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Monday,
February 18, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Influential ‘Baba’ worries BJP
Development issues hold sway in UP |
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Regional parties ignored in Uttaranchal Tripathi family’s legacy at
stake DFO fell victim to MCC’s mafia links BJP misleading nation: Laloo Over 60 pc repolling in
6 constituencies Naxals attack Cong nominee’s house
‘Lagaan’
bags 8 Filmfare awards
CBI to rope in ED to
trace Ansari’s dealings Gujarat’s unredeeming tale of woe Bureaucrats most hated in India: Tully Conference for women in police Two-child norm challenged in HC 5 BSF
men suspended
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Influential ‘Baba’ worries BJP Gorakhpur, February 17 Aditya Nath Maharaj, popularly known here as "Baba" has fielded candidates against the BJP nominees here in Gorakhpur City, Pipraich and Mundera Bazar (reserved) constituencies. The BJP seems to be more worried about his impact on the performance of its official candidates than the challenge it is going to face from other Opposition parties like Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Ms Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The BJP’s fear was clearly evident from the fact that none other than Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee refrained from criticising "Baba" for the gross indiscipline shown by him by fielding candidates against official nominees during his election rally here yesterday. Mr Vajpayee also overlooked the fact that Aditya Nath was not present at the election rally, while all other top leaders, including Chief Minister Rajnath Singh shared the dais. Another notable feature of the rally was the absence of Mr Jitendra Prasad Jaiswal, an independent candidate backed by the BJP from Pipraich, against whom Aditya Nath has fielded Mr Deepak Aggarwal, a first-timer, under the banner of the Hindu Mahasabha. Surprisingly, the temple Seer is backing the BJP candidates in four other seats in and around Gorakhpur City. Even the supporters of BJP’s official candidates are skeptical of the prospects of the party in the elections on February 21 as they have still not found a solution to clear the "Baba cloud" hovering over them. Many BJP workers, realising the futility of supporting official candidates, have switched their flanks and are supporting the candidates put up by Aditya Nath in these constituencies. At the outset, it might seem that it would be a cakewalk for the nominess of "Baba" in the constituencies of Gorakhpur City, Pipraich and Mundera. But Aditya Nath, who expressed his ire against the BJP for not giving tickets to his pupils seems to be worried as the outcome of this poll has become a prestige issue for him. The victory of his candidates in these constituencies will bolster the image of "Baba", who has recently taken over as the Seer from Baba Avaidya Nath, a former MP from Gorakhpur. Otherwise, his impact on politics will dip down considerably which in turn will affect the Hindutva movement launched by him. All said and done, Aditya Nath strongly defended his decision to field his candidates against the BJP nominee, saying that the official candidates’ image among the people was "very bad" and thus they were very weak candidates. "More than the party, I give importance to protect the Hindutva ideology and that is why I have fielded my candidates as the BJP candidates will lose hands down. This will only help other parties like the Samajwadi Party and the BSP to wrest the seats," Aditya Nath told The Tribune here today, minutes before he was to lead a campaign procession in favour of Hindu Mahasabha candidate from Gorakhpur City, Dr Radha Mohan Das Aggarwal. Asked why he did not attend the Prime Minister’s election rally yesterday, Aditya Nath said: "I was not informed about the Prime Minister’s meeting. Moreover, I was campaigning in the Mundera constituency for the Hindu Mahasabha candidate." If one leaves the three constituencies — Gorakhpur City, Pipraich and Mundera — traditionally BJP bastions, in the other four constituencies — Sahjanwa, Maniram, Kaudiram and Maharajganj Sadar — the saffron colour seems to be fading while the Samajwadi Party is going strong and the BSP is closely following it. |
