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Cong in jitters over disgruntled Assam MP
Safeguards Pact Demand for Bharat Ratna for Sam
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Govt set to fall: BJP
Political stage gets murkier
Mayawati tried to buy my MP, says Amar Singh
Amar meets Somnath
Pranab to skip ARF meet
Married man’s sex with woman on promise of marriage is rape: SC
Punjab & Haryana HC
Kirti Chakra for Kabul blast victims likely
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Cong in jitters over disgruntled Assam MP
Guwahati, July 15 A party source informed that the septuagenarian Congress MP, representing the Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency in Assam, had sent signals to the party leaders indicating his aversion to vote for the UPA government in the trust vote. The MP had not been on good terms with the Congress leadership in Assam for the treatment meted out to him by the party and had already abstained from voting in the last presidential election, much to the embarrassment of the party. Though he cast his vote in favour of Hamid Ansari during the vice-president’s election after much persuasion by the party MPs. The MP is apparently unhappy with the state party leadership which had earlier given signals that the party was unlikely to re-nominate him to contest the next Lok Sabha election from the Barpeta constituency. Former President late Fakharuddin Ali Ahmed's son, Dr Parvez Ahmed, is tipped to be nominated for the seat. When asked about the disturbing signals coming from Osmani, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said, “I have not been asked by the Congress Parliamentary Party to get in touch with any MP from the state regarding the trust vote.” When asked whether the party’s decision not to re-nominate Osmani for the next Lok Sabha election had angered the MP from Barpeta constituency, the Chief Minister said, “The party has not decided on the Lok Sabha candidates as yet. There are certain norms for selecting party candidates and it is up to the state party election committee and the party high command to decide who will be the party nominees.” “It is the media that is circulating the name of Dr Pavez Ahmed as replacement of Osmani in Barpeta constituency. There is nothing official about it. Even Osmani’s son is seeking nomination from Barpeta. The party is open to all requests that are going to come from district-level party committee,” Gogoi said, in an apparent attempt to placate Osmani. Repeated attempts to contact the MP at his Barpeta residence proved futile. However, party sources informed that Osmani will definitely go to New Delhi to take part in the special session of the Parliament.
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Safeguards
Pact
New Delhi, July 15 His visit comes amid reports from Vienna that the IAEA board of governors, which was to take up the agreement on July 28, would now meet on August 1. Official sources here today said the briefing was being done to clarify doubts, if any, among the 35 IAEA members with regard to the agreement or the Indo-US nuclear deal. At least 19 countries on the board of governors of the IAEA are also members of the nuclear suppliers’ group (NSG) where India, with the support of the US, will take its case for ‘clean unconditional exemption’ for nuclear trade once the safeguards agreement was signed. Noting that the IAEA had circulated the safeguards agreement among the IAEA members on July 9, the sources said the members would have studied the text of the draft in detail by the time Menon holds the briefing. Meanwhile, just as the fate of the UPA government in the Lok Sabha on trust vote hangs in balance, it may well be a ‘touch-and-go-affair’ for the Indo-US nuclear deal in the US Congress. Officials said it might not be that easy to secure the passage of the deal in the Congress given the fact that it would adjourn in September or early October as members would want to plunge into the campaign for the Presidential election that are due in November. Pointing out that the deal would go to the NSG once the agreement was signed, they said Washington would take India’s case to the NSG only if it was certain that the deal could be passed by the Congress within the short time at the disposal of the Bush administration. And even if everything goes according to New Delhi’s plans at the IAEA and the NSG, some of the opponents of the deal in the Congress might drag the debate so that the House was adjourned before the passage of the pact.
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Demand for Bharat Ratna for Sam
New Delhi, July 15 General Deepinder Singh (retd) said Manekshaw was an upright and brave personality and deserved the highest civilian award. Later, defence minister A. K. Antony remained non-committal on conferring the Bharat Ratna but said the government was aware of the sentiments the country has for Manekshaw. Antony was talking to reporters here on the sidelines of a memorial function for Manekshaw. Antony and the three service chiefs had not attended the funeral of Manekshaw that drew widespread criticism. All of them were present here today. Jehan Daruwala, a grandson of recounted tales of the Field Marshal. “At home, this man was the farthest thing from being the highest-ranking officer in one of the world’s largest standing Army. To Raul, Brandy and me, he was always Sam, our most amazing, wonderful, and loving grandfather,” he said, adding: “He was an incredible storyteller. Since Sam Manekshaw grew up in Amritsar, his stories seemed like characters that sounded like they came out of an Amritsar version of Malgudi Days.”
