Lucknow, April 27
The grip of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi over the Assembly seats of their respective Lok Sabha constituencies is not the only factor that would be put to test during the fifth phase of election tomorrow.

Another significant development to watch for is if the several ‘don and dacoits’-turned politicians still manage to make it to the Vidhan Sabha despite the Election Commission’s strict regime this time.

Heavy CPMF presence and regular march past by them in the rural areas, especially where Dalit population is high, is said to have encouraged the voters to come out to cast their votes.

As many as 850 candidates are in the fray for the 57 seats going to the polls in the fifth phase. The voters of Hardoi, Unnao, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Chitrakoot and Banda districts would exercise their franchise.

Polling in Khaga constituency of Fatehpur district had to be postponed following the death of the Congress nominee Munnalal Maurya in a car accident on Thursday morning, Chief Electoral Officer A.K. Bishnoi said.

The maximum number of 35 candidates are contesting from Mahona in Lucknow. Manikpur in Chitrakoot has only six candidates. A total of 1,61,90,572 voters will cast their votes from 15,695 polling stations.

Congress president Sonia Gandh’s public meetings and Rahul Gandhi’s road shows in Lucknow and elsewhere did enthuse voters. What is however, keenly observed is the impact of Priyanka Vadra’s intensive campaigning in the 10 Assembly constituencies represented by her mother and brother in Rae Bareli and Amethi. At the moment the Congress does not hold any of these seats.

Several controversial politicians who had bent rules on several occasions to ensure the installation of the Mulayam Singh Yadav government are also in the fray. Notable among them are Akhilesh Pratap Singh of Rae Bareli, Raja Bhaiyya of Kunda, Naresh Aggarwal of Hardoi. Also contesting from Patti in Pratapgarh on a SP ticket is Bal Kumar the brother of dreaded dacoit Dadua.

UPCC leader in the Vidhan Sabha Pramod Tiwari, who has been an MLA for five consecutive terms, is also seeking re-election from Rampur Khas.

Varanasi, April 27
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has certainly come a long way since her early days when she set the political firmament in Uttar Pradesh on fire with her war cry against the Brahmins: “Tilak, tarazoo, talwar. Unko maaro joote char".

The fiery Mayawati has mellowed down considerably since then. She no longer spews venom against the upper castes. On the contrary, she has made a conscious effort to reach out to the Brahmins and co-opt them as partners. This follows a rethink by Mayawati after she was advised by her close aide Satish Mishra that she should expand her vote base in order to attain the magic number which could catapult her to power. She has, therefore, fielded as many as 86 Brahmin candidates in the ongoing seven-phase UP Assembly poll.

If Mayawati's Dalit outfit has held out an olive branch to Brahmins, the latter have responded with equal enthusiasm. They embraced Mayawati once they realised that her committed vote bank combined with their strength could propel them past the winning post. Consequently, Brahmins are playing a key role in the bitter contest between arch political opponents, BSP and Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP).

The old bond between the Dalits and Brahmins which had been in evidence during the successive Congress regimes nearly two decades ago has thus been revived again. Scenes of this new-found bonhomie between the two communities are a regular feature across the state with Brahmins proudly claiming that BSP now stands for Brahmin Samaj Party.

For instance, a quick stopover at the BSP office in Sahidabad in the Handia Assembly segment on the Allahabad-Varanasi road, revealed a virtual "take-over" by Brahmins who volubly proclaimed their support for "behenji" as they see her as the only person who can put an end to SP's "goondaraj".

Whether it is Satyaprakash Pande, Ramesh Mishra or Ganesh Tripathi, they have all forgotten the abusive language which the BSP chief had used against them. "She personally never abused us. This was a canard spread by her opponents who wanted to keep the Brahmins away from the BSP," they said.

It is the same story in the neighbouring Aurai Assembly segment where the BSP has fielded Ranganath Mishra, who crossed over from the BJP.

Lucknow, April 27
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s close confidante and minister Azam Khan has called Congress MP Rahul Gandhi a “pig”.

