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Uma rules out return to BJP
Mamata, TMC workers beaten up by cops
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Equations set to change in W. Bengal
Ram temple no longer rallying point for BJP
Draft chargesheet properly, CVC warns CVOs
Vigilance, HC after Sadhu Yadav
Arjun against limiting education to classrooms
IAF to shift display venue to Hindon
7 SSB battalions to be raised
US aid to fight TB in India
Bedi is CJ of Bombay HC
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Uma rules out return to BJP
New Delhi, September 26 Addressing “Desh Bachao Sammelan,” featuring several leaders, including former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana and Hindu Mahasabha leaders, Ms Bharti, who was expelled from the BJP, said the newspapers were speculating about her return to the parent party. “Why should I return... it is they who have to return to the right path. I am on the correct track believing in the philosophy of Hindutva and Rashtravad delineated by Jan Sangh founder Shayama Prasad Mukherjee,” she said. Ms Bharti, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, said India was in real trouble because the market forces were out to deprive the people of food security and employment and dispossess the farmers of their lands while the Naxal forces were weakening the nation from within and the terrorists, sponsored by the other side of the border, were attempting to weaken the national resolve. “India wanted friendly relationship with the United States but they can’t expect to treat people like they treated the native Red Indians when they took over North America,” she noted, adding that both countries could become equal partners, but the US could not treat India as “one more base.” She said since the nationalists and patriotic forces were divided, there was an attempt to attack the very essence of Hindutva and hence there was a need for these forces of “Rambhaktas and Rashtrabhaktas” to stay united to face the assault on India and its way of life. She declared that she had obtained a promise from a veteran Jan Sangh leader and a close associate of Mr Mukherjee, Mr Balraj Madhok, to be a patron for all “blueprints of the nationalistic forces.” In an obvious attack on the BJP, Ms Bharti said some people had started treating Hindutva as a business without adopting themselves to its ways of life like Pakistan founder M.A. Jinnah, who had used Islam as a commodity though he never went to any mosque in his life. She criticised the BJP for serving meat at the recently concluded Dehra Dun National Executive during Shradh days. Without taking any names, she said the BJP had disowned its former president for taking a bribe of Rs 1 lakh on camera while hailing its former general secretary as a “model leader,” even though he was “embroiled” in a share scam of a leading industrial house. Ms Bharti said the Dalits, Backward Classes and tribesmen accounted for 70 per cent of the Hindu population and it was they who were prepared to lay down their lives for the sake of religion. Both BJP and Congress, she alleged were using these communities as “paper plates,” while parties like the Samajwadi Party were getting their support by abusing the majority community.
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Mamata, TMC workers beaten up by cops
Kolkata, September 26 They were here to protest against the eviction of landowners and transferring of their agricultural land to Tata Motors. The police indiscriminately fired tear-gas shells and lathicharged in order to disperse the demonstrators. As a result, Ms Banerjee and several other TMC leaders and workers were injured. Ms Banerjee received injury on her backbone and shoulder due to the lathi charge. Later, she was taken to a local nursing home for treatment. Ms Banerjee and 50 others were arrested but they were released later . As a mark of protest, both the Congress and the TMC will observe a 24 hour Bangla bandh on October 9, in which other anti-Left Front parties like the SUCI, the PDS, the JMM, the RJD, the SP and the CPI(M-L) will also take part. Today, the TMC workers and supporters demonstrated in the city and several districts against the police excesses. They also blocked streets and railway tracks which affected the traffic movement and railway services. Tomorrow, both the Congress and the TMC will also observe a protest day by bringing out a silent procession in the city where prominent Congress leaders like Mr Priya DasMunshi, Union Information Minister, Mr Somen Mitra, MLA, Mr Pradip Bhattacharyya, working president and several others leaders will be present. Both Mr DasMunshi and Mr Mitra declared today that they would join hands with the TMC in their future movement against the CPM. Ms Banerjee and other injured leaders began their hunger strike soon after they reached near the Mahatma Gandhi’s statue around 2 am. This morning, almost all state Congress leaders met Ms Banerjee at the dharna place and extended their support to the TMC agitation. From New Delhi, the Home Minister, Mr Sivraj Patil, and Ms Margaret Alva, the AICC general secretary(in charge of Bengal), phoned her and supported her movement.
