Thursday, August 12, 1999
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Another rail blast in
Assam NDA admits Sharad faction |
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Nehru:
father of Green Revolution deserved Nobel Cong complains to EC on DD channel 20 p.c. safety fund not utilised
by Rlys
Plea to field Virbhadra from Mandi Ajit Singh is CPM nominee from
Sangrur BJP reaches pact with TDP Tytler to sue Khurana for
defamation
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Another rail blast in Assam GUWAHATI, Aug 11 (PTI) — Passengers of 5617 Up Arunachal Express had a providential escape when a powerful bomb, planted by suspected Bodo militants, exploded on the railway tracks between Majbat and Dhekaijuli Road stations in Lower Assam last night, shortly before the train was to pass the area, a Northeast Frontier Railway spokesman said today. A security pilot engine preceding the passenger train was damaged and its driver injured in the blast, the spokesman said, adding that the Arunachal Express was scheduled to pass that stretch within an hour of the engine's routine check of the tracks. The bomb was planted under a railway bridge over the Paschnoi river on the Rangia-Tezpur metre gauge section between Darrang and Sonitpur districts and exploded at about 8.45 p.m. damaging the bridge, he said. The blast was reported by the injured driver who reached the nearby Majbat station on foot, he said. Official sources said the involvement of Bodo militants in the blast was suspected as the Rangia-Tezpur section is located in their stronghold. Last night's blast was the third such in a week occurring barely within 36 hours of the one in which six coaches, including the engine of a goods train, were damaged and five persons injured when militants blasted a portion of a culvert bridge between Salakati and Kokrajhar railway stations. Train services to the northeastern region disrupted by Monday's blast were restored yesterday. The NF Railway spokesman said following the blast the Arunachal Express was stopped at Rangapara station, while the 5716 up Samastipur-Tezpur Express was controlled at Majbat and the 172 down Rangapara-Alipurduar Passenger at Dhekiajuli. The 171 Up Alipurduar-Rangapara Passenger was controlled at Rangia, he said. An assistance special accompanied by the NF Railway Area Manager, the Assistant Engineer, the Assistant Mechanical Engineer and the others have rushed to the spot for restoration of the damaged train tracks, he added. Assam militants have
unleashed a series of bomb attacks on railway tracks,
particularly in Lower Assam. |
NDA admits Sharad faction NEW DELHI, Aug 11 — The BJP today buried its differences with the Lok Shakti and the Samata Party over admitting the Sharad Yadav faction of the Janata Dal in the National Democratic Alliance. The party also decided to fight jointly with the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh. The BJP President, Mr Kushabhau Thakre, made the announcement after an hour-long meeting this evening with the Lok Shakti chief, Mr Ramakrishna Hegde. He said in order to defeat the Congress, the BJP had decided to jointly fight both Parliament and Assembly elections in Karnataka with the Janata Dal (United). The breakthrough came after the unified Janata parivar issued an ultimatum to the BJP to formally announce its stand on the entry of the JD(U) into the NDA or otherwise it would be forced to go its own way. The JD(U) made its stand known after a meeting attended by top Dal leaders, Mr Sharad Yadav, Mr George Fernandes and Mr Hegde. The BJP high command was dithering over admitting the JD(U) in the NDA as the Karnataka state unit had opposed any tie-up with the J.H. Patel faction of the Dal in the state. They had claimed that Mr Patel’s poor performance as the state Chief Minister would hamper their chances at the hustings. The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, played a crucial role in striking an alliance with the JD (U) when he announced in Lucknow last week that the entry of Janata Dal leaders would strengthen the NDA. The BJP, however, did a volte face yesterday when it clarified that Mr Vajpayee had not named the Janata Dal in his statement and his remarks were regarding the admission of Janata Dal leaders like Ram Vilas Paswan. The BJP, which was to have finalised its list of candidates for the Lok Sabha today, postponed the exercise till August 14 in an apparent bid to sort out the alliance problems. With today’s understanding, decks have been cleared for the August 14 meeting of the central election committee of the BJP. Asked about the entry of ‘‘JD (U) into NDA’’ Mr Thakre said it was not under his control and it would be decided by the Prime Minister, who was its Chairman. Regarding the alliance
