The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

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No personal attacks on Modi, rules SC
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 17
The Supreme Court today directed suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma to refrain from levelling allegations of personal nature against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for defending himself in about half-a-dozen criminal cases relating to a land scam in earthquake-hit Bhuj district, fake driving license and passport.

A Bench comprising Justices Ranjana P Desai and Madan B Lokur asked lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for Sharma, to ensure that no such allegations figured in his client’s petitions. Bhushan said he had already filed an amended petition removing details pertaining to Modi’s alleged personal relations with a woman.

Gujarat’s Additional Advocate General (AAG) Tushar Mehta and senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani, who appeared for former state Home Minister Amit Shah, contended that Sharma had retained the objectionable allegations against Modi in the amended application. At this, the Bench said the amended petition was immediately not traceable on its records and adjourned the hearing for two weeks.

But the court made it clear that it would consider Sharma’s pleas only after satisfying itself that the scurrilous allegations were not part of the amended petition. Bhushan, however, contended that referring to the allegation without going into the details was necessary to substantiate Sharma’s contention that the criminal cases had been foisted on him by the Modi government with mala fide intentions.

The Bench also rejected Sharma’s plea for visiting the United States, where his wife and son were living, observing it did not find any reason to review its earlier order asking him to surrender his passport as one of the conditions for granting him bail.

Sharma was Collector of Bhuj district from May 2003 to June 2006. The state government has filed five FIRs since 2008. He alleged that he had been framed in these cases as his younger brother, Kuldip Sharma, the senior-most IPS officer from the state cadre, had exposed the alleged role of Modi in the 2002 communal riots.

Sharma's plea rejected
The SC Bench has rejected suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma's plea for visiting the US, where his wife and son live. The court said it did not find any reason to review its earlier order asking him to surrender his passport as one of the conditions for granting him bail

Sonia: Party battle-ready, decision on Rahul leading poll campaign final
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 17
At the All India Congress Committee session today, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh refused to be defensive on corruption stalking the UPA government.

Instead, they said the Congress-led coalition had done more to ensure transparency than any other government ever did in the past.

Attacking the Opposition, Sonia said the Congress had faced tougher times and regained victory. In her inaugural speech, which was interrupted by AICC delegates seeking anointment of party vice-president Rahul Gandhi as its PM nominee, Sonia rebuffed the demands saying the Congress Working Committee had yesterday decided to make Rahul the leader of the party’s Lok Sabha campaign and that the “decision was final”.

Sonia listed several measures the UPA government took over the years and asked Congress cadre: “Has any other government done as much as we have done despite Opposition’s disruptions in Parliament. PM Manmohan Singh had steadfastly delivered on the UPA’s promises and we need to tell that to people.”

The party president said the main opposition party followed the path of “dividing the country, spreading radicalism and maligning Congress leaders”.

“Can such an ideology be ever accepted?” she asked as the delegates nodded in agreement. Sonia said all significant decisions in the history of the nation had been taken with the Congress at guard.

“Never should you forget that all historic decisions ever taken in the country were taken under the Congress’ watch. Whether we lose or win, our party will continue to have presence throughout the country,” the party president said.

Later in her concluding remarks, Sonia did some damage control by boosting the morale of workers and saying that nothing could defeat the Congress if the workers were united and disciplined. “If we decide, we can do anything and no one can defeat us,” she said referring to the fact that everyone who spoke on the Congress resolution today spoke with hope and confidence.

“We are ready to face the forthcoming challenge,” she said in her concluding remarks having earlier said that the AICC meeting was called to give a clear signal that the Congress was ready for the battle ahead.

The PM also defended his government’s record, admitting that it had often been accused of not doing enough on corruption. “We have, however, done more than any other government to ensure transparency and accountability,” he said, later blaming slow progress on the reluctance of bureaucrats to take decisions.

“The bureaucrats are afraid of CAG’s scrutiny,” he said, adding that if the UPA’s achievements were communicated properly, the government would come back to power under Rahul Gandhi.

He projected the Congress as the only secular and inclusive party, attacking the Opposition by saying that slogans alone could not win elections.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, however, welcomed Rahul’s leadership of the Lok Sabha poll campaign, saying, “Rahul’s leadership will surely ensure our victory.”

