dance democracy tuesday, march 21, 2017...
TRANSCRIPT
New Delhi: Samajwadi Party adopteda cautious approach towards Aditya
Nath Yogi takingcharge as Uttar Pra-desh CM, with seniorparty member RamGopal Yadav sayinghe respected the CM’ssaffron robes and felthe should be given atleast six months be-
fore his record in office was judged.“One should not raise questions
about a chief minister barely a day af-ter he takes charge. I will not speak asingle word against him for sixmonths,” said the Samajwadi Partygeneral secretary, seen to be close toformer CM Akhilesh Yadav.
The careful articulation is at oddswith SP’s usual efforts to reach out tominority voters. Though the party hadavoided going over the top in its minor-ity pitch during the campaign in UP, ithas not held back in claiming to be theprotector of Muslim interests. Mu-layam Singh Yadav frequently recallshow he, as chief minister, ordered po-lice firing on karsewaks at Ayodhya.
“The robe (saffron) he wears is sa-cred. We all respect his robe, and I person-ally respect it,” Yadav said while speak-ing to the media in Parliament.
However, he urged the new chiefminister to restrain his supporters, whohe said were issuing threats thatsmacked of vendetta. “He (Yogi) willnow realise how difficult it is to run avast state like UP smoothly,” Yadav said.
Give Yogi 6 mthsbefore judging
him: Ram GopalCongress said on Monday that party’s central
leadership will review its performance in theassembly polls and introspect on reasons for theparty's defeat in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.Party member PL Punia said that a review will bedone after the return of party vice-president RahulGandhi from his visit abroad. AGENCIES
Cong to review poll performanceon Rahul’s return
Arjumand Bano TNN
Gorakhpur: Contrary to thearchetypal perception of Adi-tya Nath Yogi as a Hindutvarabble-rouser, the atmosphereinside his math is anythingbut communal. For the past 35years, the man who has super-vised all construction workinside the Gorakhnath templeis a Muslim, Yasin Ansari,who also keeps an account ofthe temple’s expenditure.
Speaking to TOI, Ansarisaid, “I have very cordial rela-tion with Chhote Maharaj (asYogi is referred to in the monas-tery). Whenever he’s here, hecalls me and takes all informa-tion about work. I move freelyin his living quarters, from thekitchen to his bedroom, and al-so take my meals with him.”
A number of shops in thetemple precincts are run byMuslims. Said Ansari, “I haveseen him help the poor irre-spective of their religion orcaste. Maharaj always partic-ipates in my family marriagefunctions.”
“For the last 35 years, I’vebeen running a shop at thetemple. I’ve never felt any dis-respect or discrimination on
the part of Yogiji. He’s a realsaint,” said Azizunnisa.
“There are any more Mus-lim families inside the templewho earn and live fearlessly,”said Mohammad Mutaqim,who has been running a ban-gle shop in the temple for thelast 20 years.
Yasin said that his father’selder brother had come to thetemple during the priesthoodof Mahant Digvijaynath, andthe temple kitchen was his re-sponsibility. “My mother-in-
law, Hamida Begum, was su-pervisor of the kitchen andmy father-in-law was a gar-dener. I was the temple cashierfrom 1977-83. Since 1984, I’vebeen the temple’s construc-tion supervisor,” said Ansari.
The first engineer of Go-rakhnath temple was NisarAhmad. He later became theprincipal of Maharana PratapPolytechnic. He told TOI, “Iwas the engineer at the tem-ple. Sadhna Bhawan, YatriNiwas, Hindu Sevashram,
shops of the temple, newbuilding of Gorakhnath hos-pital, Sanskriti Vidyalaya,Radha Krishna Mandir,Shankar Mandir, VishnuMandir, Hanuman Mandirand many other temples asso-ciated with Gorakhnath tem-ple were constructed on mydesigns. Now, I have retired.”
Yogi loves cows and thereare 400 bovines in the temple —and their chief caretaker isMaan Mohammad. “Earlier,my father took care of the
cows. Now I’m doing the work.I wake up at 3am, milk thecows and give them fodder.Chhote Maharaj takes care ofall us,” said Mohammed.
