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SC refuses inquiry into funds of political parties
Children’s Day
Ex-union minister Ajit Panja dead
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Raj in cake controversy
‘Deshdrohi’ sees houseful in Patna
Probe SIMI links with Sangh outfits: Cong
Amar, 9 others elected to Rajya Sabha
Madhya Pradesh
Ex-BJP MP Vishwendra joins Cong
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SC refuses inquiry into funds of political parties
New Delhi, November 14 “We don’t think it is our duty to issue directives” in the matter, a Bench comprising Chief Justice
K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam said, but warned the political parties that they would have to face the “legal consequences” if they continued to fail to file their returns. Noting that such petitions were filed when elections were round the corner, the court refused to entertain the plea of a trust, the Association of Democratic Reforms. The trust contended that almost all political parties were availing tax relief under Section 13A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 without complying with Section 29C of the Representation of People Act, 1951 which stipulated that they had to disclose donations in excess of Rs 20,000. The Bench said it was not practical for the apex court to issue directives in tax matters since “so many persons” were not filing their returns. However, Counsel for the Trust, Kamini
Jaiswal, said the political parties could not be equated with individuals as parties were “running the affairs of the country,” besides being responsible for enforcing the law of the land. The petitioner also sought a direction to the Election Commission to furnish the list of all registered political parties that were not filing their contribution report under the RPI. According to the petition, there are more than 900 political parties across the country and many of them, including the Congress, the BJP and the two main Left parties, besides the Shiromani Akali Dal, have been violating the provisions. On another petition, the Bench asked the National Commission for Women (NCW) to conduct a survey and file a report within three months on the widows of Brindavan, UP. The NCW report would specify the number of such widows, their age group and the states from where they have been brought to Brindavan. The petition contended that these poor women had been living in sub-human condition for many years with no one to look after them. West Bengal and Orissa should be made a party to the case as many of them were from these two states, it said.
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Children’s Day
Guwahati, November 14 It was only a prayer meeting and religious sermons at Dispur Lower Primary School, which lost one of its pupils, 5-year-old Moromi Sarma, in the blasts. Moromi was returning home from the school along with her father when the blast rocked the Ganeshguri area in the city near her school. Moromi died fours days later after battling with burn injuries in the hospital, while her father Sagar Sarma died immediately after the blast. The school is located very close to the blast site at Ganeshguri. Some of the shattered windowpanes and partially damaged walls in the school building are yet to be mended. “Our little children are still under shock and deeply traumatised because of Moromi’s demise and the frightful blast that occurred so close to the school when some of the classes were still on. There is no question of celebrating the Children’s Day in such a gloomy atmosphere. Instead we have decided to pay respect to Moromi and all other blasts victims,” said Anima Das, the principal. Moromi’s mother, Sunita Das also came to the school today to remember her daughter along with other Moromi’s playmates and teachers. Sunita was sobbing uncontrollably in front of her daughter’s garlanded portrait in the school. All other schools in the state today remembered the blasts victims doing away with the usual fun-filled celebrations of Children’s Day. Pupils in city’s Maria’s Public School drew sketches and made collage to pay respect to the lost lives while Don Bosco School too held a peace conclave. The government -run Cotton Collegiate Higher Secondary School, which is located close to another blast site at the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court in the city, organised a trauma counselling session for its students on today to help them cope up with the mental trauma precipitated by the terror act. “We talked to students for over an hour trying to make them understand that they should not allow the dreadful memory of the blasts to haunt them for a longer period. Not only students, some of the teacher also needed counselling ,” said Tapati Baruah Kashyap, a trauma counsellor from the Peace Centre in the city. Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today announced that the state government would pay for the education of children from those families, who had lost the sole-bread earner in the serial blasts.
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Ex-union minister Ajit Panja dead
Kolkata, November 14 As the news of his death broke out in the morning, a large number of followers and people from different walks of lives gathered at the hospital and afterwards at his north Calcutta residence in Central Avenue and paid their last respect. His colleagues at the Calcutta High Court and other courts also visited his residence and his last rite was performed at Nimtala Burning Ghat this evening. The high court was closed today. Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, former Congess Chief Minister Siddhartha Sankar Ray, CPM party secretary Biman Bose, were among others at Panja’s residence,where they placed wreaths. Condolence messages were also sent from AICC chief Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP leader L.K.Advani. By profession, a barrister from the Lincoln’s Inn, Panja was also a politician, who spent most of the time in various developments and welfare activities. He had served successfully in the union government as a minister in different departments under three successive Prime Ministers, namely Indira Gandhi, Narashima Rao and Atal Behari Vajpayee. In 1998, Panja left the Congress following differences with the then leadership, including Pranab Mukherjee, now the external affairs minister and joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
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Raj in cake controversy
Mumbai, November 14 More so, Thackeray was seen slashing the cake instead of cutting it a normal way. Bhaiyya is a term used for years in Mumbai for the North Indians. Though the term never did have any pejorative connotations, North Indians have taken objection to the word in the wake of a the violent campaign unleashed against them by the MNS. Samajwadi Party leader Kishore Samrite, who released the MMS clip, said the cake cutting incident possibly happened on Thackeray's birthday which fell on June 14. “That Thackeray has cut the cake with a sword shows how much hatred he has against North Indians,” Samrite said. However, the MNS has denied that cutting the cake with ‘Bhaiyya’ on it symboilised hatred for the North Indians. “There were many who brought cakes in different shapes and sizes for Rajsaheb to cut and this was likely to be one of those,” Sirish Pathare, a close associate of Thackeray said. Usually, the Thackerays celebrate their birthdays with their admirers flocking with cakes, including those resembling the maps of Maharashtra and India.
