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Monday,
May 7, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Panchayat poll: 1,000 villagers in
dilemma Dalits upset over my ouster:
Laxman Maneka to file libel suit |
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Haryana to send fodder to Rajasthan Indian
DRS get Chinese programmes 3-yr RI for retd Wing
Commander Watchman killed, DIG hurt by MCC Pak national arrested 2 goods trains collide, 2 hurt Demand to ban Daler’s
album Materials decaying at ayurveda
camp
Close contest at hand in
Pondicherry EC’s no to multi-phase poll may prove costly Dhubri no longer Cong stronghold
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Panchayat poll: 1,000 villagers in
dilemma Banuchapra (Bihar), May 6 Such threats are making rounds in almost all parts of the state where the mighty candidates with criminal antecedents have promised to wreak vengeance in the wake of their defeat. The problem is that the voters now are caught in a Hobson’s choice. They cannot reverse their destiny sealed in the ballot boxes. The said don candidate of Banuchapra had offered free ration to all those who opted to vote for him. Ten litres of free kerosene and five kg of rice were doled out to every family. Almost all families availed the free offer. After the votes were polled, the don issued the threat. The villagers maintain that the don candidate is bound to lose the seat for his notoriety and people did not vote for him. Now his vengeance is bound to land the villagers in trouble, even if their limbs are spared. A villager told about the Hobson’s choice. We could not have denied his free offer. That would have easily identified us as non-voters and we could have been his open target. In that fear almost all the families availed the ration. Greed in getting the bonanza and then ditching is also not ruled out. As the village is too small a place to avoid identification, the don recognises almost all those who took away the free offer. All of them are now exposed to his threat. Not that only the voters are faced with the threat of the losing candidates. The winning candidates too face the same dilemma. Bacchiya Paswan in the neighbouring village is a character drawn straight from the novel of Munshi Premchand. A grandmother at 40 and an Indian rural woman personified has won the Ward Council seat unopposed. An “angutha chhap” (illiterate), Bachhi oozes real democratic spirit maintaining that she knows nothing about the Panchayati Raj system but says, “jeh gaon ke logani chahiyen wohi hoi (I will do what the villagers want)”. But her wishes may not get fulfilled. There is a stumbling block in her wish to make a rest house for the downtrodden and Dalit. The local heavyweight has declared that he would not allow any development work in the village if his son in the fray for Mukhiya did not win. Villagers are sceptical of his son’s win. The local ‘lord’ has the money and gun power to make his diktat run in the village. Bachhi has the mandate but she cannot do what she wishes and that essentially is the wishes of her villagers. A democratic dilemma this! |
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Dalits upset over my ouster: Laxman Hyderabad, May 6 Even while defending the party leadership on the way it handled the political aftermath of the Tehelka disclosures, he could hardly conceal his ire at “certain people in the party who may differ” with him on his Nagpur call to broaden the base of party. “But the conspiracy to cut short my career was hatched outside the party. The Congress is behind it and there are many more whom I do not want to name now as the commission is seized of the matter”, Mr Laxman said in an interview with PTI here. Seeking to put the Tehelka stigma firmly behind him, an unrepentant Laxman spoke about his “clear conscience” and exuded confidence that he would come out “clean” on the issue. Admitting his partymen were in a state of “shell-shock for 48 hours” after the Tehelka tapes showing him accepting wads of currency notes from fictitious arms dealers were made public, he said: “No one was able to distinguish between two different issues — the party President accepting donation for the party and alleged corruption in defence deals”. Mr Laxman had arrived here last week to a hero’s welcome from his followers who invoked the Dalit card and waved placards suggesting that Dalit organisations would stand behind him in his hour of crisis. “I hope the party will take note of such sentiments”, Mr Laxman said as a steady stream of supporters thronged his Keshava Nagar residence here to express solidarity with him. He, however, stopped short of blaming the BJP leadership for his predicament. Asked whether he felt in retrospect that the party could have treated him differently, he said: “My party’s reaction was on expected lines. It was reeling under shock and a clear-cut strategy was not apparently coming out in the first 48 hours”. Mr Laxman, however, hastened to add that his resignation from the party presidentship on moral grounds was in tune with the BJP’s stand on such matters and cited the instance of Mr L.K. Advani resigning from the Lok Sabha when his name figured in the hawala scandal. Queried as to how he could blame the Opposition for curtailing his career since his resignation was guided by his own party’s principles, he said: “There was a criminal conspiracy against me because I come from a Dalit background. Otherwise, why do you think I was chosen for framing in this case when I am not at all connected with defence deals”. “I had taken over the reins of the party just three months back. I was not a member of defence committees nor did I serve as Defence Minister anytime in the past,” he argued. Mr Lamxan said he was convinced that tehelka.com’s sting operation was not an “ordinary journalistic effort” but a “deeper conspiracy to cut short the career of a Dalit leader”.
