Thursday, August 5, 1999
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Probe begins today Resentment among Punjab Cong
minority men |
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CPM releases first list
of nominees Samata denies charge against
George Cong indulging in doubletalk: BJP Patnaik not to contest BJP gets six seats in TN Scindia’s decision upsets BJP BJP finalises tieup with Shiv Sena Khurana’s challenge to
Dikshit Restrain caretaker govt: CPM Ambika Soni to head media panel JD hopeful of entry into NDA BSP names allies |
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West Bengal train mishap GAISAL (West Bengal), Aug 4 (PTI) — Rescue teams cut open the remaining three mangled coaches and recovered a few bodies and no survivors, nearly three days after two speeding trains collided head-on in one of the worst railway accidents here, 80 km from New Jalpaiguri junction. With the day’s recovery of bodies, the death toll in the collision betwen the Brahmaputra Mail and the Awadh-Assam Express stood at 278 and the General Manager of the NE Railway, Mr Rajendra Nath told PTI, "This is more or less the final figure. All coaches have been cut open and we do not expect to find more bodies from the debris." He said cranes were being used to access the interiors of the badly damaged coaches and the debris would be cleared by tomorrow evening. Denying allegations made by certain quarters that the rescue work was slow, Mr Nath said it was necessary for the rescuers to operate very cautiously so as to guard against further mutilation of the bodies for their identification. "Most of the bodies were entangled in the debris so badly that they had to be extricated with utmost care," he explained. The bodies had been kept at North Bengal Medical College and Islampur Hospital for identification. Meanwhile, Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety M. Mani, who arrived here this morning, inspected the scene of the accident. The statutory inquiry into the accident would begin tomorrow, Railway sources said. Mr Nath expressed the hope that normal operations of goods trains in the sector would resume tomorrow after the debris of the two trains was removed. Mr Nath said goods trains, which were not being allowed to ply in the section after the accident, could resume services tomorrow. The Gaisal railway yard would also be cleared for regular use by tomorrow, he said. Besides, a special train carrying relatives of the deceased would leave Guwahati tomorrow morning and terminate at New Jalpaiguri. The train would return to Guwahati in the evening, Mr Nath said. Two separate buses would
run from Kishanganj and Islampur to Gaisal for the
relatives, who would be given passes from Calcutta and a
few other cities to avail of the facility. |
Selection of LS nominees NEW DELHI, Aug 4 — Resentment is brewing among Punjab Congressmen belonging to the minority community as it is becoming evident that nomination for only one of the 13 Lok Sabha seats may be allotted to non-Sikhs. As the process to finalise the candidates for the forthcoming poll nears completion, resentment has started growing in the state unit of the party against the "shoddy treatement" being meted out to the members of the minority community. For the second consecutive day today, the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) held its meeting to clear nominees from various states, but even 24 hours after the first session, the AICC kept the names under wraps. Reports circulating in Congress circles indicate that the CEC had approved candidates for seven of the 10 constituencies in Haryana and eight of the 13 in Punjab. However, there was no official word in this regard. Party members from Punjab said on condition of anonymity that for the 10 general seats in the state, the Congress had not thought it fit to select even one member belonging to the minority community from among the eight names that were purported to have been cleared. "Compare this to the BJP which selected two members from the minority community for three seats allotted to its by its alliance partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a leader said. "After the manner in which the Jat Mahasabha in Rajasthan distanced itself from the Congress, it may be the turn of the minority community to look towards the BJP" an agitated senior party leader said on condition of anonymity. Several leaders from various districts of Punjab especially those belonging to the minority community, said the development came after senior leaders requested the party’s high command that at least five or six constituencies should be kept aside for candidates belonging to the community. The leaders had suggested that the party should consider fielding miniority candidates from Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Ferozepore. The claim was based on the basis of the population of the minorities which was nearly 48 per cent, they said, adding that traditionally, the community cast its lot with the Congress. Another charge against
the state leadership was that the cases of those who
defected from the SAD were promoted instead of those who
served the party loyally even during difficult times. |
Subrahmanyam Committee NEW DELHI, Aug 4 (PTI) — The government today formally notified the terms of reference of the Subrahmanyam Committee saying that it would review the events leading to the Pakistani aggression in Kargil. The four-member committee, chaired by noted defence analyst K. Subrahmanyam, would also recommend requisite measures to safeguard national security against such armed intrusions, an official press note said. It asked the public to furnish reliable and authentic information pertaining to events leading to the aggression to the committee. Information from the public would be in addition to inputs received by it from the armed forces and all other government agencies and departments, both at the central and state levels, it said. Maintaining that the committee started its work on July 24 when it was constituted, the press note said since the committee was to submit its report to the government by October 31, all such inputs should be furnished positively by September 15. Besides Mr Subrahmanyam, other members of the committee are Lt-Gen K.K. Hazari (retd), noted journalist B.G. Verghese and National Security Council Secretary Satish Chandra as its member-secretary. While setting it up, the government had said the committee would have a "comprehensive review" of events that led to the Pakistani aggression. The decision was taken at a specially convened meeting of the Union Cabinet, following the Opposition demand for a thorough probe into the Pakistani intrusion alleging that there had been intelligence failure. The decision was taken after Defence Minister George Fernandes disclosed that the Army has ordered an internal inquiry into what went "wrong" which led to the incursions. However, Mr Fernandes
had categorically ruled out intelligence failure as the
prime cause behind the incursions. |
CPM releases first list of
nominees NEW DELHI, Aug 4 — The CPM today released the first list of 38 candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections. While the party has retained 26 sitting MPs in the list, it has decided to field a sitting MLA of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, Mr Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami, from the Anantnag parliamentary constituency, according to a CPM note. The party is contesting two seats of Madurai and South Chennai in Tamil Nadu where it has fielded Mr P. Mohan and Mr A. Soundarajan, respectively. The CPM is also contesting the Sikar constituency in Rajasthan where a sitting MLA, Mr Amra Ram, has been given the ticket. In West Bengal, the CPM has allotted the ticket to 24 sitting MPs with the leader of the party in the outgoing 12th Lok Sabha, Mr Somnath Chaterjee, contesting from Bolpur. A member of the Central Committee and a Rajya Sabha MP, Mr Mohammad Salim, had been fielded from the Calcutta (North-East) constituency, the note said. Meanwhile, the CPI will release the first list of candidates tomorrow. Party General Secretary, A B Bardhan, who is on a tour of Uttar Pradesh, will return to the Capital tomorrow, party National Secretary D. Raja told TNS. Mr Raja said the CPI
would field its candidate, Mr Bhan Singh Bhaura, from the
Bathinda (reserve) cons/tituency. |
Samata denies charge against
George NEW DELHI, Aug 4 — The Samata Party today sought to dispel speculation that the convener of the National Democratic Alliance, Mr George Fernandes, was trying to get more clout and bargaining power by the unification of the Samata Party, the Lok Shakti and the Janata Dal. Reacting to the charge, party general secretary, Jaya Jaitly said, "the accusations regarding leadership or post-poll bargaining are regrettable and mischievous." Eversince the unification of the Janata Dal, the hawks in the BJP have been of the view that the new alignment could give more clout to Mr George Fernandes, who was the tallest of all leaders in the new combination. There have been apprehensions that in the event of the unified Janata Dal winning a significant number of seats, it could even bargain for a bigger post, like Deputy Prime Ministership, for Mr Fernandes. Ms Jaitly said the
consolidation of the parties was aimed at making the
allies strong. |
Cong indulging in doubletalk: BJP NEW DELHI, Aug 4 (PTI) — The BJP today accused the Congress of indulging in "doublestalk" by talking of a single party government on the one hand and on the other aligning with Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ms Jayalalitha whom the Congress had earlier dubbed as casteist, corrupt and criminal. "The Congress says talks are on with the BSP while the BSP says no talks. Why this deception? Show us a state where you can form a government on your own. We don’t know whether the Congress is doing this intentionally or their script writers do not know what to say", party general secretary Venkaiah Naidu told reporters here. He said it was time the Congress came clean on whether it was going to have alliances or proposed to go it alone in the coming Lok Sabha elections. If the party was going in for alliances, then what would happen to the allies after the elections. "The Congress appealed to us to not politicise the issue of proxy voting by defence personnel. Who is politicising it? Asking something for our defence personnel who are defending the country. Is it politicising?" asked Naidu. The Election Commission
and the government were ready to promulgate an ordinance
to allow proxy voting for defence personnel, but it was
the Congress which opposed it, he said, adding the party
had also stated this at the all-party meeting. |
Patnaik not to contest NEW DELHI, Aug 4 (UNI) — Former Orissa Chief Minister J.B. Patnaik said today he would not contest the coming Lok Sabha elections. In a statement here, Mr Patnaik said he was surprised over the reported recommendation of his name for the Bhubaneswar seat by the PCC screening committee as well as the AICC selection committee in charge of Orissa. He said his wife,
Jayanti Patnaik, would contest from her Berhampur
constituency which she represented in the dissolved Lok
Sabha. |
BJP gets six seats in TN CHENNAI, Aug 4 (PTI) — The BJP has been allotted six seats by the DMK in Tamil Nadu in the seat-sharing accord signed today. The DMK President, Mr M. Karunanidhi told newsmen later that the constituencies allotted to the BJP were Tenkasi, Sivaganga, Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli and Nagercoil. The BJP will contest the
Tenkasi and Sivaganga seat for the first time. |
Scindia’s decision upsets BJP BHOPAL: AICC General Secretary Madhavrao Scindia’s reported decision to shift from Gwalior to the Guna Lok Sabha constituency has upset the BJP’s calculations. The veteran BJP leader and Mr Scindia’s mother, Mrs Vijayaraje Scindia, has represented the Guna constituency in the Lok Sabha since 1989. This time she has announced her decision not to contest because of ill health. In fact, Mrs Vijayaraje Scindia was reluctant to contest even last year and had favoured her younger daughter, Mrs Yashodhara Raje Scindia, even Yashodhara, who had been helping her mother in her political work for quite some time, had filed her nomination papers as a dummy to Mrs Vijayaraje Scindia. However, her nomination was rejected on technical grounds and Mrs Vijayaraje Scindia had to remain in the fray. Mrs Yashodhara was later elected to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly from Shivpuri which forms part of the Guna Lok Sabha constituency. Yashodhara would have been the natural successor to Mrs Vijayaraje Scindia, who had taken ill soon after filing her nomination papers for the Lok Sabha last year and not recovered since then and that would have been possible if Mrs Yashodhara’s brother, Mr Madhavrao Scindia would stuck to his Gwalior constituency. The BJP sources here say that Yashodhara does not want to contest against her brother. The problem with the BJP is that there is no formidable candidate in view to challenge Mr Scindia in Guna, which is part of the erstwhile Gwalior state ruled by Mr Scindia’s forefathers. While some disenchantment with “the palace” has been evident in the Gwalior constituency, the voters of Guna are still considered loyal to ‘the palace’. Mr Scindia’s shift
to Guna will pose another ticklish problem for the BJP.
Mrs Yashodhara Raje Scindia, MLA from Shivpuri, will be
expected to campaign for whoever is the BJP candidate in
the Guna constituency and, thus, against her brother.
Will she do that? If no, this may affect the morale of
the party workers, not only in Guna but in the
neighbouring constituencies also. |
BJP finalises tieup with
Shiv Sena NEW DELHI, Aug 4 — The BJP today finalised the seat-sharing arrangement with yet another partner of the National Democratic Alliance, the Shiv Sena, in Maharashtra under which it would contest in 26 Lok Sabha constituencies and its ally in 22 seats. The Shiv Sena has, however, retained its hold in the assembly elections and it would contest 171 seats againt the BJP's 117. BJP spokesman M. Venkaiah Naidu said here that there had been "total" agreement between the two parties and it had been decided that a joint campaign for the elections would be launched on August 9. Mr Naidu said seat sharing arrangements in other states with friendly parties woule be concluded before August 10, when the central election committee of the party would meet to finalise the remaining list of its candidates. The party had yesterday released a list of 139 candidates in which the names of party heavyweights, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr L.K. Advani and Dr Murli Manohar Joshi figured. The list also contained the names of three candidates, all sitting members, from Punjab. Mr Daya Singh Sodhi had been nominated from Amritsar, Mr Kamal Chaudhary from Hoshiarpur and film actor Vinod Khanna from Gurdaspur. Three candidates, all sitting members, from Himachal Pradesh were announced, including Mr Maheshwar Singh from Mandi, Mr Shanta Kumar from Kangra and Mr Suresh Chandel from Hamirpur. Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, sitting member from Udhampur has been renominated from the same constituency and Mr Vaidya Vishnu Dutt also a sitting member from Jammu. A surprise nomination was that of the BJP vice-president and Rajya Sabha MP from Gujrat, Mr Bangaru Laxman. He has been nominated from Jalore (reserve) constituency in Rajasthan, the stronghold of former Home Minister Buta Singh, who has rejoined the Congress. About the seat sharing arrangement, Mr Naidu was hopeful that there would be no major problems with friendly parties. To a question that the Samata Party had demanded 55 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, including 27 in Bihar, Mr Naidu said the issue woule be sorted out through talks. On the possibility of a tieup with the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh, which supported the Vajpayee Government from outside, Mr Naidu said there had been no proposal for any arrangement He said the general mood of the people was in favour of a tieup but then it had not work out. Mr Naidu also released
the names of 53 candidates for the assembly elections in
Maharasthra. This includes 39 sitting MLAs, 13 ministers
and five women. |
Khurana’s challenge to Dikshit NEW DELHI, Aug 4 — BJP leader Madan Lal Khurana today challenged Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit to an open debate on the achievements of her government instead of making false allegations that under BJP rule the state had made no progress. “I challenge the Delhi Chief Minister and president of the state unit of the Congress to an open debate on the achievements of the state government instead of merely making false charges against the former BJP government”, Mr Khurana told reporters here. Mr Khurana, who has been renominated from Sadar Lok Sabha constituency, said he would campaign for all the seven party candidates in the Capital. “Let the Chief Minister list the achievements of her government since they took office. They came to power on the onion issue but coming to power and governing are two different things. People are getting to know now”, he said. Mr Khurana, who along
with cinestar and party colleague Shatrughan Sinha
addressed a press conference said a ‘shahid
diwas’ is being held in Azadpur in the Capital today
which would be inaugurated by Sinha with Mr Khurana as
chief guest. It is being organised by the people residing
in resettlement colonies to commemorate India’s
victory in Kargil, Mr Khurana said. |
Restrain caretaker govt: CPM NEW DELHI, Aug 4 — The Communist Party of India (Marxist) today called upon the President, Mr K.R. Naryanan, to restrain the caretaker government stating that the Vajpayee government was using the armed forces for “partisan purposes”. In a statement, the CPM Polit Bureau said: “Close on the heels of taking senior armed force personnnel to brief the BJP National Executive comes the report of the armed forces making arrangements for the programme of “Sindhu Yatra” in Ladakh. This is a barely concealed RSS programme having religious connotations”, the CPM Polit Bureau said in a statement here. The statement said the integrity of the armed forces should not be eroded by involving them in such functions. It said according to reports the Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police units in Leh provided food and logistic support and made all arrangements, including the erection of pandals. “Such blatant attempts to politicise the armed forces runs totally contrary to the notion of a neutral and secular character of the armed forces”, it said. Further, it alleged that Home Minister L.K. Advani had played the main role in enlisting support of para-military forces and the Army and the presence of Defence Minister George Fernandes “compounded the gross misuse of the armed forces”. The party called upon
the President to “restrain the caretaker government
from embarking on a dangerous course of seeking to
politicise the armed forces”. |
Ambika Soni to head media panel NEW DELHI, Aug 4 — Four Congress leaders from the northern region figure in the nine-member panel of spokespersons for the Lok Sabha elections. The panel will be headed by Mrs Ambika Soni, AICC General Secretary. Mr Anand Sharma from Himachal Pradesh, a former Indian Youth Congress president, who had served as a spokesman in the 1989 elections, has again been nominated. Other leaders from the north are two former Additional Solicitors-General, Mr Kapil Sibal and Mr Ashwani Kumar, who belong to Chandigarh and Punjab, respectively. Other members of the panel are Mrs Margaret Alva, Mrs Najma Heptullah, Mr H.Hanumanthappa, Mr Eduardo Faleiro and Syed Sibte Razi. With Mrs Ambika
Soni’s appointment, speculation regarding her
candidature in the Lok Sabha elections from Hoshiarpur
seems to have been laid to rest. |
JD hopeful of entry into
NDA NEW DELHI, Aug 4 — Riding piggy back on the bargaining powers of Samata Party chief Mr George Fernandes and Lok Shakti president, R.K. Hedge, the Janata Dal faction led by Mr Sharad Yadav is hopeful that it will be admitted to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The Janata Dal leaders, after viewing the developments of the past few days feel that the BJP would have no other option but to accept the Janata Dal in NDA. A senior leader of the Sharad Yadav-led Janata Dal faction said that when Mr George Fernandes and Mr Hedge were saying that they were the Dal, then where is any doubt that the party was not part of the NDA. The Samata Party and the Lok Shakti which merged with the Janata Dal recently, have already spoken their mind and specified that the BJP would have to accept the emerging “Janata parivar”, which would include the Janata Dal in the NDA or both the Samata Party and the Lok Shakti would move out of the alliance. Similarly, Mr George Fernandes’ bid to prop up this new political axis has also received support from another BJP ally, the DMK and even the National Conference has stressed that “Janata parivar” should be admitted as it was emerging now. Janata Dal leaders feel that the pressure being built on the BJP by its allies, which include the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), would pave the way for its entry. As part of the joint campaign at least two senior leaders of the BJP allies would attend a rally organised by the Janata Dal in Bangalore on August 6. The DMK chief, Mr M. Karunanidhi and the National Conference leader, Mr Farooq Abdullah have both consented to be present at the rally. This the Janata Dal leaders feel is a sign of solidarity with the Dal which the BJP would have to accept. Sources said that in the long run it would be the BJP which would gain from alligning with the “Janata parivar”. Although the Janata Dal has got fragmented and eroded in most of the states, but even then it had a major base support and organisations at the district and tehsil level which when merged with the NDA would only lead to an increased base support for the alliance, particularly the BJP. Sources also do not rule out the possibility of emergence of a non-BJP coalition within the NDA following the elections. This particular alliance, headed by Mr George Fernandes could even reach out to other parties like the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Samajwadi Party to further bolster its bargaining power vis-a-vis the BJP. Apparently, Mr George Fernandes has already had informal talks with NCP and SP on a possible tie-up after the elections. The Janata Dal leaders point out that their positioning before the elections was very important as a similar situation would definitely have arisen after the polls. Aligning then with the
NDA would not have been correct as it would not have had
the people’s mandate. |
BSP names allies NEW DELHI, Aug 4 — The Bahujan Samaj Party is likely to field the President of the Haryana unit of the party, Aman Kumar Nagaraj from the Ambala reserved constituency in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Sources in the party told TNS here that the party plans to have an alliance with former Haryana Chief Minister, Bansi Lal’s Haryana Vikas Party. A decision on the total number of seats the party would contest in Haryana has not yet been taken. In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections Aman defeated former Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, Suraj Bhan. In Punjab, the party plans to have an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (Tohra). It is yet to decide on the number of seats. In the last Lok Sabha polls, the BSP fielded candidates from Hoshiarpur, Phillaur, Ferozepur and Ropar. In Rajasthan where the party contested 16 seats in 1998 negotiations are on for an alliance with the Jat Sabha. In Karnataka, talks are on for an alliance with the Gowda faction of the Janata Dal. The party is however against any alliance in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh. The BSP contested the Mandi (Hamirpur) and Kangra seats in Himachal Pradesh in 1998. Sources said that senior BSP leaders have been disputing the Congress and the Lok Dal’s claims of an alliance with the party in UP. The national President
of the party and Rajya Sabha MP, Kanshi Ram is unlikely
to contest the elections. Mr Kanshi Ram lost to Nakli
Singh of the BJP from Saharanpur in UP in 1998 by over
two lakh votes. |
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| Rajiv Congress merges
with NCP MUMBAI: The Goa Rajiv Congress (GRC), led by Dr Wilfred D’Souza has merged with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The merger was announced by the NCP President Sharad Pawar here on Wednesday in the presence of Dr D’Souza, a former Chief Minister of Goa. Mr Pawar said NCP had decided to contest both Lok Sabha seats from Goa and the names of its candidates would be announced after a formal merger of the two parties in that state. — PTI Palkhivala hospitalised Film critic
Iqbal Masud dead Sex racket:
teacher suspended Embroidery to
adorn dargah Rajasthan Govt
amends circular 5 Hindi poets
awarded Marks scam: 2
students held Dr Siva Reddy |
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