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Tuesday,
February 12, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Kalyan’s party giving hard time to BJP BJP, Cong rebel candidates pose problems No comparison between Bofors, coffin issues: PM Sena-BJP
ahead in BMC poll |
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George does it again 20 Kanpur villages to boycott poll
How to read political omens 50 candidates booked in UP
Include Urdu in
syllabi: Sonia
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Kalyan’s party giving hard time to BJP Bulandshahr, February 11 The BJP had won seven of the nine seats in the previous Assembly polls here but the party is finding the going tough this time. Chief Minister Rajnath Singh, who took the battle into Mr Kalyan Singh’s home turf yesterday by addressing a rally at Dibai from where the former Chief Minister is a candidate, got an unenthusiastic reception. Even as he tried to mollify people by describing Mr Kalyan Singh as “his elder brother who had gone away,’’ the gathering
remind unimpressed. Mr Kalyan Singh’s victory is not in doubt. His prospects also seem bright from Atroli (Aligarh district) which is the other seat he is contesting. In fact, Mr Kalyan Singh has been shrewd enough to select candidates on a winning caste formula. In Dibai, which has over 60 per cent Lodh votes, Mr Kalyan Singh is expected to have a cakewalk. His prospects also seem bright from Atroli (Aligarh district) which is the other seat he is contesting. In fact, Mr Kalyan Singh has been shrewd enough to select candidates on a winning caste formula. In Anoopshar, for
instance, he has tried to forge a Brahmin-Lodh combination by giving ticket to Mr Anoop Sharma. In Bulandshahr he has preferred a Vaish-Lodh combination by fielding Mr Sanjiv Aggarwal. In an otherwise issue-less election, caste and community considerations have been the deciding factors with all the parties. The BSP has given tickets to Jats and Brahmins also, apart from Dalits and Muslims. While the Rashtriya Kranti Party and INLD would damage prospects of BJP-RLD candidates, minority votes may also see a three-way division between the SP, the BSP and the Congress. Mr D.P. Yadav’s party is expected to cut into Yadav votes of the SP. Apart from the Lodh community, which is expected to back Mr Kalyan Singh virtually
unblock, there seems no clear choice among the two other predominant communities of Jats and Dalits as also Muslims here. “A large number of voters are not speaking their minds and are keeping their options open till the very last, said,” Mr Amit Tyagi, a resident of Khurja. Though Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal, which has fielded 105 candidates in western UP, is raking up the issue of Kisan Pradesh more intensely than any other party, the issue has not picked up momentum. There is a feeling that the issue would have really boiled had Mr Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal not joined hands with the BJP. “The issue has whittled down and people feel that it is being raked up only for votes,’’ Mr Avinash Singh, of Bulandshahr said. Though no one talks of INLD winning any seat in the district, they say that the party will register its presence in the area. The Congress, which is giving a tough fight in some of the seats in the neighbouring Ghaziabad district, including Hapur, seems to be lagging behind in most of the constituencies of Bulandshahr district. The keen multi-cornered contests have forced leaders from various political parties to address a series of
rallies here. Union Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, RJD Chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, besides Mr Rajnath Singh were here to canvass for their candidates. |
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BJP, Cong rebel candidates pose problems Dehra dun, February 11 The BJP was the first to crack the whip when it expelled 18 leaders, including two sitting ministers, from the primary membership of the party for entering the electoral fray against the official party nominees. But this has not helped the party in recovering the lost ground. The Congress initially expelled 35 leaders from the party on similar charges. But later it appealed to them to retire from the contest in favour of the party nominees. Only one rebel, Mr Ram Singh Thapa, withdrew from the contest in the Mussouri Assembly constituency when the party brought in the controversial MP-turned-lottery king, Mr M.K. Subba, to put pressure on him. The BJP suffered a big setback in Udham Singh Nagar district when a former minister, Mr Tilak Raj Behar, was denied the ticket from Rudrapur. Mr Behar, known as the strongman of Rudrapur, joined the Congress within days of the denial of the BJP ticket and is now contesting as the candidate of the main Opposition party in Uttaranchal. Mr Behar alleges that the BJP stabbed him in the back by keeping him in dark about its intention of not fielding him again, though he had won the seat twice for the party. He says the party told him that it would be his responsibility to supervise the election campaign of the BJP nominees in all the seven Assembly constituencies of Udham Singh Nagar. He spent over Rs 1 lakh on party flags and other publicity material, which, he says, is still stored in his house. Dr Deepak Rastogi, a popular medical practitioner of Rudrapur, and Mr Rajesh Bansal, president of the Yuva Rice Millers Association, say they had been voting for the BJP in the past. But this time they would vote for the Congress for the sake of Mr Behar only, as he has done so much for the town and its people. In the Jaspur constituency, a Congress rebel, Dr Shailendra Mohan Singhal, has become a headache both for his party nominee as well as the BJP candidate, Mr Rajeev Aggarwal. In the Dhanaulti constituency, the BJP candidate, Mr Khajan Dass, faces a threat from a former minister and BJP rebel, Mr Gian Chand, who has entered the fray as an Independent nominee. A Congress rebel, Mr Vijay Singh, president of the local civic body, has made things easy for the BJP nominee, Lieut-Col P.D.
