My Opinion

The United Kingdom High Court has allowed a consortium of 13 Indian banks to permit enforcement agencies to enter the sprawling estate of fugitive economic offender Vijay Mallya and seize his possessions to recover dues.

The former liquor baron has been staying in his estate in Tewin near London after fleeing India. Mallya owes the consortium Rs 6,203 crore plus interest, which comes to a total of Rs 9,863 crore. The court order clearly says that the High Court enforcement officer or his agent can enter the properties of Mallya and after search, can take possession of goods towards recovery of debts. It has allowed the enforcement officer to use “reasonable force, if necessary”.

Mallya is also facing an extradition trial at the Westminster Magistrate’s Court, and he is due to appear on July 31. India has sought his extradition and has conveyed its request at the highest level.

It appears that Mallya is now fighting a losing battle, and he may not be able to evade the hands of law. He will have to return to India and repay his debts. Mallya had last week written a letter to the State Bank of India expressing his willingness to auction his properties to repay the debts. He has also appealed before the Karnataka High Court. It seems that Mallya and his lawyers were aware of the adverse order that was to come from the UK High Court. The fugitive economic offender will now have to face the full brunt of law, which has been made stringent after he fled India to evade repayment of bank debts.

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The Centre on Wednesday hiked the minimum support prices of 14 Kharif crops for the 2018-19 marketing season. This was in pursuance of BJP’s 2014 poll promise to provide farmers at least 50 per cent profit over their cost of production. Prime Minister Narendra Modi later described it as a “historic hike”. This decision will entail a burden of nearly Rs 15,000 crore on the national exchequer, but the catch lies in its implementation.

Farmers have been complaining for the last several years that government procurement centres were not buying their crops in full, and grain merchants were forcing farmers to sell at lesser prices. The Centre will have to strengthen the procurement system in sync with the state governments.

Secondly, the hike in MSPs of farm produce will surely cause inflationary pressures on the prices of foodgrains and pulses. This is bound to affect the budget of common man, particularly the lower and middle classes. The government will have to find solutions to problems relating to inflation that are bound to occur in the short term.

The Congress has alleged that the ruling party has done this in order to garner the votes of farmers. The BJP is, after all, a political party, and it has been doing politics for the sake of power. There is nothing wrong if it takes steps in order to get the votes of farming community.

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I would first like to thank Almighty that not a single person died in the sudden foot overbridge collapse at Andheri station in Mumbay on Tuesday. Due to heavy rains, there were only a few people on the overbridge. Last year, the stampede on Elphinstone bridge caused the death of 23 persons.

At that time, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had taken swift action, and a new overbridge was installed with the help of the army. Goyal had then promised that more attention would be paid towards passengers’ safety.

The question is not of safety alone. There are many such bridges which have become old and rickety. Most of them were built during the British period, and have outlived their tenure and utility. These bridges have already been declared dangerous.

Now that the Railway Minister has ordered an audit of 450 such bridges, to be carried out under the supervision of an IIT Director, one should hope that the replacement and/or repair of these bridges will be taken up on a war footing.

I would also like to praise the steadfastness of Mumbaikars, who carried on with their daily work, despite heavy rains. Mumbai is truly called The City That Never Sleeps in India. It is a tragic irony that the duty conscious and brave Mumbaikars have to face mishaps during rains every year. Last year, a renowned doctor was washed away in rainwater when he fell into an open manhole. There have been mishaps when live wire fell in water causing electrocution. And yet the pace of life in this metro never slackened.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has invited former President Pranab Mukherjee to address its cadres in its headquarters in Nagpur on June 7 at the Sangh Shiksha Varg, a third-year training camp of RSS workers. The former President has accepted the invitation and he will be addressing the RSS cadres.

This has raised the heckles of several senior Congress leaders who have been alleging RSS to be a “divisive” organisation. One of the Congress leaders, former Railway Minister C K Jaffer Sharief has sent a letter to Mukherjee requesting him to reconsider his decision.

