Visit to VSSC, a homecoming for President

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Nov 18: President A P J Abdul Kalam’s visit to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre here today turned out to be a virtual homecoming for him.

Keeping in tune with the ambience and enthusiastic response from the audience, some of them his former colleagues, the first citizen of India went down the memory lane, nostalgically recalling the 20 years he had spent as a scientist in VSSC.

The President was back at the sprawling VSSC complex on the banks of the Veli Lake on the outskirts of the state capital to deliver the first Satish Dhawan lecture.

"Dhawan is very dear to me. He is my guru," Kalam said while speaking about his association with the former ISRO chairman who entrusted the unassuming young technocrat with the tough task of being the mission director for SLV-3 project.

At that time none would have imagined that the young man on whom Dhawan placed his trust would one day be hailed as the country’s "missileman", receive the Bharat Ratna and finally make his way to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

"I learnt everything here. For 20 years I walked here, day and night. Those were beautiful days. Whatever I am today, you are responsible for it," he said, paying tributes to Dhawan.

Kalam recalled that Dhawan had made him the mission director of SLV-3 in 1972.

"I was shocked. I was astonished. But Dhawan told me, once I was appointed a project manager, the whole ISRO will work for its success."

"We worked day and night. In 1979 August, it was the countdown. We were all in Sriharikota. In the final stages, we handed it over to computer. Computer said don’t launch. I turned to others. They said don’t worry launch it. I bypassed the computer, took over the manual launch. The whole thing went into the bay of Bengal."

"The press was waiting outside to know the result. We were tired of hard work stretching days and nights. The failure added to our tiredness. Then came the knock at the door. There was Dhawan, with the words I will face the press."

"The press asked how could you put Rs 20 crore into the Bay of Bengal. Yes, we had a failure, Dhawan replied."

"Eleven months later, SLV-3 was again on the launch pad. It was a success. There was great jubilation. The press was there this time too. Dhawan asked me to handle the press."

"This is leadership. This is the vision," Kalam said. Kalam said: "Once I was watching an exhibition of children’s paintings in Delhi. There was a painting depicting GSLV, PSLV and SLV. One child asked me to which one did I contribute. I pointed to a small SLV-3. He then asked me whether I did a small thing. Yes, I did a small thing."

"Kasturirangan and Madhavan Nair do big things," Kalam said turning to the ISRO chairman and VSSC director seated on the dais.

The biggest thing a man could aspire to be is to become a good human being, Kalam said, recalling yet another anecdote.

"Two years ago, a child from Tamil Nadu sent me a message through a journal. She asked me what gave me the greatest pride— being a Tamilian, a scientist, a muslim or an Indian?"

"It was a tough question. I pondered over for a while. Then I replied, I take pride in being a good human being."

Disregarding a steady drizzle, Kalam broke the security cordon and shook hands with the audience, mostly consisting of scientists and employees of VSSC.

He also had a session with the top brass of the ISRO. (PTI)

Cong stand on starvation contradictory: BJP

NEW DELHI, Nov 18: The Bharatiya Janata Party today flayed the Congress for its move to raise the issue of starvation deaths in the Lok Sabha through an adjournment motion and accused it of condoning the failures of its Governments in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to tackle the situation arising out of the drought.

BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra told newspersons here that the adjournment motions sought to be raised by opposition parties lacked conviction. It is the Congress Governments which first tried to deny that the people in their States were facing starvation problems, he said.

Mr Malhotra said now Congress president Sonia Gandhi was trying to blame the Centre for starvation deaths when it was clear that the States had failed to offtake the food grains allocated by the Centre for below poverty line people or food for work programme. The Centre has for first time announced deferring the recovery of farm loans and interest for the year and had come out with a Rs 2000 crore drought relief package in November itself, he pointed out.

He said the BJP did not oppose debates on these problems but such issues were fit to be raised during the zero hour. Starvation deaths is a human issue and it should be tackled on a top priority basis, he added.

He said the Samajwadi Party’s move to seek discussion on the role of Governor of Uttar Pradesh through an adjournment motion was ‘unprecedented’ as the Governor’s conduct could not be a matter of discussion.

