 |
|
|
Splits, support and soundbytes
Mamata welcomes the move
Two absentee Cong MPs to stand by govt
BJP to airlift injured MP for trust vote
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Shankaracharya, Ulemas for N-deal
No diluting of standards to fill vacancies: Defence ministry
TRS organises bandh on statehood issue
|
|
Splits, support and soundbytes
Kolkata, July 19 Earlier, the state Congress was divided when Mamata Banerjee left the party and set up her Trinamool Congress on January 1, 1998, revolting against the party’s coterie rule. Today, Mitra said he was leaving the party for fighting jointly with Mamata against the CPM and ending the Left parties prolonged misrule in the state for 32 years. Mitra said both the PIC and the Trinamool Congress would henceforth work together. He said henceforward he would no more be with the Sonia Congress, which, he alleged, so long had served the interest of the CPM at the national-level, ignoring the interest of the state Congress and people of the state. Mitra said several Congress MLAs and at least two MPs and a large number of the party workers had welcomed his move who he hoped would join the new party at an appropriate moment. Mitra’s closed associates claimed of the present 21 Congress MLAs of the state Assembly, at least 15 were with him and they would soon formally announce their decision of leaving the Congress and joining in the new party. Somen said Mamata was reluctant to make an alliance or understanding with the WBPCC he had to sever his tie with the official Congress and form a separate party for jointly fighting with the Trinamool Congress against the CPM.
|
|
Mamata welcomes the move
Kolkata, July 19 “We welcome the decision taken by a senior state Congress leader and former WBPCC president Somen Mitra to leave and float a new party. We will work together to fight the CPM,” Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee told reporters. She said Mitra had taken a step “in the right direction”, adding that she would welcome him and his followers if they joined her party. “It is absolutely his choice.” Banerjee, who held two meetings with Mitra before he decided to part with the Congress, claimed it was not possible to sincerely fight CPM by remaining in the Congress as the party had “hobbed” with the Marxists at the national-level. Incidentally, Mitra had become president of the WBPCC in 1992, when he defeated Banerjee in an election.
— PTI
|
|
Two absentee Cong MPs to stand by govt
Bangalore, July 19 Venkatesh Nayak, Congress MP from Raichur, who is one of three absentees, has already left for Delhi to assure the party high command about his loyalty. “He will certainly vote in favour of the party in the Lok Sabha”, sources close to the MP said. N.Y. Hanumanthappa, Congress representative for the Chitradurga Lok Sabha segment, who too failed to meet the Congress chief today, has also left for Delhi and is expected to stand by the government at the time of the trust vote. Doubts, however, persist over the loyalty of M. H. Ambareesh, Congress Lok Sabha member from Mandya, who too did not turn up at the meeting in Delhi. Ambareesh is in Mysore today and will reach Delhi only on July 21. Disgruntled Congress MP R.L. Jalappa, whose son Narasimhaswamy has recently quit the Assembly to join the BJP, however, was present at the parade of members at the 10 Janpath. Tejaswini Gowda, another Congress MP from Karnataka, whose loyalty was suspect, too was present. Jalappa had also categorically said that there was no question of him voting against the Congress.
|
|
BJP to airlift injured MP for trust vote
Mumbai, July 19 Harishchandra Chavan, 57, MP from Malegaon, was seriously injured in a road accident on June 10 and had to undergo multiple surgeries. The MP fractured his backbone and thighs in the mishap. The BJP, however, has decided to arrange a special aircraft for Chavan and take him to Delhi for the confidence vote. “He may not be taken inside the House and would be able to cast his vote in the Parliament lobby,” a BJP leader here, who is overseeing the management of MPs from Maharashtra, said. However, doctors treating Chavan are not too happy saying his condition can worsen if he is removed from the hospital. Dr Prashant Patil of the Suyash Hospital, where Chavan is admitted, said the MP was in no condition to be moved. “If he is removed from here, it will be against medical advice,” Dr Patil said. The MP’s family is also said to be against moving Chavan against medical advice. After several of his relatives quarrelled with BJP leaders trying to make arrangements for Chavan to go to Delhi for the vote, the MP told reporters from the hospital bed that he would not go against medical advice. But the BJP does not seem to have given up. The party’s leaders are now alleging that the Congress party is working on the MP’s family to prevent him from voting in Parliament. The BJP, meanwhile, has communicated the whip asking Chavan to be present in the House by SMS and by post.
