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Chennai, June 26 The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President, Mr Venkaiah Naidu, said here that his party’s twin objective after analysing the election results was Hindutva and development. He denied that the former Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had been sidelined at the just-concluded national executive meeting in Mumbai.
Disqualification raises legal question
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“LeT, not HuM behind Pundirs’ killing”
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Naik sued over petrol station allotment
UP Govt reinstates nine districts
Crucial AICC meeting in July
Entries invited for Bharatendu awards
Hema Malini bereaved
Bodies of Pundirs taken to Sarsawa
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BJP to campaign on Hindutva, development
Chennai, June 26 Addressing a press conference here yesterday, he felt nationalism and Hindutva were synonymous and were inseparable from development. He said: “The real message from Mumbai is that our fundamentals are very strong and Hindutva can never be fundamentalist. The Hindu civilisation is the mother of all and we do not believe in theocracy. “We have identified our shortcomings and will win back the masses with our Hindutva and development objectives,” Mr Naidu said. Answering a question, he denied that Mr Vajpayee had been sidelined and said: “He remains the tallest leader of our party but every worker or leader will have to toe the party line and refrain from speaking against it. “If he is a worker we will ask him to stop and if he is a senior leader we will convince him,” he said while clarifying about differences within the BJP leadership, which surfaced during the two-day meeting in Mumbai. Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, the BJP President said: “His first-ever address to the nation yesterday is long on homilies and short on specific points of time-bound action. “It is shocking, though not surprising, that the Prime Minister’s address makes no mention of the menace of corruption and criminalisation of politics. So long as he continues to keep the tainted ministers in his government his moral posture in all his pronouncements will remain suspect,” he said. Asked whether the BJP would continue to disrupt the parliamentary proceedings on the issue, Mr Naidu replied that his party would highlight the issue of tainted ministers and its strategy would be formulated by the BJP Parliamentary Party. “During the last five years the Prime Minister had been a mute spectator of his party continuously stalling and disrupting proceedings, boycotting the Defence Minister for 22 months and not even allowing the then Prime Minister to make a statement. What moral right has he now to lament about Parliament being disrupted and not allowed to operate?” Mr Naidu asked. He said the BJP would launch a week-long nationwide campaign on national security and national honour which were being sacrificed by the Congress-led coalition government supported by the Marxists. “The BJP will alert the nation about the present government’s soft pedalling on cross-border terrorism because of vote bank and under pressure from the Communists has decided to re-toxify the history teachings in the country,” he said. He said the national executive of the BJP had decided to form two committees headed by a former Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Rajnath Singh, and a former Orissa MP, Mr Anadi Charan Sahu, respectively. The Rajnath Singh committee would study the problem of suicide by farmers, while the Sahu committee would visit West Bengal where many tribesmen have died of starvation. |
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Disqualification raises legal question
New Delhi, June 26 Keeping aside any alleged “sinister design” behind the Haryana legislators’ expulsion, legal experts are of the view that a decision of the Speaker, while he is using his powers under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, cannot be linked to the Article 329 (b), which bars any judicial interference in the election process. The legal experts say that there is nothing in the Article 329 (b) to prevent the Speaker from using his jurisdictional powers defined under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. The 10th Schedule deals with the disqualification of a member under various circumstances, including defection. Senior advocate Shanti Bhushan says had it been so, then there should have been some hint of it in the Article 329 whether the bar on judicial review also extends to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies. “Moreover if a member becomes eligible to be disqualified due to insolvency or lunancy amidst the election process, should the Speaker wait to pass an order regarding this till the elections are over”, he asked. “Such an argument will be ridiculous”, Mr Shanti Bhushan says. Former Solicitor-General Kirit Raval says “the Speaker has always the right to use his jurisdictional power as defined in the 10th Schedule, under which he is empowered to use them. There is no bar under any law, including the Article 329 regarding this.” He says there could be no two opinions on the purity of the election process. “But if some legislators decide to defect just a day before the polling, will the Speaker be debarred from using his jurisdictional powers to take action against them under assumed consequential effect that such a defection might effect the poll process,” Mr Raval says. Another senior advocate Abhishek Manu
Singhvi, who also argued the case of the disqualified MLAs in the Supreme Court yesterday, though admits that in normal circumstances the challenge to the Speaker’s action is “limited” but the court has to see the “real intention” behind his action. He is of the opinion that a Speaker’s powers can be put in two categories — legislative and judicial. His legislative powers cannot be challenged in any court of law but judicial powers can be challenged. Adjudication of a dispute over whether a member had violated the anti-defection law falls in the latter category, and therefore, was challengeable in the court of law, Mr Singhvi says. “The Speaker while adjudicating such disputes acts like a court of law and if any of his action may effect the ongoing election process, it will amount to an interference in it,” he contends. The yesterday’s action of the Haryana Assembly Speaker “will fall in this category because the expulsion of six MLAs under the anti-defection law amidst the poll process will change the nature of electoral college in the Assembly, which will amount to an interference in the election process,” he says. But the court during over two hours’ long hearing of the matter had asked a few pertinent questions from the MLAs’ counsel — whether the Speaker has passed any order regarding any election process, whether he is debarred from using his jurisdictional powers when the poll process was on and does the Article 329, which prevents courts from interfering in the election process, also speaks about the disqualification of legislators. |
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Ambani, Jaya elected to RS
