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Saturday,
March 9, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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PM defends
Governor’s decision Sangma
quits Constitution review panel POTO Bill
introduced amid walkout NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT |
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US
judiciary more thick-skinned US
passports to be issued only in USA Airbus
rams into airport wall
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PM defends Governor’s decision New Delhi, March 8 “What option did the Governor have? Should he have left the field open for horse trading?” the Prime Minister said, responding to an impromptu discussion during zero hour on the Governor’s decision. Mr Vajpayee said some political parties had given in writing to the Governor that they would not support an SP government which, in effect, meant that the majority did not want an SP government. Even the Congress had not indicated whether it was willing to back the SP in ministry formation, Mr Vajpayee said pointing out that even if the party had supported, the
arithmetic would not have worked to a majority. Amid strong protests from SP members, he said the House should have a detailed discussion on the political scenario in UP. The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) would decide about the date and allotment of time. Home Minister L.K. Advani would reply to the debate, he said. If the parties wanted to set a new convention that the single largest party should be called to form a government in any eventuality, the House should consider it, the Prime Minister said, confronting all parties with a question if they were prepared for it. Charging UP Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri with acting with an ulterior motive, CPI member Basudeb Acharya said the way in which the Union Cabinet approved the measure hastily last night proved his contention. Recalling that Mr Vajpayee as the Leader of the Opposition had moved a motion in the Lok Sabha against the then state Governor Romesh Bhandari’s decision not to invite the single largest party, BJP, to form a government in 1996, the CPI MP said the Supreme Court judgement on the Bommai case had clearly said a majority in state legislatures should be tested only on the floor of the House and not at Raj Bhavans. Initiating the discussion, SP member Ramji Lal Suman also raised the issue of the murder of his party MLA and said the Lucknow police had declined to name the assassin in the FIR though he was caught after he opened fire. The discussion marked heated exchanges between the SP and the ruling party members. At one stage, Deputy Speaker P.M. Sayeed pulled up Union Minister Ashok Pradhan for obstructing the proceedings. Earlier, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for an hour amid uproarious scenes with angry SP members storming the well to demand action against the culprits involved in the killing. The agitated members raised anti-government slogans on the killing of former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri in Ahmedabad riots. Several NDA members, including Ms Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, and Mr Mohan Rawale of the Shiv Sena, protested against the behaviour of the SP members and wanted the Chair to take action. “We want the House to run. These people (SP members) cannot hold the House to ransom,” Ms Banerjee said. Mr Sayeed took serious exception to the members saying that “this is not the way to behave in the House. Please don’t disrupt question hour. This is being done daily. How do you expect business to be conducted?” As the din continued, Mr Sayeed ordered the switching off of TV cameras and directed that nothing should go on record. With the SP members unrelenting, he adjourned the House till noon. |
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Sangma quits Constitution review panel New Delhi, March 8 Mr Sangma’s note on the subject was discussed in detail by the committee and with opinion sharply divided the matter was put for voting. Five members voted in favour of Mr Sangma’s suggestion while five of them voted against it. With the Chairman, Justice M.N.Venkatchaliah, opting not to cast his vote it was decided to maintain status quo. In a letter to the Chairman of the committee, Mr Sangma said the reasoning that weighed with the members who did not support his suggestion was that if the status quo were altered it might appear as a particular individual being targeted. |
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POTO Bill introduced amid walkout New Delhi, March 8 Seeking to replace POTO repromulgated on December 30 last year, Mr Advani appealed to the House to cooperate in passing the legislation as it had become necessary in the wake of terrorism becoming a serious threat. He said the legislation had become necessary as the existing laws were inadequate to deal with terrorist crime. The Prime Minister had convened an all-party meeting to discuss the issues arising out of this Bill, he said. Mr Advani said the government had incorporated some of the suggestions of the Opposition members and it was prepared to do more on the basis of a debate. Replying to a question, Mr Advani said no arrest had been made under this ordinance in Gujarat or Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier, Mr Advani was allowed to withdraw the motion he had moved on December 11 to “introduce a Bill to make provision for the prevention of, and for dealing with, terrorist activities and for matters connected therewith”. Mr Ramji Lal Suman(SP) opposed the Bill and recalled that more than 70,000 persons were arrested under TADA but only a miniscule of them were convicted. Mr Basudev Acharia (CPM) described the legislation as “undemocratic and draconian” and said the Opposition should have been taken into confidence earlier on this legislation. Mr Advani said: “The