Defending his record further on corruption, the PM added that the government had learnt from its mistakes and its intention had always been clear.

Cong passes poll resolution, promises right to justice, health

New Delhi, January 17
The 23-paragraph AICC resolution adopted at the Congress meeting here today lauded the performance of the UPA government and promised two more rights in election season - the Right to Justice and Right to Health.

The two new rights will be part of UPA’s broad-based rights framework in the string of RTI, RTE and right to food. It further describes the recent electoral setbacks as a wakeup call declaring party vice-president Rahul Gandhi as leader of the party’s LS poll campaign.

Moved by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and seconded by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the resolution appealed to all secular forces to come together to prevent communal forces (read the BJP) “at this critical juncture”. On the issue of corruption and price rise, the resolution does not take a firm stand and instead defends the government, saying it had “worked tirelessly to address the issue”.

“The UPA struck the defining blow on corruption by enacting the RTI Act. However, in our pursuit to root out corruption, we have to be careful so as not to confuse disagreement on merits or even an honest mistake with corruption. Not everything we find wrong is corruption,” the resolution said. — TNS

news analysis
Cong avoids BJP’s itch for a Rahul vs Modi battle
KV Prasad
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 17
The decision of the Congress not to identify Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections is a deft move to deny the BJP an opportunity to conduct a personality-driven campaign and allow the Congress focus on issues and ideology.

Senior party leaders were strongly suggesting that the Congress should avoid getting ensnared by the BJP which is itching the 2014 General Elections be turned into a Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi. It suits the BJP and Modi’s style of campaign to target the Congress and throw punches at its leader, forcing the electorate to choose between two individuals to lead the country instead of party and what it stands for.

The Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today justified the CWC decision as being both in conformity with the time-honoured practice of members of Parliament electing the Prime Minister and envisaged in the Constitution. The subtle message was that Congress will not walk into the BJP trap and announce its prime ministerial candidate, which its president Sonia Gandhi, articulated her views and later amplified by general secretary Janardan Dwivedi: “Let’s others who have competitive issues declare their candidates... we have no such problems”.

Two younger leaders of the party too felt there is no compulsion for the Congress. Haryana Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala told TNS, “Yes, Rahul Gandhi is our leader and will remain so. There is no need to name him as the Prime Minister candidate. We do not have to be apologetic about it... He is our leader”.

All-India Mahila Congress chief Shobha Oza, who in the CWC meet on Thursday suggested that Rahul be named as the PM candidate, today emphasised: “How we project him is not important. We will work hard to win and make him the Prime Minister”.

The BJP appears disappointed that the Congress did not fall for its bait. The party now sought to turn around the argument that clearly the Congress vice president is unequal to the task and avoided a Rahul versus Modi face-off.

“The Congress is losing the will to fight an adversity. This was first visible in the Delhi assembly elections. One poorly attended meeting of Rahul Gandhi and no national leader came to address a meeting in Delhi thereafter. The nervousness is palpable now. Why puncture your only card in an adverse political environment. There is no fire in the belly left to fight adversity. You can duck a comparison with Narendra Modi, particularly when opinion polls indicate a large difference in the personal ratings of the two. May be it is a belated realisation of reality on part of the Congress. If there is no prospect of forming a government, why announce Rahul Gandhi as a prime ministerial candidate!” BJP leader Arun Jaitley said.

Rahul endorses decision
Rahul Gandhi justified the CWC decision not to identify him as its PM candidate for the 2014 LS elections
It was said it was in conformity with the time-honoured practice of members of Parliament electing the PM
The message was that the Congress will not walk into the BJP trap and announce its prime ministerial candidate
Sonia articulated her views on the subject which were later amplified by general secretary Janardan Dwivedi

Amartya Sen explores full potential of pun & sarcasm
Vandana Shukla
Tribune News Service

Jaipur, January 17
Despite an exceptionally cold weather for the desert city, on the first day of Zee Jaipur Literature Festival 2014, the front lawns were choked to capacity. People stood patiently to listen to Dr Amartya Sen’s keynote address that dissected multiple issues confronting India.

Not missing the opportunity to prove his literary skills, Dr Sen narrated a fictional account ‘A Wish A Day for A Week’, of his meeting with “The goddess of Large Things”, with pun to Arundhati Rai’s popular novel “God of Small Things”, after he learnt that India has joined the elite club with the launch of the successful GSLV-DV.

