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| India, US to
sign pacts during Clinton’s visit NEW DELHI, Dec 24: India and the United States will sign some agreements and arrive at some understandings during President Bill Clinton’s visit here early next year . .....more
NAGPUR, Dec 24: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan....more
‘Acceptability of NEW DELHI, Dec 24: Vice-President Krishan Kant today said....more 1999—A year of intense
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Govt has open mind NEW DELHI, Dec 24: Government today said it has an open mind on the...more 1999 — A difficult
Cong reshuffle based DURG (MP), Dec 24: New Congress general secretary Motilal Vora....more Traders in capital NEW DELHI, Dec 24: Traders in the capital will go on an indefinite.....more |
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India, US to sign pacts during Clinton’s visit NEW DELHI, Dec 24: India and the United States will sign some agreements and arrive at some understandings during President Bill Clinton’s visit here early next year which will take bilateral relationship further, Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra has said. The two sides were also contemplating setting up a joint working group on counter terrorism, Mishra said while participating in Karan Thapar’s ‘Talk Back’ programme on Doordarshan alongwith former Prime Minister I K Gujral. On the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), Mishra recalled Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s address at the UN General Assembly in September last year where he stated that India will not stand in the way of the treaty coming into force. Stating that Vajpayee’s address was a clear indication of India’s stand, he observed that the treaty cannot move forward without India’s adherence to it. There was a clear implication that we were ready to move forward, he said. Vajpayee, he said, had also cautioned that a wide degree of consensus had to be achieved before India went ahead in this direction. He said, supposing we sign it today and there is no ratification. Another Government comes and says no to it....So it is better to have a consensus. Former Premier Gujral said not much was known on what transpired during nine rounds of parleys between External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and urged Government to come out with a ‘white paper’ on their outcome. This is necessary for building consensus, he stressed. Mishra said that there would be a debate in Parliament on this. You cannot sign (the CTBT) without having a debate and at least some understanding with the opposition on it. He, however, said some aspects of the understanding with the US have to be dealt with carefully with opposition parties. Terming the Singh-Talbott talks as one of the most intensive ever held between the two nations, he said it had given the two sides an opportunity to go beyond dialogue and share thoughts and exchange views on other issues. On Indo-Pak ties, Mishra said there has no evidence that Pakistan is prepared to curtail, much less end its support to terrorism and militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. He made it clear that until that happens, there will be no propitious opportunity for us to engage in a meaningful dialogue (with Islamabad). We can sit down tomorrow for a dialogue. But it will end in a deadlock in two hours. Mishra described as a gimmick Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s statement that his forces had been asked to go back from the International Border. The area of tension is the Line of Control (LoC) and not the International Border, he contended. He also felt nothing should be read into the message of congratulations by Gen Musharraf to Vajpayee on assumption of office. The Prime Minister sent a condolence message when Gen Musharraf had a bereavement in his family recently. Terming the exchange of messages as a normal thing, he said it does mean a step towards dialogue or towards real communication. Gujral said that the Kargil conflict had not ended, only its focus had shifted. Pakistan is doing it more discreetly in the whole Valley. Killings have gone up. Gen Musharraf is showing his teeth now. Mishra said the challenge was to get out of Indo-Pak equation and emerge on the regional and global scene as a country which is not just known through Indo-Pak affairs or hostility between the two countries. Referring to the earlier three military regimes in Pakistan, Mishra pointed out that two wars were fought under two such regimes and cross-border terrorism was sponsored by the third one. One has to be pessimistic on what a military regime can do. (PTI) NAGPUR, Dec 24: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal today warned political and communal groups, irrespective of being Hindu or Muslim, that if found inciting communal tension, they would be dealt with an iron hand. Replying to a two-day debate on law and order in the State Assembly, Bhujbal referred to leader of opposition Narayan Rane’s charge that Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was being financed by Saudi terrorist Osama Bin Laden. We are keeping a close watch on the organisation (SIMI) and if it is found indulging in any anti-social or anti-national activity it will be banned, he stated. SIMI was alleged to be behind the Aurangabad clashes on the 7th anniversary of the demolition of the disputed Babri structure. Bhujbal, who holds the home portfolio, "blamed" Shiv Sena for observing "Bhagwa Din" (saffron day) and organising "maha-aratis" on December six in Aurangabad. The Sena never organised any such programmes when it wasin power, he said. Those arrested and detained under TADA during Congress rule for their alleged role in Mumbai bomb blasts were freed during the Sena-BJP regime, Bhujbal alleged. The previous Sena-BJP Government withdrew 3000 cases against various criminals and reinstated PSI Manohar Kadam, who ordered firing at Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar in Mumbai killing 10 dalits in 1997, he said. The current Democratic Front Government was conducting an inquiry against Kadam, Bhujbal said. (PTI) |