|
|
Shankaracharya, Ulemas for N-deal
New Delhi, July 19 The Shankaracharya suggested that the deal should be implemented at the earliest and asked all political parties to support it by rising above the party lines. At the same time, he warned the government to be wary of the US, keeping in mind the past experiences. “India should not bow to the US pressure while singing any deal,” he added in a statement issued here. He also appealed to intellectuals to support the agreement and asked the government to openly oppose any US designs against Iran. Faizabad: Agreeing with the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) decision to back the Nuclear deal, the Ulemas of Ayodhya and Faizabad today said the deal was also important for the realisation of former President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s Vision 2020. “The nuke deal will help in building a strong India by 2020,” a spokesperson at a Muslim community's conference said here. “India was facing lesser threat from the US than the communalist and casteist forces,” the Ulemas observed. The anti-national forces have always posed a danger to the democracy and secularism in the country, they claimed. The clerics also passed a resolution and termed the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh as ‘anti-Muslim’ for not allotting money to the Madarsas.
— UNI
|
|
Is Maya the third alternative?
New Delhi, July 19 The political scene suddenly warmed up with the arrival of TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu in the Capital. He called on CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan and national secretary D. Raja. He then went to meet Mayawati at her Humayun Road residence, where the two sat and “discussed national political scene for two hours.” Thereafter, he announced a luncheon meeting between Mayawati, the UNPA leaders and the Left leaders at K. Yerrannaidu’s residence for Sunday. Naidu also called on JD-S president H.D. Deve Gowda and RLD president Ajit Singh at their respective houses. But the UNPA was still awaiting a “positive response” from these two leaders. The credit for putting Mayawati on the centrestage largely rests with Karat who called on her last Sunday and since then Bardhan has only cleared doubts about Mayawati being acceptable to the Left. Bardhan said here on Saturday, “What’s wrong in her (Mayawati) thinking to become the Prime Minister?” Replying to a leading question by some newsmen after a book release function, he said, “In this country everyone has a right to think that he or she can become the Prime Minister. There is one gentleman who calls himself Prime Minister in waiting.” (This was a clear broadside on Advani.) He said, “After all she represents the largest state in the country. If some people think that prime ministership is hereditary, who can prevent them from believing this?” (Here Bardhan implied the Congress, which considers Rahul Gandhi as its future prime ministerial candidate.” BJP spokesman Prakash Jawadekar and JD-U spokesman Shambhu Srivastava refused to commit themselves when asked whether they would support an alternate formation under Mayawati if the UPA government were defeated. Jawadekar said, “My reaction to this is limited. Whatever Bardhan has said, he has a right to his opinion.” He was more categorical in ruling out the possibility of supporting Mayawati. He said, “So far we are a part of the NDA and our prime ministerial candidate is L.K. Advani.”
|
|
|
No diluting of standards to fill
New Delhi, July 19 This is grossly untrue and misrepresentation of facts, said spokesperson Sitanshu Kar, while adding that a letter dated April 3, 2008, from special secretary P.K. Rastogi was wrongly quoted in the news reports. The letter does not mention any thing about lowering of standards, Kar added. The letter was in response to the discussions in the Rajya Sabha on March 4, this year. This question was on the “gap between requirement of officers and their recruitment in Armed forces”. During the debate, defence minister A.K. Antony had expressed concern that the issue had “attracted a lot of attention in Parliament and the media and needed to be re-examined on priority”. The letter mentions that the measures taken in the past have not made any difference to the situation. The spokesperson said Rastogi’s letters went on to add that the shortfall in recruitment of officers could be partly attributed to socio-economic environment and resultant changes in career preference, better employment opportunities in other sectors, which could not be controlled by the MoD. The letter lists 10 different issues and views which is a compilation of the opinions put forth by MPs during the debates in the House, media reports as also views expressed in seminars, symposia etc. However, nowhere in the letter it is mentioned that these are the views of the MoD. It is only an effort to elicit the views of the forces. The MoD has no intention of taking unilateral measures to fill the vacancies of officers without taking the services on board, said the spokesperson.
|
|
TRS organises bandh on statehood issue
Hyderabad, July 19 The TRS workers stopped the state-run Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) buses in towns and villages across the Telangana region since morning. The bandh supporters held sit-ins in front of the bus depots and deflated tyres of the buses. The APSRTC authorities suspended services as a precautionary measure. The agitators also stopped trains at places like Warangal, the hotbed of the Telangana movement, and Mancherial in Adilabad district, affecting the railway traffic to Delhi. In Karimnagar, a TRS stronghold, schools, colleges and business establishments were closed. Traffic was thin on the roads. The impact of the shutdown has been partial in the capital, Hyderabad, where the TRS workers threw stones at buses in the Ashoknagar locality. — PTI
|
Tension over demolition of Pir's grave Extortionist shot dead 
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
