Striving to ‘cleanse’ politics
From Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

AMRITSAR: The first-ever woman SGPC chief, Bibi Jagir Kaur is the star campaigner of the Shiromani Akali Dal and its poll partner BJP, not only in Punjab, the party has deputed her to campaign in other states, including Haryana.

She refutes charges being levelled against her by her opponents that she is violating the moral code of conduct by campaigning for the ruling party candidates. In Sikhism, there is no demarcation between religion and politics” she says. You see I am a member of the SGPC, an MLA and member of political affairs committee of the party simultaneously”.

There is no harm to seek votes for good candidates. My effort being the SGPC chief is to endeavour to cleans politics. This is no violation of the election code. I have been doing all this in accordance with Sikhism.

She says she is fighting for better leadership of the country. How any Indian can tolerate that foreigner becoming Prime Minister of our country. This is the duty of all Indians to ensure that a foreigner should not become the Prime Minister of the country which has a population of about 100 crore.

She also refutes the charge that she is misusing SGPC finds to woo voters. She says she has allocated SGPC funds for religious purposes only. I have not given any funds for development works which could be described as violation of the code.

Without naming former Akal Takht Jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh Bibi Jagir Kaur says Jathedars and other Singh Sahibans (Sikh high priests) are not supposed to do campaigning. They are supposed to be consigned to religious activities only. At the same time, However, Bibi Jagir Kaur claims that being the administrator, the SGPC chief is free to do campaigning.

Gone is Mann’s hardline streak
From Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

SANGRUR: Some is the projection of Akali Dal (Amritsar) President Simranjit Singh Mann as the lone fighter for the rights of tortured youth. Gone also is the hardline streak in Mr Mann’s speeches who is contesting this time on the issues of unemployment and “non-performance ”of the Badal government.

Mr Mann, who is taking on SAD senior leader Surjit Singh Barnala for the third time in this predominantly rural constituency, is not taking any chances. He knows full well that he has immense goodwill in the rural areas but none amongst the Hindu population which has resulted in his two consecutive defeats in the past.

Audacious though it may sound, he explains his bonding with the Hindu community and his fight for their rights, citing the example of his support for Mrs Rupan Deol Bajaj against former Punjab police chief K.P.S. Gill. He also explains his personal lawyer is Mr K.R. Lakhanpal, a Hindu.

Campaigning in the Raikot Assembly segment of this constituency, Mr Mann tries to evade uncomfortable questions, including one on Khalistan. He says he has made himself clear on the issue. He says he is fighting the elections on the common programme of the “united front”.

He is at pains to explain he is not against the Hindus or that he said anything against the community during a speech at Sheron village near Sangrur recently. He says at Sheron he only criticised the BJP and the Shiva Sena for pursuing casteist policies.

Addressing meetings, the SAD (Amritsar) leader prefers to highlight the increase in the unemployment figures during the Badal ‘raj’. He does not mention the turbulent year of militancy in the state. Neither does he talk of the role of the police or politicians during this period.

Mr Mann argues that the number of unemployed in Punjab was 15 lakh, equal to the total Army personnel in the country. He says there is an urgent need to solve this problem.

The Akali leader also highlights the “non-performance” of the Badal government, saying it has not kept promises made to the people. These include failure of the government to start the “shagun” scheme. Mr Surjit Singh Barnala’s failure in ensuring foodgrain procurement by state agencies despite being in charge of the Food Corporation of India and the sale of fertilisers on the black market, despite Mr Barnala being the Fertilisers Minister

The district administration has identified 202 “very sensitive” and 557 “sensitive” booths in the constituency spread over nine assembly segments of Banur. Rajpura, Ghanaur, Dakala, Patiala city, Samana, Shatrana, Sunam and Lehra.

The maximum number of “very sensitive” booths have been identified in the Shatrana Assembly segment due to the rift in Akali ranks with its legislator Gurdev Singh Sidhu being a supporter of Mr G. S. Tohra.

The constituency is also one of the three in Punjab where voting will be conducted through electronic machines. Returning Officer Jasbir Singh Bir said the total number of votes in the constituency was 13, 10, 354.