He can’t be held responsible if the Samajwadi Party did not get support from the Congress and other parties to prove its majority on the floor of the UP Assembly, Mr Malhotra said. (UNI)

Golden temple road controversy goes way back

AMRITSAR, Nov 18: The controversy regarding the 64-foot-wide road dividing the SGPC administrative offices from the main Golden Temple shrine here is not a recent feature but dates back to the days when the late Mr Bhim Sen Sachar was Chief Minister of undivided Punjab.

According to Mr Kulwant Singh Randhawa, who retired four years back from the prestigious post of secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the controversial road has over the years been maintained by the SGPC. The recent repair and re-laying of the road was carried out by a ‘Kar Sewa’ sant, he says.

Mr Randhawa, who had a very long stint in the SGPC and held various important administrative posts, claims that though the municipal corporation’ contention is that the road belongs to it but the maintenance has always been carried out by funds provided by the SGPC or through ‘Kar Sewa’.

Deputy Commissioner Iqbal Singh Sidhu had, at a press conference a day before the annual office-bearer polls of the SGPC, claimed that the 64-foot-wide road belonged to the corporation and on this ground justified the police presence on that controversial piece of land.

On one side of the road are Teja Singh Samundri hall which houses the offices of the president and other office-bearers of the SGPC and where SGPC general house meetings are held, then there is the Guru Nanak Niwas which houses the administrative offices of the SGPC.

The ‘Sarais’ (rest houses) — Guru Ram Dass Sarai, Hargobind Niwas and Guru Arjan Dev Niwas — are also located on this side of the road.

On the other side are Dewan Manji Sahib hall, the Langar Building, ‘Jora’ Niwas where devotees take off their shoes and there are two roads leading to the ‘Parikrama’ of the main Golden Temple shrine which runs right around the ‘Sarowar’ or holy tank. Mr Randhawa said the main gate of this road on the Brahmbuta market side through which the devotees or others enter the shrine to pay obeisance or for visiting the SGPC offices or staying in the ‘Sarais’ constructed by the SGPC. The maintenance of this gate had always been done through SGPC funds and not by the corporation.

The road is about 100 metres in length and goes right up to Gurdwara Baba Atal, which was built in memory of the son of the sixth Sikh Guru Hargobind, the builder of the Akal Takht, the highest religio-temporal seat of the Sikhs. There is another entrance to the shrine complex including the SGPC offices and the ‘sarais’ from the Baba Atal side and this too is looked after by the SGPC.

Giving a brief history of the controversy, Mr Randhawa said this actually began when the then Akali Dal led by Master Tara Singh launched a ‘Morcha’(agitation)from the Golden Temple complex in 1955. The ‘morcha’ was launched in protest against the ban imposed by the then State Government against the Akali Dal slogan of ‘Punjabi suba zindabad’, he added

Thereafter, the district administration laid claim to this controversial road says that as per past records it was the property of the municipal committee since the holy city did not have a municipal corporation at that time. According to Mr Randhawa, prior to 1955 no claims on the control of the road was made by the Government or the committee and it was always the SGPC that managed and maintained it.

According to past records at the City Kotwali Police Station, after independence the police stepped onto this controversial road for the first time in 1955 to apprehend the agitating akali dal leaders who started the ‘morcha’ from their party office which was next to Guru Nanak Niwas. Even during the `Punjabi Subba’ Morcha of the early sixties when the late Partap Singh Kairon was Chief Minister, police entered through this road to apprehend Akali leaders from their offices and Sarais where they were staying.

As per official records at the City Kotwali Police Station, barring ‘Operation Bluestar’ the security forces never entered the main holy shrine where the Harimandir Sahib and the Akal Takht are located. Police only entered the main shrine in the plain clothes during the visit of VVIP’s, including Prime Ministers and foreign dignitaries, including Queen Elizabeth.

Mr Randhawa said after 1955 the controversy about the claims and counter-claims of the road died down but again during ‘Operation Blackthunder’ in may 1988, the corporation laid claim to this controversial road but never bothered to repair it after ‘Operation Blackthunder’ ended and it was left to the SGPC to do this job. This same controversy again rose its head in the November 12 SGPC office-bearer polls and the presence of police in plain clothes was objected to by the sad and they demanded that Chief Minister captain Amarinder Singh’s resignation and called for his summoning to the Akal Takht for having violated sikh traditions by sending police.

