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Pokhran-II led to ‘surrenders’: Bhagwat
Monsoon hits Delhi
Pranab persuaded Manmohan to continue as Prime Minister
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Mulayam may go for snap elections
Criminals gang up against Nitish govt
Foreign affairs: Bardhan for debate in House
CM converts Lalu’s animal farm to herbal centre
BJP seeks report on power shortage
V.P. Singh plans march against Dadri power plant
INSAT-4C launch today
A.Q. Khan was made scapegoat: Bhutto
Anganwadi staff to hold dharna
National parks service mooted
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Pokhran-II led to ‘surrenders’: Bhagwat
New Delhi, July 9 Admiral Bhagwat, the first service chief to be sacked from his post in late 1998, insists the Pokhran-II tests resulted in the “surrender of India’s sovereignty” and a “culture and mindset of dependency” instead of adding to national strength and self-confidence and accelerating all-round national capability through self-reliance. In his new book “The Eye Opening: As I saw it”, the former Navy chief lists a number of policies and developments like the declaration of a unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests and holding of summit-level talks with Pakistan in Lahore in February 1999, and claims these were detrimental to India’s interest. “Pokhran-II was a push-button affair for the BJP-led NDA government which took office six weeks earlier (to the May 1998 explosions),” he says while noting that the tests represented the effort of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). “The much-trumpeted Pokhran-II ... marks the U-turn to surrender India’s sovereignty...It led to a series of surrenders in every sector of the national polity, economy and science and technology,” he says. Admiral Bhagwat, who was sacked seven months after the May 1998 nuclear tests, says by conducting the explosions, the BJP-led government made claims that it had “proved its manhood (and) its nationalist credentials”. The Pokhran-II tests were “claimed to be a great success for the new government, internationally, and with the superpowers...(But) we had created quite a mess for ourselves,” he writes in his book.
— PTI
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Monsoon hits Delhi
New Delhi, July 9 As of now, the situation appears to be quite promising for most parts of the north-west, including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Uttar Pradesh,
Barring north-eastern parts of
Rajasthan, which in any case never get anything more than very light rains, most parts of the country are likely to get covered by monsoon rains during the next two days, weather experts predict. So far so good. The maximum rains during the next two days, July 10 and 11 that is, will be over western parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttranchal and adjoining areas in eastern Punjab and Haryana. Uttar Pradesh was the epicentre of the confluence of several small-scale cluster of currents like easterlies from the Bay of Bengal and south-westerlies from the Arabian Sea side, which resulted in this intense western event. However, most parts of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal are likely to benefit from this activity during the next two days. Today, several parts of the Uttar Pradesh like Allahabad and Varanasi, received very good rainfall. Delhi, which is coming at the edge of this activity, will see better rains during the next 24 to 36 hours as this patch is now moving towards north-northwest. The important part is that the weather models show that the entire north-west, barring a few parts, are likely to keep receiving intermittent rains for the next two days. This will result in the daytime temperatures settling between 30°C and 35°C and increase after July 13 when the monsoon current recedes. Weather experts say that the problem is that the arrival of this monsoon current has coincided with a western disturbance. Whenever such an interaction happens, rain activity gets reduced over Jammu and Kashmir. So after the hill state is likely to get rains after July 11. This is a natural occurrence whenever a western disturbance interacts with the monsoon trough. And another fall-out of such an interaction is that monsoon clouds will recede from the area by July 12 or 13 and subsequently result in the weakening of the monsoon current over the region.
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Pranab persuaded Manmohan to continue
Kolkata, July 9 According to AICC sources, Dr Manmohan Singh was already much disturbed and disgusted at the continuing “big bossing attitude of the Left leadership” in running the UPA government and in fact, he wanted to quit the Prime Ministership twice which he had conveyed to Ms Sonia Gandhi. But on both occasions, he was requested by Ms Gandhi to change his decision. However, when DMK leader M. Karunadihi gave him an ultimatum of withdrawal of support in protest against the decision of the disinvestment of Neyveli Lignite and Nalco, which IT minister Dayanidhi Maran conveyed to him on July 5, he finally decided to resign. Accordingly, he met Ms Gandhi with a copy of his resignation the same night. Party sources said the Defence Minister who then wasn’t in New Delhi, was soon summoned by Ms Gandhi. The next morning, a meeting was held at her residence in which along with Mr Mukherjee, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Home Minister, Mr Shivraj Patil and Information Minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi were present. After the meeting, both Mr Mukherjee and Mr Das Munshi had rushed to the Prime Minister’s residence as Ms Gandhi’s emissaries to persuade the Prime Minister to withdraw his resignation. Mr Manmohan Singh, reportedly, then told the Defence Minister that he had already been under much strain and pressure following the continuing threat and big bossing of the CPM and other Left leaders on disinvestment and other economic issues which was compelling him to step down. The Prime Minister also expressed his displeasure that even a section in the Congress leadership was opposing his economic policies which had been drafted and cleared by the AICC leadership and the Left parties under the common minimum programme. This time, when the DMK gave an ultimatum on the disinvestment issue, he could find no other option but to resign. However, after much discussion and persuasion, the Prime Minister was ultimately persuaded to withdraw his resignation and agree to temporarily withdraw the disinvestment proposal of Nalco and Neyveli Lignite. The veteran CPM leader, Mr Jyoti Basu, said he was happy that a crisis was averted and the disinvestment of Nalco and Neyveli Lignite was stopped. He said though the UPA government was not properly implementing the common minimum
programme still he would want that the Manmohan Singh government should run the full five-year term to stop the BJP from coming to power.