Kundyal (retd), in Pratapnagar. The first Chief Minister of Uttaranchal, Mr Nityanand Swami, too, faces a BJP rebel, Mr Prem Batta, in the Laxman Chowk constituency of Dehradun city. Mr Surya Kant Dhasmana, a Congress rebel, may turn out to be a spoilsport for the official party nominee on the Rajpur seat. In a number of constituencies like Rajpur and Ghansali, the Congress rebels are contesting on the symbol of the Nationalist Congress Party of Mr Sharad Pawar. The party is contesting the elections seriously. |
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No comparison between Bofors, coffin issues: PM New Delhi, February 11 Expressing surprise over the Opposition reaction to his statement at an election rally in Raipur on January 28, the Prime Minister said he had only talked about the “current unhealthy trend to create baseless controversies over security-related matters...” He said in a statement that contrary to the Opposition charge the government had no intention of muzzling a healthy and responsible debate on security-related matters. “Attempts to justify raising the coffins issue by comparing it with the Bofors gun deal are untenable. Investigation so far has clearly established that illegal commissions were paid in the latter (Bofors) deal. Law will take its course in this matter, unhindered by any political consideration,” he said in his statement. He said: “India is a democracy. Parties in the Opposition have every right to raise such matters and criticise the government, provided their criticism is based on facts and not on untruths and insinuations.” |
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Sena-BJP ahead in BMC poll Mumbai, February 11 However, the remaining seats in the Corporation, the biggest civic body in Asia, could make it a nail-biting finish, the latest trends reveal. While
the Shiv Sena got 44 sets, the BJP’s tally stood at eight out of 85
seats declared so far, according to the state Election Commission
here. The congress bagged 28 seats and its alliance partner in the
Democratic Front government in Maharashtra, the NCP five, according to
the state Election Commission here. The trends given by the
Commission and BMC’s master election control room here show that the
Congress and the saffron alliance are leading in 50 seats each. UNI |
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George does it again New Delhi, February 11 The repeated explanations has resulted in repeated ballooning of the purchase of the aluminium coffins issue now to the point that it is a major election issue not only in Uttaranchal but also in Punjab. The damage to the alliance, particularly the BJP, has been so immense in its areas of stronghold that the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, has been forced to come out with a statement today almost pleading with the Opposition not to make it an election issue. Mr Vajpayee seems to have gone out of his way to point out that, never in the history of independent India have such false allegations been made at a time when our troops have been deployed on the borders. It is most unfortunate that a totally baseless controversy over the import of coffins for the martyrs of the Indian Army is being raked up again and again by certain political parties in the context of the current campaign for the election of four state legislative Assemblies, the Prime Minister said. Mr Fernandes seems to have lost all political maturity after taking over as a minister. From Tehelka scam to the “coffingate” he has repeatedly displayed the lack of tact to handle complex issues, say political experts. While in the Tehelka issue he rushed to the Doordarshan to explain his point of view, in the “coffingate” he threw himself in the ring with the media as the opposition without even the basic protective gear on him. Not only was the government in an embarrassing situation but the Defence Minister himself faced probably the most difficult time of his career with the Opposition members not even ready to ask him questions during the crucial question hour. As if this was not enough, Mr Fernandes has again, probably innocently, raked up the issue by giving tacit support to a former editor, who although calls himself a friend of the Defence Minister but claims that he was explaining or bringing out the truth in the “coffingate” on his own initiative. In his press conference, he invited former Chief of Army Staff, General Shankar Roy Choudhury, to apparently garner support. But he had his own agenda and refused to be drawn into the “coffingate” controversy. As if this was not enough the Defence Minister picked up the same booklet brought out with the help from the MoD to various party leaders with his letter explaining them the various point in it. He apparently also shot off letters to editors of various dailies again with the copy of the booklet and his explanation. |
