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New Delhi, January 30 India and the UK today signed a major agreement, the first of its kind, on the return of Indian nationals who remain in that country without permission, and decided to set up an institutional framework for counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing.
Liberhan panel’s no to defer UP
argument
SC admits Zahira’s plea in Best Bakery
case
Leaders question new-look Cong
team
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BJP equates Gandhi with other freedom
fighters
Scribe quizzed in
Baijal is Union Home Secretary
Vandalised painting not mine, says Husain
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India, UK sign pact on return of illegal
immigrants
New Delhi, January 30 The agreement will enable Indian authorities to reduce delays in returning those who have destroyed their travel documents and were staying in the United Kingdom illegally or were staying in that country without
permission. “We have decided to set up an institutional framework for counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing, which will be formalised soon,” Deputy Prime Minister L.K Advani told mediapersons after signing the “Agreement on Returning Indian Immigration Offenders” with British Home Minister David Blunkett. “The signing of the agreement, the first of its kind to be signed by India with any country, is an indication of commitment to improved cooperation between our two countries on illegal immigration and in counter-terrorism operations,” Mr Blunkett
said. The British Minister said two sides had also agreed to “a joint meeting to explore the opportunities for further increasing cooperation on policing
issues.” To a question on funds being raised in the UK to finance terror groups, the British Home Minister said “immediate action would be taken against such activities if any information was passed on to
it.” Before signing the agreement, Mr Advani and Mr Blunkett held discussions on various issues of bilateral and international
interest. After signing the agreement, Mr Advani told mediapersons that “the decision to set up an intelligence-sharing mechanism will greatly help in speeding up our counter-terrorism
efforts.” Expressing gratitude over the cooperation India has been receiving from the UK on various issues, especially in counter-terrorism, Mr Advani said, “Our commitment to democracy makes us fight terrorism
jointly.” He said a large population of Indians, about 1.3 million, in the UK was contributing in a big way to that country’s development and strengthening relations between the two
countries. Mr Blunkett said his country would continue to welcome Indians travelling legitimately as visitors, students or on business, but would take swift action to remove those who violated immigration
rules. “India and the UK share a strong democratic tradition. Together we can rise to the challenges of finding new ways to guarantee the safety and freedom of our people. This means cooperation on tough law enforcement...,” the British Home Minister
said. “But equally important is giving our people a feeling of security in fostering understanding between countries and communities and engaging our citizens,” Mr Blunkett added. |
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Decision on Briton’s release soon, says Advani
New Delhi, January 30 “The British demand for the release of Bleach is being actively considered and this would be possible,” Deputy Prime Minister
L.K. Advani told mediapersons after a 30-minute meeting with British Home Minister David Blunkett here
today. “We have discussed the matter with the Law Ministry and they have also said this could be possible,” Mr Advani said, adding “one issue pending between the two countries is the British demand for the release of Bleach... we will finalise it
soon.” The others accused in the case are Kim Davy, alias Neil, Christian
Neilsen, Peter Haestrup and Brian Thune (all Danish), Alexander
Klichine, Igor Timmerman, Igor Moskvitine, Olag Gaidash and Evguenu Antimenko (all Latvians), and Benoy Singh. |
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Babri Masjid case New Delhi, January 30 Uttar Pradesh’s Advocate General Virendra Bhatia wanted adjournment till a petition by the then Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, challenging his summoning by the commission, was disposed of by the Delhi High
Court. Turning down Bhatia’s plea for adjournment, Mr Justice M.S Liberhan fixed February 25 as the date to consider UP Government’s written submissions as well as hearing of the arguments by counsel of the BJP, Deputy Prime Minister L.K Advani, Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma
Bharati. Bhatia wanted the adjournment on the ground that the State of UP would like to know the stand of Kalyan Singh first if he was called to depose as a witness before the panel. It was necessary because Kalyan Singh’s deposition would be relevant to the inquiry vis-a-vis his role as a Chief Minister because it would have far reaching
consequences. ‘‘It would be appropriate if the state government addresses the commission after the issues involved in the writ petition before the Delhi High Court regarding Kalyan Singh’s examination are decided and his statement is recorded by the panel,” Bhatia
said. Kalyan Singh’s evidence might change the course of the entire issue before the panel as his role in the case was very crucial, Bhatia said.
