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DNA nails
Salman From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Nov 2: Mumbai-based cine star, Salman Khan, may well be proved to be a real life "villain", with a DNA test establishing that the animals allegedly killed by the actor were indeed two endangered black bucks and not antelopes as he had claimed in the court of law.....more
SC issues notice NEW DELHI, Nov 2: The Supreme Court has issued notices to.....more ‘Moscow remained NEW DELHI, Nov 2: At the height of the 1962 Sino-Indian war....more |
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Chandrababu Naidu all HYDERABAD, Nov 2: Andhra Pradesh Chief......more Rich tributes paid NEW DELHI, Nov 2: Rich tributes were paid to victims of the.......more Rajiv case convicts CHENNAI, Nov 2: The Madras High Court will hear on November....more Delhi HC dismisses plea NEW DELHI, Nov 2: Delhi High Court today dismissed...more CPI-M may discuss CALCUTTA, Nov 2: CPI-M general secretary Harkishen....more |
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DNA nails Salman lie on black bucks From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Nov 2: Mumbai-based cine star, Salman Khan, may well be proved to be a real life "villain", with a DNA test establishing that the animals allegedly killed by the actor were indeed two endangered black bucks and not antelopes as he had claimed in the court of law. There was a nation-wide uproar in October last year over the hunting down of the animals by the actor. Hyderabad-based Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, which conducted the test on the remnants of the slaim animals, sent a report to the Rajasthan Government a week ago confirming that the animals were black bucks. Official sources said that the tests were conducted by the CDFD on the skin, muscles and horns collected from the burial site in Jodhpur jungles of Rajasthan where the animals were hunted down. The samples were sent to the CDFD in Hyderabad following a dispute between the Rajasthan Government and Salman Khan’s defence counsel. After several rounds of tests at the CDFD by a team of scientists led by Dr GV Rao under the direct supervision of the CDFD Director, Dr Hasnain, it was conclusively established that the samples belonged to black bucks, sources said. The Rajasthan Government had registered a case on October 2, 1998 under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 against Salman Khan for allegedly hunting down two black bucks. But Salman Khan’s counsel had maintained that only one entelope was hunted, which did not come under the category of endangered species. Immediately after the incident coming to light, the Rajasthan Government referred the case to the Wildlife Institute at Dehradun which, however, could not establish any conclusive proof about the breed of the animals killed. Subsequently, it was decided to send the samples to the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics in Hyderabad. The CDFD received the samples only in March this year. When contacted by EXCELSIOR, a Rajasthan Government official in Jodhpur confirmed that the CDFD report was received by the State Government and said that it would help establish the case against Salman Khan. This is the first time in Asia that animal samples were tested for linking their DNA contents, that too in a medico-legal case of this nature. This is the second time that the DNA has nailed a film actor in a medico-legal dispute. Earlier, a DNA test had established clearly that Tamil film screen villain Mansur was the father of a child disowned by him in a paternity dispute case. |
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SC issues notice to Mahanta in Habeas Corpus case NEW DELHI, Nov 2: The Supreme Court has issued notices to Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and three others on a Habeas Corpus petition alleging that one Nabin Chandra Kalita of Kamrup district has been under illegal detention of police due to political reasons. A division bench comprising Justice K T Thomas and Justice M B Shah also issued notices recently to State Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police of Kamrup district on the petition filed by Nabin Chandra Kalita. The petitioner stated that he had challenged in April last year through a Public Interest Litigation in Guwahati High Court the Assam Governor’s decision not to grant sanction for prosecutionn of Mahanta in the Letter of Credit (LoC) scam. Kalita in his petition alleged that during the pendency of the petition before the High Court he was threatened with dire consequences if he did not withdraw the petition. The petitioner, a resident of Pacharia village under Hajo Police Station, was arrested by police in August this year on charges of harbouring activists of banned United Liberaton Front of Assam (ULFA) allegedly on fabricated evidence, the counsel said, adding since then he has been under detention. (PTI) |
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| ‘Moscow remained indifferent to