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20 Kanpur villages to boycott poll Kanpur, February 11 The villages, which fall in the Kanpur Cantonment Assembly segment, will have elections in the second phase of polling on February 18. Mr Rakesh Kumar Jaiswal, an environmentalist working for the cause of cleaning the river, said the denizens of the villages situated on the bank of the river in the Jajmau region of the district, had been spearheading a movement for checking the discharge of tannery waste which had not only been polluting the sacred river but also been contaminating the sources of drinking water for example groundwater, soil, crops and even milk. Mr Jaiswal, executive secretary of Eco-Friends, a Kanpur-based NGO, said the tannery waste and sewage mixed water was being supplied to these downstream villages for irrigation. This toxic water with dangerously high concentration of chromium, sulphides, sulpher, chlorides, high biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) had been causing multi-pronged problems to the villagers. It had damaged crops, soil, people’s health and even poisoned the groundwater. Mr Jaiswal said the National Botanical Research Institute and Central Pollution Control Board studies had found chromium concentration at an alarming level in crops, soil, groundwater and even milk in the region. He said both politicians and bureaucrats had done nothing to address this problem and therefore, the villagers had decided to boycott the polling.
UNI |
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How to read political omens Bulandshahr, February 11 The civil engineers have done a remarkable job. After every kilometre the size of the potholes keep increasing uniformly. And to break the monotony of the bumps they have even provided invisible speed-breakers. Imagine the plight of Santa Claus trying to spread good cheer during Christmas singing “Oh what fun it is to ride on a one-horse open sliegh” on the roads of UP. The description of the state of roads will have to wait. The purpose of our visit was to look for signs that could help us in spotting the winner in the assembly elections. The good news is that there were plenty of signs to read. The bad news is that there was very little in it for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Of course, reading omens is not an easy task — specially political omens. One can only admire the great scientific skills of those who lay bare our past, present and future by reading just tea leaves. We shall, therefore, leave the business of reading omens to the more qualified scientists from some of the newly fashioned institutes of astrology. And I shall try to emulate Sanjay, the
original Indian journalist, who kept Dritrashtra posted with the latest from the battlefield of the Mahabharata. Most pre-poll surveys have written off the Congress as a serious contender for power in UP. This was, perhaps, the reason why the sight of an army of mini trucks carrying the familiar Congress flag, lined up on either side of the road leading to Ghaziabad had the effect of a political shock. Who said the Congress was dead? Not at least in this belt touching Delhi. It could have been Mrs Sheila Dixit, who heads a Congress government in Delhi, initiative. Fair enough. But pray what does one make of the sight of a convoy of BJP cars brought to a halt because one of them had a flat tyre? One of those things. Why should one read political omens in it? Indeed, why? But wait, at a traffic inter-section a car carrying a BJP flag was brought to a screeching halt while the one carrying the Congress flag zigg-zagged its way out of the jammed traffic. There were more signs. A giant hoarding carried the picture of Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Surendra Prakash Goyal, the Congress candidate from Ghaziabad. And further down the road there was the Congress canddidate’s hoarding standing next to Surendra Kumar Munni of the Samajwadi Party. Standing cheek by jowl, if you please. Was it meant to send a message to the electorate? And no sign of the BJP anywhere. Surely, only the best astrologer can explain the message the strange coincidences were trying to send out. But the most amazing omen was the sight of a mandir carrying Congress flags. In a manner of speaking it was territorial aggression on the BJP’s political turf. For the astute it was a sign of the near absence of Muslim votes in this constituency. Otherwise the Congress would not have taken the risk of diluting its secular credentials by using a religious place for political propaganda. As we turned into the road leading to Bulandshahr we found ourselves surrounded by Bhatis. We had heard about the famous Bhati Gate of Lahore. Were these Bhati candidates contesting the Assembly elections on the Congress, Samajwadi, Indian National Lok Dal, Bahujan Samaj and independent tickets by any chance Punjabi migrants settled in Khurja district of UP? The mystery of the Bhati candidates was busted at a roadside tea shop. Munni Singh, the voluble owner of the tea shop, gave us an instant lesson on the Gujjars and their 304 gotras. Bhati (pronounced bhaatea) was one of