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Equations set to change in W. Bengal
New Delhi, September 26 The party lost no time in jumping to the aid of Trinamul Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee who was brutally beaten up by the West Bengal police while protesting against the acquisition of agricultural land for an industrial project. It rushed Information and Broadcasting Minister Priayaranjan Dasmunshi, a known Mamata sympathiser, to Kolkata to express solidarity with the firebrand TMC leader. Mr Dasmunshi roundedly condemned the Buddhadeb government for the brutal police action against a woman leader and publicly announced his decision to join the TMC in a protest march tomorrow. Coming in the backdrop of the recent byelections in which the Congress and the TMC did not field candidates against each other, this open display of support for Ms Banerjee is being viewed as a step towards cementing a lasting relationship with the TMC. While Mr Dasmunshi was active in Kolkata, Ms Margaret Alva, AICC general secretary in charge of West Bengal, took centre stage in Delhi in hitting out at the Left Front government. Hailing Ms Banerjee as the “politcal Durga” of West Bengal, she said, it was shameful that a woman should be attacked like this at the time of Durga Puja. “The way Ms Banerjee was dragged and manhandled is really most shameful,” Ms Alva said. Irked at the constant pinpricks from the Marxists, who have been leading a vociferous campaign against the Centre’s policy of handing over prime agricultural land for special economic zones (SEZs), the Congress used this opportunity to settle scores with their Left partners. Ms Alva lost no time in pointing to the “hypocrisy” of the Left parties who, she said, go to Haryana to agitate against the setting up of SEZs on agricultural land but take a different line in West Bengal. On the other hand, the Congress is hoping that the TMC leader will eventually part company with the BJP and return to its fold. AICC leaders, who have been wooing Ms Banerjee, have been trying to convince her that she would be left in the wilderness if Mr George Fernandes, her “mentor” in the NDA, leaves to join the Samajwadi Party. However, the Congress is not pushing matters.
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Ram temple no longer rallying point for BJP
Ayodhya, September 26 Launching the party’s otherwise lacklustre campaign for the Vidhan Sabha and local bodies election today from Ayodhya, Mr Kalyan Singh, national vice-president and in charge of UP, decried the “Islamization of politics” which he described as the mindset to downplay “Islamic terrorism for the fear of loosing out on Muslim votes.” Setting the tone of the BJP campaign, Mr Kalyan Singh made it amply clear that the party was not counting on the Muslim vote. Calling upon Hindus to close ranks by accommodating the Dalits, backwards and other castes, Mr Singh, said that was the “only formula to fight Islamic terrorism”. A visibly unwell Mr Kalyan Singh, still recovering from bypass surgery, was single-handedly shouldering the responsibility of galvanizing the party campaign in the strategic state of UP. A large hoarding near the Circuit House declared “Azad Hind, Azad Watan, Azad Ayodhya Chahiye”. However, Mr Singh described his decision to launch the campaign from Ayodhya as purely his desire for a “darshan of Ram Lalla”. Mr Kalyan Singh who was catapulted to the state’s chief ministership first in 1991 at the peak of the Ram mandir movement, refrained from reiterating the need to build the Ram mandir . No national level leader- Mr Rajnath Singh, Mr L.K. Advani, Mr Sushma Swaraj or even once local MP Vinay Katiyar was present at the launching of the party’s campaign. A hesitant Mr Kalyan Singh accompanied by state president Keshari Nath Tripathi and senior leader Lalji Tandon, too ailing to get down from the car, did not address any public meeting. Instead he tested waters by addressing several roadside meetings, paying a darshan at Hanuman garhi , the makeshift Ram temple and a visit to Karsevakpuram to interact with the religious leaders. Barely a few dozen people colleted at the half a dozen roadside meetings that the former Chief Minister addressed. The BJP campaign launch takes place amidst a wave of legislators’ crossing over to BSP and SP in search of green pastures. Two BJP MLAs, Mr Amarjeet Singh Jansevak and Mr Shyam Singh Ahirya switching loyalties to the SP just a two weeks ago. While five of these legislators shifted their loyalties to the BSP, 10 others defected to the ruling Samajwadi Party. State BJP president Keshari Nath Tripathi has bravely downplayed the crossing over by maintaining that it “would not have any impact” on the party, middle level leaders feel that charged the ruling dispensation with luring its MLAs. As many as 15 of its legislators have deserted the BJP in the last three years.
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Draft chargesheet properly, CVC warns CVOs
New Delhi, September 26 In a circular (No. 34/09/06) to Secretaries of all Ministries and Departments of Central Government, all CVOs and all CEOs/CMDs of PSUs/PSBs, the CVC has asserted that this is being done to ensure that the chargesheets to the concerned employees are drafted properly and thus ensure completion of departmental inquiry proceedings expeditiously. In this context, the CVC has emphasised that while seeking Commission’s advice, wherever disciplinary proceedings are proposed, references, complete in all respects, including the draft chargesheets with supporting evidence, should be made to the Commission. “This should not be construed as vetting of the chargesheets by the Commission. It is intended to ensure that the specific lapses were duly reflected in the chargesheet before it was decided to proceed against an officer,” it said. “Sometimes, poor drafting of the chargesheet also creates confusion about the documents relied upon. The Commission has also noted with serious concern, that while advice of the Commission is sought on the basis of indicated lapses/irregularities and the suspected public servants’ role, the chargesheets are not drafted properly to reflect the seriousness of the lapses,” it said. “The lapses are not covered precisely in the articles of charge and certain lapses, on the basis of which advice is obtained, are not included in the chargesheets, thereby limiting the areas of operation/effectiveness of the Inquiry Officer. “There are also cases where there was no credible evidence to back the charge, as a result of which the said charge could not be proved during the inquiry and errant officials escape punishment. It also causes avoidable embarrassment to the Vigilance Administration and the Commission,” it said in its two-page circular. The CVC has also expressed its concern over the frequent transfer or change of P.O/I.O (Prosecution Officer/Inquiry Officer) while the inquiry is in progress and appointment of junior official as P.O.
