Friday, June 11, 1999

Learn from Goa result, Fernandes tells BJP
NEW DELHI, June 10 — The Samata Party President, Mr George Fernandes, today appealed to the BJP leadership to respond to the demands of its allies and friendly parties with a “big heart” as it must learn a lesson from Goa.

Spate of robberies in Capital
NEW DELHI, June 10 — A spate of robberies was reported today from different areas of the Capital in which lakhs of rupees were robbed by unidentified persons.

HC vacancies to be filled soon
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, June 10 — The process of filling the 136 vacancies of judges in various High Courts and one in the Supreme Court will soon be initiated, the Union Law Minister, Mr Ram Jethmalani, said here today.

“My priority is to fill the vacancies, improve the prosecution system and ensure that politicians with clout (facing criminal cases) do not get away,” Mr Jethmalani told mediapersons.

Though the government was committed to the creation of a national judicial commission with powers of appointment, transfer and removal of judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, Mr Jethmalani said this would require constitutional amendment which was not possible now.

On the judges’ appointments, he said these were made by the Supreme Court but the role of the Law Ministry should not be under-rated. “I venture to think that our contribution will be effective and substantial,” he said.

Stating that merit would be the sole criterion for entry to High Courts from the lower judiciary, he said “the judges who have failed to gain the ear and eye of the competent judicial heads can forward to me four of the best judgements they have delivered — each in civil, criminal, in favour of citizens and the other way round....I may help them to secure entry into the consultative process.”

Stating that the large number of vacancies in higher and lower judiciary was one of the major reasons for delay of justice, the Law Minister said over 1000 posts of Sessions Judge and Judicial Magistrate were also lying vacant in the country.

Though the vacancies in the lower judiciary was a state subject, he said the government would be able to get these filled within the next three months.

He said the role of trial judge in the delivery of justice was more important than the appellate judge and required rigorous training, competence and integrity.

“More intensive training and experience about conducting trial, civil and criminal, will be instituted and insisted upon,” he said, adding he personally favoured at least 15 years judicial practice before entry into the judicial service, not three years.

Stating that the criminal justice system in the country was in a “shambles”, the Law Minister said the government would enhance emoluments of the prosecutors considerably and evolve a system of “supervision” of their work.

Admitting that the Law Ministry was not free from the blame for defects in the judicial system, Mr Jethmalani said the whole system needed to be overhauled and computerised.

He said the government could consider bringing an ordinance on electoral reforms as suggested by the Law Commission before the coming Lok Sabha elections if there was a consensus among political parties.

“Probably, I will initiate a dialogue with the Opposition parties and legislate an ordinance if there is an agreement,” Mr Jethmalani said.

Aziz visit to China, India ‘unperturbed’
China non-committal on Kargil

NEW DELHI, June 10 (PTI) — India is not unduly perturbed over the sudden visit of Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz to China on the eve of his talks with New Delhi on the Kargil situation, official sources here said today.

Indicating that Mr Aziz’s visit to Beijing primarily aimed at garnering Chinese support for Islamabad’s stand on the Kargil developments ahead of his parleys with the External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh was not a source of worry, the sources said New Delhi’s ties with China had to be viewed in a different context.

Mr Jaswant Singh, who leaves for Beijing on June 13 after talks with Mr Aziz, will take forward the process of normalising ties with China which had taken a nosedive in the aftermath of the Pokhran nuclear tests in May last year.

New Delhi will firmly convey to Islamabad that there was nothing else to discuss except the sole issue of ending Pakistani intrusion into the Indian side of the Line of Control in Kargil and that status quo must be restored.

"The visit will be a good occasion to drive home to Pakistan the sense of outrage in India over the incursions from Pakistani side," they said.

Maintaining that the infiltration was "pre-planned", the sources said Pakistan had been systematically and brazenly violating the Simla Agreement and other accords between the two countries.

Regretting the "intensive involvement" of Islamabad in the infiltrations, they said a Pakistan government representative had even visited the camps of these militant groups and the link of these groups with terrorist organisations had been documented by some countries other than India.

On the forthcoming Indo-Pak talks, it was stressed that the dialogue could be meaningful only if Islamabad discussed the only subject of how to end the intrusions and pledged to take forward the Lahore process.

"This is a reasonable stand and we will not deviate", they said, adding military operations would continue till the infiltrators were flushed out.

Stating that India wanted a stable Pakistan and not a dysfunctional one, the sources said it would take time to repair relations with Islamabad in the wake of Kargil developments.

"We are still proceeding in the paradigm of good relations" with Islamabad, the sources added.

