CM vs Governor on Lokayukta

Gujarat BJP have been told to take fight against Beniwal to streets,demanding Governor's recall.

The states first-ever standoff between the Governor and the Chief Ministers office is now being played out not only in court and in Parliament but on the street too. Governor Kamla Beniwal took everyone by surprise,and some say those in the Congress too,when she bypassed the Chief Minister and his cabinet in appointing a Lokayukta. While the state BJP says the Constitution has been undermined and has challenged the decision in court,its leaders in Delhi stalled proceedings in Parliament. Party workers in the state have been directed to take to the streets with a demand for the Governors recall. The Gujarat Congress,meanwhile,continue to attack the government for its efforts at amending the Lokayukta Act and rendering authorities than the Chief Minister virtually insignificant in the Lokayuktas appointment.

The Pandya comeback

The ghost of late BJP leader Haren Pandya keeps returning to haunt the Gujarat government and agencies that investigated his murder. The state government,which has been slamming the CBI for its investigation in the Sohrabuddin encounter and other cases,was firmly behind the Central agency this time,after the High Courts stinging observations against it. The government said the CBI should challenge the High Court order dropping murder charges against the accused. If the order was not a strong enough blow to the state government,which had handed the CBI the investigations when the NDA was at the Centre,Pandyas widow and later his sisters called press conferences alleging that the actual killers are still out and seeking a fresh investigation.

Climate change

The Gujarat government often takes pride in having made the state the first in the country to open a climate change department,and in the fact that Chief Minister Narendra Modi has written a book on climate change. But now,the state finds itself actually affected by climate change or at least by weather contradictory to the usual climate and the price it is paying is heavy. The Kutch region,which has been known as prominently arid except for the Banni grasslands,received a record rainfall this year at the fag end of the season,causing huge crop losses. Villages were cut off and rescue operations had to be launched in the desert district after heavy rains lashed not only Kutch but also Saurashtra this week.

Modis take on Sufism

In the run-up to the 2002 Assembly elections,where he would eventually romp to victory,Chief Minister Narendra Modi had famously taken a dig at Muslims for alleged polygamy. Ame panch,amara pachchis (we five,our twenty-five),he had said about the community. In his interactions with Muslim organistaions of late,the Chief Minister has been making gestures he was not known for. At a recent function at a Muslim charitable institute in Ahmedabad,where meritorious students were honoured,Modi spoke of Sufi Islam and claimed that it was its decline in Kashmir that had led to increased terrorism.