with the TDP, it is understood that the issue was
clinched after the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr
Chandrababu Naidu, called up the Prime Minister last
night and spoke on the need to fight jointly to defeat
the Congress. |
Cong complains to EC on DD
channel NEW DELHI, Aug 11 — The Congress has urged the Election Commission to direct the government to put on the hold the scheduled launch of the 24 hours news channel by Doordarshan till the next Lok Sabha was constituted. In a letter to the EC, the Congress said though in principle the party was not against a Doordarshan 24-hour news channel as means to disseminate news and views to the people of India, it must not be done in the midst of election process. The government had announced that the news channel would be operational from August 15, this year. The Congress argued that launching the channel was "entirely inappropriate and violative of the model code of conduct". The party also charged that the launch was intended to benefit the ruling caretaker government since election process had already commenced and visibility of certain leaders on the electronic media would be of ‘great value and advantage’ to the political party in power." Another aspect, it said, was that Doordarshan had or would be selecting media persons and organisations to produce programmes for Doordarshan for the 24-hour news channel by offering "lucrative contracts to certain sympathetic media personalities". The catertaker government would not only be granting favours in the process but would indirectly be endearing itself to certain producers and personalities by paying hefty amounts under these contracts ostensibly for their production. This would tend to compromise the fourth estate in such a way that it was likely to have an impact on the outcome of the elections," the party said. The Congress also
complained that the party was not getting adequate
coverage over Doordarshan and urged the commission to fix
guidelines ensuring proper coverage to all political
parties during election time. |
20 p.c. safety fund not utilised by Rlys NEW DELHI, Aug 11 (PTI) — Nearly 20 per cent of the money allocated for the safety-related works was not utilised by the Railways during the past five years, according to official data available here. Between 1994-95 and 1998-99, as many as Rs 1386 crore were sanctioned for signalling, telecom and other works directly related to the safety operations of the trains. But nearly Rs 241 crore of this amount was not spent because of various reasons, the sources said. They said in 1994-95, Rs 56 crore lapsed out of the sanctioned amount of Rs 225 crore, which went up to Rs 77 crore in 1995-96 out of the allocated money of Rs 285 crore. Again in 1996-97, Rs 68 crore could not be utilised out of the Rs 296 crore set aside for these works. In 1998-99 also, Rs 40 crore remained unutilised out of the sanctioned amount of Rs 350 crore, the sources said. Only in 1997-98, Rs 21 crore more were spent than the sanctioned amount of Rs 230 crore, they said. Safety-related money is spent under various heads related to signalling and telecommunications. These jobs broadly relate to track circuiting of lines and stations, replacement of signalling system from mechanical to electronics, providing route-relay interlocking, UHF/microwave links and optic fibre cables, creating mobile radio communication system between the train and stations, providing telecommunications at level crossings etc. According to the Railway yearbook for 1997-98, showing the latest official data, 396 accidents occurred in 1997-98 compared to 381 in 1996-97. Accidents per million train km, the international standard for this purpose, increased to 0.58 during 1997-98 from 0.57 in 1996-97. Further, out of the 396
accidents in 1997-98, 83.08 per cent were due to human
failure, which included 66 per cent due to the failure of
the Railway staff and 16.92 per cent due to the
carelessness of road users. Only 9.60 per cent of the
accidents were due to equipment failure. |
Plea to field Virbhadra from
