It is family affair for Congress. One day before Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Gandhi family addressed a rally in Nanded, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's wife Amita filed her nomination papers from the Nanded constituency.
Monday was the last day for filing the nominations. This was in the contravention of the candidacy announced by Bhaskarrao Patil Khatgaonkar from the same constituency. Bhaskarrao Patil is the brother-in-law of Chavan and is the sitting Member of Parliament of the city.
Chavan, who accompanied Patil while filing latter's papers was also present with his wife while she filed her nomination.
When Chavan was in Nanded three days ago, several party workers had demanded to give the Congress canndidacy to Amita Chavan. Chavan had not given any reaction then. Khatgaonkar had filed his papers thereafter. Suddenly on Monday, Amita filed her papers. It is still an open question as to whether she remains in the fray or not because it is about a week to withdraw the nomination form. Whosever withdraws his papers, the candidate will be still from Chavan family.
Meanwhile, a total of 41 candidates are in the fray for Nanded Lok Sabha constituency. CM's wife was among the 21 candidates who filed their nomination on the last day.
Meanwhile, speaking in the election rally on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi said that oppposition parties do not understand what development is.
"They do not talk for the poor. Duniya ko garibon ki nazar se nahi dekhte. (They do not see the world from the eyes of the poor. They know only privatisation and stock markets," Rahul said speaking for barely seven minutes.
What happened to Varun Gandhi is scarcely news now (1, 2 and 3). The drama in the aftermath of that infamous speech of Varun at an election rally has been covered in all its aspects by the media. Still, the pundits are still not sure why Varun, who had managed to keep a low profile till now in his political career of four years, chose to be a radical speaker. Some have termed as rabid the speech made by Varun. Even his party Bharatiya Janata Party has disasociated itself with the stand taken by Varun. Apparently, it does not want to offend the election commission as well as the large middle road voters.
The answer lies in the identity crisis. This crisis lies in case of Varun as well as BJP. Varun Gandhi is a member of the Gandhi family that has ruled for the most of part of last 62 years after India'sindependence. His father, Sanjay Gandhi was heir apparent of the family when Indira Gandhi, Sanjay's mother and Varun's grandmother ruled the Congress government. Sanjay's sudden demise in a plane crash in 1980 paved the way for Rajiv Gandhi to become prime minister four years later. Rajiv himself was killed in 1991 and Varun is now face to face with Rahul, son of Rajiv. Sanjay's tenure as the Congress party leader was marked by sudden zeal and extravagance.
This image still haunts Varun and one expects him to be a shadow of his father. Having failed to Impress upon the mind of the public any achievement of his own, he has no way but to hog the limelight in any way. It is the character of the Indian politics that only stardom sells, people does not go by the credentials of the man. That is why even a Lalu Prasad Yadav could cultivate the dream of becoming prime minister of India. On this background, Varun entered the BJP because he was sure that Congress will not give him the career lift that he wanted.
For BJP, Varun was but a showpiece that it could keep to attract the people. It knew that Varun has little ideological connections with the party but it wanted a piece of the Gandhi family pie. It fell prey to the superstition that a party can occupy the power only if it has a Gandhi in it. That is why, it did not any prominence to this young and ambitious man in last five years. Meanwhile, Rahul came to occupy more and more space in the political stage of the country. Prompting people to compare to Varun not only with Sanjay but with Rahul also.
That put burden on this man who has relatively little experience of political games. Having unable to evaluate himself in terms of the political ideology or action, he went on to rant what he heard from other leaders of his party like Narendra Modi. But he forgot that when Modi roars and world reacts, a large chunk of Gujarati supporters are behind him. Also, Modi himself is so suave that he manages thousands such oppositions from within and without. It has not happened in case of Varun. Barring some loyal supporters of Sanjay, he got support from few quarter. No familiar with such incidences, he first feebly tried to shoo away the controversy saying the CD of the speech was doctored. When he found that the contention was in vain, he tried to become a hero and defiantly surrendered himself to the court. This was because he is not sure what he is.
To allow Varun to grow out of dilemma, one has to stop comparing him to his father or his cousin. Then may be he could think freely and perhaps he can accomplish something.
Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) has admitted to have erred in the evaluation of the answer sheets by class C & D employees of Zilla Parishads all across the state. This has irked the state government which in turn has ordered that Rs 25 to be deducted from the fees to be paid by ZPs to MKCL.
MKCL is entrusted with the carrying out oonline tests across all departments in the state government. The agency had conducted online examinations for the recruitment of above employees in June 22, 28 and 29. In August, it coveyed to the government that because of some errors in the software system, it has to evaluate all the answer sheets manually. State government had asked to furnish a unified report in this regard. The report was furnished in the month of January.
In the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between MKCL and state, it is mentioned that Rs 125 per application be paid by the ZPs for evaluation of the answer sheets. Now, government has directed the ZPs to pay only Rs 100 per application to MKCL. The order issued by the government says that ZPs have incurred many hassles and courted cases on account of this problem. The reduction of fees is meant to compensate those problems.
This might testify to the image of Pune as a peaceful and cultured city. The district administration has notified just six pooling booths as sensitive out of the 3,453 polling booths in Pune Lok Sabha Constituency.
According to the information given by district collector and district election officer Chandrakant Dalvi, a total of seven thousand police officers are to be deployed in the electioneering process. The administration started to sell nomination forms from
today. But not a single form was sold on the first day.
The administration has classified four buildings in the city as sensitive. The police have received six complaints of violation of code of conduct and action has been taken against three of them.
A new constituency has been added this time to the Pune region. Maval constituency includes parts of Maval, Pimpri Chinchwad as also Uran, Panvel and Karjat falling into Raigad district.
I had written about the controversy over forming a separate office of divisional commissioner in Nanded. (Marathwada Divided, January )The next logical step of the development has been taken now with the forming of a new committe.
A one-member committee comprising retired justice P S Patankar is constituted by the state government to look into the dispute related to creationof separate Nanded revenue division, sources said today, according to agency story. The head quarter of the committee will be in Aurangabad city.
However, the full functioning of the committee will be only after the model code of conduct ends. The committee will hear grievances andobjections from various parties involved in the controversy.
The decision of creating the separate revenue division from existing Aurangabad division was taken by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in December.The decision deepened the rift between former chief minister Viasrao Deshmukh and Chavhan. On the other hand, three petitions and many supplementarywrits challenging Chavan's decision have been admitted in the Aurangabad bench of Bombay high court. State government has issued an order on March 19 for setting up this committee.
RSS Has A New Chief Maharashtrian Brahmin Again At Helm
Rashtirya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) Mohan Bhagwat was today elected as the new chief of RSS. He replaces K S Sudarshan who held the top post of Sangh Parivar for nearly nine years. The move is significant as political front of RSS, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is trying hard to regain the power at centre. It is also important because a Maharashtrian Brahmin has returned to this post in the form Bhagwat after about 15 years.
The election of Bhagwat as Sarsanghchalak (RSS chief) came on the second day of the three-day RSS conclave. It is expected to redefine its relationship with the BJP. BJP president Rajnath Singh and Bal Apte, on deputation from RSS, were present on the occasion.
A veterinary doctor by profession, Bhagwat hails from Chandrapur in Maharashtra and became a pracharak (full time volunteer) of RSS from his early years. He is 59-year-old and is the youngest chief of RSS after Guruji Golwalkar who took the mantle in 1940 at the age of 34.
He has good relations with the BJP leadership including L K Advani. His name had recently figured in the ATS chargesheet when one of the accused in the Malegaon blasts had linked him to ISI, a charge he had strongly denied. Before becoming Sarsanghchalak, Bhagwat was the general secretary.He has held various responsibilities including district prachark for Akola, provincial pracharak for Nagpur and zonal prachark for Bihar before being made joint secretary.
Sudarshan's early years as RSS chief were tumultuous with the BJP in power at the Centre at a time when the Sangh Parivar came under attack due to the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat and the Jinnah controversy triggered by Advani during a trip to Pakistan.(Bhagwat, who will be the sixth RSS chief, is the youngest to assume the top post after Guruji Golwalkar. Bhagwat had become general secretary in 2000 when Sudarshan, an electronics and telecommunication engineer, took over the mantle of Sarsanghchalak from Rajendra Singh.
Sudarshan became Sarsanghchalak in 2009 when Rajendra Singh, popularly known as Rajju Bhaiyya stepped down from the post owing to ill health. Before him, it was said that only Chitpawan Brahmin can become the chief of the organisation.
The Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (Marathi Literary Meet) will take place in Mahabaleshwar without any presiding authority. Yes, the meet which is to start from Friday will have no president. This is the first time in the history of the meet that it will be conducted without president.
The meet is scheduled to start in Mahabaleshwar from March 20. Anand Yadav, the path breaking author who started era of rural literature in Marathi was elected as the president of the meet through an election process conducted all over the state. He has written a novel 'Santsurya Tukaram' which has invited wrath from the Warkaris in the state. According to Warkaris, the novel depicts Tukaram in bad light and has defamed the revered saint. After the controversy erupted about a month ago, Yadav had first refused to budge saying that Warkaris do not know what a novel is. Then he relented and withdrew his novel from the market.
Not pleased with this, Maharashtra Warkari Mahamandal, a body of warkaris demanded an apology from Yadav. Two days ago, Yadav submitted his written apology at Dehu, the place of Tukaram. He was reportedly manhandled and abused by warkaris there. Finally, Yadav tendered his resignation on Tuesday. Warkaris had threatened that in case Yadav dose not resign, 10,000 warkaris will start agiatiation in Mahabaleshwar.
"I have nothing to say on this affair. I just gave up the fight so that this annual literary meet is not hampered by some forces," Yadav said two days ago. One day after tendering his resignation as the president elect of 82nd Annual Marathi Literary Meet (Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan). Yadav is in no mood to speak about the extra-constituential censorship.
He said, "What should I do when there are forces bent to disrupt the meet for the sake of a person? In earlier times, people (media) used to come forward in defence of freedom of expression. But this time everybody is silent. I am sorry but I have chosen to be silent." A meeting of Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal was conducted yesterday in Mahabaleshwar. It was decided in the meeting that the meet will take place in the absence of a president.
Who is Yadav Anand Yadav, 82 years old, was born in a small village Kagal near Kolhapur. He completed Ph.D. at Pune University. His writing began a new era in Marathi literature called Gramin Sahitya i.e. rural literature.
Yadav's novel Zombi (lit. 'Fight against all odds') won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990. Zombi is a realistic novel that narrates the story of small 'Andya', his eagerness to learn, his life in sheer poverty, his loving mother and illiterate rural father.
His second novel, "Nangarni" (cultivation of the soil), is a sequel to "Zombi". It narrates his struggle during youth and the challenges he faced in settling down in life. The third autobiographical novel of this series, "Gharbhinti", describes his adult life--his marriage, daughters' education and support of family back in Kolhapur.
