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Monday,
July 21, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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BJP flays Reddy’s comment on PM Raipur Notes
NCP to
contest 50 seats in MP Assembly poll News Analysis Rabri owes 17 lakh for tea, snacks |
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Zaheera was not threatened to
lie: sister-in-law Siachen problem ‘could have been avoided’
Bachchan admits to frosty ties with Gandhis New Delhi, July 20 Admitting that there is a “gap” in his relationship with the Gandhi family, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan said today he did not believe the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had made money in the controversial Bofors arms deal.
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Priyanka, Rahul to campaign Raipur, July 20 Talking to newspersons informally last evening at his official residence, Mr Jogi said Ms Vadra and Mr Gandhi would be campaigning for the party but not for the coming Assembly elections. Stating that the duo should not be used prematurely, Mr Jogi said the Congress would win the Lok Sabha elections. Asked as why the Congress had announced Mrs Sonia Gandhi as the Prime ministerial candidate of an alliance which was yet to be formed, the Chief Minister said the Congress did not want to keep anyone guessing. Regarding Congress chances in Chhattisgarh, Mr Jogi said “we shall win hands down” and the BJP would not be able to make an impact. Asked what is going to be the main issue in the coming Assembly elections, Mr Jogi said, “I am the issue. It is me versus the BJP”. The BJP has not been able to find a chief ministerial candidate
against me, he said. Apart from creating a social base, the state has been able to attract investments of about 60,000 crore, he said. |
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BJP flays Reddy’s comment on PM Raipur, July 20 In a written statement in Hindi, BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan said here that Mr Reddys’s description of Mr Vajpayee as “an aging octogenarian” was “not only objectionable but it was reflective of the Congress’ uncivilised and perverted culture”. Mr Mahajan said that the Indian culture
taught us to respect elders’ age, experience, knowledge and contribution to the nation. It seemed that the Congress had not only adopted an
inexperienced foreign leader but had also abandoned the Indian culture, Mr Mahajan said. The BJP had decided to make Ms Sonia Gandhi a major election issue for not only coming Assembly elections but would also like to turn the Lok Sabha into Vajpayee versus Sonia election. |
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Reddy reminds BJP leaders of sanyas tradition New Delhi, July 20 “We do respect elderly people. But in the Indian tradition senior people after a certain age take sanyas. I would like to remind BJP leader Pramod Mahajan of this important part of India’s glorious tradition,” Congress chief spokesman S. Jaipal Reddy told reporters here. Mr Reddy’s response came hours after Mr Mahajan had told mediapersons in Raipur that the Congress criticism of Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s competence because of his age reflected the “uncivilised and perverse culture” of the Opposition party. Mr Reddy had yesterday questioned “ageing octogenarian” Vajpayee’s competence to lead the nation saying that he needed more rest because of his “advancing years and health”. |
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Seat adjustment with BJP likely Raipur, July 20 Talking to newspersons, Mr Shukla, who recently defected from the Congress to the NCP, said he had a meeting with Prime Minister Vajpayee and discussed with him the political situation in the state.
— TNS |
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Raipur Notes Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s speech yesterday at the three-day National Executive meeting here came under censor as the party’s media managers decided to underplay rather black out his harsh comments on the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Mr Vajpayee spoke around 5 pm at Hotel Babylon where the Executive was meeting and then left for Delhi along with Health Minister Sushma Swaraj and Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh. General Secretary Pramod Mahajan had promised that the Prime Minister’s speech copy would be made available to the media by 7 pm. But then the mediapersons had to wait for long as abridged excerpts of Mr Vajpayee’s address were made available at the media centre only around 8.30 pm. Media managers apologised for the delay but then the real story started filtering as enterprising scribes had managed to get the real substance of his speech. While the Prime Minister had expressed his displeasure rather disapproval of the VHP’s comments, the media managers decided not to use it. Mr Vajpayee had in fact said “VHP anavayashak dosharopan karke vatavaran dushit karta hai (the VHP by unnecessarily blaming spoils the atmosphere”, but the handout given to the media omitted the VHP from it and merely said “lekin anavyashak dosharopan se vatavaran dushit hota hai (But unnecessary blaming spoils the atmosphere”. Not only that the media manager, who always give handouts in English as well, chose to give abridged excerpts only in Hindi. Wily Jogi meets mediapersons Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi’s media management is causing lots of worry to the Opposition parties as it became evident ast evening. Mr Jogi’s Public Relations establishment was put in the top gear as mediapersons, who came here to cover the BJP meeting, received invitations from the Chief Minister for dinner at his official residence. In an informal chat, Mr Jogi gave his personal assessment on the political situation in the state and the country. Mr Jogi’s spouse and son were present talking to mediapersons and ensured that guests were looked after well. At the same time, the BJP media managers avoided all contacts with the newspersons. They were seen only during official briefings. While earlier, the BJP used to permit newspersons to the venue but this time they were restricted to the hotel, where they, were made to stay.
