Monday, March 15, 1999
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Cong MPs, ex-MPs felicitate Sonia NEW DELHI, March 14 — It was exactly a year ago this day that Mrs Sonia Gandhi took over as the president of the Indian National Congress and today senior members of the party decided to express their gratitude to her. Third
front before poll: Surjeet |
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Centre: Mahdani still in jail NEW DELHI, March 14 — The Centre today asserted that the main accused in the Coimbatore blasts case, Abdul Nasser Mahdani, continues to be in jail facing charges of murder and criminal conspiracy and only his detention under the National Security Act has been revoked.
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Rage over
IAS officer’s transfer Respect
all faiths, says Sonia High
cost of MOD- forces tussle Delhi
gets ‘creche’ for senior citizens ‘Bogus’
land offer by Karsan SC
moved against Quattrocchi |
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Her one-year as AICC chief NEW DELHI, March 14 — It was exactly a year ago this day that Mrs Sonia Gandhi took over as the president of the Indian National Congress and today senior members of the party decided to express their gratitude to her. It seemed almost as an afterthought. By evening most of the senior leaders, MPs and former MPs who were in the city started descending on the 24, Akbar Road headquarters of the AICC. Armed with bouquets, the leaders decided to assemble at the party office and then reach next door at 10, Janpath with only a lane separating the AICC and the residence of the Congress president. Apparently, the Congress president did not wish the day to be marked by any display and the affair was intended to be a low-key one. As is his wont, the AICC think-tank knew that the party Chief did not prefer to have print medium around and so promptly the visual media personnel were asked to assemble at the AICC so that the entire exercise could be captured for posterity. It is another matter that some enthusiastic person in the Media Department got carried away which resulted in a sizeable number of correspondents descending on the party headquarters, only to be turned away. According to the party spokesperson, Dr Girja Vyas, the Congress president wanted the affair to be a simple one with accent on fulfilling the commitment made to the party being kept in the forefront. For the record, the spokesperson said that party members were grateful to Mrs Sonia Gandhi for having successfully steered the Congress during the last one year. "The Congress recaptured power in two states and retained its position and also took the first step towards empowering women and weaker sections of the society," she said. The Congress, she said, was the first party to reserve one-third posts for women in party and 20 per cent for SC/ST, OBC and Dalits. A formal dinner was
scheduled to be hosted at Parliament Annexe by the
Congress president for the party MPs and former MPs as
part of the celebrations. |
Centre: Mahdani still in jail NEW DELHI, March 14 (UNI) — The Centre today asserted that the main accused in the Coimbatore blasts case, Abdul Nasser Mahdani, continues to be in jail facing charges of murder and criminal conspiracy and only his detention under the National Security Act has been revoked. Briefing newspersons after a meeting presided over by Home Minister L.K. Advani, Home Secretary B.P. Singh said that the detention under the NSA had been revoked on March 11 in view of ‘certain delays’. However, Mahdani was in jail facing charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, causing blasts, rioting, damage to public property and other charges under Sections 302, 307, 449, 465, 468, 471, 212, 153A(1), 148, 149, 201, 209 and 104 of the Indian Penal Code. Thus, Mr B.P. Singh emphasised that there was no material change in the position because of revocation of the detention order under the National Security Act. A total of 166 persons were in jail facing various charges in connection with the Coimbatore blasts of February 14 last year. All-India Anna DMK (AIADMK) general secretary J. Jayalalitha yesterday condemned the revocation of the detention of Mahdani, who is chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, and she said this would pave the way for his release and create suspicion in the minds of the people that the Union Home Minister was working in tandem with extremist outfits. Mr B.P. Singh denied that there was any deliberate delay and said the due process of law would go on. He said the state authorities had assured him that they were keen on expediting the case. When asked to comment on the allegations by Ms Jayalalitha, he said that he had learnt in his 35 years of service as an Indian Administrative Officer never to comment on the statement of a politician. But he added that he was used to receiving both bouquets and brickbats. He said that Mahdani had been arrested only on July 7, 1998 although most other accused had been nabbed earlier. He had been lodged in the Salem Central Jail and continues to be there. In a statement yesterday,
Ms Jayalalitha said that the detention under the National