‘Talli nahi vaji’
Tribune News Service

SANGRUR: If the famous phrase “read my lips-no more taxes” proved costly for George Bush in his re-run to the presidency, the words “talli nahi vaji” are troubling the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate and Union Minister Surjit Singh Barnala no end in his fight against Dal Amritsar chief Simranjit Singh Mann and the CPM in this constituency.

“Talli nahi vaji” has become a synonym to bait Mr Barnala in the elections by both his rivals creating an issue which pulls at the heart strings of the pre-dominantly rural people and shows Mr Barnala in poor light.

By ‘talli nahi vaji’, Mr Barnala’s opponents are referring to the inability of the old-age pension scheme to take off in the constituency. Under this scheme the village postman was to deliver the old-age pension at the doorstep of the beneficiaries by ringing his proverbial bell.

Mr Barnala had made the old-age pension scheme being introduced by the Badal government a major poll issue in the last elections. He had attracted a sizeable number of votes of the backward castes and the poor by telling how it would improve the economic condition of the aged besides giving them respect in the family.

Both Mr Simranjit Singh Mann and former Union Minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia who is campaigning for the CPM candidate Ajit Singh have taken Mr Barnala head on, on the issue. Mr Ramoowalia is more strident of the two painting a picture of a patriarch having misled the electorate for political interests. It is a common practice of his rivals to ask gatherings they address to tell if a single ‘bell’ has rung.

There is general disenchantment amongst the public also about the scheme. Lal Singh of Sangrur said the scheme had been hijacked by the ‘jathedars’ who were having their say in selection of the beneficiaries which had resulted in many under-age persons getting money under the scheme even as many of the genuine aged remained ignored. Others complained about the difficulty in processing the paperwork to become eligible for the scheme.

Talking to TNS, Mr Barnala said the issue was being taken up as his rivals had run out of ideas. He said the old-age pension scheme had taken off in the state and even in the Sangrur constituency there had been a three fold rise in the number of people getting old-age pension since the last Lok Sabha elections.

He admitted that the payment of pensions had stopped for some months. However, he said now funds had been sanctioned for the scheme and money had also reached the treasury offices. He said people had started getting arrears of their pensions which had been stopped earlier.

Nutshell

Jolt to HVP

PANIPAT (FOC): The Haryana Vikas Party (HVC) received a jolt in the district when Mr Kushal Pal Sirohi, convenor of party’s kisan cell resigned from the party along with a large number of supporters. Mr Sirohi alleged the party was not being run in a democratic way. The decision regarding joining a political party or extending support to a candidate in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections would be decided shortly, he said.

46 aspirants

JAIPUR (PTI): The BJP leader Mr Girdhari Lal Bhargava, Congress candidate and former Union Minister Abrar Ahmed and socialist leader Pt. Ramkishan were among 46 candidates who filed their nomination papers in Rajasthan on Wednesday for the second phase of the poll.

With this the total number of hopefuls who have filed papers for the second phase scheduled for September 11 has reached 127.

Murasoli Maran

CHENNAI (PTI): Former Union Ministers Murasoli Maran and T.R. Balu of the DMK were among 97 candidates who filed their nominations in Tamil Nadu on the last day of filing of papers for the September 11 elections to 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state on Wednesday. With this, the total number of nominations filed for the second phase of poll in the state has reached 288, state Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said.

Cong men quit

ABOHAR (FOC): Congress office-bearers, including 12 Block Congress Presidents on Monday submitted their resignations to Mr Gurbir Singh Sandhu, president of the District Congress Committee, Ferozepore, in protest against the wrong allocation of party ticket for the Ferozepore Lok Sabha constituency. A meeting of the party workers held under the chairmanship of Mr Sandhu, was attended by more than 85 per cent office-bearers. It look exception to the indecent remarks reportedly uttered by Mr Harcharan Singh Hero, chairman of the party deciplinary committee at a meeting at Fazilka on Saturday.

