Pune, September 29
After three decades of running from pillar to post, Shernaz Gandhi, sister-in-law of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, is hoping to get her long overdue pension, after a government official contacted her today.

Eighty six-year-old Shernaz, wife of Dorab Gandhi, elder brother of Feroze Gandhi, who worked as an agricultural scientist with the Uttar Pradesh Government and passed away in 1976, had been living on the munificence of her Mumbai-based niece for some time.

The octogenarian who had little hope of getting pension but was adamant while refusing offer of help pouring from different quarters, seemed happy today.

“Some government official had come to meet me today and took details”, an elated Shernaz said.

Dr Naveen Raina of Satyanand Research Institute, where Shernaz is recuperating from a hip- bone operation, said that a government official had come to meet her at the hospital.

“The official refused to reveal his identity but just said that he had to collect details about her and has been asked to send a report to Delhi by today evening,” Raina said adding, the official also planned to go to Sopariwallas, with whom Shernaz stayed as paying guest for the past 15 years.

Shernaz had also written to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi seeking their help.

The real reason why she is insisting on pension is that she needs it more than ever before. She is a widow and has no children. Her younger sister’s daughter has been sending her money regularly which she has been using to meet her daily needs.

However, things became difficult for Shernaz this September when she broke her hip-bone and was operated at the Jahangir Hospital.

Subsequent to her operation, she was admitted to the chronic care ward of Satyanand Research Institute on September 13, as Supariwallas were unable to take care of her, being old themselves.

“Shernaz required regular physiotherapy exercise after the operation and the Sopariwallas were unable to give her all the post-surgery care that the latter needed. Hence, Shernaz was admitted at our chronic care ward where we are only charging her a subidised fee”, Raina said.

Following disclosure in the media about her relationship with the Gandhi family and her financial problems, there has been a steady stream of visitors at the hospital, he said.

Many local Congress leaders also visited the hospital and expressed their eagerness to foot her medical bill. Shernaz, however, was against any kind of charity.

“She does not want charity. She wants pension for the services her husband rendered to the UP Government as an agricultural scientist. She is plain and firm that she will not settle for anything less than that”, Dr Raina said. — PTI

New Delhi, September 29
The Bar Association of India President and Rajya Sabha MP Fali S Nariman in a letter to Chief Justice of India R.C. Lahoti, has questioned the transfer of Guwahati High Court Chief Justice B.K. Roy to the Sikkim High Court, saying it amounted to a “punitive” action fraught with grave consequences.

Describing Mr Justice Roy as a “man of high integrity” and “deadly honest” as per the inquiries made by him from very reliable sources, Nariman said “I do believe that transferring not merely a judge but the Chief Justice of a High Court in a state as Chief Justice of another state is a matter fraught with grave consequences - particularly the judges and Bar in the other state.”

The noted lawyer pointed out the letter was being written by him to the CJI after receiving a representation from the Vice-President of the Bar Association of Sikkim, forwarded to the Union Law Minister, enclosing a resolution questioning the transfer of Mr Justice Roy. “I take the liberty of addressing you as Head of the Judicial Family on this matter of grave importance,” the BAI President said.

“Transferring a Chief Justice of a High Court with such a large number of judges to one of the smallest High Courts in the country cannot but be viewed as punitive,” he said adding that he did not know Mr Justice Roy personally as he had never met him.

He said if the media reports emanating from Guwahati were correct, Mr Justice Roy was only voicing a complaint of the Chief Ministers and Governors in the six sister states in the North-East that High Court Benches were not able to deliver Justice within each of them simply because judges were not willing to travel out for more than a day or so.

It would be difficult to say that if Mr Justice Roy was wrong in taking a view that the Judges should sit for a month or six weeks in the capitals of six states to dispense with the justice in the public interest, or his protesting companion judges were right, the BAI chief said pointing out that “a transfer in such circumstances does not augur well for the effective maintenance of discipline in High Courts.”

“It gravely undermines the position of the highest constitutional judicial authority in the state… If a Chief Justice of High Court cannot get on with his colleagues then his colleagues must learn to get on with their Chief Justice,” he emphasised.

Registering his protest with the CJI on behalf of the Governing Council of the BAI, Nariman said if from the second “compelled” transfer of Mr Justice Roy (after his transfer from Chandigarh), it was apparent that in the opinion of the highest judiciary, he was not a fit person to head a High Court, then “why should he be foisted as Chief Justice of a High Court in another state.”

