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Tuesday,
November 6, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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A swami
announces his “yogic moksha” CBI
victimising secy: Congress Consensus
on terrorism move hypocritical: CPI BJP chief
upbeat on POTO India
develops new anthrax vaccine |
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Cong
should ‘quit’ Bihar Govt 15
Assembly seats reserved in Uttaranchal
Smuggled liquor traced to CM’s village
3 judges appointed
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A swami announces his “yogic moksha” Sandila (UP) The answer of Swami (this word is written for him as So am i) Divyanand was this: He would follow the command of his departed Guru, Sant Kirpal Singh, who had “willed” from his abode that he should cast away the mortal coils and return for a realignment to a reality beyond life and beyond death. He said that he would adopt yoga as his means and transcendence as his method. He was ready to go. One does not need to become “a Sanatani; one has to be Sanatana”. There was no place for a self-anaesthetic, self-idealisation or self-elimination. The course was charted by Sant Kirpal Singh. And that was that. ***** One moves from Bareilly via Hardoi and reaches Sandila, a tiny town. One’s conveyance takes one to the nearby Sant Kirpal Nagar within minutes covering a few miles. There is a quiet campus linked to the vast rural belt by a dusty road. Inside, there is an atmosphere of serenity and peace. About 550 acres of land keeps at least 550 persons working, playing and praying. Greenery abounds. One can visit a plus-two school and a couple of colleges, one exclusively for teaching Sanskrit, a technical training centre, a computer nodal point and a health centre. There are rooms for visitors, a large kitchen and a prayer hall. Name any facility and you will find it there. But you need to know that all this has been brought about by Swami Divyanand who began to work with the seed money amounting merely to Rs 110 in September 1977. The value of the establishment today should be around Rs 50 crore. A miracle? Ask the Swami and he would give you an enigmatic smile. Divyanand was born in semi-urban Shamli (UP) in 1932. His mother was an orthodox Hindu and his father, a philanthropic eye surgeon, was a staunch Arya Samajist. The boy wanted to be a doctor but the father’s will prevailed and he became an engineer, passing out from Roorkee. All this while his mental pursuit was for the meaning of life or the lack of it. He attended a lecture, while serving the government as an engineer, by Sant Kirpal Singh in which the latter said: “Every saint has a past and every sinner a future”. Divyanand, a bystander, heard of “dying before death”, “the divine sound current” and “the union of the soul with God”. He was still confused and went to meditate for 40 days. And then came conviction. The Guru called him and chose him — and ordained that he would succeed him as the shepherd of his flock. Divyanand resigned his job and took to spirituality. Like his Guru, he started giving “Naam Daan” (the gift of the Divine Word) to people. This spiritual practice of initiation into holistic life is timeless. Remember Eliot’s seminal observation on “the knowledge of words and the ignorance of the Word”? Swami Divyanand has travelled from Greece through many other European countries to Canada and the USA. In Germany he has many shishyas. He chose his successor quite a few years ago and gave his name in a sealed and registered Will to a German lady-lawyer. “After the end of my physical life on Divali day”, preceded by a similar moksha of his evolved disciple, Daya Rani, the German lady will announce the successor’s name which will be verified by a “foolproof procedure”. There is no “gaddi” and nothing to inherit, says Swami Divyanand. “Work will continue. There will be ascension of consciousness and a divine union....” Divali falls this year on November 14. |
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CBI victimising
secy: Congress New Delhi, November 5 Accusing the government of “pre-empting and sabotaging” the inquiry of the Venkatswami Commission into the Tehelka episode, party chief spokesman Jaipal Reddy asked why the CBI was trying to talk to Mr Vaddekan after seven months when the government had said that the matter was being investigated by the Venkatswami Commission. Mr Reddy said Mr Vaddekan was being “targeted” for the past three days with a CBI official, identifying himself as Mr Rathi, going to his house on Saturday and Sunday. Mr Reddy said Mr Rathi first called Mr Vaddekan’s house on Friday evening when he was still in the AICC office. Today morning, Mr Vaddekan rang up the CBI officer to inquire about the matter and he was told that the questioning was to be regarding Tehelka. The CBI official was urged to come to the AICC office or at some alternative venue but the official declined. “He was contacted in the afternoon again but did not respond,” Mr Reddy said. Wondering why the CBI, after seven months, was trying to talk to Mr Vaddekan regarding the Tehelka issue, Mr Reddy asked why it did not register an FIR against former BJP President Bangaru Laxman and former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitley following screening of the Tehelka tapes. Meanwhile, the Congress today made a scathing attack on the government saying its advocacy of the controversial POTO was “dictated” by political considerations in view of Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and dismissed as ‘insincere’ Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s appeal for a consensus on the issue. “The Prime Minister’s statement calling for a consensus is not only belated but profoundly and patently insincere”, Mr Reddy told reporters. Besides, he had a dig at the working of the government by saying the Prime Minister should first achieve consensus with Home Minister L.K. Advani and among the NDA partners on the issue as the DMK and the Akali Dal had already expressed their reservations. |
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Consensus
on terrorism move hypocritical: CPI New Delhi, November 5 Briefing mediapersons here on the resolutions adopted during the party’s two-day National Council meeting which concluded on Monday, CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan said, “All right-thinking persons want terrorism of all brands to be eliminated. But a US-led war is not the means to end it. This war launched by the most powerful state against a poor and least developed country is only killing civilians and causing widespread destruction without achieving any definite objective. The American bombardment is reducing it to rubbles.” The National Council discussed the political developments and adopted resolutions on ‘Terrorism and War’,‘The Communal offensive of the BJP and Sangh Parivar’, POTO, ‘Proposed Changes for Election to Rajya Sabha’ and ‘WTO meet at Doha’. In its resolution on war and terrorism, the National Council has stated, “The Taliban is a reactionary and an obscurantist force and an enemy of human rights and dignity. It is the UN that must tackle this force and decide on any future set-up in Afghanistan in accordance with the wishes of the Afghan people.” The party criticised the BJP government’s support to the USA without knowing either the time-frame of the war or the US strategy. Mr Bardhan said the Sangh Parivar and the BJP government on the one hand and fundamentalist organisations on the other were exploiting the situation to create communal tension in the country. “They think this is the best time to gatecrash into Ayodhya’s disputed site. The BJP government thinks this is the proper time for them to come out with all kinds of repressive legislations curtailing democratic rights.” The party has taken strong exception to the Union Home Minister’s and Law Minister’s remarks that those who oppose POTO are wittingly or unwittingly appeasing the terrorist forces. “The Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) is obnoxious and has been criticised not only by the Opposition parties but jurists, the National Human Rights Commission and a section within the NDA,” the CPI General
Secretary said. Meanwhile, a controversy has arisen over whether Home Minister L.K. Advani told the BJP National Executive meeting in Amritsar that opposition to POTO would be an act of appeasing terrorists or not. Party President K. Jana Krishnamurthi today told mediapersons thet he may get an answer to it tomorrow. |
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BJP chief upbeat
on POTO New Delhi, November
5 Talking to reporters at the party headquarters, Mr Krishnamurthi said while the Communists would not support it, the Congress was divided on the issue. “I can understand the stand taken by the Communists”, Mr Krishnamurthi said and asked “when have the Communists supported a national issue?” “A big section of the Congress is supporting it, but the leadership and some few are opposed to it fearing that the party may be seen supporting the
BJP-led government”, he pointed out. “By and large the people want such a law”, he said, lamenting that POTO was being “blindly opposed just because the BJP government had brought it. “We are open for change and if a party or group has reservations about certain provision of
POTO, then these can be debated and discussed”, Mr Krishnamurthi said. Earlier, party spokesperson Maya Singh asked the Vajpayee government to mount strong diplomatic pressure on the Bangladesh Government to ensure that atrocities on Hindus in that country were stopped. The government in Dhaka should ensure that their property is restored and perpetrators of anti-Hindu crimes such as murder and crime are apprehended and prosecuted, a party statement said. |
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India develops new
anthrax vaccine New Delhi, November 5 Union Minister for Science and Technology Murli Manohar Joshi announced at a news conference here today that the vaccine, developed by Prof Rakesh Bhatnagar of the Centre for Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, was cost-effective and devoid of toxic effects. The vaccine has been developed in collaboration with Dr Yogendra Singh of the Centre for Biochemical Technology. The minister said the easy-to-produce vaccine had got 67 per cent efficacy on mice and 100 per cent on guinea pigs. Dr Joshi demanded due protection to such life-saving vaccines and drugs in the wake of the current trend of
bio-terrorism. MEERUT: A special fumigation technique that destroys anthrax spores in letters has been developed to protect postal employees and mail recipients from being infected by the bacteria. The Department of Microbiology at the CCS university here has demonstrated a unique technique based on chemical fumigation after an in-depth study on anthrax. Using this process, more than 90 per cent of anthrax spores can be destroyed, the department claims. |
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Cong should ‘quit’ Bihar Govt New Delhi, November 5 “We are getting a bad image and losing our vote banks in the light of growing lawlessness and the government’s misdeeds. The only way to save our face is to dissociate ourselves from the government,” former Deputy Leader of Legislative Council Vijay Shankar Mishra, heading a delegation, said. He was, however, of the view that the party could continue its outside support to the government as withdrawal of support could embolden communal forces and send wrong signals to the minority community across the nation. Mr Mishra along with the delegation members has met several central party leaders during the past two days and has submitted a memorandum to party President Sonia Gandhi on the situation prevailing in Bihar. In his memorandum, he has suggested that the Congress ministers participating in state government be asked to resign and involve themselves in the movement against the “misdeeds” of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal. He also reminded the party leadership that Assembly elections in Bihar were nearing and it was high time that it took a drastic step to save the organisation. Mr Mishra said RJD President Laloo Prasad Yadav had been a known opponent of the Congress and he would never like it to prosper. He pointed out that the people in Bihar now appeared frustrated with the NDA government at the Centre but they were unwilling to come closer to the Congress because it was a participant in the Rabri Devi
government. PTI |
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15 Assembly seats reserved
in Uttaranchal New Delhi, November 5 Notifying the delimitation order, the EC said the quota for the Scheduled Tribes had been increased from two to three while that for Scheduled Castes would remain at 12 seats. Deputy Election Commissioner Subhas Pani said Khatima in Udham Singh Nagar, Dharchula in Pithoragarh and Chakrata in Dehra Dun had been reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. Purola, Dhanolti, Sahaspur, Bhagwanpur, Landhaura, Srinagar, Pindar, Bageshwar, Someshwar, Mukteshwar, Sitarganj and Gangolihat Assembly seats have been demarcated as reserved seats for the Scheduled Castes, he said. Asked about the prospects of Assembly polls in the state, he said these would be held along with the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. |
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Two
more ‘India’s most wanted’ held Chandigarh, November 5 The absconding couple was wanted by the Jammu police in a case of cheating. Surinder Singh and his wife Surjit Kaur were wanted for raising huge sums of money from unsuspecting investors in Jammu by promising them very high rate of interest and then disappearing from the city on June 8, 2000. According to the police, the total number of persons duped could be over 500 and the total amount more than Rs 15 crore. According to Mr M.A. Anjum, SSP, Crime and Railways, Jammu, “the wanted couple was arrested with the help of a lead received after the telecast of ‘India’s Most Wanted’ last night”. A police party will leave Jammu tomorrow for Navi Mumbai to take custody of the two arrested persons, Mr Anjum added. |
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Smuggled
liquor traced to CM’s village Sriganganagar, November 5 Raids were carried out by the local police at Chautala, ancestral village of Haryana Chief Minister O.P. Chautala, on the basis of information provided by accused arrested recently. According to highly placed sources, the cops from Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh and Bikaner districts had been hard-pressed on plugging the smuggling route for large quantities of spurious liquor bearing markings of Rajasthan distilleries seized from their area. They were taking no chances for the repeat of another Noida like tragedy where 30 persons died after consuming spurious liquor. On the basis of information, the local SP wrote to his Sirsa counterpart informing him that liquor was being smuggled from there and certain persons in and around Chautala village were involved in the crime. A party of the local police reportedly raided the village and surrounding areas on the basis as a tip provided by two accused who were arrested in the Sadar police station area with 1,200 pouches of liquor. They confessed that the liquor had been bought from certain Chautala-based smugglers and also revealed that most liquor sold in these three districts was being brought from Chautala village and surrounding areas. A large quantity of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) was also recovered from their possession. On further interrogation, the accused revealed that the IMFL was brought from Dabwali while the spurious countrymade liquor was brought from a hotel in Sangria on the Haryana-Rajasthan border by two persons in a jeep. They are said to have named Ashwani Sarahan, a favourite of a powerful liquor cartel of Haryana and whose brother is an accused in the university gangrape case. He was bailed out by the Supreme Court recently. Mr Pratap Singh, a cousin of the Haryana Chief Minister, told TNS that Ashwani’s brother and some other accused in the gangrape case are reportedly involved in large-scale smuggling of countrymade and IMFL from Haryana to Rajasthan. They have immense political clout in both states. He alleged that he had written to the authorities about the issue, but to no avail. Police sources said on receipt of a letter from the local SP, the Sirsa SP sent a police team headed by DSP Jagat Singh to ascertain facts and collect information. The officer was also told that a large factory was operating in or around Ranian town (Sirsa) which was turning out thousands of litres of country-made liquor every month. Realising the gravity of the matter, the liquor contractors of these three districts have sunk differences. They are not undercutting each other by dumping liquor in each other’s areas. Last month the police seized 21, 000 pouches of countrymade liquor from a truck headed for Bikaner which was intercepted near Sriganganagar by the cops and excise officials. According to sources, the police is keeping a close watch on the activities of the Saharan brothers who are said to frequent the hotel in Sangria which lies on the inter-state border. |
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3 judges appointed
New Delhi, November 5 According to a press communique, Mr Justice Mahesh Mittal Kumar and Mr Justice Jasbir Singh, Additional Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, are to be judges of that court in the same order of seniority. All these appointments take effect from the date they assume charge of the respective offices.
UNI
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Computer
scientists in Bangalore prepare a comprehen- -sive database
for vedic literature after 12 years of research.
(
14
military policemen have been suspended in Bihar following the
discovery of theft of some arms from a police station.
The
Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, inaugurates the
newly renovated 550-year-old Sed Gyed monastery in Siliguri.
A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) takes part in a demonstration in Calcutta
on Monday. Demonstrators were demanding that Bangladesh must put a stop to
"atrocities" on Bangladeshi Hindus since the formation of a new government in Dhaka.
A security guard keeps watch over monkeys outside the Defence
Ministry in New Delhi
on Monday. Thousands of monkeys create havoc in the corridors of buildings in the
Capital, barging into government offices, stealing food and even ripping apart valuable documents.
— Reuters photos
