Wednesday, April 28, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Mayawati, leader of the low-castes, proves key for govt

 

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/politics/mayawati-leaderthe-low-castes-proves-key-for-govt_454430.html

Mayawati, leader of the low-castes, proves key for govt

The pivotal role played by Mayawati, a self-proclaimed leader of the
"untouchables", in ensuring India's Congress-led government's victory
in parliament highlighted the importance of smaller parties and a
rough road ahead for reforms.

Last-moment support from Mayawati, chief of the Bahujan Samaj Party
that champions lower castes, helped the ruling coalition trounce by a
wide margin an opposition sponsored vote of confidence on Tuesday over
a hike in fuel and fertiliser prices.

But the fickleness of the allies who supported Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh's government underscores the difficulties he and his reformist
aides would face in their efforts to further open up the economy and
cut down subsidies.

Bills include those to allow more foreign stakes in pension and
insurance sectors, and to permit foreign universities to set up local
campuses, are all on hold due to political opposition.

"When it comes for foreign investment or opening up products to market
forces, like in the case of petroleum, reforms become a major issue.
They can't go to the (smaller parties) for support," D.H. Pai
Panandikar, head of think-tank RPG Foundation, said.

While few expected the government to lose the vote over high
inflation, disputes over a women's bill and a cricket scandal had seen
many allies of the coalition either withdraw their support or waver in
their support.

Enter Mayawati, who goes by one name and who was touted as a possible
prime minister before she performed worst than expected in last year's
general election.

This year, her million-dollar spending on statues of herself and parks
in Uttar Pradesh, one of India's poorest states, has raised a storm of
criticism. But despite this, her 21 lawmakers proved crucial in giving
Congress a stable majority.

Congress has 207 members in the 545-member lower house of parliament.
On Tuesday, the government had the support of 289 members, just 16
over the half-way mark, a pointer on how close a vote can go if the
opposition effectively unites.

While Mayawati charged Singh's government of policies that caused
hardships to people, she appeared keener this time to court government
favour and deflect criticism as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state.

"While we should have normally voted against the government, we do not
want communal forces to return to power in the garb of these issues,"
the former school teacher told a news conference.

Singh's government was also brought home safely by a thinning of the
anti-government alliance, when the 27 members of the Samajwadi Party
(SP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) walked out on the vote, just
weeks after they had demanding it.

Like Mayawati, they blamed the Congress for high inflation and other
woes, but cited as reason for their shift a reluctance to vote
alongside 'communal forces,' shorthand for main Hindu-nationalist
opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

_PAGEBREAK_

MAYAWATI, OTHERS, SEEN FICKLE

The 54-year old Mayawati is no friend of the Congress. Both parties
are locked in a bitter struggle to control Uttar Pradesh, the state
which sends the most number of lawmakers to parliament.

The party, which has tried to spread its wings beyond Uttar Pradesh
with limited success, has earlier aligned with both the Congress and
the BJP, guided by its founding agenda of being in power and using the
government to benefit its lower caste voters.

"She has saved the government, but where do we go from here? In the
future she will not maintain this position," said Sudha Pai, a
professor at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and an author of a
book on the party.

Pai said Mayawati's decision came on expectation the Congress would
pipe down its criticism of issues like using government funds to build
colossal states of herself.

Analysts say the Congress looked set to rule till its five-year term
ends 2014, but would have to wheel out its dealmakers each time
crucial legislation is up for approval, further complicating the rocky
road to freeing up the economy.

"I think it is a somewhat stable equilibrium," Abheek Barua, chief
economist at HDFC bank, said. "There is a symbiotic relationship
between the Congress and the smaller parties."

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[ZESTCaste] Modi on target again for his remarks on Ambedkar

http://news4u.co.in/?p=60470

Modi on target again for his remarks on Ambedkar

Published on April 28, 2010 by admin
News4u News desk-Ahmedabad, Gujarat Congress leaders today hit out at
Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks on B R Ambedkar embracing
Buddhism.

