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Monday,
August 20, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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UP poll to be Advani’s Waterloo? 18 elephants feared poisoned by villagers Govindacharya breaks silence on marriage
India’s brightest ‘shying away’ from research No attack on Chhota Shakeel: govt |
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Delhi Govt may levy ST on CNG INS chief flays attacks on mediapersons Uttaranchal, UP CMs meet today Bengal CM opposes astrology as subject
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UP poll to be Advani’s Waterloo? New Delhi, August 19 Since the result of the Assembly elections, likely to take place between October, 2001, and January next year, are going to determine the fate of the National Democratic Alliance government led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the top leadership of the BJP in close consultation with the Sangh parivar decided to contest the Uttar Pradesh elections under the leadership of Mr Advani who is known for his organisational acumen and managerial skills. As it would be physically impossible for Mr Vajpayee to campaign in the elections as he used to do in earlier times, Mr Advani, who is not only number two in the government but also in the party, should naturally be leading the party’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh, so ran the argument, sources said. Sources said that when Mr Vajpayee mentioned to one of the top leaders that since Assembly poll in the biggest state is would going to determine the future of the Indian politics, every effort should be made to win the electoral battle and nobody could play the role better than Mr Advani. The Home Minister, who has a sharp intellect and an analytical mind, has reportedly agreed in principle to play the role but is approaching the task with a lot of circumspection. Mr Advani could not possibly have refused it also as the Sangh Parivar would not have liked it. Moreover, the Home Minister, whose role in the North-East and his permission to hold talks with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (I-M) abroad has not been appreciated by the RSS, is not even in a frame of mind to decline the request. Mr Advani, who is more than conscious that the BJP will have to wage one of its toughest electoral battles in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll this time, will plan the exercise in such a way so that the entire blame for the party’s dismal performance does not go to him alone. Mr Advani would fill the committees, which would be constituted for contesting elections, with persons who are known Vajpayee-followers and thus in the post-election analysis he would be able to assert that a defeat was because of them. Moreover, Uttar Pradesh has never been his field and he has also never contested from the state. It has been the domain of Mr Vajpayee and Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Mr Advani would be heard saying after the elections. The pro-Advani media would be full of news reports about the midnight oil that the Home Minister was burning for ensuring the victory of the party. At the same time, there would also be stories in the media as how pro-Vajpayee elements were sabotaging the campaign. In this exercise, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, who has been a staunch Advani-follower, would act as a conduit for the Home Minister. |
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18 elephants feared poisoned by villagers Guwahati, August 19 The Nameri Range officer, Mr Pankaj Sharma, said so far nine carcasses had been recovered from his range. “Initially we thought it was the foot and mouth disease but now we suspect poisoning as more carcasses were found in the areas where the elephant depredation was high,’’ he said. Senior veterinary doctors from Assam Veterinary College, Mr Apurbo Chakravarty and Mr Kushal Sharma, would reach Nameri today to collect blood samples of the pachyderms of the Forest Department.
UNI |
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Govindacharya breaks silence on marriage Varanasi, August 19 Scotching rumours that the two had secretly married earlier this year, Mr Govindacharya said the fact that a non-issue was being raked up again and again, only indicated that there was a conspiracy by ‘vested interests’ to defame him and Ms Bharti. He said the efforts by these elements were aimed at preventing him from moving ahead in public life. However, he refused to accept that the party or its leaders were in any way behind this. “It is true that 10 years ago I wanted to marry Umaji. I had in fact sent a proposal to her and her family through a senior party leader. However, Umaji declined. After this, Umaji took ‘sanyas’ and the matter ended there,” the BJP ideologue disclosed. He said Ms Bharti was still a close friend of his and he greatly respected her for her ‘saintliness’.
