Mohali, March 30
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invited Pakistani leaders to witness the cricket World Cup semifinal, the nation was taken by surprise. But this is not the first time that the PM has embarked on the path of peace with Pakistan, much against the opinion of his own Cabinet colleagues.

Manmohan Singh had his first encounter with the Pakistani leadership after the Mumbai terror attacks at Yekaterinburg (Russia) on the margins of the SCO Summit in June 2009. Fresh from his electoral triumph, he firmly told President Asif Ali Zardari in front of the international media that his mandate was to ask Pakistan to stop terrorism emanating from its soil against India. A dumbfounded Zardari has ever since avoided another meeting with the Indian Prime Minister.

However, Manmohan Singh earned the ire of his own party as well as the Opposition for the joint statement he agreed upon with his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani at the Egyptian sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on the margins of the NAM Summit in July 2009. The controversial statement gave an impression that India had decided to delink talks with Pakistan from the issue of terrorism. It also found a mention about Balochistan for the first time in an India-Pakistan joint document. Sensing the mood of the nation, the UPA Government gave a decent burial to that statement.

But the Prime Minister remained unruffled in his vision for peace with Pakistan. He met Gilani on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit in Bhutan in last April. This turned out to be a highly productive meeting. The two premiers produced a joint statement, deciding to take steps to put the peace process back on track.

However, history shows that the peace process between the two South Asian neighbours is very fragile, given their respective positions on the Kashmir issue.

After the 1971 military humiliation that saw the creation of Bangladesh, then Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto came to Shimla for peace talks with Indira Gandhi. That, perhaps, was the best opportunity for India to exploit the situation to its advantage on the Kashmir issue. Bhutto pleaded with Gandhi not to include Kashmir in the final document on the ground that he was leading a weak government.

It was after the 1987 rigged elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which sparked unrest in the Valley, that Pakistan started sending militants into the Valley. Gen Zia-ul-Haq’s cricket diplomacy bore no fruits as Pakistan continued with its policy of ‘bleeding India through a thousand cuts’.

The peace process launched in 1996-97 was short-lived due to instability at the Centre in India where the Deve Gowda and Gujral governments bowed out of office in quick succession. The Vajpayee government embarked upon a fresh initiative for peace with Pakistan after the two countries conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in May 1998.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee undertook a historic bus journey to Lahore in February 1999 but Pakistan stabbed India in the back just three months later in Kargil. Then came the hijacking of the Indian Airlines aircraft to Kandahar in December 1999. Another attempt was made when Gen Pervez Musharraf came to Agra for a summit with Vajpayee. The Kashmir issue became a sticking point between the two sides and the meeting failed to produce any result.

However, the audacious attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 by Pakistan-trained terrorists was seen by India as a clear attempt to challenge the sovereignty of the country. 

Guwahati, March 30
The BJP president Nitin Gadkari today pledged good governance, rapid economic development and use of ‘Israel model’ latest technology to secure borders to stop infiltration across the border from Bangladesh, if voted to power in Assam. Completing his third round of electioneering in Assam, Gadkari said, “Assam has remained backward and its people poor because of corruption and misutilisation of funds provided by the Central government and the ruling Congress will face the music for it in the election.”

He said besides strong anti-incumbency factor, price rise triggered by wrong policies of the Congress-led UPA government, rampant corruption and the UPA government’s inaction to bring back black money stashed away in foreign banks were working against the ruling Congress in Assam polls. He said innovation like erecting electric border fencing to check infiltration from Bangladesh was needed to solve problems of Assam.

Gadkari said, “It surprises me that the Congress-led UPA government is not taking action against black money. I don’t understand the UPA government’s affidavit before the Supreme Court saying that making disclosure of names of black money holders is not in the national interest. Maybe, the Congress is fearing that it will be left with eggs on the face if the names of the black money holders come to the light.” Unveiling the BJP’s Vision 2025 document for Assam, Gadkari said the state had all the resources to become prosperous. 

Mumbai, March 30
A sessions court today granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) permission to take Pune-based stud farm owner Hasan Ali — arrested for alleged money-laundering and lodged in Arthur Road jail here — to its office till April 1 for interrogation. On March 25, sessions court had remanded Ali to judicial custody till April 8. Ali, who has allegedly stashed away billions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts, was arrested in the first week of this month.

The ED had sought nod to take Hasan Ali to its office for questioning. Judge K P Purohit granted the plea today. Ali would be brought to ED office in south Mumbai every day between 10.30 am to 5.30 pm till April 1. — PTI

New Delhi, March 30
Nearly three decades after her divorce, a Delhi woman has been able to secure maintenance for herself and her son from her former husband in a court here. It took the city's lower judiciary 17 years to decide the woman's maintenance plea, which she had filed belatedly in April 1995, 12 years after her divorce in 1983 due to lack of awareness of her legal rights.

As the Tis Hazari courts adjudicated the plea, the woman spent the prime of her life waging a lone legal battle, while her son turned a major and attained an age after which he required no maintenance.

A city sessions court finally ordered on March 25 Delhi's Tilak Nagar resident Inderjeet Singh to pay maintenance to his divorced wife Jasbir Kaur, dismissing his appeal against a magisterial court's order for maintenance to her.