During his speech at the launch of his book yesterday, which is a
compilation of Modi's articles and speeches on Ambedkar and social
issues, Modi had said Ambedkar embraced Buddhism instead of Islam or
Christianity because these religions were not originated in India.

According to Congress leaders, Modi has misinterpreted Ambedkar's
social, political and religious views.

"Chief Minister said that Ambedkar left Hinduism but did not convert
to Islam or Christianity and embraced Budhdhism, which was originated
in India," Congress general secretary Girish Parmar said.

"This is CM's interpretation which is absolutely baseless. He must
read Ambedkar to know why he deserted Hinduism to accept Budhdhism as
his religion," he added.


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[ZESTCaste] BJP team demands judicial probe into attacks on Dalits in Haryana

 

http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-98159.html

BJP team demands judicial probe into attacks on Dalits in Haryana

New Delhi, Apr 28 : A two-member BJP Parliamentary panel that went
into the atrocities on Dalit community at Mirchpur village in Hisar in
Haryana on April 21 has sought a judicial probe and observed that the
state Administration was not sensitive to the insecure feelings of
dalit community.

The panel consisting of Mr Virender Kashyap and Arjun Ram Meghawal
went to the troubled spot which had seen the killing of two dalits and
setting fire to 25 dalit homes and submitted its report to Leader of
Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj this noon.

Mr Kashyap told newspersons that the dalits felt unsafe in the village
and most families had moved out of the area fearing attacks.

The state administration had not shown sensitivity the situation
deserved and was doing nothing to assuage the insecure feelings
harboured by the victims.

Besides the judicial probe, the panel had recommended a compensation
of Rs 10 lakh each for the families of the dead victims and employment
to one person in the deceased family.

--UNI

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[ZESTCaste] Mirchpur: Attackers targeted dalit wealth

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Mirchpur-Attackers-targeted-dalit-wealth/articleshow/5866066.cms

Mirchpur: Attackers targeted dalit wealth

Nandita Sengupta, TNN, Apr 28, 2010, 04.31am IST

NEW DELHI: The Mirchpur arson was as much about caste as class. A
fact-finding team on a visit last Saturday to Haryana's Mirchpur
village, where two dalits were burned to death and 18 houses gutted,
reports that the arson wasn't arbitrary.

The attackers, allegedly from the Jat community, identified houses of
the more well-off among the Balmiki community and set them on fire. A
beauty parlour, kirana stores and a barber-shop were totally gutted,
an obvious attempt to cower dalit prosperity, however limited.

"Any semblance of status symbol was attacked," said journalist Bhasha
Singh, houses with motorbikes, televisions, fridges. And shops that
dalits ran. "The mood in the village was that dalits 'need to be
taught a lesson'." The first thing the mob did, a woman reported, "was
to break the Sintex water tanks provided by the government, so we had
no way of dousing the fire."

The traumatized villagers also complained of flashers among the attackers.

Located in Hissar district, Mirchpur has a handful of dalits: about
100 Balmiki families, 350 'Jatav' families and 50 Doms to the 1700-odd
Jat families. The team found that growing economic prosperity among a
section of the minority dalits seemed to be the root cause this time
around.

The Jats' hate campaign got sharpened two years ago when a dalit won a
bid to manage the region's biggest temple festival, the Phoolan Devi
fest, and repeated the feat last year as well.

The enterprising Balmiki community youth, Dharamvir, deposited Rs
50,000 this year too with the village panchayat for the same. "We
heard comments such as 'how can he get so much money'? 'He has so much
money, why call him a dalit'?" says Umakant, an activist in the team.
The vitriol was obvious, the lack of remorse stark.

Three days after the attack, the team of activists from NGOs National
Campaign on dalit Human Rights and Anhad along with journalists,
reached the village to find a mahakhap Jat panchayat meeting on in
government premises and scared dalits wanting out. Both police and
administration, said Shabnam Hashmi of Anhad, feigned ignorance about
the meeting. Most dalit households have packed off women and younger
family members to other villages.

Those who remain told chairperson of National Commission for Scheduled
Castes, Buta Singh, also present in the village, they wanted to
resettle elsewhere "far from the Jats". They called it "a pre-planned
attack", the fight and barking-dog story only a pretext, what with a
mob of 300 to 400 surrounding the locality on the morning of April 21,
while the community's men had been talked into attending a 'compromise
meeting' to cool tensions.

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[ZESTCaste] Clinic ransacked over molestation charge Purnia

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Clinic-ransacked-over-molestation-chargePurnia/articleshow/5865662.cms

Clinic ransacked over molestation charge Purnia
TNN, Apr 28, 2010, 06.13am IST

PURNIA: An irate mob vandalized a private clinic after a doctor
allegedly misbehaved and molested a Dalit woman at Bhawanipore under
Dhamdaha sub-division in Purnia on Tuesday.

Reports said a 25-year-old Dalit woman, Anju Devi, escorted by her
husband Bijal Ram went to Dr R K Jha's private clinic at Bhawanipore
around 10 am on Tuesday to get their year-old child checked up.
Thereafter, the woman wanted the doctor to check her also. The doctor,
in course of her check-up, allegedly molested the woman. Anju raised
an alarm following which her husband barged into the check-up room and
rescued her.

Later, an irate mob allegedly vandalised the clinic.

An IAS trainee, BDO Girdhar Dayal Singh, said the doctor concerned is
posted at Sadar hospital at Katihar. He runs a private clinic at
Bhawanipore. The BDO along with doctor Prakash Mishra took the
aggrieved woman to the police station. The BDO said he has asked the
SHO to lodge an FIR against the errant doctor. The doctor, however,
rubbished charges of molestation or misdemeanour with the Dalit woman.
Dr Jha told TOI over the phone that the woman, who is pregnant,
complained of some complications and asked him to check her after her
child was examined. She had entered the ante chamber escorted by none
other than her husband, Dr Jha told.

Dhamdaha deputy superintendent of police Sanjay Bharati said there was
some kind of misunderstanding during the medical check-up which led to
the avoidable row. "Everything is normal now," the DSP added.

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[ZESTCaste] Rahul Gandhi may have to hold his punches against Mayawati in UP

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_rahul-gandhi-may-have-to-hold-his-punches-against-mayawati-in-up_1376400

Rahul Gandhi may have to hold his punches against Mayawati in UP
DNAWednesday, April 28, 2010 2:18 IST

New Delhi: leaders with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati are
expected to cease for the coming months as the two blocs enter a tacit
symbiotic pact.

policies
Aware of the threat of a close number game during Tuesday's cut
motions, the Congress-led UPA government made the right moves to
appease Uttar Pradesh chief minister last week.

And Mayawati didn't disappoint her appeasers when the D-day arrived.
She instructed 21 BSP MPs to back the government to the hilt when it
faces division of votes on the motions in parliament.

The newfound bonhomie is expected to force AICC general secretary
Rahul Gandhi to significantly alter his Mission 2012 for UP for the
next few months.

A crucial aspect of the quid pro quo agreement with Mayawati,
according to sources in both Congress and BSP camps, is that Gandhi or
any other Congress leader wouldn't indulge into making scathing
attacks on the Mayawati regime.

This means the Congress's much-hyped rath yatra flagged off by the
Amethi MP on April 14 will have to change its tenor, as it was touted
as a campaign to "expose the misrule of the BSP". Chariots rolled out
from 10 different places across UP as part of the rath yatra. Rahul
was to join the yatra in Bundelkhand early next month.

Though Congress sources claim that the AICC general secretary won't
alter his plans to participate in the yatra, Rahul will have to "hold
his punches against the UP government, for now".

The virtual ceasefire between the two blocs may end by September, when
Rahul's campaign is supposed to enter its second phase. Till then, the
Amethi MP is expected to concentrate on Bihar, which goes to polls
later this year.

The Congress in Bihar is a divided house and all attempts to resolve
disputes between its warring factions have so far failed to yield
favorable results.

"Rahulji has been worried about the party's condition in Bihar and
with polls due later this year, this is the time for him to
intervene," a Congress leader said.

But the government is expected to continue showering its generosity on
Mayawati as the other part of the bargain struck with her is that the
CBI maintains a status quo on its stand of considering closure of the
disproportionate assets (DA) case filed against the Dalit leader.


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[ZESTCaste] BSP rescue of Congress most likely a one-off act

http://www.thehindu.com/2010/04/28/stories/2010042855031200.htm

Front Page

BSP rescue of Congress most likely a one-off act

Vidya Subrahmaniam

As long as Congress was a minor player, BSP could afford periodically
to dally with it


NEW DELHI: The shock value of the Bahujan Samaj Party's open embrace
of the Congress in the Lok Sabha notwithstanding, the indication so
far is that it is a standalone rescue act rather than any kind of
long-term rapprochement between the two bitter rivals.

The turf war between the BSP and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh has
gone too far for either side to retreat now. Earlier this month,
Ambedkar Jayanti became the backdrop for yet another re-enactment of
the long-running Mayawati-Rahul Gandhi public feud.

The face-off was typically packed with drama, with the U.P. government
refusing Mr. Gandhi permission to garland Ambedkar's statue in
Ambedkar Nagar (a district created by Ms. Mayawati in Bhim Rao
Ambedkar's memory), and Mr. Gandhi pointedly garlanding Dr. Ambedkar's
photograph in the Central Hall of Parliament before departing for
Ambedkar Nagar.

In the district, the Congress and the BSP addressed rival rallies
where each poured scorn on the other. Mr. Gandhi, who used the
occasion to flag off 10 simultaneous Congress yatras, teased and
taunted the BSP, which, he said, was running scared of the Congress.
BSP leaders addressing the parallel rally retaliated by calling Mr.
Gandhi's programme a "flop show."

The BSP has since seized upon reports that the Congress yatras have
fallen short of the anticipated response. This has left the Congress
in a quandary. Either it presses Mr. Gandhi vigorously into the
campaign, or it backs off in the interest of keeping "new friend" BSP
in good humour.

The second option will mean the Congress loses face on a prestigious
campaign. It will also push the party back in a State that it has
coveted since the '80s, when it last ruled U.P, and which finally
seems within its grasp. On the other hand, once Mr. Gandhi takes
charge, the two sides can only get more combative — more so given the
bristling chemistry between Ms. Mayawati and the Congress general
secretary.

The nature of the BSP-Congress fight is such that there cannot be a
longish cooling-off period between them. As long as the Congress was a
minor player in U.P., the BSP could afford periodically to dally with
it.

For its part, the Congress played on-again, off-again by turn with the
BSP and the Samajwadi Party. When the SP was in government, the
Congress officially supported it, yet cosied up to the BSP from time
to time. The equations changed once Ms. Mayawati trounced Mulayam
Singh in the 2007 Assembly election. The Mayawati-Rahul Gandhi war was
now official.

To the delight of the Congress, the BSP finished third behind the
Congress in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. In the days since, the SP's
graph has visibly declined, with the fight now seeming to have
narrowed between the BSP and the Congress. So whatever the real story
behind the BSP's sudden change of heart towards the Congress, it is a
fair bet that there will be no ceasefire in battleground U.P.


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[ZESTCaste] Govt to try Dreze formula for BPL census

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/govt-to-try-dreze-formula-for-bpl-census/393248/

Govt to try Dreze formula for BPL census

Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi April 28, 2010, 1:33 IST

The government is considering a method to identify the total number of
poor in the country on the basis of a formula suggested by economists
Jean Drèze and Reetika Khera for the upcoming below poverty line (BPL)
census.

This method would enable a villager to know whether he is eligible for
BPL status or not without even being told and, thus, enable
self-verification and monitoring. It is based on five indicators of
poverty. A system of binary scoring would be tried in the pilots being
rolled out for the census next month. It would be tried alongside the
method of automatic inclusion suggested by a committee appointed by
the rural development ministry.

