Uddhav Thackeray deserves sufficient time to prove himself
Uddhav Thackeray is heading a coalition government of three major parties and he became Chief Minister of Maharashtra after a long drawn battle to come to power. We need to give him sufficient time before scrutinizing his work minutely. He is a seasoned politician though he did not hold public office before becoming CM. He seems to be making the right noise as far as policy decisions are concerned and opposition too should support his decisions which they think are right and criticize if he strays the path.
His son Aaditya Thackeray who is a minister in his cabinet seems to be making the right moves and his decision to keep malls open 24×7 has truly given Mumbai an international status. Promoting tourism too is appreciable and I am sure the young crowd is impressed by his work. Coalition government works on common minimum programme and hope the State has a stable government as we can ill afford mid-term polls which costs a lot of money.
S.N.Kabra
Church vandalized in Bengaluru
The church of St Francis of Assisi at Satellite Town in Kengeri, Bengaluru has been attacked last week by unknown miscreants. The alter has been vandalized and the tabernacle destroyed…Holy Communion has been strewn all around the place and trampled upon. We Christians condemn this dastardly and cowardly act of unscrupulous elements and urge upon the police and the authorities to arrest the culprits immediately.
Jubel D’Cruz
Supreme Court desiring Parliament to rethink power of Speaker to disqualify MLAs
It refers to Supreme Court bench headed by Justice RF Nariman on January 21, 2000 desiring Parliament to rethink power of Speaker to disqualify MLAs, because of Speaker being a member of some political party. Evidently Speakers in state-assemblies at times have openly misused their power in favour of their political leanings.
Better is to reform system of electing Speaker (also Chief Minister and Deputy Speaker) and electing Chief Ministers. Speaker should be elected simultaneously with Chief Minister and Deputy Speaker by secret and compulsory vote through EVMs equipped with VVPAT on nominations signed by at least 34-percent members with abstaining members losing right to vote in the House though retaining membership. Such elected incumbents may be removed through same process but with compulsion to name alternate leader in the same motion. System will tend to bring comparatively unbiased person on post of Speaker, and will eliminate role of Speaker in biased proceedings in case of making and unmaking of Chief Ministers.
Madhu Agrawal
Markandey Katju’s sharp comment against Supreme Court reinstating woman staffer
It refers to sharp comments of ex-judge of Supreme Court Markandey Katju on Supreme Court reinstating woman staffer having accused the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual misconduct. But the manner woman-staffer was reinstated soon after retirement of Ranjan Gogoi from the post of Chief Justice of India with even back wages paid to her after such serious allegations of sexual misconduct during her posting at residential office of the then Chief Justice of India require a renewed probe in whole affair but now by a non-judicial investigating agency like Intelligence Bureau to avoid conflict of interest, especially after suspicion created by sharp reaction of a former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju on complete episode. Other allegations by Katju can also be simultaneously probed.
This is necessary to save image of judiciary which has earlier been also in question on various occasions. A former Chief Justice of India was not considered fit for being chairperson of National Human Rights Commission by Union Home Ministry. A probe was initiated against another former Chief Justice of India in infamous NEET verdict which was put on website by an individual much before it was pronounced in the Court. Another former Chief Justice of India was forced to resign from post of a state Human Rights Commission when he was allegedly framed for some incident involving women after his retirement from Supreme Court.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
Panic-stricken migrants
Kodagu Superintendent of Police (SP) Suman Pennekar has courted controversy by creating an online registry of migrant workers and directing them to prove their identity, at a time when there are protests across the country against the proposed nation-wide National Register of Citizens (NRC), from which the central government itself has backed off, at least for now. Over 6,000 panic-stricken migrants from Assam and other states working in the district’s coffee plantations, resorts and construction industry were called in and subjected to an ‘identity verification drive’ at local police stations. This comes in the wake of allegations by Hindutva groups that ‘illegal Bangladeshis’ had come into the district. One local Bajrang Dal leader has gone on record as having raised the bogey of illegal immigrants after a group of Assamese workers refused to work in his coffee estate at the low wage he was offering. Most migrants were found to be in possession of valid documents. In any case, the SP does not have powers to extern from the district those who could not produce identification papers, unless it is proved that they are illegal immigrants.
A Abuzar Bajpatti
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
