Arati Jerath - SP’s sledgehammer tactics are prompted by Durga Sakhti Nagpal’s gender // Bharat Bhushan - Desperate father
It’s no big deal for a ruling party to get rid of an “inconvenient’’ bureaucrat. A quiet transfer to the backwaters does the trick. It’s simple and non-controversial. Curiously, the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh used a sledgehammer to slam rookie IAS officer Durga Sakthi Nagpal. She was first suspended, then served a chargesheet and now has the threat of dismissal hanging over her head like a Damocles sword. Her crime? She took on the sand mining mafia flourishing in Greater Noida.
It is indeed surprising that the SP went in for overkill and landed itself in controversy. But party leaders have only made matters worse with a stream of bluster and invectives that smack of a feudal mindset more suited to medieval times than a democratic nation on the cusp of modernity. Consider the discourse. SP leader Narendra Bhati brags at a rally that he had Nagpal suspended within 41 minutes of a phone call to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. UP health minister Ahmad Hasan questions her character and family background. SP parliamentary party leader Ram Gopal Yadav says they don’t need the IAS to run the government.
It is indeed surprising that the SP went in for overkill and landed itself in controversy. But party leaders have only made matters worse with a stream of bluster and invectives that smack of a feudal mindset more suited to medieval times than a democratic nation on the cusp of modernity. Consider the discourse. SP leader Narendra Bhati brags at a rally that he had Nagpal suspended within 41 minutes of a phone call to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. UP health minister Ahmad Hasan questions her character and family background. SP parliamentary party leader Ram Gopal Yadav says they don’t need the IAS to run the government.
Even young affable Akhilesh starts talking like a feudal baron and says punishing errant government officials is like a parent beating a child who has done something wrong. Durga Nagpal fell victim to a deeply conservative patriarchal mindset that brooks no lip from women. How dare she? That Durga, a mere slip of a girl, dared was an affront to the streak of chauvinism that runs in the SP’s DNA. This is a party that has consistently and almost violently opposed the women’s reservation Bill on spurious grounds. This is also the party that sent a pack of goons to teach Mayawati a lesson when the BSP toppled Mulayam Singh’s government in Lucknow in 1995. The mood outside the guest-house where Mayawati took shelter before she was sworn in as chief minister was so ugly, it sparked fears that she would have been molested had the mob managed to get inside.
The gender question is just one part of the Durga story. The other equally disturbing aspect is the brazen attempt to give a communal twist to the episode with an eye on the forthcoming general elections. No government would admit to punishing an honest officer to protect corrupt vested interests. But only the SP, which has always pandered to minority vote-bank politics, could have thought of accusing Durga of lighting a communal fire because a half-built unauthorised mosque wall was demolished in a village under her charge.
There is increasing evidence to suggest that the charge was fabricated to suit the party’s brand of politics. The BJP and SP would seem to be two sides of the same coin. If one aims to consolidate the Hindu vote, the other looks to polarise the Muslim vote. It worked once in UP. But this is not the 1990s when the political discourse was domi-nated by the secularism debate. And Muslims are no longer willing to be used as cannon fodder for political gains.
If the SP needs evidence of the changing realities of India in 2013, it should listen to the protests coming from Muslim groups at the manner in which the community is being dragged into the Durga controversy. Several Muslim clerics as well as a committee affiliated to the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board have spoken out in her favour and criticised the SP government for giving a communal colour to a political decision. The voices are scattered but the important thing is that they are coming.
The Durga controversy has come at a bad juncture for the SP. Its boss, Mulayam Singh Yadav, has made no secret of his determination to bid for the prime minister’s post if the 2014 polls throw up a fractured mandate in favour of the regional parties. Surely, he cannot afford the kind of media bashing and political isolation he and his party are facing today over an issue that smacks of poor governance.
India is struggling with economic and social transformation to make the transition to a modern democracy. Progressive forces must unite to weed out the remaining vestiges of feudal thought. The question is: Who will lead the movement for change? Historically, this was the role the Congress played during the freedom struggle. But somewhere down the line, it lost the appetite to challenge the forces of conservatism and orthodoxy. A case in point is the abject capitulation by Rajiv Gandhi to the Muslim conservatives in his party in what is famously known as the Shah Bano case. He took a bold decision to fight the clerics on a Supreme Court ruling granting alimony to a Muslim divorcee under civil law. But when the pres-sure started mounting, he backed down.
Sonia Gandhi made the right noises in her letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking for justice for Durga. But an election is round the corner and the Congress has a dismal record of pandering to vote-bank politics. Can she stay the course?
There is increasing evidence to suggest that the charge was fabricated to suit the party’s brand of politics. The BJP and SP would seem to be two sides of the same coin. If one aims to consolidate the Hindu vote, the other looks to polarise the Muslim vote. It worked once in UP. But this is not the 1990s when the political discourse was domi-nated by the secularism debate. And Muslims are no longer willing to be used as cannon fodder for political gains.
If the SP needs evidence of the changing realities of India in 2013, it should listen to the protests coming from Muslim groups at the manner in which the community is being dragged into the Durga controversy. Several Muslim clerics as well as a committee affiliated to the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board have spoken out in her favour and criticised the SP government for giving a communal colour to a political decision. The voices are scattered but the important thing is that they are coming.
The Durga controversy has come at a bad juncture for the SP. Its boss, Mulayam Singh Yadav, has made no secret of his determination to bid for the prime minister’s post if the 2014 polls throw up a fractured mandate in favour of the regional parties. Surely, he cannot afford the kind of media bashing and political isolation he and his party are facing today over an issue that smacks of poor governance.
India is struggling with economic and social transformation to make the transition to a modern democracy. Progressive forces must unite to weed out the remaining vestiges of feudal thought. The question is: Who will lead the movement for change? Historically, this was the role the Congress played during the freedom struggle. But somewhere down the line, it lost the appetite to challenge the forces of conservatism and orthodoxy. A case in point is the abject capitulation by Rajiv Gandhi to the Muslim conservatives in his party in what is famously known as the Shah Bano case. He took a bold decision to fight the clerics on a Supreme Court ruling granting alimony to a Muslim divorcee under civil law. But when the pres-sure started mounting, he backed down.
Sonia Gandhi made the right noises in her letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking for justice for Durga. But an election is round the corner and the Congress has a dismal record of pandering to vote-bank politics. Can she stay the course?
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2013/08/india-sps-sledgehammer-tactics-are.html
Desperate Father
Desperate Father
How does one explain the experienced politician in Mulayam Singh Yadav letting the controversy over the actions of a young civil servant escalate to a wholesale alienation of the bureaucracy? As no incumbent government would want to go into an election with a hostile bureaucracy, it suggests extreme desperation on the part of the Samajwadi Party (SP).
Political interference in the functioning of the bureaucracy in Uttar Pradesh is so great — and the SP alone is not to blame — that out of the 556 Indian Administrative Service posts sanctioned for Uttar Pradesh, less than half — about 228 — are filled. Uttar Pradesh cadre officers who are posted at the Centre or are on inter-state deputation are reluctant to go back to their state. And now there is speculation that even Ms Nagpal and her IAS husband may seek a change of cadre because of the harassment she is being subjected to.
Anyone who knows the style of functioning of the elder Mr Yadav would know that it is he who decides the transfers and postings of IAS and Indian Police Service officers. He is even known to involve himself in the transfer and posting of police inspectors and Station House Officers. Transfers, postings, rewards and reprimands to civil servants are important signals sent out by political parties to their clients and votebanks that their interests are being protected. It is not farfetched to suggest that the action taken against Ms Nagpal is a demonstration to the Muslim voters of Uttar Pradesh that the SP stands firmly behind them.
The need for mobilising Muslim voters is urgent as the political balance which existed in the state during the Assembly elections no longer holds. Then the two dominant players were the SP and the incumbent Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), with core caste-based votebanks. These were topped up by wooing Muslim and upper-caste voters, both of whom have carved out a strategic niche for themselves by supporting one or the other caste formation. The two national parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party were insignificant players in the state elections but are the main contenders in the upcoming national parliamentary election. With the entry of Narendra Modi, the pro-Hindutva vote has begun to consolidate in favour of the BJP in north India, including Uttar Pradesh. The question that bothers the other political parties is: which way will the Muslim vote go?
In every constituency where it matters, the Muslim vote will go to the candidate who is best placed to defeat the BJP candidate; at this juncture it could go to any of the non-Hindutva parties — the Congress, the BSP or the SP. There’s speculation that the Congress might be the larger gainer, as voters believe that the other two parties are unlikely to form the government at the Centre, and will use their parliamentary numbers for personal ends, such as slowing the investigation against them for amassing disproportionate assets or dodging income tax. If Mr Yadav sees the 2014 general election as his last chance to get the top job in New Delhi, he will have to win more than 40 of the 80 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh’s Muslims form 18.5 per cent of its population and have a deciding influence in 36 Lok Sabha constituencies. The Durga Shakti Nagpal case could be a desperate gamble by the SP to attract the Muslim vote.
Muslim anger against the SP is palpable at the moment. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav admitted in the state Assembly that in the 10 months since he took over in March 2012 there have been 27 communal riots. Not a single IAS or IPS officer was suspended for allowing the disturbance of communal harmony — a charge against Ms Nagpal. One wonders whether the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh will be convinced by the Yadav clan “showcasing” their protection of an illegally constructed mosque wall when it has done less to protect their lives or icons of their community, like DSP Zia-ul-Haq. The young and honest Muslim deputy superintendent of police was murdered in broad day light allegedly by the henchmen of SP minister Raja Bhaiyya aka Raghuraj Pratap Singh in his constituency of Kunda. SP leaders spared no effort to see that Raja Bhaiyya was absolved of any personal involvement...
read more:
