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Shekhawat backs Jaswant against BJP
Maharashtra Poll
No ‘rebel’ colleagues: Rosaiah
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CBI questions Buta Singh Jet impasse nears end
Ishrat Case
Detained UAE plane allowed to take off
BA in law on anvil, says Sibal
SC must penalise Maya govt: Mulayam
India, Pak Foreign Secys to meet in NY
Jaswant is member of LS panel on Budget
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Shekhawat backs Jaswant against BJP
New Delhi, September 10 Jaswant Singh, accompanied by his wife and daughter-in-law, called on Shekhawat at the latter’s residence here today and narrated to him how the party summarily expelled him in Shimla, after inviting him there for the Chintan Baithak. Shekhawat, keeping an indifferent health, later told The Tribune, “I have known Jaswant Singh since 1966 and I inducted him into the Jana Sangh. He met me for the first time after the Shimla incident because I was away in Jaipur. I returned to Delhi for the first time after the Shimla incident only last night.” Shekhawat, who was for years the Jana Sangh/BJP face in Rajasthan and led successive BJP governments there before he was elected Vice-President of the nation, said: “Jaswant has been a very important leader of the BJP. He has been involved with many important and weighty decisions of the party. I am not so much concerned about the final decision per se as the manner in which it was taken. After inviting him to Shimla, they summarily expelled him. Even the courts provide an opportunity to an accused to explain his conduct. A peon too is given a show cause notice first. As far as I remember this is the first time the party has acted thus.” The Rajasthan leader castigated the party for its perceived double standards, drawing a parallel to Jaswant’s expulsion and the refusal of BJP legislative party leader in Rajasthan assembly Vasundhara Raje to quit the post ignoring party directive and the helplessness of the BJP to act against her. “Vasundhara is a test case for the party. Once the party has asked her to quit then it is proper for her to go and the party should effectively implement its decision. He also dismissed Vasundhara’s claim of support among the MLAs and remarked, “Just because you claim to have support among the people does not mean you should pay scant respect to party discipline.” Shekhawat, a long time associate of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, is no more a member of the party as he did not renew his membership after becoming the Vice-President. He felt that if the current trend continued in the BJP, it may slide towards disintegration. But he refused to offer any unsolicited advice to his former party. Hinting at a fallout, he said there were people with Jaswant in the BJP and outside who did not like this decision. “There are people with Jaswant who are very unhappy with this decision. People’s reaction to this will not be good,” said Shekhawat. As for Jaswant Singh’s controversial book on Jinnah, he said he had not yet read the book. He also refused to back the BJP’s demand that Jaswant should quit his PAC chairman post.
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Maharashtra Poll
Mumbai, September 10 While the Congress, as per sources, is believed to have offered around 110 to 115 seats to the NCP, the latter is arm twisting the former to extract more seats. NCP chief Sharad Pawar had earlier given a deadline to the Congress party to begin talks by Friday, failing which the NCP would announce candidates over the weekend. However, Congress leaders in Maharashtra were keen on calling Pawar's bluff. Senior leaders of the party from the state are keen on stretching matters for another few days to force the NCP’s hand. Congress leaders feel that an alliance could be cobbled up till the last date for withdrawal of nominations, thus allowing them more time to squeeze the NCP. They also feel that the NCP needed the Congress more than the other way round. Statement by NCP chief Pawar and his close acolyte Praful Patel that the breakdown in ties between the two parties would benefit the saffron alliance was also being cited as a sign of desperation. Both parties have already begun interviewing candidates for all the 288 seats in Maharashtra. NCP leaders said their leaders would be meeting in Mumbai over the weekend to finalise the list of the candidates. The Congress, too, has its list of potential candidates ready and is waiting for the other side party to blink first. MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre admits as much. “We would like the alliance to take place so that the secular votes are not split. But we want the NCP to take into account the changing ground realities in Maharashtra,” Thakre said.
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No ‘rebel’ colleagues: Rosaiah
Hyderabad, September 10 With the entire 34-member cabinet rooting for the young MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy to be installed as successor to his father the late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, the commitment of some of the more vocal campaigners to work in the present dispensation has come under scanner. Several ministers have been keeping themselves away from the official review meetings convened by Rosaiah, triggering reports in a section of the media questioning their loyalty. However, the Chief Minister today came to the defence of his colleagues, saying those who could not attend the meetings had taken prior permission from him as they had to participate in condolence meetings in their respective constituencies. “No minister was ever absent from any meetings without informing me. It is totally baseless and incorrect to say that they have skipped the meetings,” he said. The media reports about “non-cooperation” of several ministers, who are eager to see Jagan as their boss, have come as a major embarrassment to the government.
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CBI questions Buta Singh New Delhi, September 10 According to information, two CBI officials (west zone office) began questioning Buta Singh around 11 am and the talks ensued between them till past 12 pm. Although, CBI spokesman refrained from divulging the tempo of interrogation and details of the questions asked, he clarified that Buta Singh has been questioned as a witness in the case and not an accused. Buta's son Sarobjit Singh was arrested by the agency on July 31 for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs. 3 crore from Nasik-based contractor Ramrao Patil as payments in return for facilitating the withdrawal of a case of atrocities against the Scheduled Castes filed against him. Sarobjit was arrested the same night and subsequently freed on bail later. After initially defying the investigating agency and saying that CBI has no authority to question a constitutional functionary, Buta Singh retracted from his defiance and on August 31 told the Delhi High Court that he was ready to cooperate with the CBI in the case. “I have told the officials whatever they wanted to know and I hope that they are satisfied,” said Buta Singh when asked about the questioning. Ramrao Patil had allegedly taken a loan of around Rs 10 crore from a cooperative society on behalf of over 100 persons from the Dalit community. He allegedly pocketed the money following which a case was registered against him at the National Commission for Schedule Castes. Since, the commission was headed by Buta singh, it was alleged by Patil that Sarabjot Singh was asking for bribery so as to bail him off by influence of his father. Buta Singh has termed the whole charges has an ‘attempt to tarnish his image by some vested interests’.
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Jet impasse nears end
New Delhi, September 10 Apparently the two warring sides have agreed upon a tentative settlement during a meeting between Jet Airways chief Naresh Goyal and representatives of the Pilots’ Guild in presence of Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam and counsel Harish Salve. While there was no confirmation from the management till the filing of this story, sources amongst the pilots’ union appeared upbeat about the meeting, which they said had taken place in “very cordial circumstances”. The agreement is said to be addressing the concerns of both management and pilots. Jet Airways pilots' strike entered the third day on Thursday amidst speculations of an early solution to the Jet management and pilots’ impasse. Civil aviation regulator DGCA today asked all airlines to charge airfares at last week’s level following reports that they were charging higher fares from hapless passengers. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is believed to have inquired about the crisis at the cabinet meeting. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel gave details on the crisis at the Cabinet meeting after the Prime Minister inquired about the situation. Sources said the question of possible intervention by the government to end the crisis was also discussed but no view was taken at the meeting. However, a bail out for passengers was decided in the form of this strict directive from the DGCA Jet Chief Naresh Goyal met Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam this evening after Nirupam came out in strong support of agitating Jet pilots. Nirupam said he had written to the Prime Minister on the Jet Airways issue and advised the two sides to reach an agreement. During the day Jet Airways’ management and pilots were called by Chief Labour Commissioner SK Mukhopadhyay for a conciliatory meeting, but no one from the pilots' body National Aviators Guild attended the meet. NAG president Girish Kaushik said he could not attend the meeting with Labour Commissioner in Delhi because he was not aware of it.
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Ishrat Case
New Delhi, September 10 While Gujarat saw by-elections to seven assembly seats today, top officials in the Home Ministry flatly denied the media reports that the Law Ministry had asked it to amend the affidavit or even discussed the matter in the past two days. There have been no questions raised by the ruling UPA also. The fight between the Law Ministry and the Home Ministry was made out in the media and nothing more, senior officials said. Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told a news channel that no law officer had been removed as was reported in the media yesterday. The affidavit was submitted by the Home Ministry in a Gujarat court. The home secretary, while replying to specific queries by mediapersons, had yesterday stood by the affidavit saying, “We are not back tracking”. However, the ministry had distanced itself from the encounter saying “nobody should be killed in cold blood”. The Home Ministry submitted an affidavit in the court saying the life of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was at risk. It also hinted that one of the four were linked to militants. When the Congress tried to target him, the BJP produced the Home Ministry affidavit at a press conference and quoted from it saying the four were “not above board”.
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Detained UAE plane allowed to take off
Kolkata, September 10 The plane which carried five sealed boxes of weapons and other war equipments and was on its way to China from Abu Dhabi. It suddenly landed at the Kolkata airport on Sunday. But the pilots did not declare that the aircraft was carrying weapons and other explosives, which had been detected by the Indian customs authorities after conducting a routine inspection. As a result, the plane, along with its pilot and nine other crew members, had been detained.
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BA in law on anvil, says Sibal
New Delhi, September 10 The HRD ministry had set up a committee to consider these proposals and its report was expected soon, Sibal told reporters at the Supreme Court complex. While the BA law course would be like any other three-year graduation degree, the inter-disciplinary law course would be made part of the syllabi for the four-year engineering or five-year medical degrees, he said. The proposals would be part of the ongoing educational reforms. Acknowledging that vested interests were trying to prevent legal reforms, he said since such courses were not intended for those who wanted to practise law he did not anticipate any resistance.
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SC must penalise Maya govt: Mulayam
Lucknow, September 10 Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, Yadav said the apex court should take note of the fact that the disregard shown by the BSP government to its directions amounted to constitutional breakdown of the government.
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India, Pak Foreign Secys to meet in NY New Delhi, September 10 Krishna today indirectly confirmed that India was not interested in sending its Foreign Secretary to Islamabad. In a brief interaction with the media after addressing a meeting of the Editors Guild of India here, he said the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries would meet in New York only. “So far the Foreign Secretaries have not been able to meet…hopefully they will meet in New York and depending upon (the outcome of) their talks, the Foreign Ministers will meet,” he added. Earlier, emphasising that it was in India’s vital interest to normalise relations with Pakistan, Krishna, however, hastened to add that it was for Pakistan to decide the kind of relationship it wanted with India.
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Jaswant is member of LS panel on Budget New Delhi, September 10 Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar appointed Jaswant, a former Finance Minister, as one of the three members of the Committee on Scrutiny of Budget Estimates of the Lok Sabha. Other members of the Committee are Lok Sabha deputy speaker Kariya Munda and chairman of Estimates Committee Francisco Sardinha. BJP has asked Jaswant to step down as PAC head saying it should go the main opposition after his expulsion from the party. — PTI
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