Thursday, November 4, 1999
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Slow probe into HDW case
displeases HC |
 Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, BJP president Kushabhau Thakre and Delhi BJP president Mange Ram Garg at the BJP national executive meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday — PTI |
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Sonia hints at major reshuffle Rajiv case convicts to seek mercy Foreign aid pours in for
cyclone-hit Surjeet donates property share to
CPM Lashkar meeting in Pak
‘outrageous’ Another Jaya will emerge: Mulayam |
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Slow probe into HDW NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today depressed displeasure over the slow pace of probe into the alleged payoffs in the Rs 420 crore HDW submarine deal with a German company during the Rajiv Gandhi regime. A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice S.N. Variava and Justice S.K. Mahajan, during argument on a public interest writ seeking speedy investigation into the case, observed that without a “political will” the investigating agency could do little in such cases. “The problem is that the investigating agency (CBI) is under the government,” the Bench said while directing the CBI to file a status report on the progress of investigation within four months. To a court’s query whether the CBI had recorded the statement of former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) R.N. Trivedi said, he was yet to be questioned by the agency. Petitioner advocate B.L. Wadhera had sought examination of Mr V.P. Singh on the ground that he had made a statement regarding the HDW deal before the Jain Commission, which probed the conspiracy aspect of Rajiv Gandhi assassination. Mr V.P Singh as Defence Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government had ordered an inquiry into the deal after receiving a telegraphic message from the then Indian Ambassador in Germany that at least 7 per cent commission was paid to middlemen in the HDW contract. Mr Trivedi said the probe had to be carried out in Germany and Switzerland where letters rogatory were sent by a special court here long back. “Unless the authorities in these countries cooperate it is difficult to get information,” he said. He said the Swiss authorities in the latest communication had stated that they were overburdened and could not expedite the matter immediately, while no fresh reply was received from Germany. The CBI had registered an FIR on March 5, 1990 when Mr V.P. Singh was the Prime Minister and named former Defence Secretary S.K. Bhatnagar, former Additional Secretary (Defence) S.S. Sidhu, former Director (submarine) in Naval Headquarters M. Kondath, former Additional Financial Adviser, Ministry of Defence, B.S Ramaswamy and former Vice-Chief of Naval Staff M.R. Schunker, as accused. Other named in the FIR are, NRI businessman Gopi Chand Hinduja, HDW Company, another German company Aeg Telefonken and a Delhi-based firm Roger India Private Ltd. The kickback money was
allegedly routed through secret Swiss bank accounts. |
Church forgives Shiv
Sainiks NEW DELHI, Nov 3 — The Church today forgave Shiv Sainiks, who were arrested by the Delhi Police for burning an effigy of Pope John Paul II, saying that “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing”. In a statement, a spokesman of the Catholic Bishop Conference, Dr Dominic Emmanuel, said that the Christian community held no grudge against anyone. “While we are happy with the duty performed by the Police, we forgive them fully, keeping in mind the words of Jesus who forgave his enemies, he added. The Pope had gone and met the man who tried to assassinate him in the prison and forgave him, he further said. Meanwhile, a press release issued by the Bahujan Swyamsevak Sangthan (BSS) and distributed at the regular media briefing of the Organising Committee for the visit of Pope John Paul II along with other press releases, stirred a hornet’s nest as it contained abusive language against caste Hindus. While Dr Emmanuel, national secretary of the All-Indian Catholic Union, John Dayal and the Protestant leader and a member of the Delhi Minorities Commission, Rev Valson Thampu made efforts to dissociate the Church from the controversial press note issued by the BSS but they were unable to offer a satisfactory explanation as how the release came to be distributed with the daily press kit of the Church. When mediapersons present at the briefing asked whether the Church stood by the “abusive” release of the BSS, Mr Dayal said “the press release contains the views of the BSS, and you can contact them.” Rev Thampu, who addressed the inter-faith Press meet today to welcome the Pope, said:” We do not support the views contained in the release and it should not have been enclosed with our release.” In a separate statement,
Mr Dayal strongly contradicted the allegations levelled
against Christian community for giving encouragement to
terrorist activities in the North-East. |