Pranab Mukherjee is one of the seniormost leaders of Congress, highly experienced and knowledgeable, and a known “troubleshooter” during the UPA regime. I do not find anything objectionable in the former President attending an RSS event.

I would like to remind senior Congress leaders about a few facts relating to RSS. During the 1962 Sino-Indian war, RSS workers played an exemplary role in civil defence, and the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru allowed RSS to send a special contingent to take part in the 1963 Republic Day parade on Rajpath in Delhi. Mahatma Gandhi himself visited an RSS camp at Wardha in 1934 and praised its discipline, and former PM Indira Gandhi had praised the relief activities undertaken by RSS among refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan in 1971.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi has also raised objections over Mukherjee’s Nagpur visit. Tejashwi is young and not experienced. He probably does not know that Socialist party founder Ram Manohar Lohia had praised the RSS, and the late Jayaprakash Narayan had attended an RSS event and addressed its workers. If former President Mukherjee attends the RSS camp, there is nothing wrong in it. If people having different ideologies meet , express their opinions and listen to the views of others, it is a good sign for democracy.

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On Monday, when lakhs of voters in four Lok Sabha and nine assembly constituencies went to cast their vote in the byelections, VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) units attached to EVMs (electronic voting machines) were found malfunctioning in many of the polling booths.

The Election Comission had to use more than 1,200 reserve VVPAT units to replace the defective ones. Repolling may take place in several of the polling stations after the observers send in their reports.

According to EC, 20.8 per cent VVPAT units had to be replaced in Kairana, 19.2 per cent in Bhandara-Gondiya, 13.2 pc in Palghar, 12.4 pc in Maheshtala, and 11 pc in Shahkot constituencies. The EC has asked its engineers to find out whether the sensors malfunctioned due to excessive heat, or was it because polling officers were unfamiliar with the handling of VVPAT units.

Several opposition leaders have alleged conspiracy behind this malfunctioning, but I feel this is not a valid allegation. The only consolation is that such technical snags were detected during byelections, because the Lok Sabha elections are due in May next year, when heat wave will be at its zenith.

It is time that the EC takes up the task of rectifying the problems on a war footing. Speed is of the essence because assembly elections are due in three states, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh, later this year. There is urgent need to ensure that the trust of the electorate in EVMs and VVPATs is restored, at the earliest.

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It has now come to light after a gap of seven years that the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati had declared one of her residential bungalows as Kanshi Ram Memorial. This was done surreptitiously on January 13, 2011 by the UP cabinet, and it was pointed out by BSP leader Satish Misra when he, with a delegation of BSP leaders, called on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday.

The BSP delegation told Yogi that Mayawati occupied only two rooms in the bungalow 13A, Mall Avenue. The BSP had hurriedly installed a signboard ‘Shri Kanshi Ramji Yadgar Vishram Sthal’ on May 21, after the former CM was served notice on May 17 to vacate it in compliance with a Supreme Court order.

BSP leader Satish Misra also pointed out to Yogi that no notice has yet been given to Mayawati for moving out of her 6, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg bungalow, which was allotted to her a a former CM. The party has requested that Mayawati be allowed to stay in two rooms of the “memorial”, which includes a library, statues, murals and other artefacts related to the late Kanshi Ram. The party has said that if a notice is issued to vacate the second bungalow, it will be complied with.

The Supreme Court had on May 7 issued an order directing the state government to ensure that all government bungalows allotted to six former chief ministers including Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Rajnath Singh, Kalyan Singh, N D Tiwari and Mayawati be vacated. The apex court had pointed out that once a chief minister demits office, he or she comes at par with the common man.

While Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh have decided to vacate their bungalows, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav have sought two years’ time. N D Tiwari’s wife Ujjwala has sought more time to vacate pleading that her 92-year-old husband was in the “last stages” of his life.

As far as the Kanshi Ram Memorial is concerned, the UP cabinet has powers to rescind its decision taken seven years ago. The Supreme Court is keeping a close watch, as it is wary about the intentions of politicians, who try every subterfuge to retain government properties built with taxpayers’ money.

