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Govt steps in as Bibi, Sarna lock horns over Sikh jatha
issue
Jaipal Reddy elected IGNCA
chief
Drop ‘big brother’ attitude, NCP tells Cong
Parties agree to behave well in House |
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BJP executive session begins
today
Patna authorities raid jails after ransom calls
India, USA agree for talks on defence technology
Tabu, Gulzar to get film scribes’ award
Cops restrained from arresting Setalvad
25 pc of HIV+ in India are women: UN
Fighting AIDS with help
of community leaders
Over 5 lakh truckers HIV positive: expert
Dalit ‘baraat’ ill-treated seven
arrested
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Govt steps in as Bibi, Sarna lock horns
New Delhi, November 23 SGPC President Bibi Jagir Kaur has sought a ban on persons or groups from travelling to Pakistan as part of the official delegation sponsored by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. “Such illegal jathas travel at the expense of the nominees. They also bring disrepute to the community,” she said. A delegation led by Bibi Jagir Kaur called on External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh this morning. Besides the ban on wearing turban in France, the delegation conveyed to the minister the “humiliation” heaped on the Sikh community in general and the SGPC in particular over the denial of visas to hundreds of pilgrims. The newly elected president of the DSGMC, Mr Paramjit Singh Sarna, responded by accusing the SGPC of “corruption” in forwarding the names of pilgrims to the Home Ministry for approval. “Quota system should be abolished if corruption is to be removed”, Mr Sarna told The Tribune a day after he was elected the president. Dismissing the allegations of securing visas for pilgrims on behalf of his party, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi), Mr Sarna said: “The SGPC is peeved at the recognition awarded to us by the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. They should instead scrap quotas and make travel easier”. The dispute traces itself to the denial of visas by Pakistan High Commission to 729 persons nominated by the SGPC. The SGPC had forwarded 1,800 names to the Home Ministry for permission to travel to Pakistan under the 1974 Protocol governing pilgrimage to the holy Sikh shrines in Pakistan. In contrast, 650 persons forwarded by Mr Paramjit Singh Sarna’s Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi) were allowed to travel as part of the 2,480-strong jatha that left for Pakistan on Monday, which prompted the general secretary of the National Sikh Organisation of India, Mr Paramjit Singh Chandok, to allege discrimination. The government, on its part, has assured the SGPC delegation of a suitable response. “The minister appreciated that certain jathas were against the Protocol and denied many of the right to go on the pilgrimage. He also assured us of taking up the matter with that country,” Bibi Jagir Kaur quoted Mr Natwar Singh as having told the delegation. An official said Mr Natwar Singh’s meeting with the SGPC delegation took place in the backdrop of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) asking the Ministry of External Affairs to “take follow-up action as appropriate” after certain Sikh organisations gave representations in this regard. The official also said there was “an element of awkwardness” in the process adopted by the Pakistan High Commission for the grant of visas to Sikhs wanting to go on pilgrimage and that the practice of certain individuals and groups applying for travel permits on their own was “inappropriate”. |
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Jaipal Reddy elected IGNCA
chief
New Delhi, November 23 Mr Reddy’s name was unanimously approved by the newly appointed trustees at a meeting on November 20. Besides Mr Reddy, those who attended the meeting included famed film-makers Mrinal Sen and Adoor
Gopalakrishnan, renowned painter A. Ramachandran, eminent scientist Dr Roddam Narasimha, retired diplomat Salman
Haider, and IGNCA’s Member Secretary and trustee K. K. Chakravarty. Culture Secretary Neena Ranjan was also present as a special invitee. Noted industrialist Ratan N. Tata could not attend the meeting because of his engagements. The trust, constituted in 1985 when the IGNCA was founded, had 21 members. The trustees have been added and deleted from time to time. When the BJP came to power in 1999, it replaced a whole lot of people in the trust. Some of those who continued were Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Mr Narasimhan Rao, Mr Abid Hussain and former President R.