Mandi NEW DELHI, Aug 11 — A section of Congress leaders from Himachal Pradesh are trying to impress the party's central leadership to field former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh from the Mandi parliamentary constituency. Some leaders from the state had recently met the central leadership urging it to consider the name of Mr Virbhadra Singh. They argued that the Congress could hope to romp home from this constituency only if the former Chief Minister was fielded against BJP's Mr Maheshwar Singh. It may be recalled, that in the 1998 Lok Sabha election Mr Maheshwar Singh was a joint candidate of the BJP and its alliance partner the Himachal Vikas Party of Mr Sukh Ram. He defeated Mrs Pratibha Singh, wife of Mr Virbhadra Singh. There are reports that Mr Virbhadra Singh is not too keen to contest and the name of former Speaker of the State assembly, Mr Kaul Singh might eventually be fielded, party sources said. Earlier this week, the Congress central election committee had announced the candidature for three of the four parliamentary constituencies in the state barring Mandi. Meanwhile Mr Vishvjit Prithvi Singh, scion of the royal family of Karpurthala, has been asked by the Congress High Command not to contest the Lok Sabha poll. Mr Vishvjit Singh was in the race for a party nomination from the Jalandhar Parliamentary constituency. The AICC General
Secretary, Mr Oscar Fernandes, said today that since Mr
Vishvjit Prithvi Singh the Chairman of the AICC Computer
Department his presence was required in Delhi for party
work throughout the elections. He was requested not to
contest the Lok Sabha poll on this account. |
Ajit Singh is CPM nominee from Sangrur NEW DELHI, Aug 11 (PTI) — The CPM today announced its second list of 19 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including 11 from Kerala, taking the total number of contestants declared by the party so far to 57. The list includes two Independents supported by the party in Kerala and six sitting seats in the state. Those being fielded from Kerala are T. Govindan (Kasargode), Prof N. K. Premajam (Vadakara), S. Ajayakumar (Ottapalam), N. N. Krishanadas (Palakkad), K. Suresh Kurup (Kottayam), Varkala Radhakrishnan (Chirayankeezh), E. M. Sreedharan (Mukundapuram), Murali (Alappuzha), L. T. Najeeb (Alappuzha),I. T. Najeeb (Manjeri). The two Independents are Mani Vithayathil (Ernakulam) and Prof Ninankoshy (Mavelikkara). The others in the list are R N Ozare (Dahanu), C J Gavit (Malegaon) and Bhuribai Mansingh Shemale (Nandurbar) from Maharashtra, Deena Nath Singh (Chandauli) and Bhagwan Deen (Akbarpur) from UP, Ajit Singh (Sangrur) from Punjab, Jagmani Devi (Sarguja) from Madhya Pradesh and Prabhat Singh (Bhiwani) from Haryana. The CPM had released a
list of 38 candidates last week, which included veteran
Marxist Somnath Chatterjee and prominent parliamentarians
Basudev Acharya, Hannan Mollah and Rupchand Pal. Besides
32 in the stronghold of West Bengal, it announced
candidates for two seats in Tamil Nadu in alliance with
the AIADMK, both the seats in Tripura and one each in
Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan. |
BJP reaches pact with TDP NEW DELHI, Aug 11 (PTI) — After weeks of dithering, the BJP and the TDP today reached an alliance to contest the coming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh together. Announcing this here, party spokesman Venkaiah Naidu told reporters the alliance between the two parties was firmed up during a telephonic conversation Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani had with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. However, he said details of the seat sharing between the two parties had not yet been decided and would be worked out by August 14 when the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the BJP would meet in the Capital. The BJP’s
announcement on alliance with TDP brings to an end
prolonged uncertainty over the stand of Telugu Desam
which had extended crucial outside support to Vajpayee
Government. |
Tytler to sue Khurana for defamation NEW DELHI, Aug 11 (UNI) — Former Union Minister and senior Delhi Congress leader Jagdish Tytler today said he would sue former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana for defamation. Mr Tytler, who was recently given a clean chit by the CBI in two 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases, accused the BJP leader of indulging in "patently false and mischievous propaganda" against him. Mr Tytler said he had already instructed his lawyer to file a criminal complaint and civil suit against Mr Khurana for defamation and resorting to absolutely malicious allegations. He charged Mr Khurana with falsely alleging that the Delhi Government, the CBI and Delhi Police had colluded in giving Mr Tytler a clean chit in the riot cases. "Mr Khurana has conveniently overlooked the fact that the closure report filed by the CBI has been duly approved by Mr Justice R.K. Gauba, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Delhi," he added. Meanwhile, the All-India Shiromani Akali Dal (Babbar) today regretted that with elections round the corner, major political parties were playing the "Sikh card" but added that the community would not be fooled by them. While Congress leaders accused in the riots were "manoeuvring to get clean chits", the BJP had fielded Mr Arun Nehru, a prominent former Congress leader who, along with then Home Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, "engineered" the 1984 flare-up, party President Gurcharan Singh Babbar said. The Youth Akali Dal (Delhi unit) today urged the Congress not to give tickets to Mr Sajjan Kumar, Mr H.K.L. Bhagat and Mr Jagdish Tytler as various committees had found these people guilty of involvement in the 1984 riots. Youth Akali Dal President Paramjit Singh said the minorities — be they Sikh, Muslim or Christian would not forgive the Congress if it gives ticket to such persons. He also urged senior