Exploring full potential of pun and sarcasm, Dr Sen enlightened the audience with his witty observations on the contemporary issues debated at different forums - from less respect for humanities in our education to religious politics to the dilemmas of the media and the sexual violence against the women in India. “A novel can point to a truth without pretending to capture it exactly in some imagined numbers and formulae,” he observed, stressing the need to give more impetus to the studies of humanities.

Dr Ganesh Devi’s session on “Writing India Speaking Bharat” introduced an attentive audience to the vanishing languages from India’s cultural landscape. To the delight of the audience, he said, the speakers of Hindi make a greater number than that of English, as the first language. English is gaining popularity primarily as a second language. Still, he cautioned the audience to the dangers of monoculture that results in the death of pluralism and hence the languages.

Through the day, across 25 sessions, the discourse remained focused on India’s freshly acquired enthusiasm for political reforms and crimes against women. Gloria Steinem, the well-known feminist in conversation with Ruchira Gupta, spoke about reproductive freedoms, differentiating erotica from pornography and stated that in order to achieve democracy it is important to practice democracy at home.

Her hypothesis based on the role of culture in encouraging violence against women reiterates the fact that economic well-being does not bring about gender equality. “If more money could bring equality in society, in Saudi Arabia women won’t be deprived of even the right of driving a car,” she said. “The problem is, we have begun to raise our daughters as sons, but we don’t raise our sons like daughters,” she said.

Senior author Ved Mehta, in a rare appearance, shared his experiences of turning personal experience into works of literature through long years of internalisation. For the personal to become universal, it is important “that we humanise our experiences” said the celebrated writer of memoirs.

Two adventurous women writers Cheryl Strayed, who hiked 11,000 miles and wrote the best- seller “Torch” said: “When the landscape becomes your home, the inner landscape expands”. Robyn Davidson, who came to be known as the “camel woman” because she explored the world on camels to save money and wrote the wonderful book on her experience of living a nomad’s life, shared her experiences of letting outer journeys bring about an unalterable change in the physical, intellectual and spiritual arena.

India bats for transit access to Afghanistan
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 17
Without naming Pakistan, India today called upon Afghanistan’s neighbours to provide transit access to the war-ravaged nation so that it could be connected with major maritime ports and markets of the region.

India, Iran and Afghanistan were already discussing the possibilities of cooperation centred on the future development of the Chabahar Port in Iran for transit access to Afghanistan, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said, opening the day-long ‘Istanbul-Heart of Asia Process’ meeting on Afghanistan with senior officials from various countries.

Sujatha said a consistent and clear message New Delhi had received from the business community was that while there was a lot of potential of Afghanistan emerging as a major economic hub for energy, raw materials and trade, connectivity to major markets of the region remained a major impediment.

Landlocked Afghanistan’s main transit route is through Pakistan, which allows goods to pass through to India but does not allow transit of Indian goods through its territory. Kabul has been looking to reduce its dependence on Pakistan for transit.

Commending the preparations being made for the Presidential elections in Afghanistan in April, the Indian official observed that the main threat to this election process was the continued efforts by extremist groups to undermine security and deny the Afghan citizens their right to freely exercise vote. ‘’There is never any justification for terrorism and India strongly believes that it is only through the closest of international cooperation that this scourge of terror will be defeated,’’ she added.

Supporting an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process, Sujatha, however, cautioned that any initiative to assist Afghanistan, undertaken with inadequate preparation and poorly executed, was far more dangerous than no initiative at all.

Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of the meeting, Afghan Ambassador to India Shaida Muhammad Abdali appreciated New Delhi for hosting two key back-to-back meetings on Afghanistan. ‘’We welcome the initiatives taken on Afghanistan in the New Year...we hope these meetings will go a long way in providing stability to Afghanistan,’’ he added.

Asked about the fate of the proposed Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) between the US and Afghanistan, he expressed the hope that it would be signed before the Presidential elections in Afghanistan. The two sides were in negotiations to resolve differences over the agreement.

CBI free to pursue DA case against Maya: SC
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 17
Rejecting BSP chief Mayawati’s political objections, the Supreme Court today issued notice to her and the CBI seeking their response to a PIL plea for reviving a corruption case against her.

