New Delhi, November 13
A day after Maharashtra BJP chief Nitin Gadkari was dispatched by the RSS on a recce of the BJP headquarters at 11, Ashoka Road, party leaders appeared reconciling to foisting of Gadkari as their national president.

“It seems now Gadkari is most likely to succeed Rajnath,” said a well-informed BJP source. Some spin doctors in the party have even started hinting that Gadkari’s name was suggested by none other than the Leader of Opposition LK Advani.

This suggestion is at complete variance with the obtaining situation wherein RSS has put Advani on a notice to vacate his post and asserted that none of his camp followers among the second generation leaders will be elevated to the president’s post when Rajnath retires by December 31 this year.

RSS chief Mohanrao Bhagwat’s reassertion of these two positions in a recent interview had visibly upset many party leaders and some of them even went to the extent of suggesting the growing irrelevance of the RSS to the present-day politics and implicitly, thereby hinting at the need to break free of Sangh’s stranglehold.

On Wednesday, Bhagwat, who was at the RSS headquarters Keshav Kunj for last three days, summoned Rajnath and ostensibly discussed with him for over two hours the mechanism of the succession exercise. The same day Arun Jaitely also went to meet Bhagwat and it seems he returned not too elated.

The very next day, the exercise began. Gadkari arrived yesterday to an almost empty BJP headquarters with only office secretary Shyam Jaju to receive him at 4.30 pm and he remained closeted at next door 9, Ashoka Road, for nearly two hours with organising secretary Ram Lal.

Initially, Gadkari feigned ignorance about succession plans and said, “I arrived here in connection with one of my IRADA power projects and decided to meet Shyamji.” But he added later, “I have always taken up any responsibility that the party has entrusted me, starting from pasting posters when I began with the ABVP.”

While leaving the BJP office, Gadkari defended the Sangh saying it had never interfered with the BJP and added, “Since we are all brought up in the Sangh on our own volition we do as the Sangh pleases.”

But he betrayed a clear interest in the current developments in his party saying, “I am no one to intervene or take decisions on their (RSS) behalf. But I will do whatever the party wants me to as I have in the past. I was never part of any race neither have I tried to participate in any race ever.”

Hyderabad, November 13
Putting the MNS in the shade in display of rabid brand of regionalism, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has asked settlers from other regions of Andhra Pradesh to vacate Telangana or face the public ire.

The TRS, which is fighting for separate Telangana state, has upped the ante and given a provocative call Telanganawale Jago. Andhrawale Bhago. We would drive away the outsiders who had occupied our lands and were thriving at the cost of Telangana people, the TRS founder-President and MP K Chandrasekhar Rao said.

Targeting the affluent sections from coastal Andhra who have made

investments in state capital and set up businesses over decades, Rao termed them as encroachers and plunderers of Telangana wealth and said time had come for removing the injustices. As part of a call to drive away encroachers, the TRS launched an agitation in two villages in Medak district where over 800 acres of land was allegedly encroached by people from coastal Andhra region.

The TRS leaders contended that the land was originally assigned to the poor Dalits but was subsequently fell prey to land sharks.

A large number of the TRS workers, led by TRS MLAs T Harish Rao, K Rama Rao and E Rajender, former MLAs S Ramalinga Reddy and Padma Devender Reddy lay siege to Papannapet Tehsildar office and staged a demonstration, demanding that the revenue authorities recover the encroached land in Kothapalli and Lakshmipur villages.The sit-in, which commenced on Tuesday, continued throughout the day with the TRS leaders and workers squatting front of the Tehsildar office.

Stating that the land was assigned to Dalits long ago, the MLAs submitted a

memorandum to tehsildar Rajaiah along with the details obtained under the Right to Information Act. They said purchase or sale of the land assigned to the poor was illegal.

The situation turned tense when the police swung into action and took the agitators into custody.

Bowing to the belligerent stand from the TRS leaders, the local revenue authorities assured that a re-survey of the lands would be done as per the revenue records and justice would be done to the Dalits.

The strident posturing is part of a strategy by the sub-regional party to regain confidence of people after suffering severe drubbing in the elections. The party had recently staged Jail Bharo programme to protest against the alleged injustice being meted out to Telangana.

The party President has already announced that he would undertake fast unto death if the UPA government failed to respond to the statehood demand by the end of this month.

“We are determined to achieve our statehood goal and this will be our final push. The movement for separate Telangana state has now reached a decisive stage,” Rao said.

Mumbai, November 13
The bulletproof vests, worn by slain ATS chief Hemant Karkare and two other senior officers while fighting terrorists on November 26 last, belonged to the batch of 110 defective pieces purchased by the police way back in 2002, a PIL, filed in Bombay High Court, has alleged. The petition alleged that an RTI inquiry had revealed that the file pertaining to the purchase of these vests had been lost and was not traceable by the department.

The PIL, filed by social activist Santosh Daundkar, comes in the wake of a claim made by Kavita Karkare, widow of the slain top cop, on the basis of an RTI inquiry that the bulletproof jacket worn by her husband was missing. The petitioner said according to the specifications of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), a bulletproof vest should stretch from neck to the groin.

As against this, the jacket, seen in a video frame of Hemant Karkare, indicated that a major portion of his upper chest lay exposed. As a result of defective vests worn by Karkare, Ashok Kamate and Vijay Salaskar, they were killed when bullets pierced through them, the PIL said. The petition alleged that the police commissioner's office broke the rules by not testing the vests before purchasing them. The rules provide for a detailed inspection of the product by an independent body in case of every purchase having security implications.

The PIL said, on December 6, 2001, a tender inquiry was issued by the purchase cell of the police commissioner's office for buying 55 bulletproof vests at a cost of Rs 24.71 lakh. A month later, a Pune-based firm NTB High Ceramics filed quotation. Suggesting irregularities in award of contract, the PIL said, on March 30, 2002, the department issued a letter accepting the tender and the same day the firm sent invoice indicating that the material had been dispatched. The tender was finally accepted on June 4 and order placed for supply of jackets.

The PIL further alleged that the jackets were sub-standard because they did not bear the ISI mark to indicate good quality. The petitioner said Chief Minister Ashok Chavan while defending the purchase of the jackets told a TV channel that Karkare was killed because of injuries to his neck and head and not the torso. The petitioner pointed out that the rules provided for purchase of vests that covered the body from neck to groin. The PIL will come up for hearing in due course, said petitioner's lawyer YP Singh. — PTI

New Delhi, November 13
The Supreme Court today directed the Centre and the Maharashtra government to respond within four weeks to former state (Maharashtra) police chief SS Virk's plea for a two-year fixed tenure as DGP as mandated under the court's verdict.

A three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan issued notices after senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Virk, contended that the government had violated the apex court order. The SC had, in the Prakash Singh versus Union of India (8 SCC 1, 2006) case, ruled that the Director General of Police of any state, once selected for the job, "should have a minimum tenure of at least two years irrespective of his date of superannuation," Jethmalani said.

Virk, who was DGP of Punjab earlier, had superannuated as Maharashtra DGP on July 31, 2009, but was granted extension for three months in view of the Assembly elections. However, Virk's petition said he should be allowed to continue till March 13, 2011, till the completion of the two-year tenure and denial of this would violate Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

Jethmalani said any citizen of the country could approach the court seeking implementation of its order. The same Bench, which included Justices P Sathasivam and BS Chauhan, however, dismissed a petition by former Punjab police chief KPS Gill, who had also sought implementation of the SC order on two-year fixed tenure for DGPs.

Meanwhile, another Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and AK Ganguly today expunged the adverse remarks made by Punjab and Haryana High Court against Advocate General HS Mattewal in a case against Anurag Saxena, a co-accused in a security equipment purchase scam, which also involves Virk.

New Delhi, November 13
While Chandigarh, along with Sikkim and Meghalaya has reported the lowest number of cases of domestic abuse of women in the past one year, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Kerala have reported the largest number of cases.

A study by the National Commission for Women on the efficacy of Domestic Violence Prevention Act, four years after it was passed, reveals that UP tops the list of domestic abuse cases across India with 3,892 cases registered under the Act. Delhi is second with 3,463 cases, while Kerala with 3,190 cases occupies the third slot.

The situation is equally grim in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, though Chandigarh, Meghalaya, and Sikkim report the least number of cases filed under the Act.

On the level of protection officers, mandated by the law, states have not moved too fast. In fact, it was only after three years since the law was passed that all states appointed protection officers. In 2007, the number was just two.

As of now, Maharashtra has the highest number of officers followed by Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. On the allocation front, only 17 states have so far made financial arrangements to roll the law --- a reason which made President Pratibha Patil warn the states that having laws for women’s protection was not enough. Efficacy was equally important.

Protection of women was a must to maintain the sanctity of the home, she said, adding that the evaluation of the law must be done. She also referred to the World Health Organisation report on women health and domestic violence against women which said education for women had a protective effect.

Bangalore, November 13
The hyped case of “love jihad” turned out to be a case only of love with no trace of any jihad involved in the relationship between a boy and a girl belonging to different religions.

The BJP government in Karnataka showed considerable energy in probing the “love jihad” angle behind the affair between the Hindu girl and a Muslim boy, but failed to gather any evidence to say the affair between the two was part of a conspiracy orchestrated by Islamic jihadists to convert non-Muslim women to Islam by entangling them in love affairs.

The state government, in its report submitted to the high court today, conceded that there was no evidence to say that this newest variety of jihad existed in the state. Shailja, a Hindu girl from Chamarajnagar district of Karnataka, whose marriage with Ajgarh, a Muslim boy from Kerala, had prompted the high court here to ask the state government to probe if it was an instance of love jihad, told the court she had married Ajgarh voluntarily and would want to stay with him. The court granted her the right.

New Delhi, November 13
The Supreme Court today directed the Delhi Police to provide protection to the family of Rajneesh Sharma, who died at the Munshi Bagh police station at Srinagar on October 5 this year.

A Bench comprising Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph issued the order on a petition filed by the widow, the mother and a brother of the victim.

Seeking urgent hearing of the petition, senior counsel Pinky Anand informed the Bench that her clients had come to Delhi 20 days ago, fearing threat to their lives at the hands of the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

According to the petition, Rajneesh, who had married Muslim girl Amina Yousuf, alias Anchal Sharma, in July, 2009, was eliminated at the instance of her family. No FIR had been registered even four weeks after the incident.

The petitioners have also demanded a CBI probe, registration of a case and an ex gratia of Rs 20 lakh. The Bench posted the petition for hearing on November 27.

The petition has also sought the apex court's guidelines for handling cases involving inter-religion marriages.