The battle lines for next year’s crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly elections have been drawn. Broadly, there are three big camps – one, BJP and its NDA allies, two, SP may ally with Congress and three, BSP will contest alone. Owaisi’s AIMIM is the dark horse.
It was being said in political circles that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is facing issues with Delhi and also, there is resentment among Brahmins. The Delhi part is now over and the latest update on Brahmin resentment issue is: ‘work in progress’. Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party is focusing mainly on backwards and Dalits. He is confident of getting support from Muslim voters.
Whatever junior Congress leaders might say, it is now clear that Akhilesh will ally with Rahul Gandhi to contest the UP polls. BSP supremo Mayawati will go alone, again. She will try to bring Brahmins and Muslims into her base Dalit vote fold.
Mayawati’s biggest problem is that she is confused about how to handle her own family. For the third time, she removed her nephew Akash Anand as national coordinator yesterday. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi could prove to be the trump card in UP polls. He has been raising the issue of ‘self-respect’ of Muslims in his rallies.
If Owaisi corners a large chunk of Muslim votes, he can damage the prospects of SP and Congress. Yogi Adityanath continues with his whirlwind tour of the state addressing rallies. At every rally, Yogi compares his government with that of Akhilesh Yadav’s regime. This is the basic template of his campaign.
Yogi reminds voters of how he changed the face of UP in the last nine years. The indirect message is, if voters opt for change, the era of riots, looting and criminal mafia gangs may return. Akhilesh Yadav had indicated on Wednesday that talks about seat adjustments with Congress will take place later, but an alliance is on the cards.
Fake Ayushman bills : Punish hospitals looting govt money
Madhya Pradesh government has taken action against 83 private hospitals which were involved in frauds by sending bills under Ayushman scheme for fake treatments. People suffering from mild fever or stomachache were being admitted to ICU and inflated bills sent to the government under the Ayushman scheme.
Payments to most of these hospitals have been stopped. Eighteen hospitals have been blacklisted, and penalties of several crore rupees levied on 50 other hospitals. How did these frauds take place? Several hospitals had hired middlemen who brought patients and received commissions up to Rs 10,000 per patient. The middlemen used to hold free medical camps in villages, and selected those who had Ayushman cards.
Brajnarayan Vishakarma, a resident of Vidisha, was taken to an ICU for stone removal. Pictures of him wearing an oxygen mask were uploaded on the govt portal and an inflated bill was sent. Brajnarayan’s son told India TV, his father had no illness. He found his father strolling outside the hospital building when he visited him.
In Raisen, middlemen took some villagers promising free food and free treatment. They promised to send them back after four days. But when more than a week passed, the villagers sneaked out of the hospital because paddy sowing season had begun.
Frauds in some private hospitals in Madhya Pradesh clearly show how a good scheme like Ayushman can be misused by unscrupulous people. Sending inflated bills for unnecessary treatment has become common. In a few cases, bodies of patients already dead were kept on ventilators for some more days in order to send inflated bills. Imposing stiff fines or withholding payments for such sins is not enough.
This is a serious crime. Stringent action must be taken against the management of hospitals involved in frauds. Unless a few such hospitals are closed, it will not instill fear in the minds of those who are looting the exchequer.
Why Yaseen Malik sought death penalty?
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yaseen Malik, serving life imprisonment in a terror funding case inside Delhi Tihar jail since 2019, has sent an emotional affidavit to a court. In his 25-page affidavit sent to Srinagar POTA court, Yaseen Malik has said that he has nothing to do with the rape and murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhatt in April, 1990.
Yaseen says, he is not interested in fighting this case anymore and the court is free to impose death penalty on him. In his affidavit, Yaseen Malik has also sent messages to his Pakistan-based wife Mushal Hussain and their 13-year-old daughter Razia Sultana. For his wife, the JKLF leader has written that there is little hope of his release and since Mushal has to live a long life, he is freeing her from the bondage of ‘nikaah’ (marriage).
For daughter Razia Sultana, Yaseen’s message is, ‘stay with your grandmom, speak to her daily on phone in these difficult times’. In his affidavit, Yaseen Malik makes it clear that his decision not to fight the case may not be construed as admission of guilt and that the charges levelled against him are true.
He writes, “I demand death penalty for myself. I have no hatred towards any person in my heart. I do not seek revenge. I leave it to Allah to judge each of my actions, each allegation, and each verdict. Almighty Allah will decide whether what I did was right or wrong. I am not writing this affidavit to seek mercy or sympathy. This is the last statement from my conscience.”
One needs to know the background to understand why Yaseen Malik wrote this. For the last seven years, he has been kept in isolation in Delhi’s Tihar jail. He is serving life imprisonment in a terror funding case. Sixty-year-old Yaseen Malik is suffering from serious ailments, and his condition is deteriorating while in isolation. It is true that Yaseen Malik took up arms as a militant three decades ago, but 32 years ago, he announced that he was laying down arms and shunning violence. He had promised to follow the path of Gandhi’s non-violence.
When Dr Manmohan Singh was prime minister, Yaseen Malik worked on initiating back-channel peace dialogue on Kashmir issue with Pakistan. Yassen Malik had once told me in a TV show that he had contacted Lashkar-e-Taiyaba and had met LeT founder and 26/11 attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan, but the talks did not yield any result. During that period, Yaseen Malik met human rights activist and artist Mushal Hussain and married her. They gave birth to their daughter Razia Sultana.
Yaseen and Mushal have been living separately for the last several years. Yaseen has no hope to reunite with wife Mushal and 13-year-old daughter Razia. This is the reason why Yaseen has said, he is “freeing” her from the “bondage of nikaah”.
Yaseen Malik has lost hopes about life while living in isolation in Tihar jail. He was arrested by NIA in 2019, but before any court could give its verdict, Yaseen has demanded death penalty for himself. Keeping all these facts and background in mind, one must think about ‘Kashmiriyat’ and ‘Insaniyat’ before any decision is taken.