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Mayawati out to settle personal scores, state be damned Comment
NAT7National/PoliticsMayawati out to settle personal scores, state be damned CommentBy Sharat PradhanPersonal ego has led Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati to challenge the authority of the union government and undermine the status of United Progressive Alliance UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi with whom she seems clearly out to settle several personal scores.Mayawati has cancelled the land allotment for a rail coach factory in Gandhi's constituency Rae Bareli and the Congress chief was forced to call off a public rally earlier this week. While the Congress rank and file has yet to get over the shock of the virtual streetfight provoked by the chief minister of India's most populous state, a close look at the series of events over the past 17 months of her rule throws enough light on the factors that propelled Mayawati to take on Sonia.It began with her demand for a special economic package of a whopping Rs.800 billion for the development of Uttar Pradesh's most backward regions of Purvanchal and Bundelkhand. The demand was so far-fetched that no government at the centre could concede it for any state. But Mayawati's logic was straight and simple - "Give me the fund or face the music".Interestingly, Mayawati used the denial of special package as a leverage point every time she needed to train her guns at the centre -- even when it came to withdrawing support to the UPA government and the crucial trust vote on the nuclear deal in July.While she kept the issue alive, she added to her arsenal another denial by the central government. The Bahujan Samaj Party BSP leader demanded SPG security and was not at all amused when the central government conveyed to her that she was not entitled to that security under the provisions of the SPG Act which clearly lists the handful of people who can avail themselves of it -- prime minister, former prime ministers and their immediate kin."When Sonia Gandhi's son and daughter can get that SPG security, why can't I be given the same" she asked."Let the centre amend the act to include chief ministers facing such serious security threats like me"Mayawati could, however, never put out any plausible evidence to substantiate her threat perception, which emerged after a crude hand-made map of the road junction close to the chief minister's residence was found from a man picked up as a suspected terrorist.With the central government continuing to give her the cold shoulder, Mayawati made it loud and clear to all and sundry that she would not pardon the Manmohan Singh government for what she termed "utter discrimination".What made matters worse was the corruption case pending against her. Even as an Income Tax tribunal gave her a clean chit - after her plea that the income of Rs.520 million filed in her annual returns was mostly "gifts" from her "socially and economically weak supporters" - the CBI unearthed sufficient incontrovertible material to nail her."Clearly, there is no escape route for the Uttar Pradesh chief minister to save herself from the charges of amassing wealth far disproportionate to her legitimate sources of income," said a top CBI official. "We have enough evidence."Mayawati was further peeved when the Congress party led a demonstration to protest the forcible acquisition of local farmers' land to expand her one-time humble dwelling into a grand private estate in her native village - Badalpur in Ghaziabad district - where she also proposed to build a huge recreaton centre. The plan was quite akin to the multi-million grandiose projects undertaken by her sworn political foe Mulayam Singh Yadav during his regime in his own home, Saefai in Etawah district.The inimitable BSP supremo had apparently then made up her mind to teach the Congress party and the UPA leadership a lesson.Mayawati could not think of a better retort than what she did in Rae Rareli last week - cancelling the allotment of land for a rail coach factory followed by denial of permission for Sonia Gandhi's rally in her own political constituency. Who cares if that means depriving the unemployed of some 11,000 potential job opportunities And so what if the action cocks a snook at the very foundation of a federal democracy.Sharat Pradhan is a Lucknow-based journalist. She can be contacted at sharatpradhan@rediffmail.com--Indo-Asian News Servicesp/mj765 Words**17101028
2008-10-17 01:00:00
Birds of a feather: Prakash Karat and Mamata Banerjee Comment
NAT2National/Opinion/Politics/CommentaryBirds of a feather: Prakash Karat and Mamata Banerjee CommentBy Amulya GanguliIf Prakash Karat is honest with himself, he will see the similarity between his opposition to the nuclear deal and Mamata Banerjee's scuttling of the Nano automobile project in Singur in West Bengal.Both the general secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist CPI-M and the Trinamool Congress president were guided by the interests of their respective parties to the exclusion of all other considerations.Karat, for instance, did not care whether his stalling of the nuclear deal would harm the overall national interest by continuing to keep India under the post-Pokhran I sanctions on nuclear fuel and advanced technology. Pokhran I in 1974 marked India's first nuclear test. It was followed by Pokhran II in 1998.On her part, Mamata Banerjee wasn't bothered whether by forcing the Tatas to quit Singur, she would scare away all investors from West Bengal, thereby undermining the state's developmental efforts aimed at its long-delayed industrial rejuvenation.To be fair, both offered cogent, if partial, explanations for their stand. Karat's view, as that of his other Leftist colleagues, was that the nuclear