Security Act had been revoked on the ground that the
detention order was not furnished in the language of
Mahdani’s choice and said this showed the
incompetent, inefficient and ineffective functioning of
the Union Home Ministry. She said Mahdani, who had
allegedly supplied explosives to the banned
fundamentalist outfit "Al-Umma" for the
Coimbatore blasts and arrested after a herculean task by
the vigilant Kerala police, should not be freed. |
Rage over IAS officer’s transfer PUNE March 14 (PTI) — More than 40 organisations in the city today held a meeting to demand immediate reinstatement of IAS officer Arun Bhatia, who was transferred within seven days after becoming the Municipal Commissioner of Pune. Various organisations have chalked out different modes of agitation including filing of public interest litigations in the high court, organising morchas and holding fasts. The organisations which participated in today’s protest meeting at Mandai included the National Society for Clean Cities, the Residents’ Forum, the Citizens’ Action Group, the Pune Wing of the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, the Committee for People’s Empowerment, the Patit Pawan Sanghatana, the Republican Party of India and the Maharatta Chamber of Commerce. Mr Suryakant Pathak,
executive member of the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak panchayat,
said they would launch a signature campaign demanding Mr
Bhatia’s reinstatement. |
Respect all faiths, says Sonia NEW DELHI, March 14 — The Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, today called upon people to respect all religions and recalled the rich contribution of Bhagwan Mahavira for the promotion of peace and non-violence in society. Addressing a function here organised by the National Integration Committee to present "Upacharya" degree to Muni Manmalji, Mrs Sonia Gandhi said "respect for all religions formed the bedrock of our century-old civilisation. All religions have a common goal and therefore, we should honour all faiths." Stating that sacrifice and perseverance enjoyed the place of pride in all religions, she said "all religions preach truth and non-violence, may be through different paths." Reminding people of Mahatma Gandhi’s ideal of simple living and high thinking, she said since all desires could not be fulfilled, it will be prudent to keep limited wishes. The Congress president said the country’s glorious civilisation owed a lot to Jainism and Buddhism which had influenced the thinking over the years. "We won freedom through truth and non-violence," she said, adding that even today Jainism continued to inspire people. She also recalled rich
contribution of the committee’s founder, Acharya
Nagrajji, who conferred the degree of
"Upacharya" to Muni Manmalji in the presence of
Delhi Chief Minister, Mrs Sheila Dikshit, Rajya Sabha
Deputy Chairperson, Mrs Najma Heptulla and other senior
Congress leaders including Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr Arjun
Singh. |
High cost of MOD- forces tussle NEW DELHI, March 14 (PTI) — The ‘combative mentality’ between defence ministry and the forces has had ‘damaging consequences’ on the morale of the services and the country’s strategic planning, says the External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, in a new book "Defending India". "As there is no horizontal integration between the services headquarters and the defence ministry, and as early prejudices have now got layered over by bureaucratic one-upmanship, a combative mentality has grown between the service headquarters and the ministry," says Mr Singh "Such an attitude has its own damaging consequences. The Defence Ministry, in effect, becomes the principal destroyer of the cutting edge of military morale," says Mr Singh, in the book, tracing the evolution of Indian armed forces from the pre-Islamic period. Maintaining that ‘the institutionalising’ of policy making on security concern "has simply not taken place" in the last 50 years, he says "the country has deluded itself into thinking that a vast and ever-growing ministry is the proper alternative for such an institutional mechanism. "The sword arm of the state gets blunted by the state itself," Mr Singh laments, noting "so marked is the resistance then to change and so deep the mutual suspicions, inertia and antipathy that all efforts at reforming the system have always floundered against a rock of ossified thought". "Occasionally, half-hearted and half-digested thoughts like policy planning cells etc have been set up, but as the spirit is wanting, the functioning of such cells has scarcely had any effect on real policy-making...It has at best been marginal, at the worst inconsequential." The ex-Armyman turned politician-author attributes Gandhi’s pacifism as having left "direct and a far more telling influence on the fledgling Ministry of Defence". Mr Singh, who has been holding parleys with the USA on the nuclear issue as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s special envoy has also flayed the Nehruvian foreign policy for influencing India’s security perception for the past five decades. "On