Latest News Update: Jan 16, 2012

Monday, January 16, 2012

[ZESTCaste] Caste-ing aspersions (Opinion)

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/casteing-aspersions/900510/

Caste-ing aspersions
The Indian Express Posted online: Tue Jan 17 2012, 04:03 hrs
When the EC ordered that statues of Mayawati and those of elephants,
erected across UP during her term as chief minister, be covered in
plastic, lest their polished resplendence unduly influence voters'
choices, the absurdity was staggering. Wastage of public money and
administrative effort on acres of plastic covering apart, the order
raised a debate on what may be triggers for coded influence, what may
be the lengths we should go to counter them, and what could be the
limits on the model code of conduct. The elephant is the election
symbol of Mayawati's BSP, but the order is strikingly over-the-top.
And being at the heart of the controversy she was in a good position
to enrich the debate with nuance. Instead, she has reflexively
attacked the EC by imputing casteist motives, saying that if it does
not order a similar covering of symbols associated with the Congress
and the RLD, it could be taken to be "anti-Dalit".

This is an outrageous suggestion, and Mayawati, as the UP CM and an
immensely influential leader of a political party, has to be aware of
the recklessness of such attacks. The EC has been vital to this
country's democratic processes — it gives elections a stamp of
credibility by ensuring fairness in polling and campaign, and also by
using its powers over the administration in an election-bound area to
curb coercion and undue social and political influence. By helping to
ensure a vote without fear or favour, the EC has given hitherto
marginalised groups a solid stake in elections and, by extension,
governance. Mayawati is one of the icons of this democratic
inclusiveness — and by venting her rage as she has done, she courts
the danger of not only drawing the commission into an unseemly
crossfire, but also of undermining an institution that has been
crucial to the deepening of Indian democracy.

The insincerity of using the blunt charge of casteism where a more
engaged debate is called for undermines Mayawati's politics too. She
is an exemplar of the modernising potential of Indian democracy — her
politics integrated socially oppressed groups into the mainstream,
it's given them dignity, and by then taking the socially
confrontational edge off her rhetoric, she has opened her platform, in
a bottom-up pyramid, to all other sections of society. UP's parties
appear to be caught in a frenetic search for caste-and-community
arithmetic at the moment. But as the politician who truly levelled
existing and notional hierarchies, at least in electoral politics,
Mayawati must know that she does not have the luxury of returning to
an older politics of anxiety simply to satisfy her short-term
concerns.

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[ZESTCaste] The question of English

http://www.indiatogether.org/2011/nov/rgh-english.htm

LANGUAGE
The question of English
A meaningful and enduring bilingualism, embracing both English and the
mother tongue, remains out of reach of the vast majority of citizens,
writes Ramachandra Guha.

• Ramachandra Guha

06 November 2011 - In 1905 and 1906, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, his
wife and their children shared a home in Johannesburg with an English
couple, Henry and Millie Polak. Later, writing of their life together,
Gandhi recalled that "Polak and I had often very heated discussions
about the desirability or otherwise of giving the children an English
education. It has always been my conviction that Indian parents who
train their children to think and talk in English from their infancy
betray their children and their country. They deprive them of the
spiritual and social heritage of the nation, and render them to that
extent unfit for the service of the country."

"Having these convictions, I made a point of always talking to my
children in Gujarati. Polak never liked this. He thought I was
spoiling their future. He contended, with all the love and vigour at
his command, that, if children were to learn a universal language like
English from their infancy, they would easily gain considerable
advantage over others in the race of life. He failed to convince me".

Gandhi added that while he insisted on his children speaking at home
in Gujarati, and learning through that language, "they naturally
became bilingual, speaking and writing English with fair ease, because
of daily contact with a large circle of English friends, and because
of their stay in a country [South Africa] where English was the chief
language spoken".

