New Delhi, September 23
Even as a piqued VHP, a party to the Ram Janmabhoomi/Babri Masjid dispute, imputed motive and conspiracy in the deferment of the Allahabad High Court judgment verdict on the dispute at Supreme Court’s order today, the Congress heaved a sigh of relief and welcomed the apex court move.

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court was scheduled to deliver tomorrow the judgment on the 60-year-old dispute over the piece of land on which Babri Masjid stood in Ayodhya from 1528 to December 6, 1992, when Sangh parivar mobilised lakhs of kar sevaks to pull down the historic mosque.

While the BJP was circumspect and avoided a comment on the apex court’s unprecedented move to entertain a petition seeking deferment of the judgment in the larger interest of peace, VHP president Ashok Singhal blamed the government for this saying “I feel the government is responsible for this.” Singhal pointed out that of the nine parties to the dispute, including Ram Lalla Birajman and Sunni Wakf Board, all told the court that there was no further scope of negotiations.”

The VHP president announced that the high-powered committee of 45 top sants, including the Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Joshimath Peeth and others, who will be meeting tomorrow, will decide the next course of action in view of this delay and warned that “Those who are responsible for this conspiracy will come to grief.”

He insisted that the person (Ram Chandra Tripathi) whose plea the apex court heeded, was a complete “non-entity” and had no locus standi. “There must be powerful lobbies backing him for his plea to be taken so seriously when all the nine parties were pressing for no further delay.”

The Congress on the other hand welcomed the order with its spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi maintaining, “The Supreme Court has taken a good decision. Congress welcomes it.” He said, “Congress has always said that priority should be to resolve the Ayodhya dispute through dialogue and mutual understanding and if such effort fails it should be resolved in the court, whose verdict should be acceptable to all concerned.”

Dwivedi virtually let the cat out of the bag indicating that the apex court order has addressed the concerns of the government and the Congress party. The government is worried over any possible fallout of the verdict on the eve of Commonwealth Games (CWG) and Bihar assembly elections, where the party hopes to substantially dent Lalu-Paswan’s secular/Muslim vote. 

We have to maintain peace, communal harmony and amidst at all costs... it doesn't matter whether the verdict in the title suit is delivered today or tomorrow or after so many days.

Lalu Prasad, RJD

The state-wide alert will remain despite the Supreme Court’s stay on Allahabad High Court verdict in Ayodhya title suit for a week.

Buddhadeb, WB CM

Negotiations and reconciliation are always welcome but the point is, in all these years this has not been achieved.

Sitaram Yechury, CPM

Till 3 pm today, Zohra Begum, the famous ‘dholak’ maker from Hanuman Garhi market of Ayodhya, had her chin up despite recording zero sales for the 30th day in a row. Like others in this town seized by fear, she had pinned her hopes of a new life and renewed livelihood (her dholaks once used to be a rage in temple ceremonies) on the verdict the Lucknow Bench of Allahbad High Court was to deliver tomorrow in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid discord.

But 24 hours before the verdict the news of its stay by the Supreme Court shocked this temple town, with people’s reactions ranging from disillusionment to anger over yet another delay in which they saw doomed livelihoods. For the locals here, tomorrow’s verdict had more to do with the return of normalcy than anything else. In a fortnight, earnings have dipped by over 80 per cent, with some people thinking of migrating out in search of greener pastures.

As 65-year-old Begum put it, “Bhukhe pet kya masjid aur kya mandir? Ab to garib roti se bhi jaega (for a hungry man, there’s no meaning of a temple or a mosque. Now the poor will not even get two meals a day).” Zohra hasn’t sold any dholak in a month as temples have remained deserted after pilgrims boycotted the city due to tension ahead of the verdict. Her friend Gopal Sahu, who sold ‘sindoor’ and ‘bindis’ today disposed of his cart to buy food for his family.

Since the news of HC verdict came, locals had been awaiting with baited breaths the outcome of the dispute, which has left them poorer, financially and psychologically. “We wanted this headache to end. We have suffered enough. Since spring, there has been no tourist. Now, the forthcoming season also looks doomed. The verdict should have come, whoever it favoured,” Ajay Soni, artificial jewellery maker in Singar Haat market said. He hasn’t sold any piece in 15 days.

