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Nandigram
Nandigram Graves
Govt committed to women’s reservation in legislature: PM
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Madras HC upholds death penalty to AIADMK men
They won’t be frisked
Five Maoists get death sentence
SC lets women cross a bar
‘India should assume proactive role at Bali talks’
Babri Masjid anniversary
passes off peacefully
New expressways include Delhi-Chandigarh
N-Deal could get us additional power: Pranab
Arguments end in Mahajan murder case Intelligence inputs about militants a hoax: Police
Militants attack Cong leader’s sons
Cong ‘outwits’ BSP in paying tributes to Ambedkar
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Sonia provoked me to rake up Hindutva: Modi
Kapalvad/New Delhi, December 6 Modi also said it was his democratic duty to tell the truth to people and asserted that hostile reactions to his statements on Sohrabuddin reeked of “pseudo secularism”. “I will reply to whatever issues the Congress raises and will speak in the same language and I have a right to defend himself,” Modi told Times TV channel onboard his specially customised vehicle in the midst of his campaign for the two-phase elections. Modi said his poll agenda was only to raise developmental issues but was compelled to play the Hindutva card when Sonia called him “Merchant of death”. The Chief Minister’s justification of the Sohrabuddin fake enconter killing had provoked angry condemnations from the Left and the Congress and social activists amid demands that Modi be booked for his controversial utterances. Modi said there was no issue about police encounters but what needed to be debated is the issue of “fake police encounters.” “I do not justify fake police encounters,” he added.
Meanwhile, the BJP today hit back at Sonia Gandhi for her comments against Modi, saying she has a “hatred for Hindus” as she remained silent on “atrocities” committed against the community. The party said while Gandhi talks of the “merchants of death” in Gujarat, she has neither apologised for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots nor spoken about the plight of the five lakh Kashmiri Pandits who have been uprooted from the valley. “She has a hatred for Hindus. She speaks against Hindus and chooses to remain silent when atrocities are committed against the community,” BJP deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, V.K. Malhotra, told reporters here.
— PTI
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Congress ready to take on Left: Sonia
Anita Katyal Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 6 Addressing the general body meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) today, Sonia Gandhi described the “tragic and painful” events as unfortunate. Though she did not name the CPM, she specifically mentioned how armed cadres (read CPM workers) did not allow the police to help the people. “The cult of violence and the manner in which armed party cadres prevented the law and order machinery from fulfilling its obligations to the people are most unfortunate. A permanent solution must be found to ensure that such incidents do not occur again and again,” Sonia Gandhi told party MPs. This is the first time that Sonia Gandhi has spoken publicly about the Nandigram bloodshed. She had maintained a studied silence on this sensitive issue in her otherwise candid speech at last month’s meeting of the All-India Congress Committee although the resolution adopted at the session did condemn the Nandigram massacre. While the Congress president broke her silence on this matter today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh followed it up by giving an audience to Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Bannerjee and her colleagues who are battling the CPM cadres in Nandigram. Besides Nandigram, Sonia Gandhi’s speech also focused on the ongoing Gujarat elections where she termed the Narendra Modi-led government’s claims on development in the state as “highly exaggerated” and “hollow”, adding that people in the state were “looking forward to a change”. Aware about Modi attempts to play the Hindutva card, Sonia made only a passing reference to the post-Godhra carnage. She did mention the active involvement of the BJP leadership in the 2002 brutalities but did not elaborate any further.
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Bones, unburnt flesh found
Subhrangshu Gupta Tribune News Service
Kolkata, December 6 These “recovered items” would be sent for forensic and DNA tests, the IG (law and order), Raj Kanoria, told media persons at the Writers Buildings today. He admitted these could be part of the bodies of the people killed at Nandigram. But the Trinamool Congress and the CPM traded charges and counter-charges against over the mystery of the graves and the recovery of bones and human flesh. In New Delhi, Mamata Banerjee met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today and sought his intervention in protecting the lives and property of the people in Bengal who were being repressed by CPM cadres and the police. Manmohan Singh assured her that the Centre would do whatever possible. Sonia Gandhi also expressed her deep concern and blamed the CPM for the Nandigram massacre. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did not comment on the mystery of the graves and the recoveries there. But speaking in the Assembly today, he accused the Congress of double standards on the Nandigram issue. He admitted that during his recent visit to Delhi he personally requested the Prime Minister, the home minister and foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee to direct the state Congress committee not to join hands with the Trinamool Congress and the Maoists against them in the state. These graves were detected during a search operation yesterday by CRPF personnel, who immediately reported it to the CBI officials conducting a separate enquiry into the March 14 killing incident at Nandigram. Subsequently, the local police was informed. The excavation of the graves was conducted today on court orders under the supervision of the first judicial magistrate at Contai sub-divisional court J.P. Singh. Trinamool Congress-led Bhumi Raksha Committee claimed the victims belonged to them and they were picked up and mercilessly killed by the CPM cadres and then secretly burnt at the place. The Trinamool MLA, Sisir Adhikery, said several such graves could be unearthed in the Nandigram-Khejuri area. But the CPM zila parisad sabhadipati, Niranjan Sil, alleged “they were” their men who were killed in bomb throwing by Trinamool workers. He admitted since tension prevailed in the entire area at that time, their five activists killed in the bomb attack could not be formally cremated. Hence, they were “cremated” in the jungle in Baratala village by the side of the Khejuri-Heria road, about 6 km from Tekhakli bridge. The digging started around 2.30 pm and continued till 3 pm. It was witnessed by CBI joint director Arun Kumar, DIG Aloke Raj and several senior officers of the CRPF, local people and school and college students. Several Trinamool Congress and Bhumi Raksha Committee workers and supporters were present, but no CPM cadre was present. The recovered items would be sent for forensic and DNA tests. The IG ( law and order) also said they had already asked the district police to send the samples for forensic tests. He said the forensic teams would also soon make an on-the-spot study of the area where the graves had been detected and the samples recovered. He refused to comment whether the victims belonged to the BRC or the CPM as there were claims and counter-claims by the two warring groups at Nandigram.
