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Thursday,
November 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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PM not to attend SAARC meeting Dhaka ISI
nerve centre: Sinha |
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Sonia
writes to PM on river grid Uproar
over anti-Sonia remarks Cong,
Left finding ‘alibi’ on Tehelka NSCN
should not scare voters, says Jamir NORTH INDIA IN
PARLIAMENT Cong’s clean chit to Mehbooba
Modi is another Godse: Laloo BJP’s
media plan to woo voters Priyanka
unnerves BSP Cricket stars get “stumped”
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PM not to attend SAARC meeting New Delhi, November 27 The overbearing view in the BJP-led NDA government is that Pakistan continues to backtrack in implementing the recommendations of the SAARC ministerial meeting held in Kathmandu in August. At the same time the Vajpayee government is not shutting the door on the Islamabad SAARC summit provided Pakistan moves ahead on the economic and commercial aspects agreed to by all member countries of SAARC. The SAARC ministerial meeting in Nepal in August had fixed December end as the deadline for opening the window of opportunity on the crucial economic front. With a new civilian government headed by Prime Minister Mir Zafrullah Jamali in place, it is apparent New Delhi will like to closely watch the developments in the Pakistan. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had expressed reservations at a luncheon hosted by him for mediapersons recently about making the trip to Islamabad. He wondered if any purpose would be served with Pakistan attempting to raise bilateral issues rather than striving to make the SAARC grouping an effective tool in fighting poverty, illiteracy and unemployment in the region. Even though Mr Jamali was the dark horse in the race for the Prime Minister’s post, his appointment as the head of government brings to the fore the tenuous rebirth of democracy. New Delhi has been lukewarm to President Pervez Musharraf’s contention that it should restart a dialogue with Islamabad as a civilian government is now in place. The government has held steadfast that there can be no resumption of talks with Pakistan till it stopped cross-border terrorism. Authoritative sources said India had consistently taken the lead in having a constructive dialogue with Pakistan on all issues but Islamabad had repeatedly stabbed the country in the back. Now the ball was in Pakistan’s court to show sincerity by honouring its pledges of ending the proxy war. |
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Dhaka ISI nerve centre: Sinha New Delhi, November 27 “Some Al-Qaeda elements have taken shelter in Bangladesh .... though foreign media has also reported several such instances, our own sources have also confirmed many of these reports,” Mr Sinha told the Lok Sabha while replying to a short notice question. Large number of madarsas had sprung up along the Indo-Bangladesh border, he said, adding major insurgent groups had established training camps in different parts of Bangladesh. Stating that New Delhi had taken up the issue with the Bangladesh government from time to time, Mr Sinha said the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka had conveyed India’s “strong concern over the shelter being obtained in Bangladesh territory by people acting inimical to India’s interests”. He said the Bangladesh government had assured “us” that it would not allow its territory to be used for anti-India activities. “The Bangladesh Foreign Minister intimated that instructions have been issued not to allow presence of insurgents or their free movement across the border”, the minister said. India had informed the world community, including the USA, about these activities of Pakistan and had “succeeded in convincing” them in this regard, Mr Sinha told Congress MP Shyama Singh who raised the issue. |
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Sonia writes to PM on river grid New Delhi, November 27 In a letter to Mr Vajpayee, Mrs Gandhi said she welcomed his announcement on the national river grid project in the Lok Sabha on November 20. The project, she said, would involve the interest of all regions of the country. She favoured setting up of a task force to complete the project within a time frame. “I will, therefore, request you to take the Congress and the opposition into confidence at each successive step that will be involved in the formulation and execution of a project of this scale and magnitude”, Mrs Gandhi said. The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha also requested Mr Vajpayee to expedite the completion of techno-feasibility study and finalisation of the national perspective plan. |
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Uproar over anti-Sonia remarks New Delhi, November 27 The House was adjourned by Speaker Manohar Joshi for lunch soon after Samata Party member Prabhu Nath Singh made the remarks against the Leader of the Opposition which led to strong protests from the Congress. As soon as the House reassembled, Deputy Leader of the Congress Shivraj Patil sought expunction of the remarks, contending that Mr Prabhu Nath Singh had not fulfilled the conditions for raising such a matter which was of a defamatory nature. |
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Cong, Left finding ‘alibi’ on Tehelka New Delhi, November 27 Having realised that their (Opposition) campaign was ‘recoiling’ on them, these parties had started finding an alibi to blame the government for leaking information on the six month-old appointment, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesperson Vijay Kumar Malhotra told newspersons here. “The Congress, he said, should understand that there could be nothing secret in such appointments,” he said. |
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NSCN should not scare voters, says Jamir New Delhi, November 27 Mr Jamir met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today in Parliament House and the meeting lasted for 30 minutes. |
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Left parties stage walkout
New Delhi, November 27 |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, November 27 She also told the House that 400 telephone exchanges in Punjab, 141 in Haryana, 152 in Himachal Pradesh and 56 in Jammu and Kashmir were proposed to be linked with optical fibre cable during the current financial year, which would mean an increased subscriber base and speedy information transfer. Dr Sanjay Paswan, Minister of State for Communications and IT, told the House that during the past three years, three post office buildings were constructed in Punjab, on which Rs 61.79 lakh had been spent, five buildings constructed in Haryana, three in the Himachal circle and one in Jammu and Kashmir. The number of post offices which did not have their own buildings as on March 31, 2001 was 702 in Punjab, 402 in Haryana, 407 in HP circle and 225 in J&K, the minister told the House. Mr Shatrughan Sinha, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, told the House that Census 2001 had revealed that the child sex ratio was more adverse to the girl child in affluent regions of the country like Punjab (793), Haryana (820), Chandigarh (845) and Himachal Pradesh (897), despite high female literacy rates in these states as compared to the national average. In Punjab, the female literacy rate is 63.55 per cent, in Haryana it is 56.3 per cent, Chandigarh 76.65 per cent and in Himachal Pradesh 68.08 per cent . The government has also received proposals for additional financial assistance for family welfare programmes from various states, including Himachal Pradesh. The per capita income during the first four years of the Ninth Plan (1997-2001) in Punjab depicted a growth rate of 2.9 per cent and was Rs 15,390 during 2000-01, Rs 14,331 in Haryana (3.1 per cent growth) and Rs 10,942 in Himachal Pradesh, an increase of 4.6 per cent, Ms Vasundhara Raje, Minister of State for Planning, told the House. Regarding projects under the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme, the Minister of State for Power, Ms Jayawanti Mehta, told the Rajya Sabha that the amount released to Haryana for 2002-03 under this programme was Rs 18.23 crore, and Rs 13.33 crore were given to Himachal Pradesh. She also informed the House that Rs 1,488.25 lakh were released to Punjab, Rs 187.90 lakh to Haryana, Rs 100 lakh to Himachal Pradesh and Rs 1,922 lakh to Jammu and Kashmir under the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojna for rural electrification during the year 2001-02. Under the Minimum Needs Programme for rural electrification, the amount disbursed during 2001-02 was Rs 77 lakh to Jammu and Kashmir and Rs 72 lakh to Himachal Pradesh. Under the National Old-Age Pension Scheme, Punjab was given Rs 329.25 lakh, Chandigarh Rs 5.87 lakh, Haryana Rs 453.89 lakh, Himachal Pradesh Rs 199.72 lakh and Jammu and Kashmir Rs 162.54 lakh during 2001-02, informed Mr Annasaheb M.K. Patil, Minister of State for Rural Development, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. Quoting Reserve Bank of India data, Ms Vasundhara Raje told the House that the amount outstanding in the books of commercial banks against small-scale industries as on March 2001 was Rs 360,80,363 thousand in Punjab, Rs 32,97,067 thousand in Chandigarh, Rs 198,91,739 thousand in Haryana, Rs 222,6086 thousand in Himachal Pradesh and Rs 3846089 thousand in Jammu and Kashmir. |
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Cong’s clean chit to Mehbooba New Delhi, November 27 “Her statement, as it appeared in a national English daily, could not be interpreted to mean that she had asked the Centre to keep off the state affairs,’’ party spokesman Anand Sharma said. He maintained that she meant that both governments of India and Pakistan had to contribute to allowing people of Jammu and Kashmir peace and amity. “Don’t take her statement in bits but in totality, or else it will distort the meaning,’’ he said. He stressed the need for a coordinated approach between the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir Government on combating terrorism. He accused the BJP of making misleading statements about the release of militants by the Mufti government. Asked about the BJP’s decision to make it a poll issue in Gujarat, Mr Sharma said it was unfortunate and cynical. He said the consensus that the Congress wanted to build on the issue was being undermined by the Centre. Replying to a question about the release of the militants, Mr Sharma said 16 of them had been released by the courts while eight had been released on parole. |
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Modi is another Godse: Laloo
New Delhi, November 27 Participating in a short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the situation arising out of the recent developments in Gujarat, Mr Yadav also derided the BJP as a front organisation for the “Sangh Parivar.” “The BJP is not a political party. It is only a mask worn by the VHP and the Sangh Parivar. They worked hard to install the BJP in power and it is now trying to implement the RSS ideology,” he said. However, the BJP should realise that the politics of hatred would not take it far and it would not come back to power on the corpses of innocent people, he added.
UNI |
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BJP’s media plan to woo voters New Delhi, November 27 The party has also compiled a CD, which tries to dismiss the "disinformation" campaign launched by the main rival Congress on the Godhra train massacre, projects BJP and Modi as saviours of people and true fighters against jehadi terrorism and highlights the performance of the state government and the NDA Government at the
Centre. The CD compiled by experts from Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad, who are associated with the party, will be fed into various television channels and distributed among the electorate across Gujarat beginning November 30. "There will definitely be a projection of the Godhra incident and the disinformation campaign launched by the Congress, but care has been taken not to mention the name of Godhra and using scenes or pictures of the train massacre," the party’s Media Cell Convener Amitabh Sinha told The Tribune here. Even as the party has tried to focus more on the leadership quality of Mr Modi in its campaign materials, adequate importance and focus has also been laid on former Gujarat Chief Minister and one of the seniormost BJP leaders from the state Keshubhai Patel and the performance of the BJP Government during his tenure. Wherever necessary the footage of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister
L.K. Advani, BJP President Venkaiah Naidu and party’s Gujarat unit President Rajendersinh Rana have been used. Apart from the CD, the BJP has also prepared 12 video clippings of 30 seconds each for insertion into the TV channels telling the people on "Gujarat’s
Gaurav". Besides, the party has decided to print five lakh copies of a booklet, containing the achievements of the NDA Government at the Centre and the BJP government in Gujarat in the past four and a half years, for distribution during the campaign period. Meanwhile, the party has hired three helicopters and a small aircraft from a
Jaipur-based company Sanwaria Air Limited to enable top BJP leaders to tour Gujarat for campaigning, Mr Sinha said. However, Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani will be using the government aircraft for security reasons, although the expenditure for the same will be borne by the party, he said. |
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Priyanka
unnerves BSP Lucknow, November 27 It was on early Friday that Rambhajan Kori, a resident of Punpur village, went and complained to Priyanka that his house had been demolished by an upper caste farmer Babban Singh and who had asked him to “leave that place immediately”. Rambhajan further said that he had gone to the police station to lodge an FIR against Babban but his complaint was not entertained. Priyanka went to the Sangrampur police station and forced the police to register an FIR against the Thakur. She stayed there for an hour until all formalities were completed. The BSP national Vice-President and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Ms Mayawati, called this act of Priyanka as `nautanki’ (drama). She issued a statement saying that the said piece of land belonged to Babban Singh and that Rambhajan had forcibly occupied the land. She even said that the Congress was trying to derive political mileage out of the whole issue. Priyanka retorted and said that she had gone to the Sangrampur village only to help the dalit. “There is no politics involved in this,” she added. The Congress came in support of Priyanka and issued details of the family register which had shown Rambhajan as the owner of the land. The state spokesman of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) Mr Akhilesh Singh, in a statement has said that the allegations of the Chief Minister were false and devoid of truth. The alacrity with which Ms Mayawati had reacted in this case is being seen in the political circles with interest. Political observers feel that the CM might have felt that Priyanka’s gesture to help a Dalit might send a wrong signal in her vote bank and therefore to put the matter straight she had issued a clarification. Dr S.P. Pandey of Pt Govind Ballabh Institute of Social Studies said that Dalits had been a traditional vote bank of the Congress and Ms Mayawati had felt that Priyanka’s offer to help a dalit might open the return route of the SCs and STs in the Congress. Whatever be the scenario but the whole issue has given the moribund Congress a chance to return back to life provided the leader plays their cards safe, said Dr Pandey. |
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Cricket stars get “stumped” Mumbai, November 27 The film, to be directed by debutant Gaurab Pandey, goes on the floors on December 20 and will feature the six cricket stars. The film is about a nation swayed and mesmerised by cricket even as soldiers fight a relentless war at the battlefront with its enemies. All these cricketers have recorded brief emotional speeches for the film on Indian soldiers. In the only major female part, Raveena plays a wife awaiting her husband’s return from war, even as her neighbours remain glued to their TV sets watching cricket. The cricketers’ monologues will be used as promotional clips for “Stumped” when it’s ready for release on February 5 to coincide with the World Cup. Raveena told IANS: “The idea isn’t to pitch cricket against war. We want to make a film that honours soldiers and shows how impervious we’ve become to those who make our society worth living.” A chunk of the film’s proceeds will be diverted to the Kargil martyrs’ fund. “It’s a coincidence, but I’m in two forthcoming films that deal with Kargil soldiers — J.P. Dutta’s ‘LoC’ and ‘Stumped’,” Raveena said. The cricketers have pitched in wholeheartedly. “Stumped” director Pandey said: “We’re looking at parallels between two battlefields — cricket and war. “How different is it when you’re going out there with a bat to win a match against an opponent and when you’re out there with a gun to face the enemy on the battlefield? “In both cases, the entire focus is on victory. ‘Stumped’ is an interplay on the no-man’s land between these two battlefields. It’s about how the common man gets sucked into both ‘wars’.” Pandey said other than Raveena, the film will have no stars, only actors. “Except, of course, the cricketers who have so kindly agreed to participate in. They’ll talk about the heroes on the battlefront. “Ravi Shastri said he is what he is because the soldier at the battlefront is waging a larger war on our behalf. “If India was like Israel, all of us would be fighting a war instead of playing cricket, making movies or writing articles.” As preparations for the shooting proceed on a war footing, Pandey said: ‘Stumped’ is about why and how war is a reality to us only when someone close to us is involved at the battlefront. “On the other hand, an average Indian doesn’t know Sachin personally but has no problem hero-worshipping him. ‘Stumped’ will look at the hidden ironies behind cricket and war.”
— IANS |
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