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N A T I O N |
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RJD, BJP trade charges RSS
interference issue reopens |
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CBI
wants to probe assassination Dal
(Amritsar) to seek PM's sack Debate
on helmet issue resurfaces
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Support
to Ranvir Sena NEW DELHI, Jan 29 — The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the BJP today traded charges on the issue of tacit support to the outlawed Ranvir Sena, a private army of landlords in Bihar, which had unleashed a reign of terror in the state. While RJD President Laloo Prasad Yadav compared the sena, to the Bajrang Dal and alleged that it had "tacit support" of the BJP and the Samata Party, a Bihar BJP delegation led by its president and leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Mr Sushil Kumar Modi, met the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee to explain how the Rabri Devi Government in the state was lending support to the Ranvir Sena and the CPML as it suited its caste-based politics. The delegation demanded immediate dismissal of the state government. Addressing reporters here today Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav said: "What the Bajrang Dal is doing in Orissa and other parts of the country, the Ranvir Sena is doing in Bihar by attacking poor people." He was commenting on the recent killing of 22 persons in Jehanabad district allegedly by the sena. The former Bihar Chief Minister charged the BJP and the Samata Party with supporting the sena for carrying out such heinous claims with the intention of getting the Rabri Devi Government dismissed on grounds of deteriorating law and order situation. "The entire game smacks of votebank politics. Be it the killing of an Australian missionary and his two sons in Orissa or attacks on churches in Gujarat, it is all for the sake of votes," he said. He blamed the Congress for allowing the BJP-led coalition to stay in power. "Because of the Congress, the Vajpayee regime is continuing," he said. Asked to comment on the Congress blaming the RJD government for Monday’s massacre, Mr Yadav said: "We do not need any certificate from any party. These killings are the outcome of faulty policies and programmes of the previous Congress governments in the state". Claiming that the number of caste killings in the state had come down during his party’s regime, he described as a "farce" the visit to Jehanabad of a Congress fact-finding team which blamed the state government for the massacre. Mr Yadav asserted that the RJD was not banking on Congress support for the survival of its government. "We have a majority on our own in the state assembly and shall not ride piggyback on the Congress," he said. Mr Yadav, who was on his way to Bhopal to attend the national executive meeting of the Samajwadi Party, said efforts were on to strengthen the third front. To a question as to how he viewed President K.R. Narayanan’s condemnation of the Jehanabad killings, he said "the President’s concern over the wanton killings was very correct". Condemning the Naxalite killings in the state, Mr Yadav said these were the result of "faulty" programmes of previous Congress governments which led to economic disparity and atrocities and exploitation of the poor. He said the manner in which innocent children were killed in Jehanabad "will put even a butcher to shame". The intention behind the killings was to get a bad name for the state and ensure the imposition of President’s rule, he said. Mr Yadav said the state government had set up a special investigation team (SIT) to go into the incident while a special court would try the accused. He also said the state government had decided to upgrade Arwal and Danapur as police districts to step up security as the two areas were Naxalite-infested and witnessed frequent caste clashes. Mr Yadav, however, refused to comment on Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari’s meeting with Union Home Minister L.K. Advani this morning and his (Governor’s) suggestion that there should be a better administration in Bihar. In a related development, the Bihar BJP president and the leader of the Opposition in the state legislature, Mr Sushil Kumar Modi along with others met the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, and demanded immediate dismissal of the Rabri Devi government. The delegation also presented a memorandum to the two central leaders on the prevailing situation in the state. It apprised the Prime Minister and the Home Minister of what it called the poor law and order situation in the state and requested them to personally visit Bihar to make an on-the-spot assessment. The delegation alleged that Rabri Devi government had an understanding with the Ranvir Sena and the CPML who had unleased a reign of terror in the state. He said the RJD was deriving political mileage out of the prevailing situation in the state. The state government was
not ready to take concrete steps to check the activities
of the two groups, the delegation said. |
Tight security for Bihar bandh PATNA, Jan 29 (PTI) — Security has been tightened in Bihar in view of tomorrow’s simultaneous statewide general strike and bandh called by Left parties and the Janata Dal in protest against the killing of 22 persons by the banned Ranvir Sena on Monday, official sources said. All police stations in the state had been put on the maximum alert to maintain law and order, the sources said, adding police patrolling would be intensified on national highways. Besides, special measures would be taken to guard vital installations, the sources said. While the CPI and the CPM have called for a general strike, the Janata Dal and the CPML have given separate calls for a Bihar bandh in protest against the killings. Essential services,
including power and water supply, medical services and
press have been exempted from the purview of
tomorrow’s strike. |
