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Wednesday,
May 28,
2003, Chandigarh, India  
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BJP rally today to woo Muslims Ajit Singh’s MLAs ‘hiding’ in Bhopal Terrorism biggest threat to democracy:
Joshi
A rare anti-WTO voice in the
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CCS briefed on ‘Op Sarp Vinash’ George to attend security
conference CPM for uniform reservation
policy Naidu rules out snap poll, flays Cong
Sonia flags off relief trucks Cong CMs’ meeting in Srinagar from May
30 Chinmayanand’s limits for
tridents Skeleton from Raja Bhaiyya’s pond identified
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BJP rally today to woo Muslims New Delhi, May 27 The rally, first in a series, promises to be a big event in the state as top BJP state leaders — Mr Rajnath Singh, Mr Vinay Katiyar, Mr Kalraj Mishra and Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi — and cine star and Union Minister Shatrughan Sinha will be present along with party President M. Venkaiah Naidu. According to party sources, the rally has been organised to placate the minority community as well as to demonstrate that the BJP has not lost out on Muslim support. Rampur, from where BJP general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had won in 1998, has more than 50 per cent of its electorate from the minority community. Ever since the Godhra massacre and the subsequent anti-minority riots in Gujarat, BJP leaders are mulling over the issue of preventing an aggressive minority vote against the party even if the minority does not vote in favour of the party. With the Lok Sabha elections due next year — the minorities vote plays a deciding role in many constituencies in Uttar Pradesh — tomorrow’s rally is a virtual attempt by the BJP to send a message that it is not treating the minorities as untouchables and that it is keen on a reconciliation after Godhra. The calculation within the BJP is that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s goodwill gesture towards Pakistan and the BJP-led government’s tough stand on the US-led war on Iraq may strike the right chord with the minorities. However, at a personal level, the success of tomorrow’s rally will be important for Mr Naqvi to prove his own claim that he is no longer a decorative Muslim BJP leader. An impressive turnout from the minority community will help Mr Naqvi to enhance his stature as a politician with a mass base and also his stature within the party. |
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Ajit Singh’s MLAs ‘hiding’ in Bhopal Bhopal, May 27 The deployment of police in unusual strength gave them away and soon mediapersons, both from the print and the electronic media, were there. MLAs of the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), however, refused to come out or meet the media. Only Mr Babulal Chaudhary, who was Minister of Alternative Energy Sources in the Mayawati government, along with the MLA from Muzaffarpur, Mr Virendra Singh, came out briefly to tell the mediapersons that they had come to Bhopal on a sightseeing tour on their own and that they had been to Sanchi yesterday. There are said to be 11 legislators of the RLD —10 MLAs and one member of the Legislative Council— at the hotel. In view of the proximity of the hotel owner with the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Digvijay Singh, the latter’s active interest in extending hospitality to the RLD legislators to keep them away from “poachers” in Uttar Pradesh cannot be ruled out. Mr Digvijay Singh had extended similar hospitality to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLAs of Maharashtra last year and the Shankarsinh Vaghela-led Gujarat BJP MLAs a few years earlier. |
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Terrorism biggest threat to democracy:
Joshi New Delhi, May 27 “Athough many challenges confront our parliamentary democracy, the biggest threat to our system, rather the world as a whole, comes from the forces of terrorism,” Mr Joshi, who is currently leading a 12-member parliamentary delegation to Portugal, said while speaking on “Indian Experience of Parliamentary Democracy” at the prestigious Orient Institute of the Technical University in Lisbon, according to a press note issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat here today. “The terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 was indeed an attack on the very foundations of parliamentary democracy. It is a tribute to our parliamentary democracy and a recognition of its resilience that the evil designs of the terrorists and their collaborators could be defeated,” he felt. Mr Joshi asserted that threat to peace anywhere in the world was a threat to peace everywhere and as such, the global community had to unitedly fight terrorists and their collaborators. The Lok Sabha Speaker highlighted the varied achievements of the Indian Parliament during the past five decades and enumerated various measures taken to consolidate democracy in the country. |
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A rare anti-WTO voice in the govt New Delhi, May 27 HRD and Science and Technology Minister Murli Manohar Joshi passionately dismisses talk of economic sustainability as bogus if not based on ecological principles, environmental realities, free trading in the literal sense of the word, and local socio-economic conditions. He counters as a “standing joke’’ the WTO’s concept of perpetual economic growth and expresses his worries over the future well-being of the earth. “In the globalised world, 20 per cent of the world’s richest people account for 86 per cent of the total private consumption expenditure while the poorest 20 per cent consume only 1.3 per cent,’’ the minister told UNI yesterday. With statistics on his fingertips, Dr Joshi regretted what he called consumption disparities in the globalised world, especially in India. “The richest fifth consume 45 per cent of all meat and fish and the poorest fifth just 5 per cent. In energy consumption, you see, the richest fifth have the lion’s share of 58 per cent while the poorest fifth are left with less than 4 per cent.’’ Sustainable consumption, Dr Joshi said, was the need of the hour as he wondered whether the present world model of international economic order was capable of providing any solution to complex global problems. To support his stand against the WTO regime, the minister pulled out Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz’s celebrated book ‘’Globalisation and its Discontents’’. “You see, the writer, an acclaimed economist, tells his readers that the West acting through the IMF and the WTO has seriously mismanaged the process of privatisation, liberalisation and stabilisation, and that by following its advice many Third World countries and former Communist states are actually worse off now than they were before,’’ the minister said. “But I believe globalisation is designed to be managed the way it is being managed.’’ The minister blamed today’s economic disparities on what he called a mechanistic worldview, saying the western world derived its affluence from a ‘’techno-economic system based on the Cartesian-Newtonian reductionist approach’’. This system, Dr Joshi said, was capital and energy intensive and in order to survive in competition, it required cheap labour, raw material and huge markets. “The basic concept that it was possible to have unlimited with on a limited planet was itself unsustainable. Therefore, it’s not the mismanagement of globalisation but the worldview behind it, which is responsible for the discontents.’’ Globalisation in its present form did go wrong somewhere, depleting resources and polluting environment, Dr Joshi observed. Big spendings generated excessive lifestyle, but now there is a need for a fundamental change in public opinion, he remarked. The minister said an alternative economic model — different from both socialism and capitalism — must be evolved in order to achieve ‘’real sustainability’’.
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CCS briefed on ‘Op Sarp Vinash’ New Delhi, May 27 A stunning disclosure made during the operation is that the militants were probably learning the ropes about chemical warfare. "Damning evidence" in the shape of diaries, registers and written notes detailing the preparation of highly lethal chemicals using local material has been found. The militants were also keeping details of their "experiments" like how much dosage of a chemical would be enough to kill a human being, a pig or a rabbit. The information gleaned from the Hilkaka region during the operation is explosive and reveals how seriously and fast Pakistan-aided militants are going down the road of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). The operation indicates that though the militants may or may not possess the WMDs right now, they have already started working in this direction. The importance of "Operation Sarp Vinash" can be gauged from the fact that the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was extensively briefed about it yesterday by the Army Chief, Gen N.C. Vij. The CCS had yesterday been given a briefing by military commanders in the War Room for one and a half hours and this was followed by a two-hour-long meeting of the CCS wherein the latest ground situation in Jammu and Kashmir and operational matters were discussed. Well-placed sources here told The Tribune this information had come at a time when the Prime Minister was about to meet a number of world leaders during his three-nation Europe tour already underway and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani was to visit the USA (from June 8) on the invitation of Vice-`President Dick Cheney. The Vajpayee government is going to share this information with its "friends" in the international community to demonstrate how Pakistan is relentlessly continuing with its terrorist activities against India while maintaining the facade of its wish to normalise relations with New Delhi, the sources said. Indian intelligence agencies are understood to be working vigorously on the leads, codes and other information thrown up during the ongoing "Operation Sarp Vinash". The sources said the operation was going to be intensified further in the coming days. Asked if the military operation had broken the back of militants in Kashmir, a key official in the Vajpayee government replied in the negative. "It’s like a beehive. You attack a beehive but only a few bees get killed. The rest disperse, regroup and build a new beehive at another place," the official remarked. More than 300 militants of over a dozen ‘tanzeems’ had been operating in the Hilkaka region of Surankote since 1998. Whenever police posts were set up in the region during summer — the area was deserted during winter — these used to come under heavy fire.
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George to attend security
conference New Delhi, May 27 Defence Minister George Fernandes is to leave here on Thursday to attend the meeting. During his three-day stay in Singapore, Mr Fernandes will also call on Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Defence Minister Tony Tan. This is the second such conference. The first one was also held in Singapore last year. Organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the event is the only inter-governmental forum in Asia focusing on defence and security-related issues. |
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CPM for uniform reservation
policy New Delhi, May 27 Asked to comment on the issue, Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet said “no one is principally opposed to providing quota in government jobs to the economically backward among upper castes, but there should be a clear-cut and uniform policy on the issue.” Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has already assured his party chief M. Venkaiah Naidu that a commission to study and recommend reservation for the economically backward classes would be set up soon. The ruling party is very confident that the Congress now would not be able to exploit the issue in its favour during the coming Assembly elections. On the setting up of a commission to study the viability of providing quota in government jobs to the economically backward among upper castes, the CPM leader said “it should be preceded by brainstorming sessions on the issue. Expressing doubts over the two parties intentions, Mr Surjeet asked “why did they not
debate it earlier?”. The veteran CPM said that “the whole exercise
is politically motivated.” |
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Naidu rules out snap poll, flays Cong Tirupati, May 27 In his three-hour inaugural address at the party’s annual convention ‘Mahanadu’ here today, Mr Naidu said the Congress was trying to stall developmental works taken up by the TDP and adopting double standards by taking up contrasting stands in states where it was ruling and in states where it was in opposition. “The Congress has been trying to politicise and gain political mileage from everything, including the drought, expecting early poll but there would be no snap poll.”
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2 killed, 14 hurt in Jharkhand bandh Ranchi, May 27 Home Secretary J.B. Tubid said one person was killed when the police exchanged fire with the bandh supporters near Ranchi College, while another was killed at Hundul in Namkum, near here. The bandh was also in protest against the controversial teachers’ recruitment test today. Mr Tubid said trouble broke out at Hundul when the bandh supporters attacked police personnel and tried to disrupt the examination. One person received bullet wounds in the exchange of several rounds of fire between the police and the protesters. He succumbed to injuries in a hospital. At Ranchi College, Mr Tubid said that some bandh supporters opened fire on the police after the completion of the examination. A boy was killed in the return of fire.
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Advani confident of rivers’
inter-linking New Delhi, May 27 Stating that the Task Force Chairman Suresh Prabhu had told him that positive signs had emerged after preliminary discussions with experts over the feasibility of the project, Mr Advani said, “He is confident that the project is feasible and is dedicatedly working in this direction.” The Deputy Prime Minister said this while flagging off volunteers of the Nehru Yuvak Kendra to Leh in Jammu and Kashmir for the annual Sindhu Darshan festival. “The country will benefit immensely once the networking of rivers is completed,” he said. Mr Advani said the government, which wanted a solution to the problem of frequent droughts and floods, had hit upon the idea of linking of rivers on the basis of a theory of K.L. Rao, a minister in the Jawaharlal Nehru government, who had proposed linking of Ganga and Cauvery. |
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Sonia flags off relief trucks New Delhi, May 27 The wheat was collected by the Indian Youth Congress in its month-long door-to-door campaign touching several thousand households in the states of Punjab and Haryana. Ms Gandhi commended the Youth Congress for undertaking relief mobilisation efforts on a wide scale to mitigate the sufferings of people in the drought-affected Rajasthan. She told the youth leaders that ‘seva’ and ‘sadbhav’ reflected the core of India’s traditions. Indian Youth Congress president Randeep Singh Surjewala said the IYC had earlier sent 9,00,000 kg of wheat in 100 truckloads for the riot-affected areas of Gujarat and border displaced persons of Jammu. The IYC had sent nearly 15,000 quintals of relief material for the quake-affected people in Gujarat. Mr Surjewala accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of playing politics in granting aid to Rajasthan. It had been reported in the past that many areas of Rajasthan are in the grip of draught It is for this reason that the Congress has come to their aid.
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Cong CMs’ meeting in Srinagar from May
30 New Delhi, May 27 Since the meeting is likely to be the last such meeting before the elections, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi are likely to be asked about the implementation of party manifestos and the election issues. Though the party leadership is keen not to make the Srinagar conclave look like a preparatory meeting for the elections, issues relating to the ensuing poll are likely to dominate the sessions. Among them is the issue of reservation for “economically backward sections’’ which is seen by the Congress and the BJP as having a lot of potential in an election year. While the Congress evolved a “Guwahati Resolve” at its Chief Ministers’ meeting in April last year, the last Chief Ministers’ meeting in Mount Abu reviewed the implementation of the Guwahati Resolve which is now the mantra for the Congress-ruled states. Unlike the Mount Abu conclave, no outside experts are being called for interaction in Srinagar. The meeting, which is as much a show of strength for the Congress leadership as it is a forum for interaction among the party’s “field captains,’’ will begin with an inaugural address by Congress President Sonia Gandhi. A structured agenda has been prepared for the meeting at which the Chief Ministers will present reports about the steps taken to implement the Guwahati Resolve. Besides the party general sceretaries, some CWC members will also attend the meeting. The two-day meeting will be followed by a Congress rally in Baramula on June 1. |
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Chinmayanand’s limits for
tridents New Delhi, May 27 “So long as it (trident) is used within religious limits, it is all right. But once it crosses the limits, we shall do what the Constitution says,” Mr Chinmayanand told newspersons after assuming office at North Block here. The Union Minister had a dig at the Rashtriya Janata Dal, led by Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, saying that while tridents were a part of a religion and swords were associated with a particular caste, lathis did not enjoy any such status. The minister said “VHP is a social and cultural organisation towards which my responsibility will remain as before. But, maintaining the decorum of my ministry will be paramount”. |
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Skeleton from Raja Bhaiyya’s pond identified Pratapgarh, UP, May 27 Mr Pandey said Firoz had gone for fishing on October 9, 2000, in the pond and was untraceable since then. His wife lodged a case against three persons alleging kidnap and murder. Following the non-recovery of Firoz’s body, the police finally filed a charge sheet on January 10, 2001. Now that the skeleton has been identified, the police has registered a case against the jailed MLA, his father Udai Pratap Singh and his MLC cousin Akshyay Pratap Singh, accusing the trio of involvement in the murder and conspiring to conceal the body.
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