Lucknow, June 26 After Returning Officer R.S. Pandey had rejected the nomination papers of the Congress candidates, it was clear that 11 candidates of the BJP, the BSP and the SP would go to the Rajya Sabha. The others elected were Mr Arun Shourie and Dr Murli Manohar Joshi (both BJP), Ms Mayawati, Mr Satish C. Mishra (BSP), Mr Bhagwati Singh, Mr Ram Narayan Sahu, Mr Nand Kishore and Mr Kamal Akhtar (all SP). While Mr Ambani was an Independent candidate supported by the SP, Mr Suri contested as an Independent supported by the BJP. Ms Jaya Bachchan was the SP candidate. |
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“LeT, not HuM behind Pundirs’ killing”
New Delhi, June 26 Official sources told The Tribune that Mr Patil had also been told that the terrorists’ demand of a hefty ransom of Rs 50 lakh and the subsequent “Iraq-type” slayings of the Pundirs (after non-payment of ransom amount) indicated subtle changes in militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. The Pundirs killing episode is the first incident which marks the criminalisation of a terrorist outfit ostensibly calling itself a religious militant body. The Union Home Minister convened a meeting of senior officials of his ministry last night to discuss the Pundir brothers’ killings and another meeting today to review the situation after the Poonch massacre. Mr Patil was also briefed by senior officials on today’s Poonch massacre and told that the VDC members were killed because they had informed the authorities about the presence of
Lashkar-e-Toiba’s terrorists in the upper reaches. Sources said the minister was informed about a statement of the IRCON contractor who, along with Pundir brothers and the driver, was abducted by the terrorists. The contractor and the driver were let off soon afterwards. In his statement to the police, the contractor said the terrorists were carrying sharp-edged weapons and firearms and the blades and butts of these weapons had the words “Lashkar-e-Toiba” inscribed in Urdu. The contractor also talked about the terrorists’ demand for Rs 50 lakh ransom. The slain engineer’s father, who is a teacher in an intermediate college in Bulandshahar (UP), did not have the money to pay to the terrorists. Sudhir had got married some six months ago and Rajesh had gone to J&K to spend a few days with his brother. Sources said the unprecedented ransom demand was because of two things: first, the local support for militancy was dwindling, and secondly, money was no longer pouring in from West Asia because of stricter global vigilance on money transfers in the name of Islamic cause. |
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Naik sued over petrol station allotment
Mumbai, June 26 According to reports from Nagpur, Mr Gonade has filed a petition before the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, alleging that a petrol station was initially allotted to Mr Rajesh Dharmik, but the allotment was cancelled and the petrol station was given to Ms Sunitha Hudar, who, the petitioner said, was Mr Naik’s niece. However, Mr Naik told reporters here that he was not related to Ms Sunita Hudar. The former minister said the allotment was not made to Mr Dharmik at all and his application was rejected at an earlier stage. Ms Hudar who was next on the list was allotted the petrol station, Mr Naik said. The Nagpur Bench has asked Mr Naik and the Union Government to file their replies in the case by July 5. |
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UP Govt reinstates nine districts
Lucknow, June 26 Principal Secretary (Revenue) Kapal Dev today sent a fax message to all the district magistrates informing them about the creation of the new districts. The districts which are reinstated are Mahamayanagar, Gautam Budh Nagar, Aurriya, Sant Kabir Nagar, Sarawasti, Kushinagar, Shahuji Maharaj Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar and Hathras. |
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Crucial AICC meeting in July
New Delhi, June 26 Congress sources said the delay in reconstituting the AICC was due to party president Sonia Gandhi’s preoccupation with revamping the PCCs in certain states as well as tackling the problems connected with downsizing the Cabinet in the Congress-ruled states. The exercise connected with reorganising the AICC is expected to be completed in the next few days and in any case before the commencement of the Budget session of Parliament on July 5. This cannot be delayed indefinitely as prominent general secretaries like Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mr Oscar Fernandes, Mr Kamal Nath and Mr Natwar Singh, who was heading the foreign affairs cell, have become ministers in the Congress-led UPA government. Party leaders said Ms Sonia Gandhi was keen to induct young leaders and give them organisational responsibilities. Her son and the new MP from Amethi Rahul Gandhi is unlikely to be drafted for any such responsibility. |
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Entries invited for Bharatendu awards
New Delhi, June 26 Under journalism and mass communication, the award is given to encourage original and creative writing in Hindi on the subjects related to various disciplines of mass communication i.e., journalism, publicity, advertisement, radio, television, film, printing, publications etc. The first prize will be of Rs 35,000, second of Rs 25,000, third of Rs 20,000 and five consolation prizes of Rs 5,000 each. Under women’s issues, the award is given to women writers for books on current issues concerning status of women in society. The first prize carries an amount of Rs 15,000 while the second prize is of Rs 10,000. The National Integration Award of Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 (first and second, respectively) is given for books on topics relating to national integration. Under the children’s literature category, the award of Rs 15,000 (first) and Rs 10,000 (second) is given for books for children. The awards are open to all Indian authors, who can send their published books and typed manuscripts for acceptance. Books/manuscripts written during the period from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2003 will be considered. The award scheme is operated by the Director, Publications Division on behalf of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. If a book/manuscript is written by more than one writer, the prize money will be divided among the writers equally. In case of a book/manuscript written by more than one writer, each writer should fill separate entry forms.
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Mumbai, June 26 She was 78 and besides her daughter, is survived by two sons. Chakravarty was a diabetic and heart patient and the end came yesterday evening in a private hospital, family sources said. Chakravarthy produced three Hindi films starring her daughter — ‘Swami’, ‘Dream Girl’ and ‘Ratnadeep’.
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Bodies of Pundirs taken to Sarsawa
New Delhi, June 26 The Chairman, Railway Board, Mr R.K. Singh, told TNS here on Saturday that he would go to their village in Muzaffarnagar district. IRCON Director Ankush Krishnan brought the body from Srinagar. Sudhir was a site engineer with the Indian Railways Construction Corporation (IRCON), entrusted with work on the Qazigund-Baramula railway line. |
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