New Delhi, October 24
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today disallowed notices on question of privilege against the Prime Minister, holding that the non-implementation of assurances by ministers was neither a breach of privilege nor a contempt of the House.

Experts said such non-fulfilment at best qualified as “impropriety” -- a matter the Speaker, if he wants, could refer to the assurances committee of Parliament, which then examines if an assurance has been violated. The Speaker may decide to refer the matter to the assurances committee, if the Left moves a fresh notice of privilege against the Prime Minister, following today’s developments.

Today, amid severe objections raised by the CPI and the CPM, the Speaker quoted rules to disallow privilege notices, moved on grounds that the Prime Minister did not keep the assurance made to the House with respect to the nuclear deal.

The Left was at a loss of words when the Speaker closed the chapter, saying he was not convinced of the breach of privilege by the Prime Minister. “No reference to the presiding officer of the other House is therefore required,” he said, inviting criticism from the Left, which again accused him of bias.

“You can bring a motion that the Speaker has misled the House,” Chatterjee dared the Left, before asking them to move a fresh notice if they wanted. He said he would reconsider it.

The Left was miffed that the Speaker did not find the case fit to be even referred to the presiding officer of the Rajya Sabha, to which the Prime Minister belongs. As per rules, neither House of Parliament can claim or exercise any authority over a member of the other House. Consequently, neither House can take upon itself to punish any breach of privilege or contempt offered to it by a member or officer of the other House.

The Speaker said a question of breach of privilege raised in either House would have to be referred to the presiding officer of the House where the member facing the notice belongs. But that only if the presiding officer of the House, where the question has been raised, was convinced that a case was made out.

Chatterjee ruled out referring the matter to the Rajya Sabha presiding officers, provoking CPM parliamentary party leader Basudeb Acharia and Rupchand Pal, another veteran communist, into repeated arguments.

New Delhi, October 24
Parliament today witnessed another low, with Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee literally walking out of the House, following repeated provocations from the Left party members.

Calling it (repeated allegations by the Left) a torture, Chatterjee quit his chair, asking his deputy Charanjit Atwal to take over. “You have started getting allergic to me,” a perturbed Somnath Chatterjee told the comrades, who remained unrelenting.

The speaker made the unprecedented move of leaving the chair soon after the Left blatantly challenged his ruling on their adjournment motion against the government on the issue of the anti-Christian violence in Orissa and other states. Instead of admitting the adjournment motion, the speaker chose to allow discussions on the matter under Rule 193 of the Lok Sabha Conduct of Business. The said rule provides for a short-duration discussion, on which voting cannot take place.

Livid at the ruling, CPI parliamentary party leader Gurudas Dasgupta took on the Speaker, saying: “You are using your authority to ensure that it is not an adjournment motion…” - a remark the speaker described as “most objectionable”, offering to immediately quit on grounds that the Left members had been deliberately questioning his authority one by one.

“You are deliberately making allegations at the chair. If it serves your political purpose, I do not mind. I have tolerated it for five days. There is a limit to everyone’s patience. You all have put me here. I am prepared to go here and now. Let the House tell me, I will go here and now,” said a frustrated speaker.

New Delhi, October 24
The Catholic nun from Kandhamal, who was raped during the communal violence in Orissa, today came out in public for the first time to share her heart-rending story.

The victim remained firm on the demand of a CBI probe saying she had no faith in the state police.

“They failed to stop the crime, failed to protect me, were friendly with the attackers, and tried their best that I did not register an FIR. The police did not record my statement properly. I was raped and now I don’t want to be victimised by the Orissa police. I want a CBI enquiry,” she said, two days after the Supreme Court declined her request.

The nun narrated the incident of August 24 when her house was set afire forcing her and her family to flee to the jungles. “At night we came to the house of a Hindu gentleman who sheltered us, but the very next day we were hunted down by an armed mob of about 50 radicals. They led Father Thomas Chellan and me to the burnt down Jan Vikas building saying they were going to set us ablaze,” recalled the nun.

“They threw us into the verandah. One of them tore my blouse and others my undergarments. They pulled out my saree, one of them stepped on my right hand and another on my left hand and the third person raped me…and then the other…,” the victim recounted adding she could identify all the accused provided a genuine officer is investigating her case.

She then talked of how the mob pulled them towards the road, while the personnel of the Orissa State Armed Police (OSAP) watched in silence. “They traced me under the staircase and took me to the road where I saw Father Chellan kneeling down and the crowd beating him with hands and sticks”.

