J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

J&K poll not under Central rule: Omar
Jammu, May 11
The ruling National Conference is committed to ensure a free-and-fair poll and as such there is no question of holding the Assembly elections under Central rule. This was stated by the Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr Omar Abdullah, who has been tipped to head the ruling National Conference shortly, to newspersons here today.

CPM urges govt to snap ties with Israel
Srinagar, May 11
The CPM has urged the Union Government to snap diplomatic ties with Israel and force her “to come to a just and peaceful settlement with the Palestinians.” A resolution to this effect was passed at a day-long convention held by the state unit of the CPM that was attended among others by Mr Khalid Haidabi, First Secretary in the Palestinian Embassy in New Delhi, and Mr Nilotpal Basu, chief whip of the CPM in the Rajya Sabha.

Amarinder’s refusal to send forces to Gujarat flayed
Jammu, May 11
The state unit of the National Sikh Front has assailed the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, for having refused to send Punjab police commandos to Gujarat.

Pact to boost walnuts’ export
Jammu, May 11
In a bid to boost walnut export for netting foreign exchange a memorandum of understanding was signed between the state and the Centre here today.

J&K poll not under Central rule: Omar
M. L. Kak
Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 11
The ruling National Conference is committed to ensure a free-and-fair poll and as such there is no question of holding the Assembly elections under Central rule.

This was stated by the Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr Omar Abdullah, who has been tipped to head the ruling National Conference shortly, to newspersons here today. He ruled out holding of the ensuing Assembly poll in Jammu and Kashmir under President’s rule. He said, “There is no precedence of an elected government stepping down to facilitate such a dispensation.”

Mr Omar Abdullah said the question of the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, resigning for facilitating election under Central rule “does not arises.” He said the National Conference had been voted to power with a two-thirds majority in the Assembly under President’s rule in 1996. He allayed apprehensions of rigging and said the NC government “has assured of a free-and-fair poll.”

The minister said the Election Commission of India had also given an assurance that the next poll would be free-and-fair and as such there should be no room for any fears of rigging. He suggested the use of electronic voting machines to check “bogus voting”.

He claimed that separatists had no support base among the masses and hoped that they would take part in the next elections.

He cautioned against Pakistan’s “sinister” designs to sabotage the democratic process and said Islamabad would never want free-and-fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir. He said to achieve this Pakistan might step up militancy.

To a question, he said since the 28-member strong TDP in the Lok Sabha could not seek the ouster of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, how could the National Conference achieve it. He reiterated that the right to remove the Gujarat Chief Minister lay with the party he belonged to and to the people of the state.

On the Gujarat developments, he said the National Conference had a definite stand which it demonstrated during voting in the Lok Sabha. He admitted that by abstaining from the voting, the NC had sealed the chances of Dr Abdullah from becoming the Vice-President of India.

Later, he told party workers and people that the party would not beg for the President’s or Vice-President’s post for Dr Abdullah. If he was not given either of the two posts he would continue as Chief Minister, he said.

He pooh-poohed reports suggesting that Dr Abdullah may be appointed as Minister for External Affairs saying that “we are not for a Cabinet post for him at the Centre.”

CPM urges govt to snap ties with Israel
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 11
The CPM has urged the Union Government to snap diplomatic ties with Israel and force her “to come to a just and peaceful settlement with the Palestinians.”

A resolution to this effect was passed at a day-long convention held by the state unit of the CPM that was attended among others by Mr Khalid Haidabi, First Secretary in the Palestinian Embassy in New Delhi, and Mr Nilotpal Basu, chief whip of the CPM in the Rajya Sabha. Expressing its solidarity with the Palestinians in “their struggle against oppression and occupation of their land” the resolution also urged the Union Government to exert pressure on the world forums for just and peaceful settlement of the issue.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Khalid Haidabi said there was no hope of peace in Palestine in the near future as the present Israel regime was not in favour of peaceful settlement of the issues relating to the two neighbouring states. He claimed that the Israeli forces had unleashed a reign of terror in the region and the entire population was being harassed. He said Palestinians were being branded as terrorists, but the Israeli forces were adopting inhuman ways in the region. He claimed that even the Palestinian children and women were not spared and that the life of the common man had become very difficult.

Mr Haidabi recalled the oft-repeated quotes of Mahatma Gandhi that Israel was to the Arabs what France was to the French and England to the English people. He also expressed graduate to the people of the state for their support to the Palestinians. He recalled his visits to Kashmir about two decades ago and referred to the protest demonstrations in support of the Palestinians through the streets of Srinagar.

Earlier, in his inaugural address, Mr Nilotpal Basu, CPM MP, said that the USA had launched a war in Palestine after the September 11 attacks in the name of “war against terrorism”. He said the fresh attacks were made in West Bank and Gaza where lakhs of Palestinians had been rendered refugees in their own homeland. The US-backed Israeli forces were “slaughtering people in the name of war against terrorism,” he said. Mr Basu pointed out that the Government of India had shifted its traditional stand on the Palestinian issue.

The resolution passed at the convention regretted that “during the past four years, the BJP-led government at the Centre had resorted to the reversal of this consistent stand of the Indian people. The present government, to play the role of a junior partner to the USA, seeks to dilute the policy of all-out support to Palestinian cause, based on justice”, it added.

The resolution held that the Palestinians, under the leadership of PLO, repeatedly called for just, durable and comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian issue. It added that Israel defied the world opinion by “disregarding contemptuously the peace agreement and in its latest phase has chosen to unleash terror with a view to derail all that was achieved towards settlement.

Expressing solidarity with the people of Palestine, the CPM convention, presided over by its state secretary, Mr M.Y. Tarigami, resolved that the world had “remained a mute spectator to the systematic terror, humiliation and plunder of Palestinian people at the hands of Israel. While the individual suicide bombings are described as terrorist attacks, the widespread atrocities perpetrated on Palestinians by the Israeli army, for some strange reasons, were not categorised as such.” The resolution called for the world community to intervene in the matter for the peaceful resolution of the long-pending dispute in accordance with the wishes of its people.

Amarinder’s refusal to send forces to Gujarat flayed
Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 11
The state unit of the National Sikh Front has assailed the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, for having refused to send Punjab police commandos to Gujarat.

In a statement issued here today, the president of the front, Mr Virenderjit Singh, said by turning down the request of the Gujarat Government, the Chief Minister had simply followed the “inner ideology” of the Congress and as such got exposed as far as the party’s abetment to communal riots was concerned.

He appealed to all nationalist forces to join hands and help the Gujarat administration in restoring peace there. It was the duty of the Leader of the Opposition, Ms Sonia Gandhi, to have prevailed upon the Chief Minister to send police commandos to Gujarat, he added.

Pact to boost walnuts’ export
Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 11
In a bid to boost walnut export for netting foreign exchange a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the state and the Centre here today.

Under the MoU the Centre will help the state in developing and improving the infrastructure, right from plantation to the export of walnuts so that the state earned additional revenue.

It was disclosed that the state exported annually walnut worth Rs 112 crore and there was a scope for raising the export figure to over Rs 400 crore. At present walnut orchards exist on 70,000 hectares and the stuff produced in the Kashmir valley was of high grade when compared to the stuff produced in Doda district.

The MoU was signed between Chairman, Export Development Authority, Anil Swarup and Secretary Agriculture, Mumtaz Afzal. The Union Minister of State for Food Processing, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr Omar Abdullah, Mr Mohd. Ramzan, Agriculture Minister, Mr Ajay Sadhotra, Minister for Rural Development and other dignitaries were present.