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Former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral passes away

GURGAON: Former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral, who headed a rickety coalition government in the late 1990s, died on Friday after a brief illness. 

Gujral, 92, breathed his last at 3.27 pm in a private hospital after a multi-organ failure. He was admitted to the hospital on November 19 with a lung infection, family sources said. 

The former Prime Minister, who was on ventilator support, had been unwell for sometime. He was on dialysis for over a year and suffered a serious chest infection some days ago. He will be cremated in Delhi on Saturday. 

Gujral, who migrated from Pakistan after Partition, rose to become the Prime Minister with a big slice of luck after he came up through the ranks — starting as Vice-President in NDMC in the '50s to later become a Union Minister and then India’s Ambassador to the USSR. 

Gujral, an intellectual who propounded the ‘Gujral Doctrine’ of five principles for maintaining good neighbourly relations, left the Congress to join the Janata Dal in the late-1980s. 

He became Minister of External Affairs in the V.P. Singh-led National Front government in 1989. As the External Affairs Minister he handled the fallout of the Kuwait crisis following Iraqi invasion that displaced thousands of Indians. 

Gujral had a second stint as External Affairs Minister in the United Front government under H.D. Deve Gowda, whom he later replaced as Prime Minister after the Congress withdrew support in 1997. 

He emerged as the consensus candidate after serious differences developed among the UF leaders, including Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh and others as to who will become the Prime Minister. 

It was another matter that his government survived only for a few months as Congress again became restive in the wake of Jain Commission report on Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. — PTI

Cong fields Bhatt's wife against Modi

Ahmedabad: Shweta Bhatt, the wife of suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, today announced that she will contest the state Assembly elections on a Congress ticket against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi from Maninagar constituency in the city.

"Yes, I will be fighting against Modi from Maninagar on a Congress ticket," Shweta Bhatt said.

"We have moved far away from democracy in Gujarat and to restore it, everyone has to do whatever they can. Fighting election against Modi is the logical step in our quest for democracy and to curb anti-democratic forces," she said.

Shweta said she will be filing her nomination papers shortly.

Sanjiv Bhatt, in an affidavit in the Supreme Court last year, had alleged complicity on the part of Modi in the 2002 riots. He also deposed against Modi before the Nanavati Commission, probing the riots.

Bhatt, who was the Principal, SRP Training School, was later suspended by the state government.

Former Karnataka CM Yeddyurappa quits BJP

BANGALORE: Karnataka BJP strongman BS Yeddyurappa on Friday resigned from primary membership of the party and said that he has sent a letter to the party president Nitin Gadkari.

Earlier, an emotional Yeddyurappa recalled his long association with the party even as he trained his guns at BJP leaders for hatching a "conspiracy" against him.

"The party has given everything to me. And I have sacrificed my life to build my previous party (BJP)", he said, fighting back tears.

Yeddyurappa said he is leaving the party "because of our own (BJP) people. They don't want me to continue in the party; that's why I am resigning from the primary membership as also MLAship".

He is slated to tender his resignation to Speaker KG Bopaiah this afternoon. Yeddyurappa would also fax his resignation from the primary membership, sources said.

"Some people (in BJP) did not want to me to continue as Chief Minister. They tried to put me in the dock. I tolerated in the past one year with a lot of patience", Yeddyurappa said.

"I am leaving the party with deep sadness".

Without naming anybody, he said some state leaders "stabbed me in the back". 

Yeddyurappa said he resigned as chief minister following the direction of the party high-command last year as the "disciplined soldier" of the party. "They mistook my goodness as a weakness".

He said he would formally join the Karnataka Janatha Paksha at a public rally in Haveri on December nine.

Yeddyurappa urged MLAs and ministers in the Jagadish Shettar Cabinet supporting him not to resign as he wants the government to complete its full term and he does not want to rock the boat.

"I have asked them not to resign for the time being", he said.

Yeddyurappa said he is not leaving BJP for any selfish reason. He wants to develop Karnataka as a model and welfare state.

The 70-year-old Lingayat leader is credited with bringing BJP to power in Karnataka, making it the first ever party government in the south.

Efforts by top BJP leadership to prevent the exit of Yeddyurapa have failed. He turned more belligerent after BJP rebuffed his repeated attempts to regain chief ministership and refused to at least make him the state unit party chief. — PTI

Mumbai main runway shut, flights hit

Mumbai: Flights in and out of Mumbai airport will be seriously affected over the next two months as the main runway has been shut for upgrading radars and other operational equipment.

Due to this, over 120 domestic departures at the Mumbai airport — which airport handles as many as 600 flights daily — have been affected, airport sources said. They added, “by the time the work gets completed, airlines’ on-time performances will go for a toss, as the main runway will remain unavailable between 9 am and 5 pm till February 7”.

They further said, “In the past two days, every airline has experienced a delay of up to 30 minutes as all the take- offs are now taking place from the 09-end of the main runway 09/27 due to the glide path relocation.”

Mumbai airport authorities said the situation is unavoidable and all stakeholders, including aviation regulator DGCA, are taken into confidence prior to the commencement of the work.

The Mumbai airport and the Airports Authority of India are changing the glide path angle at the main runway (27) to 3 degrees from the present 3.3 degrees to meet international norms. The airport has two intersecting runways —the 11,000-ft long main runway and another 9,500-meter long secondary one.

India’s GDP growth declines to 5.3% in Sept quarter

New Delhi: India’ growth declines to 5.3 percent in July-September this fiscal, from 6.7 percent in the same period a year ago.

According to government data for the second quarter of the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth decreased to 5.3 per cent compared with 5.5 per cent in the first quarter.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had warned last week that India faced "a difficult situation", and needed innovation to boost output. He had said GDP grew at about 5.5 per cent in the three months to the end of September.