Papers from jail

JAMSHEDPUR (PTI): The BJP candidate Mr Laxman Gilua, now in jail custody in connection with two murder cases, on Wednesday filed nomination papers for the Singhbhum Lok Sabha constituency under heavy police escort, sources said. Mr Gilua, sitting MLA from Chakradharpur, was remanded to judicial custody after his surrender at Saraikela court on Tuesday. Mr Gilua was wanted by the police in connection with two murder cases in 1990 and 1991 and also for allegedly possessing illegal firearms.

No political morality: Bansi
From Gobind Thukral
Tribune News Service

BHIWANI: Mr Bansi Lal, who till last month led the Haryana Government and was the master of the show in the state, is now the leader of the Opposition. His pack has been reduced from 34 to 17 MLAs. Many of his trusted supporters are either in the Congress or the BJP. Some are with Mr Om Prakash Chautala, who heads the fledgling government. How he finds this change and how he views his future were some of the questions addressed to Mr Bansi Lal during a brief conversation.

Q: Some of your MLAs left you, causing the fall of your government after the Congress withdrew its support and then again following the formation of the new government. Your comments.

A: Many Haryana politicians belonging to all parties move on very slippery ground. Some of them are master manipulators. Their names are well known. Many MLAs went for greener pastures to other parties. Many of them are now sending feelers. But it is not strange that leaders of the INLD, the BJP and Congress called these very ministers corrupt when they were in my government. But once they joined hands with Mr Chautala or joined the BJP, they became pious and clean. This is the depth to which the political morality has fallen. The Prime Minister of the country alleged that my government was corrupt. I asked him to appoint a commission of inquiry but he instead encouraged defections and the fall of the government and praised those whom he said called corrupt earlier. Remember what the BJP had been saying about the INLD and vice versa. And all these so-called corrupt ministers are now part of the BJP-INLD government. Where is the political morality?

Q: Why is your party HVP contesting just two seats? Can you hope to survive like this?

A: Well, we are contesting basically five seats, two are with the HVP and three with the BSP. Bhiwani and Faridabad are with the HVP. Ambala, Karnal and Mahendragarh are with the BSP. We should have contested more. The agreement on seat sharing got delayed and we do not have much finance. The poll is a very costly affair now. But this strategy of concentrating on just five seats would pay dividends. Let there be assembly elections, and we shall surely bounce back. The kind of response I am getting from ordinary workers and people is tremendous. I am, overwhelmed by this. It more than compensates the loss of the MLAs. After the elections a resurgent HVP would take shape and the next elections would be again fought on the issue of performance. Tell me, what is the achievement of this government? Some populist measures and wastage of funds and transfers. That’s all.

Q: What would your supporters and party workers do where you have no candidates. Are you supporting any other party like the Congress?

A: We are totally opposed to the INLD-BJP, alliance candidates. But there is no specific direction. Our workers would support good candidates from other parties and elect those with honest track record. This has been made clear.

Q: Are these leaders from the Congress or any other party. In fact, after the INLD and BJP, only the Congress is left?

A: Well, I think I have made it quite clear. Also our workers shall resist any intimidation and threats which Mr Chautala’s party is indulging in Bhiwani and other places. I only want the Chief Minister to honour his pledge of organising peaceful and fair elections. Hope he has learnt something from Meham. We have written to Chief Election Commission about this.

Low-key campaign in Rajasthan
Will gesture to martyrs’ kin pay?
From T.V. Lakshminarayan
Tribune News Service

BIKANER: For once, nobody is crying over the sacrifices made by soldiers during the Kargil conflict.

In fact people in western Rajasthan are proud about it.

“We could, for the first time, witness the cremation of our near and dear ones who perished in the Kargil war. To touch, feel and cry over the body of a soldier is much better than crying over a soldier’s cap and belt”, said taxi driver Barmer Singh, when asked about the mood of the electorate in Jodhpur.

A ride through the 270-km long Jodhpur-Bikaner highway and a talk with a cross-section of people evoked similar sentiments. Kargil evoked animated discussions, views and firm opinions.