The private debate between Gandhi and Polak has had very many public
echoes down the decades. In the 1920s, Gandhi and Tagore argued in
print about whether a love for the English language betrayed a
colonised mindset. The Mahatma thought it did, whereas the poet, a
prophet of a rooted cosmopolitanism, argued that Indians could glory
in the illumination of lamps lit in languages and cultures other than
their own.

After Independence, the battle between these positions was truly
joined, when the brilliant, maverick socialist, Rammanohar Lohia,
launched and led an 'Angrezi Hatao' andolan, a movement to banish
English from the face of India. (With a splendid but also somewhat
malicious sense of timing, he chose the occasion of a visit by the
queen of England to intensify the agitation.)

A century after Gandhi and Polak debated the question in Johannesburg,
arguments about the relevance of English to India and Indians
continues.

• Poor parents choosing English
• Mother tongue or English
Lohia was answered in turn by Tamil politicians and intellectuals, who
feared that in the absence of English, Hindi-speakers would exercise a
sort of colonialist dominance over the southern, western, and eastern
parts of India. Thus Hindi signs were defaced across Tamilnadu by
followers of E V Ramaswami 'Periyar' - a leader as brilliant and as
maverick as Lohia.

Meanwhile, Periyar's former adversary, C Rajagopalachari, now joined
him in opposing Hindi and in promoting English as the language of
communication between different parts of India and between India and
the world. To the argument that English was a foreign, even an
imperialist, language, Rajaji answered that since the goddess
Saraswati had given birth to all the languages of humankind, we could
and should claim English as our own.

The debate continues. In Karnataka, for example, many prominent
intellectuals - among them the novelist, U R Ananthamurthy - argue
that a child must speak and learn exclusively in her mother tongue
until she enters high school lest she become totally disconnected from
her social and spiritual roots. (Ananthamurthy is an admirer of Gandhi
and a former disciple of Lohia, but, withal, very much his own man,
who makes the argument with a distinctive flair and originality.)

On the other side, Dalit activists suggest that the promotion of
Kannada is an upper-class ploy to keep them away from the fruits of
modern learning. They say that once the Brahmins denied them access to
Sanskrit; now, the descendants of those Brahmins wish to deny the
Dalits access to the modern language of power and privilege, namely,
English.

This subaltern endorsement of the foreign language has taken a most
interesting form in north India, where the writer-activist, Chandra
Bhan Prasad, has chosen to build a temple dedicated to the 'Goddess
English' in his own home state of Uttar Pradesh. Described in the Wall
Street Journal as "a bit of a maverick" (he is also, I might add,
brilliant) Prasad believes that the Dalits can achieve emancipation
via a deeper and fuller engagement with English.

A century after Gandhi and Polak debated the question in Johannesburg,
arguments about the relevance of English to India and Indians
continues. The debate has moved on, of course, since society and
history have moved on too.

One might foreground three significant changes since Gandhi's time.
First, there are now far more inter-community marriages, particularly
among the middle and upper classes. And if a Gujarati marries a Tamil,
or a Bengali weds a Malayali, then the default language of their
children, and of the family as a whole, tends to become English.
Second, although Britannia no longer rules the waves, English
continues to be the major global language, its pre-eminence a
consequence of America having replaced Great Britain as the great
imperial power of the age. Whether spoken in the queen's diction or in
its American or other variants, over most of the world English thus
remains the language of choice for communication between people of
different nationalities.

The third change is, in the Indian context, arguably the most
significant. This is that there is now a real hunger for English among
the poor. As many readers of this column will know, from their own
experience, domestic servants are determined that their children will
not follow them into their profession. They recognise that the best
way to escape hereditary servitude is for their children to learn the
language of mobility and opportunity, which of course is English. The
desire to learn English thus runs deep among all castes and
communities. Poor Muslims are as keen to learn the language as are
poor Dalits or adivasis.

Whether one approves of it or not, this rush to learn English is
unstoppable. Rammanohar Lohia and his followers have lost the battle
to banish English from the imagination or learning experience of the
Indian child.