Kalyan Singh, who was earlier convicted by the Supreme Court and awarded a day’s sentence for failing to “disobey” its orders regarding security aspects in Ayodhya, issued prior to December 6, 1992, had been resisting his summoning by the commission and had moved the High Court against the orders. He also allowed the RSS, VHP and any other organisation to submit written arguments by February 25. |
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SC admits Zahira’s plea in Best Bakery
case
New Delhi, January 30 The appeal was admitted by a Bench of Mr Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat. It also issued notice to the Gujarat Government on a petition by an NGO fighting Zahira’s case, for expunging certain remarks against it by the High Court in its December 26 judgement. The High Court had upheld the trial judge’s June 27 judgement acquitting all accused on the ground that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against them.
Meanwhile, the state government assured another Bench, headed by Chief Justice Mr V.N. Khare, that the appeal by the prosecution in the Best Bakery case would be filed within two weeks after the court had sought a firm commitment about it from counsel Mukul Rohatagi. Zahira in her appeal alleged that like the trial court, the High Court had also failed to appreciate the fact that prosecution had not pursued the trial properly and the investigation in the case was defective.
After seeking assurance from Gujarat’s counsel about filing of the appeal, the Chief Justice’s Bench having Mr Justice S.B. Sinha and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia, also agreed to the request by the counsel for litigating parties, including Amicus Curiae Harish Salve, for hearing separately on February 16 the plea for vacating apex court stay on the Godhra train carnage trial.
The court, which had stayed trial in 10 major cases earlier, also directed Rohtagi to furnish within three weeks details about FIRs registered in the state besides telling in how many case the investigation was going on, the total number of cases in which chargesheets had been filed, number of cases in which bails had been granted to accused, how many cases had been closed and how many had resulted in acquittals, to Salve, who would then place these before the court on next hearing on February 27. |
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Leaders question new-look Cong
team
New Delhi, January 30 As it happens, the constitution of the party’s new election team as well as the panel of spokespersons has only resulted in heart-burning and unhappiness. Members are openly questioning the wisdom of including certain names while ignoring some of the more able and articulate
members. There is also dismay over the manner in which several leaders, who are to contest the coming Lok Sabha elections, have been given charge of large and crucial
states. For instance, Mr Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, who was recently inducted as special invitee to the CWC and given charge of Madhya Pradesh, is reported to have told party president Sonia Gandhi that he would not be able to do justice to his new job as he will be busy with his own election in West Bengal. He is learnt to have written to Ms Gandhi that she should appoint two more persons to assist him since Madhya Pradesh requires full-time
attention. In addition to the AICC reshufffle, the party set up a panel of senior party leaders who are to be additional spokespersons for different states while its media department is being strengthened by drafting more spokespersons. Mr Janardhan Diwedi, Ms Selja and Mr Sibtey Razi have been asked to assist the present panel of AICC
spokespersons. Mr Diwedi is learnt to have expressed his unhappiness over his inclusion in this panel and has asked the party leadership that his name be struck off the list. Mr Kapil Sibal, who has been named as the additional spokesperson for Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu has also declined to take on this responsibility on the plea that this is tantamount to a emotion as he was the party spokesperson during the last
election. “This party appears to have death wish. How can you choose people for the post of spokespersons on the basis of caste and religion,” remarked a senior Congress
leader. Although there was agreement that the list did include fresh deserving names, it was also felt it could do with some pruning. “What is most important in deciding on party spokespersons is good communication skills and there are many on this panel who do not possess these qualities,” remarked another senior Congress leader. Appointing spokespersons is not the same as appointing party general secretaries where caste and region are an important factor, it was
stated. In addition to Mr Sibal, the others in the list include Mr Abhishek Singhvi and Mr Mohan Prakash who are additional spokespersons for Gujarat and Rajasthan, Mr Anand Sharma will be incharge of MP, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, Ms Jayanti Natarajan for Karanataka and Kerala, Prabha Thakur for Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh,
Ashwani Kumar and Shambhu Srivastava for Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam and West Bengal and Suresh Pachouri for UP and Uttaranchal. |
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BJP equates Gandhi with other freedom
fighters
New Delhi, January 30 Addressing mediapersons, BJP spokesperson Vijay Kumar Malhotra condemned the walkout by the Opposition, which protested against Speaker Manohar Joshi’s “failure” to mention Mahatma Gandhi’s name while paying homage to freedom fighters on the Martyrs’
Day. “We condemn the Congress behaviour for walking out on the ruling by the Speaker and after all there have been thousands of freedom fighters and it is not possible to name all of them,” he
said. He also demanded a probe by the government into the alleged payment of bribes by former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the Congress, saying that it was a serious matter and the party “owed an explanation” to the
nation. “The current government in Iraq is probing oil bribes paid by the Saddam regime and the Congress party is also a beneficiary. We demand a probe by the government into this matter,” Mr Malhotra said adding that there were allegations that the Russian Communist Party, the Indian Congress Party and the Palestine Liberation Organisation were among the recipients of illegal oil from the deposed regime in return for their support under the Food-for-Oil Programme.