Inderjeet Singh, a former sergeant with the Indian Air Force, was asked to pay alimony to Kaur by Additional Sessions Judge Rajneesh Kumar Gupta. Singh pleaded to the court that he earlier worked as an IAF sergeant but had quit the job in 1985 and was receiving a paltry sum of Rs 2,500 as pension. He said he had no other earning means. — PTI

Hyderabad, March 30
With the Election Commission today announcing the schedule for byelections, the bugle has been sounded for a bitter battle to inherit the political legacy of charismatic Congress leader and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister late YS Rajasekhar Reddy.

The ruling Congress and YSR Congress Party, floated recently by former CM's industrialist son YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, are locked in an emotional war to claim exclusive rights over YSR's legacy. The bypolls will be held on May 8 for Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula Assembly seats.

The byelections have been necessitated after Jagan and his mother Vijayalakshmi quit Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula seats, respectively, in November last year. After failing in his attempts to claim Chief Minister's post, Jagan, the 38-year-old industrialist-turned-politician, had resigned from the Congress and launched the YSR Congress Party to position himself as the sole claimant to his father's political legacy.

On its part, the ruling Congress has pledged to continue YSR's populist policies. It has succeeded in luring YSR's younger brother YS Vivekananda Reddy into its camp and made him a minister in the Kiran Kumar Reddy government. The ruling party is planning to field Vivekananda from Pulivendula constituency from where YSR's widow is likely to seek re-election.

Chandigarh, March 30
Terming as illogical the variance in rehabilitation measures for disabled personnel in different forces, the Delhi High Court wants the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to be rational and frame a policy for rehabilitating disabled Central para-military personnel within the forces in positions that do not require active combat duties.

While directing a disabled Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force trooper to be retained in service as a company clerk, a division bench of the high court comprising Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Suresh Kait held that it would be a part of fairness in action by the state that a lowly paid constable at the lowest rung of a Central para-military force, who is rendered physically disabled while on active service, should be retained in service unless found unfit for any kind of job assigned to constables.

In 1998, constable Gajendra Prashad suffered severe frostbite while being deployed in Phobrang, where the temperature was minus 20 degrees Celsius.

Consequently, the lower part of his right leg and left toe had to be amputated and he was placed in low medical category. He was posted as a clerk after being fitted with an artificial leg, a duty he claimed he performed with ease and satisfaction. A few months later, however, he was issued a show-cause notice for termination of services on account of his medical category.

Observing that the petitioner had kept himself physically fit and he also joined the morning drill regularly in his unit, the bench said he had suffered disability while performing duties in a hostile condition and there was logic and reason to let him serve, if he could, on a job where the department lost nothing.

“Since constables perform duties of a company clerk, why would it be that a physically fit jawan be made to do the said duties and not a physically handicapped jawan. Physically fit jawans would be available for combat duties and those with disabilities, but not of a kind to render them totally unfit, could be accommodated on desk duties leading to a win-win situation,” the bench ruled.

The bench also noted that the CRPF under the same ministry, had a policy of not boarding out disabled jawans if they were fit to perform less strenuous jobs like that of clerks, telephone operators and attendants in welfare centres.

The bench found it “illogical” that one Central para-military force has a benevolent policy pertaining to its jawans who suffer disability on duty, while the other force has none. “We expect the Ministry of Home Affairs to be rational and logical and frame uniform policies pertaining to rehabilitation or retention in service all personnel serving in different central para-military forces,” the bench ruled. 

New Delhi, March 30
Alarmed by the mounting cancer burden attributable to the use of smokeless tobacco in India, the government today decided to hold a national consultation to devise strategies for the regulation of this most dangerous form of tobacco. India has no regulatory standards on smokeless tobacco as of now.

The decision comes within weeks of The Tribune reporting the Centre for Tobacco Research in India’s findings regarding high nicotine and pH levels in several sampled smokeless tobacco products -- including pan masalas, khaini, zarda and gutkha -- being sold in the markets.

The most striking discovery was high nicotine even in pan masalas being marketed as tobacco-free. Rajnigandha was found to have 2.26 gm of nicotine per 100 gm of pan masala. High nicotine was found in all six tested samples of smokeless tobacco. Their pH levels were such as were aiding quick absorption of nicotine in the blood, thus adding to the product’s addiction value.

Evidence in hand, the Health Ministry has on April 4 called stakeholders to debate the critical need to ban or regulate smokeless tobacco, considering the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) India Report findings that 26 per cent Indian adults were consuming these products.

Globally, the highest smokeless tobacco prevalence rate of 53.1 per cent among male consumers has been observed in Yemen. In Bangladesh, the prevalence of use of smokeless tobacco among females (27.9 per cent) exceeds that of males (26.4 per cent).

The Government has finally been constrained to call a consultation on the issue in view of the fact that smokeless tobacco, as per latest evidence, is known to contain over 3,000 chemical compounds; 29 of these are proven carcinogens.

The Indian Council for Medical Research, which is partnering with the Health Ministry and WHO for the consultation, says 50 per cent cancers among men and 25 per cent among women in India are related to tobacco use; 90 per cent oral cancers are related to the use of chewing tobacco.

Importantly, though some state governments had tried banning smokeless tobacco, the industry moved the Supreme Court which asked the Centre to take a call on the regulation of smokeless forms considering COTPA, 2003 (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Regulation Act), a Central Act, is in place to regulate smoking tobacco use. 

BRIEFLY

Warm day
New Delhi: The minimum temperature recorded in Delhi was at 19.4°C. The maximum temperature hovered around 33°C. — TNS