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Friday,
September 26, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Joshi’s
resignation brings BJP infighting to the fore Naidu softens stand on Joshi SC notice to
Haryana Govt, Abhey
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Cong blames
Centre for insecurity Copter makes
emergency landing
Book, coin on
Naoroji 3 Jamia students
detained
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Joshi’s resignation brings BJP infighting to the fore New Delhi, September 25 Manoeuvring aimed at taking over the reins of the party is going on with the RSS and the Sangh Parivar lending their weight for a change in leadership. This assumes importance as Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu’s tenure as the president of the BJP will end in the next three months. The Sangh Parivar has been accusing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of giving a go by to the BJP’s core agenda of Ayodhya, abrogation of Article 370 and a uniform civil code. These issues are coming to the forefront with Mr Vajpayee having to undertake balancing acts time and again. The resignation of Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi following the verdict of the special court in Rae Bareli is symptomatic of this malaise despite assertions by the BJP that there is unity in the top leadership. Mr Joshi is highly circumspect about Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani with whom his relationship has been extremely uneasy. Mr Advani has not met Mr Joshi so far. Considering the rather muted reaction from his ministerial colleagues and distant lip service by the Sangh Parivar, the HRD Minister is awaiting a face-saving bailout by Mr Vajpayee who is scheduled to return from New York this weekend. On his part, Mr Vajpayee had detailed Union Defence Minister and NDA convener George Fernandes to meet Mr Joshi to put matters on an even keel. With the BJP and the Sangh Parivar insisting that there was no need for Mr Joshi to take the extreme step of putting in his papers, the jostling for the top party post might have to wait a little longer. It is also no secret that the BJP will have to find a suitable replacement for Mr Venkaiah Naidu to lead the party in the general election as his term as party president ends in December this year. The BJP’s experiment with three successive presidents from the South — Bangaru Laxman, Jana Krishnamurthy and Naidu — has created embarrassing moments for the party leadership. This is particularly so as the party’s votebank is mainly based in the Hindi heartland. |
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Naidu softens stand on Joshi New Delhi, September 25 Just before his meeting with Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh chief K. Sudarshan this afternoon, Mr Naidu heaped praise on Dr Joshi, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani, saying that their speeches were comparable to the Congress days of Mahatma Gandhi. RSS joint general secretary Madandas Devi took Mr Naidu to the RSS headquarters at Jhandewalan to meet Mr Sudarshan. Sources said Mr Devi had forewarned Mr Naidu and that is why the BJP president changed his earlier anti-Joshi frame of mind. Mr Naidu lost no time to make amends as he realised that he was on a sticky wicket as both the RSS chief as well as the Prime Minister had taken an exception to his handling of Dr Joshi’s resignation issue and the party’s treatment of the HRD Minister. Mr Sudarshan is understood to have sought the party chief’s version about issue. Mr Sudarshan Mr Naidu’s version at the meeting is being seen as an assessment exercise by the parent organisation of the BJP. RSS spokesman Ram Madhav, confirming the meeting between Mr Sudarshan and Mr Naidu, described the interaction as “routine”. Dr Joshi had resigned from the Union Cabinet last Friday after an adverse verdict from a Rai Bareli special court in the Babri masjid demolition case. Dr Joshi had a dinner meeting yesterday with Mr Sudarshan for over 60 minutes at Jhandewalan. Dr Joshi reportedly told the RSS chief that Mr Naidu called a meeting of ministers at his residence and he was not even consulted, sources said. |
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SC notice to Haryana Govt, Abhey New Delhi, September 25 Issuing notices to the state government and Abhey Chautala, a three-judge Bench comprising Mr Chief Justice V. N. Khare, Mr Justice Ashok Bhan and Mr Justice S. B. Sinha said this was a “serious” matter. Abhey Chautala, named as respondent No 2 in the petition, “shall” file his personal affidavit with regard to the allegations in the petition, besides the reply by the state government, the court said while fixing the next hearing on October 31. The Bench also granted exemption to the Editor and the other four functionaries of the newspaper from personal appearance before the Sirsa court till October 31. It said further direction in this regard would be issued on the next date of hearing. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the newspaper, while making a special mention about filing of the petition before the Bench in the afternoon as it was not listed for hearing today, alleged that their lawyer was not allowed to enter the court of the Sirsa magistrate by supporters of Chautala on August 7. The newspaper functionaries had also challenged the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s September 23 order dismissing their petition seeking exemption from personal appearance. The Bench observed that it might call for the report from the high court about the “conduct” of the magistrate as how counsel for the parties was not allowed to appear before the court by certain people. Abhey Chautala had filed a defamation case against the daily before the Sirsa court alleging that it had caused “ damage” to his reputation. |
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Devi Lal’s statue unveiled in Parliament New Delhi, September 25 Mr Joshi also inaugurated an exhibition on the life and works of Chaudhary Devi Lal, set up by the Parliamentary Museum and Archives in cooperation with the DAVP. An all-religion prayer was held on the occasion which was attended, among others, by Union ministers Sahib Singh Verma, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and I. D. Swami and the late leader’s son and Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. The 12.5-foot high statue has been donated by the Chaudhary Devi Lal Memorial Trust. It has been sculpted by the famous Rajesh Bhandari. During his long political career, Chaudhary Devi Lal had served three terms in the Punjab Legislative Assembly and five terms in the Haryana Assembly. He also served both Houses of Parliament. He was elected Haryana Chief Minister on two occasions. He fought for the cause of farmers and participated in an agitation of landless farmers during 1946-48. |
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BJP chief plays Ayodhya card Thugalpur (UP), September 25 Asserting that the BJP was in favour of the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site, Mr Naidu said: “Not even a single Muslim would have performed prayer at the site. Moreover, the ASI report also says that there existed a temple at the disputed site.” “Now that both historical and archaeological evidence is there, the disputed site should be handed over,” Mr Naidu said while addressing a public meeting here. Earlier, Uttar Pradesh BJP unit president Vinay Katiyar struck an emotional chord, saying he was prepared to spend his life in prison or even die for the cause of Ram temple. Urging the Muslims not to discard the BJP, the BJP chief asked them to analyse and compare the welfare measures taken for the minorities by the Vajpayee government in the past five years and Congress regimes in 45 years. Dismissing reports in a section of the media about the growing proximity between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party, Mr Naidu said: “Both Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have been playing caste politics...we are totally against it and we will be going alone.” Listing various achievements of the NDA government, Mr Naidu said despite leading a 23-party coalition, the BJP under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s leadership have been able to put India on the fast track of development. Earlier, Mr Naidu, accompanied by Union Minister Ashok Pradhan and Mr Katiyar, began the “masscontact programme” from the Delhi-UP border at Noida. |
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Cong blames Centre for insecurity New Delhi, September 25 Recalling that the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar was subjected to an attack by a terrorist group on this day a year back, Congress chief spokesman Jaipal Reddy said the attack had not only resulted in desecration of the temple, but also in the massacre of many innocent devotees. “Following this attack, leaders of the BJP-led government said in a customary fashion that such deeds would not be allowed to recur. The Prime Minister, the Home Minister and many others leaders were among those who made such pledges publicly. We deeply regret that this pledge has been honoured more in breach than in observance. The track record of the last one year shows that such incidents continue to recur at a mounting pace and with impunity,” Mr Reddy said. “The terrorists have demonstrated their ability to strike at will in different parts of the country. The sense of insecurity among the citizens of the country has since grown during the NDA regime,” he said. Mr Reddy said the BJP-led coalition at the Centre had come to power mainly on the pledge of strengthening internal security and on the twin planks of “suraaj and suraksha”. The Congress, he said, had always lent unstinted cooperation to the government in countering terrorism in the country. Referring to the reported remarks of Minister of State for Human Resource Development Sanjay Paswan about the introduction of tantrik education and his posing for photographs with a snake, Mr Reddy said under the NDA regime, the future of the country was in the dark ages. |
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Copter makes emergency landing Village Rabarka (Rajkot), September 25 The Russian-made MI-8 helicopter had taken off from IAF’s Jamnagar base en route to Somnath, a distance of 181 km, when midway it developed a gearbox problem and landed in a paddy field. Mr Advani had flown in another IAF helicopter to Somnath on the occasion of the anniversary of the Rath Yatra undertaken by him in 1989. None of the 11 passengers was injured.
— PTI |
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An envoy who is also ambassador of Hindi films New Delhi, September 25 Credited with organising Indian film weeks in the Capital cities right from his first posting in Mexico City in the mid 70s to Santiago, Hongkong, Damascus, London, Maputo, Malta, Tripoli and Chicago, Mr Kumar has in a way served as the ambassador of the Indian film industry which churns out 900 films every year. And now a week before his next diplomatic assignment, Mr Kumar has begun the homework to organise a retrospective of 18 Indian films in Nairobi which is home to 50,000 Indians. He has contacted the External Publicity Division and the Directorate of Film Festivals six months in advance to organise the retrospective. Films likely to be screened there are Raj Kapoor’s ‘Awara’, ‘Jagte Raho’, ‘Shree 420’, Guru Dutt’s ‘Pyaasa’, ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’, ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’, K. Asif’s ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ (made in 14 years), Mehboob Khan’s ‘Mother India’, Dev Anand’s ‘Guide’, Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ‘Anand’, and G.P. Sippy’s ‘Sholay’. “Films are the biggest connection for the Indian diaspora. There are 20 million people of Indian origin in different parts of the world. Retrospectives are not just to provide entertainment. They are a tool for building friendships and contacts. When we had the retrospective of Indian contemporary classics featuring 11 films at the Gene Siskel Film Center, a part of the Arts Institute of Chicago, the response was overwhelming. The films featured were ‘Mughal-e-Azam’, ‘Mother India’, ‘Guide‘, ‘36 Chowringee Lane’, ‘Devdas’ featuring Dilip Kumar, ‘Ardh Satya’, ‘Anand’, ‘Guide’, ‘Pestonjee’, ‘Sholay’, ‘Asoka’ and ‘Lagaan’. The last two films were selected by the organisers. We organised three retrospectives in Chicago in three and a half years,’’ he said. Mr Kumar’s deep interest and firm belief in the strength of the Indian cinema as the most potent medium of cultural diplomacy has culminated in a book ‘Legends of Indian Cinema’ published by Delhi-based Har Anand Publications. The publishers hosted a reception at India International Centre here on Thursday evening for the release of the book in India. It was released last year at the International House by the University of Chicago. A compilation of 12 pen portraits of unsung, underrated, evergreen and talented actors, including Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Naseeruddin Shah, the book is a “tribute to Indian cinema,’’ says Mr Kumar. The book also presents the author’s interviews with Pt Ravi Shankar, Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal. His interest in the vibrant Indian cinema dates back to 1965 when he was a student of Allahabad University. Mr Kumar is of the view that the Indian film industry is the most secular institution of India as it provides a common working platform to people belonging to various religious groups and minorities. The versatile diplomat is convinced of the global reach of Indian cinema. He says that cinema transcends all linguistic boundaries and cites the classic example of ‘Awara’, a runaway hit in the then Soviet Union, the East European countries, China and West Asia in the fifties. “I’m yet to come across a senior Russian or Chinese official who cannot hum the tune of its famous song ‘Awara hoon, gardish mein bhi asmaan ka taara hoon’,’’ he says in the preface to the book. He adds that ‘Awara’ is the only Indian film which has been seen by Khrushchev, Gorbachev and Chinese helmsman Mao Zedong. The film also finds a mention in Alexander Sulzhenitsyn’s novel ‘The Cancer Ward.’ |
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Book, coin on Naoroji New Delhi, September 25 This will be the first coin to pay homage to a Parsi in independent India. Naoroji, also known as the Grand Old Man of India, was the first Asian to be elected to British Parliament. He founded the London Zoroastrian Association in 1861 and remained its President till 1907. The celebrations in Mumbai will conclude on October 4. The inauguration of an exhibition on Parsi Zoroastrian culture by the Director-General of Unesco, Mr K. Matsuura, in Delhi on July 8 this year marked the beginning of the celebrations in India. Unesco’s General Conference had adopted a resolution at its 31st session in 2001 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Zoroastrian culture. |
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3 Jamia students
detained New Delhi, September 25 The three, believed to be students of Jamia Millia Islamia University here, were picked up when they were allegedly seen taking photographs of highly-secured American Center. One of them is Rohail of Chhanpura in Kashmir, the police has said. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi district), Mr Manoj Kumar
Lall, said the police had not yet registered any case against the students. They are being questioned jointly by the Delhi police and the security agencies. |
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