That said, one might still wish for a sort of historic compromise
between the positions articulated by Gandhi and Polak. We live in a
land of a quite extraordinary diversity of linguistic and literary
traditions. And yet in practice we tend to privilege one language at
the expense of all the others. That so many middle- and upper-class
Indians speak only English is a shame; that so many subaltern and
working class Indians do not have access to decent education in
English is equally a shame.

As for Gandhi's children, despite their father's insistence that they
speak and learn only in Gujarati, they willy-nilly picked up the
lingua franca of Johannesburg, which fortuitously was also the lingua
franca of the world. In the enclaves of class and language that
Indians live in, the promotion of bilingualism and multilingualism is
certainly more difficult. It is easy enough for a child of the elite
to acquire a smattering of Hindi (or Marathi or Kannada) phrases; how
much more enriching would it be for him to learn the language well
enough to read widely in its literature. By the same token, children
from subaltern families are constrained by money and class from
acquiring more than a functional knowledge of English.

Gandhi is not known to have been a model father, but by the accident
of circumstance in at least this respect his children turned out to be
more fortunate than other Indians. Their bilingualism came naturally,
with the language of the home being supplemented by the language of
the city they lived in. In contemporary India, on the other hand, a
meaningful and enduring bilingualism remains out of reach of the vast
majority of citizens.
⊕

Ramachandra Guha
06 Nov 2011

Ramachandra Guha is a historian, and a regular columnist with The
Telegraph of Calcutta.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit rape victim to be shifted to AIIMS

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/dalit-rape-victim-to-be-shifted-to-aiims/950811.html

Dalit rape victim to be shifted to AIIMS
PTI | 09:01 PM,Jan 14,2012

Bhubaneswar, Jan 14 (PTI) A committee of doctors today decided to
shift the dalit rape victim of Pipili to AIIMS, Delhi for better
treatment as CID made public photograph of the prime accused. "The
girl's condition has improved from coma to semi-comatose state. The
specialist committee monitoring her health has decided to shift her to
AIIMS for better reatment," said Sanjita Das, Administrative Officer
of SCB Medical College Hospital, Cuttack where she is battling for
life. The 19-year-old girl was shifted to SCB medical college hospital
from the Capital Hospital here following an order from Orissa High
Court. The state health and family welfare department secretary Anu
Garg visited the medical college hospital and held discussion with the
super specialists on the health condition of the victim. Meanwhile,
CID released a photograph of Pasei alias Prashant Pradhan of Paparanga
village under Pipili Police Station after identifying him as the prime
accused in the November-28 rape case. "The picture of three other
accused will soon be released," CID Director C B Abhay said. MORE

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[ZESTCaste] Congress to focus on Dalit candidates in UP polls

http://www.rediff.com/news/report/congress-to-%20focus-on-dalit-candidates-in-up-polls/20120115.htm

Congress to focus on Dalit candidates in UP polls
January 15, 2012 15:07 IST

Keen to better the party's performance in Uttar Pradesh [ Images ],
Congress has decided to give special focus on reserved constituencies
as well as the seats from where it has fielded Dalit candidates in the
state.

P L Puniya, one time close aide of Chief Minister Mayawati [ Images ]
and currently a Congress MP from Barabanki in the state and Sirsa
(Haryana) MP Ashok Tanwar have been given the 89 constituencies, where
Dalits are in the fray.

Of these 85 constituencies are reserved for Scheduled Castes while in
four general constituencies, Congress has put up Dalit candidates.

The party has entrusted the responsibility to Puniya, a former
bureaucrat, who is now also the Chairman of the National Commission
for Scheduled Castes, for obvious reasons.

Being once close to Mayawati, Puniya, will be able to counter the
BSP's campaign against Congress in these constituencies.

Tanwar, a former NSUI and Youth Congress President is a young Dalit
face from the Rahul Brigade.

The party is expecting a rise in its vote share among the Scheduled
Castes after Rahul's visit to Dalit homes, which also invited sharp
criticism from the opposition parties specially the BSP, which has
been dubbing it as a "gimmick".

Congress has decided to appoint "observers with election experience"
in all these 89 constiuencies. "Observers for these constituencies.

"Only one who is either an MLA, ex Minister or ex MLA having previous
experience in poll process will be appointed observers in these
constituencies," said a party functionary on the condition of
anonymity.
© Copyright 2011 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or
redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means,
is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.

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[ZESTCaste] key accused held in dalit gangrape case

http://www.asianage.com/india/key-accused-held-dalit-gangrape-case-822

key accused held in dalit gangrape case
Jan 16, 2012 - Akshaya Kumar Sahoo |

Age Correspondent

The Orissa police on Sunday arrested the accused in the much-hyped
Pipili dalit girl gangrape case. The accused, Prasant Pradhan alias
Pasei, was arrested at Jatni railway station where he was waiting for
his train to escape police action.

"We have arrested the key accused. Hunt is on to apprehend the three
other accused involved in the incident," said Mr Abhaya, additional
director general, crime branch.
On Saturday, the crime branch had released sketches of the four
accused. Besides Prasant, the others who are allegedly involved in the
brutal crime are Sukant Pradhan, Guna Chandra Swain alias Purna and
Premananda Nayak.
Meanwhile, the authorities of the SCB Medical College and Hospital
where the victim is undergoing treatment since January 10, has decided
to refer the girl to All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New
Delhi.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit votes to decide ruling party of Punjab

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/dalit-votes-to-decide-ruling-party-of-punjab/1/169026.html

Vikas Kahol Chandigarh, January 16, 2012 | UPDATED 12:35 IST
Dalit votes to decide ruling party of Punjab

The Dalits erupted in protest in Punjab in May 2009, after the murder
of Sant Ramanand in Vienna.

The top leadership of the three main political parties in Punjab - the
Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the People's Party of Punjab
(PPP) - comprises of Jat Sikhs. But their electoral fortunes in the
upcoming assembly polls are dependent on the engineering of the Dalit
votes.

Till a few years ago, both the Congress and the SAD had strong pockets
of influence among Dalit voters. However, the clear division of Dalits
over political lines would sharpen this time and the community would
play a vital role in shaping the contours of the legislative assembly
after the January 30 polls in the state.

Several political leaders conceded that as a sizeable section of
Dalits has started to assert its identity, a relatively new phenomenon
in Punjab, the community holds the key to the election results. For
the record, Punjab has the highest percentage of Dalit population in
the country.

"The political parties can't ignore Dalits who behave in a different
manner during polls in Punjab than in Uttar Pradesh," said Dr Pramod
Kumar - head, Institute of Development Communication (IDC) in
Chandigarh. Pramod said Dalits in Punjab are not a monolithic class.
Their vote share is divided between the Congress, SAD and BSP in the
state.

"The division will sharpen this time," asserted Pramod, adding that
the community was looking for identity and recognition. "They are
looking for new identity at least in Doaba region," he said. The Jats
in Punjab comprise only 21 per cent population of the total 60 per
cent Sikhs, yet they have been ruling and dominating politics in
Punjab for decades.

Confirming his assertion, a claimed protagonist of the scheduled
castes, their rights and pride, Chamar Mahan Sabha stated that the
community would vote "cautiously". "We will go through the election
manifesto of all the political parties. We have also asked the
political parties to clarify their stand on our genuine demands," said
Paramjit Singh Kainth, president of the sabha. Chamar Mahan Sabha
started asserting identity in Doaba - the region with the state's
largest Dalit population.

Sources added that the politics of various 'deras' would also play a
major role in the elections. Sources in the Dera Sacha Sauda - whose
controversial chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is facing a CBI probe for
rape and murder - said they had been gauging the political situation
to come up with an appropriate mandate for voters under their group.

The violence in Punjab, following the murder of Sant Ramanand in
Austrian capital Vienna in May 2009, would also influence the voting
pattern of a community among the Dalits. Ramanand headed Dera Sach
Khand Ballan in Jalandhar district. The SAD-BJP government did not act
against the people involved in the violence to avert any confrontation
with them.

