Tuesday, April 6, 1999

Murder cases solved, 2 held
NEW DELHI, April 5 — Delhi Police today claimed to have solved five murder cases of north-west Delhi in which six persons were brutally killed and five truck-loads of rice were looted with the arrest of two former employees of a rice mill.

Bhimsen Joshi to get award
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, April 5 — Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, doyen of Hindustani classical music, has been selected for the first Thulaseevanam Award in recognition of his contribution to music.

• Khalsa march reaches Muzaffarnagar
• 8 killed, 5 hurt

Reducing VIP security tough job: Advani

NEW DELHI, April 5 (PTI) — The Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, today said the government was finding it difficult to reduce VIP security cover as whenever an attempt was made, motives were attributed.

"It is quite difficult for those in authority to reduce the security cover extended to VIPs.... whenever attempts have been made to curtail it, motives have been attributed," he said in a key-note speech at a seminar on "VIP Security in a Developing Country" here.

Distortions had crept into the security system over the years and it was high time steps were taken to set it right, he said adding "obstrusiveness" was visible in the security arrangement for VIPs.

In providing security to VIPs, he said, he had noticed that protection of common people had been ignored.

Stressing the need for creating public awareness about curtailment of security cover being given to VIPs, he said he did not have state-wise figures, but in Delhi alone, the Centre had extended the cover to 386 VIPs.

A former Indian High Commissioner to Britain, Mr L.M. Singhvi, presided over the seminar which was organised by the Special Protection Group (SPG) on the occasion of its raising day.

The SPG is engaged in providing security cover to the Prime Minister, former Prime Ministers and Congress President Sonia Gandhi and their families.

Mr Advani, however, said he was ashamed to know about the injuries suffered in police lathicharge at Panaji airport by a teenaged girl travelling with him in the flight from Goa to Delhi last evening. The incident took place shortly before he boarded the aircraft along with other ministers and MPs after the conclusion of the BJP National Executive committee meeting.

"I felt so ashamed...our ministers immediately went to the family and apologised for what had happened", Mr Advani said.

This, he said, could not be glossed over as an isolated incident. Such incidents were often taking place where VIPs were present.

Badal for movement to achieve equality
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, April 5 — Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today suggested the launching of a movement for forging global unity and ushering social equality to mark the celebrations of tercentenary of founding of the Khalsa Pant.

Addressing a large gathering at a function organised by Delhi Sikh sangat at the Red Fort, Mr Badal, who is also the President of the Shiromani Akali Dal, said the real mission of Guru Gobind Singh of creating the order of Khalsa was to fight against tyranny, injustice and oppression and also to carve out a healthy and harmonious society.

Mr Badal said the Sikh sangat must undertake an ambitious project aiming at bridging the gap between the rich and the poor and ameliorate the lot of the downtrodden.

Turning to the celebrations, Mr Badal expressed happiness that all state governments, irrespective of their political affiliations, were celebrating the event. A jatha from Lahore, the place where the “Panj Pyaras” were baptised would leave for Punjab on April 7 and enter the state via Wagah to take part in the celebrations.

He said that jathas from the birthplaces of the “Panj Pyaras” would reach Kiratpur Sahib on April 10 and after a day’s stay would move to Anandpur Sahib on April 12,

Making a fervent appeal to women to take part in the “Mata Sahib Kaur Istri Samagam, to be held on April 11, Mr Badal said the Sikh sangat had honoured women by elevating Bibi Jagir Kaur as the SGPC President.

The Chief Minister was presented with a siropa. He was accompanied by Mr Avtar Singh Hit, President of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), and other local leaders.

Acquisition of land
Amarinder criticises Punjab Govt’s move
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, April 5 — The Punjab Government’s acquisition of 12 acres of land in Anandpur Sahib, where the state Congress Party had planned to hold a rally to mark the tercentenary celebrations of the birth of the Khalsa, was criticised by the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president, Mr Amarinder Singh, here today.

The state government had acquired the land on April 1 with malicious intent the PPCC chief told newsperson.

The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, by this act had shown his policy of political victimisation in a democratic country and had tried to curtail the voice of political rivals, Mr Amarinder Singh alleged.

The land belonged to Mr Bhupinder Singh, block Congress president of Anandpur Sahib, and the state unit of the party had entered into an agreement in August that he would not sow rabi crop for which he had been compensated by the party, the PPCC said.

“The state government has acquired the land on the grounds of public interest a few days before the tercentenary celebrations,” he said, adding that the party had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking stay on the government order.

Mr Amarinder Singh said a large number of persons who had started march from Patna Sahib on April 2 would converge at Anandpur Sahib as scheduled on April 12 night.

“We will hold the Punjab Chief Minister responsible, if the law and order breaks down on April 13 when a large number of people will gather to participate in the Congress rally,” the PPCC chief said.

A group of Sikhs carrying the “jyoti” and the armoury given by Guru Gobind Singh to the Maharaja of Patiala, whose descendent is Mr Amarinder Singh, would enter the Capital tomorrow and would follow the route taken by Guru Gobind Singh, he said.

The Chief Ministers of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and the Congress Working Committee members will attend the function at Anandpur Sahib.

Hepatitis assumes epidemic form
From Our Correspondent

KHANPUR, April 5 — Hepatitis at Khanpur in Jhalawar district in Rajasthan has taken an epidemic form.

At least 2,000 persons out of the total population of 15,000 is suffering from hepatitis. Two persons have been reported dead so far. As many as 16 patients have been admitted to Jhalawar and Kota hospitals.

The Government, however, admits the situation is not so bad as being presented. Officials admit that the total number of patients till Thursday are 470.

The first case was detected at Public Health Centre on March 2. Meanwhile, the Government sent a team of medical officers and a mobile water testing laboratory from Jaipur on April 1.

The Water Supply Minister, Mr Ram Singh Bishnoi, says, “I do not shirk my responsibility but the outbreak of epidemic is surely on account of negligence of the Medical and Health Department which failed to take adequate steps for the health and sanitation during the month-long Makar Sankranti fair here. The sudden rise in the bacteria content to 1200 TDS was due to human and cattle excreta which mixed with ground water after sudden downpour in February.

News analysis
Jaya throws the gauntlet
From A. Balu

CHENNAI: The AIADMK leader, Ms Jayalalitha, has played this game of “concede my demand, or else” several times in the past one year since her party joined the coalition government at the Centre. But this time she has finally thrown the gauntlet and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee appears to be ready to pick it up, whatever fate may befall his government.

If the several resolutions passed by the general council of the AIADMK in Chennai at the weekend and the provocative statements and comments Ms Jayalalitha made at the council meeting and later at a Press conference are any indication, it is only a question of days and not weeks before a major coalition ally from the South bids goodbye to its uneasy partnership with the BJP government.

Ms Jayalalitha’s remarks to reporters that “you can expect exciting developments” in the days ahead have further fuelled speculation that the AIADMK is all set to withdraw support to the administration at the Centre. The three conditions she has spelt out for her continued participation in the Vajpayee government, namely the dismissal of Defence Minister George Fernandes, the reinstatement of the sacked Naval chief, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, and a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the charges levelled by Admiral Bhagwat against the Defence Minister, are as good as providing the Prime Minister the Hobson’s choice. Mr Vajpayee has already rejected those demands and it will be only at the sacrifice of his credibility that he could accept any of them.

Ms Jayalalitha has announced that she will make her next move depending on the Prime Minister’s response. But the three-day meeting of the BJP national executive that has just ended in Panaji, highlighted by Mr Vajpayee’s assertion that his government is ready to face a trial of strength, should leave no doubt in the mind of the AIADMK leader that she has reached a dead end vis-a-vis the BJP.

In warning the BJP that it should not try “our patience” for too long, Ms Jayalalitha has apparently failed to realise that the Prime Minister could retort that she too had tried his patience far too long, and the time had come for him to say “enough is enough.”

What is particularly significant is that Ms Jayalalitha has been given carte blanche by her party to take “appropriate steps as she deems fit for forming new alliances depending on the evolving political situation and the abiding national interests of the AIADMK.” Not that she has not had the sole authority to decide what she thought was in the best interests of her party. It has been always that her writ is the party writ and there are few who would question her decisions.

It can only be a matter of conjecture as to how far the Janata Party leader, Dr Subramanian Swamy, has influenced Ms Jayalalitha to take the plunge to bring down the BJP government. He had a meeting with the AIADMK leader on the eve of the party’s general council meeting and was reported to have impressed on her that the time had come to work out by prior consultations with secular forces the outlines of a structure of an alternative coalition at the Centre. He had also favoured a no-confidence motion to be brought during the Lok Sabha session beginning on April 15. Dr Swamy insists that while he conveys his views to Ms Jayalalitha, the latter has a mind of her own and takes her own decisions. He is all praise for her “patriotic courage” for making the nation focus its attention on the vital issues underlying the dismissal of Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat.

Dr Swamy uses the choicest words of abuse to denounce Mr Fernandes as a “national security risk”. In fact, at a Press conference in Chennai on Thursday last, he used a strong epithet to describe the Defence Minister which could possibly attract libel action but the media chose not to quote the offending phrase. Dr Swamy also charged the Prime Minister with “abetting” danger to national security by refusing to sack the Defence Minister.

It is somewhat an irony that the principal trouble shooter for the BJP in his attempts to mollify Ms Jayalalitha is now himself in trouble with the AIADMK general secretary. It is a mystery that even after she had a meeting with Mr Fernandes in Delhi she is still demanding his blood.

The next few days should see the end of the agonising suspense over the future course of action of the AIADMK. Ms Jayalalitha has given broad hints at the general council of the party that she is willing to ditch the BJP-led coalition and enter into an alliance with the Congress led by Mrs Sonia Gandhi whom she had met at the famous tea party in New Delhi recently. She is scheduled to call on the President, Dr K.R. Narayanan, on April 12, and observers expect the AIADMK leader to get into action before that meeting.

No one except Dr Swamy is prepared to predict if the BJP government will survive or collapse against a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha. The Janata Party MP claims that 78 BJP MPs are ready to leave the party. But the problem with Dr Swamy is that he does not mince words or figures. One thing, however, is certain. Exciting days are ahead as Parliament resumes in the April heat of Delhi. The country will know (borrowing the analogy used by Ms Jayalalitha at her Press conference in Chennai on Saturday night) if the AIADMK engine of the coalition train would throw out the BJP driver and attach itself to another train (presumably the Congress).

Murder cases solved, 2 held

NEW DELHI, April 5 (PTI) — Delhi Police today claimed to have solved five murder cases of north-west Delhi in which six persons were brutally killed and five truck-loads of rice were looted with the arrest of two former employees of a rice mill.

The accused Sarvan and Rajender, who were earlier working as drivers in Vardhman Rice Mills at Panipat in Haryana, were arrested on April 3 from Hamidpur village following a tip-off, the Joint Commissioner of Police (Security) Mr Suresh Roy, told reporters here.

The murders were allegedly committed by the accused to loot the rice loads, Mr Roy said adding that the receiver of the stolen goods Vipin Goel had also been arrested.

Bhimsen Joshi to get award

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, April 5 (UNI) — Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, doyen of Hindustani classical music, has been selected for the first Thulaseevanam Award in recognition of his contribution to music.

Announcing the award, Thulaseevanam Art and Culture Trust President R. Kumaran Nair told newspersons here today that the trust had instituted five annual awards from this year onwards for outstanding performance in the field of music, literature, dance, acting and painting.

Each award carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.

Hindi poet Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan won the literature award, while noted Odissi dancer Kelu Charan Mahapatra bagged the award for dance. Tamil film actor Sivaji Ganesan was selected for the award in acting.

He said the award for painting would be conferred on late Kodungallur K. Madhava Menon.

Mr Nair said the awards would be given away at a function to be organised here on April 23.

8 killed, 5 hurt
From Our Correspondent

SRIGANGANAGAR, April 5 — At least eight persons including, four women and three children, of Bakhusar village were killed and five other injured in ahead-on collision between a jeep and a Rajasthan Roadways bus near the Mahajan area in this district yesterday.

According to the police, four persons died on the spot while four others succumbed to their injuries at the Civil Hospital in Lunaksar and PBM Hospital at Bikaner.

The victims have been identified as Daulat Ram (22), Nanu Ram (26), Gomati (13), Pusi (20), Bhabanri (26), Kamla (21), Kalu Ram (10) and Ramesh (2).

Khalsa march reaches Muzaffarnagar
Tribune News Service

MUZAFFARNAGAR, April 5 — The Bhai Dharam Singh Khalsa March which started from Saifpur village, near the historic town of Hastinapur, was accorded a rousing welcome by Sikhs, the Bajrang Dal workers and other social organisations here today. The march reached here from Meerut.

The march has been flagged off by Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers. Saifpur is the birth place of Bhai Dharam Singh, one of the five Panj Pyaras selected by Shri Guru Gobind Singh ji for the formation of the Khalsa. The route of the march was decorated by the local sangat.

6 of family killed in fire
BHIND: Six members of a family, including two females, were killed on Saturday in Budanpura village under the Babai police station after their house caught fire. Police said here on Sunday that the six were suffocated to death after some clothes caught fire when a burning lantern fell on them. — PTI

Lottery distributors threaten stir
CHENNAI: Lottery distributors throughout the country will agitate if a Bill banning conduct of lotteries by the state Government was passed in Parliament, the General Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Lottery Distributors Association, Mr M. Kaleel Rahman told reporters here on Monday. He said about 80 lakh persons were involved in the trade in the country. — PTI

5 dacoits killed in encounter
CALCUTTA: Five dacoits were killed in an encounter with policemen at a village in Nadia district on Sunday. The police opened fire when the dacoits hurled bombs and fired at the party chasing them in the wee hours at Serampore village. Four policemen were also injured in the encounter. — PTI