The N C Saxena committee suggested automatic inclusion of households,
led by SC, ST, landless and single women as BPL families, while
several other factors had been given scores from 1 to 10 for further
identification of BPL.

These indicators range from minority community, illiteracy, illness
and so on. So, if illiteracy gets one point, landlessness gets two,
Dalit status three, and so on.

This was an improvement on the 2002 census method of identifying the
poor on the basis of 13 indicators and then giving them scores from 0
to 52.

The new method suggested by Drèze simplifies inclusion further. It
includes among priority groups SC/ST households, landless households
with no adult educated beyond class five, households led by single
women and households with one adult working as agricultural labour.
For the purpose of identifying the poorer among the selected, it
suggests binary scoring, which is giving a single mark to each of the
five indicators. Anyone with even one score gets a BPL card and two
scores gets an Antyodaya card.

According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-3 (2005-06),
about 78 per cent of rural Indians have at least one of these five
criteria. About 47.5 per cent meet at least two of the criteria. Drèze
lists these for automatic inclusion of the Social Assistance Base, as
he calls the BPL families.

He also suggests an option of exclusion based on three other criteria,
for instance, possession of car, refrigerator, colour TV, scooters,
and landline phone; second, having piped water, power and flush
toilet; and thirdly, ownership of multi-room house or multi-storied
house.

While the Saxena committee allows for imposing caps on the number of
BPL households identified in villages and district levels, Drèze does
away with the caps. He says since the selection method is open to self
verification, there may be little need to impose caps.

Says Khera: The Saxena committee's scoring system tends to give more
marks for indicators that are not proven factors. For instance, being
a Dalit-led household gets more points than being an illiterate-led
household.

THE DREZE EQUATION
Inclusion criteria suggested by Drèze Rural households meeting
inclusion criteria (%)
SC/ST households 31.8
Landless households 41.5
Household with no educated adult 38.4
Households headed by single women 14.9
Agricultural labour households 32.9
Any of the above criteria 78.9
Any of the two criteria 47.5
(Figures in percentage; from National Family Health Survey-III data
cited by Drèze)


Besides, giving different scores for different criteria makes the
process confusing and not open to participatory verification by the
society, she adds.

Members of the rural development ministry and Planning Commission, and
members of the Saxena committee, have been holding meetings this month
to finalise the methodology for the census next month.

Sources attending the meeting said the problem with the Drèze method
was that it did not provide a way to prioritise when smaller numbers
had to be identified.

Khera replied. "We have been discussing this with the ministry and
have suggested a simple method of prioritising the more needy
households. Our binary scoring method is all about prioritising."


------------------------------------

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[ZESTCaste] SC/ST Act misused: Govt

 

http://in.news.yahoo.com/32/20100427/1053/tnl-sc-st-act-misused-govt_1.html

SC/ST Act misused: Govt

Tue, Apr 27 09:30 AM
New Delhi, April 27 -- The Centre on Monday told the Lok Sabha there
have been cases of misuse of a key law meant to prevent atrocities
against Dalits and tribals. In response to a question, Minister of
State for Social Justice and Empowerment D Napoleon said that there
were 6,564 false cases in 2008 across India under the Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, called the
PoA Act.

This Act provides for a sentence of up to five years for atrocity
committed or humiliation heaped on a Dalit, and provides for the
setting up of special courts for trial of cases. "Under the caption,
'cases declared false on account of mistake of fact or law', 6,564
cases pertaining to atrocities against Scheduled Castes, during 2008,
have been mentioned," Napoleon said.

He, however, said there was no proposal to seek amendments in the law.
Of these, 2287 false cases came from one state: Rajasthan.

Andhra Pradesh followed at 1,577 false cases. Uttar Pradesh, the state
with the largest Dalit population (21 per cent of the state's 160-70
million), was third with 843 false cases.

Punjab - the state with the highest proportion of SCs at 29 per cent
of the population - has had just 52 false cases registered in 2009.
Delhi is the last in the list with three cases in 2008.

However, Dalit groups have complained that atrocities on Dalits were
going unchecked.

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