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Sunday,
August 12, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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NHRC chief declines PM’s invitation Seminar on
academic freedom Resist politicisation of education, Sonia tells youth Parekh remanded in custody till Aug 18
PREM BHATIA MEMORIAL LECTURE
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Poaching gang leader evading arrest
VC ‘biased’
against Khalsa Law College Sher Singh Rana’s brother arrested Gastro deaths due to ‘lack of healthcare’ Insurgents hang man to death AIFUCTO pleads for justice
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NHRC chief declines PM’s invitation New Delhi, August 11 The seminar and public consultation was organised to seek views of all sections of the society on the issue of racism and racial intolerance and those related to caste and race in India. The Commission has been invited as observer to the eight-day long conference against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance scheduled to start on August 31. The Chairperson, members and officials of the Commission will participate in the conference. Justice Verma said the Commission was committed to combating all forms of discrimination irrespective of the label or nomenclature under which it goes. He said the Commission’s effort to eradicate discrimination wherever it was found and it does not matter whether the discrimination falls under the label of caste, race on any other category. He reiterated that the Commission had not yet formed its opinion on the issue and would do so only after the public consultation had taken place. He assured the gathering that the Commission “had not mortgaged its mind to any preconceived notion or thought on the issue of racism” which was a “hotly debated issue” these days. He invited opinions on the two main concerns — whether race includes caste and suggestions for combating casteism. |
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Seminar on
academic freedom New Delhi, August 11 While some eminent academicians want total autonomy to academic institutions, some others feel that state’s role
cannot be jettisoned in the larger interest of the country. “Intellectual sector had always been close to authoritarian system. We might have changed the incumbents of the posts occupied by intellectuals in the post independence period but have not shed the colonial intellectual regime,” Prof Ashish Nandy of the Centre for Studies in Developing Societies said here today speaking at a seminar on “Academic freedom, intellectual integrity and democratic traditions”, organised by the AICC Vichar Vibhag. However, referring to the recent circular issued by the Union Home Ministry and the Human Resource Development Ministry which made prior permission of the government mandatory for organising of any international political/semi-political seminars, Prof Nandy said, it was only an amended version of a circular issued in 1986. “So, one should not blame the present BJP government alone... In 1986 BJP was not ruling India,” he said. Strongly opposing restrictions on intellectuals in the name of national security and countering terrorism, Prof Nandy wondered: “Why do those who give damn to
politicians trust them when it comes to national security and countering terrorism.” “We all know how the fear of terrorism was used to settle, even land disputes in Punjab,” he said to support his viewpoint against government restrictions. Eminent journalist and the editor of a prominent English daily, Dileep Padgaonkar felt that while it was imperative to keep a close watch on what the state did, the state could not, however, be jettisoned. He underlined the need for implementing in letter and spirit the Constitution, especially its Article 19 (A) relating to the Freedom of Speech to uphold the autonomy of the individual. A well-known academician and former Ambassador of India to Brussels, Mr Arjun Sengupta, advocated total autonomy to academic institutions, especially universities. “Universities should be autonomous bodies. The government should have nothing to do with the administration of the university and it should be left to universities to decide on what to teach and how to teach,” he said, adding that the students would decide on which university to join. |
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Resist politicisation of education, Sonia tells youth Hardwar, August 11 Lashing out at the RSS and the BJP she said the syllabus at the school level was being changed along communal lines. “The national education policy has been drafted according to the ideology of the RSS. It is time for the younger generation to raise its voice against the forces who are destroying the idea of a modern and liberal education system”, she said. She stressed upon the universalisation of primary education in all schools of the country. “There is also a need for reforms in the sphere of higher education by separating casteism from it. Excellency in education and its management is the need of the hour and the Union Government cannot escape from discharging this basic responsibility,” Mrs Gandhi said. She asked the NSUI members of work collectively and spread the message of secularism and national integration. Workshops should be organised to discuss critical current issues and bring awareness among the people. We would accept the challenges and the issues thrown up by the NDA government — UTI, Tehelka, security scams and Ayodhya, relations