deal would tie India to American apron strings, making it a junior partner in serving the interests of US "imperialism".Mamata Banerjee's view was that not only were the Tatas given fertile land on favourable terms, but not all the farmers gave their consent to the acquisition. Hence her demand that the disputed 400 acres of the total of 997 acres be returned to the owners.However, the failure of the two leaders lay in their restricted outlook. For instance, Karat's views recalled the post-1945 period of confrontation between the American and Soviet worldviews without any appreciation of the fact that the Cold War had ended, the Soviet Union had collapsed and socialism was no longer the inspiring beacon it once was.It was pointless, therefore, to keep India locked in a posture of antagonism against America like Cuba and Venezuela. The Left's position also ignored the fact that in the emerging world India is no longer a weak Third World country but one with a booming economy and a vibrant multicultural polity which had earned the admiration of the rest of the world.It was fatuous to believe, therefore, that India would be a clay model in America's hands if only because the US itself had learnt the limitations of its power. The only purpose which the Left's outdated ideological obsession would serve was to keep India devoid of nuclear fuel and technology at a time when China and Pakistan continue to have a clandestine nuclear relationship. It is necessary to remember that India has been at war with both these less than friendly neighbours.If Karat sees the world as it was in the 1950s and 60s, Mamata Banerjee's eyes are focussed on her inveterate enemy in West Bengal, the CPI-M. Having been at the receiving end of the violence unleashed against her personally and against her party by the Marxist militias throughout her political career, she has made it her life's ambition to oppose the Left tooth and nail.While her guts and determination has many admirers across the board in West Bengal and the rest of the country, she has made the mistake this time of overstepping her limits by opposing the CPI-M even when it was trying to rectify some of its own past mistakes. She would have shown greater political wisdom if instead of blindly opposing the Singur project, she had taunted the comrades for wooing the capitalists back after having driven them out of the state with pointless militant agitations in the sixties and seventies.Such a nuanced stance would have shown that she was not opposing the Left for opposition's sake, but was generous enough to let the communists repent for their past sins by supping with their former "class enemies".If she had taken such a position, she would have emerged as a mature leader who was willing to take into account the changing realities. Now, however, she is likely to be seen as a reckless maverick with little idea about the state's developmental needs. What is more, if she now carries her pro-farmer agitation to Katwa in Burdwan district to oppose the acquisition of land for a super thermal power station, then she will be doing a great disservice to her own political future.What is obvious from the single-track minds of Karat and Mamata Banerjee is that the regional base of their parties has severely restricted their perspective. As is known, the CPI-M has failed to expand beyond West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura while the Trinamool Congress exists only in West Bengal.The result of this tunnel vision is that while the CPI-M leader is unable to place India in the present-day global context, the Trinamool Congress chief cannot even understand what is good for her own state.Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached at aganguli@mail.com--Indo-Asian News Serviceag/ak/jg 880 Words**11100843
2008-10-11 00:02:10
Pampering at the Otani, curries at the Hyatt
Through Sept. 30, the Hotel New Otani in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, is offering "Ladies Selection" plans that combine a healthy lunch and a treatment at one of the hotel's four beauty salons. There's spa treatments at Amour Spa & Suites, aesthetic treatments at Salon de Esthe, nail care at Nail Salon Naila, and Taiwanese massage and acupressure at Total Therapy, each lasting from 30 to 90 minutes.&ltbr/>&ltbr/>Read the full story&ltp>&lta href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/japantimesa=25812Q">&ltimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/japantimesi=25812Q" border="0">&ltdiv class="feedflare">&lta href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesa=LibNhK">&ltimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesi=LibNhK" border="0"> &lta href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesa=IOUeoK">&ltimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesi=IOUeoK" border="0"> &lta href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesa=g6pE7K">&ltimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesi=g6pE7K" border="0"> &lta href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesa=PkWh7k">&ltimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesi=PkWh7k" border="0"> &lta href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesa=jqwg7k">&ltimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesi=jqwg7k" border="0"> &lta href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesa=fiuhlK">&ltimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/japantimesi=fiuhlK" border="0">&ltimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/japantimes/~4/371264666" height="1" />
2008-08-22 11:31:30

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Mayawati out to settle personal scores, state be damned Comment

Birds of a feather: Prakash Karat and Mamata Banerjee Comment

Pampering at the Otani, curries at the Hyatt