Bal Thackeray's editorial against Sachin Tendulkar angers many

Sachin Tendulkar had a told a news conference the other day, in connection with his completing 20 years in international cricket, that that “Mumbai belongs to all Indians.”  He added that, while he is a Maharashtrian and is “extremely proud of that,” “I am an Indian first.”

In an editorial in Saamna, the mouthpiece of Shiv Sena, Bal Thackeray advised Tendulkar to focus on his international cricket and said that he has “hurt the feelings of Marathi Manoos.”

Thackeray went on to say: “Sachin may not know what Marathi Manoos went through to get Mumbai. You were not even born then.”

In a tone of warning, the Shiv Sena supremo wrote in the editorial: “Sachin, please keep it in mind that we praise you for your fours and sixes on the field, but if you use your tongue as a bat to hit boundaries against Marathi Manoos, we will never tolerate it. Please don’t lose on the ground of politics whatever you have earned on the cricket pitch.”

Sanjay Raut, Spokesman of the Shiv Sena, has come out with a clarification that Bal Thackeray has “not criticised” Sachin Tendulkar.

According to Raut, Balasaheb only “commented in his capacity as an elder” and his remarks in the editorial in the Saamna were “an elderly advice to Sachin.”

Meanwhile, Sachin Tendulkar is receiving support from various quarters and Bal Thackeray is being slammed for his outbursts again the cricketer.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has strongly defended Sachin, saying that the ‘Master Blaster’ had “spoken from his heart” and that “his statement will unite the country.”

The statement by Sachin, Ashok Chavan told reporters, was made in true sportsman spirit. Sachin may be a Maharashtrian, but he plays for the country.

Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, while criticising Bal Thackeray for his editorial, praised Sachin by saying that the “cricket icon” had raised further the “image and prestige of the country” by having said that Mumbai is for all Indians.

Shiv Sena’s ally in the NDA – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – too came out in support of Sachin Tendulkar saying that Sachin said only what a patriotic Indian would say.

What is interesting is that both Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and BJP are allies of Shiv Sena in the NDA. Sena’s regional chauvinism has oftne embarrassed its allies like the Sena – the common factor between both remain Hindu majoritarianism, and Marathi chauvinism is often awkward for the BJP.

Several Maharashtrians however believe that what appears in the Saamna editorials are often not Thackeray’s thoughts but someone else’s. Conspiracy theories about someone out to destory the Sena are often mentioned. Post Assembly elections for the Maharashtra State Assembly, Bal Thackeray’s editorial in the Saamna lambasted Maharashtrians for backstabbing the Sena, something which the Shiv Sena has been at pains to deny afterwards.

Raj Thackeray: Silent on Sachin

This is likely a case of over-reaction on Bal Thackeray’s part. Sachin Tendulkar’s statement was in response to a question from a reporter on a day when he has been giving press conferences and meeting the media since morning, and it is natural that he would not have thought about the political implications of a statement which could be interpreted as a snub to the Sena. Bal Thackeray too was not exactly wise about letting the statement go, instead of reacting to it angrily in Saamna – a reaction borne out of the fear that the Sena has to be the first to talk about Marathi Manoos issues. If it did not, there was always the chance that Raj Thackeray’s MNS would be quick to capitalise on that. As it went, Raj Thackeray stayed mum on the issue, and his party explained that this was an issue between the Shiv Sena and Sachin, and their party preferred not to talk about what the senior Thackeray says.

Lalu Prasad, the chief of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), said Bal Thackeray had no “moral authority” to comment on a national hero.

“Sachin Tendulkar is a national hero, and who is Bal Thackeray to comment on him?” Lalu Prasad told reporters.

Besides political leaders, several top sportsmen and sports officials have come out in support of Sachin Tendulkar.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was the first to react to Bal Thackeray’s criticism of Sachin’s statement.

Rajiv Shukla, spokesman of the BCCI and chairman of the BCCI’s finance committee, said Bal Thackeray was “talking like Mohammad Ali Jinnah.”

Sachin Tendulkar, Shukla stressed, is a nationalist. “Sachin is for Maharashtra, and he is for India, and if someone calls himself an Indian, is it a crime?” Shukla asked.

