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Saturday,
February 15, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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HP POLL Ayodhya:
M’rashtra VHP warns govt BJP move to appease VHP
Naidu to attend NDA meeting
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Delimitation Act: notice to Centre Army
plans to go high-tech Imported
wines for city connoisseurs Drill makes cops swing into action BJYM
chief to head panel on terrorism
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HP POLL New Delhi, February 14 Briefing newspersons, party General Secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the Prime Minister would be campaigning in Mandi, Shimla, Palampur and Hamirpur while Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani would address meetings on February 23 and 24. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will address election meetings on February 18. Actors-turned-Union Ministers Shatrughan Sinha and Vinod Khanna along with film star Hema Malini will also campaign for the BJP in the state. Accusing the Congress of reducing the elections to a fight between Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Mr Naqvi said the BJP would focus on development and progress. The people will decide whether to support ‘son of Himachal’ Mr Dhumal or Capt Amarinder Singh, who wanted to run Himachal Pradesh through the back door, he said. Meanwhile, the BJP has threatened more than 12 party rebels with expulsion if they do not withdraw at the earliest from the contest against BJP’s nominees for the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh. Mr Naqvi said there had been 19 rebels in the fray but some of them had withdrawn from contest in favour of party nominees and expressed hope that others, too, would follow suit. If the rebels don’t withdraw at the earliest, the party would take a stringent view, he warned. The last date for withdrawing nominations is already over. The rebels who have not retired from contest against party nominees include former Solan district BJP president Lakhvendra Rana, former legislator Jagat Singh Negi (Silai), Mr Ramdas Malanger (Kut Lehar) and former Yuva Morcha president from Kulu Govind Thakur. |
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Ayodhya: M’rashtra VHP warns govt
Mumbai, February 14 “We take this opportunity to warn the government of serious consequences if the undisputed land at Ayodhya is not handed over by February 23”, VHP state unit secretary Vyankatesh Abdev said in statement here. Mr Abdev informed that at least 500 saints from across Maharashtra would participate in the Dharma Sansad, scheduled to held in New Delhi between February 22-24. “Hindu saints are committed to attaining the goal of acquiring the Ramjanambhoomi site and are prepared to make any sacrifices for the purpose”, he said. The state unit of the VHP is also planning a warm send-off for saints from Maharashtra, who would be attending the dharma
sansad. PTI |
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BJP move to appease VHP New Delhi, February 14 According to party sources, these BJP leaders have tried to impress upon the Centre that this is the most opportune time as couple of days back Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has written to the Prime Minister urging him to bring a Central legislation to ban cow slaughter in the country and export of meat. To buttress their view point, these leaders are understood to have told Mr Vajpayee that since a demand has come from a Congress Chief Minister, if the government brought a Bill in Parliament in the coming Budget session the main Opposition party led by Mrs Sonia Gandhi is likely to support the Bill. The BJP leaders believe that the party will get dual benefit if it is able to push through the Bill against cow slaughter — fulfil one of the promises made in the BJP agenda and on the other the Vajpayee government would be able to appease the VHP to some extent on the government’s commitment towards “Hindutva agenda”. Even the RSS leaders are understood to have aired the same opinion during their meeting here yesterday with top leaders of the BJP led by party president M Venkaiah Naidu. The RSS leaders believe that since the Ayodhya issue cannot be easily resolved as the matter is in the court and the BJP does not have strength in Parliament to bring a legislation on handing over the undisputed land in Ayodhya to the VHP, the Vajpayee government can appease it by at least bringing a legislation against cow slaughter. |
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Shiv Sena men go on the rampage
New Delhi, February 14 The Sainiks barged into a gift shop near National Park in suburban Borivli in Mumbai and burnt greeting cards and posters to register their protest over the “influence of Western culture on youths on the occasion of Valentine’s Day”. They also staged a demonstration outside the shop and made a bonfire of Valentine cards and posters. In Jamshedpur, the Sainiks made two vain attempts to barge into a park for love birds but were foiled by the police. In Jaipur, Sena activists burnt cards alleging that it was against Indian ethos and culture to celebrate Valentine’s Day. About 50 Sainiks, who assembled near the mini secretariat shouting anti-Valentine Day slogans, set a bundle of cards on fire, the police said. Shiv Sainiks broke the glass panes of gift shops in a number of localities of Indore and broke street lights. Nearly 40 persons have been arrested in this connection. Workers of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha
(BJYM) took out a procession of donkey and buffaloes with greeting cards pasted over the animals. NCP workers joined the Sainiks in burning greeting cards and ransacking shops in Nasik in Maharashtra.
PTI |
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Naidu to attend NDA meeting
New Delhi, February 14 Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has invited Mr Naidu to attend the meeting convened in the wake of the threats from the VHP which has been breathing down the neck of the Prime Minister for quite some time. Mr Naidu would first meet Mr Vajpayee on breakfast after which he would decide wheather to attend the NDA meeting or not, Telugu Desam Party sources pointed out adding that the Andhra Chief Minister had also convened a meeting of the TDP parliamentary party so that he could issue the necessary directives to his colleagues for the necessary action. Mr Vajpayee had asked convener of the NDA George Fernandes to convene the meeting as he was sure that the ruling alliance would face a hostile opposition with some of the allies assuming
threatening postures. |
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Delimitation Act: notice to Centre
New Delhi, February 14 Issuing notices, a Bench, comprising acting Chief Justice Devinder Gupta and Mr Justice
B.D. Ahmed, directed the Centre, the Election Commission, the Delimitation Commissioner and the Registrar of Census Commissioner to file their replies on the petition seeking to restrain them from proceeding with delimiting the constituencies on the basis of caste which it contended was ultra vires to the provisions of the Constitution.
PTI |
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Army plans to go high-tech New Delhi, February 14 Outlining the new proposed TCS system, which has been sent to the Ministry of Defence for sanction, the Signal Officer in Chief at Army Headquarters, Lieut-Gen D.P. Sehgal, said under the project, Army Headquarters as well as command and corp formations would now be hooked upto battalion headquarters on both voice and data secure links. “The project has been agreed in principle by the government and once the sanction comes, we would set up the new link to frontline troops by this financial year,” he told newsmen on the occasion of the 92nd Corp Day of the Signals regiment. Stating that Signals had incorporated number of lessons from the year-long deployment during ‘Operation Parakaram’, General Sehgal said the regiment during the operations had fine tuned the art of ‘tactical listening’ deep inside the enemy territory. Simultaneously, he said, “Signals was not only providing reliable and uninterrupted communications to soldiers in anti-terrorist operations, but also ensuring increased number of precision targeting of militants”. Asserting that emphasis today was on converged networks, Sehgal said Army was now engaged in taking this converged network of data, voice and satellite links right down to the forward-most posts to the level of companies and platoons. “It is being ensured that adequate media and security envelope is provided at all levels”, he said. When asked if the Army had the capability to survive aerial electronic jamming, the Signal Officer in Chief said the Indian Army communication system was secure. He disclosed that training institutes of the corp, like the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, had been nominated to establish a centre of excellence in cyber security. The General said Signal personnel were being trained for both hacking as well as anti-hacking measures, though hacking at national and other levels was the job of different organisations. “We act in a synergy”, he added. |
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Imported
wines for city connoisseurs New Delhi, February 14 Inspired by the figures of domestic wine consumption in Chandigarh (15,000 bottles a year), marketing strategists of the company have planned a wine-tasting session in hotels and clubs in Chandigarh later this month. Their participation in the ongoing ‘Window on French wines at spirits’ at Hotel Imperial here is the starting point to a series of sessions planned in Mumbai, Rajasthan and Bangalore. The ‘Window on French wine and spirits’, organised by the French Embassy and the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce is a part of the ‘Saison de la France en Inde’ (A French season in India) between February and April. Six major importers — Sansula International Brands, Brindco Limited, Moet-Hennessy India, The Imperial, Brands Caravan Overseas Pvt Ltd and McDowell International Brands Ltd — showcased selected wines from some of the best wine houses, including Rothschild, Moet-Henesy, Louis Jadot, Albert Bichot, Lanson and Cordier. Mr Gagan Sharma, Regional Manager, Jagatjit Industries, says Italian white wine (Frascati Superiore DOC), special French wine (Listel) and Cook’s sparkling wine from Canandaigua wine company in California will soon be available in retail and departmental stores in Chandigarh. “It is very important to make international brands available at good prices. Before 2002, imported wines were not available in Chandigarh where people have a lot of disposable income. Drinking is a status symbol in Punjab and Chandigarh. A number of people there go abroad and introduce their families to the wine culture.” Mr Sharma said they would organise training and tasting sessions for hotel staff and consumers with the help of Sommelier from a wine house in California. “We will start from trendsetters who everybody follows. We want to promote wine as the people’s drink.” He said New Delhi alone sells about 1.7 lakh bottles of wine a year. The number would touch three lakh if one were to include imported wine.” Ms Manisha Parija, Area Sales Manager (North zone) for international brands, said Almaden, a Californian wine with twist and serve tap, would be available initially in New Delhi and Mumbai and later in Kolkata. Ms Parija is of the view that rationalisation of duty structure and amendments in New Delhi’s excise policy would serve to give a boost to wine imports in India. Ms Daniele Raulet-Reynaud, French wine and cheese lecturer and the first maitre d’hotel of France (finalist best Sommelier, France), has been invited by the French Marketing and Promotion Board for Food and Beverages to conduct a special ‘happy few blind tasting’ event as part of the sessions aimed at educating visitors more about wine. |
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Drill makes cops swing into action New Delhi, February 14 Security forces went into a tizzy when a call was
received by the Police Control Room (PCR) at 8.39 a.m., claiming that
a blast had taken place within the high-security Parliament House
complex, sources said. Little did they realise that the call was part
of a security drill. This was followed by a call at 9.17 a.m.,
claiming that terrorists had struck at Parliament House. This call was
repeated at 9.27 a.m., the sources said. With the memories of
December 13, 2001, still fresh in mind, the police and other security
agencies swung into action and rushed to the site along with the bomb
disposal squad, ambulances and fire tenders. Delhi police commandoes
took positions around the complex and the area was cordoned off, the
sources said. The exercise continued for sometime before it was
announced that it was a security drill carried out to check the
alertness of the police and other security agencies before the
commencement of the Parliament session to prevent a repeat of December
13. The sources said the security drill may be carried out again
before the commencement of the session on February 18. Security
arrangements at Parliament House have already been beefed up
immensely. A Rs 100-crore high-tech security system is being installed
in the complex to prevent terror attacks, with the introduction of
laser-sensitive identity cards and vehicle number plates under
consideration. The proposed three-tier system would include an
upgraded closed-circuit TV network covering the entire premises and
jammers at selected places. Special devices are expected to be put in
place at the outer gates of Parliament House that could be activated
to halt a speeding vehicle from entering the precinets. All identity
cards and vehicle number plates could have laser-readable stripes when
the new system is put together. Vehicles other than those of the
Prime Minister and other VVIPs would be inspected manually after they
enter the premises. Even mediapersons have been given special
car-labels and advised to display registration papers on the vehicle
prominently, the sources said. |
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BJYM chief to head panel on terrorism New Delhi, February 14 Mr Reddy, National President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), was elected head of the council, a confederation of youth organisations, NGOs, experts and political activists from across the globe launched at the international youth conference on terrorism, which concluded here recently. A political body, WYCAT will also conduct conferences and workshops to mobilise public opinion against terrorism, he said. |
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