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Cong, BJP New Delhi, February 4 The Bhaujan Samaj Party chief Ms Mayawati is seriously toying with the idea of striking an unofficial tactical poll understanding both with the BJP as well as with the Congress in UP.  Governor defends disbanding of dists
Sonia accuses Vajpayee
of doublespeak
Congress caught in
catch-22 situation |
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US offers Patriot missiles to India
India set to become major arms exporter
EC calls for accurate electoral rolls
Conduct survey to assess position, says PM
Oppn blocks Allahabad
HC relaxes Vaiko’s bail terms
Parliament okays interim Railway Budget
Haque joins BJP
Pak suggests dates for talks
on bus links
NHRC notice to Bihar Chief Secretary
Gen Bhardwaj is DGAFMS
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Maya to strike tactical deal with Cong, BJP
New Delhi, February 4 While her meeting with Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi have been well publicised, sources said Ms Mayawati was also in touch with some key BJP leaders so that the Lok Sabha constituencies in UP could be identified where the BSP would field very weak candidates or no candidates. Similarly, the BSP would also leave some Lok Sabha constituencies for the Congress, sources pointed out adding that Ms Mayawati is determined to increase the Lok Sabha seats for her party so that she was in a position to strike a hard bargain in the post-election scenario. Another leader close to her confided to TNS that “Madam is under tremendous pressure from the NDA in the Taj Heritage Corridore scam case and that is why she is adopting the ambivalent attitude.” The BJP strategy is to keep the contest in UP four-cornered as a three cornered electoral battle would go to the advantage of the Congress. Following the strategy, the Vajpayee government has asked the investigating agencies to go slow in the Taj Heritage case, the sources pointed out adding that the CBI had not even approached the highest court against the Allahabad High Court stay order restraining the country’s premier agency to arrest Ms Mayawati. Pressure was mounted on the BSP supremo only after news came out that the Congress President was about to reach an understanding with Ms Mayawati and former’s daughter Priyanka Vadra was going to contest from Rae Bareilly. This sent
panicky signals to the BJP poll managers and they got their act together and prevailed upon Ms Mayawati to revise her plans, the sources said. At present, the BSP poll managers are engaged in an exercise to identify those Lok Sabha constituencies where the party could reach poll understanding with both the national parties, the sources said. |
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Governor defends disbanding of dists
Lucknow, February 4 The Governor made a hasty retreat after reading the first and the last line of his 26-page address. As
soon as the Governor arrived, the BSP legislators started shouting
slogans and displayed banners and placards. They shouted slogans as
“one who cannot protect his family, how can he protect the state,”
in an obvious reference to the kidnapping of the nephew of Chief
Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. |
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Sonia accuses Vajpayee
of doublespeak
New Delhi, February 4 "There is no clarity," Ms Gandhi said while initiating a discussion on the interim Budget in the Lok Sabha today. The Leader of the Opposition termed the Vajpayee regime as a "sorry state of affairs" on most issues. In mock reference to a Hindi movie, "Asli Nakli," she said that while the Prime Minister advised all political parties to exercise restraint in elections, his own party colleagues were resorting to the same methods. "Atalji atal nahin rehte, badalte rehte hain (Atalji does not remain firm but keeps changing). His intransigent attitude is evident on issues such as the Ayodhya case, corruption charges on his
colleagues, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat developments and Pakistan," Ms Gandhi said. On the contrary, she said the Congress would observe "maryada (restraint)" during the elections. Even though the government had talked about increasing "gross national contentment," social justice has been the biggest casualty in this government. Despite the Congress' full support, the Women's Reservation Bill could not be passed. "The NDA did not shy away even from using communalism for electoral gains," she said. The NDA regime was ridden with scams on several fronts, including petrol pumps, the DDA, UTI, share market, Tehelka and the latest Judeo videotape issue, she said. Speaking in Hindi for about 20 minutes, she said the interim Budget was a "populist document" and there was "nothing substantial for generating employment. The glaring problem facing the country is the problem of unemployment, particularly among the educated youth". |
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Sonia writes to Vajpayee New Delhi, February 4 “After the dissolution, your government will take the form and character of a caretaker government. My party and I sincerely hope that your government will not offend the highest traditions of our democracy by taking any decisions that impact significantly on policy, investment and the vital interests of the people,” the letter stated. She said there were reports that the NDA government was also trying to push through the adoption of recommendations of long-pending committees like the Naresh Chandra committee on civil aviation. Such actions, according to Ms Gandhi, would amount to major policy decisions in vital sectors like infrastructure. |
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Congress caught in