Olympian Milkha Singh, the sprint legend, remarked that Sachin did not say anything wrong and that he is “very happy” with what Sachin has said.

Ajit Wadekar, former Indian cricket captain, reacted to Bal Thackeray’s criticism of Sachin by saying that Sachin is playing for his country and “that has exactly what has motivated him to get the record.”

Kolkata: A Minister of the Left Front government in West Bengal has openly favoured early elections to the State Assembly following the setback that the ruling Left Front suffered in the recent by-elections. There is already an opinion within the rling CPI(M) that the winds are against the ruling party consistently, and the better thing would be to call for early elections to the state assembly and try to get a mandate. The counter-opinion within in the CPM is to wait it out and hope that Mamta Banerjee or her party, the Trinamool Congress, makes a mistake which would give them a fighting chance in an election.

Minister for Fisheries Kironmoy Nanda, who belongs to the West Bengal Socialist Party, a constituent of the Left Front, told reporters that the verdict of the people is obviously against the ruling coalition and that seeking a fresh mandate is essential.

The Bengal Socialist Party has 4 MLAs in the State Assembly.

Nanda said in no uncertain terms that “we need to accept the debacle and go for early elections to seek the people’s mandate.” In fact, he stressed, this should have been done “right after the Lok Sabha elections in 2009.”

He said that it is better for the Left Front to sit in the Opposition if it lacks the support of the people of the West Bengal.

Kironmoy Nanda even went to the extent of admitting that “we are losing the confidence of the voters” even as the victory margins of the Opposition are “rising steadily.”

He warned the partners of the Left Front that that the government will not be able to “deal firmly with” the growing lawlessness in the State or implement the development agenda successfully in the “deadlock situation” that exists now.

Kironmoy Nanda said that his party would write to Biman Bose, chairman of the Left Front, seeking a discussion on the situation after the recent by-elections.

Another Minister of the Left Front government, Kshiti Goswami, of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), however differed with Kironmoy Nanda.

Describing what Kironmoy Nanda said in favour of early elections as his “personal opinion,” Kshiti Goswami argued that the Left Front needs to review “the entire situation arising out of the steady erosion of its strength.”

Early polls, Goswami added, is not the right choice and any abrupt dissolution of the government could lead to “trouble all round.”

Elections to the West Bengal Assembly are to be held, in the normal course, in 2011.

However, Mamata Banerjee, president of the Trinamool Congress, the chief Opposition party in West Bengal, has been demanding invocation of Article 356 of the Constitution and resignation of the West Bengal Chief Minister following the Left Front’s poll debacle.

In the by-elections, the CPM, the main constituent of the Left Front, lost in all 5 seats it had contested.

According to reports, leaders of the CPM are much worried about the big increase in the victory margins of the Opposition parties, especially those of the Trinamool Congress.

Meanwhile, Pranab Mukherjee, Union Finance Minister and president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, has remarked that the Left Front government in West Bengal has lost the people’s support and that a majority of the people of the State are now in favour of the Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance.

Azmi was assaulted the other day by legislators belonging to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for having taken oath Hindi instead of Marathi in the Maharashtra Assembly, defying the directive of MNS chief Raj Thackeray to take oath only in Hindi. Later, while speaking to the media, Abu Asim Azmi had said that Bal Thackeray, the Shiv Sena patriarch, was “old” and “child-like.” This led to protests by the Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra Assembly on the next day.

Photo: Abu Asim Azmi, SP MLA in Maharashtra Assembly slapped by MLAs from MNS

Amar Singh told a news conference in New Delhi that an anonymous caller rang him up on his mobile phone and told him that Abu Asim Azmi “will not be spared for his comments on Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.”

Amar Singh had earlier said that he received 3 anonymous phone calls threatening him with “dire consequences” if he visited Mumbai.

Meanwhile, Ganpatrao Deshmukh, the pro-tem Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly, has order an investigation into the “behaviour” of Abu Asim Azmi within the Assembly and on its premises.

The pro-tem Speaker ordered the inquiry after repeated allegations by the Opposition members that Azmi had made “provocative speeches” as well as “insulted” Bal Thackeray, the chief of the Shiv Sena.