Venkatraman. This move followed a court case in which the previous NDA government had submitted that they would roll back all changes effected in the trust by the previous Congress regime. Some of the major changes included making Ms Gandhi and a few others life trustees and removing the President of India as a visiting officer of the
IGNCA. In a move on November 7, the UPA government removed the entire trustees as also Ms Gandhi as the life trustee, and appointed eight new members to replace them. With the removal of the trustees, Dr
L.M. Singhvi also went. Though he termed this “illegal”, he said he would not go to the court to seek a legal redressal. The eight new members are: Adoor
Gopalakrishnan, Mrinal sen, Salman Haider, R. Narasimhan, A. Ramachandran, Rattan Tata and the Union Ministers for Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting, who are ex-officio members. The newly-constituted trust, at its first meeting last Saturday, besides electing Mr Reddy as its President, reviewed the IGNCA’s plans and programmes, discussed the ramifications of the cultural body’s concept and looked at the infrastructure issues.
—UNI |
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Drop ‘big brother’ attitude, NCP tells Cong
New Delhi, November 23 “The UPA is not a Congress government....it is a coalition of various parties. The Congress should remember it has only 145 members in the Lok Sabha,” NCP spokesperson D.P.Tripathi said today. He urged the Congress to convene regular monthly meetings of the UPA coordination committee to discuss all power-sharing issues. In the first public critical remarks after the NCP was armtwisted into conceding the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s post to the Congress, the party used unusually strong language to drive home its point. Asking the Congress to drop its big-brother attitude, Mr Tripathi said though they were given to that the coordination committee would meet every month, which had not happened. Though he did not say directly, Mr Tripathi suggested that UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi as the only office-bearer of the ruling combine was to blame for the lapse. Ironically, the NCP’s reminder comes two days before the November 26 scheduled meeting of the UPA committee and the meeting of the Congress-Left coordination committee on Wednesday. These are to be preceded by a breakfast meeting between PM Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi tomorrow who are both concerned about the UPA government’s smooth functioning. The UPA meeting has been called ostensibly to discuss the floor strategy for the winter session of Parliament beginning December 1. However, the occasion could be used by the non-Congress constituents to voice their concern over the lack of regular consultation with the allies. They are also stated to be miffed that all recent gubernatorial appointments had gone to the Congress. The NCP’s well-orchestrated public outburst follows moves by the UPA’s non-Congress constituents to form a “ginger group” within the ruling combine. Though not
formalised, the constituents have been meeting each other regularly and are also in touch with Samajwadi Party’s Mulayum Singh Yadav. JMM leader Shibu Soren and TRS chief Chandrashekhar Rao, who are both waiting to get Cabinet berths, are learnt to have met NCP leader and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar about five days ago. In a swift counter, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh also met Mr Chadraskekhar Rao today in an apparent bid to mollify him. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is reported to have met DMK’s Dayanidhi
Maran, who subsequently had a telephonic talk with Mr Pawar. “We do not want to make it the Congress versus the rest....but we definitely have a strategy which we will unfold every 15 days,” remarked a senior NCP leader, adding that it was all building up to a “friendly confrontation.” There was no official reaction from the Congress but party sources maintained that such public remarks raised serious questions about the “ulterior motives” of those raising such issues, especially since both the Prime Minister and the UPA Chairperson are always accessible to the allies for consultation. If the allies are serious about their commitment to the formation of a secular alliance, they would instead be giving serious thought to strengthening the UPA and the implementation of the CMP, it was stated. Congress rehabilitates Antony New Delhi, November 23 In a minor reallocation of work announced today, Mr Antony was given the charge of the state of Karnataka. He replaces Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, who has been appointed as Maharashtra Chief Minister. In what was officially described as a temporary reallocation, Ms Ambika Soni has been given the additional responsibility of the states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. She is already in charge of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. At the same time, AICC general secretary Margaret Alva has been given the charge of Chhattisgarh in addition to Maharashtra. The changes follow the appointment of Mr Salman Khursheed as president of UP Pradesh Congress Committee, whose assignments have now been distributed between Ms Soni and Ms Alva. |
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Parties agree to behave well in House