catch-22 situation New Delhi, February 4 The jubiliation, however, is tempered with some hard realism as the Congress is still trying to figure out if this could be a potent enough issue to take on the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha poll since several political parties which had raked up this matter 17 years ago are now the Congress party’s allies. By all accounts, the court verdict was an occasion to celebrate as sweets were distributed at the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party’s executive committee with an emotional party President Sonia Gandhi declaring that Rajiv Gandhi had always maintained that his innocence would be proved one day. “This is a special moment for us ...the truth has been upheld,” she said when she and her children, Rahul and Priyanka, appeared together before presspersons tonight. Stating that she felt honoured to have been Mr Rajiv Gandhi’s wife, the Congress President said today’s court order was a great relief for the entire family which had suffered through 17 years of vilification and character assassination. She was also quick to put the BJP-led NDA government in the dock for the “indignities inflicted upon her” when they named her dead husband in the CBI charge sheet on the Bofors case. Although the court order is bound to boost the party cadres, initial reactions suggest the Bofors gun may not boom again in this election. Even if it does, the sounds are expected to be muted. Clearly, what began with a bang may well end with a whimper. Congress leaders are bound to talk of Rajiv Gandhi’ exoneration while referring to the various scandals and scams which surfaced during the NDA regime. But doubts persist about whether the Congress will be able to exploit this to the hilt in the elections. This is particularly so as many of the leaders and political parties which led the campaign on Bofors in the 1989 election are now the Congress party’s partners in its battle against the BJP. Even former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, who whipped up a nation-wide campaign against Mr Rajiv Gandhi, has shed his anti-Congressism and come out in support of party President Sonia Gandhi. Others who had lined up against the Congress 17 years ago include Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, the DMK and the Left parties while the party’s chief spokesperson S. Jaipal Reddy was the Janata Dal’s most vocal voice in blasting the Congress on the issue of corruption. Little wonder then that Mr Reddy stayed away from the press briefing today while party spokesperson Satyavarat Chaturvedi stated emphatically that Bofors would not become an election issue. “No, we will not make it an election issue. It may be mentioned in speeches but it will not be the main issue,” he maintained, adding that he did not want to say anything which could whip up another controversy. Despite persistent questioning, Mr Chaturvedi refrained from naming those who, according to him, had conspired to discredit and malign the late Rajiv Gandhi. He blamed the BJP for keeping the issue alive all these years primarily for political gain but refused to comment on the role of their present allies.” It is for the people to decide the treatment that should be meted out to these conspirators,” he reiterated. |
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Malika of all times
I
do not recall the exact year, but it must have been early 80s. I was a young music lover then. To make a confession, many in my group were waiting outside the Tagore Theatre of Chandigarh not to hear Malika Pukhraj, but to see her daughter Tahira Syed, whose ethereal beauty was the talk of the town. My entreaties to them that Malika’s “Abhi to mein jawan hoon” was worth a thousand young girls were laughed off by everyone, because none of them had heard the song.
The hall packed quickly. Prof H.S. Dilgir, who was the soul behind Kala Darpan, the hosts, introduced the immortal singer in his inimitable style. An expectant hush fell on the hall as the mother-daughter duo came on the stage. The magic moment came soon enough. I can still feel the goose pimples that I had while listening to the song which had moved generations earlier. My friends were converted within five minutes. Tahira was stunning no doubt. She sang with passion. I still remember her rendition of “Ye alam shauq ka dekha na jaye, wo but hai ya khuda dekha na jaye”, but everything paled before “Abhi to main jawan hoon”, even Malika’s own other songs. Here she was singing live Hafeez Jallandari’s long nazm which I had taken months to commit to memory in the right order. Nothing could be more fulfilling. When I was sold on to this song which alone was enough to bestow immortality on her, someone introduced me to the French Charles Aznavour’s soulful singing of the song “Yesterday when I was young”, and I spent many days arguing with him that Malika was far better. I still hold the same view. I can be forgiven for not remembering the year in which I heard her sing in Chandigarh because she herself never remembered the years in which she crossed numerous milestones of her life. Her memoirs, “Songs Sung True”, are a proof of that. It does not even mention the year of her birth. But yes, it has many little-known details about her life. She was born in a farming household in the village of Hamirpur Sidhdhar in the kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir. The birth was difficult and a clairvoyant, Baba Roti Ram, was called in for assistance. He gave her mother a "Pakori" to eat and told her that the baby girl would be a "malika muazamma" (great empress) . Hence her name Malika from the Baba and Pukhraj (Topaz) which her aunt gave her. Her father was a Pathan, given to gambling and drinking. Her education was entrusted to the husband of a distant cousin of her mother ( Gulzar Hussain) who taught her Persian and Urdu. This ustad had a shop, which ultimately Malika started managing, selling paan, cigarettes and syrups. A precocious child, Malika learned faster than the boys around her. She was entrusted by the ustad to manage the shop and she had the business sense to start charging twice the usual rates for the items that were sold. Her singing teacher was Ali