account of Pandit Nehru’s early enunciation of the country’s foreign policy, India deluded itself into thinking that simply because it bore no enmity against others, none harboured any designs against it either. Naive credulity replaced statecarft," writes the External Affairs Minister. "It is pathetic to read outpourings like those of Pandit Nehru that no one asked that earlier what if the Chinese behaved differently from what they had till then been doing? There was an element of "unstated apprehension too", in not allowing the forces to grow and build on their own, "which over the time only got cemented as in Pakistan democracy was easily brushed aside and repeated coups followed". "In consequence, a system got devised that today requires every possible need of the armed forces to travel to the ministry where it is examined afresh, then scrutinised in-house from the financial angle and only after ‘elephantine file’ makes its way to the Cabinet; whereafter again for a second financial scrutiny. "Time wasted by this over-elaborate procedure is incalculable in terms of efficiency," he rues. According to Mr Singh, in the last half century, Indian political-military leadership has not displayed the required strategic sense. Indian national interests were not adequately served. The leadership failed if even just one criterion of evaluation is taken into account — that of maintaining the frontiers of India as inviolable. "That is the consequences which still troubles us," he continues. "India remains possibly the only country of its size and importance that has for so long had an undefined land frontier; it is amongst those few countries of importance that continues to have major border disputes with two of its principal neighbours," he notes. Mr Singh attributes it "to that very same legacy — of an absence of proper strategic thinking, planning..." For the future, "we need to reflect upon, for example, a major failure in the 17th and 18th centuries to make proper assessment of the importance of the Indian Ocean and sea routes to India resulted in the arrival of foreign powers. "India (also) ought to reflect deeply upon where it went wrong in the Indian peace keeping force (IPKF)," he says. "The onus on efficiency, then, that confronts the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in general and the armed forces in particular demands the establishment of a rational and more current manpower and equipment policy," Mr Singh says. This by itself, calls for ‘revamping’ the entire force structure, he notes, adding that "this rationalisation of force structures will, by the sheer force of its momentum, also change the designs of India’s war fighting capability. "The concept of combined forces and capability based formations has to take root in the Indian defence and security planning mechanisms," he notes. Further maintaining that no longer can conventional formations undertake the tasks of wars of tomorrow, he says "in the decades to come India shall have to continue to contend with covert operations or clandestine war". Cautioning that the
response mechanism and methodology hitherto being
practised will not work, he says "striking a balance
between the over burgeoning demand for resources and a
scarcity of them, the country will have to review the
structure of its forces and move towards not only
integrating them but also building much higher levels of
sustainability". |
Third front before poll: Surjeet NEW DELHI, March 14 (PTI) — CPM leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet has said the third front will come into force before the Assembly elections in nine states. Suggesting that it would be a “much wider platform” than the United Front, he said “generally those parties who have been there, by and large, are again going to be there. Other parties may also join.” Asked whether the third front will come into being before the Assembly elections in nine states, the CPM general secretary said “Yes, naturally.” Terms of the Assemblies of these states, including Bihar, will expire between this December and April next year. In an interview to Eenadu Television, he suggested scrapping of Article 356 and replacing it with a law under which a government can be dismissed by the Centre only on two grounds threatening national unity. “Whether 356 remains....In fact we would like it to go... it has a very bad history. And in that place a section comes where a government can be dismissed by the Centre only if there is a threat to unity of the country — for example some states declare that they are independent. Secondly, if there is a threat to national unity as it happened in the case of the Babri Masjid demolition,” he said. To a question on a reference to the Bihar issue in the President’s Address in parliament, he said “the President’s Address was a policy statement of the government.” Asked what alternative was there to remove a government found corrupt and inept, he said, “Can you give a single example when this was applied in case of a central government?” ...then you put a ban on the Congress forming government. Then put a ban on other parties also.” Mr Surjeet said as far as
