Rape and more tormentBefore BSP MLA Purushotam Naresh Dwivedi was arrested,the girl he allegedly raped spent time in jail on charges of theft. The Cabinet Secretary and the Additional DGP (Law and Order) had defended the MLA,before the CM ordered an inquiry and conceded the girl had been framed. The girl has been released but another alleged rape victim remains in jail for abetting her husbands suicide. Later,an FIR was lodged against the alleged rapist,Vinod Awasthi,principal of an Etawah school run by BSP MLA Shiv Prasad Yadav. In Kanpur,a teenager was allegedly raped by the son of her schools owner but the police,allegedly bribed,hushed it up. Later,three policemen were suspended and a probe ordered against the DIG,Kanpur. Fewer state guestsCongress MP P L Punia,three-time principal secretary to Chief Minister Mayawati,has been attacking her since October,following his elevation as the chairman of the National Commission for Schedule Castes. Apparently in retaliation,the government has now struck his name off the state guests list. The amended UP State Guest Rules now has only 11 VIPs (about half the earlier total) who are to be accorded that status when they visit the state. The SC Commission chairman is not the only one out. Union ministers visiting UP on party duties,too,are being denied facilities they enjoyed earlier. Pradeep Jain Aditya,Congress MP from Jhansi and a Minister of State at the Centre,recently had to hire a cycle rickshaw from the Congress office in Lucknow to the state guesthouse. Inspector MayawatiAhead of next years Assembly polls,Chief Minister Mayawati has gone on an inspection drive across districts,assessing the progress of various welfare projects and the quality of governance at the grassroots. Mayawati has been meeting and collecting feedback from people in small towns and villages. Known for taking instant decisions,Mayawati has been softer than usual on officials whom people have complained against; she has transferred a few but let most others off with a warning. So far,it was bureaucrats such as the Cabinet Secretary who had been conducting such tours but the Chief Minister apparently feels that the 2012 battle will be so close that she should go herself. The Opposition has dismissed her tour as a publicity stunt. Unequal paceThe BJP appears to behind the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party in preparations for the 2012 Assembly polls. The BSP has finalised tickets for nearly almost all 403 seats and announced most of the names. The SP is not far behind either and is in the process of finalising tickets. BJP leaders,on the other hand,joke that their party has not decided if they need to select candidates at all. Usually,the BJP follows a cumbersome process in selecting its candidates for any election local body,panchayat,Assembly or Lok Sabha. RSS functionaries from the district to state levels have a major say in the selection; once it has been decided,the list goes to the State Election Committee and finally to the Central parliamentary board.
