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Saturday,
December 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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JPC report
rocks Houses Ram Temple plan announced Hindu
nation only a dream: Bukhari Use POTA
in J&K: BJP
Press
Council to ‘get more teeth’ |
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NORTH INDIA IN
PARLIAMENT Amarsinh
Gujarat LCP leader New
judge for Tehelka probe soon: Mahajan
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JPC report rocks Houses New Delhi, December 20 The Opposition, led by the Congress, demanded the resignation of Mr Sinha, who is the External Affairs Minister. Congress member Mani Shankar Aiyar, who was a member of the multi-party JPC, charged Mr Sinha with misleading the Parliament on the payment crisis of the Calcutta Stock Exchange and the collapse of the US-64. Mr Aiyar said it was shocking and deplorable that the JPC Chairman Mr Tripathi had given a clean chit to Mr Sinha at a press conference without discussing the matter with other members of the committee. “It is ridiculous to say that only the officials of the Finance Ministry were responsible for the scam. When Mr Sinha was heading the ministry he alone could be held responsible for it. In view of these findings, Mr Sinha should resign”, Mr Aiyar said. He wondered how the Finance Minister be not held responsible when the report had held the ministry responsible for acts of “omission and commission”. Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi, however, rejected a notice for suspension of question hour given by Congress Chief Whip Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi. Another Congress MP and member of the JPC Kapil Sibal said the “report held the Ministry of Finance accountable and the Minister, who heads it, is alone responsible to Parliament”. “Nobody in the JPC has given a clean chit to Mr Yashwant Sinha, who held the Finance portfolio at the time of scam”, Mr Sibal added. The JPC Chairman, however, denied that he had made any breach of trust. Making a brief explanation in the Lok Sabha Mr Tripathi said, “The report was unanimous and I have not given an clean chit to anybody. It was during the press conference that the issue was politicised for which I hold the entire Opposition responsible. BJP Chief Whip Vijay Kumar Malhotra said it was immoral and illegal on the part of Congress members to raise the issue of JPC as there was no dissenting note in the report. This kind of demand is against Parliamentary democracy”. |
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CPM demands Sinha’s resignation New Delhi, December 20 CPM Parliamentary Party leader Somnath Chatterjee said the unanimous report submitted by the JPC was full of strictures against the Finance Ministry. As Mr Sinha then headed the Finance Ministry, he was constitutionally and morally responsible for the lapses committed by it and accountable to Parliament about its functioning. He could not be absolved of the indictment of his ministry, Mr Chatterjee said. |
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Ram Temple plan announced New Delhi, December 20 Asserting that it did not require either government or the judiciary’s consent, the Nyas also announced holding of a Dharma Sansad in Delhi on February 22 to 23 to take a final “tough step” on the Ayodhya temple issue. “Any further delay in the temple’s construction is unacceptable. We will not tolerate this insult to Hinduism. We will complete the construction within one and a half years and work on it could begin any day, which we will not divulge,” the working president of the Nyas Mahant Ramchandra Dass Paramhans said in the presence of top VHP leaders Ashok Singhal and Vishnu Hari Dalmia. Today’s announcement comes nine months after VHP’s abortive bid to conduct ‘shiladaan’ programme on March 15 and begin construction of the temple, whose pillars and other carving work has already been completed at Ayodhya. Mahant Avaidyanath, who heads the high-power panel set up by the VHP to accelerate Ram Temple movement, while announcing the dates of Dharma Sansad, said the VHP would meet MPs and leaders of all political parties and urge them to exert pressure on the government to return the acquired land in Ayodhya to the temple trust. Terming that the temple construction was as important as wiping out terrorism, Mahant Avaidyanath said religious congregations would be held across the country at the district level during January and February, 2003. Dass, who kept the nation on tenterhooks with his ‘shiladaan’ ceremony in Ayodhya on March 15 this year, said “we have made all kinds of pleadings, both to the government and the courts. |
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Hindu nation only a dream: Bukhari New Delhi, December 20 He said the VHP was a sister organisation of the BJP, political wing of the RSS, which was leading the country towards Hinduism destroying the sole aim of the Indian Constitution. He also lashed out at the Congress, accusing it of toeing “Hindutva line.” While addressing today’s congregation the Shahi Imam asked Muslims to be “defensive” to protect themselves following VHP’s declaration to convert India into a Hindu country. On one hand the VHP was making declarations regarding “Hindu rashtra” and on the other described some Christian-majority north-eastern states and Punjab as integral parts of the country, he said. Advocating peaceful co-existence as the only solution to the communal problem, he said, “Now the theory of secularism has no relevance in the country, only co-existence can be followed.” He, however, cautioned that “if the Sangh Parivar is not willing for this then the Muslims will have to chalk out their own strategy.” Charging the BJP with riding on a Muslim-hate wave in Gujarat for capturing power, he said, “The recent poll results have confirmed that electoral gains can be made in India by massacring Muslims.” |
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Use POTA in J&K: BJP New Delhi, December 20 Reacting to the agitations taking place in the Kashmir valley against the special court verdict sentencing the accused to death, BJP Parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the convicts deserved no sympathy from any quarters as they had waged a war against the state and targeted the highest seat of democracy for their attacks. Those articulating in favour of convicts were acting at the behest of Pakistan and its intelligence agency ISI, he said. Earlier, party President M Venkaiah Naidu said the Congress demand for resignation of the then Finance Minister (Yashwant Sinha) was politically motivated and did not have any rationale. The JPC, he said, had not indicted any minister and hence there was no need for Mr Sinha to resign. Asked if there should be resignation on ‘moral grounds’, Mr Naidu retorted, “What is moral there?” There was nothing adverse against the minister in the report, he reiterated. He said the Congress was making such a demand because it was bereft of issues after its miserable defeat in Gujarat. “They should do some soul searching”, he remarked. Prof Malhotra said the Congress had raised the resignation issue as an ‘afterthought’ after the JPC tabled the unanimous report. There were Congress members in the drafting committee of the JPC, but the resignation issue never came up before. |
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Press Council to ‘get more teeth’ New Delhi, December 20 “I have observed that some newspapers are brazenly splashing obscene photographs showing woman’s nudity flouting all norms of decency. It is high time the Press Councils sit up and take notice of this”, she said at a seminar on ‘Women’s issues in Media’ organised by the All India Women’s Conference coinciding with its platinum jubilee. “If they (council) feel they do not have the power, let them consult us. The government is ready to make suitable amendments to provide them with teeth to deal with obscenity”, Ms Swaraj said She said “The I&B Ministry is considering setting up an independent Broadcasting Regulatory Authority for content regulation on television channels. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, December 20 The number of cards issued so far is 8,52,155 in Haryana, 63,629 in HP, five in Chandigarh and 25,879 in Jammu and Kashmir, Minister of State for Finance and Company Affairs told the House. The amount of loan disbursed through these cards in these states was Rs 4,048.14 crore in Haryana, Rs 12,9.60 crore in HP, Rs 1.24 lakh in Chandigarh and Rs 3,3.59 crore in J&K, the House was told. The value of foreign goods seized by the Customs Department in Punjab (DRI) increased from Rs 12.92 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 53.85 crore in 2001-02, informed Minister of State for Finance and Company Affairs Gingee N. Ramachandran. Following the recommendations of the 11th Finance Commission the government has circulated a scheme called “States Fiscal Reforms Facility (2000-01 to 2004-05)” and has set up an incentive fund of Rs 10,607.72 crore for five years comprising 15 per cent of the revenue deficit grant to the states recommended by the commission in its main report and an equal contribution by the Centre, Mr Anandrao V. Adsul, Minister of State for Finance and Company Affairs told the House. Under the scheme the state governments have been invited to formulate their Medium Term Fiscal Reforms Programme aimed at fiscal consolidation. Based on the finalisation of the programme of the states Rs 1,751.99 crore from the Incentive Fund have been released so far, including Rs 161.23 crore to HP and Rs 321.84 crore to J&K, the House was told. The minister informed the House that the Punjab Government had furnished its programme report, which is scheduled to be considered at the meeting of the monitoring committee. Textiles Minister Kashiram Rana informed the Lok Sabha that under various development schemes the amount released by the Centre for Punjab was Rs 52 lakh (MDA scheme); Rs 28.50 lakh (development of exportable products and their marketing) and Rs 36 lakh for publicity and exhibitions during 2001-02. Minister of State for Food Processing Industries N.T. Shanmugam told the Rajya Sabha that the number of food parks approved for assistance by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries was one in Punjab, two in Haryana and three in J&K. |
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Amarsinh
Gujarat LCP leader Gandhinagar, December 20 Ms Selja also heard the MLAs individually. Mr Chaudhary’s election was a near certainity as he was the PCC chief in the dissolved Assembly and is a senior leader of the Congress. A former Chief Minister, Mr Chaudhary, was among the few senior Congress leaders to win the election. |
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New judge for Tehelka probe soon: Mahajan New Delhi, December 20 “But unfortunately Justice Venkataswamy, who was conducting the inquiry had resigned. Nevertheless, the government would appoint a new Judge within a fortnight,” he said. |
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