New Delhi, June 4
Nepal’s former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala arrived here today on a week-long visit during which he would meet top bipartisan leadership of the country.

Mr Koirala (82) has come for check-up of his lungs at Apollo Hospital, but he has a heavy political agenda as well. The first and foremost of his political agenda is putting pressure on the UPA government to reconsider its decision of releasing “non-lethal” defence supplies to Kathmandu.

Mr Koirala’s daughter, Sujata Koirala, who is the organising secretary in the Koirala-led Nepali Congress, told The Tribune this evening that Mr Koirala would be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Besides, he would be meeting former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as well as Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani. All these meetings are slated to take place within the next few days.

Kathmandu will be keenly watching Mr Koirala’s India visit as Mr Koirala is heading the seven-party alliance of Nepalese political parties which has been organising public demonstrations in Nepal for resumption of multi-party democracy. Mr Koirala was put under house arrest for two months when King Gyanendra effected his royal coup on February 1.

Kathmandu has already issued a demarche to New Delhi accusing India of meddling in Nepal’s internal affairs by publicly declaring its support to Nepalese parties’ struggle for the resumption of democracy in the Kingdom. India has chosen not to respond to the Nepalese demarche.

Ahmedabad, June 4
BJP President L.K. Advani has been targeted by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) after he expressed regret at the 1992 Babri mosque demolition.

Touring Pakistan, Mr Advani had said earlier this week that the day the Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished was the saddest day of his life.

The VHP, has criticised Mr Advani’s statement and demanded an apology. It has also launched a mass campaign against him.

In the city, which is incidentally a part of Mr Advani’s constituency, banners were seen in many places and slogans were written on walls that targeted Advani in a strong language.

“Advani, jawab do: Pakistan ne kya khilaya-pilaya? Miyan Musharraf tera baap kehalaya” (Advani, answer this - What food and drinks did Pakistan treat you with? Have you taken Musharraf to be your father?), says one slogan.

Another one asks him, “Saat bar Somnath toota, kisne maafi maangi? Ayodhya mein toota wo mandir tha, phir kyun maafi maangi?” (The Hindu temple of Somnath was demolished seven times, who apologised for it? What was demolished in Ayodhya was a temple, then why apologise for it?) An SMS text message has also been doing rounds in the state, stating, “Jootha khel, joothi baani: Hindu drohi hai Advani” (Foul game, foul language, Advani has wronged Hindus).

While the writings do not carry any name, VHP leaders privately take credit for the writing.

VHP leader Ashok Singhal had also criticised Mr Advani in Chennai on Thursday, and demanded his apology.

VHP international secretary Pravin Togadia, too, has demanded Mr Advani’s apology.

“Wasn’t the partition of this country and Mr Advani’s coming here (in India) as a refugee a more shameful event in his life than December 6, 1992, (date of the Babri demolition)?” Mr Togadia asked in a statement.

He added, “Nobody has apologised till today for the demolition of Hindu temples in Kashi, Mathura and Ayodhya. What is Mr Advani trying to prove by issuing such a statement in Pakistan?” While most of the BJP leaders refrained from commenting on the VHP campaign, newly-appointed state unit president Vajubhai Vala said there was probably some misunderstanding over Mr Advani’s statement.

“I think the issue can be resolved if Mr Advani clarifies his stand,” he said.

Angry over his “anti-Hindu statements” in Pakistan, VHP activists here today protested against Mr Advani and demanded his resignation as Member of Parliament from Gandhinagar saying they would never “forgive” him.

Holding anti-Advani banners, VHP activists of the Gujarat unit shouted slogans against him and asked him to stay back in Pakistan.

Accusing him of betraying Hindus and the country, they asked him to resign as BJP MP from Gandhinagar.

“We will never forgive Advani for the anti-Hindu statements he made in Pakistan,” VHP leader Himmat Borad told mediapersons during the demonstration.

Asked if the VHP will prevent Mr Advani from entering Gujarat, Mr Borad said, “It is now for Advani to decide whether he should step inside Gujarat.”

AYODHYA: Peeved at Mr Advani’s statement made in Pakistan regretting demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, Hindu ‘sants’ and ‘Dharamcharayas’ in this temple town today demanded his resignation from the post of BJP President.

The demand was raised at a meeting of the religious leaders, who have already sought an apology from Mr Advani in the matter, at the Ram Janki temple here.

The meeting, chaired by Jagatguru Ramanujacharya Swami Madhavacharya, observed that the BJP, which was formed to look after Hindu interests, had dithered from its aims and started indulging in Muslim appeasement on the lines of other political parties.

“The BJP, through its appeasement of the minority community, has shaken the faith of Hindus,” the sants alleged.

“Advani, by raising a domestic matter in the enemy country of Pakistan, has not just lowered the dignity of the majority community but diluted the sacrifice of scores of ‘karsewaks’ and ‘Ram bhaktas’ involved in the Ram Temple movement,” they said. — IANS, PTI

New Delhi, June 4
Having expressed the UPA government’s willingness to consider greater autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be paying a two-day visit to Ladakh on June 10 and 11, a predominantly Buddhist region which has been clamouring for a union territory status.

This will be Dr Manmohan Singh’s first visit to Ladakh as the country’s executive head after having gone round the two other distinct regions of Srinagar and Jammu of the sensitive border state.