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Govt set to fall: BJP
New Delhi, July 15 The BJP is “working on numbers and mobilising the support from all possible quarters,” said senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu here today. BJP parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra was confident that “The Congress will not go beyond 250”, adding: “We are confident that the government will fall on July 22 and after that there will be elections and the BJP will come to power.” “The BJP has issued a three-line whip asking its MPs to report in Delhi by July 20. Our allies are also issuing similar whips,” he added. “Core group of the BJP is meeting every day. They met at Advani’s residence on Monday and later again today,” Naidu disclosed. He said: “The BJP has also started working on it. The National Conference (NC) has yet to decide but going by the fact that the People’s Democratic Party is supporting the government, the NC may oppose it.” He also claimed that the BJP has the support of two MDMK MPs while five MPs from the JMM are also hurt. Dayanidhi Maran from the DMK will abstain. Two Kerala Congress MPs will also vote with us,” Venkaiah Naidu claimed, adding: “It is going to be a close race.”
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Political stage gets murkier
New Delhi, July 15 Advani had on July 14 described the Congress’ transition from the Left to Samajwadi Party (SP) as “lal salaam” to dalaal salam”. Today, however, it was Amar’s turn to dissect the term “dalaal salaam” and even explain as to why he “believed” Advani was referring to him when using the term “dalal” (broker). Questioning the BJP’s locus standi in raising political muck, Amar said Advani had overtaken the Congress in doing “dalaal salaam”, as he had twice sent his colleague Jaswant Singh to the SP, in the hope of dethroning the UPA government. Eager to prove his point, Amar even displayed the copy of Advani’s autobiography “My Life, My Country”; the book was signed by Advani, who got a copy delivered to Amar’s residence. “Another leader who got this treatment from Advani was Sonia Gandhi,” Amar said, flaunting his pride at being seen in Sonia’s company by Advani. That apart, Amar’s political accusations against Advani came out as acerbic. “BJP’s Rajya Sabha leader Jaswant Singh had approached us twice, once at the Maurya Sheraton through the AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa and recently on July 2. They wanted our support to topple the UPA government,” claimed Amar, adding he felt sympathetic towards Advani, whose political ambitions continue to be frustrated. As for the SP, it can’t be saffronised, declared the party leader, drawing the choicest of sarcasms from his oeuvre of Hindi language. “I congratulate the BJP and the Left for the merger of bhagva (saffron) and lal (red), and for the entry of elephant into their fold. But the threesome can’t cow me down.” Interesting was Amar’s calculated silence over the conduct of Left parties. He obviously hoped to keep the doors behind him open when he said, “We have always done “lal salam” and will continue to do so. We will not utter a word against Prakash Karat.” The SP leader, who earned himself the reputation of being kingmaker even dared the RSS to conduct an opinion poll to ascertain the most popular among former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and BJP leaders Advani, Arun Shourie and Yashwant Singh, who yesterday said Kalam’s word on the nuke deal should not be treated as final. Amar’s histrionics continued well beyond the nuke debate, as he countered CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan’s allegation of horse-trading at the rate of Rs 25 crore. “Mayawati offered Rs 30 crore to our people. But we won’t say so because we can’t prove it,” Amar said. In his zeal to come out clean over the alliance with the Congress, he committed himself against accepting the telecommunications and information and broadcasting ministries, even if offered. “That’s because my friends (Anil Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan) have interests in these sectors,” he said. Amar was actually trying to justify his stand against petroleum minister Murli Deora, supposedly close to Mukesh Ambani.
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Mayawati tried to buy my MP, says Amar Singh
New Delhi, July 15 The SP leaders’ remarks came in reaction to CPI leader A.B. Bardhan’s charges that the Congress-led UPA government was horse-trading and the rate of an MP was Rs 25 crore. If Bardhan can give any evidence against any person from the SP who was offering the bribe to MPs, the party would take immediate action in the matter, he said. In fact, it is other parties which were leaving no stone unturned to wean away MPs from the SP-Congress combine, afraid as they were of not being able to muster enough numbers to defeat the government in the Parliament, he added. Meanwhile, SP MP Akshay Pratap Singh admitted while talking to a TV channel that the BSP had come to him offering Rs 30 crore to vote against the UPA.
