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HC to hear Bhagwat’s petition on Dec 8 MUMBAI, Dec 5: The Mumbai High Court would hear on December 8 the....more
BHUBANESWAR, Dec 5: The ten month old Giridhar Gamang Government ....more BJP president’s tenure will be 3 years: Jana Committee NEW DELHI, Dec 5: The tenure of BJP president as well .....more Bail plea of serial blast accused rejected MUMBAI, Dec 5: A designated TADA Court has rejected the bail plea of ......more |
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Urgent need to review
Geneva convention, NEW DELHI, Dec 5: Experts at a seminar on .....more
Hum Saath Saath Hain
drawing huge crowd NEW DELHI, Dec 5: Hindi films are fast climbing the popularity charts in.....more COIMBATORE, Dec 5: Awareness about cancer is the only ....more Reservation: The debate continues NEW DELHI, Dec 5: The tinder box of reservation, which .....more |
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HC to hear Bhagwat’s petition on Dec 8 MUMBAI, Dec 5: The Mumbai High Court would hear on December 8 the petition filed by Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat alleging his "malafide" dismissal from the post of Naval Chief and seeking reinstatement. The petition would come up for admission before Justice M B Ghodeswar and Justice S Radhakrishnan. The Defence Ministry has already opposed the petition saying that it should be rejected because it espoused a "political" cause rather than a legal one and also because of the considerable delay in filing it. In an affidavit, R P Bagai, Joint Secretary (Navy) in the Defence Ministry, says the petition is "hopelessly barred by time". Bhagwat’s dismissal order issued by the President came on December 30 and he had moved the court on June 30. Additional Solicitor General Dr Dhananjay Chandrachud, during the last hearing, said Bhagwat had levelled serious allegations against serving and former top officers of the armed forces without impleading them in the petition. Bhagwat was to retire in normal course on September 30 and therefore he did not deserve any relief, he contended. The Defence Ministry’s affidavit also refers to several Public Interest Litigations (PILs) challenging Bhagwat’s dismissal being rejected by High Courts at Delhi and Mumbai early this year. The Defence Ministry has urged before the court that the Government reserves its right to take action against Bhagwat for perjury as he had made false statements in the petition. The affidavit also alleged that the language, tenor and content of portions of Bhagwat’s petition left no doubt that there was an attempt to "pursue" a political object. Citing such instances, the affidavit referred to Bhagwat’s contention in his petition that AIADMK, the then member of the BJP-led alliance at the Centre, was not consulted prior to the decision to dismiss him. The affidavit said Bhagwat’s submission in his 229-page petition that "in a Government formed by diverse parties, it is mandatory that for vital decisions there should be a consensus in the cabinet on the advice given to the President. Only two members, BJP and Samata Party, cannot be allowed to usurp the functions of the cabinet ...". The affidavit alleged that the petition was full of such examples which betray complete lack of bonafides. It said Bhagwat had made baseless allegations against serving and retired naval officers, including former Navy Chief Admiral J G Nadkarni, Vice Admiral S Jain and Rear Admiral R Puri. Bhagwat’s petition says Admiral Nadkarni was not dismissed after ins amini sank during peacetime exercise without justification. The affidavit alleged that Bhagwat had used the court to cause incalculable harm to the reputation of individuals whom he had not made parties. (PTI) |
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BHUBANESWAR, Dec 5: The ten month old Giridhar Gamang Government bows out of office in the face of an unprecedented power struggle in Orissa which is still reeling under the devastation wrought by the century’s worst cyclone. A tribal leader and seasoned politician, Mr Gamang became Chief Minister on February 17 after Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked Mr J B Patnaik to quit. Mr Gamang was told last night by the party high command to step down. The moved followed hectic consultations by AICC observers with party MLAs on the demand for a change in leadership. Mr Gamang, who had all along been maintaining that he would resign only at Mr Gandhi’s directions, was told by the party president to put in his papers last night. Ending the week-long political crisis in the state Congress. The Gamang Government came in for criticism for its handling of the relief and rehabilitation measures from both the opposition as well as his own party. The count down to the fall of the Gamang Government began when former Chief Minister J B Patnaik and senior Cabinet Minister Basant Kumar Biswal raised their voices for a change of guard. The crisis continued as the dissidents fought over the choice of a new leader. With Mr Patnaik and Mr Biswal emerging as pront runners. Several senior ministers in the state, however, felt that change at this stage would damage the party’s credibility. Senior Cabinet Minister Bhagbat Prasad Mahanty faxed a letter to Mrs Sonia Gandhi stating that a change in leadership would be suicidal and counter productive at this stage. The Orissa Congress chief also advocated that status quo be maintained at a time when millions of cyclone victims were struggling for survival and the Government was faced with the stupendous task of carrying out relief and rehabilitation work. But the dissidents stuck to their demand forcing the high command to twice depute AICC observers to the state to assess the mood of the MLAs. The first team of observers comprising Mr Madhav Rao Scindia and Mr Vyalar Ravi failed to solve the crisis during their two-day stay here from November 30. At the instance of party president Sonia Gandhi a three-member AICC team led by Mr Motilal Vora arrived here from Delhi to thrash out a solution to the leadership wrangle. From day one in office, Mr Gamang faced. Resistance from party MLAs and had to encounter several embarrassing situations in the house. (UNI) |
