Mayawati denies discontent among BSP rank and file

NEW DELHI, Nov 7: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today denied any resentment was brewing in BSP and said police action against party MLA Jai Prakash Yadav was initiated at her behest following complaints of physical threats by people from his constituency.

"It is true that Jai Prakash Yadav, party MLA from Dhuriapar Assembly constituency in district Gorakhpur has joined BJP rebels... But my Government would not spare anyone including party MLA or MPs if they indulge in unlawful activities", she told reporters here.

The BSP leader said she had received complaints against Yadav from various sections of people following which FIRs were filed against him when district police officials informed her about his activities.

"To save himself from police arrest, Yadav is now trying to associate himself with rebels", Mayawati said adding that he would not escape from arrest as police was searching him in UP and in Delhi.

Denying reports that she was here to meet Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, Mayawati said she had come here to meet the Election Commission and submit her party reports about Jammu and Kashmir elections.

"I am not here to discuss UP crisis with anyone. BSP is a national party and I came here to submit party report on expenditure during the Jammu and Kashmir polls", she said. Asked about her reported threat of calling for snap polls in UP Mayawati said she had meant that there is no other option to a snap poll if such a situation continued for long.

However, she said the BSP-BJP coalition would sweep the next Assembly elections and ridiculed Samajwadi Party’s effort to form an alternative Government in the State.

Pointing out that the Governor had given "enough time" to the Samajwadi Party to form a Government soon after the State elections but he could not do so, she questioned the basis of SP’s claims on majority support now.

"From where has he got 204 MLAs?", she asked.

About convening of the State Assembly, the Chief Minister said where was the need for such a move when BSP-BJP coalition enjoys absolute majority.

On the question of action against MLAs amidst ongoing crisis, she said as fas as cases against SP leader Azam Khan was concerned, the State Government has nothing to do with it as it was the railways which had filed cases.

But with regard to independent MLAs Raja Bhaiya and Dhanajay Singh, action was initiated following an FIR against them which said they were allegedlly involved in kidnapping certain MLAs, she said.

About the candidature of Rajya Sabha seats which fell vacant following resignation of T N Chaturvedi, she said it was a BJP seat and her party would extend support to any candidate fielded by the coalition partner. (PTI)

Political parties face uphill task to break ice with voters

RAJKOT, Nov 7: Political parties face a daunting task to break the ice with voters in a deeply-polarised Gujarat, which goes to the polls on December 12.

A UNI correspondent on a day’s tour of Rajkot city in Saurashtra region during the recent Diwali festival, found the people still trying to come to terms with the Godhra carnage and the subsequent riots.

A few hoardings put up by the Congress party dot Rajkot’s skyline criticising the ruling BJP for the communal riots and Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s Gaurav Yatra.

"The Godhra carnage and the subsequent communal riots were the worst kind of violence inflicted on our State. We all know that it is the common man who suffers the most," said Vijaybhai, a carpenter by profession who makes do with contracts from companies.

He thanks God that Rajkot remained peaceful and earlier too it did not bear the brunt of the devastating January 26 earthquake.

"With the communal divide, basic problems like drinking water shortage and condition of roads have taken a backseat," he laments.

Nanikbhai, a taxi-driver said lack of adequate rains in recent years, has resulted in acute drinking water shortage. "Modi’s only achievement has been that he has brought us Narmada water in our canals, though it is yet to reach all our fields. Two or three drinking water pipelines have been constructed, as the only water tank which supplied drinking water to the Rajkot city had dried up long ago, due to lack of rains over the years," he noted.

He said the Modi Government has been facing allegations of corruption in disbursing relief and rehabilitation material received from foreign countries for the quake victims.

Nanikbhai said he has driven local journalists from Rajkot to various places on the route taken by the Gaurav Yatra. "I have been to Modi’s Gaurav Yatra when it passed through Rajkot. But, in all his speeches, Modi just trains his guns on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and the Congress party for defaming Gujarat. It has nothing which would reassure the common man and uplift the poor and downtrodden," he observed.

Nanikbhai is aware about the spotlight on Gujarat in view of the elections. He admits that communal divide in the State was never so grave as it is now. "I know this polarisation is not good for Gujarat, but it is a fact," he lamented.

An affluent sweet shop owner in the Rajkot market agrees that the communal riots have affected one and all in the State. "Whatever happened was very bad especially because it has resulted in total polarisation of the society," he said.

Meanwhile, political parties including the BJP and Congress are all set to launch their respective campaigns from November 11. Congress president Sonia Gandhi will address rallies in the State. BJP MLA from Mumbai Hemendra Mehta, who hails from Amreli, feels that the election fever will start catching up with the conclusion of the Diwali festivities. (UNI)

PM inaugurates exhibition of Madhubani paintings in Laos

VIENTIANE (LAOS), Nov 7 : In a move to promote Indian textiles and paintings in garment-exporting Laos, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today inaugurated the first such exhibition of Bihar’s Madhubani paintings here, ahead of the setting up of an India-sponsored museum of traditional textiles from six south East Asian countries in Cambodia.

Organised by the Indian Council of Cultural relations (ICCR), the exhibition has paintings created by anonymous men and women from Mithila in Bihar where they have practiced the art tradition for hundreds of years.

"Art is a happy medium for bringing people close to each other and promoting understanding" in South East Asia and the far East where textiles and finished garments have been a major source for exports, Vajpayee, also a poet, told reporters at the inauguration.

"While driving through your city yesterday and today, I have been struck by the evidence of the shared history and cultural heritage between India and Laos. Your (Buddhist) stupas and pagodas remind us that Buddhism is a symbol of our common past. The Ramayana is also the common heritage of our entire region, and each of our cultures has found unique ways of depicting it," Vajpayee, who arrived here yesterday on a two-day visit, said.

