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BJP backs Advani on his remarks on Jinnah
BJP seeks govt clarification
Lalu hails Advani’s ‘change of heart’
Advani should resign: Togadia
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Pranab rubbishes Gohar’s claim
Samajwadi-RLD win in UP
Bangarappa opens account for Samajwadi Party in South
CPI warning on oil price
PM likely to address US joint session
A man stands on the banks of the polluted Yamuna while a youngster takes a swim on World Environment Day in New Delhi on Sunday. World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to raise environmental awareness and to encourage action to protect the environment. — AFP
photo
New Australian migration
procedures
NE council hopeful of peace
Tribesmen-police clash: report sought
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BJP backs Advani on his remarks on Jinnah
New Delhi, June 5 Though officially the BJP declined to comment, a leader in a responsible position dismissed the demonstration and display of anti-Advani posters in
Ahmedabad and elsewhere as a “fringe reaction” of the elements of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. He said that the BJP President’s admission of creation of Pakistan was an “unalterable reality of history” is following “realpolitik” for which Mr Advani is known for. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has endorsed Mr Advani’s description of Mr Jinnah as a great man and “a rare individual who created history” and is said to be of the view that the party President’s trip to Pakistan would go a long way in shedding some “baseless and unfounded” perceptions of the BJP in some circles, particularly among the minorities. Mr Advani has indeed only quoted from Mr Jinnah’s speech in Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly and has in fact come hard on the present-day Pakistani rulers who betrayed the Qaid-e-Azam’s vision of a secular Pakistan, a leader pointed out. By converting Pakistan into a theocratic state, Pakistani leaders after Mr Jinnah only went against the wishes of the founder of Pakistan is the message that Mr Advani has sought to convey and this would be understood and comprehended by the RSS leadership, he said. “I am amazed that VHP leaders are taking exception to Mr Advani’s comment that the demolition of the Babri masjid was the saddest day of his life. He had said this in December 1992 itself,” he observed. “I will not make any comment on it,” BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar told newspersons here when asked about the demands for Mr Advani’s resignation by the members of the Sangh Parivar. “Advaniji is returning tomorrow. He will meet you,” he said. Mr Advani, during his visit to Lahore, had dissociated his party from the Sangh Parivar’s akhand Bharat concept, saying that the emergence of both countries as separate sovereign nations was “an unalterable reality of history”. Earlier in Islamabad, he had said the demolition of the Babri Masjid was the “saddest day” of his life. In Karachi, the Leader of Opposition described Mr Jinnah as a “secular” person. |
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BJP seeks govt clarification
New Delhi, June 5 “President Musharraf’s statement that both countries have recognised the ‘disputed status’ of Kashmir is serious and has far reaching consequences,” BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar told mediapersons here. The Hurriyat leaders have reached Islamabad without any entry on their Indian passport or Pakistan visa and Musharraf has made the statement on this very basis, he said. “The Centre should make its position clear on the issue,” Mr Javdekar demanded. Taking exception to General Musharraf’s remarks, the spokesman said “we do not agree with his contention. We are for peace but without any compromise to national security”. The BJP had always maintained that the Hurriyat leaders should travel to Pak-occupied Kashmir by the Muzaffarabad bus and they should visit Islamabad by the “passport-visa route.” General Musharraf had yesterday said the fact that Hurriyat leaders have not come on Indian passports and Pakistani visas is a recognition by the countries of the disputed status of Kashmir. |
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Lalu hails Advani’s ‘change of heart’
Patna, June 5 “Advani’s praise of Jinnah is his natural reaction towards Pakistan’s founder. All his earlier utterances against Pakistan seemed to be artificial,” Lalu said while addressing a party function to mark the “Sampoorna Kranti Divas”, the day on which Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan gave a call for total revolution at historic Gandhi Maidan here in 1974. While commenting on the performance of the RJD in the last assembly elections in Bihar, he admitted that several mistakes had cost the party dearly. “I as well as the people of Bihar have taken lessons from the past mistakes which prevented the RJD to return to power. This time we will tread cautiously to defeat the communal forces and form a secular government in the state with two-third majority,” Lalu Prasad said. The Railway Minister listed among the mistakes — faulty distribution of party tickets that caused widespread resentment among genuine party workers, loose electoral pacts with secular parties and “failure to convince the people that the LJP, a constituent of the UPA, would ultimately prove a villain in forming a secular government.” As corrective measures, he said the party would select the candidates from the panel of names recommended by district party committees after
assessing their winning potential and would not charge any fee from the ticket seekers. “Nobody should come to me or flood the party headquarters for party nominations,” Lalu firmly told the party workers. Apparently trying to downplay CPI’s opposition to an alliance with the RJD in the upcoming Bihar poll, Lalu said “I invite the Left parties to join hands, but do not care if someone chooses to keep out of the secular unity.”
