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Mulayam’s U-turn: Shrewd strategy or political compulsions?

Published

9 years ago

on

By Mohit Dubey

Lucknow: The wily Yadav from Uttar Pradesh has done it once again. Never known for his political loyalties and infamous for being a political grasshopper, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s rebuke to the Congress has taken even his loyalists here by surprise.

Breaking ranks with the Congress, which was spearheading a face-off with the Narendra Modi government at the centre and stalling the functioning of parliament Mulayam, his close aides say, has done so both for political reasons and “uncomfortabe compulsions.”

While the wrestler-turned-teacher-turned-leader has taken many a U-turn in the past, this time his volte face has come as a big breather to the beseiged Modi government. A close aide who did not want to be named said that while Mulayam wanted to come across as a “serious Democrat” after the Congress continued effort to steal a march by leading the protests, Mulayam had for now gone ‘mulayam’ (soft) on the government for some compulsions that may go beyond politics.

One major reason, associates say, is the deepening crisis on the law and order front in his home state Uttar Pradesh, where his son Akhilesh Yadav is leading the government. Faced with problems from all sides, Yadav senior is in no mood to “open too many fronts,” with the centre, opine insiders at the 5, Vikramaditya Marg house of the SP chief, also known as the ‘Kothi’ to the faithful.

Additionally, there are many infrastructure related issues like roads, highways, power that need a sync between the state and Delhi. The chief minister has has often complained in the recent past that the centre was not expediting permissions on many vital projects and thus putting roadblocks in the state’s development.

After much rancour and delay, the centre had recently okayed the ambitious Lucknow Metro Rail project, thus paving way for investments something which is close to Akhilesh Yadav’s heart. Other than this, the ongoing tussle between senior SP leaders and the Raj Bhawan is something which worries the elder Yadav a lot.

With Governor Ram Naik, a former union petroleum minister, holding back approval on many issues like nominated list of members of legislative council and the appointment of Lokayukta, Mulayam needs the centre to cajole the BJP veteran to mellow down, sources say.

The ‘deal clincher’, however, seems to be the CBI probe into the former Noida chief engineer Yadav Singh, considered close to the Yadavs. The tainted engineer was not only reinstated after being suspended but also promoted by the Akhilesh Yadav government. The Allahabad High Court has ordered the CBI to probe him.

The SP government recently filed an SLP in the Supreme Court to reject the CBI probe but was snubbed. Sources in the BJP say they would use the Yadav Singh case “proactively and electorally” in days to come, much to the chagrin of the state’s ruling party. “Our stand on the Yadav Singh matter is consistent and we will not relent on the issue” state BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak told IANS.

Strategists of the party, however, said they were “game to a carrot and stick policy” towards the Samajwadi Party. With a huge mandate in the Lok Sabha, the BJP wants to publicly maintain a distance from the Samajwadi Party, while behind the scenes it needs the SP to help it pass vital legislations in parliament. Congress leaders say the bonhomie between the saffron camp and the SP will be short lived as neither “side trusts the other”. But for now, the ruling party at the centre will grasp the hand stretched out by the veteran leader.

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Entertainment

Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists

Published

2 years ago

on

June 25, 2022

By

PureWin Online Betting

The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index

Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.

The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports

Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.

All for the Tourists

The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.

“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.

To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.

Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market

With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.

Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).

Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.

Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.

Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting

Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.

Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.

The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.

If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.

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