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BJP executive to focus on poll strategy
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SC questions mode of filing FIR against Badals Matto Case
Case against SIMI leader withdrawn
Talks on UN convention against terrorism at advanced stage
Rape victim alleges police laxity
Regulator malfunctioning led to GSLV-F2 failure
CSE says no to Coke offer
Prof’s death: plea against CM admitted
Govt restrained from allotting SC pool bungalows
Partial lunar eclipse today
PM calls up Iranian President Youth held for
hoax call delaying Kalam
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BJP executive to focus on poll strategy
New Delhi, September 6 Even as the party is on a losing wicket in Jharkhand where the 18-month-old Munda government appears to be on way out, the BJP’s top leadership will try to find ways which can help the party to retain its political space in Uttranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur against the backdrop of dwindling ideological appeal, internal battle with the RSS and pet issues like Ayodhya and hard Hindutva not gathering enough stem to influence the voters. Though the controversy over Vande Mataram was god sent as it came in handy for the party ahead of the executive to focus once again on its core Hindutva campaign amid expectations in the party that the row over the National Song would help it galvanise its ideological constituency but whether it is going to help the party to catch votes is a moot question. With the view of encashing the controversy fully, party stalwarts like Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mr L.K. Advani and Mr Rajnath Singh will lead the singing of full Vande Mataram — which includes portions opposed seven decades ago by the Muslim League — before the start of the BJP’s office-bearers meeting tomorrow morning, BJP sources said but also admitted that the opposition coming from its allies like the SAD is an embarrassment. The Vande Mataram row has in fact given a common cause to the BJP and the RSS — whose ties have strained over the past few years over ideological issues. “The opposition to Vande Mataram has put both the Congress and the Samajwadi Party in the dock. The concept of nation evokes powerful sentiments and it can yield electoral benefits for the BJP,” a party leader said. The BJP has named the venue, where the national executive is scheduled to begin tomorrow, as the Vande Mataram hall. The issue of national security both internal as well external is going to be another issue which will occupy a prominent place in the deliberations. The executive will adopt a resolution on security voicing concern over the rise in terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, naxalism in several states and insurgency in the North-East. The has reportedly roped in some defence experts who are going to enlighten the top leadership of the dangers — internal and external — on security front. While the address of the party President on the opening day will cover the entire political scenario, the party has no plans to adopt a separate resolution on the political situation. Through the issues of price rise and farmers suicides, the meeting will launch a scathing attack on the Congress-led UPA coalition at the Centre. The meeting is likely to come out with a
programme of agitation on these issues. The meeting would conclude on Saturday with addresses by Mr Advani and Mr Vajpayee.
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Devotees bid adieu to Ganpati
Mumbai, September 6 As the 10-day Ganesh festival drew to a close, the idols of the God of Wisdom, in different shapes and sizes, were being taken to various sea-fronts, including Dadar, Girgaum, Juhu and Marve, for the “visarjan”. The immersion processions would go on till early tomorrow morning, as some of the city’s well-known Ganeshas, such as “Lalbaugcha Raja”, pass their way through streets and bylanes, stopping at every locality to enable people to pay their respects. According to the police, more than 1.25 lakh idols would be immersed by the end of the day. This year, a heavy police presence was evident, especially at major points such as Shivaji Park, Dadar sea face, Worli, Giragaum and Juhu, in view of the threat perception. Apart from the city’s police force, an additional force of 2,400 policemen from other parts of the state have been deployed in the city. In addition, 10 companies of the State Reserve Police Force, six CRPF companies, three of the RAF, 800 home guards, 300 civil defence and 500 private security guards have been deployed. In all, 43,000 security personnel and more than 50,000 volunteers were out on the streets.
