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Left-PM breakfast meeting today
BJP lauds EC for ‘clean poll’
Reddy expresses reservation over FDI
Kalam never appeared in NASA test, |
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Stop conversions, NCM tells
Maharashtra
Poor villagers being lured into conversion
Parliament may adopt tsunami
orphans
“Sins” brings Catholics out on the
streets
National Anthem: Sindhis move SC
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Left-PM breakfast meeting today
New Delhi, February 23 “The government has taken several steps which are against the spirit of the Common Minimum Programme, which the Left parties had agreed to while giving support this government. But, that seems to be ignored,” said a senior Left leader. “In this Budget, the Left parties are not expecting the government to abandon the reform programme and we cannot sit a mute spectators,” he said. Some of the issue that the Left leaders are likely to take up include issues of employment generation, right to education and health and social security for the unorganised sector workers. The thrust of the meeting will be to ask the Centre as to what steps are being taken for enhancing employment generation in rural areas and stepping up investments in agriculture, irrigation, agro-based industries and SSIs, sources said. The Left parties — the CPM, CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc — would discuss with Mr Manmohan Singh the issue of right to education and health. In view of 92 per cent of the workforce in the country being in unorganised sector, the Left parties would also seek government’s initiatives towards this sector, especially to provide social security. In their pre-Budget meeting with the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, the Left parties had asked the government to hike taxes on the rich and phase out exemptions to corporates in the Budget for ensuring additional Rs 50,000 crore for employment, agriculture, education and health sectors. They had opposed disinvestment of PSUs and wanted more discussion with the UPA government for finalising the roadmap for banking sector reforms. Following the threat by the Left leader and expression of displeasure in the economic policy of the government, the Prime Minister is expected to smooth ruffled feathers of the Left leaders at the meeting. However, indications are that Dr Manmohan Singh may not be quite successful in cajoling the Left leader as several policy decisions have been taken contrary to the assurance given to them. Further, the Left parliamentary party coordination meeting is slated later in the day where a joint strategy will be discussed in attacking the government. |
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BJP lauds EC for ‘clean poll’
New Delhi, February 23 “This Election Commission has spoken through its action, unlike in the past when it was speaking through words,” Mr Jaitley said, citing the example of the Siwan constituency where a large number of voters turned out to cast votes fearlessly. On the prospects of the BJP-JD (U) combine, the BJP leader said the party was confident of retaining power in Jharkhand and of good performance of the combine in Bihar. “The third and last phase of polling today in Bihar and Jharkhand has been very encouraging for the NDA,” he said. |
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Reddy expresses reservation over FDI in media
New Delhi, February 23 "Some may like to look at media as an industry, but we cannot allow the press to be treated as a market-driven product subjected to the rules of the market. This will only weaken the fourth pillar of democracy," Mr Chatterjee said while addressing a seminar on 'Press, Parliament and the People' organised by Delhi Union of Journalists here. Mr Reddy said the government would not treat media like other industries in the field of foreign investment. The Information Minister said the Indian media was "culture, security and opinion sensitive" and the government wanted to ensure that its nature did not change. Earlier, quoting a Parliamentary Standing Committee report, Mr Chatterjee said FDI in media "is not in the long-term interest of the country." Stressing that it was the duty of the media to bring about awareness in the people, the Speaker asked journalists to observe "self-regulation" to maintain quality. He conceded that there were "heated discourses and disorder" in Parliament, but urged the media to give more coverage to substantive debates. "This will serve as a disincentive to a minority of the members who want to play to the gallery, while it will be an incentive to those who discuss the issues," he said. Mr Reddy said, "While Indian press has enjoyed great liberty, it has not been able to maintain high quality and substantive reporting and indepth analysis has suffered to some extent." Taking a dig at the media, the Minister said the media galleries in Parliament became deserted after zero hour, but journalists rushed back when they came to know there was some "pandemonium". |
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Kalam never appeared in NASA test, clarifies
note