— UNI
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Amar meets Somnath
New Delhi, July 15 In its display of faith in Chatterjee, party general secretary Amar Singh paid a personal visit to his residence, asking him not to resign from the post. He was accompanied by party supreme Mulayam Singh’s son Akhilesh Yadav and party leader in the Lok Sabha Ram Gopal Yadav. The meeting was in fact carefully slotted to project the united Congress-SP stand in favour of the Speaker’s continuation in office in the wake of a trust vote in the Lok Sabha on July 21 and 22. With the Congress and the SP rallying behind Somnath Chatterjee, and the Left voicing its urge for dissociation with the issue, it is unclear what might happen. The Speaker, however, seems to have gathered enough support for his stand from all quarters, including eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani, who has advised him not to step down and lower the dignity of the Speaker’s office. While that be it, speculations about the Speaker’s stand on the affair remained rife all this day, with the NDTV claiming that the Speaker wrote to CPP general secretary Prakash Karat on Monday saying he did not want to vote with the BJP and therefore wanted to continue in his post. In the letter, the Speaker is said to have “politely explained” that he wasn’t against the party’s ideology or its leadership, and that he only wanted to know why the party had decided to vote alongside the BJP in the trust vote. The letter adds that the Speaker wrote he didn’t want to continue in the Speaker’s chair but if he did not, he would have to vote with the BJP - something he could not bring himself to do. The Speaker’s office and staff, when contacted, denied knowledge of any such communication sent out by the Speaker. They said the Speaker stuck to his earlier stand of his post being non-political and non-partisan. “We are not aware of the letter in question. As far as we know, no such letter has gone,” Speaker’s office told The Tribune.
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Pranab to skip ARF meet
New Delhi, July 15 Mukherjee has been engaged in mustering the numbers needed by the Manmohan Singh government to win the vote of confidence. “Mukherjee has been asked to remain in the capital,” sources said. Anand Sharma is a Rajya Sabha member and, therefore, the government can afford to send him to Singapore as he would not be required to vote on the trust vote in the lower House, the sources added.
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Married man’s sex with woman on promise of
New Delhi, July 15 “Since, he was already married, the subsequent marriage, if any, has no sanctity in law and is void ab-initio (illegal from the inception),” a Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and P. Sathasivam observed in a judgement. The Supreme Court rejected the argument of convict Bhupinder Singh, an employee of the State Bank of Patiala, that since victim Manjit Kaur had consented to sex despite knowing his marital status, the ingredients of Section 376 (rape) would not apply in his case. In this case, a sessions court in Chandigarh had convicted and sentenced Bhupinder Singh to seven years RI and a fine of Rs 10,000 on Bhupinder Singh on charges of fathering Kaur’s child despite the fact that he was already married and having kids. It was the case of the victim that she had married Singh after the latter made her believe that he was unmarried and fathered her child. However, later she came to know that he was already married and had kids through his first wife. Singh on his part denied having married Kaur, but on the basis of the various documents, the sessions court sentenced him to seven years RI.
— PTI
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Punjab & Haryana HC
New Delhi, July 15 Justice Thakur, 56, will take over once Justice Vijender Jain, the present Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, will superannuate on August 2, sources said, while indicating the name of the new chief. The new incumbent hails from Jammu and Kashmir. Justice Thakur brings with him loads of experience. He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the High Court of J&K in February 1994. He was then transferred as Judge of the High Court of Karnataka in March 1994 and appointed as a permanent Judge in September 1995. He was briefly appointed as the acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court in April this year. Justice Thakur started his career as an advocate in 1974 and practised in the High Court of J&K. He contested civil, criminal, constitutional, taxation and service matters. As an advocate, Justice Thakur was the standing counsel for several departments like the Income Tax, University of Jammu, Board of School Education and Reserve Bank of India. He was the president of the Bar Association of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in the year 1986.
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Kirti Chakra for Kabul blast victims likely
New Delhi, July 15 Sources said the ministry of defence has initiated the process to confer the Kirti Chakra to V.V. Rao, the IFS officer, Brig R.D. Mehta and to ITBP jawans Ajay Pathania and Roop Singh, respectively. A recommendation has been made for a bravery award and it is likely that the Kirti Chakra will be conferred. A decision was expected soon.
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Nalini case: Swamy's petition dismissed Uttarakhand varsity VC suspended Training programme for SAARC nations 20 killed as jeep plunges into ditch 3 members of a family hacked to death 
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