RSS interference issue reopens NEW DELHI, Jan 29 — A restive atmosphere dominates the national capital on eve of Martyrs’ Day, observed on death anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, on January 30 over the past 51 years. The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, is to observe a fast to promote an atmosphere of "sarva panth sambhav" (communal amity). The Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, back after a successful tour of the south during which she let loose a no-holds-barred broadside against the ruling party and its allies, is addressing a special programme at the AICC headquarters tomorrow on the theme of communal harmony. The brutal killing of an Australian missionary in Baripada, Orissa, has sent shock waves across the world and the tremors are being felt in national politics. While the Prime Minister is observing a fast, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Madan Lal Khurana, has sought permission from the BJP president, Mr Kushabhau Thakre, to atone for the Baripada incident. Mr Khurana, who has been waging a war within the ruling party to fight hardliners over the past month, had gone on an official tour to the Andamans and is expected back via Chennai tonight. The fight of the doves and hawks in the ruling party will gain momentum after his return. There has been speculation about Mr Khurana’s resignation from the Union Cabinet. According to informed sources, Mr Khurana, whose speech was interrupted during the Bangalore session of the BJP national executive by Mr Kushabhau Thakre, had sent in his resignation letter to Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee soon after his return from Bangalore in the first week of January. Since then, neither has Mr Vajpayee reacted to the letter, nor has Mr Khurana pressed for its acceptance. But the fact is that the resignation letter of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister is very much an active document under the consideration of the Prime Minister, who is not inclined to accept it. Mr Vajpayee’s fast tomorrow is a highwater mark in the hawk versus dove fight in the Sangh Parivar. Mr Khurana is an ally of the Prime Minister, on the side of the doves. The ongoing tussle has once again brought into focus the question of dual membership — membership of the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) of most members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the influence thus wielded by the Nagpur headquarters of the RSS on the decision-making of the BJP. It may be recalled that the Janata Party experiment of 1977 came apart on the question of dual membership. At that time, the late Raj Narain had addressed a rally at Shimla’s Ridge and objected to RSS interference in the politics of the Jan Sangh elements in the Janata Party. This fissure ultimately led to the fall of the first-ever non-Congress government at the Centre led by late Morarji Desai. This also sowed the seeds of a formal split in the Janata Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party was launched in 1980. The reopening of the dual-membership issue, or more bluntly, the questioning of the interference of the RSS in the affairs of the BJP, may prove fatal for the present government. Mrs Sonia Gandhi has gone on record time and again, the latest being from Tirupati yesterday, that the Congress was not interested in pulling down the present government but was preparing for a situation in which it may collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. Contradictions are adding
up. The allies are up against the BJP. Worse, there is a
siege within — the fight between doves and hawks in
the party. The 51st martyrdom anniversary of Father of
the Nation will see a renewed attempt to uphold
secularism as well as a sudden thrust for ousting from
power a government which has been accused by its
detractors as being "anti-secular". |
CBI wants to probe assassination CHENNAI, Jan 29 (PTI) — The CBI today sought permission of a TADA court to further inquire into the May 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur near here. In a petition filed before TADA Judge Vadivel Rathnam to permit the multi-disciplinary monitoring agency (MDMA) constituted by the BJP government within the CBI, it said the permission for further investigation was being sought in view of the additional material that had come to light by the Jain Commission. The commission had been constituted by the P V Narasimha Rao government to inquire into the circumstances that led to the assassination of the former Prime Minister while he was walking up to the dais to address an election meeting on May 21, 1991. Following the suggestion by the commission for a further investigation into the killing of Gandhi, the Vajpayee government last year prepared an action taken report (ATR) indicating the steps the government proposed to initiate in the wake of Justice Jain’s recommendations. In all, 26 people,
including two hardcore LTTE members Nalini and her
husband Murugan, were awarded capital punishment by the
then TADA Judge P Navaneetham. The Supreme Court has
since stayed implementation of the order on special leave
petitions by the convicted. |
Dal (Amritsar) to seek PM's
sack NEW DELHI, Jan 29 — The Akali Dal (Amritsar) headed by Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, plans to present a memorandum to the President seeking the removal of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. In an interview to Tribune News Service here today, Mr Mann said the decision had been triggered by growing fundamentalism and the recent attacks on minorities in Gujarat and Orissa. He said, "We are very apprehensive about the rise of Hindu fundamentalism and the killing of the Australian missionary and his two sons in Orissa. We feel that the best solution lies in the dismissal of the Vajpayee Government. The country needs a Prime Minister who can restore the confidence of the minorities.’’ Mr Mann said the
memorandum would be submitted after the 52nd birth
anniversary celebrations of the late Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale in Fatehgarh Sahib on February 12.
