 |
|
|
Fissures in BJP over politics of rath yatra
BJP’s image needs change: Advani
Moral victory for Nitish Kumar
Bihar is no longer a bad name: Nitish
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Law needed to monitor population policy, says Nitish
CM angry
over poor vigil in jails
IIM(A) hikes fees by 12 pc
Identification parade in Meher case today
Medha to embark on decisive battle
Forum for Central polling staff
Plea to President on education in M’rashtra
Fencing on borders to end infiltration: minister
|
|
Fissures in BJP over politics of rath yatra
New Delhi, April 2 Though former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has directly avoided a comment on the 'Bharat Suraksha Yatras', sources said the veteran leader was not particularly enamoured of Mr Advani's pet mission to revive the sagging popularity of the saffron party. But the onus for the unenviable position, which the BJP now finds itself in, lies on Advani and company as the twin yatras were announced in the wake of the bomb blasts in the holy city of Varanasi last month. Mr Advani had announced on March 8 that he, along with the BJP President, would undertake national integration yatras. Two words "minorityism" and "minority appeasement", used by the BJP to create feeling of insecurity among the vulnerable sections of the majority community, have become an entrapment for the saffron parivar, a senior leader said on conditions of anonymity. In the immediate wake of Varansi bomb blasts, Mr Advani thought that time was ripe for exploiting anti-minority sentiments of the majority community and announced the twin yatras without broad consultations with other leaders of the party. As a result, barring former party president M. Venkaiah Naidu, BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, General-Secretary Ananth Kumar, Prakash Javdekar and Vijay Goel, no other leader is involved either in the planning or the execution of rath yatras which are no more called national integration yatras but 'Bharat Suraksha yatras'. "Where are Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitely and Sushma Swaraj who used to call shots in earlier rath yatras of Mr Advani," a senior leader observed pointing to lack of enthusiasm among the party cadres and state leaders . Undoubtedly, proper care has been taken as the yatras are beginning on April 6 which is not only the party's founding day but the day of Ramnaumi also. The twin yatras are ending on May 10 — a day when first shot was fired to start the first war of Indian Independence in 1857. But mere "symbolism" was not going to create an impact as the national mood was against this kind of politics of the late 80s and 90s of the last century, a party leader said. He said that results of Assembly elections in Assam would be an eye opener to the BJP leadership where the vote percentage of the party should go up if not seats. On the one hand, expelled leader Uma Bharti was wooing and sure to take away the traditional voters of the BJP, the party leadership under Mr Advani and Mr Singh was at loss to give direction to the party, a young leader pointed out. |
|
|
BJP’s image needs change: Advani
New Delhi, April 2 In a relaxed mood ahead of his gruelling more than a month-long “Bharat suraksha yatra”, the 78-year-old Leader of the Opposition was unsparing in his criticism of the UPA coalition, especially what he saw as its “minority appeasement” policies. He was, however, skeptical about mid-term elections to the Lok Sabha or about the revival of the Third Front disturbing the current bipolar polity. He admitted that the Sangh Parivar units like the VHP were “not enthusiastic” about him but it did not hurt him. Speaking about his controversial Pakistan tour and reports that he was keen on an image makeover there, he blamed the media for interpreting his Jinnah remarks as a conscious effort to change his image. “I continue to be what I am and I have always been. I would like the party’s image to change. There is a wide dissonance between the party’s reality and its image. After my resignation from the party presidentship, I said I feel sad that my party lost an opportunity,” he said. Asked about the party’s efforts to adopt a Centrist approach when it was in power and its present dilemma when out of power and what it should do ideologically, Mr Advani shot back: “These are all very often simplistic journalistic comments”. To a question as to what the party should do to change its image, he said: “Nothing except to be true to our concept of cultural nationalism, We don’t have to fight shy of being proud Hindus and to its commitment to one billion people of the country and the guarantee is there shall be justice for all and appeasement of none.” Asked whether the UPA government would complete its term in the light of serious economic differences between the Communists and those in government, he said. “It is difficult to say. Even those in the government cannot be sure. It is an arrangement of convenience.” When queried whether Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s resignation could be exploited by her for electoral gains in the near future, the former Deputy Prime Minister ticked off the suggestion saying that “people are mature enough to see through all this”. Asked about VHP’s strident criticism about him and that it was not enthusiastic about his yatra, he said: “They are not enthusiastic about me. Ever since I made those remarks on Jinnah, it has been there.”— PTI
|
|
Moral victory for Nitish Kumar
