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Wednesday,
August 7, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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BJP ready for battle of political brinkmanship Naik must quit, insists Oppn CPM: PM’s decision to hoodwink nation
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VHP announces nationwide protest Immigration set-up to be reviewed Gujarat minister Pandya quits Kant’s ashes immersed
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Vaiko to fight case himself Cancel allotments since 1983: BJP Woman commits ‘sati’ in MP Ex-judge acquitted
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BJP ready for battle of political brinkmanship New Delhi, August 6 It appears certain that the Opposition will continue to disrupt the proceedings of Parliament this week before settling for a full-fledged discussion on the petrol stations scam and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s decision to cancel the controversial allotments. BJP strategists are candid in admitting that the Opposition has indeed got the stick to beat the government with and capitalise on the situation. They believe that Mr Vajpayee’s snap decision yesterday to scrap the allotments in one stroke has considerably retrieved matters as it is consistent with widespread public opinion. The Opposition sees in the scam a tremendous opportunity to gain political mileage, especially with the Assembly elections round the corner in Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat. The Congress, the left and other Opposition parties intend keeping up the pressure on the BJP-led NDA government to see the back of Mr Naik, while the central leadership will forcefully reject the demand. It could well be a replay of Narendra Modi continuing as Chief Minister of Gujarat, despite the poor handling of the Godhra carnage in February and subsequent communal violence in the state. "The question of Mr Naik’s resignation does not arise as he is not at fault. Besides, the Prime Minister has sought to end the controversy by cancelling the allotment en bloc since January 2000," highly placed sources observed. "Mr Vajpayee had cancelled the allotments to effectively end any public perception gaining ground that petrol stations were being cornered by the Sangh Parivar. If the stage is now set for political gamesmanship.., so be it. The Vajpayee government is not going to be cowed by pressures from any quarter," the sources added. They had no doubt that it is only a question of time before the Opposition returns to Parliament to transact business and discuss issues of urgent national importance as disrupting the proceedings of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha indefinitely will only show them in poor light. At the same time, doubts have been raised in certain quarters about the efficacy of the Prime Minister’s decision to cancel the allotment of petrol stations. In this context, the Opposition leaders urged Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi that a legislation be brought forward in Parliament to give effect to Mr Vajpayee’s cancellation order. Meanwhile, leaders of various political parties in the Rajya Sabha issued a joint statement that the cancellation of more than 3,000 allotments made after January 2000 by the Prime Minister was nothing but a "pathetic attempt at a cover up." The statement said the entire Opposition demanded unequivocally that the whole matter be probed by a commission of inquiry headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court aided by agencies like the CBI." "To facilitate such an inquiry, the resignation of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister and others involved is absolutely necessary along with the seizure of all relevant records that may be required for investigation. Also, illegally acquired properties should be seized forthwith." The Opposition parties said the present impasse in Parliament could be resolved if the Prime Minister announced the resignation of his Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister and setting up of a commission of inquiry without further delay. The signatories to the joint statement are: Mr Manmohan Singh, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Mr Kapil Sibal, Ms Ambika Soni, Mr Suresh Pachauri and Mr Mool Chand Meena (all Cong), Mr S. Ramachandran Pillai and Mr Nilotpal Basu (both CPI-M), Mr Prem Chand Gupta and Mr Ram Deo Bhandari (both RJD), Mr Debabrata Biswas (AIFB), MP Abdusamad Samadani (Muslim League), Mr Manoj Bhattacharya (RSP), Mr J. Chittaranjan (CPI), Mr R.S. Gavai (RSP), and Mr Ram Gopal Yadav (SP). |
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Naik must quit, insists Oppn New Delhi, August 6 As soon as Parliament assembled, opposition members in both Houses were on their feet, shouting anti-government slogans like “gali, gali mein shor hai, BJP chor hai (there is noise in every street that BJP is a thief)” and “we want resignation” of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister. Congress and Samajwadi Party members in the Lok Sabha stormed the well after Speaker Manohar Joshi disallowed a notice for suspension of question hour moved by Congress chief whip P.R. Dasmunshi. Ruling benches strongly opposed the attempt by opposition members to stall question hour, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan making the government’s stand clear that there was no question of yielding to Mr Dasmunshi’s demand. Amidst pandemonium, treasury benches countered the Opposition’s sloganeering, shouting “we want question hour”. Mr Joshi attempted to begin question hour, by asking BJP member Kirit Somaiya to put his query to Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie, but as the uproar continued, he adjourned the House for the day barely 10 minutes after it met. In the Rajya Sabha, as soon as Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptullah began the proceedings, Congress and other opposition members were on their feet, accusing Mr Naik of allotting pumps to relatives and associates of BJP leaders. The minister was present in the House. While Congress members raised slogans of “gali gali mein shor hai, BJP chor hai”, BJP members sought to turn the tables by shouting “bhrashtachari Congress sharam karo sharam karo (corrupt Congress, have shame)” and “doob maro doob maro (drown yourself)”. A Congress member was also seen waving a bunch of papers. Ms Heptullah’s appeals to the members to maintain calm went unheeded. Sensing the mood, the Deputy Chairperson adjourned the House for the day within three minutes after it assembled. The sloganeering and counter-sloganeering continued even after the House was adjourned. Both Houses witnessed similar scenes yesterday on the petrol station allocation issue, leading to their adjournment for the day. |