Eknath Khadse, Leader of Opposition, demanded that the government also should investigate the charge levelled by the Opposition parties that Azmi indulged in inciting people outside the Assembly.

Members of the BJP, the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena demanded that Abu Asim Azmi be arrested for his “misbehaviour” on the opening day of the Assembly session and for his remarks he made later against Bal Thackeray.

A group of Shiv Sainiks held a protests outside the Maharashtra Assembly, shouted slogans against Abu Asim Azmi and tried to burn his effigy. The police succeeded in bringing the situation under control and arrested some activists of the Shiv Sena.

Meanwhile, the attack on Abu Asim Azmi by the legislators of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena for having taken oath in Hindi in the Maharashtra Assembly has come in for sever criticism from various organisations.

In a press release, Kiran Moghe, Maharashtra state president of the Akhil Bharatiya Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana (AIDWA), strongly condemned “the crude display of muscle power” by the newly elected MLAs of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

While it is necessary to safeguard the Marathi language and culture, she added in the press release, turning the Vidhan Sabha into a battleground and making the matter into an emotional issue in order to foster narrow-minded politics is unacceptable.

The Yuvak Kranti Dal said that the new legislators were perhaps “illiterate” of the ways of democracy.

The oath-taking is a solemn occasion, and the Constitution of India has listed the languages in which one may take oath, a press release from the Yuvak Kranti Dal said.

These sites have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes that cause dengue, according to Kanwar Sain, Mayor of Delhi.

Kanwar Sain told reporters that an inspection conducted by the officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi a week ago found that the Commonwealth Games Village in East Delhi has turned into a breeding place for mosquitoes.  Other news: Commonwealth Games accommodation preparations

Sain rejected the allegation raised by Kiran Walia, Health Minister of Delhi, that the MCD has failed to curb the mounting number of dengue cases in Delhi, by saying that the Municipal Corporation is “doing its best” to restrain the spreading of dengue.

Health Minister Kiran Walia also accused the Municipal Corporation of not taking proper measures to check the breeding of mosquitoes in Delhi, in spite of “several reminders” and that the Health Officer of the MCD of not bothering to inform the government of Delhi about the total number of dengue cases in various hospitals.

Kiran Walia said the Delhi government has decided to issue public notices, advertisements as well as the dos and don’ts intended to create awareness among the residents about the way the vector-borne dengue spreads.

She added that three hospitals run by the Delhi government – Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital, Hedgewar Hospital, and Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital – will prepare and formulate the blood platelets.

In addition, emergency services in all hospitals will function round the clock to attend to dengue patients, and those hospitals which fail to furnish reports on dengue patients face prosecution.

The Health Minister appealed to the residents of Delhi not to wash their cars and two-wheelers in order to prevent accumulation of water on the streets and in pits.

Already, two persons have died of dengue in and around Delhi, and about 550 people are suffering from the vector-borne disease.

There has been an increase this year in the number of people afflicted by dengue because of late rains in Delhi, according to Mayor Kanwar Sain. The situation will be brought under control next year, and there will be no dengue problem during the Commonwealth Games, he added.

According to the guidelines of the Central Government, the standard test for dengue is the IgM Capture ELISA test. Any patient who is confirmed to be suffering from dengue, after undergoing this test, is notified to the Municipal Corporation by all leading hospitals of Delhi, the Mayor said.

There has been a spate of activities related to building and renovation all over Delhi in the run-up to the 2010  Commonwealth Games, to be held from October 3-14, 2010. This has resulted in the buildup of a lot of rubble, which has eventually become breeding grounds of dengue-causing mosquitoes.

In end-November 2009, Home Minister P Chidambaram had visited Jammu & Kashmir and said that the government is considering the ban of pre-paid mobile connections in the state, since it failed in convincing people to use post-paid mobile connections.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has said that service providers or vendors were not conducting proper verification when providing pre-paid mobile numbers, as a result of which there were cases when a single person had been issued with multiple number of connections.

This has led to grave security concerns, a press release from the Ministry of Home Affairs said.