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‘Deshdrohi’ sees houseful in Patna
Patna, November 14 On the very first day of its release here, the cinema houses were packed. The film has been simultaneously released in 30 cinema halls of Bihar and Jharkhand today. It is being screened at two theatres in the state capital. In view of the Film’s popularity among Biharis , the state government is cotemplating exemption of entertainment tax on it. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi gave an indication about it. However, the final decision on this issue would be taken only after Modi as well as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar watch the film. “We are going to watch the film in a day or two” Modi said.
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Probe SIMI links with Sangh outfits: Cong
New Delhi, November 14 The demand from the Congress came in the wake of reports that one of the accused in the Malegaon explosion had alleged that the blast was outsourced and that the perpetrators might have been different from the planners. “Was Malegaon the only blast outsourced? Or were the blasts prior to Malegaon also outsourced? Are there linkages between the Indian Mujahideen/SIMI and various organisations affiliated or inspired by the Sangh Parivar like the Hindu Jagran Manch, Jai Vande Mataram, Jankalyan Samiti and Abhinav Bharat?” Congress spokesman Manish Tewary asked while talking to reporters at the AICC press briefing here. He said the BJP propaganda machine had gone into an overdrive to label the investigations into the Malegaon terror strike as sponsored, motivated and targeted at fabricating evidence against the activists of the ‘Sangh Parivar.’ But on the other hand, the BJP government in Gujarat was leaving no stone unturned to suppress the investigation into the Modasa blasts, he said, wondering was it because it would throw up more damning material about the involvement of activists linked to the ‘Sangh Parivar,. Tewary said if there was any truth in reports that the Malegaon blast was outsourced, there was need to find out if the terror strikes in Delhi, Varanasi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad were also the result of similar outsourcing. On reports that the rate of inflation had come down to a single digit level, Tewary said this was the ‘single steepest fall’ in the past 18 years. He was confident that the inflation rate would come down to 5-6 per cent in the coming days and the prices of food and other essentials too would start falling.
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Amar, 9 others elected to Rajya Sabha
Lucknow, November 14 For Amar Singh, it is going to be his third stint in the Rajya Sabha as an SP representative. Ramgopal Yadav, leader of the SP in the Lok Sabha and MP from Sambhal, would now represent the party in the Upper House. Another significant entry into the Rajya Sabha is that of Mohammad Adeeb Khan, who is technically an Independent candidate. However, his nomination supported by the SP and the Congress has raised hopes of the two parties reaching an agreement on seat sharing for the Lok Sabha polls. A surprise entry into the Rajya Sabha is BJP sitting MLC Kausum Rai, who is considered close to former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. She managed to wrest the lone BJP seat setting aside claims of veterans like Lalji Tandon and Kesharinath
Tripathi. The party agreed to her candidature to ensure the active participation of sulking party vice-president Kalyan Singh in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. His support is crucial to garner the backward caste votes for the party. The remaining six seats have all gone the BSP’s way. Those elected unopposed on BSP ticket are Avtar Singh Karimpuri, Raja Ram, Brij Lal Khabri — all Dalits — and Akhilesh Das and Brijesh Pathak representing the upper castes. Akhilesh Das earlier elected on a Congress ticket would now represent the BSP in the Rajya Sabha. Interestingly, after projecting him as the Lok Sabha candidate from Lucknow BSP supremo Mayawati at the last moment decided to send Das to the Rajya Sabha starting speculations regarding an understanding over the Lucknow seat with the BJP. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Lucknow. The other upper caste entry to the Rajya Sabha is Brijesh Pathak, a Brahmin and sitting BSP MP from Unnao. Veer Singh, an advocate by profession, has been re-elected. He is in charge of the Maharashtra unit of the BSP. Karimpuri, a Sikh, is the president of the Punjab unit of the party, while Raja Ram, a sitting member of the UP Legislative Council, is currently the in charge of the BSP’s Madhya Pradesh unit. In charge of BSP’s Jharkhand unit Brij Lal Khabri is a former BSP MP.
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Madhya Pradesh
Bhopal, November 14 The document, which was released by PCC president Suresh Pachauri and AICC general secretary in charge for MP Narauan Samy, addresses chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan as “Dumper Singh”, in reference to the alleged purchase of dumpers in the name of his wife. The dumpers, costing around Rs 1.5 crore, were registered in the name of the chief minister’s wife. The papers, however, gave the owners’ husbands’ name as S. Chauhan and her address as that of a factory in Rewa. The matter is pending before the Lokayukta for inquiry. The booklet also lists the names and details of the graft cases against 18 ministers being probed by the Lokayukta. “That a party neck deep in corruption is seeking people’s mandate once again is ridiculous”, Pachauri said. However, the BJP has rubbished the document as: “Satta ki tadaph ki kitab” (lust-for-power booklet).
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Ex-BJP MP Vishwendra joins Cong
Jaipur, November 14 AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi made the announcement. “Sonia Gandhi has accorded her approval to the admission of Vishwendra Singh into the party with immediate effect,” he said. Vishwendra, a scion of Bharatpur royal family who was a political advisor to Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, had resigned from BJP yesterday charging assembly poll nominations were sold.
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Guwahati, November 14
The Congress has released a 96-page booklet entitled “Bhajapa yani bhrastachar” (corruption is a synonym for BJP) detailing instances of alleged corruption by BJP ministers, MPs, MLAs and top bureaucrats during the five-year BJP rule.