them. He was not quite prepared to accept the thesis that the Bhatis would cancel out the Bhatis and the contest for the Dadri-Noida Vidhan Sabha seat would narrow down to Raghuraj Singh of the Congress and Naresh Nagar of the BJP. “You never know. The Nagars may not vote for the candidate of their own gotra”. We gave up counting the number of Bhati candidates as we neared Bulandshahr. But what was
intriguing was the poor political visibility of the BJP in this belt. |
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50 candidates booked in UP Gorakhpur, February 11 The order was passed yesterday by the Gorakhpur District Magistrate and District Returning Officer, Mahesh Kumar Gupta. An official press note issued by the Chief Treasury Officer and In Charge (Expenditure), Mr R.P. Singh, said 50 candidates had defied the directives of Election Commission to submit the expenditure reports. |
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Ball
now in govt’s court: VHP New Delhi, February 11 “Our plan will remain unchanged. It is for the government to think about the consequences — good or bad,” Convener of VHP’s Mandir Nirman Samiti Rajendra Singh Pankaj said. Mr Pankaj said 22 truckloads of building material, including mixture and iron, were already lying in the acquired land and that the government, including NDA Convener George Fernandes, should convince the coalition partners as also Opposition parties of the “ground realities” and prepare them to allow construction of the Ram temple. The VHP leader also criticised the Congress for opposing the temple construction. “It is regrettable that the Congress, whose Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had facilitated the worship at the disputed site and whose other Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had enabled ‘shilanyas’ at the site, was today opposing the construction,” he said. The VHP had early this month demanded that the government should hand over to them immediately the 67 acres of “undisputed” land around the site in Ayodhya. They had also given a memorandum in this regard to the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the latter had sought the opinion of the Law Minister. Meanwhile, taking strong exception to the VHP’s move to start construction of the Ram Temple from March 15, All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat President Shahabuddin today urged the Prime Minister to place the acquired land in Ayodhya under the control of the Army and ban the entry of karsevaks in the city. In a letter to Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr Shahabuddin also demanded that all carved pillars the VHP planned to shift to the site for the construction be seized by the government as the beginning of the construction work would amount to “violation of the law and the contempt of Supreme Court.” The government should also tell the karsevaks that firing would be resorted to if a forced entry was attempted at the site and they would be prosecuted for breaking the law, Mr Shahabuddin added. The VHP has decided to organise a yajna in the capital from February 13 to 21 to appease the Gods to “remove all hurdles’’ in the way of the construction of the Ram Temple. |
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Include Urdu in
syllabi: Sonia New Delhi, February 11 “The situation must be addressed with a sense of urgency. While the minorities had a valuable right to set up religious institutions for religious education, it would be unfair to equate Urdu with Islam alone”, Ms Gandhi said while speaking at a conference on “Minorities, education, language in 21st century Indian democracy”, here. Accusing the government of seeking to undermine the secular character of the country, Ms Gandhi pointed out that the teaching of Urdu had been confined to madarsas only because it was not included in the mainstream school curricula. |
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Charges framed against Pinto New Delhi, February 11 Special Judge M.L. Sahni charged Pinto with criminal conspiracy (Section-120B of the IPC) and a criminal breach of trust (Section-409 of the IPC) for his alleged role in the “fraudulent” deal with Turkish firm Karsan for the supply of 2 lakh tonnes of urea to National Fertilisers Limited (NFL) in 1995.
PTI |
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HC reserves order on
Archies’ plea New Delhi, February 11 Strongly refuting the allegations by Archies’ that the Shiv Sena has held threat against it, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar appearing for Mr Thackeray and the party said the company “Is trying to promote its commercial interest in the garb of the petition.”
PTI |
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