There is near unanimity among the people that it was the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who was responsible for the fine gesture of allowing families of Kargil martyrs to bid goodbye to their loved ones in a befitting manner.

But how far these sentiments will go in betting the votes converted in Mr Vajpayee’s favour is a moot question.

“Aap chai peejiye, election to hota hi rahega (you enjoy your tea, elections keep happening),” was all that Puran Chand, a tea shop owner in Nagaur said when asked about the election scenario.

Campaigning is at a very low key this time with billboards, walls and other public spots looking as barren as the desert land of Rajasthan. There are no speakers, posters, street corner meetings or door-to-door campaigning. It hardly looks like election time.

The only sign of the elections was a hurriedly scribbled message outside a hotel near the Jodhpur airport stating ‘Jaton ko aarakshan nahin to Congress ko vote nahin (no reservation for Jats, no vote for Congress)”, said the terse message indicating a seemingly dilution in the Congress vote bank.

The Jats who make for one-fourths of the Congress vote bank have aligned their representative organisation, the Jat Mahasabha, with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Cashing in on the development, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned. After Mr Vajpayee launched the campaign in Jodhpur, Union Home Minister L.K. Advani has picked up the baton. His whirlwind tour of Jaipur, Nagaur and Bikaner received a good response from the crowd.

Containing the BJP onslaught has been Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. He has been systematically trying to keep pace with the BJP campaign and has been visiting every constituency targeted by Opposition.

While the Congress has been harping on the stability plank and the inability of the BJP to run a government for five years, the BJP is highlighting Mr Vajpayee’s stature and Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s inexperience.

“How can a lady who cannot differentiate between ‘kaampa and pyaaz’ (raw onion and ripe onion) run a country,”, asks a BJP worker in Bikaner.

All rhetoric from the leaders notwithstanding, no one from any political party is prepared to hazard a quess on the outcome of the elections. If the mood of the electorate is any indications, they couldn’t care less.

Active role for better halves
From P.P.S. Gill
Tribune News Service

MOGA: A police Gypsy with headlights on at noon struggles to make way for a small caravan of vehicles through chaotic traffic on the Ferozepore road. A traffic cop asked about the “VIP” says: “Eh bibaji ne” meaning wife of the Shiromani Akali Dal candidate, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is seeking re-election for the third time from the Faridkot Parliamentary constituency.

The motorcade proceeds towards the PWD Rest House. Surrounded by party workers, mostly traders and security personnel, Mrs Harsimrat Kaur enters an air-conditioned room. Wiping beads of sweat on her brow, she explains, that this is the second time she has been out canvassing. Her area of operation remains Faridkot town as in 1998. Mrs Harsimrat was in Moga to be with Rishi Keshawanand, president, Bal Brahmchari Mission of Hardwar.

Mrs Harsimrat mostly stays put in Delhi, where she looks after the family business. A graduate in textile designing, she decided to campaign for her husband in 1998. She approaches voters in Faridkot town listing “achievements” and recounting promises which have been met. The main concern of the people, remains supply of piped drinking water, better sewerage system and smooth roads. She admits that such projects take longer time than expected.

What baffles her is the “unending list of demands and grievances” people keep coming up with. She believes that the direct approach methodology adopted by her will pay dividends.

SUKHANAND: It is nearly 10 a.m. and the scene is dera of Bhorewala of Nirmal Ashram, where Baba Hazoora Singh is occupying the ‘gaddi’. It is said that the babaji (there are two of them) live ‘underground’ and never come face-to-face with women devotees. They give audience with prior appointment.

A white Ambassador with Cong flag flying on the bonnet is followed by a police escort. Out steps the Congress candidate, Mr Jagmeet Singh Brar. Arms raised, hands folded. He greets a handful of people gathered there. An old man is ushered into his car, who reads his palm for few minutes before Mr Brar goes to seek the babaji’s blessings.

En route to Jeetsinghwala village (this falls in the Panj Garain assembly constituency, which is represented by Punjab’s Minister of Agriculture Gurdev Singh Badal), Mr Brar says the present poll is the “toughest” of all he had contested.