Sonia hints at major reshuffle AMETHI, Nov 3 (UNI) — Congress President Sonia Gandhi today indicated that the party organisation was in for a major reshuffle all over the country. There were persons at the helm in the party who had no contact with the masses and the party had many shortcomings which needed to be removed, she said, addressing a public meeting in the Tiloi Assembly segment in the Amethi constituency, which she visited for the first time after winning the Lok Sabha elections. Without mentioning Uttar Pradesh, Sonia said the party organisation in many states had too many functionaries, while some states needed more people. In such a situation there was a need for change, she said and added that the student, women and youth wings needed to be strengthened. She said revamping of the party organisation might take some time but it was her first priority. She sought to assure the party workers that their problems would be addressed and their grievances removed. Apologising to the public for the delay in visiting the constituency, she said she could not do so earlier because of the Lok Sabha sessions. However, according to a report form New Delhi, the Congress said today that organisational and other changes would be made only after studying the report of the A.K. Antony committee,appointed to look into the causes of the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections and to suggest solutions. Replying to a question, whether party President Sonia Gandhi had ruled out any change of the Delhi Chief Minister, party spokesperson Anil Shastri said the party president had not talked about change of any person.All what she said was that there was no decision on change and any decision on such issues would be taken only after receipt of the Antony committee report. Replying to another question he said teams of senior leaders had been sent to the states where Assembly elections were due next year. The work of these teams would not clash with the Antony committee, which was to visit all states to ascertain the causes of the party’s poor show in the Lok Sabha elections and suggest solutions,he said. Mr Shastri said Congress
President Sonia Gandhi thanked voters of the Rajmahal
constituency in Bihar and Dhubri in Assam for electing
the Congress candidates in the just-concluded Lok Sabha
elections. |
Rajiv case convicts to seek mercy CHENNAI, Nov 3 (UNI) — The four condemned prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case have decided to seek mercy from the President to get their death sentence commuted to life term only after the disposal of the mercy petitions filed before him by some lawyers on their behalf. Mr N. Chandrasekaran, counsel for the condemned prisoners, told UNI that in view of the Union Home Ministry staying the execution till further orders, "we are not in a hurry to approach the President." "A lobby is working to pressure the prisoners to file the mercy petitions at the earliest so that they could be disposed of by the President and their fate could be sealed, but we will not succumb to it," he said. The prisoners would also await the outcome of the writ petition filed by them in the Madras High Court challenging state Governor M. Fathima Beevi’s rejection of their mercy petitions. The prisoners had filed mercy petitions to the Governor on October 18, but they were rejected on October 27. The seven days’ time allowed to file the mercy petitions before the President after the state Governor’s rejection of the same expires today. The Union Home Ministry,
in its communication on November 1, had directed the
Tamil Nadu Government to stay the execution of the death
warrant due to the pendency of the clemency petitions
with the President.
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Foreign aid pours in for cyclone-hit NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (PTI, UNI) — The USA, Canada and Germany today announced assistance of nearly Rs 13 crore to support relief and humanitarian activities in cyclone-hit Orissa. The U.S. assistance of Rs 10.07 crore includes a financial authorisation of Rs 10.8 lakh by U.S. Ambassador Richard F Celeste to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. The embassy presented the donation to the Prime Minister's office. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has decided to donate Rs 43.5 lakh to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, while Germany is donating Rs 2.3 crore. The remaining U.S. assistance of about Rs 9.5 crore will be in the form of food and commodity relief donated by the U.S. Government and routed through the U.S. private voluntary organisation, CARE, for feeding 200,000 cyclone-affected families in the worst affected districts of Ganjam and Cuttack, an embassy release said. The embassy has also made a grant of Rs 46.22 lakh to CARE/India for purchase and distribution of plastic sheeting for 20,000 flood affected families. Denmark has sent an initial consignment of 1000 blankets for immediate distribution through the UNICEF and Ministry of Defence. Meanwhile, US President
Bill Clinton offered condolences along with the
Australian, German, Italian, Canadian and Dutch
Governments, to the families of victims of Friday's super
cyclone that struck the coastal districts of Orissa.