— PTI |
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Advani should resign: Togadia
Vadodara, June 5 Talking to reporters at Padra near here, Mr Togadia dubbed Mr Advani as a ‘’traitor’’ for having glorified Pakistan founder ‘’Mohammad Ali Jinnah who was responsible for the partition of the country and massacre of millions of Hindus.’’ On Mr Advani’s controversial remarks that Jinnah was a great secular leader, the VHP leader said,’’Jinnah was and will remain a traitor forever for dividing our motherland. Similarly, a person, who glorifies a traitor, is also considered a traitor. By making such utterances on the soil of Pakistan, the BJP President has insulted the people of India, who would never forgive him for his betrayal.’’ Lambasting Mr Advani for giving a certificate of secularism to Jinnah who divided the country on the basis of religion that resulted in a bloodshed in the entire region, Mr Togadia said, ‘’Mr Advani has no moral right to continue as an MP from Gandhinagar as he was voted by the people for being a supporter of the Hindus.’’
— UNI |
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Pranab rubbishes Gohar’s claim
Kolkata, June 5 The allegations, though serious, seem to be baseless, Mr Mukherjee informed the AICC chief, Ms Sonia Gandhi, recently, a close aide of the Defence Minister told The Tribune. Still the matter was being seriously looked into, the Defence Minister told Ms Gandhi. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, was also present at the meeting. But, according to preliminary investigations, the allegations had been found to be not only untrue but also quite malicious and motivated. Mr Gohar Khan’s plan might be to malign and demoralise the Indian Army. Mr Mukherjee, who is also West Bengal PCC President, had been busy in the city launching the party’s poll campaign for the forthcoming elections of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Salt Lake City. But still he took out time to exchange views with Defence Ministry officials enquiring into the issue. He released the poll manifesto of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) here on Friday. |
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Samajwadi-RLD win in UP
Lucknow, June 5 In the most-keenly followed Allahabad (West) seat, the Samajwadi Party’s Khalid Azim a.k.a. Ashraf defeated his nearest BSP rival Pooja Pal by more than 13,000 votes. At present, Ashraf is lodged in the Naini jail as the main accused in the murder of Pooja’s husband and then sitting BSP MLA Raju Pal. Despite heavy police
bandobast, there were sporadic cases of violence on the polling day and repoll had been held in 24 booths at three poll centres on Saturday. After almost a year, the seat has returned to the SP’s fold. Ashraf’s elder brother strongman Atiq Ahmad represented the seat as the SP MLA till last year. After he won the Phoolpur Lok Sabha during the last year’s General Election, his Vidhan Sabha seat was offered to his younger brother
Ashraf. However, during the byelection for the Allahabad (West) constituency last October, Ashraf lost to Raju Pal from the
BSP. This time while Ashraf polled 90,836 votes, Pooja Pal got 77,453 votes. The BJP’s Laxman Shankar Ojha was a poor third with a mere 1,410 votes. In this city associated with the Nehru family, the Congress polled a mere 660 votes. In Khairagarh in Agra, the RJD’s Amar Singh Parmar was victorious with 40,608 votes. Closely trailing behind him was the BSP’s Bhupendra Pal Singh with 37,652 votes. A surprise was thrown up by the Rashtriya Samanta Dal’s Umeshwari a.k.a. Uma Singh, getting 24,987 votes. Here the BJP held the fourth position and the Congress the fifth. This seat had the largest number of 14 candidates and saw a relatively heavy 50 per cent polling. The Samajwadi Party’s Rabia Begum won the sensitive Varanasi (North), securing 48,862 votes. Ravindra Jaiswal of the BJP gave her a close fight by winning 32,864 votes. The Congress here held the third position with candidates Wakil Ahmad, polling, 9207 votes. In the Haiser Bazar reserved seat, the SP’s Algu Prasad won by a razor thin majority of mere 184 votes, defeating his nearest rival the BSP’s
Dashrath. While the SP candidate scored 63,238 votes, Dashrath of the BSP gave him a tough fight by managing 63,144 votes. The BJP’s Ram Milan got the third position. |
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Bangarappa opens account for Samajwadi Party in South
Bangalore, June 5 Mr Bangarappa told TNS over the phone that politics in the state was in for a change with the Samajwadi Party set to establish a third front. Mr
Bangarappa, who has been claiming that the days of the Congress – JD (S) government would be numbered once he was returned from Shimoga again, today asserted that the fact that he had won against all odds proved that the people of the state were eager for a third alternative. Chief Minister Dharam Singh however claimed that the byelection results would not have any impact on the coalition government. In a statement here he said he accepted the verdict of the people in the true spirit of democracy. Whatever Dharam Singh has to say on the issue will be reflected in his report to Congress President Sonia Gandhi which he says he will be filing soon. While the Chief Minister has been caught on the wrong foot with the party losing the Chamarajpet assembly seat which it had won in the last elections, he can take solace from the fact that the loser is a close confidant of former Chief Minister S M Krishna who wants to make a comeback in the state. Krishna supporter
D.V. Devaraj lost the seat to Zamir Ahmed Khan of the JD (S) by a margin of 3,678 votes. The victory is a big one for the JD (S) and gives a leverage to its leader
H.D. Dewe Gowda in a continuous war of attrition with the Congress as the Congress had won all the eight Assembly segments of Bangalore South parliamentary constituency of which Chamarajpet is a part in the last elections. The real winner is definitely Mr Bangarappa who will be even more difficult to dislodge in Shimoga in the future. Celebrating the victory at Shimoga he claimed that the slender margin of victory was due to the fact that the voter turnout had been very low at 58 per cent. Speaking about his back to back victories despite being in different parties, he said “I continue to win irrespective of the party I represent because I am loyal to the people of my constituency”. The BJP has been hit hardest in both byelections. In both Shimoga and
Chamarajpet, BJP candidates Bhanu Prakash and Pramila Nesarji came distant thirds without offering much of a challenge to the principal contenders in the fray. |
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CPI warning on oil price
New Delhi, June 5 “We have neither been persuaded by the Prime Minister nor have we reconciled and accepted a marginal hike in oil prices,” CPI General Secretary
A.B. Bardhan said at the conclusion of the three-day National Executive of the party in the Capital. He said the time had not come when the panic button should be pressed in the name of increase in international crude oil prices. “We would announce the launch of a countrywide protest the day they announce hike in oil prices. We have activated our party units and affiliated organisation to this effect,” he said, adding that the Left had given suggestions to tide over the increase in international crude prices, which the government must consider. POTA report
The party demanded the Centre to make public the POTA review committee report on Godhra as Justice S.C. Jain, who headed it, had concluded that there was no conspiracy in the burning of the bogey of the Sabarmati Express. Bofors
Expressing concern over the failure of the CBI to bring to book the culprits involved in the illegal transaction of funds pertaining to the purchase of Bofors guns, the party said “the CBI has failed to produce the originals of the copied documents presented in the court of law. It is nothing but negligence, may be an act aimed at shielding people in high position”. “That there was payment of commission is well proved; that people in high positions had a hand in the crime is well-established, that there is evidence of transaction of funds through foreign banks is also established,” the CPI said. Demanding the reopening of the case related to
Bofors, the CPI asked the government “to bring about adequate reforms and set up effective safeguards so that investigation of the crime committed by the people in high positions does not become a farce and the process of proving the guilt is not reduced to mere caricature of the system of delivery of justice”. Women’s Bill
The party said much of the debate on women’s reservation had been outside Parliament. The CPI asked the government bring in the long-pending Bill in the House so that it could be debated. The party urged the government to bring the Bill in the Monsoon session of Parliament. The party was, however, critical of the Rural Employment Guarantee Bill. The Bill had diluted several provisions, which clearly defeats the very purpose for which the Bill is being introduced. The party said the Standing Committee of the Rural Development Ministry had seen the Bill and was likely to be introduced in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. |
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PM likely to address US joint session
New Delhi, June 5 While the US Congress is currently in recess and a final decision will only be taken when it resumes work next week, the process to set Dr Manmohan Singh’s address to joint session of the US Congress in motion was initiated last week by Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), who is one of the highest ranking Republican member of the House International Relations Committee, founding member of the US India Political Action Committee founder member Rabinder Sachdev said in a statement. Already 55 members of the Congress have endorsed Ms Ros-Lehtinen’s initiative, which include Gary L Ackerman, Sherrod Brown, Joe Wilson, Henery E Brown, Jim McDermott, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Eliot Angel, Frank Pallone, Pete Sessions, Joseph Crowley, Michael McNulty, tom Lantos and Earl
Blumenauer. |
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Centre moots e-waste policy
New Delhi, June 5 The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and the Department of Information Technology, along with manufacturers and NGOs, are in the process of working out a draft proposal for the policy to deal with huge pile of e-waste, comprising obsolete Computers, servers, main frames, monitors, TV and display devices, telecommunications devices like cellular phones, calculators, audio and video devices, printers, DVDs , CDs, floppies, refrigerators, microwave ovens etc, generated and imported by the country every year. The Central Pollution Control Board(CPCB) is also in the process of conducting a nation-wide assessment of e-waste, a problem that till so far has gone unnoticed and un-cared, to estimate how much is generated and how it is disposed of. Waste from Electronic & Electrical Equipment (WEEE) is generated by manufacturers, distributors, retailers, consumers, re-users and recyclers and subsequently also arises from individual households, government, public and private sectors, foreign embassies, importers and secondary market for old PCs, cellphones etc. As per Mr Ravi