Friday, February 5, 1999
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TN CM rules out support to govt MADURAI, Feb 4 — Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M. Karunanidhi said today that his party would not extend support to the Vajpayee government at the Centre for its survival in the event of withdrawal of support by some constituents in the ruling BJP-led coalition. ‘Ardas’
for unity among Sikh leaders |
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Pressure on to recast APHC NEW DELHI, Feb 4 — Faced with waning international support and increasing isolation within the state, the All-India Hurriyat Conference is under pressure to rechristen itself as “freedom conference” with emphasis on democratisation of the seven year old organisation.
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Govt has restored
neutrality: BJP No
monitoring mechanism Buddha
Club for debate on Hinduism |
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TN CM rules out support to govt MADURAI, Feb 4 (UNI) — Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M. Karunanidhi said today that his party would not extend support to the Vajpayee government at the Centre for its survival in the event of withdrawal of support by some constituents in the ruling BJP-led coalition. Talking to reporters at the airport here on his arrival from Chennai, Mr Karunanidhi said that since confusion prevailed following threat by some constituents to withdraw support to the government in the wake of increase in issue prices of essential commodities. He was not in a position to hazard a guess on the “longevity” of the government. He said the state government had decided to continue to supply rice at the rate of Rs 3.75 per kg through public distribution system (PDS). However, it would not be able to do anything in respect of sugar and wheat, whose prices were also hiked by the Centre. Asked whether he had sought the support of political parties in the state following alleged pressure from the Centre on the issue of constitution of special courts to try corruption cases against AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha and some of her erstwhile cabinet colleagues, Mr Karunanidhi said the TMC, the CPI and the CPM had already condemned the Centre’s action. He parried a question on
the reported threat of Union Law Minister M. Thambi Durai
that the Centre would be forced to invoke Article 356 of
the Constitution if the state government did not provide
details on the issue under Article 365. |
Home Ministry not serious:
NSCN-IM KOHIMA, Feb 4 — The guns have fallen silent, but the rage within continues. For the past year and a half, peace has returned to Nagaland. The Nagas here are anxiously hoping the situation will lead to a lasting solution to their problems. “If peace and normalcy has returned to Nagaland, it is due to the tremendous contribution of public leaders, NGOs, social activists and a large number of individuals. Never before has there been a public affirmation of peace,” the State Governor, Mr Om Prakash Sharma, told a group of visiting correspondents from Delhi recently. Just as the Centre sees the problem as political, a section of underground insurgents, the NGOs and other social activists continue to voice concern over the progress of the ongoing dialogue and blocks in the pathway. Ever since the cessation of hostilities between the security forces and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) announced during August 1997, there have been two formal meetings at the political level including one with the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, last September. While the Chief Minister, Mr S.C. Jamir, insists that unless talks are held with all factions of insurgents in the state these will not bear any fruit, the NSCN-IM is unhappy over the area of coverage of the ceasefire. The NSCN-IM wants that the Centre should specify in writing that the area of ceasefire coverage be extended to all areas in the North-East where the Nagas reside including Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. “The representative of the Centre, Mr Swaraj Kaushal, has said that the ceasefire will be in operation all over but it is not in black and white and is being interpreted in different forms. We want it to be clear”, Mr Phungthing Shimrong, convener of the NSCN-IM ceasefire monitoring cell, told the scribes during the visit. The group says it feels the Home Ministry is not serious in tackling the issue. Apart from this, the NSCN-IM leadership in the state is of the view that the chairman of the ceasefire monitoring committee, Mr P.P. Srivastava, should be removed. It feels that during the Kuki-Naga clash he had favoured the former in his role as adviser to the Governor of Manipur. In fact, according to reports published in local dailies, the leadership of NSCN-IM was quoted to have said at its Raising Day on January 31 at Oking that it would be forced to pull back from the present ceasefire agreement if the Centre failed to fulfil the committed assurances to settle the Naga political problem. Just as the NSCN-IM, several others, including the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), and Naga Ho-Ho feel that the confusion over the demographic differences would not do any good. “It is a question of our political and geographical identity,” Mr K. Temjen Jamir of the NPMHR said, wondering how sincere the Centre was to settle the issue. The Naga Students Federation (NSF) is also opposed to the present S.C. Jamir government and blames it for being a stumbling block. Federation chief P. Chuba Dzukum, who said his body had 10 lakh members, was of the opinion that the ongoing struggle had not created the right environment for education. Underground factions claim that there have been over 100 instances of ceasefire violations and charge that the same cannot be settled till the present Chief of the monitoring group is removed. The security forces, on the other hand, claim that it is the insurgents who have violated peace on 90 occasions. The Chief Minister admits this situation has added to the pressure while the Governor views the overall situation as “very positive.” To the demand of removal of Mr Srivastava, all that Mr Sharma said was that the Centre was seized of the matter. The NSCN-IM representative said while the Home Ministry had assured them during January this year of looking into the matter, no action had been taken till date. Meanwhile, there are instances of extortions amid a novel feature of the insurgent groups forcing wayward cadres to return money. According to reports with the security forces, recently the leadership of the insurgents forced some of their cadres to return a major chunk of over Rs 1.5 crore looted from a bank. The Governor in his
Republic Day speech this year mentioned the problem and
appreciated the work of tribal organisations and others
in recovering money and property and apprehending
criminals in several recent cases. |
Pressure on to recast APHC NEW DELHI, Feb 4 — Faced with waning international support and increasing isolation within the state, the All-India Hurriyat Conference (APHC) is under pressure to rechristen itself as “freedom conference” with emphasis on democratisation of the seven year old organisation. The suggestion to rename the organisation and to democratise it, made by the leaders of the London-based World Kashmiri Freedom Movement to the APHC leadership in a letter, has reportedly resulted in confusion among different constituents as some Hurriyat leaders fear a threat to their leadership. Sources said though the suggestion for creating a unified structure had officially come from World Kashmiri Freedom Movement, pressure to democratise the APHC had in fact come from western capitals. The West, particularly Washington and London, had categorically told the expatriate Kashmiri leaders that the APHC in no way represented the Kashmiri people. The expatriate Kashmiri leaders based in the USA and the UK as well as the Hurriyat leaders themselves had been told by their western masters that they would have to adopt more democratic ways to achieve their goal of either self determination or “azadi”. The World Kashmiri Freedom Movement leaders have suggested in their letter that “since there has been no election for a considerable long time, perhaps with some exceptions, the representative character of the political groups in the conglomerate (APHC) remains undetermined”. “Their existence in the conglomerate would not give these groups any better credibility, then the conglomerate itself has not had any election to determine its representative character”, the eight-page letter written in May, 1998, said. The letter suggested that the freedom conference should have an interim president and the present APHC executive should be turned into an interim working committee. The Working Committee should consist of 10 members with two members from the expatriate Kashmiris. An election commission, headed by a retired high court judge with three other eminent persons, should supervise elections of delegates to the general council which in turn would elect the president of the freedom conference. The letter has also stressed that the new organisation should have representation from all three regions of the state that means Hindus from Jammu and Buddhists from Ladakh. When India and Pakistan exploded their nuclear devices last year, the APHC leadership thought that time for their reckoning had come as India at least would be isolated in the western capitals. Even Islamabad would be more forthcoming in its support to the organisation, they thought. But on the contrary, India and Pakistan are taking steps to normalise their relations. These developments have further confounded the prevailing confusion in the Hurriyat camp, sources in the movement pointed out. The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s decision to accept the Pakistani Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif’s invitation to visit Lahore has only confirmed their worst fears. While the present Hurriyat set-up is organised on equal status to all constituent units, the suggestion to create a unified structure by merging different units has divided the APHC leadership further with many constituents like the Awami Action Committee of the former Hurriyat Chairman, Maulvi Umar Farooq, the Muslim Conference of Prof A.G. Butt and the JKLF leader, Mr Yasin Malik fearing, that they would lose their status and independence in any new unified organisation. The new organisation would be dominated by the Jammat-e-Islami (JEI) as it has a wider base they fear. Even within the
Jammat-e-Islami, the present APHC Chairman, Mr S.A.S.
Gillani, is not very inclined to push the proposal as he
fears that the Jammat’s Amir-e-Jammat, Mr G.M. Butt,
would finally emerge the supreme leader of the new
democratised organisation. |
‘Ardas’ for unity among Sikh
leaders NEW DELHI, Feb 4 — The Delhi Gurdwara Management Committee held a special prayer meeting at Gurdwara Rakab Ganj here today to pray for peace and unity amongst the Sikh leaders. The decision to hold the “ardas” was triggered of by the ongoing tussle between the SGPC chief, Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra and the SAD President, Mr Parkash Singh Badal. Prominent among those present on the occasion were: the President of the DGMC, Mr Jaswant Singh Sethi; Tohra supporters — Prof Joginder Singh and Mr Nirvair Singh; and head priests of five historical gurdwaras. Mr Jaswant Singh Sethi was the sole representative of the pro-Badal group present on the occasion. Mr Ajit Singh, general manager of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj told TNS here that the akhand path had commenced on Tuesday morning. Commenting on the special
prayer meeting, the president of the Delhi State SAD
(Amritsar), Mr Jaswinder Singh Virk said, “A special
prayer meeting is an extreme step but is not
unprecedented. Such prayer meetings have been held
whenever there has been infighting among the Akalis. I
remember such a meeting was held in Amristar in