Patna, April 2 The immediate provocation for Mr Lalu Prasad to derive such conclusion stems from the fact that the NDA pledged its support to the LJP in the sixth seat which was an open one as neither the RJD nor the LJP had the required 35 first preference votes on their own strength to bag the seat. But despite the failure of the NDA to get Mr Ranjan Yadav elected, mainly due to massive cross-voting by Independent MLAs, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar perhaps scored a moral victory over Mr Lalu Prasad. It is Mr Kumar`s promise to uphold value-based politics and accountability which helped him to win the people’s mandate in the October-November polls to bring an end to the 15 years of RJD rule in the state. Mr Kumar’s decision to stick to the same value-based politics, however, reportedly cost him dear in the Rajya Sabha elections as he refused to oblige some Independent MLAs with ‘‘some extra favour’’ in violation of administrative transparency against their promise to cast their votes in favour of the LJP. Sources close to the NDA, which was confirmed by a senior leader of the RJD too on condition of anonymity, disclosed that a section of Independents, who had betrayed the NDA, were unhappy as Mr. Kumar refused to pay heed to their request seeking favourable posting of block level administrative or police officer. ‘‘This was primarily because Mr Kumar was committed to offer a clean administration to the people’’, sources claimed. It was learnt that for those Independents, who had helped the RJD Government to continue in office for five years between 2001-05 despite its failure to get absolute majority, it was not at all a problem to have favourable police or administrative official at the block and district level during the earlier regime. Another interesting revelation is the fact that out of the six Independents, of the total 10 who had changed sides, four of them reportedly did so by taking the caste factor into consideration also. The state JD(U) President Rajiv Ranjan Singh a couple of days before the Rajya Sabha elections said all the surplus MLAs of the NDA and 11 Independents would vote for the LJP. But the JD(U) leadership then had little idea that a section of Independents did not like the value-based politics based on accountability being preached by Mr Nitish Kumar who did not even consider minor transfer or positing to suit their requirements at the local level. Mr Kumar’s seriousness to help the LJP was evident from the fact that the NDA had identified six of its own MLAs to vote for the LJP, and in turn had banked on six Independents to get its own candidate Ali Anwar elected. It was learnt that after the NDA realised that all those six Independents had crossed the floor despite promising to support its candidate Ali Anwar, the NDA had to go for a damage control exercise to save Mr Anwar, leading to the defeat of Mr Ranjan Yadav. The victory of the second RJD candidate Rajniti Prasad may have proved that nobody was as adept as Mr Lalu Prasad in political manipulations and vote managing skills, but Mr Kumar was reportedly satisfied that even in the face of such an embarrassing situation, he did not compromise with his commitment to morality in politics. But despite the victory of the RJD’s Rajniti Prasad, there is an alarming signal for Mr Lalu Prasad. The 23 votes polled by Ranjan Yadav included that of the CPI, the NCP and the SP, which clearly indicated the emergence of a third force in state politics. Incidentally, all the four partners of the ‘‘third force’’, including the LJP, are part of the ruling UPA at the Centre and it is the split in the UPA in Bihar again after the October-November elections which will continue to irritate Mr Lalu Prasad |
|
Bihar is no longer a bad name: Nitish
Patna, April 2 "The result of the Assembly polls in February last year which threw up a hung Assembly and was subsequently declared null and void was a negative vote meant to oust the RJD from power. But the people gave a positive vote in October-November polls reposing hope in the NDA to bring back the old glory and progress in Bihar. "The positive vote is loaded with a lot of expectations of the common people. There is no time for us to rest on our laurels (winning the election)," he said at the
JD(U) state council meeting here. Mr Kumar, who is also chairman of NDA in the state, asked the party to work in tandem with the government to fulfil its promises to the people. The Chief Minister, who was authorised by the
JD(U) leaders to choose state party president and principal general secretary, announced re-election of Rajiv Ranjan Singh, alias Lallan Singh, MP and Upendra Kushwaha to the posts, respectively. Listing the achievements of his four-month-old NDA government, he said the biggest accomplishment was a "total turnaround in the environment". "Bihar is no longer a bad name for outsiders. There is no more hesitation among people to come to the state as was manifested by large number of proposals coming for investment in different sectors," he said. Stating that his government's ambition was to make Bihar a model state, he said reservation of 50 per cent of seats for the women in its panchayats was a historic step which other states would be forced to follow soon. Besides, it was the only state where all its districts have been covered by rural employment guarantee schemes. While 23 districts were covered under the Centres NREG schemes, the rest have been brought under the fold of the one drawn up by the state government. Highlighting steps by his government in the fields of education, power, health and road construction, he appealed to the party workers to lend a helping hand by making people aware of its policies and by providing the peoples' feed back. A large number cabinet members, including Ramashray Prasad Singh, Narendra Singh, Brishen Patel, Vijendra Prasad Yadav besides MPs including the newly elected members of Rajya Sabha -- Ali Anwar and Mahendra Sahni, spoke at the meeting.
