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NCP leaves final decision to
Pawar In poll gear, Sonia to tour UP by road Cong to challenge ‘feel good’
plank Sangma rules out truck
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News Analysis Death knell of terrorism? New Delhi, January 8 Now that a never-before thaw in India-Pakistan relations has been achieved, will it sound the death knell of cross-border terrorism and infiltration? Wait, say Indian officials engaged in extremely sensitive and still-happening parleys with Pakistan. PM to open Pravasi Divas
First IA flight leaves for Lahore today Hurdle in HP claim on power
dues Uma govt endorses free power to
poor Notice to Centre on manual
scavenging EC to hold meeting of CEOs today Madhumita case deferred Notice to Centre on manual scavenging
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NCP leaves final decision to Pawar Mumbai, January 8 The extended state executive committee meeting at the NCP head office at Nariman Point in South Mumbai, was presided over by Maharashtra unit chief and state Home Minister R R Patil and attended by Deputy Chief Minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, state unit office-bearers and district presidents. The resolution was moved by Mr R R Patil and seconded by Mr Mohite-Patil. Talking to the media later, party spokesman Vasant Chavan said there were three options before the NCP - allying in the North-East with National Democratic Alliance (NDA), in Maharashtra with the Congress and in southern states with the Left front. The NCP National Executive will discuss options and take a final decision on alliances on January 14 in New Delhi. The meet will be presided over by Mr Pawar. Mr Chavan said there was no proposal for a poll alliance with Shiv Sena, referring to yesterday’s statement of Sena Ideology Bal Thackeray. In Maharashtra, he said, there were only two fronts - one ‘secular’ led by the Congress-NCP and the ‘non-secular’ led by Sena-BJP. “Once the Congress-NCP tie-up is finalised, we would endeavour to bring all allies who have left us,” he said. Mr Chavan said while discussing seat adjustments with the Congress, the party would like the Congress to take note of the NCP’s “current strength” in the state and not results of the last Assembly poll. He expressed satisfaction on the decision of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to hold consultations with Mr Pawar on poll alliances. The date and time had not yet been fixed, he said. Mr Chavan also clarified that the NCP had not given up its policy that people of foreign origin should not hold high posts in the country, but has said that “contentious issues” will be “set aside” to pave way for poll alliances, just as other parties have done. He said for seat adjustments, Ms Gandhi’s foreign origin will not be a road block. —
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In poll gear, Sonia to tour UP by road New Delhi, January 8 Ms Gandhi will launch the election campaign in the state when she tours Western Uttar Pradesh from January 10 to 12. Party sources said Ms Gandhi would travel by road and interact with people. This is in sharp contrast to her earlier visits, which she made by air. Party sources said the “road show” was meant to be more in the nature of a “jansamparak” with the Congress President meeting small groups of people. It was also stated that Ms Gandhi would subsequently tour the entire state by road. Congress strategists are hoping that these tours will help dispel the widespread notion about Ms Gandhi’s inaccessibility and project her as a young and energetic leader. In addition, the party is also banking on the widespread media coverage that Ms Gandhi will get during these tours. Party sources said the tours were actually to be started in December but were inevitably delayed because of the demoralisation that set in after the party’s debacle in the recent Assembly elections. Since then, the party has made a valiant attempt to shed its despondency and begin preparations for the Lok Sabha poll. It is also significant that Ms Gandhi has to begin her tours in Uttar Pradesh, a state that is not only electorally crucial, as it sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, but is also the one where the Congress is at its weakest, having been reduced to fourth position. Realising that it cannot improve its position without the help of allies, the Congress has been scouting around for viable partners. While Ms Gandhi has personally established contact with Ms Mayawati of the BSP, the Congress has indicated that it is not averse to a tie-up with Mr Kalyan Singh of the Rashtriya Kranti Party
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Cong to challenge ‘feel good’