The Congress had yesterday rejected allegations that it had received foreign funding for its election purposes, saying that the charge was “baseless” and below the dignity of the party to react
on. In another development, a BJP delegation that met the full-Bench commission headed by Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh, requested that adequate security arrangements be made in states like Bihar for free and fair
elections. BJP General Secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the delegation pointed out that the law and order situation in some states was such that it created doubts about the holding of elections in a fair
manner. The BJP has been raising the issue of law and order situation in Bihar in view of recent killings of social workers, NHAI engineer Satyendra Dubey, attacks and harassment of rail passengers and a series of broad daylight kidnapping and rape. |
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Scuffle over garlanding Bapu’s statue
Kolkata, January
30 Bhattacharya told mediapersons that when he reached the Mayo road to garland Gandhi’s statue, the police prevented him saying that he would be allowed only after Governor Viren J. Shah paid his tribute. He said at this point a scuffle ensued between the police and Congress workers who
protested. Wondering why the police had behaved in such a way, Bhattacharya said every year Congress leaders paid tribute to the Father of the Nation and never in the past “were we obstructed by the
police”. When contacted, the police denied having prevented Bhattacharya from garlanding the statue and said they requested the Congress leader to pay tribute after the
Governor. The Governor, he said, assured him to look into the matter. —
PTI |
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Scribe quizzed in justice-for-sale case
New Delhi, January 30 The CBI team, which reached Ahmedabad, question Vijay Shekhar and took all case material from the court office pertaining to the alleged issue of warrants. The CBI will question Metropolitan Magistrate M.S. Bramabhatt, who has been suspended by the Gujarat High Court in connection with the case. —
PTI |
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Baijal is Union Home Secretary
New Delhi, January 30 The appointment of Mr Baijal, an IAS officer of 1969 batch of the AGMU cadre, was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court today issued a contempt notice to Mr Baijal for having failed to implement an order of the court. In other top-level bureaucratic appointments, Mr Nripendra Mishra, presently Secretary, Department of Fertilisers, has been made Secretary, Department of Telecommunications and Chairman Telecommunications Commission, in place of Mr Vinod Vaish who retires tomorrow. Ms Rewa Nayyar, Adviser Planning Commission, will be the new Secretary, Department of Development of Northeastern Region vice Ms Adarsh Mishra who is proceeding on long leave from February 2. Ms Nayyar will be replaced by Ms Suman Swaroop, Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers. Mr R.M. Premakumar, Chairman, Food Corporation of India, presently in the pay of Secretary, has been re-notified in his present post in the rank and pay of Secretary. Mr S.N.P.N. Sinha, presently Secretary, Central Vigilance Commission, has been appointed Secretary, Department of Fertilisers in place of Mr Nripendra Mishra. Mr Sinha will be replaced by Mr Sujit Banerjee, Secretary, central Vigilance Commission. Mr R.B. Buddhiraja, Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, has been re-notified in his present post in the rank and pay of Secretary. |
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Vandalised painting not mine, says Husain
Mumbai, January 30 “The painting was the work of a known painter of Bengal, Chitrbhanu Majumdar, and not mine,” Husain said here.
Other paintings which they tried to destroy belonged to well-known artist late N.S. Bhendre, Husain said, adding that the paintings were later recovered by the police. The exhibition, inaugurated by Husain last week, had only one 40-foot-long painting done by him, depicting world leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Einstein, the painter said. —
PTI |
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