It is in this context that the Prime Minister’s sojourn to Ladakh assumes significance as the border of Ladakh touches Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, the valley and Himachal Pradesh.

The leaders of sparsely populated Ladakh have consistently accused the various state governments in Srinagar of overlooking their genuine interests and doing little for the development of the area much of which is mountainous, Arctic desert where everything is parched by the rarefied dryness of the atmosphere.

Even as the controversial proposal of trifurcation of the state has been put to rest, the demand for according union territory status to Ladakh has not entirely died down.

However, after much dithering by the previous National Conference regime in the state, it was left to the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government to constitute the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) in 2002 which had been hanging fire for quite some time. Earlier this month, the LAHDC came out with a “Ladakh 2025 vision document” underlining the need to integrate the old with the new and put the brakes on the decline of its natural resources.

The document deals with Leh district only as Kargil has a separate Autonomous Hill Council. According to the State Minister for Science and Technology Rigzin Jora, Ladakh faces unprecedented challenges to reinvent its traditional society to merge with the mosaic of the modern world.

The vision document envisages Ladakh emerging as the country’s best model of hill area development with sustainability embedded in ecological protection coupled with its heritage and human development. Further, the document has stressed that Ladakh should be marketed as a tourist destination separate from Jammu and Kashmir.

New Delhi, June 4
The CBI, which had initiated prosecution against three Europe-based Hinduja brothers so vigorously after they were made accused in the second chargesheet filed in October 2000, seems to have lost the case in the Delhi High Court for its counsel failing to make a “clear cut” answer whether the brothers had ever acted as agents to Swedish company AB Bofors, the detailed analysis of the recent judgment discharging the three brothers indicates.

“I have repeatedly asked the Additional Solicitor General, Mr B. Dutta, whether there is any other evidence to connect these (nine) payments (to Hindujas by AB Bofors ) with the Bofors contract and whether there is any evidence to show that Hindujas were in fact Indian agents, especially employed for this contract?...”

“...No clear cut answer has been furnished and if any evidence existed it would have been mentioned in the judgement of Justice J.D. Kapoor, who had last year modified the charges in the case by dropping bribery and corruption charges. I, am therefore, inclined to accept the statement of the petitioners (Hindujas) that there is no such evidence,” Justice Sodhi, who exonerated Hinduja brothers Srichand, Gopichand and Prakashchand in a judgment on May 31, had held.

This has been stated by the court while analysing the statement of Hindujas counsel Ram Jethmalani, attributed to the CBI that, “The prosecution itself has maintained all along that the Hinduja brothers have played no part in securing the contract. They did not at any time represent Bofors in negotiations with the Government of India.”

The Hindujas counsel had contended that there was no question of their entering into a cheating conspiracy, as they were not Bofors agent as the company had its “named agent Win Chadha”. He was openly working as agent up to May 3, 1985.” The Rs 1437 crore contract for the 155mm field guns was signed in March 1986, the court said.

Since the question was put up by the court in the context of the argument of the Hindujas’ counsel, Justice Sodhi said, “The Hinduja brothers have personally not made any representation, true or false, to the Government of India or the Negotiating Committee. They do not answer the description of Indian agents ‘specially employed’ for the Bofors contract. Prosecution itself alleged that they (Hindujas) never took any part in the award of the contract.”

“I must at once record that these arguments in the earlier two paragraphs are very attractive and forcefully advanced and might even carry conviction but I have to politely remind the learned senior counsel for the petitioners (Hindujas) that these statements can only to be addressed to the Supreme Court of India and not before me,” Justice Sodhi said, adding that Justice Kapoor should not even have ordered framing of the charges of criminal conspiracy against the Hindujas.

“As a judge of coordinate jurisdiction, I cannot possibly come to the conclusion that Justice Kapoor should not have directed this charge be framed. In fact it is on his assumption that I acted when, I earlier ordered that the Magistrate (who held trial) cannot frame any charge other than the one ordered by Justice Kapoor,” Justice Sodhi said.

“In the present petition, I am faced with a totally different situation which is somewhat unusual and is almost the first of its kind, which I am dealing with in my judicial experience.

This situation was neither presented to brother, Kapoor (Judge), nor to me when I dealt with the earlier applications. The situation has arisen out of the statement made by the prosecution (CBI) in the trial court, which was recorded by the Magistrate... that the relevant and material documents are not available in original and no copies duly authenticated in accordance with the Indian Evidence Act are available,” Justice Sodhi observed.

In his analysis whether the nine payments received by Hindujas from Bofors was linked to the gun deal, he said though these payments were “established” by the documents procured by the CBI from the Swiss authorities as there was “no dispute” over it, but the agency had “through the Indian Embassy told the Swiss authorities that the documents sent do not connect the payments with the Bofors contract.”

“In the Swedish documents, which form part of Volume-XXII, again the payments do not refer to the Bofors gun contract, except in two, namely “D-283 AND D-291”, the judgement said, raising doubt over the veracity of these two documents also.

Justice Sodhi said, “Based on dubious material, to allow a prosecution to go on for many years, in respect of a transaction of more than 20 years vintage, is sheer persectuion, waste of public time and money.”

“I cannot foresee any chance of the successful termination of such a useless prosecution, It was for this reason, I thought of giving the CBI an opportunity to bring the case back to rails. As already noted, the CBI has spurned the offer,” the judge said.