UNI |
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India’s brightest ‘shying away’ from research Kharagpur, August 19 The panelists included Dr K.L. Chopra, former Director of the IIT-Kharagpur, Prof A. Misra, Director of the IIT-Mumbai, Prof R. Natarajan, Director of the IIT-Chennai, Prof K.A. Padmanabhan, Director of the IIT-Kanpur, Prof Amitabha Ghosh, Director of the IIT-Kharagpur, Prof R.S. Sirohi, Director of the IIT-Delhi, Prof D.N. Buragohain, Director of the newly established IIT-Guwahati, and Prof G.S. Sanyal, former Director of the IIT-Kharagpur. When eight wise men meet, you expect some difference of opinion among them. Every panelist had a different viewpoint on what should be done to make the IITs centres of advanced learning. Prof R. Natarajan, who opened the discussion, said, “India’s brightest are shying away from professional education and technical research, especially the one that involves hardware. The IITs have scripted many success stories, but the volume of the success should expand. The B.Tech graduates of the IITs are no longer interested in joining the postgraduate programmes. Rather they go for admission in the IIMs after their graduation. The IITs are known more for their B.Tech graduates than their faculties, maybe because there is not sufficient infrastructure for research programmes in the IITs right now.” Dr K.L. Chopra was all praise for his old institute. He said it was good that the IITs had become a brand name and even China wanted to know how we created so many software engineers. However, he said, the educational standards in our universities were vanishing in the absence of analytical knowledge. He said admission to the IIT was a passport for privileges, but, contrary to the popular belief, the IITians had not created enough wealth for the nation. “Life sciences are as important as physics, chemistry and mathematics; I have always been saying that management courses and entrepreneurial training were
inalienable parts of technical education,” he said. He said the IITs were a Mecca for everyone in India, but for no one abroad. Few persons were ready to spend a year with any of the IITs. “Some courses in the IITs have not changed for the past 50 years, but we don’t have the courage to discontinue these,” he said. Prof A. Misra said the reason why no one wanted to come to the IIT for research was because the faculty and students were not going out for international conferences and seminars enough. He said there were few reasons for a research student to come to the IIT and a system of motivation would have to be established if the situation was to be improved. He said even undergraduate students should get facilities for research and new ideas in science had to be generated. Professor Chopra recounted an incident from the time when he was in Connecticut, USA. The university there wanted all students of the final batch of a particular course to take admission there. He said the IITians of Kharagpur were miles ahead of their counterparts in technical prowess and efficiency. He said the aim of the IITs should be advancement of learning and nothing else. “India needs scientist engineers and not just engineers,” he said. Professor Buragohain said the IITs should play the role of pathfinders and leaders. “We have not got the confidence in our own abilities, or else we would not be following others even after 50 years of the establishment of the IITs.” Borrowing from the adline of Apple Inc., he urged the research scholars to “think differently”. The youngest director in the IIT system, Professor Sirohi, said he had to hear the delegations of the SC-ST Commission, the Women’s Commission, the Handicapped Commission and the National Human Rights Commission almost every week because these bodies believed that the IITs were not being socially sensitive. He said Taiwan wanted the IITs to teach 200,000 of its students, which was rather flattering, though impossible. He said it was sad that the IIT teaching and research programmes were not up-to-date and the IITs had to adjust students on “compassionate grounds”. Professor Padmanabhan had the gathering in splits when he said, “As soon as a student joins the IIT, his soul migrates to the USA; the body follows four years later.” Consequently, no one was willing to take up research jobs and postgraduate courses in India. Professor Ghosh concluded the discussion by putting two questions to the students who were present in the hall. “How many of you would join a postgraduate course in an IIT?” he said. No hand went up. “How many of you would return to the IITs as faculty members after acquiring designer degrees from abroad?” Many hands went up. “I don’t believe you,” said Professor Ghosh, but hope survived. |
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No attack on Chhota Shakeel: govt Mumbai, August 19 Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Kripashankar Singh said, “We have received intelligence reports that there is no basis to the reports that Shakeel was injured or killed in a shootout in Karachi. There is no truth in them.” Asked who was behind the rumour that created a flutter in the metropolis which has witnessed bitter gang wars, he said, “Certain organisations wanted to create panic and take advantage of the situation by spreading misinformation”. The rumours were deliberately spread by certain elements to create panic in the city, he said. The minister, however, did not specify the organisations saying that “We are yet to investigate into it. But soon we will come out with the findings”. He ruled out any escalation in inter-gang rivalry in the metropolis due to these rumours. “Law and order is perfect in the city and the police is on high alert and capable of handling any situation”, he said. Meanwhile, a person who claimed to be Chhota Shakeel told television news channels that he and Dawood were “hale and hearty” and denied they were attacked in Karachi on Friday. The man also claimed he and Dawood were in Singapore and not, as reported by media reports, in Karachi.