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Development issues hold sway in UP Fatehpur, February 17 ‘‘Not only in cities and towns, the Ram temple is not an issue even in villages and townships. But after almost a decade of casteist and communal politics, developmental issues are beginning to catch the electorate’s attention”, a college lecturer in Unnao, Ms Sunita Arya, pointed out. In Etawah, where Union Home Minister L K Advani’s public meeting had to be cancelled because of heavy rains, Mr Ashok Verma’s words, as he pushed his stuck car out of a pothole, were an apt comment on the prevailing situation. ‘‘Mulayam Singh ki sarkar dekhi aur ab BJP ki sarkar bhi dekh li Hamara Etawah wahin ka wahin raha ,’’he said. “Etawah has been neglected by one and all because it is situated between Agra and Kanpur”, cyber cafe owner Asim Malhotra said commenting on the state of neglect that the city had been suffering despite having one of the local lads as the Chief Minister of the state thrice. Dhaba owner Ram Naresh in Sarsaul expressed dissatisfaction saying that political parties only make promises but forget them as soon as they get elected. “Ham ko to yahin rahna aur marna hai. Neta to kabhi mandir le kar aate hain to kabhi kuch aur, par hamare rozgar aur pet ki koi chinta nahin karta,’’ grocery store owner Jeevan Ram commented when asked about trends in Fatehpur. “They are very good at making laws which make our lives more complicated as the law enforcement agencies get another excuse to harass us and extract money”, medical shop owner Ajit Kesharwani said in a bitter tone when asked about the prospect of the sitting MLA from Allhabad (south), Mr Keshri Nath Tripathi. Ms Sofia Shami of Fateh Muhamad Purwa, who admitted having exercised her voting right four times, lamented that the Mandal issue had fragmented the society so much that development of infrastructure and other facilities had taken a back seat. “They had promised to get Allahabad University a status of the central university”, university lecturer Kiran Trivedi said adding that the number of unemployed graduates were increasing but neither the Centre nor the state government had any concrete plans for improving the situation. |
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Regional parties ignored in Uttaranchal Dehra Dun, February 17 Even though vague, the available indications on voting pattern point to a possibility of a hung Assembly in the state with the Congress and the BJP running neck-to-neck in the elections on a majority of seats. According to some, this has mainly been because of the electorate ignoring regional parties as well as local issues and rallying behind the two mainstream political parties. In addition, the last moment polarisation of the Muslim vote in favour of the Congress could cause significant losses to the Samajwadi Party which claims to have the support of the community. In contrast to projections made earlier for the Congress, this factor could help secure a few more seats for the party, a possibility that has brought smiles back in the Congress camp. The regional parties with a host of contentious issues have been largely ignored by the electorate. The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal had focussed on the location of the state’s capital as the main issue, which it said would shift to
Gairsain, if elected. In its 36-point agenda, some issues were imposition of Article 371 to check the sale of the land to ‘outsiders’, rectification of shortcomings in the state’s formation, speedy division of assets with UP, 80 per cent reservation for locals in medical, engineering and other colleges of the state, and justice for victims of the
Mussoorie, Khatima, Muzaffarnagar. Mr Dhirendra Pratap, a senior Congress functionary, while expressing satisfaction over the voting percentage as well as the available pattern, said the average voter turnout was roughly the same as it used to be in this region in undivided Uttar Pradesh. He said the electorate had always cast votes on national issues in the past elections. But in view of further fragmentation of the earlier 22 Assembly seats into smaller 70 constituencies, it was earlier thought that local issues and personalities would cast their influence. But the casting of votes on national issues rather than on local issues was not only a major surprise but also a “healthy sign” for the state, he added. |
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Tripathi family’s legacy at