The Yogi lives a frugal, aus-tere life in his quarters on thefirst floor of the shrine. Hisroom has an attached wash-room but no TV or radio set.The almirahs contain religiousscriptures and biographies ofgreat men — from Nehru andGandhi, to Abraham Lincolnand Martin Luther King.
Man FridayLeads StringOf Admirers
Math Muslims swear by Aditya Nath
Bareilly: In the first such inci-dent of its kind after AdityaNath Yogi took over as UP CM,police in Bareilly confiscatedabout 2 quintals of buffalomeat being taken to a weddingvenue, thinking it was beef.
The action left the familyof Mohseena, the bride, in thelurch as they had called about1,000 guests for what was to bethe first wedding in the family.
Police confirmed the con-fiscation and said the meathad been sent to a lab for test-ing. “The autorickshaw driv-er transporting the meatfailed to show a proper receiptof sale. We are likely to get thetest report by Tuesday,” SP(city) Sameer Saurabh said .
Meanwhile, the Allahabadmunicipal corporation sealedan abattoir in Atala on Sundayafter it was found functioningillegally for the second time af-ter being shut nine months ago.
UP cops seizemeat meantfor wedding
Lucknow: Congress workersare searching for master strat-egist Prashant Kishor. Se-
nior partymembers havecome forwardto accept re-sponsibility af-ter Congresswas reduced to
a single-digit figure in the Ut-tar Pradesh assembly. ButKishor, who famously prom-ised he would get 220 seats forCongress, has not returned toparty headquarters.
After waiting six dayssince the results were an-nounced, four-time UP Con-gress committee secretary Ra-jesh Singh finally had two‘missing’ posters of ‘PK’ putup. The message: Anyone,worker or leader, who findsand brings Prashant Kishor —the self-acclaimed Chanakya— to a Congress workers’ meetwill be awarded Rs 5 lakh.
Find ‘missing’PK, get ̀̀ 5L:
Cong workers
New Delhi: Small and margin-al farmers in Uttar Pradeshwill soon get loan waiver aspromised by BJP in its stateelection manifesto, but farm-ers in other states, includingthose ruled by BJP, may not bethat lucky.
Though UP’s move couldsee similar demands from oth-er states, the Centre does notappear keen on making anycommitment at this juncture.However, it is learnt that otherstates will be free to take a deci-sion on giving farmers inter-est-free short-term loans underspecial circumstances.
Under interest subventionscheme, farmers get short-term crop loans of up to Rs 3lakh for one year at an interestrate of 7%. An incentive of 3%per annum is, however, provid-ed by the Centre to farmers forprompt repayment of loanswithin due date.
So, these farmers in effectavail short term crop loans atan interest rate of 4% per an-num. “If any state desires, itcan extend the incentive of 4%to farmers for prompt repay-ment — making it possible toprovide them interest freeloan”, said an official.
Farm loan waiver of smalland marginal farmers (land-holdings of up to two hectares)will cost Uttar Pradesh govern-ment nearly Rs 36,000 crore if ittakes a call to waive loans takenfrom all cooperative as well asscheduled commercial banks.
The total loan amount forfarmers in Uttar Pradesh is ofthe order of Rs 8,400 crore fromcooperative banks and pri-mary agriculture cooperativesocieties, and Rs 27,419 crorefrom commercial banks.
“It won’t be a financiallyprudent move to take a similarcall for all states, taking into ac-count the huge crop loanamount in the country”, saidan official in agriculture min-
istry, adding UP’s decision willopen a Pandora’s box.
He said, “Maharashtra has,however, already resisted simi-lar demand of loan waiver. Thestate, in fact, prefers to allocatemoney in its budget for creat-ing agriculture infrastructure,including irrigation facilities.This kind of approach shouldbe emulated by other states”.
A mega loan waiver schemein the country was implement-ed in 2008 when the then UPAgovernment had initially an-nounced a waiver of Rs 60,000-crore loan for small and mar-ginal farmers in the Budget. Itwas later extended to largefarmers as well and the amountincreased to Rs 71,600 crore.
Farm loan waiver may costUP at least `̀36,000 crore
New Delhi: Samajwadi Party mem-ber Naresh Agrawal surprised
many with his re-mark on Mondayin the Rajya Sab-ha, calling his par-ty’s defeat in theUP elections a“big jolt” while at-tributing BJP’shistoric win inthe state to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi.Agrawal’s comments came
even as the opposition targeted thegovernment over demonetisation,farm distress and rising non-per-forming assets (NPAs) during a dis-cussion on the Budget.