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Mulayam may go for snap elections
New Delhi, July 9 Sources said that the wrestler-turned-politician is seriously contemplating of catching his opponents unawares. The UP Chief Minister is likely to get a resolution passed by his Council of Ministers for recommending to the Governor dissolution of the Assembly which would then result in snap elections. Confronted with growing opposition to his government and realising that the Jan Dal led by his cinestar turned politician Raj Babbar, who is being backed by former Prime Minister V.P. Singh may grow into a force taking away his traditional Muslim voters from the Samajwadi Party, Mr Yadav is of the view that preponement of Assembly election would only help his party. Apart from the Jan Dal, the Bahujan Samaj Party led by former state Chief Minister Mayawati is proving to the main opponent which is in a strong position to snatch political power from the Samajwadi Party, observers said. An indication to this effect came today when Mr Yadav today met Chairman of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) Maulana Rabe Hasan Nadwi in the state capital for over a hour. The Chief Minister, who drove to Maulana’s residence, assured the AIMPLB chief that his government would speedily attend to the issues which have been raised during the meeting. The AIMPLB has been critical of the state government for ignoring the several representations concerned with the problems being faced by the community in the state. The board has written several letters to Mr Yadav for bringing about changes in the text books at basic and high school levels which, they claim, contained wrong and distorted historical facts about Muslims. The AIMPLB had also urged the Chief Minister to bring a change in the State Zamindari Abolition Act and make provisions for granting rights to Muslim women in the agricultural land of their parents. Besides these issues, the board has also been reminding Mr Yadav of his promise that if voted to power he would transfer the special court trying Ayodhya demolition cases from Rai Bareli to Lucknow.
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Criminals gang up against Nitish govt
Patna, July 9 The open admission by none other than the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, Mr Justice J.N .Bhatt, at a programme on Saturday that the law and order situation under the new regime was improving in Bihar. It was a pointer to the fact how the “strong arm” tactics of the Nitish Kumar government to deal with criminals. Besides the reported “evil design” of criminals, sources said the Home Department was worried over the two recent cases in which a section of officials was damaging the image of the government. On July 5, the Assistant Jailor of Saharsa allegedly had allowed the illegal escapade of former JD (U) MP, Anandmohan, charged with 19 criminal cases, to Derha Dun on the pretext of his hearing in a case related to Uttaranchal. What had shocked the department that after his illegal release from the jail, Anandmohan had roamed in Patna for two days before boarding the train for Dehra Dun on July 7. The hearing of the pending case in Uttaranchal was supposed to be reportedly held on June 29. Another case in point was the decision by the Jailor of Bhagalpur to allow RJD MP Md. Shahabuddin to travel in a luxury car during his shifting to Siwan jail in May. In both cases, the department suspended the jail officials concerned and initiated departmental proceedings against them. The sources said some political elements from both Opposition and the ruling were trying to defame the NDA government as a direct fall-out of his “strong arm” tactics to deal with criminals. It claimed that a section of the NDA MLAs did not like Mr Kumar move to gave a free hand to the police to lodge FIR against the JD (U) MLA Sunil Pandey for his recent drunken brawl at a city hotel. An FIR was also lodged against both BJP MLA Abnish Kumar and RJD MLA Bablu Dev on last Tuesday for bullying the state Transport Secretary, Mr Pancham Lal, on Monday at his chamber for not obliging them by revoking the suspension of MVI inspector S.P.Tiwari. Mr Kumar even did not spare the state Sports and Culture Minister, Mr Janardan Singh Sigriwal, who belongs to BJP, and JD (U) MLA Ram Pravesh for abusing each other in full public view at Chapra over the issue of roping in a zila parishad member in their fold in recent past. The tough stand taken by Nitish government against RJD MP Shahabuddin, now languishing in Siwan jail, and the brother-in-law of Lalu Prasad, Sadhu Yadav, for intimidating a rival candidate for the post Zila Board Chief in Gopalganj are known secret.
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Foreign affairs: Bardhan for debate in House
Hyderabad, July 9 Addressing mediapersons here on the concluding day of the three-day national council meet of the party, Mr Bardhan said the CPI would raise the issue in the next session. All agreements and treaties signed by the government should be ratified in the Parliament after detailed discussions, the CPI leader asserted. He said the CPI would demand the UPA government allow discussion on foreign affairs in both Houses in the coming monsoon session of Parliament. The national council of the party expressed serious concern over the continued drift of the UPA government on foreign policy. The UPA government appeared to be following the NDA government's policy of forging strategic relations with the USA and gradually distancing itself from the NAM.