—PTI |
|
|
Law needed to monitor population policy, says Nitish Patna, April 2 Mr Kumar was inaugurating a workshop on Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Scenario in Bihar organised by Population Foundation of India (PFI). Mr Kumar favoured laws at national level to monitor the implementaion of the national population policy, comprising both incentives and deterrents.”Politicians often evade addressing the issue of population boom derailing all developmental efforts.This is not right”, he observed. The executive director of the Population Foundation of India A.R. Nanda said that the population in India, which was little more than 100 crore now, could stabilise by 2050 only if population boom in Bihar and UP were checked effectively through family planning and other measures.”The average issues to married couple in Bihar and UP is between four to five”, he said adding the need to raise social awareness to check the trend. Mr Kumar agreed to the views expressed by Mr. Nanda and advocated pro-active public-private partnership betwen government and NGOs to carry forward the mission of population control.”The national average on many RCH related issues is often lower than the achievements of the Southern and Western states because of the poor performance of Bihar and UP”, he added. The findings by the PFI and various government agencies in terms of the RCH conditions in Bihar placed in the workshop revealed that about 58 per cent women are married in the state below the 18 years of age with current use of family planning methods as low as 24 per cent with only Uttar Pradesh lagging behind. According to Mr Nanda, the use of permanent method-female sterilisation- in Bihar is confined to only 20 per cent against all India average of 34 per cent.
|
|
|
CM angry
over poor vigil in jails
Patna, April 2 Raids by the police led to the recovery of pornographic film CDs, mobile chargers and cell phones after the DSP lodged a formal complaint about the threat. “The caller asked me to help in a criminal case,” he said. After the recovery of objectionable material from the jail, Nawada SP Shalin admitted that a section of officials were not taking the issue of routine checking seriously. |
|
|
IIM(A) hikes fees by 12 pc
Ahmedabad, April 2 The announcement on the 12 percent fees increase came after the board of governors of the premier institution met here under the chairmanship Infosys mentor N R Narayanamurthy and approved the measure. "The
IIM-A board of directors have decided to increase the fees for the post-graduate programme
(PGP) courses from Rs 1.58 lakh per annum to Rs 1.77 lakh", Mr Narayanmurthy said but assured it would not affect students from lower income groups. The hike which comes after a gap of three years will, however, not affect the students from the lower income group who come to study at the
IIM-A from across the country, Mr Narayanmurthy assured in the presence of the institute's director Bakul
Dholakia. Mr Narayanamurthy said the decision on the fee hike was made keeping in mind escalation of costs. "We discussed matters related to escalation of costs and consequently the board arrived at a consensus to raise the fees. This raise in fees is probably less than the annual rate of inflation," he remarked. He said the increased fees for the PGP courses was just 30 percent of the average salary bagged by
IIM(A) students during annual placements. Last year, the average salary of the students passing out of
IIM(A) was Rs 7.5 lakh and this it went up to Rs 10 lakh, he pointed out. Apart from the issue of fees, IIMA Director Bakul Dholakia said the B-School board approved conducting management progrmmes in Dubai and Muscat in the Middle-East. "We have entered into alliances with educational institutions in Dubai and Muscat which will be providing our faculty with the logistic and marketing support," Mr Dholakia said. He said the IIMA would be conducting 5-10 different management programmes in both these places in 2006. Mr Dholakia said that the IIMA board has also approved the launch of Advanced Management Programmes in the Essec's (a French B-school) campus in Singapore.
—PTI |
|
|
Identification parade in Meher case today
Lucknow, April 2 However, a section of the police was confident that Sachin Pahari, who was still at large even after being shot during a police encounter on Wednesday last, was the main accused in the case and the name of Sunny was dragged just out of confusion. A senior police official maintained that identification of the main accused during the parade would decide the fate of the case as another prime accused Sachin Pahari was still at large. Finger print experts had also been engaged to find out the real culprit behind the incident. Inspector General of Police (Lucknow Zone) O.P. Tripathi said here that the probe was progressing at a normal pace and now finger prints of Sachin Pahari would be examined to ascertain as to whether he was the real culprit behind the killing or not. Earlier, the driver had claimed that Sunny had pulled the trigger on Meher and the accused also had later conceded of committing the crime. Later, Sunny, retracted from his statement by saying that he had admitted of committing the crime under pressure of town police. Sunny along with Sachin Pahari was present when Meher (50), wife of Congress leader Luv Bhargava, was shot at by four persons in Lucknow on February 28. She succumbed to her injuries at Apollo Hospital in New Delhi on March 25. Pahari, along with three other persons, had shot at Meher in the busy Shahnajaf road area outside Dilip Pur Towers when she protested against their passing lewd remarks at her daughter-in-law. The Special Task Force is now assisting the district police in the investigation. The police had been attacked from various quarters for sloppy investigation in the case. Two sub-inspectors had been suspended on charges of laxity.
