New Delhi, August 30
In the wake of its recent tiffs with the Election Commission, the CPM today sought amendment of the Constitution on the modalities of appointment and removal of the Election Commissioners and to make them more accountable.

Initiating a debate on the need to reform the EC, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat today sought a constitutional amendment on the modalities of appointment and removal of the Election Commissioners and to make them accountable for their “omissions and commissions”.

The party had strongly reacted to the poll panel’s role during the West Bengal Assembly elections and had alleged that the Commission had acted in a biased manner.

The detailed note calls for debarring the Election Commissioners from taking up any office under the government or as Governors or MPs, indirectly pointing fingers at the former Chief Election Commissioners T.N. Seshan and Mohinder Singh Gill, who contested polls. The latter was successful in getting elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab as a Congress candidate.

The party suggested amendments or fresh legislation, if required, to clarify “grey areas” in a large number of issues, including delineating the role of observers and their selection and deployment of paramilitary forces when law and order is a state subject.

In a note circulated to all political parties and the poll panel, it called for legislative measures relating to the composition of the Commission and its powers and jurisdictions.

Mr Karat suggested reforms in four areas. These are the composition and modality of appointment and removal of members of the EC, including the CEC, the EC’s jurisdiction, the definition and role of poll observers and the question of law and order and deployment of forces.

Law and order: It is the exclusive prerogative of the state government as per the provisions of the Constitution. The Constitution does not have any saving clause which can over-ride this power. But, currently, unilateral approach is being pursued by the EC, which underlines a contempt and mistrust towards elected state governments questioning their commitment in defending the Constitution.

Role of Observers: The EC documents suggest that observers’ powers are essentially recommendatory in nature and persuasive in practice through the regular Election Commission hierarchy, the observers were actually found to be exercising executive powers, mostly through oral instructions. The method of appointment of observers is also flawed and does not have the requisite level of transparency commensurate with the recently enacted Right to Information Act.

Jurisdiction of EC: The EC’s decision to discipline officials under the Central and State governments even before the actual notification of the dates for election, the wholesale exclusion of the employees of a state entirely from crucial polling duties are fraught with upsetting federal sensitivities. The EC’s decision to question the legislative initiative of the executive subsequent to legislative decisions taken prior to the enforcement of the code of conduct implies encroachment in legislative autonomy and is prone to subjective interpretation.

Composition and appointment of EC: The members may be appointed by the President on the advice of a committee consisting of Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, Chief Justice of Supreme Court or anyone of his brother judges from the apex court. However, the ECs must be legally debarred from enjoying any office after retirement either under the government or as a Governor or as Members of Parliament to eliminate any possible conflict of interest.

In case of disputes between the government and the EC, there was no mechanism for resolution, he said.

“This issue also has to be resolved through appropriate legislation by Parliament. An amendment to Article 325 of the Constitution can bring about some mechanism for amicable resolution of such frictions”, Mr Karat said.

Patna, August 30
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar apparently dared the CPM general secretary Prakash Karat to call a spade a spade for his observation regarding the non-implementation of land reforms in Bihar.

Mr Karat in Patna on Wednesday had remarked that due to the absence of land reforms in Bihar, the feudal forces here were having the last laugh.

Reacting to Mr Karat’s remarks that Bihar’s agrarian problems had aggravated due to lack of land reforms by the state government, Mr Kumar wondered why the CPM chief was silent on the issue of non-implementation of land reforms in last 15 years when his allies had ruled the state.

Mr Kumar said, “Mr Karat should have asked this question to his allies (read both the RJD and the Congress)”.

Besides the RJD rule between 1990-2005 and except for a brief spell of non-Congress governments in the late ’70s and late ’80s the state was ruled by the Congress for the longest-ever period since Independence.

Defending his government’s resolve to implement land reforms in Bihar, Mr Kumar said the ruling NDA had set up a commission headed by former West Bengal bureaucrat, D. Bandopadhyay.

Mr Bandopadhyay, known as the architect of the “Operation Burga” in West Bengal, had worked under then Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu.