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SC questions mode of filing FIR against Badals New Delhi, September 6 During resumed arguments by Badal’s counsel K.K. Venugopal, a Bench of Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia questioned why the complaint in the case was directly sent to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh only with a copy to the Director, Vigilance, instead of filing of an FIR with the police station concerned. The questions were asked when Mr Venugopal representing the SAD leader with former Punjab Advocate General H.S. Mattewal pointed out from the records that the complaint was first sent to the Chief Minister by complainant Congress worker Balwant Singh on June 24, 2003. The counsel said Mr Balwant Singh was rewarded with the appointment as the Director of the Punjab Land Development and Reclamation Corporation soon after filing the complaint. “It was strange that Mr Balwant Singh had all the details and first hand information about the alleged amassing of assets and black money of Mr Badal, his wife Surinder Kaur and son Sukhbir Singh,” Mr Venugopal said. Punjab Advocate General R.S. Cheema told the court that the Chief Minister had ultimately referred Mr Balwant Singh’s letter of complaint to the Director, Vigilance, Mr A.P. Pandey, who subsequently sent it to the SP concerned to register a case. To another question whether the Vigilance Director has the authority to take a decision whether a case should be registered or not, Mr Cheema said he could take a decision about non-registration by filtering out frivolous complaints. But if he was of the view that a “prima facie” case was made out he could send the complaint to the police officer concerned. Mr Venugopal said but contrary happened in this case as the FIR was “hastily” registered with Mohalia police station “without a preliminary inquiry” on the same day when Mr Balwant’s letter was received by the Chief Minister. The Punjab Advocae General, who was yet to start the arguments, said ultimately the case was registered as per the provisions of the law. While pointing out various alleged discrepancies in the charge-sheet, the Badal’s counsel questioned the trial court taking cognizance of it in the absence of a “proper” sanction in the Badals’ case and the Vigilance Bureau not taking any sanction in the case of Mr Sukbir Badal, who was also a public servant for being a Rajya Sabha MP and Minister of State in the NDA government.
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CBI asked to prove evidence was not tampered Tribune News Service New Delhi, September 6 A division Bench headed by Justice R.S Sondhi questioned the additional Solicitor General Amrinder Saran for over an hour on the issue as his counsel could not give satisfactory replies to the court on the second day of the hearing of the sensational 1996 murder case. The court had yesterday observed that except on two grounds, the entire judgement of the trial court appeared to be supporting the prosecution’s view of accused Santosh Singh’s involvement in the Mattoo murder case. The two grounds, which the CBI claimed were irrefutable evidence but rejected by the trial judge, were the findings of the DNA test which established that the semen samples recovered from the undergarments of the deceased and the blood stains collected from the visor of Singh’s helmet belonged to the accused. According to the CBI, the DNA test conducted at the Hyderabad-based CDFD had stated that semen samples collected from the undergarments of the deceased matched with those of the accused. Similarly, the blood stains collected from the broken pieces of helmet visor purportedly belonging to Santosh Singh matched the blood samples of the victim, Priyadarshini Mattoo.
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Case against SIMI leader withdrawn
Lucknow, September 6 The case today came up in the court of District Judge A. K. Sinha. Speaking to TNS, District Government Counsel (Criminal) Anwar Ahmad Khan said the withdrawal application was filed under Section 321 of the Cr PC Act. Under this provision the state government had written to the District Magistrate to reconsider the case after studying its merits. The case against Falahi and 11 others pertains to his alleged anti-national speech delivered on September 16, 2001, at the local Sir Syed Girl’s College. The Kotwali police had registered a case for sedition, creating communal disharmony and hurting religious sentiments. After studying the case, the DGC found innumerable weaknesses that he said would have made proving the charges extremely difficult. Elaborating on the lacuna, Mr Khan said since it was a public function the meeting was attending by the City Magistrate, and senior district and police officials. “If something unlawful was happening in their very presence they should have taken action there and then and dispersed the meeting. The fact that the district police lodged an FIR against the speeches made at the meeting two days later was difficult to defend.” Giving another example, Mr Khan said despite the charges the speech creating communal disharmony nothing happened in Bahraich during the next two days or ever since. The fast track court today also squashed an application submitted by a group of Bahraich lawyers led by Mr Bhagwan Baksh Singh requesting the court not to grant permission for withdrawal of the case. The application had been submitted by the local lawyers following SIMI’s reported involvement in the Mumbai blasts.
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Talks on UN convention against terrorism at New Delhi, September 6 An official of the Ministry of External Affairs today said the Convention would have “a lot of weight”, not just teeth. India presented its own draft way back in 1996. The Convention will be much more effective than the existing UN Security Council resolutions on the menace. It will have an effective monitoring and implementation mechanism to ensure that all signatories fall in line. The UN decided more than a decade ago to adopt CCIT to create comprehensive international standards to deal with the problem. The first of these, the 1994 Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, annexed to UNGA Resolution 49/60 encouraged member states to urgently review the scope of the existing international legal provisions on prevention, repression and elimination of terrorism with the aim of ensuring that there is a comprehensive legal framework covering all aspects of the matter. The long history of these negotiations has demonstrated that several important disagreements persist among member states which so far have prevented them from taking a comprehensive approach. These differences relate to the following:
The draft Convention obligates parties to cooperate in the prevention and punishment of acts of terrorism. It also obligates parties to refrain from organising, instigating, facilitating, financing, assisting, or participating in the commission of terrorist offenses in the territories of other States; take practical measures to ensure that their respective territories are not used for terrorist installations and training camps; take appropriate measures, before granting asylum, to ensure that the asylum seeker has not engaged in terrorist activities; and cooperate in preventing and punishing terrorist acts. The draft Convention requires States on whose territory a person has committed a terrorist act to investigate his or her involvement in the offence and take such person into custody for the purpose of prosecution or
extradition.
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Rape victim alleges police laxity
New Delhi, September 6 This 16-year-old from Farmana village near Meham Chaubisi in Rohtak district has brought her protest against the laxity of the Police Department in apprehending those allegedly involved in gang-raping her on the fateful night of July 8 to the Capital. She claims to have lost all hope in the state government alleging that subsequent to the inhuman crime that changed her life forever, instead of helping her, government officials and others tried to shield the accused. Sitting with head bowed and a fixed blank look in her eyes, along with her mother, the girl doesn’t say much. But her father Jagdish and others accompanying him are quite vocal and directly blame the police and the state government for shielding the five accused, who, they say, belong to the all-powerful Jat community in the state. As per the victim’s father, they have already met the local MLA and the MP. “But they said all that needed to be done had been done. They told us one of the accused had been arrested and what more do we want now,” he alleged, adding that their demand was the arrest of all the five accused. And till this happens they said they would continue their dharna at Jantar Mantar come what may. The girl identified two among the five accused on the basis of which the police arrested one Jagdish, alias Jaggu, from the same village. However, the family and others accompanying them from their village want all accused to be behind the bars for the humility they suffered in the village. For this, they had written to the President, the Prime Minister and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Besides, their applications were also there with the National Commission for Women, the NHRC and the SC/ST Commission. As per Foundation for Common Man activist Prahlad Aggarwal, who is now pursuing the case on the behalf of the family, the police tried to scuttle the case right from the day one to save the accused.
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Regulator malfunctioning led to GSLV-F2 failure
Bangalore, September 6 The propellant regulator was part of the Vikas engine used in the strap on stage of the GSLV. According to ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair the propellant regulator, which was outsourced from an Indian engineering company, was delivered with a diameter of 16 millimeters whereas it should had been 17 mm in diameter. The one millimeter difference escaped detection during subsequent inspection and test procedures. The ISRO Chairman said it had conducted a water calibration test to check the part and that the same procedure had been used to check 54 engines earlier. “However from hindsight we can now say this testing procedure is not totally adequate.” He said the propellant regulator was part of a number of parts which could not be tested in a dynamic condition as it was a mechanical component. “We will have to innovate and see whether we can test such parts in dynamic conditions,” he added. The ISRO Chairman did not name the company responsible for manufacturing the faulty part. He said it was not part of the ISRO culture to go on a witch hunt. He also said the company would not be black listed as the error was “inadvertent.” He said the ISRO did not want to do this as it had developed a civilian industry to serve its cause over a long period of time. The industry was, however, being exposed to the intricacies of the job through regular sessions and that in future more clauses could be added to contracts to ensure stricter quality control by industry. Mr Nair said the Failure Analysis Committee (FAC) headed by Mr K. Narayana had certified that the design of GSLV was robust and recommended implementation of strict control on fabrication, inspection and acceptance procedures. The FAC has recommended that all critical dimensions of components and sub-assemblies be subjected to independent inspection by in-house agencies.