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CM converts Lalu’s animal farm to herbal centre
Patna, July 9 Sources said the official residence of the Chief Minister had undergone a sea change with the change of guard. Mr Lalu and Ms Rabri Devi, then famous Chief Minister couple, took delight in showing rare breeds of cows, buffaloes, horses and pond filled with varieties of fish to their guests. But Mr Nitish Kumar, known for his love for herbal plants, as he inherits the legacy of being the son of a “vaidya”, is now growing rare herbal and medicinal plants. It was learnt that around 60 varieties of herbal plants have already been shortlisted, and some have been planted too.“Plans are in place to regulate the temperature around the plants with the help of a thermostat”, sources said. The prominent shortlisted plants include safed musli (used as energy capsule), stivla (used to treat blood sugar), ashwagandha (for joints’ pain), pathar chur(for treatment of stones in kidney) and naqgchampa( to get rid of fat). However, for the Agriculture Department it is obviously a U-turn, from the cultivation of onion and potato in the sprawling compound to growing aromatic plants.
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BJP seeks report on power shortage
New Delhi, July 9 Accusing the government of going slow on infrastructure development projects, BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said residents even in the National Capital Region went without power for six to eight hours a day. “The UPA has betrayed the common man,” he said.
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V.P. Singh plans march against Dadri power plant
New Delhi, July 9 The march, on August 15, would be to protest against the land allotment to Reliance Energy Generation Limited and the atrocities committed by the police on farmers agitating on the Delhi-UP border yesterday, he said. “We will expose the rule of corruption and favouritism of the Mulayam Singh government which was robbing the poor to feed the rich, powerful and the industrialists,” the former Prime Minister said. Questioning the ‘dubious means’ through which land for the power plant was acquired, he asked how come no competitive bidding was done as was the common practice and power price not settled before the project, as was done in the Enron case. “Favouritism like giving subsidy of 60 per cent of the project to such a huge profit-making company like Reliance and providing it with the land of the ‘gram samaj’ without compensating was indicative of fraud committed by the Mulayam Singh government,” Mr V.P. Singh said. Even after two years, by when power generation at Dadri was to have started, no construction has been done, he said. “Why is the penalty clause, if at all there, not being invoked for the delay in the project?” he asked.
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Chennai, July 9 The GSLV will lift off with the 2168 kg INSAT-4C, the heaviest in its class, at 4 pm on Monday, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair told reporters at the airport here last night. “The preparations for the launch are going on satisfactorily. A rehearsal was held and the results were good”, he said on arrival here enroute to Sriharikota. This is the first launch of the GSLV from the Rs 350 crore state-of-the-art launch pad commissioned in May 2005. The 49-metre-tall, 414 tonne GSLV is a three stage vehicle. The first stage, GS1, comprises a core motor with 138 tonnes of solid propellants and four strap-on motors, each with 42 tonnes of hypergolic liquid propellant. The second stage has 39 tonne of the same hypergolic liquid propellant. The third (GS3) is a cryogenic stage with 12.6 tonne of liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2). INSAT 4C, the second satellite in the INSAT 4 series, will give a boost to direct-to-home television services, video picture transmission and digital satellite news gathering. It will also provide space for National Informatics Centre’s VSAT connectivity. — PTI
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A.Q. Khan was made scapegoat: Bhutto
New Delhi, July 9 “We believe that A.Q. Khan was asked to fall on a sword in order to save other more powerful people and in exchange he was pardoned and was also allowed to keep the $ 400 million too,” Ms Bhutto told NDTV in an interview in London. On Friday, the Pakistani military had claimed Khan had run a “private” proliferation network and had not named any “state functionary” during his interrogation. It also said he had named only two ex-aides of Bhutto in this connection. Ms Bhutto, currently living in exile in London, refused to accept that Khan was involved in proliferation on his own. “I don't believe that Khan did this on his own.” “My party has called for a parliamentary investigation into the sales of nuclear export because we think it is very dangerous. We can't allow people to get away with such kind of sales and we need to question Khan to find out how these sales were made,” the Pakistan People's Party leader said. Ms Bhutto also dismissed as “ridiculous” the perception that only a military regime could resolve the Kashmir issue, saying the problem “allows them to live a luxurious life.” “How ridiculous...I am sorry to say how ridiculous. Why would the military commit suicide by finding a solution to the Kashmir dispute which allows them to live a luxurious life as the emperors of Rome did?” she said.
— PTI
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Anganwadi staff to hold dharna
New Delhi, July 9 Speaking at a press conference, All-India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers President Neelima Maitra demanded that the services of workers and helpers should be regularised and pension schemes for anganwadi employees should be introduced.
— TNS
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National parks service mooted
New Delhi, July 9 The wildlife lobby had been pushing for the creation of a separate service to take care of national parks and other protected areas and wildlife sanctuaries after the Sariska disaster.
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