—UNI |
|
Medha to embark on decisive battle
New Delhi, April 2 Expressing her shock over the government’s ‘silence’ over the pleas of the NBA activists, who have been on an indefinite dharna here since March 17 to protest a decision by the Narmada Control Authority to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam to 121.92 m, Ms Patkar, addressing reporters here, said, ‘’despite our repeated pleas to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to stop construction on the Sardar Sarovar Dam and ensure proper rehabilitation of the oustees, the government has been maintaining a queer silence in the matter.’’ ‘’This is nothing but a mockery of the democracy. So the time has come to intensify our struggle for the fulfilment of our objectives,’’ she noted. Lending support to the struggle of the NBA, at a public hearing of the grievances of the Narmada oustees, were noted writer Arundhati Roy, actress Nandita Das, Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande, social activist Surendra Mohan and Professor Iftikhar Gilani. Giving a two-day ultimatum to the UPA Government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to respond to its demands, including scrapping work on the Sardar Sarovar Dam and full rehabilitation of the displaced families, the NBA said all its activists would go on a 12 hour hunger strike from 8 a.m. on April 4, in a bid to force the government to listen to its pleas.
— UNI |
|
Forum for Central polling staff
Kolkata, April 2 The parishad is a non-political social organisation set up by educationists and intellectuals in the city to fight against the CPM’s policies and misuse of official machinery for gaining political mileage. The president of the parisad, Prof Sunanda Sanyal, told mediapersons that they had made a formal demand in this regard to the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr B.B. Tandon, during his recent visit to the city. He felt that the step was necessary to prevent rigging at polling booths and intimidation of genuine voters by political parties. He said they had met with Mr Tandon both in Delhi and here on more than on occasion and made some formal proposals for holding free and fair elections in the state. Professor Sanyal alleged that democracy was being threatened by hooligans shielded by political parties, especially the ruling CPM, which has been in power in the state since 1977. He said they could convince the Chief Election Commissioner on the issue by producing official documents and statistics. “Accordingly, we suggested several steps for ensuring free and fair elections, to which Mr Tandon agreed,” he claimed. Professor Sanyal felt that voters needed to be cautious in exercising their franchise, and unless that happened the real verdict of the people would not be reflected in the ballot boxes. |
|
Plea to President on education in M’rashtra
New Delhi, April 2 In Tabru Kheda village, also in Maharashtra, the Zila Parishad Primary School is lying closed because 50 per cent of the village population has migrated to other parts of the country due to famine. “The conditions in various zila parishad schools is same as far as staff strength, infrastructure and standard of education are concerned,” points out advocate Ashok Agarwal, adviser, Social Jurist, a lawyer’s collective that has petitioned President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, seeking his intervention for ensuring quality education in the tribal areas of Maharashtra. The organisation, in association with volunteers from the Apeksha Homeo Society, Amravati, constituted a team of investigators who travelled across the state to report on the deplorable condition of government schools in tribal areas of Amravati district of Maharashtra. “We found ashram and zila parishad schools lacking in basic amenities. We found that children were facing health problems and there was no arrangement for any medical attention. There is a shortage of qualified teachers,” recounts Agarwal. |
|
Fencing on borders to end infiltration: minister
Kanpur, April 2 Interacting with mediapersons here, Mr Jaiswal said once the border fencing work was completed, a comprehensive check would be put on the infiltration activities through both sensitive international borders. Infiltration has been checked considerably following fencing and stepped up vigil by security forces along the Indo-Pak border running through Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Gujarat. ''The tourist traffic in Jammu and Kashmir has increased and the influx of militants as well as drugs has been stopped in these three states neighbouring Pakistan,'' Mr Jaiswal claimed. Likewise, fencing along the Indo-Bangladesh-Myanmar border was also going on a war footing, which would resultantly check infiltration in West Bengal, Assam and Tripura, he said. The minister, however, said fencing work could not take off at a pocket on the Indo-Bangladesh border in Tripura owing to a dispute with the Bangladesh Rifles. The dispute would be resolved soon through deliberations, he hoped.
— UNI |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
In video: Tehri dam displaced lament poor resettlement facilities. (