Shukla’s invite goes unattended Where Mr Jogi succeeded, veteran Vidya Charan Shukla failed as his invitation for breakfast today went largely unattended. Mediapersons, who were sent personal invitation letter by Mr Shukla, disappointed the senior leader who recently joined the Nationalist Congress Party. Mr Shukla’s managers, who came to the hotel with a bus to take mediapersons for the breakfast meeting, went back with almost none going to the breakfast. |
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NCP to contest 50 seats in MP Assembly poll Bhopal, July 20 Talking to newspersons, Mr Pawar said his party might field around 40 or 50 candidates in the Assembly elections, mainly in the Malwa, Mahakaushal and Bundelkhand regions. Several old party friends were in touch with him, he said. The MP Assembly has 230 seats. Ms Parulekar has been openly critical of the Digvijay government after the 28,000-odd daily wage workers were sacked. The other issue on which she had been agitating against the state government is the “plight of the farmers”. She had once given a call to the farmers not to pay electricity bills as the government had failed to provide them electricity when they needed it most. She said, she was not likely to contest the Assembly elections on the Congress ticket as the Congress government had ignored the interests of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. Addressing the convention, Mr Pawar stressed the need to rid the State of ‘dalals’ and feudal elements. |
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News Analysis New Delhi, July 20 Though the Bofors issue brought electoral dividends to political parties, on the legal front, even the recording of evidence in the case against Hinduja brothers was yet to commence. And the prime accused Ottavio Quattarochhi, an Italian businessman, was still at large. The CBI had not yet closed the investigation into the case despite initiation of the court proceedings against the persons chargesheeted so far as the agency was still trying to find out the end beneficiary of the Rs 64-crore payoff. Even as the Supreme Court, in a recent judgement had upheld the legality of the CBI chargesheet against Europe-based Hinduja brothers —
Srichand, Gopichand and Prakashchand — whose trial had been separated from that of Quattarochhi and other accused, there was no hope for an early resumption of the trial proceedings against them as their two petitions challenging it, were still pending before the Delhi High Court. While the Indian agent of the company Win Chaddha and the former Union Defence Secretary, Mr S.K. Bhatnagar, named in the chargesheet, died in the interim period, the extradition proceedings against former chief executive officer of M/s AB Bofors, Martin Ardbo, failed as he had invoked the rights enjoyed by Swedish nationals from facing trial in other countries. In the first petition the brothers had raised a new ground for ‘delaying’ in initiating the legal proceedings against them for quashing of the chargesheet and in the second, framing of the charges by the Special Judge had been challenged contending that there was no evidence about their involvement in the alleged Rs 64-crore bribery scam relating to the purchase of Rs 1,437-crore Bofors gun. The CBI had suffered a major setback in its efforts to get Quattarochhi extradited from Malaysia as the highest court there accepted his plea that there was no charges against him in the case. The CBI investigators associated with the case, said that Quattarochhi had taken the advantage of the procedural difference between the criminal laws of the two countries as in India charges were framed by the trial court after hearing the pre-charge arguments by the prosecution as well as defence, while in Malaysia the charges were first framed and the arguments on their legal validity were established later by the court. Since charges against Quattarochhi had not yet been framed by the court as he had not even appeared before the trial judge after he was chargesheeted by the CBI in the first challan, filed in October 1999, the Malaysian court agreed with the arguments by his counsel and rejected the agency’s plea for his extradition. Following, this he had left for Italy after remaining in Malaysia for nearly five years as the Interpol had issued a red-corner alert against him after the CBI request for his arrest. Now the CBI had made a fresh request to the Interpol to locate him in Italy and had reportedly provided it with certain clues about his telephone numbers and stay in Rome. The CBI and Hinduja brothers were, on the other hand, accusing each other of ‘delaying’ the trial proceedings. While Hindujas’ counsel Ram Jethmalani had contended before the Delhi High Court that as per the Constitutional provision an accused was entitled to speedy trial, CBI counsel N. Natrajan had said that the delay was because of the
Hindujas, who had contested it at every stage since the scandal came to light in 1986. Hindujas’ challenge to filing of the chargesheet on the question of the prior sanction from the Central Vigilance Commission
(CVC), was also described by the CBI a delaying tactic. The Supreme Court, in its ruling recently, said there was no requirement for the CVC’s prior sanction for filing the
chargesheet. Since the Delhi High Court had accepted Hindujas’ plea in this regard and quashed the CBI
chargesheet, the apex court severely criticised the High Court for such an order and reversed its judgement. |
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Rabri owes 17 lakh for tea, snacks Patna, July 20 The secretariat canteen of the Labour Department has supplied tea, coffee and snacks worth Rs 15 lakh to One Anne Marg, official residence of the Chief Minister, and eatables worth Rs 2 lakh to the Chief Minister’s secretariat during the period. The matter was raised in the Legislative Council by BJP’s Giriraj Singh. In reply, Labour Minister Upendra Prasad Verma admitted that the government had not cleared the bills. Coming in strong defence of the Chief Minister, Mr Verma said here today that the matter was petty and the BJP leader Giriraj Singh raised the issue just to gain political mileage.
— PTI |
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Zaheera was not threatened to
lie: sister-in-law Vadodara, July 20 Yasmin Banu Sheikh (20), wife of the Best Bakery owner Nafitullah, said today Zaheera and her mother Sehrunissa were not threatened to lie during trial as claimed by them. “None of the 21 persons acquitted in the case were involved in the massacre. In fact the people staying in the area had saved them”. Yasmin alleged that since she was against mentioning of names of persons from the area by Zaheera and Sehrunissa, she was driven out of the house soon after the Best Bakery incident on March 1 last year in which 12 persons were burnt alive and two others went missing. Zaheera had urged for the reopening of the case outside Gujarat alleging that she was being threatened to lie in the court. Yasmin, who is in Chhotaudepur, 100km from here, said she was prepared to go to Delhi to meet the commission members in this regard.
— PTI |
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Siachen problem ‘could have been avoided’ New Delhi, July 20 “I feel very upset and consider myself guilty for not drawing the line across the Siachen glacier,” said General Sinha, who was the Secretary of the Indian delegation at the UN in 1948. “Had we continued beyond Point NJ 9842, Siachen might not have become the world’s highest battlefield,” he said. The Indian and Pakistani sides had drawn a line only upto point NJ 9842 in Ladakh division and left the Siachen glacier undemarcated. “We thought who would like to maintain troops at such a cold place,” he admitted. Going down memory lane, General Sinha, who was the commanding officer for troops movement from Delhi to Srinagar in 1947, said ,”We won several battles on the ground, but lost them on the table.”
— PTI |
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Shivraj Patil
meets anti-cow slaughter group New Delhi, July 20 According to a samiti spokesman, Mr Patil spoke to samiti chief Swami Madhvashramji Maharaj over telephone to exchange views on the issue. |
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Bachchan admits to frosty ties
with Gandhis New Delhi, July 20 Asked in an interview by prominent journalist Shekhar Gupta in “Walk-the-talk” programme for NDTV 24x7 why his relationship was frosty with the Gandhi family, with which he was very close at one point, Bachchan said “They live in Delhi. We are here (Mumbai). Our lives are different, our ways of communication are different obviously there is a gap”. He, however, went on to add, “I will never forget them and always remember them”. On the Bofors controversy, Bachchan said he could not say whether Rajiv Gandhi and his family had made money in the deal. “I cannot say. I have no evidence. I can only say what happened to me and what I thought”, he said, referring to his name also initially figuring in the scam. Pressed further if the Gandhi family would have made money in the arms deal, he said, “no... as far as we are concerned, we went to court”. “These were allegations against me and my family. We fought them”, Bachchan said. He said he never discussed the issue with Rajiv Gandhi. On whether he felt Rajiv Gandhi was not suitable for politics, the megastar said it would be wrong to say that as he had been brought up in a political family.
— PTI |
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Bachchan to relaunch film unit New Delhi, July 20 In an interview with Shekhar Gupta on NDTV's 24x7, Bachchan said Rakesh Mehra had been designated for the job of working on a production starring himself, son Abhishek and actress Preity Zinta. He said the unit would work on a commercial venture focussing on adventure. The megastar observed that the corporate cinema scene had undergone a tremendous change since the early days of the ABCL and added that there was better acceptance of such ventures.
— PTI |
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I’ll certainly play Ram in ‘Ramayana,’ says Salman Mumbai, July 20 “I think the catch-line ‘unfortunately a true love story’ has made people believe ‘Tere Naam’ is my own story. But there are no similarities. Everyone's asking me about it. It’s pissing me off big-time. ‘Tere Naam’ is a remake of a Telugu hit ‘Sethu’. Then why am I being asked this question?” Salman said. In spite of strict instructions against personal questions, some of the braver scribes venture into the Vivek Oberoi-Aishwarya Rai range of conversation. “That’s when I lose my cool,” Salman told IANS, his displeasure obvious. He also disputed media reports that he had decided to withdraw his plans to produce “Ramayana” and play the role of Ram. “Though not right away, since funds are a little short, but I’ll certainly play Ram. “It’s my dream to do so. Who can stop me? I want to make my film on a par with ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘Lady Hawke’ and ‘The Last of the Mohicans’.” But Salman dismisses reports that he has found locations in New Zealand to shoot the exile scenes. “It’s too early to scout for locations.” Salman wanted good friend Sanjay Leela
Bhansali, who's directing him in “Bajirao Mastani”, to direct “Ramayana”. “But since Sanjay is busy with two projects, I’ll look for someone else. But it will have to be someone with the vision to make ‘Ramayana’ contemporary and yet pure. The language has to be accessible to today's generation. Otherwise what’s the point of doing ‘Ramayana’ again?” Reacting to reports that the Khans were warned by fundamentalist groups against making the film, Salman said there were no threats. “And even if there were I’d like people to know my Mom is Hindu. So I’m as Hindu as the boy next door.” Speculations abound as to why Sooraj Barjatya didn’t sign the original Prem for his latest film “Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon”. Salman admits the role in the film demanded someone younger and he’s glad it went to someone whom he loves like a brother. But now Salman and Sooraj will be getting together again. Negative press doesn't seem to bother Salman. “I’ve been like this (media-wary) from the time I did ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’. The media couldn’t make me when I was struggling nor break me when I was successful. I’m paying a price for being a part of the film industry. And I don’t mind. Because I love the industry. “I won't change my profession for anything in the world. I guess negative pieces sell more than the positive ones”. As for Salman doing Deepa Mehta’s “Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam”, Salman says he’d rather back out of it and let Aishwarya Rai do the film. Aishwarya has been signed on to play the role of tragedy queen Meena Kumari in the original. “And if I've to do ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’ I’d rather play the ‘Sahib’, the husband (played by Rehman in Guru Dutt's film),” quipped Salman.
— IANS |
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MALAYSIAN PRINCE
ROBBED AT IMA AG STOPS SALARY OF BIHAR SP 15 CRORE SAPLINGS TO BE PLANTED CONGRESS LEADER SHOT DEAD |
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