New Delhi, November 23 While Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee claimed that a consensus had been reached at the meeting with leaders of various political parties here, SP leader Mohan Singh told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who participated in the two-hour long meeting, that it was the government’s responsibility to ensure discipline in Parliament and to rein in its Ministers. The BJP-led NDA minced no words in stressing that it would raise issues “aggressively, offensively and assertively” in Parliament and “the Opposition should have its say and the government can have its own”. Growing political rivalry between the Congress and the SP, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, today seemed to have spilled over to the national-level politics with the latter’s representative at the meeting Mr Mohan Singh, stating that the manner in which the coalition was treating his party showed that the UPA felt that the SP support was “out of political compulsion”. Referring to the attack made by Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh of the RJD on his colleague Ram Vilas Paswan of the LJP for “harbouring dacoits,” he regretted that the Prime Minister had failed to “rein in them”. The SP leader gave enough indication that the party’s posture would be tough towards the Congress-led coalition by noting that his party had given issue-based support to the government and it should function in a proper manner. The meeting presided over by Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was attended among others by the Prime Minister, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani. “Everybody gave an assurance that both Houses will run properly and the meeting was held in a cordial and excellent atmosphere. The general view is that there should be normal functioning of Parliament,” Mr Chatterjee said. Mr Vajpayee insisted that the Opposition wanted the House to carry out business normally but a conducive atmosphere need to be created by giving adequate space to it raise issues of vital importance. He also regretted the short duration of the winter session of Parliament. Echoing Mr Vajpayee’s view, Mr Advani pointed out that in the last session on many days adjournments were forced by UPA allies themselves. The government should handle its allies properly to ensure smooth conduct of the House, he added. Asserting that all major issues should be debated thoroughly, Left leaders said they would raise all important issues forcefully and pointed out that debates were bound to be acrimonious. Mr P.G. Narayanan (AIADMK) hoped that all parties would play a constructive role in the
smooth functioning of Parliament as “it is a sacred institution where views of the people is reflected.” The Opposition did not rule out the issue of arrest of Kanchi Shankracharya Jayendra Saraswati being raised in Parliament with Anant Gite (Shiv Sena) saying that the Centre cannot wash off its hands off the matter on the grounds that it is a state subject. Similar views were echoed by party spokesman V.K. Malhotra. On the question of extension of session, which the Opposition felt was a short one, Mr Chatterjee said, “it is for the government to take a decision in this regard.” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azad said “The extension of the session can be kept open and if need be the Houses can meet after December 25. Last year Parliament had met from December 2 to 23 and again from December 29 to January 5.” He said it was not a question of whether it was a longer or shorter session but how much work gets done during it. Meanwhile, the BJP, which has already announced a protest march from Ramlila grounds to Parliament on the inaugural day of the winter session on December 1 on the price-rise issue, has already issued a notice to Lok Sabha Speaker for a debate under Rule 184 or 193 on the Shankracharya arrest issue, price rise issue, internal security situation in the country, Kashmir issue, situation in North-East and Naxalite problems, Mr Malhotra told The Tribune here. |
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BJP executive session begins
today
New Delhi, November 23 The meeting, first after former Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani became the party president in the wake of the resignation of Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, will also try to chart out a course, which can please the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and does not tread on the toes of the NDA. Mr Advani in his address is expected to undertake a tight balancing act in trying to bring contradictory views on a harmonious plank, which will keep the party’s support from the sangh intact without alienating the partners in the NDA, sources said. Though the party leadership has kept the Uma Bharti suspension issue out of the agenda, the issue is set to cast shadow in the meeting. The party indiscipline, which found its expression in the suspension of Ms Bharti, is the core issue that will be addressed at Ranchi. While the first national executive in Mumbai, immediately after the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha polls, was overshadowed by differences among the party leadership on continuation of Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister, the coming session is expected to avoid discussing controversies, including Ms Bharati’s suspension from the party but focus on the challenges confronting it, the sources said. The three-day meeting is expected to pass a political resolution attacking the functioning of the six-month-old Manmohan Singh government with greater focus on spiralling inflation, internal security scenario, “inept” handling of the Kashmir issue, explosive security scenario in North-East. Sources said there could be a separate resolution condemning the arrest and “maltreatment” of Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati. Two separate sessions on “strengthening organisational set up at the grass-roots level” and assessment of the performance of the BJP-ruled states were likely, the sources said. To be attended by the party’s top brass, including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the first meeting after Mr Advani took over as the party president would draw up a strategy for the coming Assembly elections in Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana. Adopting a different format, the meeting would begin with a public rally tomorrow to be addressed by both Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani followed by the inaugural session later in the evening. The public meeting used to be the concluding feature of such meetings. The public meeting would virtually kick off the party’s election campaign in poll-bound Jharkhand. |