Lauding the ICCR, he said Madhubani Paintings, which have preserved centuries of mythological stories through art, "identify with the simple living of the rural folk."

External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, who is accompanying the Prime Minister, said though Madhubani paintings are done in paper in their original form, artistes have used walls and floors in their mud houses in villages as their canvas.

These paintings represent the joy of living, images of divine power and fertility and a portrayal of modes to counter the evil as per the Madhubani traditions. The art has been passed on from generation to generation for hundreds of years.

Vajpayee also visited the Buddhist temple of Sisakit where more than 450 large and over 10,000 small Buddha statues belonging to the 5th and 6th century have been preserved.

Earlier, the Prime Minister met Laos President Khamtay Siphandone, who is also the chief of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party.

Officials said the two leaders exchanged views on bilateral cooperation and India’s assistance in various sector including the decision to extend a line of credit of 10 million US dollars at preferential terms and the interaction in the defence field.

Vajpayee also laid a wreath at the monument of unknown solders.

ICCR chief Suryakanti Tripathi, who is here, said the museum of traditional Asian textiles, which would be established in the famous Angkor Vat city of Seam Reap in Cambodia, would be part of the efforts to promote Ganga-Mekong cooperation. It would have a host of exhibits from India, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar.

Tripathi said Vajpayee, during his visit to Cambodia in April this year, had announced a million-dollar contribution by India for the museum. The Cambodian authorities would provide a piece of land for it in Siem Reap.

Indian master weavers and craftsmen would impart training at the museum on fashion designing and textile making.

ICCR, Tripathi said, would also contribute towards setting up computer kiosks in Cambodia and Laos for the common people. (PTI)

Govt cannot discriminate between minority
and majority: SC

NEW DELHI, Nov 7: Warning all Governments not to pursue any policy preferential to one community, the Supreme Court has ruled in a landmark judgement that the essence of article 30(1) of the Constitution was to ensure equal treatment between majority and minority institutions.

"The essence of article 30(1) is to ensure equal treatment between the majority and the minority institutions. No one type or category of institution should be disfavored or, for that matter, receive more favourable treatment than another," a 11-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice B N Kirpal ruled by 6:5 majority recently.

On article 30(1), Justice Kirpal, writing the majority judgement, said it was a sort of guarantee or assurance to the linguistic and religious minority institutions of their right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

"Secularism and equality being two of the basic features of the constitution, article 30(1) ensures protection to the linguistic and religious minorities, thereby preserving the secularism of the country. Furthermore, the principle of equality must necessarily apply to the enjoyment of such rights," the CJI said.

Other judges of the bench who agreed with the CJI were Justice G B Pattanaik, Justice S Rajendra Babu, Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice P V Reddi and Justice Arijit Pasayat.

The majority judgement said no Government can frame laws that would discriminate against minorities with regard to the establishment and administration of educational institutions vis-a-vis educational institutions established by the non-minority community.

"Any law or rule or regulation that would put the educational institutions run by the minorities at a disadvantage when compared to the institutions run by others will have to be struck down," the bench said.

"At the same time, there also cannot be any reverse discrimination," Justice Kirpal said. He meant that a minority institution could not be more favoured as compared to the majority institution.

The apex court said that the laws of the land should apply equally to the majority institutions as well as the minority institutions. "The minority institutions must be allowed to do what the non-minority institutions are permitted to do," the CJI said. (PTI)

Delhi Police to provide security to eyewitness of shootout

NEW DELHI, Oct 7: Complying partially with the National Human Rights Commission’s direction, the Delhi Police today provided protection to an eyewitness, Dr H Krishna, of the Ansal Plaza shootout case.

Delhi Police Commissioner R S Gupta in a letter to the NHRC Director General (investigation) Y N Srivastava informed that the security has been provided to Dr Krishna and his family who were said to be present in the basement of shopping mall when the encounter took place.

The Commissioner, however, assured Mr Srivastava, who has been asked by NHRC Chairman Justice J S Verma to be in touch with the Delhi Police on this incident, that complying to the NHRC’s direction full police report about the encounter would be submitted within a week, NHRC sources said.

Taking cognizance of a complaint filed by Parliamentarian Kuldip Nayar and journalist Praful Bidwai, the NHRC had last evening issued notices to the police commissioner, DCP Ashok Chand and ACP Rajbir Singh, both of whom were involved in the operation in which two alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were killed, seeking their version of the incident as the eyewitness had claimed that the "encounter was stage-managed."

Citing news reports that quoted eye-witness saying that the two youths killed in the incident were "unarmed and were shot dead by the police. The men, in their 20s, were barely able to walk, come out of a car, Dr Krishna was quoted.

"Being a doctor I could easily make out that either they had not slept for several days or they had taken a heavy dose of sleeping pills. The two men were shot in front of us and the police claim that the terrorist opened fire on the police was false."

he had also said that the youths were empty handed and there was no bag of ammunition as claimed by the police. The police had fired 35 to 40 rounds which lasted one minute to kill the two boys, he had said and added that had it been an encounter about seven to eight persons present there would have been injured.

As the news report had mentioned that plainclothes policemen had been deployed outside the residence of Dr Krishan who had also expressed fear that he may be "traced and silenced", the NHRC had directed the police to provide him and his family full protection.

Expressing concern about the report, the complainants said that the entire episode has all the trappings of a "staged encounter," so the commission should institute a full inquiry into the matter and record the version of the said eyewitness.

Significantly, the complainant have also sought tranfer of Mr Chand and Mr Singh, who were incharge of the Special Cell of Delhi Police that was behind the entire operation. (UNI)

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