New Delhi, September 23
After being in the denial mode initially over the leak of sensitive information from the War Room, the Navy has finally indicted some of its high level officers, including one posted at the key position of Director of Naval Operations in the Operations Directorate.

Reports emerging from the Naval Headquarters here suggested that at least three officers, including the Director of Naval Operations, who is in charge of the War Room, have been found guilty of allegedly leaking out classified information to commercial interests.

The Navy had set up an inquiry board to look into the incident and sources claimed that it had found the officers guilty of “gross misconduct and impropriety” in the case in which some computer disks containing classified information about Naval acquisition had been found to have been leaked out to commercial parties.

Though the sources did not divulge any names, three top officials manning the Directorate of Naval Operations, Capt Kashyap Kumar and Commanders V. Rana and V.K. Jha are understood to have figured in the scandal and they had been asked to depose before the board of inquiry.

The four-member Court of Inquiry was headed by Rear Admiral Ganesh Mahadevan, who is the Assistant Chief of Material of the Navy. The force had at the time of the leak of information had said no “secret or operational plan of movement of warships and Submarines” had been leaked out in an unauthorised download of sensitive matter in Navy’s war room in South Block.

However, sources in the Navy said as part of the investigations, which were held in close coordination with the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), a pen drive had also been recovered which had downloads of more than 100 documents of the war room.

As part of the investigations the three men had been moved from the South Block and put on attachment at some other branch and were also put under close arrest.

Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash had informed the intelligence agencies about the possible leak just before going abroad on his ‘eastern tour’ as part of the naval diplomacy. This was the second time in two years that a break-in has been reported in sensitive defence installations and stealing of informations from stored computers. In August 2003, 18 encrypted computers were stolen from heavily guarded DRDO scientific analysis office at Metcalf house in the capital.

Reports here said the Board of Inquiry constituted to probe the incident had submitted its report to the Naval Chief Admiral Arun Prakash early this week. “A comprehensive probe report into the incident has been submitted and action will follow” the sources said indicating that the report was being studied for action. The report will now be sent to the Defence Minister.

New Delhi, September 23
Delhi police has claimed to have arrested a person, suspected to be an active member of Pakistan based militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed. The accused has been identified as Khurshid Ahmed Bhutt, an area commander of Pulwama. He has a reward of Rs. 1 lakh on his arrest that was declared by the Jammu and Kashmir government. The police also claimed to have seized important documents, huge quantity of arms and ammunition, hand grenades, I-cards of Jaish-e-Mohammed etc from his possession.

On August 26, the Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested Aslam Wani, member of another terrorist outfit. During interrogation he disclosed that he was working for J&K based militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed and was here to collect hawala money. He further disclosed that he had to deliver part of arms and ammunition and Rs 10 lakh to Khurshid Ahmed Bhatt in J&K. A team of a special cell was dispatched to Kashmir and the accused was arrested.

Khurshid was born in Mohalla Gonna Kochha in the year 1986. He studied in Madarsa Taleem Islam English Medium School and left studies in the year 2001 and joined militancy in October the same year. After completing his training in December 2001, he and his associates attacked BSF camp at Kahleen. After this attack, he was nominated as the area commander of Pulwama of JeM. In the year 2002, Khurshid and his associates allegedly killed Akbar and his son Ali.

New Delhi, September 23
The genie of nuclear proliferation that the USA is now striving hard to keep inside the bottle is Washington’s own creation.

Way back in the 70s, the CIA was fully aware of the activities of Pakistani nuclear spy Abdul Qadeer Khan in the Netherlands and the agency, now pro-active against the nuclear programmes of countries like Iran, North Korea and Libya, requested the government of Netherlands in 1975 not to prosecute Dr Khan and transfer him to a different position within the Dutch company Urenco.

This on-record sensational disclosure has been made by none other than Mr Ruud Lubbers, former Prime Minister of The Netherlands, an ally country of the USA. Mr Lubbers made a series of damning disclosures in a VPRO Argos radio interview broadcast on August 9 this year wherein he has raised questions about the non-proliferation policies of the USA. The 17-page English transcript of the 40-minute-long interview is in possession of The Tribune.

In the following Question-Answer segment, Mr Lubbers, who is presently Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ECN, the Energy Centre of the Netherlands in Petten, takes pot shots at the USA:

Presenter: I am thinking here of Mr (A Q) Khan of whom we knew that he had spied; we knew that he was moving in the direction of developing the atomic bomb, at least in his country. And no one took action.

Mr Lubbers: Well, that is not true. If you were to study the archives, you would find that the American intelligence agencies — I am absolutely certain of it — kept a record of how closely they watched the man; and what he was up to. They thought that as such they were doing a terrific job.

Presenter: Yes, but he just continued.

Mr Lubbers: Yes, but that is the shortcoming of the management. And yes, that’s when we saw that it was the leader of the free world. And we do take quite seriously the fact that they did a lot of good things. But they were not able to subdue the monster of proliferation, to put it that way... Of course, there was something to be done. I am only saying, it was not stopped. Let us assume for the moment that — and I am taking you back to Khan, yes. Let us assume momentarily that the government of The Netherlands at that time had said to the leader of the alliance, the United States, you can go to hell. We are going to intervene because we signed a non-proliferation treaty only five to seven years ago. Well, this is all about proliferation risks.

Dr Khan spied at the Urenco uranium enrichment company in Almelo in 1975 and admitted last year that he sold his information on to Libya, North Korea and Iran. Mr Lubbers said it was his assessment that a request from the CIA was the basis for the Dutch decision not to prosecute Dr Khan in 1975, and to suspend any further criminal action against him in 1986, though he added: “I cannot prove anything.”

A relevant quote of Mr Lubbers’ from the same radio interview is as follows: “I think that the American intelligence agency put into practice what is very common there: just give us all the information. And do not arrest that man; just let him go ahead. We will have him followed and that way gain more information... In hindsight that is very stupid indeed.”

Mr Lubbers, who is once again dealing with nuclear energy, argues in favour of much stricter control of nuclear installations of the world. “It should really become a custom, I feel, that nuclear installations are constantly inspected. And that they cannot say that you are no longer welcome. No, that should not be possible at all. Because we would be present permanently. That could be done with minimal numbers, what I refer to as ‘blue helmets’, to show that this is an inalienable right and duty of the UN to have control over the nuclear activities in this world.”

New Delhi, September 23
At a time when the UPA government is focussing all its attention on the issue of energy security, the Power Ministry seems to have come to a grinding halt, thanks to the “virtual” absence of Union Power Minister P.M. Sayeed from his office for nearly a month.

Consequently, a number of files are pending related to appointments in the PSUs under the ministry, response to the high-powered energy coordination committee constituted by the Prime Minister and amendments in the Electricity Act, 2003.

Ministry sources said the minister had barely been spotted in his office since the conclusion of the monsoon session of Parliament last month, as he has been operating out of his residence. He is presently out of the country on a fortnight-long trip to the USA.

Even when he was in town, he had not convened any major meeting in the ministry. His press conferences, which were a regular feature, have been called off. The Energy Summit held in the Capital was the last major programme attended by Mr Sayeed.

“Due to the absence of Minister, there has been no decision on major policies like the National Tariff Policy and the amendments in the Electricity Act, 2003,” said a senior ministry official. It was stated that the ministry’s proposals on these amendments had been cleared by the Law Ministry, but the relevant file is yet to be sent to the Cabinet.

All this at a time when the power situation in the country is grim. The ministry is already lagging behind in meeting its power generation targets fixed for the 10th Five Year Plan.

Officials said due to lack of initiative on the part of Mr Sayeed, the ministry had failed to address the issue of severe shortage of coal, leading to fall in thermal power generation.

The major Tehri hydel project has already been delayed for over a year now leading to worst power situation in Uttar Pradesh.

The slow pace of power reforms had only recently drawn a flak from the ministry’s parliamentary standing committee.

It is learnt that Prime Minister is also feeling helpless to push the reforms in the power sector because of lack of any enthusiasm on part of Mr Sayeed.

New Delhi, September 23
Although the UPA government unofficially admits that its disinvestment plans for BHEL have been put off, it is fighting shy of communicating its decision to the Left parties in writing.

The Left parties, on the other hand, are waiting anxiously for a formal letter as it would enable them to return to the coordination panel, which they quit several months ago to protest the Centre’s decision on disinvestemnt in “navratna” PSUs.

Only recently, CPM leader Prakash Karat had publicly stated that they were awaiting a letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to inform them about the government’s decision after which they would return to the coordination panel.

Government sources said though for all purposes the BHEL disinvestment is off, it is difficult to put it down in writing as it would then have to officially acknowledge that it is reversing a Cabinet decision. In fact, the Centre appears to be in no hurry to rush such a letter since this issue has not effectively snapped communication links with the Left parties despite the public posturing by the Marxists.

The Centre is also pining its hopes on the differences within the Left Front on the direction of its economic policies, especially the contentious issue of disinvestment and foreign direct investments. With West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya adopting a more “market-friendly” approach

as opposed to Mr. Karat, the UPA government is hoping the Chief Minister will be able to prevail upon the hardliners.

The government, it was pointed out, is deliberately keeping the BHEL issue open just in case it is compelled to raise resources for the numerous pro-poor programmes promised by the ruling coalition. Government sources said a lot will depend on the economy’s performance. So far, the economic indicators are quite positive as the deficit is down and the growth rate on target. If this trend continues, the government may not feel the need to take the disinvestment route to fund its schemes.

Both Congress and government sources maintain the Left’s withdrawal from the coordination committee has not impaired communication between the two sides. For instance, a special panel comprising Congress and Left leaders was set up during the recently-concluded Parliament session to discuss floor coordination strategies. The Prime Minister met the Left leaders before going ahead with the oil price hike. 

Lucknow, September 23
Mulayam Singh Yadav government’s anti-Congress stance is costing the state dear. While Japanese encephalitis has already claimed 706 lives within the last few weeks in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the state government is dragging its feet in making use of a chopper for aerial fogging first offered by Congress MP from Amethi Rahul Gandhi and made available by the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee.

While the chopper is parked at the Fursaatganj airport for the last 10 days, the state government is indulging in semantics. The Principal Secretary, Health, Mr Siddharth Behura , claimed that the government had “not received any written request from anybody. So whom do we permit to carry out aerial fogging”

The Principal Secretary’s response came in the wake of two letters from central Health Secretary Prasanna Hota. While one is directly addressed to him, the other is addressed to the Chief Secretary with a copy marked to him, the state Congress president and the District Magistrate of Rae Bareli.

Mr Hota’s letter states that the issue of aerial fogging was discussed in a Cabinet secretary-level meeting to review the outbreak of Japanese encephalitis in Uttar Pradesh.

According to the letter, the issue of involving civil society institutions for aerial fogging as well as the WHO’s advice on the subject was discussed. With regard to aerial fogging, it had quoted the WHO permitting fogging “on a limited scale for gaining access to otherwise difficult areas would be in order”.

Responding to the Centre’s letter Mr Behura said: “The letter doesn’t ask the state government to commence fogging. It only suggests considering the request of civil society institutions and individuals willing to take it up the initiative. The department has not received any formal request. Once it comes it will reviewed as per the norms cited by the WHO”, he said.

Calling the state Health Secretary’s statement irresponsible, chief spokes-person of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee Akhilesh Pratap Singh said that the UPCC had made a formal request to the Rae Bareli District Magistrate almost 10 days ago. “Rather than pooling resources from wherever it is coming and building team work to address the menace, the state government is frittering away precious time indulging in petty politics” the Congress spokesman alleged.

The issue first cropped up when Rahul Gandhi visited the worst- affected district of Gorakhpur early this month. When accompanying journalist wanted to know how the local people were to benefit from his visit, he assured the people of all possible help, including a chopper for aerial fogging.

New Delhi, September 23
The Secretary, Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani Siddha and Homoeopathy, is fascinated by the use of “humble cockroaches” in homoeopathic dilutions.

During a round of various stalls on the opening day of Arogya — 2005, a health fair, Uma Pillai, Secretary of the department, could not help draw the attention of the Union Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoos, to an exhibit on the use of cockroaches in preparation of blatta orientallis. The dilution is prescribed in chronic bronchitis and acute cough and is standardised in the Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of India.

Pillai told The Tribune: “We should not dismiss the humble cockroach.”

Experts from the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy say that it is not just the repulsive cockroaches that are used in homoeopathic dilutions. Cantharis prescribed for burns and urinary tract infections is made from spanish fly. Similarly, coccus cacti, prescribed for whooping cough, uses a female insect. European spiders are also sourced for preparing tarantula hispanic for nervous disorders. Apis mel, derived from the honey bee is used for insect bites and allergies. Lachesis is derived from cobra poison and is prescribed for all blood infections, blood poisoning and blood decay.

Dr Anil Khurana, a homoeopath with the council, said: “Sources of homoeopathic drugs are found in the vegetable, animal and mineral kingdom. Apart from these, drugs are also derived from morbid tissues and secretions, healthy animal tissue secretions and energy sources.”

Dr Rajneesh Chandan, head of marketing at SBL, a homoeopathy company, explained that insects used to derive homoeopathic dilutions are breeded.

“The medicaments used for preparing classical homoeopathic medicine is miniscule so much so that their physical presence is undetectable.” He said homoeopathic medicines up to 12 potency may carry molecules of the original substance but not a single molecule of the original substance as cockroach is traceable in drugs exceeding 12 potency.

“Both blatta orientalis and blatta americanna, entomological names of Indian and American cockroaches, respectively, are used for preparing the dilutions,” he said.