Mr Kumar said Mr Bandopadhyay was presently studying the various aspects of land reforms and its related problems in context of Bihar’s social equations and would also undertake field studies before submitting the report to the government in next couple of months.

Sources in the government disclosed that Mr Kumar was in favour of implementing upgraded Bengal model of land reforms in Bihar, linking it to multi-cropping and agro-based industries to herald a new revolution in rural Bihar in terms of employment generation.

He reportedly made his intention clear in this regard to the bureaucrats, asking them to extend all necessary assistance to the Bandopadhyay commission.

Sources further disclosed that Mr Kumar had consulted a number of experts on this issue and was serious to implement it as the Maoists often used land-related disputes to engineer social tension on caste lines.

The ruling NDA reportedly also hoped to blur the perennial caste divide to a great extent once land reforms were in place, besides isolating the Maoists from the people, in the state.

The land reforms were promised in the common minimum programme (CMP) of the NDA before the October-November poll.

It was reliably learnt that the Bihar Government placed its views on land reforms and rehabilitation packages, besides strengthening of intelligence and modernising the police, at the meeting convened by the Centre today in Delhi involving 13 Naxalite-affected states under Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal to work out a comprehensive strategy to isolate the Maoists from the people.

New Delhi, August 30
The BJP today condemned as an act of “minority appeasement” the Congress-led UPA government’s move to seek a consensus on the proposal to set up a bullet-proof structure to protect the makeshift Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

“The talks of a consensus on issues like security is unthinkable but the government had done this after proposing to set up a bullet-proof structure after the attack in Ayodhya and the blasts at the Sankat Mochan temple at Varanasi. This kind of backtracking was only after some Muslim groups opposed the setting up of the bullet-proof structure ahead of elections in Uttar Pradesh,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told newspersons.

“The safety of a religious place depends on factors like its intelligence inputs, threat perceptions and its sanctity, but the Centre’s stand to evolve a consensus on bullet-proofing of the Ram temple, in Ayodhya is the worst form of politics of appeasement,” the former Union Law Minister said.

His comments come in the wake of the Centre informing the Supreme Court yesterday that it was evolving a consensus and was in touch with the Uttar Pradesh Government for revamping security at the disputed site, including putting up bullet-proof steel walls around the Ram idol.

The BJP leader alleged that the Centre’s move would act as an encouragement to terrorists.

Asked if the BJP state governments would make singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in all madarasas, Mr Prasad said it was wrong to presume that those institutions were against singing the national song.

Pointing that it was the Union Government, which decided to observe centenary celebrations of Vande Mataram, sung at the All India Congress Committee session at Kashi on September 7, 1905, he claimed that “90 per cent Muslims are for singing the national song but the government is afraid of Ulemas in Hyderabad and the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid.”

New Delhi, August 30
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee is understood to have been told by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to represent India at the United Nations General Assembly session in New York in the third week of next month.

This assumes significance in view of speculations of a Cabinet reshuffle before Prime Minister embarks on his foreign tour on September 10. The political grapevine also has it that Dr Manmohan Singh may appoint a full-fledged External Affairs Minister.

The Prime Minister himself is not attending the session this time because this event is clashing with the Non Aligned Summit (NAM) in Cuba. The Prime Minister leaves on a nine-day foreign tour on September 10. From September 11 to 14, Dr Manmohan Singh will be in Brazil and from September 14 to 17 he will be in Havana.

Mr Mukherjee is leaving on September 1 for a weeklong tour of two important countries — France and Germany. In this tour, Mr Mukherjee will be handling important foreign policy-related issues, including defence matters like Scorpene submarine deal with France. France is a P5 country with which India has deepened its cooperation in strategic, economic and science and technology fields. Germany is a P5 + 1 country for all important international matters as evidenced in the Iranian nuclear episode.

New Delhi, August 30
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today assured MDMK chief Vaiko that India would not offer any military help to Sri Lanka and he was willing to meet 22 Tamil MPs of the island nation.