While the reference was made at an election rally at Ghazipur on Thursday, it was brought to light by a national TV channel on Friday, causing much embarrassment to the ruling Samajwadi Party.

Khan, the state’s urban development and parliamentary affairs minister, told his audience: “When Rahul Gandhi too refers to the Babri Mosque as a mere structure, he looks worse than a pig to me.”

Rahul Gandhi, during campaigning for the state assembly polls, had said that if someone from the Gandhi family had been in power, the mosque - which was demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992 - would not have fallen.

Barring a local daily, mainstream newspapers ignored Khan’s statement.

Rivals see Khan’s remark as a sign of desperation and say the Samajwadi Party leader is obviously feeling threatened by the extensive roadshows undertaken by the scion of the country’s first political family.

“It appears to be a very dirty tactic to poison the minds of Muslims for whom the pig is the most despicable object,” remarked Congress leader Abid Hussain.

State Congress general secretary Satyadeo Tripathi said: “We are going to take this up with the Election Commission.”

Former minister Haji Yaqoob Quraishi, who has newly joined another Samajwadi rebel Raj Babbar’s Jan Morcha, flayed Khan for the remarks. — IANS

New Delhi, April 27
After days of dithering which kept prospective IIM general category students on the tenterhooks, the human resource ministry issued a directive today to all six prestigious management institutions in the country to release admission lists.

Union HRD minister Arjun Singh formally asked all central educational institutions of higher education to start admission for the general and SC/ST categories while emphasising that “every constitutional and legal measure will be taken to ensure OBC reservation.”

The directive to the 64 central government-funded institutions, including the IIMs and the IITs, came after the UPA allies and the Left parties gave the go-ahead to the government to allow admissions for the current academic session without the OBC quota for the time being.

“The offer of admissions to the ensuing academic session in central educational institutions shall, until further communication, be limited to the approved intake that existed during the academic session 2006-07,” the directive said.

Further, the communication said “no offer of admissions shall be made until further communication in respect of seats that are proposed to be expanded during the ensuing academic session.”

The minister told mediapersons here that notwithstanding the order, the commitment of the government to the principle of reservation to OBCs was irrevocable. “We shall explore every constitutional and legal procedure by which to ensure it,” he stressed.

Asked about the CPM's suggestion for a fallback option in case the Supreme Court does not vacate the stay on 27 per cent OBC quotas, Singh observed: “All kinds of options were voiced. Obviously, that is not the manner in which we can function. When the situation arises, we will see.”

To a question whether the government was hopeful of a positive outcome, he said the court would have to take a decision and “we are waiting for that.”

Pressed about the options before the government, Singh said “there is always an option for everything but we should not start thinking about options even before the time has arrived.”

Clearly, the government decided to allow the IIMs, the IITs and other centrally-funded institutions to go ahead with this year admissions as it was impacting their case in the Supreme Court.

Under the formula worked out, 124,377 general and SC/ST candidates would be offered admission. It was planned to increase the intake by 12,216 seats during the 2007-08 academic. Of these, 9,468 seats would go to the OBCs. 

New Delhi, April 27
In a significant decision, the government today set up a new commission to redefine Centre-State ties to examine the possibility of giving sweeping powers to the Central Government, including suo motu deployment of central forces in states and investigation of crimes affecting national security.

The commission, to be chaired by of former Chief Justice of India M M Punchhi, would also examine what could be the Centre’s role, responsibility and jurisdiction vis-a-vis states during major and prolonged outbreaks of communal violence, caste violence or any other social conflict.

Under the terms of reference, which could have far reaching political implications, the four-member commission would also review other aspects of Centre-State relations including taxes and linking of rivers.

The panel, which has been set up after over two decades of the Sarkaria Commission, has former Home Secretaries Dhirendra Singh and V K Duggal and former Director of National Judicial Academy N R Madhava Menon as members.

The commission would submit its recommendations in two years, an official release said.