“Every time the Lok Sabha election is round the corner, there is a petition against her. This happened ahead of 2004 and 2009 polls,” former Chief Minister’s senior counsel Satish Mishra contended before a Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam pleading against entertaining the PIL.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel Shanti Bhushan said the SC had only quashed the FIR against Mayawati relating to an alleged scam in the Taj Heritage Corridor case, but the CBI had stopped pursuing even the disproportionate assets (DA) case which had nothing to do with the scam.

The petitioner, Kamlesh Verma, a resident of Uttar Pradesh who had intervened in the appeal filed by Mayawati in the corridor case, said he had sent a communication to the CBI and the government to pursue the DA case against her but to no avail.

Danish woman’s rape: Juvenile among three more held
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 17
Two more men and a juvenile have been apprehended for allegedly gang-raping and robbing a 51-year-old Danish woman at the Railway Officers Club near Connaught Place in Delhi on Tuesday.

The men have been identified by the police as Arjun (19-20), who was caught from Jamuna Bazaar and Raju, alias Chhaka (24), who was apprehended from Paharganj. Raju was earlier a resident of Govindpuri in east Delhi.

The juvenile’s identity cannot be revealed according to the law. The Delhi Police today announced the apprehension of the three persons from Delhi. The total number of arrests in the case has risen to six.

UK, France issue travel alerts

France and Britain on Friday issued travel advisories asking their citizens to be careful while travelling to India in the wake of the alleged gangrape of a Danish women in Delhi
Women travellers should exercise caution when travelling in India even if they are travelling in a group," the UK Government said
Several recent incidents show that foreign women can be the victims of such incidents (rape) in India," said the French advisory

Assam DG: ISI behind ultras’ unification bid
Bijay Sankar Bora
Tribune News Service

Guwahati, January 17
New Director-General of the Assam Police Khagen Sarma today claimed that external forces, including the ISI, were behind the fresh initiatives taken by the fugitive ‘commander-in-chief’ of the anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), Paresh Baua, to form a common force of insurgent groups of the Northeast.

“Barua is taking initiative to bring all the insurgent groups in the Northeast together and even included Maoists in the scheme of things. He is doing it at the behest of external forces,” said Sarma who was dealing with the insurgency in Assam for a longtime at the intelligence chief of the state police before becoming the DGP.

He, however, said such efforts to unite insurgents groups of the Northeast would not succeed because of inherent differences between various ethnic communities in the region and earlier such efforts had failed.

The DG said he would be very happy if Barua too comes over for holding dialogue with the government as had been done by many of his colleagues in the ULFA.

The police official today cast aspersion on ULFA’s (anti-talks) claim to have executed one of its senior leaders Partha Gogoi at a camp in Nagaland on charges of treason saying that it could not be believed at the face value given the executed leader’s high degree and loyalty and closeness to Paresh Barua.

The DGP said ULFA (anti-talks) was planning a series of violence in the state and so was the breakaway faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) led by Sangbijit.

“The insurgency situation has improved, but there is no room of complacency. Though many insurgent groups have come over for talks, the level of violence in the state hasn’t come down significantly because frustrated ranks in breakaway factions go for directionless violence targeting innocent people,” he said.

muzzaffarnagar mayhem
SC notice to UP, Centre
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 17
The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh Government and the Centre on a petition by seven gang-rape victims from the minority community of the riot-hit Muzaffarnagar district seeking immediate prosecution of the assailants and a compensation of Rs 20 lakh each.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said it would have the matter examined.

The writ petition by the victims said all of them had been subjected to sexual assaults in different incidents at Fugana and Laak villages on September 8, 2013 as part of the riots that had rocked the district.

The police had registered six FIRs on September 26, 2013 in respect of the gang rapes at Fugana village and was yet to accept the FIR for the incident at Laak village.

Plan to buy torpedoes from Agusta’s sister concern

New Delhi, January 17
A week before cancelling the VVIP chopper deal with AgustaWestland, the Defence Ministry had approved a long-pending Navy proposal for buying heavy-weight torpedoes from the Italian company’s sister concern to be considered by the Cabinet Committee on Security.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) at its meeting on December 23 approved a proposal worth Rs 1,800 crore for buying ‘Black Shark’ torpedoes from WASS, a Finmeccanica group firm. — PTI