 |
Thursday,
January 30, 2003, Chandigarh, India   |
George to raise India’s concerns in
China Punjab submits dossier on Golden
Temple |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
SC to hear Shah’s plea on Feb
14 NHRC notice to UP Govt in Agra shoot-out case 50 pc cut in ministers’ pay |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leaders call on Tohra Budget session from Feb 17 No defence pact with Iran: India
|
|
George to raise India’s concerns in
China New Delhi, January 29 As the Defence Minister sought to dispel his image of China basher, he said ‘‘I hope to raise some of our concerns and misgivings with my counterpart in Beijing during my forthcoming visit to China’’. He, however, added that some actions ascribed to Beijing were not in conformity with the degree and rectitude associated with a major power. ‘‘It appears that China has perhaps encouraged or endorsed a revisionist agenda on the Indian periphery and this causes deep anxiety — more so when this heightens state-sponsored terrorism’’, he said in apparent reference to Beijing’s continued support to Islamabad. He was addressing the concluding session of a three-day conference on ‘‘Asian Security and China in 2000 and 2010’’, organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
(IDSA). Mr Fernandes said India expected China, as the bigger power, to discharge its responsibility and accommodate New Delhi’s interests and reciprocate the spirit in which this country was conscious of Beijing’s sensitivity on certain issues. Noting that there was a vast potential to rearrange the Sino-India relations , He said ‘‘We could not become ‘brothers’ as envisaged in the idealistic days of the 1950s. We will not be a ‘threat’ to each other and this has been reiterated at the highest levels’’. The Defence Minister said there were some areas where emerging challenges and old anxieties needed to be assuaged on both sides. ‘‘The Indian Government has taken certain consistent positions on matters that concern China and these include both Tibet and Taiwan. These have been conveyed to our Chinese counterparts at the appropriate level. On the Indian side, there are complex divergences that include not just a border problem but interpretation and endorsement of territorial jurisdiction’’. He was happy to note that the two countries were working on the border issue in a mature and perhaps ‘Asian’ civilisational manner. China and India had acquired a certain degree of consensual mutuality on the border issue. ‘‘We have our differences but we are working on them — though the pace has been referred to as ‘glacial’,’’ he added. The Defence Minister noted that whenever India had had to deal with its immediate neighbours, it had always been told that the existential reality was that New Delhi was the larger and bigger power. ‘‘The corollary is that hence a special responsibility devolves upon New Delhi to assuage the concerns of its neighbours and accommodate their interests, even while respecting their sensitivities’’. He was of the view that the same logic was to be applied in the case of China vis-a-vis its relations with India. Pointing out that he had often been castigated and portrayed as a ‘China baiter’ though erroneously, he said his observations about Beijing had been ‘‘reflective of the democratic process that we have in India’’. He said it had all along been the endeavour of the NDA government to improve ties with major Asian states and groupings and these included Japan, South Korea, ASEAN as a grouping, the Central Asian region, West Asia and Iran. ‘‘In each case, we have tried to advance the security interest in a consensual manner with a clear understanding that this would not be to the detriment of any other nation or grouping’’, he added. |
|
|
Cong to decide HP candidates
today New Delhi, January 29 The candidates will be decided at the party’s central election committee meeting to be held tomorrow. The screening committee meeting, which was attended by senior leaders Manmohan Singh, Mohsina Kidwai, Ambika Soni and Buta Singh, besides former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and PCC chief Vidya Stokes, lasted almost five hours. Dr Manmohan Singh, who heads the screening committee, later had separate meetings with Mr Virbhadra Singh and Mrs Stokes. Congress leaders said the issue of a tie-up with the HVC was not touched at today’s meeting. "The issue did not come up for discussion," said Mrs Kidwai, who is General Secretary in charge of Himachal Pradesh. Pointing out that no seat had been finally decided, she said all seats were discussed to know the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates. Mr Virbhadra Singh, who was later asked about the tie-up with Mr Sukh Ram’s party, said any decision on the issue would be consensual. Mrs Stokes said the state party unit was not waiting for a tie-up with Mr Sukh Ram. "We are preparing whether or not a tie-up takes place," she said. Mrs Stokes denied that she had supported an alliance with the HVC. "We have been saying from the beginning that we are prepared to fight the elections on our own." Sources said the tie-up with Mr Sukh Ram was stuck on the issue of seats. The Congress was not willing to concede the number of seats being demanded by the HVC leader. The sources said the Congress high command today took the opinion of state leaders on all seats. A final decision would be taken tomorrow. Soon after the screening committee meeting, both Mr Virbhadra Singh and Mrs Stokes had closed-door meetings with their "close associates." |
|
Punjab submits dossier on Golden
Temple New Delhi, January 29 Sources in the department told TNS here today that the dossier had been submitted to the Secretary, Department of Culture, by the Punjab Government. They said the ministry would scrutinise it to ensure that it was "more effective for the acceptance as world heritage site." They said while volume I of the dossier was in prescribed format of UNESCO, volumes II and III comprise the management plan and essays by historians. Sources in the ministry said the BJP MP from Gurdaspur and Minister of State for Tourism and Culture, Mr Vinod Khanna, was the torch-bearer of the project. Mr Gurmeet S. Rai, project Director, who heads the Delhi-based Cultural Resource Conservation Initiative (CRCI), said the dossier was prepared by a team of designers, planners, architects, historians and sociologists who had put in almost 18 hours a day since August. She said UNESCO sent international experts to the site from the International Council of Monuments and Sites, a Paris-based non-government organisation dedicated to the conservation of historical monuments and sites. "It becomes the responsibility of the site managers (Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee) and the state to ensure that the site was not threatened by any development and all its needs were taken care of in the months to come. Mr Rai said it was important to establish the universal value of the site and nominate it under any one of the six criteria articulated by UNESCO. "We have nominated the Golden Temple under several criteria," he said. Mr Rai said they had given details about the number of visitors and serais. The sources in the CRCI said Richard Engelhardt, Regional Advisor for Culture for Asia and the Pacific, had visited the Golden Temple in March, 2002, and suggested to the SGPC that it could be a world heritage site. The SGPC had then written to the Punjab Government in this regard. The Punjab Chief Minister then wrote to the Minister of Culture and Tourism. The Indian National Trust for Art and Culture (INTACH) co ordinated the effort. |
|
SC to hear Shah’s plea on Feb 14 Mumbai, January 29 The petition has been filed on the grounds that the trial court has erred in framing charges against him. In a related development, the Mumbai High Court will hear on February 4 a petition filed by Shah, challenging the constitutional validity of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) under which he had been booked. The High Court had yesterday dismissed an appeal filed by Shah against a lower court order which had refused to modify, alter and delete charges framed against him. Shah has challenged an order of trial Judge A.P. Bhangale, who had framed charges against him for threatening film personalities including Hrithik Roshan and Shah Rukh Khan, and conspiring with others to murder them.
UNI |
|
NHRC notice to UP Govt in Agra shoot-out case New Delhi, January 29 Taking suo-motu cognizance of media reports about the death in a shoot-out of 21-year-old Sonali Bose by the police on the Agra-Mathura Road when the postgraduate student of S.N. Medical College was returning to Agra with a friend in a car, the NHRC has issued a second show-cause notice to the state government seeking a report within four weeks.
UNI |
|
50 pc cut in ministers’ pay Mumbai, January 29 In another major austerity drive, the Chief Minister also decided to reduce his office staff by 22 from the existing 127, Mr Shinde told reporters at his first media briefing on the Cabinet decisions here.
PTI |
|
Leaders call on Tohra New Delhi, January 29 The former PM who remained with the Akali leader for about half-an-hour, was accompanied by Punjab Samajwadi Janata Party chief Darshan Singh Jeeda, Akali Dal (Democratic) President Kuldip Singh Wadala and General Secretary Jasbir Singh Jaffarwal. Earlier, former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Union Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and other Akali leaders from Punjab also visited Mr Tohra.
UNI |
|
Budget session from Feb 17 New Delhi, January 29 He will address the members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in the Central Hall of Parliament at 11 a.m., an official note said.
The session is likely to conclude on May 9, it said. Both Houses will have a 23-day break from March 14 to April 6. |
|
No defence pact with Iran: India New Delhi, January 29 The Defence News had reported that an agreement to this effect had been signed between the two countries during the recent visit of the Naval, Chief Admiral Madhavendra Singh to Teheran. |
|
Jaya’s statement flayed Chennai, January 29 |
|
|
Jaipur, January 29
Lucknow, January 29 |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Defence Minister George Fernandes today said that he would be raising India’s concerns and misgivings during his forthcoming visit to China.
As the Defence Minister sought to dispel his image of China basher, he said ‘‘I hope to raise some of our concerns and misgivings with my counterpart in Beijing during my forthcoming visit to China’’.
In video: (
