The Enigma that is Delimitation
By Amba Charan Vashishth
At the height of controversy over delimitation of constituencies in Himachal Pradesh, the Chairman of the Delimitation Commission in 2002 declared: He will go by the convenience of the public and not by that of the politicians. But actually, with the Government of India now deciding to the accept the report of Delimitation Commission for Himachal along with other States where election process has already been completed, the Election Commission and the Delimitation Commission have in fact achieved exactly the reverse and ignored the "convenience of the public".
In 2002, the Delimitation Commission was trying to run against time to complete the process in time for the HP assembly elections then due in February 2003. But for some reason or the other, this could not be done and the elections were held as per the old delimitation. But it was then thought that the process of delimitation would be completed well before next elections due in February 2008 (though held in December 2007) to hold elections as per the new recommendations.
It is worth mentioning that although the report of the Delimitation Commission was notified by the HP Government as back as January 2007, yet in the elections held after 11 months in December 2007, the Report was totally ignored.
The elections to Gujarat assembly in December 2007 too were held according to the old delimitation. So about the States of Tripura, Nagaland, Meghalaya going to the polls in March this year. In Karnataka elections due in May 2008 the report of the Delimitation Commission is again likely to be ignored.
In all fairness, the elections to every State assembly should be held as per the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission to cater to the "convenience of the public" instead of creating practical problems for them later on.
The elections held as per the old system have created a very anomalous situation, at least for the people who voted in the elections concluded less than a month ago in the States of Himachal and Gujarat, and so will they in the three North-eastern States.
Being more acquainted with the ground realities in Himachal, I would like to concentrate more on the situation that has developed in this State. The situation in other States can be no different.
Not the one they voted
The kanungo circle being the unit for re-drawl of constituencies, the boundaries of almost every constituency stand altered. Consequently, the persons whom people voted in the last elections are no longer their representatives and the one they did not vote are to be their 'elected' representatives. In many cases they may have voted for a person who belongs to some other party and won, but in the newly drawn constituency, the person may belong to a different party. The elected 'representative' too may not give to them that much care and attention because they were not the people instrumental in his victory.
No MLA to represent
A new assembly constituency of Manali has been added to the Kullu district increasing the number of its MLAs to four from the existing three. The voters of the newly created constituency of Manali have now been left high and dry with nobody to represent them in the House because their area falls in the constituency of none of the three individuals who won the election. The latter will now only concentrate on the areas from where they have to seek re-election next time.
No constituency to represent
The number of assembly constituencies in Kangra, the biggest district of the State which sends almost one-fourth of MLAs (16 in a house of 68) has been reduced to 15. The Thural constituency, which the incumbent Irrigation & Public Health Minister Mr. Ravinder Singh Ravi has been representing and won for the fourth time consecutively, has been obliterated and he is left with no area to represent, his present area having been fragmented and merged with other adjoining constituencies.
Nowhere to go
The number of constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes has been increased by one, from the present 16 to 17 (one-fourth of the House). Unreserved constituencies of Chintpurni (Una), Baijnath (Kangra), Rohroo (Shimla) and Solan have been reserved for scheduled castes and the present reserved constituencies of Gagret (Una), Pragpur (Kangra) and Kasumpati (Shimla) have been de-reserved. Consequently, the MLAs elected only a month back, including former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh (Rohroo) and Health Minister Dr. Rajeev Bindal (Solan), have been left high dry with no areas to contest next time. Mr Virbhadra Singh may opt from some other constituency in Shimla district, but the fate of the remaining three is doomed.
As a result of this delimitation, the people inhabiting these newly reserved and de-reserved seven constituencies will suffer because the incumbent representatives will lose interest in nursing the areas that voted for them because they have not to seek votes from these constituencies for at least three decades hence when another delimitation of constituencies may take place. The last delimitation took place in 1972.
The only redeeming feature will be that the next Lok Sabha elections in 2009 will be held as per the newly redrawn parliamentary constituencies. Although the four parliamentary constituencies too stand redrawn, yet the people will have the opportunity to vote for an individual and a political party of their choice under the new set up. ***
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Needlepoint: Crackers -- 'Communal' and 'secular'
The crackers – ‘communal’ and ‘secular’
By Amba Charan Vashishth*
After reading what I am writing will make me end up as an orthodox, rank communalist in the eyes of our self-proclaimed secularists, liberal intelligentsia who claim for themselves the exclusive, unchallenged intellectual property right and trademark on ‘secularism’ and think they can sell anything in their brand ‘secular’.
But I, too, do have the freedom of expression on what I see, what I think and what I believe. Others can contradict me, condemn me but only with the force of logic and argument and not by the shrill their words can emit.
Like crores of my brethren all over the country in cities, towns, and villages, I am an orthodox person who does not wish to be deprived of his peaceful sleep even on the New Year eve. I don’t indulge in an orgy of drinking and dancing with other’s wives and women, hug them and touch them in the name of wishing them a very affectionate, a very happy, sweet, loving New Year.
December 31 has come to be celebrated as the New Year Eve, though the fact remains that hardly one percent of our population, mostly in metros and big cities, has come to know of it or celebrate it because they have the money to spare and splurge. If government were to order the bills that night to be paid only through cheques, debit and credit cards, I am sure, it will collect more income tax and other revenues. But there is another side of the story. The celebrations will then lose the lavishness and the sheen. It is the black money that thrives that day and drives the mirth and festivities.
As the zero hour struck on December 31st night, I was startled out of my slumber by the sound and fury of crackers that continued for more than half an hour in full fury and, later, intermittently for about two hours.
