

England India defeated England by 158 runs in the first One Day International of the seven-match series in Rajkot in New Delhi on Friday, November 14. It was a one-sided match as India dominated in all the departments of the game. England was given a victory target of 388 runs in 50 overs but all of its team was bundled out for 229 runs in 37.4 overs. Changing a mammoth victory target they could not start well. Indian pacers ripped apart their top order as they had lost their first four wickets for just 34 runs from 10 overs and at 76 they had lost their fifth wicket. Munaf Patel opened the flood gates for his side and got Matthew Prior caught by Sehwag at first slip. England had not recovered from the early loss when Zaheer struck and dismissed their three top order batsmen. He first got Owais Shah caught at the first slip in his third over. He struck twice in his sixth over dismissing opener Ian Bell (25) and all-rounder Andrew Flintoff (4). Ian Bell was caught behind by keeper Dhoni and Flintoff was declared out leg-before-wicket. England’s fifth wicket was taken by R P Singh who got Paul Collingwood (19) caught behind by Dhoni.

Lower-Order But skipper Kevin Pieterson and Samit Patel put some fight to steer their side out of danger. They both added 71 runs for the sixth wicket but Harbhajan Singh got Patel stumped out with his ‘doosra’ for 28 runs. They had added just three runs to their inning when Rohit Sharma’s quick throw to Dhoni found Pieterson short of his crease. Pieterson had made 63 runs in 56 balls which included 8 fours and two sixes. Ravi Bopara remained not out while Stuart Broad (26) was caught by Gambhir off Sehwag. The remaining two batsmen Steve Harmison and James Anderson could not contribute as both were dismissed for zero.

Yuvraj Singh Earlier, put into bat first, Indian openers Gambhir and in-form Sehwag gave a good start for their side. They added 127 runs for the first wicket. Their partnership was broken by Samit Patel who got Gambhir caught by Owais Shah for 51 from 63 balls. Patel’s next victim was Sehwag whom he got caught by Ian Bell for 85 from 73 balls which included 10 fours and 3 sixes. Andrew Flintoff struck in the 36^th over and got Suresh Raina caught by Paul Collingwood for 43 of 44 balls that included three sixes. Indians had added only 5 runs to their inning when Steve Harmison got Yusuf Pathan caught by Ian Bell for naught. But by then Indians were in a commanding position as they had made 247 runs in 38^th over. Star of the day was Yuvraj Singh who announced his return to form with a bang and made unbeaten 138 runs that included 16 sixes and 6 massive hits. He added 89 runs with Raina for the third wicket and 105 runs with Dhoni for the fifth wicket. Dhoni was dismissed by Harmison for 39 of 32 balls. Rohit Sharma made unbeaten 11 runs. Yuvraj Singh was declared Man of the Match at the end of the match.

Poverty Line The Health and Welfare ministry in an affidavit has said that one needs to earn only Rs 455 in urban areas and Rs 328 rural areas per month to ‘cross poverty line’. But the irony is that almost 25 percent population of India is living below poverty line. All these figure are ridiculously low and a slap on the face of poor. These figures are very low but with such a low figures if 26 crore people are living below poverty line then it is a shame for all the successive governments and the second fastest emerging economy of the world. During 80s ‘garibi hatao’ (poverty eradication) used to be the main motto of Congress during ‘election season’ but nothing has been done at ground level.

States Orissa and Bihar are the most poor states of India despite of there numerous rich natural resources. 47.15 percent population of Orissa has been classified as poor while 42.6 percent people of Bihar live below poverty line. Urban poor of Orissa earn Rs 374 per month while rural poor earn 324. The income figures of Bihar are Rs. 380 and Rs 333. India’s northernmost state of Jammu and Kashmir is least affected by poverty as only 3.48 percent population of the state is poor. The percentage of poor is less even in its neighboring states Punjab, Haryan and Himachal Pradesh. An NGO named ‘Azadi Bachao Andolan’ had filed a petition in the Supreme Court and the health ministry had submitted this affidavit in answer to it.

Government Though eradication of urban and rural poverty has long been one of the objectives of various five year planning programs but it has remained only on papers while nothing has been done at the ground level. People had come to know about a ‘Kalawati’ during Rahul Gandhi’s speech in the Lok Sabha but there are millions of ‘Kalawaties’ who are living even in the worse conditions. There are various government schemes that have been launched for the welfare of poor people of India to provide them employment and food but they too have not worked. This situation is becoming worse with the increase of population. By presenting low figures poverty can not be eradicated. To eradicate it government will have to strike at its root causes that are increasing population, illiteracy and unemployment