PTI |
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Maneka to file libel suit New Delhi, May 6 Deeply hurt by the vicious and defamatory references to her late husband, Sanjay Gandhi and herself, Mrs Maneka Gandhi is presently holding consultations with lawyers in England to file a defamation suit. Describing the book as “atrocious, extremely scurrilous, untrue and obviously motivated,’’ Mrs Gandhi told The Tribune, “I have taken exception to the whole tone of the book.” Sources close to the family said that the statements made by Katherine Frank about Kamla Nehru and Feroze Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Maneka Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi were blatantly false. They said that the case will act as a counter against serious, unsubstantiated allegations to which the parties involved have denied their role in even meeting the author. Sources close to the family said that while the author had expressed her gratitude to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, it is noteworthy that the book serves to defame the entire family except her. The book has also raised questions from the journalistic community about the ethics involved in the writing of political biographies. Senior journalists have expressed the opinion that if Maneka files a defamation suit in Britain where libel laws are very strict, Katherine Frank could be in very serious trouble. Maneka’s son Feroze Varun Gandhi told The Tribune, “My grandmother was considered a mother to millions across the nation and I find the report on her both vicious and baseless. I find it shocking that members of my family have collaborated in the assimilation of lies.’’ Feroze drew attention to the chapter “The Rising Sun” where the biographer says, “Lurid rumours also abounded on how Sanjay’s ‘hit-men’ liquidated human targets on his orders. Some of these rumours were true.” Chapter 11 in the book titled “Metamorphosis” talks about Indira Gandhi’s relationship with her father’s secretary, M.O. Mathai. The biographer has also stated that Mathai wrote an account in his autobiography claiming that he had a 12-year affair with Indira Gandhi. According to the author, the chapter titled ‘She’ was suppressed by Mathai when the book was about to be published but surfaced in early eighties when “Indira’s estranged daughter-in-law, Maneka Gandhi, circulated it among a small group of Indira’s enemies.” Chapter 19 titled ‘Fault Lines’ says that Maneka had been a major irritant in the household and this only increased after Sanjay’s death. The same chapter also quotes from a letter in which Indira Gandhi accused Maneka of “using bad language, suggesting that Sanjay had become fed up with his wayward wife, and criticising Maneka’s very different background and family.” Feroze Varun Gandhi said that his mother and he were deeply hurt over the biographer’s description of Sanjay Gandhi. Chapter 19 likens Sanjay’s corps to “an Indian Frankenstein’s monster.” Asked whether they would also seek a stay on further sale of the book, Feroze Varun said, “Its already sold exceedingly well. So why should we want to do that? It will serve no purpose.” It would be interesting to see how much personal interest Feroze Varun Gandhi takes in the case given the fact that he is about to complete a degree in law from London School of Economics. Varun feels that his mother has had a long relationship with courts and has a long history of winning court cases. |
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Haryana to send fodder to Rajasthan New Delhi, May 6 It has been decided that one rake of `toori’ would be sent from Ambala and Yamunanagar to Jodhpur, one rake from Kaithal to Nagaur and one rake of fodder from Sirsa and Fatehabad to Bikaner in Rajasthan. Similarly, one rake would be sent to Ajmer from Karnal and one rake to Jaisalmer from the districts of Panipat and Kurukshetra. According to an official spokesman, the Deputy Commissioner of Hisar has been directed to send 40,000 quintals of toori to Siwani tehsil in Bhiwani district whereas Deputy Commissioner Fatehabad would send 25,000 quintals of “toori” to this area. The Deputy Commissioners of Ambala and Yamunanagar have been directed to send 15,000 quintals of “toori” each to Morni area of Panchkula. The Deputy Commissioners have been directed to collect and transport “toori” free of cost from farmers on the basis of voluntary donations. The spokesman said the farmers of Haryana had sent “toori” to the drought-affected areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat last year also. |