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It all started with a #FitnessChallenge thrown by cricketing star Virat Kohli at our Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media, which he gladly accepted. Information & Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore chipped in with a similar campaign #HumFitTohIndiaFit . Several Union ministers including Piyush Goyal, Jayant Sinha and Kiren Rijiju, and other MPs, notably Meenakshi Lekhi and Manoj Tiwari, participated.

All that they had to do was to post videos of doing physical exercises on social media. Several sportspersons, film stars and other personalities have started posting videos of their physical workouts. On my part, I posted push-ups that Salman Khan challenged me to do on the sets of Aap Ki Adalat show several years ago. Both of us did push-ups and the audience welcomed it. At that time, Salman had challenged me. Today I want to challenge Salman to post his video of doing physical exercise.

Normally when people ask me the secret of my physical fitness, I say that it is an open secret, known to all, but followed by a few. Waking up on time, keeping control of your diet, doing daily exercises or yoga, and a sound sleep are the main ingredients. By doing this, one can protect oneself from diseases, the trips to hospitals would be fewer, the pressure on doctors and hospitals will be lesser and medical expenses will come down. If all of us take care of our own body, it can eventually take the form of a mass movement, and this will serve the nation in the long run.

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Leaders of almost all non-BJP political parties came together on Wednesday at the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka chief minister H. D. Kumaraswamy, who is heading a Congress-Janata Dal(S) coalition government. This has raised the prospect of a Modi versus Rest contest next year during the Lok Sabha elections, but the possibility of the emergence of a viable grand coalition is still nebulous.

There is no doubt that the fear of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought these non-BJP leaders together on a single platform. These leaders are worried about prospects of Modi sweeping the next LS polls. The formation of a Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka has encouraged these leaders. The Congress appears to be the happiest, and it has been consistently projecting this view that all opposition parties should unitedly confront Modi in next year’s general elections.

However, the views of several other parties appear to be divergent. While TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu spoke about a “united front of regional parties”, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee too spoke about “unity of regional parties (as) the need of the hour”. Mamata Banerjee’s view is that a national party like the Congress had to bow before a regional party in Karnataka, and this development has energized other regional parties. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and RLD chief Ajit Singh are still not sure whether a rainbow alliance would emerge or not.

There are many states where the regional parties are pitted directly against the BJP. In some states, the Congress and BJP face each other as main rivals to the exclusion of others. Such an alliance may not matter much in these states. But, in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which witness triangular contests, the Congress and regional parties can join hands and give a strong challenge to the BJP.

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Common people, both in the metros and in rural areas, are struggling to cope with the recent continuous hike in fuel prices. There has been a hike in imported crude prices in world market, but people on social media are raising concerns about the high rates of taxes and excise duty on petrol and diesel.

If one goes into the price structure of petrol, the actual price of the fuel is only half, while more than 50 per cent is levied in the form of excise duty and taxes. In some states, it has gone up to 54 per cent. In Delhi, one pays Rs 76.87 for a litre of petrol, out of which Rs 3.50 goes as commission to dealers, and nearly Rs 36 per litre is levied as central excise and state sales tax, and this varies from state to state.

If petrol and diesel are brought within the purview of GST, the highest tax slab could range from 18 pc to 28 per cent, and this could bring about a drastic reduction in fuel prices. But state governments say that the main source of their revenue is from fuel tax. Most of the state governments are unwilling to let go of their right, because much of their budgets depends on this stream of revenue. The state governments have been, therefore, resisting the inclusion of fuel prices in GST.

The time has now come for the Centre to go in for a permanent solution instead of resorting to cosmetic changes. The states will have to be convinced about the necessity of bringing fuel under GST. This could give a big relief to the common man.
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With the Supreme Court today directing a floor test in Karnataka Assembly on Saturday, the stage is set for a historic trial of strength. The 64-million dollar question is: From where will Chief Minister Yeddyurappa get support to prove his majority?

With 222 elected members in a house of 224, the magic mark is 112. The Congress and Janata Dal(S) combination claims a support of 116 members, while the BJP has 104 elected members. There are two independents.

