Hyderabad, September 4
As Congress is struggling to come to terms with the death of Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, a consensus is emerging within the ruling party over his son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy’s candidature for the Chief Minister’s post.

The entire Cabinet, headed by interim Chief Minister K Rosaiah, addressed a letter to the party president Sonia Gandhi today, urging her to make the 36-year-old MP the next Chief Minister to “fulfill the dreams of YSR”.

“Keeping in view the development commitments and on-going irrigation projects, besides sentiments of the general public, we have unanimously resolved to propose the candidature of Jaganmohan Reddy to succeed Rajasekhar Reddy as the Chief Minister of the state,” a letter signed by all the 36 members of the cabinet said.

Pointing out that Jagan too was a mass leader with support from the grass roots, the letter said “It is a known fact that Rajasekhar Reddy’s family is the most loyal to Late Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and to you. They are committed to fulfill the dreams of the departed leaders. To continue their dreams and also to fulfill your commitments to the people of AP, Jaganmohan Reddy is the only suitable candidate in the present circumstances.” A signature campaign has also started with 122 out of the total 156 party legislators signing a letter rooting for Jagan’s elevation to the top post. As many as 72 party MLAs are the first-timers.

A majority of the 33 party MPs are also said to be in favour of Jagan taking over the mantle. “Jagan is ideally suited to uphold his father’s legacy and carry forward the welfare programmes,” the government chief whip in the Assembly Bhatti Vikramarka said.

The seniormost member in the cabinet K Rosaiah, who was sworn-in as the caretaker Chief Minister yesterday, told reporters categorically that he was not in the race for being a full-fledged CM. Rosaiah, the septuagenarian leader who holds finance portfolio, carries vast experience with him but lacks popular base.

Unlike in the past when Congress was beset with groupism and infighting, YSR was an undisputed leader of the party, enjoying the confidence of leaders from all the regions. It is widely known in political circles that YSR wanted to groom his son as his political heir.

In fact, Kadapa Lok Sabha seat was vacated by YSR’s younger brother Y S Vivekananda Reddy to pave way for his nephew’s political entry from the home turf. Jagan has often been the target of attack by opposition parties for the alleged irregularities in his business deals and clout he enjoys in government.

New Delhi, September 4
The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the BJP met here today to discuss and decide distribution of party tickets for its candidates for forthcoming state Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh and latest byelections to UP Assembly.

But it deferred discussions on the two main states, Haryana and Maharashtra, where its stakes are high. The party has been contesting Maharshtra Assembly elections, as a junior partner of its traditional ally the Shiv Sena and the seat sharing has therefore been on the established formula under which Shiv Sena would setup candidates in 171 constituencies, while the BJP would field its candidates in the remaining 117, confirmed party sources said.

In Haryana, however, the BJP has broken its alliance with the INLD and had announced that it would contest all the 90 seats on its own. But now the party has been in two minds and has started probing the possibility of striking an 11th-hour alliance with former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal-led Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC).

While formally, the party has not been saying anything about the possible tie-up with the HJC, the sources said the issue has still been under discussion in both the parties. But, today the CEC deferred announcing the list of candidates for Haryana Assembly, virtually confirming reports of secret parleys with the HJC.

The HJC had been in alliance with the BSP and yesterday the BSP broke the alliance, alleging that the HJC wanted 30 of the 90 seats to be set aside for the BJP. After the breakup between the BSP and the HJC, the prospects of the HJC-BJP tie-up have brightened.

The BJP has always done well when it aligned with an influential regional force in the state. In 1987, it did well when it aligned with Devi Lal. In 1993, its numbers came down drastically when it contested on its own. In subsequent elections, it aligned with Bansi Lal and did well. In next elections, it broke with Bansi Lal and aligned with Om Prakash Chautala and again fared well. In the present Assembly, the BJP has just one MLA and the latest general elections, which again the party fought on its own, it scored a big zero.

Again in Maharashtra, too, the BJP has to first negotiate some exchange of seats with Shiv Sena on account of the delimitation factor.

New Delhi, September 4
Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor today termed the unprovoked firing by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir as a “diversionary tactic” to sneak in infiltrators before the winter sets it. We understand this tactic and have been taking action against it, General Kapoor said.

General Kapoor was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function today when he commented on the firing from across the LoC. The Army chief refused to comment whether the ceasefire violations have the support of Pakistan’s leadership. That only the Pakistani leadership can tell, he said, when asked to comment.

Whenever a ceasefire violation will take place, we will take retaliatory action. We try to exercise maximum restraint but if ceasefire violations continue to happen, we will have to retaliate, the General said.

The cross-border infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir has been registering an upward trend with attempts being made to “push in” as many terrorists as possible before the winter sets in.