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Govt committed to women’s reservation in
New Delhi, December 6 “Principles of gender equality and women’s rights are enshrined in our Constitution. It not only grants equality to women but also advocates positive discrimination in favour of women wherever necessary,” Dr Singh observed inaugurating the 2nd East Asia Gender Equality Ministerial meeting here today. Pointing out that more than a million women work as elected representatives in local bodies in this country, he said the mobilisation of such large numbers of women in public life constitutes a historic measure of gender equality. Participation of a critical mass of women in politics at the highest level would bring about a revolutionary change and in ensuring good governance. Mobilisation of large numbers of women in public life through panchayats has brought about a significant shift in public policy and social attitude towards women. The Prime Minister said the government was committed to provide one-third representation to women in state assemblies and Parliament and was working for a broad consensus on the matter. He recalled that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took the historic initiative of reserving one-third of the seats in local bodies for women. Going beyond political representation, the Prime Minister noted that the government has taken steps recently to improve the gender balance in budgetary policies. The finance ministry now prepares a gender budget that quantifies the government’s financial commitment to the cause of gender empowerment. Simultaneously, Dr Singh drew attention to self-help groups, which have assumed the form of a broad based people’s movement besides being an important initiative for achieving gender equality. He said the real guarantee against violence against women is in one’s minds and attitudes. “No law can substitute for a change in our mindsets. It is an inhuman act. No civilised society can allow such a practice. I hope your conference will find new ways in which we can prevent this practice in our societies.” Dwelling on India’s initiative to achieve gender equality, union women and child development minister Renuka Choudhury said unless women, who constitute half the population are able to gain from the benefit of economic liberalisation, development would continue to be lopsided. She underlined the need for holistic empowerment of women where social, political and economic aspects impact their lives effectively.
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Madras HC upholds death penalty to AIADMK men
Chennai, December 6 Confirming the death sentence to Neduchezhian, Ravindran and Muniappan, all AIADMK functionaries, a Bench, comprising Justice D. Murugesan and Justice B. Periya Karuppiah held that the serious charges including murder had been proved beyond doubt by the prosecution. The bench also upheld the conviction of 25 others to rigorous imprisonment but instead of seven years awarded by the lower court on various criminal counts decreased it to two years by stating that the sentences would run concurrently instead of consecutively. The HC rejected the appeals of the accused who were convicted by the Salem Sessions Court on February 16 this year. The violent incident shocked entire Tamil Nadu as three innocent girls were charred to death as the bus carrying students of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, was returning after a study tour and while it was passing through Dharmapuri town on February 2, 2000 was torched by angry AIADMK workers who were protesting against the sentencing of Jayaram Jayalalithaa in a corruption case to one year’s imprisonment. The mob doused the bus with petrol even when the passengers were inside it and did not even let them alight from it. While some of the girl students could escape from the blazing bus, three students Kokilavani, Hemalatha and Gayathri, were trapped inside and charred to death while 18 others suffered burn injuries. A total of 31 men who were accused in the case, two were acquitted, while one died during the trial.