“They were searching for a rope to tie us together and burn us alive. Someone suggested parading us naked. They made us walk on the road to Nwagaon market that was half a kilometer away. We had our hands folded. I was in my petticoat and saree. They again tried to strip me. When we reached the market, a dozen of OSAP men were there. I asked them to protect me but they did not oblige,” the nun said.

It was much after the crime had been committed that the inspector in-charge of Balliguda police station recorded her statement. He, however, did not fail to remind her of the consequences of filing an FIR, and forced her against giving crime details. "I wrote the FIR three times. I was not given a copy. How am I expected to cooperate with police officers who watched my suffering indifferently and added to it?” she asked.

New Delhi, October 24
The Supreme Court today allowed the use of the public address system by Biharis and UPites in Mumbai during the November 4 ‘chhath puja’ celebrations at Juhu and other beaches of the city, which was recently witness to acts of violence by MNS activists against such residents.

Those celebrating the festival could use mikes and loudspeakers till 10 pm that day, a Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan ruled after hearing a petition filed by the ‘Bihari Front’.

The petitioner had sought the court’s intervention, stating the Maharashtra government had decided to ban the use of the public address system by the festival organisers.

The Bench, which also comprised Justices P. Sathasivam and Aftab Alam, rejected the contention of a Mumbai-based NGO, Citizens Group, that under the garb of crowd management, loud speakers were misused for political speeches last year.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, arrested recently for attacks on north Indians, had reportedly objected to the holding of chhath festival in Mumbai. The court also allowed the organisers to approach the state authorities for the provision of other facilities such as temporary enclosures for changing clothes and toilets. The Bench allowed another organisation, which sought security for the festivities, to file a petition to the effect, stating that it would hear the matter in the first week of November.

The Supreme Court today extended by three months the interim bail granted to Yusuf Abdul Razak Memon, sentenced to life term, by a TADA court in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan passed the order on Memon’s plea seeking to extend his bail on medical grounds. The convict’s counsel said his client was on the “verge of madness” as he was suffering from chronic scizophrenia and confined at home or hospital. The apex court had granted bail to him on February 29 and since then it was being extended from time to time.

On the speaker issue, after hearing a PIL, the Bench refused to direct Parliament to declare the office of the Lok Sabha speaker free from political affiliation. The petition by advocate Lily Thomas had sought a direction for suspending the political party memberships of the speaker and the deputy speaker during their tenure.

The PIL referred to the July 22 trust vote in the Lok Sabha which prompted the CPM to remove speaker Somnath Chatterjee from the party as he defied a directive to quit as the speaker.

The advocate cited the provisions of Article 105 of the Constitution, which calls for following the convention of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. However, the Bench, also comprising Justices P. Sathasivam and Aftab Alam, said the conventions were not codified and that the court could not interfere in the matter involving parliamentary privileges.

The Bench also issued notice to the Centre and states on a PIL by the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which sought a directive for proper utilisation of the Rs 200 crore, allotted every year for running hostels for SC/ST students.

In another PIL, which sought abolition of the caste systems, the court ruled it was not practical as the government was extending various facilities like reservation on the basis of castes. — TNS

New Delhi, October 24
The Centre today issued a rather stern warning to the BJP/ NDA ruled states and warned that its pleadings for communal harmony should not be taken lightly.

Replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha on the attacks on minorities in several states, particularly Orissa and Karnataka, home minister Shivraj Patil said, “The Centre would not use the provisions of the Constitution very lightly if our pleadings for ensuring communal harmony were not heeded to.”

“We will keep pleading, requesting state governments’ attention,” he said, but added, “We are not going to use provisions of the Constitution very lightly.”

Though Patil did not name any particular state, this debate was held to discuss the recent spate of attacks on Christian minorities in BJP-ruled Karnataka and BJP/BJD ruled Orissa’s Kandhamal district.

Concluding the day-long debate, Patil denounced “the tendency of some states to throw challenges at the Centre.” “This is becoming a fashion,” he said. He did not name anyone but the BJP has been challenging the Centre to face consequences in the event of any action against either of its states or against its sister outfits VHP and Bajrang Dal.

Directing his ire at the BJP, he said, “If anyone is under an illusion that they could capitalise on communal divide, then they are wrong as people see through these games.”