Baksh, the father of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. He was a master of Sindhi bhairavi, the Sindhi kafi or khyaal . As soon as she finished her teaching under the Ustad, her mother’s ambitions and her aunt (whose husband provided ice on the trains running from Delhi to Jammu) made her go to Delhi to continue her education. In Delhi she learned dancing and singing under Ustad Mamman Khan . Once Malika returned to Jammu, she was spotted by the Maharaja. The rest is history. Malika has described in detail the largesse that the Maharaja of Kashmir bestowed on her. When he gave her a platinum jewellery set, she thought it was silver. She never hid her modest beginning and lived an unaffected life throughout. When her husband Shahji died, she called upon the famous minstrel singer Reshma to come and stay with her and kept asking her to sing “Hayo Rabaa , nahion lagda dil mera …." . Perhaps millions of Malika’s fans would like Reshma to do exactly that, now that she is no more. |
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US offers Patriot missiles to India
New Delhi, February 4 Lt-Gen Daniel W. Christman (retd), former Military Adviser to US Secretary of State and now senior Vice-President of US Chamber of Commerce, who was heading a major defence delegation to the Defence Expo-2004 here said that India had
evinced interest in buying a lot of defence equipment from the US. The delegation also met the country's top defence scientist and the chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Dr V.K. Aatre, to explore areas of defence cooperation with India. Lt-Gen Christman said “we had a meeting with Dr Aatre today and he listed some of the high technology items India will be interested in buying from us. Some of the items he listed included electronic and optical sensors and sensors for photo and radar imagery”. He added “we are studying the possibility of supplying Patriot missile defence systems to India and it can be discussed during our interaction with Indian leaders”. The US had mounted an impressive delegation to “Defexpo” and it would also meet with Defence Minister George Fernandes and the country's military leaders. “We are here to explore the areas of defence cooperation between India and the US in the wake of an agreement reached between the two countries to cooperate in civilian nuclear, space and high technology trade besides expanding dialogue on missile defence,” Lt-Gen Christman said. He also tried to dispel the widespread impression that the US could not be relied up on as a long term supplier. “Relationship between India has evolved over the last three years. Earlier because of sanctions there could have been some impact on the supplies but we cannot dwell on the events of the past to predict the future,” he said. “US companies understand that to be successful they have to be a long-term champion of reliable supplies to India,” Lt-Gen Christman said. |
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India set to become major arms exporter
New Delhi, February 4 Inaugurating the Defence Expo-2004 here, Defence Minister George Fernandes indicated that India was now eyeing the lucrative defence market to export its sophisticated military products. “Till not long ago, India was not seeking to show its defence production capabilities,” Mr Fernandes said. He said thrust would now be on setting up of joint ventures with various countries and corporate bodies for futuristic weapon systems. Even in joint ventures, he said, the thrust would be on setting up facilities for production of spares in India of frontline and other Russian weapon systems in use, of which India was currently facing “desperate shortage”. He also indicated that subsequently under licence, India could sell these spares to third countries. India has organised this third in the series of biennial exposition as a major forum for marketing its indigenously developed military hardware. The event has been jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Efforts were underway to set up a consortium with the CII to boost arms sales in the coming years. |
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Kolkata, February 4 The West Bengal jail authorities released Bleach from the high-security Alipur Jail at around 3.25 p.m. He was received by Mr Andrew Hall, British Deputy High Commissioner here, and a few officials from the mission. A convoy of cars carrying Bleach, Mr Hall and others drove out of the jail premises and went in to the British Deputy High Commission office. The release of Bleach came at the end of all legal formalities. The President had remitted the remainder of Bleach’s sentence following a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani and British Home Secretary David Blunkett in New Delhi on January 30. Bleach had been arrested in December 1995 after the sensational armsdrop in West Bengal’s Purulia district and had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000. |
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EC calls for accurate electoral rolls
New Delhi, February 4 At a meeting of the CEOs, convened by the Election Commission to review poll preparedness, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) J.M. Lyngdoh and CEC-designate T.S. Krishnamurthy also called upon the state election authorities to ensure free and fair elections. "The CEOs, district election officers, polling and counting personnel will have to be fully prepared to ensure free, fair and clean elections in the country," an EC press note quoted the CEC and the Election Commissioners as saying in their inaugural addresses. It was also emphasised that the time schedule prescribed for the revision of voter lists should be maintained in every respect and care be taken to see that accurate rolls were prepared. The Election Commission also declared that the coming Lok Sabha poll would be conducted in all constituencies on electronic voting machines (EVMs). The meeting also discussed material planning for the general election, requirement of polling personnel, assessment for the requirement of Central paramilitary forces, setting up of helplines in urban areas for providing information to voters at the time of elections and timely transmission of election related data. The Election Commission panel is likely to meet the Union Home Secretary early next week to work out the availability of Central forces for deployment during the general election. |
