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Cong role in Kargil JALANDHAR, Aug 26: In a gunning-for-Congress manifesto, the ruling Akali Dal in Punjab today said the role of Sonia Gandhi’s party in Kargil conflict with Pakistan was "tailor made to suit the designs of the enemy and an attempt to demoralise the nation.".....more
Cong to highlight Govt’s MUMBAI, Aug 26: The Congress will aggressively highlight and expose the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government in handling the Pakistani intrusion in the Kargil front, party leader Suresh Kalmadi said here today......more
Cong not averse to NEW DELHI, Aug 26: Former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh today indicated that Congress was not averse to forming a coalition Government in the event of a hung Lok Sabha after the elections....more |
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Cong should have learnt CHENNAI, Aug 26: Tamil Maanila Congress....more
‘City of joy’ celebrates CALCUTTA, Aug 26: The ‘city of joy’ today.....more
Pilot cautions ROHTAK, Aug 26: Senior Congress leader Rajesh....more ISI hatches conspiracy to CHANDIGARH, Aug 26: The Pakistani.....more Relief given to custodial NEW DELHI, Aug 26: The National Human Rights....more |
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Cong role in Kargil act of treason: Akali JALANDHAR, Aug 26: In a gunning-for-Congress manifesto, the ruling Akali Dal in Punjab today said the role of Sonia Gandhi’s party in Kargil conflict with Pakistan was "tailor made to suit the designs of the enemy and an attempt to demoralise the nation." "The whole nation, except the Congress, was proud of the way our brave soldiers have dealt with unrovoked aggression against the country but the Congress was trying to paint the great victory of our jawans as a defeat," Akali Dal president and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal told reporters here releasing his party’s manifesto. "The Congress role is nothing short of treason," he said, adding Sonia Gandhi’s decision to stay away from all party meet during the height of the Kargil conflict, which claimed the lives of more than 400 Indian soldiers, sent dangerously wrong signals. Heaping fulsome praise over Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s "deft handling" of the Kargil crisis and leaving no one in doubt that the ruling Akali Dal would ask for votes by pitching the BJP leader Vajpayee as next candidate for premiership, Badal said he provided visionary leadership" and "upheld the honour and dignity of the entire nation." "Vajpayee’s firm and principled stand resulted in total military and diplomatic defeat of Pakistan for the first time in 52 years," he said. (PTI) |
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Cong to highlight Govt’s ‘failure’ in handling Kargil MUMBAI, Aug 26: The Congress will aggressively highlight and expose the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government in handling the Pakistani intrusion in the Kargil front, party leader Suresh Kalmadi said here today. "We did not want to make the Kargil crisis a political issue. But the BJP and its allies are trying to gain political mileage out of it. We are going to agressively highlight their failure," said Mr Kalmadi while launching party’s campaign. "Our Bofors guns will start firing now," he told reporters adding that the BJP leaders had come down heavily on the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi raising doubts about the gun-deal and the capabilities of the 175-mm howitzer gun. "The gun has been the mainstay of the armed forces during the Kargil-conflict," he said. "Even campaigning for the State Assembly, the BJP and its allies like Shiv Sena are raising Kargil issue," he said adding that "the Congress is firm in exposing them." The Congress would ask for vote on the plank of stable Government at the Centre and Maharashtra, he said. Congress president and star campaigner Sonia Gandhi will visit the State on August 30 on a campaign tour. She will address five meetings in the Vidharba region — Chandrapur, Wardha, Akola, Buldhana and Nagpur. "We will take Vidharba by storm," he said. "The main fight in the State is between the Sena-BJP alliance and Congress. The presence of the Sharad Pawar-led Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) will not make any difference," he said. He denied reports that the Congress would seek support of Mr Pawar to form a Government at the Centre and in Maharashtra. Talking about the political scenario in the State, he said that people were fed up with the ‘misrule’ of the Sena-BJP Government. The State’s economy was in a very bad shape, he alleged. He said Ms Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gight campaign in the State apart from senior leaders like Rajesh Pilot, Najma Heptullah, MPCC president Prataprao Bhosale, thespian Dilip Kumar, former Chief Ministers A R Antulay and Shankarrao B Chavan. (UNI) |
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Cong not averse to forming coalition Govt: Manmohan NEW DELHI, Aug 26: Former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh today indicated that Congress was not averse to forming a coalition Government in the event of a hung Lok Sabha after the elections. "We are not fighting shy of coalition. We are making a bold statement that we want the country to give us the mandate to govern. But one has to reckon with the situations as they arise," he told in an interview. A member of the party’s highest decision making body, CWC, Singh said the party would like to be elected on its own but in the event of a hung Lok Sabha there should be a principled alliance and programme-based power sharing "if at all it becomes necessary". At the same time, he made it clear that coalition was not "our first priority". Singh, who is making an electoral debut from South Delhi, parried all questions about his being an alternative Prime Ministerial candidate of the party and asserted that there was no diffidence in the party over Sonia Gandhi accessing the top post. "I am not a candidate for PM. I am a candidate only for elections to the Lok Sabha", he said. The senior Congress leader said his party was not projecting any Prime Ministerial candidate as it wanted to contest the elections on issues rather than on personalities. Singh said if the BJP-led coalition came back to power it would provide only a "bickering and quarreling Government" as there would be tension between Government and the Sangh Parivar and between BJP and allies on economic policies and their pet agenda. "I think it will be a bickering Government which will not be able to provide a coherent Government capable of administering a country of India’s size and diversity," he said. On the reported statement of BJP leader Govindacharya that contentious issues like Ayodhya and Article 370 were still on BJP’s agenda, he said it showed the ‘utter intellectual dishonesty’ of that party. Singh said statements of Uttar Pradesh BJP leaders like Kalraj Mishra indicated that the party was fighting elections in the state on these issues. "It is a well-coordinated strategy. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will say soft things and RSS will say hard things. I do not see they are different. Govindacharya had once described Vajpayee as the mask," he said. In the interview, Singh spoke on a wide range of issues including economy, defence expenditure, National Democratic Alliance’s election manifesto and his "great educational experience" while contesting the elections. Making a scathing attack on the Government for its "failure" to anticipate events in Kargil, Singh said the Pakistani intrusion was a failure of the political leadership as they put "too many eggs in Nawaz Sharif’s basket". Assailing BJP for making Kargil an election issue, he questioned why at all Kargil happened. "It is not the failure of intelligence. It is a failure of the political leadership to do the right thing. At a time when they should have been alert about the intrusion they were settling scores with Admiral Bhagwat." Singh sought an explanation from the Government for putting up the excuse that it had been "betrayed" by Islamabad saying it was wrong to trust the "hostile neighbour". He said Defence Minister George Fernandes visited Siachen six times. "You have to go to Siachen via Kargil. Is it not obligatory on the part of the Government to be alert. It proved to be totally inept." The senior Congress leader also criticised the Government for making a song and dance of exploding nuclear device saying it had now made the country’s security vulnerable. "Instead of providing security, exactly the opposite has happened. Whatever leverage we had on the basis of conventional superiority has disappeared." (PTI) |
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Cong should have learnt ‘lessons’, says Moopanar CHENNAI, Aug 26: Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) today said Congress should have learnt ‘lessons’ from the ‘snub’ it got at the hands of AIADMK at Villipuram on Sunday, when AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha failed to turn up for the joint public meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. If they (Congress) have learnt their lessons, it is okay, TMC president G K Moopanar told reporters when his reaction on the incident was sought. Stating that the prospects of the TMC-led front in Tamil Nadu in the coming Lok Sabha polls were ‘very good’, Moopanar said response for his campaign in 12 Lok Sabha constituencies had been encouraging. When the Third Front was formed, I too was hesitant, but the situation is now different. When no other party came forward to form another front to oppose both DMK and AIADMK, the TMC had managed to bell the cat, Moopanar said. In one or two constituencies, the front’s efforts to promote its candidate could be dull only because it had begun its campaigning late, he said. Asked about problems betweem TMC and Puthiya Tamizhagam over seat-sharing in Tiruchengode and Central Madras, he said the problems had been solved. He said that in Tiruchengode, the TMC nominee had been instructed to withdraw his candidature, while in central madras the PT had announced its nominee. (PTI) |
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‘City of joy’ celebrates Mother Teresa’s birthday CALCUTTA, Aug 26: The ‘city of joy’ today celebrated the 89th birth anniversary of Mother Teresa by paying homage to the nun who dedicated her life for the uplift of the poor. A special prayer meeting was held at the mother’s house in the international headquarters of the missionaries of charity in which the Superior General Sister Nirmala and other sisters attended. Children of Nirmala Sishu Bhavan, the orphanage run by the charity, sang songs and garlanded her portraits. The inmates of "dayadan", a home for disabled children, also celebrated the day. An all-faith prayer was organised jointly by the All India Peace Council and the Indian Sufi Society at the mother’s house where hundreds of people from all walks of life and religions participated. Several people, including West Bengal PWD Minister Kshgiti Gowsami and former Union Minister Pratap Chander Chandra, placed wreaths on mother’s tomb, specially erected inside her house after her death two years ago. The congregation unanimously resolved to urge the State Government to name one major hospital and a major road after the mother. Reports of celebrations by several organisations throughout the state, country and abroad also poured in at the missionaries of charity headquarters. (UNI) |
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ISI hatches conspiracy to liquidate PM, Advani, Sonia CHANDIGARH, Aug 26: The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) outfit has hatched "a conspiracy" to liquidate Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Union Home Minister L K Advani, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and some other top political leaders through human bombs. Disclosing this at a news conference here, Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) A S Bhatotia said the other top leaders against whom the ISI had hatched the conspiracy were Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his son Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is Union Minister of State for Industries, and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah. He said following the revalation of this conspiracy to liquidate the top leaders during their election campaign in Haryana the state police had stepped up security arrangements. He said ISI had persuaded Purshotam Singh of Ambala, Narinder Singh of Kurukshetra and Rattandeep Singh of Safidon to act as human bombs. Mr Bhatotia said that the state police had launched a ‘vigorous manhunt’ to nab the three ISI agents. He said Rattandeep Singh had already been declared absconder. It was said that he alongwith his wife had escaped to Pakistan. The Haryana Police was coordinating with Delhi and Punjab Police to nab ‘human bombs.’ He said the Uttar Pradesh Police had arrested dreaded terrorist Kashmira Singh, who belong to Jind district of Haryana, from Udham Singh Nagar. He said a police party was being sent there to interrogate him. Many terrorists, who wanted to create disturbances during elections, had been killed in Terai area of Udham Singh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh recently. The Delhi Police had also arrested dreaded terrorist Charanjit Singh, wanted by the Haryana Police. He said the Haryana Police was in contact with their counterparts in Delhi for interrogating him for further details. He said 2000 villages had been identified as ‘sensitive’ for the September 5 Lok Sabha polls in the state, out of these fifty per cent were "hyper-sensitive" for which elaborate security arrangements had been made. (UNI) |
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Relief given to custodial death victim’s dependents NEW DELHI, Aug 26: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the Bihar Government to pay Rs 1 lakh as immediate interim relief to the dependents of an undertrial prisoner who died due to lack of prompt medical attention in a police station in Garhwa. The Commission said it had come to the conclusion that the prison authorities had been negligent and had they taken prompt action they could have prevented the death of 35-year-old Mandip Chaudhary, a father of five children. Chaudhary’s wife had petitioned the Commission alleging that her husband, who was injured at the time of arrest, had died because he was not given an anti-tetanus despite the fact that he had an open wound on his head. The Commission has asked the State Department to initiate appropriate departmental action against the errant jail authorities and doctors. A Magisterial inquiry by the SDM of Garhwa in South Bihar had shown that the prison authorities had not been negligent in providing treatment to Chaudhary, but after examining the reports, the Commission found that while the undertrial was seriously ill at 0900 hrs, six days after his arrest, his jailors waited till 1630 hrs to take him to hospital. (UNI) |
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