New Delhi, June 19
The BJP today ruled out any breakup with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his party - the JD(U) - with which it is running a coalition government in Bihar.

BJP general secretary and spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad was responding here today to reports that the Nitish government had returned to Gujarat a sum of Rs 5 crore given as an aid to overcome the crisis of sudden floods when Kosi river changed course two years ago.

Prasad mildly chided the Bihar government for having done so saying: “The aid came from the people of Gujarat and in case of natural calamities, states provide humanitarian aid where required.”

He refused to be drawn into any further controversy and said: “Sharad Yadav (JD-U president) has already spoken, our alliance is strong and we shall continue to be allies. There is no need to discuss everything before the media.”

Prasad confirmed what many in the party have been privately admitting that the two parties were politically inseparable and had a comfortable symbiotic relationship in the state.

Without the BJP Nitish may be deprived of a large chunk of upper caste votes. Similarly, the BJP too can not come to power solely on its upper caste support base.

Current barbs that both the parties are throwing at each other following the standoff between Nitish Kumar and Gujarat CM Narendra Modi during the recently held BJP national executive meeting in Patna may only help Nitish flaunt his “secular” credentials to his Muslim supporters.

As for the BJP, Modi’s presence and speech recharged the party cadre disillusioned by the party surrendering its position of prominence to Nitish. It will enable the party to stand up and demand its “rightful share” at the time of seat sharing discussions before they go for Assembly polls later this year. The 2005 Assembly elections were fought twice. First time it gave a hung Assembly dissolved after six months. In the first round the JD(U) contested on 138 seats and the BJP 105. But by next round the BJP surrendered three seats to the JD(U). Sections in the JD(U) are suggesting that the BJP is so weak now that it needs to concede some more seats to the coalition partner. “The recharging of BJP cadres will help the party safeguard its turf better,” said a party insider.

New Delhi, June 19
The Union Government is looking into American multinational Dow Chemical Company’s $9.3-billion deal in 2001 through which it bought Union Carbide.

The government’s aim is to find out whether Dow can be forced to carry out the responsibility to clean Bhopal’s environment that got polluted due to toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide plant on December 3, 1984.

Facing heavy embarrassment over the light punishment announced to the accused in the case with the surviving victims and their families still crying for adequate compensation, the government is now engaged in face shaving and damage control.

Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson was allowed to escape in a state-owned aircraft from Bhopal to New Delhi, from where he flew to the USA, within a day after his arrest in Bhopal on his arrival there a few days after the tragedy.

A group of ministers (GoM), headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram, on June 14 was asked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to meet immediately and report to the Cabinet within 10 days. The GoM met on yesterday and today to assess the options and remedies available to the government in the light of the court’s verdict in the case. The GoM is likely to finalise its report on Monday.

Over 15,000 persons had reportedly died in the disaster. A large number of people continue to suffer health damage due to exposure and contaminants in drinking water and food.

The GoM is also looking into the issue of who will pay for cleaning up Bhopal’s air and groundwater pollution caused by the 1984 gas leak.

According to Union Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed, if Dow had legally protected or indemnified itself against the liabilities of Union Carbide, it might be able to wriggle out of such a responsibility.

His ministry is applying its mind on how to enforce civil liability for major industrial disasters and also how to fix criminal liability in case of such incidents.

The $45-billion Dow has been maintaining that it is not liable for Bhopal-related liabilities as Union Carbide had sold all its shares in Union Carbide India Limited in 1994, seven years before Dow bought Carbide.

Dow has, however, set aside $2.2 billion to deal with future asbestos-related liabilities arising out of the Union Carbide acquisition.

New Delhi, June 19
Congress general secretary and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi turned 40 today. Born on June 19, 1970, Rahul is second time MP from Amethi and is projected by the party as the future leader and potential Prime Minister.

Rahul is looking after party affairs as general secretary in-charge of the National Student's Union of India (NSUI) and the Youth Congress. The NSUI and the Youth Congress activists have organised several programmes to celebrate Rahul's birthday throughout the country.

Meanwhile, the birthday cake was there, but the birthday boy wasn’t. It was celebration time at the AICC headquarters here with Rahul Gandhi turning 40 as party workers celebrated the occasion by cutting a cake and distributing sweets.

Dancing to drumbeats and raising slogans for Gandhi, hailing him as the future leader of the country, Congress workers brought a 40-kg cake to mark Rahul’s birthday. The workers themselves cut the cakes and distributed it among each other even as drum beats reached to a frenzy. They also distributed 'ladoos' to onlookers and supporters alike.

The AICC general secretary is currently out of Delhi. Rahul has so far declined to be part of the Union Cabinet, preferring to focus on strengthening the organisation. However, even as the workers celebrated the birthday, there was no official celebration planned at the AICC headquarters. — ANI/PTI

New Delhi, June 19
The controversial draft law to establish an apex body for regulating higher education in the country today scraped through the 57th meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), where state education ministers endorsed it, save minor last-minute objections.

The ministers, including those from Left-ruled Kerala and West Bengal, BJP-ruled Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh and Congress-ruled Haryana, opposed the provision whereby the states would require National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) approval to start academic operations in new universities.

The Government asked the ministers to send their suggestions within four weeks, following which the law, already revised six times under states’ pressures, will be readied for introduction in Parliament’s winter session. “We hope to get it passed in the budget session before the next academic session,” HRD Minister and CABE chairman Kapil Sibal said.

The states also sought that all streams of education be regulated by the NCHER.

“Now that we know what the states want, we will raise the matter with the Prime Minister. The Government will have to take a final view on the issue,” Sibal said. Health Ministry is opposed to the move and wants its own regulator for medical education.

That apart, CABE, the highest decision making body for education policies in India, approved the Bill for dematting academic degrees, and one to evolve a National Vocational Qualification Framework. The board also endorsed the core curriculum for science and math, seeking a similar one for commerce. Senior secondary examinations next year will be based on common science/math curriculum already evolved by the Council of Boards of School Education.

New Delhi, June 19
Will the South Asian University (SAU), a dream project of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, take off as smoothly as planned in August?

Doubts have arisen on whether the first academic session of the SAU will see the participation of all the eight SAARC countries in view of differences between India and Pakistan over the visas for Pakistani students and faculty members.

Islamabad is learnt to have asked New Delhi that students and faculty members from Pakistan should be given visas, which don’t require reporting to the police and are not city-specific.

As per the visa arrangement between the two countries, Indians and Pakistanis are issued visas for three cities in each others’ country and have to report at the nearest police station once a week.

Informed sources said Islamabad was insisting on relaxing the standard practice of Pakistani nationals reporting to the nearest police station in the case of the students and faculty members coming from that country. Islamabad has also demanded that the students and faculty members from Pakistan should be given visas, which will enable them to go anywhere in India and not just to three cities. The argument being put forward by Islamabad is that there should be uniformity in the visa regime for students from all the member countries.