with Pakistan and situation in the North-East etc. The NSUI should come forward and root out communal forces from society, she said. Mrs Gandhi said the Congress planned to develop the nation by adopting a modern approach and strengthen its economy which was almost on the verge of collapse under the rule of the NDA. The Congress looked at the nation with the eyes of Mahatma Gandhi who worked for the country’s freedom throughout his life. Economic progress had come to a halt and nothing was being done to generate new avenue for employment. The NDA government had betrayed the people by the implementing their poll promise of generating 1 crore employment avenues per annum. This idea was adopted by the NDA from the promises of the late Rajiv Gandhi, who unfortunately fell a victim to the communal forces before he could fulfil his promises. Regarding the coming assembly poll in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttaranchal, she asked the NSUI members to channelise their energies for the revival of the Congress in these states.”UP is more important for the Congress for its overall revival. We should take up this tough challenge and work honestly for the Congress.” She exhorted the union members to spread the message of the Congress, its policies and programmes among the masses. Earlier, a senior Congress leader, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, called upon the students of the country to go through the history of freedom struggle of India and analyse the role of the Congress in freeing the nation from the clutches of the British empire. “I am sorry to say that historical facts are being changed by the BJP-led government at the Centre,” he said. Mrs Gandhi was honoured by the NSUI presidents of all the state units with mementos, flowers and shawls. Soon after finishing her speech, Mrs Gandhi broke the security cordon and rushed to the people who were waiting for her and spent more than 20 minutes with them. |
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Parekh remanded in custody till Aug 18 Ahmedabad, August 11 Parekh was arrested by the CBI in Mumbai yesterday and produced before a Magistrate here today on a transit warrant. After the court remanded him in custody, the CBI took him back to Mumbai for interrogation. On March 30, Ketan was arrested in a Rs 137-crore pay order scam on a complaint filed by the Bank of India. He was released on bail on May 21. The Bank of India had alleged that pay orders issued by mercantile bank’s Mandvi branch in Mumbai in favour of Ketan’s firms bounced but the money was credited to the account of the beneficiaries. The Bank of India, thereby, suffered a loss of Rs 137 crore. The mercantile bank filed a separate case in Ahmedabad, alleging fraud and misappropriation of funds by some companies, including those belonging to Ketan Parekh. The bank alleged that huge amount of money had been drained out. In the case filed by the mercantile bank, Parekh feared arrest and hence moved the Mumbai High Court for bail. However, his plea was turned down.
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PREM BHATIA
MEMORIAL LECTURE New Delhi, August 11 “In India, the governmental system is increasingly being used to further, sometimes crudely and openly, the interests of powerful individuals through corruption and nepotism,” Professor Nayyar said while delivering the 6th Prem Bhatia Memorial Lecture here this evening. Taking a dig at politicians, he noted that a “visible myopia” had crept into the realm of politics. “Political parties and political leaders can think only about the next month or the next year or, at most, the next election. The next quinquennium or the next decade are simply irrelevant. Such short-termism leads to a neglect of long term development objectives”, he emphasised. The structural reforms process initiated in 1991 did not draw its strengths from a broad-based political and social foundation, Professor Nayyar said. “It (economic liberalisation) was neither shaped by political processes nor rooted in social formations, which could have provided constituencies in polity and society”, he said. Making a detailed exposition of the Indian democratic movement since Independence, Professor Nayyar lamented the fact that the process of development did not improve the living condition or the quality of life for the common people. “Persistent poverty and absolute deprivation remained the reality for a large proportion of population”, he said, adding, “Long-term development objectives, such as education and human resource development or the acquisition of technological and managerial capabilities are simply neglected”. Professor Nayyar, in his speech titled, “Democracy and Development: The Indian Experience”, said that the 1990s witnessed an accentuation of conflict both in economic and political interests. Pointing out that the departure of the state apparatus from several economic processes was detrimental to the uplift of the poor, he said that “cuts in subsidies are often at the expense of the poor”. In an oblique criticism to the growing consumerism system as resulting from globalisation, Professor Nayyar said, “When the paradise of consumerism is not realisable or unattainable, which is the case for the common people, it only creates frustration and alienation”. The resultant conflicts arising out of the process get reflected in increased political segmentation. “For one, religion has become a major factor in political mobilisation, reflected primarily in