“India will not do anything that will strengthen the Sri Lankan military,” Mr Vaiko quoted the Prime Minister, whom he called on after holding a protest demonstration outside the Sri Lankan High Commission here.

The MDMK, which supports the Tamils’ cause in Sri Lanka, asked the government to mount pressure on Colombo to return to peace talks and to stop the “genocide” of ethnic minorities in the island nation.

He demanded that India should play a role in resuming the Norwegian-sponsored peace process in the strife-torn nation.

“We gave a detailed account of the Tamil problem and the present situation.

The meeting was satisfactory and the Prime Minister has told us that India will not offer any military help to the island nation,” Mr Vaiko told reporters.

The instructions are the same which were first issued in 1969. However, the Cabinet Secretary re-issued these instructions in July-end this year after the Government of India had been rocked by the Indo-US Cyber Association forum scam. A key official of the Forum, which had offices in the premises of the National Security Council (NSC), had been befriended by a US diplomat and the forum’s data base was stolen.

New Delhi, August 30
Union Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh today said that the government would soon bring in a Bill providing for 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in unaided higher educational institutions.

Speaking to mediapersons the Minister said the Bill, too, would be brought in Parliament in due course of time.

The legislation for introducing the OBC quota in government-aided institutions of higher learning like the IITs and IIMs was introduced on the last day of the monsoon session of Parliament, which concluded on August 25.

The Bill has been referred to the department-related Standing Committee, which will debate its finer points. It will be introduced in its final form in the winter session of Parliament.

Meanwhile, yielding to pressure from the Opposition over the use of certain phrases in the Hindi textbooks brought out by the NCERT, the government has announced the setting up of a review committee to examine the textbooks.

Mr Singh said the review committee set up by the government would be headed by eminent educationist and former UGC Chairman Prof Yashpal and would include six other members.

New Delhi, August 30
Admitting gaps in the implementation of development and security related projects at the grassroots level in Naxal-hit states, the Centre today announced the strengthening of the Naxal desk in the Union Home Ministry by inducting senior police officers and providing air support to the worst-hit states.

Addressing a press conference after a day-long meeting with top officials of 13 Naxal-hit states, Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal said the Centre had also decided to provide air support and hi-tech gadgets to Naxal-hit states for evacuation and effective intelligence gathering.

An inter-ministerial committee was being constituted for effective coordination and monitoring of various development projects funded by various ministries of the Centre in Naxal-hit states.

He said the aerial support would not be meant for operational purposes.

About the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, he said it was aimed at collecting inputs in Chhattisgarh, which had 1,000 sq km of thick forests, making it difficult for security personnel to comb the area.

Since the Home Ministry had a limited air wing, the states affected could hire helicopters and form a consortium.

There might be one in the south for Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa and another in the north for Bihar and Jharkhand, he said.

“The Centre will bear expenses from the Security Related Expenditure”, Mr Duggal added.

To another question, he said the Salwa Judum (March for Peace) would continue in Chhattisgarh, which had registered a decline in Naxalite violence.

New Delhi, August 30
Thirteen scientists will receive the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize this year for their contributions to science and technology.

The prizes are awarded by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) annually to young scientists for their outstanding scientific contributions in the country. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will give away the prizes.

Dr Vinod Bhakuni, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow and Dr Rajesh Sudhir Gokhale, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, have won the prize in biological sciences.

Dr Gufran-Ullah Beig, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, and Dr Pulak Sengupta, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, have been awarded the prize in the field of earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences.

In the category of physical sciences, the prize will be given to Dr Atish Dabholkar of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai and Dr Sanjay Puri of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Dr Virender Singh Sangwan, L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, will get the award in the field of medical sciences.

In chemical sciences, Dr Srinivasan Sampath, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Dr K. George Thomas, Regional Research Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram, will get the prize.

Dr Ashish Lele, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune and Dr Sanjay Mittal, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, will get the prize for engineering sciences.

Dr Vikraman Balaji, Chennai Mathematical Institute, Siruseri, and Dr Indranil Biswas, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, will get the award in the field of mathematical sciences.