the Bihar unit of the CPM was concerned they were opposed
to Article 356 and added that though they had differences
with the RJD government in the state the party voted in
its favour. |
2 Tihar inmates get B.A.
degree NEW DELHI, March 14 — For the first time, two inmates of the Tihar Jail, got their graduation degree from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Riaz Ahmad Khan, ward number 13 and Gobind Singh, ward number 11A, Central Jail 3 of Tihar, were awarded the B.A. degree to which they had enrolled for in 1994. Delivering the 10th convocation address of IGNOU here today, Dr Karan Singh, said: “What is urgently needed is a creative revolution in our education and communication policies. We need to develop carefully structured programmes on a global scale based unequivocally on the premise that human survival involves the growth of a creative and compassionate global consciousness.” Noted writer and social worker, Mahasveta Devi, was conferred a D. Litt (honoris causa) on the occasion. The 73-year-old writer has to her credit 117 books which includes novels, short stories, plays and historical biographies. Mahasveta Devi writes mostly in Bengali and her novel “Hajar Chaurasi Ki Maa” has not only been translated into Hindi, Assamese, Telegu, Malayalam and Marathi, but has also been made into a film by Govind Nihalani. Some of her works have been translated into Japanese too. The Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU, Prof A.W. Khan, announced that the university had initiated efforts for professional upgradation of community development practitioners and for general awareness in such areas as human rights, health, HIV/AIDS and family life. Prof Khan said diploma programmes in videography, video editing, audio programme production and audio-video technology were under development. The toll free phone-in service and voice-mail have been introduced to facilitate students’ interaction with the teachers. The former is, presently, available in Delhi, Mumbai and Indore. Prasar Bharati has agreed to extend the same service through its Jalandhar, Jammu, Shimla, Rohtak, Lucknow, Patna and Delhi stations from March this year. Efforts are on to expand the service in all states in the coming years. The telecounselling is also available through AIR Delhi (D) Yuva Vani every Sunday 9 a.m. to 9.30 a.m., the Vice-Chancellor said. Meanwhile, the 76th annual convocation of Delhi University was held here today. The function was presided over by the Pro-Chancellor of the university), Chief Justice A.S. Anand and Chairman of National Human Rights Commission, Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah. Degrees were conferred to 299 candidates by the Vice-Chancellor in Ph.D., D.M. (cardiology), D.M. (gastroenterology), M.Ch. (plastic surgery), M.Ch. (cardio-thoracic surgery), M.Ch. (neuro-surgery), M.Ch. (gastroenterology surgery). As many as 41,804 graduates other than these were given degrees in absentia. The chief Justice gave away 111 medals and 50 prizes to their recipients. Justice Venkatachaliah, in his convocational address commented on growth of higher education in India and challenges to higher education. He said the challenges,
which could be broadly identified were changing with
societal attitude about who should or should not go to
the college; a growing demand for college education;
challenges to the relevance of university course from
explosion of scientific and technological knowledge;
sustaining and ensuring the quality of teachers; the
crises of funding and crises of indiscipline and attitude
of ethnic neutrality. |
Delhi gets ‘creche’
for senior citizens NEW DELHI, March 14 — A “creche” for senior citizens, which would take care of them in their “second childhood” during the day while their children are at work, has been opened in the Capital. Coming in the International Year of Older Persons the Centre, supported by HelpAge India, operates from the premises of Vardaan Hospital in Malaviya Nagar, South Delhi. The “creche” caters to the needs of older persons in the vicinity and give them an opportunity to interact and share each other’s concerns. The day-care centre opened in the Capital has indoor entertainment facilities, a small library and medical assistance. Prabhat Ram, who has enrolled himself for the day-care centre, says “my son and daughter-in-law work and earlier I could look after the children. When they started going to school, I did not know how to spend the day. Then I got to know about this centre. I also began to go. I have made so many friends that now I look forward to each day.” India has a population of seventy million aged above 60, half of which is female. Only seven out of this seventy belong to the organised sector, meaning that they have access to pension or provident fund or gratuity and may be some form of health scheme. For the rest, if male, there is nothing to fall back on, still less to look forward to. If female, the picture is far more bleak. Even if one is optimistic, there are no more than 700 homes for the aged today which can handle at the most 30,000 people at any point of time. So our nation needs 217 lakh more homes to shelter the elder people. Though many will bite their lips and stay with their children, the need for a large number of homes remains. By opening day-care
centres, it is this need HelpAge India is responding to.
