Top Muslims in BJP clash with Maneka

The BJP national executive continued to degenerate into chaos on Sunday, with leaders indulging in a vicious blame game following the party’s Lok Sabha defeat.

The final day of the national executive session witnessed a heated exchange between Ms Maneka Gandhi, MP from Aonla, and the party’s prominent Muslim faces — Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaz Hussain.During the open session, without identifying Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi by name, Mr Hussain hit out at the “aggressive Hindutva stance” adopted by some leaders in the election campaign. He also expressed displeasure over the constant leak of internal party matters to the media.

Ms Gandhi intervened at this stage and attacked Mr Hussain, accusing the party’s Muslim MP from Bhagalpur of “leaking reports”.

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I am fighting for self-respect: Varun

BJP’s latest Hindutva poster boy and Lok Sabha candidate from Pilibhit, Varun Gandhi, in his public meetings stated that he will not watch like an eunuch while his people are being attacked. Mr Gandhi claimed that he was fighting for the “swabhimaan”(self respect) of his people. At the same time he clarified that he was not anti-minorities and was a staunch nationalist. Speaking at one such rally in Abhaypur village in his constituency, “People of Pilibhit know there is no place for violence here... but that does not mean that if anyone attacks our people, we will stand on one side and watch the drama like eunuchs. In this election, the patriots — be a Hindu, Sikh or Muslim — will be respected. I can get myself beheaded for this, but will not allow your heads to hang in shame,” he stated.

Mr Gandhi exhorted people to vote for him, but refused to speak against his rival Congress, as he claimed, it was on its deathbed. “My mother has told me that one should not speak against an old and ailing person on the deathbed.

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Dutt for Lucknow Lok Sabha race?

Filmstar Sanjay Dutt is likely to be nominated as the joint Congress Samajwadi candidate for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat. The sitting MP is former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is unlikely to contest, and the BJP is yet to name its candidate.

The actor appeared at Etawah’s Sefai Mahotsav on Monday, when he was warmly welcomed by SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and general secretary Amar Singh. The festival is organised every year by Mr Yadav’s family, and Mr Singh ensures the presence of top filmstars. This year, however, Mr Dutt, clad in a politician’s trademark khadikurta, was the only mega star present. He said Mr Yadav and Mr Singh were “like family” to him.

Congress sources said while the party didn’t want to give him a ticket due to pending cases against him, it was ready to support him as a joint candidate because of his family’s longtime party ties. Both parties feel his charisma and star power would help wrest the seat from the BJP.

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Patil tired of dressing down

Speculation over the continuance in office of beleaguered Union home minister Shivraj Patil is gaining ground in political circles with the Congress leadership assessing whether a change is required at this juncture. Sources said this was because competence was not the only criteria for the post and that the “confidence” of the leadership was equally important.

A special meeting of the Union Cabinet has been called on Wednesday to discuss the terror attacks.

“There is no forward movement on this issue (continuance of Mr Patil in his post) at this juncture,” well placed sources said here on Tuesday, adding that “he may go or may not go”. The leadership does not want to take a decision under pressure either from the BJP or from RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav.

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Punjab mantri turns to acting

A senior Punjab Cabinet minister has taken time off from his government duties to play a central role in a soon to be released television film called Cheekh (Scream).

Master Mohan Lal, transport minister in the Parkash Singh Badal government, plays a socially-conscious retired school teacher who has decided to devote his life to ending the scourge of female foeticide.

Masterji, who is taking a break from a hectic shooting schedule at Kot Gangurai village near Ludhiana, is totally at ease in front of the camera. Before winning the Pathankot Assembly seat on a BJP ticket last year and then becoming a minister, he had played the role of Ravan in the city’s annual Ramlila for almost 25 years.

As his title suggests, he had also spent a considerable time as a government schoolteacher in the cantonment city.

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Big blow to Ramadoss, All India Institute of Medical Sciences law held invalid

Dr P.Venugopal returned to the helm of the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences here on Thursday after the Supreme Court struck down an amendment brought into the AIIMS Act by the Centre fixing the upper age of retirement of the director of the institute at 65 years.

Dr Venugopal had been unceremoniously ousted from the post of AIIMS director in November last year, hours after President Pratibha Patil had signed the controversial AIIMS amendment bill. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the PostGraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (Amendment) Bill 2007 had been introduced by Union health and family welfare minister Anbumani Ramadoss in Parliament in August 2007 after the turf war between the health minister and the AIIMS chief sunk to a new low over the autonomy of the institute. The bill was passed in Parliament amid stiff opposition from the BJP and the AIADMK.

The Supreme Court verdict has proved a major setback for the Centre and for Dr Ramadoss in particular, with several top Opposition leaders demanding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh immediately dismiss the health minister. "I demand the resignation of Ramadoss, and if he is not resigning I want the Prime Minister to dismiss him forthwith," BJP leader Sushma Swaraj told reporters.

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Google invites Congress, BJP to campaign via YouTube

The presidential election campaign in the United States this time is being fought as much in the party primaries as on YouTube, the enormously popular Google-owned site where anyone can post a video free of cost. In the run-up to the next general elections in India, we may see a similar online video war between the Congress and the BJP.

Google announced the launch of YouTube's India operations on Wednesday. However, it has already broached the use of YouTube with the BJP and the Congress in their campaigns for the coming general elections.

"We will provide space to the parties for telecasting video campaigns. We can also create customised interactive platforms for them," says Google India managing director Shailesh Rao.

YouTube could become the quickest and cheapest mass based electronic means of reaching out to young urban voters in this country.

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Nuclear Deal has to wair till differences are settled, Pranab told Bush

External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee has told US President George W. Bush that the Indo-US nuclear deal will have to wait till the differences with the UPA's Communist allies and the Opposition BJP are resolved.

"We are trying to resolve the issues but it may take some more time," he said, in the clearest indication yet that New Delhi will not meet Washington's deadline of getting the deal past the US Congress before Mr Bush leaves the White House in January 2009.

Mr Mukherjee on Tuesday told a press conference held at the Willard Hotel in Washington D.C. towards the end of his two-day visit to the US that it would be difficult for him to indicate a particular time frame by which the UPA government would be able to close the deal.

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Left pushes for a Third Front

The four major Left parties on Sunday stressed the need to create and present a third alternative before the people.

Leaders of the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc came together on the occasion of the 20th party congress of the CPI held here.

Delivering the inaugural address, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, said every effort should be made to build a Left democratic alternative to the Congress as well as the BJP."We should present an alternative programme," he said.

Mr Bardhan also warned that the controversial Indo-US nuclear deal was an attempt to cap a strategic partnership with the United States. "We have no problems with the India-specific safeguards agreement (with the IAEA), our opposition is to the Indo-US nuclear agreement as such," he said.

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RSS-BJP men attack CPM Head Quarters

Four teen people, including six BJP municipal councillors, were arrested by the Delhi Police on charges of rioting after workers from the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh allegedly attacked the CPI(M)'s national headquarters, A.K. Gopalan Bhavan, at Bhai Vir Singh Marg in the heart of New Delhi with stones on Sunday morning.The police was caught completely off-guard.

Four CPI(M) central committee members were injured in the stone-throwing, in which panes of several parked vehicles, including that of senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, were smashed.

Eight policemen and ten others were also injured in the violence.

The BJP and RSS workers were protesting against attacks on RSS workers in Kannur district of Kerala during the recent CPI(M)RSS clashes there in which cadres of both sides have lost their lives.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said that party members outside the headquarters at the time had identified BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi and Delhi mayor Aarti Mehra as being present at the time when the attack took place, and that FIRs had been filed with the police. But while Aarti Mehra flatly denied that she was ever present at the scene of the incident, Mr. Mukhi denied any role in the violence. The BJP and RSS claimed that CPI(M) cadres had started the stone-throwing.


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Goa House prorogued, BJP wants floor test

Congress and NCP central observers negotiated hard all day to resolve a crisis in the Goa government while the Winter Session of the Assembly was abruptly prorogued on Thursday afternoon.

By late Thursday evening, constituents of the new group that precipitated Wednesday's events softened their stance on pulling down the government and said they expected "something to come out of the discussions" being held all day in two hotels in Goa.

"There are functional problems with the government.

Both high commands should realise this and take steps to resolve them," said Independent legislator Vishwajit Rane. He resigned as health minister on Wednesday night, along with the NCP's tourism minister, Mr Francisco Pacheco, and revenue minister Jose Philip D'Souza, withdrawing support to the coalition.

NCP civil aviation minister Praful Patel told the media he was "hopeful of a solution within the framework of this government". Mr Patel held talks with Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat on Thursday evening. While the NCP high command was unhappy with the unilateral decision of its Goa legislators to quit, Mr Patel, after holding talks with them, conceded they had grievances. "These issues will have to be resolved," he said.

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Image and Article source: Asian Age
Article taken from the issue: 18 Jan 2008