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Surjeet donates property share to CPM NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (PTI) — Mr Harkishan Singh Surjeet was inspired by the step taken by Communist leaders who donated all their property to the party way back in the 1930s, but at that time he had no property of his own. Seven decades later the Marxist leader fulfilled that dream. He has given up the proceeds from his share of family property to his party, the CPM. The amount works out to Rs 20 lakh, of which Rs 10 lakh has been given to the Central Committee and another Rs 10 lakh to Sohan Singh Bakhna Memorial Trust in Punjab. The trust is constructing a memorial for all martyrs of the struggle for Independence from Punjab. The CPM general secretary has also decided to draw a single wholetimers wage and hand over the rest of his Rajya Sabha MP pension as levy to the party. Lashkar meeting in Pak
‘outrageous’ NEW DELHI, Nov 3 — India today described the ongoing three-day meeting of the terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba in Pakistan as "outrageous". When asked for comments on the Lashkar-e-Toiba meeting, the spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs said it was "outrageous". There has been considerable international concern on terrorism, he said. The Lashkar-e-Toiba, which began its three-day meeting today in Muridke near Lahore, has been actively involved in terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India. New Delhi as a matter of fact, is surprised that the military establishment in Pakistan has allowed the meeting to take place which goes against Pakistan Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf's publicly pronounced views. On Monday, during his first press conference, General Musharraf had said he would not allow anyone to exploit Islam." Even otherwise, General
Musharraf has been under considerable international
pressure to rein in armed religious zealots. |
Police not to stop ‘Goa to Delhi’ yatra NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (PTI) — The Delhi police will not bar the entry of 'Goa to Delhi' yatra, organised by a Sangh Parivar outfit against conversions, into the Capital on the occasion of the Pope's visit but has made "fool-proof" arrangements for the Pontiff's security, city Police Commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma said here today. In an interview with PTI, the Commissioner also cautioned that the Catholic Church's decision not to allow bullet-proof screen cover for Pope John Paul II during the Holy Mass at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Sunday was a "security risk". "We have made assessment of the situation and have made fool-proof arrangements to ensure that no untoward incident takes place during the papal visit beginning November 5," Mr Sharma said. He said the police had
tied up with the Catholic Church, the Ministry of
External Affairs and other security and intelligence
agencies to provide "maximum security" at all
the venues the Pope is likely to visit, keeping in mind
"earlier attempts to harm his person". |
Another Jaya will emerge: Mulayam NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (PTI) — Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is hopeful of the re-emergence of the "third front" in the near future saying "political compulsions" will force regional and left parties to come together. Charging the Congress and the BJP with "colluding together" to politically eliminate the "third front", Mr Yadav today said both parties had "joined hands" in the recent elections to defeat the SP in UP. On the longevity of the BJP-led government, he said: "We will watch the working of the government for six months .... There is a strong possibility of another Jayalalitha emerging after some time." Replying to questions at a "meet the Press" programme organised by the Press Club of India here, Mr Yadav said "I am not a fortune-teller but as per my political understanding, another Jayalalitha is bound to emerge sooner or later." He said the Left parties had "committed a major blunder" during the recent elections. "While the CPM has maintained its strength, you know what the CPI is now faced with." However, the Left
parties "are bound to play a major role in forming
the ‘third front’ .... They will come round to
our political stand" of maintaining equidistance
from the BJP and the Congress," he said, adding
other Left parties like the RSP and the Forward Bloc had
already taken such a stand. |
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| Polythene bags in
cow’s stomach BAREILLY: Doctors have taken out two bucketsful of polythene bags from the stomach of a cow in an operation at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izzatnagar, here. Dr Navin Kumar of the Surgery Department of the institute led the complex operation, IVRI Director Nagendra Sharma said. He said the cow was brought to the institute for examination after she lost appetite. — UNI Oppn MLAs observe
day’s fast Tripura to have
public grievances cell 10 persons
kidnapped in Tripura Woman kills
husband for incest Ministers to
learn tribal language Raveena to star
in “Daman” Seven bodies
recovered |
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