the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party. For another, caste identities are now crucial in political parties and the electoral process,” he said. However, the flip side of the process ensures that there is a functional stability in political democracy because each of these segments have a stake in the system and aspire to share power. “These tensions are compounded by the conflicts between the sphere of economics and the realm of politics. The people who are excluded by the economics of markets are included by the politics of democracy. Hence, inclusion and exclusion are asymmetrical in politics and economics”, Professor Nayyar pointed out. Underlining the complexity of the forces of friction between economic development and political democracy, he refuted the view that political consensus exists for the Indian economic reform process. “It (consensus) is not quite correct because such a consensus exists only among the rich, the literati and the influential,” the VC said in his lecture. Currently, it appears that the forces of economy and polity are moving in opposite directions and without any concerted attempt at a reconciliation or a mediation, he said. |
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Poaching gang leader evading arrest Dehra Dun, August 11 Naren Mandal from Assam, believed to be the key player behind the entire operation, gave the police a slip. Two of his close accomplices also escaped. The gang had killed the elephants over a span of 45 days in January and February. Although, the police seized 350 kg of ivory and arrested a few members of the gang in June, Mandal and his two accomplices, who also reportedly hail from Assam, managed to escape. And since then no efforts have been made by the police to nab them. The DGP of the Uttaranchal police, Mr Ashok Kumar Sharan, is of the view that the gang leader is believed to have taken shelter in Nepal. “There are enough clues to suggest that the 700 km-long porous Indo-Nepal border along Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh is a conduit for smuggling of ivory as well as other wildlife contraband,” Mr Sharan said. “It was from there that these goods found their way to the international market,” he added. The gang was found to be killing the elephants with poison-tipped arrows and then removing the tusks with saws. In one horrifying case, the head of the pachyderm had been slit to remove the tusks from the roots. Investigations revealed that the arrested persons were daily wage employees working for Mandal. According to the police, the arrested persons have confessed to their involvement to the extent of making logistics and keeping the tusks in hideouts until a safe passage could be found to cart away the contraband outside the boundaries of the park. “The shooting of arrows, chopping of tusks and removal of the jaws were done by Naren Mandal and his two accomplices,” the police source said. According to official sources, elephant tusks are still in great demand in the international market, where a kilo of ivory is worth at least $1,000. “A single elephant tusk normally weighs between 20-30 kg and if it is sold in carved form the cost could go even higher,” he said. Ivory trade was banned in India in 1991, following the Nairobi conference, which put a ban on international trade in ivory. However, according to Mr Tolia, “Ivory is in great demand in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. |
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VC ‘biased’ against Khalsa Law College Sriganganagar, August 11 A team of the college management was shocked to hear such a “communally biased and extremely provocative” allegation from the VC, Dr D. N. Purohit, at Ajmer late last noon when it called on him in connection with the ongoing “admission and failed students tussle” between the university and the college authorities. Talking to The Tribune after his return from Ajmer late in the evening today, Mr Jaspaljit Singh, Rector of the college, said that they were taken aback at the unsubstantiated allegation and went on to point that it had hurt their sentiments. We will bring it to the notice of the Governor, the state government besides the National Commission for Minorities. He said a deputation went to meet the VC yesterday by appointment from Jaipur where they were pursuing the admission and the alleged “deliberately failed episode” with the state government. They had met the Governor, Mr Anshuman Singh, besides the Home Secretary and the Education Secretary, who were convinced about our case and assured all cooperation. In fact, the Home Secretary had convened a meeting for today in his office but they had been too disturbed at the events in Ajmer to go back to Jaipur and had come back to Sriganganagar. The university reportedly has failed a majority of the first and second year law students of the college in retaliation to a case filed by a student, challenging the policy of granting admission to domicile students with only 45 per cent marks and for outside students, 60 per cent which was held ultra vires by the Jodhpur High Court in December. This had affected prospects of students from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and had been reported by The Tribune at the time of admissions. The Rector said the very first words uttered by the VC were that they were up to some trouble and had brought the affected students as “muscle power to browbeat him (the VC)”. This was refuted by them and it was pointed out that the VC himself had summoned the students to give them a personal hearing in the case. In fact, this, in a way, set the tone for the meeting at which the VC labelled the management as