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Patna authorities raid jails after ransom calls
Patna, November 23 Senior Superintendent of Police Nayyar Hasnain Khan, who, along with district magistrate Gautam Goswami led the search operation, confirmed that the raids were conducted in connection with the kidnapping of NHPC officials, T Mandal and K K Singh, after the
revelation that a jail inmate was involved in the case. He said they had detected certain irregularities, including undue favour being bestowed upon a select group of inmates. Some articles too were seized and their details being prepared, Mr Khan said adding the administration had definite information about some inmates' involvement in incidents of kidnapping for ransom. The abductors have demanded Rs five crore each from the families of NHPC officials. A top NHPC official on condition of anonymity told PTI the kidnappers rang up the New Delhi-based family members of the kidnapped senior technocrats demanding a ransom of Rs five crore. —
PTI |
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India, USA agree for talks on defence technology
New Delhi, November 22 In his address on HTCG dialogue on defence technology, data privacy and export licensing, foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said: “HTCG is a unique public -private partnership that focuses on what is one of the defining characteristics of Indo-US
relations. We must consciously encourage private sector (in defence technology). The Kelkar Committee is currently assessing the appropriate role for our private sector in defence and progress in the HTCG could help shape the direction of that debate.” |
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Tabu, Gulzar to get film scribes’ award
Kolkata, November 23 The film, a sequel to Satyajit Ray’s 1969 venture ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ was selected the best film and Ghosh chosen the best director for it while Tabu was named the best actress in a supporting role for her intense portrayal of Amrita, a terror-stricken victim of 9/11. Author Sunil Gangopadhyay and Gautam Ghosh would also be awarded jointly in the best original story category for the film, BFJA secretary Nirmal Dhar told a press meet here today. Gulzar would get the lifetime achievement award with the singing duo of Roop Kumar and Sonali Rathod giving a special
performance created exclusively for the evergreen film maker, lyricist and composer. Rituparno Ghosh’s Aishwarya Ray starrer ‘Chokher Bali’ and Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s ‘Mando Meyer Upakhyan’ have been chosen the second and third best films of the year. With ‘Technology and Science in Cinema’ as its central theme this year, the star-studded event would pay tribute to the phenomenal shift in Bollywood and Tollywood towards hi-tech computer animation and software-driven post-production, Dhar said. Showcasing the theme through water screens and animation, the function would create a dramatised ambience of a space attack on Tollywood.
PTI |
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Cops restrained from arresting Setalvad
Mumbai, November 23 Ms Setalvad had sought the court’s intervention fearing arrest following allegations made against her by Zaheera Shaikh, the prime witness in the Best Bakery case. Zaheera has filed an affidavit before the Gujarat police stating she was
pressurised by Ms Setalvad and her colleagues to implicate the accused persons in the case. Ms Setalvad and her colleague, Raees Khan who were named by Zaheera was granted relief by Justice Ajay Khanvilkar of the court. Meanwhile, the Gujarat government informed the Bombay High Court that it had not filed any FIR against them. Zaheera had even accused Ms Setalvad and Khan of keeping her and her family forcibly confined in Mumbai. |
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25 pc of HIV+ in India are women: UN
New Delhi, November 23 According to the report, the number of women living with HIV-virus has increased significantly in the world over the past two years, with the highest in East Asia, followed by eastern Europe and Central Asia. As per NACO, at least one fourth of the persons infected with the virus in India are women. The annual report by the UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation (WHO), says in Tamil Nadu 50 per cent of the sex workers are HIV-positive while in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Nagaland HIV prevalence has crossed the 1 per cent mark among pregnant women. In Manipur an epidemic driven by drug use has been on the increase. According to the report, HIV prevalence measured at antenatal clinics in Manipur cities of Imphal and Churachand has risen from below 1 per cent to over 5 per cent with many of the women testing HIV-positive, which are engaged in sex. Drug abuse through injections is playing a major role in India, says the report, adding that the method was common in northern states. But now other parts of the country have yielded equally troubling evidence. In Chennai, for instance, as many as 26 per cent of drug injectors were already infected with HIV-virus when a sentinel site was established there in 2000 and by 2003 it rose to 64 per cent. In most cities where injecting drug users have been surveyed, at least one fourth of them (in Chennai 46 per cent) said they lived with a wife or a regular sex partner. This probably contributed to the fact that Chennai also has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates among pregnant women in the country. The report states prevention efforts in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where HIV epidemic is driven mainly by commercial sex, has done little to alter its advance. As per the report, sentinel surveillance has revealed no significant drop in HIV prevalence among female sex workers in Mumbai, despite decade-old safer programmes for sex workers. The report says the reason can be that the programmes are either too scattered or short-term to reach a large number of sex workers to make a difference.