With town’s economy battered, people fear the verdict’s delay will impact their earnings in the remaining festive season as well. The city’s livelihood depends on three annual fairs --Chaitra, Sawan and Kartik. The first two saw a lukewarm response; Kartik fair is around the corner post-Navratras and Diwali.

Through the city heart, one could sense the cold today’s development brought. Sad sights abounded -- of sweet shop owners, cloth merchants and temple paraphernalia sellers squatting outside their shops, awaiting the elusive pilgrims which number over 1,000 on any normal day. Today, there were none, not even at the famous Saryu ghat, which stood alone by the river bank waiting for Ayodhya to shed its centuries-old baggage. All one saw was force deployment -- 50 companies of state armed police and 12 of CRPF, standing guard and living in school and guest house buildings.

Mumbai, September 23
People of Maharashtra, especially the security personnel, have heaved a sigh of relief following the Supreme Court’s decision to stay the pronouncement of the proposed verdict of the Allahabad High Court on the Ayodhya title dispute. The security forces had been on high alert in the state in anticipation of the proposed verdict.

Police and paramilitary personnel who were asked to stay on duty round-the-clock would now be allowed emergency leave, senior police officials said. “Many policemen who were not allowed to go home at all during the 12-day Ganesh festival may be allowed to do so now,” a senior police official said.

Several police personnel were asked to remain on “bandobust” duty for the past 48 hours at a stretch keeping in view the terror threat to the Ganesh festival.

New Delhi, September 23
Even as the BJP avoided any direct comment on the visit of the all-party delegation to Jammu and Kashmir, , the Left parties and the LJP have demanded withdrawal of the AFSPA from the state in a phased manner.

CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta, a member of the delegation led by Home Minister P Chidambaram, said: “Withdraw AFSPA at least from Srinagar. Nothing prevents you (the government) from imposing it again, if the situation demands.”

The CPI leader expressed serious reservations on the Army chief and the Joint Chief of Staffs opposing on record such suggestions. He said, “We call the Government of India not to allow the Army to become political. Who gave the Army chief the permission to comment on AFSPA?”

New Delhi, September 23
Keen to keep momentum going on the peace initiative in Jammu and Kashmir, the government is looking at a step-by-step approach. One of the first “political initiatives” envisaged to restore normalcy in the state could include relocation of paramilitary forces out of selected populated areas. Changes in the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) will have to wait.

Members of the 39-member, all-party delegation that visited Kashmir recently went to the Home Ministry on Thursday to give their opinions. BJP’s Arun Jaitely made his stand clear: Article 370, which accords special status to J&K, should be withdrawn and there should be no dilution of AFSPA.

CPM’s Sitaram Yechury said that the recent Kashmir visit must lead to “some tangible confidence building measures” like release of protesters against whom there were no serious charges and action against security personnel charged with committing excesses. The Centre “must initiate action against those members of the security forces against whom charges of excesses have been proved by the CBI or other agencies,” he said.

Defending the meeting of MPs and separatist leaders, Yechury said that this unprecedented, out-of-the-box step was aimed at conveying to the Kashmiri people the sincerity of the Indian political leadership in reaching out to all sections and shades of opinion in order to restore normalcy.

The Armed Forces Act has been facing stiff opposition from almost all parties. The government studied the pattern adopted in Manipur where the Act has been lifted from selected areas. “The Army cannot be blamed for the crisis and nor can it work without protection… however, nobody is keen on allowing human rights violations where fake encounters have taken place,” said a senior functionary. But one thing seems evident: AFSPA is unlikely to be diluted; at best some areas could be taken out of its purview on the “Manipur pattern” but that too will be the second step and more of a political call. 

New Delhi, September 23
To make the numbering system of passenger trains more logical, uniform and computer-friendly, the Ministry of Railways has decided to shift to five-digit numbering of trains in place of four digits from December 20.

To make the transition smooth and simple, the digit ‘1’ will be prefixed to existing four-digit numbers. This change will cover all scheduled and regular express and mail and superfast trains, including the Durontos, Yuva Trains, Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Jan Shatabdi Express, Garibrath Express, Sampark Kranti Express. However, the names of the trains will not be changed or modified.

The five-digit train numbering scheme became necessary as the four-digit scheme got exhausted with the Indian Railways running over 10,000 trains every day.

The special trains run by railways to clear holiday and festival rush shall be numbered on the pattern of the mail or express trains except that they shall have the prefix ‘0’. This numbering scheme shall also apply to special trains run on Full Tariff Rates (FTR) basis.

The passenger trains and the suburban trains are also proposed to be renumbered and brought under this new five-digit system and respective zonal railways will issue separate notifications for such changes.

Officials said that the new system will go a long way in monitoring the movement of trains more effectively and in facilitating dissemination and management of train information more scientifically, in turn benefiting the passengers and public. This major initiative will create a unique “train number” which will be a national level identity for each train. 

New Delhi, September 23
The Cabinet meeting tomorrow is set to clear a new law providing for strict penal action and hefty fines going up to Rs 1 crore to guard against misuse of data collected for allotment of a Unique Identity Card or a Aadhar number to citizens.

The proposed legislation titled the National Identification Authority of India Act, seeks to give statutory powers to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UDAI), headed by Nandan Nilekani that was created as an attached office under the Planning Commission.

The Bill was circulated for public comment earlier this June and is expected to be tabled in Parliament in the upcoming winter session. The decision to enact such a legislation was taken after fears were expressed over the privacy and security of data collected by the UDAI. In addition, several civil rights groups had also pointed out that actions of the UDAI could well be questioned in the absence of a legal framework.

In an effort to address these concerns, the proposed legislation contains strict penalty for those found guilty of disclosing identity information, impersonation and allowing unauthorised access to data.

According to these provisions, any unauthorised person caught downloading or damaging UID information will be liable to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of not less than Rs 1 crore.

This scheme of providing unique identity number to the citizens of the country will take off on September 29 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presents the first such number at a function in the tribal district of Nandurbar in Maharashtra.

Guwahati, September 23
Protests by a section of students holding black flags shadowed Congress general secretary and Youth Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s visits to Assam varsities from media glare today.

The Congress MP interacted with students of Assam University in Silchar in South Assam, Dibrugarh University in eastern Assam and Indian Institute of Technology here during a whirlwind tour to the state. The media was not allowed to be present in any of the venues where Rahul interacted face-to-face with students.

Rahul started his day by meeting the students of Assam University. He called upon the students to take a plunge in active politics.

However, his visit to Dibrugarh University was not a smooth sailing as the PGSU, which has been in loggerheads with the vice-chancellor Dr KK Deka for the past couple of months over issues concerning the institution, took exception to the visit of a ‘politician to the educational institution in pursuit of his political agenda’. The protesting students showed black flags to Rahul Gandhi at the varsity gate.

The varsity’s PGSU secretary Arindam Borgohain said, “Most of the students from university classes stayed away from the interaction with Rahul Gandhi, which was organised by the VC without taking us into confidence. We registered protests against his visit by waving black flags at the varsity gate. We are in principle opposed to any politician visiting our varsity to further his political agenda. Rahul Gandhi does not visit varsities to listen to problems of students but to call upon students to join the NSUI.”

Though university students chose to stay away from Rahul’s function, the local NSUI unit ensured that a sizeable number of students from colleges outside university campus were present in the varsity auditorium when Rahul arrived this afternoon.

She could sprint 400 metres and throw her javelin afar but her future was in a game where she didn’t have to run, just dance on her feet -- and where the length of her arm would be the limit of her blow. Yes, it is in boxing that this athlete scored, and how. Her journey started from her village in Manipur and now she is an international star, one of India’s hopes for an event that she helped nurture for the 2012 Olympics: boxing.

On September 18, Mary Kom won The Women’s World Boxing Championship in Barbados. In fact, she has won a medal in all the six World Championships she has fought -- five of them gold.

The 27-year-old mother of two, who took a two-year sabbatical after she had twins, credits K Onkholer Kom, whom she married on March 12, 2005, for putting her back into the boxing ring, even as many, including family, opposed the move. Onkholer, who belongs to the same Kom tribe as Mary in Manipur, met the boxer in 2001 and they have twin sons aged three.