Bofors case
CBI Director in Geneva

NEW DELHI, June 10 — The Central Bureau of Investigation has fine tuned the chargesheet it proposes to file shortly in the multi-crore Bofors case.

A high-level team of the CBI got the draft chargesheet vetted by legal experts, including the Attorney-General, Mr Soli Sorabjee and its Special Counsel, Mr N. Natarajan, in London and returned here today.

The team, which was led by the CBI Director, Mr R K Raghavan, got the chargesheet examined by these experts who were on a holiday in the United Kingdom.

While the team returned to the Capital today, the Director has gone to Geneva, Switzerland, to pursue the case of procuring the final set of bank documents which the agency hopes will provide vital leads regarding details of kickbacks in the 155m Howitzer guns deal. The guns are now booming in the Kargil sector.

As per information available with the CBI at its headquarters here, a Swiss cantonal court had rejected the plea by the appellants against the transfer of the bank documents.

The Swiss Federal Court, the country’s highest court, will now examine the plea of transfer from the view of the Swiss constitutional law.

The CBI Director is expected to return to the Capital by the weekend but it is almost certain he cannot bring back the final set of documents pertaining to certain coded Swiss bank accounts.

It may be recalled that the CBI had received the first set of documents pertaining to five secret bank accounts during 1997 by the then CBI Chief, Mr Joginder Singh.

The current chargesheet emerged after investigations were carried out by the CBI on the basis of a lead obtained from these sets of papers.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the bureau is yet to take a decision on whether or not to name those who are dead in the list of accused.

As of now, the CBI may file two separate chargesheets in connection with the case. One would be against the former External Affairs Minister, Mr Madhavsinh Solanki. The CBI is likely to chargesheet him under Section 193 of the Indian Penal Code for preparing false evidence.

The CBI has already disclosed five names, including those of former Bofors agent Win Chaddha, his son and Mr Ottavio Quattorcchi, former representative of Italian firm, Snam Progetti, and his wife, as being recipients of the alleged kickbacks in the deal signed in 1986 when Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister.

Sources said the agency could now be in a position to file the first-ever chargesheet in this case under investigation since 1990 before the month- end.

Uphill battle ahead for Indian forces
From Girja Shankar Kaura
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, June 10 — Despite the major offensive launched by the Indian forces to evict the infiltrators — Pak army regulars and Afghan mercenaries — from Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir, intelligence agencies’ officials here were of the view that India could well be facing a long-drawn and an uphill battle ahead.

The military intelligence and other intelligence agencies’ officials, closely monitoring the situation in the remote regions of Kargil, were of the view that the major military offensive aside it would not be an easy task to dislodge the infiltrators from the heights they were occupying. Although the Indian forces had tasted success in some regions, they were now facing extreme difficulties in the pockets under the stranglehold of the infiltrators.

After the initial successes, the Indian troops were now reportedly making very slow progress. The infiltrators, armed till the tooth with sophisticated weapons and communication systems, were putting up a very strong resistance along with inflicting heavy casualties on the Indian side.

A correct figure in this regard was not available and the military officials were not ready to disclose anything about casualties on the Indian side. The only information filtering through was that the ban clamped on the movement of the media in the region had been done to facilitate the movement of bodies of Indian soldiers. With a large number of international media personnel camping in the region, India was not ready to let anything adverse come to light.

Reports said initially there was hope that with the continuous air strikes and heavy shelling and the steady movement forward of the Indian troops the infiltrators would be successfully thrown out in a short span of time. However, the latest assessments made by the intelligence agencies point out that this “war-like situation” in Kargil could well extend till the start of winter in the region, which would very well suit Pakistan’s designs.

Both the Pakistani army regulars and the mercenaries, besides being fully armed and provided with ration supplies, were also highly indoctrinated. The word “Jehad” against India had been grilled into them with the objective being either to achieve victory or get killed.

The infiltrators were well entrenched in their regions with complete logistical backup. A delay in action from India, in the initial stages when the intrusion was noticed, had helped the Pak army regulars and the mercenaries to strengthen their positions.

Despite repeated attempts by the MoD to extract information from the Army brass in the first fortnight of May, when the intrusion was noticed, there was no information forthcoming. The Army had apparently decided that the situation was well under control. It was only after a shell blew up the ammunition dump in Kargil and another killed a number of soldiers that attempts were made to make a correct assessment of the situation. However, by then the infiltrators had a headstart over the Indian forces.

According to reports, the Indian troops were now facing stiff resistance in certain pockets in Batalik and Dras. Despite the repeated air strikes in this region, the rate of progress had been slow. Above all the assessment as regards the number of Pak army regulars and the mercenaries holed up in the region was much more than it had been thought earlier. It was now being assessed that the number of infiltrators was more than at least 1200, a number twice that of the initial assessment.

Sources confirmed that this operation launched by the Pakistani army had the complete support of the Saudi outlaw and the mentor of Taliban, Osama bin Laden, who was now also on the hit list of the FBI with a award of $ 5 million on his head. There were reportedly a large number of Taliban men still waiting to be pushed into India with the basic purpose of getting Kashmir free.

Sources also disclosed that Pakistan could well achieve their motive of extending the situation till the start of the winter as not only was it not short of either men or the arms and ammunition but it was also not short of financial support.

Reports with the intelligence agencies point out that a large consignment of arms and ammunition sponsored by Osama bin Laden was already in Pakistan, with the basic motive of being passed onto the Pak army regulars and the mercenaries holed up at different heights in Batalik and Dras. Incidentally, the leaders of the militant organisations whose men were part of the infiltrators have also said that their men would not withdraw in any case and would fight it out with the Indian forces.

As regards the financial support, there were reports that a “jehad fund” had already been set up by the supporters of this move by Pakistan against India. These supporters settled abroad were also receiving a large number of donations in it. Besides, there were also reports that despite being isolated in the western world Pakistan had approached some of the Islamic countries to muster support financially and otherwise in favour of this intrusion.

Sources said that despite the eagerness shown by Pakistan to have talks with India on the issue it could well develop another situation where India could again find itself on the back foot. The Indian officials were also sceptical about the outcome of the talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz and privately felt that Pakistan was actually not serious.

NCP adopts constitution

MUMBAI, June 10 (UNI) — The newly formed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today adopted its constitution which provides for reservation of 33 per cent seats for women and not less than 20 per cent for minorities, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs in different committees of the party.

Moving the draft of the Constitution, which was later adopted at the delegates session and ratified unanimously at the open session of the first national convention of the party here, General Secretary Purno A. Sangma said the constitution had been prepared after consulting the constitutions of world’s top political parties. The flag of the party would be the Tricolour with a Charkha”.

According to the constitution, which contains 38 articles, the party would strive for stimulating, promoting and strengthening the spirit and forces of nationalism and vigilantly preserving the national identity with special emphasis on the egalitarian and secular ethos of the Indian republic and combating fundamentalism of all shades.

In his presidential address at the first convention of his newly floated political outfit at Shanmukhanand Hall, Central Mumbai, Mr Sharad Pawar lamented that he and his colleagues who tried to talk about democracy and self-respect were asked to leave the Congress. The NCP is an attempt to re-establish in this country the eternal values cherished by Mahatma Gandhi, Lokmanya Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and hundreds of Indians who had upheld and died for these values.

He said Mrs Sonia Gandhi has repeatedly stated that she loved India and belonged to India. “We have never questioned that, because India is not just a country, it is a passion and addiction. For thousands of years, people have come to conquer, to trade, to travel, they have stayed on, enraptured by this country. That people should love India is nothing new to Indians. However, there is a very great difference between loving India and being Indian.’’

No respite from heat yet
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, June 10 — There may be little respite in sight from the heat for those living in Punjab and Haryana for the next 48 hours as the meteorological office predicts day temperatures above normal.

The Director of the office, Mr S.C. Gupta, said that western disturbances over Punjab and Haryana were mainly responsible for the hot winds blowing over the region and the temperature in Punjab was likely to hover between 41 degrees and 43 degrees Celsius.

“The temperatures in the north-west region would be above normal for the next two or three days. After about a week, the region is likely to experience pre-monsoon thundershowers,” Mr Gupta said.

The hot winds blowing across the plains of Punjab and Haryana may continue for the next two days. However, some parts of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab were likely to experience thundershowers in the next 24 hours, the office said today.

Also, the day temperature in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh would be above normal, he said.

He pointed out that the day temperature would begin to come down after the easterly monsoon reached the north-west region, including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Learn from Goa result, Fernandes
tells BJP
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, June 10 — The Samata Party President, Mr George Fernandes, today appealed to the BJP leadership to respond to the demands of its allies and friendly parties with a “big heart” as it must learn a lesson from Goa.

Addressing a press conference at his residence, Mr Fernandes, said the Samata Party would contest 35 parliamentary seats this time all over the country.

When asked if there would be any problem with regard to seat sharing with the BJP, Mr Fernandes said “a big party should also have a big heart”.