“It is this foisting of an ‘undesirable’ Chief Justice (“undesirable” in the opinion of the Supreme Court) that has been objected to by the Bar in Sikkim as being contrary to “public interest and the administration of justice” in that state” the noted lawyer said adding “And I submit that the Bar in Sikkim has a credible objection.”

If a Chief Justice was to be “disciplined”, the transfer was not the remedy as it would be an “embarrassment” to him of either going to a place where he “is most unwelcome,” Nariman said suggesting that the better course would be to hold an inquiry against him by “first fulfilling the condition precedent under the Judges Inquiry Act … and then setting up a committee of judges under the Act, after the relevant charges of alleged misconduct.”

This would give at least an opportunity to Mr Justice Roy of defending himself before his peers and ultimately before Parliament, he said.

New Delhi, September 29
The ongoing battle over the reconstitution of the Maharashtra PCC shifted to Delhi today with state unit chief Prabha Rau and AICC General-Secretary Margaret Alva challenging their critics to prove the charges of corruption and favouritism being bandied against them.

Mrs Prabha Rau met Congress President Sonia Gandhi today and though she denied that an explanation had been sought from her, the meeting assumed significance in the backdrop of deafening protests over the new PCC’s composition.

An angry Mrs Alva maintained that some vested interests had launched a smear campaign against her. “I challenge them... Let any one say that I have taken even a rupee for a single post or a single seat,” she said.

At the same time, both leaders pacified agitated members by assuring them that those excluded would be accommodated either in the PCC or other party bodies.

Maharashtra Congress has been in a turmoil since the reconstitution of the PCC two weeks ago with charges and counter-charges flying thick and fast. All those excluded from the body have been trekking to Delhi to lodge their complaint with the leadership here.

They have alleged that Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and the PCC chief had packed the body with their own loyalists while several regions and districts remained unrepresented. While charging that persons of dubious background had been included, they were also angry over Mrs Rau’s daughter’s appointment in the PCC. Allegations of money changing hands have also surfaced following which the matter was dragged to Delhi.

Hitting out at her detractors, Mrs Alva accused them of trying to remove her from being in charge of Maharashtra, adding,” They want me out because they cannot manage me.” She said she had not taken any decision without due clearance from Mrs Gandhi.

Mrs Rau regretted that some partymen had stooped so low as to place fictitious advertisements in newspapers to tarnish the image of some new members.

Gandhinagar, September 29
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi fell back on his tried and tested minority bashing formula as he spearheaded the BJP assault on the Congress held Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation where elections are slated for October 13.

Mr Modi, who won the December 2002 Vidhan Sabha elections, held in the shadow of the Godhra incident, gave enough indications of a repeat performance this time in a municipal corporation election.

Almost encircled by his own party dissidents out to scalp him, an apathetic VHP and RSS set to act as a mute spectator, Mr Modi has condescended to play the civic subedar.

Addressing the first BJP election meeting in the predominantly Hindu locality of Ellisbridge, the Chief Minister was at his partisan best, attacking the minority community. He gave a clear indication that he intended to play the divide and rule polity. We want to free the people of Ahmedabad from Mughal rule, said Mr Modi leaving no one in any doubt that his indication was towards the city Mayor, Ms Aneesa Mirza. We want to free the people of Karnavati from the rule of “Begums and Badshahs”, the Chief Minister added.

During the last Vidhan Sabha poll also the Chief Minister had targetted the local minorities. After almost three years in power the Chief Minister still needs to fall back on a communal campaign, this time to win a civic body election. Constantly referring to Ahmedabad as Karnavati and hiding the fact that it was the NDA government which failed to accord recognition to the name change suggested by the Gujarat Government, Mr Modi kept up his minority bashing even as he spoke in the communally sensitive Dariapur area of Ahmedabad.

Lucknow, September 29
Bringing an end to the threeday long drama in the premises of the sessions court, Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani finally surrendered declaring to be “law-abiding citizens upholding the wishes of the Supreme Court”. They will be under judicial custody till October 6.

Their advocate also moved an application for special security for the couple during their subsequent court appearances. They were shifted to the Lucknow jail under heavy security.