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Fighting AIDS with help
of community leaders
Goa, November 23 At Kagpal village, an octogenarian community leader talks about HIV prevention to the village’s youth in community place and at Gangavathi district, a youth volunteer organised an NSS division to spread prevention messages. Over the past two and a half years, as many 460 villagers in Karnataka, clubbed as the high prevalence state for HIV, are witness to a shift in their attitude towards HIV\ AIDS under "Nambaduku’’ project of NGO Samraksha. The realisation that they need to talk out in the open about the disease that has virtually affected each and every village (with prevalence rate between 1.75 to 5.5 per cent) has led to changes which vertical public messages could have never achieved. While the limited reach of the public messages bombarded on masses on the sensitive issue of HIV has failed to produce behavioural change, the villagers have now decided to become the advocates of the cause themselves, after seeing their own people dying of AIDS. Against using condoms and discriminating the AIDS patients by taunting "as you sow, so shall you reap," — the villages, led by their community and religious leaders have now imbibed the awareness messages in their daily discussions. The outcome — even children as young as 8 to 10 years are sensitised towards HIV. Ms Sanghmitra Iyengar of Samraksha, Bangalore, said that ``the proportion of the HIV epidemic in the districts required a different approach to make the people aware of the disease and its precautions.’’ Shifting from the traditional tutor approach, the NGO decided to involve the community to find solutions in their own way. The process began in early 2002, when the team of three volunteers of Samraksha mingled with the community leaders of 460 villages spread over six districts. The idea was to make people talk about the issue in the open, which has already claimed a number of lives in the areas. "We worked on the principle of letting the community decide what will help them. During this period, we have met three lakh villagers on one to one basis and another three lakhs have been reached through the large group events like temple festivals and village markets. To disseminate messages effectively, we have engaged volunteers from the villages to enact street plays, write wall messages and initiate talks in their own language code. With its enormous reach and acceptability, the real challenge of the project lies in its sustainability.
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Over 5 lakh truckers HIV positive: expert
Goa, November 23 At present the country has nearly 50 lakh truckers, employed by 50 major and 160 minor transport companies. They are accompanied by their helpers, who are young boys aged between 15 to 18 years. The long journeys away from home lead many to opt for casual and paid sex, especially along the national highways. In addition many of them even have homosexual relations with their helpers and some prefer to avail the services of the eunuchs on their way. What has bothered the activists most is that the truckers do not lack the knowledge about the disease, but still do not opt for a condom while indulging in the act. Though as many as 190 "intervention projects" for this community are currently underway on the country, where the health workers actively counsel the truckers of the HIV threat. The unsuspecting wives of these drivers who are equally exposed to the infections and are on nobody’s agenda right now. "Through our intervention projects we are able to talk to the truckers, commercial sex workers and eunuchs who solicit them on the highways. Creating awareness among the family members however remains a challenge," said Dr Salil of the National Aids Control Organisation.
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Dalit ‘baraat’ ill-treated seven
arrested
Dehra Dun, November 23 One of the eight charged under the Atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act, Hayat Singh, has absconded, said Pitthoragarh DM GK Dwivedi. Even as tension continues to hang heavy in the village following the incident, more police and PAC teams have been deputed as a precautionary measure. Passing through the village road in a palanquin proved to be a nightmare for the bride and the returning Dalit ‘baraat’ procession when a few ‘sawarnas’, forward caste persons put their foot down and refused to let the party pass through the road outside their houses. The ‘sawarnas’ allegedly not only made derogatory casteist remarks against the ‘baraat’ but also pushed the bride’s palanquin, the police said. The bridegroom, Nand Kishore, son of police constable Lalita Prasad Tamta, was returning after his wedding in Bagheshwar, along with the procession, on Friday night when the incident occurred. People from both parties were in an inebriated state when they exchanged remarks and some of the forward-caste persons involved in the incident allegedly threw dirty water at the ‘baraat’. The argument resulted in a scuffle. The police and district officials rushed to the site to take stock of the situation and made sure that the ‘baraat’ passed through the same road, district officials said. A peace committee has been constituted in the village to restore normalcy. |
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