ENIGMATIC INACTION
The Uttarakhand Police is now nursing their wounds in the aftermath of the stone-pelting on the Chief Minister's cavalcade in Haldwani. But what happened earlier looked bizarre, to say the least. Police arrested the same person from ludhiana, Punjab whom they had let off the hook at Haldwani a few days back — Akhtar Ali — the principal accused in the ghastly rape and murder of the seven-year-old girl. The girl was picked up from a wedding party on November 20. The family members of the girl questioned the accused, suspecting him to be involved. However, police let him go after casually asking him a question or two. They were supposed to have received a call from a mining operator, whose dumper the accused drove. later, things turned grim on November 25 after the girl's body was found within 500 meter from where she had gone missing. Battered, with people and the Opposition pillorying the State Government, sit-ins and rallies galore were held, condemning it for fawning on criminals and the ruling party was reduced to a punching pad in the Assembly with BJP members being at their belligerent best — the police nabbed Ali from Punjab. Now, the question is why the higher-ups in police are conspicuously mum on the despicable role of their Haldwani-based brethren who did not care to pay the least credence to the distressed family's suspicionIJ However, the common people are unshakably convinced that monetary benefit that police derive from the mining operators in lieu of ensuring uninterrupted transportation of mining stuffs from the sites to different locations is what prodded police to throw discretion to the wings.
‘NETAJI' TRIGGERS RIPPlES
The Samjwadi Party chief and the former UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav triggered a storm when he said Uttarakhand would have been better off had it not been carved out of his State. His Government had facilitated a separate budget for the development for the hills of the erstwhile UP. The target of 'Netaji' was obviously the BJP, as the latter had played the pivotal role in conjuring up Uttarakhand in November 2000. The saffron party's Nityanand Swami became the first Chief Minister of India's 27th State. Things keep vegetating on the development front despite the State having seen as many as eight CMs — Nityanand Swami, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, ND Tiwari, Maj Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, again Maj Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, Vijay Bahuguna and the incumbent Harish Rawat — since its inception, 'Netaji' declared, playing craftily on Uttarakhand's growing collective disillusionment. The rulers across the political spectrum keep on dithering on the emotive issue of shifting the capital from Dehradun, Mulayam said, again in a wily bid to endear himself to the people of Devobhoomi at large. The present Chief Minister laying stress on the hill districts' development is proving to be gibberish, 'Netaji' thundered.
An astute politician as he is, the political circles are abuzz with speculation that he has his eyes trained on the fast changing trajectory of the State's politics. Politics here being polarised with the Congress and the BJP running the show by turns, SP seems inclined to carve a niche for itself. If things move the way the leader desires it would surprise none if he nudges his daughter-in-law and Uttarakhand's daughter Dimple Yadav, who is presently an MP from UP's prestigious Kannauj constituency to dabble in the rough and tumble of Uttarakhand's electoral politics. Things are now mired in speculative murkiness with things being unknown whether the dream would be fulfilled or it would prove a chimera. However, the redoubtable 'Netaji' cannot be caught with chaff.