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Team Anna fires fresh salvo, says PM, Pranab corrupt
Too many heroes have spoilt the BJP, says Thackeray
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MoD was leaking information to fix me: Army Chief Akash missile test-fired
Plan panel hopes group on poverty will address concerns
Furore after interlocutors call PoK ‘Pak-administered J&K’
techie’s
death
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Team Anna fires fresh salvo, says PM, Pranab corrupt
New Delhi, May 26 The voluminous account, seeking an independent probe into the charges, has been sent to the PM, who too has been charged with giving away coal blocks at throwaway prices when he was in charge of the Coal Ministry between November 2006 and May 2009. Anna Hazare and his close aides have sought the setting up of an independent Special Investigation Team with three retired judges as members to investigate their charges. They said the SIT should also investigate charges against BSP supremo Mayawati, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa. According to Arvind Kejriwal, they would wait till July 24 for the government to set up an SIT or go on an indefinite fast from July 25. The SIT could also investigate charges against Team Anna, he added. This is the first instance when Team Anna has levelled an allegation of corruption against the PM. According to the team’s members, the CAG report on coal scam was the basis for their allegations against the PM. “Manmohan Singh is the Prime Minister since May 2004 and was personally in-charge of the Coal Ministry from November 2006 to May 2009. Under his watch, a major coal allocation scam took place which allowed private firms to make windfall gains, as is clear from the facts that are now out in the public domain and the report of the CAG,” the note to the PM states. It concludes by saying, “Above facts clearly show that Singh abused his position to give huge pecuniary benefits to private parties, which is an offence under Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Therefore, the said matter needs a thorough independent investigation.” While Chidambaram has been accused of a long list of “irregularities” (in fact, 25 pages in the 79-page report are devoted to his “wrongdoings” ), the team also alleged that Mukherjee, as the Defence Minister, was involved in the Scorpene submarine deal. As far as Chidambaram is concerned, the extensive note against him is divided into five units: pricing of 2G Spectrum, allowing sale of equity by Swan and Unitech, FIPB approval of Hutch-Vodafone, FIPB approval of Aircel-Maxis and unwarranted attempts to withdraw prosecution. Accusing Chidambaram of irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation, Prashant Bhushan says, “A memo was sent by the Finance Ministry that the spectrum cannot be allocated at the 2001 prices. Chidambaram was in London. Yet he told the officer concerned to withdraw that memo and send a fresh one.”
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Too many heroes have spoilt the BJP, says Thackeray
Mumbai, May 26 "First, there was only LK Advani for the post of Prime Minister. The list is now longer with Gadkari, Modi, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, apart from Advani himself stepping out of the wings," Thackeray said in party mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ today. The BJP's national executive meeting last week proved that the country's main Opposition party was indeed a house divided. Party president Nitin Gadkari, who enjoys little grassroots support in his own home state of Maharashtra, had to bend backwards to please Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in order to bag a second term. Worse still, Gadkari - who has had his authority questioned behind closed doors in his first term - will have to live with open rebellion by senior leaders like LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj in his second tenure at the top. The fact that Gadkari will be heavily dependent on Modi in the near future became evident during the resolution to amend the BJP's constitution that gave him a second term as party president. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, apart from Sushma Swaraj and Gopinath Munde, stayed away. Munde, an old foe of Gadkari, has given enough indications that he will continue to hassle the BJP in Maharashtra. At a press conference on Friday, Munde snubbed party spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain - said to be close to Gadkari - in front of the media and asked reporters not to "trouble" the latter with questions. Meanwhile, the re-emergence of Modi on the national scene is expected to cause fresh equations to be drawn up within the BJP. The buzz in the party is that Modi will move to the centre after the elections in Gujarat later this year in order to take charge of the BJP's campaign for the 2014 general elections. BJP leaders said that Modi would kick off his roadshow with yatras across different states after the 2012 elections. The impression that Modi himself has set his sights higher became evident at the party's rally on Friday. Scores of party workers from the Gujarati community thronged the event and hailed Modi as India's future prime minister. The churning which has just begun in the BJP is leading to interesting developments. The party's ally in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena, which had been wary of Modi in the past has embraced him tightly only to embarrass Nitin Gadkari. "Now its obvious that no important decision can be taken in the BJP without Narendra Modi," Bal Thackeray told party mouthpiece ‘Saamna’. "Nitin Gadkari had to obtain Modi's consent to become BJP president for a second term," Thackeray further rubbed it in. That there is no love lost between Gadkari and Thackeray is no secret in Maharashtra. The BJP president had sought to deepen the divisions in the Sena supremo's household by wooing his estranged nephew Raj Thackeray. Now the ageing tiger is paying back by playing Modi against