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Indian DRS get Chinese programmes New Delhi, May 6 Even as a Parliamentary Standing Committee was strongly critical of the failure to upgrade radio and television transmitters on the border areas despite repeated reminders, it is learnt that direct receiving sets (DRS) provided to villagers in Arunachal Pradesh are unable to receive the national channel of Doordarshan. The committee on information technology headed by Mr Somnath Chatterjee in its 23rd report was surprised to note that Indian transmitters had power ranging between 1 KW and 10 KW on the western border and just 100 KW transmitter in Itanagar, as compared to Pakistani transmitters of up to 300 KW each at Peshawar and Khujdar and 1000 KW in Islamabad and the Chinese transmitter of 300 KW in Lhasa and 100 KW at Xizang. The Arunachal Government has now abandoned the scheme of distributing more DRS sets lying in its possession to villages and does not know what to do with them, according to the weekly, “North East Sun”. The state government has appealed to the Central Government and Prasar Bharati to take steps to rectify the situation.
UNI |
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3-yr RI for retd Wing Commander New Delhi, May 6 Hardev Singh was arrested on a complaint lodged by the Department of Revenue Intelligence for smuggling 360 foreign mark gold biscuits worth crores of rupees. Rejecting defence counsel’s plea that Hardev Singh is the sole bread-earner and his wife suffers from acute spondylites for which she needs constant medical treatment, Mr Maheshwari said: “These are the offences where deterrent theory of punishment has its justification”. “Smuggling offenders deserve to be dealt with a degree of seriousness and gravity for the detrimental effect on the nation’s economy and also on society,” observed Mr Maheshwari in his judgement. “If a lenient view is taken in such offences, it will be difficult to maintain people’s respect for the judicial administration,” the judge said. The court had framed charges against Hardev Singh under Section 135(1)(B) of the Customs Act in 1994 two years after the question regarding the jurisdiction of a Delhi court to deal with the case in which the accused was apprehended at Karnal in Haryana was settled.
UNI |
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Watchman killed, DIG hurt by MCC Chatra (Jharkhand), May 6 Chatra Superintendent of Police A.K. Mullick, who also suffered minor injury, told PTI here that a police team led by the DIG had gone deep in the Kadimarar forests under the Kunda police station in the district to destroy a bunker of the ultra outfit. The ultras detonated a landmine to prevent the policemen from carrying out their operation. While watchman Nagendra Paswan was killed on the spot, the DIG and three inspectors, besides him were injured in the explosion, Mr Mallick said. The DIG and two seriously injured inspectors were airlifted from Chatra to Ranchi for treatment at Ranchi Medical College and Hospital.
PTI |
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Pak national arrested Visakhapatnam, May 6 Mohammad Saleem alias Abdul Saleem (23) from Pashin in Baluchistan, instead of staying in Visakhapatnam had violated his visa specification by visiting Hyderabad allegedly for solemnising his marriage. City Police Commissioner A.K. Khan told a press conference here that the special branch detectives were verifying his antecedents besides possible links with either the ISI or recently banned Deendar Anjuman. Three others, who had provided shelter to him in Visakhapatnam and two others, who had received him as he landed in Delhi were at large, Mr Khan added. Saleem was here on a month’s visa. The police had also decided to keep a close watch on foreigners who land at the Vizag port as a precautionary measure.
UNI |
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2 goods trains collide, 2 hurt Nasik, May 6 A report received here today said the first train, going from Bhusaval to Nandurbar, was waiting for its signal, when the second trian came from the opposite direction on the same track and crashed into it. The second goods train, loaded with manure, was going to Amravati. Both the drivers and their assistants jumped off their trains before that crash. Both engines caught fire after the accident. While the two drivers were injured one of the assistants was missing. Railway property worth more than Rs 10 crore was estimated to be damaged in the accident.
