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Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings by S Jagadish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
There's news trickling in that Shivraj Patil has resigned as the Union Home Minister. He's handed in his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. That's odd. I thought he'd have handed it in to Sonia Gandhi, given that he has previously said "Well, I have full blessings of my leader".
Unconfirmed reports suggest he may have used the word 'responsibility'. But he could turn up tomorrow saying he was 'misquoted' or 'quoted out of context'.
Immediately after I read the news reports, I checked the Ministry of Home Affairs website's press releases section to see if there was an update there. The list of releases shocked me, specifically the top 3 entries. I took a screenshot for posterity's sake.
Of the 3 items that were posted after the Mumbai terror attacks, two related to the death of former Prime Minister VP Singh. I guess that gives you an indication of where his priorities lay. There's no update about the situation in Mumbai. Neither is there any sort of message praising the bravery of the army, navy, NSG & policemen who helped save so many lives, with some of them not alive to see the results of their actions.
In any case, it's about fucking time, probably 3 years too late!
Labels: congress (i), india, ministers, resignation, shivraj patil, terrorism
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Does the DMK think public money is its ancestral property? Crores of rupees are wasted when by-elections are conducted. If a sitting MLA or MP dies, then it's tough to argue against a by-election. But when the incumbent resigns in protest (over Telengana or Kaveri, for e.g.), then that is totally unacceptable.
Over the past few days, DMK MPs from Tamil Nadu, including the CM's daughter Kanimozhi & Kalanidhi Maran, have submitted their resignations to Mr. Karunanidhi. If the Union Government doesn't act as per the demands of the all-party meet last week, the resignations will be forwarded to the presiding officers of the houses of Parliament.
Who bears the cost of the resulting by-election? Will the DMK bear the expenses? Of course not. When there are so many more important issues to act upon, such as the pathetic electricity supply situation in the state and the unused flyovers constructed at a huge cost (the Usman Road one, for e.g.), to focus on the plight of people who aren't even Indian citizens reeks of selfishness, political opportunism, diversionary tactics and rank incompetence.
Similar questions can also be asked about the BJP, in Karnataka, forcing Cong (I) and JD (S) legislators to resign as MLAs, and join the BJP government, in order to circumvent the defection laws.
Labels: dmk, india, politics, resignation, tamil nadu
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Ambareesh quits Lok Sabha in protest
'Sandalwood' angry-young-man, grandson of the legendary violinist Chowdiah, Mandya MP and Union Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, MH Ambareesh resigned from his Lok Sabha seat, in protest over the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's ruling last week.
He made it clear that power didn't interest him and that he wanted to do his bit to benefit the Kaveri basin farmers of Karnataka.
I hope he lives upto his words and doesn't seek re-election, when a by-election will be announced. I've said it earlier, and I'll say it again. When legislators resign their seats in protest, while switching parties, to score brownie points, or on technicalities, the state must not bear the expenses of the by-election in case they put themselves up as candidates.
In fact, I'm of the opinion that in such situations, those who've resigned must not be allowed to contest any election until the tenure of the legislature completes.
We saw Sonia Gandhi, Chandrasekhar Rao and Siddaramiah do this in the recent past. Now, Navjot Singh Sidhu, is contesting the by-election for the Amritsar constituency. He was convicted by the Punjab & Haryana High Court in December for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, but obtained a Supreme Court stay on the conviction.
Labels: cauvery, elections, karnataka, kaveri, lok sabha, resignation, water
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Electoral misconduct and no clamour over hockey?
Last week, by-elections were held in quite a few constituencies, for Lok Sabha and Assembly seats. I am unaware of the results elsewhere, but the two results that led to this post are Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrasekhar Rao and former Karnataka deputy CM S Siddaramiah winning their Lok Sabha and Assembly seats.
Both had in fact resigned their seats earlier: Rao, over the UPA government (of which he was a part) paying lip-service to his party's demand for a separate state of Telangana and Siddaramiah, after he walked out of the JD(S) and joined the Congress(I) following a fall-out with former PM and JD(S) chief, Deve Gowda.
A few months ago, Sonia Gandhi resigned her Rai Bareli seat after being accused of holding an office of profit while being an MP. She was obviously re-elected. The government then passed a law with retrospective effect which ensured that henceforth, politicians couldn't be charged with holding offices of profit since all the offices that they held were exempted from being offices of profit!
I am of the firm opinion that when legislators resign since they were switching parties, merely to make their presence felt, to gain political brownie points, in protest, or on technicalities, the state (i.e. taxpayers) should not bear the costs of the subsequently necessary by-election.
Similarly, the practice of allowing candidates to contest from more than one constituency must also be done away with. Both these steps would go some distance towards establishing that the political class cannot keep getting away with making laws to suit themselves, and that they exist to make laws for the benefit of the people they govern represent.
The other aspect that's very interesting is the total lack of clamour among legislators about the Indian hockey team's pathetic show at the Doha Asian Games. This is in stark contrast to the way they reacted to the Indian cricket team's pathetic show in South Africa, including losing to China.
Labels: communist, k chandrashekar rao, resignation, sonia gandhi, telangana, telugu
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