India on many occasions’ NEW DELHI, Nov 2: At the height of the 1962 Sino-Indian war, the Soviet Union was listed as "not supportive" when the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru asked the External Affairs Ministry officials to prepare lists of countries on the basis of their approach to New Delhi. Towards the closing stages of the 1971 Bangladesh war, Moscow put pressure on New Delhi to declare cessation of hostilities immediately after capturing Dhaka and threatened to stop all military supplies otherwise. These revelations were made by former Foreign Secretary J N Dixit after the release of the book "foreign policy dynamics- Moscow and India" by Dr Shanta Nedungadi Varma. A host of former diplomats and experts on international affairs present on the occasion felt that often on issues affecting New Delhi, Moscow had taken a stand which could not exactly be described as "very friendly", contrary to the popular perception in India. Mr Dixit, who was a desk officer in the External Affairs Ministry during the 1962 war, said when Nehru asked for separate lists of countries classified as "friendly", "not supportive" and "hostile" to New Delhi’s interests during the conflict, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement with India, were clubbed among those characterised as ‘not supportive". The former Foreign Secretary said the original ill-informed misgivings in the Soviet power structure about India continued till 1956. "Even today, India figures much down the list of priorities for Russia after the United States, the European Union and Japan," he said. "Russia will remain a valuable factor in our foreign policy but Moscow has not shown enough appreciation of New Delhi ... There has been tough bargaining by Russians in mutual deals," he said. However, he acknowledged Moscow’s support to New Delhi’s nuclear weaponisation programme. Prof Martin Zuberi said that Soviet neutrality itself could be considered as ‘support’ to India. He brought out the linkages between the Sino-Indian war and the Cuban missile crisis both of which peaked at the same time. "From 1959 to 1962, Sino-Soviet relations were also worsening," he said. The book by Dr Varma who teaches in University of Delhi, unravels the dynamics underlying Moscow’s relations with India through an analysis of its responses to India’s international conflicts. It is a dual-regime analysis covering both the cold war and the post-Soviet periods and probes the impact of regime transformation. Analysing the various events on which the book examines Moscow’s response like the Goa Liberation, Sino-Indian war, Rann of Kutch crisis (April 1965) and the 1971 Bangladesh war, former diplomat A K Damodaran said the Soviet Union on many occasions dealt with the situation with objectivity by following the middle path. It was after the 1971 Indo-Pak war that Moscow identified itself more and more with New Delhi and the Indo-Soviet treaty for friendship and cooperation marked the beginning of this phase. In the post-cold war period, India and Russia find themselves squarely on one side in the fight aganist Islamic fundamentalism, the threat of which is being faced by both countries. (UNI) |
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Chandrababu Naidu all set to
give corporate HYDERABAD, Nov 2: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who has earned the sobriquet CEO of AP Inc. for his reformist approach, is all set to give a corporate touch to governance through a series of training modules to sharpen the administrative skills of state ministers and bureaucrats. In true corporate style, a brisk training schedule has been devised to hone the skills of time management, personality development, decision-making among the ministers and officials while developing strategies for good governance and optimum utilisation of emerging concepts of information technology. To herald a new work culture in the top echelons of administration, all the 37 ministers, including Naidu, undertook a rigorous three-day orientation course covering a gamut of administration and constitutional provisions, role of people’s representatives vis-a-vis bureaucrats and interpersonal relationships. The course, that concluded on Sunday, was spread over 12 sessions, during which ministers were given inputs on various subjects by experts from across the country, followed by interactive sessions. The training programme was organised by the Marri Channa Reddy Human Resources Development Institute here. In the next phase, officials of the State Secretariat would be updated on the best international management practices. Director General of the Institute and senior IAS officer P V R K Prasad said the uniqueness of this programme is that it helps build a good team that has clarity of vision, strategy and commitment for overall development of the state. The Vision-2020 document, prepared by the Naidu Government detailing sector-wise road map for development with specific targets, forms the basis for deliberations with the Chief Minister himself acting as one of the resource persons at the orientation course, Prasad said. The emerging concepts of good governance to make it more transparent