Mr Fernandes, who meticulously declined to give reply to any questions related with the Ministry of Defence or the ongoing Kargil operation, said both the BJP and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party emerged out losers in the recently held assembly elections as the two refused to have an alliance or seat sharing.

“Our objective should be to defeat our common rival the Congress”, Mr Fernandes said.

Earlier, the Samata spokesman, Mr Digvijay Singh, said that the party would contest Lok Sabha elections apart from Bihar also from UP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Lakshwadeep, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, North East, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Spate of robberies in Capital
From Our Correspondent

NEW DELHI, June 10 — A spate of robberies was reported today from different areas of the Capital in which lakhs of rupees were robbed by unidentified persons.

An unidentified person shot at a guard of the State Bank of India, Bahadur Rana, who escorted an employee and an officer of the bank, Sher Singh and Ms Namita Sarkar respectively. The assailant decamped with Rs 2 lakh being carried in a bag by the employee, the police said.

In the second incident at Nangal in the same district, Neem Singh, a supervisor in SMA Industrial Cooperative Ltd was reportedly robbed of Rs 4 lakh by two scooter- borne youth at Rohtak Road near Piragarhi Chowk. The victim collected the money from Shakti Wire Company in Tihar village and was going to deposit the amount to the Bank of India.

In the third incident, Manohar Lal Arora and Rajat Narang, both commission agents were robbed of Rs 10 lakh by four Maruti-borne persons at Yamuna Pushta near Taj Enclave this afternoon.

Row over land lease near sanctuary
LAKHIMPUR KHERI (UP): The Wildlife Preservation Organisation of Uttar Pradesh has urged the state government to cancel allotment on lease of 50 acres of land adjoining the famous Jhandi Tal in the Krishnapur sanctuary under Dudhwa tiger reserve. According to Chief Wildlife Warden R.L. Singh, Jhandi Tal in the district has the highest concentration of swamp deer in the world — estimated at 800. Besides being the prime habitat of this endangered species, it also supports about 300 species of resident as well as migratory birds. — UNI

Set higher standards, scribes told
NEW DELHI: Mr Aidan White, General Secretary, International Federation of Journalists, has asked mediapersons to set higher standards, respect pluralism, and show professional solidarity if they were to cope with the challenges of the future. Addressing a round-table meet at the Amity School of Journalism and Communication here on Wednesday, Mr White said journalists should also learn to take advantage of the new technologies and inculcate a multi-media consciousness. He said technology today offered many opportunities which were not available to journalists earlier. — UNI

10 NLFT, NSCN supporters held
AGARTALA: Security forces have arrested 10 collaborators of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) from various places of the state. The police said here on Thursday that the nabbed militants of the two banned outfits were extorting and kidnapping people for ransom. In another incident, some labourers were severely beaten up by militants at Kanchanpur in north Tripura. — UNI

2 dead, 19 hurt as bus overturns
MUMBAI: Two women were killed and 19 injured when a luxury bus overturned at Bhandup here early on Thursday. The accident occurred when the driver of the bus, which was returning from Uttar Pradesh, lost control of the vehicle after it mounted a pavement. — PTI

2 held in Gulshan murder case
BHOPAL: In a major breakthrough, the police has arrested two members of the Dawood Ibrahim gang allegedly involved in the murder of Anil Sharma alias Abdullah, prime suspect in gunning down of audio king Gulshan Kumar. Inspector General (IG) for Bhopal zone Nandan Dubey and Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Kumar Singh told reporters here on Thursday that Zulfikar alias Zulfi was arrested on May 16, while Zaheer was nabbed last night. They said Anil Sharma had left Mumbai for Dubai after the killing of Gulshan Kumar and had undergone religious conversion there. He then changed his name to Abdullah. — PTI

CBI nabs 6 touts-cum-quacks
NEW DELHI: The CBI has nabbed six touts posing as doctors from the motor vehicle licensing office at Sarai Kale Khan in South Delhi. During a surprise check, the accused were found accosting driving licence seekers, offering medical fitness certificates and help in procuring seekers, offering medical fitness certificates and help in procuring licences by paying as bribe to the authorities. — UNI

Key Dara Singh aide nabbed
BHUBANESWAR: Dipu Das, a close associate of Dara Singh, the principal accused in the killing of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two children at Manoharpur in January, has been arrested, Director-General of Police Dilip Mohapatra said. A report from Keonjhar said that acting on a tip-off, a police party visited a place and apprehended Das, who was working there as a cleaner in a truck. Das, on whom the CBI had declared a reward of Rs 1 lakh, had been brought to Keonjhar for interrogation. — PTI