Aggarwal, Director, Toxics Link, an NGO working in the area of e-waste in India, more than 1.38 million PCs are already obsolete technology from the business sector and individual households and this number will only keep multiplying in future. Manufacturers and assemblers produce around 1,050 tonnes of electronic scrap in a single calendar year and the minimum number of computers procured by an average scale scrap dealer is 20 to 25 per month and there are around 40 scrap dealers specialising in electronics in Delhi alone. The obsolescence rate of computers in software companies and the BPO sector is as high as 30 per cent per year, he adds. As per preliminary estimates of a nation-wide study sponsored by the MoEF, the CPCB and the GTZ, the WEEE generation, comprising washing machines, refrigerators, computers and TVs, in India is estimated to be 1,46,181 tonnes and Punjab figures prominently in top 10 contributors to the WEEE, besides Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Gujarat and Karnataka. While this is a sure sign of India’s development and its prowess in the IT sector, piling up e-waste and its re-cycling in a very unscientific manner is leading to serious health and environmental impacts. Occupational health hazard to workers is the major impact of the recycling and recovery activity. |
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New Australian migration
procedures
New Delhi, June 5 All applications formerly lodged at the Australian High Commission can now be submitted with the TT Services (TTS), the Australian High Commission’s business partner, the Australian High Commission said here on Friday. The TTS has offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Kathmandu. Client services are available from the TTS throughout the day, including courier, passport tracking and helpdesk services. “The new arrangement will streamline procedures and make it easier for those applying to migrate to Australia to lodge their applications,” said Mr John Fisher, First Secretary and Head of Public Affairs, at the high commission. This service was already being availed by those applying for visitor, student and temporary resident visas. Now the service will be available to those applying to migrate to Australia as a partner of an Australian citizen or permanent resident, a child migrant, orphan relative, or through adoption, a remaining relative, or aged dependent relative or a citizen by descent. “This change reflects the High Commission’s continued commitment to innovation to improve migration visa application procedures and extends a highly efficient service which we have used for visitor visa application for some time,” Mr Fisher said. The arrangement will not only assist visa applicants, but it will also ensure that applications are processed and finalised in the shortest period of time possible. |
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NE council hopeful of peace
Shillong, June 5 This impression was given to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, by Union Minister P. R. Kyndiah, who is the chairman of the NEC, recently in Delhi. Sources in the NEC said apart from the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur, almost all other major militant outfits, including ULFA, either have come forward for talks or showing willingness for the same. According to the NEC, the decision by the NSCN (IM) to hold talks with the Centre, an outfit which was considered the mother of all militant outfits in the North-East, followed by the United States decision to include ULFA in the list of other foreign terrorist organisations resulted in the improved situation in the North-East. Particularly, with the US branding ULFA as a terrorist outfit, it has become difficult for Bangladesh now to allow the outfit, along with other North-East groups, to use its soil for anti-Indian activities. The greatest achievement of the Centre in recent times has been the signing of an agreement with the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) for a ceasefire for one year that began on Wednesday. The ULFA has also responded to the letter sent to it for talks by the Centre through the Jananpith Award recipient Mamoni Raison Goswami. The ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua only wanted the release of 10 jailed ULFA leaders so that the 14-member council of the outfit could take a concrete decision regarding the talks offer. Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi has said it is not difficult for him to consider the demand put forward by ULFA as a rider for talks if the Centre agreed to that proposal. The sources said Mr Kyndiah personally praised the role played by Mamoni Raisom Goswami to bring ULFA to the negotiating table. The Centre, said a senior member of the NEC, was now working out strategies to bring the militant outfits like the UNLF and PLA of Manipur to negotiating table, the only major trouble in terms of insurgency in the North-East. |
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Tribesmen-police clash: report sought
New Delhi, June 5 The NHRC has directed that a copy of the May 17 news item be sent to its Special Rapporteur, Mr A. B. Tripathy, to enquire into the matter and submit his report within two weeks. The news item had stated that as many as 5000 tribesmen from the Kalinganagar area of Orissa had gathered on May 9 to protest against the non-payment of dues for land acquired for the construction of steel plants and delay in rehabilitation by the state government. According to the report, the tribesmen were brutally assaulted by the police and the uncivilised act left four of them, including two children, dead. |
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