A need for a commission in the context of fast changing political, economic and social parameters of the nation state and its federal structure was being felt. The UPA had been underscoring the requirement for such a commission.

The commission would examine whether there was a need for setting up a central law enforcement agency to take up suo motu investigation of crimes having inter-state or international dimensions with serious implications for the national security.

Dehra Dun, April 27
Fear of potential conflict with locals is giving sleepless nights to stranded nomadic Gujjar families after denial of traditional upward movement to Himalayan pastures to them by the Uttarakhand Government despite protection of grazing rights provided under the Tribal Act.

More than a 100 Gujjar families along with their milk producing herds of buffaloes are camping at Yamuna Bridge near Mussourie since a week after being denied traditional migration during this season to pastures located at higher altitudes in Garhwal Himalayas.

Traditionally, they move up from Shivalik Ranges in UP during summer to pastures at Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand. This time, the forest bureaucracy has banned their uphill movement to the Govind Pashu Vihar National Park.

They have met senior forest officials, including the state forest secretary, to highlight their plight but without any success.

Uttarakhand chief wildlife warden Shrikant Chandola said the state government would not allow them into the Govind Pashu Vihar National Park but may consider their entry into the adjoining Govind Pashu Vihar Sanctuary.

“Permits were given to around 40 Gujjar families for demarcated grasslands in 1937. Since then our families have grown. The government is putting us in conflict with locals by displacing us from demarcated areas,” said nomadic leader Kalu Gujjar.

Highlighting their plight, Parveen Kaushal of Sophia, an NGO fighting for the rights of the Gujjars said the members of this nomadic community were being made to suffer by callous bureaucracy.

New Delhi, April 27
In a bid to check human trafficking cases, the Centre is contemplating bringing certain changes in the law to make the passport act more stringent.

“External Affairs Ministry is directly dealing with the Katara case. We are serious about the names, which have come up in this case and hope that some rules and laws will soon be made in this regard so that such incidents do not recur,” minister of state for home Sriprakash Jaiswal told mediapersons here today.

Besides, BJP MP Babubhai K Katara, who is in the police custody in connection with the emigration scam, names of a few other MPs have also cropped during investigations. Some states like Punjab, Gujarat and Kerala have also reported problems of human trafficking.

The CrPC and IPC do not have clear provisions to deal with human trafficking.

New Delhi, April 27
Amid some candid remarks by PoK’s former President and Prime Minister Mohammad Abdul Qayyum Khan and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, the second ‘intra-J&K heart-to-heart talks’ today called for steps towards greater interaction between people on the two sides of Kashmir.

Compared to the last conference, which saw participation of some separatist groups, the talks today started on a low key with Qayyum and Abdullah being the notable speakers.

Qayyum, whose son is the Prime Minister of PoK, said that the Kashmir issue was being exploited by some vested interests. Warning against selfish interests, who wanted the problem to fester, he said they had used the dispute to make crores of rupees. “There is an international interest (in the problem). These forces want that the issue should continue and there is no solution,” he said.

Referring to the nuclearisation of South Asia, he said it was difficult to envision strong friendship between India and Pakistan without a solution to the Kashmir problem.

Referring to the separatist groups, including Hurriyat conference, not participating in the recent roundtable conference, he expressed disappointment at their decision. Qayoom said as he was in the capital, he was keen on participating in the roundtable meeting.

Farooq Abdullah sought steps to ensure free movement of people between the two sides of the state. He said civilians keen to visit the other side on travel documents faced restrictions. “Those carrying guns do not use travel documents to come,” he said.

Panthers Party president Bhim Singh said the people of the state had a role to play in resolving the problem. Hoping that representatives of Hurriyat Conference and some other groups in the Valley would join the three-day conference, he said representatives of several political parties, including the National Conference, People’s Democratic Party, Congress and Panthers Party were attending it.

Participants from PoK included leaders of Muslim Conference and Pakistan People’s Party.

Prof Taqdees Gillani, an academician from Muzaffarabad, called for greater representation of women in political parties. There was a demand for holding intra-JK conference of youth leaders.