Congress leader and party candidate for the South Delhi
seat Manmohan Singh not to accept the nomination as his
clean image would be tarnished if he fought the elections
in the company of those accused in the riots. |
News analysis by T. K. Ramasamy ARUN NEHRU is a heavyweight physically, and a featherweight politically. So his joining the BJP is not a loss to any party, nor a gain to any other. He will win his Rae Bareily seat if the BJP wins the state of UP. Conversely, he will lose if the BJP fumbles. His is one of those cases where the party symbol has to carry the candidate through, warts and blank service record and all. Nehru must be one of the few BJP candidates who does not have much stake in the party’s future but everything in the party winning the midterm elections. From the publicity hype unleased by the Hindutva Parivar, it is clear that he will win a heavyweight ministerial post if he and the BJP successfully clear the electoral hurdle. Nehru merely lends his name to the BJP list of candidates and nothing else. In a state which has rejected the Congress, will the Nehru magic work? An interesting thought. Initial newspaper reports make it appear as though Arun Nehru renounced his entrenched place in the Congress and hurtled though ideological space to land in the Sang Parivar camp. That is far from truth. The fact is that he was never a Congressman, only a Nehru clansman, occupying a political post offered by a generous aunt. His cousin was not happy and at the first available opportunity, the two parted company and he soon joined the principled opposition led by V.P. Singh. The Jan Morcha stint was all to brief and a marooned man went into involuntary exile. The hybernation ends with the BJP’s seat offer. For the saffron party it is yet another addition to the marquee name of high profile defectors. Yet another proof that it is no more a political or ideological untouchable. Yet another proof that it is gaining in popularity and public confidence while its main rival is losing its. There is a bit of self-induced illusion in all this but it is what the doctor ordered on election-eve. Arun Nehru suffers from a severe handicap. Only a few days, earlier, a whole party, rather a big chunk of a political party, applied for membership of the BJP-led holding company. It was an attempt to gain backdoor entry, but the tag “Janata parivar” and “socialists” made this devious attempt both normal and to be welcomed. If Sharad Yadav (of the “bal kati aurat” fame) and Ram Vilas Paswan, who in his earlier avatar as a Janata Dal leader swore to drive out the BJP from his state of Bihar, can seek refuge in the same BJP why not Nehru who is proud of his Jan Morcha days association with the BJP as the party supporting the V.P. Singh government from outside? Anyway he punched his party card a long time ago when as the junior Minister in the Home Ministry he got the gates of the Babri Masjid opened and thus set the fuse for the December 6, 1992, demolition. Talk of foresight! Also Nehru was a paints salesman, rather a very senior executive in Jenson Nicholson before he responded to his aunt Indira Gandhi’s summons to be a Lok Sabha member. As a paintsman, he must have succeeded in persuading a million people to change colours (literally) so he could sell new colours. Now he is taking that advice seriously and daubing a different tint on his political face. As a company executive he was colourless in political terms, a deep amber as an apolitical Congressmen, a shade pinkish in the social justice-touting Jan Morcha, pale grey as a recluse and now a tentative saffron. Nehru has been a traveller across the rainbow. Nehru is the second member form the Nehru-Gandhi household to walk out of the Congress and gravitate towards the Sangh Parivar. Maneka Gandhi has done it a decade earlier first to the Jan Morcha and since last year as an associate, non-voting member of the BJP. She seems to have taken electoral roots in Philibit, something that comes to her as naturally as talking incessantly about dogs. But one party