Demographic Politics And Population Growth - 2

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http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050508/nation.htm#6

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Deshmukh in the dock
Anita Katyal
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 7
After Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, it is now the turn of Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to fall from grace.

Mr Deshmukh wants to drop a few ministers and reshuffle his Cabinet. But despite his repeated entreaties to the Congress leadership, he has failed to get the green signal from New Delhi. As of now, he has only been permitted to fill the three vacancies in the Cabinet and that, too, has been delayed till after the ongoing Parliament session.

This is a clear snub to Mr Deshmukh, who has made innumerable trips to Delhi in the last two weeks to persuade the party high command that he needed to drop some ministers on account of their poor performance. In fact, the Chief Minister had to camp here for several days before he was granted an audience with Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

But despite this meeting and several rounds of discussions with Mrs Gandhi’s Political Secretary Ahmed Patel and AICC General Secretary Margaret Alva, he has failed to have his way. The AICC leadership has told him that since the government was formed only six months ago, it is still too early to affect a large-scale reshuffle as the move could prove counter-productive and end up fuelling dissensions in the state unit.

This is, however, only the tip of the iceberg. Mr Deshmukh has earned the Congress leadership’s ire on several counts. The Maharashtra government’s handling of the ongoing power crisis is the latest in the long list of complaints against him. With the BJP-Shiv Sena launching a frontal attack against prolonged power cuts, an angry Congress leadership has asked the Chief Minister to take immediate corrective measures. A harried Mr Deshmukh has subsequently had two meetings with Power Minister P.M. Sayeed in this connection and is expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his return from Russia.

Mr Deshmukh first found himself in the dock when he ordered a slum demolition drive in Mumbai. Having touted itself as a party for the “aam aadmi”, this move proved to be a huge embarrassment for the Congress leadership. Mr Deshmukh was summoned by Mrs Sonia Gandhi and told to call off the drive. Mr Deshmukh’s subsequent statement that “outsiders” were not welcome in Mumbai further enraged his own party members who felt the Chief Minister was “speaking the language of Shiv Sena.” The AICC sought an explanation from him to which Mr Deshmukh insisted he had been misquoted. However, the damage was already done.

Similarly, the state government’s ban on dance bars and the new water irrigation laws which have led to a huge public outcry, have not gone down well with the party leadership here. The first decision has rendered nearly 80,000 dance girls unemployed while the UPA government has come under attack for following the BJP-Shiv Sena’s agenda of “cultural policing.”

Like the state government’s slum demolition drive,<b> its new water irrigation law could cost the party dear as it seeks to increase water tariffs for farmers while those with more than two children will be required to pay one and half times more than the others.</b>

This could well prove suicidal for a party, which is purported to be sympathetic to the poor farmer. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->