need for putting in place a comprehensive law on the subject to deal with terrorist activities and to identify and declare terrorist organisations and to strike at the roots of their financial base became an urgent necessity in the background of the intensification of cross-border terrorism and the continued offensive agenda of Pakistan’s ISI aimed at promoting international terrorism and subverting India’s territorial sovereignty and integrity and the recent developments of national and international consequences”. As Parliament was not in session and it would not have been in the interest of national security to defer the enactment of an anti-terrorism legislation, the ordinance was promulgated on October 24 last year, he said. Later, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 1995, was withdrawn from the Rajya Sabha on December 7. Mr Advani said the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, 2001, to replace the ordinance, could not be introduced in the Lok Sabha as Parliament adjourned sine die on December 19 last year. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, March 8 The increase in the rate of unemployment in the rural areas was mainly because the rural economy did not grow sufficiently to absorb the new labour force and the backlog of the unemployed, he said. During 2001-02, 67.97 per cent of the total procurement of wheat in Punjab was done by state government agencies, the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Mr Ashok Pradhan, told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. While 25.27 per cent of paddy was procured by the FCI, the remaining was procured by the state government agencies. In Haryana, 12.98 per cent of wheat was procured by the FCI and 12.3 per cent of paddy. The minister said no concrete proposal in this regard was under the consideration of the government. However, alternative methods of providing income support to farmers were being examined. Mr Pradhan said for rabi marketing season 2001-02 the storage cost had provisionally been allowed uniformly at the rate of Rs 21 per tonne per month to various states, including Punjab and Haryana, which procured wheat for the Central pool. The storage cost was not fixed citywise. The Himachal Pradesh Government had indicated its willingness to offer land in Una to the Army in two pockets separated by a strip of land, the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, said. |
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US judiciary more thick-skinned The Supreme Court’s conviction of Arundhati Roy for criminal contempt raises the question as to how far courts should take criticism and attack in the stride. Judging by the manner in which courts in the USA ignore adverse comments from the media or the legal profession, the Indian judiciary gives the impression of being averse to any criticism. The only black judge in the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas, is under attack this week from five black professors of a law school faculty he was visiting. The reason? In their view, Justice Thomas is helping to turn back the clock on racial progress. “He not only engages in acts that harm other African-Americans like himself, but also gives aid, comfort and racial legitimacy to acts and doctrines of others that harm African-Americans unlike himself — that is, those who have not yet reaped the benefits of civil rights laws, including affirmative action, and who have not yet received the benefits of the white-conservative sponsorships that now empower him,” the professors said in a letter to their colleagues. Mr Clarence Thomas became a judge of the Supreme Court in 1991 during the tenure of the Bush (senior) presidency, surviving a heated opposition to his nomination. He had at that time said he was the victim of “high-tech lynching.” The U.S. Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice William Rehnquist had come under sharp criticism in December, 2000, for handing the presidency to Mr George W. Bush, in the ballot dispute with his democratic rival, Mr Al Gore. A legal commentator had this to say on the judgement:”The decision in Bush v. Gore will be scrutinised for years as either a statesmanlike, if messy solution, to a problem it did not seek to solve, or as a highly partisan, result-oriented power grab by the conservative majority. Law professors lamented that the decision will be difficult to teach without also discussing how politics played a role in the court’s ruling.” As a leading Indian newspaper pointed out in an editorial today, the issues raised in the Arundhati Roy contempt case “concern the worrisome ease with which Indian courts invoke criminal contempt even as the courts in some other democratic countries have virtually given up this power.” For instance, the editorial pointed out, in Britain, “the contempt law is virtually a dead letter and in the USA, it is invoked only in an extraordinary circumstance that poses a clear danger to justice.” |
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US passports
to be issued only in USA New Delhi, March 8 Americans will continue to submit their passport applications at their nearest consulate or embassy for processing. Applications will be sent to the USA for completion. This will increase processing time, but the Department of State is committed to ensuring that US citizens receive secure documents in a timely manner, a press note issued by the US embassy said here today. However, they would continue to issue passports in emergency cases. Such passports would be limited in validity, and could not be extended. |
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Airbus rams into airport wall New Delhi, March 8 The incident occurred at 3.15 a.m. when the airbus, VT-EFW, after routine maintenance check while being taxied from the engine run up bay to the domestic operational area, had a low speed impact with the wall. |
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