It reminded me of the court orders banning bursting of crackers after 10 at night because it created noise and environmental pollution as it also disturbed the peace of mind of many a great gentlemen.
When more than 80 percent of the population in the country – young and old, men and women, rich and poor—are celebrating Diwali, there is a ban on crackers after 10 PM but not when only a minuscule minority of only rich elite is doing.
Does it then mean that crackers spread pollution -- noise and environmental- only when burst on Diwali day and not on December 31st and New Year Day? Are the crackers on Diwali ‘communal’ only because these have something to do with ‘Hindus’ and on December 31st ‘secular’ because the celebration has nothing to do with Hindu ethos?
I noticed signboards at many places, including at the India Gate circle in New Delhi warning us: “Don’t mix drinking with driving.” It is a crime. So tell our police, law enforcing agencies and court. But how many drivers were held up by police on 31st December night? Practically none. Had the police done its duty it could hardly come across a single vehicle driver, whether owner or a chauffer, the occupants included, without a heavy dose of alcohol and intoxication. Why should they not be? They had gone out for merry-making and not to visit a place of worship to seek spiritual blessings.
How could the poor police perform its duty and enforce law? It could do, but only at its own peril. If it did stretch its hand of law, who knows which big-big or his wards were his booty. But the policemen preferred to keep their eyes shut to the infringements of law before their very own eyes, pretending not to have seen it and therefore did not have to act. Their duty ended putting signboard warning the violators. It allowed everyone to have a free for all. Can any sane people even think that on 31st December night not a single person out on merrymaking drove his vehicle without having gulped a few pegs of wine at that late hour?
When there is traffic jam or hazard because of a political or religious procession much is talked and written about. But when vehicular traffic to Connaught Place in New Delhi was totally prohibited on New Year Eve, people coming to Delhi from outside who had to pass nearby Connaught Place were put to great inconvenience. No taxi or auto-rickshaw was willing to go to that area. How many people failed to catch their trains from New Delhi railway station situated adjoining Connaught Place, nobody knows? Nobody wrote; nobody cared. Everybody was high in spirits reporting the merry making going on at Connaught Place. ***
By Amba Charan Vashishth*
After reading what I am writing will make me end up as an orthodox, rank communalist in the eyes of our self-proclaimed secularists, liberal intelligentsia who claim for themselves the exclusive, unchallenged intellectual property right and trademark on ‘secularism’ and think they can sell anything in their brand ‘secular’.
But I, too, do have the freedom of expression on what I see, what I think and what I believe. Others can contradict me, condemn me but only with the force of logic and argument and not by the shrill their words can emit.
Like crores of my brethren all over the country in cities, towns, and villages, I am an orthodox person who does not wish to be deprived of his peaceful sleep even on the New Year eve. I don’t indulge in an orgy of drinking and dancing with other’s wives and women, hug them and touch them in the name of wishing them a very affectionate, a very happy, sweet, loving New Year.
December 31 has come to be celebrated as the New Year Eve, though the fact remains that hardly one percent of our population, mostly in metros and big cities, has come to know of it or celebrate it because they have the money to spare and splurge. If government were to order the bills that night to be paid only through cheques, debit and credit cards, I am sure, it will collect more income tax and other revenues. But there is another side of the story. The celebrations will then lose the lavishness and the sheen. It is the black money that thrives that day and drives the mirth and festivities.
As the zero hour struck on December 31st night, I was startled out of my slumber by the sound and fury of crackers that continued for more than half an hour in full fury and, later, intermittently for about two hours.
It reminded me of the court orders banning bursting of crackers after 10 at night because it created noise and environmental pollution as it also disturbed the peace of mind of many a great gentlemen.
When more than 80 percent of the population in the country – young and old, men and women, rich and poor—are celebrating Diwali, there is a ban on crackers after 10 PM but not when only a minuscule minority of only rich elite is doing.
Does it then mean that crackers spread pollution -- noise and environmental- only when burst on Diwali day and not on December 31st and New Year Day? Are the crackers on Diwali ‘communal’ only because these have something to do with ‘Hindus’ and on December 31st ‘secular’ because the celebration has nothing to do with Hindu ethos?
I noticed signboards at many places, including at the India Gate circle in New Delhi warning us: “Don’t mix drinking with driving.” It is a crime. So tell our police, law enforcing agencies and court. But how many drivers were held up by police on 31st December night? Practically none. Had the police done its duty it could hardly come across a single vehicle driver, whether owner or a chauffer, the occupants included, without a heavy dose of alcohol and intoxication. Why should they not be? They had gone out for merry-making and not to visit a place of worship to seek spiritual blessings.
How could the poor police perform its duty and enforce law? It could do, but only at its own peril. If it did stretch its hand of law, who knows which big-big or his wards were his booty. But the policemen preferred to keep their eyes shut to the infringements of law before their very own eyes, pretending not to have seen it and therefore did not have to act. Their duty ended putting signboard warning the violators. It allowed everyone to have a free for all. Can any sane people even think that on 31st December night not a single person out on merrymaking drove his vehicle without having gulped a few pegs of wine at that late hour?
When there is traffic jam or hazard because of a political or religious procession much is talked and written about. But when vehicular traffic to Connaught Place in New Delhi was totally prohibited on New Year Eve, people coming to Delhi from outside who had to pass nearby Connaught Place were put to great inconvenience. No taxi or auto-rickshaw was willing to go to that area. How many people failed to catch their trains from New Delhi railway station situated adjoining Connaught Place, nobody knows? Nobody wrote; nobody cared. Everybody was high in spirits reporting the merry making going on at Connaught Place. ***
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