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CSE says no to Coke offer
New Delhi, September 6 Protesting against “double standards of soft drinks majors, the government and inordinate delay in setting norms”, Ms Narain said recent developments pointed to the fact that public policy was being compromised therefore there could be no meeting point between Coca-Cola and
the CSE. On August 16, Coca-Cola had invited the CSE to discuss the issue of pesticides residues in its products, an offer which the CSE initially accepted.
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Prof’s death: plea against CM admitted
Ujjain/New Delhi, September 6 Parties concerned have been issued notices summoning them on September 15 in the court of Judicial Magistrate Vidhi Saksena before whom the petition was filed by Prof Sabharwal’s son Himanshu. Mr Himanshu’s statement has been recorded and petitioner’s counsel said “summons were issued to SDM Manoj Pushp, CSP Manoj Singh and the district hospital’s Senior Physician Kishore Nagar”. NHRC seeks report
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission has asked the Madhya Pradesh Government to submit within a fortnight a report on his death. Taking cognisance of news reports on the incident, the commission had said: “If the contents of the reports are true, they raise serious issue of violation of human rights of the citizens.” In his complaint to the commission, Himanshu has alleged that the police was tampering with the evidence and protecting the guilty. He demanded an impartial inquiry into the incident.
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Govt restrained from allotting SC pool bungalows
New Delhi, September 6 The experience of the court in the past was that after losing the bungalows from its pool it took a considerable time to get a suitable bungalow allotted to the newly appointed judge and a judge even had to stay in a guest house for a long period. Earlier 27 bungalows of Type-VIII were allotted to Supreme Court to provide accommodation to its 26 judges, which is the sanctioned strength of judges in the apex court and one was for the purpose of being used as a guest house. But with the retirement of four judges and the appointment of new judges yet to be made, the Estate Department had planned to revert the vacant houses to the general pool for allotment to ministers and senior bureaucrats. Taking note of it, a Bench of Mr Justice B.N Agrawal, Mr Justice P.P Naolekar and Mr Justice Lokeshwar Singh Panta directed the government not to allot any Type-VIII bungalows without its prior permission. Earlier, the Registrar General of the Supreme Court had written a letter to the Ministry of Urban Affairs that the three bungalows allotted to the apex court pool at Kamraj Lane and Thyagraj Marg were not suitable for judges’ residence. The court said until three alternative houses were allotted to apex court pool, no allotment of any Type-VIII bungalows should be made and the Registrar General be informed about the completion of the apex court pool quota.
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Partial lunar eclipse today
New Delhi, September 6 The more than one-and-a-half-hour-long celestial event will be visible in all parts of the country, the Science and Technology Ministry today said, adding that in India, the eclipse will begin from 2335 hrs tomorrow and end at 0108 hrs the next day. The eclipse will also be visible in parts of Antarctica, Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe, including the British Isles.
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PM calls up Iranian President New Delhi, September 6 Both leaders agreed for the need of strong and vibrant Indo-Iran relations which is of strategic importance to the region. The Ministry of External Affairs said the two leaders reaffirmed the need to accelerate projects on the ongoing cooperation in energy and transport sectors. They also expressed satisfaction at the current state of bilateral relations between India and Iran.
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Youth held for
hoax call delaying Kalam Chennai, September 6 Perinbaraj, 21, a salesman at the GRT Thanga Maligai in the city’s business area was arrested after the police traced his call to a PCO near the jewellery shop. Though the caller ID did not display the full number the police used the CCTV inside the shop and matching the time of the hoax call succeeded in arresting him.
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