stake Mirzapur, February 17 Topping the list of those seeking a favourable verdict on their political fate is father and son combine of Lokpati Tripathi and Rajeshpati Tripathi, heirs of legacy of Pt Kamlapati Tripathi who in seventies led the Congress from the front. While the father is a Congress candidate in the Assembly elections from Majhwa segment of the parliamentary constituency, the son is the Congress challenger in the Lok Sabha byelection, which is being held due to the murder of bandit queen Phoolan Devi. Bandit queen Phoolan Devi’s legacy is also at stake as both the Samajwadi candidate Ramrati Bind and Phoolan’s younger sister, Ms Munni Devi contesting on the Rashtriya Kranti Party ticket are campaigning hard to get the electorate’s stamp of approval. While the Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, who launched Phoolan Devi on the political stage in 1996, is obviously appealing to the voters to send his party’s candidate to Lucknow for making him the Chief Minister, Ms Munni Devi is not shying away telling the electorate that she was the right claimant to her sister’s legacy as her deceased sister was disillusioned with her party. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which had been coming third in the last three Lok Sabha polls as former Lok Sabha BJP MP Veerendra Singh and SP’s Phoolan Devi contested against each other with the former winning the seat once and latter two times, has put up Mr Narendra Singh Kushwaha and is hoping to wrest the seat this time by combining the Dalit strength with the Kushwahas and the Muslims. Incidentally, Mr Veerendra Singh, who has been replaced this time by the BJP high command by a sitting MLA Rachandra Maurya, had won this seat in 1991 in the wake of Ram mandir wave. |
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DFO fell victim to MCC’s mafia links Patna, February 17 This reveals the criminal face of the MCC which in the garb of a Left wing resistance to the democratic system has started a parallel reign of extortion and joined hands with all types of Mafiosi, specially the jungle and quarry Mafiosi in Bihar and Jharkhand. Sanjay was killed by MCC men as he was fighting alone a battle against the forest and stone quarry Mafiosi who provide the MCC with easy money and dynamite. The MCC getting a ‘contract’ from the Mafiosi to kill him is what the truth seems to be. State DGP R.R. Prasad too admits that. The bodyguard of the
DFO, who was also held captive and was released later by the MCC told the media that the MCC held a ‘kangaroo court’ and accused him of not paying ‘allowance’ (popularly referred to as ‘levy’ in the MCC vocabulary) to the MCC in the various development works in their area. He said that Sanjay kept a brave face and refused to pay even Rs 500 to them. Initially the MCC captors demanded Rs 5 lakh for the release of the DFO and sent the bodyguard and other staff in a jeep to get the money. When the bodyguard returned with cops, he found Sanjay in a pool of blood. This shows that the MCC militants had already made up their mind to kill the DFO and the money demand as ransom was a facade. The bodyguard also said the villagers present in the ‘kangaroo court’ made strong appeals not to harm the DFO as he was pro-poor and honest, but the MCC captors chased them away by firing into the air. That also proves that the MCC had got a contract to kill. The hands of Mafiosi is confirmed by the fact that of late they had stopped paying levy and the supply of dynamites to the MCC as Sanjay had got stopped several illegal stone quarrying plants and had made the life for forest Mafiosi tough. Mr Ashish Ranjan Sinha, Additional DGP, said Sanjay was a brave officer and he had hit the levy collection of the MCC badly. |
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BJP misleading nation: Laloo Basti, February 17 Addressing election meetings in Basti and Siddharthnagar districts, Mr Yadav said the BJP-led Central Government had been a failure as far as ensuring national security was concerned. “The attack on our Parliament was the biggest proof of that,” he added. This inefficient government had proved that there was no alternative for the Congress in the country, he stressed. The RJD leader reiterated that the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the state had failed to fulfil their promises made to the electorate. People from all sections of society were troubled under their “misrule”, he said.
UNI |
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Over 60 pc repolling in
6 constituencies Lucknow, February 17 No untoward incident was reported from anywhere and the repolling passed off peacefully, they added. Repolling was held in nine polling booths of Baghpat, two each in Kanth and Kandala and one each in Thana Bhavan, Chandausi and Rampur Assembly constituencies following reports of poll-related violence and disturbances in the first phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh on February 14.