and citizen-friendly and strategies to herald electronic governance and knowledge in society were the focus of the programme with Naidu giving an overview of his Government’s initiatives in reforming and the administration. While the ministers and bureaucrats are given an update on the nitty-gritty of governance, the ruling Telugu Desam legislators are set to undergo training in personality development that includes yoga, meditation, dietary regimentation and spiritualism. The programme, being organised at the party headquarters here from November 10, is aimed at helping the MLAs to keep themselves fit and healthy and develop a positive attitude. A separate training programme is being planned for party MPs later this month to enhance their understanding of parliamentary practices, constitutional nuances and articulation of people’s problems. (PTI) |
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Delhi HC dismisses plea seeking
derecognition NEW DELHI, Nov 2: Delhi High Court today dismissed a petition seeking deletion of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s name from the register of Indian citizenship on the ground that the Government had acted improperly, illegally and unconstitutionally in granting citizenship to her in 1983. A division bench comprising Chief Justice S N Variava and Justice S K Mahajan after hearing over an hour-long heated arguments from senior advocate P N Lekhi on the issue said the petition was motivated and based on vague allegations. The petition filed by an NGO, Rashtriya Mukti Morcha, had also sought direction to the Government to withdraw the passport of Sonia Gandhi and Election Commission to remove her name from the electoral roll. The petitioner’s counsel, Lekhi, emphasised that Gandhi allegedly had not renounced her Italian citizenship before applying for Indian citizenship in 1983, which he said, was a necessary requirement for a foreigner under Indian laws. Lekhi said Home Minister L K Advani’s statement to media on May 24 — that there was no anomaly in granting the citizenship to Gandhi and all formalities had been completed — was not true presentation of the facts. However, the court observed that no material had been placed on record to substantiate the allegation that Gandhi had not renounced her Italian citizenship or the question of waiver of citizenship under the Italian laws when its national acquires citizenship of some other country. On the allegation that Sonia Gandhi did not fulfil the legal requirement of continuous stay Of three years in India when granted citizenship, the court said she had been in the country since 1968 after her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi and a person’s occasional visit abroad does not mean that he/she could not make such visits. Even otherwise, she had been staying in India for more than a decade, the court said and clarified that since 1987 the requirement of continued stay in the country for purpose of registeration of citizenship by a foreigner, is five years. The court said the Italian law though recognised dual citizenship and there must be waiver of Italian citizenship when an Italian national acquires another citizenship, but in the present case the petitioner failed to substantiate this point by placing relevant material on record. The court also said though Sonia Gandhi was granted the citizenship in 1983, the petitioner preferred to approach the court now after over a decade which showed that it was motivated. However, Lekhi strongly contested such observations by the court saying that he came to know about the procedure adopted in granting Gandhi citizenship only after a statement of Union Home Minister L K Advani appeared in newspapers on May 24 this year. The record does not show any proof of Sonia Gandhi renouncing her Italian citizenship but Home Minister says that all formalities were fulfilled, Lekhi said, adding the court had power to scrutinise citizenship of a person. (PTI) |
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CPI-M may discuss Basu’s retirement issue CALCUTTA, Nov 2: CPI-M general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet today hinted that the issue of Jyoti Basu’s retirement from Chief Ministership might be taken up in the party, but refused to say if the octogenerian leader would be relieved of his post. When newsmen asked him if Basu’s retirment issue would be on the agenda in the next politburo meeting of the party, Surjeet avoided a straight reply and said "anyone can discuss any issue". To a specific question if Basu would be relieved of his post, he said it was true that the octogenerian leader was not keeping well. But, he had made immense contributions for the party. Describing Basu as the "tallest personality", Surjeet said, "we need his service. He is a loyal soldier. He will do whatever the party decides in this regard. In view of his health the party will try to work out a system in which he can help it." Basu himself had recently said that his reitrement issue would figure in the next politburo meeting of the party. (PTI) |
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