“I want to congratulate Modiji.It’s his win, not BJP’s. People havevoted for PM Modi, not BJP as a par-ty. Jhatka laga hai…abhi hamein
flow me aane me time lagega. (It’s abig jolt. It will take time for us to beback in the flow),” Agrawal said.
“We are political people. Winningor losing is not permanent for us. Wehave seen a lot of waves (referring to
Modi wave). We have seen the wave of1971, wave of 1977, 1980, 1984 and 1989.A lot of waves came in this country.This BJP only, in one of the wavesonce, was restricted to only two seatsin Parliament. Nothing is perma-nent in politics, it is temporary. Onlypermanent word in politics is ‘bhoot-poorv’ (former). We should keep thatin mind,” Agrawal said while look-ing at the treasury benches.
On Aditya Nath Yogi, he said,they had all seen his political im-age and now his administrative ac-umen will be on test. “We have giv-en 6 months to this government,”Agrawal said.
He said that BJP had promisedwaiver of farmers’ loans in UP infirst state cabinet meet, which didn’thappen on Sunday. He also ques-tioned the government on the issue offarm loan waiver, asking how theloans of nationalised banks can bewaived off by the state government.
At the swearing-in ceremony ofthe new government in UP,
Mulayam Singh Yadav poured hisheart out to BJP members, bitterlyblaming his party’s debacle on sonAkhilesh’s decision to align withCongress in disregard of theSamajwadi founder’s knownopposition to the Gandhi-Nehrudynasty. He is learnt to have told topBJP functionaries that he was “not infavour” of the alliance between SPand Congress in UP and hence barelycampaigned for the party. TNN
Did not want alliancewith Cong: MSY to BJP
‘People voted for Modiji, not BJP’
The All-India MuslimReservation front, a
non-political group working forgranting of reservation to thecommunity, in a statement said,“Instead of continuouslycriticising the new government,leaders and the rest of thecommunity should work withthe new regime for thebetterment of everyone. BJPhas come to power afterwinning the hearts of all thecommunities of the state.”However, it also advisedMuslim leaders to watch thepolicies of the new government.The AIMRF national presidentalso criticised the SP regime for“cheating” the community onthe issue of providing 18%reservation. Nazar Abbas TNN
Stop criticising,work with Yogigovt: Muslim org
STATUS OF FARM LOANS Total countrywide agricultural loan(outstanding as on September 30, 2016)
12.60 lakh crCrop loan
7.75 lakh crTerm loan
4.85 lakh cr
Bank-wise break up
Regional Rural Banks
Cooperative Banks
Commercial Banks
1.45
1.589.57
Figures in /lakh cr
(Source: Agriculture Ministry)
DEBT-RIDDEN FARMER HOUSEHOLDS
All India - 4,68,48,100
1. Uttar Pradesh 79,08,100
2. Maharashtra 40,67,200
3. Rajasthan 40,05,500
4. Andhra Pradesh 33,42,100
Top
10states
5. West Bengal 32,78,700
6. Karnataka 32,77,500
7. Bihar 30,15,600
8. Madhya Pradesh 27,41,400
9. Tamil Nadu 26,78,000
10. Odisha 25,83,000
AP
Ram Gopal Yadav
Has putting the home portfolio in order delayed ministry allocationin UP? There was speculation that home was subject to some
intense discussion over whether it would be held by CM Aditya NathYogi or deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya. Both possibilities weredoing the rounds. Past convention points to the CM holding theportfolio, but there was some talk of Maurya being given the job.Ministers are likely to be allotted portfolios by Tuesday.
What gave credence to the speculation was a whisper campaignby Yogi’s supporters and Maurya’s in the BJP office. A Mauryasupporter told TOI that this was the discussion for which the CM andhis deputies, Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, remained huddledthroughout the day. A senior party official, requesting anonymity, saidthe home portfolio would most likely remain with the CM as it calls forbeing led with iron hands. Rajiv Srivastava TNN
Home portfolio delayed dept allocations?
Naresh Agrawal
14 THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHITUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017DANCE of DEMOCRACY