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SUNDAY
SPECIAL From B L Kak Formation of Govt in
Jharkhand RANCHI, Oct 21: The Jharkhand Mukti Morch (JMM) will not be ignored by the ....more
JBSP extends support LUCKNOW, Oct 21: Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, poised to float a new political....more Tourist couple’s
arrival BHARATPUR, Oct 21: The arrival of this tourist couple has thrilled one ......more |
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Vajpayee fully fit, to
leave MUMBAI, Oct 21: A fortnight after the knee-replacement surgery, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee ....more Jailbreak due to KOHIMA, Oct 21: Nagaland Jail Minister Sedam Khaming today said there was "neglect" by Mokokchung prison administration which led to the escape....more HC sets up 10 special NEW DELHI, Oct 21: The Delhi High Court has set up ten special courts to exclusively deal with cases relating to dishonored cheques for insufficient.....more HC asks Govt to explain NEW DELHI, Oct 21: The Delhi High Court has asked the government to reply on a Public...more |
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From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Oct 21: The military rule in Pakistan established over a year ago has now been characteristically described as "a horse with blinders on its eyes going round and round a Persian well". And one of the problems with the Pakistani Army, it has also been argued by Ayaz Amir, noted Pakistani commentator, is the "pervasive lack of imagination in its upper reaches". Do the present masters of Pakistan really think they are breaking virgin soil? And Pakistan, a weary nation no doubt, has heard all this before: Accountability, the corruption of politicians, cleansing the bureaucracy, grass-roots democracy, the Army being the answer to every problem. India-born General Parvez Musharraf and members of his ruling establishment continue to be in the news. Of course, the faces are new. But the ideas being peddled in Islamabad’s power corridors are as old as that mother of all coup d’etats: the one mounted by Mr Iskander Mirza and Gen. Ayub Khan in 1958. And according to uncontradicted reports from different parts of Pakistan, nothing is working. If these reports are to be believed, every initiative proclaimed by the Musharraf dispensation with a loud blast of trumpets has run into the sand. Pakistan is at a standstill, tooted to the same spot, the national horizon lined with uncertainty. The Army command, after seizing power on October 12, 1999, had a golden opportunity to give Pakistan a fresh start. Twelve months already down the road, it should be obvious, as pointed out by Pakistan-watchers, "even to the most committed partisan that the opportunity has been blown". Reason: Higher direction of politics, which is what the circumstances required, is proving to be, yet again, not the Army’s cup of tea. Gen. Parvez Musharraf and his company should have been riding and masterminding events. Instead, they are being buffeted by them. It is not as if the clerics of the bearded brigade who put the Pak Government to flight over the anti-blasphemy law are too much for the Pakistan Army. The Pak Army command has been found to be bent upon pitching its strength into the wrong battles. SUNDAY SPECIAL And this exercise will dissipate its energy. It will, Pakistan-watchers say, also spread frustration both within the Army’’ own bailiwick and the country at large. One of these watchers, who was recently on a visit to Delhi on the strength of tourist visa, told me in the course of an informal chat that Pakistan’s foremost problem "is to get the broad picture right". His argument: Even economic policy comes to nothing if politics is in a mess, something which trained economists, especially the fly-by-night kind inflicted from abroad, find difficult to understand". The Pakistani visitor had yet another reasonable suggestion: Generals and politicians in Pakistan will have to come together to agree on a political framework, which gives the country stability. Generals will have to find some cure for the delusion that they are the answer to the problems of the universe. Politicians will have to stop pretending that politics in Pakistan, for the foreseeable future, can be wholly autonomous from the military. With or without military rule, Pakistan has a strong authoritarian tradition, rolling back which will require the highest sagacity. A peculiar problem has arisen for Gen. Musharraf. According to intelligence specialists, the Pak military ruler, who himself belongs to the group of moderates, is perturbed by the phenomenal growth in the Islamic fundamentalist tone, sentiment and accent within the Armed Forces. In fact, American television channel CBS interviewed him the other day at a time when animated whispers about Islamic militants’ desire to operate nuclear weapons had drawn attention of certain quarters even outside Pakistan. If the question in this regard was pointed, the answer from Gen. Musharraf was also pointed. He ruled out the possibility of the nuclear weapons falling into the hands of religious fanatics and assured: "They are extremely secure and that is my guarantee". Two points, which emerged during the question-answer session, brought to the fore Gen. Musharraf’s preference for moderates among his co-religionists. First, his emphasis on steps to ensure that nuclear weapons do not fall into the hands of "religious fanatics". Second, his pronouncement: "Never has a religious party won seats in our Assemblies. Pakistan is a moderate Islamic country and I mean it". The American TV channel’s 60-minute programme had, at the same time, Pakistan’s radical Islamic leader, Mr Saimul Haq, spewing fire against Gen. Musharraf’s declaration that Pakistan "is a moderate Islamic country". The views of Mr Haq were, indeed, in sharp contrast to Gen. Musharraf’s advocacy of ‘moderate’ Islam. Mr Haq went a step further. His warning: The Musharraf Government will be going in a few days if it dared close down Islamist militant-run madrasas. Mr Saimul Haq had a significant point to make: Pak Army will not put up with any such intervention suggested by the United States. This, if any, was a pointer to the existence of a powerful lobby within Pak Armed Forces in support of the continuance of madrasas. |
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Formation of Govt in
Jharkhand RANCHI, Oct 21: The Jharkhand Mukti Morch (JMM) will not be ignored by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) while forming the first Government in Jharkhand, Samata Party Bihar Legislature Party leader Uma Shanker Singh has said. Mr Singh said his party would play an important role in the instalation of a secular and stable NDA Government in Jharkhand, and work for an economic package for Bihar. The Morcha was an integral part of the NDA and would also be a part of the first Government in the new state, said Mr Singh demanding that the appointment of the Governor in Jharkhand be made with the consent of the Samata Party. Mr Singh said he personally felt that no decision should be taken by the central leadership without taking into confidence Samata Legislators from the Jharkhand region. When asked about the party’s interest in the gubernatorial post in Jharkhand for its nominee he said ‘there is nothing wrong in it as the samata party, though being in a decisive position, has in the larger interest of NDA not claimed the Chief Ministership’. The party has five legislators in Jharkhand. Bihar needed to be compensated for the loss of 18 districts, he added. The Samata Party he said would not only strive for the realisation of the promised economic package for Bihar but also for its desired development to help it emerge as a strong agricultural state. The party’s rally held recently in Patna was an effort in this direction, he said adding it was also people’s revolt against the prevailing anarchy. Mr Singh alleged that in the decade long ‘misrule’ of RJD the state had been pushed toward disaster with anarchy prevailing in every sector. Bihar had come to be known for its scams, he alleged. Blaming Bihar Minister Awadh Bihari Choudhary for the Siwan carnage, the Samata Party leader demanded a judicial enquiry into it and said the matter should be handed over to the CBI. (UNI) |
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JBSP extends support to Dalit Sena rally LUCKNOW, Oct 21: Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, poised to float a new political party next month, received a shot in the arm with Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party, a coalition partner in the Uttar Pradesh Government, extending its support to his Dalit Sena rally here scheduled for tomorrow and indicating a future alliance with his party. "We have extended support to the Dalit Sena rally and we might come together with Paswan’s Party in future", JBSP state president and state minister Ram Asrey Kushwaha told PTI. With another coalition partner in the State Government, Janta Dal (R) having already extended its support to Paswan, JBSP’s support is likely to give a better footing to his party in UP, he said. "I have talked to leaders of my party both personally and also at a meeting and their response is positive with regard to a future alliance with Paswan’s party, Kushwaha said adding some party leaders might even be named as office bearers of the new party on its inception. Meanwhile, Paswan’s brother and MP, Ram Chandra Paswan, and president of Dalit Sena’s Students Federation Khalid Khan said talks were on with leaders of some opposition parties like Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party as well to enlist their support. They said there was dissatisfaction among members of all parties and they were looking towards Ram Vilas Paswan for providing a new political direction. (PTI) |
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Tourist couple’s arrival thrills one and all BHARATPUR, Oct 21: The arrival of this tourist couple has thrilled one and all here, not only the avid ornithologist or the street hotelier but the city tongawala and the boy next door as well. The couple royale is the elusive red-beaked and red-footed foreigner - the Siberian Crane. Bharatpur, North-Western India’s most sought after bird sanctuary received this season’s first pair of cranes - from the icylands of Siberia yesterday. Spotted at the Kevaladev National Park, behind the famous Kevaladev Temple, these birds have sparked hope among ‘bird watchers’ and tourism officials of more visitors in coming days - both birds as well as tourists. Last year just one pair of these ‘prized birds’ came to the sanctuary in late November, but with the arrival of the crane in October has certainly delighted most, as they are considered a good omen to trigger tourist inflow. According to Mr Akbar Khan ‘Bhol’, an ornithologist, "their arrival in this season is really surprising because the weather here is still hot. These migratory birds from the ob river delta in Western Siberia actually leave their wintery abode there for a warmer palce in search of food and shelter as their original habitat becomes too cold for comfort." He added that these cranes travel more than 6,000 km to reach here after traversing the regions of Kazakhistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan before finally reaching their East end home in Bharatpur. The Siberian cranes have been coming here for centuries on end, which in the 60s had reached several hundred. But in recent years their numbers have dwindled rapidly. Some scientists however have expressed the fear that this year’s pair may be the last to visit india which would be a big blow to the tourist traffic here. In 1995 Russian ornithologist Alexander Sorofin endeavoured to track the route these beautiful birds took to reach their Indian home. For this they placed a sensor on the feet of one of the visiting pairs. This pair, later seen in Kunawat in the icy Siberian region, visited India again in the winter season. Experts attribute vegetational likes of the cranes like ‘cyprus rontates’, found in abundance here, patronising ambience and safety as the reason for the annual visit of these ‘foreigners’, whose blackish wing-folds are a delight to watch. This fold unleashes its beauty when these cranes take to their flight. Add to this the beauty of their in-flight resonating sound that gravitates the attention of the most serene of men, and a wholesome, sumptuous visual treat is there for all to see. But lo and behold, these cranes are not the only foreign visitors of the aerial kind to visit bharatpur. From the same siberian regions as these cranes, come common cranes, pintails, showelars, eagles among others to bharatpur to cozy themselves from the harsh climatic conditions of their ‘home’. Yet, believe it or not, these cranes are the real blue-eyed ones of all tourists visiting Bharatpur sanctuary, not for their visual appeal but for the emotional content that had tied them to us for centuries together. May the good times return with them, all lips rise in a prayer. (UNI) |
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HC asks Govt to explain how
765 acres of NEW DELHI, Oct 21: The Delhi High Court has asked the government to reply on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking protection of over 765 acres of prime land at 70 various locations which has been encroached upon by builders in connivance with officials. Justices Anil Dev Singh and M.K. Sharma asked the land and development office, which operates under the Urban Development Ministry, and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to file their replies by January 15 next year. The PIL, filed by All India Lawyers Forum for Civil Liberties (AILFCL), said the Government entrusted this land to the DDA on July 12, 1974 for maintaining it as green area. It is the duty of Government officials to protect the government land from clutches of private builders and to ensure that the objective for which the land has been entrusted to DDA, is met, i.e, land is maintained as green. "But in this case, the officials have neglected to discharge their duty and Government land worth crores of rupees has been encroached upon by private builders and is being used for unauthorised constructions," said AILFCL president O P Saxena. He said the concern and awareness regarding deterioration of environment is increasing worldwide. But if urgent efforts are not made to maintain greenery, the quality of life would lose its meaning. Mr Saxena said, "Delhi is already being regarded as one of the most polluted cities in the world." the AILFCL president also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe how unauthorised and private parties could raise constructions and use the Government land for private purposes. (UNI) |
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