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Friday,
March 8, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Ayodhya a virtual fortress
RSS defies orders, holds training camp VHP has no role: Shankaracharya My consent must: Ansari VP, Gujral for Modi’s ouster |
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No Pak response to list Over 1,000 madarsas on
Indo-Bangladesh border HC gives last chance to Chandraswami
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Ayodhya a virtual fortress Ayodhya, March 7 As one approaches the make-shift temple of Ram Lalla at the disputed site, an eerie silence pervades with no pilgrims visiting the temple and majority of shopkeepers keeping their shutters closed due to lack of business. An over zealous district administration has made out of bounds the entire Faizabad district for all four-wheeler vehicles, including buses, trucks, vans and cars. Only vehicles with special permits are being allowed to ply in the city. The worst sufferers of these measures are the local people, who are unable move around freely in their own place and feeling as if they are under house arrest. The irritation and anger of local people is growing day by day as stocks of essential commodities are depleting and people finding it difficult to visit the hospital, go to work and conduct marriages of their daughters. Shyam Kumar Katri, a resident near Hanuman Ghari in Ayodhya, could only manage a permit for one vehicle to ferry his relatives for his daughter’s marriage, slated for tomorrow. Till afternoon he was awaiting a special permit, to be issued by the City Magistrate, to ferry the son-in-law to be and his family. “I have only one daughter and I had planned to hold it in a big manner. But because of the restrictions imposed by the Administration it seems only there will be 10 to 15 people for my daughter’s marriage. This is totally disgusting”, a terribly upset Katri told The Tribune. For those who are working in places outside the district, the problem is if they move out they cannot get back home as the police has put up a big barrier at Ram Snehi Ghat just outside Faizabad district, where they would be stopped for not carrying the requisite permit. One can find a beeline of trucks and buses near the Barabanki district barricade as well as the Ram Snehi Ghat police barricade. Gurinder Kumar, a truck driver from Moga district of Punjab, had come to deliver a threshing machine to a client in Faizabad but he has been stranded since March 5 at Ram Snehi Ghat barricade as his truck was stopped by police personnel. He is left with just Rs 400 and losing an earning of about Rs 1000 to Rs 1500 per day and is worried about the fact that he will run out of money if the situation continues like this till March 15. However, the most worried man here is BJP MP from Faizabad Vinay Katiyar, who is facing the ire of the local people for his inability to impress upon the administration to ease the restrictions. “Why don’t they (administration) clamp curfew....I don’t know under whose instructions they are acting like this,” an angry Katiyar told The Tribune. Stating that he has spoken to senior authorities to give some relaxation to local people, Mr Katiyar said hopefully from tomorrow morning vehicles carrying essential commodities will be allowed to move into the district and also local residents having photo identity cards will be allowed to move in and out of the city. If this kind of situation continues then there will be scarcity of essential commodities and there could be tension of a different kind. “That is why I have impressed upon the need for some relaxation,” he said adding the City Magistrate has also increased the number of counters from five to nine for issue of permits for vehicles. Mr Katiyar said Union Minister of State for Home Affairs I.D. Swami could be deputed by the Centre in a day or two to assess the situation here. However, in this hour of crisis probably the happiest lot are STD booth owners and local taxi drivers having special permits. However, the people in general and the business community in particular want the immediate resolution to the problem created by the VHP’s call to start shifting of carved pillars to the undisputed site in Ayodhya on March 15. |
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RSS defies orders, holds training camp Gaya (Bihar), March 7 Ignoring District Magistrate Brajesh Mehrotra’s orders asking the RSS to postpone it, the outfit proceeded with the training camp for senior volunteers of Gaya, Bhojpur and Rohtas districts. Mr Mehrotra and Police Superintendent Ravindran Shankaran had asked Gaya division pracharak of the sangh to postpone the programme beginning March 4 keeping in view an order of the State Home Secretary and IG (Special Branch). Ignoring the directive, sangh Sarkaryawah Mohanji Bhagwat addressed the volunteers at the RSS office here on March 5, forcing the administration to order him to leave the district, they said.
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VHP has no role: Shankaracharya Ahmedabad, March 7 He said the Ramjanambhoomi Nyas (trust), which holds the final word on the matter, had given a written assurance that it would abide by the court verdict as far as the issue of ‘Garbh Grihya’ (sanctum sanctorum at the controversial site) was concerned. Ruling out any politics behind his Gujarat visit now, the Shankaracharaya told a press conference that as per the schedule he was to be in Gujarat on February 8 last but then got involved in the process to broker peace with the Centre, ‘Muslims’ and Ramjanambhoomi Nyas and, therefore, the earlier plan had to be altered. “Do not believe the Vishva Hindu Parishad’s announcements. The real people who matter in this issue are those who belong to the Ramjanambhoomi Nyas,” the Shankaracharaya said, adding that the latter had given a written assurance that said it would maintain the status quo in Ayodhya until the Supreme Court delivered the verdict in the case.
