‘SIR will ensure rights of genuine voters'
Opposition is united against SIR being carried out in poll-bound Bihar, accusing your government of using it to drop voters from other parties. What do you have to say?
These are untrue and baseless allegations made by the Opposition out of fear and frustration over losing the support of undeserving voters. The SIR, which is now being carried out successfully in Bihar, is not intended to remove people from voting lists but to ensure that voting rights are upheld for genuine voters. The Opposition currently has no agenda other than opposing initiatives that are in the larger interest of the nation or individual states.
Will voter names' removal under SIR hurt NDA's poll chances in Bihar?
Absolutely not. It is not designed to prevent anyone from exercising their voting rights but to ensure that only genuine voters participate. The people of Bihar are highly aware and understand the benefits of such an exercise, and they will not be misled by the Opposition. The NDA will not face any negative electoral consequences; in fact, it is the Opposition—which has been exploiting the inclusion of ineligible voters without proper documentation—that is alarmed by SIR.
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Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy vows befitting reply to NDA over arrests of party leaders if YSRCP voted to power next term
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The Print
23 minutes ago
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Jagdeep Dhankhar's abrupt exit says three things about the Modi govt
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Yes, it's okay to feel bad for Jagdeep Dhankhar, no matter what your views are on his performance as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or as Governor of West Bengal before that. No Vice President of India deserves to end his tenure in this strange and abrupt way. It diminishes a senior constitutional office, which is never good for Indian democracy. What does Dhankhar's departure tell us about this government and how it functions? Well, I reckon it tells us three things. Disruptor of plans The first is that Dhankhar clearly committed some cardinal sin—at least in the Prime Minister's eyes. Judging by the organised leaks that have followed his exit, it may have had something to do with the effort to impeach Justice Yashwant Varma, from whose home a large amount of cash was allegedly recovered. As the judge has refused to resign, impeachment proceedings were the logical next step. The Opposition submitted a notice for the removal of Justice Varma and Dhankhar, as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, accepted it. This seems fairly unexceptionable——except that, according to the leaks, by accepting the Opposition notice, Dhankhar disrupted one of the government's best-laid plans. The plan had been for the government to move against the judge and to use his example to launch a broader attack on the judiciary. By letting the Opposition take the first step, Dhankhar disrupted this scheme. And, as per the leaks, someone in authority reportedly called Dhankhar that evening and berated him. Angry words were exchanged, and Dhankhar was either told to quit or put in a position where he had no other choice. Though this version of events has been systemically circulated, I find it hard to believe. The only two people who could berate the Vice President of India are the people Dhankhar has spent a decade pleasing. 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The reason he got so far in the Modi era was that he was willing to function as an effective hatchet man for the government. Sent to West Bengal as Governor to create problems for Mamata Banerjee, he performed with admirable zeal, regularly getting into tussles with the state government and throwing obstacles in its way. Most Governors restrain themselves in their public utterances, believing it is improper to criticise the state government or to attack the Chief Minister. Dhankhar saw no need for that. Not only was he vocal about what he regarded as Mamata's failings, but he had no hesitation in travelling around the country to tell people how badly the state was being governed and how unreasonable Mamata was being with him. I once chaired a panel in Mumbai where Dhankhar and Shashi Tharoor were guests. Both Tharoor and I were a little startled by how eager Dhankhar was to rip into Mamata. But because he can be sharp and witty, he pulled it off—dismissing our efforts to suggest he was breaking with the convention that a Governor should rise above politics. In election after election, the BJP has failed to stop the Trinamool Congress. Dhankhar remained the source of its only successful attempts to needle or deter Mamata. That is probably why Modi made Dhankhar Vice President. Till Dhankhar came along, most of us saw the Vice President's role as largely ceremonial. But his tenure was a reminder that the real importance of the office lies in the role of Rajya Sabha Chairman. Once again, Dhankhar did for Modi what he had first done in the Kolkata Raj Bhavan—picking fights with MPs (including a famous exchange with Jaya Bachchan), being unperturbed by allegations that he was biased toward the central government, and breaking with precedent by launching frontal attacks on institutions like the judiciary. I thought that he had performed even better than Modi could have expected, risking his own reputation and stature while cheerfully trampling over all conventions and standards of propriety for the sake of the government. And yet, here we are today. A guy who spent a decade as the government's hitman is suddenly out, and the Prime Minister does not seem at all sorry to see him go. Also read: Report leak, global headlines pinned Air India crash on dead pilots. But nothing adds up India's most opaque government There is a third lesson from Dhankhar's exit; one that we should all have learned by now. When it comes to what is really going on in this government, nobody knows anything. While the search for a Vice Presidential nominee was in progress, political observers and commentators came up with lists of potential candidates. I don't think Dhankhar's name even featured on most of those lists. And even if it did, he was never a front-runner. 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There are no unwitting leaks, and even now, after he has been in office for over a decade, nor does any political commentator have enough insight into how the Prime Minister's mind works. Predictions about cabinet reshuffles are always wrong. Every nominee to a constitutional post is always a surprise. And everyone struggles to find explanations after events have passed us by. Perhaps one day we will find out what Dhankhar did wrong and why he was forced out. Till then, I will feel a little sorry for him. He tried so hard to please his political masters by throwing all conventions to the wind. But somehow, even that was not enough for the powers that be. Vir Sanghvi is a print and television journalist, and talk show host. He tweets @virsanghvi. Views are personal. (Edited by Ratan Priya)
Indian Express
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