change that hit the solar plexus of all politically inclined individuals in the country is that of K.C. Pant. He answers to the description of a complete and lifelong Congressman. The son of a distinguished and highly respected Congressman, he was born in the party, grew up in it and entered the Lok Sabha and blossomed into a sensitive and diligent minister as a Congressman. Yet one day last year he went over to the BJP, saying he was merely following his wife Ila. Losing a man like Pant should have shaken up the party but it did not. That speaks more about the party and nothing at all about the heritage of men like Pant, the sum of which is the heritage of the party itself. In case of Rangarajan Kumaramangalam is a less important version of Pant’s. His father and mother were both brilliant communists. Mohan Kumaramangalam joined Indira Gandhi’s government in 1971 but died two years later in a plane crash. His association with the Congress was not long enough or emotionally strong enough to create a lasting family tradition. His son joined the Youth Congress and soon secured a party ticket to the Lok Sabha. His defection to the BJP last year was thus a media event for a full day and nothing more. Political migration has
lost is surprise element yet an unexpected yatri does
stir up memory and also many doubts about the moral
health of the system. |
Prem Bhatia Memorial lecture NEW DELHI, Aug 11 — A former Ambassador, Governor and eminent retired civil servant, Mr B.K. Nehru, today said the father of India’s Green Revolution, Prof M.S.Swaminathan, should have been honoured with the Nobel Prize for making it possible for the world to feed the vast growing population. Mr Nehru, chairing the fourth Prem Bhatia Memorial lecture, at the India International Centre here, compared the work of Professor Swaminathan with that of Nobel laureate, Dr Norman Borlaug. The Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust, which organised the lecture in the memory of the former Editor of The Tribune, also presented an award for excellence in political reporting and analysis and a scholarship for media research. The Political Editor of Asian Age, Ms Seema Mustafa, received the award of Rs 1 lakh and a citation from the Chairman of the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust, Justice R.S. Sarkaria. Mr Nehru presented a scholarship of Rs 60,000 to a freelance journalist from Madhya Pradesh, Mr Rajinder Bandhu. Mr Bandhu would do research on rural press. Delivering the keynote address on “Media, Hunger and the Environment, Professor Swaminathan emphasised the need to fight “greed” revolution and promote an evergreen revolution both in farms and factories. “If we do this, the next century will mark a transition to a new future for humankind characterised by ethics and social and gender equity and freedom from hunger. This is what Prem Bhatia would have liked to see, had be been alive,” Professor Swaminathan said. “Since the onset of the industrial revolution in Europe, technology has been a major source of economic inequality among nations and among communities within nations. Today we have an opportunity for making technology an ally in the movement of social, gender and economic equity,” he said. Professor Swaminathan, Unesco Chair in Ecotechnology, said the aim in the early part of the 21st century should be the initiation and spread of a “knowledge and skill revolution” for ending economic and gender inequity. He said the media and the judiciary had become the primary guardians of the ecological security of the country. “We need a sustained campaign now to protect our environmental assets at the micro level,” he said. “If steps are not taken to satisfy the legitimate socio-economic aspirations of the people of the area, mere talk about ecology and environment will be met with cynicism and with the question who is more important — man or monkey?”, he said. Professor Swaminathan said “The alternative pathway available immediately for providing power, irrigation and jobs at no ecological risk will help the desired social goals more speedily and economically.” The agricultural economist said environmental health was the foundation for sustained economic progress and the security of work opportunities. “We need an ecology and technology of hope and not of despair,” Professor Swaminathan said. He said the next century needed environmentalists who could show how to “do” rather than merely say “don’t” and an ever-green revolution on the farms leading to productive and sustainable farming systems and happy farming families. He said famine prevention had been an important achievement of independent India and lauded the crucial role played by the media in famine avoidance. “We need sustained media campaign to highlight conditions required for all children in our country to benefit from the emerging age of intelligence and innovation,” he said. “It appears that an active Press, as in our country, can be much less effective in moving governments to act decisively against the endemic under nutrition and deprivation which today affects nearly 300 million women, men and children in the country,” he said. He asked the media to launch thematic campaign on hunger until the desired results were obtained. The glitterati of Delhi,