plank New Delhi, January 8 In a conscious move, the party has decided to drop its earlier defensive stance on the economic reforms initiated by Manmohan Singh, and instead focus on how the BJP has gone wrong in the implementation of these reforms. Last week, Congress secretary Jairam Ramesh kick-started the party campaign by contesting the NDA claims on having recorded an 8 per cent growth. Today, he followed it up by highlighting how the domestic investment rate was falling with manufacturing investment touching an 11-year low and how banks were investing more in government securities than in agriculture and industry. On both occasions, Mr Ramesh made periodic references to the economic strides made during the Congress regime when Dr Manmohan Singh was the finance minister, while rubbishing the NDA government claims on its economic achievements. According to him, both the public and private sectors have been on a downward slide as compared to that period. With the BJP launching a high-decibel campaign on the prevailing favourable economic climate, the Congress has decided to challenge its claims in a well-planned and calibrated manner. In addition to Mr Ramesh, the party will be fielding a battery of senior leaders and experts, including Dr Manmohan Singh and Dr Arjun Sengupta, in the coming weeks in a bid to rebut the NDA’s claims. “The truth is that the investment rate has fallen primarily because of the economic policies of this government,” remarked Mr Ramesh, stating that while the need has been for investment, all the BJP has offered is disinvestment. Quoting a recent report of the JM Morgan Stanley, Mr Ramesh said that the overall investment rate had fallen from a peak of about 27 per cent of the GDP in 1995-96 to around 23 per cent in 2003-04. He also referred to a recent World Bank report on the Indian economy, which said that interest rates here had declined because of low investment demand. Most importantly, he maintained, low investment had only resulted in deceleration of employment growth in the organised sector in the past five years as compared to the earlier period. Congress leaders explained that the party had deliberately decided to confront the BJP on its economic policies, even at the risk of alienating the middle classes. “The fact is that we cannot allow their claims to go unchallenged,” said a senior Congress leader. In addition, he admitted the party had decided to drop its earlier apologetic stance on the economic reforms initiated by Dr Manmohan Singh, especially since the Prime Minister admitted in a recent interview that he was only implementing the economic policies initiated by the Congress. “We will be upfront in claiming that it is the Congress which initiated economic reforms. But, at the same time, we will point how the BJP had erred in the implementation of these reforms,” said a Congress functionary. |
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Sangma rules out truck
with Congress Kolkata, January 8 Mr Sangma is now in the city to meet leaders of various small parties which are anti-Congress and anti-Left in the formation of an another front. He said he just learnt that Dr Manmohan Singh had been sent to Mumbai as Ms Gandhi’s emissary for meeting Mr Sharad Pawer and persuading him to join with the Congress for fighting against the BJP. But he does not think there could be any fruitful discussion there till the issue of Ms Gandhi’s prime ministership was not settled. On the contrary, Mr Sangma hinted that the NCP would side with the NDA and fight against Congress as well as other Left parties including the CPI(M) candidates in the Lok Sabha poll.
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News Analysis New Delhi, January 8 While Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his government and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have reasons to be sanguine about Mr Vajpayee’s historic visit to Islamabad, a palpable feeling among South Block mandarins is that of cautious optimism. Optimism because (i) the Indo-Pak relations were never so rosy before; (ii) the two sides are for the first time getting down to the business of resolving their respective “core issues”— cross-border terrorism from Indian point of view; and (iii) the people-to-people contacts and trade and economic ties are in process of getting further strengthened. Caution because only the coming months will tell whether General Pervez Musharraf really intends to deliver on his assurances to India that Pakistan “will not permit any territory under Pakistan’s control to be used to support terrorism in any manner”. The very fact that this assurance has been given by Pakistan to India for the first time ever in any bilateral document speaks volumes of the success of Indian diplomacy. But the success or failure of Indian diplomacy vis a vis Pakistan will depend only on the ground situation as far as General Musharraf’s assurances on cross-border terrorism and infiltration are concerned. This will become known April-May onwards when snow starts melting on the Pir Panjal range and the mountain passes open up. It will be interesting to see if the historic ceasefire between the Indian and Pakistani forces will still be implemented by Pakistan, though it was Islamabad’s unilateral offer on November 23 and India’s prompt reciprocation that the ceasefire came into force 36 hours later. The period of April-May onwards will be the real test by fire for the Indo-Pak ceasefire which has been successfully adhered to so far by both sides. Incidentally, the April-May period may well be a politically sensitive period for India as the Vajpayee government has time and again given indications of early General Election to take a double advantage of BJP’s resounding success in December 2003 assembly elections in five states and the perceived disarray and lack of unity in the Opposition’s ranks, particularly the Congress. If the Lok Sabha is dissolved later this month after Finance Minister Jaswant Singh presents an interim Budget/vote on account, as there are indications, it is bound to give a sense of deja vu in the Indo-Pak relations. It remains to be seen how General Musharraf (the chief architect of Kargil) regime lives up to its promises and assurances then. Another important point to be seen is that if Pakistan indeed were to dismantle its terrorism infrastructure in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) would it be a permanent dismantling from its territories or would this infrastructure be merely shifted elsewhere within Pakistan? Now that technical-level talks are likely to take place between the two countries later this month on Munabao(Rajasthan)-Khokhrapar (Sind) bus/rail service, the Indian security managers would be having a major worry on their hands if Pakistan were to shift its terror factories from PoK to Sind. This will be nightmarish for the Indian security services as such a feared move would add two more Indian states — Rajasthan and Gujarat— to the terrorism basket. The Government of India is well aware that the road ahead for Indo-Pak dialogue may be mined. That is why the stalled composite dialogue may not begin from next month as Pakistani officials and ministers have been saying. True, that India and Pakistan are on road to resumption of composite dialogue. But the Indo-Pak Joint Statement, released during Mr Vajpayee’s Islamabad visit, has a subtle phrase with regard to resumption of composite dialogue. The Joint Statement does not say that the dialogue would begin from February. It says: “To carry the process of normalisation forward the President of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of India agreed to commence the process of the composite dialogue in February 2004”. The key word here is “to commence the process of the composite dialogue”. For the composite dialogue to resume and to reach a meaningful, amiable settlement, the ground situation will be of paramount importance and perhaps the single most important factor. This will be determined in the April-May onwards period. Indo-Pak relations will cross the proverbial camel’s hump then only. |
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PM to open Pravasi Divas New Delhi, January 8 The three-day event would have as a special focus issues relating to youth and a separate session would be held for this purpose during the deliberations. Mr Sinha said in response to a question that no delegation from Pakistan would be participating at the conference as the event was meant for NRIs and PIOs and the sub-continent was not included. Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul, eminent economist Lord Meghnad Desai, Lord Navnit Dholakia and leading musician Zubin Mehta are among over 1,000 participants from 61 countries for the event, which provides a platform to bring together the Indian diaspora and leverage the potential offered by the global Indian family. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani will also address the meeting on the theme “India and the diaspora: vision 2020”. Besides, the conference will be addressed by Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Union Ministers Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie, Arun Jaitley, Jagmohan, Sushma Swaraj, Sahib Singh Varma and Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Eminent personalities to attend the function include Dato Seri Sami Vellu, Minister for Works, Malaysia, former Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, South African MP Usha Roopnarain, Speaker of South African Parliament Frennie Ginwala, leading entrepreneur Karan Billimoria and Rana Talwar of Sabre Capital, Indian business magnate Mukesh Ambani, Bharti Telecom Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal and Shobana Bhartiya, Vice-Chairman of Hindustan Times. Meanwhile, Guyana President Bharat Jagdeo said today that he looked forward to participating in the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. Currently there are about 3,95,250 Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) in Guyana and are descendants of Indians who had gone to this Caribbean nation about 155 years ago. |
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Samman for two
Punjabis New Delhi, January 8 They will be honoured by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, tomorrow. They have been selected by a jury-cum-award committee headed by the Vice-President, Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and the NCM chairman, Mr Tarlochan Singh, as its member. Mr Kapany has over 100 patents in fiber optics in his name. Ms Turner is the youngest and the first woman Mayor of Dunedin. |
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First IA flight leaves for Lahore today New Delhi, January 8 The IA would operate regular flights on the Delhi-Lahore-Delhi sector every Monday and Friday using the 145-seater Airbus A-320 aircraft, a senior IA official said today. The official, however, refused to divulge the load factor for the first flight, but said the response had been very good. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has already resumed normal flights to Delhi and Mumbai from January one. India and Pakistan had snapped their air links from January 1, 2002 after the terrorist attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001. The IA official said there were plans to resume flights to Karachi while two weekly flights to Kabul, including one via Amritsar, following the opening up of Pakistani airspace to Indian aircraft. —
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Hurdle in HP claim on power
dues New Delhi, January 8 Additional Solicitor-General (ASG) Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the Centre and Punjab Advocate-General Harbhagwan Singh told a Bench comprising Chief Justice V.N. Khare and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia that before the final hearing on the merits of the claim of Himachal Pradesh, a large number of witnesses were required to be examined. The witnesses mainly include engineers and officers who have been over the years associated at different times with the power projects under the Bhakra-Beas system, which were the subject matter of the case. Himachal counsel M.N. Rao and Additional Advocate-General (AAG) J.S. Attri submitted that the state had filed an application earlier for exemption for cross-examining the witnesses, on which an order was passed by the apex court that its plea would be considered during the final hearing of the suit. The court had then said that if any need arose for the cross-examination of witnesses, it would be taken into consideration at an appropriate stage, Himachal counsel said, adding this would delay the proceedings. Himachal, which claimed the money from the Centre and beneficiary states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, had maintained that the case could be decided on the basis of documentary evidence. However, the court said if the Centre, Punjab and the other parties felt that there was a need to cross-examine the witnesses, the task could be assigned to a high court, which the parties could decide with mutual agreement. While Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh wanted the cross-examination done by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the ASG said the Delhi High Court would be the right forum. Following this, the Bench adjourned hearing for the third week of February, when it would decide as to which high court should be assigned the job. Himachal in its suit had said that as per the Punjab Reorganisation Act the state was entitled to 7.19 per cent power from the Bhakra-Beas projects, while it was only getting 2.5 per cent of electricity from them. The state had also staked its claim for 12 per cent free power from these projects as per the Centre's 1990 decision for the projects being located in its territory. |
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Uma govt endorses free power to
poor Bhopal, January 8 The state Cabinet, at its meeting presided over by Chief Minister Uma Bharati, constituted a ministers’ sub-committee to decide on the ways to adjust the bills which the farmers had already paid. The Digvijay Singh government had decided on September 24 last year to waive power dues of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and those living below the poverty line and of the farmers, using up to five hp, for three years from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2003. The payments already made by them were to be treated as advance and adjusted against their electricity dues occurring after January 1, 2004. The power dues of these sections were estimated at over Rs 800 crore and were to be paid to the state electricity board by the state government. The Madhya Pradesh High Court had later directed the state government to immediately deposit Rs 50 crore with the electricity board as the first installment of the subsidy. The High Court had, however, referred to the Election Commission the question if the government’s decision violated the model code of conduct. The government’s liability to the electricity board at present stands at Rs 1300 crore. |
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Notice to Centre on manual
scavenging New Delhi, January 8 A Bench comprising Mr Justice S.N. Variava and Mr Justice H.K. Sema sought replies from the Centre and states to a public interest litigation filed by seven organisations spread in different states and eight individuals. The organisations had said that the practice violated the human rights of the people engaged for the job and was contrary to the fundamental right to equality in the Constitution. The organisations said the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, provided for stopping the practice. |
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EC to hold meeting of CEOs today New Delhi, January 8 The meeting is expected to review, among other things, progress on revision of electoral rolls, issuance of photo-identity cards and availability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), official sources said. The revision of electoral rolls was going on and the final publication of the rolls was expected by January 20 in many states, they said. |
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Madhumita case deferred Lucknow, January 8 Mr Tripathi in the criminal revision prayer has challenged the cognizance taken by the Special Judicial Magistrate (SJM) of the CBI on the charge sheet submitted by the investigating agency. The CBI today also secured court
permission for depositing in the government store the recovered weapon allegedly used in the murder. —
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Notice to Centre on manual scavenging New Delhi, January 8 The organisations had said that the practice violated the human rights of the people engaged for the job. |
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New Delhi, January 8
In video: Guyana's
President to participate in Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. (