PTI |
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Delhi Govt may levy ST on CNG New Delhi, August 19 “We are contemplating levying a moderate sales tax on the CNG since it is now an alternative fuel in the Capital”, Delhi Finance Minister Mahinder Singh Saathi said today. The CNG, which has so far been exempted from the sales tax, cost is Rs 12.21 per kg in Delhi compared to Rs 18.35 per kg in Mumbai. Stating that the tax was unlikely to be levied immediately, he said the proposed move had been necessitated as the CNG was now here to stay as a fuel and fuel was a major source of revenue for the government. Meanwhile, the Centre today proposed a ban on conversion of private non-commercial vehicles to the CNG, saying that they should use conventional auto fuel as it would be difficult to meet the further demand for the CNG. “The present allocation of natural gas to Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) is sufficient to meet the demand of CNG vehicles that have been registered/converted up till now. But it would be difficult to supply the CNG to vehicles that may register in future,” a senior Petroleum Ministry official said. This information was given to the Supreme Court in an application earlier this week, the official said, adding that due to the vast price advantage that currently exists in using the CNG vis-a-vis petrol, a large number of private vehicles were converting to the CNG mode.
PTI |
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INS chief flays attacks on mediapersons New Delhi, August 19 In a statement issued today, Mr Chopra said there appeared to be a deliberate pattern to these attacks and this was the second time in the last two months that journalists had been brutally beaten up with a view of preventing their full and free functioning. Such incidents of excesses by the police were undoubtedly an attack on the freedom of speech and expression. He said the state government must ensure that such incidents did not recur and those responsible for the assault on journalists were proceeded against. |
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Uttaranchal, UP CMs meet today Dehra Dun, August 19 The meeting assumes significance following the sack of Uttar Pradesh Power Minister Naresh Agarwal, whom the Uttaranchal government had described as “main stumbling block” in the resolution of the power dispute between the two states. Power dispute is also snowballing into a major political issue in Uttaranchal with all Opposition parties slamming the BJP government for “surrendering” the interests of the newly formed state to Uttar Pradesh. Uttaranchal Chief Minister Nityanand Swami left for New Delhi today for tomorrow’s meeting which his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Rajnath Singh would also attend, Secretary to CM Subhash Kumar told The Tribune here. The nine-month-old power dispute stems from the Uttar Pradesh government’s claim for 60 per cent share of electricity being produced from power projects in Uttaranchal, and its refusal to hand over the ownership of these projects to the newly born state. Uttar Pradesh has also raised objections to the Uttaranchal government’s claim of 12 per cent royalty from the mega 2400 mw Tehri hydroelectric power project. Though Power Ministers of the two states have had several meetings but no breakthrough was possible with Uttaranchal Power Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari accusing the Uttar Pradesh government of not being sincere to break the deadlock. This had led to heated exchanges publicly between the two ministers. And finally the Uttaranchal government asked central leaders to intervene into the matter. Both Mr Swami and Mr Koshiyari met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Union Home Minister L.K. Advani, among other leaders recently, to pressing for the handing over the power assets to Uttaranchal. Mr Koshiyari, who already is camping in New Delhi, told The Tribune that Uttaranchal was expecting a solution in its favour and that Mr Advani fully understood the whole issue. “I am very optimistic about tomorrow’s meeting. I think something concrete would come out from the meeting,” Mr Koshiyari said exuding confidence for a “just resolution” of the vexed issue. On the sidelines of the tomorrow’s meeting, power secretaries of the two states are also meeting separately. |
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Bengal CM opposes astrology as subject Kolkata, August 19 Both were present to address the golden jubilee celebration of the country’s oldest technological institute (IIT) at Kharagpur, about 200 km from Kolkata on Saturday, in which several eminent dignitaries and other luminaries of the country, were also present. A physicist-turned politician, Dr Joshi, and Mr Bhattacharyya, the poet, spoke, on science and technology, astronomy and astrology, culture and philosophy and both had different views and perceptions. The jubilee celebration virtually turned out to be a debate session on the Vajpayee government’s new education policy. The debate was inconclusive. Mr Bhattacharyya accused Dr Joshi of “saffronising the country’s education”, which the latter denied, adding that they were trying to teach the new generation about “our past culture and tradition, heritage and history and philosophy and science, astrology and astronomy”, which did not have any real clash against each other. Dr Joshi’s plea, however, did not convince the young Chief Minister. The Chief Minister said they would fight tooth and nail against any attempt to introduce astrology as science in any school, college or university. “We have already decided not to allow any educational institutions in our state to implement the Centre’s such new decisions”, he added. The Union Minister, however, insisted that all central educational institutions and colleges and universities in the state which get UGC’s grants, should implement the new educational policy and introduce astrology in their educational curriculum, arguing that there was no clash between astrology and astronomy. |
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