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Manmohan Singh, G-8 leaders to discuss issues like climate
change
New Pakistani procedure for visa to Indians
Nixon administration’s assessment of Indira resigning proved wrong
Hindujas to sue BBC over sting operation
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Sikhs to take part in US
I-Day parade
Exhibition on J-K militancy
at Capitol Hill
Egyptian envoy to Iraq kidnapped
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Manmohan Singh, G-8 leaders to discuss issues like climate
change
London, July 3 This is the first time, an Indian Prime Minister has been invited to attend the deliberations of G-8 — Germany, Canada, the USA, France, Italy, Japan, the UK and Russia. Dr Manmohan Singh, who arrives here on a three-day visit on Wednesday, will spend a day at the Gleneagles in Scotland with the world leaders. On July 8, he will receive an honorary degree from Britain’s prestigious University of Oxford, his alma mater, at Oxford. Chris Pattern, Chancellor of the Oxford University, will be present at the special ceremony where the Indian Prime Minister will be conferred the honorary doctorate in Civil Law for his role both as a leading economist and statesman. The same day, the Prime Minister will inaugurate the 75th anniversary of India House, the imposing structure at Aldwych, and meet representatives of Labour Friends of India, Conservative Friends of India and the Liberal Democrats Friends of India. Before his departure to New Delhi on Saturday, the Prime Minister will meet representatives of the Indian community and the Indian Overseas Congress, led by Balwant Kapoor. India House is currently getting a face-lift at an estimated cost of £190,000. “India House’s imposing presence in the heart of London for the best part of a century is testimony to a rich and abiding relationship between Britain and India, two great nations representing two great cultures. “India House is a monument to the genius and inner harmonies of East and West,” Kuldeep Bharadwaj, Minister, Press and Information at Indian High Commission, said while briefing newsmen on the refurbishment of the India House. When the total refurbishment is to complete by the middle of next year, the visa section of the High Commission would be shifted from the basement to the sub-basement level, where provision would be made for comfortable holding of 300 applicants at a time. The existing visa section would be converted into a passport service section, Mr Bhardwaj said. He recalled British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s statement at a recent meeting of the Labour Friends of India that the present Indo-British partnership in trade, investment, science and educational exchange, technological and healthcare cooperation was deeper than ever before. “The presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the G-8 summit at Gleneagles tells of an Indo-British partnership that is a model for the world,” he said.
— PTI |
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New Pakistani procedure for visa to Indians
Islamabad, July 3 The authorities issued new criteria for the Indian nationals seeking Pakistani visa, keeping in view the troubles faced by individuals or groups intent on visiting Pakistan. Accordingly, a visa request on prescribed form of the Interior Division must be delivered to the division at least eight weeks in advance which must be accompanied by photocopies of a valid passport. The request forms for Pakistani visa can be obtained from Section Officer (India) of the Interior Division, Pakistan High Commission, New Delhi, or it may be downloaded from website of the Ministry of Interior (www.interior.gov.pk). For cultural/sports functions, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs must be contacted, it said, adding that visa requests for Indian delegates will be processed only after they are received through the said ministry. |
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Nixon administration’s assessment of Indira resigning proved wrong
Washington, July 3 In a memorandum to President Richard Nixon on July 16, 1969, his key aide Henry Kissinger also spoke of the possible impact the political crisis would have on the impending presidential visit to India. In documents declassified by the State Department, Dr Kissinger, who later became the Secretary of State, said although it was difficult to characterise the division within the Congress, it was essentially between the old guard and Gandhi’s governmental wing of the party. Two
powerful figures, who usually acted independently, Home Minister Y B Chavan and Deputy Prime Minister Morarji Desai, had joined the old guard, he noted. Analysing the “sudden crisis”, Dr Kissinger informed Mr Nixon that the trouble began at a party meeting earlier in July that year in Bangalore where the two main issues were a proposal to nationalise the banks and the selection of a presidential candidate for the August 16 election. “Mrs Gandhi won the bank question, but in doing so may have lost the support of its opponents, led by Mr Desai, without guaranteeing the backing of those favouring nationalisation,” Dr Kissinger observed. Mrs Gandhi may have hoped that the issue would split Mr Chavan and Mr Desai, but the effect was the opposite, he said. On the ensuing presidential election, Dr Kissinger wrote that Mr Chavan and Mr Desai supported N Sanjeeva Reddy, Lok Sabha Speaker and prominent member of the old guard against Mrs Gandhi’s candidate and acting President V V Giri. Observing that the Indian presidency had been a “largely ceremonial office”, Dr Kissinger said this was primarily due to the stability of 20 years of large majorities secured by the Congress. He contended that
instability in some state governments and the loss of others to the Opposition had made the position more important. Constitutionally, the President, not the Prime Minister, had the power of intervention and with the prospect of a coalition government in Delhi in 1972, it had become even more important for Mrs Gandhi to have a friend in the high office, he said. Dr Kissinger informed Mr Nixon that the American mission in Delhi had cabled that with Mr Giri resigning and the possibility of Mrs Gandhi being forced to resign, plans for Mr Nixon’s visit to India should be discontinued. He said the mission was not getting firm answers to question on the President’s schedule because the top Indian leadership was pre-occupied with the political crisis. Dr Kissinger went on to add that any decision to cancel the visit would have to come from the Indians, the de-classified documents said.