It was a long wait for anxious mediapersons who had taken vantage positions inside the court premises since 9 am. It was just before 4 pm that the former minister in the Mayawati government and currently a Samajwadi Party MLA Amarmani Tripathi arrived in court with 50 supporters. His wife chose to enter the court by the back door to avoid the waiting cameras.

The difficulty of the Tripathis is far from over if the CBI and the family of the murdered poetess have their way. They both fear that the Tripathis should be moved out of Lucknow, as they can intimate the witnesses even from inside the court premises.

New Delhi, September 29
With tears in their eyes, family members of the prisoners of war, believed to be in the custody of Pakistan, urged the government to set up a special cell in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to track down their kin.

Assembled under the aegis of the Manav Adhikar Suraksha Samiti, the families recounted how their painstaking efforts for over three decades to find their loved ones had borne no fruit.

Mrs Sushila Tyagi, mother of Flying Officer Sudhir Tyagi, said she observes her son’s birthdays by doing a yagna for his return. Sudhir Tyagi was 25 during the 1971 war. He would be 59 now.

Flt-Lt V.V. Tambay’s wife shows a battered copy of the Sunday Pakistan Observer published from Dhaka, which had a report saying that some Indian pilots had been captured alive in the then West Pakistan. The newspaper said one of them was Flt-Lt Tambay.

The memory of his son, Capt Ravinder Kaura, haunts Mr L.D. Kaura, now in his eighties. He hopes the government will be sensitive to the concerns of the families of POWs. Mr B.K. Suri, heading the Missing Defence Personnel Relatives Association, said the government had done little to mitigate their sufferings.

Mr Navjot Singh Sidhu, MP, said former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had indicated during a SAARC conference that there were 40 Indian PoWs in her country. “But nothing came out of it,” he said.

Urging the Pakistan Government to provide information about the PoWs and to release them, he said the step would generate tremendous goodwill and bring the two countries closer. There were no PoWs from Pakistan but there were 54 Indian PoWs in that country.

A march to Rashtrapati Bhavan will be taken out on October 2 to demand the creation of a cell in the MEA to address the concerns of the PoWs, he said.

Patna, September 29
After arriving at a seat-sharing accord with the CPI, the Forward Bloc and the RSP, LJP president and Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan today released the first list of his party’s candidates for 43 of the 61 Assembly constituencies going to poll in the first phase in Bihar on October 18.

Releasing the list of LJP candidates, Mr Paswan said his party would contest from around 200 seats leaving 37 and three for its electoral allies — the CPI and the Forward Bloc.

He said the RSP had not decided the number of seats it wanted to contest “but we will discuss the issue with an open mind to spare seats for the party (RSP)”.

Mr Paswan said of the 61 seats going to poll in the first phase, the LJP would put up its candidates from 49 and “We will let you know the names of candidates for the remaining six seats the LJP will be contesting by this evening”.

Names of eight muslim candidates as many Yadavas and scheduled castes, four Rajputs, five Bhumihars, besides five women and six backward candidates figured in the first list of 43 candidates which was released by Mr Paswan.

Mr Paswan today ruled out a post-poll alliance with Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD even in case of a fractured mandate in the coming Assembly polls.

“We shall prefer fresh elections to joining hands with the RJD, which is responsible for all ills in Bihar,” Mr Paswan told mediapersons here. — UNI

The exercise was participated by Indian naval aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, guided missile destroyer INS Mysore, and its fuel replenishment tanker, INS Aditya besides submarine, INS Shankul, while the US navy participated in the form of its guided missile destroyer, USS Chafee.

The vessels from both navies got engaged in search and rescue operations, submarine rescue, mid-sea refuelling and other tactical exercises.

At the rise of the sun, all vessels sailed deep in the sea where they first joined in several strategic formations before engaging into joint tasks. Naval Chetak helicopters later landed on the USS Chafee while the US strike helicopters SH-60 landed on INS Viraat.

The highlight of the event, however, was the mid-sea refuelling exercise in which Indian naval oil supply vessel INS Aditya performed the difficult task of going into simultaneous formations with INS Mysore and the USS Chafee to help them replenishing their fuel stocks.

This was an important exercise for the two navies since refuelling mid-sea is a difficult task, particularly in a war and the tanker and the vessel could prove sitting ducks for the enemy, a senior Indian naval official said here. — PTI