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BJP president’s tenure will be 3 years: Jana Committee NEW DELHI, Dec 5: The tenure of BJP president as well as those heading and district committees would be three years with no extension, Jana Krishnamurthy Committee set up by the party to suggest amendments to party Constitution has said. This amendment would in fact reduce the tenure of those holding the posts by one year as under the present constitution a person holding the office of president can serve two consecutive terms of two years each, Krishnamurthy told PTI. He said this was being done as there was a feeling among party cadres at the lower level that while one was given a longer tenure, the others had to lay down office. This amendment would help in having a uniform system in the party and avoid any misgiving among the party cadres, said Krishnamurthy who headed a 10-member committee which toured around the country to elicit opinion from all sections of the party. On the question of membership, he said party general secretary Narendra Modi has been assigned the task of reviewin membership and streamlining it with the membership term being reduced to six years from the previous ten. The suggestions of the committee would be discussed at the national executive which meets in Chennai on December 27 before being taken up at the national council which would meet on the subsequent two days for adoption. Krishnamurthy said Modi would be scrutinising the membership list statewise and look into the functioning of the members in the respective states. Asked about measures regarding better coordination between party and Government, he said we are evolving a mechanism whereby this coordination could be improved. Such mechanism would be put in place at almost every level. On giving representation to women in party posts, he said This is done on individual merit and we already have our women’s wing which provides an avenue for women leaders to emerge in the party. However, he said as far as 33 per cent reservation for women was concerned, it was essential to have a legislation otherwise parties would have to go on the basis of winnability of a candidate. (PTI) |
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Bail plea of serial blast accused rejected MUMBAI, Dec 5: A designated TADA Court has rejected the bail plea of Niaz Ahmed Shaikh, an alleged close associate of Tiger Memon who masterminded the serial blasts in the metropolis on March 12, 1993 that claimed 215 lives and injured 730 others. Designated Judge P D Kode, turning down his bail application yesterday, noted that the accused was deeply involved in the conspiracy and had been named by the approver as one of the conspirators who had gone to Pakistan via Dubai for training in arms used in the blasts. Counsel for the accused, Farhana Shah, asked for bail on the ground that her client had been in custody for more than six years and that co-accused charged with graver offences had been released. CBI strongly opposed the contention of the accused and submitted that Niaz was a trusted Lieutenant of Tiger Memon and had accompanied him during various stages of conspiracy. He had allegedly attended meetings, surveyed target spots and transferred deadly explosive RDX to various places in the city, CBI said. Meanwhile, Gujarat police has sought custody of another blast accused Mohammed Kasam Lajpuria alias mechanic chacha who was recently arrested near Indo-Nepal border. He is wanted in another criminal case in Jamnagar. The designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) court refused to hand over the accused to Gujarat police as the CBI had not yet completed investigations against him in the serial blast case. Directing the CBI to file a chargesheet against the accused if necessary by December 24, judge P D Kode asked Gujarat police to wait until then. (PTI) |
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COIMBATORE, Dec 5: Awareness about cancer is the only way for prevention of the deadly disease in the next millennium, according to Dr P P Bapsy, head of Department of Medical Oncology, Kidwai Memorial Cancer Institute, Bangalore. In a commemorative lecture on "cancer, what the millennium beholds", organised by the Vasantha Memorial Trust here yesterday, she said the doctors should fight against the tobacco lobby, as smoking and chewing of tobacco was the main reason for the cause of Leukaemia. While tobacco consumption was the reason for cancer in 35 per cent of the cases, unrestricted and contaminated diet accounted for 30 per cent, sex reproduction 25 per cent and air pollution 4.5 per cent. Dr Bapsy said a survey of 1461 cancer patients revealed that only 55.8 per cent of them took temporary treatment, 31.1 per cent opted for the two year follow-up treatment and 39 per cent for intensified treatment. The main reason for this trend was financial burden. On breast cancer, she said the disease was curable in 95 per cent of the cases, if detected at an early stage. (UNI) |
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Reservation: The debate continues NEW DELHI, Dec 5: The tinder box of reservation, which was envisaged to run only for 10 years by the constitution makers, was on fire in the name of Mandal Commission recommendations claiming lives of many students and has triggered a fresh debate on whether it has achieved the goal set for it following recent extension of the benefit for SC and ST by ten years. Quite a few prominent constitutional experts are of the view that political parties have favoured extending the period of the reservation policy to use the SC, ST and backward sections of society as their vote bank. Only the dominant among the SC, ST and Backward Castes have benefited from the policy and monopolise its benefit. They are the ‘elite’ within the weaker sections who have been powerful in every way, says former secretary-general of Lok Sabha Dr Shubash C Kashyap. Noted constitutional expert Rajeev Dhawan says political parties are playing their card based on caste equation to come to power and they are using the reservation policy as a tool to attain their purpose. They have destablised and abused the reservation policy for political gains. In fact the issue of reservation has been used as a ‘political jagir’. It is firmly rooted in our political system as Zamindari, says Dhawan, adding that nobody has the courage to either stablise or streamline the programmes of social justice. Kashyap says even Dr B R Ambedkar said that the period of ten years would be too short a span to achieve the purpose and advocated a 40-year time-frame with a provision in the constitution that after 40 years the legislators should not have the power to extend it by any means. According to him, Ambedkar had said I do not want that a permanent stigma should be attached to the particular society availing the benefit of reservation. But even after the lapse of that 40 years, the NDS Government extended the reservation by another ten years. Spokesman of ruling BJP N Venkaiah Naidu says the need to extend the period of reservation after every ten years was there as we were unable to maintain the pace which was thought of by the constitutional makers to bring the weaker section of society on a par with the upper echleon of society. Naidu’s counterpart in Congress Anil Shastri concedes, perhaps, what was thought by Ambedkar was not achieved and we were slow in our approach. He says the reservation policy which was originally envisaged for ten years to provide social and economic equality to the weaker section of society which had suffered for centuries has to be extended from time to time as their aspirations were belied. (PTI) |
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