PTI |
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Naxals attack Cong nominee’s house
Rayagada (Orissa), February 17 The ultras, in fatigues, also kidnapped three villagers and subsequently escaped unhurt, the police said. About 25
Naxalites, including a few women, entered the village shouting slogans asking people to boycott the panchayat poll. They went to the residence of the Congress candidate in the zila parishad elections and president of Rayagada district Congress unit Doki Satyanarayana and assaulted his two sons.
Satyanarayana, who was in the house during the attack, however escaped unhurt, the police said.
PTI |
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‘Lagaan’ bags 8 Filmfare
awards
Mumbai, February 17 “Lagaan”, which dwells around the story of a villager Bhuvan and his leadership mantle to brave the worse crisis for the hamlet on the backdrop of colonial rule, walked away with Best Film trophy besides the best story and Best Direction awards for Ashutosh Gowariker here last night. Aamir Khan was judged the Best Actor while other awards it got were in the categories of Best Lyrics (Javed Akhtar), Best Female Singer (Alka Yagnik), Best Male Singer (Udit Narayan) and best music (A.R. Rahman). Presenting the award for the Best Film at a glittering ceremony, upcoming star Abhishekh Bachchan remarked “the film is going to make India proud” amid repeated good wishes to the “Lagaan” team for the Oscars from the show’s principal navigators Javed Jaffrey and Archana Puransingh. “Dil Chahta Hai” bagged trophies, including Critics Best Film award, Best Supporting award for Akshay Khanna, award for Best Comic Performance to Saif Ali Khan, Best Screenplay for Farhan Akhtar, Best Choreography for Farah Khan and Best Editing for Srikant Prasad. The film’s music director trio of Shankar, Ehsan and Loy were given the special R.D. Burman Award for upcoming music. Kajol was judged the Best Actress for her hilarious role as a “Chandni Chowk girl settled in the West” for the film “Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham”. In Critics Award for actors, Amitabh Bachchan walked away with the trophy for his role in “Aks”. Receiving the award, Bachchan thanked his co-star Manoj Bajpai saying, “I just copied you”. He also dedicated the award to his daughter Shweta on her marriage anniversary saying, “Tomorrow morning when your children get up tell them Nana got the award”. Big B’s better-half Jaya also bagged the Best Supporting actress for her performance in “Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham”. Karan Johar also bagged Best Dialogue award for the film. Among other award winners included Bipasha Basu for her Sensational Debut in “Ajnabi”, while another co-star Akshay Kumar walked away with Best Performance as a villain. Akshay and Bipasha also performed to the tune of the film’s popular number “Tu meri mehboob, mein mehbooba...” Ranjit Barot bagged Best Background music for “Aks” and Tusshar Kapoor the Debutant Actor Award for “Mukje Kuch Kehna Hai”. The stage performance by Diya Mirza, Arjun Rampal, Amisha Patel, Urmila, Fardeen Khan and British band Right Said Fred were other highlights of the function. While in memory lane, tributes were paid to Ashok Kumar, Pradeep Kumar and the producer N.C. Sippy. Comedian Johny Lever entertained the audience with a skit based on one of his screen image Aslam Bhai and his team of “toporis”, while anchor Javed Jaffrey cracked jokes, including on tele serials and US President George Bush. PTI
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CBI to rope in ED to
trace Ansari’s dealings
New Delhi, February 17 Official sources said Ansari, who was again sent to the CBI custody for seven days, had made some revelations about the funding of arms consignment and also about parting with some of his booty earned from kidnappings with Omar Saeed Sheikh, one of the Jaish-e-Mohammed leaders arrested by Pakistan in connection with the kidnapping of American journalist Daniel Pearl. As per the statement of Asif Reza Khan, which was recorded before his death in an encounter with the Gujarat police while he tried to flee from the custody, the funds parted by Ansari to Sheikh had been sent to Mohammed Atta, leader of the militant group that carried out the suicide attacks on September 11 in the USA. “Such mysteries need to be solved and the Enforcement Directorate has expertise in these fields,” CBI officials said.