Mary has her sights set on the Olympic gold in 2012, an endeavour supported since September 2009 by Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ). It’s been a long journey for Kom, who took to sports to provide financial support to her family. “I was initially an all-round athlete and 400m and javelin were my pet events. When Dingko Singh returned from Bangkok (Asian Games) with a gold, I thought I should give it a try. Dingko’s success triggered a revolution of sorts in Manipur and surprisingly, I found that I was not the only girl who was drawn into boxing,” she says.

Mary Kom and seven other girls became the first batch of trainees in women’s boxing in Manipur in 1998. The Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) had forwarded a circular from the international body to all state boxing associations in the country to attract women to boxing. Khoibi Salam, senior vice-president of the IBF, who hails from Imphal, says he picked Kom.

“At that time, Mary Kom used to play football. She used to come to watch boxing training in Manipur Sports Complex, where I was the secretary and a coach. I picked up Mary and seven other girls for training. They used to even train with male boxers sometimes. Everybody was awed when I organised a demonstration game by women boxers, including Kom, during the National Games in Imphal in January 2000,” said Salam.

Kom hogged the limelight by striking gold in the First Women National Boxing Championship at Chennai in February 2000. That was the turning point of her life. “Mary is very gifted, hardworking and a quick learner. To top it all, she has the killer instinct and “never-say-die” attitude which are most important for a boxer to rule the ring,” Salam added, while recounting the exploits of his protégé and “Queen of the Ring”.

Salam declined to make any prediction, but said, “She is perfectly OK. If she maintains the same standard, she would definitely strike gold in the 2012 Games. But that is still two years away; God knows what happens in between. But I would say, if it (Olympics) were to be held next month, she would have definitely got it (the gold).”

Salam’s observations were echoed by Kom’s coach from Manipur, L Kishan Singh. “Mary will have to compete in the 51-kg category in the Olympics as there will be no 48-kg group in the Games. That means she will have to work much harder and increase her weight in consultation with doctors. Otherwise, there should not be any doubt about her techniques and talents as a boxer.”

The boxer hardly finds time to spend with her family and children as professional assignments keep her way most part of the year. “Notwithstanding her long absence from home, Mary has been the most doting wife and loving mother. Whenever she is with us in Imphal, she grabs any opportunity to cook for us. For me, she cooks the most delicious ‘Iromba’ (a popular hot dry fish preparation indigenous to Manipur). Our children relish the sandwiches and sweets prepared by her,” says Onkholer, rejoicing in Mary’s latest victory in the World Women’s Boxing Championship in Bridgetown, Barbados.

At home and amidst her people, Kom is the down-to-earth girl next door. She likes to socialise and mingle. An accomplished singer in Kom dialect and a devout Christian, she is fond of singing gospel songs. However, she never misses her regular training session. Usually, she trains for about 90 minutes every day but the duration goes up to two hours if there is a tournament approaching.

Even as she is riding the crest of her career, Mary Kom has not forgotten her humble roots in a village in Moirang where her father Mangte Tonpa Kom and mother Mangte Akham Kom earned their livelihood by working in a jhum (shift cultivation) fields.

Kom has been lucky since the Manipur Government has supported her pursuit of a career in the ring. She is now serving as a Deputy Superintendent of Police (CID) in Manipur and lives in a house at the National Games Village in Imphal. Even as she is aiming for gold in the next Olympics, Mary Kom is also pursuing her graduation from IGNOU.

Her commitment to do something for the athletes from rural Manipur manifested in the MC Mary Kom Boxing Academy in Imphal set up and run with her own resources. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has recognised it as its extension Centre for budding boxers. Mary Kom takes care of food and lodging of 27 resident trainees in the academy, which is being supported by the SAI with equipment and stipends to the trainees.

A nationalist to the core, with her heart in the region she was born in, Kom is indeed the stuff champions are made of. She is a role model, like few mothers can be.

BRIEFLY

AI flight grounded after bird hit
Bhopal: An Air India flight with 85 persons onboard was grounded after a bird hit, officials said. The Delhi-Bhopal-Indore-Mumbai flight suffered a bird hit minutes after it took off from the Raja Bhoj Airport here at around 8.30 pm following, which it landed within 10 minutes.About 24 passengers were sent to Indore via road from here, officials said, adding that arrangements for the stay of 28 passengers were made in a hotel.The remaning passengers were flown to Mumbai via Indore by an Airbus-319 at 12.50 pm from the airport on Thursday. — PTI