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Conduct survey to assess position, says PM
New Delhi, February 4 Mr Vajpayee is believed to have asked BJP leaders not to get carried away by surveys, which have appeared in a section of the media, projecting a landslide for the NDA combine. Although
the Prime Minister was confident of the party coming to power riding
on the development issues and the “feel good” factor, he has
favoured an independent survey covering all the states to enable the
party leadership to apply necessary correctives. Sources said some
of the party leaders themselves felt projections pertaining to some
states in that survey were “unreasonable” and beyond their
expectations. |
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Oppn blocks Allahabad varsity Bill
New Delhi, February 4 The Congress, Left parties, the Samajwadi Party and the DMK voted against the Bill which intended to declare the University of Allahabad, an “institution of national importance” saying that it was “morally improper” for the Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi to introduce a Bill just two days ahead of the dissolution of the Lok Sabha as he also
happened to be a Member of the Lower House from Allahabad. The objection to the Bill first came from Mr Janeshwar Mishra of the Samajwadi Party, who had represented the Allahabad Lok Sabha constituency thrice in the past and the RJD’s Saroj Dubey, also a former Lok Sabha MP. They dubbed the move to introduce the bill as a “poll stunt”. Pointing finger at Dr Joshi, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said his party would not have objected to the passage of the bill six months ago but it was constrained to block it to highlight the intention of the Minister concerned. There were three abstentions. Dr Joshi, who was visibly annoyed and upset, told the Opposition that “this is a great service. Thank you, the people of Allahabad will give an answer. You do not know the strength of the Allahabad University.” |
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Chennai, February 4 A Division Bench comprising Mr Justice V.S. Sirpurkar and Mr Justice S.M. Ebrahim Kalifullah directed Vaiko to give an undertaking to abide by the bail conditions instead of an affidavit as specified by the designated POTA Judge L. Rajendran while granting him bail yesterday. Modifying the bail conditions laid down by the designated court, the judges said: "The petitioner shall not leave the city limits of Chennai without prior intimation to the investigating officer (IO)." The Bench directed Vaiko to inform the IO of the schedule, which should not interfere with the day-to-day progress of the trial. The judges also said it would not be necessary for him to report to a Metropolitan Magistrate on holidays. "It will be sufficient for him to intimate his presence to the IO." Yesterday, while granting bail to Vaiko, designated Judge L. Rajendran had directed him to report to the POTA court on all working days and to the City Magistrate on holidays. The Judge had also directed Vaiko not to leave the city limits or the suburban Poonamallee areas where the POTA court is located. The Bench gave its interim order while hearing a petition filed by Vaiko seeking to set aside some of the conditions imposed by the trial court.
— PTI |
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Parliament okays interim Railway Budget
New Delhi, February 4 Replying to a discussion on the interim Railway Budget in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Nitish Kumar said the Railways were making profit. The Lok Sabha had passed the interim Railway Budget yesterday. |
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Haque joins BJP
New Delhi, February 4 Both Mr Haque and Ms Krishnakumar, wife of former Union Minister Krishnakumar, formally joined the BJP in the presence of party President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha, C.P. Thakur, Shahnawaz Hussain and Sanjay Paswan and other senior leaders of the BJP here at the party headquarters. Terming Mr Haque's decision to join the BJP as a "big signal" for the minorities , Mr Naidu made a call to the minorities to join the BJP. |
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Pak suggests dates for talks
on bus links
New Delhi, February 4 The Pakistani reply is in response to India's proposal for holding talks for establishing bus links between Munabao and Khokhrapar and between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad. |
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NHRC notice to Bihar Chief Secretary
New Delhi, February 4 Taking suo motu cognisance of a media report on the attack on the two workers, Mahesk Kant and Sarita, the commission has asked the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police, Bihar to respond within four weeks. The Commission has observed that the media reports raise serious issues about the safety of human rights defenders. Media reports credited the activists with bringing about a revolution in Shabdo village in Gaya by inspiring people to revive a water harvesting structure. They also exposed persons involved in looting and extortion. |
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Gen Bhardwaj is DGAFMS
New Delhi, February 4 Commissioned in the Army Medical Corps on June 1, 1965, he is a recipient of Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and Vishisht Seva Medal. He is also Honorary Surgeon to the President of India. |
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