The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, September 12, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

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Malta tragedy
Dithering delays justice
From S. Satyanarayanan
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 11 — Due to the government’s inaction there has virtually been no progress in the Malta boat tragedy, in which 289 South Asian youths, including 170 Indians, most of them hailing from Punjab, drowned in the icy Ionian Sea between Greece and Italy on the eve of Christmas in 1996.

A German state TV Network ARD had made a programme on the Malta tragedy and the Greek authorities had also reopened, investigation into the case after seeing that TV programme, but strangely enough the Central Government had kept silent.

While investigators of Germany, Italy and Greece have since unearthed the identity of the ship as well as the captain and the owners of the ship which hit the boat carrying the South Asian youths and are investigating the case, the Ministry of External Affairs has not even deputed a single official to have an insight in the investigation being conducted in the case outside India.

According to the Chairman of Malta Boat Tragedy Probe Mission, Mr Balwant Singh Khera, the Greek Government has requested New Delhi for filing applications which would enable them to prosecute the traders of human cargo arrested by them.

As per reports 11 persons are being prosecuted in Greece, while 13 are being tried in Sarcausa District Courts in Italy.

Mr Khera, who recently met officials of the Ministry of External Affairs, told The Tribune that only after repeated requests the MEA said that it would engage counsels and become party to prosecution by Greece and Italy of those arrested in connection with the case.

However, how quick the Indian action would be was a million dollar question, Mr Khera quipped highlighting the plight of the families of those killed in the tragedy.

Meanwhile, a senior Rajya Sabha Member of BJP from Uttar Pradesh, Mr B.P. Singhal, has also written to the External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, with a copy of the same to the Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, urging the government to take immediate action so that the families of those killed in the Malta boat tragedy get justice and adequate compensation.

“While all heaven and earth had been moved to save the hundred odd passengers of Indian Airlines flight when it was hijacked, it seems tragic that the Government of India is showing such indifference to the murder of 170 Indians by agencies whose identity had been established,” he said in the strongly worded two-page letter.

“Investigators of Germany, Italy and Greece have since unearthed the identity of the ship as well as the captain and the owners of the ship and they are investigating this case with all vigour,” Mr Singhal said stressing that the matter needed to be sorted out at the ministerial level between the MEA and the MHA and the CBI team along with officials of MEA would need to be deputed.

Mr Singhal, who raised this issue during the monsoon session of Parliament, in his letter to Mr Advani said “Even my calling attention motion that I was forced to move in the last session has not elicited any information which I could communicate to the bereaved families to assuage their anguished souls.”

According to sources, on May 30 this year, the Indian Ambassador to Greece, Mr Gurdip S. Bedi, wrote to the Joint Secretary (CPV) in the MEA that the Greek authorities had asked the mission to file applications “as quickly as possible”.

Khurana back in new BJP team
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 11 — BJP President Bangaru Laxman has included two former Delhi Chief Ministers Madan Lal Khurana and Sahib Singh Verma along with former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde in his team of office-bearers that was announced here today.

While Mr Laxman has brought in former Congress minister and son of the former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Mr Sunil Shastri as one of the new General Secretaries, former Mahila Morcha President, Mrs Maya Singh also figures in the list along with Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, Mr Narendra Modi and Mr Verma as the other three General Secretaries.

The former General Secretary, Mr K.N. Govindacharya, who has officially been permitted to proceed on study leave, has been made an ordinary member of the National Executive. The other General Secretary of the former party President, Mr Kushabhau Thakre, Mr Sangha Priya Gautam, has been made a Vice-President.

For the first time, Mr Munde has become a central office-bearer. He has been appointed one of the seven Vice-Presidents. Other six Vice- Presidents are Mr Khurana, Mr Pyarelal Khandelwal, Mr Karia Munda, Mr Kailashpati Mishra, Mr Gautam and Mr K. Jana Krishnamurthy.

Mr Laxman has announced the names of only five National Secretaries which include Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Mr Padmanabha Acharya, Mr Kshetrpal, Mrs Kanta Nalavade and Mr Dalpat Singh Paraste.

Mr Naqvi, who was a Secretary in Mr Thakre’s team also, was expected to be promoted as General Secretary in the light of the pronouncements of Mr Laxman both at Nagpur and later in the capital. But sources said Mr Laxman as well as the Prime Minister could not withstand the Shiv Sena chief Mr Bal Thackeray’s pressure who had vehemently criticised the BJP’s move to appease the minorities.

Mr Ved Prakash Goyal has been retained as the treasurer of the party.

Asked if the party was not going back on its word of not tolerating indiscipline within the party by inducting Mr Khurana as a Vice- President, Mr Jana Krishnamurthy, who announced the list of office-bearers, said the former was removed from his party post for “some particular reasons.” “No one continuously indulges in indiscipline. That chapter is over. We had not announced (at the time of removing Mr Khurana from the post) that he will not be taken as Vice-President for all times to come,” he said.

Mr Jagdish Prasad Mathur, who was a Vice-President in Mr Thakre’s team, has been dropped but has been retained as a member of the National Executive. Other Vice-Presidents who do not figure in the list, are Mrs Bhavnabehn Chikalia and Mr Ramdas Agarwal.

The former Lok Sabha MP and a Secretary, Mr Rajveer Singh, has also been dropped from the list.

With both Mr Khurana and Mr Sahib Singh Verma being in the list, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, has ensured that neither of them could expect to be in his Council of Ministers. Mr Verma, sources said, was very hopeful of being inducted in the Union Cabinet as Mr Vajpayee had promised him a Cabinet berth when he was removed from the post of Delhi Chief Minister.

The party observers, in their initial reaction to Mr Laxman’s list, said that the new President had strengthened the hand of Mr Vajpayee by bringing in faces like Mr Shastri and Mr Munde.

At the same time, the hold of the former party President and now the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, has considerably weakened, a senior party leader pointed out.

Mr Krishnamurthy, when asked to officially state the reason for keeping Mrs Sushma Swaraj out of the office-bearers list, said she had declined to accept any responsibility for personal reasons. She, however, has been retained in the National Executive which has remained by and large unchanged except in keeping with the policy of 25 per cent new faces among whom prominent are journalist, Mr Balbir Punj.

Mr Krishnamurthy also released the list of 19 special invitees, 30 permanent invitees comprising all state unit presidents, permanent invitees comprising leaders of the Legislature party and State General Secretaries (Organisation) totalling ten.