separatists and also said that they had to expect some sort of retaliation from the university for going against its writ. The VC also reportedly refused to use his extraordinary special powers to get the papers remarked, he revealed. All first and second year students of law of the college has been failed in four papers, thereby ensuring that the students remain fail even after exhausting the provision of rechecking of three papers. Fail in four means you remain so even if a candidate clears three papers after the rechecking. He said the result of the college had 100 per cent in the past decade and was one of the most prestigious colleges of the state. The VC is also stated to have written to the college authorities asking them to admit only 10 per cent of the total sanctioned seats — 240 — from outside the state. This meant that nearly 110 seats would have remained vacant in the current academic session since only 66 domicile students sought admission despite wideranging publicity in leading newspapers of the state, he added. The university has even failed to listen to the pleas of the students who had lost an academic year for no fault of theirs. Meanwhile, Mr S. S. Kang, President of the Management committee and chief of the Rajasthan unit of the SAD, left for Delhi to call on Mr Tarlochan Singh, Vice-Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities to apprise him of the situation. On the other hand, the affected students who had been called by the VC to Ajmer were cane charged by the police in front of the office of the VC. Mr A. S. Vallah, who accompanied the students and reached here this evening said that scores of students were injured in the incident which was totally unprovoked. The students, who had gone in six buses were waiting for their appointment after the college management committee, when suddenly the police started cane-charge and damaged window panes of the buses. They were chased to the main gate and not allowed to go in, he said. Some students of the university who were expressing solidarity with them were also injured. They have demanded an inquiry into the incident and removal of the VC. |
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Sher Singh Rana’s brother arrested New Delhi, August 11 He was produced in a local court which sent him to three days’ police remand. Vijay alias Raju, who was arrested from the ISBT at Kashmiri Gate here last night, had allegedly forged the documents while furnishing the bail bonds of Shravan, who impersonated Sher Singh Rana in a Hardwar jail during the
commission of the crime on July 25 to allow an alibi to the prime accused in the case. Shravan is still absconding. With Vijay’s arrest, the total number of accused arrested in the case has gone up to 11. His remand in police custody was objected by his lawyers, but the court said “he has been arrested in connection with serious offence and police has to be given time to interrogate him”.
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Gastro deaths due to ‘lack of healthcare’ Raipur, August 11 Scores of people were suffering from gastroenteritis and malaria in various parts of the state, but the state government had completely failed to provide them with either medicines or other healthcare facilities, Dr Raman Singh alleged at a press conference here. He said of the dead, 12 were Korba tribals in Jashpur district who suffered starvation. “The Centre is always willing to help Chhattisgarh provided the Congress government in the state shows any enthusiasm to help the people here”, he said and alleged that the healthcare machinery had totally collapsed due to neglect by the state government.
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Insurgents hang man to death Agartala, August 11 In a retaliatory action, five family members of an ATTF collaborator were later beaten up at a nearby village by NLFT ultras, they said. The police said six ATTF insurgents, armed with sophisticated weapons, raided the house of rival NLFT collaborator Budhiram Reang at Paniramsardarpara yesterday and dragged him out. The ultras dragged Reang 3 km away from his house, beat him up and then hanged him from a tree branch. In an apparent retaliatory action, NLFT insurgents raided the house of ATTF collaborator Abhiram Debbarma at the nearby Dukhirampara village and beat up five members of his family after failing to catch Debbarma, who was not at home.
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AIFUCTO pleads for justice New Delhi, August 11 Mr Sampadapal, President of the AIFUCTO said, “We are opposed to privatisation and commercialisation of education. The government should provide more funds for higher
education. The states are over-burdened and cannot spare funds.” The AIFUCTO members deplored the attitude of the Human Resource Development Ministry and various other state governments in gradual withdrawal from the field of higher education. |
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Mother, 2 kids killed in mishap Hanumangarh, August 11 |
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NAXALS AXE WOMAN TO DEATH ULFA MAN KILLED IN ENCOUNTER 4 ULTRAS REMANDED IN CUSTODY UP CM FLAYED FOR MINISTER’S OUSTER TOP MCC MILITANT, 6 ACCOMPLICES HELD NEWSPAPER VEHICLE HIJACKED DRIVE TO ERADICATE POLIO FROM AUG 16 RUSSIAN NATIONAL FOUND MURDERED |
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