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CPM: PM’s decision to hoodwink nation New Delhi, August 6 “The Prime Minister cannot take any decision (on cancellation of allotments) which is not warranted by the law, or else there will be a lot of litigation with the affected parties going to court,” CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee told reporters here today. The Prime Minister’s decision was merely meant for public consumption, he felt. Demanding legislative sanction for the cancellation order, Mr Chatterjee said without such sanction, the cancellation would be subject to scrutiny by the court. He referred in this context to the reported statement of the Prime Minister’s niece in an interview to a TV channel threatening to go to court against the cancellation. The CPM leader maintained that the decision to cancel the allotments was the BJP’s decision as the meeting at which it was taken was attended by party functionaries. He also blamed the Prime Minister for not making a statement in Parliament in this regard and for not consulting the opposition parties. “The Prime Minister was conspicious by his absence”, he pointed out. Blaming Mr Naik for this scam and demanding his resignation, Mr Chatterjee said without his complicity, nothing would have been possible. He (Mr Naik) had selected retired judges as chairmen of the Dealership Selection Boards (DSBs), the senior CPM leader said, describing the appointment of judges as another subterfuge to hoodwink the people. A part of the judiciary was “wrongfully” utilised just to give benefit to the ruling party members, he alleged. |
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VHP announces nationwide protest New Delhi, August 6 “It is an attack on India’s sovereignty at the behest of Pakistan. It is most unfortunate and we cannot rule out a reaction to it in any part of the country,” VHP Central Secretary in charge of Bajrang Dal Surendra Jain told reporters here. “We appeal to the government to stop its diplomatic efforts to check Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. We cannot count any more corpses. We should give a befitting response and destroy the terrorist training camps in PoK,” Mr Jain said. Alleging that the base camp near Pahalgam had been set up at an insecure and vulnerable spot where terrorist strikes had taken place earlier, he announced two-day countrywide protests beginning August 8, which would include demonstrations in all state capitals and submission of a memorandum to the President. He announced that from next year, a VHP team would inspect the security set-up and bring to the notice of the authorities any weak points. Over 51,000 activists of the Bajrang Dal would be deployed along the pilgrimage route to prevent any untoward incident.”We will no more tolerate any such attacks,” he said Earlier in the day, VHP Senior Vice-President Acharya Giriraj Kishore demanded the dismissal of the Farooq Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir.
PTI |
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Immigration set-up to be reviewed New Delhi, August 6 This move comes in the wake of the issuance of a notice to the ministry by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in connection with a case of an NRI being denied entry into the country to attend his father’s funeral, despite having a valid passport and visa. The NHRC, which had taken cognizance of a complaint of Mr K.T. Skaria, US citizen of Indian origin, who was denied entry into the country to attend his father’s funeral, had also issued a notice to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). On perusal of the MEA report, the NHRC learnt that it was obvious that due to “insensitivity and callousness of the immigration officers, the complainant had to suffer great mental agony, indignity and financial loss”. The NHRC then issued show-cause notices to MEA and to the officers who belonged to the Home Ministry. Subsequently, the ministry directed the transfer of guilty officials and a comprehensive review of immigration procedures. |
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Gujarat minister Pandya quits Gandhinagar, August 6 Talking to the media, here Mr Pandya said he submitted his one-line resignation to the Chief Minister at 15.30 hours. Asked about the reason behind the move, he said he did not “want the entire Bharatiya Janata Party to be dragged into unnecessary controversy because of the wrongful insistence of one man”. He, however, did not name the person. Apparently, he was referring to Mr Modi with whom he has not been having the best of relations since early this year. Mr Pandya also ruled out withdrawing his resignation, saying he was “not like the other person who had done so at Goa”, again making an indirect reference to Mr Modi who had announced his resignation in April at the BJP’s National Executive meeting at Goa but remained in the post after the party rejected the move.
UNI |
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Kant’s ashes immersed
in Ganga Hardwar, August 6 At a tearful ceremony amid chanting of Vedic hymns, Rashmi Kant, Sushant Kant, Divya and Deepti immersed the ashes of their father in the Ganga at Har Ki Pauri. A condolence meeting in memory of the departed leader was also held in which Uttaranchal Governor S.S. Barnala and Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari took part. The Uttaranchal police also gave a guard of honour and held a mourning parade.
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Vaiko to fight case himself Vellore, August 6 Talking to newspersons after meeting Mr Vaiko at the prison, he denied speculation that former Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley would take up his (Mr Vaiko’s) case. Being a law graduate, Mr Vaiko would argue his case successfully and come out, he hoped. Mr Vaiko reiterated that he would not come out on bail, he added. Mr Ganesan said he met Mr Vaiko in his capacity as the party presidium Chairman.
UNI |
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Cancel allotments since 1983: BJP New Delhi, August 6 A BJP Parliamentary Party meeting, held today under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, termed yesterday’s decision to cancel all such allotments made since 2000 as “historic” saying that it would definitely restrain the “petrol-pump-LPG” politics. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani. |
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Woman commits ‘sati’ in MP Bhopal, August 6 Police sources said here that Mallu Nai died early today at Tamoli Patna village, 70 km from the district headquarters of Panna, after prolonged illness. Two policemen from Saleha, 8 km from the incident site, rushed to the place when they came to know that Mallu’s wife Kuttu Bai was going to commit ‘sati’ and tried to save the woman. But they came under a stone attack by the villagers, police sources said. Kuttu Bai’s two grown-up sons did not try to prevent their mother from sitting on their father’s funeral pyre, the police said. The village was now deserted and further information about the incident would be known only after they return to it, the police said adding a group of senior police officials had rushed to Tamoli Patna.
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Ex-judge acquitted Mumbai, August 6 The verdict was delivered by designated judge Abhay Thipsay, who ordered the police to release J.W. Singh immediately. J.W. Singh, booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) and the IPC, was arrested on March 20, 2000. The police had alleged that the judge had hired Pakistan-based Chhota Shakeel to recover his deposit to the tune of Rs 40 lakh from a chit fund operator Sardar Singh Abrol.
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