Showing his disgust with the continued violence against Christian tribals in Kandhamal district, the home minister said, “This was all very difficult to digest.”

Earlier the debate proceeded on typical party lines with BJP/BJD defending their government and even making light of the rape of the nun, while the UPA and Left parties savaged them for their defence of the indefensible.

Union panchayati raj minister Mani Shankar Aiyar led the charge from the Congress benches and blamed the whole mentality against conversion saying, “You can’t make conversions an excuse for mass murders, displacement of whole populations of villages and rape and molestation of women on a large scale.”

Guwahati, October 24
The BJP and the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) have arrived at a seat-sharing understanding for the next Lok Sabha elections to put up a joint fight against the Congress in all 14 constituencies in Assam.

Senior AGP leader Apurba Kumar Bhattacharrya today informed that a final agreement on sharing of seats with the BJP for the next Lok Sabha elections would be hammered out soon to prevent division of anti-Congress votes in the state.

He said AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowari held discussions in this regard with senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj at Kolkata yesterday.

Assam state unit president, BJP, Ramen Deka said leaders of both parties would sit together soon to give a final shape to poll understanding, analysing the ground situation and winnability of prospective candidates from both the parties in all constituencies.

“The total votes polled by the AGP and the BJP in the 2004 elections put together makes it clear that the Congress will have a very tough election ahead this time against combined force of the BJP and the AGP,” Deka said.

The AGP and BJP had won two seats each in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections while the Congress won nine seats. The Kokrajhar (ST) seat had gone to the Bodo People’s Front (BPF), an ally of the Congress.

Ahmedabad, October 24
A SIMI activist has been arrested from Nagda district in Madhya Pradesh in connection with the July 26 serial blasts and brought to the city for questioning, the Gujarat police said today.

Abdul Razik Mansuri, a resident of the Gomtipur area in the city, and an accused in the serial blasts was arrested yesterday from Madhya Pradesh, JCP, crime branch, Ashish Bhatia said. “He was arrested from Nagda district in MP by our team. He was there staying with some of his relative. We have brought him to Ahmedabad for interrogation,” he said adding Mansuri is likely to be produced before a court here for remand tomorrow.

Mansuri, a SIMI activist, was allegedly involved in purchase of cycles, which were used in serial balsts and was also present in the terror training camps in Kerela.

With the arrest of Mansuri, the number of persons arrested by the city crime branch has gone up to 17. The crime branch has also brought in SIMI leader Safdar Nagori and four others from MP for questioning. They have obtained custody of three persons from Jaipur in Rajasthan, one from Karnataka and one from Jabalpur in MP.

According to the crime branch, those brought from other states for questioning were also present during the terror camp held in Halol near Vadodara in January 2008.

Some of the accused, including Abdus Subhan, alias Tauqeer, Qayamuddin Kapadia, Abbas Afridi, Alamjeb and Mujib are still absconding. — PTI

Nashik/Ahmedabad, October 24
A young sadhvi suspected to have links with a Hindu right wing group and two other men were slapped with murder charges today after they were arrested for their alleged involvement in the Malegaon blasts in which the police said the deadly RDX was used.

Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur along with Shamlal Sahu and Shivnarayan Singh, all hailing from Madhya Pradesh, were today produced before a court in Nashik in Maharashtra which remanded them in police custody till November 3.

Public prosecutor Ajay Mishra said the crime committed by the three accused was a “serious offence” and they were booked under charges of murder, attempt to murder and voluntarily causing grievous hurt under Sections 302, 307 and 326, IPC, respectively.

The sadhvi, who is based in Indore but who regularly visited Surat to give lectures, was picked up from the diamond town in Gujarat by the Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Mumbai Police. Shamlal Sahu and Shivnarayan Singh were brought from Indore in Madhya Pradesh for questioning in Mumbai. The arrests were made in the last one week.

Mishra said the motor cycle used in the Malegaon blasts on September 29 in which five persons were killed belonged to the sadhvi. Besides having links with the BJP’s student wing ABVP, she is suspected to be associated with the Indore-based radical Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM) accused of involvement in the blasts in Malegaon as well as in Modasa in Gujarat in which one person was killed. The outfit has denied the charge. Mishra claimed that following the Malegaon blasts the Sadhvi, who also is belived to be a member of Surat-based Vande Mataram Sangathan, had several telephone conversations. — PTI