Mumbai, September 24
Leaders of major political parties in Maharashtra will have around eleven days for campaigning as they are busy with the gigantic task of pacifying rebels in their respective outfits.

Campaigning by all the major parties will kick-off after the last date for withdrawal of candidates on September 29.

“Till the last minute, we will be busy persuading rebels to withdraw from the fray,” says a BJP leader. The party is experiencing large-scale rebellion following senior party leader Gopinath Munde’s decision to field three of his relatives across Maharashtra.

Today, the party claimed that it managed to get a rebel Pravin Chheda to back the late Pramod Mahajan's daughter Poonam from the Ghatkopar West seat. Chheda who was an aspirant for the ticket from here accompanied Poonam when she went to file her nomination on Wednesday.

Senior party leaders are said to be negotiating with other rebels like The outgoing MLA Vinay Natu, who is planning to contest from Guhagar as an Independent. In some cases, the party has clearly failed. Senior leader Anna Joshi who was a deputy speaker in the state Assembly

several years ago is contesting from Pune on the NCP ticket.The BJP is hamstrung by the fact that senior national leaders may not turn up for campaigning due to the infighting within the outfit. LK Advani is unlikely to campaign while senior leader Gopinath Munde is not in favour of Narendra Modi as well.

During the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had fared badly in the seats where Modi campaigned. All the parties say they will start expelling rebels after the last date for withdrawal of nominations. BJP's ally Shiv Sena, which was to kickoff its campaign from Tuesday has to wait longer.

Executive President Uddhav Thackeray is personally meeting with rebels to win them over. Thackeray scored for the Sena by wooing important posts for them in various civic bodies across Maharashtra. "Uddhavsaheb will begin his campaigning next week," says party spokesperson Neelam Gorhe.

The Congress party is faced with the prospect of rebels threatening the chances of its high profile candidates. President Pratibha Patil's son Rajendra Shekawat faces a tough battle in Amravati as the sitting Congress MLA and minister in the government Sunil Deshmukh is threatening to contest as an Independent. “He will surely face disciplinary action if he contests as an Independent,: Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said today.

However, rebel candidates who have cultivated their constituencies are willing to take chances as Independents especially if a hung house emerges after the elections. Supporters of a number of dissidents point out that rebels, who won as Independents in the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, have been rewarded for extending support to the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre.

Unlike these parties, the NCP has a peculiar problem. Its senior leaders are busy fending off rebels in their own seats to worry about other candidates of the party. Former Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil is in his constituency — Tasgaon — wooing several local-level leaders since the shape of his constituency has changed post delimitation.

Even Ajit Pawar, nephew of Sharad Pawar, is holed up in his pocket borough Baramati to consolidate his support base. The Pawars are facing a tough challenge from the Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi who is said to be working against them in Pune and surrounding areas. The fate of this party’s candidates is thus left to the district-level satraps.

According to information available from most parties, campaigning will begin from Tuesday next and will reach fever pitch around October 10. Only the Congress party is likely to have a star-studded campaign with party president Sonia Gandhi, general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh addressing a number of rallies. The Congress and the NCP will hold a joint rally in Mumbai in the final days of campaigning.

Incidentally, all the parties have booked helicopters from private agencies to help them crisscross across the state.

Though several politicians had expressed reservations over hiring of helicopters following the death of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YSR Reddy in an air crash, necessity has forced them to go for choppers.

New Delhi, September 24
Seeing Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar cornered due to the latest electoral reverses, the BJP, a coalition partner in the state government, has started building pressure on him to abandon his pro-poor agenda through which he captured the OBC-Dalit-Muslim vote bank of Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan.

BJP leaders are now spelling out “course correction” for Nitish Kumar. The list of do’s and dont’s includes shelving the proposed land reforms based on the recommendations of Majumdar Commission, which had prescribed enforcing land ceiling in Bihar with greater vigour and distributing land to the landless on the pattern of CPM’s act in West Bengal in the 1970s and ’80s.

The BJP also wants Nitish to put an end to measures aimed at wooing Mahadalits. In addition, the party wants greater and more visible power sharing.

All this, BJP sources said, is because Nitish’s campaign has disenchanted the forward castes and it is now important to send a message to forward castes that the NDA is not oblivious and antipathetic to their interests.

“Wherever there is a coalition government, the two parties are at par, if the Chief Minister retains personnel department with him, he gives the Home Ministry to the ally. But here our Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi cannot even order the transfer or posting of a DM or SP. Since the last General Election, forward castes were hoping to see a BJP-led government at the Centre, and they overwhelmingly voted for the NDA. But this was the real test of Nitish Kumar’s popularity,” said a BJP leader.

The BJP believes that during this election, forward castes moved in a big way to the Congress. And unless Nitish Kumar accepts their prescription, forward castes migration to the Congress may take place with greater zeal and vigour and may ultimately lead to the revival of the Congress and political demise of the NDA in Bihar because with them the Muslims too are slowly gravitating towards the Congress.

The silver lining according to the BJP is that the state Assembly elections are more than a year away and there is enough time for course correction.

But while most BJP leaders feel that Nitish Kumar committed some basic blunders this election resulting in the political revival of Lalu-Paswan, there is a sharp difference of opinion in the party on how to tackle him. A section in the BJP also feels that the party has no alternative but to go along with Nitish and any attempt to destabilise him or to criticise him publicly may spoil the chances of the alliance further.

Patna, September 24
Notwithstanding the whimsical character of politics in Bihar, the politicians of the state, (both big and small) whether in power or in the opposition, are busy invoking the Goddess of ‘Shakti’ during the ongoing Durga puja.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has got a “kalash’ (earthen pot filled with water) installed at his official residence where his elder brother Satish Kumar, a practitioner of ayurvedic medicine, is performing the Puja with all rites, including recital of ‘Durga Saptshati’ under the guidance of a priest. Nitish makes it a point to be present at the Puja spot every morning and evening at the time of ‘aarati’.

Former Railway Minister Lalu Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi are performing the puja as usual by installing the ‘kalash’ at Lalu’s residence in Delhi. The couple will also be visiting the Devi temple constructed by Lalu at his native village-Phulwaria in Gopalganj district to perform puja on ‘saptami’ day (seventh day).

LJP Chief Ram Vilas Paswan who is a non-vegetarian has become purely vegetarian this ‘navratra’. A man who can not do without non-vegetarian meal even for a day has given up onions and garlic this time to please the goddess.

Paswan and his family plan to visit an ancient Devi temple in the outskirts of Delhi on the ‘saptami’ and ‘navmi’ to offer puja and prayers to the deity there. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi who has married a Christian woman is reading ‘Durga Saptashati’ every day.

He has to devote an extra hour to cover up the recitals of this holy book, which he had missed for the first two days as he was out of station. Minister for PHED Ashwini Kumar Chaube religiously follows the prescribed rules for Durga puja.

Accompanied by his wife, Chaube plans to perform the ‘havan’ at Kamkhkya Temple at Kamrup in Assam. Many other ministers plan to visit Vindhyachal to perform puja of the Goddess on ‘ashtami’.

Bihar Congress president Anil Sharma is a worshipper of Durga round the year. Besides performing special puja on this navratra, Shrama plans a pilgrimage to all the seven temples dedicated to the Goddess in Himachal Pradesh like Chintpurni, Jwalamukhi, Chamunda , Naina.

New Delhi, September 24
Intense infighting within the Haryana Congress came to the fore yet again today. The party high command, under intense pressure from various groups, could announce only 17 of the remaining 22 names for the forthcoming Assembly elections 
till midnight.

Two sitting MLA’s, Raj Rani Poonam from Assandh and Dr Krishna Pandit from Yamunanagar, have been dropped. Ramesh Chaudhary and Devendra Chawla have replaced them, respectively.

Interestingly, two former INLD leaders Sampat Singh and Sushil Indora have been nominated from Nalwa and Kalanwali seats respectively. A former BJP member Ram Kumar Gautam has been adjusted at Narnaund seat.

The pending seats are Badhra, Mahendragarh, Sohna, Faridabad NIT and Nangal Chaudhary.

Other names declared today are: Kalayat — Tejinder Pal Mann; Israna — Balbir Singh Balmiki; Safidon — Ram Kishan Bairagi; Narwana — Ram Phal Lot; Ratia — Jarnail Singh; Rania —Ranjit Singh; Ellnabad — Bharat Singh Beniwal; Hansi — Chhatra Pal Singh; Dadri — Nirpender Singh Sangwan; Narnaul — Sanjay Singh Yadav; Bawal — Shakuntla Bagwaria and Tigaon — Lalit Nagar.

New Delhi, September 24
Chinese citizens who have been working in India on wrong category of visas would be given a month more to get their visas converted from business to employment category, a move made compulsory by the Union government. Their current deadline for visa conversion expires on September 30.

Confirming the decision today, Union Home ministry officials said the deadline for visa conversion for Chinese workers had been extended by a month. The last date would now be October 31.

Notably, the move follows post the fear that haunted over 22,000 Chinese workers employed in power, petroleum and steel sectors who otherwise would have been forced to leave the country by September 30. Their departure, in turn, would have brought work on various projects to a grinding halt.

India has conveyed to China that business visas would have to be restricted to businessmen and for business purposes. Those who would work on projects would have to apply for employment visa.

A few days ago, Chinese ambassador Zhang Yan had even met Union Home Secretary GK Pillai in this connection. Of the 25,000 Chinese workers in India, only 3,000 had approached the government for converting their visas from business to employment category, Home ministry officials had said after the meeting.

The Chinese envoy had sought more time for its citizens to get their visas converted. Those applicants with specialised skill orientation would be examined against the “negative list”, which is maintained by security agencies. However, all applicants of semi-skilled and unskilled labour would be referred to the Labour Ministry for clearance.

India would process each application within a specified time frame. There are murmurs of protest that India may not agree to give “employment visa” to so many Chinese workers as there was a problem of unemployment in India as well.

New Delhi, September 24
The new Australian High Commissioner to India Peter Verghese today admitted that the recent attacks on Indian students Down Under have affected his country’s image but asserted its commitment to ‘zero tolerance’ against racism.

Concerned over the wave of attacks, particularly in Melbourne, he also announced that the law enforcement agencies in Australia had initiated a series of steps to ensure the safety of foreign students, particularly Indians.

Verghese, whose links with India are expected to help him cement India-Australia ties, presented his credentials to President Pratibha Patil this morning. Born in Kenya in 1956 to Kerala-born parents, he migrated to Australia as a young child. A career officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Verghese has served his country in Vienna, Washington, Tokyo and Malaysia.

Listing the steps being taken for the safety of foreign students, he said the law enforcement efforts were being upgraded, community liaison functions of the police were being enhanced, new briefing programmes were being organised for Indian students and hot lines were being set up for international students. “We are also taking measures to ensure the integrity of our visa system so that people coming to study are genuine students and not backdoor migrants,” he added

Verghese claimed that Australia was still a very safe country for foreigners of any origin. “Crime is relatively very low in Australia…we are taking measure but you will appreciate that no country has achieved a zero-crime environment.”

The new envoy said Australia was keen to enhance its cooperation with India in the field of energy security, particularly in areas like coal and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Australia would welcome Indian investments in Australian coalfields.

Replying to a question, he ruled out Australia exporting uranium to India, since it was not a signatory to the NPT. “Our position on uranium exports is very clear. It is not directed against India…it flows from our commitment to the NPT. We would sell uranium only to the countries which are parties to the NPT.”

Verghese, however, recalled that Australia had supported India’s case for a waiver by the nuclear suppliers’ group (NSG) last year to undertake nuclear commerce as it recognised the latter’s needs for nuclear energy.

On a free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Australia, the Australian envoy said the two countries were in the process of concluding a feasibility study, which would be examined by the two governments before taking further steps in the matter. He said the Australian Prime Minister would visit India later this year.

“Australia is committed to taking its relationship with India to the forefront of our bilateral partnerships,” he added.

Verghese described as ‘misreporting’ a recent news item which claimed that Australia had voted with China at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently to turn down India’s request for grant of a loan for Arunachal Pradesh, most of which China claims as part of its territory. “It was not a pro-China vote or anti-India vote. We supported ADB’s position. We had, in fact, supported India’s Country Strategy.”

New Delhi, September 24
On a day when the Union Agriculture Minister admitted to possible decline in rice production, the CPM came down heavily on the UPA for favouring the classes at the cost of masses.

Warning the ruling alliance of intensified people’s struggle on issues concerning the “aam aadmi”, the CPM has, in the latest edition of its mouthpiece --- People’s Democracy (PD) --- squarely blamed the government for allowing the prices of food items to soar by ignoring the flourishing speculative markets.

“This festive season, we wish you with a heavy heart, sympathising with you for the relentless rise in prices of all essential commodities,” reads the editorial. It sees a direct link between the coalition’s inability to control prices and its “class bias that favours super profits for the rich at the expense of the aam aadmi.”

For a politically-eclipsed CPM, rising prices --- first of sugar, now of rice --- remain a potential political tool that can be used to reestablish ties with people. That explains party general secretary Prakash Karat’s recent admission that the Left failed to take its issues to the people. “We must be seen with the people,” Karat had said at the party’s national convention on food insecurity.

It’s this sentiment of Karat that PD’s latest editorial reflects as it hammers its demand to end futures trading in all essential commodities, not just rice, wheat, ‘urad’ and ‘tur’. Significantly, post the ban on futures trading in ‘urad’ and ‘tur’, announced by the government in January 2007, a 20 per cent fall in their prices was recorded, proving the connection between speculative trading and rise in prices.

That link was recently reconfirmed when the World Investment Report of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) concluded that speculation is driving up the prices of food articles globally.

It is not because of a demand-supply mismatch but because of activities of financial speculators and transnational corporations (TNCs). Discussing the experiences of TNCs’ participation in agriculture in the developing countries, the UNCTAD report says the same could have negative impacts.

Closer home, too, the Forward Markets Commission of India has shown how total value of forward trading between April 1 and June 30, 2008 rose from Rs 11.15 crores to Rs 15.64 for the same period this year. 

New Delhi, September 24
The IIT-government standoff acquired darker shades today, with the thousand-strong faculty of premiere technology institutes across the country hunger striking to protest the pay ‘anomalies’. This is for the first time in India’s history that IIT professors have resorted to such extreme action for their voices to be heard.

Unaffected by Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal’s recent advice to “act in accordance of expectation”, the IIT federation reiterated its demands today of enhanced pay structures.

IIT federation chief M Thenmozi today said the strike was on as planned on Monday, and added the faculty members were yet to hear from the Ministry on the latest memoranda of demands submitted to it. As many as 1,500 teachers from 13 IITs are participating in the strike, which has not affected studies at the institutes and is, to that extent, symbolic.

Sibal, for his part, had made it clear two days ago that IITs, as long as they were accepting Central funding, would need to subject themselves to some measure of regulation. The battle is therefore now of autonomy, it appears, with the HRD Minister asking the IITs and other centrally funded technical institutes to raise their own finances if they needed complete autonomy.

On policy matters, the Ministry says no PhD holder, unless he/she has three years of teaching experience, can be faculty at the premiere IITs.

New Delhi, September 24
A year after the government ordered closure of the public sector vaccine producing units at Kasauli, Conoor and Chennai for alleged violation of “good manufacturing practices”, the Health ministry now wants an external agency to probe the events that led to their shutting down.

Former Health Secretary Javed Chaudhry is expected to be asked to head the probe panel, recommend ways to revive the units and investigate the closure for possible nexus between private and state-owned vaccine companies.

Notably, the move follows Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s remarks during the budget session of Parliament that nexus between private drug firms and PSUs could have caused decline in the production capacity of state-owned vaccine units. The Minister had then called for a probe into the matter.

When contacted, Chaudhry said he had not yet received any information about such a panel. While the so-called nexus remains to be probed, it is known that the failure of National Institute of Biologicals (NIB), set up in 1992 as a national control lab for quality testing of biologicals like vaccines and sera, in discharging its duties, led to the closure of Central Research Institute, Kasuali.

In its 30-page castigation of NIB, which in its 16 years of existence could not create facilities for quality testing of vaccines and sera, CAG observed: “The Expenditure and Finance Department memo of 1991 says NIB was to be established as an independent national-level lab to separate the dual functions of production and quality control testing being discharged by CRI, Kasauli, in respect of mass produced biologicals.”

Audit findings, however, revealed that except for limited testing of oral polio vaccine, NIB had not created facilities to test any other vaccines and sera, which formed major component of mass application biologicals, including vaccines against six childhood diseases covered under the Universal Immunisation Programme.

Consequently, NIB could not take over the work of national-level quality control and testing of vaccines from CRI, Kasauli, the auditor states. “The government had to then close down the manufacturing unit of CRI Kasauli in 2008. This could have been avoided if NIB had taken up the work of quality assurance in time,” the CAG observed.

As per EFC memo, NIB was to conduct quality control testing of all biologicals available in the market by 2003-2004. The CAG, however, found that out of over 116 such biologicals available, NIB was notified as a central drug lab to test only OPV, HIV diagnostic kits, hepatitis-B surface antigen kits, hepatitis-C kits and blood grouping reagents. It could not by then develop requisite infrastructural facilities to test the remaining biologicals.

His mother Girija, a teacher at the Kendriya Vidyalaya, stays at Vani Nagar in Malkajgiri area in the city while Pallavi is pursuing her studies at Mumbai. “We are in a state of shock. He was a brave officer and very friendly.

After watching the news on television channels, we have come here to express our condolences,” Uday Bhaskar, a resident of Vani Nagar, said.

Guwahati, September 24
Buoyed by recent surrender of 386 Dimasa tribe militants with 142 weapons from Black Widow or Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa faction) in Assam’s two hill districts, the state government today announced its decision to raise two battalions of the Assam police for rehabilitation of surrendered rebels from all various outfits in the state.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said special recruitment drive would be carried out to rehabilitate surrendered militants from different outfits in two new battalions of the Assam police. He hoped that development process would be back on rails in the two hill districts of the state after mass surrender by Black Widow militants.

Over 2,200 cadres from several militants, including the 386 from the Black Widow who have come over ground to start a peace process with the government, from various militants groups are now lodged in truce-time designated camps run by the state government.

Including the Black Widow so far, seven militant outfits have declared truce and their cadres are living in designated camps surviving on stipend and ration provided by the state government. The rest of the outfits included: Dima Halam Daogah (Dilip Nunisa faction), Bira Commando Force (BCF), one faction of the ULFA, one faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), Adivasi Cobra Militant Force (ACMF) and United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS).