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Politics of Statues
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Obituary
1920-2010
Surjeet’s biography skips Left-Cong bond
Only top ministers to brief media during crisis
Founder of Naxalite movement Kanu Sanyal ends life
Pilot engines not viable: MHA
Pre-marital sex not an offence, rules
SC
Anti-cancer vaccine leaves 4 tribals dead
Cauvery water dispute back in limelight
Cash-at-judge’s-door info confidential: SC
Provident
Fund Scam
12-year-old raped by nine for two yrs
M’rashtra Assembly
UK’s wanted
criminal dies in Goa jail
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Politics
of Statues
Lucknow, March 23 Later in the evening in a hurriedly organised function, CMO of the hospital RS Dubey was made to formally unveil the statue. This incident comes barely a fortnight after two ministers of the Maya government inaugurated a bridge over river Ganga in Dalmau, Rae Bareli, which was scheduled to be inaugurated by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The 16-feet statue of Lohia was part of the hospital project named after the socialist leader. The hospital, along with the Lohia Law University and Lohia Park had come up during the last reign of Yadav. While Yadav had inaugurated the hospital in 2003, Lohia’s statue was installed on the hospital ground in 2007, shortly before the declaration of state Assembly elections. The election code of conduct had prevented him from formally unveiling the statue. The statue has remained wrapped in cloth cover since Mayawati came to power in May 2007. Today the SP took the police and hospital administration by surprise when Yadav drove straight to the hospital complex where his supporters had quietly removed the cloth and arranged for a ladder. While the police forcibly tried to prevent Yadav from proceeding towards the statue, hundreds of his supporters made it impossible for it to stop him. He finally succeeded in garlanding the statue. The government then hurriedly organised a function on the hospital premises later in the evening where CMO of the hospital RS Dubey was made to formally unveil the statue once again. Informing about formal inauguration, BSP president Swami Prasad Maurya in a press statement took the credit for the decision that he said was in tune with the party’s belief of respecting leaders of all communities. Swami also condemned Yadav for his reported “insensitivity of causing disruption to the hospital functioning”. Speaking to this reporter, CMO Dubey confirmed that there was a formal function in the evening in which he unveiled the statue. He however, refused to disclose whether this evening function was fixed in reaction to Yadav’s unveiling earlier in the day or if it was part of a pre-planned
programme.
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Prof Amrik Singh dead
New Delhi, March 23 Born at Abbotabad, now in Pakistan, on September 20, 1920, Amrik Singh had a distinguished academic career. He was the Secretary of the Association of Indian Universities for a record 17 years. Though he officially retired in 1982, Amrik Singh wrote extensively and served on many academic committees. He was also the Officiating President of the National Institute of Panjab Studies, Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, New Delhi. He is survived by his wife Harsharan Kaur, son Pradeep Singh, an IAS officer, and daughter Rachna, a pottery artist. The cremation will take place on March 24 at the electric crematorium on the Lodi Road at 1.30 pm.
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An academician par excellence
Prof Amrik Singh would probably always be remembered as a teacher, although he assumed many responsibilities and roles in his life, including those of a magazine editor and an administrator. The eldest of five siblings, Amrik Singh was born on September 20, 1920, at Abbotabad, now in Pakistan. His father, Dr Gopal Singh, was a medial practitioner. Amrik Singh did BA from Khalsa College, Amritsar, in 1942, before he earned his Masters from Government College, Lahore, and became an English teacher. After Partition, he taught for some time in Shimla, and then joined Khalsa College in Delhi in 1951, the first teacher to do so. He was also active in the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA). In 1957, he went to University College, London, for PhD in English. After he returned to India, he started “Journal of University Education” in 1962. His other academic journal was “Indian Book Chronicler, News and Reviews”, which he ran from 1976 to 1985. He joined Punjabi University, Patiala, as Professor of English in 1963, after which he was appointed Secretary of the Association of Indian Universities. Amrik Singh was Visiting Professor for Educational Policy at the University of Wisconsin, USA, in 1969-70. He was Director, South Delhi Campus, University of Delhi, from 1973 to 1975 and is regarded the founder of the South Campus. He became Vice-Chancellor, Punjabi University, Patiala, in 1977. His book “Asking for Trouble: What it Means to be a Vice-Chancellor Today” aptly sums up his experience. Though he officially retired in 1982, he was an active presence in academic bodies, seminars and in the opinion pages of many newspapers, including “The Tribune”. He prepared a number of reports on higher education and wrote and edited many books. — Roopinder Singh
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Surjeet’s biography skips Left-Cong bond
New Delhi, March 23 The book “Highlights of an inspiring life”, however, steers clear of the biggest political accomplishment of Surjeet, who along with veteran Jyoti Basu crafted the Left-Congress alliance -- the UPA -- in 2004. The current CPM leadership wanted no references in the book of times when they had warmed up to the Congress. With the UPA seen nowhere, the United Front government in 1996 is generously mentioned in the publication powered by the party’s research team. “It was due to Surjeet’s efforts that the non-Congress secular parties came together to form the United Front government in 1996. Earlier, he played a key role in the VP Singh-led National Front government in 1989,” the biography states. Throughout the publication, the CPM mentions events from Surjeet’s life that add weight to its idea of a non-Congress, non-BJP front, which incidentally failed in the last elections. The Left’s allergy for the Congress comes right through, with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat today admitting that the book was silent on the UPA-I and the Left’s outside support to the Congress. “Yes that part is not there,” said Karat, while Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said he did not know of the issue. In the book, Karat writes, “Surjeet was no Chanakya, as projected by the bourgeois media. He never lost sight of the goals set out by the Politburo or Central Committee. His skill was seen when the Left built an anti-Congress unity without compromising with the BJP between 1987 and 1991 and when secular parties united against the BJP without allying with the Congress.” The book was dedicated today to Surjeet’s wife Pritam Kaur, who is in her nineties. “We want to tell the youth of the sacrifices our leaders made,” Brinda said. The biography was unveiled on Martyrs’ Day -- to mark the day when Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were executed 79 years ago -- which Surjeet used as his birthday. Those days, birth records were not kept. So when someone asked Surjeet once what his birth date was, he replied, “March 23.”
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Only top ministers to brief media during crisis
New Delhi, March 23 The Centre is setting up a “nodal empowered group for handling the media during crisis”, comprising the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Home Minister and other ministers concerned. The group will deploy a senior official immediately in case of any untoward incident to brief the media at the earliest to avoid speculative stories. Besides, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) will be geared to set up a round-the-clock control room to coordinate and disseminate information. “It was felt that the government should be represented by a senior official in such situations. The idea is to have a trusted face whose credibility is above board,” said a senior official of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry whose head Ambika Soni has initiated this exercise after discussions with the Cabinet Secretariat, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and security agencies. Sources said there was stiff resistance to this proposal from a section of the government that still believed in blocking information to the media. They pointed to the handling of the Pune bomb blasts. In sharp contrast to the mayhem that followed the carnage witnessed in Mumbai in 2008, the Centre moved in swiftly and asked Home Secretary GK Pillai to brief the media on the facts of the incident that very night. Home Minister P Chidambaram flew to Pune and addressed a press conference the next day. Though he refused to name the group responsible for the attack, he gave sufficient information to ensure that the media’s requirements were met. “We realise that timely intervention is crucial. We have to brief the media at the earliest to ensure that there is no information vacuum that tempts the media to opt for sound bytes from a junior policeman or official,” the ministry official said.
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Founder of Naxalite movement Kanu Sanyal ends life
Kolkata, March 23 Tamta said. Sanyal’s close associates and doctors said he had been suffering from acute kidney and heart ailments. Though Sanyal had not left behind any suicide note, many Marxist leaders, including his close aide veteran Azizul Hoque said Sanyal was much disillusioned and upset at the present phase of the country’s communist movement. He also disapproved of the killing practices of the Maoists as he had once opposed Charu Mazumdar’s theory of annihilation. Hoque said when he last met him about two months back, he found Sanyal much depressed and disdained. His painful health condition, too, was unbearable for him. He never took any treatment at government hospitals neither any assistances from either the CPI(M) or other political parties. The police said it was apparently a case of suicide but since there was no suicide note, they had started an inquiry. The body was also sent for postmortem examination. He was living alone in the commune as a party whole-timer after disassociating himself with other members of the family. Sanyal was the last living founder member of the CPI(M-L) (Communist Organisation of India Marxist-Leninist), which was formed in 1969 by a group of veteran Marxist leaders like Charu Mazumdar, Saroj Dutta, Sushital Roy Chowdhry and Jangal Saothal after breaking away from the CPI(M) following ideological differences. The CPI(M) was then in the United Front government in West Bengal as partner of the Bangla Congress headed by Ajoy Mukherjee and Sushil Dhara. Sanyal did not like the idea that Jyoti Basu, Harikrishna Konar and other communists leaders with whom he had fought against the bourgeois Congress should be friends with the Bangla Congress - a dissident group of the Congress which was anti-proletarian and pro-bourgeois. Then Sanyal and others left the CPI(M) and formed the CPI(M-L) which had the blessings of the Chinese Communist party during the hard days of the Naxalite movement in north Bengal and other parts in the state and elsewhere.
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Pilot engines not viable: MHA
New Delhi, March 23 A pilot engine would force even super fast trains to crawl at speeds less than 15 km/h, officials said. For now, the Home Ministry, has ordered to have more extensive patrolling along the tracks. The state has been asked to identify village defence committees that could help the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the home guards in securing the track. Of the 64,000-km rail track, over 11,000-km track falls in the “Naxal-belt” and Maoists have attacked rail property more than 60 times in five years. This includes blowing up tracks and stations across. Explaining the options, sources said mine sweepers of the Indian Army operated at speeds below 20 km/h and there was no technology to have rail-based mine sweeper. The only way was to run a small empty coach ahead of the train, however, which would be impossible to operate without bringing trains to a halt. Slow running trains could be a bigger risk for passengers, they added. Such engines are operated in north-east on selected routes. Officials said a team was studying what kind of technological inputs could be made to keep an eye on the tracks. They said no such technology existed to figure out suspicious movement along tracks. The government today alerted Naxal-affected states against possible Maoist attacks on railway networks. The Home Ministry has issued the alert to West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh apprehending attacks by Naxalites on trains and railway infrastructure as any sabotage on the
network could result in large scale damages, sources said. The Railway Ministry has been asked to deploy adequate manpower to provide security to rail operations and passengers.
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Pre-marital sex not an offence, rules
SC New Delhi, March 23 “When two adults want to live together, it cannot be an offence,” a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan observed. The court said even Lord Krishna and Radha lived together according to mythology. The apex court said there was no law that prohibited live-in relationship or pre-marital sex. The apex court made the observation while reserving its judgment on a special leave petition filed by noted south Indian actress Khusboo seeking to quash 22 criminal cases filed against her after she allegedly endorsed pre-marital sex in interviews to various magazines in 2005. The judges grilled the counsel for some of the complainants in the case and repeatedly stressed the perceived immoral activities could not be branded as offence. The argument was that her comments allegedly endorsing pre-marital sex would adversely affect the minds of youngsters leading to decay in moral values and country’s ethos. “Please tell us what is the offence and under which Section. Living together is a right to life," the apex court said. — PTI
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Anti-cancer vaccine leaves 4 tribals dead
New Delhi, March 23 Thousands of girls were vaccinated - 7,000 in Palair division, 2,500 in Kothagudem municipal area and 4,600 in Bhadrachalam - without any consent been sought from the
families. AIDWA’s findings, released late this evening, triggered protests on the state of health in remote areas of the country, with the CPM reacting sharply to the deaths. Party Politburo member Brinda Karat wrote to Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to fix responsibility in the deaths and ensure that no mass vaccination drive is conducted out of the public health system. The AIDWA found that there was no pre-information or campaign before the actual vaccination started. In fact, a lady warden of a government Gurukul School’s hostel had objected when she was told that HPV vaccine was being administered the first time on a trial basis. “The warden informed the parents but clearly this can hardly be called informed consent,” it said. With criminal negligence out in the open, Karat on Sunday wrote to Azad that the vaccination camp was being run by a local NGO with the approval of the state government and the
ICMR.
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Cauvery water dispute back in limelight
Chennai, March 23 Focusing attention on the water scarcity situation in the Pennagaram constituency, which goes to the polls on March 27, AIADMK supremo J
Jayalalithaa, alleged the DMK was not implementing the Hogenakkal drinking water project, which was being opposed by Karnataka. The scheme would be implemented only if the AIADMK was voted to power in the next Assembly elections and the party’s victory march would begin, if the people voted for the “two leaves” in the by-elections, she said, while addressing public meetings, during her campaign today. Citing Karnataka’s Chief Minister Yeddiyurappa’s stand that the project was controversial and should not be implemented without consultations with Karnataka, PMK leader Dr S Ramadoss said there was no need to consult the neighbouring state since the project was being implemented utilising Tamil Nadu’s share of Cauvery water. Recalling that the CM of both states were seen on the same platform recently, addressing each other as “brother”, Ramadoss said, “Karunanidhi should tell his younger brother that there is no controversy over the project and consultations are not needed.” As the issue is sensitive, Dy CM MK Stalin, who is campaigning for the ruling party, was quick to deny Jayalalithaa’s allegations and said the project work had already began.
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Cash-at-judge’s-door info confidential: SC
New Delhi, March 23 Responding to a clarification sought under the Right to Information
(RTI) Act, the Central Public Information Officer of the court said, “You have no right to access the information” as it “is confidential and exempted from disclosure under the section 8(1)(e) and (j)” of the 2005 law. Also, the information was not available with him, CPIO Raj Pal Arora said. Justice Yadav had remained on long leave following the scam, involving delivery of Rs 15 lakh at the house of another Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge Nirmaljit Kaur reportedly in a case of mistaken identity arising from some similarity in the two names. Justice Yadav was moved to the Uttarakhand HC last month, almost a year after Milon Banerjee had expressed, in his capacity as Attorney General then, the opinion that not much evidence was available to prove the allegation. Earlier, SC Secretary General MP Bhadran had issued a statement, asserting that the CBI had never approached the CJI in the case.
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Provident
Fund Scam
New Delhi, March 23 After going through the report submitted in a sealed cover, a Bench headed by Justice DK Jain expressed the opinion that the inquiry into Asthana’s death in Dasna jail on October 17 last year would have to be closed. However, the Bench, which included Justices VS Sirpurkar and GS Singhvi, did not pass any order to this effect, following objections raised by the counsel for the Ghaziabad Bar Association. Attorney General GE Vahanvati, appearing for the CBI, which is probing the scam, told the Bench that the District and Sessions Judge, Ghaziabad, had written a letter stating that he had no objection to the transfer of the case to Delhi.
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12-year-old raped by nine for two yrs
Mumbai, March 23 The girl’s parents are divorced and she has been living with her aunt at Saki Naka for the past several years. She was first sexually assaulted by her cousin, Dhaval Bapat, 24. Later, Bapat’s friend, Raju Sharma, also exploited the girl. They two allegedly recorded the girl’s ordeal on a camera phone and started blackmailing her. Subsequently more men in the locality, who came to know of the girl’s plight, also began to exploit her, the police said. Her ordeal continued till early this month when she told of her plight to her mother’s uncle, the police said. Those arrested were: Jamuna Prasad Sharma (71), Jitendra Yadav (25), Vinod Yadav (27) and Premchand Panit (35). Dhaval Bapat and Raju Sharma were absconding. The other absconders were Guru, Rajesh and a person with surname “Vakil”, the police said.
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BJP MLAs stage walkout over Vidarbha
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, March 23 Earlier, the party moved an adjournment notice demanding discussion on the issue in both Houses. After it was disallowed, the party’s MLAs staged a walkout. MLAs of the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena opposed BJP’s move and there were heated arguments within the Opposition benches, much to the amusement of the ruling party MLAs. The BJP alleges that Vidarbha has been neglected by successive governments in the state. The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party have backed the demand for a separate Vidarbha state. Only the Shiv Sena is opposed to it.
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UK’s wanted
criminal dies in Goa jail
Panaji, March 23 Satardekar said a case of custodial death had been registered and an inquiry was commissioned in the matter. Satardekar dismissed rumours that Kaushal committed suicide.
— PTI |
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Kolkata, March 23