"This congregation will enable us to test our
strength. The Akal Takht Jathedar, Bhai Ranjit Singh, has
confirmed his presence at the function where we will
honour the widows and children of our martyrs. Sant
Bhindranwale’s widow and his sons, Isher Singh and
Inderjeet Singh will also be present at Fatehgarh Sahib
that day." |
Debate on helmet issue resurfaces NEW DELHI, Jan 29 — What is more important — religious sentiment or safety? This debate has once again come into focus with the Centre’s recommendation to the Delhi Government to exempt women pillion riders from wearing helmets. The Shiromani Akali Dal Delhi unit President, Mr Avtar Singh Hit, said if wearing headgear other than a turban is forbidden in a religion, a law that makes it compulsory for men or women of that community to use helmets while riding two-wheelers is an encroachment on their right to practise what their faith dictates. Mr Hit said, “Law and sentiments are not exactly inseparable and the former does take cognisance of certain grey areas from time to time.” But police and transport policy experts lay stress on the safety aspect. A senior traffic police official points out last year’s accident data to show that death figures were much higher in cases in which pillion riders were not wearing helmets. “Undoubtedly, a good helmet if worn properly is a lifesaver,” he said. Prof Dinesh Kumar at the IIT’s Transport and Research and Injury Prevention programme in Delhi said,”Motor cyclists and pillion riders are five to ten times more accident-prone that those using fourwheelers.” “In so far as safety is concerned, a helmet is the only protective `device’ which is available for motor cyclists and pillion riders. That is why the formulation of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1989, made wearing helmets compulsory for all two wheeler riders,” he said. Doctors say in the event of a road accident, a head injury may cause paralysis, memory loss or even death. Studies have shown an accident can cause a serious head injury to a two-wheeler rider without a helmet even at a speed of 20-30 kph. But Mr Onkar Singh Thapar, who is member of the Khalsa Tercentenary Committee set up by the Prime Minister, said strict adherence to the basic tenets of the religion is the core of Sikhism. “Today, Sikhs do not wear helmets in western countries as they have won legal battles there,” he claimed. Mr Paramjit Singh Pamma, President of National Akali Dal, said any move by the Government to force Sikh women to wear helmets would be opposed. While the Sikh leaders are of the view that those women other than Sikhs may wear helmets but its use should not be binding upon the community, the police and policy experts reject the idea as practically unenforceable. Following a Delhi High Court directive, the Delhi Traffic Police from November 1, 1997, started enforcing the rule which makes it compulsory for pillion riders to wear helmets. The Government was soon flooded with representations from Sikh organisations, including the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee urging the Government to exempt Sikh women from the ban as wearing any kind of headgear was prohibited by their religion. A petition which sought exemption from the high court was, however, dismissed. The former Lt-Governor, Mr Tejindra Khanna, was in favour of the exemption, but only “on grounds of religion and not inconvenience since it was a matter of safety.” The Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, had requested the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K.Advani, to advise the traffic police in Delhi not to make it mandatory for the Sikh women to wear the helmet. The former Attorney General, Mr Ashok Desai, a few days before relinquishing his post, had advised the Delhi Government that an exemption to women pillion riders cannot be given under the present status of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Mr Desai had said that an
amendment granting special exemption to women pillion
riders has to be brought about in the Act by the Centre
and the State Government cannot modify it. |
Down and out in Udham Singh
Nagar UDHAM SINGH NAGAR, Jan 29 — Seventy-year-old Joginder Singh looks like any other old man —harmless, even sagacious, as he waits to collect cane payment at the Bank of Baroda in Sitarganj. But an innocuous comment from another man in the queue, a trader, is enough to bring out the tension that lies just below the surface. A farmer has been complaining about the switch-over from cane payments in cash to payments through banks, adding another hurdle to the often illiterate farmers’ woes, when the trader comments that farmers have never had it so good, what with the subsidies and the high prices of sugarcane. It’s enough to set off Joginder Singh. “You know that isn’t true, but then it’s your government. Those who sold peanuts for a living in Sitarganj now own shellers while farmers who began with 100 acres when they started here 50 years ago are now down to 18, thanks to the government. And even that it grudges us.” Although no mention has been made of it everybody knows the ‘it’ he is talking about. For with the Budget session beginning on February 23 round the corner, and the Bill on the state already in Parliament, Uttranchal is on everyone’s mind in this tehsil town of Udham Singh Nagar. Despite the tough Akali line and the eyewash of a three-member committee to decide on the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in the new state or its retention in Uttar Pradesh, the sullen mood here indicates that the people are not fooled. So despite the fact that the committee is yet to give its decision, the district’s two largest ethnic groups — Punjabis and Bengalis (mostly Hindu refugees from Bangladesh) — at least feel that inclusion is inevitable given the BJP’s anti-minority stance. This fear has been heightened by reports that UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh had had his way in the committee’s last meeting held on January 8, and the Punjab CM, Mr Prakash Singh Badal, weakened by his confrontation with SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra, was since trying for a viable half-way house to save face. In tacit admission of this the local media, openly pro-Uttaranchal, has been surprisingly silent on the inclusion issue over the past fortnight. Admitting to the likelihood of these reports, Jit Singh, a leader of the Udham Singh Nagar Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, points to the Kalyan Singh government’s sub-committee to decide on the fate of the new districts, including US Nagar, set up on January 3, just five days before the committee’s meeting. “US Nagar alone contributes almost 100 crore of the total 182 crore revenue of the Uttaranchal region, and Kalyan Singh questions its viability. It’s just a way of getting around Akali and Trinamool Congress opposition, if not directly then by subterfuge,” he says. He points to the recent writ by a lawyer, Ms Nathaniel, in the Allahabad High Court challenging the creation of the district as part of the ongoing campaign. “The UP government will challenge its own decision rather than retain Udham Singh Nagar, despite its being the granary of the state. (The BJP was part of the BJP-BSP coalition government when many of the new districts, including Sant Kabir Nagar, the creation of which was successfully challenged in the high court on January 15, were created.) If Udham Singh Nagar, with its eight tehsils, was indeed unviable why saddle a fragile new state with the burden?” he questions. The writ has, however, had the effect of galvanising the district administration, forced to defend its four-year-old existence, (the Sitarganj tehsildar has been deputed for representing its case in court) and brought it into indirect conflict with the state government. Though unwilling to speak on the record most district officials admit in private that the writ is just Uttaranchal politics by other means. But the Kalyan Singh government’s blatant tendency to cut corners for political expediency has undermined the local bureaucracy’s confidence and, ironically, landed it on the same side as the Udham Singh Nagar Bachao Sangharsh Samiti. The sangharsh samiti too has decided to take its battle to court in the inevitability of inclusion in Uttaranchal. According to reports, Rs 50,000 has been collected from each tehsil unit to pay the fee of legal experts to fight US Nagar’s battle in court. But despite the public determination to continue the fight most settlers sense it is a losing battle. As if in acknowledgement of this agricultural land prices have crashed and even the new low prices are meaningless as Punjabis were often the only buyers. There has also been a freeze on new investments as the long-drawn process plays its way out. Unseasonal rains which ravaged the paddy crop and three weeks of continual fog that brought most agricultural processes to a halt has added to the gloom. Asked what he would do in the eventuality. Bobby Khera, a public-school educated farmer at Rudrapur, said, “it won’t happen. Uttaranchal is just a political stunt.” Though his words may sound like foolhardiness just three weeks away from the Budget session he is in a sense conveying the truth, the fact that like most others here he has realised that despite his reluctance to be herded into an ethnic hill state there are few other options open to him. Still, the now overt rift
with the hill men and the sullen faces themselves are
evidence enough of the general mood. And the fact that
even as the BJP nonchalantly goes about drawing and
redrawing the boundaries of its ambitious project against
the will of the local inhabitants it is sowing the seeds
of a problem that could both cripple the new state and
bedevil future governments. |
Goddess ‘bats eyelids’ CHENNAI, Jan 29 (UNI) — Devotees thronged Nagathamman Temple located at the western suburb of Kodungaiyur here following reports that the priest had noticed the presiding deity “batting her eyelids”. The police said the priest
had informed some local residents about the
“miracle” on Wednesday night, following which
people made a bee-line to the temple on Thursday to have
a glimpse of the deity. The police rushed to the temple
but found nothing unusual. Elaborate security
arrangements have been made at the temple. |
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| Cash award for
militants’ arrest AGARTALA: For the first time, the Tripura Government has announced a cash award of Rs 2 lakh for those providing specific information about insurgent leaders thereby leading to their arrest. A government press note released on Friday carrying the list of 42 insurgents with their addresses and fathers’ names said any person giving specific information leading to the arrest of each of the ultras, would be awarded Rs 2 lakh and his name kept secret. — PTI Property
of drug lord attached Plantation company
GM held Code of medical
ethics upheld Uphaar case
hearing on daily basis |
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