The Tribune – A fiery test for Congress & Hooda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 11. With campaigning coming to an end in the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency on Tuesday, where the byelection is scheduled to be held on October 13, the stage is set for the triangular contest, being touted as a game-changer.

While conventional wisdom would have people believe that the Congress is contesting the bypoll with its back to the wall, the fact remains that the party has won four of the last eight elections held in the constituency since 1980. The other four elections were won by four different parties, namely Janata Dal, Haryana Vikas Party, the Indian National Lok Dal and the Haryana Janhit Congress. With the HJC leader Bhajan Lal having won the election in 2009, Congress leaders point out, a loss in the byelection would merely maintain the status-quo. But whatever the Congress says in public, a loss at Hisar is bound to have resonance in both national and state politics.

Nationally, it would give a fresh fillip to both Anna Hazare and the BJP while within the state, knives will be out against the Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, at whose insistence Jai Parkash was given the party nomination. A defeat at Hisar would also give the dissidents a chance to say that a fresh face ( Birender Singh’s son, a bureaucrat ?) would have been a better bet for the party.

The importance of the by-election for him is evident as the Chief Minister camped in the constituency for almost the entire duration of the campaign and pulled out all the stops. It was not very easy going either as he is accused of showering disproportionate attention and resources on Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonipat in comparison to the rest of the state.

The outcome, observers believe, would largely depend on whether the Jat votes get polarised in favour of one candidate or whether they get divided between two candidates. If the Congress fails to mobilise the Jat votes, the stature of Hooda as a Jat leader would receive a blow. On the other hand, if the Jat votes swing in favour of Jai Parkash, then the Congress could still pull off a win from the jaws of defeat.

With two Jats ( Jai Parkash and Ajay Chautala) and a non-Jat ( Kuldeep Bishnoi) in the fray, caste mobilisation appears to hold the key.

For Kuldeep Bishnoi too it appears to be a do or die battle as a defeat would cast a cloud over the legacy of Bhajan Lal in the area. The family has never lost an election in Hisar except in the last Assembly election.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111012/main5.htm

The Hindu – Rs. 32 a day poverty line not all that ridiculous: Montek

New Delhi, 12 October 2011. Even as a controversy rages over the Rs. 32 per capita per day poverty line, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said “it is not all that ridiculous” in Indian conditions.

“The fact is that Rs. 4,824 per month for a family [of five] to define poverty is not comfortable but it is not all that ridiculous in Indian conditions,” Mr. Ahluwalia said in a letter to Attorney-General Goolam Vahanvati.

Mr. Vahanvati has agreed to appear in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Planning Commission in connection with a public interest litigation petition filed by the Right to Food Campaign.

The Commission has drawn flak from several quarters, including civil society, for pegging poverty in urban areas at Rs. 32 per capita per day. The figure in rural areas is Rs. 26 a day.

Referring to the criticism on the poverty line, Mr. Ahluwalia said: “Social activists have vociferously criticised the latest poverty line of Rs. 3,905 for rural areas and Rs. 4,824 in urban areas as a ‘cruel joke’ by converting the figure into per person per day i.e. Rs. 26 and Rs. 32 respectively.

“Many people are persuaded by this because they sometimes think of daily allowance as meant for family budget…it does not need to be emphasised that the poverty line is not a comfort line of acceptable living for the aam aadmi. It is a poverty line which by definition implies considerable stress.”

On States’ criticism that the Planning Commission was understating poverty, leaving out deserving individuals, Mr. Ahluwalia said: “The fact…is that the States gave many more below poverty line [BPL] cards than their entitlement and what is worse is, they often did not give the cards to deserving people.” (PTI)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2529285.ece

The Netherlands : Den Haag – Rotterdam – Amsterdam 2 till 12 September 2011

Mostly pictures of gurdwaras, trains and trams taken during my recent visit to the Netherlands

All today’s pictures taken on 5 September 2011 in Transvaal neighbourhood of Den Haag

Tram 11 to Station Holland Spoor near Delftselaan

Tram 11 to Scheveningen near Delftselaan

Tram 11 to Scheveningen near Delftselaan

Divan Hall New Gurdwara
Gurdwara Vereniging
Gurudwara Den Haag
Scheepers Straat 54
2572 AL Den Haag (The Hague)

To see more pictures of Gurdwaras and sangat in the Netherlands :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622147381380/

Belgium and Netherlands public transport pictures at :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622685920411/

More Netherlands pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – ‘Marriage shops’ come under the HC scanner

Saurabh Malik, Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 11. The “marriage shops” in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh are all set to tie the knot with trouble. Their functioning has come under the Punjab and Haryana High Court scanner, with Justice Ranjit Singh asking the two states and the UT to assist the Bench in dealing with the menace.

