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Ex-RAW Officer’s Book
BJP for 33 pc quota for women
DMK threatens BJP on fatwa
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Shivanand Nitish’s trump card
Indo-US nuclear deal
We are for nuclear power, asserts Karat
Ram Setu Issue
Tension in Singur after farmer’s suicide
Violence over delay in handing youth’s body
Arul Doss Murder Case
Military Games
Docs go on 3-day token strike
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Ex-RAW Officer’s Book
New Delhi, September 22 Manas Publications published V K Singh's book “India's External Intelligence: Secrets of RAW”, which alleged widespread corruption in purchase of equipment in the external intelligence agency besides lack of transparency. In an early morning exercise, sleuths of the CBI reached Manas Publication's premises in Daryaganj of Central Delhi and began searching the material about the book. The CBI has seized a soft copy of the book, which hit the market in June. Sources said the CBI team from the agency's Special Crimes unit questioned the owner of the publication house, Vivek Garg, briefly, taking a printed version of the book, its soft copy on a compact disc and agreement between the author and the publisher. The CBI action comes a day after the agency had raided the residence of the author in Palam Vihar on the outskirts of the national Capital during which the sleuths seized his computer, diaries and his passport besides questioning him at length. The CBI yesterday raided the residence of V K Singh, after registering a case under Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act (wrongful communication of information) against V K Singh, who had joined the RAW in 2000 and worked till his retirement in 2004. CBI officers went through his home, interrogated him for more than an hour and seized his documents, papers and computer hard drives. They have taken away my computer, my CPU, they have taken away a number of other diaries, including address books. They have also taken away my passport, he has said. It's been more than three months since the 63-year-old soldier-turned-author’s controversial book on the Research and Analysis Wing was published. It highlighted a professional culture verging on incompetence, of a lack of leadership and accountability and political interference. The book spoke about alleged corruption in RAW, including claims about the purchase of sub-standard telecom equipment meant for VVIP security. The book claimed severe lapses by the government, which resulted in the escape of senior RAW official Rabinder Singh, who is believed to have fled to the US after he was cornered for spying. It also questioned the wisdom of the previous NDA government in releasing to the then Pakistan Premier Nawaz Sharif a taped conversation between President Pervez Musharraf and a senior army official, Gen Mohammed Aziz, during the Kargil conflict. There were reports that RAW was trying to get the book banned.
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BJP for 33 pc quota for women
Bhopal, September 22 A resolution to this effect was adopted unanimously on the second day of the BJP's National Executive meeting. Describing the nod for 33 per cent reservation in the organisation as a "historic day" for the party, senior party leader and a strong votary of women's reservation Sushma Swaraj said the decision will now be ratified by the National Council to make it operational. Besides, to make the reservation operational, the party has to amend its Constitution, she said, adding, in whichever state organisational elections have already been completed, additional women members would be nominated to ensure 33 per cent reservation. As per the resolution, adopted after a debate on the report submitted by the Sushma Swaraj headed committee, the National Executive will have 27 women members out of the total 81 of which two seats each have been reserved for women from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe community. The other members of the Committee were BJP Mahila Morcha President Kiran Maheshwari, Sumitra Mahajan, Najma Heptulla, Bal Apte, Kiran Rijuju and Kishan Reddy. While deliberating on the report senior BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani favoured arrangements to ensure 33 per cent compulsory ticket reservation for women in every election by every party, Swaraj told newspersons. Taking a dig at the Congress on the Women's reservation Bill, she said while the Vajpayee-led NDA government showed all sincerity to provide reservation for women in Parliament and the legislatures and had even introduced a bill on that, the present Congress-led government has failed to even come with a draft bill in the last three and a half years. Drawing comparison between the NDA government and the present Congress-led UPA government, she said "we had 11 women ministers in the NDA regime of which nine were from BJP. While the UPA has only 10 ministers and only six are from the Congress."
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DMK threatens BJP on fatwa
Chennai, September 22 Senior DMK Minister Arcot N. Veerasamy said he would hold a black flag demonstration in front of BJP offices in Tamil Nadu if former BJP MP Ram Vilas Vedanti did not withdraw his remarks. He said, “If anybody says that a minister should not indulge in such activities, I will quit as a minister as post is not important to us.” He claimed that Vedanti had said the swamjis at Ayodhya would give gold to the weight of the man, who beheads Karunanidhi. Veeraswamy said, “The blood of self-respect movement is running in our body. We will make them understand that we will not tolerate any offensive remarks about our leader.” He said India is a secular state and Tamil Nadu was prepared to answer the remarks of those running a political party using religion. “If a person, who is an MP belonging to a party, which is exploiting the name of Ram to incite communal feelings, does not withdraw his remarks immediately. I, along with DMK volunteers, will picket the BJP offices in the state. If being a minister comes in the way, I will quit,” he said. He asked the party volunteers to give a fitting answer to those who had fixed a price on their leader’s life. Yesterday, senior VHP leader and former BJP MP, Ram Vilas Vedanti, in Ayodhya had taken strong exception to Karunanidhi’s utterances against Lord Ram and said no one has the right to question the existence of Ram.
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Advani plans another Rath Yatra
Bhopal, September 22 Speaking today at a massive public gathering, coinciding with his party's three-day National Executive meeting that got under way here yesterday, Advani recalled his Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya and said the journey had not only altered the course of national politics but also brought several changes in him. — UNI
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Shivanand Nitish’s trump card
Patna, September 22 Known for his articulation and also the knowledge of every tricks of the RJD supremo, even insiders in the JD(U) admit that no one in the party could launch such a hard-hitting attack against Lalu except Shivanand ."It was a maserstroke of Nitishji to induct Shivanand in the party," sources said. This was despite the reported initial reluctance of JD(U) president Sharad Yadav to accomodate him in the party. The latest salvo of Shivanand, former excise minister in previous Rabri Devi led RJD government between 2000-05, against Lalu Prasad was in connection with the summons issued by the Jharkhand High Court to the RJD supremo on September 18 to appear before it on November 23 for hearing on case RC 39 (A/96) related to fodder scam. Following two back-to-back court orders against Lalu Prasad to fodder scam in the past few days, Shivanand was, thus, the natural choice of the JD(U) leadership to turn the heat on the RJD boss to further malign his public image. Besides the Jharkhand High Court summons, the Patna High court, too, on last Thursday had upheld the Nitish government’s appeal challenging the acquittal of Lalu-Rabri in disproportationate assets (DA) case, an offshoot of fodder scam, by the special CBI judge Munnilal Paswan in December last year. Citing court orders, which elaborately quoted evidence given by a prosecution witness, Mahendra Prasad, who was close to the alleged kingpin of the fodder scam the late S.B.Sinha, Shivanand claimed that Lalu Prasad was said to be referred as Loha Singh in the Animal Husbandary Department. In his deposition before the CBI court Mahendra Prasad alleged that a sum of Rs 4 crore was given to one Loha Singh, who is known in Animal Husbandary Department as Lalu Prasad.
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Indo-US nuclear deal
Bangalore, September 22 The politburo member, who was here to deliver a lecture organised on “The Indo-American Nuclear Deal” by the Bangalore unit of the People’s Forum of India, said there was no need to sign the deal in a hurry and that it would be better to wait for the next dispensation to take over in the US and see what it felt about the deal. The views of the CPM leader seem to be in contrast to the other recent statements made by members of the Left indicating that the UPA government should wait for another six months before signing the deal. Yechury, while giving his own reasons for further delay, said everyone knew George Bush was a lame duck President and opinion polls already indicated that he was one of the most hated US Presidents ever. He said in such a scenario, it was strange that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rated him as the best President ever for India. The Left leader also made it clear that the Bush administration had its own agenda for pressing India to sign the nuclear deal. “It wants to revive its nuclear reactor industry and Bush wants to take the credit for the same”, he said, adding the nuclear reactor industry in the US was lying idle for nearly three decades. He said the cost of production also worked against nuclear power as of now. Giving an example, he said while it would take Rs 3.30 lakh crore to produce 30,000 mega watt of nuclear power, the same capacity could be added through hydro and coal means at a cost of Rs 90,000 to Rs 1.20 lakh crores. “The US is also concerned about the fact that 70 per cent of the world’s thorium resources are located in India”, Yechury said, adding the US did not want India to pursue its ongoing exercise to produce nuclear power from thorium fuel. He said in such a scenario, it would be best for India to take the position it took during negotiations on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement. “It is wrong to believe the deal cannot be done in case of a delay. The negotiations on the WTO have proved this”, he said, adding “no deal is better than a bad deal”. Making his opinion clear in the face of softening of stand by other Left leaders on the nuclear deal, he said “the Left parties will finally tell the UPA to choose between the interest and opinion of the Indian people and the promises it made to Bush”.
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We are for nuclear power, asserts Karat
New Delhi, September 22 Asserting that his party had clinched the issue by favouring nuclear power as one of the ingredients of energy security, Karat said there was a section in the country, as also in the party, which had a ‘different opinion’ on nuclear power. "We held discussions within our party and we have decided that we are for nuclear power," he said, adding that the deal with the US "will undermine India's nuclear indigenous programme." Former West Bengal Chief Minister and CPM veteran Jyoti Basu had yesterday said the nuclear deal was for energy and "nuclear energy is necessary and there is a need for nuclear power plants. — PTI
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Ram Setu Issue
New Delhi, September 22 In the complaint filed at the Parliament Street police station, she demanded action against law minister H.R. Bharadwaj, culture minister Ambika Soni and shipping minister T.R. Baalu. The Bharatiya Janshakti Party chief sought action against Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and his cabinet colleagues Bharadwaj, Soni and Baalu in connection with the controversial Ram Setu affidavit, saying the sentences and words in the document hurt the sentiments of the Hindus. “I am a Hindu and my sentiments have been hurt. That is why I have filed the complaint,” Bharti said.
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Tension in Singur after farmer’s suicide
Singur, September 22 The body of Srikanta Shee (37) was found hanging from a tree near his hut at Sanapara in Gopal Nagar area this morning. The death fuelled the allegation of unemployment and rising incidence of starvation following acquisition of agricultural land for the industrial project. Local Trinamool Congress MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharjee led demonstrations in front of the Singur police station and Srirampur Walsh Hospital, where Shee's body was taken for postmortem. This was the fourth incident of a farmer committing suicide in Singur over the past one year. The incident took place three days before the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's visit to the area for a public rally, to be held to persist with the movement, spearheaded by the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee, demanding that land be returned to the farmers. Alleging that starvation was the cause of the suicide, Shee’s wife and Bhattacharjee Aparna alleged that Srikanta was out of job after about 997 acres of local crop land was acquired by West Bengal government for the Tatas' project. Though he was engaged for some time as a construction worker in the project area, he lost that job about a month ago and since then was suffering from mental depression. “He became totally heart broken after our cow went missing yesterday while grazing the project area. We were largely living by selling the cow's milk. But we were prevented by the guards from entering inside the project site for searching it,'' Aparna said. According to her, Srikanta woke up some time around 2.30 am last night and hanged himself with a nylon chord from a guava tree close to the house. However, denying that there was any incidence of starvation in Singur, CPM Zonal Committee Secretary Srikanta Chatterjee alleged that Shee, who worked for some time in a local saw mill, lost job because of irregular attendance. He also alleged that the deceased used to live an undisciplined life.
— UNI
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Violence over delay in handing youth’s body
Kolkata, September 22 The body of Mianur was found lying near the railway tracks between the Dum Dum-Ultadanga station last night. The 27-year-old computer graphic engineer was reportedly a victim of a love affair following his marriage to Priyanka, daughter of a businessman of Salt Lake City. Mizanur and Priyanka had registered their marriage on August 18, which Priyanka's family did not recognise and they sought the police help in bringing their daughter back home. But Priyanka herself was unwilling, said the APDR chief, Subhadra Bhadra, who was filing a case in the high court for taking legal action against the persons involved in the death of Mizanur. Alleging police hand behind the "killing" and the delay in releasing the body, friends, relatives and locals in the Tiljala area protested violently by burning a police jeep, three public buses and several vehicles. The police party was also attacked with bombs and brickbats, injuring several police personnel, including two deputy commissioners of police and three Ocs of three police stations. The police also resorted to lathi-charge and burst teargas shells several times. But failing to control the violent mob, it fired several rounds of bullets, which reportedly hit five people. However, there was no report of death in the firing, though at least 12 persons injured.
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Arul Doss Murder Case
Baripada, September 22 Dara Singh had been lodged in the high security Baripada circle jail here for murdering Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his two minor children- Philip (10) and Timothy (8), who were burnt alive along with their father at Monoharpur village in Keonjhar district on the night of January 22, 1999. Seventeen other accused, allegedly involved in the murder case were acquitted as there was no evidence against them. Of the four convicted to life imprisonment, Dara Singh and his close aide Chema Ho are already in the Baripada Circle Jail, while two others, Rajkishore Mohanto and Jadunath Mohanto, were on bail. The duo was present in the courtroom during the pronouncement of the judgement and walked into the jail van to reach the Baripada circle jail to serve the life term. Dara Singh's counsels- Pravas Das and Asit Otta- later told newspersons that they would prefer an appeal before the Orissa High Court against the judgement pronounced by the district and sessions judge. According to the prosecution, Dara Singh and his 20 other associates raided the Catholic Church at Jambani under Mahuldiha police station limits of Mayurbhanj district on the night of September 1, 1999 when the villagers were celebrating “Nuakhai”. An arrow was shot at Arul Doss, the Pastor of the Catholic Church, who succumbed to his injuries. Altogether, 23 prosecution witnesses had deposed and were cross-examined during the nearly three-year long sessions trial.
— UNI
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Military Games
New Delhi, September 22 "The personnel were told that preparations for the MWG were going on in full swing and India is fully prepared to host the Games in a befitting manner," defence ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar, who is also chairman of the MWG media and publicity committee, told reporters. "The personnel of participating countries from Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa were thoroughly briefed about all aspects about the conduct of the games like arrival formalities, reception of their contingents, location of stay, movement in the city and security arrangements," Kar said. More than 5,000 sportspersons and officials from 102 countries are expected for the Games. The MWG is the biggest sporting extravaganza after the Olympic Games and the biggest ever games to be held in India.
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Docs go on 3-day token strike
Chapra, September 22 The doctors of Chapra town went on strike at the call of district unit of Bihar State Health Services Association (BSHSA) to protest the alleged assault on civil surgeon Subhash Sharma on September 19 by some criminals. Co-convenor of the struggle committee of the association K.M. Singh said the doctors resorted to strike, following the district administration's “failure” to nab those who had assaulted the civil surgeon and ransacked his office. Earlier, junior doctors of the Patna Medical College and Hospital went on strike after a clash with RJD supporters, while the indefinite strike by employees of Purnia District Sadar Hospital entered the third day today. They launched the strike following a spat with a former RJD MLA.
— PTI
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