mid-eighties to resolve the differences between Mr Badal
and the then Chief Minister of Punjab, Mr Surjit Singh
Barnala.” |
Prasar Bharati NEW DELHI, Feb 4 — In defence of the Prasar Bharati policy, the BJP today said that the Vajpayee Government had “merely tried to restore neutrality to India’s public broadcasting service”. Responding to a former Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mr Jaipal Reddy’s criticism of the Government’s approach towards Prasar Bharati, the BJP spokesman, Mr J.P. Mathur, said Mr Reddy and his friends had converted Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) into instruments of party propaganda under the guise of granting them “autonomy”. The present policy was bound to hurt Mr Reddy and his friends as Prasar Bharati was no longer the “Prachar Bharati” of either the Congress or the Janata Dal, Mr Mathur said. “Mr Reddy, who has alleged the “saffronisation” of Doordarshan, forgets that he had appointed, during his tenure as Information and Broadcasting Minister, the Janata Dal’s pamphleteer as the CEO of Prasar Bharati, Mr Mathur said adding that in order “to achieve this dubious objective, he had even gone to the extent of relaxing the age barrier for the job”. The BJP had all along maintained the need for autonomy in both Doordarshan and AIR, the BJP spokesman said adding “but autonomy does not mean allowing DD and AIR to violate the spirit of public broadcasting and becoming an extension counter of either the Congress or the Janata Dal”. Both Doordarshan and AIR subsist on enormous amounts of public funds, Mr Mathur pointed out adding that this automatically made them accountable to Parliament and the people — not merely on functional aspects but also on how best to promote public broadcasting for its larger interests. Earlier, Mr Mathur welcomed the decision of the Indian High Commission in Britain to issue a visa to writer Salman Rushdie. “Rushdie is of Indian
origin. Why he should be prevented from visiting India
when other people are allowed”, Mr Mathur said
expressing regret that the then Congress Government had
banned Rushdie’s controversial book Satanic Verses
“without even turning a page”. |
Free treatment of poor NEW DELHI, Feb 4 — The Delhi Government today admitted in the High Court here that no authority had been set up by it to monitor the admission of poor patients in private hospitals for free treatment in lieu of concessional land provided to them by the administration. Counsel for the Delhi Administration and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) told a Division Bench headed by Justice D.K. Jain that no monitoring mechanism had been evolved by the state except for the super speciality Apollo Hospital with which there was a specific agreement for free treatment of poor patients. The court asked the DDA to file additional affidavit by February 23 giving full details about the conditions of the agreements with hospitals other than Apollo. The DDA in its affidavit had stated that land on concessional rates was provided to 12 private hospitals which included Escorts Heart and Research Institute, Batra Public Charitable Trust, Gujarmal Modi, Sant Nirankari Mandal, Jaipur Golden, Parmarth Mission and Indian Spinal Injuries Centre Hospitals. The court was hearing a PIL by the All India Lawyers Union alleging that private hospitals including Apollo were not giving “free treatment” to poor. Apollo counsel, Mr Arun Jaitley, said when the PIL was filed the super-speciality hospital had only started functioning and till then no poor patient was referred to it. But it was now providing free food, treatment and consumer goods to the poor patients referred by the government and had reserved a separate block for such indoor patients. The Apollo counsel accused the authorities of referring to the hospital patients who were not entitled for the facilities under the “poor category”. “In some cases patients making payments even to the tune of Rs 4 lakh for the medical services, were claiming the refund of money as they managed to procure referral letters from the authorities for admission under the poor category,” he said, adding that it was a corporate hospital which could not be run on charity. Mr Jaitley sought
court’s direction to the state government to evolve
a foolproof referral mechanism under which the real poor
and needy patients were sent to the hospital. |
Buddha Club for debate on
Hinduism NEW DELHI, Feb 4 — Members of the Lord Buddha Club today called for a discussion on Hindu religion, “instead of discussions on conversion”. Addressing a press conference here today, the national president of the club, Mr Ram Raj, said “Hindu religion is based on caste system which is different from other religions of the world.” Mr Ram Raj, who is also the chairman of the All-India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, said due to modernity and social reforms there had been some changes in the status of women “but in scriptures their position remains as it is.” He pointed out that the
condition of Dalits was pitiable and even modernity,
influence of capitalism and civilisation had not changed
their fate. “Though it has become difficult to treat
them as untouchables everywhere because of circumstances
beyond the control of the upper castes,” he said. |
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| Nayanar’s letter to
Kalyan on attacks THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar has urged his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Kalyan Singh to order a probe into attack on two Christian missionaries from Kerala in Allahabad last month. In a letter to the UP Chief Minister, Nayanar also demanded stern action against the culprits. Two missionaries belonging to ‘Hope in Jesus’, a Christian missionary organisation, were attacked by suspected Bajrang Dal activists at the Dal camp on January 22. — UNI Tihar
inmate takes civil services exam 6.7 cr for roads
to link tourist spots 200 turtles die
daily in Orissa |
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