— PTI |
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Hindujas to sue BBC over sting operation
London, July 3 Lawyers representing the Hindujas will tomorrow try to stop the BBC from airing the investigations in which its undercover reporters, posing as “security consultants” from an unnamed aid agency in Sudan, persuaded the group to agree to supply 20 Stallion 4x4 trucks worth $ 750,000. The BBC has accused the Hindujas of breaking international sanctions that bar British citizens from entering into agreements to ship “military specification” vehicles to Sudan. The Hindujas say the trucks, manufactured by their flagship Ashok Leyland company, were not armour plated and therefore not of a military specification. The vehicles, the family said, were for humanitarian purposes and that they were unfairly duped. The broadcaster is planning to screen the operation on its Newsnight programme on Wednesday, coinciding with the opening of the G8 summit. The report said Ashok Leyland was approached in May by three men who sought to buy trucks to assemble in Sudan. One of them claimed to be an American priest from New York, another said he was an Irish-based “security consultant” and the third a Manchester-based “procurement consultant” working for an unspecified aid agency. They met an executive of the company who agreed to the deal at a meeting in a five-star hotel in west London. The men then insisted on speaking to a member of the Hinduja family. They were put in contact with Dheeraj Hinduja, the son of G.P. Hinduja, president of the family company. He confirmed that he was aware of the humanitarian deal and was happy for it to proceed. The Hinduja family realised it had been duped when it was contacted by a senior producer from Newsnight last week. Mr Shahrokh Mireskandari of Dean & Dean, the solicitors representing the Hindujas, said: “I find it disgusting that the Hindujas were tricked by someone impersonating a priest. They explained at all times that the trucks were only fit for humanitarian purposes. The BBC appears to have an agenda and we think they are distorting the situation for their own purposes.”
— UNI |
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Sikhs to take part in US
I-Day parade
Washington, July 3 A float carrying a message on the presence of Sikhs in America for the past 100 years will also be part of the parade in which 60 members of the community will participate displaying the martial art ‘gatka,’ the Sikh Council on Religion and Education (SCORE) said. “Sikh men and women, attired in turbans and traditional dress, will display their community’s patriotic fervour and their attempt to preserve their own traditions and customs in America.” it said.
— PTI |
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Exhibition on J-K militancy
at Capitol Hill
Washington, July 3 The two-day exhibition, which will open on July 11 in Rayburn Congressional Building, is expected to be attended by many members of the Congress. The exhibition is in
response to a feeling in the Kashmiri Hindu community that, for too long, the Kashmir problem has been supposed to be the struggle between India to retain the state as a part of the Union and Pakistan’s determination to annex it, the FACT-US said.
— PTI |
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Egyptian envoy to Iraq kidnapped
Baghdad, July 3 Sharif had been named ambassador on June 1. “I arrived this morning and I was shocked to learn that the ambassador had been kidnapped,” said the official on condition of anonymity. Sharif was taken late yesterday from his home in Baghdad’s upscale Mansur neighbourhood, an Interior Ministry source told AFP. The Police erected a tight security cordon around the embassy today and journalists were being kept 30 metres away, as additional security personnel arrived, an AFP correspondent on the scene reported.
— AFP |
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