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‘Acceptability of Hindi on rise due to IT revolution’ NEW DELHI, Dec 24: Vice-President Krishan Kant today said acceptability of Hindi in different parts of the country would continue to increase with the Information Technology revolution and widening reach of cinema and television. Hindi has to prove its own strength and define its role in the rapidly changing global scenario as a strong national language can establish its acceptability in the multilingual society like India, he said presenting the ‘Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Awards here. Kant said with the advent of information technology and increasing awareness among middle class, Hindi acquired greater acceptability in the country over the years and today it was the main medium of communication even in non-Hindi speaking areas. He said the the acceptability of Hindi as national language mainly depends on its acceptability as a language of communication but there was not much debate on Hindi’s capability in this regard. Prosperity of Hindi literature would lead to its acceptability as the national language, he said, stressing the need for adopting an integrated approach in this direction. In his welcome address, Home Minister L K Advani said concrete steps should be taken to ensure that spread of Hindi keeps pace with the revolution in information technology. Describing Hindi as a major unifying force, he said cinema had been playing a key role in spreading the language across the country. (PTI) |
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1999—A year of intense
political turmoil, changes MUMBAI, Dec 24: Maharashtra witnessed intense political turmoil and a change of guard marking revival of the coalition Government in the passing year. The state also saw, for the first time in its 38-year-old history, a hung Assembly with no political party being able to get a clear verdict from the people. Simultaneous elections to both the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assembly were held after a gap of 31 years. The Congress and its breakaway group Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), rivals at the hustings, were forced to set aside their differences to come together to form the Government along with five other small parties — the Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal, RPI, Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh and Peasants and Workers Party (PWP). The fractured verdict triggered off new combinations and permutations leading to fresh political realignment. The high-pitched political drama and hard bargaining between the Congress and NCP which preceded the formation of the new Government gave enough indication of the nature of political uncertainty to follow. There was practically no Government for almost 15 days after the declaration of results. After initial differences over the size of the jumbo cabinet and issue of guardian ministers, at present, the Democratic Front Government seems firmly in the saddle. However, the uncertainty of coalition politics still looms large. The results of the 1999 elections turned out to be a damp squib for senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde as well as the NCP. The NCP, billed as the "party of the millennium" by its founders Sharad Pawar and P A Sangma, received lot of media hype and was aiming to capture power on its own by gaining majority in the Assembly elections. However, it had to rest content with 58 Assembly and six Lok Sabha seats. While Mr. Munde ended up with just being the BJP group leader in the Assembly, the leader of opposition post went to former Chief Minister Narayan Rane. The start of 1999, saw the end of the tenure of Mr Manohar Joshi as Chief Minister of the first full-fledged non-Congress Government in the state. His wings were abruptly clipped by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in order to stem the brewing differences between the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance and also to contain the discontentment in the Shiv Sena ranks. State Revenue Minister and a political foe of Mr Joshi, Mr Narayan Rane replaced the sacked Chief Minister. He promised swift and disciplined governance so as to fulfil the election assurances of the Sena-BJP alliance and complete the developmental works already in progress. Important decision taken during his tenure was scrapping of the Zunka Bhakar scheme, an important assurance of the Sena in its 1995 election manifesto. The decision was taken as it was financially not feasible. Though the relations between the Sena and BJP appeared cordial after the new Chief Minister took over, discontentment continued to simmer. When the BJP wanted to cash in on the charisma of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as also on the sympathy factor following the Government losing the trust vote in the Lok Sabha by one vote, Mr Thackeray vehemently opposed the idea. However, the split in the Congress prompted him to reconsider his stand. The vertical split in the main opposition party altered the political equations in the state. Almost three-fourth of the Congress legislators walked into the (NCP) camp. The Congress was left with 33 MLAs and the NCP had 45. Political analylists had almost written off the Congress before the elections. However, the party rose like a phoenix after the polls emerging as the single largest party with 75 seats. The Democratic Front Governmentat present appears to be firmly in the saddle. The opposition, Shiv Sena and BJP, continue to accuse each other for not being able to form the Government despite being the single largest pre-poll alliance. The alliance had 125 seats and had claimed the support of 140 MLAs when the Sena staked claim to form the Government. The BJP did not support the move as according to it, the alliance did not have the requisite number of 144 to stake claim. The two-month-old coalition is not facing an easy task in governance. The state exchequer is under considerable financial strain. The opposition also castigated the Governmentfor alleging that the state was bankrupt. The Chief Minister clarified that his Governmenthad never stated that the Sena-BJP had made Maharashtra bankrupt but only that the state was on the verge of bankruptcy. Riots in various parts of the state like Aurangabad, Jalna and Jalgaon soon after the Government took over, gave the opposition a chance to hit back. They pointed out that during the four and half year tenure of the Sena-BJP, no communal riot had occured. One of the main electoral promises of both the Congress and the NCP was implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report, which probed the 1992-93 Mumbai riots. The report had indicted Mr thackeray, former Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and other Sena leaders for inciting