The development is significant as “marriage shops” have over the years mushroomed in this part of the region to facilitate runaway couples in seeking the stamp of approval and protection from the courts, by giving them easy access to marriage certificates.

Taking up the issue, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “This court in earlier cases had issued notice to the States of Punjab and Haryana, as well as UT Chandigarh, to ascertain the effect of marriage being performed in routine at some places, which are being termed as mandir or gurdwara, whereas apparently they are running a business”.

He added: “How have they been authorised to issue marriage certificates and what will be the effect of such a certificate may also have to be seen”.

Issuing notice of motion to the two states and the UT, Justice Ranjit Singh asked them to “assist the court in this regard”.

He has also made it clear that runaway couples moving the High Court for protection may have to part ways with money for seeking security cover.

Acting on their petitions, Justice Ranjit Singh has been giving the police authorities the liberty to ask the petitioners to reimburse the cost of the protection.

In one such case of inter-caste marriage filed by Kiran Bala, alias Kiran Ahmad, and another petitioner against the Chandigarh administration and other respondents, Justice Ranjit Singh ruled: “The petitioners are seeking protection for their life and liberty as they have married against the wishes of their parents. The couple is present in the court.

“The petition is disposed of with a direction to the SSP to look into the complaint and in case he finds there is any threat to their life and liberty, he will take appropriate action on the complaint. “The SSP will be at liberty to ask the petitioners to reimburse the cost of protection in case it is required to be provided to the petitioners”.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111012/punjab.htm#12

Dawn – Last-minute hitch hits pro-women bill

By Raja Asghar

12 October 2011

Islamabad: Some last-minute objections to perceived harshness and drafting flaws blocked what its authors called a historic pro-women bill to penalise practices like forced marriages and so-called marriages with the holy Quran when private draft had nearly been passed by the National Assembly on Tuesday.

On a day it also saw the introduction of another landmark private bill seeking to facilitate access to information, the house was about to pass the fifth and last clause of the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Bill when objectors forced Speaker Fehmida Mirza to refer the draft back to the law ministry for another vetting within a week so it could be taken up again on the next private members` day on October 18.

The five-clause Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill, which had been pending before the house since 2008, was sponsored by eight lawmakers of the government-allied Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and piloted by a party activist Donya Aziz, while the first private members` day of the present session saw former information and broadcasting minister Sherry Rehman of the ruling Pakistan People`s Party (PPP) finally succeeding in introducing her Right to Information Bill after about seven years of efforts, with eight other private bills.

With some amendments moved by S.A. Iqbal Qadri of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill sought to amend the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) to provide for imprisonment for life or at least 10 years for using deceitful means to deprive a woman from inheritance, up to seven years and at least three years imprisonment for giving a woman in forced marriage to settle civil disputes or a criminal liability, and up to seven years in prison for compelling or facilitating “the marriage of a woman with the holy Quran, besides varying amounts of heavy fines.

After a member of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N, Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk, called for deletion of provisions for mandatory minimum punishment that he called harsh and PPP`s Fakhrunnisa Khokhar objected to the use of the word inheritance rather than succession for immovable property, calls also came for a consideration of the major clauses from PPP`s Shahnaz Wazir Ali and Nafisa Shah and law ministry adviser Farooq Awan.

This evoked dismay from Ms Donya Aziz who regretted what she called belated objections and adviser Awan “not being well-versed” with the bill while Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Maula Bakhsh Chandio was absent from the house.

However, the PML-Q member, realising her bill could not materialise without PPP support, requested for fixing a time-limit for the law ministry`s re-examination, to which the speaker agreed by setting a deadline up to the next private members` day after passing some of her own strictures against the law ministry.

But the speaker said whatever of the bill had been passed would remain valid.

Earlier, Ms Rehman, while introducing her bill, said the draft would be a fulfilment of what she called a “historic promise” made by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani while he set tasks for the first 100 days of his government and was in accord with the PPP policies and the 18th Amendment passed by parliament last year.

She said the bill would greatly remove hurdles faced by the media and citizens in seeking information from state organisations as well as private companies by setting a 14-day limit for providing the required information with a provision for appeal to a special ombudsman.

She asked the house standing committee on information and broadcasting to give an open hearing to media and citizens` groups while considering the bill.

Other private bills introduced in the house to which the government had no objection included one by PPP member Khurram Jehangir Wattoo seeking a constitutional amendment to provide for a compulsory parliamentary approval of all treaties and instruments relating to defence, one by PML-Q`s Kishan Chand Parwani for a law to regulate marriages of Hindus and members of other non-Muslim minorities, and five from PML-N`s Naseer Bhutta seeking amendments to the constitution and some other laws.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/12/last-minute-hitch-hits-pro-women-bill.html