Friday, March 5, 1999
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Bihar a sore point for all |
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 Women of a Bhumihar caste family crying after four of its members were shot dead by armed men of the People's War Group at Bhimpura village under Makhdumpur police station on Wednesday night. — A PTI photo |
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Changes in draft suggested Defence
Budget: Accent on counter-insurgency Kidnapping
case solved |
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Bihar a sore point for all NEW DELHI, March 4 — The story of the four blindmen and the elephant is the most apt description of the approach of both the Government as well as the Opposition to the Bihar imbroglio. The government, having scored a victory on the Lok Sabha floor, finds itself in a Catch-22 situation because of its numerical status in the Rajya Sabha; the Congress while enjoying BJP’s present discomfiture is keeping its fingers crossed — if President’s Rule is revoked, can it back the restoration of Mrs Rabri Devi as Chief Minister? Today certainly belonged to the Opposition. The government was embarassed because it could not carry its Lok Sabha victory across to the Rajya Sabha floor. Pressures are mounting from within the ruling alliance for revocation of President’s rule (it is said that the Telugu Desam had extracted this promise before voting in the Lok Sabha). Other allies too favour the revocation while one ally, the Samata Party, is totally opposed to it. The Left parties, which usually manage to get the nail on its head, did so again today when in a joint press conference, Mr Gurudas Dasgupta of the CPI and Mr Mohammed Salim of the CPM took strong exception to the deliberate dithering by the Government on taking up the statutory resolution on Bihar in the Rajya Sabha since the alliance was in a minority in that House. The Leftists openly ridiculed Central ministers for saying that there were “several options” before the government after the Lok Sabha vote. They pointed out that after the Bommai judgement, it was obligatory for the government to have the resolution adopted in both Houses of Parliament. The BJP on the one hand flayed the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party for obstructing parliamentary proceedings and on the other termed the Congress stance on Bihar as “immoral”. The Congress, on its part, laid the blame for disruption in proceedings of both Houses of Parliament at the government’s door and demanded that the ruling alliance should specify the date for bringing the issue before the Rajya Sabha. When the Union Cabinet met Wednesday evening, it was clearly a divided house with its in-house legal luminiary, Mr Ram Jethmalani, Urban Affairs Minister, having opined that no “legal options” were available to the Government and the proclamation has to be taken before the Rajya Sabha. Another lawyer-minister, Mr P.R. Kumaramangalam, has been talking about “multiple options”. Yet another minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, who hails from Bihar, is trying to give directions to the Governor, Mr Sunder Singh Bhandari, on how to run the state’s administration — a question on which he has open differences with yet another minister from Bihar, Mr Yashwant Sinha. A section of the ruling party feels that the government should go on appeal before the Supreme Court for a fresh interpretation on the use of Article 356 because the situation prevailing at the time of the Bommai judgement has changed. At the same time, politicos are wary of approaching the courts, lest it opens the pandora’s box and invites strictures from the court. The opposition has started openly referring to the Vajpayee government’s approach to the Prasar Bharati Bill. It moved a resolution in the Lok Sabha to nullify the amendments brought in by the United Front Government, but did not bring the legislation before the Rajya Sabha in time and later blamed the President for the delay. As a result, the UF Government’s Ordinance lapsed and the old Prasar Bharati Act came into force. In the present case, in view of the President’s past reservations, the Union Cabinet led by Mr L.K. Advani (the Prime Minister was abroad), gave an impression to the Rashtrapati Bhavan that everything was hunky-dory and the Presidential proclamation will not face rough weather in Parliament. The President is said to have satisfied himself fully before signing on the dotted line. Bihar, therefore, is not
only an embarassment for the ruling party, but even for
the principal Opposition party and perhaps for the Head
of State who had earlier, acting like a copybook
President, refused to allow the use of Article 356 at the
whim and fancy of the ruling party at the Centre. |
Kidnapping case solved NEW DELHI, March 4 — The Delhi Police claimed to have worked out a kidnapping-cum-ransom case reported from Kalkaji in South Delhi last month. Monu (7), was reportedly
kidnapped by an employee of his father’s factory,
Subhash. The incident occurred at 10.40 A.M. on February
16 when the victim was playing outside his house in
Tughlakabad Extension, the police said. Monu was
reportedly taken to Givindpuri by Subhash. When he did
not return in the evening, father of the victim, Mr
Ramdas, reported the matter to the police. The police
interrogated all employees of Mr Ramdas following which
it came to light that Subhash had gone on leave. |
Money Laundering Bill - '98 NEW DELHI, March 4 — The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has suggested several modifications in the Prevention of Money Laundering Bill, 1998, that would take away some of the sweeping powers contained in the proposed law. The Committee, chaired by Lok Sabha member Murli Deora, in its report, submitted to Parliament has suggested that the clause on power of survey be amended as it, in the present form says that an authority can conduct the survey when he does not have any information in possession. The report said this clause appeared to be a totally discretionary and subjective power. Though the proposed powers of the authority has been based on the powers granted to Income Tax authorities, the committee was of the view that the basic object of the proposed Bill and penal consequences were far more serious than that of the Income Tax Act. It has recommended that the clause be suitably amended to read as “notwithstanding anything contained in any other provision of this Act, where an authority has reason to believe on the basis of information in his possession that an offence under Section 3 has been committed, he may enter any place....” On the clause on ‘Search and Seizure’ which confers the powers of search and seizure on the Director and other officers subordinate to him under the proposed law, the Committee noted that the provisions relating to search and seizure as provided under the Criminal Procedure Code have not been mentioned under the clause. It has suggested that a new sub-clause be added to ensure that the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code relating to search and seizure would apply under the proposed law. The committee also recommended that the clauses on search of persons be redrafted to make it mandatory upon the authority, who is about to search any person, to take such person, if he requires, within 24 hours to the nearest gazetted officer superior in rank to him or a Magistrate. The committee was of the opinion that only those crimes namely drug trafficking, terrorist activities and some serious provisions contained in the Indian Penal Code 1860, and the Arms Act, 1959, which are of serious nature and pose serious threat not only to the stability of the nature of the financial system but also to the sovereignty and integrity of the country should be retained and the rest of offences should be omitted. The committee was also of
the view that the definition of money laundering was very
harsh as it could lead to a situation where anybody
dealing with any person who had committed an offence of
money laundering could unwittingly and unknowingly be
brought within the ambit of the Act. |
Defence
Budget THE government has shown political will to tackle insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir with greater vigour and urgency by doubling the allocation for the specialised counter-insurgency fighting force, the Rashtriya Rifles, from Rs 263 crore to nearly Rs 578 crore. Because there is no concomitant outlay for the Rashtriya Rifles in the Capital Outlay for the Defence Services the implication is that the above investment is for additional manpower which is the bedrock in any counter-insurgency operation, says Asia Defence News International (ADNI) quoting commentator on security affairs, Cecil Victor. The Rashtriya Rifles was raised with the intention to channel trained manpower to counter insurgency operations. Its role in cordon-and-search operations in conjunction with other security forces has helped uncover dozens of militant hideouts that have yielded large quantities of arms and explosives and led to the killing and capture of an increasing number of Pakistan-trained terrorists in the past few months. Many of the successes of the security forces coincide with the growth in the number of personnel in the Rashtriya Rifles. This is reflected in the budgetary outlay for the force which has jumped from Rs 263 crore in 1998-99 to Rs 375 crore in the revised estimates to Rs 587 crore for the new financial year. Counter-insurgency is a manpower-intensive operation and empirical studies by such experts in guerrilla warfare as China’s Mao Tsedong and the Latin American hero Ernesto Che Guevaraa have laid down that it will take up to 50 security personnel to be able to eliminate neutralise one trained guerrilla. Given the type of terrain in Jammu and Kashmir this ratio may need to be increased. Thus for every 1000 trained militants who manage to cross the Line of Control India will have to deploy 50,000 security personnel to control their activity. There are intelligence estimates that Pakistan has trained about 10,000 mercenaries for infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir. That they have not already entered the state is the measure of the vigilance of the Indian security forces which include the Indian Army, the Border Security Force (BSF), the J&K Light Infantry, the Rashtriya Rifles, the Central Reserve Police Force and the State Police. The budgetary provision for the BSF and the J&K Light Infantry have also increased substantially from Rs 1646 crore to Rs 1800 crore and Rs 124 crore to Rs 142 crore, respectively. While the investment in manpower is significant the government will increasingly have to pay more attention to such force-multipliers as dogs in counter-insurgency operations. A dog is able to warn its handlers of the presence of other human beings at least one kilometre ahead of a patrol party and is able to ferret out militant hideouts thereby introducing the element of surprise in favour of the security forces specially in cordon-and-search operations where the militants are entrenched in fortifications. The combined role of all
elements in counter-insurgency operations particularly in
the prevention of infiltration will ensure that militancy
can be stamped out at a faster rate because there will be
less replenishment and replacement for those who are
being eliminated in cordon-and-search operations. |
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| 1 dead, 3 hurt as buses
collide NEW DELHI: One person was killed and three were injured when an under Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus rammed into a Haryana Roadways bus near International Hostel on Ring Road in North Delhi this morning. The deceased was identified Mahesh Kumar (30). The injured were admitted into Hindu Rao hospital. Two of them have been discharged, the police said. The incident occurred when the under DTC bus (DL-1P/7485) plied on the route number 237 reportedly crossed the divider, overturned and hit the Haryana Roadways bus coming from the opposite direction. The under DTC bus was plied between Babarpur and Jahangirpuri. Driver of the under DTC bus, Rajkumar, has been arrested and a case of rash and negligent driving registered against him, the police said. — FOC ‘Rail
roko’ over water shortage PM to visit Bihar
tomorrow Bihar killing:
Administration to move court Former Editor
Pathak dead 3 rail employees
held for rape Passive smokers
compensated |
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