Some formulae are being floated in the BJP camp. BJP leaders are banking on the support of disgruntled Lingayat members in Congress and JD(S), who do not wish to see H. D. Kumaraswamy as their chief minister. But this is merely a speculation, nothing more, nothing less.

There are also speculations about Kumaraswamy’s brother H.D.Revanna revolting in his party. Revanna’s grouse has always been that his father H.D. Devegowda never gave him preference. This, also, is in the realm of speculation.

It is difficult to assess now who is going to join hands with whom, because such matters are always kept secret. As of this moment, there is an atmosphere of fear in the Congress camp, while the BJP camp is confident. BJP leaders are confident that Yeddyurappa will prove his majority. The biggest reason behind this optimism is that he has done it in the past.

With the Supreme Court today directing a floor test in Karnataka Assembly on Saturday, the stage is set for a historic trial of strength. The 64-million dollar question is: From where will Chief Minister Yeddyurappa get support to prove his majority?

With 222 elected members in a house of 224, the magic mark is 112. The Congress and Janata Dal(S) combination claims a support of 116 members, while the BJP has 104 elected members. There are two independents.

Some formulae are being floated in the BJP camp. BJP leaders are banking on the support of disgruntled Lingayat members in Congress and JD(S), who do not wish to see H. D. Kumaraswamy as their chief minister. But this is merely a speculation, nothing more, nothing less.

There are also speculations about Kumaraswamy’s brother H.D.Revanna revolting in his party. Revanna’s grouse has always been that his father H.D. Devegowda never gave him preference. This, also, is in the realm of speculation.

It is difficult to assess now who is going to join hands with whom, because such matters are always kept secret. As of this moment, there is an atmosphere of fear in the Congress camp, while the BJP camp is confident. BJP leaders are confident that Yeddyurappa will prove his majority. The biggest reason behind this optimism is that he has done it in the past.

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The Centre on Wednesday unilaterally announced that security forces will halt counter-insurgency operations in the Kashmir valley during the Islamic holy month of Ramzan. This is the first such step in the insurgency-torn state for more than 17 years. The NDA government under the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had similarly announced ceaseifre with militants in 2000 during Ramzan. That step had opened doors for peace moves at that time, but they could not fructify due to various other reasons. The people of valley still remember those peaceful days.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said that the decision to halt operations was taken “to help the peace loving Muslims observe Ramzan in a peaceful environment”, but he has cautioned that the security forces would retaliate, if attacked.

Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has been appealing to the Centre since a long time to apply the healing touch, and on Wednesday, she was the first among politicians to welcome the Centre’s move. National Conference leader Dr Farooq Abdullah has also welcomed this step and has expressed hope that Pakistan will reciprocate.

Let us hope that good sense will prevail on the minds of separatists and an atmosphere of peace will return for at least a month. Enough blood has been shed, and it is time to give peace a chance.

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At least 12 people, mostly political activists belonging to various parties, died in widespread violence that rocked the state of West Bengal on Monday during panchayat polls. India TV showed visuals of a state minister slapping an agent of another political party inside a polling booth. Similarly a couple, said to be political activists, was burned to death hours before polling began.

One thing is clear: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress tried all sorts of tricks to win the panchayat elections. It began with forcibly preventing political activists from filing their nominations, and the High Court and Supreme Court had to intervene. TMC activists openly threatened and intimidated voters and supporters owing allegiance to rival parties. And on polling day, there were instances of booth capturing, firing and bloodletting too.

Trinamool Congress may sweep the panchayat polls, but this victory has no meaning, if the mandate does not carry the moral sanction of the people. This victory would be self-defeating, because in the entire process, democracy has been decimated.

TMC MP Derek O’Brien’s remark that deaths have occurred in the past too during poll violence, does not hold water. If a leading member of the ruling party tries to publicly justify political killings, it will be a sad day for democracy, and this deserves unequivocal condemnation. Even the death of a single individual during poll violence is unacceptable.