New Delhi, February 23 The President’s Press Secretary S. M. Khan categorically clarified that “the President had never appeared in the Scientist Discovery Competitive Examination”, as reported by the media . Newspapers have been full of reports, stating that Saurabh Singh, a 15-year-old from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, had topped in the examination in which the President had stood seventh, when he had appeared long time ago. Meanwhile, reports in Indian newspapers have also left NASA officials mystified, with an official saying that there was no such examination, that they are aware of. The NASA website too has no mention of any such programme in any part of the world. The examination, as per media reports, had been taken in the past by President A. P. J Abdul Kalam and Kalpana Chawla, the NASA astronaut who died in the Columbia disaster two years ago. Officials have said that people come to NASA with certain academic records, following which they are interviewed and hired if found suitable. But there was no such thing as taking a NASA examination as NASA was not a college. Meanwhile, the boy, who had gone to meet the President left without meeting mediapersons and photographers. |
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Stop conversions, NCM tells
Maharashtra
New Delhi, February 23 Taking congnisance of recent reports of intimidation of Christians in Rajura in Buldhan district in Maharashtra and Kota in Rajasthan, the NCM has decided to visit the sensitive areas to get a first hand account of the situation. According to the CBCI, Christians were allegedly asked to convert to Hinduism at a recent meeting addressed by Swami Sunilji and other preachers in Rajura. When they refused to obey, they were threatened with social boycott. On Sunday, a group of Christians from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu who were visiting Kota to attend a Bible course offered by the Emanuel Mission were allegedly detained for several hours at the Kota railway station by activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bajrang Dal. Mr V.V. Augustine, Christian representative in the NCM, said he would visit Kota and Rajura before March to look into the allegations made by the Amravati diocese and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. Mr Augustine, who represents the interests of India’s 24 million Christians, said that he received a representation from the Joint Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Father Donald D’Souza and a call from the Amravati diocese on the forcible conversion of Christians. |
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Poor villagers being lured into conversion
Hyderabad, February 23 According to reports, the group was herded into a train at Guntakal in Anantapur to Kota by two local councillors P. Jayamma and B.Lakshminarayana, assuring them of several
benefits, including a house, monthly pension. However, Bajrang Dal activists stopped them at the station itself before they could be whisked away and confined them. Later, on a complaint of a local MLA at Kota, a case was registered against the local Immanuel Missionaries representatives. |
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Parliament may adopt tsunami
orphans
New Delhi, February 23 “We are discussing it. If we can do it, it will definitely be very helpful,” he said here. The scheme, which will be funded by a trust fund to be set up through contributions by Members of
Parliament, is expected to benefit thousands of children in the tsunami-hit areas. All needs of the “adopted” children from food, lodging, clothing to education would be provided for using funds from the corpus, which will run into crores of rupees. The trust fund is likely to be headed by a senior MP who will monitor its activities. |
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“Sins” brings Catholics out on the
streets
Mumbai, February 23 “The sexual escapades of a Catholic priest shown in the film are bound to to hurt the sentiments of the Christian community,” former Municipal Corporator Nicholas Alemeida, who led the protesters, said. Another organisation, the Catholic Secular Forum (CSF), threatened to stage demonstrations at the theatres where the film would be screened. “The portrayal of a priest as a man of loose morals has hurt the sentiments of the Christian community,” Dolphy D’Souza, president of the Bombay Catholic Sabha, said here in a statement. Defending the film, producer-director Vinod Pande says he was inspired by a true story though the film itself did not resemble real-life characters. “It deals with a larger tragedy about crimes of passions being committed by people in power,” Pande had told this reporter at the Mumbai film festival last month, where ‘Sins’ was premiered.
NCM recommends suspension of "Sins" release
New Delhi, February 23 The religious rights watchdog will soon meet Censor Board chief Sharmila Tagore to take up with her several complaints regarding alleged disrespectful treatment of different religions in Bollywood films. |
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National Anthem: Sindhis move SC
New Delhi, February 23 The Sindhi Council of India in a petition, which is yet to be listed for hearing, said any move to remove word Sindh from the anthem would be an insult to seven million Sindhis living in India. The petition, filed in the court registry by council’s advocate Vijay Panjwani said while Sindhi language it had not even been granted official status by Pakistan. |
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