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Vigilance, HC after Sadhu Yadav
Patna, September 26 Mr Sadhu Yadav has now gone underground following the Vigilance Bureau putting up proclamation notices at several points in Patna as well as at his native district of Gopalganj in connection with his alleged involvement in the multi-crore flood relief scam of 2004. A vigilance team was also scheduled to visit 15, Janpath, in Delhi, the official residence of the MP. The problem further compounded for the beleaguered brother-in-law of Mr Lalu Prasad after he was implicated by the Vigilance Police in a fresh case related to tampering of evidence in the flood relief scam. Meanwhile, in a separate case, the Patna High Court dismissed a bail application of Mr Sadhu Yadav, who was facing a charge of assaulting a local body election candidate in Gopalganj in June. The court rejected the petition on the ground that it was not a fit case for bail. In early July, a Gopalganj court had issued a non-bailable warrant of arrest against him and the district police had later issued an arrest warrant. With the Nitish government tightening its noose around Mr Sadhu Yadav, the RJD dubbed the urgency in which the Vigilance Police was acting as nothing but “political vendetta.” Senior RJD leader and MP Ramkripal Yadav alleged that the manner in which the proclamation notices had been pasted in Patna could only be viewed as an attempt to humiliate Mr Sadhu Yadav and made him seen as if he was the most wanted criminal of India. Asserting that Mr Sadhu Yadav was not a criminal, Mr Ramkripal Yadav alleged that the hunting down of the RJD MP could only be viewed as a deliberate effort to try and demoralise Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family. The party was quick to point out that ever since the NDA came to power in Bihar, three cases were framed against Mr Sadhu Yadav and also one against Mr Lalu Prasad’s another brother-in-law, Mr Subhash Yadav.
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Dev Anand turns 84
Mumbai, September 26 One of the most well-known actors in Indian film history, Dev Anand has found fans in every generation of film lovers, given his vast repertoire. Through his roles in classics like “Guide”, “Jewel Thief” and “CID”, he showed remarkable versatility in his acting and endeared himself to fans. His age has not affected his
commitment to his art and films, and Dev Anand continues to produce, direct and act in almost one film a year.
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Arjun against limiting education to classrooms
New Delhi, September 25 Calling for “tapping all resources to spread literacy in the country”, he said the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) had become more relevant in this context. Speaking at the inauguration of a building of the NIOS at Noida, he said the country was witnessing an explosion of knowledge. “In order to make it relevant and meaningful, we should offer educational opportunities on “anytime- anywhere” basis,” he said. In the modern age, education should be available at every level and in all circumstances to help produce an educated nation, the minister said. The concept of classroom education suffered from constraints of time and patience, he added. Secretary (School Education and Literacy) Champak Chatterjee urged the NIOS to establish network with state open schools and work for promoting vocational education, teacher training and adult education to bring in more students into the open schooling system. “The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development is planning to make necessary provision in this regard in the 11th Five Year Plan,” he said.
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IAF to shift display venue to Hindon
New Delhi, September 26 “The Air Force founding day parade and flypast on October 8 will henceforth be held over the Hindon airbase near Ghaziabad”, Air Marshal A.K. Singh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Air Command told mediapersons here. He added that the decision had been taken in the national interest to avoid any requirement of airspace closure for rehearsals and the final air display on October 8. There had been major complaints from the airlines, specially the private ones as the display led to air space closure and eventual delay in flight plans. Notwithstanding the shifting of the venue, the Air Marshal said this year’s air display would be a “pulsating affair” with as many as 46 aircraft — a mix of helicopters, fighters and transport — participating.
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7 SSB battalions to be raised
New Delhi, September 26 “Currently five SSB battalions guard the 700-km border touching Assam, West Bengal, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. It is proposed to add five new battalions by November this year and two more by next year,” Secretary (Border Management), B.S.
Lalli, in the Union Home Ministry told reporters here. Mr Lalli, who attended the Secretary-level talks between the two countries in Thimpu last week, said raising new battalions will help in better manning of border outposts to prevent poaching, timber smuggling and insurgent camps from coming up. To a question, he said there was no proposal for any joint operation against insurgents.
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US aid to fight TB in India
New Delhi, September 26 United States Ambassador to India David C. Mulford and WHO representative to India Salim Habayeb today signed a joint agreement for TB control in the country. Under the agreement, the US will give the WHO Rs 19 crore for research and state-level implementation of the national disease control programme. The US Government is supporting TB control in India because of enormous public health impact and economic burden of the disease, Mr Mulford said. The money would be used in directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) application in Haryana, in drug procurement and in research work at TB Research Centre in Chennai Two of every five Indians are infected with the TB bacillus and of them 10 per cent will develop TB disease during their lifetime, according to the latest Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) report.
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Bedi is CJ of Bombay HC
New Delhi, September 26 His appointment as the Chief Justice will be effective from the date he will assume charge of his new office, the Law Ministry today said. His name for appointment as the Chief Justice was recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium in July and President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam issued the appointment orders acting on the recommendation. |
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