Gadkari. Mumbai: Former Karnataka CM BS Yeddyurappa is a "human bomb" within the
BJP, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said on Saturday in an apparent reference to the Lingayat leader’s potential to cause damage to the party in the only southern state where it is in power. — PTI |
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Petrol price hike: Mamata takes to streets
Kolkata, May 26 Braving scorching heat, Banerjee along with railway minister and party's all-India general secretary Mukul Roy walked briskly for five km from Jadavpur to Hazra crossing in south Kolkata. Also in the procession were several state ministers like Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra, Manish Gupta, besides deputy speaker Sonali Guha. Trinamool Congress workers carried posters demanding that the hike in petrol price be rolled back and shouted slogans against the UPA government's decision. Banerjee has already expressed strong displeasure against the 'unilateral and unjust decision' by the Centre to effect the sharp hike and demanded its rollback saying it was unacceptable. "It is unjust, unilateral and not right. We cannot support a decision which will put huge additional burden on the common man. It is unacceptable," she said shortly after the petrol price hike was announced on Wednesday. Though she said her party was not pulling out of the UPA, Banerjee has made it clear that did not mean that her party would not protest unjust decisions. At the end of the march, the Trinamool chief directed her party workers to launch protest marches at booth and block-level in the state tomorrow. Trinamool Congress chief whip in the Assembly Sobhandev Chattopadhyay said that the party chief was the first leader in the country to take to the streets to protest the petrol price hike. "We are in the UPA alliance, but we have not signed any bond,” he said. "We are committed to the common minimum programme of the UPA, but Congress being the largest ally, did not bother to consult us, the second largest alliance partner on the decision to hike the petrol price. We have no option but to protest," Chattopadhyay said. Trinamool's ally Congress, meanwhile, urged the state government to consider a partial reduction in the taxes on petrol in the state to provide some relief to consumers. — PTI
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MoD was leaking information to fix me: Army Chief
New Delhi, May 26 In a series of interviews to TV channels, the General also made no secret of his unhappiness with the Supreme Court where he lost a legal battle over his age in February. In an apparent reference to a remark by Justice RM Lodha, one of the two judges on the Bench that heard his case, the Chief said that a very senior apex court judge had told him to "blow with the wind". "If all of us are going to blow with the wind, then we will all become muggers, we will all become corrupt," he said, according to a transcript of his interview released by a TV channel. Justice Lodha had actually remarked, "Wise men are those who move with the wind. We take pride in having (an) officer like you. Credit must go to you." In a separate interview to another TV channel,
the Army Chief said that he had withdrawn his petition on the age issue because the Supreme Court gave
no decision. "They tried to arbitrate. Then I realised that you are fighting a system." — PTI
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Akash missile test-fired
Balasore, May 26 "The user specific trial, which formed part of the country's routine air defence exercises, was conducted from the
ITR," said a Defence Research Development Organisation official associated with the ‘Akash’ missile project. To re-validate the technology and operational efficacy of the anti-aircraft missile, Defence forces conducted the trial with logistic support provided by the
ITR. — PTI
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Plan panel hopes group on poverty will address concerns
New Delhi, May 26 The expert technical group chaired by chairman of Prime Minister’s Economy Advisory Council C Rangarajan was announced earlier this week by Minister of State for Planning Ashwani Kumar. “They will revisit the methodology for estimation of poverty and identification of the poor,” Kumar said while adding that the expert group is expected to give its report in seven-nine months. “People’s perspective on poverty has changed. Therefore, we need to take a fresh look at the methodology for estimation of poverty,” he said while talking about the changing lifestyles of people. Unlike the past when two square meals a day defined basic needs, today, the parameters have changed and include other things like a basic shelter, access to education and sanitation facilities, the minister said. Also, new parameters have to be laid down for urban and rural poor. Poverty estimates, based on the Tendulkar Committee methodology, that people consuming more than Rs 28.65 per day in cities and Rs 22.42 in rural areas are not poor, had triggered a controversy which had rocked Parliament. The members of the expert group which would suggest alternative methods of estimating poverty are Mahendra Dev, Director, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, K Sundaram, Mahesh Vyas from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy and former adviser (perspective planning) Planning Commission KL
Datta.