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They won’t be frisked
New Delhi, December 6 While a release of the Ministry of Civil Aviation here said the list of dignitaries, who are exempted from pre-embarkation security checks at the civil airports, had been extended to include the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, holders of Bharat Ratna decoration, the chief election commissioner, the comptroller and auditor-general, the attorney-general and the chiefs of defence staff, holding the rank of full general or equivalent. Civil aviation minister Praful Patel announced that: “I think it is appropriate to give them exemption who defend our country’s borders.” He said the three service chiefs had been included at Number 12 in the Warrant of Precedence issued by Rashtrapati Bhawan indicating that those who figures in the warrant are waived from security checks at the airports. A controversy was raked up late last month when defence minister A.K. Antony informed Parliament that the service chiefs were not exempted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation from security checks at the airports. Antony informed the Rajya Sabha that the Ministry of Defence had raised the matter with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and had requested exemption for the three chiefs, but it was turned down. “The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security have stated that according exemption to the three service chiefs will lead to similar demands from other authorities,” the minister said. |
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Five Maoists get death sentence
Patna, December 6 Additional district and sessions judge of a fast track court in Banka, Gangotri Ram Tripathi gave this punishment to them for killing three policemen and injuring as many on November 3, 2005. The police had chargesheeted 12 persons in the case, but seven are still absconding. The convicted Maoists were Ashok Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Naresh Yadav, Dhaneshwar Yadav and Suresh Yadav. The convicts, along with seven other Naxalites, had shot and hacked to death sub-inspector Bhagwan Singh, in-charge of the Anandpur police outpost, and two constables Nityanand Kumar and Brajbhushan Prasad and injured three policemen. They had also looted four rifles, a revolver and 80 rounds of ammunition from them. Meanwhile, Maoists in Bihar reportedly caught the police unaware by organising the foundation day parade of their guerrilla wing on December 3 in the jungles of Gaya. Gaya is among the 23 districts of a total of 38 in Bihar where presence of the banned outfit was already admitted by the government. Sources in the intelligence disclosed that good number of women cadres with arms were also present during the foundation day parade. During interrogation of one of the top Maoist leader Babu Sahni alias Bhaskar the police reportedly came to know the outfit’s plan to target some top political leaders of both the ruling and the opposition parties in the state. Sahni was arrested by the special task force in Patna last week and was now lodged in Beur Jail. The Maoists had given a bandh call in north Bihar, bordering Nepal, on December 2 following the arrest of Sahni. The Maoists in Bihar and Jharkhand, who work in tandem, already had gunned down the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MP Sunil Mahato and the younger son of Babulal Marandi, Anup Marandi, in Jharkhand this year. The intelligence inputs of late shared by the Jharkhand police with its Bihar counterpart also indicated the new modus operandi of the ultras. Bihar and Jharkhand already have agreed to conduct joint combing operations in border areas after the recent killing of the son of Babulal
Marandi.
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SC lets women cross a bar
New Delhi, December 6 The court not only freed young women from the shackles of the restriction imposed by Section 30 of the Act, passed by British rulers in 1914, but also men below 25 years of age, who were also prohibited from associating themselves with any work on the premises where liquor was served. While describing the restriction on women as “invidious discrimination perpetrating sexual differences”, a Bench of Justices
S.B. Sinha and Harjit Singh Bedi termed it as direct assault on the right to the livelihood regarding males below 25 years. The court said in today’s era of
liberlisation, youngsters of 20-22 years of age were entering in the hospitality industry with diploma in the hotel management and the law came in direct conflict with their right to employment. The order came on an appeal against the Delhi High Court judgement of last year striking down Section 30 of the Punjab Excise Act, challenged by a petitioner, who was also supported by the Delhi government citing the infamous Jessica Lal murder and BMW cases as instances of “dangerous consequences” of such liberal view. The apex court upheld the HC verdict and declared Section 30 of the Act as contrary to fundamental rights of an individual laid down in the Constitution. But the court rejected the NCT government’s stand, saying, “When the restrictions were in force, they (authorities) could not prevent such occurrences… But only on a pre-supposition of such incidents happening, we cannot declare a law intra vires which is ex facie ultra
vires.” “The legislation suffers from incurable fixations of stereotype morality and conception of sexual role. The perspective thus arrived at is outmoded in content and stifling in means,” Justice Sinha, writing the verdict for the Bench held. “Young men and women know what would be the best offer for them in service sector. In the age of Internet, they would know all pros and cons of a profession. It is their life; subject to constitutional statutory and social interdicts, a citizen of India should be allowed to live her life on her own,” the court said. It said when the restriction was imposed 93 years ago, the hospitality sector in India was at its infancy and during the 60 years of its independence, it had made a long stride and women had got entry into all spheres of public life, and any restriction on them merely on the basis of sex would be violating their right to life. Instead of prohibiting women from employment in the bars, the state should focus on “factoring” ways through which unequal consequences of sex differences were eliminated as it was the duty of the state to enforce the rule of law to create “circumstances” of safety and confidence among women.
