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New Delhi, March 6 The Bharatiya Janata Party today moved swiftly to tie unwieldy electoral knots. It assigned party's "trouble-shooter" Pramod Mahajan the 'special task' of coordinating the BJP strategy for Uttar Pradesh. He has been named along with Mr Arun Jaitley as special emissary to talk to alliance partners to sort out problems.
BJP flays Cong for backing J&K
Bill
CEC to visit Andhra Pradesh
JD (S) to go it alone in Karnataka
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PM must be India born, says AIADMK
Gonds give Kamal Nath poll
blues
Chinese journal
Maneka seeks ouster of Pathankot
SDM
Maharashtra invokes
ESMA
Najma made president of
Abhyankar is envoy to Belgium
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Mahajan, Jaitley are BJP special
emissaries
New Delhi, March 6 Leaving nothing to chance, party President M. Venkaiah Naidu announced that senior leader Rajnath Singh would be the coordinator for Bihar, Mr Jaitley for Karnataka and vice-president Pyarelal Khandelwal for Orissa. General secretary Sanjay Joshi would coordinate on organisational issues at the headquarters and assist Mr Naidu during the elections. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the top brass of the BJP at Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's residence. The BJP leaders reviewed the party's preparedness and position in various states across the country. Mr Naidu said Mr Mahajan and Mr Jaitley would assist state BJP units in the state-level alliance and solve differences/problems, if any, with allies. Mr Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, Mr Naidu, Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Mr Jaitley and Mr Mahajan attended the meeting. Describing reports of a purported internal survey that had predicted a tough fight in Uttar Pradesh for the party as "wrong", Mr Naidu said the real internal assessment was that the BJP would "improve drastically" in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Assam. Mr Naidu said Karnataka, where simultaneous elections are being held for Lok Sabha and state Assembly, was likely to see the first BJP government in the southern states. In Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the party would gain "marginally" and improve its tally in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, he claimed. Meanwhile, Mr Advani cautioned the partymen against complacency. "The possibility of complacency setting in as a consequence of over-confidence in the party worries me, which is why I keep telling my partymen to tread cautiously," Mr Advani said. Talking about film stars and other prominent persons joing the BJP, Mr Advani said the BJP was not taking the stars. "They are joining us." Asserting that alliance politics is here to stay, Mr Advani said he wanted the association of the NDA allies in future also. "They (the allies) had helped in making federalism work better than it would have if the BJP was in power as a single party." "Merely winning the elections is not our objective this time. The objective is to play a decisive role along with the NDA," he added. |
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BJP flays Cong for backing J&K
Bill
New Delhi, March 6 “It is unfortunate that a party led by a woman is supporting such a law and thus repeating its performance of the Shah Bano case,” BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu told newspersons here. “We hope that all well-meaning people would make their stand clear on this law, including the Left parties supporting the government and the so-called progressive women’s organisations who miss no chance to attack us on women’s issues,” Mr Naidu said. However, he hastened to add that “I don’t know what the CPM has done.” He said the Congress was supporting the PDP government headed by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, which had yesterday in the state Assembly tried to nullify the verdict on this matter given by the Full Bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Describing this move by the state government as “anti-woman”, Mr Naidu said the party would be raising the issue during the election campaign. BJP state unit leaders had been asked to launch a movement against it and build public opinion against such “anti-woman” legislation, Mr Naidu added. |
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CEC to visit Andhra Pradesh New Delhi, March 6 The panel, including Election Commissioner B. B. Tandon and N. Gopalaswamy, would visit the state on March 11 and 12 to review the work done so far by the state, EC sources said. Simultaneous elections are being held for the Assembly and Lok Sabha in the state. Several constituencies in the Naxalite-violence prone area fall in the highly sensitive category. The commission would, in particular, review the availability of para-military personnel to conduct a free and fair poll in the state. The commission would hold a series of meetings with top state government officials, the Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police during their two-day stay. It will also meet the Chief Electoral Officer as well as the other polling officials directly involved in the election process. The poll panel is expected to meet the representatives of political parties as well as non-governmental organisations. It may also ask the NGOs to help the commission in giving information about the candidates as desired by various courts.
New Delhi, March 6 The sale is being undertaken by a caretaker government without any accountability to Parliament and the people, which compounds the crime and is simply unacceptable, the party in a statement said here. Drawing the attention of the Election Commission to the model code of conduct, which is in force, the CPM urged the poll panel to stop the illegal sale of ONGC shares. The statement said the buying of large volumes of shares by one US investment company Berkshire Hathaway is part of the larger design by Washington to control the natural resources of different nations. “It is even sadder that the Disinvestment Minister actually expresses glee over the ‘oversubscription’ of ONGC shares when this is just a fallout of the takeover of our oil resources by American oil interests,” the statement added. |
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JD (S) to go it alone in Karnataka
New Delhi, March 6 "We have decided to contest all 28 seats in Karnataka, one seat each in Maharashtra (Malegaon-SC) and Delhi (Chandni Chowk), and over 12 other seats elsewhere," JD(S) General Secretary and spokesman Kunwar Danish Ali said here. He said the party had decided to go it alone in the Lok Sabha elections, but in Karnataka Assembly poll, it would tie up with the Left parties. Welcoming the entry of JD(U) leader V. Srinivas Prasad, who resigned from the Vajpayee Government last night, into the JD(S), Ali said it was a shot in the arm for Deve Gowda’s party ahead of the elections as the five-time Lok Sabha member has considerable influence in Mysore and Chamarajanagar districts. He opposed the ‘Bharat Uday Yatra’ to be undertaken by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani saying that it would trigger communal disturbances. |
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PM must be India born, says AIADMK
Chennai, March 6 The party released its manifesto. Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa raised doubts over the safety and security of India if it were to be in the hands of Italian-born “Ms Antonia
Maino, alias Sonia”. “The guardians of the nation, like the President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Service Chiefs of the three wings of the Armed Forces have the vital responsibility.” Persons who hold such high offices, must, therefore, necessarily be born citizens of this country. —
UNI |
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Gonds give Kamal Nath poll
blues New Delhi, March 6 The reasons for this are not far to seek. The Gondwana Gantantra Parishad, a sub-regional group representing the Gond community, has emerged as a powerful force in the region. It had polled 2.4 per cent votes in the recent Assembly elections which proved critical for the Congress. It ended up losing as many as 22 Assembly seats in the Chindwara and the surrounding tribal belt, precisely because of the GPP presence in the fray. It has,therefore, become imperative for the Congress in general and Mr Kamal Nath in particular that the party is able to rope in the GPP. That the negotiations will prove to be long and arduous can be gauged from the fact that the GPP has asked for seven Lok Sabha seats, including Mr Kamal Nath’s seat of Chindwara, which the Congress is not willing to part with. After initial discussions at the state level, the scene has now shifted to Delhi with Mr Priyaranjan Dasmunshi,CWC member in charge of Madhya Pradesh, holding a round of talks with the GPP representatives today. The Congress party’s Central Election Committee (CEC), which met here last night, has decided not to name any candidates for the Balaghat, Seoni, Mandla and Betul seats pending its negotiations with the GPP. Four more constituences of Gwalior, Bhopal, Vidisha and Indore have been kept pending as there is a move to name new candidates for these seats. Former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has been asked to nominate somebody for the Rajgarh seat,held by his brother Lakshman Singh who has now joined the BJP. Mrs Madhviraje Scindia, wife of the late Madhavrao Scindia, is being persuaded to contest the Gwalior seat while her son Jyotiraditya Scindia will be fielded from neighbouring Guna. Mr Satyavarat Chaturvedi, sitting MP from Khajuraho, will be contesting his old seat again. Among the other seats on which there is stil no agreement yet include Indore, Jhabua and Dhar while another three — Sagar, Shadol and Mansaud — could not be decided as the reports of AICC observers have yet to come in. |
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Chinese journal ‘nukes’
India
New Delhi, March 6 The publication, the World Affairs journal, which reflects China's foreign policy position, says in its recent issue that the US suspects that India has been acquiring nuclear technology from Israel. The journal accused India of possibly acquiring nuclear weapons technology clandestinely. It went on to say that since 1977, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam made frequent secret visits to Israel, culminating in the 1998 nuclear tests. It further speculated that India may be acquiring technology from Israel for its Agni-III missile, and also for production of miniature nuclear warhead. Another recent report in China's prestigious official newspaper, Guangming Daily, quoted a foreign website to say that Dr Y.S.R. Prasad, a retired Indian nuclear scientist, had assisted Iran's nuclear establishment. While Dr Prasad's case is believed to be correct, it does not signify any skeletons in the Indian nuclear cupboard. Dr Prasad was first an adviser to Iran as an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) representative after his retirement. Later, he was engaged by Iran privately, but not clandestinely. From the time Iran's nuclear programme came under the IAEA microscope last year, alarm bells began to ring both in Beijing and Islamabad. The US, which gave the initial inputs to the IAEA, has long been concerned about a nuclear Iran's threat to US interests in the region, and to Israel. Chinese nuclear experts were working in Iran not only on the safeguarded nuclear power plant, but on other projects. Experts have drawn a connection between nuclear weaponisation technology supplied by the father of Pakistan's bomb, Dr A.Q. Khan, and the presence of Chinese experts. While Iran acquired the technology from or through Pakistan, they wanted Chinese experts who are considered superior to their Pakistani counterparts. For the Chinese, it could not have been worse when Libya decided it was better to be sad than sorry. The documents that Tripoli handed over to Washington on its clandestine nuclear programme had Chinese fingerprints, including some written in Chinese characters, detailing step- by- step procedure on assembling a nuclear device. The discovery of the sources of the Iranian and Libyan programmes provides strong circumstantial, if not clinching, evidence that for years China has been using Pakistan in a cosy arrangement to illegally proliferate technology for weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). In the Pakistan-North Korea nuclear-for-missile deal, China has been the facilitator. Diplomatic observers pointed out that China cannot deny that the transfers and exchanges taking place in C-130 Pakistani cargo aircraft used Chinese territory for overflying and refueling. The most critical and advanced Chinese nuclear technology and equipment were transferred to Pakistan after 1992. In 1995, China supplied 5,000 ring magnets to Dr A.Q. Khan's Khan Research Laboratories. Chinese President Jiang Zemin was confronted by some world leaders on this issue with evidence, and he reportedly admitted to it and promised remedial steps. |
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Maneka seeks ouster of Pathankot
SDM
New Delhi, March 6 Founder Chairperson of the People for Animals (PFA) and former Minister for Animal Welfare (Independent charge), Maneka Gandhi has asked Punjab Chief Secretary Jai Singh Gill to take action against Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Pathankot Puneet Goel, who was caught on charges of hunting peacocks and partridges recently. She said she called up Gill demanding the arrest of the SDM for carrying four dead partridges, a dead peacock and a peahen. “Killing a national bird and a wild bird constitutes an offence under the Wildlife Protection Act. He is a public servant and should be removed immediately.” Sources in the PFA pointed out that Section 9 of the Wildlife Protection Act prohibits hunting of any wild animal specified in Schedule I, II, III and IV, except as provided under Sections XI and XII. Section 51 of the Act prescribes a maximum imprisonment of six years, Rs 25,000 fine or both for hunting an animal listed in Schedule I. In the case of partridges, which are on Schedule II, Section 51 prescribes a maximum imprisonment of three years, Rs 25,000 fine or both. But, in the case of Haryana, where partridge is a state bird, hunting of partridges is a non-bailable offence, says Naresh Kumar Kadiyan, Chairman, PFA and Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Haryana Board. Confirming the incident, Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Harjit Singh said Goel was caught red-handed with his driver and a hunter near Naroor village in Hoshiarpur district by the Divisional Forest Officer. Hoshiarpur District Commissioner Kirandeep Singh Bhullar told the TNS that he had sent a factual note to the state government on Wednesday. He said peacock hunting was not common in his district. “In the past two years as Deputy Commissioner, this is the only case of peacock hunting which has been reported. |
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Maharashtra invokes
ESMA
Mumbai, March 6 State government officials say, District Collectors across the state have been empowered to acquire vehicles to transport essential commodities to the markets. The government has also decided to provide police protection to drivers who ply their vehicles. The government’s decision came as the strike by the transporters entered its third day on Saturday. The truckers have been on strike since Thursday in protest against an order by the Bombay High Court making it mandatory for vehicles more than eight years old to be converted into the CNG mode by March 31, 2005. The Bombay High Court’s decision to bar old trucks from Mumbai’s roads follows petitions filed by environmentalist groups of the city. Earlier, the Bombay High Court had ordered trucks more than 15 years old to remain off the streets. Now trucks between eight and 14 years old are being targeted to help clean up Mumbai’s air. The truckers’ decision to avoid Mumbai was taken by the Delhi-based All-India Motor Union Congress (AIMUC), which claims the allegiance of over 1,600 truck unions across the country, truckers here say. |
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Najma made president of
Indo-Arab Society
New Delhi, March 6 Dr Heptullah was first elected president of the society in 1980 and since then she has been the unanimous choice for the presidentship of the society. The Indo-Arab Society was founded on October 7 in 1954 with the objective of strengthening friendship and understanding between India and the Arab world and to promote cultural, educational and social relations. |
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Abhyankar is envoy to Belgium
New Delhi, March 6 Mr Abhyankar would also be concurrently accredited as the next Ambassador of India to the Commission of European Communities and the Council of European Union with residence at Brussels, an MEA press note said. Mr Pradeep Kumar Singh, presently Ambassador of India to Belgium, has been appointed as the next envoy to Spain. |
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