PTI |
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Gujarat’s unredeeming tale of woe Ahmedabad It has been an unremitting tale of fiscal woes. Interestingly, quite a few economists and experts point their accusing finger at ruling BJP politicians and top bureaucrats instead of on recurrent famines, floods and earthquakes for such a mess! “The Kutch earthquake in 2001 all but emptied the state’s treasury: but huge loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) meant for relief operations in Kutch were never spent judiciously by the administration here. This resulted in inflated work estimates and reckless functioning draining the state’s budget,” said Mr Babubhai Meghji Shah, former Finance Minister of Gujarat. Babubhai is also a former Member of Parliament from Kutch (BJP). Talking to IPA at his quake-affected native village Lakadia of Bhachau taluka, Babubhai showed some budgetary documents (2000-01) of the government to prove his point. He accused the government of playing havoc with crores of rupees in the name of quake relief. Obviously, the corruption too has acquired astronomical proportions. The cost of laying a pipeline comes to Rs 20 lakh per km now instead of the normal cost of Rs 5 lakh for the same before! Referring to Kutch, he said, Rs 670 crore was borrowed from ADB in the name of laying and repairing long-route water pipelines. Rupees 470 crore out of that amount is yet to be spent. Giving another instance, he said the pipeline to Khadir point from Rapar taluka was estimated to cost Rs 8 crore. Incidentally, the pipeline work has been going on since 1985-86. However, the whole line has been found to be technically defective defeating the very purpose of the project. Consequently, no village is getting water supply. This scheme has proved to be a white elephant! He showed dozens of collapsed houses in Lakadia and surrounding villages, with debris still lying there. “One of the most-talked-about scandals in the so-called rehabilitation work here was the government’s decision to dump tin sheets on Kutch which are lying everywhere unutilised,” he complained. These sheets were simply not adequate to meet the demands of the situation (10 sheets for a victim). “In fact, a big quantity of sheets was found in an open market in far away Jetpur town of Saurashtra. Police investigations revealed that these had been sold out not by the victims but by some agents!” There are also reports of relief material, including tents, medical supplies, tin food cans and blankets being sold to distant markets. The Planning Commission, he said, had allotted Rs 480 crore to provide clean water to 1,500 scarcity-hit villages in the Eighth Plan. But the number of water-scarce villages went up to 3,000 last year while the allotment too mysteriously went up to Rs 3,000 crore in the Ninth Plan. One would have thought that at least a few areas would benefit. But it has not. Instead, the project has created only “temporary provision of tanker supplied water” to villages, without any permanent facility. The phenomenal rise in administrative costs is the prime reason why things have gone from bad to worse. There is an urgent need for the state to raise the revenue to at least Rs 700 crore on emergency basis to meet the pressing needs, say experts. They also demand an independent inquiry into the expenditure on quake relief.
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Bureaucrats most hated in India: Tully Kolkata, February 17 Speaking to newspersons at the Calcutta Press Club on the eve of his “nostalgic” fortnight-long journey from Kolkata to New Delhi to rediscover history along the route, the former BBC radio correspondent said during his stay in India he found, to his utter surprise, that “it is not the politicians but the bureaucrats who are the most hated lot.” Disagreeing that only the politicians, both at the national and the state levels, were to be blamed for the sorry state of affairs, Tully said: “On the contrary, the people who run these political institutions are to be blamed. The politicians, though corrupt, are only a part of the entire process. Welcoming the suggestion that there was a need for participation in politics by the common people instead of it being the domain of the elite, he underscored the need for a radical change in the mindset of members of the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service. He said though India had immense potential in all respects, be it natural or human resources, this had not been harnessed to the optimum level due to various reasons. The internationally-famed British journalist said his book dealing with all these issues was scheduled to hit the stands in September. Commenting on the legality of the Tehelka-type investigative journalism, Tully said such acts were common and legal in western countries when hidden recordings become the only option to do a story. “But you have to be very alert and careful all the way,” he said. However, he was critical of the way the present Tehelka investigation was proceeding, saying that it had now become an inquiry on tehelka.com itself. The former BBC political commentator complimented the standard of Indian journalism, saying that it was comparable with the best in the world, despite several shortcomings.
