Latest News Update: Mar 1, 2010

Monday, March 1, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Vulnerable sections ignored in budget allocation: NCDHR

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article123909.ece

Published: March 1, 2010
Updated: March 1, 2010 01:03 IST NEW DELHI, March 1, 2010

Vulnerable sections ignored in budget allocation: NCDHR
Aarti Dhar

The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) has said that the
budget proposals for 2010-11 have ignored the most vulnerable sections
of society, particularly the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled
Tribes (STs).

Though there is an increase in the budgets for the Ministries of
Tribal Affairs and Social Justice and Empowerment, the overall denial
continues to be substantial this year — over Rs.25, 000 crore, said
N.Paul Divakar, NCDHR general-secretary.

Seeking intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the Planning Commission in doling out a
better deal for these underprivileged sections, Mr. Divakar said
strict instructions should be issued to ensure that allocations made
are implemented as per the Special Component Plan (SCP) and the Tribal
Sub-Plan (TSP) guidelines issued by the Commission.

The Total Annual Plan Expenditure for 2010-11 (BE) (excluding Central
Assistance to States/Union Territories) is Rs.2,84,284 crore.
According to SCP, the Dalits were supposed to get Rs.46,054 crore and
as per the TSP, the Adivasis Rs.23,311.29 crore. However the
allocation under SCP is Rs.20,624 crore and TSP Rs.11,745.94. It
denies Rs.25,429.7 crore to the Dalits and Rs.14,137.12 crore to
indigenous groups, he pointed out.

Of the 83 Departments/Ministries that have Plan allocation, only 18
have allocated SCP and TSP from their Annual Plan Expenditure. Of
these 18, eight have earmarked below 5 per cent. If one analyses the
allocations to the high growth departments, there is hardly any scheme
which benefit the SCs or STs, the NCDHR said.

According to Mr. Divakar, consultations with Dalit and Adivasi
organisations and leaders should be carried out during the budget
planning, and this should be made mandatory. The SCP and TSP should be
made into legislation, which defines clear entitlements for the Dalits
and has necessary redressal mechanisms to ensure that all duty bearers
implement these special allocations effectively.

"The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Ministry of
Tribal Affairs has to play an effective role in coordination and
implementation of the SCP and TSP. In particular, these Ministries
should ensure separate earmarking and scheme-wise allocation in their
respective Annual Plans and performance analysis and granting of
utilisation certificates for further allocations."

The Planning Commission, as a monitoring and review authority, should
evolve a separate set of duties and functions to ensure transparency
and accountability by executives responsible for the planning,
formulation, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of SCP and TSP.
Each Ministry should have sufficient human and financial resources for
effectively implementing the same to ensure inclusion in the growth
sectors and new developments taking place, he said.

Suggesting that all State governments should constitute SCP and TSP
monitoring committees wherein educated youth from these sections of
the society are members, Mr Divakar said these could monitor planning
and implementation at the State, Department/Ministry, district and
block levels with necessary powers to intervene wherever necessary.

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[ZESTCaste] Uma moots reservation for dalit women

http://www.centralchronicle.com/viewnews.asp?articleID=28279

Uma moots reservation for dalit women

Posted On Sunday, February 28, 2010
Chronicle News Service

Ujjain, Feb 27
Bharatiya Jan Shakti President and former Madhya Pradesh chief
minister Uma Bharti today demanded at least 50 per cent reservation
for dalit, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes in
the proposed Women's Reservation Bill that provides for 33 per cent
reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and assemblies.
''Reservation should be provided to them in the Bill as well as
separately,'' Ms Bharti told media here.
She claimed that several leaders - including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister
M Karunanidhi, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu
Naidu, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Nationalist Congress
Party President Sharad Pawar - are with her in this regard.
The BJS chief, who is ready to ''fast unto death'' in support of her
demand, said that she completed preparations for a related Delhi
meeting of political leaders from various affiliations.

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[ZESTCaste] Cornered BJP woos Dalits and Muslims to retain its relevance

http://www.livemint.com/2010/02/28214358/Cornered-BJP-woos-Dalits-and-M.html

Posted: Sun, Feb 28 2010. 10:03 PM IST
Economy and Politics

Cornered BJP woos Dalits and Muslims to retain its relevance

The cadre-based party may not be successful in glueing together
extreme ends of India's electorate, say analystsLiz Mathew and Ruhi
Tewari

New Delhi: Fear of being marginalized is driving the main opposition
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) towards hitherto uncharted territory. The
party that rose to the centre stage by championing the cause of
upper-caste Hindus is now reaching out to Dalits and backward castes,
and sending overtures to Muslims in a bid to expand its support base
and retain its political relevance.

Some analysts say this is a "Congressification" of the BJP—a mimicking
of the strategy that helped its arch foe the Congress party, rule
India for much of its independent history and again replace the BJP at
the helm of the Union government six years ago.

Towards moderation: A 19 Feburary photo of BJP national president
Nitin Gadkari (centre) with party leaders Ananth Kumar (right) and
Shivraj Singh Chauhan during the party's national executive meet in
Indore. PTI

Analysts also say this strategy comes naturally to the Congress, which
has mostly been a broad-based party, while the cadre-based BJP may not
be as successful in glueing together extreme ends of India's
electorate. Nonetheless, the BJP's efforts will give the Congress
competition and keep it on its toes, they say.

Newly elected BJP president Nitin Gadkari, speaking at the annual
meeting of the party's national executive recently, sought to enlist
the support of Dalits and backward castes that make up a significant
chunk of India's voters.

He also called upon Muslims to accept a Ram temple at the site of the
Babri mosque—which was razed in 1992 by a mob as the climax of a Hindu
nationalist movement led by BJP leaders—in return for another mosque
in the neighbourhood.

Political observers termed it a turn towards moderation, crucial for a
party that has lost two consecutive general elections and a string of
state elections and seen its voter base dwindle over the past six
years.

"It has now become electorally imperative for the BJP to move towards
moderation, also made important by compulsions of a coalition era,"
said Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president, Centre for Policy Research, a New
Delhi-based think tank. "What Hindu nationalism fundamentally needs is
politics of anxiety, which is much less now than earlier and hence the
BJP is not succeeding in polarizing (the electorate) now. In this
context, it is moving towards moderation."

Muslims and Dalits have always been crucial for Indian political
parties—national or regional. Muslims constitute around 14% of the
national population, according to the 2001 census. While there is no
accurate estimate of the Dalit population, different studies peg it
between 16% and 20%.

"It is a democratic fact that to be a mass-based national party, you
require a significant base among Dalits," Mehta pointed out.

Saibal Gupta, a Bihar-based political and development analyst, said
national parties had realized that a coalition of extremes, which
includes all sections of society from Brahmins to Dalits, was the most
effective strategy to stay in power.

The Congress, he said, had always banked upon this strategy until its
decline in the 1990s.

"It got breached and unfortunately for them, those kind of coalitions
have been forming in different parts of the country. (Chief minister)
Nitish Kumar is trying it in Bihar and in Andhra Pradesh, (former
chief minister) N. Chandrababu Naidu managed to do it," said Gupta,
founder and member secretary of the Asian Development Research
Institute, Patna.

But the Congress reinvented itself to storm to power in 2004 at the
head of a rainbow coalition called the United Progressive Alliance
(UPA). In last year's election, the party led the alliance to a second
term in power.

Although it continues to rule with the help of allies, general
secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is seen as a future prime ministerial
candidate, is keen to bring the Congress to power on its own.

The party is now making a concerted pitch to regain lost ground in the
politically crucial states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which together
send 120 members to the Lok Sabha. Smaller parties such as the
Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Janata Dal (United) and
the Rashtriya Janata Dal have captured a large chunk of the electorate
in these states.

"It is tougher for the BJP than the Congress (to be a big tent party).
Congress has been, in the last couple of years, able to convey
different messages. It has shifted from (former prime minister) Rajiv
Gandhi's techno-managerial orientation to inclusive orientation,"
Gupta said.

Mehta hoped the BJP's efforts would at least keep the Congress from
becoming complacent.

"With both Congress and BJP now vying for the same political space,
what it will do is push Congress out of its complacency. But the
Congress is still at an advantage compared to the BJP, given that the
latter's geographical base is not that wide," he said. "It will have
to peak in all states where it has a presence simultaneously in order
to replace the Congress."

Regional parties are not amused by the new agenda set by the national
parties. "(Regional parties) are very much needed in the current
political scenario," said Jose K. Mani, a Lok Sabha member belonging
to Kerala Congress (Mani).

"Even in the context of development," he added, "when national parties
tend to ignore certain regions, it is the smaller parties which sense
the deep-rooted issues of the people."

liz.m@livemint.com