communal passions. The previous SS-BJP Government had rejected the report. However, Mr Deshmukh has said that his Government would reconsider the report after a detailed study. The Sena, on the other hand, has warned the Government f serious repercussions if it went ahead with the move. The financial health of the state was also a topic of debate throughout the year. The opposition went to town accusing the then Sena-BJP Governmentof taking the state to the brink of bankruptcy. The Government took pains to explain that the financial condition was sound and the strain was just due to the loan taken to carry out development works like the Krishna Valley Development Corporation (KVDC) project. However, the new Government, in a white paper presented in the Assembly during the Winter session at Nagpur cited the financial indiscipline of the previous Sena-BJP Government for the disturbed financial equilibrium of the state due to the increase in revenue deficit. The 30-page white paper was tabled in both the houses by Finance Minister Jayant Patil who later said Maharashtra was enmeshed in a debt trap and hinted at some stringent steps to put the economy back on the rails. The Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp, a prestigious scheme of the previous saffron Government to provide 40,000 free houses to slum dwellers by 2000 is also in the doldrums. The project is making extremely slow progress. The Democratic Front Government has assured to review the scheme and study its feasibility. In January, the controversy over the India-Pakistan cricket series hogged the headlines. Mr. Thackeray announced his opposition to Pakistan playing any SPort on the Indian soil as a protest against the ISI fomenting trouble in Kashmir and elsewhere in the country. This remark triggered off a debate in the country over mixing of politics with sports, art and culture. The Shiv Sena threatened to disrupt the matches if held and even dug up the Ferozeshah Kotla grounds in Delhi. This led to depeculation that the tour might be called off. The timely intervention of Home Minister L K Advani defused the situation, Mr. Thackeray agreed to "allow Pakistan to play in India only for a year". Hopes of a maritime museum being set on board the decommissioned aircraft carrier Ins Vikrant was revived during the year. Earlier, the state Government said it did not have the money for retrofitting work. The navy said it would have to sell the warship as scrap. Mr Thackeray intervened and persuaded the Government to allot Rs five crore for retrofiting. A feasibility study is being conducted for setting up the maritime museum. An important court case was that of former Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and his son-in-law’s involvement in the Pune land deal case. The high court found him guilty of having misused his powers. The state witnessed an onion glut during the year with prices sinking even below Rs 100 per quinta. This was due to considerable increase in production resulting in drop in prices in sharp contrast to the previous year, when prices had sky-rocketted due to low production and unseasonal rain playing havoc with the crop. Maharashtra gave a boost to its it policy by entering into a tie-up with Mr Sam Pitroda’s world tel for developing "cyber dhabas" to promote website culture in the state. The end of the year also witnessed a spate of murders in the city, which once again gave rise to fears about deteriorating law and order. The opposition Sena-BJP was quick to criticise the new Government for its alleged failure to check crime in the metropolis. Noted industrialist Harish Mahindra, renowned technocrat Darbari Seth, veteran journalist Janardhan Thakur, noted lyricist Hasrat Jaipuri, veteran Marathi actor Suryakant, Marathi film maker Girish Ghanekar and noted actor Mohan Gokhale passed away during the year. The crowning of Mumbai girl Yukta Mookhey as Miss World in London during the closing days of the millennium came as a happy occasion for the people of the metropolis. (UNI) |
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Cong reshuffle based on Antony
Committee DURG (MP), Dec 24: New Congress general secretary Motilal Vora said here today the organisational reshuffle in the party had been made in the context of the report of the Antony Committee that went into the reasons for the party’s poor performance in the last Lok Sabha elections. Vora, a former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, also told PTI that moves to strengthen the party from the block to the state level would be discussed at the next meeting of the party working committee. He said as per the Antony Committee’s recommendations, Congress candidates for Assembly elections would be announced one month before polling and Lok Sabha candidates three months before the parliamentary elections. The senior leader said during the last Lok Sabha polls Congress vote percentage had not gone down although the party could not muster enough seats. (PTI) |
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Traders in capital to go on strike from Dec 29 NEW DELHI, Dec 24: Traders in the capital will go on an indefinite strike from December 29 protesting implementation of uniform sales tax throughout the country from new year. The implementation of the uniform sales tax will be detrimental to trade in the capital as the tax rates would go up on various commodities affecting Delhi’s stature as a distribution Centre, Rajinder Gupta, general secretary, Forum of Delhi Trade Association told reporters. He said tax rates would increase ranging between two to ten per cent on different commodities like tea, spices, petrol, clothes and electrical goods if the proposed new tax structure came into force. Speaking on behalf of traders, senior BJP leader and MP Madal Lal Khurana said Delhi was the distribution centre for entire India and it should be allowed to maintain tax rates at the present level. He also cautioned that Delhi would lose revenue if the tax rates were hiked as experience showed that lower rates lead to higher revenue generation. Khurana said the uniform tax rate policy would also lead to unemployment among the labour class and urged Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to take up the matter with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. (PTI) |
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MUMBAI, Dec 24: Maharashtra witnessed
intense political turmoil and....
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millenium proved to...