UNI |
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Demand to ban Daler’s album Mumabi, May 6 In a letter to the city police commissioner, the Raza Academy has said it would organise a large-scale protest against the album, if its audio-cassette, VCD and the screening of the song were not banned, academy general secretary Mohammed Saeed Noori said in a press note issued here today. He alleged that in the song, the names of Nabi, Ali and Madina have been used in a very obscene manner and that the song has been picturised on women dancing in vulgar fashion.
PTI |
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EC’s no to multi-phase poll may prove costly Guwahati, May 6 Highly placed government sources said that the Commission ignored the recommendations of the state government to conduct the multi-phase poll in order to minimise election related violence and instead decided to conduct the poll on May 10 along with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Pondicherry. The state administration, it is learnt, tried to impress upon the Commission that given the inadequacy availability of para-military forces, prevention of violence could prove to be a difficult task if a one-day poll was to be held. The Commission is reported to have ignored the report of the law enforcement agencies in the state who had based their submission on the basis of reports on the ground situation. A total of 241 companies of paramilitary personnel have been deployed on election duty in the state which is inadequate given the current context of things in Assam. There are a total of 17,659 polling centres in the state spread across 24 districts for the 126 Assembly constituencies of 4,145 polling centres have been considered as very sensitive and another 6,008 sensitive. Given the sensitivity of the poll in the states, especially in the context of the call for ban on elections given by the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), the law enforcement agencies had asked for more time to deploy the insufficient troops across the state. Of the 241 companies of paramilitary personnel deployed in Assam, 166 of them belong to the CRPF, 35 to the BSF, 15 to the RPF and 25 to the SSB. The district of Nalbari, the home of the Deputy Commander in chief of ULFA Raju Baruah, has the highest number of very sensitive polling centres totalling 427. Pre-poll violence has already claimed eight lives in Nalbari in the run up to the May 10 poll. More than 50 persons have been killed in the past month in election-related violence, including an election candidate of the BJP. While BJP candidate, Mr Jayanta Dutta, was shot dead in Dibrugarh, an AGP candidate for the Barpeta seat, Kumar Dipak Das, was seriously injured and he may end up losing both his legs following an attack on him two days earlier. While ULFA is reported to have unleashed a series of attacks targeted at the AGP and the BJP, six Congressmen were killed by unidentified gunmen yesterday. The pre-poll violence could have an impact on the voters’ turnout on the day of the election. Even, Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, failed to provide the spark to the otherwise lacklustre electioneering and barely 7,000-8,000 people turned up to attend his rally in Guwahati yesterday. As the Prime Minister was addressing the rally, someone from the crowd shouted, “the AGP and BJP will form the new government in Assam.” Vajpayee paused and replied, “Very good. But, the government will be formed only when you come out in large number and cast your vote on May 10. If you are afraid of coming to the rally, how will you come out to vote. There is no cause for fear because fear and democracy cannot go together.” |
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Dhubri no longer Cong stronghold Dhubri (Assam), May 6 The Dhubri Assembly constituency is likely to witness a keen contest between Congress candidate and sitting MLA Nazibul Umar and BJP candidate Dhruba Kumar Sen, a former legislator. In the last Assembly election, Mr Umar defeated Mr Sen. Materials decaying at ayurveda
camp Hanumangarh, May 6 Under the special integration scheme in October 1998, free ayurveda medical camps were organised by the department. Patients were admitted and operated upon. The Ajmer unit of the Ayurveda Department sent 75 iron beds, 75 mattresses, 104 bedsheets, 75 blankets, an operation table and a sterilisation drum for the camps. The material was to be sent back to the unit after the camps but even after two years these are lying idle. Sources said most of the blankets and bedsheets had almost decayed. According to them the Ayurveda Deputy Director at Bikaner, had written many letters to the District Ayurveda Officer but nothing had been done so far. Meanwhile, the Rajasthan Ayurveda Nurses’ Association (Progressive), has written a letter to the Chief Minister, the Ayurveda Secretary and the Ayurveda Director. |
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