UNI |
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Conference for women in police New Delhi, February 17 Over 200 policewomen across all ranks in India are expected to participate in the conference being organised by the Bureau of Police Research & Development and the British Council with support from the British High Commission. Magsaysay award winner and Joint Commissioner, Police Training, Dr Kiran Bedi who is chairing the conference told TNS that there was a “long felt need for changing the police
uniform and that is why it has been put on the agenda. There has been a very strong demand for a change in uniform and we need to take a look at the police dress.” Citing an instance, she said that women in maternity work till the eighth month and wearing the police uniform may not always be comfortable.” Addressing mediapersons at Police Headquarters here on Sunday, Dr Bedi said the uniform needs of women police officers will be addressed for the first time. Dr Bedi said the conference will address four major themes: strategic
management approach for dealing with gender issues, personal and professional development of women in police, perception of men and women, family and community towards women in police and formation of a national forum for women in police. Rina
Mitra, IPS officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre and one of the six conveners of the national conference said the demand for a change in uniform was made at all the four regional workshops held at Phillaur, Bhopal, Hyderabad and
Kolkatta. Director Vigilance (Police), Railway Board, Ms Mitra termed the change in uniform as one of the “big agendas” of the conference. Kamal Singh, Head, Governance and Social Justice (India) and project partner said that students of the National Institute of Fashion Technology have been asked to participate in the competition to design uniforms after interacting with policewomen and understanding their multiple roles. She said that the selected portfolio will be forwarded to the Bureau of Police Research and Development. |
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Two-child norm challenged in HC Bhopal, February 17 In another development, the very provision inserted through an amendment in the Madhya Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act, 1993, has been challenged in the high court as ultra vires of the
Constitution. The amended Act stipulates that if a person with two or more living children has another child on or after January 26,2001, he or she will become ineligible for holding an office in a local self-government body. President of Sagar Janpad Panchayat Harbachan Singh Rathore has argued in his petition in the high court at Jabalpur that the amendment in Section 36 of the Madhya Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act, 1993, and the rules made
there under, contravene the Constitutional right to life and liberty. Besides, the Preamble to the Panchayati Raj Act does not cite birth control as one of its objects. A Division Bench comprising Justice Rajeev Gupta and Justice Usha Shukla has issued notices to the Collector of Sagar and others. The Collector had issued on February 4 a notice under the provision of the Act to Mr Rathore on the birth of his third child on January 24. Mrs Sudama is the Sarpanch while her husband Vasant Saryam is a panch of the Palatvada village panchayat in Parasia tehsil of Chhindwara district. They had two daughters and a third child was born to them on November 18. Soon afterwards, Mrs Sudama gave her second daughter for adoption and claims that she and her husband are not covered by the ineligibility provision of the Panchayati Raj Act. Mrs Shashi Yadav was the first victim of the amended Panchayati Raj Act. She had two children when she became Sarpanch of the Kanavati village panchayat in Neemuch district. While holding that office, she gave birth to a son, her third offspring, on September 25 last year, thus attracting the ineligibility provision of the Act. |
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5 BSF men suspended Jaisalmer, February 17 They were prima facie found negligent in their duty by an inquiry team of senior BSF officials probing the incident under which smuggled RDX, arms, ammunition and drugs in large quantity were seized at Kinkiyani village in Jaisalmer and in the Kelnor area of Barmer district last month, the sources said here. Further probe was on, they said.
Four of the suspended BSF personnel were constables.
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Security
strengthened for the second phase of polling in Uttar
Pradesh beginning February 18. 
(
DY SPEAKER OF BENGAL HOUSE DEAD