including friends and colleagues of Prem Bhatia, attended
the function. |
Air violation & its
fatal outcome NO fighting force worth its salt will wait & watch its national timing being violated by an enemy with hostile intentions. With thousands of kilometres of our territory from the Himalayas, to desert, to the sea exposed to the threat of violation by the enemy, it becomes an undaunting task for our defence forces to constantly guard these vulnerable borders. A very large chunk of our Army, Air Force & Navy is constantly an alert, guarding these frontiers. Intrusion by land or even sea of our territory can be detected and suitable remedial tactical actions can be taken. But in case of violation of our airspace it calls for a highly complex and technical piece of activity. These violations carried out by military aircraft happen at a fairly high speed within an extremely short duration. This makes the detection and neutralisation of violation very difficult, mainly due to time required to react being so less. Airspace over our land or sea frontiers can be violated, and this is where the Air Defence System of our Air Force comes into play — as we witnessed in the successful interception and destruction of the Pak Atlantique, a maritime and an antisubmarine warfare aircraft. The violation of airspace is carried out by a hostile aircraft with the tacit requirement of gathering military intelligence. In general terms, this may mean, that the enemy may want to know the location of important military positions like airfields, missile and radar locations, all through photo real role. The enemy aircraft in an elint (electronic intelligence) role, may monitor through the required sensors, location of our Radar installation or communication centres. It may further gather the operating frequencies of these equipment. Through all this it can easily calculate the reaction time of our air defence network. The Air Defence System which is responsible for guarding our airspace consists of a mix of electronic equipment like radars, identification system to collate and further analyse the radar pick up as friendly or hostile and further consists of a combination of weapon systems — ground, or airborne — to interact or destroy the intruder if need be. All these are coordinated at one point in the Air Defence network. The radar system can scramble a fighter interceptor which is available at a 2-minute or 5-minute notice. The fighter gets airborne and the friendly radar then manoeuvres the fighter aircraft technically to position where it can shoot down the enemy with whatever armament is available on board the fighter. This job of placing a friendly fighter against an intruder is carried out on the radar screen by a fighter controller. The intruder otherwise can also be tackled by the surface-to-air missiles or anti-aircraft guns which are a part of the air defence network. The case of the Pak
Atlantique seems to be a violation of our airspace, close
to Nauya in Kutch, for gathering military/elint, and when
the MIG 21 intercepted it, the Pak aircraft took evasive
action to neutralise the advantage of the Indian MIG.
Once interrupted the enemy aircraft must obey the
commands of the interceptor or else be prepared for
hostile action. This is precisely what happened with the
fatal outcome for the Pak intruder. |
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| Youth gets 10-year RI AHMEDABAD: A youth has been sentenced to 10 year’s rigorous imprisonment for circulating fake currency notes of Rs 100. Additional City Sessions Judge Z.K. Saiyed in his order passed recently observed that such offences could damage the economy of the country and therefore a lenient view could not be taken. The accused, Salimkhan Ahmedkhan Pathan, was nabbed last year when he tried to dupe an ice-cream vendor with a counterfeit Rs 100 note. — PTI Vigil on Narmada
activists Gawli, over 170
supporters held Alert railman
averts train mishap Cong member dies
of heart attack 4 students
hacked, violence on campus Resignation of 3
ministers accepted Jalota not to
perform with Pak artistes |
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