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‘India should assume proactive role at Bali talks’
New Delhi, December 6 “Cooperation is necessary. The world has to think big and not in the small, petty way it is thinking right now. Even if India cuts all emissions and China stops breathing, climate change cannot be stopped unless rich countries take big action. This is their natural debt,” the CSE Director, who is also on the Prime Minister’s Panel on Climate Change, said. “India must take the lead in this in Bali to draw the roadmap that will enable us to live beyond the 13th Conference of Parties (CoP),” she added. The CoP to the climate convention is currently under way in Bali. Though Narain is hopeful of much emerging at the conference, she admits the CoP did start with an advantage over previous such meetings, an overwhelming consensus that climate change is real. “Everyone understands that climate change is happening and the time to act before temperatures spiral out of control is small,” she said.
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Babri Masjid anniversary
passes off peacefully
Lucknow, December 6 Litigant Raja Ram was arrested from the court premises today as he was found to be in possession of five firecrackers. He had come to court for some personal work. He reportedly was working for a licensed firecracker manufacturer and claimed to be carrying them, as he had to deliver them at a marriage party later in the day. Admitting that they were “technically explosives” additional director general- law and order and STF Brijlal, however, ruled out the incident being associated with terrorism. The state had been put on maximum alert, as there were also reports of a major terrorist strike either in the court targeting the lawyers or the police in the state today. In Ayodhya, 17 members of Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha were arrested after they were trying to force their way for a ‘parikrama’ on the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi campus today. Special security measures had been ordered for places of historical importance, crowded, religious places, informed home secretary Mahesh Gupta.
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Parliament adjourned
New Delhi, December 6 While the Rajya Sabha functioned normally after lunch but the Lok Sabha continued to witness unruly scenes even after it reassembled in the afternoon with members continuing to storm into the Well of the House. It was then adjourned for the day.
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New expressways include Delhi-Chandigarh
New Delhi, December 6 Minister of state for shipping, road transport and highways K.H. Muniyappa told Rajya Sabha today that the section of Vadodara-Mumbai (400 km) had already been identified. The other 600 km would be identified out of the potential corridors of Delhi-Chandigarh (249 km), Bangalore Chennai (334 km), Delhi-Jaipur (261 km), Delhi-Meerut (66 km), Kolkata-Dhanbad (277 km) and Delhi-Agra (200 km). In addition, the government has approved construction of 134 km of eastern peripheral expressway around Delhi.
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N-Deal could get us additional power: Pranab
New Delhi, December 6 In a written reply, he said while the Integrated Energy Policy had set a target of 20,000 MW of nuclear power by 2020, it could be doubled with the international cooperation. On the financial gains that the country would have from the nuclear agreement, the minister said the GDP growth rate of 8-10 per cent per annum should be maintained to achieve the objective of eradication of poverty and it is necessary to explore and exploit all sources of energy. The additional nuclear energy will help to achieve India’s energy targets and contribute to growth in vital sectors of India’s economy including industry and agriculture, he said.
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Arguments end in Mahajan murder case
Mumbai, December 6 Additional Sessions Judge S P Davare started dictation of the judgement at the fag end of the day’s proceedings at around 4.50 pm. The process was expected to be completed before the start of the Christmas vacation. After the conclusion of arguments, defence advocate H H Ponda appealed to the court that his client Pravin Mahajan should be acquitted from all charges as he did not commit the murder of his elder brother Pramod Mahajan. Earlier, Ponda told the court that the motive behind the murder was not mentioned in the First Information Report (FIR).
— UNI
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Intelligence inputs about militants a hoax: Police
New Delhi, December 6 The intelligence inputs about six people coming from Deoband in Uttar Pradesh to Seelampur in East Delhi seems to be a hoax so far as thorough checks have been carried out in almost every corner of the city, said joint commissioner of Delhi Police's special ell Karnail Singh. The police had received "specific" input, including the registration number of the car in which the suspected militants were travelling, two days ago, but it seems now that it was a "false" alarm, he said. "The inputs appears to be false. However, keeping in view of intelligence inputs, the security in Delhi continues to be tightened," he said.
— PTI
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Militants attack Cong leader’s sons
Guwahati, December 6 Langthasa’s sons, Dipendu Langthasa and Nirmalendu Langthasa, were travelling from Haflong to Guwahati in a convoy of vehicles when they came under heavy firing by unidentified militants at a place called Guruhari under Dehangi police station in North Cachar Hill district. The police said one of the PSOs on Dipendu Langthasa and the driver were injured in the attack. The police suspected the hand of the Black Widow militants behind the attack.
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Cong ‘outwits’ BSP in paying tributes to Ambedkar
Lucknow, December 6 As soon as the Vidhan Sabha convened this morning senior Congress MLA Pramod Tiwari stood up to request the Speaker Sukhdev Rajbhar to get a photograph of Ambedkar placed in the Central Hall so that members could pay their tributes on his death anniversary. Leaving the ruling party ministers completely red in the face Tiwari went a step further by suggesting that a list of such great leaders should be drawn up through consensus so that such occasions were not missed. |
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