Attempts are being made to disrupt peace in the Kashmir valley. This period is critical as we have a peaceful valley... Attempts will be made from across the border to try and disrupt that.

India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire on the LoC November 2003. However, Defence Minister AK Antony had recently disclosed in Parliament that 110 incidents of ceasefire violation had taken place along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir since 2006.

New Delhi, September 4
Beginning September 15, the ministries handling flagship programmes of the UPA government will start placing information of the progress on their respective websites.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday told the “delivery mechanism unit” (DMU) in his office to bring about maximum transparency and accountability in the governing process. The DMU monitors “flagship programmes, new initiatives and iconic projects”.

The three categories of programmes to be monitored by DMU are: All Flagship Programmes like NREGA, NRHM, SSA, JNNURM, Bharat Nirman, Multi-sectoral district plans for minority districts; second category will be all new initiatives like the Mission on Female Literacy, Rajiv Aawas Yojana, NCHE, NCHRH and innovation universities — decade of innovation, strengthening of public accountability through right to information, public date policy, independent evaluation office and annual reports; while the third will be iconic projects like Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor, dedicated railway freight corridor, land ports, Assam gas cracker project, PM’s reconstruction plan for Jammu & Kashmir and infrastructure development in the North-East.

At the meeting, the Prime Minister stressed that what is put on in the public domain should be real time data, accessible to the every citizen.

The Prime Minister also acquainted himself with the delivery monitoring unit’s mechanism. The DMU is designed to ensure monitoring by the Prime Minister’s Office on selected programmes. In the UPA’s first term, there were 101 items in the common minimum programme that were being “monitored” by the PMO. Now these have been reduced to a select menu of 18 items of high visibility and high impact projects.

New Delhi, September 4
The Supreme Court today ruled that school examination boards are not covered under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, as such statutory bodies do not render any service for “a consideration” and the students who take exams are not consumers.

“We are clearly of the view that the board is not a service provider and a student, who takes an examination is not a consumer and consequently, complaint under the Act will not be maintainable against the board,” a Bench, comprising Justices RV Raveendran and Markandey Katju, said.

The Apex Court made the clarification, while setting aside an order passed by the National Consumer Forum upholding a verdict that had slapped Rs 12,000 compensation on the Bihar School Examination Board for a one-year delay in the declaration of the result of a student.

“The fact that in the course of conduct of the examination or evaluation of answer-scripts or furnishing of mark-sheets or certificates, there may be some negligence, omission or deficiency, which neither converts the board into a service-provider for a consideration nor convert the examinee into a consumer, who can make a complaint under the Act," the SC Bench averred.

Clarifying further, the Bench said the object of the Act was to cover in its net services offered or rendered for a consideration. Any service rendered for a consideration was presumed to be a commercial activity in its broadest sense (including professional activity or quasi-commercial activity).

“But the Act does not intended to cover discharge of a statutory function of examining whether a candidate is fit to be declared as having successfully completed a course by passing the examination,” the court ruled.

In the instant case, the delay had occurred due to two reasons. Two students had been given the same roll number (496), upon which the centre superintendent changed the roll number of one of the students to 496A. Also, the answer book of a student had the serial number 148774, but his attendance sheet serial number was 148744. This had happened in 1998.

Patna, September 4
A lower court in Bihar has issued summons to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seeking his personal appearance in court on September 9 in a case relating to firing at an election booth during the 1991 general elections in Barh parliamentary constituency, in which one man was killed. Nitish, then Janata Dal MP from Barh, was named as being among the four suspects in the case by relatives of the dead man. However, the police had, in the course of its investigations, exonerated him.

The complainant, it has been learnt, filed a protest petition recently in the court of the Barh additional chief judicial magistrate against the final police report one the case. On the basis of this petition the court has issued summons for a personal appearance to all the suspects including Nitish.

The court’s notice to the Chief Minister on the eve of the byelections in 18 state assembly seats appears to have enthused his opponents, including Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan.

Lucknow, September 4
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has now been painted in shades of divinity. A 25-year-old painter has projected Mayawati as a goddess in several paintings on display at Lalit Kala Akademi here.

Mahesh Tripathi, who is pursuing post-graduation in fine arts, said: “I feel that she (Mayawati) in the last few years has done a lot for the poor and downtrodden, which in turn would enable her to acquire the status of a ‘devi’ (goddess) in near future.”

In one such painting titled Dalit Devi, Mayawati has been depicted as a goddess with a halo in her background, her hand held out as if she is blessing the viewer.

“Like Guru Nanak and Jesus Christ, she has been devoted to the cause of downtrodden. Considering this fact, I depicted her as a Dalit goddess,” Tripathi, a resident of Siddharthnagar district, said.

In another painting, the artist has correlated Mayawati with Hindu goddess of wealth Laxmi. In the painting, Mayawati is shown with tresses, standing atop a lotus with two elephants near her feet.