However, in all past SGPC office bearer elections and the annual budget sessions even when Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra was chief of the SGPC and during the tenure of Mr Parkash Singh Badal as Chief Minister, police used to be present on this road. (UNI)

Police closing in on rapists of medical student

NEW DELHI, Nov 18: The Delhi Police today said it had gathered important leads to establish the identity of the three persons suspected to have raped a student of the Maulana Azad Medical College and a breakthrough was expected shortly.

"We are closing in on the alleged rapists of the medical student...," Joint Commissioner of Police (North) Ranjit Narayan told UNI.

He said a number of people whose identities matched the three suspected rapists had been questioned and important leads have been gathered about the real identities of those involved in the crime.

He said investigation so far had established that there were three persons involved in the rape of the student in broad day-light on November 15 inside a historical monument "Khooni Darwaza" near the College Campus on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.

"We will arrest them soon," Mr Narayan asserted.

Meanwhile, police reviewed security arrangements in and around the college campus and subsequently increased "bandobust" inside the premises, especially in view of the examinations scheduled to begin today.

The examination would now start on Wednesday and today’s paper would be taken up later.

Students in the college had refused to take the examinations from today due to lack of adequate security cover and demanded that there regular coordination between the security personnel and students to instil a sense of security, especially among girl students.

After a meeting with the college administration and police, the students agreed to take the exams from wednesday, provided more security personnel were stationed in and around the college. "We have considered their views and all efforts are being made to depute more policemen inside the campus," Mr Narayan said.

The girl, a fourth-year-student of the college, was reportedly taken hostage by three youths at knife point while she was crossing the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg from her college side to catch a bus back home around 1415 hrs on Friday and was raped inside the monument.

The incident sent a shock wave among students of the college and other educational institutions with a demand for review of security arrangements around these premises gaining strength.

Investigation by police had revealed that two of the three suspects were juveniles and were in the age group of 14-15 years. The third suspect is said to be 21 years old. (UNI)

Parties finalise strategies for UP Legislative Council by-poll today

LUCKNOW, Nov 17: All major political parties in Uttar Pradesh, except for the Congress, today gave final shape to their strategies for tomorrow’s Legislative Council by-poll for one seat which the BJP described as a challenge.

The Bahujan Samaj Party, which is the senior partner in the ruling coalition, gathered its mlas at the official residence of Chief Minister Mayawati to announce its support for the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RJD)’s Munna Singh who is pitted against a much more confident opposition-sponsored Yashwant Singh. Mr Yashwant Singh was a former minister in the previous Rajnath Singh Government.

The principal opposition Samajwadi Party also convened a meeting of its MLAs to declare open support for Mr Yashwant Singh. SP general secretary Shiv Pal Singh Yadav told UNI that the party legislators unanimously decided to vote in favour of the former minister. He said a few other opposition parties including Apna Dal, Rashtriya Kranti Party, CPI(M) alongwith some independents would also vote against the ruling coalition candidate.

The Congress, however, was still indecisive about whom to vote in tomorrow’s by-poll. CLP leader Pramod Tiwari told UNI that a final decision by the party high command was expected late tonight.

The rebel-plagued BJP said it was confident of winning tomorrow’s by-poll. "The election is a challenge for the party and we would win it," said BJP Legislature Party leader Lalji Tandon after a meeting of the party MLAs where the 12 dissident legislators were not present.

The rebels, however, maintaining a tough posture said while they would vote in favour of Mr Yashwant Singh, they would also ask fellow party MLAs to vote as per their conscience. "If the party for which we had worked as loyal soldiers is ignoring our plight for the narrow interests of staying in power, why should we vote for their official candidate", asked dissident group spokesman Ramashish Rai.

He also came out in support of senior BJP leader and Irrigation Minister Om Prakash Singh, who earlier in the day sprang a surprise by not attending the party’s legislature meeting. He said now their stand against the party’s local leadership stands vindicated.

Mr Om Prakash Singh had told reporters that the state BJP leadership was conspiring to sideline him.

Meanwhile, RLD chief and Union Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh is also camping in the state capital and has held several rounds of discussion with the ruling coalition partners to enable smooth sailing of his party candidate in the council by-polls.

Mr Singh had also chaired a meeting of the RLD Legislature Party. (UNI)

| home | state | national | business| editorial | advertisement | sports |
| international | weather | mailbag | suggestions | search | subscribe | send mail |