The organisation has found that after old-age homes, the
demand for day-care centres is on the rise, specially in
metropolitan cities. |
‘Bogus’ land offer by Karsan NEW DELHI, March 14 (PTI) —Controversy surrounding the offer made by Karsan executives to pledge huge tracts of land in Andhra Pradesh as security for their bail in the Rs-133-crore urea scam case has taken a new turn with the CBI alleging that the documents pertaining to the land in question were forged. A CBI officer, who probed into the ownership of 356 acres of land situated in Ranga Reddy district, submitted a report to the court, saying, “after thorough verification and discussion with the revenue officials, I find that all documents (pertaining to the land) are false and fabricated.” The agency, which filed the report before Special Judge V.B. Gupta last week, requested him to take necessary legal action in the matter. Earlier, Mr Justice Gupta has asked the CBI to verify the authenticity of the documents filed by Navin Chandra Mohan Goud, who claimed to have general power of attorney (GPA) in respect of the said land. Mr Goud had also expressed his readiness to mortgage the land as collateral security for Rs 133 crore. In another twist to the controversial issue, Goud has now sought withdrawal of his affidavit, saying, “I am unwilling to stand surety to the accused persons”. Goud’s desperate move to distance himself from the whole controversy follows a letter written by 47 persons from Ranga Reddy district Andhra Pradesh to the Special Judge claiming to be legal heirs of the land offered by Karsan executives Tuncay Alankus and Cihan Karanci as security. The letter received by the court on March 1 challenged the authenticity of the GPA claimed to have been held by Mr Goud. According to the letter signed by 47 persons, the land offered by Karsan officials as bail bond security was already subject matter of a dispute in the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Claiming to be the real owners of the land in question, the signatories to the letter said they were sending this letter to inform the court that “the said Goud or his alleged principals are not the owners of the land and are not in possession and enjoyment of the same”. They had requested the court not to take any action on Goud’s petition as the entire land belonged to them in capacity of being the legal heirs of “shams-ul-umra paigah asman jahc”. But even after backing out from standing surety to Karsan officials Goud again claimed that the original of the said GPA was in his custody. In a fresh affidavit filed in the court, he stated he had handed over a photocopy of the said GPA to a real estate broker named Bhaskar who wanted to negotiate with prospective purchasers. “Bhaskar got signed
an affidavit by me saying that this was necessary to get
good purchasers,” Goud said. “Later, I came to
know contents of the affidavit through newspapers,”
he said. |
SC moved against Quattrocchi NEW DELHI, March 14 (PTI) — The CBI has moved the Supreme Court for initiation of contempt proceedings against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, a key accused in the Bofors gun deal kickback case, accusing him of not honouring his assurance to the apex court that he would appear before the trial court if protected from being arrested. In an application filed before the Supreme Court, the investigating agency stated the court had permitted him to come to India to appear the trial court and to be interrogated by the CBI on a specific statement made by his senior counsel while protecting him from being arrested. However, within two days of the court’s order, the Italian businessman, alleged to have got over $ 7 million as kickback in the Rs 1,437 crore gun deal in 1986, made a statement from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia expressing his unwillingness to appear before the court. The CBI said Quattrocchi “is playing ducks and drakes” with the court’s time, saying that the court on February 15 had specifically asked counsel to ascertain from the accused whether he was prepared to appear before the court if he was protected from being arrested and had adjourned the matter. It said on February 22 the
court passed the order after ascertaining the view of the
accused and added it had written to Quattrocchi’s
advocate -on-record in the Supreme Court, Mr Gopal Singh,
but has not received any reply. |
Scribes' wage board report by March-end JABALPUR, March 14 (UNI) — The Union Labour Minister, Mr Satya Narayan Jatiya today reassured that the report of Justice Manisana Singh Committee on wage board for journalists and non-journalists would be submitted to the government before March 31. "The government is taking the issue on top priority basis as the commission was appointed in 1994 and its report has been delayed for a long period’’, he said while talking to reporters here. He added that he was
paying personal attention to the matter. |
Jaya fulfils quota promise? CHENNAI, March 14 (PTI) — The AIADMK today announced the appointment of 12 women to its executive committee as part of its resolve to accord 33 per cent reservation for women at all levels of the party. The AIADMK General Secretary, Ms Jayalalitha said in a statement here that the newly appointed executive committee members included former MLAs B. Saroja, R. Sakkubai and S. Sundarambal. The other members are Ms
Vijaya Vijayakumar, Ms Mallika Subbarayan, Ms Indira
Munusamy, Ms C.M. Suryakala, Ms Lalitha Srinivasan, Ms
Mallika Vadivel, Ms Dorothy Samson, Ms Vijaya Pitchai and
Ms Sandhu Begum. |
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| 4 held for attacking
evangelists KOZHIKODE: Four workers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were taken into custody on Saturday for allegedly attacking two evangelists at Balussery, near here. According to the police, the evangelists Sabu Michael and Saji Philip, activists of the Christian Indian Campus Crusade had organised a film show on Jesus on Friday night and several people had gathered to watch the film. The miscreants had indulged in stone throwing to scare away the crowd and attacked the evangelists and destroyed the projector. — UNI 11
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