“If the poll is fair I hope to find a berth in the Lok Sabha. I am leading in nine assembly constituencies”, he claims.

JEETSINGHWALA: It is a village mostly of people belonging to economically weaker sections. As one looks around a lot of SAD flags can be seen and walls are plastered with posters of Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is Mr Brar’s opponent. There are posters of Mr Brar as well. In his five minute speech Mr Brar talks of failures of the SAD-BJP government in the state and ends his speech with the “rape” incident involving the son and relatives of Mr Gurdev Singh Badal, who represents the constituency in which the village falls.

FARIDKOT: At most election offices in the constituency every third key worker carries a cellular phone. During the course of the two-day tour one discovered that party workers, of both the Congress and SAD make a good use of these phones by making their respective leaders to speak to district officials for favours.

KOTKAPURA: This is an unusual town, which makes up its mind after the rest of the constituency has decided whom to vote for or some wave becomes visible. Nevertheless working shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of the campaigners is Mrs Amarpreet Kaur, wife of the Congress candidate, Mr Jagmeet Singh Brar. Even in 1998 she had done house-to-house canvassing.

She finds the response more encouraging and points to a poster which says “parkh nahin karni var var, is var Jagmeet Brar”. Over the years Mrs Amarpreet has established an identity of her own.

Women voters outnumber men
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR: Electioneering in    Ladakh, the largest Parliamentary constituency in terms of area has started picking up.

The constituency with the lowest number of voters 1,43,492, is spread over the an area of 96,701 sq km over two districts of Leh and Kargil. It comprises of four Assembly segments of Leh, Nubra, Kargil and Zanskar. Women voters outnumber men with 72,253 female and 71,230 male voters.

Ladakh also has the distinction of having the highest polling station at an altitude of 16,000 ft above sea level. This polling stations at anley Phaw has only 102 voters. The constituency has also the distinction of having a polling booth for the lowest number of voters at Damchuk at 12,500 ft, with only 12 voters. Last year the polling station recorded 100 per cent voting.

This time the number of contestants is the highest ever with eight candidates in the fray, double the number of candidates last year.

Congress candidates have been sent to the Lok Sabha six times out of eight in elections since 1967. No elections were held in 1991 in Jammu and Kashmir due to militancy. Mr P. Namgyal, who has been sent to the Lok Sabha thrice, first won elections as an Independent candidate in 1980. In 1989, Mohammad Hussain Commander, an Independent, defeated Mr Namgyal from this constituency, comprising Buddhist-dominated Leh district and Muslim-dominated Kargil district.

This time the political parties have fielded new candidates. These include Thupstan Chhewang of the Congress. Chairman of the Congress dominated Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC). The council was constituted during Governor's rule in Jammu and Kashmir in 1995, when the NC had not entered the poll scene. The National Conference has also fielded a new face from this constituency, Mr Ghulam Hassan Khan, in place of Syed Hussain, a Shia leader, who was elected last year.

Others in the field are Sonam Paljor, BJP, Nasurrullah Advocate, JD (Secular), Ahamadullah Azad, Kamal Kishore, Mohammad Hussain Commander and Mohammad Murtaza, all Independents. Last year the BJP had fielded S Angmo, who has not been given the mandate this year.

The ruling National Conference candidate, Syed Husaain, made it to the Lok Sabha in the 1998 elections held in June with different religious organisations in the Muslim-dominated Kargil playing a vital role in his election. The two main groups of Shia dominated Kargil, Islamia School and the Imam Khomeini Memorial Trust, though ideologically divergent, had then joined hands in extending support to Syed Hussain, of the Islamia School. Other organisations, Ahle-Sunnat Wa Jamaat of Sunni Muslims and Buddhist Association of Kargil also extended support to the NC candidate.

Kargil district has 72,987 voters against 70505 voters in Leh district. A vital role in the election of the National Conference candidate was played by the Housing and Urban Development Minister, Moulvi Iftikhar Husain Ansari, a Shia leader of Kashmir.

The National Conference is formally launching its campaign in this constituency with the visit of the NC president, and Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday.