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CAG raps Navy for buying faulty copters
MESSY GAMES
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Cong gives clean chit to Gill, Sheila
Valley Crisis
Sohrabuddin Case Cash-for-vote Scam
APL families to get more rice, wheat
Comic to immortalise 26/11 martyr
Goa religious group under lens
Centre can decertify deemed varsities, SC told
The
Last Word
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CAG raps Navy for buying faulty copters
New Delhi, August 3 In a severe indictment, the CAG report says six choppers acquired from the US for Rs 184 crore, along with the INS Jalashwa, were beyond their lifecycle and compromised operational effectiveness of the Navy. The choppers were built between 1961 and 1965 and decommissioned from the (US) Navy in 2005. To add to it, the airframe life of choppers was on the verge of ending. The Navy had acquired the copters in September 2007. The INS Jalashwa is a landing platform dock used for amphibious operations. The choppers are used to ferry troops. The CAG says these choppers were delivered with many defects. There was no guarantee of support and replacement of defective parts. Lastly, and crucially, the choppers were devoid of any weather or surface surveillance radar, which is most important sensor for such category of choppers. The CAG says the delayed upgrade of the Sea Harrier fighters at a cost of Rs 641.62 crore may not yield the desired results due to short residual life. The Navy will operate these aircraft for three more years only. The Sea Harriers operate from INS Viraat. “The upgrade programme does not encompass either modernisation of the existing equipment or procurement of updated versions of the same,” the report says. The CAG, after a performance audit, goes on to call the assets of the Navy’s aviation arm as “ageing and obsolete”. There have been significant delays in finalisation of the long-term acquisition plans. By 2012, its aviation arm is likely to achieve only 26, 33 and 63 per cent of the force levels required for long range reconnaissance, combat and anti-submarine warfare aircraft, respectively. The CAG has also slammed the IAF for not properly utilising the M1-17 choppers. “A large number of choppers have been assigned to civil authorities, counter-insurgency operations, United Nations missions. The helicopters are undergoing unauthorised modification for VVIP use. To be fully combat effective, the fleet needs to strengthen itself, in numbers and also quality,” the report said. Nearly, 78 per cent of IAF choppers have completed their prescribed life. Despite availability of funds and a specific acquisition programme, the IAF was unable to induct even a single helicopter between 2002 and 2007, the CAG noted.
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MESSY GAMES
New Delhi, August 3 The decision to form the panel came after Kalmadi met Foreign Minister SM Krishna amid speculation that the letters recommending the UK-based company, AM Cars and Vans, from the Indian High Commission could have been doctored. Kalmadi had presented e-mails from the High Commission’s protocol division to insist that the company name was recommended to the Organising Committee ahead of Queen’s Baton relay in London. But the Ministry of External Affairs has apparently questioned the authenticity of these mails. “Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi has set up the panel that includes Jarnail Singh, OC’s chief executive officer, GC Chaturvedi, special director general- finance, and Gurjyot Kaur, chief vigilance officer,” OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot told reporters here. “The committee will look into the issue of money being paid to AM Car and Van Limited and the Ministry of External Affair’s contention about the letters issued by the Indian High Commission in the United Kingdom,” he said. Bhanot said the media reports about corruption had been taken note of by the Organising Committee and it had, therefore, formed a panel to investigate all allegations. The UK-based AM Films was allegedly paid lakhs of pounds for its “services” during the baton relay, but Kalmadi, though admitting that there was no contract with the company, had denied any irregular financial transactions. — PTI
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Cong gives clean chit to Gill, Sheila
New Delhi, August 3 This, on a day Rajya Sabha members debated the diversion of funds meant for Dalits to Games projects, with angry opposition MPs flaying the government for denying the poor their due. So while party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed chose to defend Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, Sports Minister M.S. Gill and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by giving them a clean chit on the issue, he refused to give any such certificate to Kalmadi, saying he was part of the Games as chairman of the Indian Olympic Association and not as a Congress representative. Ahmed said the integrity of Reddy and Gill, who are looking after the Games-related works, was “beyond any doubt” while the Delhi Chief Minister “is also of very impeccable integrity”. Evading questions on whether he could give a similar clean chit to Kalmadi, he said: “Suresh Kalmadi is there not as a Congress representative but as the chairman of the Indian Olympic Association… Serious charges have been levelled against the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee… As (the) chairman of the committee, he will reply to them.”
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Valley Crisis
New Delhi, August 3 The delegation comprising Congress MP from Udhampur Chaudhry Lal Singh, Congress Legislature Party leader from J&K Choudhary Mohd Aslam and senior party leader from Kashmir Abdul Ghani Vakil called upon the PM and discussed the tense situation in the Valley. They backed Omar’s demand for additional forces in the Valley. Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand is also learnt to be in the Capital though he was not part of the delegation. Interestingly, CLP leader Aslam and Abdul Ghani Vakil were recently reported to be cut up with Soz for not convening the meeting of the state Congress cadres and legislature party before the all-party meeting that Omar called. Today, the J&K Congress’ internal bickering was evident, with the delegation informing the PM of the alleged “lost grip” of the coordination committee which is supposed to review important projects, intervene in significant situations like the one at hand and hold the Government accountable if the Common Minimum Programme was not being properly implemented. “We told the PM that the NC-Congress coordination committee was losing grip by the day. It is not meeting as much as it should. It is not taking tough decisions, which it ought to. In fact, the committee is not in control of the state Congress president. We have called for effective working of the panel especially in the present circumstances when the situation has gone out of hand,” Lal Singh told The Tribune. Asked if the delegation had sought a change of guard in the state unit, the members said this was not the time to make such demands.
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‘Sexist’ VC apologises
New Delhi, August 3 Interestingly though, Rai said he felt sorry for what said as a VC. Yesterday, Rai had claimed that he could not be called to question for anything he said as a writer, following which HRD Minister had told him to choose what he wanted to be, a writer or a VC. Clearly, Rai preferred to choose the latter, as he wrote to the minister today: “Recently my interview was published in the latest issue of the famous Hindi literary magazine ‘Naya Gyanodaya’. The sentiments of certain women writers were hurt by some of the contents of the interview. I also feel that as a V-C of a Central University, I should not have used inappropriate words, which hurt the feeling of women writers. I sincerely apologise for the same and I have also issued an apology So far as HRD Ministry goes, the matter is closed, with no further enquiry expected to be initiated against Rai, though women writers who met Sibal today demanded his ouster and disciplinary action against the VC. Sibal had yesterday said he would urge the V-C for an apology, failing which a show cause notice would be issued to him and an internal enquiry held. Rai, who is also a jury member for the Jnanpith awards, had said in his recent interview that there was now a race between women writers to prove who was a greater “chinaal (read prostitute) among them”. Women writers who met Sibal gave a written complaint against Rai today, saying a V-C of a Central University and one who was a jury member for a prestigious award like Jnanpith should not be saying such things. They demanded his sacking.
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Cameron’s plane didn’t face any snag: Patel
New Delhi, August 3 “Nothing of that sort happened,” Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said while answering questions in the Rajya Sabha during the Calling Attention Motion regarding “serious safety problems faced by airline industry in the country in the context of Mangalore aircraft crash”. Patel said Cameron’s aircraft and all other arrivals and departures on July 28 were constantly monitored on Autotrack-2 system as well as Autotrack-3 system and there was “no impact on the ATC operations at any stage on that day”. There were reports in international media that the aircraft carrying Cameron on his maiden visit to India was among those affected following a glitch in computer software installed at the IGIA. A British tabloid reported how Cameron and his senior cabinet were thrown into grave peril when the radar failed just as his Boeing 747 was about to land. His aircraft had to fly “blind” for 20 minutes before it could land, guided by a standby system, reports said.
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Sohrabuddin
Case
Jaipur, August 3 Kataria is known to have strong RSS backing for his candidature for the post of Leader of Opposition, while the Raje camp is opposed to his appointment to the post. In such a scenario, the Sohrabuddin case has kicked off a political game between the RSS and the non-RSS factions in the saffron brigade. After Kataria’s name figured in media reports in connection with the Sohrabuddin case, a few leaders from the Raje camp lapped up the issue in an effort to damage his prospects of getting elected as the Leader of Opposition. Subsequently, Kataria’s aides have realised that the charges of his involvement in the case may take a heavy toll on his chances of bagging the key post in the state. They are now trying hard to shift the spotlight of the probe in the case. “Kataria has himself admitted that as the Home Minister of the state, he visited Gujarat after the incident along with a few other officials in the state plane. But, the question here is - could he have done so without the wishes and permission of the Chief Minister?” wondered a Kataria aide. His statement is indication enough as to what line Kataria may take in his defence in the eventuality of being quizzed by the CBI. On the other hand, Raje’s supporters have strongly refuted all such claims, saying the former CM was not evenly remotely associated with the case. They see political motives in her name being dragged into the case.
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Cash-for-vote Scam New Delhi, August 3 Taking a serious note of the TV expose, the commission discussed all its ramifications and directed the state government to lodge FIR under relevant provisions of the law in the matter. The EC’s action came a day after the incident of alleged bribery of MLAs of the Jharkhand assembly to seek votes in the recently-held election to the Rajya Sabha was shown on a news channel. Noting that the channel has shown a few MLAs of the Assembly as saying that on payment, they could get their and their colleague’s first and second preference votes in the manner desired by the payer, the EC said this “amounts to offence of bribery at an election under Section 171-B of the IPC”. Meanwhile, the Congress has issued a show-cause notice to its MLAs, who featured in the video footage. AICC in charge of Jharkhand K Keshav Rao has written letters to its MLAs, Rajesh Ranjan, Sawan Lakra and Yogendra Sao, and promised to take action. Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said if the incident was true, it was extremely “sad”, as it reflects badly on the system of the Parliamentary democracy. — PTI
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No plan to impose duty on wheat imports: Pawar
New Delhi, August 3 “I have not given the issue to the EGoM yet,” Pawar said, responding to whether the government planned to impose import duty on wheat in the backdrop of anticipated production of 80.71 million tonnes that clearly surpassed last year’s output of 80.68 MT. Pawar recently indicated that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee-headed EGoM might consider a proposal to levy tax on wheat imports. Which means that despite huge buffer and strategic stocks and record production this year, millers will continue to import foodgrain without any extra cost. Apparently, millers in coastal regions import high-protein wheat from Australia because it works out cheaper than bringing it from northern areas. Besides thousands of tonnes of grain rotting away due to lack of storage facilities, the country at present has huge amount of stock that the agencies concerned are struggling to maintain. As it is, the government is not to keen on allowing export in the face of high food inflation. Besides, global wheat prices are lower than those in India, making exports non-viable. The government had banned wheat exports in early 2007 and made imports duty-free to augment domestic availability. About 7 MT of wheat was imported in 2006 and 2007 to build buffer stock and check sky rocketing inflation. A decision on imports is likely in October as officials say the government would like to watch the progress of monsoon before taking a call on the issue.
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APL families to get more rice, wheat
New Delhi, August 3 Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, including Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) families, are allocated 35 kg per family per month. However, for the APL group subsidised foodgrain allocations are made depending upon availability in the Central Pool. At present, the APL families are being allocated subsidised foodgrain ranging between 10 kg to 35 kg in different states and UTs. Ministry officials say the decision has been made considering the availability of adequate stocks of foodgrain in the Central Pool.
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Comic to immortalise 26/11 martyr
New Delhi, August 3 One of the best-known faces of Operation Black Tornado, Major Unnikrishnan was killed while engaging well-armed terrorists inside the Taj Hotel in Mumbai on November 28, 2008. He was with the Army’s Bihar Regiment but was on deputation to the NSG. He was the team commander of 51 SAG, which was called in to flush out militants from the hotel. Author Aditya Bakshi said that the comic aimed to keep memories of national heroes alive. This is the third comic on real time war heroes being released by The Indian War Comics. Other two releases were on Paramvir Chakra awardee Capt Vikram Batra and Ashok Chakra and Kirti Chakra awardee Col NJC Naira.
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Goa religious group under lens
Mumbai, August 3 The nationwide links of the organisation came to light earlier this week when one Prashant Juvekar was arrested by the anti-terror squad (ATS) of the Mumbai Police in connection with a failed bombing in Margao in October, 2009. Juvekar who was picked up from Maharashtra’s Bhusaval town told the police that he, along with some sympathisers, found shelter in Bihar’s Bhagua district. The extremist face of the organisation was revealed in October last year when a bomb being transported by its activists exploded prematurely, killing three of them. Two more bombs were defused before they could go off at the venues of different Diwali-eve religious processions in south Goa. According to the Goa Police, the organisation, which was opposed to the burning of effigies of Narkasur during Diwali, had planned to set off bombs. The two-fold aim of the body was to ignite Hindu-Muslim riots in the tourist state, says the police. According to the ATS, which has taken Juvekar into custody, he hails from a middle-class family in Ratnagiri. A commerce graduate, who abandoned law studies, Juvekar’s parents are retired bankers who are members of the organisation. The police says members of the organisation were provided training in the use of arms and assembly of explosives in Goa’s jungles. In all, 11 persons were trained along with Juvekar. Rakesh Maria, who heads the ATS, said the saunstha was acting independently and was not affiliated with other Hindu terror groups like the Abhinav Bharat, which carried out blasts in Malegaon two years ago.
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Centre can decertify deemed varsities, SC told
New Delhi, August 3 Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, appearing before a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma, said that under the UGC Act, the Commission was empowered to accord the deemed status to universities. “The power to accord recognition of deemed status included the power to de-recognise them” for failing to meet the standards, he submitted before the Bench. Later, senior counsel KK Venugopal assailed the Centre’s proposal to derecognise the 44 universities as illegal on the ground that such a power was vested only with UGC. He questioned the very constitution of the Professor P N Tondon Committee which had recommended de-recognition of the universities. The arguments would resume tommorrow. The review committee headed by Professor PN Tondon had earlier recommended derecognition of the 44 institutes across the country on the ground that they had failed to meet the standards required for sustaining the status of a “deemed”university. According to the universities, Professor Tondon himself was heading a deemed university and it was not appropriate for him to head the high-powered committee, which sought derecognition of the aggrieved universities. The apex court had earlier directed the Centre to put on the internet the recommendations of the Tondon Committee and the Task Force and asked the aggrieved varsities to file their response on the Centre's decision to de-recognise them. The Bench had also agreed to examine the validity of the government's decision to de-recognise the varsities as the institutions claimed that under the statutory rules, it was only the UGC, which has got the power to strip them of their deemed status. It also agreed to examine the issue whether Prof Tondon could head the committee. The HRD Ministry had denied the allegations of the institutes that they were not given sufficient opportunity to explain their academic performance before deciding to de-recognise them. Defending its decision, the Centre, in its additional affidavit, had said its high-powered review committee and task force were more concerned with the academic excellence of these universities rather than infrastructural facilities. — PTI
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The
Last Word The Court Jester Anita Katyal
Never at a loss for words, in fact, quite to the contrary, the outspoken Rajya Sabha member told reporters: “Basically, I will be very unhappy if the Games are successful because then they will start bringing Asian Games, Olympic Games.” The statement raised widespread ire, and prompted a public slugfest with bete noire IOC chairman Suresh Kalmadi, who promptly dubbed Aiyar “anti-national.” What Aiyar was saying was nothing new. He had reportedly lambasted the government for hosting the Commonwealth Games at a Cabinet meeting while heading the Sports Ministry during UPA-I. Now, he is planning to register his protest by sitting on indefinite dharna at Rajghat from October 2, on the eve of the opening of the Games. For the moment, however, he is thrilled at having flagged off an important issue which has set the stage for a lively nationwide debate. Aiyar’s latest outburst has provoked all-round anger and outrage but it has come as no surprise to those who have followed his career through the years. This is not the first time that he has publicly differed with his party colleagues. A self-professed Gandhian who has infinite faith in development through Panchayati Raj institutions, he does not agree with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s economic reforms agenda, and has made no secret of it. More recently, he created a buzz when he “one lakh per cent” endorsed Congress colleague Digvijay Singh’s criticism of Home Minister P. Chidmabaram’s handling of the Naxal issue. On Indo-Pak, he has ignored the party position to persistently maintain that there should be “uninterrupted and uninterruptible” dialogue between the two countries. For some, he is like an Elizabethan Jester, someone who has a certain licence to take liberties, and who often skirts at the very edge, playing with danger a little too often. He is often contrarian, but what he says it has its own logic. No doubt, Aiyar is among the few thinking politicians we have in our midst, having authored several thought-provoking books. He has a razor-sharp mind, and a sharper tongue. And once Aiyar gets going, there is no stopping him. He’s well aware that if it were not for his runaway tongue, he would not be languishing on the political margins while his juniors have gone on to occupy important ministerial berths. He had once confessed that there had not been a single speech of his in Parliament since he became an MP in 1991 which had not been interrupted or some sentences expunged from it. Making his maiden speech in the Upper House in the last Parliament session, Aiyar had lived up to his reputation as he landed himself smack in the midst of a raging row when he described Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley as a “full Fascist”. The Opposition was predictably livid and Aiyar unrelenting, till the Congress president Sonia Gandhi intervened. Only then did he retract his remarks. Although the BJP remains the prime target of his verbal attacks, Aiyar has been equally unsparing with his own colleagues and that includes the Congress president. There is a famous incident when Aiyar launched a virtual diatribe against Sonia Gandhi at a social gathering, completely unaware that his disparaging remarks were causing a lot of discomfort to the other guests. He would have continued undeterred had he not been interrupted by a voice from the next room: “Mani, I am here.” Little wonder that a newspaper report on this incident was aptly titled: “Mani hai ki manta hi nahin”. Another oft-recounted “Mani tale” involves the former Foreign Minister and Gandhi family loyalist Natwar Singh, who once wrote in the visitor’s book of his alma mater St Stephen’s College: “I am what I am because of the college.” Aiyar, also a proud Stephanian, scrawled beneath it: “Why blame the college.” Aiyar’s rivalry with a Foreign Service colleague who was with him in Rajiv Gandhi’s Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is equally legendary and another source of endless stories. When the colleague, also a neighbour, erected a tall boundary wall in front of his house, Aiyar was quick to remark: “He thinks he’s protecting himself against me but little does he realise that I can always stab him in the back.” Extremely confident about his capabilities, Aiyar is not exactly known for his humility. At the time when Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Aiyar were drafted as Sonia Gandhi’s speech writers, Aiyar once seemingly complimented Ramesh on a particular fine piece of writing. “It could only have been written by you, me or us,” he intoned. Aiyar’s ability to liven up any debate has made him a hot favourite with television news channels. He is currently busy studio-hopping, dishing out sound bytes on subjects ranging from Indo-Pak talks to Naxal violence and, of course, the Commonwealth Games. But this was not always the case. Aiyar’s contempt for anybody who was not from the Foreign Service had made him extremely unpopular with the media when he was part of Rajiv Gandhi’s PMO. He was dubbed arrogant while Aiyar’s favourite line was: “Journalists are basically people who knew they couldn’t pass the Civil Services exam.” And yet, there is much more to Aiyar than all the stories about his foot-in-the-mouth disease. A product of the famed Doon School and St Stephen’s College, he went on to get his master’s degree in economics from Cambridge University and then joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS). He left the service to join the Congress after his stint in Rajiv Gandhi’s PMO. For all his loose talk, he remains intensely loyal to the Gandhi family. He once came to blows with the redoubtable former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh for his uncharitable remarks about Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins. “In fact, there are two people about whom he gets extremely sentimental-his father, and Rajiv Gandhi,” remarked a friend, adding that he can talk for hours about the late Prime Minister and the time he spent with him as his Man Friday in the PMO in the mid-eighties. Those who know him say he’s an excellent human being, a tough administrator (no joint secretary could sneak anything contentious past him when he was Minister) and a persuasive speaker. Officials in the Petroleum Ministry still recall how he kept the world leaders mesmerised when he addressed the OPEC meeting in Vienna as Minister in 2004. In fact, the Saudi Oil Minister was so impressed that he hosted a special dinner for the Indian delegation and subsequently invited Aiyar to his country and escorted him around all their oil installations. He had proved to be an excellent Petroleum Minister but lost out because of his impatience with the system, which was not ready to accept his pace of work. “He really has a fine mind. But his intellect is not just his strength, it is also his biggest weakness”, bemoaned a well-wisher. Aiyar is what Aiyar does, and he doesn’t suffer fools, gladly or otherwise. As he goes around puncturing egos and much that is held sacred, he reminds us that a jester is always popular, except with the pompous, who are often his target.
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New Delhi, August 3
His un-diplomatic statements make headlines; he is seldom politically correct, yet Mani Shankar Aiyar is a career diplomat-turned-politician. Of course, he is much more, a Gandhi family loyalist, an ardent Panchayati Raj advocate, a Cambridge-educated intellectual ... yet, he is forever fixed in public perception as ‘The Man whose Mouth Lands him in Trouble’.