Traditionally, the Dalits in Malwa, comprising 69 seats, followed
their "feudal" lords and majority of them identified them with SAD.
The Dalits in Majha region, which has 25 assembly constituencies,
usually supported any one of the SAD or the Congress while the
community in Doaba was considered the Congress vote bank. But, the
situation changed during the last elections.

The SAD lost its bastion Malwa to Congress while it dented its vote
bank in Doaba region. "Dera Sacha Sauda had played a major role in the
role reversal," sources said. The Akalis have a substantial base in
the rural areas and have succeeded in winning over the Dalits,
particularly Mazhabis and Ravidasis through the Dera.

He pointed out that though Dalits form nearly 33 per cent of the rural
population in Punjab, only 2.3 per cent of them have land.

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati slams Election Commission as casteist, anti-Dalit

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mayawati-election-commission-casteist-anti-dalit/1/169037.html

Piyush Srivastava Lucknow, January 16, 2012 | UPDATED 13:35 IST
Mayawati slams Election Commission as casteist, anti-Dalit

The Election Commission ordered over 200 statues of Mayawati and the
elephant to be covered.

BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday described the Election Commission's
order to cover her statues and those of her party's election symbol,
the elephant, as "casteist and anti-Dalit".

Accusing the EC of buckling under pressure from the Congress, she said
following its constitutional responsibility with honesty, the EC
should have issued directives to get Congress' poll symbol and RLD's
symbol 'handpump' covered like the statues of elephant.

"If the EC does not take right decisions regarding symbols of these
two parties, then the people will consider this decision (with regard
to BSP) taken with an anti-Dalit and casteist mentality and under
pressure from the Congress-led government at the Centre," Mayawati
said at a press conference convened on the occasion of her 56th
birthday on Sunday.

"The members of Sarwasamaj related to the movement of the BSP and many
intellectuals believe that it was a wrong decision. They hold that the
EC should refrain from adopting such casteist and anti-Dalit posture,"
she added.

In a lighter vein, she commented that the EC's order helped her party
by providing publicity. "The EC has saved several crores of rupees of
the BSP by publicising me and the elephant, election symbol of the
party," she said.

Mayawati also distributed a letter written to the EC, in which BSP
general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra has said the statues were
covered without giving opportunity to the BSP to present its case.

"It is the consistent stand of the BSP that all such statues have been
installed by the government on the basis of unanimous legislative
mandate through budgetary provisions," Mishra had written.

Sniping back at her, the Congress said if the statues had been left
uncovered, people would have voted with greater vengeance against BSP.
"The BSP may actually end up being benefited from the (EC's) order
because people in UP are so upset with this government that seeing her
statues and her party symbols in public, they would have voted against
Mayawati government with greater vengeance," Congress spokesperson
Rashid Alvi said in Delhi.

"Covering of her statue as well as that of her party symbol could
actually dilute that simmering anger and she may be saved from
people's strong disapproval," Alvi said, adding that her criticism of
the EC was unfortunate.

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said the EC should have "frozen" BSP's
party symbol. It was a low-key 56th birthday for chief minister
Mayawati, who used the occasion to release the list of 403 candidates
for the coming state polls.

Unlike in the past when a huge cake was cut on her birthday amid
statewide celebrations and she announced a number of new projects, the
UP CM did not do so this year keeping in view the model code of
conduct ahead of next month's assembly polls.

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[ZESTCaste] ‘Dalits Raja, Koda used for looting public money’

http://dailypioneer.com/nation/35512-dalits-raja-koda-used-for-looting-public-money.html

'Dalits Raja, Koda used for looting public money'

Monday, 16 January 2012 00:50
Vijay Deo Jha | Ranchi

Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy said on Sunday that those ruling
the power corridors used Dalit and tribal leaders like former Telecom
Minister A Raja and former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda for loot of public
money.

Swamy was releasing the book, Madhu Koda Loot Raj, by BJP leader Saryu
Roy on Sunday. "Raja is a Dalit from Tamil Nadu while Koda is a
tribal. Both were used by powerful. We need to catch them," Swamy
said.

"Today Raja is behind bars for his role in a massive scam in allotment
of the 2G Spectrum band. Tomorrow it will be the turn of Rani ruling
from Delhi," Swamy quipped, perhaps referring to the Congress
president.

Terming HM Chidambaram as second to Sonia Gandhi in terms of hoarding
black money in foreign accounts, Swamy claimed having in possession
documents that prove his connivance in the 2G case.

"I am waiting for January 21 when the Supreme Court will entertain my
plea… it will be all over for Chidambaram," he said.

Swamy said that the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election will be a turning
point in national politics. "The election result will deliver a deadly
blow to the UPA Government which is sure to fall by September-October.
People will teach corrupt politicians a lesson," he said.

Swamy praised Roy for his crusade against corruption. "Roy has written
a well-researched book. I will ask him to add a few more chapters. It
will be good for a PhD degree," Swamy said.

Terming the book a case study of how corruption is ruining the
country, Swamy said that he formed a 15-member team comprising retired
bureaucrats, former Intelligence officials and economists to expose
corruption and fight for black money. "Roy has been included in this
team. We need to fight corruption. Our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
is the most learned person but not an efficient Prime Minister. We
need a PM and Ministers having spines of steel and a President who is
not a rubber stamp," he said.

Stating the reasons behind writing a detailed account of scams during
the Madhu Koda regime which he tracked rigorously, Roy said that the
book is a telling commentary on how the system is abused. "I don't
think Koda would have got more than one per cent of the total money
from the scam. A simple man hailing from Chaibasa became the kingpin
of the scam. But there are people who used him for siphoning off the
state coffers," he said.

The book release ceremony was attended by many senior CBI officials,
former Jharkhand Police chief RR Prasad among them.

16 Book Release 1: Janta Party leader Subramanian Swamy and former DGP
RR Prasad release a book written by senior BJP leader Saryu Roy in
Ranchi on Sunday. Bapi Chowdhury|Pioneer

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[ZESTCaste] Maya dumps 50 per cent

http://www.dailypioneer.com/pioneer-news/todays-newspaper/35481-maya-dumps-50-per-cent.html

Maya dumps 50 per cent

Monday, 16 January 2012 00:00
Biswajeet Banerjee | Lucknow

Trying to undo the anti-incumbency factor the Bahujan Samaj Party has
refused tickets to more than 50 per cent sitting MLAs, including a
dozen of Ministers. BSP national president Mayawati released a list of
403 candidates on Sunday.

Explaining denial of tickets to over a 100 sitting MLAs, Mayawati said
priority was given to candidates with 'clean image' and committed
workers of the party. "The MLAs, who did not work to strengthen the
party and the Dalit movement, have been denied tickets this time," she
told a lunch-on Press conference on the occasion of her 56th birthday
here.

The BSP has fielded 88 Dalits, 85 Muslims and religious minorities,
74 Brahmins and 33 Thakurs. It has given 113 seats to the OBC
community.

Mayawati went a step further on Sunday saying EC took the decision to
drape the statues of herself and elephants under pressure from the
"casteist Congress-led UPA Government". "The decision to cover the
statues lacks propriety and smacked of partisan attitude of the EC
against the BSP ahead of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls," she said.

The 2012 candidate list depicts a slight shift from the rainbow
coalition of BSP of 2007 when its social engineering formula helped
the party win elections with comfortable majority. In 2007 poll, the
BSP had given tickets to 89 Dalits, 63 Muslims and 89 Brahmins.

This Brahmin-Dalit combination had helped the party win 206 seats.
Later the strength went up to 229.

However, Satish Chandra Mishra, the Brahmin face of BSP, would not
agree that Brahmins had been given fewer seats this time. "It was
almost the same in 2007 too," he said. But, he evaded specific
questions.

The Ministers who were denied ticket this time include Rural
Development Minister Daddu Prasad, Transport Minister Ramachal
Rajbhar, Horticulture Minister Narain Singh, Small Scale Minister
Chandradev, Land Development Minister Rampal Verma, MoS for Urban
Employment Yashwant Singh and MoS for Alternative Energy Akbar
Hussain.

Mayawati said that her ticket distribution had ensured representation
to all the castes and communities in the State. The BSP supremo, who
also released the CDs of the party's theme songs and slogans, said
that this time the party had given tickets only to dedicated workers
who were committed to the party's movement.

She said the BSP was the only party in the State, which had announced
all the candidates in one go and not in phase manner like other
parties.

However, the BSP candidate list also took care of the kith and kin of
the party leaders. BSP State president Swami Prasad Maurya was the
most lucky leader whose son Utkrasht Maurya has been given ticket from
Unchahar in Rae Bareli district while his married daughter Sanghamitra
Maurya had been fielded from Aliganj in Etah district. Maurya himself
is contesting from Padrauna seat in Kushinagar district.

BSP Rajya Sabha member Brijesh Pathak's wife Namrata will contest from
Unnao seat while Shikha, wife of tainted former UP health Minister
Anant Kumar Mishra, has been given ticket from Maharajpur in Kanpur
district.

Samajwadi Party sitting MLA and once a close associate of leader of
the opposition in the assembly Shivpal Singh Yadav, Sandhya Katheria
has been given ticket from Kisni seat in Mainpuri district.

The party has also given ticket to Arun Dwivedi from Lucknow (North)
seat against whom BJP has charged of floating more than 100 ghost
companies to use the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam money.

However the party has denied ticket to NRHM accused Ramprasad Jaiswal,
the sitting MLA from Barhaj in Deoria district and gave candidature to
his wife Renu. Similarly, the party has given ticket to Sanjay Kumar
Rajbhar, son of state transport minister Ramachal Rajbhar from
Akbarpur seat.

Master stroke?

Mayawati releases a list of 403 candidates
BSP has fielded 88 Dalits, 85 Muslims and religious minorities, 74
Brahmins and 33 Thakurs
A dozen of Ministers — including RD Minister Daddu Prasad,
Transport Minister Ramachal Rajbhar, Horticulture Minister Narain
Singh — were denied ticket
However, the list took care of the kith and kin of the party leaders
The MLAs, who did not work to strengthen the party and the Dalit
movement, have been this time denied tickets, says Mayawati

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[ZESTCaste] Uttar Pradesh assembly elections: From Muslims, Rahul Gandhi turns focus on 'ignored' Dalits

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/uttar-pradesh-polls-rahul-gandhi-ignored-dalits-congress/1/168971.html

Kay Benedict New Delhi, January 16, 2012 | UPDATED 12:00 IST
Uttar Pradesh assembly elections: From Muslims, Rahul Gandhi turns
focus on 'ignored' Dalits

A Dalit Congress leader from UP has requested Rahul to hold a rally of
non-Jatav Dalits in Lucknow.

After offering quota in jobs and education to the Muslim community,
AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi is turning his attention to other
segments especially the Dalits, the Jats and the extremely backward
classes (EBCs).

This is part of his social engineering to win the maximum number of
seats in the Uttar Pradesh assembly.

Rahul held a review meeting of the party strategy with senior leaders
on Saturday and the focus was on the 89 constituencies where the party
has fielded Dalit candidates. This includes the 85 reserved seats and
four general constituencies where Dalit nominees are in the fray.

The Election Commission order to cover all the statues of UP chief
minister Mayawati and her party symbol "elephant" and whether the move
would benefit Mayawati were also discussed at the meeting.

The state has 22 per cent Dalits of which the majority are Jatavs -
the community BSP chief Mayawati belongs to. The Congress appears to
be adopting a two- pronged strategy of making every effort to wean
non- Jatavs away from the BSP and trying to split the Jatavs so that
the BSP strike rate is reduced.

Known Dalit faces such as P. L. Puniya, bureaucrat-turned-Lok Sabha MP
from Barabanki and chairperson of the National Commission for SC, once
Mayawati's close advisor, and Ashok Tanwar, former president of the
Youth Congress and the NSUI, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from
Sirsa constituency in Haryana, have been assigned the 89
Dalitdominated constituencies.

The Congress has decided to appoint observers - either MLA,
ex-minister or ex-MLA - with election experience in all these 89
constituencies.

Sources said a senior Dalit Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh has
requested Rahul to hold a rally of non-Jatav Dalits in Lucknow. They
alleged that non-Jatav Dalits have been ignored by Mayawati who has
been promoting her community alone.

The party manifesto being prepared is expected to offer sops to
Dalits, EBCs, Jats and Muslims. It also plans to promise
sub-categorisation of SCs in the state, a move primarily aimed at
containing the Jatavs who have benefited most from reservation. It
would seek to end the monopoly of the Jatavs much to the glee of other
oppressed Dalits.

Undesired effect
The Congress on Sunday betrayed its anxiety that the BSP may end up
benefiting from the Election Commission (EC) order to cover the
statues of Mayawati and her party symbol 'elephant' for an entirely
different reason.

"People in UP are so upset with this government that seeing these
statues in public could make them vote against her government," AICC
spokesperson Rashid Alvi said.

"Covering them could actually dilute that simmering anger and she may
be saved from the people's strong disapproval," he added.

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati paranoid about her own safety

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mayawati-paranoid-about-her-own-safety/1/168927.html

Atul Chandra Lucknow, January 15, 2012 | UPDATED 15:41 IST
Mayawati paranoid about her own safety
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati
Bureaucrats say Mayawati's fears are so deep seated she seldom goes to
her office.

When Mayawati moved to her tony Mall Avenue address in Lucknow as CM
in 2007, her neighbours had no clue about what was in store for them.

Within a year of assuming office, the fourth-time CM of UP began
showing signs of paranoia. To begin with, the cane commissioner's
office located next to her residence was considered too unsafe to
remain where it was. In 2008, the two-storied building was demolished
and made a part of her residence.

The mere demolition of the office and annexation of its land was not
enough to quell Mayawati's fears. To make it impregnable, an 18-foot
high wall was built around the sprawling bungalow, with snipers at
vantage points.

The tight security at the entrance was also upgraded. A hi-tech
security apparatus with computerised scanners for vehicles and
automatic gates was installed, making Mayawati one of India's highly
protected politicians.

After the demolition of the cane commissioner's office, panic gripped
the residents living in multi-storied buildings in Mall Avenue as
rumours spread that they were all a security hazard.

A businessman living close to Mayawati's residence spent sleepless
nights fearing he would be forced to part with his property. Access to
his house and a restaurant in the vicinity was made difficult by the
security personnel guarding the CM's bungalow. The free movement of
vehicles and pedestrians in that lane came to be restricted.

Whether it was because of fear or greed for prime property, Mayawati's
rakhi brother Lalji Tandon, of the BJP, was also politely asked to
vacate his bungalow opposite her's. It was promptly converted into a
BSP office, along with the bungalow of a minister from her government.

Security measures were simultaneously put in place around her 5,
Kalidas Marg, office-cum-residence. Entry to the road was restricted
for even high court judges and other politicians living nearby.

Despite having probably the biggest fleet of bulletproof vehicles in
Lucknow and Noida, Mayawati seldom goes to her office in the
secretariat annexe. Some bureaucrats said her fears are so deep seated
that she does not want to take chances, even if it means absence from
office.

For the first time in UP, Navneet Sehgal, an IAS officer in the CM's
secretariat, was given the charge of her security. Janata durbars,
which were held to help people meet her and air grievances during her
previous tenures, were discontinued. There was thus no direct
interaction between the CM and public. Only a select few officers and
politicians are allowed access to her.

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