"The painting projects Mayawati as the goddess of wealth, knowledge and peace. In the painting, she (Mayawati) holds a kamandal, which symbolises that she leads a simple life," said the artist.

Tripathi clarified that he has no plans to join politics. “Many would think that I have tried to appease Mayawati by depicting her in divine forms. I want to make it clear that I have no intention to join politics. I made such paintings as I got impressed by the Chief Minister, who rose to power after facing hardships and several problems.”

In other paintings, Tripathi has shown the trio of Mayawati, Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshiram and Dalit icon BR Ambedkar. — IANS

New Delhi, September 4
The Supreme Court today issued notice to the government on a PIL that sought a directive for collecting about Rs 10,000 crore from banks for a fund meant for the welfare of disabled people.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan passed the order after senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner, a disabled working for an NGO, contended the government had collected only Rs 150 crore so far from banks.

The government had thus failed to comply with a 2004 order of the apex court, according to which banks had done an excess collection of Rs 723 crore every year since 1993 by rounding off the interest amounts payable by borrowers.

Since the banks were not in a position to return the excess amount to 50 million borrowers, the court had asked the government to set up a trust for the welfare of disabled people using the excess money collected by the banks.

The petitioner, Ravi Shanker Bhushan, said he had obtained the details under the Right to Information Act. Though the government had set up the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation & Multiple Disabilities, the trust had hardly spent Rs one crore on such people, he noted.

Several banks had refused to part with the excess money collected citing various excuses, he added.

New Delhi, September 4
Eager to get people back on its side, the CPM is ready to revisit its ideological priorities to infuse fresh blood into the politically sapped cadres. At its lowest-ever strength of 16 in the Lok Sabha, the party is desperate to connect to the people, who seem to have been alienated by its overkill on foreign policy issues instead of those affecting the masses.

Over the next two days, the party Politburo will discuss the need for ideological shifts, including its principle of democratic centralism which has posed some problems in the past. Also on the cards is discussion on capitalism and the need to change political strategy in times when the communist relevance is under question worldwide.

The most important part of the two-day Politburo meet, starting tomorrow, will be the preparation and upgradation of the rectification document to address reasons behind the CPM’s poor electoral performance in the recent general elections. The Party’s central committee, in its election review, had held lack of commitment to communist principles and unacceptable lifestyles of certain CPM cadres as principal causes for the reverses.

The document, which comes whenever a correction in strategy is needed, will try to answer some of these problems on the basis of responses received from states that were sent questionnaires for eliciting a feedback. Once passed by the Politburo, the document will be placed before the Central Committee for adoption and sent to states for implementation.

Another important point of discussion would be “strategy” which, in the past, has remained focused on foreign policy matters. That the Politburo meet comes close on the heels of CPM’s national convention on Right to Food and against Price Rise says a lot in itself.

“The idea is to go to the people, focus on people’s issues and lead mass protests on matters that affect the masses,” said a CPM leader. The convention recently ended in a call to party cadres “to talk to people in the language they understand” and to explain to them the consequences of food insecurity.

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat himself admitted during the convention: “Our anti-price campaign during LS elections failed to involve people. We must now talk straight and clear to take them back on board.”

The clear shift in Marxist focus (which was earlier seen in its pro-people interventions during the budget session of parliament when it mainly raise price rise) will set the tone for Politburo discussions on ideology, democracy, capitalism and its relevance in times when the CPM, like other Left parties, is caught in an “ideological warp”.

The rectification document is expected to lead the cadres through this blind alley, with Karat himself admitting recently: “Our priority is to prepare the rectification document and put it to the central committee for deliberation. Discussions on ideological document will be followed.”

New Delhi, September 4
Cherishing native cultural riches and vernacular literature, the 18th Saraswati Samman and Vyas Samman for 2008, were today conferred upon Dr Lakshminandan Bora (77 years) for his Assamese novel “Kayakalpa” and Mannu Bhandari (78 years) for her “Ek Kahani Yah Bhi” respectively. The awards were given by KK Birla Foundation.

Both the works stand apart among other modern pieces of their genres with the former centering on a unique theme of ageing process developed through evocation of scientific ambience and the latter being an autobiography depicting the life and enduring of the authoress well woven in the backdrop of the socio-political times.

While expressing concern over political problems, Lakshminandan said, “At a time of uncertainty, I attain a meaning of life by writing. Creative literature is the continuous search of truth. I derive satisfaction from pursuits of science, but I write fiction.”

According to Mannu, writing an autobiography is a difficult task than writing a story on somebody, as in writing about self, there is no space for imagination, it has to be very personalised. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar at National Museum Auditorium in Delhi gave away the awards, consisting of citations and prize money of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh.