While the results of by elections
in Haryana gave some relief to the
beleaguered Haryana Chief Minister
Bhupinder Singh Hooda, they have
shocked INLD Chief Om Prakash
Chautala who was projecting his
party as the alternative to the
Congress. They have also enthused
HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi to play a
major role in Haryana politics.
One major aspect missing in the
Haryana assembly by elections was
the absence of Anna Hazare team in
the campaign. Kejriwal, member of
the core committee of Anna Hazare
team, had himself come to Hissar
during the Lok Sabha by-Election
there and had openly asked the
people not to vote for the Congress.
Kuldeep Bishnoi had forged an
alliance with the BJP which had paid
dividends also when he won the
Hissar seat. He had put his wife,
Renuka Bishnoi, from Adampur seat
and she won the by election. This
seat has been with the Bhajan Lal
Family since 1977. The Congress
had failed to make any in roads in
Adampur constituency even six
years after the exit of the former
Chief Minister from the party.
Bhupinder Singh Hooda
The Congress has won Ratia seat
after a gap of 30 years and with this
win the Congress also gained clear
majority in the Vidhan Sabha.
Himachal by-elections
Prem Kumar Dhumal
The Congress and BJP failed to
generate sympathy votes in the
respective constituencies. Both the
parties had given tickets to the family
members of the legislators whose
death led to the bye elections to cash
in on the sympathy vote. However,
this did not work at all in both seats.
The voters rejected both the family
candidates.
Renuka has been a Congress
bastion all through and the party lost
it only twice, in 1997 and 1990.
Chief Minister Prem Kumar
Dhumal said BJP's win in Renuka,
was a lesson for Congress leaders
who had tried to defame BJP.
The Congress on the other hand,
maintains that the results of the byelections
are a clear indication that it
is on a comeback trail. General
Secretary of the party Kuldeep
Rathore said the performance of the
Congress, which trounced the BJP in
its stronghold of Nalagarh, was much
more creditable than that the BJP.
Good governance for growth
Good governance is at the very
heart of economic growth and
poverty reduction, noted the
Governor of Reserve Bank of India,
Dr. D. Subbarao, in his Haksar
Memorial lecture at the Centre for
Research in Rural and Industrial
Development (CRRID). Chandigarh
recently. He listed good governance
as one of the 10 challenges to be met
for accelerated growth with focus on
the quality of growth.
In the ultimate analysis, it is the
quality of governance that separated
success and failure in economic
Bhupinder Singh Hooda
Prem Kumar Dhumal
chandigarh notebook_brhma.qxd 12/22/2011 11:03 AM Page 2
CHANDIGARH NOTEBOOK
January 2012 Power Politics 37
development. There have been vast
differences between states in
development outcomes. This is
because of difference in governance.
Research has found that per capita
incomes and the quality of
governance are strongly correlated
indicating a virtuous circle in which
good governance results in
economic development.
The nine other challenges
identified are: Raising agricultural
production and productivity,
expanding employment, raising
productivity, managing
urbanization, bridging the
infrastructure deficit, improving
Echo of slap heard far and wide
social sector outcomes, promoting
financial inclusion, managing
globalization and providing a stable
and predictable macroeconomic
environment.
India’s human development
indicators are distressing. As per the
UNDP’s human development index
2011, India ranked 134 out of 187
countries, clearly in the bottom
third of the league of nations. Even
as education and heath outcomes
had improved over the years, on
many indicators such as life
expectancy at birth, educational
attainment and nutrition levels ,
India ranked Dr. D. Subbarao well below average.
Dr. D. Subbarao
Echo of slap heard far and wide
Sarpanch Balwinder Singh slaps a woman teacher at the Daula village in
Muktsar
The brutal behavior of Sarpanch
Balvinder Singh who slapped and
manhandled a lady teacher in
Punjab has evoked horror
throughout Punjab and beyond.
The slap was seen and heard far
and wide as the incident was
captured on cameras and aired by
TV Channels.
Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan,
the opposition leaders of Punjab and
the National Commission for women
have reacted to the shocking
incident. The incident took place
where Harsimrat Kaur, M.P, was
holding sangat darshan in Daula
village of Gidderbaha constituency
on December 4.
Policemen remained mute
witnesses to the incident and did not
take any action to
control the Akali
Sarpanch.He slapped the EGS
teacher Varinder Kaur a number of
times and even pulled her by the
hair, said the president of the EGS
Teachers Union. The Police
registered a case after more than 24
hours when the government directed
that a case against sarpanch be
registered. He was arrested on
December 6 but immediately
released on bail after furnishing bail
bond of Rs 50,000.
The National Commission as well
as the Punjab State commission have
taken cognizance of the incident.
A delegation of five teachers
including Varinder Kaur, met the
Chief Minister in Sukhna Village,
where he had gone in connection
with Sangat Darshan. The CM told
them he would look into their
demands.
V. P. Prabhakar
Bhupinder Singh Hooda
Dr. D. Subbarao