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Furore after interlocutors call PoK ‘Pak-administered J&K’
New Delhi, May 26 As against the government’s official position which the Parliament sealed through its 1994 resolution on Kashmir, the interlocutors preferred to use the term “Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir” instead of “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir” which India uses. While the term “occupied” encapsulates the element of force, the term “administered” does not. The seemingly innocuous invention has not gone down well in political and diplomatic circles, with the BJP today daring the government to reject the “anti-national report” and the Left demanding a clarification on whether the government accepts this change of nomenclature for PoK, considering it has not responded to the sensitive new coinage. The Parliament had unanimously resolved in 1994 that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India and had called for the integration of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir into India. The BJP today slammed the interlocutors for using the terminology “Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir” in their report and said this jargon was American. The party demanded that the Congress-led UPA government should forthwith reject the report and ask interlocutors to submit a fresh one reflecting India’s official position. “India doesn’t recognise the term Pakistan-administered Kashmir. This is US jargon. The 1994 Parliament resolution calls for getting the POK back from Pakistan. The interlocutors have, by coining a dangerous new name, committed an anti-national act which is against the provisions of Indian Constitution. The BJP strongly objects to this report and demands its rejection,” BJP National Executive member Seshadri Chari told The Tribune when contacted. Top former diplomat KC Singh, who was Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, expressed shock at the new coinage. He questioned the interlocutor, saying, “You administer something under someone’s authority. You don’t administer it by forcibly occupying it. The interlocutors must tell us under whose authority do they think Pakistan is administering Kashmir.” He said by using the expression PAK for PoK, the interlocutors have attempted to change the complexion of the Kashmir issue besides disregarding the Indian position. “The government appointed these interlocutors and approved their bills. They have no business in changing the government’s stated position. They are not an NGO. The use of the term PAK is a deliberate attempt on their part to evolve a new terminology and introduce in the Indo-Pakistan dialogue an element of equivalence,” he said. Singh was referring to the fact that Pakistan calls Kashmir India-administered Kashmir and now wants India to call PoK as Pakistan administered Kashmir. “We administer Kashmir under an instrument of accession from the Maharaja of the former princely state. Under what authority does Pakistan administer Kashmir?” asked Singh.
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Take the political dialogue forward, resume Government of India-Hurriyat dialogue and encourage Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir to enter into the dialogue |
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techie’s death Shubhadeep Choudhury/TNS
Bangalore, May 26 “She too was in love with him. But when he became desperate to meet her, she got panicky and send him a message saying she was going to England to get married to someone,” Nagraj, inspector at the Mahadevpura police station in Bangalore, who is investigating the case, said. Police initially thought Sreeraj was murdered but later came to the conclusion that it was a case of suicide. A local court, where Gayathri was produced today, remanded her in 15-day judicial custody.
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Sonia calls ultras for peace talks
Guwahati, May 26 Thousands of Congress workers today braved a 12-hour statewide bandh called by the anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) to attend a rally organised by the party on the occasion of completion of the first year of the Tarun Gogoi government at the Sarusajai Stadium on the outskirts of Guwahati city. The ULFA faction called bandh and shutdown of the Assam Valley and Guwahati city in protest against the visit of the UPA chairperson. Sonia said, “Because of the policy of dialogue adopted by the UPA government, almost all the major insurgent groups in Assam have come forward for peace talks with the government by giving up arms. The few extremist groups, which are still opposed to dialogue, should realise the futility of violent means and come forward for talks with the government to solve their problem.” The Congress president said the party would remain indebted to the people of Assam for the tremendous faith in the government and vowed to do everything possible to speed up the
on-going socio-economic development process initiated by the government led by CM Tarun Gogoi.
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