“Pre-paid connections are prone to misuse. Anyone wanting a mobile connection can always go in for a post-paid connection in Jammu and Kashmir. I think the problem is not so acute in the north-eastern States; we may also have to look at the situation in there,” Mr. Chidambaram said at a press conference.

The Minsistry has requested the Department of Telecommunications to take the necessary steps to execute the decision.

The Home ministry will execute the ban from November 1, 2009, onwards. Pre-paid customers of other states would not be able to use roaming services when they visit Jammu & Kashmir and the seven North Eastern states.

With 19 lakh customers, Bharati Airtel is the largest mobile service provider in the state followed by BSNL with 12 lakh and Aircel with 7 lakh customers.

What is clear is that ‘Love Jihad’ refers to an allegedly well-organised campaign, being fanatically and fervently executed by young Muslim men, in which they intentionally lure women from different faiths, especially Hinduism and Christianity, into love and marriage and then forcibly convert them into Islam.

The “clandestine” campaign called ‘Love Jihad’ or ‘Romeo Jihad’ first came to light in September 2009,  when two young Muslim men from Pathanamthitta, a town south-eastern Kerala, reportedly beguiled two women, one a Hindu and the other a Christian, into marriage and later forced them to convert into Islam. 

Though at first the two women insisted that they embraced Islam of their own free will, later, after returning to their own homes, they said they had been abducted and been forced to convert to Islam.

The two young Muslim men in question reportedly belonged to Campus Front, the student wing of Popular Front of India (PFI), a radical Muslim outfit. 

The incident at Pathanamthitta triggered a plethora reports in the media on the so-called Love Jihad – covering it from various angles, and describing and defining it in different ways, so much so that the subject started weighing heavily on the minds of Malayalees in general within and outside Kerala.

At the same time, various organisations of Hindus and Christian came up with their own opinions and explanations.

The radical Hindu group called Sri Ram Sena says that thousands of non-Muslim girls, after getting married to Muslim men, have been converted to Islam by force in the last few years. Further, the Sri Ram Sena alleges that those women who have been thus converted are being trained to do “anti-national activities.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the country’s main Opposition party, maintains that the members of ‘Love Jihad’ are supported by funds from abroad, especially the Islamic countries in West Asia.

Christian organisations, too, are seized of the alleged threat from ‘Love Jihad.’

The powerful Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) – an alliance of the bishops of the Catholic Church in Kerala – has come out with vivid data and description of the deeds of the radical Islamic outfit.

An article was published in the newsletter of the KCBC asserting that about 4,000 girls have been forcibly converted to Islam since 2005 after they fell in love with Muslim men.

The article, written by Father Johny Kochuparambil, secretary of the Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance – which is a wing of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council – lists 2,868 non-Muslim girls who were “trapped” in the “Love Jihad net” from 2006 to 2009. The writer of the article did not specify where the data was obtained from, but insisted that it came from “highly reliable sources.” 

The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council has even issued guidelines on how to protect girls from the menace, by asking parents and authorities of school and colleges to keep a close watch on the activities of the children and to discourage them from over-use of mobile phones and internet.

It appears that the alleged Islamic campaign has spread from Kerala to the neighbouring state of Karnataka.

In October 2009, the father of a woman, who converted to Islam in order to marry a Muslim man, filed a habeas corpus petition in a court in Karnataka complaining that his daughter was the victim of Love Jihad. However, the woman informed the court that she converted to Islam on her own free will.

All the same, the court observed that it has “serious suspicions” about the woman’s statement that her conversion was voluntary and that the case has “ramifications for national security.” The court went on to state that the case of the converted woman raises questions of unlawful trafficking of girls and women in Karnataka and ordered that the case be investigated by the police. 

According to the Karnataka court’s order, police in both Karnataka and Kerala initiated an investigation into whether an outfit named Love Jihad, or Romeo Jihad, did exist or not. The police of both states reached the conclusion that such a group does not exist.

Jacob Punnoose, Director-General of Police, Kerala, informed the High Court of Kerala that no organisation named ‘Love Jihad’ existed in Kerala, but added that the police have reasons to suspect that there have been “concentrated efforts” by Muslim men to persuade non-Muslim women to convert to Islam after falling in love. 

The alleged threat of ‘Love Jihad’ has brought Christian and Hindu organisations to work together to combat the “menace” since women from both the communities reportedly have become victims.

The media in Kerala quoted an office-bearer of the Christian Association for Social Action (CASA), based in Kochi, as saying that girls from both the Christian and Hindu communities are “falling prey to the Love Jihad campaign” and so the CASA is cooperating with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on this issue.

New Delhi: The capital city of India has become a daily nightmare for women from the North-East of the country who are here to study or for work.

A close study of reports shows that the community of about 100,000 people from the north-eastern states is under threat – virtually any day, any time – of assault, molestation, or murder.

As many as 16 severe cases of molestation, rape and other forms of extreme cruelty perpetuated in Delhi against people from the North-East have been recorded so far in 2009. And, 4 of these incidents took place in the last two weeks.

The worst cases of recent atrocities against people from the North-East staying in Delhi include the murder by Pushpam Kumar Sinha, 34, of a young girl from Manipur; molestation of a girl from Arunachal by school boys; molestation of a girl from Nagaland; and assault on a couple from Nagaland.

On October 24, 2009, Pushpam Sinha, 34, a PhD scholar working at the India Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, assaulted and strangled to death Ramchanphy Hongray, the 19-year-old girl who is his neighbour, in her home in south Delhi. The man then burnt the girl’s face in order to mislead the police.

At Sarojini Nagar in Delhi, on October 12, a girl from the North-East was dragged into a van. However, the presence of mind of the victim, who is an employee of a 5-star hotel, saved her life. After the girl raised a hue and cry, passersby caught hold of one of the assailants and beat him up.

On October 17, a couple from Nagaland was assaulted by some young men, who were allegedly drunk, at Safdarjung Enclave.

The same day, a 5-year-old girl from the North-East was allegedly molested by her tuition teacher.

Earlier, in April 2009, a girl aged 6, was raped and murdered by her neighbour. The girl’s body was later fished out from a water tank nearby.

These terrifying incidents have prompted YS Dadwal, Delhi Police Commissioner, to call for a ‘zero-tolerance policy’ towards any crime committed against women from the North-East. He has ordered that crimes committed against people from the North-East be given top priority, and asked 3 Deputy Commissioners from east, south and north Delhi to act as nodal officers for the safety of women.

However, many members of the North-East community complain that the police have been slow to act.

According to Madhu Chandra, spokesman for the North-East Support Centre and Helpline, a help centre for the youth from the north-eastern states living in Delhi and the National Capital region (NCR), there have been several cases of atrocities, but police are doing little about them and demanded that the Delhi government act sternly to check these incidents.

About 4,000 students from the North-East take admission to various courses in Delhi University (DU) each year, and for them, every day in Delhi is like a nightmare, Madhu Chandra says.

A survey conducted by the North-East Support Centre and Helpline has revealed that 86% (or about 86,000) people hailing from the north-eastern states and living in Delhi face some sort of discrimination or the other “on a daily basis.”

The North-East Support Centre alleges that nearly half the number of women sexually harassed in Delhi and neighbourhood is from the North-East. He says that the Northeast Support Centre and Helpline is “flooded with complaints related to sexual harassment.”

Most members of the north-eastern community are not happy with the police. Kamakshi Sinha, who hails from Assam and doing her undergraduate course in Delhi University, says that that the police circular is “just a piece of paper.” She complains that people in Delhi call them ‘Chinky’ and such other derogatory names, and the policemen ridicule them when they go to the police station to lodge a complaint.

Another female student of Delhi University says that most girls from the North-East are even scared of approaching the police. “Police do not respond to our pleas, and we are treated like outcasts,” she laments.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, MP and Congress general secretary, has said he will totally cooperate with the North-East Students Union in its efforts to curb the increasing menace of crime against both men and women the north-eastern states.

Rahul Gandhi gave this assurance to a team of members of the North-East Students Union which met him to seek his support and intervention in the matter.

The savage and totally mindless practice of the so-called ‘honour killings’ are on the rise in northern India, especially in Haryana, which is not far from the national capital of Delhi.

Look at what the ‘khap panchayat’ did to a couple in a village that is only 50 kilometres from Delhi. The ‘crime’ of the couple was that they belonged to the same ‘gotra.’

Khaps are traditional, area-based community groups. Their rulings have no legal validity. In keeping with their so-called traditions, the khap panchayats oppose and annul marriages within the same ‘gotra’ (lineage) and administer cruel and inhuman punishments to ‘erring’ couples.

On July 24, 2009, a khap panchayat ‘banished’ the couple Ravinder and Shilpa and Ravinder’s entire family from their village.

The khap panchayat ordered their banishment on the ground that Ravinder is a ‘Gehlot’ from Dharana, and Shilpa is a ‘Kadyan’ from Siwah, in Panipat.

The Kadyan khap panchayat ‘invalidated’ the marriage between the members of the two gotras because they are relatives! The khap panchayat’s skewed logic goes like this: The family of Ravinder lives in the same village as Shilpa’s extended family.

The tradition dictates that those living in khaps are not allowed to marry in the same gotra; they are not even allowed to marry a member in any gotra from the same village or the neighbouring villages.

What makes the ruling of ‘banishment’ of Ravinder’s family by the Kadyan khap panchayat all the more shocking is that it came only about 24 hours after the cruel killing of a young man called Ved Pal Mor – he was lynched by the villagers of Singhwal in the very presence of the police.

What was the crime that Ved Pal Mor committed? He married a girl from the same gotra.

The two incidents mentioned above are only the most recent in a long series of such uncivilized ‘punishments’ meted out to those couples who ‘offended’ the khap traditions.

Going further back, there are similar cruel incidents galore: In June 2009, a khap panchayat forced Manoj and his wife Babli to drink pesticide. An order by the High Court to give police protection to the couple was in vain.

In June 2009 itself, another couple, Anita and Sonu, who had ‘violated’ the khap propriety, were tricked to return to their village, only to be stabbed to death in public!

Unable to withstand the severe pressure from the khap, Ravinder, who married Shilpa, attempted suicide, but failed. Then his he and his family had to leave for the house of a relative in another village. If and when they have to return to their own village, they need to have police security.

However, the ‘sarv khap mahapanchayat’ later reduced the punishment of ‘death’ to permanent expulsion for the couple Ravinder and Shilpa, and to 3 months for Ravinder’s father. Ravinder’s two uncles and his parents-in-law were ordered to pay fines.

Now, Ravinder and Shilpa live in Delhi, but they require police escort if they would want to visit their village.

Naseeb Singh, Ravinder’s uncle, an Army personnel and who had been fined by the khap panchayat, says that the khap elders have a ‘hidden agenda’ in holding on to the inhuman tradition.

According to him, the Gehlot migrants, who were his forebears, came to the village many generations ago. At present, there are about 100 Gehlot families residing in the village.

Naseeb Singh says that his family owns 100 bighas of land in the village, and the khap panchayat’s punishment might be aimed at grabbing his family’s land.

However, Chhatar Singh Pradhan, aged 92 and head of the Kadyan khap panchayat, denies all these allegations, averring that the community only wants to protect “our bhaichara” (brotherhood) and  ‘maryada’ (honour). He asserts that the khap panchayat does not ‘order’ any killings.

Notwithstanding what Chhatar Singh Pradhan says, the ground reality is that the barbarous writ of the khap panchayat runs, and both the police and the democratically elected gram panchayats (elected according to the Panchayati Raj laws) either remain silent spectators of or provide passive consent to the inhuman acts.

Vote-hungry politicians do play a big role in perpetuating the barbaric practice of ‘honour killings.’

In the last week of September 2009, in the run-up to the elections to the Haryana Assembly, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was then the Chief Minister of Haryana, unabashedly gave a clean chit to the khap panchayats by declaring that the community councils – which have ordered honour killings in the past -  are still part of Haryana’s traditions and values.

Perhaps mainly emboldened by the political patronage they receive, khap panchayats in Haryana are now seeking legal sanction for their acts f barbarism.

Haryana’s khap panchayats have decided to draw ‘recommendations’ to make ‘necessary’ amendments (at the state-level) to the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 so that their ‘rulings’ get legal sanction.

The Congress party has staked claim to form government in Haryana after having managed to get the support of all seven Independent MLAs.

The support of the seven Independent MLAs gives the Congress the majority required in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the results of the elections to which came out two days ago.

The Congress – which became the biggest single party in the hung Assembly with a total of 40 seats – required six more MLAs to get a simple majority in the House.

The seven Independent legislators gave their letters of support at first to the Congress and then met Jagannath Pahadia, Governor of Haryana, to inform him of their support to the Congress.

The support offered by the Independents legislators is “unconditional,” according to Randeep Singh Surjewala, Haryana’s Minister for Power Minister.

The Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) – led by former chief minister Bhajan Lal and   Kuldeep Bishnoi, Bhajan Lal’s son – said their party would be a part of the government to be formed.

Bhajan Lal and Kuldeep Bishnoi had left the Congress about 2 years ago. The Haryana Janhit Congress has 6 legislators in the new House.

Phool Chand Mullana, president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, had, on Friday, met Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia to stake the Congress party’s claim to form government. The Congress is the single biggest party in the new Assembly and the precedent is that the single biggest party be invited to form government, Mullana had told after he met the Governor.

Phool Chand Mullana was himself defeated in the Mullana constituency.

Om Prakash Chautala, the leader of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the main Opposition, charged the Congress with “horse-trading” and requested the Governor not to invite the Congress to form government. The people of Haryana, Chautala added, had voted in favour of 50 non-Congress candidates in the 90-member House.

The Indian National Lok Dal has won 31 seats.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who has stepped down as Chief Minister and is now the caretaker Chief Minister, stresses that he is confident of the Congress forming the next government.

In the present election, the Congress fared much lower than its expectations. The Congress had won 67 seats in the Assembly elections held in February 2005 – which as 27 seats more than what it got this time around.

The election results have left the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main Opposition, more weakened in the first electoral test held after the general elections to Parliament in May 2009.

In Maharashtra, a state having much political significance, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance won 144 seats in the 288-member Assembly.
The BJP was victorious in 46 seats.

In the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, the Congress had a thumping victory – by bagging 42 seats of 60 seats.

However, in Haryana, the Congress could not put up a good performance, with the main Opposition party, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), climbing from just 9 seats in the 2005 Assembly elections to 31 seats this time. The Congress won 40 seats.

Though the Congress is the biggest party in Haryana, having won 40 out of the 90 seats, it is still being short of the halfway mark.

Many senior Congress leaders said they are happy with the outcome of the polls overall, but admitted that they had expected a more emphatic win.

There were wild scenes of jubilation outside the national headquarters of the Congress in New Delhi.

V Narayanasamy, Congress party general secretary and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, reacted to the poll outcome, saying that the results in Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh and Haryana have shown that the Congress is “the only party working for the welfare of the people.” The BJP, he added, is not just “down’ but also “almost out” of the national political scene.

According to him, the poll outcome is also a mandate given by the people for the “able leadership” of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as party general secretary and MP Rahul Gandhi.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, BJP spokesman, blamed the electronic voting machines for the party’s debacle, remarking that the electronic voting machines had turned out to be “electronic victory machines” for the Congress.

However, Ravi Shankar Prasad, another spokesman for the BJP, said the party is “conceding the defeat with humility,” adding that the results were unexpected and the party should “honestly ponder over” its weaknesses and should act fast.

In a major upset in Maharashtra, Ramdas Kadam, Shiv Sena’s Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, lost to the NCP candidate.

In Arunachal Pradesh, the ruling Congress party will form a government on its own, after having swept the elections.

The results in Haryana turned out to be rather embarrassing for Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who had called the elections seven months ahead of schedule, in the hope of benefiting from the Congress’ win in the May 2009 Lok Sabha elections, when the party had bagged 9 seats out of 10 seats.

Four ministers in Haryana – Transport Minister Mange Ram Gupta, Finance Minister Birender Singh, Cooperation Minister Meena Mandal and Education Minister A C Chaudhary – got defeated, as did Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president Phool Chand Mullana.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda says he is confident of forming government, but Om Prakash Chautala, president of the Indian National Lok Dal, is of the opinion that the State Governor should invite the Opposition parties first and give them a chance to form government.