The Daily - 20th September 2013 2014 election difficult for UPA Posted by : India272 Campaign | Category : The Daily “2014: Winning India’s 150 million first-time voters” Minhaz Merchant, The Times of India, 19th September, 2013 The 2014 election will probably be the first Lok Sabha poll decided not only on caste, religion and region – though those will play an important role – but by a combination of young first-time voters and the urban and semi-urban middle-class. For the UPA, the food security and land acquisition acts as well as the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme were meant to snap up the rural vote. Unfortunately for the UPA, its large rural vote demographic has been hit by inflation and joblessness. Inflation is a double-edged sword. It hurts voters in both cities and villages but a large chunk of rural voters who live off their farm produce welcome higher food prices. The Congress has used polarisation to capture Muslim votes for decades. That strategy, predicated on keeping Muslims backward and in perpetual fear of “communal forces”, is beginning to backfire. TNIE Opinion: Bharat Karnad – Manmohan agenda to please US Bharat Karnad, The New Indian Express, 20th September, 2013 What is the agenda of Manmohan Singh to please US? (1) a “commercial contract” to buy Toshiba-Westinghouse AP 1000 enriched uranium-fuelled reactors, with the Indian monies reviving a comatose US nuclear industry even as the indigenous advanced pressurised heavy water reactor programme is starved of funds, (2) an undertaking, contrary to a cabinet decision, to replace cheap refrigerants used by Indian industry and military with expensive eco-friendly refrigerants that while ensuring windfall profits for a few US companies holding the patents will undercut the consensus agreement reached at the climate summits that Western countries will subsidise green technology in developing states, and (3) contracts for another $5 billion worth of military hardware (15 Chinook heavy lift helicopters, six additional C-130J medium-lift transport planes, 22 Apache Longbow attack helicopters, and 145 M-777 light howitzers) on top of defence deals of over $8 billion already in the bag. Why would the Indian Express leak a report which is already 9 months old now – Another hit job ? Ritu Sarin, The Indian Express, 20th September, 2013 Misusing secret service funds to destabilise the Omar Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir, to pay off an NGO to try change the line of succession in the Army top brass, to buy off-air interception equipment, to conduct “unauthorised” covert operations — a string of alleged irregularities by the Technical Services Division (TSD), a controversial Military Intelligence (MI) unit set up by former Army Chief General V K Singh in May 2010, should come under the scanner of an external agency like the CBI. The report, which includes original Army documents and notings, was submitted to the then Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma around March this year. It is strange that the Indian Express has forgot that the duty of a newspaper is to keep the public informed with the latest information happening in the society. But the newspaper has failed to do so and has leaked the nine months old report now. Rajasthan’s shame The Indian Express, 20th September, 2013 Rajasthan minister Babulal Nagar, accused of raping a 27-year-old woman, resigned Thursday. The incident spells more trouble for the ruling Congress, two of whose leaders, including a minister, are already in jail in connection with the killing Bhanwari Devi, a nurse. BJP state chief Vasundhara Raje said, “This is not the first time a minister of the Congress government has been charged with such a heinous crime. More than a third of their ministers have had to resign by now. Now even the CM should be embarrassed of such a team and resign.” When in trouble the Congress Party reverts to the usual dirty tricks of playing caste politics Akshaya Mukul, The Times of India, 20th September, 2013 Congress is best know for its dirty tricks when it comes to answer for their long pending developments for a particular region or place. Education, especially elementary, is in shambles. Nearly 50% of population in the region is illiterate and female literary is below 40%. Bundelkhand consists of seven districts — Banda, Hamirpur, Jhansi, Mahoba, Lalitpur, Chitrakoot and Jalaun. In fact, Lalitpur, has one of the worst literacy rates among women. Though in the last five years, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has helped open schools and consequently improved the gross enrolment rate, the region still lags far behind than other parts of UP.
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 07:57:38 +0000
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