PTI
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My consent must: Ansari Ayodhya, March 7 “Any decision by the AIMPLB and the government under the mediation of Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam on the issue without taking me into confidence will be futile as I am the main petitioner in the case,” Mr Ansari told The Tribune here. Mr Ansari, who is also a member of the AIMPLB, said although he had read in the papers that the board had convened a meeting in Delhi on March 10 to discuss on the “formula” evolved by the Shankaracharya, he had not been invited to it as yet. “I am sure they will take me into confidence. If not, I will fight the case on my own,” he said. Dubbing the decision of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to seek the Shankaracharya’s intervention as a “calculated political move aimed at achieving the BJP’s hidden agenda of constructing the Ram temple at the disputed site”, Mr Ansari asserted that “only the court has the right to decide the matter.” “The matter should be left to the court to decide,” he said, expressing happiness over the Centre’s move to expedite the case through a daily hearing of the Ayodhya case. “It will be good for all if the matter is decided by the court at the earliest. Everyone should abide by the verdict and we will accept the court decision whether it is in our favour or not,” he said. Blaming the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the BJP for causing a communal flare up occasionally in the name of the Ram temple, Mr Ansari said, “because of their threat, Ayodhya has been converted into a virtual fortress, causing problems for the common man.” “There is no religious sentiment attached to their demand and repeated attempts to create an uneasy situation only reflects their political ambitions,” Mr Ansari, who filed the petition in January, 1950, said. The 82-year-old Ansari, who has appeared before the Allahabad High Court 24 times in the past three years, is determined to fight the case till the very end. The intentions of Mr Vajpayee, as far as resolution of the Ayodhya issue is concerned could be sincere but the sharp differences among the leaders of the Muslim community would prove to be a major irritant. |
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VP, Gujral for Modi’s ouster Ahmedabad, March 7 “We have come on a peace expedition and not on a complaint expedition,” Mr V.P. Singh said. However, he indicated that Mr Modi was morally responsible for all that has happened in the state. “There is something called constructive responsibility,’’ Mr V.P. Singh said, pointing out that he had also resigned as Chief Minister, owning moral
responsibility for certain events in his state. Accompanied by former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral and Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande, Mr V.P. Singh met victims at the relief camps and visited the civil hospital here. The two leaders said that they would apprise Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of their understanding of the situation in Gujarat. Demanding parity in compensation for all victims, Mr Gujral said that even if Home Minister L K Advani’s statement about the possible ISI involvement in Godhra incidents was accepted, the foreign agency seemed to have succeeded in its designs as the post-Godhra riots almost created a wedge between the two major communities in Gujarat. “The Army had to be called from the borders,” Mr Gujral said. He said that the citizens of the city providing relief to the riot victims had given them a lot of hope about the future. The Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Jayendra Saraswati was also in the city today to meet the victims of violence. Appealing for peace and harmony, he also visited the village near Ahmedabad whose residents were killed in the Godhra incident. |
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All-party team visits Gujarat today New Delhi, March 7 The delegation will include Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan, BJP MP V.K. Malhotra, Congress Deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Shivraj Patil, Left party leaders Somnath Chatterjee and A.B. Bardhan. AHMEDABAD:
Thirty-eight more bodies were recovered from deserted and burnt houses of Gujarat, that witnessed week-long violence, taking the toll to 607, PTI adds. |
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NHRC not to give Gujarat more time New Delhi, March 7 |
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No Pak response to list New Delhi, March 7 In a written reply, Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah described Pakistani leaders’ claim of sending to India their own list as a propagandist ploy aimed at diverting attention from Islamabad’s continued sponsorship of cross-border terrorism. Meanwhile, India today said Pakistan continued to indulge in cross-border terrorism despite its claims to the contrary. “The Pakistani establishment has given mere lip-service to check the involvement of its nationals in fomenting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir,’’ a Defence Ministry press note said here. It said one of the terrorists killed by troops in an encounter during the later half of February in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir was identified as Ahmed Khan, son of Abdullah and resident of Koimanzal village in Muzafarrabad from the identity card issued to him by the Pakistan Government. |
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Over 1,000 madarsas on Indo-Bangladesh border New Delhi, March 7 “Though there is no specific inputs regarding ISI’s involvement in these,” he told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply, “this cannot be totally ruled out”. Replying to a spate of questions on the ISI spreading its nexus beyond Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in the North-East, the minister said after the terrorist attack at the American Center in Kolkata, the state government had been advised to keep a strict vigil on these madarsas and take action under the Provisions of the Religious Institutions Act, 1988. He told the House that so far five persons had been arrested in connection with the case in which investigations had received a big boost with the deportation of the main accused Aftab Ansari from Dubai. As part of the extensive security review undertaken, the minister said the Centre had immediately dispatched a large number of sophisticated weapons for the West Bengal police. He said the Centre had also approved the state government’s Rs 120.95 crore modernisation plan for the state police and the Centre share to the tune of Rs 60.475 crore had been already released.
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HC gives last chance to Chandraswami New Delhi, March 7 Accepting the undertaking given to this effect by counsel for Chandraswami alias Nemichand, Rajinder Singh, Justice R.S. Sodhi disposed of the Chandraswami’s plea against Additional Judge R.K. Gauba’s January-14 order closing the defence evidence following failure of the CBI to secure the presence of Mr Dymally. Justice Sodhi found no infirmity with the lower court’s order and said the trial could continue expeditiously.
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Manipur Ministry
sworn in Imphal, March 7 Three senior leaders of the SPF constituents — Mr Govindas Konthoujam of the Manipur State Congress Party, Mr Pheiroijam Parijat of the CPI and Mr Chungkhokai Doungel of the NCP — were also sworn in.
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